How to help your child at home with Word Study

1. Words Their Way How to help your child at home with Word Study Grades 2 and 3 Pine Bush Elementary School 2011-2012

2. What does Word Study look like? In school: At home: • Students sorting words according to sound, pattern, or meaning. • Students applying skills taught by correctly spelling words in everyday writing. • Students noticing spelling words in reading and through vocabulary practice. • Students remembering to unpack and pack their word study folder in their backpack. • Unit assessments. • Students sharing with parents what sort they learned in school. • Students practicing the sort many times to gain automatic recall. • Students practicing the word study activities taught to them in school. • Students remember to unpack and pack their word study folder in their backpack.

3. What is your child doing in school? Monday: • Teacher introduces the words and sort to each small group. Student sorts words under correct header in Word Study notebooks. Wednesday: • Small group/partner work. This might look like either completing a Word Hunt or a Word Games/Centers. Tuesday: • Working in partners/small groups, students re-sort words in their Word Study notebooks. Thursday: • Small group/partner work. This might look like either completing a Word Game or a Word Hunt/Centers. Friday: • Small group/partner work. This might look like either completing a Word Hunt or a Word Games/Centers.

4. Weekly Homework Students will be given the words on Monday, homework is scheduled for Tuesday in order to give students an extra day of instruction in school. This is a SAMPLE schedule and is subject to change. Tuesday: • Teach sort to parents Thursday: • Word hunt • (Other activity choices will be added as they are taught in school to increase student choice.) Wednesday: • Buddy sort (with sibling, friend, or parent). Ongoing: (pace throughout week) • Spelling Sentences • 10 words each used in a sentence • Challenge: Use more than one word in a sentence (still 10 sentences). Once students become familiar with these activities and routines, the classroom teacher may provide more activities for students to choose from, thus creating a “menu” for students to select and complete a set number of activities during a week.

5. Words Their Way Lingo • Header – spelling patterns for the week (-ore, -tch) – These look like CVC, CVCe, CVVC, CVCle, and so on (**Some weeks the “header” may actually be a spelling word with a set pattern. If this is the case, the spelling word will be in bold.) • V = vowel, C = consonant (VCV word: later) *Encourage students to find the vowel first, then look for the rest of the pattern. • CVCe = consonant-vowel-consonant pattern with an e on the end. (CVCe: space) • Oddball or “Out of Sorts” – words in a word list that do not fall into the regular sorting categories for the week. (If the pattern is long a sound like paint, the word “said” would be an oddball because it has a short e sound, ‘sed’, even though it follows the “ai” spelling pattern.) • “Open Sort” – sorting the words without a header (maybe by sounds, syllables, rhymes, meaning, etc…) • “Closed Sort” – sorting the words according to the headers given as part of the weekly sort

6. Let’s Sort Hint: Look for the (V) vowel first. Then look for the (C) consonants in the word pattern. Step 1: Look at words and headers. Step 2: Arrange headers on top and sort words. It’s ok that “blame” has 2 consonants before the vowel. It still follows this pattern for the long a sound with CVCe. āCVCe āCVCe ăCVC oddball bite blame that bite that ă CVC tame hat “Bite” is the oddball. Although it follows the CVCe pattern, the sound is long “I” not long “A” so it doesn’t belong in the other categories. hat blame Step 3: Read each word aloud. Explain why the word belongs in its category. tame oddball

7. Word Study Activities TEACH SORT • Teach your parents or a sibling the sort you learned in school. Read each word aloud as you are sorting. Explain why the words are sorted in a particular way. Sort the words a second time as fast as possible. BUDDY SORT • Lay down the pattern headers and have a parent read the rest of the words aloud. You must say where the word goes without seeing it! Point to the pattern word and your parent will lay down the word in the category you selected. Repeat if you make a mistake. WORD HUNT • Students should hunt for words in their book that match the sound/pattern/meaning unit they are studying. Students can keep track of the words by recording them in their Word Study Notebook under the correct headers. “YOUR PILE, MY PILE” • Put the word cards in a pile. Pull one card from the pile and say it out loud. Your child will have to spell it correctly and use it in a sentence. If your child does both correctly, he/she gets to keep the card, if not, the card goes back into the pile. When it is their turn, they can do the same to you!

8. More Word Study Activities DRAWING SORT • Sort the words in your word list and draw a quick picture to illustrate each one. You may do this in your Word Study Notebook or on separate paper. WRITING SORT • Option A: Student copies words from their pile into the correct categories in Word Study Notebook. • Option B: Instead of writing words in Word Study Notebook, student can complete writing sort on: paper with crayons, markers, pencils, 3-D lettering; on a chalkboard with chalk; on a whiteboard with dry erase marker (make the practice fun!) BLIND SORT • Student listens as a parent calls out the words one at a time and writes the word in the correct category. The parent shows student the word card so he/she can check for correct spelling.

9. Connecting Across the Curriculum SPELLING • Differentiated spelling word lists for students to best meet individual needs. • Hands-on approach to learning the word sounds, patterns, and meanings. WRITING • Improved spelling in writing. • High frequency words mastery. READING • Improved decoding in reading. • Improved vocabulary comprehension.

10. Additional Helpful Sites: • Word Study article written for parents: http://www.literacyconnections.com/WordStudy.php • More Word Their Way glossary terms can be found at this site: http://quizlet.com/608866/study-guide-words-their-way-glossary-of-terms-flash-cards/ • Word lists can be found (and additional games) at: http://spellingcity.com (Your child’s classroom teacher can provide you with the user name. Then, simply select your child’s group and sort #.)

11. Feedback & Questions • As always, we welcome your feedback and questions and thank you for your support at home as we all work towards the best for your child.