Providing Multiple Exposures to a Word
Students need several encounters with a word before it becomes part of their working vocabulary. W.O.R.D. provides multiple meaningful opportunities to interact with and deepen understanding of high-utility words. By engaging in each of these opportunities in W.O.R.D., students excel far beyond just the definition of high-utility vocabulary words—the varied, connected, and diverse practice students experience results in the strengthening of skills and strategies necessary to decipher new words. W.O.R.D. covers many key learning objectives at the appropriate grade level: 1. Homonyms: Homonyms are words that sound and are spelled alike but have different meanings (covered in Grades K–5). Example: Left can be the opposite of right and the past tense of leave . 2. Polysemy: Polysemy is the association of one word with multiple related meanings (covered in Grades K–5). Example: The word good can describe one’s abilities as well as one’s character; someone can be a good singer or a good person. 3. Synonyms & Antonyms: Words can relate to each other by either having similar or opposite meanings (covered in Grades K–5). Example: The word kind is similar to friendly or loving . It is the opposite of mean . 4. Expressions & Phrases: An expression or phrase is used in a specific way to express ideas through words (covered in Grades K–5). Example: The words quiet and time can be put together to form the very specific phrase quiet time . 5. Heavy-Lifting Words & Megaclusters: In W.O.R.D., words from each theme are grouped into roughly a dozen megaclusters based on their shared meaning and function. The heavy-lifting words in these megaclusters are crucial for literacy because they are commonly used. Megaclusters teach how words are connected by meaning and function (covered in Grades K–5). Example: The words swim , hunt , and protect can all be grouped into a “nature” megacluster—as well as a megacluster focused on actions. 6. Picturable Words: Students can learn basic definitions of words by identifying how pictures are used to represent words (covered in Grades K–5). Example: Students can learn the word shark by seeing an image of a shark. 7. Tenses: Words can change to establish the time as the past, present, or future (covered in Grades 1–5). Example: The verbs am , was , and will be describe different moments in time. 8. Inflected Endings: Inflected endings are letters attached to the end of a word that tell numbers or tense (covered in Grades K–1). Example: The endings in birds and foxes signify the plural. The endings in walks , walked , and walking signify different verb tenses.
SCHOLASTIC W.O.R.D. FOUNDATION PAPER 14
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