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Foundations Level 1 Review by Dawn Oaks

The WordBuild Vocabulary Development System
Dynamic Literacy
PO Box 388
Lake Junaluska, NC 28745
http://www.dynamicliteracy.com

Over the years, my philosophy and thoughts on teaching spelling and vocabulary have changed, but I have not always been able to find a curriculum to match our changing direction. During the last couple of months, my ten-year-old and I have been journeying through the Foundations Level 1 book from the WordBuild series published by Dynamic Literacy.

Dynamic Literacy’s approach to spelling and vocabulary hinges on not just learning letters and symbols, but in teaching roots, prefixes, and suffixes that provide meaning to words. In using this WordBuild approach, students learn not only the words being studied, but how to put the different parts together in new ways to expand their vocabulary even further.

The WordBuild series contains Foundations Level 1 and 2 and Elements 1 through 3. The Foundations books are recommended for students in grades 3-5, while the Elements series is great for grades 5-10. Foundations focuses mostly on adding prefixes and suffixes to base words and the changes in meaning that come. As the student transitions into the Elements series, more study is spent on the Latin and Greek roots that support our language.

The Foundations Level 1 materials that we reviewed contained an introductory student book, a student activity book, and the teacher edition. The introductory book introduced the concept of how word parts have the ability to change the meaning of words when combined with other words or roots. This book was short and focused primarily on compound words. Our son progressed through this book rather quickly before proceeding on to the main Student Activity Book.

The Student Activity Book covers the use of 30 different morphemes. As shared with the students on the very first page in their book, a morpheme is the smallest part of a word that means something. For the sake of this first level book, it is what many of us learned to be called prefixes and suffixes. Each of the 30 morphemes are meant to be discussed over the span of a week with a 15-minute lesson each day. The types of activities done each week remain consistent with only the content changing.

Here is a little about the activities we did throughout the week. On Monday, our son did the Prefix Square. This is a series of nine root words built in a block around the prefix to be studied that week. The study then combines the prefix with each of the nine base roots to form new words at the bottom of the page. The child is encouraged to write their own definition of the word based on their knowledge of the root and the prefix. The second day’s study further explores these prefix-root combinations by providing more in-depth definitions of the root and asks the student to then rethink their definition. Wednesdays and Thursdays were our son’s favorite days. He completed a magic square and a word search. The magic square once again provided an opportunity to match words with their definitions in a fun game environment. The word searches helped to reinforce spelling and were at times challenging since all the words began with the same prefix. This sequence of activities is repeated each week. I thought that over time the appeal of doing the same exercises would become dull, but our son really thrived with knowing what to do on each page. This really allowed him not to stress over what to do, but to focus on the words being studied.

The Teacher’s Edition contains copies of the student workbook pages with the appropriate answers written in. In addition, there are many discussion prompts to begin the work for the day and to get the wheels turning on word study. After every six weeks of study, there is a formal assessment contained in the Teacher’s Edition that can be given to the student to determine their retention of the material studied. A final assessment that covers the entire book is available in Appendix B.

Overall, our experience with Dynamic Literacy’s WordBuild series has been a positive one. When our son was given the choice of returning to a program we have used previously or continuing in the Foundations Level 1 book, he chose to continue using these materials. His work is generally done very independently, and there is little to no teacher prep needed. So, that can be a winning combination for a busy homeschool mom. The books we received were in paperback form. In continuing to work with these books, I do plan to put contact paper over the front of the student book as it has already experienced some wear and tear from daily use.

All in all, if you are looking for a vocabulary curriculum that focuses on building words through the meaning of bases, prefixes, and suffixes, this is a great place to start with your middle to upper elementary-aged student.

-Product review by Dawn Oaks, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March 2015

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