In previous years, I have given a pre-test to assess my students’ spelling levels, then made two or three different spelling groups using the Houghton Mifflin Spelling and Vocabulary series (I really do love those books). This would usually span from 2nd grade words all the way to 5th grade words. But I always wished there was some more cohesion between the different grade level lists, so we could discuss and learn as a class.
It was this weekend I realized I could achieve this, if I used a similar format to Word Detectives! And I couldn’t be happier!
So, here’s a breakdown of what we’ll be doing for spelling/word study:
Each student will get a Word Wizard Workbook (I’m binding them Monday!):
Students can continue to add words to the list as they find them in their reading (my class last year loved to do this).
The bottom page will be for the spelling list itself. And this is the exciting part! We will all be studying the same word feature each week, but the spelling lists will be differentiated. So, if the feature is -ight words, my newer spellers in English can use a more basic list (night, sight, light) while my more advanced ELLs can study more challenging words (nightmare, brighten, tightrope):
So, if you’re interested, this file has a choice of covers (this is the one I’m going to use!)…
I was going to add this to my printables shop, but I was so excited to share it, I just couldn’t! I actually love reading your kind comments more than anything, so please let me know if it something you could use in class. I’d love to hear which cover you chose, what you are going to use it for–anything!!
And…stay tuned! There will be a second part to this post later this week, featuring the signs and charts to display this for the whole group! Thanks for reading 🙂