Vocabulary Study Update

Well, my first full week of instruction was this past week. OH.MY!!

I have a lot of things that need adjusting... like the amount of work I have planned. My classes are about an hour shorter this year, so I found myself having way too much to do and not enough time to do it. Needless to say...  I was a little stressed!

I did manage to get my first week of vocabulary complete! It took a little longer than expected, but I'm hoping the time will shorten once we get the hang of it. If you follow me on Instagram, then you probably saw this picture!

Many were asking about my vocabulary planning sheet and how I use Chromebooks to help my students with vocabulary. To be honest, it was one of those times when you have an idea at the last moment. I really didn't want my students to search through dictionaries to find the definition, synonyms, antonyms, and other ways to use the words. I grabbed my Chromebooks, paired my students together, and sent them to www.merriam-webster.com. I tried to look for other sites, but this one was simple enough for my 5th graders and had everything they needed.

Here are some other pictures of them working.

 They absolutely loved this lesson! Here's what we did each day! It only took us 3 days to complete the work, but I'm hoping to get it down to 2!
Monday- we read the sentences and decided which words went where (close style). We then determined the meaning of the words by using context clues.
Tuesday- the students worked on chrome books and found antonyms and synonyms for each word.
Wednesday- the students used the kid-friendly definition we came up with together, the sentence on the chart, and synonyms/antonyms to create their own sentence.

Before I gave the vocabulary planner to my students, I wrote out kid-friendly definition for each word OR you could have them write it.

Here's what our chart looked like after our vocabulary work days!

 I have decided that I really need 2 black pocket charts since I am teaching two different books. Right now I am switching them out with each class (I teach 4 classes and we are doing 2 different books) and it is a pain! I think I'm going to take down the orange charts and replace them with a full-size. I'm planning on putting the orange charts near so I can place our words in as we finish each cycle.

 Are you interested in my Vocabulary Planner? Grab it in my store for free! It is adapted from Word Nerds. You can click on the image below to go directly to the page.

Word Nerds: Chapter 8 & Epilogue

Chapter 8 is all about assessing. Let me start off with the quote that started the chapter!

As teachers, I think we sometimes get caught up in the hustle of teaching, assessing, and giving grades that we often times forget the true meaning of assessing. I know I am guilty of this. It's a super busy time of the year, you grade the weekly assessment (I'll talk more about this in a minute), get your data/students together you want to meet with, then something comes up the following Monday and your reteaching groups gets pushed each day until you totally forget about it. It's not Friday again, you finally remember, but it's a little too late to get that group together. Before you know it, you are two weeks behind. Does this sound familiar?!? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

As teachers we have great and powerful intentions, but sometimes the to-dos get the best of us! This quote is something I'm going to place very near to my desk. It's something that I DON'T want to forget!

This chapter has also made me really think about the assessments I give in my own classroom, not just with vocabulary instruction. Every week I give an in-depth reading comprehension/skill assessment based on a skill we worked on as well as some from the past. The passages are usually 1-1.5 pages and the questions have at least 3 constructed response answers. It takes my students any where from 45 minutes to over an hour to complete. Is this what is best for my students?

This year, I'm going to try and do things a lot differently. My ELA time will be cut into almost half the time I had last year! I'm really going to try and make as many things work together as possible. Most of my reading assessments will come from my class novel we are reading. I'll talk more about this later! I just wanted you to know that chapter 8 had me reflecting on ALL forms of assessment, not just vocabulary!

The remainder of the chapter was really about different types of formative assessments (during learning, to inform) that I already use in my classroom. Here are some that were mentioned and explained:

• Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
• Observations (very useful & important)
• Analyzing Student Work
• Teacher Questioning (focusing on student response)
• Student-Generated Questions

I'm going to end the post with two more quotes I found useful!

 This again goes along with what I was saying before. We need to slow down and really focus on what our students NEED from us!

One of my professional goals a few years ago was giving my students effective feedback. To improve/meet this goal, I read a PL book, How to Give Your Students Effective Feedback. It's a great read to anyone who is interested in this area. It goes right along with this quote. Our feedback needs to be two things! #1: it needs to be timely (ASAP) and #2: it needs to be effective. Your feedback should provide and describe a way they can be a better student or specifically stating what they did well on. Here's what the cover looks like if you are interested.

When we give our students feedback throughout the learning process, we are assessing what they know AND teaching at the same time... how awesome is that?

I would personally like to thank Leslie Ann from Life in Fifth Grade for motivating me to finally read *and finish* this wonderful PL book! I can't wait to take everything I learned back to my classroom. I desperately needed some direction in vocabulary instruction... I finally have it! :)

Word Nerds: Chapter 7

Y'all, we are almost at the end of this wonderful book! Just in time for me to go back into my classroom and get some things done. 

Chapter 7 is all about Spreading Vocabulary Wings. I really liked the section on morphology study. Last year, my upper class didn't have a spelling list. Instead, they had 10 morphology words that we would study for 2 weeks then have an assessment over them. This worked really well and the students really learned the meanings of some of these prefixes, suffixes, and roots. I would hear them using what they knew about the parts of words to decode the meaning of other words... it was great! But in reality, they didn't need to know all of the parts we studied because it was a lot! Over the summer, all the 5th grade ELA teachers in my county came together and chose morphology words that we felt our students needed to know. This list is are the words I'm going to focus on this year. There are no more than 10 for each quarter. This will save me a *HUGE* amount of time.

As you can imagine, I was overly excited about the Crystal Ball Words in chapter 7. I loved the layout of the graphic organizer and how they can discover new words from a single prefix, suffix, or root word. It's such a powerful way to look at morphology. I plan on using this format but of course I'm going to cutesy it up a bit!

This chapter is on my favorites list because it goes on to give year another graphic organizer that can be used for inferring the meaning of vocabulary. It's organized by Clues from the Text//What I already Know//My Inference or Conclusion. This is similar to what I have used in the past when we are talking about drawing conclusions.

What are some activities you use in your own classroom to help teach vocabulary in context and morphology? I'd love to hear about them!

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 :)

Word Nerds: Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was packed full of different activities you can do in your classroom other than the boring write the definition and use your word correctly in a sentence! They were all great ideas, but some of them I liked more than the others.

Here are some I am planning on using in my classroom this year!

• Scramble! {or human concept map}: Have students pair up with some type of connection to each other's word. When the teacher says "scramble!" you mix it up!
• Word Charades: Act out {with or without words} a skit that portrays your word... my 5th graders will love this!
• Vocabulary Rap: Students create a rap about their word to help them and others remember the word.

Vocabulary Rap is probably one of my favorites that was mentioned. I am most remembered by my students as the teacher who would sing some crazy stuff! I sing songs, I make up songs, I act silly! It's fun and it gives the students a chance to see that you are human and can have fun! Too many students are afraid of their teachers! LOL  Although... my singing may scare them :)

I love that this book mentioned Flocabulary.com! I am {IN LOVE} with this site and have requested a year subscription for all my students! It's great for ALL subjects... not just ELA. The best thing is that the raps are totally cool (not corny) and the students love them... and remember them!

I also love that this chapter did a small focus on speaking & listening. This is a goal I've had since last year. I want to focus on our Speaking & Listening standards more than what we have in the past. I want to remind my students DAILY that the way they speak & listen is important.

I have created these cute and easy posters for your classroom that can be printed on bright paper and hung on the wall. I can't wait to get mine up!

Word Nerds: Chapters 3 & 4

Today I'm combining chapters 3 and 4. I didn't have much to take away from these two, but I did like the introduction lesson they gave in chapter 3.

My favorite was how Leslie used cloze sentences to have her fifth grade students predict which word would fit with which sentence based on their schema and context. I also liked how she mentioned that sometimes they would get to the last sentence and realize the word wouldn't fit. They would then have to go back and rework the words. She reiterates over and over how great this strategy is for test taking... and I totally agree!

In chapter 4, she mentions the use of vocabulary badges which is a great idea! She suggested using the words and their meaning to have students line up, answer random questions, etc. I like this idea, but I still haven't decided if it is something I'm going to use in my own classroom. If this is something you are interested in, you need to check out Leslie Ann's post and her adorable badges. I saw her badges, but I haven't read her chapter 4 post! I'm going to check that out now! :)

Vocabulary Routine {Based off Word Nerds}

If you have missed my Word Nerds post, be sure to click here. Trust me, you don't want to miss out! Especially on the post from yesterday! Chapter 2 really got my gears turning in terms of vocabulary instruction. You can read that post here.

In my chapter 2 post, I promised to go into more detail today about what my plans are for vocabulary instruction based on Word Nerds. Keep in mind that these plans may change! I'm only on chapter 3 :)

Remember this picture from my post yesterday, Instagram, and Facebook?

It has received so many shares and likes {which I love, by the way}! First, let me tell you what my classes and schedule are like. Here are a few things you should know!

• I teach ELA to the entire 5th grade
• I teach 4 classes of ELA
• I have an advanced gifted class, an upper average class, lower average class, and a co-teaching special needs class
• I only have 70 minutes to teach reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary

I know, I feel the same way! How am I going to make all this work? I'm really not sure, but I have something in the works that I will be sharing soon!

Here are my plans for vocabulary instruction. I'll try to present it in a way that makes sense! To be honest, I was just writing things as they came to me.

 Since time is of the essence this year, I am pretty much going to be teaching everything through my read alouds. Last year, read alouds were just a time for the students to come together, relax, and listen to a great story. We are going to be working with these novels this year and that is where my vocabulary will come from!

Have you ever read either one of these books? They are both excellent. I still haven't decided what to do about the 2 different texts. Elijah is a more mature book for my upper 2 classes and Homer P. Figg is easier to follow for my lower 2 classes. I really don't want to do the work for two books at a time, but I really want to keep the two separate... decisions!!!

 Most of our vocabulary instruction will come on Mondays. We will still work on vocabulary through the next 2 weeks (my cycle will be 2 weeks meaning we test bi-weekly) but most will be finished by our very first day, so students can work with these words and use them. The handout mentioned here will be similar to the teacher example they have on pg. 33, but mine will be for the students :)

Please note, the text should read, "Before **our** read aloud"

Last year, we studied morphology HARD! We had 10 words that we worked on for 2 weeks and then the students had a quiz. This summer, all the 5th grade ELA teachers in the county came together and chose 5th grade morphology words that we felt our students needed to study. There are only 12-15 per quarter, so they will be included in our vocabulary study. I will include around 3 words per cycle.

There you have it! I can't wait to read chapter 3 to gain more insight and other great ideas!

Word Nerds: Ch. 2... WOW!!

I don't know what it was about chapter 2, but it has really inspired me. It may be that I finally sat down and paced out my year and focused on a weekly plan for my 1st quarter. I'm really not sure but WOW!! Here are some take aways I got from chapter 2.

This was something I feel like I'm already doing. However, it WAS something I had an issue with! I'm a control freak! I have a certain way I like things, and I like for them to stay that way. When I first started teaching, I had all the supplies hidden in a closet and expected the students to use them ONLY when they asked. After a few years of teaching, I finally decided that I wanted my students to feel a sense of community in my classroom. It's a very laid back atmosphere where anything goes! Now, my supplies are by my front door in labeled containers.

Ummm... hello?!? Do you really need any other rules? These three, simple rules cover the basics to have a class of students ready to learn!

I've always done this. This aligns with the number of multiple exposures students need in order to reach mastery. If they are using and reading it... they are learning it! I try to keep the really BIG ideas up all year.

This was something I was guilty of. I knew we needed to be working with Tier 2 words more, but there wasn't enough time. This year I have even less time because I'm teaching 4 classes instead of 2! But I'm going to make it work!

I'm going to be working on some cute posters/student handouts for these. We will have these posted in kid-friendly terms and the students will have a handout in their binder. I want them to know the standards!

I am all about routines! This part of the book is where a huge bulb went off in my head! If you follow me on Instagram then you probably saw this picture!

I was like... perfect! This is a plan I have right now! Keep in mind, I have not read ahead. I am just on chapter 3. Some things I have in mind may change a bit. I'll be sharing that post tomorrow! You don't want to miss it! How in the world will I fit vocabulary in a 70 minute Reading/ELA block? FIND OUT!

Don't forget to go check out what Ms. Leslie Ann has to say over on Life in Fifth Grade. She's a chapter ahead of me, so I try not to read hers until I have mine done! However, her post on Instagram kind of gave away some things she's planning on doing in her class. They look very similar to what I shared here... great minds DO think alike!

Word Nerds: Intro & Ch. 1

So, I've had this book for waaaaay to long to not have read it. When Ms. Leslie Ann from Life in Fifth Grade mentioned that she was going to do a mini book study on it, I knew I had to read it, too! So... I went to my classroom and dug it out of the pile of resources stacked high for waxing. Ms. Leslie Ann shared her thoughtS for the introduction and chapter 1 that you can find here. Now I'm going to share my own!

A lot of the things that were mentioned in the introduction and chapter 1 were things I already knew. However, there were some things that caught my attention!

The introduction just really set the stage for the remainder of the book. It gives us a background about the teacher and the classroom we will be looking at. Even though I was already familiar with most of the ideas mentioned in chapter 1, I loved the research! As teachers, we should always have research to back up what we are doing in our own classrooms. Here are some I thought were note worthy!

Perhaps the most meaningful idea from this chapter is what words to teach. Have you ever heard of the three tiers of vocabulary? This is something I already knew but didn't use that much in my classroom. I am definitely going to make more of an effort to really use this in my instruction this year. Here's what the three tiers are and which words you should be teaching in your classroom!

Jen Jones from Hello Literacy has an awesome free resource for visual learners! You can download it here.

Here are a few other things that seemed to be of importance to me. Most of these were numbered under the heading Research Reveals the Right Approach.

• Students have to learn words at more than one level
• Students must experience words multiple times (no more study list, define, vocabulary quiz, forget it)
• When students learn words they build 'word schema' which is beneficial for defining words in context
• Students can build their vocabulary through reading
• Students can learn words through conversation
• Students can learn words through word play (and it's fun!)
• Students need direct vocabulary instruction
• Most students need word-learning strategies (a variety of them) to become better readers

Here are a few things I'm guilty of... I assumed 5th graders knew how to decode the meaning of a word in context. Now I have realized that they will need direct instruction on how to do this. This is such a useful skill, y'all! By using context, you can understand almost any word! The #1 thing I'm guilty of.... not using the same vocabulary in all my classes. Sometimes I find myself using simple language in my Co-teaching special needs class. This is a NO, NO! If students don't understand, you should help them so they can. 

I am doing really well at my advanced class' vocabulary instruction. We focus on parts of words (prefix, suffix, roots). Do we have a quiz? YEP! But I also see and hear them using past words in their conversations and parts of words to help with meaning of other words. It's great!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from chapter 1!