I was recently at a workshop where the presenter said, “I know I’m explaining everything to you here, but what I really know teachers want is just to know when and where to teach it.”
This got me thinking that it would be a good idea to do just that. To take our Classroom Alphabet Program and Classroom Spelling Program and give you an idea of how a week of teaching could look. Obviously this is just a suggestion and you can personalize it to your own style of teaching and classroom needs. This is to give you an idea of the activities you could incorporate into your day and week using just these materials to teach spelling.
This is not going back to the letter of the day or letter of the week programs we used to use. You can introduce letters and rules as the opportunities arise in your classroom or you can follow the suggested scope and sequences. It’s your classroom so it’s your decision, but it is important for you to follow a consistent way of introducing and practising spelling. This spelling program builds upon previous knowledge to create a strong foundation for learning and understanding.
There is no spelling test. You assess your student’s by their application of the sounds they’ve used. The goal is for your student’s to read, understand, write, and use the sounds and rules. This can be from simple words to more complex combinations, the program can be differentiated for all levels of learning. You check mark each student’s progress when they are confidently and competently reading/decoding and writing/encoding the letters and sounds.
Classroom Alphabet Program
Monday
Review previously learned sounds (from previous weeks) with exercises and activities.
Introduce new sound either ‘auditory’ - where you say a list of words and your students listen for the beginning sound, or ‘introduction’ - where you tell your students the letter you’re introducing. Put up poster with letter and keyword picture.
Read a picture storybook using the letter you’re introducing, (there are suggested book titles for every letter of the alphabet, but feel free to use your own favourites.) Put picture storybook on a shelf where students can look at it throughout the day or week.
Tuesday
Revisit new sound following the multi sensory - Movements/Actions script attached to the letter sound on the lesson page. Create a classroom dictionary of suggested words your students think of beginning with this sound. This can be on a large Flipchart pad attached to the wall for students to access throughout the year. Complete the Say it, Make it, Write it activity.
Wednesday
Printing - Put tracing poster on the wall to show your students the direction for printing. You can say, “We write the letter (letter name) and sound (letter sound) like this.” Demonstrate how to follow the arrows. You can print out tracing posters for all your students to trace the arrows and then decorate the page with their independent ideas for colour, designs, and illustrations.
Printing page - you instruct your students the direction of the letter from the starting point. (I have suggested language to use for each letter on the individual lessons). They do not complete this task independently so you can be sure they are forming their letters in the right direction.
Thursday
Letter Practise - Each letter has an activity to complete (finding letters, jars of letters, painting, bags of letters, I-spy, collage, illustrate).
Students can also create their own sound dictionary using words from the ‘classroom dictionary’ on the Flipchart, or writing and illustrating their own words beginning with the new sound, or sentences using words beginning with the sound.
Friday
Review - add the new sound to your existing sounds for practise writing and illustrating.
You may decide to follow this timetable with small activities throughout the week or you may choose to do everything in one day/lesson and introduce other language activities throughout the week. This program can be incorporated with learning high frequency words to help build simple sentences. The more your students see, hear, say, understand, and use the sounds the more likely they are to retain them.
Monday
Review old sounds
New Sound introduction
Picture storybook
Tuesday
New Sound - multi sensory actions
Create classroom dictionary page with brainstormed words
Say it, Make it, Write it activity
Wednesday
Review old sounds
New Sound introduction
Picture storybook
Thursday
Letter Practise - using, reading, writing, saying
Create own sound dictionary
Friday
Review - mix old sounds with new sound
Classroom Spelling Program
Monday
Review old sounds in over practise exercises - i.e choose one/two/three words from our classroom dictionary and write them in a sentence, make a word list with a word from each page of our classroom dictionary and then read your list to a friend, choose a word from each page of our classroom dictionary and try to spell it without looking at the dictionary, etc.
Tuesday
New Sound/Rule - choose the lesson plan you are going to use - auditory discovery (you read the word list and the students listen for repeated sound), visual discovery (you put a wordlist on the board and the students recognize the repeating pattern), teacher introduction (you tell your students the new sound).
Multi sensory - Movements/Actions - read the script and act out the different words using the sound.
Brainstorm other words using the same sound and act them out. Write the new words on the board and then transfer to a classroom dictionary (Flipchart) to use in practise activities.
New sound activity page - each student draws the keyword (this personalizes the keyword to each student and increases the ways the student processes the information by boosting their memory and increasing their recall).
Wednesday
New sound activity page - each student reads the list words, reads the sentences, creates their own sentence using two words or more from the list words.
The reading is an opportunity for you to see and hear each student’s reading fluency, accuracy, and decoding skills. The writing is an opportunity for you to see how your students are creating sentences and understanding the words in the list.
Thursday
Sounds practise - Students can create their own sound dictionary using words from the ‘classroom dictionary’ on the Flipchart, or writing and illustrating their own words using the new sound, or sentences with words using the sound.
Friday
Review - add the new sound to your existing sounds for practise writing and illustrating.
Monday
Review old sounds
Tuesday
New Sound - auditory/ visually/ introduced
Multi sensory actions
Create classroom dictionary page with brainstormed words
Students illustrate keyword
Wednesday
Reading - words and sentences
Composition - students write own sentences using two or more words from the list
Thursday
Sounds Practise - using, reading, writing, saying
Create own sound dictionary
Friday
Review - mix old sounds with new sound
