Individualized Spelling
Giving students ownership in the spelling process and meeting them where they are at.
Introduction:
My biggest passion as a teacher is trying to find ways where I can meet my struggling students where they are at and give them confidence, but also challenge my high achieving students to reach beyond their highest potential. I wanted to focus on writing and started by individualizing my spelling program so all my students can succeed and be challenged enough to grow conventionally.
I have a very diverse group of spellers so my study was focused on the needs and abilities of all my students. Our reading curriculum is correlated with our resource classroom so I wanted to match the spelling focus each week to the Treasures reading curriculum spelling focus.
Inquiry Question:
How can I meet the individual spelling needs of my students?
Step one:
· Find approx. 5 word wall words that follow a certain phonetic skill / expectancy for a pretest.
· The students will take the pretest on Mondays in the pretest column in their spelling folder. If they get a word wrong, that incorrect word gets moved onto their spelling list to be studied that week.
Step two:
· Next give each student a spelling word sheet. (This sheet is arranged so there are three columns with words that follow that week’s spelling pattern: Approaching/3-4 letter words, On/5-6 letter words and Beyond/7+ letter words.)
· The students will get to choose what words they want to add to their spelling list by picking from the appropriate column.
· Depending on how the students spelling scores are, the students will get to occasionally choose 1 or more words from a higher list.
Step three:
· The students will write their words in the middle and last column of their spelling folders. They will then cut out the last column and bring it up to be checked.
· Once checked, the teacher staples the list to a spelling contract. (The spelling contract has the students write the words into 5 sentences. The parents need to sign the sheet every time their child studies.)
Spelling connected to writing!
I feel it is important for students to incorporate this spelling achievement into their writing. When I meet with students during my writing conferences, common words that they have misspelled in their writing get put on their spelling list for the next week. This will help students use their words that they have learned throughout the year and it will also motivate them to not just memorize their spelling words, but it will encourage them to use their words in a meaningful way.
Step four:
· Fridays are test days. The students are paired up with a spelling partner that is close to their own level.
· Have the partners sit across from each other. One at a time the students read the words from their partners spelling list in sentences by holding up their partner’s folder so that the words cannot be seen. Their partner then writes down the words on the spelling test sheet. Once all words have been read the students switch roles.
· When both students are done with their tests, they will turn them in and the teacher will correct them.
· If a student gets a word incorrect on their spelling list, then the incorrect word gets written in the student’s spelling list for next week.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I found that my students were extremely excited for spelling. They loved showing each other the words that they picked. They were also extremely motivated to do good on their spelling test so that they could add another beyond or on word to their list for the next week. Because of this excitement and motivation, my students’ spelling achievement soared. My students who need more spelling practice and confidence and who normally would not be able get high spelling test scores were so motivated to get more on column words that they studied extremely hard and were picking and getting words correct that would normally be above their spelling level.
