Doing Word Walls and a Freebie

Many of us HAVE word walls in the classroom, but do we DO word walls? Are they just pretty decorations on the wall that the students ignore glance at ocassionally, or a real resource that students use on a daily basis? In this post, I'll show you how to take your word wall from static to fantastic, plus give you some super-cute word wall cards I made!

There's basically only two rules for making your word wall a living, breathing resource in the classroom:

Use the word wall in a whole-class activity every day. 

Hold students accountable for spelling word wall words correctly.

This is a daily reminder for the kiddos to use the word wall, and it sends the message "Here is an important resource for you." But you may be thinking, "What am I supposed to do with it? WHEN am I supposed to fit this in?!" This post is for you. Here are some things I've done that worked for me:

How Much? 10 minutes or less

When? I schedule my literacy block using the Four Blocks framework, so I have 20-30 minutes each day for word work. When I scheduled using the Daily 5 framework, the word wall activities were one of my mini-lessons.

Which? You may use frequently misspelled words (there, their, they're), vocabulary, or pre-made sets of words. I plan on using some of my choice, and some of the words from Month by Month Phonics because my school purchased them for each teacher.

What? Every Monday when you add new words (4-6), chant them. Show the word and discuss its meaning. Next spell it, then have students say it and spell it aloud and write the word down in their journals or personal word walls. I like to have them chant the spelling three or four times and here's where it can get really fun. There are literally TONS of ways they can do this. Here's a great list of word wall chants. Each day choose 3 or 4 words (or more if there's time) to discuss, chant, and/or write, then do a short activity with the words.

• Be a Mind Reader (my favorite activity): Choose one word that students guess through clues you give them. Each time you give a clue, they write down a word from the word wall (spelled correctly). The clues start out very general, then narrow down the choices. Here's an example for the word community:
• It's a word on the word wall. (Students write a guess on their papers).
• It is a singular, collective noun (Students rewrite their word, or revise and choose another word). 
• It has more than three syllables (Students write their word again, or revise their guess and write another word). 
• It has 9 letters (Students rewrite their word, or write a different word based on the clue). 
• The last letter is a y (By now most should have it)
• Be a Mind Reader v2: Similar to the activity above, but this time you choose five different words. Give one clue for each word. At the end, students who think they have the correct answers raise their hands and you check to see how got every word correct and spelled it correctly. I usually give them some little treat.
• Wordo: This is just like bingo, except with words! You can read more about it in this post. 

There are many, many more, but these three are a great place to start. Now, on to your freebies! I've made two sets of word wall labels to share with you:

Polka Dot Owl Word Wall Cards

Polka Dot and Chevron Owl Word Wall Cards

I'd love to hear from you! Do you do a word wall? If so, what are your favorite activities to do with it?

Assessment in the Writer's Workshop and a Freebie!

Do you have a great Writer's Workshop going (or planned) but are not sure how to go about assessing your students? One of my readers suggested I post about this very topic, so here goes! I am a firm believer in writing and writing every day. My students write every day about self-selected topics and sometimes to prompts that I give them. They spend a lot of time writing, and while I recognize how important this is, it is sometimes difficult for all of their hard work to be reflected in their Language grade...I feel like since my students are spending so much time writing, they should get credit for their hard work (or the other way around, if necessary). The problem is, how do you GRADE writing?! We've all heard horror stories about little writers' hopes being dashed to shreds due to a sea of red marks on their papers. Maybe we've even been the victims of such grading. So, here's the way I do it. I've based my system off of Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How. This is a fabulous book that you just have to read! She is a real teacher who's written about real lessons in her classroom. Very practical and easy to use.

I've chosen to grade the Writer's Notebook. I do this using a rubric about twice during a nine-week period. It may seem overwhelming, but if you conference with your students often, you already are very familiar with what is in their notebook, so it isn't as time-consuming as you might think at first.

I like this method because it gives me an overall evaluation of the writer and their work as a whole, rather than ONLY grading one or two pieces of writing. (I may still grade a piece or two of writing during the nine weeks, especially to get them ready for our open-ended responses to state testing).

I evaluate 5 categories: Flexibility/Fluency, Thoughtfulness, Frequency, Grammar/Usage, and Writing Behavior.

• Flexibility/Fluency: I expect students to write in a variety of genres and topics. I also expect them to at least try some of the strategies they're learning in mini-lessons and complete most of their entries. This takes lots of modeling!  Most of us may have one or two strengths as writers, but its important for our writers to be flexible and fluent, especially at this young age.  I watch out for if they are only writing about a certain topic or in one genre, or if they start a new piece every day without returning to finish it. 
• Thoughtfulness: This one can be tough, but its important for students to be thoughtful writers. Are their entries superficial, only scratching the surface of a topic? Or are they deep with well-developed topics? Is there evidence that the writer has spent time thinking and planning through their piece or did he or she simply jot something down to be finished in a hurry? This category is perhaps the most subjective, but I use it because I want my students to continually dig deeper as writers. 
• Frequency: I expect my students to write about a page per day. Some days there will be less and some more, but it will usually equal to at least a page per day. This amount helps promote their writing fluency. If a student has only written a few lines each day there is a definite red flag! Is there trouble with letter formation or spelling, slowing the student down? Does the student have trouble generating topics to write about? 
• Grammar/Usage: This is one of those sticky points among some teachers, but I believe that using correct grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling is extremely important! (Be truthful...how many times do you shake your head and mentally correct something you read on the Internet? I know I do :) I expect students to use what they have learned in their own writing. For example, if we've learned that an interrogative sentence ends with a question mark, I expect that students put question marks at the end of interrogative sentences in their writing. They must spell word wall words and spelling words correctly. If they've learned that the letter I is always capitalized, then it should be written that way. In short, I expect them to put into practice the mechanics of writing they've learned up to that particular point. 
• Writing Behavior: This is more of a daily observation by the teacher. Is the student using time wisely by getting started right away and writing/working the whole time? Does he or she follow classroom procedures so that others aren't disturbed while writing? This doesn't mean that as soon as we begin, students put pencil to paper and don't stop until I ring the bell or call "time." I tell my students that it is okay to stop and think, to go back and reread other entries, or notes from mini-lessons. They know they may get a dictionary or thesaurus or look up a word on-line if they need to. But as a teacher, I can tell when they are doing those things for real and when they're displaying avoidance behaviors.  

So, there you have it! If you read this entire post, kudos to you! Sorry it was so long, but I had a lot to say on this topic. Now, grab your freebie below! I made a black a white version for making copies and some color versions if you want to print those. I was thinking about printing a different color for each grading period onto sticker paper and sticking them into the notebook on the back of the last entry up to that point. That way I have a record the student and I can easily refer to when conferencing and determining what they need to work on. 

I basically rate each category with a 4, 3, 2, or 1 then add up the total points and multiply by 5. The product is the student's grade.

Update: I removed the embedded doc because every time my page loaded it went down to the doc instead of staying on the top of the page. You can access it here:  Writer's Notebook Evaluation

How about you? Do you have a great way to assess notebooks or single pieces of writing? I'd love to hear how you handle assessment in your writing block.

Monday Made It and a CAFE Freebie!

I love Monday Made It! This week I made the adorable birthday balloon pot, but mine looks like more of a bouquet. In fact, I'm calling it my birthday bouquet. I first saw these on ProTeacher posted by Mariely. I think she might be the original birthday balloon creator. Here's my version:

Half-price flowerpot from Michael's ($2.50!), ribbon, bendy straws, and SchoolGirl's 3 in. scallop tags ($3.00). 

And now for the freebie:

Polka Dot Owl CAFE Headers

I may not be doing Daily 5, but I'll definitely incorporate CAFE, especially into my self-selected reading block. 

Hop on over to Tara's blog for some other great Made Its!

Why I Left the Daily 5 Behind

Yep. I did it. I jumped off the wagon. It wasn't easy because I LOVE Daily 5, but I found that it just wasn't exactly right for my 4th grade students and me with the curriculum we have. Don't get me wrong. I love, love, love Daily 5 and CAFE. I've read the books three times, seen the Sisters twice, developed pages on my class website about it, and totally stalk all things Daily 5 and CAFE. So why move in a different direction? Well...

• While I love the idea of students choosing what they work on, I don't like the idea of me teaching one type of lesson and students practicing something different directly after the lesson. 
• I like the idea of minilessons, but there's the practice issue again...I tend to lean toward the "I do, We do, Y'all do, You do" lesson structure. If students are choosing what to do, they may not be practicing the strategy or skill I've just taught. Furthermore, I'm not able to walk around and work the ones who need the extra help because I'm with a small group. 
• This is not really about Daily 5, but I don't believe that every student needs to receive their instruction in a small group setting. Aren't 80% of students supposed to "get it" in your Tier 1 instruction? So why have I killed myself in the past teaching small groups to 100% of the students? I could be way off base here, but I truly believe that the small group time should be used to pull strategy groups for the students who need them. 
• I really like having Read to Self at a separate time. The atmosphere in my room is more calm and peaceful and more conducive to concentration. I've found that my small group instruction is a distraction for the ones who may have chosen read to self during that round. For me, I've found that conferring one on one with the students during this time is highly beneficial (maybe more than a small group). It also gives me a set time to actually conduct the conferences. (Check out this post about using Google Forms for keeping up with the conference records). 
• With small chunks of whole group instruction spread throughout the LA block there isn't time to incorporate the "fun" activities...vocabulary headbands, those beach ball story structure games, carousel strategies for answering or responding to questions, etc...

So, it is with a sad but hopeful heart that I am jumping off my beloved Daily 5 band wagon. I still love it! I still believe in the power of student choice and will incorporate that in other ways. I still think it is FABULOUS for lower grades that have much more time for LA each day. And of course, I'll take many, many of the Sisters' ideas and still use them (CAFE, strategy groups, 10 steps to teaching independence, etc...). 

But from now on, I'll stick with a modified Four Blocks framework, (done my own way of course). Stay tuned to see exactly what I tried this year and how I'll structure my LA block for next year. 

What Worked...A Look Back

The end of the school year is a time that we tend to look back and think about what seemed to work for us and what to do differently next year. Here are a few of the things I want to remember for next year:

What Worked:

Daily Facts Practice: I know, I know, I should've been doing it all along, but let's get real--school days are PACKED full of curriculum. In previous years, I've skipped fact practice during math occasionally because of time restraints. Not this year. I made it a point to spend 5-10 minutes every single day reviewing facts (usually multiplication), and boy did I see a difference! No matter what math program we use, I will definitely continue to do that short, daily practice. 

Separate Time for Read to Self: Every year I try to some how fit in Read to Self as one of the students' choices while I meet with groups, but I always go back to scheduling it all by itself. It just works better for my students and me. There are no distractions because everyone is reading to themselves at the same time. It also gives me a set time to do reading conferences, which quite honestly get pushed to the side if I don't set this time aside. 

Science and Alabama History First Thing in the Morning: Please don't get me wrong. I know we've been told that reading should be first thing, but...in my class we have one hour between arrival and PE. Having the content subjects first ensured that I would actually teach them each day. We've all done it, right? Skipped one of them because of any one of numerous reasons time constraints? This is probably the first year since ARI (Alabama Reading Initiative) implementation that I feel like a did an awesome job in science in social studies.

Went Back to a Four Blocks Literacy Format: I've struggled for four years with trying to implement the Scott Foresman reading series as it is written (and still have students pass the tests). I've used the Daily 5 Framework to structure my LA block, but I worried that my students weren't getting enough practice with specific skills and strategies. After Christmas I started gradually re-implementing the Four Blocks framework, and it really worked for us (more about that in an up-coming post). 

Well, that's all for now. Within the next few days I'll dig in to the scary part--the stuff that didn't work! How about you? What will you plan to do again next year?

Are small groups always the answer?

I am a "queen" of small groups. I believe in them---been using them for reading and math, and have been doing some form of small group teaching for many years now. But this year, I'm at a crossroads. We have a new schedule, which is fabulous for math and my other subjects. I have a dedicated time for tier 2 reading and tier 2 math every day and no longer have to worry about teaching science OR social studies--I can do BOTH! (see this post from last January: The Content Conundrum) However, my Language Arts block has been decreased, which means I no longer have an enormous block of time for reading, language, spelling, and writing. Whereas I used to have about 2 1/2 hours for LA, this year I have less than 2 hours (including my dedicated tier 2 time). That's about 50 minutes less than I had before, giving me about 60 minutes for Reading and the rest of the time for everything else, which presents quite a problem...How in the world do I fit in whole group instruction, and meet with 3 small groups in reading every day in about 60 minutes?

Oh, believe me, I gave it the old college try: 15 minute whole group reading lesson, then 3 15 minute small group rotations, but let's get real--by the time everyone is settled from the transition and actually on task we're dealing with about 10-12 minutes in a small group or doing an independent "choice". (We do daily 5 in my room). And my kids are very good workers. They really try to transition quickly and get started right away and stay on task, but 10 minutes? Is that really enough time to get things accomplished? To get into a good book? To add something valuable to a written piece? To discuss reading with a partner or dig into an extension project?

I've really struggled with this and its caused me to question my whole reading organization. Are small groups every "15" minutes really the answer? In my room this year and with my time constraints I think the answer is "Not for every child." 

So, I've decided to start something new: It may actually sound a little old school, but old school doesn't necessarily equal antiquated or bad. Whole group will stay the same, but I won't be so strict about finishing in 10 or 15 minutes. I'll schedule some time in there for the kids to actually practice what I'm teaching them independently or with partners, so we're realistically looking at about 20 or 25 minutes. Then we'll have ONE small group/choice time. I'll give students one or two things that they must do before their choice (respond in writing or something similar), then I will meet with one group, maybe two if I have time, (or maybe even individuals) but I won't stress over it. After all, if the research is correct, only a small percentage of my students actually need to be retaught the whole group lesson in small groups. So why am I trying so hard to meet with everyone every day? Hopefully, we'll also have a little time at the end of our reading block to come back together and share learning.

Sounds a lot like Readers Workshop, huh? I'm really excited about doing it. I've used this method before, but its been a while. I think it will be better for everyone: students will have time to apply and practice what they've been taught, I will have enough time to meet with the kids who really need me, and the instructional time won't be chopped up into such tiny little pieces. 

Test run next week...Hopefully all will go well!

Why I love the Daily 5

What is it about Daily 5 that I like? Well, in a word: Choice. In this system (and it is a system, not a program), students are offered structured choices for independent work time during reading. The organization system, created by The 2 Sisters, discusses a practical way to structure small and whole group reading instruction. It allows the teacher to work with small groups while the rest of the class does authentic, real-world reading and writing tasks that they choose. In addition, they have developed a no-fail strategy for teaching students to be independent. (Click here for their 10 Steps to Independence).

In my class I have tweaked it, of course, to fit our needs. First of all, we only have 3 rounds, or "choices" as we call them. Each choice lasts about 20 minutes. Students may only choose an activity once each day, except for Read to Self. They may choose it as many times as they like.

The choices in my class are Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Words, and Write about Reading. (The original model calls for work on writing, but since I already have a separate Writer's Workshop and I wanted students to respond to their reading, I changed this choice to Write about Reading).

I love this approach because children get to be responsible for their own learning. The power of choice is HUGE. When students have the opportunity to make decisions, it allows them to take ownership of their learning and it is a definite motivator. They want to do well because they chose their task. Their is intrinsic motivation built in.

Does it always work? Well, honestly, no. Does anything work 100% of the time?  Sometimes we have our days when there are interruptions or lessons run long, or a million other things impose themselves on us. Some days attitudes need adjusting because of (who knows?) But generally, it does work. The students value their work because they have a say in what work they're doing.