Words Their Way
Word Study Program Information
Parents
This year we will be using the Words Their Way program in our classrooms. Words Their Way is phonics, spelling, and vocabulary instruction through daily word study. This program will provide skill instruction that will cover spelling patterns and focus on examining and manipulating words, not memorizing them. Students will be thinking more critically about words and work on transferring their skills to reading and writing. Words Their Way will focus on teaching students how to spell, decode new words, and to improve word recognition speed in general. To accomplish this goal, we will teach the students how to examine words to learn the regularities that exist in the spelling system. We will also teach them some irregularities of spelling (we call “oddball words”). The simple process of sorting words into categories is the heart of our word study program. When students sort words, they are engaged in the active process of searching, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Word sorts help students organize what they know about words and to form generalizations that they can then apply to new words they encounter in their reading. The best part of a word study is that your child can sort words anywhere! Yes, anywhere! They will begin this week with their Word Study Words.
Please look over the homework packet. We decided to give options for homework. Students can choose to do the majority online or using the traditional worksheets. Parents are asked to sign the activities their child chooses to complete. The packet is created by determining where your child is academically in reading, writing, and Math. We have four different Word Study lists (determined by their placement on the Words Study evaluation), three different writing choices and three different math choices. This makes it very difficult to replace a lost packet so please help your child keep it safely in their backpack once they have finished working on it each night.
We would love feedback on this new system. Feel free to email us with any concerns or comments.
Thank you so much for sharing your children with us.