Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction, 4th Edition (Book, CD & DVD)

This book would be very useful for both university reading courses and classroom teachers.  I use Words Their Way^® both in my first grade classroom and with college students as a way to implement word study.

Kristi McNeal, CSU Fresno

Words Their Way’s^® developmentally-driven, hands-on instructional approach has been a phenomenon in word study, providing a practical way to study words with students.  The keys to this research-based approach are to know your students’ literacy progress, organize for instruction, and implement word study.  This streamlined book and the DVD and CD-ROM that accompany it gives you all the tools you need to carry out word study instruction that will motivate and engage your students, and help them to succeed in literacy learning.  Ordered in a developmental format, Words Their Way^® complements the use of any existing phonics, spelling, and vocabulary curricula.

Knowing Your Students

• Streamlined Chapter 2 provides step by step guidelines for assessing students.
• NEW! Words Their Way^® Word Study Resources CD: Assessment Planning and Additional Interactive Word Sorts contains computerized assessments to gauge students’ developmental levels.
• Word Study with English Learner sections in each chapter help you organize and adapt instruction to meet the needs of students whose first language is not English.

Organizing for Instruction

• NEW! Words Their Way^® DVD Tutorial: Planning for Word Study in K-8 Classrooms reinforces and illustrates classroom organization and management, as outlined in Chapter 3.
• Word Study Routines and Management sections in every chapter give you practical guidance on managing and implementing word study in your classroom.
• NEW! Tech Notes throughout chapters pinpoint opportunities for you to use the DVD and CD-ROM to prepare for instruction.

Implementing Word Study

• Classroom-proven, research-driven activities end each developmental chapter, giving you the instructional practices to get your word study instruction up and running immediately.
• NEW! Words Their Way^® Word Study Resources CD: Assessment Planning and Additional Interactive Word Sorts provides more than just assessments.  You’ll also find hundreds of additional word and picture sorts, games and templates, and an interactive Create Your Own section.
• The Appendix at the back of the book contains a comprehensive bank of word lists, word sorts, picture sorts, games and templates.

The theory behind and practice for word sorts allows even the novice teacher to understand how to use the assessments to organize instruction.  The organization of the last five chapters creates a useful resource for teachers.  Each begins with a research-based description and moves into sound instructional practices, giving the teacher a complete understanding of how to meet the needs of students.

Cathy Blanchfield, CSU Fresno 

Meet the Authors

• Donald Bear is Director of the E.L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy at the University of Nevada, Reno, assessing and teaching students who experience difficulties learning to read and write.  A former preschool and elementary teacher, Donald currently researches literacy development with a special interest in students who speak languages other than English, and he partners with schools and districts to consider assessment and literacy instruction.
• Marcia Invernizzi is Director of the McGuffey Reading Center at the University of Virginia exploring developmental universals in non-English orthographies.  A former English and reading teacher, Marcia works with children experiencing difficulties learning to read and write in intervention programs such as Virginia’s Early Intervention Reading Initiative and Book Buddies.
• Shane Templeton is Foundation Professor of Literacy Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.  A former classroom teacher at the primary and secondary levels, he researches the development of orthographic and vocabulary knowledge
• Francine Johnston is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches reading, language arts, and children’s literature.  A former first-grade teacher and reading specialist.

Interested in extending your Words Their Way^® training? Learn more about the new Online Workshop at www.pearsoncourseconnect.com/wtw.  

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.

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.

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.