Overview
The writing of known words shows the ability to quickly remember and write words easily and automatically.
Students need to be able to write a small number of high-frequency words that occur in their reading and writing. This is part of a developmental process in which they learn how to remember and generate words as a whole.
Competent readers and writers can:
- Record a moderate cadre of words that appear frequently in text.
- Know these words fluently and in every detail.
- Use these words as an "island of certainty" in both reading and writing.
- Use these words as a springboard to generate new words (analogy).
In an effective balanced literacy program, teachers:
- encourage children to attend to words in continuous text.
- explicitly teach students "how to learn" a new word.
- foster early writing.
- encourage children to use "phonetic" spelling and compare their writing with conventional spelling.
- encourage the use of analogy in spelling.
- drive words to fluency, using all kinds of media (paint brush, chalk, magnadoodle, wikki sticks, magnetic letters, etc.).
- provide students with the opportunity to write several times a day in different areas of the curriculum.
Intervention activities must be ongoing and reinforced daily. Teachers must provide the students with a variety of experiences to ensure automatic responses to words. Daily writing will allow the teacher to observe: letter formation; directional movement; concept of letter, word, and spacing; letter reversals; and the use of upper and lower case letters.
Click here for printable version of
this page (Complete text of Known Words Activities Overview)
Macomb Intermediate School District Early Literacy Committee
Home | Introduction | Profile | Assessments | Training | Help
Macomb Intermediate School District Early Literacy Committee © 2003