Word Identification & Decoding Word Wall: A word wall is a simple strategy for every teacher to implement in the classroom. As students learn new words throughout the school year, large words should be added to display on the word wall. Teachers should expect this words to be read automatically serving as sight words. Teachers should use the words featured on word walls throughout the week and during different activities. 





















 

Word Identification & Decoding Word Wall: Making Words

 

Making words is a strategy used in which every child can participate in. Regardless of ability level, students are able to create 3-letter words up to 6 or more letter words. This activity helps students learn to manipulate letters and create different words based on the different letter combinations. Making words does NOT require "students to say individual letters, sounds, or words [which] makes it accessible to a broad range of students with significant disabilities, including those with the most complex, multiple disabilities" (Erickson & Koppenhaver, 2020). 

















 

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Anchor Read Apply:

 

Anchor Read Apply is a strategy used to engage students who are in the conventional reading/writing stage of literacy. 

Anchor: The 'anchor' step symbolizes a connection of prior knowledge used to gauge the interests of students. In order for students to become interested in what they are learning, they must first create connections between what they already know and the new information they are obtaining. During this step in the Anchor, Read, Apply Strategy, students can take part in a Directed- Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA). While using the DRTA strategy students focus on making predictions based on the title of a book and a few illustrations. Student are prompted to make logical inferences based on what they observe in the book. 

 

Read: Students must read at an instructional reading level while engaged in literacy experiences with a teacher. Books cannot be too easy or too hard; students must stay within their Zone of Proximal Development to achieve optimal learning outcomes. 

 

Apply: Have students apply their new knowledge by creating Venn Diagrams, Charts, Graphs, poems, books, etc. that will allow them to create an extension based on what they have learned. 

 

KWL: A KWL Chart is used to assess the prior knowledge of students before instruction begins. Students write about what they know, what they want to know, and what they have learned after instruction takes place. It helps students to engage with their literacy experiences by looking for 'answers' to what they wonder. 

 

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Picture Walks: Picture walks are a great strategy to expose children to literature before they 'dive' into the text. Picture walks are simple and easy to implement in the classroom. Instruct your students to flip through the different pages within a text by 'glancing at the pictures' and not 'reading' the text'. Picture walks serve as a books 'first impression' for students.

 

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