Spelling Activities That Can Help Students Write a "Perfect" Sentence
Here are two ways to make your spelling program more effective.
By Greg Harrison
Teaching students how to spell is a daunting task. Typically, teachers hand out a list of 20 words on Monday, inform their students that they should "practice the words during the week," then give a test on Friday. In this article, I'd like to describe some spelling enrichment activities that I developed which help many of my students become better spellers, while improving their writing skills and expanding their acquisition of vocabulary.
Here's what I do with my fourth grade class. I choose a theme for the week's spelling list - such as the "aw" sound. For this assignment, the 20 words could be: awful, naughty, strawberry, sauce, caught, August, automobile, almost, autumn, claws, clause, paws, pause (I love homophone pairs!), already, automatic, taught, fawn, lawnmower, Australia, and tallest. Their homework assignment for the first night of the week is what I call "Ten Perfect Sentences." Students choose any 10 of the 20 words and construct a perfectly written sentence (that is at least six words long) for each of the words they chose. The sentences can be written on the computer or hand-written. I collect the homework on Tuesday morning, and then go over the sentences with a "fine-tooth comb." At the end of the day, any students who had turned in 10 perfectly written sentences are called up to the front of the room to retrieve their A+ papers, a Hershey's Kiss, and get a round of applause from their classmates. My students (and their parents), LOVE this assignment - and the Hershey's Kiss!
When grading their sentences, I use a highlighter to identify mistakes, and make a shorthand note next to the sentence. Here are the shorthand marks I use for the mistakes:
- SP - Misspelled word
- P - Missing, or incorrect use of punctucation
- RO - Run-on Sentence
- 6! - When a sentence is fewer than six words long
- PQ - Stands for Poor Quality - When a sentence has no mistakes, but utilizes incorrect grammar
- C - Any type of capitalization error
One of the great things about Ten Perfect Sentences is that you can easily differentiate the assignment for all of your learners. For your students who have a really hard time with spelling, make it "Five Perfect Sentences." Their confidence will begin to grow once they get a few perfect papers under their belts. For your really good spellers, make it Fifteen Perfect Sentences, or require their sentences to be at least 10 words each, so it is more of a challenge for them. Additionally, as the year goes on, you can build more tasks into the assignment. If you are teaching your students how to correctly punctuate sentences when using dialogue, you can tell them that each of their sentences must use quotation marks. Another benefit of Ten Perfect Sentences is that students must use their spelling words in the correct context - the key to truly learning the meaning of a word.
Another spelling enrichment activity I have my students do in-class is the "Weekly Spelling Word Challenge." On Wednesdays, after our morning opening, I give my students a two-sided worksheet that I create on my computer. On the first side, students simply have to write their spelling words twice on the lines that are next to the word. I do believe in good old fashioned repetitive practice when it comes to teaching students how to spell. On the other side of the worksheet, I construct 20 sentences that each have one word missing. Students have to look at their list of spelling words, and decide which word is needed to complete each sentence. Once again, this allows students the opportunity not only write their spelling words, but to think about their proper context. For example, here are three sentences that I would have used for the "aw" sound words listed above. Can you find the correct words?
1. Out of all the seasons, __________________ is my favorite time of year.
2. "Would someone please press the __________________ button on the remote control?" my father asked.
3. I would love to travel to __________________ one day.
Together with Ten Perfect Sentences, the Weekly Spelling Challenge provides your students with meaningful assignments to help them master their spelling words each week. If you utilize these assignments, you will begin to see many more A and A+ papers from the students on Friday's spelling test. Below are more spelling lessons activities that you can utilize in your class.
Spelling Lesson Plans and Worksheets:
This clever lesson can be used for virtually any grade level. Students track down spelling errors in a passage of writing choosen to fit student's interests. Current events are a good choice. The teacher copies part of the text into a word document, then edits the text to include spelling mistakes. Students not only hone thier spelling skills, but they learn about current events at the same time.
Let's face it, spell check is a tool that students need to know how to use. This wonderful lesson introduces students to the spell check program, and shows them how to use it effectively.
I'm a believer in Word Walls. The more a student is exposed to the words they should know how to spell, the sooner they will have them memorized. This terrific lesson suggests all sorts of effective ways that Word Walls can be utilized in the classroom.
This simple worksheet lists many creative ways to have your students "interract" with their weekly spelling words.