Word Work

"Expanded vocabulary and correct spelling allow for more fluent reading and writing thus speeding up the ability to comprehend what is read and get thinking down on the paper."


Word study and spelling enhance students' reading fluency, writing fluency, correctness in pronunciation, and vocabulary.  Since spelling is important, it makes sense that some focus on spelling and word study be part of students' everyday activity.
Spelling instruction should be ongoing, daily, and purposeful.  Instruction should be interrelated and interconnected with all strands of language.  The primary focus of instruction should be on teaching a variety of effective spelling strategies, rather than on just memorizing lists of words.  Students must be given opportunities to work with words, to proofread their own writing, and to study regular spelling patterns.  The key to spelling development is the understanding and application of spelling strategies that enable students to become independent and competent spellers.


The following sites support word work:
http://www.spellingcity.com/
http://www.kidsspell.com 
http://www.candlelightstories.com/games/stellar-speller/
http://www.primarygames.com/see-n-spell/see-n-spell.htm
http://www.funbrain.com/plurals/index.html
http://www.manythings.org/cts/
http://eslus.com/LESSONS/SPELL/SPELL.HTM
http://www.funbrain.com/spellroo/index.html
http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html
http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/Safari/safari.htm
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmsv/smg/
http://www.spinandspell.com/game.swf
http://www.funbrain.com/whichword/index.html

Is spelling important?

Yes, spelling is important for literacy.  The two kinds of knowledge that predict reading success are knowledge of the alphabet and phonemic awareness.  This means focusing instructionally on spelling is important.  Spelling and word study cut across the curriculum to make important contributions to reading, writing, and spoken language development, as well as vocabulary and concept development in the content areas.

Realities of Spelling Instruction:

• Children need opportunities to experiment with words during word work and writing.
• Copying words and focusing on mechanics don’t ensure the development of correct spelling.
• Expert spellers develop a memory capacity for visual images of words.
• Purposeful writing is the key to learning to spell.
• Spelling proficiency develops within progressive steps.
• Learning to spell is a conceptual process that involves thinking about and making connections with words, not rote memorization.
• Children initially learn to spell by inventing spelling.

"Inventing a spelling for an unfamiliar word --also frequently referred to as temporary spelling, sound spelling, constructed spelling, phonic spelling, or developmental spelling --is natural. We all do it. And kids do it all the time. However, contrary to what a lot of people think, invented spelling doesn't hurt kids; our failure to teach word-specific knowledge and correct spelling does..." ~Richard Gentry

Good spellers:

• Look for patterns
• Look for word parts
• Try several ways to write a word
• Write sounds in words
• Write a vowel in each word and in each syllable
• Think about words that sound the same
• Think about words that look the same
• Check to see if words look right
• Think about what words mean
• Practice words
• Use a dictionary to check
• Use a computer spell check
• Look for words in the classroom

Learn more about spelling at:  http://www.teacher2teacherhelp.com/spelling/

Coming soon:  Word Work and Working on Writing

Tapping into Digital Media

A colleague was sharing that her students didn’t know how to use a dictionary to determine how to spell a word or find a definition.  I wasn’t surprised!  Our students prefer finding what they need to know with the click of a mouse.  

Have you thought about tapping into the power of digital media and technology for teaching and learning?  The variety of information resources available online is simply staggering. Explore how digital media can promote students' active engagement, critical thinking, literacy skills and abilities to creatively show understanding.

Here are few sites for you and your students to check out!

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/index.htm

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me5l/html/math5.html#

http://video.kidzui.com/

http://photopeach.com/

http://www.qwiki.com

http://tagul.com/gallery

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

http://www.onelook.com/

http://classtools.net/

http://www.watchknow.org/

Daily Five, Café, and Balanced Literacy

I have heard teachers ask, “If we are doing Daily Five are we still doing balanced literacy?”  The answer is, “Yes!”

Daily Five Reading is just one way to organize your balanced literacy instruction.  The great thing is, Daily Five Reading is structured around current reading and brain research.  It also fosters student independence.

In a nutshell, the Daily Five is a structure that helps students develop the daily habits of reading, writing, and working independently for a lifetime of literacy independence.  The Daily Five also gives teachers a structure for the providing balanced literacy instruction to their students. 

The Daily Five provides a structure for balanced literacy instruction.  The Literacy CAFÉ is the structure of teaching reading strategies and assessing students.

CAFÉ stands for:  Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expanding Vocabulary.

The following are benefits from using the Daily Five and CAFÉ, as a structure in your classroom:

• Teaching of independence

• Management of the entire literacy block

• Focus lessons and more intentional teaching

• Substantial time to read and write

• Integration of reading and writing

• Clearly defined instructional routines that accelerate learning

• Build stamina

• Highly engaged learners

• Students to understand and monitor their literacy goals

Great Daily Five and Café Resources:

http://www.sanjuan.edu/webpages/gguthrie/balanced_literacy.cfm?subpage=127464

https://sites.google.com/site/balancedlitteach/

Listen to Reading websites:

http://www.storylineonline.net/

http://www.rif.org/readingplanet/content/read_aloud_stories.mspx

http://www.kids-and-games.com/stories.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/story/sbi.shtml

http://www.candlelightstories.com/soundstoryblog/SoundStoryBlog.htm

http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.storiestogrowby.com/

http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/storylist.htm

Author Websites

http://www.robertmunsch.com/storytime.cfm

http://www.memfox.net/mem-reads-aloud/

Subscription Websites:

http://www.raz-kids.com

Another browser?

There’s a new browser on the block put out by Google called Chrome. So, why would you need another browser?  Maybe to integrate with all the Google other applications?  Are you already using Google Search, Google Maps, Google Earth and Apps?

Here are some facts about Google Chrome:

• Built for Web applications rather than Web pages.
• Has its own JavaScript engine to power web applications.
• Uses browser tabs that get their own URL box making each tab a browser window..
• Chrome can be “streamlined” so that the toolbar and URL box are hidden and only the web page is shown on the screen.
• Good security. Chrome sandboxes Web pages, preventing drive-by downloads and installations.
• One box for everything – type in address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.
• Thumbnails of your top sites – access your favorite pages instantly from any new tab.
• Users less memory that competing browsers.

Click to learn more about Google Chrome.

Inquiry and Project-based Learning

Both the National Academy of Science and the NCTM Standards recognize that successful scientific inquiry and mathematical problem solving require that students be critical and creative thinkers.

To make learning meaningful to children, it requires connecting the curriculum to questions they have about the natural world. Children learn best when they build knowledge from their own experiences.  "Hooking" new knowledge to prior knowledge or experience is key.

In inquiry-based classrooms, learners (including the teacher) are engaged in doing. They are making observations; posing questions; examining resources; conducting investigations; reviewing what is already known; gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and communicating the results.  In other words:  Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creating (21^st Century Skills).

In a project-based classroom, learning is built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation. These activities are designed to answer a question or solve a problem and generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom - Sounds like INQUIRY.

Project Based Learning teaches students 21 st century skills as well as content. These skills include communication and presentation skills, organization and time management skills, research and inquiry skills, self-assessment and reflection skills, and group participation and leadership skills.

Both inquiry and project-based learning allows students to reflect upon their own ideas and opinions, exercise voice and choice, and make decisions that affect project outcomes and the 

learning process in general.

As learners actively build and construct knowledge and theories about the world, they gain ideas as well as an understanding of how scientists and other professionals work.  The inquiry is essential to learning.  It provides connection to prior knowledge, a focus on 21st Century skills,  and experiences that is critical for new and deep learning to occur.

Neat

A colleague was reading The Innovative Educator, and she came across a Top Ten list of 21st Century Education Quotes.  I checked out the site she shared with me and one of my favorite quotes was - "If we teach today the way we were taught yesterday we aren't preparing students for today or tomorrow".  Click on the link to read Lisa Nielsen's Top Ten List!