Word Study

We are planning our word study training this week. There is so much to think about with word study! One of the areas that I am going to focus on is spelling. This seems to be one area that has been neglected over the past few years. We teachers know that a list of words sent home with a spelling packet is not the best way to teach our students to be better spellers, but that appears to be the most common practice.

We will look at using word walls and pattern words to create lists that are studied, added to, and analyzed so that kids can learn to transfer their word learning to other words. We will also look at activities to practice in class and out of class.

WOW Technology

Enjoyed being trained in integrating technology into the content areas today at the WOW Academy! Amy and Alicia showed us some great tools to meet the needs of our 21st century learners. See my animoto below. Many of the sites were great for vocabulary-animoto, visuwords, wordle, prezi come to mind. Check out the utech help folder in CISDs First Class folder to find links to these and many more free sites.

Balanced Literacy

Balanced Literacy
All of the following contribute to producing literate citizens of the 21st Century.

Reading Aloud: Teacher reads selection aloud to students

• Provides adult model of fluent reading
• Develops sense of story/text
• Develops vocabulary
• Encourages prediction
• Builds a community of readers
• Develops active listening*

Shared Reading: Teacher and students read text together

•  Demonstrates awareness of text
•  Develops sense of story or content
•  Promotes reading strategies
•  Develops fluency and phrasing
•  Increases comprehension  

Guided Reading: Teacher introduces a selection at student's instructional level

• Promotes reading strategies
•  Increases comprehension
•  Encourages independent reading
•  Expands belief in own ability *

Independent Reading: Students read independently

•  Encourages strategic reading
•  Increases comprehension
•  Supports writing development
•  Extends experiences with a variety of written texts
•  Promotes reading for enjoyment and information
•  Develops fluency
•  Fosters self-confidence by reading familiar and new text
•  Provides opportunities to use mistakes as learning opportunities *

Modeled/Shared Writing: Teacher and students collaborate to write text; teacher acts as scribe

•  Develops concepts of print  
• Develops writing strategies  
• Supports reading development  
• Provides model for a variety of writing styles  
• Models the connection among and between sounds, letters, and words  
• Produces text that students can read independently  
• Necessitates communicating in a clear and specific manner*

Interactive Writing: Teacher and students compose together using a "shared pen" technique in which students do some of the writing

• Provides opportunities to plan and construct texts
• Increases spelling knowledge
• Produces written language resources in the classroom  
• Creates opportunities to apply what has been learned*  

Independent Writing: Students write independently

• Strengthens text sequence
• Develops understanding of multiple uses of writing
• Supports reading development
• Develops writing strategies
• Develops active independence*
• *Personal Qualities: Collaborative Worker, Problem Solver, Quality Producer, Self Directed Learner, Responsible Citizen