Words Their Way, Shout Out and a Linky!

I wanted to share that another wonderful teacher is sharing her Words Their Way resources and is having a giveaway...check her out, she's done a lot with Words Their Way and I'm excited to hear more about how she runs it.  Check out Tammy's blog, 1...2...3...Teach With Me.  


As I mentioned before Words Their Way offers a wonderful easy way to differentiate word work and spelling. The spelling inventory provides a wealth of data you can present to your RTI team...I've used it and it's powerful data!


At the beginning of the year I had 4 different Words Their Way (*which from here on out will be called WTW).  I had a long vowel, blends, short vowel, and digraphs group.  Since reassessing in the winter it became clear that my students were struggling with vowels - this isn't hard to belive.  English vowels are the WORST for Spanish speakers.  Honestly, they seem so random after learning Spanish.  With Spanish what you see is what you get, and English is more into sending mixed messages.


Here are some magnetic pocket charts that I use in my classroom.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of them with a sort, but you get the idea.  When I had 4 groups, students knew their group color and would know on Monday we would do the sort together as an introduction and we'd sort it in their pocket chart.  This was a great way to sort together and a reference for them.

Since giving the reassessing my students I have 2 groups - a short vowel and long vowel group.  The problem is WTW zooms through short vowels assuming the student is a native English speaker.  For my students the few weeks spent on short vowels was not enough.  So, I was lucky to discuss this with a colleague who happened to have a wonderful book...All Sorts of Sorts.  This book provides sooooo many sorts to supplement WTW.  This has been a lifesaver!  Currently, I'm using All Sorts of Sorts much more than the WTW books.  Check this book out if you find WTW zooming through a concept that your kids need more time on.

Ok, that's all for now on WTW.  

I also wanted to metnion a fellow bilingual teacher...Krista at The Second Grade Super Kids, is having a 50 followers giveaway!  You could win a Barnes  & Nobles gift card and a great superhero read aloud.  Check her out!  She has some great ideas to share!  

I'm also linking to a wonderful link party that is meant for K-2 teacher blogs.  Jeannie of Kindergarten Lifestyle has hosted this linky so that primary teachers can find each other.  She'll be creating a Pinterest board so that it will be easy to find primary blogs!  What a great idea!

Head over if you're a primary blog and want to participate!

Cheers,

Laura

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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

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