Spelling with Words Their Way and a new student

I don't know how it's done in other districts but in my district it seems that spelling programs aren't dictated by district or school, but grade levels or teachers can choose their program.  Many teachers use the Harcourt spelling lists that accompany the week's studies.  This just doesn't meet the needs of my ELLs, so I was thrilled when working as resource teacher with a wonderful third grade team they piloted Words Their Way.  

Words Their Way is a spelling program that is based on the development of each student in terms of letter/word/pattern awareness.  I really love this program!  It provides automatic differntiation.  Students are all assessed and then grouped according to their performance.  The general assessment assesses their spelling of beginning and ending sounds, short vowels, blends, long vowel patterns, etc..

At the beginning of the year I looked all over the internet for Words Their Way resources.  I found one great website that helped with the general setup of the words their way materials and routine.  Check it out!  It suggested that each student have their own folder, notebook, envelope.  Here is what ours looks like:

Messy bin with folders that are color coded for groups

 Each folder has a number on it that corresponds to the numbers my students are assigned at the beginning of the year, this is more for me since the kids remember their color easily.

 Inside the folder is a notebook and envelope where keep their cut up words for their sort.

I should keep a crayon in here to for students to color the back of their sort before cutting it, this helps in case a student misplaces one of their words...happens way too often!

Here is an example of one of our weekly routines.  Students write the sort in their notebook and write sentences to go with their words.

Here is a look at our routine (on a good week)

Monday: Introduce new sort, cut and practice.

Tuesday: Sort and write in notebook (see above)

Wednesday: Blind sort - work with partner and one partner says words while the other without seeing the words identifies which category the word belongs in.

Thursday: Students work in groups of 2-3.  Students take turns choosing a word and saying the word in a sentence of at least 5 words.  This is great practice for my ELLs to use the words in context and they get super excited when they can say sentences of more than 5 words.

Friday: Practice with partner before taking the test.

In my next posts I'll share more about homework, supplemental resources and tools.  If your team is thinking about using Words Their Way, I highly recommend it!!!!


Onto other news...I've been sooooo lucky this year because my class has not changed once since we started the school year.  No students left and no students moved in.  This is unheard of in our school, but somehow I got lucky!  Our first grade bilingual teacher has had more move-ins and move outs ever, it's OUT OF CONTROL!  But Monday marked the end of my change-free year.  


My new student is straight from Mexico and speaks NO English.  This is a good challenge for me, because I know this won't be the last time I find myself in this situation.  However, it is a challenge because all of my students are English dominant at this point in the year and we're really working hard so they'll be confident English readers and writers.  My new student needs very intense ESL instruction, he needs basic English vocabulary that my other students have already mastered.  


So, I'm looking for a solution.  He will be in an English classroom next year so I need to get him ready.  I think I'll have him on Rosetta Stone, taking home Reading A-Z books in English and Spanish, buddying up with someone, and I'm going to investigate the Words Their Way ESL component as well.  




Cheers,
Laura