What’s in a Word? – Grade One
Ohio Standards
Connection
Acquisition of Vocabulary
Benchmark A
Use context clues to
determine the meaning of
new vocabulary.
Indicator 1
Use knowledge of word order
and in-sentence context clues
to support word identification
and to define unknown words
while reading.
Benchmark C
Apply structural analysis
skills to build and extend
vocabulary and to determine
word meaning.
Indicator 6
Predict the meaning of
compound words using
knowledge of individual
words (e.g., daydream,
raindrop).
Benchmark B
Read accurately highfrequency sight words.
Indicator 4
Recognize common sight
words.
Lesson Summary:
In this lesson students locate, create, separate and define
compound words found in meaningful text and print.
Estimated Duration: One week (five consecutive days)
Commentary:
“This lesson applies the problem solving skills that students
need in order to solve issues with words they will read or
create.”
“The multi-sensory approach that was used was great! The
planner made sure to use many different activities that would
lead the learners to develop this skill.”
“All students are engaged and require participation no matter
the level. The use of digital cameras, pictures/cards and
extension activities was fabulous!”
Pre-Assessment:
 In a small group, define the term compound word, (e.g., a
word made up of two smaller words).
 Provide word cards. Use words from reading selections,
from high-frequency word lists and/or from students’
environment (e.g., gold, fish, play, ground, foot, ball).
 Demonstrate the task of putting two small words together
to make a larger word (e.g., foot + ball = football).
 Have students make four compound words by placing two
word cards together. Ask students to read newly formed
words.
 Observe, listen and record the number of words formed,
read and defined correctly as students place cards together
and read new words.
Scoring Guidelines:
As students use word cards to create compound words, watch
the strategies used and note the number of words formed, read
and defined correctly by each student.
Post-Assessment:
 Provide word cards for students. Use words from reading
selections, high-frequency word list or from students’
environment. Use different words than those used in preassessment.
 Have students independently make compound words by
placing two word cards together to make new words.
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One


Ask students to read and define or use the new words in sentences.
Observe and record information (Post-Assessment Guidelines, Compound Word Rubric,
Attachment A) as students form compound words and define or use newly formed words in
sentences.
Instructional Tip:
Provide materials (word cards, paper and pencil) in an interest center. Students can visit center to
independently create and write compound words. Students can then read and share their
definitions or sentences with newly formed words with the teacher during conference time.
Scoring Guidelines:
Use the rubric to assess understanding of compound words (Post-Assessment Guidelines,
Compound Word Rubric, Attachment A).
Instructional Procedures:
Part One
1. Read a pre-selected story, poem or letter aloud to students. The selection must contain at
least one compound word.
Instructional Tip:
Use words found in grade appropriate reading selections, in classroom materials or in everyday
reading material. To increase student success, use compound words comprised of at least one
high-frequency sight word (e.g., playground, sidewalk). Use the word list (Compound Word List,
Attachment B) for compound word possibilities.
2. Reread sentences from text that contain compound words, highlighting or stressing the
compound words.
3. Write compound words on chalkboard, dry erase board or large chart paper in front of the
class.
4. Point to a compound word and explain that a compound word is a word that contains two
smaller words.
5. Ask students to identify two smaller words in the compound word displayed.
6. Discuss the meaning of compound word. Use prompts such as, “This compound word
contains the words ______ and ________. Can you make a prediction or guess what this
word means?”
7. Have students offer and discuss their responses.
8. Read several sentences, each containing a minimum of one compound word.
9. Instruct students to listen and signal with “thumbs up” when they hear a compound word.
10. Reread sentences, asking students to identify compound words.
11. Add newly identified compound words to the list on the board.
12. Discuss the meanings of new compound words. Encourage students to use context clues to
determine meanings of compound words.
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One
Instructional Tip:
The list of words identified by students in Part One of the lesson is the foundation of a
Compound Word Bank. Display the list of words in the classroom so students can refer to it
during the rest of the lesson and throughout the year.
Part Two
13. Write commonly used and easy-to-define compound words (e.g. bedroom, cookbook,
hilltop, girlfriend, jellyfish, starfish) on sentence strips.
14. Cut each compound word into its two small words and attach magnetic strips or adhesive
(e.g., masking tape) to backs of words.
15. Place words on board in random order.
16. Review the definition of a compound word with small group of students.
17. Model how to create a compound word by placing two smaller words together to make a new
word.
18. Have students take turns placing words together to create compound words.
19. Have students define their new words and/or use the words in sentences.
20. Add newly formed and defined compound words to the Compound Word Bank.
Part Three (The length of this part depends on students’ abilities and needs.)
21. Provide leveled reading materials, paper and pencils to students in small groups. Each
leveled text (e.g., story or poem) should contain at least five compound words.
22. Review the definition of a compound word with students.
23. Have students work with partners in small groups to read selected text and find compound
words.
24. Instruct partners to find and record all compound words that are in the text on the paper
provided by the teacher.
25. Next to each compound word, write its two smaller words.
26. Ask partners to discuss the meanings of new compound words and draw or illustrate their
meanings. Encourage students to use prior knowledge of the two smaller words to define the
compound words.
27. Reconvene as a whole group to share and define the newly identified compound words found
by partners.
28. As students present findings, add words to the Compound Word Bank.
Differentiated Instructional Support:
Instruction is differentiated according to learner needs, to help all learners either meet the intent
of the specified indicator(s) or, if the indicator is already met, to advance beyond the specified
indicator(s).
 Provide individual conferences and/or individualized attention for students as they look for
and identify compound words. Provide strategies to help students read and identify words.
 Pair students of varying abilities to help one another read, write and discuss compound words
and their meanings.
 Model and provide examples of how to create and separate compound words.
 If the text is too complex, use pictures and/or illustrations as visual aids or dictate compound
words and their component parts.
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One

Students requiring challenges can create short stories using compound words, or they can go
on a “Compound Word Scavenger Hunt” using magazines, newspapers or school bulletins.
Extensions:
 Have students create and break apart compound words on an interactive white board.
 Ask students to search for compound words in books and other written texts in the classroom
library and environment. Have students highlight words with markers or reusable colored
tape and share them with the class. Add newly found compound words to the class-created
Compound Word Bank.
 Give students sentence strips containing parts of compound words (e.g., paper, man).
Students walk around the room and find other students who have acceptable completions of
their halves (e.g., wall, news). Have students put words together to form compound words.
When students have found suitable partners, discuss the words that students have created.
 Encourage students to use compound words in journals and other independent writing
activities. Students can refer to the Compound Word Bank as needed.
 Have students add pictures or illustrations of words to the Compound Word Bank.
 Create a class book of compound words. Have students write one word per page and
illustrate the meaning of the word.
 Allow students to creatively invent compound words and illustrate them and define them for
the class (e.g., feather-ball—a small ball covered with feathers used as a cat exercise toy).
Home Connections:
Have students participate in a “Compound Word Hunt,” a search for compound words found in
their homes and/or in magazines, books and newspapers.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Content Area: Science
Standard: Life Sciences
Benchmark: A. Discover that there are living things, non-living things and pretend things, and
describe the basic needs of living things (organisms).
Have students use knowledge of compound words to assist in defining new vocabulary in science
related units (e.g., jellyfish, birdhouse)
Content Area: Social Studies
Standard: Social Studies Skills and Methods
Benchmark: C. Communicate information orally, visually or in writing.
Students write and orally present their findings about compound words to the class.
Materials and Resources:
The inclusion of a specific resource in any lesson formulated by the Ohio Department of
Education should not be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular resource, or any of its
contents, by the Ohio Department of Education. The Ohio Department of Education does not
endorse any particular resource. The Web addresses listed are for a given site’s main page,
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One
therefore, it may be necessary to search within that site to find the specific information required
for a given lesson. Please note that information published on the Internet changes over time,
therefore the links provided may no longer contain the specific information related to a given
lesson. Teachers are advised to preview all sites before using them with students.
For the teacher: environmental print and labels posted throughout classroom, leveled books,
highlighting tape, magnet board, magnets or adhesive, sentence strips, picture
word cards, chalkboard/dry erase/large chart paper
For the students: pencil, highlighter, paper
Vocabulary:
 combine
 compound words
 separate
Technology Connections:
 Students create, break apart and illustrate compound words on an interactive white board.
 Students walk around the classroom and/or schoolyard looking for objects that are compound
words. The students use a digital camera to take pictures of these objects. After the pictures
are printed, the class discusses the compound words and separates them into their smaller
parts.
Research Connections:
Fischer, U. “Learning Words from Context and Dictionaries: An Experimental Comparison.”
Applied Linguistics, 15 (1994): 551-574.
Targeted vocabulary words should be drawn from authentic experiences in reading and listening,
where students encounter words in the context of language.
Arter, Judith and Jay McTighe. Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom: Using Performance Criteria
for Assessing and Improving Student Performance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2001.
A holistic rubric gives a single score or rating for an entire product or performance based on an
overall impression of a student’s work.
Holistic rubrics are best used for the following:
 Judging simple products or performances;
 Getting a quick snapshot of the overall quality or achievement;
 Judging the impact of a product or performance.
Holistic rubrics, however, do not provide detailed analysis, which helps plan instruction.
Arter & McTighe include a metarubric or “A Rubric for Rubrics” summarizing the qualities of
good, average and unacceptable rubrics. The qualities of the good rubrics are included here.
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One
Content/Coverage
 Content is based on the best thinking in the field.
 If counts of anything are included, the counts really do reflect quality.
 The number of points on the rating scale makes sense.
Clarity
 The rubric’s clarity assures different teachers would similarly rate the same product or
performance.
 A single teacher can use the rubric to provide consistent ratings over time.
 Words are specific and accurate.
Practicality
 The rubric is manageable, including only enough traits to be easily remembered and
internalized.
 Results translate clearly into instruction.
 Task-specific rubrics are used only when justifiable (the task is sufficiently complex or
the nature of the skill being assessed is complex).
 The rubric can be used by the students to revise their own work, plan their own learning
and track their own progress.
Technical Quality
 The rubric language is appropriate for the diversity of students found in typical
classrooms.
 The wording is supportive of students—it describes the status of a performance rather
than judgments of student worth.
General Tips:
For optimal results, students should engage in learning compound words in the latter part of first
grade. This allows time to recognize a larger group of sight words and to gain a better
understanding of word function and use.
Attachments:
Attachment A, Post-Assessment Guidelines, Compound Word Rubric
Attachment B, Compound Word List
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One
Attachment A
Post-Assessment Guidelines
Compound Word Rubric
Name: ____________________
Directions: Use this rubric during individual conferences or when observing students working in
small groups. As students work, observe and note the following:
 Which words students put together;
 If students read/say the words as they place the illustrated word cards together;
 If the students attempt to create new words;
 If the students understand the task;
 If the students demonstrate and apply their knowledge of compound words found in
meaningful text and print.
4
3
2
1
Creates, reads, defines or uses four or more compound words.
Demonstrates full comprehension of compound words.
Creates and reads compound words.
Demonstrates a basic comprehension of compound words.
Makes attempts to create compound words.
Demonstrates an emerging understanding of compound words.
Randomly puts two illustrated word cards together.
Demonstrates little or no understanding of compound words.
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What’s in a Word? – Grade One
Attachment B
Compound Word List
The following is a suggested list of compound words for use with the lesson:
airplane
anyone
anywhere
backpack
backyard
baseball
bathrobe
bathroom
bathtub
birdbath
bedroom
bedside
bedtime
birthday
blackbird
bookcase
scrapbook
butterfly
buttermilk
backyard
backdoor
downstairs
downtown
sundown
eyeball
eyeglasses
firehouse
firefly
fireplace
firewood
fireworks
campfire
football
footprint
haircut
handcuffs
homesick
homework
horsefly
houseboat
birdhouse
doghouse
lighthouse
flashlight
mailman
fireman
nightgown
outdoors
cookout
hideout
pigpen
playground
playhouse
playpen
playroom
rainbow
raincoat
raindrop
rainfall
rainstorm
roadway
railroad
sandpaper
sandbox
seashore
snowball
snowflake
snowman
snowshoe
snowstorm
somebody
someone
something
sometime
somewhere
underground
waterfall
windmill
windmill
windpipe
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