Word Nerds: Chapter 6

Only a few more chapters and I will be done with this book! It's such an easy read. If you haven't read it... you totally should! I let it sit on my shelf for way too long! I don't have any fun pictures for this one... sorry!

Chapter 6 was all about tha' party! There were some really fun ideas on how to motivate your students to study and be prepared for the assessment. Let me mention here that I REALLY love how this book has a focus on low-income students. Over 60% of my students are at or below the poverty line. I would estimate that about 75% of them live with someone other than their biological mom or dad. Only a very small percentage still live with both parents. When these kids come to school, they are already at a disadvantage. It is our responsibility as parents to ensure these kids get exactly what they need! With that said, a lot of the Celebrate to Validate activities involve social interaction. This is a great way to get these students speaking and acting appropriately in various social situations.

Also, one of the major problems I have in my classroom is the lack of completing homework and studying for tests. The celebration activities are a great way to motivate these students. Who wants to come to class unprepared while everyone else is having a good time? Not me!

Before we go into some of my favorites, let me add that these are GREAT ways to *review* the information {not in a boring way} before an assessment. What a great way to study!!

Some of these I liked more than others. Some just fit my personality :)

• Block Party- students role play as their word and introduce themselves as their word. Basically, it's a neighborhood social and everyone has a part! Light refreshments are served (cookies, punch) just like a block party!
• Welcome Words!- this is another social activity where students role play as their words. They go around and introduce/talk to as many other words as possible.
• Jeopardy/ Deal or No Deal- this is pretty self explanatory. Who doesn't like playing game shows? This type of review works for anything! I do like how the students came up with the game questions.

Another one I really like {because I like to dance} is the dance party. Who doesn't like to dance?!?

The next chapter is Spreading Vocabulary Wings. You are really going to love it! It has a great idea for morphology :)