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Word Study Explanation
This year our spelling tests will be done
somewhat differently. Every
Monday you will receive our weekly homework log with the week’s Word Study
words. There
will be a total of 12 Word Study words;
4 sight words along with 8 words that follow a special spelling pattern
(we call these words word
family words). Sight words
are commonly used
words that usually do not follow the basic rules of spelling.
Both types of words
will be used each week to complete homework assignments and will be practiced
at school during our Word Study block.
On Mondays, students will take a pretest
to assess their previous knowledge of the word family and sight words. If a
student makes a 100 on the pretest, he/she will study the same word family for
the week, but will be given a red list consisting of more difficult words to
work with for homework. He/she will also take a slightly more difficult test
on Friday.
On Fridays, we will have our Word
Study test. Our
test will include 8 word family words. Four of the words will come from the
word family words given for the week and four will be "
transfer words". Transfer
words are words that follow the same spelling pattern, but were not assigned
as homework for the week. This
type of test will ensure that students are not just “memorizing" words with
the spelling pattern, but truly understand and can apply the spelling pattern
in their writing.
For example: If
our weekly words were long a words such as bake, take, rake, lake, quake,
brake, stake, fake, cake, and make, our spelling test would include 4 of these
words plus 4 other words that followed this pattern such as snake, or wake.
By studying the spelling pattern
throughout the week students should now be able to apply that pattern to new
words in their writing.
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