Building Word Knowledge Through Related Texts
The 10 themes of W.O.R.D. were deliberately chosen to help students develop background knowledge in key topics related to the natural and social world. In the Book Nook, students read fiction and nonfiction passages that reinforce core vocabulary words in context. The reading passages differ for each grade, but all connect back to the particular theme to deepen knowledge, as demonstrated by the nonfiction and fiction passage pairs for the theme Amazing Animals: kindergarteners read about cat behavior and a story told by a house cat; second graders learn about bugs and read “The Grasshopper and the Ant;” and fourth graders read an article about wildebeest migration as well as the story of the Pied Piper. By reading thematically related texts, students develop areas of expertise and rich vocabularies that aid comprehension. After students finish a passage, a word progress meter celebrates the accomplishment by showing the total number of words they have read, and the number of new words encountered.
Making Connections Between Words
Activities that ask students to cluster words based on meaning or function reinforce an understanding of new vocabulary and the idea that a word can have multiple meanings. After reading a passage, students explore the connections between words and that words can take on different meanings depending on the context through W.O.R.D.’s Mega Sort activity. Using sentences pulled directly from the most recently read passage, students sort the theme’s Core Words into megaclusters, a group of words that are related by the kinds of content they refer to, such as the weather or feelings and attitudes. For each grade, W.O.R.D. utilizes approximately a dozen megaclusters. The same word may belong in different megaclusters, according to the context of a sentence or passage. For example, after reading a story about a boy who writes newspaper articles, fourth graders working on the theme It’s My Job are asked to sort new vocabulary such as article and reporter into appropriate megaclusters.
SCHOLASTIC W.O.R.D. FOUNDATION PAPER 12
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