Words Their Way

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Home : 2005 : March : 21

Words Their Way
By kp

I have been using Words Their Way for my spelling program for 2-3 years now. I love it. I do the spelling inventory at the beginning of the year to decide where to start them. This year I only have 2 spelling lists (in
years previous I have had 3 lists). On Monday, I have my class write their spelling words on index cards (they have anywhere from 12-15 words). After they do that, they sort their words (if they are really low, their words will usually be sorted by beginning or ending sounds). Mine are now only sorting by vowel sounds in the middle. For example: if they have the words feet, feel, meat,

seal, pet, mend - they would be sorted by long e - ea, and long e - ee, then short e - they could sort them by putting ea and ee together because they both have long e, that's ok too, but you would encourage them to sort it even further. This takes a long time (on Monday) because I go around to each child and have them explain how they sorted their words and why, and I also make sure they know what each word is. Each day I have them do something different with their cards (either for homework or at school). I like this much better than writing their words 3 times, etc. I may have them do the typical homework for spelling this last nine weeks of school because this is what they do in 3rd grade, just to prepare them, but I highly recommend this program.