Ashleigh Brown

Berwyn Heights
2nd Grade
2018
Words Their Way Student Impact Project

I selected encoding as the skill I wanted to focus on for my impact project. I selected this
skill due to the fact that many students in my class have a hard time writing out the sounds they
hear. This is partially due to challenges of them being English language learners, as fourteen of
my students are ESOL. My mentor and I worked together to select the students I would be
working with for this project. We mainly based the decision off of students’ weekly spelling
tests, classroom assignments and general classroom observations of the students. The students
in my classroom are very diverse in ability levels. My class as a whole ranges from significantly
below grade level to above. Student DRA scores range from a two all the way to a thirty four.
The students selected for my impact project mainly fall into the middle range on grade level
group, their scores range from 24 to 34. The five students in my group all come from the
highest two, of four, reading groups.
I decided to do a Words their Way spelling inventory as my pre and post assessment.
Specifically, I selected the primary level inventory since my students are in second grade. I
would give the spelling inventory to the students in my group and then analyze it using the
Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory Feature Guide. I gave the five students in my
impact group the pretest and then completed a features guide for each of them to analyze their
areas of strength and need. After completing a Words Their Way Primary Spelling Inventory
Feature Guide for each student I then looked at overall areas of strength and need to find the
focus areas for my group instruction. The students in my group did well with the beginning and
final consonant sounds, short vowels and even diagraphs and blends for the most part. Based
on the pretest their major areas of need would be common long vowels, other vowels and
inflected endings. In figure number one below you can see the breakdown of each students
score in each of the categories for both the pretest and the post test. Figure number two shows
the total number of words correctly spelled and the total number of feature points earned on
both the pretest as well as the post test.
The following standards are addressed throughout the course of this project. With the
main objective being that students will use learned spelling patterns when writing words and
for students to be able to use phonemic awareness and spelling conventions to spell other
untaught words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when writing.
 Text feature points on pre and post tests
Consonants Short Common Other Inflected
Diagraphs Blends
Initial Final Vowels Long Vowel Vowels endings
Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post
Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test
Student #1 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 5 5 2 3 3 6

Student #2 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 7 5 7 4 3 4 5

Student #3 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 7 2 4 3 4

Student #4 7 7 6 7 6 7 5 6 4 4 3 4 1 1 2 4

Student #5 7 7 7 7 6 6 5 7 5 5 5 6 1 1 2 2
Figure 1

Total scores on pre and post tests

Pre Test # of Post Test # of Pre Test # of Post Test # of
words correct words correct feature points feature points
Student #1 12 17 45 49

Student #2 14 18 47 49

Student #3 15 20 46 50

Student #4 7 13 34 40

Student #5 11 13 38 40
Figure 2
 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.2.D
Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage → badge; boy → boil).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2.D
Use conventional spelling for words with common spelling patterns and for frequently
occurring irregular words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.2.E
Spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling
conventions.
I based my lessons, games and activities off of things found in the Words Their Way
book by Donald Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, and Francine Johnston. One of my
sessions was a blend bingo game. For this game students had a variety of different blends listed
on the bingo boards. I would pull a card and read the word aloud to the students, they would
then have to decide what the beginning blend was in the word I was reading. If they had it on
their bingo board they could cover it. I gave students a chance to decide for themselves what
the blend was before I asked what blend we should cover for that word to ensure everyone had
the correct answer. Some of the other activities completed over the course of the project
include a spelling jeopardy game, a spelling race where students were given the letters needed
to spell ten different words, I read each word one at a time and the students had to correctly
spell it by rearranging the letters and a spin a word activity where students had to spin spinners
to get letters and then put them together sound them out and determine if it makes a real or
nonsense word. Each of the activities was focused on a different skill area such as inflected
endings, common long vowels, initial and finial consonants and short vowels. As you can see in
figure two every single one of my five student improved their score both by number of words
spelled correctly and by number of feature points earned.
Students in this group still need continued practice on these spelling conventions and
patterns in order to improve even more. There is still room for growth particularly in the areas
of other vowels and inflected endings. Students can continue to practice by using flash cards,
completing their nightly spelling homework and continuing to learn and practice a variety of
spelling conventions (such as rules for making words plural). Parents can simply read words
aloud and have their student try and phonetically spell them. Afterwards they can go over them
make corrections and then the student can practice them. With the limited practice these
students had over these sessions all students showed growth and improvement. As long as they
continue to put in work and practice their spelling they will undoubtedly continue to show
growth in their ability to encode.

References:
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., Johnston, F. R., & Bear, D. R. (2016). Words their
way: word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
 Student Work Samples:
Student #1
Student #2
Student #5 Student #4 Student #3