Oakland Terrace Spelling 4th Grade

Spelling ~ Grade 4

Hunts & Sorts
The Spelling Program at Oakland Terrace relies on students hunting for words in texts or anywhere they find print. They then sort the words they have collected in order to make generalizations about spelling patterns. Because English is such a difficult language to spell, students must learn many different ways to spell one sound (such as a long e sound). Students then can use the generalizations they have discovered to spell dozens if not hundreds of words, as opposed to simply the ten or fifteen on their spelling list. Fourth graders are mastering much for sophisticated spelling patterns than in previous years. Look below to see some of the patterns studied in Grade 4.

	Hunting for Compound Words Fourth grade students hunt in books for compound words. As a class, they find dozens and dozens of compound words in books they are reading, in their text books and anywhere they find print. A class list is kept (left). One student has found nearly 100 words that she collects in her spelling journal (below).

Hunting for OO Patterns The students hunt for the oo sound during the language arts block or for homework.	Sorting OO Patterns The class sorts the words they have collected into spelling patterns. Having students perform the sorting encourages them to internalize the spelling patterns.

Hunting for SH and CH Students hunt for SH and CH in their reading. Through spelling analysis, the teacher determined that many of her students struggled to spell words with these sounds.	Sorting SH and CH Patterns These patterns are a departure from earlier grades when SH and CH sounds were simply spelled as they sounded. These patterns are explained with a greater knowledge of etymology and root languages, such as Greek, Latin and even Romance languages such as Spanish.

This shows the student's work, hunting for the long O sound.	And sorting the words into patterns.

	Hunting for Long I and Sorting Long I