The Purpose of Word Study
As a component of balanced literacy, word study achieves two goals; first to help students become fluent readers with a strong vocabulary, and secondly, to give students the opportunity to fully explore and manipulate words.
■Word study isn’t about memorizing spelling words but about understanding spelling patterns.
■It isn’t about manipulating a random group of words but can compare words that are phonetically similar.
■It isn’t just another fun activity but is a purposeful look at word analysis.