Word Study Ideas - Alternatives to Spelling Tests/Dictée
1. Draw the Word's Shape - Have students draw the shape of the word, or cut around it to show the taller letters, the letters that drop low, etc. This gives them an image of how the word should look, and helps them later visualize it when they attempt to spell it.
1. Draw the Word's Shape - Have students draw the shape of the word, or cut around it to show the taller letters, the letters that drop low, etc. This gives them an image of how the word should look, and helps them later visualize it when they attempt to spell it.
2. Word Wall - Create a word wall together in the classroom. Add words as you learn them/come across them in your reading/speaking. Add 3 to 5 words per week to your word wall. There are many different ways to organize your classroom's word wall. For example:
- alphabetically
- by word family
- by sound family
- by topic/theme
3. Word Sorts - Have students work at sorting words according to their word families.
4. Cloze Exercises - Have students fill in the missing letters in a given list of words. Each time the student practises a given word, supply them with a different version of the word, where different letters are missing each time. These can be done as practise, and as a spelling activity where the word is dictated and the student fills in the missing letters.
school:
Attempt #1: __ch__ol
Attempt #2: s__ho__l
Attempt #3: s____o____
school:
Attempt #1: __ch__ol
Attempt #2: s__ho__l
Attempt #3: s____o____
5. Choose the correct spelling - Give students 2 or 3 spellings for the same word & have them identify the correct one.
example: boat or baot
example: boat or baot