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Spelling Lessons
How to teach spelling with spelling exercise that are successful.
Spelling lessons that really improve how kids write. This is how to teach spelling explicitly for excellent results.
It is better to think of teaching spelling as "Working with Words."
Most children do not learn how to spell simply from reading and doing spelling worksheets.
It is critical that each child be targeted at their developmental level in order to improve spelling.
There needs to be explicit instruction in how patterns are used within words, as well as how we build bigger words using affixes.
If you really want to know how to improve spelling, you first must look at how to teach spelling.
How To Teach Spelling
These are free spelling lessons that can be used at any grade level and differentiated. Teaching spelling this way will improve spelling, of both No Excuse Words (Dolch or Fry) and hard to spell words.
Monday
This day is intensive. Plan to spend at least 30 minutes. The initial introduction to words is critical for allowing students' brains to make connections and set the tone for meaningful practice throughout the week.
Introduce the spelling lessons word lists in small groups while the rest of the class is working on the The Daily Five.
Lists are introduced as a guided sort. Show the categories and discuss them. Tap out the sounds on fingers, and students write their spelling of it in their Word Work Journals.
Emphasizing tricky blends, digraphs and vowel combinations. Scoop the word by sounds, morphemes and syllables, then blend them into the whole word. The word is then noted under the correct pattern.
Students write the correct spelling in their Word Work Journals, noting their errors and making immediate corrections.
Lists are handed out to take home for studying. A great option for how to improve spelling with writing is if you send home a writing paper with a picture at the top with the lists. Students can write a story about the picture using their words.
Tuesday
Students work on their lists and the week's sight words during The Daily Five. Daily Five Work Work includes a variety of kinesthetic modalities, such as stamps, color writing, Wikki Stix, whiteboards, sentences and oral practice with a buddy.
Whole class phonics work on identifying patterns, blends, digraphs and vowel teams.
Sorting words by patterns reinforces having to apply the pattern to known words and hard spelling words they have not seen yet.
Students continue to work on their spelling lessons activities during the Daily Five.
Thursday
Students who are proficient with their words are extended into building words with suffixes and prefixes.
Students who require more guidance from me will work with Elkonin Boxes. These are sound counters. The students place a counter or a colored stamp in each box for every sound they hear in the word. For example, the word chest has 4 sounds: ch-e-s-t.
Continue to work on their words during the The Daily Five.
Friday
Test Day: Spelling grades should be taken from authentic pieces of writing. However...
Parents like a spelling test. By that I mean that it is one area they feel comfortable helping their child to study for, it gives them weekly tangible evidence of their child's progress with difficult spelling words, and it really doesn't take much of my time. So I do it. But I tweak it...
The test is 10 words, plus 2 sentences. These sentences are as full of No Excuse Words as I can make them and still make sense. Sentences are graded using C.O.P.S.
I had a special stamp made that uses C.O.P.S for a grade: each element counts as 4,3,2 or 1 point (or Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, Unsatisfactory). This makes grading COPS a snap and gives important feedback to students and parents.
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