Katie Beach READ 436

Word Study Minilesson Reflection

After speaking with my cooperating teacher, she informed me that she would like me to work
with a certain group of four struggling spellers on their current level spelling list—Letter-Name
Alphabetic from Words Their Way. Specifically, Sort 43: Short E, O, and U Vowels. This spelling
list included the words: trot, fret, glum, gruff, dress, plug, fluff, from, club, plot, bled, slug, cross,
frog, slob, gloss, sled, drop, flop, plum, drum, drug, truck, and slot. I was surprised at the group
of students she gave me to work with as two of them seemed like they would be much more
advanced spellers than they were; they were both more advanced readers, but my cooperating
teacher informed me that she believes one of them may be dyslexic, noting that students who are
often wonderful readers but poor spellers have more of a tendency to actually be dyslexic.
I reviewed the spelling list she gave me and the features of the words included in it, and
found the commonalities between the words which was often the vowel in each word—E, O, or
U—or the beginning word blend. Next, I divided each word up into its beginning, middle
(vowel), and end sounds, and created small tile cards with each sound written out on it. For
example, take the word “cross;” I divided it into three parts: “cr-,” “-o-,” and “-ss,” and wrote
each part of the word on a portion of an index card I cut into squares. Then I took three paper
bags and wrote “Beginning Sounds” on one bag, “Middle Sounds” on another, and “End Sounds”
on the last bag. Finally, I placed each card with a part of a word on it in its corresponding bag (i.e.
“cr-“ would go in the “Beginning Sounds” bag, “-o-“ would go in the “Middle Sounds” bag, and
“-ss” would go in the “End Sounds” bag).
I used the bags and the cards inside to create a sort of word study game; one at a time,
students were to pull one card from each bag in order, and determine if they were able to build a
real word using the cards they pulled (preferably one of their spelling words), figuring out what
the word was by speaking the three different parts of the word aloud, blending the sounds
together and identifying the vowel in the word. If they pulled cards that did not create a real word,
they were to determine which part(s) of the word they could switch out for another card (and
know what the new card should have written on it). Most often a real word was not created from
each original three-card draw and I had to guide students through what they could do to make a
real word. This scenario actually happened to the boy who was a more advanced reader than
speller, except he did not need my help at all in swapping out his cards to form a real word. I
wondered then if the spelling group he was in may have been too low for him, as I originally
would have suspected had I not known he is potentially dyslexic.
Katie Beach READ 436

The idea of the game led me to have my students do a word sort rather than a picture sort, and
before they played the game I had students sort the words in their spelling list based on their
beginning and end sounds, as well as based on the vowel in each word, or middle sound—
therefore, only three features were used in sorting words.
I introduced the sort by saying that I was excited to work with a small group of students and
get to know them better, and had a special spelling game to play with them, but first they had to
sort out the spelling words we would be working with in order to gain a better understanding of
them by grouping them a few different ways: by the different parts of each word (beginning
sounds, middle sound—or the vowel, and end sound).
The sorts before the game only took students about three minutes to complete, and none of
them made any mistakes, sorting all words in a way that made sense. For example, some students
sorted words by beginning sounds based on the first letter of each word, or based on the first two-
letter blend (i.e. “fr-“ and “dr-“ would be sorted together, in that case). Students sorted words by
end sounds based on the last one or two letters in each word, and were able to see the E, O, and U
vowel trend when sorting based on vowels.
I followed the sorting checklist given in class by modeling, asking questions of students, and
gently guiding them every step of the way when necessary. The headers, or categories, for the
sorts were clear and they were also written out on each bag for the game. I modeled how to sort
and play the game before students dove into the activities on their own, I confirmed with students
what each sort was representing, I made sure the letter tiles in each bag were shuffled by shaking
the bags before the game, and each student sorted their spelling words individually using their
lists and writing in their notebooks. I monitored what each student was doing during the sort and
occasionally asked them to speak a word blend aloud, and spoke any blends myself that they were
having trouble with, although this did not happen often as they were well-versed with their
spelling words and how they sounded. After the sort I paired students up and had them read their
sorts aloud to one another, and while I intended on helping them correct any mistakes made and
would have done so, it was not necessary as all sorts were successful and made sense according to
student explanations to me regarding each grouping of word parts.
With respect to the word building game, each student was excited to take a turn to attempt to
make a word, and although most of them found it challenging to swap portions of words out to
create a real word, they enjoyed the game and had fun. However, all four of them thought that
sorting the words was quite simple across the board.
Katie Beach READ 436

Unfortunately, each of the students who played did not end up having time for a turn in the
fifteen minutes, and one of them became upset. As far as classroom considerations and if I were
to do this activity again or something similar in the future, I would either allot a bit more time to
play the game, or divide the students I was working with into pairs in order to ensure each student
got a turn, and if not—at least they would not be alone in not getting a turn as their partner would
not have one either. The student who became upset eventually got a turn to build a word before
we headed to lunch.
As far as word study instruction in my future classroom the schedule will be as follows:
Every Monday I will provide students with new spelling lists based on their reading level for
them to review and copy into their notebooks; they will be placed into small groups
homogenously based on their reading level as well, yet, these groups will be flexible and fluctuate
often based on spelling progressions. They will also sort the words somehow, depending on the
word study skill they need the most help with or what we are focusing on as a class (for example,
we may be learning about homophones that week, or certain students may need more work with
their beginning-word blends). On Tuesday, they will be paired up to do more advanced sorts and
activities including timed sorts, and on Wednesday they will do other various activities like a
Wordle, individually. Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s schedule could also be swapped depending on
teacher preference and student readiness. On Thursday they will do some sort of partner or group
word study game like the one I implemented with my small groups of students for this
minilesson, and on Friday, students will finally be given a spelling test on the set of words they
were given on Monday.
Throughout each week I will assess students by collecting and reviewing their written word
sorts created around sound, pattern, and meaning. As I noted before in the schedule, at the end of
each week I will give students a spelling test so I can observe and determine how they are
progressing, and potentially switch groups around.
In order to carry out word study instruction and activities I will need a class set of white
boards and dry erase markers, cut-outs—or “tiles” of pictures and/or whole words and parts of
words (i.e. different forms of manipulatives), and notebooks and pencils for written sorts, lists,
and spelling tests.
Katie Beach READ 436

Word Study Minilesson

Photos of Materials Used