The Importance of Spelling

Much about spelling is puzzling. Our society expects that any educated person can spell, yet literate adults commonly characterize themselves as poor spellers and make spelling mistakes. Many children have trouble spelling but it is really difficult to know exactly how many because state and national assessments do not assess this.

Nevertheless, research has shown that learning to spell and learning to read rely on much of the same underlying knowledge — such as the relationships between letters and sounds — and, not surprisingly, that spelling instruction can be designed to help children better understand that key knowledge, resulting in better reading. Learning to spell requires instruction and gradual integration of information about print, speech sounds, and meaning — these, in turn, support memory for whole words, which is used in both spelling and sight (automatic) reading.

Research also bears out a strong relationship between spelling and writing: Writers who must think too hard about how to spell use up valuable cognitive resources needed for higher level aspects of composition. Even more than reading, writing is a mental juggling act that depends on automatic deployment of basic skills such as handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation so that the writer can keep track of such concerns as topic, organization, word choice, and audience needs. Poor spellers may restrict what they write to words they can spell, with inevitable loss of verbal power, or they may lose track of their thoughts when they get stuck trying to spell a word.

(courtesy of Reading Rockets)



Because of the detriment that poor spelling has to student success in all aspects of English and Language Arts, Third Graders in 3A are focusing on improving spelling by paying attention to spelling patterns within words. In fact, that is the name of the stage of spelling in which the students are working.
Students in the Within Word Pattern Stage use but confuse vowel patterns. They no longer spell boat sound by sound to produce BOT, but BOTE, BOWT, BOOT, or even boat as they experiment with possible patterns for the long -o sound.  Students that are working at the Within-Word Pattern Stage are manipulating one-syllable words and focusing on various vowel sounds and patterns. 

In order to better support students and parents at home, here are some suggestions for spelling practice that can be done with your child:

• Use Spelling City to play games, create worksheets, and give practice tests online.
• Write your spelling words five times each 
• Write a paragraph using the words 
• Draw a picture of the meaning of the words 
• Write a sentence for each word 
• Sort words by features

• 

  Sorting words by features: long a spelled ai and long a spelled ay.
  

  
  

• Invent a word search 



Use grid paper to create a spelling word word search.





• Type words on the computer in different ways (fonts)-more than once 
• Alphabetize the words 
• Write the dictionary respelling of each word (pronunciation key)



Write the word using the dictionary spelling key.

• Write the meaning of each word 
• Divide each word into syllables (use a dictionary to help you)
• Write the word and circle the vowels 
• Write the word and circle the consonants 
• Hunk and chunk; star the magic e; underline blends



Find words inside words, chunks, blends, magic e.

• Cross our the silent letters 
• Make flash cards 
• Write a synonym for each word 
• Write an antonym for each word 
• Parent given practice test 
• Write a story with the words 
• Write two words in a compound sentence.
• Write words in a SUPER sentence-5 or more spelling words in one sentence 
• Write a song with your words 
• Use calligraphy or a colorful way to write the words (Rainbow write)

• 

  Rainbow Writing words is using a different color for each letter of the word.
• Spell your words with magnetic letters 
• Write words neatly in pen or marker

Welcome to Third Grade Class 3A 2015-2016!

It is hard to believe that three weeks of school have already passed and the third grade students in room 177 have settled into their routine.  The new school year saw us off to a busy start as we learned about the new school-wide positive behavior intervention system (PBIS).  Students spent the first few days of school learning about the new school mission and the new acronym for P.R.I.D.E.

Each morning following the Pledge of Allegiance, students recite the HSA mission statement:

The mission of Horizon Science Academy is to provide

 all students with the behavior and academic skills 

necessary to reach their fullest potential 

intellectually, emotionally, 

and physically.

Following the mission statement, students say the new Horizon P.R.I.D.E. statement:

P:  Practice safety

R:  Respect others

I:  I will follow directions

D:  Do my best

E:  Exercise responsibility

During the first few days of school, students were presented with examples of how to show P.R.I.D.E. in various areas of the school including the bathrooms, hallways, and cafeterias.  

After being show a matrix for each area of the school the students in room 177 divided into their P.R.I.D.E. groups (groups of about 4 students who will work together on all group projects throughout the year) to develop a matrix of what to do to show P.R.I.D.E. in the classroom.

Jaylyn, Ruby, Makily, Zy'Aire, and Ayoob work together
to create a classroom P.R.I.D.E. matrix.

Finally, we celebrated the new implementation of our P.R.I.D.E. PBIS by having a P.R.I.D.E. Pep Rally complete with a P.R.I.D.E. wave, following directions with the Cupid Shuffle, and "What Does the Hawk Say?" with our school mascot.

Those first few days of school were not just about rules and routines.  Third graders also talked about their wishes and goals for their third grade year.  We worked together to discuss the difference between a goal and a wish and discussed the meaning of the theme for our data wall this year.  Our data wall theme this year is, "A goal without a plan is just a wish."  Students will be learning how to write smart goals in third grade that will help them make some of their wishes come true.  After talking about wishes, third graders wrote Third Grade Wishes poems and created a craftivity to display on our bulletin board.  Some finished samples are shown below.

 

Third graders also learned about writing high quality paragraphs by writing a topic sentence, three supporting details, and a closing sentence.  To practice this still, they were given a series of sentences to cut apart.  Students had to work with their table partner to determine which sentence was the topic sentence and then put the remaining sentences in proper order using clues in the sentences.

Caleb and Brandazia work together to order sentences to form a proper paragraph.

In math, students learned about what they would be doing in Math Workshop.  After much anticipation, students FINALLY got to use their math boxes and do a hands on learning activity to practice place value and forms of numbers (word form, standard form, expanded form).

AJ uses his 9-sided die to create 4-digit numbers.  He then writes these
numbers in word form, expanded form and models them with place value blocks.

Finally, we wrapped up our "Welcome Back" unit and we were officially warmed up to third grade!  We were ready for our first interdisciplinary unit to begin!  The third graders can't wait to see what comes next!