Procedures for Individual Word Study

1.         Every week, prior to class on Tuesday morning, copy five words from your Personal Spelling List into the first column of a weekly word study sheet.

2.         Copy exactly as the words appear on your Personal Spelling List so you donÕt learn misspellings.

3.         Please print, rather than using cursive, so the individual letters are separate and distinct. 

4.         Show the word study sheet to me or another adult on Tuesday morning.

5.         Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday for homework, study your five words by following each and every step of the procedures described below, in preparation for a partner test on Friday.  Each week it should take, you about twenty minutes to complete the following steps with your five words.

6.         On Thursday Night, Chant your five spelling words three times.

Procedures for Tuesday and Wednesday

1.   Read the first word:  look at it and say it.

2.   Spell the word to yourself:  touch each letter with your pencil and say the letter softly aloud to yourself.  Identify the tricky part(s) of the word.

3.   Close your eyes.  See the word in your mind.  Say each of the individual letters softly aloud to yourself.

4.   Now, put your muscle memory to work.  Carefully and slowly print the word in the next three columns, and say each of the individual letters to yourself as you write it.  When you come to the tricky part of the word, say those letters louder and write them darker.

5.   Take a break of four or five minutes to give your long-term memory time to process the look of the word, its letters, and their order.  Leave behind your spelling and do something else for those minutes:  read, do other homework, get a snack, watch TV, listen to the radio.

6.   Then come back, cover the correct spelling with your hand, and print the word in the ÒSpellÓ column.

7.   Proofread:  check the word you just wrote letter for letter against the original, back and forth, using the tip of your pencil.

8.   If you spelled the word correctly, put a star in the final column and go on to the next word on the word study sheet.  If you misspelled it, repeat the process above, steps 1-6, this time printing the word in the ÒSpell AgainÓ column.

9.   Repeat the procedure with each remaining word.  Again, the study process for five words should take about twenty minutes.

 

 

 

Procedures For Partner Tests

Remember To Switch Places.

 

Tester:  Say the word, use it in a sentence, and say it again.

 

Speller:  Print the word.

 

Do the whole list.

 

Tester:  Spell each word out loud slowly, so the speller may proofread.

 

Speller:  Proofread by touching each letter of each word with  your green pen. 

      ¥Circle any errors:  just the part you missed. 

      ¥Then, on your Personal  Spelling List, circle any words you missed:  youÕll need to study it again next week. 

      ¥With a star or checkmark, highlight the words on your Personal Spelling list that you spelled correctly on the test.

      ¥Words spelled correctly should be added to your Spelling Journal. (This is the book I will use to evaluate your spelling progress.)

      ¥PLEASE TURN IN PARTNER TESTS  into the Spelling Bin.