This year our school is revamping our word study approach for upper grades. As part of our school's Literacy Team, I was really excited to try something new for my 5th grade friends. We got off to a good start at the beginning of the year using Month by Month Phonics (whose materials only go up to 4th grade !) and Words Their Way.
Honestly, it seems like every teacher says this every year, but THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME! I swear, this year I am trying to pack more and more into a school day than ever before. So, my word study has taken a backseat to other "more important" curriculum.
Honestly, it seems like every teacher says this every year, but THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME! I swear, this year I am trying to pack more and more into a school day than ever before. So, my word study has taken a backseat to other "more important" curriculum.
That being said, I've taken it upon myself to dedicate my Christmas break to digging deeper into my word study and figure out something that is bound to work for the rest of the year. I love what Beth Newingham has done for her third graders (and if you don't know who she is GOOGLE HER NOW!) and I wanted to adapt that to fit my students. We're already using the same materials, I just need a new approach. I'm going to try this whole 2 word list thing and see how it goes. Essentially all of the students will be working on the same pattern, but with a "regular" list and a "challenge" list. They'll also be studying 5 high frequency words each week based on a pretest from earlier this year. I'm thinking of having them work with a Study Buddy to practice, complete word assignments during the week, then give each other their tests on Friday. I've seen this done in the past, but I'm a little concerned about cheating helping from their Study Buddy. If you have suggestions for that, I'd appreciate it!
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