When I first started teaching, spelling was a bit of a mystery. Teachers in my school used a variety of methods. Some taught spelling and site words together, some used words from the outdated Reading series, some used vocabulary words, and some didn’t really do it at all.When I first started teaching I was lucky enough to have a wonderful mentor who’d gotten her Masters in Reading. She taught me so much, but perhaps the most valuable tool she gave me was teaching me about Word Study. After returning to school and getting my own M.Ed in Reading, I saw the research and understood how to make it work best for my students year after year. I got to work creating an entire series of spelling words that follow increasingly difficult spelling patterns. By learning to isolate these patterns in spelling, students simultaneously become better writers and better readers.I could go on and on about the importance of Word study. In fact, I’ve got an entire series on Word Sorts coming very soon. Today though, I wanted to share the order in which I teach these spelling patterns and explain why I chose this order.Through the years my grade level changed several times, the curriculum changed practically year by year, but my spelling methodology did not. In fact, I was able to take what I learned in graduate school, what I saw working from the various phonics programs that came and went, and my own observations about how students learned and devise a schedule that complimented my beginning readers perfectly.This spelling schedule served me in grades Kindergarten through mid year 2nd grade and helped hundreds of beginning readers grow in confidence and ability. This schedule, done daily with supporting word study activities gives beginning readers the foundation they need to become independent readers.So if you’re in search of an order to teach spelling using patterns, you’ve hit the jackpot! I’ve got 47 weeks of spelling instruction summed up in one blog post I’ve also condensed the highlights into a handy reference sheet for you. You can grab that at the end of the post.If you’re a teacher or homeschooling Mama, and crunched for time, you can check out my 48 Weeks of Spelling Lists packet on TPT. It’s the culmination of years of work and experience already done for you and made ultra affordable! I’m a Mom and teacher myself, and I understand the need to stretch a budget, so I price all my products accordingly and try to give away a ton of freebies in the process (& throughout this post)!This instructional unit comes with 48 weeks of spelling words following my recommended schedule. It also includes a super cute spelling Bingo homework sheet, spelling inventory assessments, and some free (&adorable) Spelling Test Sheets.If you’re not interested, I get it. I’m a DIY Mom myself. So I’d also like to show you how I did it.It’s worth saying again, my schedule could vary from other schedules you’ve seen but this is what I know works. I’ve got 10 years of students who benefited from it.

But First…

I’d feel bad if I didn’t start with a quick reminder. I’ve seen teachers jump into spelling before their students were really ready and it can cause a significant set back. Before starting any spelling program, a child should have a very solid understanding of letter sounds and how to segment short words.If by chance you’ve gotten ahead of yourself, no worries! I’ve got 26 weeks of free Letter of the Week lesson plans you can use to introduce letters and sounds.Or maybe you’ve introduced them and your kiddo needs just a bit more practice?This is something else that can be addressed through word study. My word study curriculum always starts with beginning sound sorts. Keep in mind, that’s not the only thing kids need to have mastered before beginning spelling. They should also be able to segment sounds and have a clear understanding of beginning, middle and ending sounds. I also introduce these through sorts utilizing letter cards and pictorial cues.Additionally, I’ve created a quick post explaining the sequence in which I teach letters and letter sounds. A lot of research shows that the order in which you introduce the ABCs is important. If you need more guidance with letters, be sure to check that out. I’ve even got a freebie included in the post!

Spelling Progression

Once your student has a solid understanding of beginning, middle and ending sounds and how to segment words, they are ready to begin word sorts. I like to think of this progression as fluid as it can be adapted to fit each child. As a teacher, I tried to do separate spelling groups based on ability. Some students progress very quickly through this sequence, and others take a little longer. You may need to shorten or lengthen time spent with each spelling rule depending on the needs of your student(s). This schedule however, provides a solid progression of spelling instruction for any student. I’ve included a couple of free weekly spelling words in case you’re interested in my 48 Weeks of Spelling Words. To download all you have to do is click on the image!

Short Vowel Families

Once you’re sure they’ve got a firm understanding of how to segment sounds you can then begin working with simple CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant words) aka word families. I introduce them in this order: a, i, o, u, e.I spend 2-3 weeks on each letter sound depending on how many word families are associated with each. While I do cover things like glued sounds and bonus letters more in depth later, some examples of these are included in my unit on short vowels. In my word study files, I also go ahead and include a couple digraphs and blends. I always briefly introduce them so the connection can help them in the future.At the conclusion of the short vowel unit, I do an additional two weeks of review combining all short vowel sounds. This helps me know if my student has a true understanding of these word families, or if I need to review specific families.

Glued Sounds, Bonus Letters, Digraphs and Blends

After my short vowel unit, I jump right into glued sounds and bonus letters. They have already had a brief introduction to these through their word family sorts.The order of my letters was based on how I saw them occur in leveled readers in my classroom. Obviously most leveled readers begin with a few sight words and some highly decodable words. Glued sounds, bonus letters, digraphs and blends, occur most frequently as you follow the natural progression of leveled readers.We do two weeks of each for a total of a month long unit. The glued sounds introduced are: ang, ing, ong, ung, ank, ink, onk, and unk. Bonus letters include: ss, ff, ll, and zz.Next we move into digraphs. They should have a decent understanding of this already through previous exposure so I just take 2 weeks to introduce 5 digraphs: sh, th, ch, wh, and ck.After digraphs we move to blends. There are quite a few more blends so we spend a bit longer on these. We cover l blends, r blends, s blends and 3 consonant blends. Due to the fact that there are quite a few different blends to cover, we stick with this for 6 weeks. This gives them plenty of time to practice working with short vowels also before progressing into harder things.

Plurals, Inflected Endings, Contractions, Compound & 2 Syllable Words

This is where I see a lot of programs switch things up. Some skip these parts to introduce vowel patterns.However, as I mentioned before, I based my spelling schedule on what I observed in leveled books, and while students reading on grade level at this point do encounter some vowel patterns, I found them to encounter inflected endings, contractions, compound and 2 syllable words more frequently.I begin first with plurals. Most students have naturally begun to recognize the /s/ at the end of plural words but some have trouble understanding that s can make the /s/ sound or the /z/ sound at the end of plural words. I spend a week on this.I then build upon that by introducing the s vs es rule. We spend a week on that as well.
From there we naturally segway into inflected endings. We do a week on ed endings and the different sounds they can make (/d/, /t/, and /ed/) and then move into ing endings. With ing endings we spend a week on adding them to base words and when to double the middle consonant.Contractions have usually come up occasionally in texts at this point and while students have exposure to them and may even be able to read them, they are not always able to understand them. So we spend two weeks exploring lots of different contractions and their word parts. This is one part of my spelling schedule that sometimes has to be extended as contractions can be a difficult concept for students to grasp.After contractions we move to compound & 2 syllable words. I love this part of our spelling schedule as it often is the point where readers that may have been straggling a bit finally start to understand how to decode larger words. Seeing the comparison of compound and 2 syllable words seems to be the final push they need sometimes.

Vowel Patterns and Bossy R

I start this part of our spelling instruction with Silent e. The majority of students have picked up on this naturally through reading instruction, but we still take two weeks for this. I want them to really switch gears from that short vowel mindset and I’ve found this really helps.We then move into bossy r. I take spend a week on the Bossy R triplets (ir, er, ur) and then a week on ar and or. Again, students have begun to recognize some of these as they read and may even recognize the pattern.The vowel patterns consist of a bunch of vowel combinations that form both long vowels and also unique sounds. This is where my spelling instruction schedule can vary. In reading groups I often point these out as they read so my students have had a good bit of exposure to this prior. Many years, I’m able to do these patterns in just a week. In addition to covering patterns, I sometimes throw in what we call “wild words.” These are words that do not follow any of the other patterns covered.I go in the following order:

• A Patterns (ai & ay)
• E Patterns (ee & consonant e), (ea – both sounds) (ea & wild words)
• I Patterns (ight & y), (imb, ild, & ind)
• O Patterns (oa), (oy & oi), (oo – both sounds), (old, ost, olk & & consonant o)
• U Patterns (ui, ue &ew)

I could keep going from here working with syllable types, suffixes, prefixes and much more. I may continue to at some point but, since my focus is on teaching beginning readers, I think I’ve got us covered for now.

Spelling Instruction

I do almost all of my spelling instruction using word study. Which is literally another post that will be coming very soon! I have a weekly routine that works well and I always test on Fridays. Spelling tests are completely independent. I call out words and use them in a sentence to emphasize them. This schedule works both one on one at home and in a classroom. As a Kindergarten teacher, I spent the first 12 weeks of school heavily focusing on introducing sounds (link letter of the week) . I usually start spelling lists in November or December, depending on my group of students.Should I return to teaching again, I plan to try more flexible spelling groups. While I’ve done a modified version of spelling groups before and found It is a bit of extra work, I do believe it will be worth it. Not all students learn at the same rate, and allowing them to work at their pace ensures they aren’t left behind. It also provides you a unique opportunity to challenge advanced students.I plan to keep 3-5 small groups in rotation and during this block of time, have students I’m not working with, complete the Working with Words part of their Daily 5 rotation. I do have a Working with Words menu I’d previously created for my 2nd graders. You can find those and menus I created for lower grades in my Working with Menus pack which is dirt cheap on TPT!To determine my groups I administer a Spelling Inventory (which you can find in my spelling bundle) and record results. I then examine the students individual inventories for patterns in needs and group students accordingly. For example, in one classroom, I could have a group working with short vowels, a group working with blends, a group working with silent e and a group working with vowel digraphs. These students would meet with me (and an assistant if available) daily to preform our weekly small group Word Study activities.

The rate at which we progress through the list depends on the needs of the group as a whole. I also keep these groups fluid and move students throughout if need be.This is just a small glimpse into how I teach phonics through Word Study. Again, I’ve got much more coming soon that explains my Word Study program in more detail so stay tuned! In the meantime be sure to check out my Sight Word Series for instructional tips and freebies!