Word Families

Imagine how confusing our language must appear to emerging readers! Sometimes vowels are long, sometimes they're short, and sometimes they sound altogether like another vowel. How can a struggling reader make sense of it all?

Word families (also known as phonograms or "chunks") can really help your students "crack the code" of our inconsistent language by providing some predictable patterns within words. As you and I learned to read, we picked up these patterns effortlessly, and they still help us when we try to decode new words. When we direct our students' attention to these same patterns, they too will be able to untangle the seemingly unrelated sounds of English.

What patterns are these? Here's an example: I see the word, "C-H-A-L-K ". Now, how can I figure out how to say that word? I'll try breaking it into chunks that I'm familiar with. What words look like "chalk"? Well, there's walk" and "talk", so maybe "chalk" rhymes with those words. I know that "ch" has it's own sound, so if I add it to the "alk" chunk, I get "chalk." That's it--"chalk."

Can you see how much easier this method of using "chunks" of letters is compared to sounding out one letter at a time? We break words into chunks naturally, and we can teach our students to do the same.

It gets even better! Once your students become familiar with the 37 most familiar chunks, they can use them to decode 500 words. (Wylie & Durrell, 1970)

Word families are indeed an efficient way to get your students reading. Scholastic andother publishers have prepared excellent resources for teaching word families, below.

Reference: Wylie, R.E., & Durrell, D.D. (1970). Teaching vowels through phonograms. Elementary English, 47, 787-791.

See our other pages on word families:

See our other pages on word study and sight words:

Resources for Teaching Word Families

Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families (Grades K-2)
Judy Lynch
Fun Phonograms: Learning How Words Work
Creative Teaching Press
25 Read & Write Mini-Books That Teach Word Families
Nancy I. Sanders
30 Wonderful Word Family Games: With Pull-Out Poster Game
Joan Novelli
70 Wonderful Word Family Poems:
A Delightful Collection of Fun-To-Read Rhyming Poems With an Easy- To-Use Lesson Plan for Teaching the Top 35 Word Families -- Scholastic
Phonics Poetry: Teaching Word Families
Timothy V. Rasinski, Belinda S. Zimmerman
Phonics That Work! New Strategies for the Reading/Writing Classroom
Janiel Wagstaff
Reading Success Mini-Books: Word Families (Grades PreK-2)
Mary Beth Spann
Word Family Mini-Storybooks: Reproducible Rib-Tickling Tales That Reinforce 30 Key Word Families -- Laura Johnsrud
Word Family Tales Learning Library
Scholastic Publishing