Word Walls That Work

In my district, word walls have been a hot topic for a while.

Here are the issues we've been discussing...

Are you required to have word walls in your lower elementary classrooms?

What words go on the word wall?

Are they the same as your weekly spelling words?

Do you also put other words on the word wall?

Should words be added to the word wall each week?

Do you start the year with all of the words up?

Do you start the year with the words from the previous grade up?

How do you teach the students strategies for using the word wall?

How do you model interacting with the word wall?

So many things to think about...no wonder this is a topic of discussion.

There are many, many fabulous ways to use the word wall that are happening in my own building, in my district and in classrooms around the country.  I am by no means a "word wall expert".  But, here are my own answers about how I use the word wall in my classroom. My answers do not represent the decisions made by my district - because those decisions have not all been made by the big powers that rule the word wall.

Are you required to have word walls in your lower elementary classrooms?
I'm kind of required.  Plus, I do think it's a valuable tool (especially if it's used carefully).

What words go on the word wall?
Our weekly spelling words (which are Dolch words), but not the word family (vowel patterns) that we study are the ones that I put on my classroom word wall.  I don't include the word family patterns on my word wall, because I want the word wall to be a place for students to find high frequency words.  We make anchor charts with different word family patterns as we study them.  Those are kept in other places in the room so students can refer to them as we are learning each specific pattern.

Are they the same as your weekly spelling words?
Yes, the word wall words are our weekly spelling words.

Do you also put other words on the word wall?
Nope.

Should words be added to the word wall each week?
In my classroom we add the spelling words each week.  That allows us to have practice using only a handful of new words on the wall each week before other words are added.

Do you start the year with all of the words up?
Nope. I have a system for introducing and adding the words.  The words are added in front of the students and we talk about the words for the week during our Monday morning meeting.

Do you start the year with the words from the previous grade up?
I recently talked to some teachers from another district who said they were required to put up the words from the previous grade to start the year. My word wall starts empty.

When I started this post, I realized that I don't have a current photo of my word wall.  And...I won't have a photo of my "new" word wall for a couple weeks because all of my teaching treasures are currently in the hallway outside my new room.

Excuse this picture from 2011...

My word wall has gone through a couple makeovers since the picture above and I'm ready for another makeover this year.  I purchased fabric and borders this summer.  

I'm thinking about using some combination of these on my new word wall. 

Thank you, schoolgirlstyle.com for the chevron borders!

I recently sorted all of my words, so I can figure out which words I need to make since I'm looping with my class to 2nd grade this year. Isn't my granite pretty?  I love it.  Shhhhh... I use Windex on it all the time.  I know.  I know.  Pretty soon it will probably develop giant craters.  Blah. Blah. Blah.

I've also been collecting pins of my favorite word walls on Pinterest. 

You can click on the image below to check out my favorites.

Each year, I assess the students to find out if they can read and spell the words from the previous grade at the beginning of the year.  If there are words from the previous year's list that a child can not spell, I work on those individually with that child.

How do you teach the students strategies for using the word wall?
Since the words on my word wall are "spelling words", I want my students to have as much practice as possible interacting with the words throughout the week.  A couple years ago, I posted about the super spelling slippers my students are invited to wear during our spelling tests.  You can read that super old post here. Yes, I give spelling tests.  I don’t mind if some folks don’t like my “spelling tests”.  I also don’t care if other folks (even on my team) choose to give spelling tests or not to give spelling tests.  I feel lucky to work in place where we have some freedom to make those decisions based on what we feel is best for our students.

And since I’m famous for saying exactly how I feel...

I give spelling tests for 3 reasons.

1. It teaches accountability and responsibility.

2. I use the weekly assessments to plan my instruction for the following week.   

3. My students count on and look forward to our weekly spelling routine. 

Part of our weekly spelling routine is to do the Super Spelling Power Stations from my Super Spelling Forms pack.  Super Spelling Forms includes lots of different spelling forms and directions and checklists for my Super Spelling Power Stations.  The best things about the Super Spelling Power Stations are that it is a routine (not weekly stations that you have to keep creating/changing).  The words change each week in our spelling program, but the Super Spelling Stations routine stays the same.  Lots of the Super Spelling Stations involve movement, since many students learn best when they are active.  Some of the stations also require students to interact with the word wall.

Each day, my students interact with the word wall during literacy workstations and during Super Spelling Stations.  During our morning message, students solve mystery words by using the word wall each day.  They also stomp, cheer or clap each word wall word in our morning message. 

How do you model interacting with the word wall?
During read alouds or close reading activities that I do for reader's workshop, I refer to any new or "tricky" words that are on our word wall. I also model using the word wall to help me decode new multisyllabic words that have smaller word wall words in them.  For example, if I came upon the word "makeshift", I would point out that "make" is on our word wall.

The most helpful time for me to model strategies for using the word wall is during my writer's workshop mini lessons.  Modeling strategies for using the word wall during writer's workshop helps my students remember that I expect them to use the word wall to help them spell the words correctly or to CHECK THEIR WORK.  That's in big letters because it seems like I'm always yellin' that out. Ha!

As I plan to redesign my word wall for this year, I'd love to see pictures of your word walls! Anyone want to share a pic with me?  You can send them to me via email or I'd be happy to visit your blog or Instagram page if you have pics of your word wall there.  Just leave me a message and I'll hop on over to check it out.

Close Reading, Text Based Evidence & Finally a Crafty Activity!

Last week, we did a close reading using the book below during reader's workshop. It's from the Scholastic What Grows In Our Garden garden pack.

Throughout the week, we also gathered text based evidence from lots of other books about why fruits and vegetables are good for us to eat. Here are a few other books from the same pack I mentioned above (with a little bit of "evidence" that students gathered stuck to the front).

Food was the weekly theme for our March is Reading Month theme, which focuses on informational text.  We're traveling on the Information Highway...with a different theme each week. You can find the resources that we're using for this month long unit in my Information Highway unit.

Here are some of the nonfiction books I gathered for us to use during our food week.

We collected text based evidence about why fruits and veggies are good for us during our close reading and in small groups with different books from our collection. We added the evidence to an anchor chart throughout the week.  I included the resource and the page number in a different color under each "fact".

In between all these snowy/icy/whenarewereallygonnahavea5dayweek days, we finally had time to do an art project!  Ta da!

Fruits and Veggies in Your Bag Writing and Craftivity

(front view + writing on the back)

The parts and pieces (minus the bag) can be found in the product below if you're interested.  The writing page + the resources sheet to put on the back of the bag are also included.

My students were also super excited to practice their how to writing skills by writing about how to make a food of their choice.  I'm so proud of the progress they have made in writing!  We've been revisiting how to writing throughout the year.  I really wanted them to use first, then, next and last in their how to writing. In the past, I've had to guide them through the process, but this time they were able to go through the process independently...which makes my heart sing! (The pages for our graphic organizers and the writing are included in my Information Highway unit.)

Here is a student sample... 

This weeks theme is music.  Makes me feel like dancin' reading!

Nonfiction Writing (Freebie Friday!)

We are finishing up our penguin research.  Well we're trying...but we have only had 2 days of school this week.  Seriously!  (President's Day + 2 snow/ice days)  I was actually able only to teach for one day.  I did Dibels testing all day on Wednesday and returned as Granny Gillow to teach on Thursday for our 100th day of school.  I'll post about that soon. It was SO much FUN!

During reader's workshop, we're finishing up our penguin research using my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  You can read  a post with more details about that here.

During writer's workshop, my students are working on nonfiction writing.  I'm using the Lucy Caulkins unit to teach nonfiction writing.  My district has not officially adopted the program, so I use a combination of resources to teach different writing units.

Here is a reusable anchor chart that helps guide our planning.  

I laminate my reusable charts and use giant sticky notes to add the things myself or to let the students add things.  That allows us to reuse the same chart multiple times during the same unit and I can reuse it again in the future.

I don't know about your students, but my students struggle with spreading their story across the pages when writing nonfiction books.  When we are writing personal narratives or small moment stories, they are able to think of the story in terms of a beginning, middle and end.  That helps them spread their story across the pages.  That is not as easy for them when writing a nonfiction (teaching) book.

I made Sketch Across the Pages graphic organizers for my students to use to help them during the planning stage.  First, I ask them to tell the story out loud across their fingers.  Then they can choose either a 4 or 5 page graphic organizer to help them organize their ideas in the planning stage.  Some students return to me to get another copy of the graphic organizer if they realize they need to add more pages to their story.

If you click on the image below, you can check out the graphic organizers
and download your own copy if you'd like.  

I'm linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday!

Since there is no school again today, maybe I'll get some things done at home.  Happy Friday!

Penguins as a Model for Animal Research

It felt so good to be back in my classroom with my students this week! They worked so hard and I was so wiped out by the end of the week. Glad to be back either way.

Oh how I love Saturday mornings without anything on the schedule. My son is busy doing batting practice in the basement. My daughter is using the living room as a dance floor to practice ballet.  My husband is cooking breakfast, so I thought I'd sneak in a little post.

We started our penguin research this week. We research penguins as a group so my students have a model for how to do their animal research later in the year. We started out by doing a close reading activity with this book. It's my favorite nonfiction penguin book.  We spent the whole week digging into this book during our reader's workshop lessons.  I have a whole collection of penguin books (which are available to the students), but really digging into one or two helps my students understand the importance of using good strategies with informational text.

Throughout the week, we added details to our can/have/are anchor chart.

 Any words that were new, unfamiliar or super interesting to us during our reading were added to our penguin vocabulary anchor chart.  At the beginning of reader's workshop time, I give the classroom iPads (we have 2) to students who will be in charge of recording the special vocabulary for the day.  That allows me to keep reading/teaching while they use the Educreations app as a white board to keep a list of the vocabulary we should add to the anchor chart for the day.   Then I can take a screen shot of the new vocabulary words to use it with a small group later or email it to parents so the students can discuss our new vocabulary at dinner.

This is a screen shot one of the iPads
 after one of the reader's workshop lessons this week.

Here's another one.  This student chose to write lots of words that we
discussed even though we
knew the definitions of some already. 

We'll add more to this vocabulary chart next week
as we continue our research.

When the anchor charts are complete, I'll take pictures of them and add them to our Reader's Workshop Anchor Chart book.  Then students can go back to reread and  revisit the things we've learned long after I've taken the charts down in the room.  We have a writer's workshop anchor chart book as well. They are  favorites in our room!

The students also completed their own can/have/are sheet and a vocabulary wheel for one of the words from our chart.  They choose their own word from our Penguin Vocabulary chart to use in the wheel and I ask them to write down things that will help them explain the word to a partner.  When their wheels are completed, they find a partner who has a different word and share/discuss their thinking. I move around during that time to make sure students are accurately defining the word since they may or may not have included the definition we discussed in their descriptions on the wheel.  

The resources I use for this unit are all found in my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  It even includes pieces to make the anchor charts.  You can check it out by clicking on the image below.

When we finish this research project, the students will be well prepared to do their own animal research project.  They will choose their own animal and we'll use my Animal Research Book to guide them through the same kind of process we used to study penguins.  This was my very first Tpt product and it's my best seller.  I should probably update the cover...ha!  Add that to the to do list.

It's sunny and 10 today, so it's finally nice enough for a long dog walk. Not kidding... these poor dogs really need some exercise (and so do I)!  Happy Saturday!

Opportunities for Opinion Writing

Two weeks ago, we started working on opinion writing in my first grade classroom. Last year, I did lots of rethinking about how I wanted to teach opinion writing to my little ones. After spending lots of time reviewing the writing strands of the common core, pouring over possible mentor texts and thinking about the best way to scaffold graphic organizers I decided to create my own opinion writing unit.

I created Writing My Opinion to cover the K, 1st and 2nd standards from the common core writing anchor standard 1.  The unit includes different graphic organizers (one that supports writers working on the K standard, another for the 1st grade standard and one for the 2nd grade standard) for differentiating opinion writing.  It also includes 3 different rubrics, 3 different self reflection forms, pieces to make a reusable anchor chart, a list of mentor texts to use for opinion writing and 10 writing prompts for your students to use as they are being introduced to opinion writing.

I introduce each type of writing that we do throughout the year by reminding the students that authors organize their writing in different ways.  We added opinion writing to our "Ways Authors Organize Text" anchor chart a couple weeks ago.  

I introduce opinion writing by using the mentor text  Red Is Best by Kathy Stinson.

After reading the book, we used my reusable opinion writing anchor chart to highlight the topic, opinion, supporting reasons, and conclusion as modeled by the author of this book.  That really helped the students focus their own opinions.  The pieces to make the reusable opinion writing chart are included in the Writing My Opinion unit.  After I made the chart, I laminated it and then I use large sticky notes to change the things we add to match each different topic that we work on together.

When the students were ready, I introduced a topic that I wanted them to try to write about. We used the "best ice cream sundae topping" as our first opinion writing topic. I knew there would be a high level of motivation involved.  I modeled first with my own opinion about my favorite topping.  I used the reusable chart again for the modeling.

I am super proud of how their writing turned out.  When they were finished, I typed their writing and we published them and turned the collection into a class book.  With the help of my fabulous parents, we also had an author's celebration with real ice cream sundaes!

You can check out the Writing My Opinion unit and my other products by visiting my Tpt store.  

It's almost time for  the cyber Monday/Tuesday sale!

I'm signing off to start filling up my Tpt shopping cart for the Cyber Monday/Tuesday sale!

Reusable Anchor Charts

This year, I'm really trying to focus on working smarter not harder. I'm not sure if it's working yet...but it's worth a try. Oy...

 In the spirit of working harder, I'm trying to make some of my anchor charts reusable. I did some reading and rethinking about my anchor charts this summer. You can read a post about how I'm working on improving my anchor charts and see some other pictures here.

 Here are two of the reusable charts that I made with my students last month. The first one is from writer's workshop. I made this chart when we learned about how writer's share stories. The first picture shows the parts of the chart that I made and laminated in advance. The second picture shows samples of student work added to the chart to help the children understand the two ways writer's share stories. Since the chart is laminated, I can change the student work samples to give different students a chance to be featured.

 

I made this chart (based on the Daily 5), to introduce the 3 ways to read a book during our beginning of the year reader's workshop lessons. I've made this chart for 5 years in a row. Since I'm working smarter, not harder...I won't have to remake the whole thing next year. I put the title, the image and numbers on the chart in advance and laminated it. I do think it's important to build the chart with my students, so the handwritten parts are written on large post-it notes and added to the chart during my lesson.

 

As I'm sitting here typing, I just received an email notification that I have my first donation for my Donor's Choose project that just got posted today!  Yippeeee!!!!  I'm trying to get a mini iPad funded for my classroom.  You can read about my project and check out my Donor's Choose page by clicking on the image below.  Donors Choose is matching any donations made to my project for the first few days when the code INSPIRE is used.  Fingers crossed...

Time for me to get some sleep and prepare for a sleep in past 5 a.m. day!

Make Your Anchor Charts Awesome! (freebie)

This summer, I read a great book about anchor charts. I make tons of anchor charts with my students each year, but there are times when I feel frustrated if my students don't use a chart the way I planned for it to be used. So, when one of our professional development presenters recommended a book about anchor charts, I popped open my laptop and put it in my amazon shopping cart right away.

 The book is called Smarter Charts by Marjorie Martinelli and Kristine Mraz.

I took this book to the beach with me for 4 days in a row while we were on our camping trip. One of my favorite things about the book is that it is full of photographs of different charts.  I learned lots of new things, developed some new ideas and finished it feeling good about some of the components that I already use well when making anchor charts in my classroom. 

Here are some of the highlights from my notes from the book.  

You can click on the image to download a copy of my "notes" for yourself.

During my back to school shopping, I purchased two things to help me improve my anchor charts this year.  

1. large bright colored sticky notes (8 inches x 6 inches)

I purchased them at Staples when they were buy one get one free (but they were originally $12).

Using large post it notes will allow me to add things to charts without "messing up the whole chart".  Have you ever called a kid up to add something to a chart that took you forever to prepare and they write something like "socr" (soccer) on your carefully crafted amphibians chart?  Large brightly colored sticky notes to the rescue, "socr" gets peeled off and you say the nice teacher thing before you help the little guy/girl think of something more appropriate.  I will also use these brightly colored post its to add special vocabulary words or things that I want them to refer to later.

2. double sided tape

Using double sided tape will allow me to tape student work samples and or pictures of things related to what we are learning about to the chart.  The authors of the book stress the importance of creating charts in front of and with students. It is much faster to use a piece of double sided tape while building  an anchor chart than it is to glue all the pieces.

I have several reusable anchor charts in my classroom.  I prepare parts of the anchor charts in advance, laminate them and then let my students use sticky notes as we build a chart together during a lesson. You'll notice that I tend to use lots of scrapbook paper.

Here are a few of my reusable anchor charts.

This chart is from my Writing My Opinion pack. 

I took this picture before I laminated it...but it's laminated now. 

The pieces to make the chart are included in the pack.

This is my reusable story mapping anchor chart.

Long ago, I wrote a post about how I use this anchor chart.

You can read it and grab a story mapping freebie here.

This is my reusable Reading is Thinking chart.  

I use it for all kinds of different things.  If we are working on characters, I might have the children respond to something about a specific character on a post it note and add it to the chart.  If we are working on text to self connections, I have them write about a connection they had with a certain book.

My students share their post it note as they add it to the chart.

You can read an old post about how I use this chart and grab a main idea freebie here.

This is my reusable Writing Goals anchor chart.

I wrote a post about how I use it in my classroom here.

Obviously, not all of my anchor charts are reusable.  With the help of my sandy copy of Smarter Charts, I'm hoping to kick up the awesome factor while making and using anchor charts with my students this year.  

Now, I'm gonna kick off my slippers and get some sleep.