Robust Vocabulary

Sorry, no pictures today, but I wanted to share about something I'm starting with my kids this year. It will tie into my writing instruction, so I'm also linking up with Jivey for her Workshop Wednesday.

 You may remember a while back that I bought this book after having it recommended by another 5th grade teacher as "the best" for vocabulary instruction. I have to say, so far I'm liking what I'm reading!

Vocabulary is SUCH a huge weakness overall at our school, and I want to be more purposeful in my instruction. Admittedly, the beginning of the school year hit me like a freight train, so I've only made it about 40 pages into the book, but I took one idea away from the very beginning and have already started implementing it with each of my groups.

Beck talks about Tier 1, 2, and 3 words. Tier 1 are the words that students already know and/or are very easy to understand (dog, school, jump, etc). Tier 3 words are words that are not used by the average person. Many of them are area specific (isotope, chlorophyll), and we learn them for a time when we have to at school and then forget them unless it's a part of our profession. For vocabulary instruction, we should focus on Tier 2 words - words that expand students vocabulary and are found more frequently in books and/or everyday conversation. Examples of these words would be things like considerate, adapt, industrious, etc.

How am I teaching these words? First, I'm making a more conscious effort to not water down my vocabulary when I'm teaching. Yesterday, I used words like "benefits", "penalize", and "perks" to discuss my homework assignment. It was neat to see the students tuning in and having to use their context clues to figure out what I meant, but if I keep using words like that, they will get it!

Yes, you read that correctly. I'm assigning OPTIONAL HOMEWORK to all of my students (since I'm only a pull-out program and not their regular teacher). I can't even believe it, but that's why I'm stressing the OPTIONAL part. Each group has three vocabulary words for the week. I'm introducing the new words on Monday and we discuss the meaning and some examples of how these words are used in sentences. Then they have a challenge (the homework assignment): I give them a "Word Wizard" sheet with three columns. They are to go home and look/listen for the words being used (tv, newspaper, internet, conversations, books). Then they can write or glue these sentences on the paper. Any students who turn the sheet in at the end of the week gets a star for their chart (I haven't created it yet, but I'll share when I do). Once they have 5 stars, they will earn a prize!

So, what are some words I'm using this week? Since my 3rd and 5th were focusing on character traits, I chose mainly characteristics. I also paid attention to words they didn't seem to understand and may have already had an interest in.

3rd grade - adapt (Ecosystems tie-in), patient, and pleasant.
4th grade - outgoing, courageous, and amusing
5th grade - humble (they really wanted to know what this meant), eager, and considerate

Okay, I know that was a lot of rambling. There was more to explain than I thought! I hope it helps, and I will share my "Word Wizard" sheet later. Right now, it needs a few tweaks!

Daily 5 a little late

We're almost halfway through the year, and I'm just getting started on Daily 5. Since I'm the Title I reading specialist now, I wasn't quite sure of the best way to do this. Actually, I didn't think I could. I've been doing lessons and activities that are for the entire group and working that way. Now that I've been at this job for a few months, though, I decided it was time to try it out. 

So today I had my students come in and find books that were on their reading level (or one above or below). They grabbed 1-3 since I don't have them for long, and most of them were really excited to put together a book bag. We don't have any nice bags or baskets yet, but I (well, actually my wonderful para) just labeled gallon size Ziploc bags and put them in containers based on their group. Then I can pull out each container at the beginning and let them find their bag.

My plan is that I'll do read to self, work on writing, and word work as my centers (since my classes are so small and time is limited), and I'll try them 2 or 3 times a day. Then I want to do whole group lessons to review the new skills they're working on or to work on test-taking strategies. I'm about to lose my para for a few weeks because she's having surgery, so I'll be on my own for a little while. I think this system will help with that, though. Then when she comes back, I'm going to have her help me either pull kids or help with the word work station.

What do you do for word work with the upper grade students? I have kids ranging from level I-Q that I see, and they are from grades 3-5. I was thinking prefixes and suffixes for my higher 4th and 5th grade students. Then for my lower ones, I want them to practice a LOT of decoding strategies. Any recommendations?