Objectives
- Students will improve decoding or word attack skills.
- Students will improve vocabulary.
- Students will see relationships of big words to little words.
Materials
- Current reading materials (trade book or text)
- Dry erase boards or chalkboards
- Markers or paper and pencil
- Small Post-it notes.
Procedures
- Students scan text for a "big word."
- Student writes word on Post-it and then earmarks the page with it.
- The student tells the others how many letters are in the word.
- Other students make one space for each letter horizontally on board.
- The student gives the first letter of the word.
- Other students fill in their first blank space, thinking about possibilities.
- Student continues to give consecutive letters until a student is ready to make a try at the word.
- Once they make a try they must spell the word for the group. If student making try is correct, the student giving the word it in context from his/her marked text.
- Students discuss meaning, pronunciation and analogies to other known words.