Word study is the study of words. In some classrooms it becomes simply a spelling test on Fridays, but here we will use what we know to study how words work. We will look at patterns with in words, connect them to words we already know, explore the meanings and roots of word parts and expand our vocabulary. A list of words will usually be given out on a Friday and we will look at discussing those words and others the kids have found over a two week period before another list is given out. Students have a list of activities they should be doing with the words at home.
For September and October we will work with the following word skills:
1. the suffixes -ent, ence, -ant, -ance,
The rule the students will work with is that if they know the spelling of a word such as independence, then independent is -ent to match.. The same is true or -ant and -ance, such as brilliant and brilliance.
2. The second list will follow the same rule, adding the suffixes -ency and -ancy.
For November: Homonyms
Each student has gone to a self checking homonym quiz web site (http://a4esl.org/q/h/homonyms.html) and found the words s/he doesn't know well and made an individualized list. If they had fewer than ten words, they also got the list found here: http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/Materials/ndakota/spelling/lesson1.html.
They will study these words for 2 weeks, at which time we'll reassess (using the same self-checking homonym web site) and gather more words or move to another skill.
For the homonyms, they need to do 6 activities:
find antonyms
find synonyms
make sentences with them
reword the definitions given to their own words
sort them into verbs and nouns
make up another sort
They will devise a new list on November 18.
For December,
1. the suffixes - -able, -ible
2. adding -able--when do you drop the e?
For January:
accent and doubling
(We'll retest word study levels in January for our mid year check and regroup based on those assessments.)
For September and October we will work with the following word skills:
1. the suffixes -ent, ence, -ant, -ance,
The rule the students will work with is that if they know the spelling of a word such as independence, then independent is -ent to match.. The same is true or -ant and -ance, such as brilliant and brilliance.
2. The second list will follow the same rule, adding the suffixes -ency and -ancy.
For November: Homonyms
Each student has gone to a self checking homonym quiz web site (http://a4esl.org/q/h/homonyms.html) and found the words s/he doesn't know well and made an individualized list. If they had fewer than ten words, they also got the list found here: http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/Materials/ndakota/spelling/lesson1.html.
They will study these words for 2 weeks, at which time we'll reassess (using the same self-checking homonym web site) and gather more words or move to another skill.
For the homonyms, they need to do 6 activities:
They will devise a new list on November 18.
For December,
1. the suffixes - -able, -ible
2. adding -able--when do you drop the e?
For January:
accent and doubling
(We'll retest word study levels in January for our mid year check and regroup based on those assessments.)