Erin Waddell

Lesson: November 8, 2018

Word Study Mini-lesson

The purpose of this lesson in word study is for students to continue practicing sorting their
spelling words, gaining more confidence in the categories and how words are spelled similarly
and differently. With a game, they will receive extra practice in a setting different from their
regular practice, helping them engage with the words in a more enjoyable way.

This lesson will be led for two groups of students.

Materials:
- Game pieces to move along the board
- Mini-whiteboard
- Dry-erase marker
For each word sort
- Word sort cards (categories and words)
- Game board
- Word cards for the game

Procedure:
1. Students will come into a separate room during the class read-to-self time.
2. To begin the lesson, students will work on sorting the words together at the table. The red
group will be split into 2 groups since they have a large group.
a. They will have already completed the sort individually a day prior to the lesson,
so this sort as a group will be a review.
b. I will explain the categories again, asking them how they can tell which words go
where, before the students begin sorting. This will be important for them to know
for the game.
c. Then I will ask them to work together to sort the words into the categories.
3. Once the sort is correctly completed, I will explain the rules of the game:
Goal: The goal of the game is to move your game piece to the finish line.
Setup: There is a stack of cards, facedown, on the game board. These cards have
the words for the specific word sort on them. The game board fields are labeled
with the categories of the word sort. Students will place their game pieces in the
starting space.
Gameplay: On a student’s turn, I will draw a card and read the word to that
student. They then have to spell the word correctly, either by spelling it out loud
or by writing it on a mini-whiteboard. If spelled correctly, the student will state
into which category the word fits. Then the student moves their game piece to the
next spot labeled with that category. If the word is not spelled correctly, the card
 will be returned to the stack and the player does not move to the next space. This
continues until a student reaches the finish line, or until it is time for the students
to return to class.

*In the red group, students will play on teams of two, and they will be able to
work together when it is their turn. Since there is an odd number of students, I
will work with the 9th student.

*In the blue group, each student will play against the others.

4. Students will play the game with me, and I will monitor that they spell words correctly,
sort them correctly, and follow the game rules.
5. Students will re-join their class in the classroom.
 Before planning out my word study mini-lessons, cooperating teacher told me which

groups she would like me to work with, and what word lists they had. Since my CT alternates

weeks of word study and vocabulary, the word study lesson was scheduled ahead of time to be in

a week where the students would work on their words. Since they start their lists on Wednesday,

the students had already seen the words when I taught on Thursday, but they had not worked

with them very much at that point. Since my CT already had the next list of words, she wanted

me to continue with those. Because of that, I did not have much say in the selection of the word

lists, but I was still able to complete a word sort with the students and complete an activity with

them to reinforce those words.

I started with the “Blue Group” of students, who had the Adding –ion, e-drop and

Spelling Change word sort. This group only had 5 students, so I had them sort the words as a

group at the beginning of the mini-lesson. They enjoyed working together and talked about why

certain words went into certain categories in the sort. Then, I introduced the game, where

students would draw a word, spell it, and then categorize it by moving along the game board.

The group was really engaged in the game and was disappointed that we had to stop before the

game was finished. Though students took turns in the game, I encouraged all of them to practice

spelling each word on their whiteboard, even if it was not their turn. This way, they would be

able to practice more words and would have something to do while waiting for their turn. These

students continued to ask me to play the game for the remainder of the school day, which showed

me that they enjoyed learning in this way.

The “Red Group” was pulled from class next, which was a group of 9 students. I had not

considered the combination of students for this mini-lesson, and the Red Group is one that was

composed of students that tend to wind each other up during special activities. I split them into
two groups to sort their words, but they spent most of the time sorting by arguing who would sort

which word. Because of this, there was not much time left for playing the game. A good amount

of students wanted to play, but the rest of the group was so distracting, it took a long time to

explain the game and to begin playing. We only had time for each student to have a turn before it

was time to go back to class, so I do not know if they would have settled down once they fully

understood what was happening in the game. If I were to work with these students again, I would

break the group in half and only work with 4 or 5 students at once, because managing 9 students

in a room away from the classroom created a difficult learning environment. The room was also

not ideal for playing a game, since it was an old computer lab filled with rolling chairs, and there

was not really a good space around which 10 people could crowd. This is also something to keep

in mind for the future, as the space needs to be appropriate for the activity that is planned. In

general, this group required more structure than the previous group did, which could have helped

them focus more on the lesson.

I would include word study in my reading block as well. I have liked how my CT

alternates word study with vocabulary words so that students can focus on one set of words at a

time, but I am also open to doing it differently. The frequency would depend on the length of the

reading block that my future school has established, but I would love to spend a portion of each

day working with words so that students can practice them and grow in confidence. With regular

practice, students can solidify their knowledge and begin to apply it to the next set of words.

Students would be assessed with a spelling inventory in order to determine in which word

study stage they fall. As these can change throughout the year, assessing students regularly is

important to ensure that they continue to be placed at an appropriate level. I will group students

in these levels, moving them to various groups as is necessary. Students will begin a word study
with instruction on the word patterns of that list, and then they will complete a sort of the words.

Doing the sort multiple times is important so that students remember the sorts, and activities,

including games, allow students to work with the word in a more fun way. The materials needed

for any games will vary depending on the sort, but games such as the ones used in my practicum

class could be used multiple times by simply changing the word cards. This would also allow

students to understand the rules to the game, allowing them to play the game on their own

without needing me to explain the instructions to each word sort activity. This would create a

way for students to work in groups while I work with a specific group on individualized

instruction. By having activities to do with the students and activities that they can do without

me, I can have groups move through stations while I run one of those stations during word study

time.