The front of the Time For Kids showed a sixth grader, Claire Nieman of Bothell, Washington who has won a spot in the national spelling bee. A second grade teacher's daughter at my school, which her daughter is in the grade, won the regional spelling bee in Winston Salem and has also earned a place at the National Bee in Washingtion. We are really excited for her and her family. My question is: What do you think about spelling in the classroom? I still have spelling tests each week because I believe it is important for students to begin to spell words correctly. I know that some teachers have gotten away from spelling. What do you do in your classroom? What are your thoughts?

I too use the weekly spelling lists. However, my lists do not come from a spelling book. I either use words from the novel we are reading or words pertaining to something going on around us. I believe it is very important for children to be able to spell. Maybe I feel this way b/c my students have to take the NC Writing Test. Conventions do count and I feel that I need to use the spelling lists to help them along.

Dawn,
Dawn C. and I both use weekly spelling tests as well as daily activities to go along with the words. We don't use a "book". Our new reading series has integrated grammar and spelling using the weekly stories. We use these so that the students are seeing the words in a number of different places. Exposure is the key.

I give my Kinders spelling test the last 3 months of school. Sight words and decodeable words. We work on writing and spelling conventions all year, but most of them do not start showing it until the end or in first grade. Most of the time it is left up to me to get them their. If they do not speak English at home. Night readers and vocabulary words are not beneficialthat. I read with every students twice weekly; I know I need to do this daily, but without an assistant it is very difficult to get everything done the way it should be done.
Their five and six years old; a nose bleed, a sick child, a 20 minute phone call from a parent, etc. These are thing that take away from critical instructional time. I try to do any many things as I can in large group. I know that small groups work best with my diverse population.
Now, I am trying to get the children to use the word wall to spell words correctly. It takes them some time to get use to using resources. They are using the word processing program to type a story using selected sight words. They have to arrange the words to make a sentence or two using correct writing conventions.

At the beginning of the year I used the word list from our Scott Foresman basal with the vocabulary as extra credit. I try to do something with spelling 3-4 days out of the week. We usually mark the words up phonetically and write them 5x in cursive on Mondays, alphabetical order on Tuesday, sentences or a story on Wed. or Thurs., and the test on Friday. Last year I had three different spelling groups. However, my children struggled so much this year that I only have one main group with the exception of 1 child. I also use Amy's technique with words in context. Math vocabulary is so important for the E.O.G. so I use a lot of terms from that area.

I have used spelling books in the past too. There are benefits from both. We no longer have spelling texts for 3rd grade, so it is not an option now. This week I used holiday words.

In first grade we have a list of sight words that we have to teach throughout the year. I do this with spelling. We learn five words each week and then I get two challenge words from our theme units each week. We do different word games with our spelling words each day. We play guess the covered word, be a mind reader, and we begin the week with chanting and cheering the words. I think this is the four block method. It's like the rest of the training we get- a little here and a little there. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing or not. I know that my kids are learning to spell and they are carrying the spelling over to their writing so that's what matters to me. They LOVE spelling in first grade and look forward to the tests on Friday. We always play a game of SPARKLE before the test for a review and that gets them ready to go! After the words are learned for the week, we put them on the word wall for future reference in writing.

Going to the regional spelling bee in Winston-Salem in 1980 is one of my most memorable experiences from middle school. Of course, I didn't advance past the regionals. I don't think a great deal of emphasis was placed on spelling when I was young, but the spelling bee was a big deal. Nobody really wanted to miss a word and have to sit down. I laugh now because my spelling is terrible. I give my students a set of spelling words each week. Sometimes the words come from the spelling book and sometimes I take them from the novels we read. The fifth grade teachers at my school actually requested that we use the spelling books in fourth grade. The lessons focus on a particular phonics skill. We have a spelling program that goes along with our basal readers as well. My students are just not as interested in the stories from the basal. They enjoy reading from the novels.

I do many of the same things for spelling as Shannon. We put our words on the "Word Wall" and students can look up their throughout the year to spell them correctly in their writing. It works well to reinforce each word throught the end of the year and they are responsible for making sure all of the word wall words are spelled correctly. WHen I do literacy centers we have a spelling center were they use different materials or ways to spell that week's words. I have started to use a website to make crossword puzzles. I included a couple of links to some great sites.

http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
http://www.teach-nology.com/
http://www.varietygames.com/CW/
http://www.edhelper.com/crossword.htm

The students also write their words with watercolors, chalk (on the basketball court, rainbow words with crayons, shaving cream (cleans desks too!), wiki sticks, value of a word (add the cost of each letter with a calculator, and others I can't think of now. THe kids love these activities and it gives them time to practice. I'm not sure if any of these activities would work in upper grades but they are great for K-2 classes.