I use Words Their Way in my 4th grade classroom. At our first meeting with each group, we took a pretest of ALL the words the students would learn througout the year from their individualized word sorts. I didn't call out every word, just the ones I felt they would see the most often. We then went through and corrected all the words with colored pencil so they would stand out. Yes, this took a LOOOONG time. Students then wrote all of their misspelled/corrected words on index cards. We call these our "spelling flashcards." The students use these cards to play spelling center games.
I have 4 different skill groups this year. I see one group per day Mon-Thu to introduce the sorts. I make a generic "spelling packet" with activities for each day of the week. Once I introduce the sort words, the group completes one activity per day of the packet. By the time I get back around to them, they've had a full week to complete the packet. This way the words are individulized but all students get the same practice activities. It makes it more of a "word study" than simply spelling.
On Fridays, I pull five of their spelling flashcards at random. If they can correctly spell the words I call out, I give them a small prize (usually a sticker or pencil). Believe it or not, they really try hard for this!
Here is an example of last week's spelling packet that you can download for free at my TPT store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Weekly-Spelling-Packet-Activities
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