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Spelling & Vocabulary

Spelling and vocabulary instruction are two areas that I've tinkered with over the last few years, and I keep trying new strategies. These areas are a challenge because I don't believe in having kids memorize a random list of words based on a certain spelling rule. I believe in basing my program on words that kids are currently using or might be able to use in written or oral communication. Right now I'm not using a commercial spelling program because none of them seem to offer enough flexibility for me. However, that can always change!

Makes practicing for spelling tests fun

SpellingCity.com

I found a wonderful website that allows me to differentiate my instruction and makes spelling practice easy and fun. If you set up a free account at SpellingCity.com, you can enter your own list of spelling words each week. You can even enter different spelling lists for different students, or have them enter their own words. They can study at home or at school, and the computer will read the words aloud to them for so they can take a test online! It will even print out a test and show which words they missed! To see my current spelling lists, visit the site and click on Find a List. Then enter Laura Candler in the search box. Have fun with this site!

My Spelling/Vocabulary Program

I assign 15 spelling words each week and 5 vocabulary words. I find their weekly words in:

The words are assigned on Friday and students are required to write spelling sentences or stories using at least 10 of the words. On Monday, students frequently take a pretest on the computer using SpellingCity.com. They also complete some type of foldable or graphic organizer with the vocabulary words to help them learn the meanings of those words. Students don't have to spelling the vocabulary words on the test - they just have to recognize the meanings of the words. The test is on Thursday which allows me to grade it and return it in their Friday progress reports.

Differentiating Spelling & Vocabulary Instruction

I never use the same list with the entire class. I have at lease two lists at any one time - the Basic list and the Advanced list. Students (with parental guidance) are allowed to choose which list they would like to use. The Basic list has easier words that are often variations of one word or that focus on a spelling skill like learning to add suffixes. I also allow some students to create their own spelling list over the weekend and bring it to me on Monday. Their parents have to sign it and I have to approve it before they can use it. They are also responsible for typing the words into SpellingCity.com on Monday.

Sometimes people want to know how I handle giving several different spelling tests each week. Here are some ways to administer multiple spelling tests:

Spelling and Vocabulary Printables

These files are mostly PDF documents, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to open them. If you are having problems, check out the Adobe help page.


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