Words Their Way

•Presented by: •Bethany Orr•Connia Sasso•Kelly Kotowski•Melonie Gregory

Introduction

Words Their Way is a differentiated spelling program that identifies, groups and then meets students at their developmentally appropriate spelling stage.

5 Spelling Stages

o Emergento Letter Name Alphabetico Word Within Word Patterno Syllables and Affixeso Derivational Relations* Each stage divided into early, middle & late

(Program has a collection of lists/word sorts for each stage)

Assessmentso In the main WTW booko Administered in Sept., Jan. and Mayo In 4th grade we begin with the

Elementary Spelling Inventory.o Assessment can be hand scored or

entered into computer.o If students correctly spell 20 or more

words Upper-Level Spelling Inventory can be administered.

Assessments (Cont.)

o Words on inventories contain features such as short/long vowels, digraphs, blends etc…

o Students are credited with spelling whole word correctly and also earn “feature points” if they misspell a word, but include a feature such as the correct short vowel sound or digraph. For example, in a word like “marched”

students get credit for including “ch”,“ar” and “ed” even if they don’t spell the rest of the word correctly.

Forming Spelling Groups

o If assessment is scored with CD, program will automatically identify spelling stage.

o Otherwise stage can be identified by looking at the last feature point that student missed on feature guide.

o Usually 4-5 spelling groups per class depending on grade level and abilities of students.

Scheduling & Organization

o Once groups have been formed and stages have been identified pacing guide at beginning of each book tells which sort to introduce first.

Scheduling & Organization

o Teacher needs to decide how to incorporate WTW into daily schedule.

o Some prefer to introduce/test on same day while others prefer staggered approach.

o Sort can be used for a week or two weeks depending on needs of students.

Small Group Lessons

o Teacher meets with groups of 4-5 students.o Introduce sort by placing boldface headers and

sample words.o Then divide up remaining words among students

for them to sort.o When they finish sorting review with them and

correct any misplaced words.o Check to make sure they know meaning of words.o Distribute paper copy of sort for them to work with

at home/school.

Classwork

o Incorporated into ELA in Daily 5 Menuo Bingo Notebooko Word Study Packet

Homework

o Spelling City https://www.spellingcity.com/ o WTW Notebook with different activity for

each night.o Regardless of how homework is done,

words should be sorted each night in order to fully understand and then apply spelling pattern.

o Alternate ways to sort words- speed sort, blind sort or other sort that is different from one done with teacher.

Pros

o WTW is definitely a differentiated program.o Helpful as intervention, especially for

students with phonics gaps identified on CORE Assessment.

Things to Consider

o Initial set up is time consuming .o How are you going to fit WTW into your day? (It takes about a ½ hour between tests and word sort introductions.)o Will you spend 1 or 2 weeks on a sort?o If children do not pass tests will you carry on or

repeat word sort? o Will you administer tests or use Spelling City?

Things to Consider (cont.)

o If you do not have a phonics background it is a good idea to preview sort before introducing it to each group.

o Requires several copies, especially when you first set up sorts for small group instruction.

Closing ThoughtsThis is the first year using WTW for most of our team.We are still learning about program and what we do is a compilation of what other colleagues have used.Would have been beneficial to have brief explanation of program to see how it looks in classroom.There are many resources online for WTW management and activities.

Thank you for attending our session!

Information available on Innovation Showcase WikiFeel free to contact us at Lake Norman Elementary if you have further questions or would like copies of resources.