Words Their Way: First-Grade - Day 1 of a Sort

I would love to be your frend becuz you are very helpful and adoorable. Looks familiar? Yes, it does. Spelling errors. Sometimes, we as teachers spend little time in teaching spelling  through their rules and generalizations. Spelling is key to reading and understanding a text.

I appreciated this lesson because a saw spelling in a completely different light. This lesson has helped to analyse spelling of words on a need to read and understand basis, especially in sentences and paragraphs. I will share with you all that I have learnt:

• The ability to spell is critical to becoming an effective writer.

• A writer must be able to get a message across to readers, by encoding ideas/spelling correctly.

• Comprehension of text is usually affected, when a writer cannot spell words correctly.

• Teachers must not let students become dependent on them to spell words every time. Teachers must equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to spell well. They will then become proficient spellers eventually.

• Students tend to invent their spelling. Do not discourage them from doing this, especially in the early grades. They use their schema to help them.

• Spelling of words need to be addressed according to students' needs. 

In this video, you will see a class of Grade 1 students who are engaged in a group activity using a word sort. The teacher uses guided practice to help students identify words with vowel digraphs. I searched for videos which demonstrated spelling activities. It was a good lesson. 

In my observation, there are many lessons/topics which can be made from this actual activity:

1. Teacher can create a spelling word list on each set of words for the week. Each sets of words should be spelt at the end of each week.

2. Sentence structure from the book should be taught. Students can identify how sentences are formed as they read the story.

3. Students can create their own sentences using the words from the word sort.

As students become more familiar with words, in many ways than one, they are more than likely to spell the words correctly. I liked the fact that the teacher used another student's word list to help the other student identify his error of omission. Teacher and student, as well as student and student collaboration took place.

I also noted that in the writing classroom, spelling is a very essential part of writing. Teachers must always develop activities to help students become better spellers to be confident about their writing. A good speller becomes a good writer and a good writer is a good reader. 

As teachers, we need to think deeply about the spelling instruction we provide to students (do so by answering these questions on your own):

1. Are we teaching spelling via spelling lists only?

2. Do we teach spelling for transfer? Do we teach spelling in a way that allows students to transfer skills from one content area to another?

3. What kinds of strategies do we use to teach spelling?

4. Will one strategy work for all words? Do all words fall under the same pattern?

5. Do we analyse common spelling errors that students make and address these errors as well? eg. omission of silent letter nit as opposed to night.

If you answer in the negative to some or most of these, then you as a teacher, or even a parent need to work assiduously to help the child learn to become a proficient speller.

I also learnt about the 5 stages of spelling development. These are pre-communicative, semi-phonetic, phonetic, transitional and the correct stage. 

In this class, it was clearly understood that students spell and write words phonetically, rather than conventionally.

In essence, the teaching of spelling was like an eye opener for me. I was used to the traditional way of giving a list for the week and calling out these words at the end of the week. It is our job as teachers to continuously research about the different areas in writing. We need to expose ourselves to different strategies and methods of having students to become better writers.

By the end of the lesson for the week, the student should have written this:

I would love to be your friend because you are very helpful and adorable.