Word Study/ Buddy Study

Principles of Word Study:

  • Present a minilesson on an aspect of phonics or spelling
  • Ask students to apply the minilesson by manipulating letters or words
  • Share and discuss words and how they work
  • Introduce a systematic way of studying spelling words
  1. Write the principle for your minilesson in one or two simple, very clear sentences.
  2. Write examples of words that will illustrate the principle you are teaching.(list)
  3. Invite students to come up with other examples. (Keep a chart up during the week to add other examples.)

Minilesson:

  1. Make the minilesson a brief, clear demonstration of the principle, pattern, or rule that students need to learn.
  2. The rule may be stated or inferred from examples.
  3. Encourage students to come up with their own examples as much as possible.

Lists:

  1. Students identify the “next” 5 high frequency words they need to learn from their lists and add them to their weekly spelling list sheets.
  2. One copy of the list stays at school; one copy goes home.
  3. When students no longer need to learn high frequency words, they study the 5 challenge words instead of 5 high frequency words.
  4. All students will have 10 words. Some lists have two forms of a word to show spelling changes. Those weeks, students will have more than 10 words.

Effective Practice Techniques: (Days 1-3)

  1. Form the words with magnetic letters.
  2. Students work from left to right to form them, and then check them against the words on their lists. Forming the words as a concrete visual helps students notice details and patterns.
  3. Use the “look, say, cover, write, check” procedure.
  4. They look at the details fo the word, say the word out loud, cover it up, visualize the word, write it, and then check the spelling from left to right. This routine fosters conscious attention to the parts of words that are unusual or tricky.
  5. Take a trial spelling test on the week’s words. They check this test themselves. As they check, they notice parts of words that are hard to remember.

Making Connections: (Day 4)

Students make connections between their words and other words. They connect words in many different ways. For example:

stationery

  1. Sounds like state, vacation, bakery.
  2. Starts like Stacey, stallion, statue.
  3. Has an ending sound like very, berry, merry, marry.
  4. Means the same as letter paper, note paper.
  5. Has an er like paper, mother, matter.
  6. It has an oral twin—stationary—that’s spelled differently and means something different, too.

The important aspect of making connections is the student’s ability to associate likenesses in words and to write the part of the word that has the same feature correctly.

Documenting Learning: Test (Day 5)

  1. Students and their spelling buddies will give each other the high frequency words.
  2. The teacher can give all students the principle words.
  3. The teacher can give the challenge words to all who are on that list.
  4. Application word: The teacher gives the application word to all the students. This is a word that follows the principle, but it is not one that students have studied specifically. Students should not be told what the application word is going to be prior to the test. We are teaching spelling principles for transfer—not asking students to only memorize words for a test.