This manual is a collection of resources for assessing and instructing elementary grade students in word analysis in such areas as phonics, syllabication, sight words, context clues, emergent literacy, and in spelling.
In addition to providing an overview of word analysis skills and strategies,Building Words presents virtually everything, except actual books, that a teacher would need to implement a high-quality, effective word analysis program. This text takes a practical, hands-on approach offering a wide variety of tools teachers will find easy to use. Samples lessons encourage students to build on what they know and to analyze words independently. Students practice and apply their skills using the exceptional resources offered.
Thomas G. Gunning has taught courses in methods of teaching reading and writing for more than 20 years and was director of the Reading Clinic at Southern Connecticut State University. Before that, as a secondary English teacher, a reading specialist, and an elementary school reading consultant, he worked extensively with achieving and struggling readers and writers. Dr. Gunning, who recently served as a Reading First consultant, is currently working with elementary and middle school students to help them develop higher level literacy skills, as well as serving as an adjunct professor in the Reading/Language Arts Department at Central Connecticut State University. Over the years, Dr. Gunning’s research has explored reading interests, informal reading inventories, decoding strategies, readability, higher-level literacy skills, and response to intervention. As a result of this research, he has created a number of informal assessments and programs for developing decoding and comprehension skills.