New Word Study
As several of you have noticed, the Pre-test this morning may not have the same ten words on it as the list your child came home with. If your child made a 100 on the Pre-test, I gave them the “Red” list to study for Friday’s test. If you child did not make a 100 on the Pre-test, they received a “Blue” list with the same ten words. Here is how Word Study will assessed for the upcoming weeks:
Word Study Explanation
This year our spelling tests will be done somewhat differently. Every Monday you will receive our weekly homework log with the week’s Word Study words. There will be a total of 10 Word Study words; 2 sight words along with 8 words that follow a special spelling pattern (we call these words word family words). Sight words are commonly used words that usually do not follow the basic rules of spelling. Both types of words will be used each week to complete homework assignments and will be practiced at school during our Word Study block.
On Mondays, students will take a pretest to assess their previous knowledge of the word family and sight words. If a student makes a 100 on the pretest, he/she will study the same word family for the week, but will be given a red list consisting of more difficult words to work with for homework. He/she will also take a slightly more difficult test on Friday.
On Fridays, we will have our Word Study test. Our test will include 8 word family words. Four of the words will come from the word family words given for the week and four will be “ transfer words”. Transfer words are words that follow the same spelling pattern, but were not assigned as homework for the week. This type of test will ensure that students are not just “memorizing” words with the spelling pattern, but truly understand and can apply the spelling pattern in their writing.
For example: If our weekly words were long a words such as bake, take, rake, lake, quake, brake, stake, fake, cake, and make, our spelling test would include 4 of these words plus 4 other words that followed this pattern such as snake, or wake. By studying the spelling pattern throughout the week students should now be able to apply that pattern to new words in their writing.
Both lists will be tested with transfer words to ensure their understanding. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email or call me. Have a wonderful week!