The focus for the third iPad lesson was word families and the app Wonster Words was used as a supplement to help teach the information. Wonster Words is a free app that does require in app purchases in order to unlock additional words. When you open up the app there are many different word families to choose from, however the only one that is unlocked because it is free is the 'AT' word family. When you select the 'AT' words there are eight words students will be able to practice with. Some of the words include splat, cat, flat, bat, and rat. When the student chooses a word the word is read aloud and it appears on the screen. The student then has to drag the individual letters to the word in order to spell the word. Sometime the letters pop up around the screen and other times they're in balloons and the student has to pop them in order to find the letters. As the student drags a letter to its correct spot within the word the letter makes its sound. Since the focus is on word families the word family of focus always comes as a pair. Once the student has successful spelled the word the app reads each letter in the word in order and then says the whole word. A video appears next which models the word. After the video plays the app reads a sentence to the student that relates to the video they just watched and includes the word they just spelled. Once the sentence is read the definition of the word is also shared. This app is very engaging for students because of its fun music and kid friendly graphics. There is even an opportunity for the student to play with some of the characters from the videos such as the rat and cat in between word practice.
While teaching this lesson I first began by asking the student if she has ever heard of the term word
families before. Once she said know I then asked her to tell me what a family is. She had trouble coming up with adjectives to describe a family on her own so I prompted her. We talked about how everyone in a family is unique and special but there are also things families have in common. I then went on to explain how word families are the same way. There is something word families all have in common and that is what makes them a family. What makes them unique is the words that are put in front of or behind the word family. For example the word cat and rat are both a part of the 'at' word family. Their similarity is the 'at', and that is what makes them a family. However the letters c and r that are placed before the 'at' are what makes those words different. This comparison really helped her understand the idea of word families and she began reading the words 'at' as one word instead of trying to decode the individual sounds.
Once we talked about word families verbally we used a white board to put it down in writing so she could also see it visually. Word families was printed at the top of the board and in the corner was the word family 'at'. I then wrote the word 'at' in blue. Underneath 'at' I wrote cat but continued to write the 'at' in blue and the other letters in black. The purpose of the color coding was to show the student that all of the words from the same word family have parts that are similar and different. I then had her come up with two additional 'at' words that she put at the bottom of the board. To the right side of the board we brainstormed things that remind us about the word family we just worked on. Upon completing this warm up activity we moved to the app where the student was able to practice hearing and spelling multiple 'at' words. This lesson was used to address the common core standard of RF.1.3. The focus was having the student be able to read and write words from common word families. "I can read and write words from the 'at' word family" was the essential question.
This app proved to be very effective at helping students develop word family knowledge. The app is engaging and enjoyable for students. The student I worked with thought the graphics were funny and she even went back and did some of the words a second time because she liked it so much. I would definitely recommend this app to anyone who has students who need to practice word families, despite the fact that the app requires a one time purchase of $16 to unlock all of the word families. It is easy for the child to navigate on their own and it provides additional practice with a reading concept that is very important as students grow and develop their literacy skills.
References:
[Untitled image of Wonster Words logo]. Retrieved February 7, 2017 from http://www.smartappsforandroid.com/2014/07/new-release-wonster-words-free.html
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