Each week students receive a spelling packet with six pages of activities to help them practice the words for the week. Page one is the pre-test that they complete with their homeroom teacher every Monday morning. Page two, three and four vary from week to week but usually consist of matching definitions to words, synonym and antonym match ups, spelling pattens or rhyming. The fifth page is a very important page. The top always consists of a proofreading activity where students find 4-6 of the week's spelling words that are misspelled and then record them spelled correctly. This is a very important skill because on the STAAR test they will have questions and stories where they have to find the misspellings. The bottom half of page five is equally if not more important. This section consists of a short writing prompt. Students are usually directed to choose 3-4 of their week's spelling words and create a story using the words. Attached below is a picture of an sample class creation. The sixth page provides the students with multiple choices of the word misspelled and you must find the answer spelled correctly. Students are asked to bubble those answers. This is important practice because the students will need to bubble responsibly on the STAAR. These packets are always given on Mondays (or Tuesdays if Monday is a holiday) and always due on Thursdays -regardless of holiday Mondays. The students do not have much time in class to devote to this however it is strongly encouraged for them to work on it during class free time, before morning assembly or after school on the bus or in the car line waiting. If a student utilizes all of those opportunities they should very rarely have any homework with this spelling packet.
Every week, I review with the students the Spelling Packet. As a class we answer the first couple of questions on each page. We ALWAYS complete the writing prompt as a class so the students can see the writing process modeled. I encourage the students to treat the border around the lines for writing as their brainstorming map. You can see all of my notes for this in the red print below. I want them to pick apart the prompt and, before even writing one word of their story, think about all of the details they want to include. I like for them to write the spelling words they plan on using to the left side and then as they create their story, cross out the word on the side and underline the word in their story. The green writing below is what one of the class's created for this week. The students really do good on this and it generally only takes about 8 total minutes- we go pretty fast. We make one up as a class but then the students write their own story, with their own chosen words, in their packet. If you are helping your student at home with their spelling packet encourage them to think through and plan their writing before they start their story. Also when they are finished with their story, encourage them to re-read the prompt and make sure they stayed on topic.
As you can see, this is a very rough draft, but a fabulous start! As the year progresses I will be adding more requirements to this page so re-enforcement of concepts are applied.
