Spelling Program- talk to me about the one your kiddos have!

I am curious:

My girls 1st teacher does differentiated spelling, that is the teacher gathers words for kids individually. My daughters teacher does spelling based on the DOLCH word list and simply goes down it for spelling (each teacher is allowed to do what they want- no formal program. This is what my girls teacher does). They must be able to read the list. Then they practice spelling words they miss on a pretest so that they do not have tests on words they already can spell.

DD1 list: DD2 list

excited which
actually enough
beautiful pocket
favorite because
because friend

This seems tough, but I like it since they are learning new words all the time and I can see it in their writing. But both girls seem to be good spellers and have had similar words since Jan. They have been successful with this program and love the challenge.



That said-- the 2nd grade teachers as a team decided to all use a Spectrum spelling list (at this school) and some related curriculum words. The whole class gets the the same words, mastery or not.

I peeked at the words for next year (at this same time): They were gift, rift, lift, left, swift, craft, circle, cone, and prism.



I am wondering how DDs will react next year when most of the words they already know how to spell. I really like what they are doing this year and think it has helped a lot, combined with Words Their Way word exploration program, both DDs writing has come so very far this year! They love to write (which makes me happy since writing was such a chore when I was younger).

What program does your kids classroom use? Do you like it? Teachers out there- what do you use??

 

Our county does word study http://www.readingrockets.org/article/80/.
I actually like it because once he learns the pattern, DS is able to spell most words.

 

We did differentiated spelling. So pretest on monday and test on Fri. If they got 0 out of the 8 words wrong they got a different list. But it was similar patterns to the reg list. If the words were short a (pan, cat), the challenge list would have (splat, craft, etc)

I love how your girls teachers does it. Much more individualized! My partner did that. So beneficial to go through their journals and find words they are misspelling and then use those words. Yeah, your girls are not going to gain much from the way it is done next year.

 

Our school does Word our Way--Word Study. They don't have regular spelling test, and each child is evaluated and grouped according to their own level. Both boys are in E, whereas, most 4th graders are in D and some in C. They have been jumped up, or pushed back as determined by missing skills or gaps. So, while it isn't individualized to each child, each child works with a list that is appropriate to them.

 

The girls have 10 class words then 5 individual words. They get the words on friday and are tested on them Thursday. Starting Monday they do 5 a night and everynight have to spell the preious 5 back.