Highlight on SpellingWhen our first grade students begin writing in Writer's Workshop, they are encouraged to spell words the way they sound. Our intent is for children to express their ideas on paper and to practice letter to sound correspondence. As the year progresses, certain "no excuses" words are introduced (the, or, and,a) and the children are expected to spell these correctly in their writing. Click here to view the list of 1200 words according to grade level. These core spelling words are thought of as the core of an apple. This core contains the seeds for growing a lifetime of spelling. A core word can be used in many ways to expand spelling knowledge. For example, a word could be chosen to illustrate a spelling pattern, to develop synonyms and antonyms, to study words with the same origin, to learn homonyms or analogies, or to study an important spelling rule. Click here to view the most important spelling rules. Theme words are also used as spelling words by classroom teachers to reinforce their units of study. Activities, word practice, and spelling games are used to reinforce knowledge of these core words. Building visual skills is an important part of this program. As students practice their new words, they are taught to visually check for correct spelling by touching each letter with a pencil. Another method for learning new words is to use a five-step procedure in which students do the following:
As the students become acquainted with this program, the responsibility for correct spelling begins to shift to them. They learn to go back and edit their own writing and to look for words that don't "look right." The class develops a group of "no excuses" words that they all will be responsible for spelling correctly in their everyday writing. This list of "no excuses" words may come home for extra practice and for reference. Try to help your child spell these words correctly in all of their writing. Click here for suggestions on spelling practice at home. We are trying to create "Everyday Spellers" at Hastings School instead of just "Friday Spellers." Therefore, there is little emphasis on the Friday spelling test. Instead, after a word list has been studied and worked with, the teacher will give a Review. This Review consists of a story with word blanks to fill in. The story is read by the teacher and the students have to fill in the missing word ( a core spelling word). In this way, the students are using the spelling words in a meaningful context, not in isolation. Another method of assessment is the Dictation. The program provides teachers with dictation sentences containing the current words under study as well as other high frequency words as a review. A third method of assessment is to look at everyday writing and analyze the spelling to see how well the students are transferring and using their spelling knowledge in their written work. Ideas for challenging the competent speller are highlighted in this program as well. It is recommended that teachers take the more interesting vocabulary words from the student's own writing to study for spelling. The students then build their own list of synonyms and antonyms for this word to use for spelling study. Thematic words connected with social studies, science, and math can be used as "no excuses" words for advanced spellers. Word usage and writing activities are also part of classroom instruction, for example, the correct use of affect and effect or councilor and counselor. Word roots are used for careful study and exploration. Taking the word port which means carry and adding prefixes creates many new words: support, sup meaning under, export, ex meaning out, deport, de meaning away. The Rebecca Sitton Spelling Sourcebook used by teachers also contains extension activities for each group of core words in the program. The possibilities for expanding spelling study are endless. We are excited about this new program and already see the students taking more interest and responsibility for correct spelling. They even seem to enjoy studying a few spelling rules, suffixes, prefixes, and root words! We look forward to your input and will be sending home a spelling survey in the near future.
Jackie Kagey jkagey@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us
Last update: 03-29-00/mgl |
