9/22/2021
Word Study
Spelling is not taught the same way as when we were all growing up! I am not sure about you, but I was given a list of 10-15 words to memorize by the end of the week, then tested on them. Sometimes the words were connected to a story we were reading and other times, it just seemed like there was a list that existed….somewhere.
At STM, we believe in helping students to make sense of their world, including in spelling. This is the reason we have chosen to teach spelling developmentally, using Words Their Way as a basis for all instruction. This method breaks spelling into five stages, notated by typical grade level they may be presented in:
- Emergent (PK and K): Students sort by concept and learn to recognize letters.
- Letter Name (K-2): Students recognize beginning, middle, and medial vowel sounds as well as beginning and ending blends and digraphs.
- Within Word (1-3): Students learn about the difference between long and short vowel patterns, what happens when there are two vowels next to each other, and those funny sounds they make when you add an /r/ to vowels (or, er, ir, ar, ur).
- Syllable Juncture (3-5): Students focus on how to differentiate the endings of words (doubling, drop the -e), stressed vowel patterns, and unstressed vowel patterns.
- Derivational Constancy (5-7): Students learn silent and sounded consonants, consonant changes, vowel changes, assimilated prefixes, and Latin-derived suffixes.
Now that your child has been (re)introduced to how Word Study procedures will work in their grade level and the teachers have administered an assessment, you will see them form differentiated groups within the next few weeks. Your child will continue to learn at the pace that works for their brain--sometimes progressing quickly through parts of a stage and other times slowing that pace for extra review. All in all, once students have moved through these stages of spelling, they are master spellers!