Interactive Word Wall
Learning to Spell High Frequency Words in First and Second Grade (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Ages:
5-8
Grade Range:
1st 2ndFood Groups:
Primary: Spelling & Word Study, Vocabulary
Transcript
Behind me we have the class Word Wall, and in first and second grade this is a very important part of my writing program. I have filled the Word Wall with words that I have worked through with the students through shared writing or modelled writing or words that have come up in literature or read-Alouds, non-fiction texts. And these are words that are reflective of the high frequency words that students would use most often in their writing and in their reading. And when I add a word to the Word Wall, it's part of our process with students where we have a discussion on the carpet of how this word is coming up a lot in their writing or in writing that I'm doing with them, and how it's an important word to spell properly. I'm careful with the messaging about writing in first and second grade because I don't want to give students the impression that the only good kind of writing is writing that's spelled conventionally, but at the same time I want them to keep focused on their audience when they write and how writing is an interactive process of you write so someone can read it. And to do that effectively you have to be able to spell a lot of words correctly. So I help students to do that by creating an interactive Word Wall where we have words that they're familiar with, that they've been introduced to through whole class or small group teaching, and those words are added to the Word Wall for their use while they're writing. And one of the features of the Word Wall that students like and that I like is that it's interactive. So it's difficult for a first or second grade student to sit across the room and visually pick out a word like is from the I on the Word Wall. So what they're able to do is come up to the Word Wall, take that word off, and bring it back to their desk and use it in their writing, copy it, and then return it to the Word Wall. What makes it easy for students to take words from the Word Wall is that I've put each of the words on a little Velcro tab and it sticks to a Velcro strip, so they're able to come, borrow the word, and then stick it back onto the Velcro. So I've found the students have had a lot more success spelling high frequency words correctly if they have access to the Word Wall on a daily basis. Behind me you'll also see that one of the features of our Word Wall is the sign language alphabet, and this emerged from a wonderful opportunity that we had as a class to have a student teacher this year who has a hearing loss. And she spoke American Sign Language, or used American Sign Language, and came with two interpreters who interpreted everything she said for the students. And this provoked a lot of interest in the students in learning a little bit about sign language themselves. So I incorporated that into the Word Wall. And going forward I'm thinking, that's just a very good hook for students to give them a kinaesthetic connection to the alphabet, and another way of remembering the letters and how they're organized in our alphabetic system.
Related References
Graded lists of high frequency words have been developed by Fry and Dolch: http://www.k12reader.com/fry-word-list-1000-high-frequency-words/
Activity Objective
The goal of Interactive Word Wall: Learning to Spell High Frequency Words in First and Second Grade (Virtual Tour) is to help students to commit irregularly spelled high frequency words to memory and provide opportunities for exposure to and use of a variety of words.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- High frequency words are the words that appear most often in printed material. Direct students' attention to these words during read-alouds and shared readings. - Discuss the importance of recognizing high frequency words by sight and the direct impact of this recognition to reading fluency. - The more often students' are exposed to high frequency words the more likely they will be able to commit the spelling of these words to memory. - Create personal dictionaries and have students add new high frequency words to their dictionaries on a regular basis. - Make the word wall interactive by allowing the students to take the word off the wall and use at their workspace.
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Classroom Library: Promoting Independent Reading in First and Second Grade (Virtual Tour)
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