1. Teacher’s Module 1
Lesson Outline
What is word family instruction? 
What does the research say about 
word family instruction?
What are helpful 
teaching strategies?

2. Teacher’s Module 1
What is word family instruction?

3. What is word family instruction?
In order to understand word family instruction,
one must first know the difference between
onsets and rimes.
•Onset is the first consonant(s) of a word (d)
•Rime is the vowel and consonants that follow
the onset (og)
dog
(Hines, 2009; Walton & Walton, 2002)

4. What is word family instruction?
Onset-Rime Practice
Can you identify the onset and rime in these
words?
flip boat shatter
fl ip b oat sh atter

5. What is word family instruction?
Word family instruction, or “onset-rime
instruction” as referred to by Hines (2009) is
“the analysis and substitution of word parts
from known words to unknown ones at the
onset-rime level” (p.21)
Using word families, if a child can read dog,
he/she can learn to read log and frog
and smog too!

6. What is word family instruction?
Benefits of Word Family Instruction
•Breaking words in to chunks, rather than each
individual sound
•Blending is easier with onsets and rimes than it
is blending each isolated sound
•Less emphasis placed on differentiating short
and long vowel sounds
•Successful strategy for beginning and/or
struggling readers
(Hines, 2009; Walton & Walton, 2002; Whitaker, Harvey, Hassell, Linder,
&Tutterow,2006)

7. Teacher’s Module 1
What does the research say about
word family instruction?

8. Research on word family instruction
Hines (2009)
•4 first-graders who were at risk for reading
•One-on-one instructional intervention
•Taught 4 short a and short e spelling patterns
using color-coded rimes
•an, at, ad, am
•et, en, ed, ell
•“Color-coding was intended as visual support for
categorization and discrimination” (p.30)

9. Research on word family instruction
Hines (2009)
•Assess students ability to:
•Read instructed rime words
•Read new words with same instructed
rime spelling pattern
•Read new words with new short a and
short e rimes

10. Research on word family instruction
Hines (2009) Results
•All four students made positive gains, especially
in reading the instructional rime words
John Tammy Arthur Maria
Number of
words read
4 7 12 13
before the
study
Words read
1 month 65 80 90 85
post study
(p. 29)

11. Research on word family instruction
Hines (2009) Results
•Students also made gains in their ability to read
new words with same instructed rime spelling
pattern
•Improvements in reading new words with new
short a and short e rimes were made, however
results were less significant when compared to
the other groups

12. Research on word family instruction
Walton & Walton (2002)
•Extensive research with 92 Canadian
Kindergartners
•Studied the effects of rime instruction on
student’s reading skills over the course of three
phases of experimental studies

13. Research on word family instruction
Walton & Walton (2002)
•Prior to the study, researchers tested students
ability to identify
•Rhyming words
•Letter-sound recognition
•Reading rimes
•Memory skills
•Randomly assigned students to a variety of
treatment and control groups for the study

14. Research on word family instruction
Walton & Walton (2002)
•Treatment groups consisted of:
•Small group lessons
•Brief introduction to rime instruction
•Collaborative learning through 16 different
hands-on games to teach
•Rime
•Rhyme
•Initial phoneme identification
•Letter-sound recognition

15. Research on word family instruction
Walton & Walton (2002)
•Treatment Group games included matching,
sorting, movement activities, but were not
competitive in nature
•Control groups were:
•Read stories
•Not provided with any formal instruction on
reading or reading strategies

16. Research on word family instruction
Walton & Walton (2002) Results
•The collaborative games and lessons aided the
Kindergartners to develop early reading, rhyming
and rime word skills.
•Students in the treatment group that focused on
rime, rhymes, initial phonemes and letter-sound
correspondence demonstrated:
“superior performance…compared to the other
groups, especially the control group” (p. 93)

17. Research on word family instruction
Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000)
•Year long study, observing the current teaching
practices on word learning and reading of four 1st
grade teachers
•Classroom 1 focused instruction on:
•Whole word reading and initial consonant
identification using a word wall
•Small group reading with little differentiation for
student’s ability levels

18. Research on word family instruction
Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000)
•Classroom 2 focused instruction on:
•Onset-rime instruction with sorting word and picture
cards
•Differentiated instructional reading groups
•All students were taught to POINT and track when
reading
•Classroom 3 focused instruction on:
•Peer coaching to learn unknown words
•Reading with trade books with little phonics
instruction

19. Research on word family instruction
Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000)
•Classroom 4 focused instruction on:
•Differentiated instructional reading groups
•Explicit phonics and onset-rime instruction for low
and moderate readers during the first half of the
school year
•All students were taught to POINT and track when
reading
•End of the year assessments from all 4 classrooms
showed that Classroom 4 students improved their reading
abilities more than any of the other classrooms

20. Research on word family instruction
Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000) Results
•Average end of the year reading abilities
Classroom Number Reading Levels
1 Lowest “primer level”
2 End of 1st grade level
3 Middle 2nd grade level
4 End of 2nd grade level
•Most significant improvement results:
“All the children in the low reading group in
classroom 4 were reading at or near an end-of-
first grade level in May”
(p. 334)

21. Teacher’s Module 1
What are helpful teaching strategies?

22. Word Family Instructional Strategy
Whitaker, et al. (2006) & The FISH Strategy
•The FISH Strategy can be used with students
who have a solid understanding of letters and
sounds, rhyming words, and letter substitution.
•It is used to help students learn what to do when
they reach a word they do not know how to read.

23. Word Family Instructional Strategy
Whitaker, et al. (2006) & The FISH Strategy
•How The FISH Strategy works
Find the rime
Identify a word you know that ends the same way
Say the rime you know without the first sound
Hook the new onset to the rime
(p. 17)

24. Word Family Instructional Strategy
Juel & Minden-Cupp (2000) Recommendations
•Small group lessons
•Direct instruction in
•“chunking of words into component units such
as syllables, onset/rimes, or finding little words
in big ones” (p. 334)
•“finger point to words as text was read” (p. 334)
•“actively compare and contrast words” (p. 334)
with hands-on materials
•Differentiated instruction

25. Teacher’s Module 1