Wednesday Word Work Reflection

My first week of lessons plans for word study were blown out of the water the first day of school.  When I begin each workshop with inquiry,  I should know better. After 31 years of teaching, you would think I would no not to plan a week out. 

I found a new book (to me) this summer Word Builder  Once I read it, I knew it would be included in my Day 1 plans: sharing a great book and an open sort of vocabulary.  The power in an open word sort is that I learn along with my learners.  The conversations were huge!!  Actually so big I changed Thursday's plans.  We were already to discuss word observations once I lifted their thinking from the chart above.

I was so excited I sent an email to our staff sharing photos and the new book title.  So many times in education, we forget to thank the teachers below us.  I like to call it the Food Chain - growth of knowledge leading to the top level - fifth grade.  I was ecstatic when five other teachers borrowed the book and my lesson.  YES!  The power of collaboration.  We're off to an amazing start in Room 234.  Shifting their thinking already about words!!

Wednesday Word Work: August Lesson Thinking

It is a personal challenge to help my new wordsmiths flip their thinking about word work. I always ask how many of you enjoy ----- fill in the blank with different subjects. I record the data on the board, and we share observations about our new group of learners. I snapshot the data and keep it for future reference. Typically 5 out of 27 enjoy word study. I ask the hard question: Why? What does word study mean to you? How can I shift your perspective this year? I have several lessons already planned for the first few weeks of words study.

• 10 for 10 Picture Books to support word learning
• Mapping the Course gathering fun words and setting up notebooks
• Fun with Greeting Cards enjoying word play
• Building Word Work in the classroom
• Word Play is Crucial to word learning

To encourage wordsmiths to think about vocabulary differently throughout our day I weave conversations about word learning into every subject.

• Discussing expectations: What do you notice about the word expectations?
• Sharing our #ClassroombBookaDay What words did you hear that you liked or were new to you?
• Math: I notice the word operations have multiple meanings?
• Science: What happens when you compare science to scientist?
• Writing: Look at my summer writing, what do you notice about my word choice?

My goal is to create new expectations and shift their thinking about word study. I promise I will have more than five learners enjoying word work after the first month of school, and I will have the data to support it.

compliments of Google Images

Wednesday Word Work: What's in a Name?

Their story that we need to unfold! I want to embrace my new students'name and honor their history. I am constantly shocked when I inquire: what do you know about your first and last name? There is silence in the classroom....

I notice unique names and take photos throughout the summer to share at the beginning of the school year. What a fun way for my students to learn about me and instantly they know that I embrace vocabulary. I found the image above on Twitter, and it grabbed me. I loved the idea of summer ABC photos and started thinking about a new visual "Get to Know You" activity. What if each student made an acrostic poem with their name but instead of writing they chose pictures that show about their life? Photos could include: a vacation, favorite activity, their family or even a pet. Or it could be as simple as the letter S for a soccer ball. Learners could choose their presentation tool which would open conversations and probably questions especially with technology. Let's face it by the time they get to fifth grade, do they really want to create another "All About ME" poster?

If you haven't ever read this book, rush out to your library. It's the perfect introduction for this activity.

My North Star Celebration

My blog has been quiet for a few months. The first several weeks I felt huge guilt.  As hours became days, days became weeks, weeks became months, I was able to release the guilt. I was always wondering did I have something to share on my blog?  The answers were consistently no. Thoughts would form, I would write them in my notebook, a few conversations would nag at me to be shared, or I would read something and be thankful that I was encouraged. It was more important that I left a comment to thank the author than write my own post. 

I celebrate the gift of friendship. Those who know me, love me, and best of all truly understand me.  We were able to talk on my back porch for three hours. I shared secrets that I hadn't told anyone, and my friend listened, discussed, helped me through my dilemmas about blogging.  She listened to new desires but wouldn't allow my passions to slip away.  After eight years of blogging, I realized it was important to reflect on the direction I want to head.  Asking what is my North Star?  Through our conversation and reflecting on my notebooks, I have found my North Star.     

• Passion for vocabulary - collecting words, thinking about word study
• Passion for reading so I am able to book talk throughout the school year
• Passion for being a quiet mentor
• Passion for shining the spotlight on others

I have always found celebration blogs posts  to lift me up and help connect with other friends. I am thankful for this community of readers. I hope everyone has a great week and if you are searching for your North Star I hope you find it. 

Compliment of Google Images
As I type this post, I realize quiet nights on our dock
have lead me to where I am today. 

Three Celebrations All Rolled into One Day

I'm celebrating with our Saturday community. This week's celebration happened on Tuesday. The first celebration was a snow day on Monday. It was our first one in two years.  I LOVE snow days because they are unplanned and a huge gift to teachers & students. Our class was a buzz Tuesday morning as everyone entered.  Listening to their conversations and agreeing with everyone was so fun!  Several students replied, "Mrs. Caplin you are as excited and we are."  I replied, "Yes I am!"

Our next celebration was in word study-in case you don't already know I love word study! I am passionate about vocabulary and weaving in new words throughout the day.  Our focus this week is a Latin room "struct" which means to build.  After our mini lesson, I always encourage learners to search for other words with a similar pattern.  While they wrote them on the chart paper, I was as quiet as a mouse listening to the rich conversations. My final celebration is our student generated word list which is always better than the teacher made list - just saying :)

Super list of vocabulary words and rich conversations
about roots + suffixes leading us toward another conversation
about parts of speech.

I

Wednesday Word Work: Tale of Two Conversations

A few conversations this past week started me thinking about the role of a teacher as a learner. The first conversation was with a teacher who was struggling with word study.  She felt like her lessons were not flowing, and the lessons were more like a check off list.  As we talked,  I suggested several activities and she made al list of "possibilities."  I saw her get overwhelmed as we continued talking.  I realized I was talking way too fast for her.  Together we looked at the list of "possibilities" and helped her to choose a few from the list. These are the ones she chose to tackle for the next week.

• collecting words (from the read aloud or picture books) new skill
• word observations (she had already taught this skill earlier in the year) review skill
• playing with words (sharing magnetic letters, dry erase boards) helping with spelling

The second conversation was with a friend who is an amazing math teacher discussing the importance of "talk" in the workshop.  She shared a video of her class during math workshop and as I listened to the talk of the students I noticed that the teacher was in background.  I was on overload with so many ideas running through my mind.  I couldn't comprehend more than one idea.  I asked her for one strategy to help me with talk in my workshop because I felt overwhelmed.  Her suggestion was about how to help students have a conversation without raising their hands every time.  If a student wanted to change the topic of the conversation, they he/she would raise their hand which signaled a shift in thinking otherwise the students would talk math. Brilliant light bulb moment for me. 

Compliments of Google Images

As I think about tale of two conversations, I was on both sides of the track.  Both of these opportunities to learn more about myself are important. One is not better than the other.  In the first conversation, I was leading the conversation and helping support the teacher.  In the second, I was the learner and grasping for one strategy to modify the talk in my math workshop.  One strategy was all that I could hear and begin to think about for talk in math. How many times do our students feel that way in our classroom? Both experiences helped me to remember the importance of teachers as learners.

Wednesday Word Work: Keeping the Mini in Minilesson

How do you keep word work lessons mini?  What a great question.  In our district, we are required to do 10-15 min. word work daily.  This is not a problem for me however keeping the mini in mini lesson is more difficult.  I always start with the learning target typically in Social Studies or Science. 

We are studying Native Americans and how their environment impacts their living conditions.   I choose 3-5 words, which will support the target, and those words become focus also for word work. I chose the following words: adapt, migrant, migrating, migration, adaptations.  The students are familiar with these words through our lesson in Social Studies.

For word study, we focused on the difference between adapt (verb) and adaptation (noun), migrant (noun), migration (adjective or noun) and migrating (verb) The word observations and word sorts around these five words were powerful.  I started with an inquiry what do you notice about these five words?  Conversations were rich as I eavesdropped on them. 

G. said, “I didn’t know migration could be two different parts of speech.”  

B. asked, “Can you help me?” 

G replied, “Look in our book, see migration routes – that makes it an adjective.”

B. read out of the book,  "The migration from Asia to United States was treacherous."

G.  "Yea that is a noun." 

Mini will always be a challenge for me;however, I've learned and continue to practice on keeping it short and simple. The biggest shift in mini has been connecting the mini to prior learning.  #WWW. 

Wednesday Word Work: Exploration

Favorite shelf of word study and poetry books.
Typically the poetry shelf is jammed pack; however,
every student has a book in their desk for this week's
Poetry Friday celebration.

I had a little extra kick in my step this week with word work because I was constantly thinking.  I went straight to the source. My amazing and vocal group of learners in Room 234.  I shared with them that I was blogging about word work, and I wanted to continue the conversation from last week about EXPLORATION.  I asked a few students during indoor recess:  What's your favorite part of word study? 

• your word study book tub (which continues to grow out of the tub)
• word observations
• having fun with words on Poetry Friday
• sorting words (introductory lesson for most new skills)
• having our own word notebook (always have a basket ready to choose from)

Word observations is a routine I start early in the year and my students continue to use this strategy throughout the year especially syllable boxes to help them with their spelling.   It's the opportunity to notice the word features.  

1. Count the vowels plus consonants = letters (write an addition problem)
2. Using that information, build syllable boxes (one of the most important rules in spelling every syllable has a vowel in it)
3. Teaching why "y" is a vowel and a consonant (it's really neat if you have a student who's name is Ryan because y is a vowel) depending on if it is in a box without another vowel
4. Part of speech
5. Definition 
6. Sentence showing meaning

first word observation of the year

Thanks for stopping by on Wednesday. I am excited to learn along with you as we explore word work. If you decide to post leave your link in the comment section.

Saturday Celebration #WWW

It's Saturday and time to Celebrate.  I'm always thankful when it is mid week and I have already decided about my celebration for the week.  I hope that isn't cheating starting my blog post early on Thursday and waiting until Saturday to push the publish button.  I am thankful for Ruth for encouraging us to celebrate.  Today as you read this post I will be at the Dublin Literacy Conference which is always a highlight of my winter.   I will be tweeting my new learning #dublit16 feel free to follow along and learn side by side.  Here is the link up this week. 

My celebration is simple but makes me happy.  I've been struggling with writing lately.  There are way too many posts to link back to that talks about not having my writing voice.  I've learn a few lessons about writing and the biggest one has been that sometimes we are our own worst critic.  As I think about my #OLW16 (quest) I chose that word purposefully to move me in my writing.  I've found my niche again and I'm excited.  My passion is vocabulary.  I'm constantly thinking about it, wondering why authors choose that specific word, collecting words from EVERYWHERE.  It's in my DNA and I have decided that is where my writing is leading me.  Down a path to share my journeys.  I am not sure of the big picture ahead but for right now the quest I'm on is worth celebrating.  I would encourage you to join me in in blogging on Wednesdays about word work. if you do leave a comment on my post and we can link up. Here's to s a Super Saturday of living and learning. 

Wednesday Word Work: Mapping the Course

With anything we teach routines are crucial for students and teachers. In our district, we have Grade Level Progressions to follow, and I am thankful for that map which helps me plan the lessons. In addition we are required to do 10-15 minutes word work a day; however, I always go over this time because I am weaving the skills into so many different content areas. 

Building excitement with words - teaching my students that words are everywhere!

Routines are established around three important principles to develop and encourage strong wordsmiths in my classroom.

1. exploration
2.  practice
3. connections
4. assessments

Exploration is my favorite part of word study. Nothing is better than when students are looking, thinking and working with new words. Several years ago I read Max Brand's book Word Savvy and it changed my word work teaching instantly. Here is the link to that post. After the students spend the first week discussing their names and practicing with them, we stretch our word learning to outside the classroom. See photo above. Our first month of word work is focused on the following:

• assessing our students through a spelling and sentence dictation
• word observations
• word connections
• word webs
• word sorts

My goal is to encourage students to think differently about word work. One way I incorporate fun with words is collecting greeting cards all year. It's fun each month to pull out new cards and share them with the students eventually my students start to bring me their "fun" with words ideas. Here are some past blog posts about building fun in word work. 

• Word play is crucial the first month of school.  
• Greeting Cards make word work fun.
• Word Observations (Have you tried stickers?)

Thanks for stopping by on Wonderful Wednesday I am excited to learn along with you as we explore word work.

Launching Wednesday Word Work

It's Wednesday, and I am always thankful for Wednesday.  Half way through the week which is a celebration on both ends. 2 days completed and 2 more for learning.  I love sharing with my students my favorite phrases for the days of the week. 

• Marvelous Monday
• Terrific Tuesday
• Wonderful Wednesday
• Tremendous Thursday
• Fabulous Friday

I wonder do any of you have habits likes these that just make you happy?  I'm not sure my students even notice anymore that this is how our morning message starts everyday.  But I'm thrilled when I type it every morning for them. 

Thanks ML for my writer's notebook and here are some of my favorite words.

I am intrigued by words and collect them in all my notebooks typically on the inside and back cover.  I often find myself thinking more about the words than the story.  I find myself stuck often if I don't know a word even with using context clues.  I like getting my old Webster's dictionary,not Googling it.  I preach to my students about word work.  The importance of noticing the authors' word choice as well as the spelling. 

I purchase cheap little notebooks all summer so when the students get ready to start their own they can choose from the basket.  This happens quickly in my classroom because I share my notebooks and how I collect words.  I read amazing picture books to get them excited. Have you read the following titles? Here is the link to favorite 10for10 picture books about focusing on creating curiosity about words.  I also have several word games in my classroom that my students play every Friday. After we celebrate Poetry Friday, the students play word games and this is my chance to work with small groups to help them with their spelling patterns.  My recent group has been focused on the different Long "o" sounds.  

I've been searching for ways to share more on my blog about my teaching life. Lately it feels like I'm slicing and celebrating which are really important to me personally.  Often those posts include school and personal life.  But I asked a friend recently about being stuck in my writing, and she said I always start with what I know and love - words!  I am going to try and post on Wonderful Wednesday about word work.  Is anyone interested in joining me?  Do you have any thought about future posts for word work in your classroom? After all it only takes, two of us for a conversation.  

Word Work is a Continuous Circle

Virtual PD is one of my favorite parts of twitter.  Being able to extend my learning community continues to help me grow as a professional. As teachers, we all have our favorite areas to explore.  I am constantly on the hunt for vocabulary or word work ideas for my classroom.  As I read Kelly Gallagher’s string of tweets from the latest NAEP report on vocabulary, I was intrigued with his big thinking from the article. One consistent belief that I have had is the importance of vocabulary development not in isolation.  

I am always energized when I am able to find tweets, blogs or articles that support my thinking about the integration of word work throughout the school day. I continue to encourage my students to be wordsmiths by collecting and thinking about vocabulary.  I rarely give my students a list of focus vocabulary words.  Each time I introduce a new focus skill, my students know that they will need to gather key vocabulary.  All of my students collect vocabulary as we begin a unit and then as a class we discuss the words. The students choose 1-3 words and write them on post it notes.  We then gather the words into groups and begin to look for repetition.  After a conversation about the words, we discuss and choose our unit words.  Finally we have a focused list for our new unit. When students have ownership of their words, this connection helps them to understand the importance of vocabulary. Often students know exactly where they found the word and can use the context to help them with new meaning or as a reference if they forget.  Being a wordsmith throughout the day is an important role.