Words Their Way with Struggling Readers Word Study for Reading, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction, Grades 4 - 12

Intended for the classroom teacher, this newest addition to the Words Their Way series provides specific guidance, strategies, and tools for helping struggling students, grades 4 and up, catch up with their peers in literacy.

The thrust is intervention – specifically, utilizing word study with its hands-on, assessable approach to aid students struggling with the vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension load of middle and secondary classrooms.

This book will help you determine student needs, provide you with the strategies to guide each student toward success in content area comprehension, and even outline ideas for fitting these strategies into your crowded schedule.

Check out what educators are saying about Words Their Way with Struggling Adolescent Readers!

"Your chapters deal with the realities of a teacher’s day and demonstrate ways that teachers can incorporate skills and strategies across the content areas. I really learned a great deal from this copy. You have so many excellent ideas that will help teachers." - Karen Polk, Northport Schools, New York

"I see the goal as an attempt to answer the needs of knowledgeable teachers and reading specialists working with adolescents in school settings. I think the authors have struck a near perfect rendition of the scope needed to address their goals." - Rod Winters, Winona State University

"The major goal of this book is to provide specific strategies to improve the reading skills of struggling older readers. I believe that the authors have fully accomplished this goal. They have also successfully provided many great suggestions and activities to help content area teachers make content reading and comprehension more accessible.'' - Debbie Cottle, Columbus Academy, Ohio

Kevin R. Flanigan has taught as both a classroom teacher in the upper elementary/middle grades and as a reading specialist/literacy coach working with kindergartners through middle-grades students.  He has authored or co-authored articles in The Reading Teacher, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and the Journal of Literacy Research and has presented frequently at regional, national, and international conferences.

Latisha Hayes is an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia in the department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education. She is the 2003 award recipient of the Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship, which encourages and supports reading research by promising scholars. 

Shane Templeton is Foundation Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is Program Coordinator for Literacy Studies. A former elementary and secondary teacher, his research focuses on the development of orthographic knowledge. He has written several books on the teaching and learning of reading and language arts and is a member of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. He is author of the "Spelling Logics" column in Voices from the Middle, the middle school journal of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Donald R. Bear is director of the E. L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy where he and preservice, Master’s and doctoral students teach and assess children who struggle to learn to read and write. Donald is a professor in the Department of Educational Specialties in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. Donald has been a classroom teacher and he researches and writes about literacy development and instruction. He is an author of numerous articles, book chapters, and books, including Words Their Way, Words Their Way with English Learners, and Vocabulary Their Way.

Marcia Invernizzi is a professor of reading education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Marcia is also the director of the McGuffey Reading Center, where she teaches the clinical practica in reading diagnosis and remedial reading. Formerly an English and reading teacher, she works with Book Buddies, Virginia's Early Intervention Reading Initiative (EIRI), and Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS).

Francine Johnston is a former first grade teacher and reading specialist who learned about word study during her graduate work at the University of Virginia. She is now an associate professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches courses in reading, language arts, and children's literature. Francine frequently works with regional school systems as a consultant and researcher. Her research interests include current spelling practices and materials as well as the relationship between spelling and reading achievement.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Word Study with Struggling Older Readers…Discusses three main areas that impact reading performance: orthographic knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension knowledge, and motivation/engagement.

Chapter Two

The Assessment of Orthographic Development and Vocabulary Knowledge:  Outlines orthographic and vocabulary assessments that get teachers started in developmentally targeted word study instruction.

Chapter Three

Word Study Instruction and Organization:  Principles and Practices…Describes how to organize and manage individual as well as small and whole group activities (e.g., word sorting, writing applications, etc.) to deliver effective developmental word study instruction.

PART ONE…Word Study for Orthographic Knowledge:  Phonics, Spelling, and Decoding

 Chapter Four

Word Study with Older Struggling Readers in the Within Word Pattern Stage…Highlights effective instructional practices that promote phonics, spelling, and decoding knowledge.  Orthographic features covered:  vowel and complex consonant patterns.

Chapter Five

Word Study with Older Struggling Readers in the Syllables and Affixes Stage… Highlights effective instructional practices that promote phonics, spelling, and decoding knowledge.  Orthographic features covered:  syllable patterns as well as accented and unaccented syllables.

PART TWO…Word Study for Vocabulary Knowledge:  Generative and Content-Specific

Chapter Six

Generative Vocabulary Instruction…Highlights effective instructional practices that promote vocabulary knowledge.  Teaches students how to tap into the power of Latin and Greek derived prefixes, suffixes, and roots to exponentially increase vocabulary knowledge.

Chapter Seven

Content-Specific Vocabulary Instruction…Highlights effective instructional practices that promote vocabulary knowledge in specific content areas.  Focuses on general, core academic vocabulary and vocabulary specific to math, science, social studies, and English.