Words Their Way

Even during my first year teaching (not so long ago) I was uneasy about assigning a spelling list every Monday and testing every Friday. It felt like a throwback, the only thing in my classroom that resembled what I did in elementary school decades ago. It was very easy to plan for and parents seemed to appreciate the predictability, but those are really the only things in its favor.

Anyone who has taught spelling this way will tell you that certain students will ace any spelling test, while others will struggle on any. Those in between tend to earn scores that reflect how well they studied. But nobody seemed to remember how to spell those 10-20 words after test day, let alone others that follow the same pattern. Differentiating for these students was often little more than cutting the list down or adding to it.

My limited experience with Words Their Way has already improved on this model. I knew this year's class included a great many students who needed extra help and just as many (if not more) who needed an extra challenge. And in any classroom, we need to be teaching every student at his or her level. 

After I gave the benchmarking test (called an inventory) I found that most of my students fell into two large groups with the rest in a few very small groups. Each group works on a word sort. I haven't had too much trouble keeping track of who's doing what, just using a Google spreadsheet helps me see who is using what list. 

Different teachers handle the practice and assessment differently, but the Words Their Way program includes all the word sorts for each level, and unit assessments for each unit. At the end of the week, I have the students glue their sort into place, so I'm still assessing them weekly. Students who score 80 percent or above move on to the next sort. Those who have trouble can repeat their sort the next week and get some extra help.

A lot of teachers will make up a weekly schedule of things to do with the sorts. I perused some of these but none of them seemed to fit well with what we were doing. Right now, nearly all of my students are sorting cards with only pictures on them. Soon they'll have a mix of words and pictures, but for now I don't see the value in having everyone rainbow write their words when they haven't seen the correct spelling. Ultimately, I don't spend a lot of class time on the sorts. My students pull them out and work on them first thing in the morning, which I love. I have struggled forever to come up with a "bellringer" activity that was more than just busy work. This way they get differentiated instruction that involves zero extra photocopying and grading. 

They also can use them for Word Work during the Daily 5. Then they can take a stab at rainbow writing them or spelling them with magnetic letters. I also pull groups to work with me on their sorts at this time.

Otherwise, they do their practice games at home, on their own time. A lot of teachers have made excellent homework contracts for Words Their Way and many of them are free on TpT. I just made this one because I wanted something that was designed to work with the picture sorts. I made one almost like it for word sorts to make an easy transition once we start seeing more of those.

I also made up a progress chart for one set of sorts. I found some good ones for Letter Name-Alphabetic sorts and Words Within Words sorts at this TpT store, but couldn't find one for my little friend who is working in Early Derivational sorts (yes, this is first grade!) So I made something very similar. This is for those of you looking for a way to keep track of your Words Their Way progress in Data Binders.

Sorry this isn't prettier...it's looks better in person!

Happy sorting!

Five for Friday! {with a freebie}

Linking up with Doodle Bugs again for Five for Friday. Let's roll!

By Friday night last week I had both my new laminator and color ink in my possession. So I did what any young, energetic person with an exciting life does on a Friday night. I stayed up until (almost) midnight printing, laminating and cutting. I got some awesome goodies from A Sunny Day in First Grade and First Grade Fairy Tales, plus I finally got to print and hang my "I Can" statements!

Reading Literature and Informational Text standards near the CAFE menu.

Reading Foundational Skills near the word wall and some of the Word Work choices.

I also have a writing bulletin board where I hung the writing standards, but somehow my phone purged that photo. Still trying to figure out where to hang the Speaking/Listening and Language standards. I may split the Foundational Skills standards into even smaller groups so I can post certain standards near the word work students do to reinforce them.

I use these little magazine holders from IKEA for book boxes for Daily 5. They definitely are not as sturdy as plastic ones but are much cheaper and easier to find. I bought all the plastic ones on sale at Target today for $3 -- they only had six! And they don't seem to sell them except during back to school season. My amazing paraprofessional spent a ton of time reinforcing them with colorful duct tape. A lot of them held up really well, others needed more reinforcing at the end of the year. They had been taking up an entire countertop, so I bought these white shoe shelves at Target. They are $14 but you can get them for $12 with Cartwheel. I needed three to hold 25 book boxes. In case you're wondering if they are strong enough to hold an average sized woman while she hangs something up high...

they're not. Thank goodness for Cartwheel.

Added plus, they give me two extra sets of shelves below for storing Daily 3 math stuff, and I have that whole countertop to do...something with.

This year will be my fourth year teaching. Where I am, that means I have been pink slipped three times. This past year went a lot better than the others because I got rehired before the year was out. It's been amazing to have the end of the year and the whole summer to get ready for next year. And truth be told, my (fantastic) classroom paraprofessional did a ton of the work at the end of the year. The biggest project was a class set of OWL binders!

Cover

 

Rules and guidelines.

I can't take credit for the idea. The other first grade teacher and her former colleague had been doing these for years before I came along. She gave me everything she used, and I just put my own little twist on it.

Making these last summer was how I got really indoctrinated into the notion of an organized classroom. I always figured I was pretty organized, or organized enough. But these blew my mind.

They have a zippered pencil pouch, the planner that the school buys, and a homework folder. Then there are two sections in the back set off by cardstock dividers. One is for all the various calendars (behavior, reading, snack), the other is for sight words, quarter by quarter. And everything is labeled with freaking labels.

The kids have exactly one thing to pack up every day. The parents have exactly one thing to check every night. I have exactly one thing to check every morning. It has revolutionized a lot of what I deal with and don't have to deal with day to day. I am now debating what to have the kids do first thing in the morning while I stamp. What do you do to start the day?

Being at home for the summer never fails to impart some domestic lessons. Among these:

• Krazy Straws that go through the dishwasher cease to be Krazy.
• If the living area of your house is 50% carpet, and your cat coughs up a hairball five days a week, the hairball will be found on the carpet roughly 100% of the freaking time.
• If rain doesn't fall from the sky without provocation, you must actually step onto your deck and water your plants. 
• On the scale of difficult tasks, vacuuming a living room bursting with tiny plastic food, a rainbow of Duplos, and Thomas the Tank Engines of every possible size falls somewhere between alligator wrestling and nuclear fusion.

You made it to the freebie! Three cheers for stamina.

My district does Continuous Improvement/Quality Tools. The gist of it is that students are aware of and accountable for their own achievement. One of the ways we promote and track this is through Data Centers. 

A Data Center is a bulletin board with charts where your class tracks its achievement on various measures. Last year I had four charts: behavior, math assessments, weekly spelling tests, and reading (sight words). My room is owl themed (can you believe it?!) so these charts are too.

It's all in Google docs for you to play with.

The math chart is based on a 20 unit schedule. This is my master plan for next year, though I confess being frightened. Another teacher in my district has made some amazing assessments for each of these units, and you should really check out her blog while you're at it.

Have a fabulous weekend!


Mrs. F-W

ELA "I can" Statements

I finally polished these off tonight! If you know me personally, you know I am a little obsessed with (preoccupied with, fixated upon, dedicated to) finding exactly the right word for everything. That means, as I read each standard, I had to pretend I was explaining it to my students and think of how I would translate it. Some didn't change very much, but most I completely reworded.

I am really excited to get them all up in my classroom (and take some pictures). I'll be in there sometime next week when I can finagle everything with my little guy's day care. He's going to a new place this year, which makes me nervous. They are also apprehensive about his cloth diapers. My master plan is to have him potty-trained in the next three weeks! That sounds like it should work out just perfectly. ;)