So How Did It Start?

The Orginal Secondary Word Wall Source

Step 1:

The Word Junction has evolved after years of study and research into various vocabulary strategies and word banks. As secondary educators it was imperative for us to develop a system that was student and teacher friendly while providing a relative connection between learning vocabulary and establishing long term comprehension.

To develop a catalog of over 20,000 words The Word Junction Team researched countless resources including state and national assessment tests, study guides, and various curriculum resources to determine a common thread. Then the words were cross referenced with multiple sources and narrowed down to a concrete foundation of over 2000 words and then analyzed for common word parts and STEMS (prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots).

Step 2:

The next step was analyzing the words to determine the most popular STEMS (prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots). At the conclusion of this process The Word Junction Team narrowed its STEM concentration lists down to 300 STEMS. Even though there are thousands of word parts we determined the most popular and developed a leveled foundation based system to teach all 300 stems within three years.

Step 3:

In a perfect world our system was designed to begin in grade 6 and continue till grade 12, although it is completely up to the educators to determine what works best for their students and their discipline.

Our system was designed to begin in the 6th grade. In grades 6th, 7th, and 8th 100 stems are covered and 200 words each year. Then the same stems with different vocabulary are repeated at the high school level.

Grade Correlations:

Grade 6 spirals into Grade 09
Grade 7 spirals into Grade 10
Grade 8 spirals into Grade 11
Grade 12 is a review of the most common words

Step 4:

Then we color coded every word by word part. If a part of the word is red, blue, or green then it is a word part from our system. When the words are placed on the TWJ word wall, students can easily "chunk" the words into parts to gain comprehension. In addition with the TWJ Word Track manuals, students and teachers can easily use our system as a supplement to any classroom.

Example:

xylography --
art of engraving on wood (writing on wood)

xylo means wood
graph means writing

At The Word Junction we want to provide educators the tools relative to their classroom and to their students. We are student centered and teacher oriented. The Word Junction is the right place for complete classroom curriculum, staff development, or for bulletin and room decor.