Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! You can tell it's summer because I have time to do a Five for Friday!

I just finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I am chronically disorganized and tried about a million things to get my house together. I don't think I realized how necessary it was to go to these lengths until I started.

You should really snap up a copy for yourself because the Kindle version is like $8 and you can read it in a couple of afternoons buuuut I will give a little synopsis. The author is a hugely successful professional organizer from Japan and has a whole philosophy of how to get nonsense out of your space so you can actually enjoy it. Basically, you purge everything from your home that does not "spark joy," minus a small handful of non-joyful necessities and the things you really want to have around. 

The first step is tackling all of your clothing. Getting started was intimidating, but once I piled everything on my bed and started handling it, I flew through it. After 45 minutes:

 Donate pile.

Keep pile. The few things on the floor were so beyond tattered I had to throw them away!

Ultimately I filled seven trash bags to donate and one to throw away. And my drawers and closet are still full! It was eye-opening -- even if I somehow managed to get it all clean at once, I could never put it away. Mount Laundry would never be conquered and I'd be pulling my outfits out of a pile on the floor well into my 30s. I can't wait to throw away more of my possessions.

I started using Words Their Way last year, and liked a lot about it. One area where we struggled was in our Data Binders. With so many different groups using different sorts (each with a different number of words) I couldn't find a good way for my kids to chart their progress.

This packet has charts that work a bit like goal sheets. There's a chart for each unit in what you might consider the first grade books (Letter Name Alphabetic and Within Word Patterns). On each chart is a space for each sort in that unit. Students can highlight, color in, stamp, etc. the space when they master the sort.

Last year, I assessed students weekly by having them glue down their sorts. For some that seemed to be a good indication of whether they understood the sort, but not for others. I'm not sure if I want to do it that way this year. How do you assess your students on their sorts?

Looking back on the last two months (during which I polished off my second class for my ESL endorsement and dragged my rear end into my classroom twice a week -- you know you're jealous) I've also watched a lot of TV. Namely Orange is the New Black and all three seasons of Inside Amy Schumer. It's going to take some conscious effort to clean up my language by August.

This is the home stretch of classroom set up. I don't foresee having a "big reveal" because it never seems fully ready. I tend to make a very long list of projects to complete over the summer and then scratch several off the list in the final weeks. I did manage to finish up a few things that I'm pretty excited about.

My anchor chart situation was a hot mess last year. I'll leave it at that. These graphic organizer chart pieces are from the Applicious Teacher and I also scored a cart that another teacher in my building no longer needed. It took a while to create and laminate all the charts, but now it's set for the year to fill and refill with sticky notes. Next to it I posted my I Can Statements for Speaking and Listening so we can incorporate those goals into our group discussions.

I also set up a space to hang the ones that we're currently working on. I'm really trying this year to embrace the idea of not filling every square inch of wall space and leaving some areas to hang current work.

That's also my idea behind my new focus wall. All I've hung are more I Can Statements and a pocket chart for math vocabulary. In the middle, I'm debating what to include. I'm thinking perhaps something that illustrates our current units for math and reading, such as a graphic organizer or small anchor chart/poster. I could also put formative data and goals from preassessments, but I'm not sure the best way to display it. But I knew for sure I wanted to keep it very simple. I don't think a board with 50 items on it could reasonably be called a "focus wall."

Every year I vow to devote more time to weeding my garden. Every year, something better comes up, such as not squatting in the dirt in the hot sun surrounded by hornets. But the monsoon rains of May and June did yield some big happy tomatoes.

If they could go ahead and just ripen simultaneously, they could become a big happy heirloom pasta sauce.

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!