The Journey Continues

We have continued our new spelling program this week.  The kids are still enjoying the different work and the change in not having to study words at home every night in preparation for our tests on Wednesday.  I introduced speed sorts this week.  The students are enjoying the challenge of racing other students to complete their sorts.  I feel like even though I am only spending a few minutes with each student at most, but I feel like I am teaching him or her so much more spelling than I did previously.  Before, all students had a differentiated sort that they studied on their own independently.  Their lists were taken from pre tests and then directly from their writing. This did not allow me to work on patterns with them at all in any capacity.  They are working hard and recognizing the patterns in spelling that they are working on.

            I worked with two students the following day on a blind sort.  This has students paired up with another student.  The students do not have to have the same sort.  The students switch sorts.  Student 1 reads the words to Student 2 from Student 2’s sort.  Student 2 writes the words under the headings in which they belong.  The students then switch words and repeat for the other student.  I worked mainly with two students during this time.  It was fantastic to see how much the students have already learned after completing their sort only about five times in different ways.  I am excited to see what they will continue doing as they get new sorts on Monday. 

            I also had the opportunity to help another teacher get the Words Their Way program up and going in her classroom.  She decided she would like to give the program a try in her class as well.  She was very excited at the different ways students could practice and how she could also start to help students with understanding the patterns.  She was pleasantly surprised that many of her first grade students were in fact on track with where they needed to be for first grade!  I am excited to see the outcomes that she sees in her classroom.  I am also wanting to see if this helps some of her struggling readers any as they learn new and more patterns.

Getting it Going

Hi there!

                So the Words Their Way madness continues!  My kids really like the program so far.  It has been weird for them not to have a definite list every week like they are used to having.  Some of them have asked me if they have a new list of words this week.  They are all still working on their first sort, but some will get their new sorts starting this week after taking their tests.  We are a little behind schedule on new sorts and their tests at the end of these tests because of snow days and days off because of basketball games.  However, I am extremely pleased with the progress that my students are already making. 

                The tests that follow each word sort were taken by students early last week.  These tests are helpful, but not as helpful as working with students as they are completing the word sorts.  I wish that I could see and work with all students as they work through the sorts because I learned so much more about how the students are doing with these word patterns.  I do think however, that students who are able to quickly complete their sorts are doing alright and are not students who I need to help as much with their sorts, so I am able to help many of the students who are struggling with their sorts still.  I am interested to see how many different directions I am pulled when some students get new sorts while other students keep their sorts because they are still not proficient at their sorts.  I am worried that more students than just a few will need support.  I am so excited to see how it goes.  I am nervous because I am behind on moving students along because training them how to work with the sorts and use them has been a longer process than I thought.  But, I will keep going. 

                On another note, I wanted to share that there are some rumors floating around my school that other teachers want to implement the Words Their Way program and I am excited to see how they make it work with their kids and the kind of results that they see.  Who knows, maybe next year we will all be doing the program if we see good results with the kids right now!