Words Their Way
Last year, our district began implementing the Words Thier Way curriculum
for phonics and spelling instruction.
What is it all about?
The Words Their Way program teaches students the importance of word study through phonics,
vocabulary and the study of word patterns and their meaning. The program was reviewed and
approved by teachers across the Morton 709 district as well as the school board to be used in
Kindergarten through second grade classrooms. The main benefit of Words Their Way is that it
differentiates instruction, allowing each child to work at their appropriate instructional level.
Your student will be given an initial spelling inventory at the start of each semester to help guide us in placing them into a group of words. From this point, students will begin working with a different group of words each week. Words will be introduced every other Monday in class. Word work will include sorting their words into categories, and noticing similarities and differences between words that sound alike. They will also write sentences that include the week’s word pattern.
While there will no longer be a pre-test on the first day of the week, students will continue to have weekly spelling homework. Spelling tests will be given every other Friday. For each spelling test we will ask students to spell a group of words from their sort that week. Students will not necessarily be tested on every word from their sort. The main purpose of these spelling tests will be to help guide each student’s instruction, versus memorization of the words.
Words Their Way focuses less on memorization and more on allowing students to have a more hands-on approach to their learning. The Words Their Way program encourages family support at home.
We are very excited about the opportunity to work with your child using Words Their Way!
