When teaching spelling, one of the most tried-and-tested methods involves providing children with a list of words to learn at the beginning of the week, with a test taking place on Friday.
Classroom
Word Study (Classroom, Patterns, Instruction)
When teaching spelling, one of the most tried-and-tested methods involves providing children with a list of words to learn at the beginning of the week, with a test taking place on Friday.
While spelling tests have long been part of school life, it’s fair to say that this method is somewhat boring and lacks the energy and excitement that modern teaching should frequently contain. Thankfully, there’s an alternative to the traditional spelling test: word study (classroom, patterns, instruction). This method does not rely on memorizing specific words every week and is a cohesive approach involving word recognition, phonics, and vocabulary.
Education resources
How to teach spelling with word study
Word study is an innovative approach to spelling that considers research into spelling patterns, alphabetic patterns, and English orthography. With word study activities, teachers will use various hands-on techniques to allow students to explore different layers of information. For example, when looking at the alphabetic layer, students will learn about the relationship between sounds and letters. They will explore how to match single letters and letter pairs (for example, the pairing of ‘c’ and ‘h’ to make a ‘ch’) to specific sounds. Doing so helps them to understand words.
When studying the pattern layer, students will look beyond single/paired letter/sound combinations to search for larger patterns that guide letter groupings. Finally, the meaning layer helps students recognize ways the English spelling system reflects semantic relationships across related words. For example, students will eventually understand that composition is spelled beginning with ‘compos’, as it relates to a word they have previously learned to spell – ‘compose.’ By examining these layers, students become more adept at spotting the patterns, derivations, and regularities in English words – essentially, how words work in the English writing system. According to a 1998 study undertaken by Bear & Templeton, word study also helps to support spelling attempts during writing activities. In addition, it can also help children decode unfamiliar words and recognize word patterns as they read.
The primary purpose of word study is to encourage the development among students of a working knowledge of orthography. This knowledge can be applied as students read and write. This article will look at techniques to include in your word study lesson plans.
1. Use multiple assessment tools to assess your students’ word knowledge
Before developing a comprehensive word study program, you’ll need to find out what your students already know about the alphabet, word patterns, and layers of orthography. For example, teaching students about the r-controlled vowel pattern would make no sense if they have yet to grasp the alphabetic principle. Assessment will help to further guide your instruction on how to use word study. Two assessments, in particular, are useful in this context: informal spelling tests/inventories and analysis of your students’ independent writing.
These assessments will help you to understand what your students know about orthography and can help you to group children, based on current ability, for smaller-group instruction such as:
- Alphabetic learners: students who still need to grasp the alphabetic layer.
- Word pattern learners: students ready to explore the pattern layer.
- Orthography layer: as the academic year progresses, you may be able to teach some kindergarten students about orthography.
2. Use a small-group, homogenous approach
While teaching an entire kindergarten class is less time-intensive than teaching smaller groups, it’s a fact that large-group teaching doesn’t meet the instructional needs of kindergarteners when it comes to word study. Instead, teachers should focus on small-group instruction.
Two approaches work well for word study: guided reading groups and separate word study tiers based on the current developmental levels of your students. Word study is easily and transparently amalgamated into guided reading, although it’s worth considering that while this method works with younger children, by grade 2, it becomes more difficult to implement. This is because 2nd-grade books tend to avoid using words that reflect the orthographic features targeted in word study.
3. Make time for word study
When you combine word study and combined reading, you will need to ensure there is enough time to prepare word study lessons and activities. Let’s say, for example, that you have three learning groups in one class. You’ll need to craft three separate word study lessons, which could mean preparing up to nine different word work activities. It’s important to understand that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are already lots of instructional materials available online which are invaluable in supporting these processes.
As a teacher, you may also need to study the concepts you will teach. For a word study program to work, teachers must invest time to prepare.
4. Teach more than words: teach knowledge!
In a typical spelling program, students will learn to spell appropriate words for their grade level. However, a word study program also teaches them about words and language in general. Word study instruction is unique in that it focuses students’ attention on the consistencies within the English spelling system. This knowledge can be applied to various reading/writing activities.
For example, consider sight words. These are the words that students will encounter frequently when reading and during their creative writing (examples include ‘because’, ‘again’, ‘said’, ‘are’, and ‘were’). Some of these words don’t follow the generalizations and spelling patterns typically explored by students, so your word study program may need to highlight this. A good way to do so is to display these high-frequency words on a “word wall” to help students to learn them almost subconsciously.
5. Show your students how word study can be used when reading/writing
Word study has the potential to support reading/writing development, provided students understand the relationships between literary processes. However, not all students are adept at making these links – in other words, and some struggle to recognize how word study relates to writing.
During word study, it can be beneficial to use interactive writing tasks, such as “sharing the pen,” to solve the spelling of words. For example:
- Ask a student to write “thank you” on the board.
- If they are unsure, remind them (and the rest of the class) that sometimes sounds are represented by more than one letter.
- Go on to reiterate that “thank” is one of these words.
- Ask your students which two letters could make up the /th/ sound at the beginning of the word.
- From here, your students will figure out how to spell the first phoneme in the word “thank”.
Above all, it is important to encourage extended reading and writing activities where students can read about or compose texts on topics of their choice. For example, if a local sports team wins a game at the weekend, it might be a good idea to ask the class to write about the game in their journals. This sort of activity can throw up all sorts of interesting curveballs – for example, students may struggle to spell the name of a sportsperson. You can encourage them to look in a newspaper or on a sports news website to find the answer.
This, and other word study activities, will ultimately help students to develop meaningful and sustained reading/writing experiences that develop their literacy and English language knowledge.
