School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 Getting Started with Sitton Spelling and Word Skills A Q&A of Tips & Tricks to Facilitate Implementation ~ Grade 5

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How does Sitton Spelling and Word Skills differ from a traditional spelling program? There is no Friday test; in fact, a lesson of study often takes more than one week to complete. The goal changes from doing well weekly to spelling well in real writing across the curriculum. The focus is not memorization; it is a word study that requires a higher thinking skills approach. The lessons are cumulative and sequential, including additional no-excuse words each year. Evaluation is done via authentic assessments and practice.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How do I begin organizing for instruction? Possibilities include: Read Teaching Notes, pages View Tutor Me tapes. Tab the manual as it works for you. Plan on not doing every activity. Use page 401 for planning purposes.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What are the components of a typical unit? Word Preview Seeds for Sowing Test ReadyTake Home Task Word Test Words-to-Learn (Students word list) Teacher selected: Skill Test, Proof It, Review worksheet, Exercise Express activities, and Sentence Dictation

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 Basics & Electives

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What is the focus of the Build Skills and Word Experiences part of the lesson? This activity encourages student brainstorming. Students generate Word Lists that go with the concept being taught. Students background knowledge is quickly accessed and shared.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What is the Word Preview? The Word Preview is a visual warm-up of high frequency words (that do show up on cloze procedures).

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What is the focus of the Assess Words and Skills part of the lesson? This section assesses word knowledge from previous units, including… Correct spelling Appropriate word use in context Progress in mastering the focus skills/concepts Proofreading ability Mechanics

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How do I effectively use the posters? Posters are useful … to help provide a lesson focus. to provide charts for students referral (such as the Homophone Poster). to copy as needed to place in student folders.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What materials need to be prepared in advance of the lesson? An overhead transparency may need to be made for Seeds for Sowing. Copies may need to be made for Exercise Express, the Take Home Task, and Words Test. Dictionaries are often a valuable resource.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How could students organize their materials? Teachers choice: Spiral notebooks Pocket folders Others?

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How do I know which concepts/activities are the most important for my students to learn? Teachers observation of students needs ….what are they ready for? ….what needs to be reinforced? Teachers understanding of the material ….whats entailed in the lesson? ….what is too easy/too difficult? See Teachers Note, p. 326 As always, match activities to state indicators to see which ones support required instruction.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 Should I create a spelling list in addition to the cloze, skill, and dictation tests in the program? No!

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What is the best way to incorporate the writing skills activities? Writing skills activities may be used as mini- lessons for Writing Workshop or as small group guided writing lessons.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How do I determine spelling grades? It is expected that students will be graded on Word Test and a random sampling of No Excuse words. In addition, teachers may choose to grade Skill & Proofreading, Dictation, and the Take Home Task. See Teachers Notes on pages 338 and 350.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 What information should I share with parents? Parents will appreciate knowing… that there is a big change in SCMs spelling instruction. the answer to the question, Wheres the weekly spelling list? that the Take Home Test is a parent/child activity. where to find a helpful DVD for viewing and the website with an informative Sitton newsletter.

Tried-and-True Helpful Tips for Implementation Exercise Express is great to do when a guest teacher is in the classroom. Sentence Dictation is a good accommodation for high achievers. Use the flip side of Word Test for each students words-to-learn list. For those students with tracking issues, highlight the blanks in the cloze activity. Record keeping file folders may be helpful in which to keep copies of Word Tests for particular students at conference time. During brainstorming activities, use the glossary from content subjects.

School City of MishawakaSpring 2007 How do I subscribe to the Sitton newsletter? Go to and click on the E-Newsletter link at the bottom of the page. You will come to this page where you may access the archived newsletters, as well as subscribe to future editions.