Word Study Explicit instruction in word study ensures that children will gain a strong foundation in beginning reading. Before children can read words, they need to know that letters represent individual sounds. Letter name knowledge requires that children attend to each letter of the alphabet. In addition, children need to have a background of experiences with oral and written language.
Story book reading at home and at school promotes the idea that print conveys meaning.
Oral language develops through talking, oral story telling, and sharing aloud daily experiences from birth to school. Children who meet with early success in reading have had many opportunities to develop language through listening and speaking. They have been read stories and have talked with family and caretakers about books so that they come to school with a notion of the patterns and purposes of written language. Starting in kindergarten through Grade 3, word study instruction comes from meaningful texts, including nursery rhymes, poems, folktales, stories and information books. In later years, meaning unit changes such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes are taught as readers continue to develop their repertoire of strategies for figuring out new words.