School and the City

I've already written all about my spelling bins that my students use to independently practice their spelling words. My students love the spelling bins, but sometimes they prefer working with their classmates.  Spelling lists and spelling groups are hard enough to organize and implement without having to also keep up with specific games for every list or sort. These versatile activities are fun, engaging, and effective - and they can be used with ANY spelling list! Students practice all aspects of word study while working on these activities: spelling patterns, pattern generalization, and word meaning. The rules are simple, thus students can play independently once the game is taught. I have three options for you that I've been using in my own classroom for about 6 years (!!!) now: 1. Word Master This game is designed to be VERSATILE and EFFECTIVE. Word study or spelling groups are hard enough to organize without having to keep up with different game...

I receive a lot of questions about how I run my literacy block. At my school, our schedule is blocked out, but I have freedom to arrange my own blocks (if that makes sense). So my literacy block is 9:40 - 11:15, and this is what I've decided to do with it: We start right away with our minilesson. Students are fresh from recess and eat their snacks while I read and model strategies. From there, students move into their Daily 5 rotations. (Our school using CAFE & Daily 5, but I don't have time to rotate students through 5 stations daily, so I make sure some aspects of Daily 5 are integrated throughout the day!) I keep this as simple as possible. I occasionally change it up, but rarely! I have a chart in my room so students know exactly what their options are for each rotation. During this time, I pull small groups. You may notice I do not include myself as a rotation. I do this in order to provide flexibility for myself. Sometimes, I don't need to ...

As you may know, I was "promoted" to third grade this year. Because of that, I'm not using Words Their Way anymore (GASP - shocker, I know!). My students have a new spelling list each week, and after a few weeks, I realized I HAD to do something to make spelling practice more engaging for them. I decided to shop with Oriental Trading because they offer a TON of fun alphabet things ! I was impressed with the selection and was excited that I could purchase everything in one place. First, I looked for some letter tiles. I had some plastic tiles that my students loved using at the beginning of the year, but I confiscated them because they made so much noise while other students were trying to read or write. These tiles are colorful and QUIET! They are just thin pieces of cardboard, but I think they'll last a while if my students treat them correctly. Plus, it came with so many pieces, I put many pages aside in storage to pull out later if I need to. Find ...

I'm baaaack! My original blog post about running Words Their Way, called  Words Their Way: MY Way , is my most-visited and most-pinned blog post EVER. First of all, I'm totally flattered that anyone wants to read anything I have to say. Second of all, I GET IT! Words Their Way is the monster under the bed that makes you decide that, well, you'd rather stay safely in your bed than risk getting out of it. I love Words Their Way - don't get me wrong - but it can be completely overwhelming and consuming if you don't have an attack plan. Thus, I present to you... If you were directed here from my first post, thanks for reading! If you haven't read Part 1  yet, I suggest you start there first. Let's dig in! As many of you know, I started at a new school this year. My new school does use Words Their Way, but I have had to change up my routine a bit to best fit my new classroom. WORKBOOKS First of all, my school prov...

Words Their Way: SO overwhelming, am I right? We just started using Words Their Way this year. Although I was trained on WTW in college, I had NO IDEA how to implement WTW effectively in my classroom while differentiating to meet students' individual needs. Over the summer, my team decided that I was going to be in charge of word study, so I threw myself head first into Words Their Way. I read the books, read blogs, attended workshops, and watched videos.  I finally figured out how to implement WTW in my room. Maybe it will work for you, too!  ORGANIZATION First, you have to give your students the PSI or ESI test and score them using the WTW scoresheets. I don't fill out the scoresheets completely because I find that to be a royal waste of time. Instead, I circle the patterns that a student MISSES. When a student misses three in one column, I stop grading and plan to start the student on that skill.  I have a spreadsheet on Google Docs tha...