Word Work & Spelling Practice in Second Grade, Part 1

I’m back to share more information about how I do spelling practice and word work in my second grade classroom.  Since this is a long post, I’m going to break it into two posts.  Today’s focus will be on spelling.

SPELLING
In our classroom we usually have a spelling pattern or phonics skill we focus on each week.  This weekly list is what I use as our focus for our spelling tasks each day.  I’m going to walk you through one week of spelling activities (activities vary each week):

Monday
I start with an informal assessment.  I will say a word and have students turn and spell to a partner.  Then I ask a volunteer to help me spell it.  After that we record the word into our literacy notebooks.  We repeat until we have our list complete (bonus or challenge words are optional).  Then we go back and look at the list, looking for a pattern.  Once the pattern is identified, we use colored pencils or crayons to lightly highlight the pattern in our books so they can still see the word underneath.  Sometimes this means students have to go over certain letters with a black crayon or colored pencil.

Once the list is recorded, I assign their spelling task for the day before we move into Reading Groups & Daily 5.  On this particular day I had them complete Pyramid Words:

Tuesday
We pull out our notebooks and I choose a spelling practice activity.  This week we did a sorting activity by pattern and then the students had to try to come up with other words that fit the pattern.  The kids recorded their spelling words plus one additional word.

Once that was finished, I had them do Roll-a-Word before starting Reading Groups & Daily 5:

Wednesday
Today we play a little game of Hangman under the document camera.  Sometimes I’ll use the same word twice while playing, especially if kids have been struggling on their spelling task sheets Monday or Tuesday.

Once that was finished, I had my students complete Dollar Words before starting Reading Groups & Daily 5:

Thursday
Since this is the last day before the spelling test, today my students give each other quizzes.  They turn to work with their table partners and alternate being the word caller and the speller.  The students have been trained to mix up the words on their lists and put a little check mark or dot next to a word after they have used it.

Students put away their notebooks when they finished and then started Vowels & Consonants before starting Reading Groups & Daily 5:

Friday
Today is the spelling test.  Students put up offices (sometimes called privacy shields) and I circulate the room while giving the test.  I collect papers to grade and students immediately move into Reading Groups & Daily 5 choices.

All of the spelling tasks mentioned above (and more) can be found in this Spelling Worksheet Bundle.  This pack works with any list of 10 words and many of the pages are editable so you can add your own lists each week!

I hope that gives you a better idea of what spelling practice looks like in my classroom.  I’ll be back soon to share more about the Word Work portion of my Daily 5.  Until then, Happy Teaching!