Friday, June 8, 2012

Creating a Spelling Program


We're making a new spelling program! With the Common Core coming into effect, our team realized that we have to do more with spelling and vocabulary.  Even our strong readers and spellers need to extend their academic vocabulary knowledge. (I could go into detail about why we feel that we need to abandon our current program, but the less said, the better!)

So where to begin? We looked at some of the commercial programs, but none of them had what we wanted. I developed the half-crazy idea to make our own. It's not so crazy, I guess--I've made a spelling program before. This time, though, I wanted to make something that had a firm foundation.

Scope and sequence
Our first step was to figure out what we wanted to teach over the course of the year. We used multiple sources to build this. Our first stop was the Fountas and Pinnell Continuum of Literacy Learning. We looked at what was listed for our grade level and matched it to what we were currently teaching. Then,  we put these skills up against the Common Core. We thought about how many lists each topic requires, and how many lists we can comfortably teach in one school year. We put it all together on Excel and created a rough outline. The Excel filter feature allowed us to rearrange topics until we had an order that we all could agree to.

Master list of words
This has been my winter/spring/early summer project. My husband estimates that it has taken 100 hours. (I just know it has been at least 5 seasons of Dr. Who.)

I wanted to create a searchable, useful list of words. First, I entered words into an Excel spreadsheet from several different sources:

-The Academic Word List by Averil Coxhead

-Words 200-500 from the Fry List (K-2 uses the first 200 words)

-The Nifty Thrifty Fifty by Patricia Cunningham

-Words from the Common Core, especially words like analyze and explain that would be likely to turn up in question stems

-Character Traits words (from a list included in this article by Patrick Manyak)

Once they were all entered, I created multiple columns to use to filter them. This was the time consuming part! As you can see from the screenshot, there are several ways to generate lists. You can sort the words by syllable or by root. If you are looking for compound words, you can filter a list of compound words only. You can also filter by phonogram, multiple meaning words, or digraphs.

I have spent many, many hours looking up word roots and considering phonograms! To save space on the spreadsheet, I combined some categories, such as myth link/diphthong.

Did the list work? I felt like Dr. Frankenstein on Thursday when we sat down to try to generate some lists. I was thrilled when we were able to make it work! We now have the words for about 15 of our spelling lists chosen. Of course, fourth grade will not do all 1800 words on the master list. But other grade levels will be able to use the same master list to help them select the words that fit the concepts they have chosen to teach.

We are using a tiered list system, just like the Differentiated Spelling Program that I already made. The tiered lists are a great way to meet the needs of different kids while still having coherent instruction. For example, when we do Greek and Latin roots, everyone will study Greek and Latin roots. The struggling spellers will focus on words with simple spelling patterns, like graph and erupt, while the stronger spellers will have more challenging words. Each week, students will take a pretest to determine which tier they will be studying.

But the best part about it is that the words will all be important, useful words that are likely to come up in their reading. When we teach silent letter combinations, for examples, we'll include insight from the Academic Word List, as well as thought and though from the Fry List.

I'm still working some bugs out of the Master Word List and double-checking for internal consistency (quite a task with 1,806 words). If you'd like a copy, write me an email at elkissn@yahoo.com. Let me know what you plan to do with it (non-commercial and non-profit uses only, please!). And maybe you could leave a comment or follow the blog?

19 comments:

  1. I used your old spelling program this past year and found great success with it! Thank you so much for being willing to share all of your hard work with the rest of us - you are amazing! I am very excited to check out your new program!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am so glad that you have found success with the original spelling program! I loved using it when I taught sixth grade and was sad to give it up. :)

      Delete
  2. I would love a copy - will send you an email. I was just talking yesterday about our word study and how I want to tweak it for next year since we'll be going to the Common Core as well.
    Love your blog and everything I've used from your (from TpT and here!) Thank you so much - especially for a first year teacher (me!) finding your blog has been incredibly useful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for your comment! Let me know if the word list is helpful to you.

      Delete
  3. Oh, my goodness! I am moving from a pull-out program to a fourth grade ELA class next year. I was googling for differentiated spelling ideas and came across your blog. I am now a follower. I'd love to have a copy of your file and now I'm off to explore the rest of your blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you stopped by! Fourth grade is such a great grade to teach. Email me to let me know if there are any other specifics you'd like. :)

      Delete
  4. This is wonderful! I teach fourth grade and have really been looking for a great spelling program to help my students. This year I implemented Words Their Way, but would like to definitely take it a step further. I'd love to have a copy of your file. Thank you so much for the great ideas!

    Mindy
    mwells@ourwayschool.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Emily,
    I'd love to see what you developed to compare with what a few colleagues and I did this year. We had good success, but I'm always looking to see if we can improve. I'd also like to share this with a 4th grade colleague who's interested in upgrading her word study in her classroom.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh this is just what I have been searching for! I am sending you an email right now and am a new follower.

    Misty
    Think, Wonder, & Teach

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been looking for something to improve my spelling program this year. You sure have put in a lot of work into this! I would love to see what you have done with this program. I will email you too. Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would absolutely love to try your spelling program with my fourth graders. We are currently using SRA spelling which was meant to be for small group instruction, but has turned into a school wide spelling program. It most definitely doesn't address many of the things you mentioned, greek and latin roots, or academic words. I'm very interested in this. I will email you! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am so glad I came across your site! Thanks for sharing your creative and student centered work. Incredible!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a Godsend! This looks like just what I've been looking for... Thanks for your time and dedication to kids! I will email you right now.

    -Andre C.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am teaching a new grade level this year and they do not have a consistent spelling program. This will be great to use. Thanks for sharing your hours of hard work!
    Alicia G.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the teaching profession.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is an old thread, but how is the program working?

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's going well. It was a bumpy transition for kids at first, and that's what I want to work on for next year. However, I like that there is differentiation, and the words that we work with in spelling turn up everywhere in texts that we read. Email me at elkissn@gmail.com if you would like to take a peek at the materials in the Google Drive.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I just learned that I get to teach fourth graders next year!!!! This approach to spelling is just what I am searching for to help my kiddos next year. If you would please let me know how to get more details on how the entire program works, I would be most grateful! Thanks in advance!!!
    Laurie

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm heading to fourth grade next year and would love to learn more about your spelling program.
    For the past few years in third grade we've done a great deal of sorting and have used 2-3 different lists based on the same pattern(s). We've also differentiated through individualized high frequency lists.
    I'm hoping this post is still active. Thanks in advance!
    Nikki

    ReplyDelete