Spelling and Vocabulary Program

Assessment and evaluation:

• Conferences with peers and teacher
• Work with peers, peer editing, etc.
• Spelling inventory
• Writing all day long

-Students will be assessed in their writing by writing to prompts and their effort for writer’s workshop pieces.

Writing for authentic purposes and audiences:

• Prompted writing
• Writer’s workshop

-Students will create a piece of writing (of their choice for older kids, younger kids will receive a prompt or a story to go off of).  They will then go through the steps of writing: brainstorming, draft one, revising/editing, peer editing, draft two, and finally publish their pieces for a class book.  They will share this during parent’s night or the end of the year party.

• Author’s chair

Developing a spelling consciousness:

• Writing all day long- by writing all the time with different prompts, they will develop a consciousness for more words
• Self/student made dictionaries- students will have the opportunity to go back to their personal dictionaries to look up words they struggle with.
• Stamping words, such as site words, pattern words: endings and rhyming words
• Guided reading
• “Help me” booklets

Learning and applying spelling strategies:

• Writing to different prompts throughout the day- this will help students to expand their vocabulary
• Small reading groups: focus on rhyming/pattern words, vowel sounds, combination words, silent letter words, and consonant sounds
• Stamping words like site words, pattern words: endings and rhyming words
• Guided reading groups- develop a dictionary together for the certain book they are reading
• “Help me” booklets

Word study and investigation:

• Self/student made dictionaries- students will have the opportunity to go back and look up any words they consistently struggle with or forget how to spell.
• Stamping words like site words, pattern words: ending and rhyming words- stamping out words give students a fun way to make words, see words on paper, and sound them out.
• Guided reading- students will pick out words they do not know, look them up in a dictionary, and discuss them with their guided reading group.

Effective communication with parents:

• Monthly newsletter to the parents (upper grades create their own, younger grades- the teacher creates it)
• Author’s chair and centers- invite the parents to be involved in these
• Work on pattern book with students

The spelling and vocabulary program will always be integrated with reading, writing, and inquiry-based teaching/learning approaches.  In addition, the low achieving students will work with the teacher on rhymes and continue making their pattern book together.  The student’s parents could/will also work with their child on their pattern books.