Sharing Words With My Friends

While reading Assessment for Reading Instruction (for grad school),  I start making plans for my Friends on how to improve with their Words.  My tutee, for my case study, and my tutees for extended day, starting on Tuesday, need more support in their word work skills .  When I was a primary grade teacher, Word Work for those babies was a necessity for their reading development. But now as an upper grade teacher, it is hard to think of how to incorporate this necessary skill into daily practice.  I was advised by my blogging buddy, Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6, that Making Big Words and Words Their Way, are both excellent resources.  Also, I was told by my professor that Words Their Way is an excellent resource.  Since I didn't have either of these resource books, I Google'd these resources.  Then, I discovered that these resources have updated versions that are very popular for adults and older kids now.

Making Big Words is just like BananaGrams.  

(Watch this video to see how to play BananaGrams.)

Unlike BananaGrams in it's open ended possibilities of word choices, Making Big Words the teacher generates the letters being used. The teacher then tells the students to build a two letter word from the given letters, then three letter word, and so on. Although, Words with Friends is for older players, it is like Making Big Words.

Words Their Way is like word ladders.  I plan to use this activity as a focus to word ladders.  The students that I will be tutoring in ELAR, have poor spelling and this activity will reteach those fundamental skills which will hopeful strengthen their spelling and writing skills.  Don't have Words Their Way (WTW) don't worry; I found this awesome resource online (here) on how to use WTW and assess your students using this tool.

Also, a few more words for my Friends... I have been slacking in my word wall. I got the best looking cursive letter cards from Scholastic (check it out here), nevertheless I am not utilizing it like I'd like to. So...I got a great idea, while reading through my books, I plan on posting mostly misspelled words and commonly used words with a circle map of their synonyms.  YAY!  I am so excited to get this up on my Word Wall.

Hope these words were a little helpful to my Friends!

Always Live Laugh & Teach,

Christina