Word study in my room has evolved over the years. The past few years we did word study during Daily 5. This year, I have a 20 minute block of time at the end of the day for it and I love it. I love giving them consistent practice with their words.
Planning and Prep:
I use Words Their Way for my spelling program. The program comes with an inventory to assess the students at the beginning of the year. Today I realized that I could just put the inventory word list on Spellingcity.com. Any time I get a new student they can take the test on the computer so I don't have to keep giving it over and over. Duh! I wish I would have thought of that much sooner.
After grading the tests and using the WTW evaluating system, I group them into 3 groups. Each group has a color assigned because that is the color paper their words are copied on. I copy all the word cards for one quarter and file them by weeks so they are ready to go when I need to hand them out.
Our Schedule:
I don't do the traditional Monday-Friday schedule. I stopped doing that a couple of years ago because I wanted the kiddos to have more time with their weekly words. This year I am giving them their new words on Thursday. They have to write their words in their agenda, cut the words out and try the sort out. While everyone is doing that, I pull groups to the table and go over their sort for the week.
Friday, Monday, and Tuesday are dedicated to practice. Each day, they need to do the Must Do on the poster.
Friday- Written Word Sort: They sort their cards and write the sort in their word study notebook.
Monday- Speed Sort: They use a sand timer to do a speed sort 3 times with their cards.
Tuesday- Graph Sort: They sort their word cards and graph the word patterns.
After they complete the Must Do for the day, they can choose an activity from the list. Right now their only choices are dry erase boards and Rainbow Roll-N-Write by a Cupcake for the Teacher. I will add more activities to the list as the year goes on. I also try and call groups during their practice days and play a game with them for practice.
On Wednesday I give the test. I call out 10 words for one group at a time while the rest of the kids read a book. Then they glue their word cards into their word study notebook. It goes quickly once they learn the routine.
To help them remember what they need to do each day I made posters that I put on the board for them to refer to. No more, "I don't know what to do." If you'd like the posters I made click on the pic below.
I'd love to hear how you run your word study time. I'm always looking to freshen things up with new ideas!
Labels: Word Study
