Differentiated Instruction Part 1 - Spelling

Hey Everyone! It has been a few months since I have written, life has been so busy!

I was thinking this morning about some ways that you can differentiate instruction in your classroom. There are some very simple things you can do weekly that don't cause too much stress and time on your part. Most of the work can be done ahead of time.

Do you work in a district where the curriculum contains 10-20 spelling words, where you give the list on Monday (generally with a pre-test), work with them all week and test on Friday? If you do, then you are among the majority. Personally, I don't believe that is the best way to learn new words, but it is a good way to work on phonics methods. (Please make sure you also have a Word Wall!)

If you work in a general edu classroom, then you probably have several kids who get them all right during the pre-test on Monday. If you're like me, you can't see the benefit to these kids working with these words all week when they already know them all! So have another list. List A (the curriculum given words), List B (the next grade's words, using the same phonics rule) and List C (challenging words-much higher level, still keeping same phonics rule).

Here's how I do it:

Monday - pre-test everyone with list A then correct the words on the spot. Those who get them all right (I allow one wrong), then go on to a pre-test for List B. If they get them all right, they get handed List C - no pre-test.

Tuesday - Each student puts their own list words into ABC order.

Wednesday - A sentence using each word. This will be a challenge for kids who are on List C, as they may have never heard some of the words. Keep children's dictionaries on hand and be prepared to conference with them.

Thursday - Write the words three times each or unscramble the words. We also do a spelling bee on Thursdays, using current words and past words - good way to bring back past lists! BTW Kids LOVE spelling bees!

Friday - Test ... one at a time. First A, then B, then C.


A few notes:

1. Make sure the lists "look" the same. Parents get upset about stuff like this. Most will be fine with different lists for kids, but they won't be okay if they "look" different. Use the same paper or notebooks for each list.

2. Spelling notebooks are a great way to keep all of their weekly spelling work together. After the pre-test, their new list can be stapled or glued in to the notebook.

3. Make sure you have the weekly words posted somewhere in the room every week.

4. If kids get upset that they don't "make it past list A" just remind them that List A is where they should be and they just need to keep working hard. This will give them something to strive for and will give higher level students one more opportunity to work with higher level words.


Good luck differentiating!!! Look back for more ideas :-)


~Lisa