Integration of Phonics, Phonemics, Spelling and Vocabulary Development.

As part of the movement toward the integration of spelling into a focus upon phonetic and phonemic development (within our balanced literacy approach) the grade level words you find here form one ingredient of an overall effective instructional design. The design emphasizes the exposure to and use of grade level 'priority' and 'core' words along with instruction in word study. The ongoing formative assessment is used (Words Their Way Spelling Inventories) as the basis upon which instruction is differentiated within flexible groupings in all of our K-5 classrooms. These are the foundations, which research highlights, to implement when forwarding phonetic and phonemic awareness as a key aspect in the development of student literacy.

The words in this word bank are listed in the order of their frequency of use in everyday writing.  Since ‘the’ is the most frequently used word in our language, its number is one in the word bank.  The first 25 words are used in 33% of all everyday writing, the first 100 words appear in 50% of adult and student writing, and the first 1,000 words are used in 89% of everyday writing.

“No Excuses” Words or Priority Words

“No Excuses” Words are those which students are held accountable. They are expected to spell them correctly in all of their everyday writing.  They are taken from the list of core words.  Below are the groups of words which we expect most children to master by the end of his/her grade level.  Please help your child to spell these words correctly in their everyday writing.  Not all classes or all children will have the same number of priority words at any given time.  Spelling is both a developmental and highly individualized skill so teachers attempt to meet the needs of their classes within the framework of the program.

Grade 1:  words 1-21

Grade 2:  words 1-36

Grade 3:  words 1-60

Grade 4:  words 1-100 

Grade 5:  words 1-150

Core Words

The Core Words are taken from Rebecca Sitton’s research and are divided by grade levels. They provide a foundation for each grade level to be included in word study and spelling exploration and as such are a springboard for the study of hundreds of additional words.

                                    Grade 1:  word frequencies 1-30

                                    Grade 2:  word frequencies 31-130

                                    Grade 3:  word frequencies 131-265

                                    Grade 4:  word frequencies 266-400

                                    Grade 5:  word frequencies 401-600 and beyond to 6th and above