Word Study

  • Words Their Way

    This year your child will be using Words Their Way program in their ELA classroom. 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, teachers will teach students how to examine words to learn the regularities and irregularities (words that don’t fit a pattern) that exist in the spelling system. The simple process of sorting words into categories is the heart of the word study program. When students sort words, they are engaged in the active process of searching, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing to determine patterns in words. 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.

    Before engaging in word study students will take a spelling inventory to determine their skill level. The purpose of this assessment is to understand how children comprehend sounds in relations to spelling patterns and how they create a word using those sounds. Using this assessment, teachers will develop a better understanding of where their students are developmentally and create lessons around their strengths and weaknesses in spelling to help them grow academically. In order to administer the test and use the data to create quality instruction, spelling grades will not be entered into the grade book for 3 weeks. We appreciate your understanding in this matter. If you have any additional questions please contact your child’s teacher.

    Thank you for your partnership in helping our students learn and grow.