It instead offers opportunities for hands-on, developmentally appropriate word work which leads to a greater understanding of our spelling system. WTW does not teach spelling “rules” which will all know have so many exceptions in English.
Like scientists or detectives, they are looking for patterns in spelling and sound in order to categorize words. I believe one of the keys to the WTW program is the fact that students are given the task of making sense of words on their own terms. Second, and perhaps most impo rtantly, after using WTW for only about 2 months, my students’ motivation, interest level and ability in studying words increased noticeably. There is a core text for the program, pictured to the left and below, another core text for WTW with English Language Learners, an edition focused on struggling readers and a number of additional workbooks with materials for each developmental stage. First, the WTW texts are incredibly helpful and offer a great variety of materials (CD-ROM and DVD too). I will admit that learning a new system was a bit daunting at first, but two things have made the challenge easier and extremely worthwhile. So, over that summer, I did some reading and research, ultimately deciding to implement it the following September. I discovered and became interested in the Words Their Way program (WTW: my own abbreviation) near the end of the 2010 school year, at which point there was not sufficient time to begin it. Word sorts are simply a set of words which fall into certain spelling, sound, or semantic categories.
If you’re not familiar with Words Their Way, it is a developmental spelling program which has students work with level-appropriate word sorts in order to improve their understanding of the written language.
0 kommentar(er)
