Falling in Love with Vocabulary

Thanks for visiting Literacy Land!  I'm Wendy from Read With Me ABC, and I'm thrilled to be sharing ideas for building vocabulary knowledge with you today.

Before I share my post, please allow me to me tell you a little bit about myself.  I have been an elementary teacher for the past 20 years. Although I've taught many different grade levels, I'll always consider myself a first grade teacher since most of my years have been spent there.  However, a few years ago I accepted a position as a reading specialist, doing what I love best, teaching children to read.  I work with developing readers in grades 1-5.  I truly consider this my dream position!  

Call me unusual, but I think vocabulary acquisition is fascinating.  I love learning new words and playing word games. I'm a self-proclaimed word nerd.

As teachers, we know that vocabulary is critical to reading comprehension. It plays an important role in learning to read as well as reading to learn. To ensure academic success, young readers must develop a wide base of word knowledge and the ability to learn how to acquire new words.

So, how do we foster vocabulary development?  Students often don't share my enthusiasm for learning vocabulary.  ;)  The challenge is to create high-interest, engaging lessons that children will love.

Students need direct and indirect instruction in vocabulary, as well as multiple exposures to the words, in order to internalize the meanings. The routine I use in my classroom is based on Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction developed by Robert Marzano.  Students seem to embrace the six-step routine and fall in love with the activities, discussions, and games we play to acquire new vocabulary.  Perhaps this approach will work well for you too.

1. Provide a Description, Explanation, or Example:  Introduce the word and supply a kid-friendly definition, description, or explanation.  Use the word in a sentence.  Give several meaningful examples. 

Ideally, I like to introduce words within the context of the story we are reading. This is the perfect time to introduce a word with which students may be unfamiliar.  After a little "word- talk", I'll display the word on a concept map.  We focus on two or three words per story and add the words to the map throughout the unit.  

2. Students Apply the Word:  Ask students to demonstrate understanding of the word by restating the description, explaining its meaning, or giving an example in their own words.  Encourage discussion, use of white boards, and vocabulary journals.

3. Students Draw the Word:  Invite students to draw a small picture or symbol that represents the word.  Model this process with your own drawings.  Use white boards so students can get ideas from each other. My students record their words, definitions, and pictures in a variety of different organizers that can be added to their interactive notebooks. Here are a few examples...

4. Students Engage in Activities to Extend and Refine Their Understanding of the Words:  Return to the words frequently with activities to refine, extend, and deepen student understanding of the words.  Point out the words as they are encountered in text.  Examine each word in depth.  Highlight prefixes, suffixes, and root words that will help students remember the meanings.  List related words.  Identify antonyms and synonyms.  Sort or classify words.  Compare similarities and differences.  Construct sentences using the words.

5. Students Discuss the Words with One Another:  Encourage students to use the words when writing or speaking.  Ask questions that require students to use the words.  

Students can use the "Think, Pair, Share" strategy to describe the pictures they've drawn, compare their descriptions of the words, and discuss any confusions or 'a-ha' moments they've had with the words.

6. Involve Students in Games:  Provide opportunities for students to play with the words and reinforce their word knowledge.  As you can imagine, this is the most popular step with students.  Many of the games we play are based on popular board games and TV game shows.  Here are a few of our favorites.

• Memory
• Pictionary
• Charades
• Jeopardy
• $100,000 Pyramid
• Password
• Bingo
• Swat
• Blurt!
• I Have... Who has?
• Heads Up

Of course, we can't teach our students every word they'll ever need to know, but we can provide the scaffolding they need to successfully acquire new words and foster a love of vocabulary.  

Here are a few resources that I have found helpful for teaching vocabulary:

Would you like more ideas for vocabulary instruction? Emily wrote about using focused questioning to develop vocabulary in {this post} and Jenny, Deniece, and Jana discussed vocabulary strategies {here}. Check these posts out; you'll be so glad you did. :)

Do you have a vocabulary activity or game you play with your students? Please share your idea in the comments. We would love to hear from you!

*A very special thanks to EduClips, Lovin' Lit, and KG Fonts for the graphics used in this post. 

RTI Documentation- Tier 3

Does your brain just start to go crazy when you hear the words DOCUMENTATION??  I know mine does.  Documentation is becoming more necessary than ever before in education.  We have those kiddos that just don't seem to be catching on and we HAVE to find out what makes it "click" for them.  They will learn to read, but unfortunately it isn't an automatic skills for many children.

I think most schools have some sort of team of teachers that work together to find supportive ways to help the kids that are struggling.  Your team may be your RTI team.  Our team is called IBS and honestly I don't even remember what it stands for (Intervention Based Support??? maybe??? I really don't remember).  We always seem to refer to it as Irritable Bowel Syndrome… please don't take that wrong, it's just a good way for us to laugh.

Anyway, for those kids that have been moved to Tier 3 intervention and need to have very purposeful interventions, documentation is a must.  These interventions need to be documented.  I made some simple documentation pages that could be used for any subject.  Simply print off and document the lessons and interventions that you have done with the child.

Click on the picture to get the FREEBIE!

Last year, I had a student who was really struggling with sight words.  I was providing specific intervention with sight words.  She would get many of them confused and they are definitely not automatic in her reading.  This student is a good artist and loves to draw so I wanted to use her strengths to help her get excited about learning these words that were difficult for her.  

The first page of the progress monitoring plan is basic information.  This page describes the students strengths/weaknesses, skills needed to succeed, and intervention skills that you will be specifically working on.  This page also allows you to document what the intervention will be, who is providing the intervention, how often, and what assessments you will use to monitor the progress.  Here is a sample of my student struggling with sight words. 

When I make copies, I copy page 1 and page 2 back to back.  Page 2 is where I record the Assessment Data and my progress monitoring notes.  For this intervention, I used my sight word lists (I use Lucy Calkins list from The Teachers College of Reading and Writing).  You can check out my post here that tells why I choose to use her list over Dolch and Fry.  I also looked at her Reading Benchmark Book running record to see if she is reading the sight words correctly in text.

Page 3 is where I do my daily documentation.  This example is over about a month.  Unfortunately, I didn't see B. L. as much as I had hoped.  She was sick for a few days and I was out with a sick child for a couple days as well.  And- I think we had a couple of snow days... anyway this is what I have documented.  For her intervention I made different flashcards to help her put a visual picture with her sight words.   She would have the word and would draw a picture to go with the word to help her remember it.  Then, after practice, we would take the picture away.  

If you would like to download this sample, click {here}.

I hope this will help you keep organized with your documentation.  What things do you do to stay organized with your Tier 3 kids?

Lighting up Learning Family Style

School can and should be fun, and it should be a place where everyone is included in the process and welcome regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or level of education. Our school district's motto speaks to this, "Every Child by Name and by Need to Graduation", and educating our children takes a village.  Here are a few ideas from my fellow contributors that you might consider to help improve the home-school-community connection.

Lights, Cameras, Action...Engaging Parents with Learning Fun

With the title above, you may feel like you're heading to the movies, and sometimes, choosing something fun and inviting such as a movie night is just the thing to bring ALL of your parents in. We want our parents involved because we know it makes a difference in the learning of the child, right. Read on to learn about why their involvement matters and what you might try to bring them all in.

I am Carla from Comprehension Connection, and many of my teaching years have been spent working as a Title 1 reading specialist. Parental involvement as we know is an important focus of the Title 1 program. So just why do parents need to be involved, what type of programs give students the biggest benefits, and how can we as educators increase parental involvement for our students?  

Before preparing this post, I decided to see what the research says related to parental involvement.  I was curious what evidence is available to support the need for parents getting into the classroom, working with students, and helping with school activities and whether all types of parental involvement results in increased student achievement. In Title 1, the focus is on "capacity building" which means involving parents in the support of learning at school and at home.  It begins with just bringing families in the front door. Keeping things light and family friendly helps form relationships and establishes trust that we are all on the same team working together for the child.  It's so important to begin that in the first week with phone calls home, a welcoming smile and positive comments. Eventually, your staff may consider doing events in the community as well.  After a long day at work, many parents would be happy to attend if the event was right next door as opposed to traveling across town with hungry children in tow. You might consider a neighborhood church or community building as the meeting location.  Food always helps whether you are at your school or off-site.  

Now that your schema about parental involvement is warmed up, how about a little research.  G. Olsen shared this information  in The Benefits of Parental Involvement:  What Research Has to Say on Education.com. I love how the information shows that everyone wins when parents are involved, and I think most readers will find the information helpful.

Henderson and Berla (1994) reviewed and analyzed eighty-five studies that documented the comprehensive benefits of parent involvement in children's education. Here are a few they listed for the children, parents, teachers, and the school. 

Benefits for the Children

• Children tend to achieve more, regardless of ethnic or racial background, socioeconomic status, or parents' education level. 

• Children generally achieve better grades, test scores, and attendance. 

• Children consistently complete their homework. 

• Children have better self-esteem, are more self-disciplined, and show higher aspirations and motivation toward school. 

• Children's positive attitude about school often results in improved behavior in school and less suspension for disciplinary reasons. 

Benefits for Parents

• Parents increase their interaction and discussion with their children and are more responsive and sensitive to their children's social, emotional, and intellectual developmental needs. 

• Parents have a better understanding of the teacher's job and school curriculum. 

• When parents are aware of what their children are learning, they are more likely to help when they are requested by teachers to become more involved in their children's learning activities at home. 

• Parents' perceptions of the school are improved and there are stronger ties and commitment to the school. 

Benefits for Educators

• When schools have a high percentage of involved parents in and out of schools, teachers and principals are more likely to experience higher morale. 

• Teachers and principals often earn greater respect for their profession from the parents. 

• Consistent parent involvement leads to improved communication and relations between parents, teachers, and administrators. 

• Teachers and principals acquire a better understanding of families' cultures and diversity, and they form deeper respect for parents' abilities and time. 

• Teachers and principals report an increase in job satisfaction. 

Benefits for the School

• Schools that actively involve parents and the community tend to establish better reputations in the community. 

• Schools also experience better community support. 

• School programs that encourage and involve parents usually do better and have higher quality programs than programs that do not involve parents.

In my school division last year, our school board and superintendent introduced Give Me Five as a way to address the need for parental involvement, and I love how this became not just parental involvement, but also student and community involvement as well. The graphic to the left is included on the Parent/Student Overview of our website and is advertised through newsletters and morning announcements at our school.  At the same time Give Me Five was rolled out, we also introduced our division motto, "Every Child, by Name and by Need, through Graduation". Together, I believe these symbols send the message that we care about your child, value your family, and want you to be involved.  

As I mentioned, parental involvement has been a focus for me for many years now. Some events have been more effective than other, but I learned long ago that even the events that seem ineffective at the time may work perfectly with a different age group, at a different time of year, or with a little more planning. Here are a few school-wide ideas you might give a try in your school setting.

If you want a high level of engagement, then this activity works beautifully.  It's one of  my all-time favorite events. Night for Family Literacy or NFL night has a football theme with a literacy twist. Yes, the children come dressed in their favorite sports team jersey, and we serve the families tailgating foods. With this event, we typically have a performer who incorporates literacy building ideas...using music to work on fluency, reading how-to literature to learn about magic, highlighting favorite books and characters, or singing about comprehension strategies. We've involved the local football team who share why it's important to be a strong student in order to play, and the evening is entertaining for the whole family.  

Last year, I had a great time planning a book club for our students. We called it The Magic of Reading Book Club. After all, what child isn't fascinated by magic? I loved this event because all levels of students could participate and learn from each other. The students ended up increasing the amount of reading they did during that period of time, and it involved parents in the running of the clubs. This was helpful to the parents as they were able to hear and see the types of questions that work well for discussion. We basically ran the clubs like literature circles. Students read to a predetermined point, discussed sections of the books, created projects related to the book themes, and enjoyed a guest speaker (magician of course!).  I hope to repeat this activity in the future with different themes and book options.

Now for the last event I'd like to share.  Last summer, I was perusing Pinterest (Don't we all??), and I came across this amazing reading fair idea from Read.Write.Mom!, and I instantly thought of parental involvement.  The original idea I saw was this one of Chocolate Fever, a book many of my students love, but you can check out close to 30 more at Read.Write.Mom!. I emailed my principal right away with the pictures and link to see whether she thought it would work.  Well, it was a huge success.  I sent home [this packet of information] for the families to sign up.  Once the students returned their form, we sent home a trifold display board (and they can be reused in the future) and a direction sheet telling what to include on the board.  The projects were brought in and displayed during our book fair week, so the reviews were perfect for little shoppers looking for book ideas.  Each child received a book for participating. In the spring, we plan to do something similar with cereal boxes.  The beauty of this activity is that all ages can be involved to the level that fits them, and parents can participate at home which makes it easier on working parents.  The sharing time was very special though, and the children were very proud.

Now it is time for me to share a few ideas from our readers.  I asked my fans about this topic, and it received quite a few responses.  Here are a few of the ideas that were new to me.

1) Left-Rebecca suggests Family Game Night.  Board games involve many educational skills, and sometimes it's good to try them out with a friend or two.  Her local educational supply store donated games for families to try, and set up to sell them to those who were interested.  Use this as a theme and add your own reading game ideas that parents can make and take home to use.  2) Center-Michelle shared that teachers at her school model with a favorite read aloud skills such as visualizing, cause and effect, and text features and the night ends with milk and cookies to celebrate all of the learning that's gone on. 3) Right-Mary suggests Theme Nights.  This one came complete with Hawaiian fruit rays, beach music, and souvenirs as parents work through themed stations and fill out their punch cards for door prizes.  

For more parental involvement event ideas, check in tomorrow for Five on Friday.  We'll be highlighting other parental involvement events our team has offered to our parents.

As Henderson and Mapp report in A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement ,

"Regardless of family income or background, students whose parents are involved in their schooling are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school." 

I think these are all wonderful reasons to reach out, get your parents engaged in your classroom activities, grade-level functions, and school-wide events.

If you have had great success with a special reading or math event, please share it in the comments below.  We look forward to the feedback, and so do our fellow readers.

Graphic Organizer App

 Hello Literacy Land!  Deniece here from This Little Piggy Reads.

I am a Texas Teacher and in Texas we are STAAR C-R-A-Z-Y right now!  STAAR is our statewide test. The Reading STAAR had a serious overhaul (compared to our previous TAKS test) therefore, every administrator and testing grade teacher is in a tizzy!  The reading test is no longer a comprehension test. There is also a mix of other genres not just fiction passages and a biography.  So, I have made it my mission to increase my students' exposure of non-fiction text through magazines, websites, online journals and pamphlets.  

This year I'm working in a GT pull-out program.  We are lucky enough to have 10 iPad Minis.  It has been a learning experience having them.  I've changed a lot of my views about technology in the classroom.  I don't see the need to collect phones anymore, but I do think students should utilize their technology to further their education.  Today, I'm going to show you a new App that helps create graphic organizers for any grade level and any subject area. 

Last week, I used the App to work on Science TEKS 5.10 (C)  describe the differences between complete and incomplete metamorphosis of insects.  I began the lesson by accessing prior knowledge.  Some kids knew that morph meant to change or transform.  But none of them knew the difference between a complete and incomplete metamorphosis.  

Now, you're probably familiar with KWL charts.  I've used them in the past, but I have a major issue because what the students WANT TO KNOW is rarely answered in our reading.  So, instead I use a Prior Knowledge and New Learning t-chart. 

I explained that their lesson objective today was to learn the difference between complete & incomplete metamorphosis in insects.  They would use the iPad to go to the website, askabiologist.asu.edu.  There they could read all about metamorphosis, see videos, look at pictures and take notes.  After students completed their notes/research, they were given clay to demonstrate their learning.  

I want to tell you all about Popplet Lite!  I've heard about it from other bloggers and I decided to give it a try.  It's a FREE App that allows students to create their own Graphic Organizers or Thinking Maps (I wish it had circles, though).  I wanted the students to be creative and choose how they wanted to display their learning.  Shockingly, no two looked alike.  Some were venn diagrams, some looked like life cycles or flow maps and some were tree maps.  I thought it was awesome to see how students learned the same concept, but were able to demonstrate their learning in very different ways.  

Here are a couple of nifty things about Popplet Lite.  First, you can change colors.  The kiddos loved that. Next, I found out on Day 4, that you could press "VIEW ALL" to see all of the popplets on the page.  So, if your kiddos made 2 popplets about complete & incomplete metamorphosis, they could see both of them and use export to save them to the camera roll or e-mail them to you.

At the end of the day, our exit ticket was our "New Learning".  I wanted to know everything they learned about Metamorphosis, including the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis.  My favorite part of my current position is that every lesson involves cross-curricular learning.  We used a plethora of skills: note taking, technology, art, photography, text features, graphic organizers and science.       

Have you ever used Popplet Lite?  If not, what ideas do you have to use it in your classroom?  If you're a Texas Teacher, click on my blog button below to following my blog. 

You mean I have to THINK?

Hey there!  It is Jessica from Hanging Out in First!  I am back with you today and I am planning on sharing with you one of my favorite activities for my guided reading.

 I don't know about you, but I have so many students that do not realize that they have to THINK while they read.  I think this is one of the most difficult things for students to learn.  Students, especially the little guys, become so focused on decoding for sound that they forget to think about the text while they are reading. They get to the end of the page and have no idea what they just read! Even I am guilty of this "fake reading" from time to time.  It is easy to do.

So, how do we teach the kids that they have to THINK about the story?

One of my favorite strategies is the THINKmark.  I honestly cannot remember where I first learned about THINKmarks but I know that it has been several years ago now.  THINKmarks are bookmarks that students can write on and make notes on about their reading.  I spend a lot of time teaching students how to use these during our guided reading groups.  Then students can continue to use them during independent reading.

You can click on the picture above to hop over to my blog for a free copy of the THINKmarks.  The first page includes four bookmarks on the page (you can copy them front to back for longer books).  The second page has larger THINKmarks for your primary students that need more space for their writings and pictures.

When teaching my kids to use THINKmarks, I have them stop reading every page or so to make a note about their reading (As students become better readers and better users of THINKmarks, they will not have to stop this often.  They can use more of their own discretion with their note taking.)  They write the page number that they are on.  Then they decide what type of note they will be making.  This fun anchor chart gives symbols that students can use to mark their notes with:

(Disclaimer: This is not my anchor chart, but it sure looks good!)

So, for example, if a student does not know what a word is on a page, they can make a note with a question mark followed by the word.

This is such a great way to get students to be thinking about what they are reading.  When my students finish the story, we look over the notes they have made and discuss any questions they have and any important things they have noticed from their reading.  It also helps students to remember important details for when they are retelling a story!


The website The Curriculum Corner has so many fantastic resources, but one of the resources that I use is actually the small bookmarks/anchor charts that they have with all of the symbols for students to use when making their notes.

BTW: This can also be done with sticky notes!! =)