http://educationextras.com/LetterNameAlphabeticSorts.html- Find your sort to practice online
What is Words Their Way?
Words Their Way is phonics, spelling, and vocabulary instruction through daily word study. This program will provide skill instruction that will cover spelling patterns and focus on examining and manipulating words, not memorizing them. Students will be thinking more critically about words and work on transferring their skills to reading and writing. Words Their Way will focus on teaching students how to spell, decode new words, and to improve word recognition speed in general. To accomplish this goal, I will teach the students how to examine words to learn the regularities that exist in the spelling system. I will also teach them some irregularities of spelling (we call “oddball words”). The simple process of sorting words into categories is the heart of our word study program. When students sort words, they are engaged in the active process of searching, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Word sorts help students organize what they know about words and to form generalizations that they can then apply to new words they encounter in their reading.
The best part of a word study is that your child can sort words anywhere! Yes, anywhere! And I‘d like for him/her to start sorting their weekly spelling words at home. It’s easy and it’s fun! It’s a hands-on way to get kids to learn more about our spelling system!
Testing
Students will be given a list of 20 spelling words for the week. They will have a copy of these words to take home each Thursday. Their final test will not be all 20 words. I will choose 10 words (they will not know which ten until the test) that reflect each of the spelling patterns learned that they will be tested on that week. They must study all 20 words but only 10 will be on the post/final test. Students will earn points by spelling the words correctly and by putting the words in the correct sort. Our test each week will be on Wednesday.
Grouping
Every nine weeks, students will be given a spelling inventory. This is to see what students are and are not understanding while spelling words. This will help me group students into spelling groups. These groups will accommodate students, as they will be working on spelling patterns they individually may have trouble with. This will also challenge students who are understanding the different spelling patterns. The main benefit of Words Their Way is that it differentiates instruction; allowing each child to work at his or her instructional level.
Words Their Way Language
Sorting – organizing words into groups based on similarities in their patterns or meaning.
Oddballs – words that cannot be grouped into any of the identified categories of a sort.
Students should be taught that there are always words that “break the rules” and do not
follow the general pattern.
Sound marks / / - Sound marks around a letter or pattern tell the student to focus only
on the sound rather than the actual letters. (example: the word gem could be grouped into
the /j/ category because it sounds like j at the beginning).
Vowel (represented by V) – one of 6 letters causing the mouth to open when vocalized (a,
e, i, o, u, and usually y). A single vowel sound is heard in every syllable of a word.
Consonants (represented by C) – all letters other than the vowels. Consonant sounds are
blocked by the lips, tongue, or teeth during articulation.
What is Words Their Way?
Words Their Way is phonics, spelling, and vocabulary instruction through daily word study. This program will provide skill instruction that will cover spelling patterns and focus on examining and manipulating words, not memorizing them. Students will be thinking more critically about words and work on transferring their skills to reading and writing. Words Their Way will focus on teaching students how to spell, decode new words, and to improve word recognition speed in general. To accomplish this goal, I will teach the students how to examine words to learn the regularities that exist in the spelling system. I will also teach them some irregularities of spelling (we call “oddball words”). The simple process of sorting words into categories is the heart of our word study program. When students sort words, they are engaged in the active process of searching, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Word sorts help students organize what they know about words and to form generalizations that they can then apply to new words they encounter in their reading.
The best part of a word study is that your child can sort words anywhere! Yes, anywhere! And I‘d like for him/her to start sorting their weekly spelling words at home. It’s easy and it’s fun! It’s a hands-on way to get kids to learn more about our spelling system!
Testing
Students will be given a list of 20 spelling words for the week. They will have a copy of these words to take home each Thursday. Their final test will not be all 20 words. I will choose 10 words (they will not know which ten until the test) that reflect each of the spelling patterns learned that they will be tested on that week. They must study all 20 words but only 10 will be on the post/final test. Students will earn points by spelling the words correctly and by putting the words in the correct sort. Our test each week will be on Wednesday.
Grouping
Every nine weeks, students will be given a spelling inventory. This is to see what students are and are not understanding while spelling words. This will help me group students into spelling groups. These groups will accommodate students, as they will be working on spelling patterns they individually may have trouble with. This will also challenge students who are understanding the different spelling patterns. The main benefit of Words Their Way is that it differentiates instruction; allowing each child to work at his or her instructional level.
Words Their Way Language
Sorting – organizing words into groups based on similarities in their patterns or meaning.
Oddballs – words that cannot be grouped into any of the identified categories of a sort.
Students should be taught that there are always words that “break the rules” and do not
follow the general pattern.
Sound marks / / - Sound marks around a letter or pattern tell the student to focus only
on the sound rather than the actual letters. (example: the word gem could be grouped into
the /j/ category because it sounds like j at the beginning).
Vowel (represented by V) – one of 6 letters causing the mouth to open when vocalized (a,
e, i, o, u, and usually y). A single vowel sound is heard in every syllable of a word.
Consonants (represented by C) – all letters other than the vowels. Consonant sounds are
blocked by the lips, tongue, or teeth during articulation.