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What spelling words should you teach?

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Learning how to to teach spelling can be complicated. Here’s how to begin!

So you want to know what spelling words to teach? Learn how to figure it out, no matter what grade you teach.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

In a previous post I wrote about how we need a better way to teach spelling.  Instead of teaching kids to memorize lists of words and try to remember rules that aren’t true half the time, we need a different approach.

It’s called Word Study.

You don’t need an expensive curriculum or costly workbooks.

To begin, you just need some basic knowledge about how children learn to spell.  In my second post in my Word Study series, I wrote about the five developmental stages of spelling.

What’s next?

Maybe teaching spelling is brand new to you.  But if not — can I ask how you’ve taught it in the past?  Did you map out your students’ lists for the year before school had even begun?  Did you copy worksheets, plan workbook pages, and write the name of each weekly test in your planner?

You’re organized — that’s great!

But I’d love to see you try something new.

If you have a classroom full of kids, that scheduled weekly list is only going to meet the needs of a handful of them.  You’ll likely have students who are spelling well below grade level and who struggle mightily each week only to perform poorly on the spelling test.  You’ll also have students who  never have to study a spelling list and ace each test without any effort.    And how do you know that your kids are going to be ready to move on to the next list according to your schedule?

If you’re homeschooling, how do you know that your word lists are just right for your child?  You could be needlessly frustrating him.  Or maybe you’re missing an opportunity to challenge him.

What spelling words should you teach?

How to find your students’ spelling level

You give a spelling inventory.

A what?

spelling inventory.  noun.  A list of words chosen to represent a variety of spelling words at increasing levels of difficulty.  When a child takes the inventory like a spelling test, his teacher can analyze the results to determine his spelling level.

How to administer a spelling inventory

  • Kids don’t get to see the words in advance or study for the test.
  • When giving the test, assure your students that this is not for a grade.  It’s just to help you see what they can do and where they need help.  Encourage them to spell the words as best they can.
  • Provide numbered paper.  Call each word and repeat it.  Use the words in sentences if necessary.
  • When a child has misspelled at least three or four words in a row, he may be starting to experience frustration. There’s no need to finish the test.  You’ll have enough information.

Where to find a spelling inventory

Download them here:

You’ve given a spelling inventory. Now what?

You use the feature guide from the above downloads and put checks to show which features your students got correct.  This looks scary. It’s really not.

I gave my Four the Primary Spelling Inventory (designed for kids from kindergarten to grade 3).  Here’s what his inventory looked like:

words on paper

Even though the inventory has 26 words, I knew my Four would only be able to get the first few right. So I made a sheet with ten lines and read him those words.  Then I copied the feature guide from the Words Their Way book.

graph

Here’s the feature guide that you’ll photocopy from the book.  And here’s how to use one:

  • Check off the features of each word that are spelled correctly.  
  • Put a check at the end of the row if the entire word is correct.
  • Add the numbered checks under each feature and the words spelled correctly — write at the bottom of the form.
  • Look at each feature column.  If your student made more at least two errors in a particular column, highlight it.  That’s where Word Study instruction will begin.

words on paper Here’s another sample.  This is for my daughter, who’s going into first grade.  Again I made the test page shorter than the 26 words, because I knew she’d start to get frustrated before completing the entire inventory.

graph

In this case you can see that she didn’t start making mistakes until the long vowel feature.  Even though she had some long vowel patterns correct (as in hope and wait), she had many incorrect.  This is a sign that a child is ready for instruction on a particular feature: using but confusing.  My Six knows that you have to do something different for long vowel words, but she isn’t always sure what.  

Do you want to see some more sample spelling inventories?  Check out Word Study: Where do I Start? from This Reading Mama.

What do you do after scoring the inventories?

If you’re a homeschooling parent, I have good news.  You’re ready to begin Word Study instruction! 

If you’re a classroom teacher, you have one more step.  Staple each student inventory to its feature guide.  Arrange your students’ feature guides in order from lowest to highest total points.  List students’ names in this order on the Classroom Composite Form (from the Words Their Way manual) and transfer feature scores to the form.  Highlight cells where students make two or more errors to get a sense of your students’ needs and to form groups for instruction.  Then decide how to group students based on where the highlighting begins in each row.

Why do we have to group for instruction? Why can’t the whole class learn the same thing?

Some people are against ability grouping because they believe there’s a stigma attached to it.  While there may be some truth to this, children appreciate being taught where they can succeed.  In my years of using Word Study in the classroom, I never noticed children being made to feel badly because of their Word Study instructional level.  Not once!

As for why kids can’t all learn the same thing, that’s pretty clear, right?  It’s because those feature guides will prove to you that your class is at all different levels, so you need to meet them where they’re at, not force them into a year of lessons that will frustrate or bore them.

Do your best to form no more than four groups. In doing this, some students may have to be challenged or held back just a little.  If you want to try 5 groups, go ahead. I’ve done it – but it was hard to manage.

Groups should be fluid.  If a student is frustrated or not challenged, groups should be reorganized.  Sometimes I found myself doing some reorganizing a few times at the beginning of the year.  Usually the groups stayed pretty consistent after that.

What if you have a child who is way behind everyone — or way ahead?  Consider teaching him or her alone.  A very low student may be able to catch up with a tutor’s help.  A very high student may be able to get help from an upper grader when playing games and doing partner work.

target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>An edition of this book is a must-have resource!

Read the rest of the series!

OUR VERY FAVORITE PRINTABLE SPELLING GAMES

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Reader Interactions

47 Comments

  3. Len

    I’m really looking forward to your next post, and have enjoyed the series. We just received the book a couple days ago (4th edition) and will be doing the spelling inventory this evening. I have a 1st and 4th grader. The 4th grader is dyslexic and has been struggling with the spelling program we have been using. If I had to blindly place my 4th grader I would say early/mid within words, he struggles with long vowel patterns. Can I give them both the Primary spelling inventory even though one is older?

    Reply to this comment

    • annageig

      Great question, Len, and absolutely – give him the inventory that matches where he’s at. When I was introduced to Words Their Way I was a part of graduate students tutoring struggling high schoolers. My student was 16 but at a 2nd grade reading and spelling level. I’m sure we gave him an earlier inventory than what you’d expect for his age. If you find that your fourth grader does very well, you can always give him the higher inventory another time.

      Reply to this comment

  9. Lisa

    That’s exactly how I teach my girls to spell. I hadn’t even thought of getting them to read or practice the words before testing them until a relative pointed it out. I felt a bit mean then … now you lovely post has made me feel so much better. I might add my girls prefer it this way too. When the relative I mention gave them the list to practice on before they sat the test (she came to help my husband for a few days whilst I attended a family future overseas), they told her that was cheating, the wee angels. She thought it highly amusing.

    Reply to this comment

    • annageig

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Lisa! Actually I DO have my kids practice their spelling words before testing. This is just the initial test to see what level they are at. However, some teachers of Word Study give words on the spelling test that their students have NOT practiced — as long as they fall within the pattern which the kids have worked with all week long. I’m curious as to how you do it — if the girls don’t see the words before the test, what do you do to teach the spelling concept?

      Reply to this comment

      • Lisa

        It would probably help if you knew that my girls are 9 and 11 and finished all their phonics lessons … lol So basically they should know all their patterns now. If they don’t get a word correct then we simply discuss the way it should have been written (unless it’s an exception then we discuss how it could have come to be spelled that way, ie the history of words) and it’s up to them if they wish to rewrite it a few times to get it in their heads. I file the word away and we retest it a few weeks later. When they were younger we never did formal tests, just worked through phonics and spelling books.
        For my eldest I have recently dropped spelling tests and am concentrating more on dictation in order to check both her grammar and spelling.

        Reply to this comment

  11. Heather

    Hi Anna,
    When I gave my 2nd grade daughter the assessment, she tested as a derivational relations speller. I bought the book and am ready to begin it with her, but I’m wondering, if I start her in this book is there anything she will have missed by not going through the previous books? Obviously she seems to be ready for it when you look at her assessment, but I just want to make sure I don’t miss teaching her anything. Do you have any thoughts on this?
    Thanks much,
    Heather

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hi Heather – I’m sorry it took me a while to get back to you on this one. If you go ahead with the derivational relations stage and find that your daughter is misspelling words in the earlier stages, you can always go back and do a review week for the pattern that she’s getting wrong. But if she’s (mostly) spelling those types of words consistently in her spelling, no need to spend time on something she’s mastered!

      Reply to this comment

  12. Amanda

    I’m a bit confused by the Words Their Way books – do you just need the one book? When I looked online there were Words Their Way books for all different kinds of spelling patterns as well?

    Thanks, Amanda

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hi Amanda! Sorry for the delay in answering your question. The main Words Their Way book does give you everything you need to know. I have not actually seen a supplementary book, but people who have used them say they save a lot of time when preparing sorts and activities. So after purchasing the main book, if your child is in the within word pattern stage, you might appreciate having that supplementary book to prepare activities. However, it is not absolutely necessary. I never used the supplementary books when I was teaching word study.

      Reply to this comment

  13. Tammy

    Hi somewhere I thought you mentioned that 4th edition of WTW was fine and you didn’t think the 5th edition was needed. I was wondering if the cd that comes with it is of help? And will it work for a mac OSX 10.5? Thank you your help is most appreciated.

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hi Tammy! So sorry for the delay in answering your questions about WTW. I have never used the CD-rom except looking at it once. I think it has templates for games so that you can print them and write on them. I think it had some printable picture sorts as well. So, yes, it’s useful as a timesaver, but not necessary. I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about Macs so I can’t tell you if it will work on one.

      Reply to this comment

  14. Phedeline

    Can you give the inventory to the students as a class? I’m thinking of chunking it so that I read the first ten words or so to the entire class, and have them write it down. Then I’d look to see how many each students got correct, for those who got all words correct or only about 1 or 2, I’d move on to the next couple of words. Do you think this would work?

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Yes, I always gave the inventory as a class. I would tell them before hand that I would be walking around the room and sometimes telling children they could turn the paper over and draw. So you don’t have to reveal who’s getting it right or wrong; you could just say that it’s a special kind of classwork where everyone finishes at a different time. When it was obvious that someone wasn’t going to be getting any more right, I would have him/her turn over the page.

      Reply to this comment

  15. Debra Anderson

    My 6th grader is not spelling correctly, I feel like the school does not care if he knows how to spell or not. I don’t have extra money to send him to a tutor and am very frustrated and don’t know where to turn too. I saw tonight that there might be a program I can use to get him tutoring without having to pay, through the no child left behind act. If that is so how can I get the information to use this program? My son is dyslexic but very good in math. He has an IEP and goes to a school that does not have a language or spelling program just math.
    From a Frustrated mom, FL

    Reply to this comment

  16. Cheryk

    I have a 9 year old who was taught to spell how the word sounds to her. Which book would you recommend for me to use with her. I looked on Amazon and there are so many of them.

    Reply to this comment

  17. Jessica

    My 9 year old daughter in 3rd grade is really struggling with spelling (way below grade level). Her school has never focused on spelling (no test or list ever given). I want to do something at home with her to help her along before she falls anymore behind. She is an above average reader but for some reason can not connect the words she can read to the words she can spell. What is your advice for strong reader/poor speller? Thanks son much!

    Reply to this comment

  18. Tafa

    Thanks for this post! I was so enthused I purchased the book, but now feel a bit overwhelmed – it’s mid-term and I just want to start and don’t really have the time to go through it in detail. And I can’t find that spelling inventory feature guide! Can’t you point to where it is in the book? I’ve got the 1996 edition, in case there are lots.
    Thanks again for all you do to help!

    Reply to this comment

    • Tafa

      I guess my edition is way out of date. I can’t find the word sort lists at the back either. Feeling deflated 🙁 Not your fault of course, just having a moan! And hoping people might learn from my errors.

      Reply to this comment

      • Anna Geiger

        This feels very surprising to me, Tafa! I have the second to newest edition, and all the ones I’ve used (back to early 2000s) have had the feature guide and spelling inventory. 1996 is 25 years old though … I would try to get a newer edition!

        Reply to this comment

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