Spelling | imagine

Spelling-Words Their Way

Mrs. Ince's 4th Grade class uses a Spelling program called Words Their Way. Words Their Way ~Word Study In Action is a word study approach which allows students to learn their words at their individual level of instruction and teaches them how words work. It is a new approach to teaching spelling. Each week begins with a word sort focus in which students will learn to sort, compare and contrast word features in each category, make discoveries, become more fluent readers, and increase their vocabulary through word meanings. It's only natural that their comprehension will increase as a result of this program.

WHAT IS A WORD STUDY?

Word study is just what it sounds like – a study of words. Students are assessed through out the year and place into small groups based on their current spelling ability. Students move through weekly word study patterns and activities during the week with a word sort test on Fridays. Students lists will be on a word study PATTERN (example – how prefixes uni-, mono-, -bi change the meaning of a word OR how to add suffixes such as -ion and -ian to base words ending in -t and -ic.)

WHAT ARE THE STUDENTS DOING IN CLASS?

Students will compare and contrast words by sound to categorize similar sounds. This helps them associate certain sounds with letters, syllable patterns, and spelling conventions. Spelling patterns help students to recognize similar patterns in related words in their reading. This increases their ability to identify and understand more complex words in their independent reading. Students learn to categorize words and word parts by meaning and parts of speech.

WHY A "WORD STUDY" INSTEAD OF A "TRADITIONAL" SPELLING PROGRAM?

Research studies clearly indicate that memorization of lists of "spelling words" does not promote the development of spelling skills. In the past when we’ve used this traditional approach of "everyone gets the same weekly list and test on Friday", many students who got a 100% on their spelling test could not spell most of the words in their writing! Memorizing a list of words and getting 100% on weekly tests does not necessarily mean your child is a good speller. It may just mean they are good at memorizing words for a test.

WHAT DOES HOMEWORK LOOK LIKE?

Complete 2 activities from this month's choice board. Completed activities will be checked in class on Friday mornings. A weekly homework grade is assignmed for the completed activites. If they are not brought to school on Friday morning the grade will be a zero for that week.

Red Group

Sorts 36-42
Beginning and Ending Complex Consonants and Consonant Clusters
Sort 36
Sort 37
Sort 38
Sort 39
Sort 40
Sort 41
Sort 42