This was a short week and I don't feel as if I had ample time to work on the study of this week's words.
We again began with the pretest. Prior to the test, I had the students write their words in their planners instead of doing so after the test. I am not sure if this helped any of the students with the words during the pretest.
I put the kids into partner groups for the word sort this week and it made a huge difference. I will continue with this practice changing up the partners each week.
On Wednesday, I met with each group and we discussed the word pattern(s) they were looking at. I again had them sort their lists, but I put a twist on it. They had to look for certain sounds, patterns, spellings, word meanings, etc. Whatever seemed most important to the group.
I would have liked another day to work with the words, but since we didn't have school on Friday, I had to have our post test on Thursday. Only a couple of my students didn't fare well on the weekly test. Taylor is just not interested in doing school work, she would rather socialize, so I don't know how many of the words she can truly spell or if she just doesn't care. My other student, Brett, is in the wrong group, I think. He was in my long vowel group, but after the quarter assessment using Words Their Way, I found that he may be able to handle a more challenging list of words. I am going to see how he does next week and then I may need to make some adjustments.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Week of March 8, 2010
The week started out as usual with our pretest on Monday and then the kids wrote their words in their planners for extra practice after they corrected their lists.
I had them do their word sorts in large groups, not such a good idea. There were quite a few behavior issues and some stronger personalities took over and didn't allow others to help. I will need to make some changes regarding how I have them work on word sorts next week.
On Wednesday, I had the kids work on learning about the words. They worked in small groups to divy up the words. Each student wrote the word, used it in a sentence and then drew a picture of the word. They then had to share their words with the group. My intent was for the students to learn from each other, but their listening skills were quite lacking. Not a lot of shared learning occured.
I had the students play word games on Thursday. I have used different game suggestions from Words Their Way to provide extra practice for each group. The kids truly love it when they get to play the word games.
Friday was the post test, I have noticed some students are really accelling and others are really struggling. I am going to give it another week before I make some group changes.
I had them do their word sorts in large groups, not such a good idea. There were quite a few behavior issues and some stronger personalities took over and didn't allow others to help. I will need to make some changes regarding how I have them work on word sorts next week.
On Wednesday, I had the kids work on learning about the words. They worked in small groups to divy up the words. Each student wrote the word, used it in a sentence and then drew a picture of the word. They then had to share their words with the group. My intent was for the students to learn from each other, but their listening skills were quite lacking. Not a lot of shared learning occured.
I had the students play word games on Thursday. I have used different game suggestions from Words Their Way to provide extra practice for each group. The kids truly love it when they get to play the word games.
Friday was the post test, I have noticed some students are really accelling and others are really struggling. I am going to give it another week before I make some group changes.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
February 4, 2010
Guy has given me a great list of journal articles to read and reflect on regarding morphology. I have enjoyed the first four and have found research support for including morphological instruction in reading and spelling. I am now looking to include this instruction into my classroom. I am going to try using inverted triangles as a graphic organizer to work on morphemic awareness. I will do a whole class lesson this week to introduce and model for my students. Next week is a short week for our district, so instead of a spelling unit, we are going to do some vocabulary lessons with a focus on root words and prefixes. I am axious to teach those lessons and help my students explore new and exciting words. My plan is to continue reading the articles Guy suggested and to explore ways to include morphological instruction into my daily lessons.
February 9, 2010
We only have 3 days of school this week, so instead of doing a formal week of spelling, I decided to have a morphology awareness week. Yesterday I modeled and had the kids create Morpheme Triangles. You use an inverted triangle and break a word into its word parts. You use the inner corners to write the definitions and then create word lists on the outside of the triangle with those word parts. It was a difficult task for some groups, but they were clever and creative and used their dictionaries to help them. Some word parts were hard to define and that will be an area we will continue to work on. They really enjoyed this activity and it led to great discussion.
Today we played a game called Prefix Change. It is like playing UNO, but you match words with the same prefix. Instead of WILD cards, you use CHANGE cards. The kids loved this game. They helped each other work on pronouncing the words and were discussing what the words meant in their groups. We had enough time to rotate the groups of cards, so each group was exposed to 12 different prefixes. This game took some time for me to prep, creating the cards, finding the words and prefixes that would work, but it was so worth it!
Tomorrow we are going to play Find A Word. Students will be given a word part and they will have to find the person in the room who has the other part of their word. They will get together, figure out how to pronounce their word, figure out what it means, and use it in a sentence. They will then teach the class their word and how to use it.
Thursday is an inservice day and I am presenting literacy activities to the 3rd-6th grade teachers in my building. This is part of my responsibilities as a Literacy Facilitator in my district. I will be presenting the Morpheme Triangles and Prefix Change game along with other strategies on making inferences, summarizing, and activities to use during guided reading. I hope they will find the two morphological activities as worthwhile as I have.
As far as my reading, I am truly enjoying William Nagy's work and findings on morphology.
Today we played a game called Prefix Change. It is like playing UNO, but you match words with the same prefix. Instead of WILD cards, you use CHANGE cards. The kids loved this game. They helped each other work on pronouncing the words and were discussing what the words meant in their groups. We had enough time to rotate the groups of cards, so each group was exposed to 12 different prefixes. This game took some time for me to prep, creating the cards, finding the words and prefixes that would work, but it was so worth it!
Tomorrow we are going to play Find A Word. Students will be given a word part and they will have to find the person in the room who has the other part of their word. They will get together, figure out how to pronounce their word, figure out what it means, and use it in a sentence. They will then teach the class their word and how to use it.
Thursday is an inservice day and I am presenting literacy activities to the 3rd-6th grade teachers in my building. This is part of my responsibilities as a Literacy Facilitator in my district. I will be presenting the Morpheme Triangles and Prefix Change game along with other strategies on making inferences, summarizing, and activities to use during guided reading. I hope they will find the two morphological activities as worthwhile as I have.
As far as my reading, I am truly enjoying William Nagy's work and findings on morphology.
February 28, 2010
The more I read, the more I think I know, the more I question, and the more I want to know. Ah, an endless cycle. I am really starting to get an idea of how my project on morphology is going to take shape. I had the opportunity to speak with Emily regarding morphology and interviews she is doing. I am going to use her format with my third graders to find out about their word knowledge. I am reading Marcia Henry's Unlocking Literacy to help me with my instruction.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
March 4, 2009
I just finished 3rd quarter assessments using the Words Their Way spelling assessments. I started with the primary assessment with the whole class. I had 15 pass this assessment by missing 5 or fewer words. I then administered the Elementary assessment to the 15 students. I had 6 pass this assessment by missing 5 or fewer words. So I administered the Upper assessment to them. I have now determined each students spelling level and I will be working with 5 different groups of spellers for 4th quarter.
I spent quite a bit of time mapping out the words and patterns I would work on for each group. I have groups ranging from vowel sounds to Greek and Latin roots. That is quite a range.
I started reading Unlocking Literacy by Marcia Henry this week. She discusses decoding and spelling. Her philosophy and theory support the instruction of morphology. I will be using some of her lists when I work on my project of word knowledge this semester with my students. I need to touch base with Guy regarding exactly what the project will look like. I know it will involve some interviewing of students and a word pre-test/post-test format.
I spent quite a bit of time mapping out the words and patterns I would work on for each group. I have groups ranging from vowel sounds to Greek and Latin roots. That is quite a range.
I started reading Unlocking Literacy by Marcia Henry this week. She discusses decoding and spelling. Her philosophy and theory support the instruction of morphology. I will be using some of her lists when I work on my project of word knowledge this semester with my students. I need to touch base with Guy regarding exactly what the project will look like. I know it will involve some interviewing of students and a word pre-test/post-test format.
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