Making Words Second Grade

Patricia M. Cunningham and Dorothy P. Hall

Making Words Second Grade:

100 Hands-On Lessons for Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Spelling

Based on the best-selling book, Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing, this grade level series offers a fresh pairing of lessons and activities for kindergarten through fifth grade. In Making Words Second Grade, Pat and Dottie introduce second grade teachers to 100 Making Words lessons that cover all of the literacy skills included in most second grade curricula. The activities progress through a systematic, sequential phonics program that includes all the complex vowel patterns second graders need to learn. In all lessons students make and sort these words into patterns. Each lesson ends with a transfer step to help them apply the sounds they learn to the spelling of new words.

I would highly recommend this book to my colleagues because it engaged all of my students and helped each of them improve their reading and writing skills.  My struggling readers felt successful after saying and stretching out the words then forming them...[and m]y fluent spellers had fun with the hands on approach and loved being challenged with the secret word.  I saw good spellers blossoming in front of my eyes!"  --Marie Daniel, Clemmons Elementary School, Clemmons, NC

"...the assessment piece is a strength of this text.  I also like how it provides a home--school link and a description of how this activity is multi-level.  This text could easily be used by new educators as well as veteran teachers."  --Roxanne Monmaney, New Franklin Elementary School, Portsmouth, NH

Patricia M. Cunningham is the author of Beyond Retelling, Classrooms That Work, Schools That Work, and Phonics They Use, all published by Allyn & Bacon, as well as a professor of education at Wake Forest University. She has over 30 years of experience in various elementary grades and with remedial reading and has served as a curriculum coordinator and director of reading. Pat promotes literacy for all children through her Four Blocks workshops and staff development sessions with educators.

Dorothy P. Hall is the co-developer of the Four Blocks framework and the director of the Four Blocks Center at Wake Forest University. A former elementary teacher and education professor, she also presents workshops around the country on Four Blocks, Building Blocks, guided reading strategies, and phonics instruction.