How to teach concept of word

Concept of word is an important concept that a student must "understand" before learning to read. Today we will go over some concrete examples of how to teach concept of word and I will give you some concept of word activities to practice.

What is concept of word?

When a child has concept of word, a child understands that the words we speak and the words we write and the words we read are all separate words. Each word is different. Words do not all run together as one big pile of letters. Words are different and distinct and each word has meaning and purpose.

Why is concept of word important?

Concept of word is important because when a student has concept of word, a student understands the basis of reading. A student can look at a page and see a dog and can read the word dog and that the word dog looks different than the word cat. The student understands that the spoken word for dog has meaning and that the written word for dog has meaning. The student is ready to read because they can begin to associate speech to print.

Concept of Word Activities

There are many different ways that you can reinforce and teach concept of word. Here is a video that I go over several concept of word activities. In addition, I also have listed the activities below.

  • Read morning message and have children circle each word (call the up one by one)
  • Use magazine or newspaper articles/ads, have the student circle the words or circle the words they know.
  • Put words on Legos and have children build sentences
  • Have students draw a picture and then label the picture.
  • Cut and paste word sentence
  • Have students make a sentence: each student holds a word and then rearranges themselves to make a sentence
  • Make a word wall and have students write down words from the wall
  • Have students help in labeling a room or objects in the room.
  • Make picture flashcards
  • Make lists: Christmas lists or grocery lists, for example
  • When reading, have the student fill in the blank (like mad-libs) or, have the student read the words they know while you read the other words

Concept of word examples (Free Download)

Download some free concept of word examples to help you with helping your little reader!

Is your child ready to read?

If you have tried the concept of word examples and you feel your student is ready to read, another great next step would be to have your child do a reading readiness test. Once you test your student, you will know his/her strengths and weaknesses and you will have a base line of how to begin teaching reading.

If you want to try teaching students to read using the Reading Patch program sign up for our free Reading Test. The Reading Patch was created for children with English as a second language. It is slow and repetitive and confidence building.

Sign up below for the free reading test. It is the first step to helping your new or struggling reader.

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About the Authors:
Madreen Karle is a master first grade reading teacher with over 30 years of classroom experience. She taught reading in a special needs and English as a Second Language classroom. After retiring she wrote a reading program to help others learn how to teach reading. She is a trusted educator and author of 5 books to help teach children to read and write. In addition to her books, she is a mentor for 3 websites that give reading teacher tips (Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading, Mrs. Karle’s Reading Patch, and Mrs. Karle’s Handwriting Patch). Through her teaching she learned that confidence was the key to learning to read. A child who is not confident at reading does not like to read and struggles to read. Mrs. Karle created “sunshine moments” to help teach children how to grow their confidence and learn to read.
Meeghan Karle Mousaw (Madreen’s daughter) has her Master’s in Special Education. She has 7 years experience teaching children to read online. In addition, she developed a curriculum to teach children handwriting called The Handwriting Patch. With the Handwriting Patch learning is fun because children learn to draw and learn handwriting at the same time. In 2019 The Handwriting Patch curriculum became an amazon best seller the first year it was released, helping thousands of kids learn handwriting with a unique, fun method. She is mom to 6 kids, each with differently learning abilities and struggles.
The Reading Patch was established by the creators of Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading. Together they have been featured on the NBC media outlets. Over the last 7 years in their online platform, Madreen and Meeghan have worked tirelessly with teachers, homeschoolers and parents looking to help children learn to read to become a trusted authority in teaching children to read and advocating early literacy skills. They often partner with other educational experts to deliver the most current information to the Reading Patch community.

Madreen Karle and Meeghan Karle Mousaw
Madreen Karle is a master first grade reading teacher with over 30 years of classroom experience. She taught reading in a special needs and English as a Second Language classroom. After retiring she wrote a reading program to help others learn how to teach reading. She is a trusted educator and author of 5 books to help teach children to read and write. In addition to her books, she is a mentor for 3 websites that give reading teacher tips (Mrs. Karle's Sight and Sound Reading, Mrs. Karle's Reading Patch, and Mrs. Karle's Handwriting Patch). Through her teaching she learned that confidence was the key to learning to read. A child who is not confident at reading does not like to read and struggles to read. Mrs. Karle created "sunshine moments" to help teach children how to grow their confidence and learn to read.

Meeghan Karle Mousaw (Madreen’s daughter) has her Master’s in Special Education. She has 7 years experience teaching children to read online. In addition, she developed a curriculum to teach children handwriting called The Handwriting Patch. With the Handwriting Patch learning is fun because children learn to draw and learn handwriting at the same time. In 2019 The Handwriting Patch curriculum became an amazon best seller the first year it was released, helping thousands of kids learn handwriting with a unique, fun method. She is mom to 6 kids, each with differently learning abilities and struggles.

The Reading Patch was established by the creators of Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading. Together they have been featured on the NBC media outlets. Over the last 7 years in their online platform, Madreen and Meeghan have worked tirelessly with teachers, homeschoolers and parents looking to help children learn to read to become a trusted authority in teaching children to read and advocating early literacy skills. They often partner with other educational experts to deliver the most current information to the Reading Patch community.