EVERYONE'S A WINNER WEEK! {Day 4}

WOW!  Our Launch week has been an amazing experience and far surpassed our goal.

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WINNERS!

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Leave your email in the rafflecopter below and the 

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Today 3 of Literacy Land blog authors are sharing great products and discussing strategies for...

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be a part of Adventures in Literacy Land. As a reading specialist, I work with a lot of students who lack a strong vocabulary. Learning to use context clues is vital for these students! Unfortunately, the way I usually taught context clues was using examples of strong vocabulary- and for students who already knew what that particular word meant, they didn’t really get any practice with the skill.

When I taught 2^nd grade, I wanted to give ALL of my students a chance to practice the skill, so I created “Words from Garwoodington.” (My name + “ington.”) I told my class that I was queen of a magical land where they spoke a funny language! I gave example sentences with a “word from Garwoodington” (just a nonsense word) and asked students to help me determine its meaning. Like many strategies, I follow “I Do, We Do, You Do” - taught/modeled, guided the group, and then let students try independently.

 

The Garwoodington twist meant all students were involved in practicing the skill-- but also made it so much fun! Follow our blog to try a sample Context Clues with Nonsense Words freebie.

Squeal...I'm so excited that today is finally here!  I'm Deniece from This Little Piggy Reads and I teach Upper Elementary in Texas.  I love that this blog will help so many teachers by providing ideas that aren't just for one grade level or one topic, but a broad range of literacy ideas from around the world!     

I teach in a Title 1 School District; well over 90% of our students are on free or reduced lunch.  At home, they are not normally exposed to a large vocabulary.  There are a multitude of studies that directly link a child's lack of early vocabulary development to their school success or struggles.   

Enter, Super Teacher!  The Super Teacher's job is to increase the vocabulary knowledge of their students so that students can pass state tests.  Sounds easy enough, right?   Well it's NOT easy.  We have a really big gap to close!  You can't do it overnight, but you can use a variety of strategies to help close those gaps.  

Today, my freebie is a LOW PREP vocabulary strategy that you can use with any group of words your students are studying (2nd grade & up).  Students and Administrators love this activity because it gets your kids out of their seat and collaborating.  

             

I am Jana from Thinking Out Loud and am very excited to be a contributing author. One of my favorite elements in literacy instruction is teaching vocabulary in context.  Teaching vocabulary outside of a text does not help students learn new words.  They need to see those words in use in books that they read and that you read to them.  I base my instruction on Bringing Words to Life by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan.  For every read aloud, I pick two to three tier two words to teach explicitly to my students using an eight-step process.

1.  Read the story
2.  Introduce the word by rereading the word in context of the story
3.  Have students repeat the word.
4.  Give students a student-friendly definition.  (I love to use Word Central for this.)
5.  Use the word in a context different from what is used in the book.
6.  Have the students repeat the word again.
(After I have completed steps 2-6 for each word, then I complete steps 7-8.)
7.  Have students interact with the words.
8.  Use all of the words in a sentence.

To get you started teaching vocabulary explicitly, I have included a Vocabulary in Context freebie in our exclusive freebie pack for all our blog followers.

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