From the Back Cover
Patricia M. Cunningham
Dorothy Hall
Making Words Kindergarten
Based on the best-selling book Phonics They Use, this grade level series offers a fresh pairing of lessons and activities for kindergarten through fifth grade. In Making Words Kindergarten, Pat and Dottie introduce kindergarten teachers, teachers of emergent second language learners, and teachers of students with special needs to Making Words lessons with step-by-step instructions for developing letter-sound relationships. Each Making Words activity in the book shows young students how to blend letter sounds together to make a word and then change letters to build a new word within the same word family. As the lessons progress, students become aware of similarities and patterns among groups of words, developing critical reading and writing skills.
“It is refreshing to see the authors take a stand and affirm that kindergarten is not a mini-first grade and offer a pragmatic guide for effective reading instruction at the kindergarten level…[This book will] be a sought “staple” in the world market of kindergarten!”
–Elaine Williams, teacher, Clemmons Elementary School, Clemmons, NC
“The organization is one of the [book]’s greatest strengths. Teachers love to teach when they know exactly what the expectations are. The steps are research based, and allow for multi levels and engage students in many levels of thinking…Young children will…love the lessons…”
-Jean Barnard, teacher, Spring Valley Elementary School, Raytown, MO
Patricia M. Cunningham is the author of Beyond Retelling, Classrooms That Work, Schools That Work, and Phonics They Use, all published by Allyn & Bacon, as well as a professor of education at Wake Forest University. She has over 30 years of experience in various elementary grades and with remedial reading and has served as a curriculum coordinator and director of reading. Pat promotes literacy for all children through her Four Blocks® workshops and staff development sessions with educators.
Dorothy P. Hall is the co-developer of the Four Blocks® framework and the director of the Four Blocks® Center at Wake Forest University. A former elementary teacher and education professor, she also presents workshops around the country on Four Blocks®, Building Blocks, guided reading strategies, and phonics instruction.
About the Author
Patricia M. Cunningham
The day I entered first grade, I decided I wanted to teach first grade. In 1965, I graduated from the University of Rhode Island and began my teaching career teaching first grade in Key West, Florida. For the next several years, I taught a variety of grades and worked as a curriculum coordinator and special reading teacher in Florida and Indiana.
From the very beginning, I worried about children who struggled learning to read and devised a variety of alternative strategies to teach them to read. In 1974, I received my Ph. D. in Reading Education from the University of Georgia. I developed the Making Words activity while working with Title One teachers in North Carolina where I was the Director of Reading for Alamance County Schools. I have been the Director of Elementary Education at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina since 1980 and have worked with numerous teachers to develop hands-on engaging ways to teach phonics and spelling. In 1991, I published Phonics they Use: Words for Reading and Writing, which is currently available in its fourth edition. Along with Richard Allington, I published Classrooms that Work and Schools that Work.
Dottie Hall and I have worked together on many projects. In 1989, we began developing the Four Blocks Framework, a comprehensive approach to literacy which is used in many schools in the United States and Canada. Dottie Hall and I have worked together to produce many books, including the first Making Words books and the Month by Month Phonics Books. These Making Words by Grade Level books are in response to requests by teachers across the years to have making words lessons with a scope and sequence tailored to their grade level. We hope you and your students will enjoy these making words lessons and we would love to hear your comments and suggestions.
Dorothy P. Hall
I always wanted to teach young children too! After graduating from Worcester State College in Massachusetts I taught first and second grade. After two years, I moved to North Carolina where I continued teaching in the primary grades. Many children I worked with struggled to learn to read in the newly integrated schools. I wanted to learn more and received my M ED and Ed D in Reading from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
I also worked at Wake Forest University where I met and began to work with Pat Cunningham. After three years teaching at the college level I returned to the public schools and taught third and fourth grade as well being a reading and curriculum coordinator for my school district. At this time Pat Cunningham and I began to collaborate on a number of projects. In 1989, we developed the Four Blocks Framework, a comprehensive approach to literacy in grades one, two, and three which we later expanded to kindergarten, calling it Building Blocks, and the upper grades, calling it Big Blocks. By 1999 Pat and I had written four Making Words books, a series of Month by Month Phonics Books, and The Teacher’s Guided to Four Blocks and I retired from the school system to devote more time to consulting and writing. I also went back to work at Wake Forest University where I taught courses in Reading, Children’s Literature, and Language Arts Instruction for elementary education students. I am now Director of the Four Blocks Center at Wake Forest University and enjoy working with teachers and administrators around the country presenting workshops on Four Blocks, Building Blocks, Guided Reading Strategies, and Phonics Instruction. I have also written several books with teachers. One request Pat and I have had for a number of years is to revise the Making Words by grade level and include a scope and sequence for the phonics instruction taught. Here it is–Enjoy!
