EVERYONE'S A WINNER WEEK! {Day 4}

WOW!  Our Launch week has been an amazing experience and far surpassed our goal.
All of our new followers this week are 
WINNERS!
Each blog author has donated an exclusive freebie just for our new followers.
Leave your email in the rafflecopter below and the 
Exclusive Prize Pack will be e-mailed to you this weekend.
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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.

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When I taught 2nd 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.

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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.


Thank you for visiting our blog. 
We hope these vocabulary strategies will be helpful.
Remember, leave your email address and 
come back tomorrow to get writing tips!

48 comments

  1. AWESOME ideas!!!! I am excited about this blog. My favorite book to teach is Chronicles of Narnia. So much amazing things can be done with this book series and kids of all ages love it!

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    1. I love that series! It is definitely in my top ten to share with students.

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  2. I hope you all live in a castle and wear Reading Queen tiaras! Seriously, this blog is the BEST I've found, and is going to help my guided reading instruction be royally better in the new year!
    I shared the site with all of my colleagues, and hope that they will become your loyal subjects once we return to school after Snowmaggedon here in Ohio!
    Gratefully,
    Jennifer
    storiesandsongs@gmail.com
    http://www.storiesandsongsinsecond.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you so much Jennifer!! That is such an amazing compliment. We can't wait to dig in and share all that we can :)
      Em
      Curious Firsties

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    2. Jennifer, your comment put a big smile on my face.

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    3. Thank you so much for that lovely feedback Jennifer - has really made our day!!! Kylie

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    4. I'm shopping for tiaras for all of the princesses right now !
      Wendy

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    5. What a nice comment, Jennifer! I am excited about the dialogue between teachers and the PD that will come from it. It's so wonderful to get an activity from someone who's already tested it out! :-)

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    6. Such a wonderful comment on a day when I needed it! Thanks so much, and our vision is to provide great literacy ideas that help everyone as they teach such important literacy skills! Keep following!

      Andrea
      Reading Toward the Stars

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  3. This blog is going to be amazing! I shared your first few posts as staff meeting yesterday and even got some teachers who have never even looked at a blog very excited!

    Tara
    The Math Maniac

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    1. Thank you for sharing our blog!

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    2. Thanks so much for sharing, Tara. We hope to share our experience and knowledge, but we hope to learn from visitors too. We are certainly not "experts", and we hope to open up dialogue with professionals from all parts of the world. It will be a great adventure learning togehter from other reading specialists, coaches, teachers, parents, homeschool moms, and college professors. To be sure, we will read your comments. :-)

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    3. Thanks for sharing our new blog with your staff Tara - really appreciate it :) Kylie

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  4. Math Maniac and Jennifer,
    We're so glad you shared our blog. We are excited as well. Stay warm!
    Deniece, This Little Piggy Reads

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  5. Y'all are great!! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas!!

    XO, Kelly Anne
    AppleSlices

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  6. Beyond Excited!!!!
    Favorite Book - The One and Only Ivan

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    1. I have heard many people recommend The One and Only Ivan. I am adding it to my to-read pile.

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    2. Oh, I LOVE that book! :) The perspective and voice is just so unique. So glad you came by our blog!

      Jenny

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  7. Because of Winn Dixie - Amazing book. They love it every year!

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  8. Frindle! Such a fun story!

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    1. Love that book too! Our school read that one as a community read, and all of the kids loved it! Thanks so much for stopping by!

      Andrea
      Reading Toward the Stars

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  9. My favorite book to teach is Little Quack.

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  10. There is no possible way to narrow my favorite book to teach....but one of my favorites is reading the trilogy, Shiloh to my third grade students. It was a favorite of mine when I was in 4th grade, so I love showing my students the actual chapter book from when I was in elementary school. The pages are old and yellow. I wrote my name inside the cover with my 4th grade handwriting. The students love to see that!

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    1. That is so great!! I know your kids really enjoy those books with you!
      Em

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  11. Frindle is fun. There are so many!!! Thanks

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  13. There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom is one of many I love to teach.

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  14. Having students draw first and write second.

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  15. I love all of the vocabulary resources provided this week...fabulous

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  16. I am impressed too Ellie - there's a lot of talent in this group...can't wait for future blog posts as I am learning so many new ideas :) Kylie

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  17. I recently started writing rotations, which allows my students a lot of time to partner write, they are obsessed with it! It has really helped build their writing stamina.

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    1. I haven't done it yet, but I wondered about have my students write partner papers where they collaborate on one paper. I'm curious if that's what you did and how it worked?

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  18. I love this post today, although I have been excitedly reading all of them. This is an area that I need to improve for my kids this year. Thank you very much. I can't wait to get back to school after our summer holidays to put them into practice
    Belinda (Sydney, Australia)
    starbel@internode.on.net

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    1. Hi Belinda! The research on vocabulary instruction shows how important it is for all of us. I just completed two posts about vocabulary, and the statistics are shocking for sure. Many children start school way behind peers, so we're playing catch up before we start. We will be further exploring and discussing vocabulary instruction you can be sure.

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    3. Hi Belinda, a fellow Aussie educator :) I am so glad you are participating in this collaborative blog...there are some very talented literacy specialists contributing to this collaborative blog, so I am so pleased you are following it :) Kylie (Ripper Reading Resources)

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  19. I love using writing folders that contain mini dictionaries that are personalized per student and have words that they use in their writing as well as high frequency words.

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    1. Gay Miller has a great freebie on TPTs for WOW words that you may like for kids to replace "dead" words with "wow" words. I love it for mine.

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  20. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas!

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  21. I prepared a vocabulary workshop recently, and have blogged about vocabulary on Jana's blog and on my own about the statistics and ways to address them. Your activities are great, Jenny, Jana, and Deniece, and I am so excited to learn from each other and from those who comment. The dialogue that we can have about instructional practices, research, and what works can be so powerful. I can't wait to use your activities in my classroom too!
    Carla @ Comprehension Connection (contributor)

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  22. Great blog! Favorite book is Because of Winn Dixie. Love that dog!

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  23. LOVE the Words from Garwoodington!!! Such a fun idea! I plan to do this in 2 weeks when I will be working on this skill! :) LOVE the new blog....thanks for doing this!

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  24. Yay! This looks like it is a great blog. I can't wait to see all the ideas shared.

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    1. Thanks Elyse - glad you are following along :) I am looking forward to the blog posts in the future too! Kylie

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