Word Study: A New Approach to Teaching Spelling
By Tori Kilgore
As a student, teacher, or parent, how many of you dreaded those weekly spelling tests on Friday? You’re not the only one! Whether you were helping your students, children, or yourself prepare, the goal and top priority was memorization. Am I right?
One of the truths we know about education is that it is constantly evolving. We learn more from research each year about how the brain works and the best instructional practices to use to ensure student growth and interest. One of the areas that have been recently evolving in this way is spelling.
In the past, spelling has been taught by simply assigning a list of words to the students at the beginning of each week to be memorized for the spelling test on Friday. Although this works for some children, researched has showed us that many more children were unable to transfer this type of habit memorization to their own reading and writing (Morris, 1995).
Often students memorized the list of words for the test and then promptly forget the correct spelling. Sound familiar? I bet you can relate to this. Therefore, research shows that memorizing words and rules, without a sense of why they should be learned, is definitely not effective (Morris, 1995). The few children who have been successful by memorizing words were frequently limited to learning a set number of words each week (Morris, 1995).
“Families and students would then fall into past patterns of preparing for the spelling tests by memorizing the words, which is not what I wanted. In the past when I used traditional spelling tests, students did not always retain the information and apply it into their writing. I want to avoid this pitfall if possible” (Brand, 2004).
How can we teachers integrate spelling instruction into reading and writing instruction to make spelling content seem more meaningful, and avoid this “pitfall”?
When students learn a word pattern, they learn to build many words using that pattern. This is part of what is called word study. For example, once students learn the –ay pattern, they can recognize and spell say, tray, hay, mayday, etc. This way of learning words through pattern recognition supports the action of students transferring what they know about words to new words that they are eager to read and write. (Beckham-Hungler & Williams, 2003).
Why Word Study?
Many schools all over the country have switched over from traditional spelling instruction to word study for this reason.
In traditional spelling instruction, students learn to spell words that are considered appropriate for their grade level. One of the biggest challenges that classroom teachers face is trying to plan instruction with the awareness that the students are on all different levels. How can we teach a classroom of students the exact same words and expect them all to be successful, knowing that they are all on different instructional levels? We can’t! Word study follows in a developmental progression from simple patterns to more complex patterns and parts of words. It is taught by using an inquiry approach to discover patterns and make generalizations as to how words work. Therefore, teachers choose words and patterns that approach the zone of proximal development of the students’ individually. In word study, not all students are working on the same words or patterns because they all have different ZPD’s. How great is that?
The instruction of word study is much denser than in traditional spelling instruction, and is customized to the student’s needs. Word study lessons focus on the way English words work, rather than just providing the students a random list of words that have no relationship. Word study takes the emphasis away from memorization of words, and focuses the students’ attention to the consistencies and patterns in our spelling system (Bear, 2008). Students learn word knowledge and spelling strategies that they can apply to a wide range of reading and writing activities. Research has shown that this instructional method to be very effective, as students will be able to learn so many more words by focusing on patterns that can be applied to a wide variety of words, rather than memorizing a short list of work each week (Beckham-Hungler & Williams, 2003). Now, don’t you wish you were taught this in school? I think we all agree we would be better spellers, and have a better attitude towards spelling!
How does this typically look in a classroom?
Word study usually occurs during reading and writing workshops simply because the goal for word study is that the students will grow as better readers and writers. Instruction focuses on “how words work”, the way it looks and sounds. Depending on the grade level and needs of the students, a spelling feature is usually focused upon for two to three weeks. The teacher will choose a few words each day that go along with the feature or pattern to help focus students’ attention to the feature or pattern (Brand, 2004).
Fountas and Pinnell recommend a word study framework that has been proven to be the most effective (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). It is almost impossible to provide whole-group instruction of word study that will be effective for each student, as each student has different needs. Therefore, homogeneous small group instruction is essential in order for word study to be successful in a classroom (Bear, 2008). Fountas and Pinnell recommend a group rotation. While one group is receiving a mini-lesson from the teacher based on their needs, group two is engaged in literacy activities, and group three words on word work games. The groups rotate every ten to fifteen minutes, until each group has gone to every station. (Fountas & Pinnell, 2000).
Teachers use a variety of hands-on activities, often called word work, to help students internalize letter-sound relationships, patterns, and the meaning and origins of words. Activities are used throughout the week to help children understand the letter-sound relationships being presented in that week’s words. These activities should be well thought-out and used to help students learn and remember spelling patterns and features (Wright 2000). That way, they become more meaningful and relevant to students and their writing endeavors. Younger students make words using magnetic letters or pencil and paper. Older children do word sorts, which help them form hypotheses about words and make connections between words (Beckham-Hungler & Williams, 2003).
Most importantly, word study teaches students spelling strategies to support their spelling attempts in writing activities, and help them decode unfamiliar words while reading (Williams, Phillips-Birdsong, Hufnagel & Hungler, 2009). It is important to know that if we want our students to use these strategies, we must teach them how, and most importantly, show them how by modeling during read alouds and small groups. Using the classroom Word Wall as a teaching tool and resource for students when writing is also a very effective approach.
Students can be, and usually are checked for learning and understanding in three ways: a quiz to assess if students are understanding the patterns, rules, meanings, and word origins that have been taught, and through the teacher listening to the students read, and looking at student writing. (Williams, Phillips-Birdsong, Hufnagel & Hungler, 2009). These types of evaluations provide the teacher with authentic confirmations that the students have learned to use words correctly, and the teacher can then base the next step of instruction from these results.
Check out this example of what word study looks like in a classroom!
What about Spelling Lists?
With word study, that dull and weekly list from a workbook no longer exists! Instead, teachers create their own lists each week that he/she believes will be most beneficial to the students. Lists should be created from student-misspelled words that revolve around a central concept to be learned (Wright, 2000). Whether students are having trouble with a pattern, rule, or origin, teachers explicitly teach this concept during the small amount of time allotted for spelling instruction each week. These features or patterns should be reviewed and reinforced through word study activities, and in the students’ reading and writing (Bear, 2008).
To make word study successful, you must first assess and determine what your students know about letter-sound combinations, features, and meanings of words. Students’ spelling errors and mistakes can be used as a way to determine the most appropriate words to study. These assessments will provide you with information that will allow you to make spelling lists, lessons, and activities for students each week. According to Fountas and Pinnell, the words chosen should be highly useful to your students, as they should be words that they will encounter frequently in their reading and writing (Fountas & Pinnell, 2000). The target of word study should be what students “use but confuse” in their writing (Bear, 2008).
How is this integrated into reading and writing instruction?
Spelling is a critical aspect of the curriculum that is an integral part of the process of reading and writing. Therefore, it needs to be taught thoughtfully and consciously. Since spelling words, lessons, and activities are going to be created from the errors and mistakes from student writing, we can integrate word study into both reading and writing instruction.
“The children participated in a wide range of meaningful reading and writing activities during the language arts block, including a systematic spelling program based on words they had misspelled in their own writing” (Brand, 2004).
Word study in an integrated language arts program that uses the words actually read and written by students. Teachers can link word study to literature by providing a flexible sequence, such as instruction in grammar, literary analysis, writing, and hands-on repeated practice (Fisher & Bates, 2011). According to Bear, instruction should be designed around words from texts that students are encountering, provide opportunities to manipulate the same words in own context, and then return to texts to find other words that demonstrate the same spelling connections (Bear, 2008). Since word study explicitly demonstrates how spelling patterns and word structures reflect meaning and use, giving students the chance to learn and practice these strategies in their reading and writing is very effective.
“To be good spellers, children must also learn and be able to apply a wide range of strategies for spelling unknown words as they write and decode unknown words when they read” (Beckham-Hungler & Williams, 2003).
How does this all make spelling more meaningful to students?
Word study undoubtedly supports student’s spelling achievement, which then leads to higher overall achievement in reading and writing, as students will come to an understanding and demonstrate the relationships between these literate processes. Word study helps students expand their vocabulary, develop sensitivity to word choice in reading and writing, and build explicit awareness of how English orthography functions in the integrated language arts program (Wright, 2000).
For a word study program to be successful, the teacher has to invest a sufficient amount of time in planning instruction for each group. As teachers will be evaluating the student’s writing for errors and mistakes, students will in return recieve instruction and practice based on their own mistakes. This will allow them to see a relationship and connections between spelling strategies and their own writing. With the spelling strategies and patterns that students have now mastered, those can be taken and implemented into their own reading and writing, which creates a connection between spelling instruction and their own work. These strategies and patterns now have meaning to the students with awareness in how they have helped improve their own reading and writing. Therefore, in the long run, these spelling patterns and rules are going to stick in a student’s mind much longer than a random list of words.
Research shows that writing has been proven to be the best transitional tool to support the growth of spelling interventions (Williams, Phillips-Birdsong, Hufnagel & Hungler, 2009.) Teaching relevant words and strategies to students and showing them how to use them will encourage children to use these skills in their own writing. Provide meaningful and sustained reading and writing experiences support spelling development (Bear, 2008). With successful and effective integration of word study into the classroom, children will draw on their orthographic knowledge to accomplish all three aspects of literacy, making spelling fun, and a lot less dreadful for us all!
References:
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Beckham-Hungler, D., & Williams, C. (2003). Teaching words that students misspell: spelling instruction and young children’s writing. National Council of Teachers of English, 80(4), 299–308.
Brand, M. (2004). Word savy: Integrating vocabulary, spelling, and wordy study, grade 3–6. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Fisher, P., & Bates, A. (2011). 10 Do’s and Don’ts of Word Study. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 39(3), 3–13.
Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (2000). Guiding readers and writers (grades 3–6): Teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Morris, D., Blanton, L., Blanton, W., & Perney, J. (1995). Spelling instruction and achievement in six classrooms. The Elementary School Journal, 96(2), 145–162.
Williams, C., Phillips-Birdsong, C., Hufnagel, K., & Hungler, D. (2009). Word study instruction in the K-2 classroom. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/word-study-instruction-k-2-classroom
Wright, K. (2000). Weekly spelling meetings: Spelling instruction through classroom-based inquiry. Spelling Out Our Concerns About Spelling, 77(3), 218–223.
