Spelling and Sight Words

     Tonight's discussion on the importance of teaching spelling and how to go about that task in a way that will be most effective for each individual student had me thinking about two components of my classroom.
     First:  My class uses Fundations to teach spelling through phonics.  I have very mixed feelings about this program.  I understand the thought behind teaching students spelling through sounds, tapping out words, and a variety of activities to supplement that learning.  Still, I feel that Fundations is not as engaging as a program like Words Their Way could be for my students.  I work with a group of eight students who are not as strong at spelling as the remainder of the class.  I find that the loose structure of the program and reliance on white boards and magnets works for a certain kind of student, but not very well for my students.  The students view these learning tools as both a treat and a distraction.  Give a first-grader a white board and the immediate response is "I need to draw a heart right now."  I just don't feel that they are getting all that they should out of the program.  For students who are so interested in kinesthetic learning, Words Their Way seems like a better solution.  In the future, I'll try to supplement Fundations with activities from Words Their Way.
     Second:  I'm currently assessing my students' sight word knowledge with Dolch lists.  After identifying the words that students do not know on the spot, I'm making flashcards for them to work on at home for a week.  After a week of practice outside of the classroom, I will go through the words with them to see if they now know the words.  If they do, they get another ten words to learn, and continue with this until they have made it through the third grade list.  Rather than recall the spelling of these words, students just need to recognize them, but I like the idea of this kind of spelling assessment rather than a traditional test.  Students learn "just right" words at their "just right" pace and are not put through the stress of a traditional spelling list/test situation.  Something to think about...

Writing Workshop

     Last week's discussion on writing conferences was perfectly timed for me--our class started writer's workshop and conferences the very next day.  We had been conferencing with the kids the past two weeks or so in reader's workshop, and although they seemed very willing to work with us, their enthusiasm in reader's workshop was nothing compared to writer's workshop.  My class of twenty-three first graders worked on writing in complete silence for thirty straight minutes on day one--amazing!  My students were instructed to write about something that has happened to them--a vacation, a special event, a funny moment.  After receiving instructions, the kids went straight to work.  I had never seen the work so diligently before.  It was clear that they are so excited to become "authors."  They drew pictures, wrote sentences, and eagerly raised their hands to show off their creations.  We had writer's workshop three times after that last week, and it's becoming my favorite subject of the day.
     The conferencing with the kids was pretty straightforward this week.  The two main teaching points we addressed were making your pictures match your story and to tell the full story, or, more simply, add details.  A lot of the conferencing consisted of us asking them "And then what happened???" or more pointed questions like "How did that make you feel? Excited? Nervous?"  Rather than being shy about answering, the kids were very eager to fill the gaps in their writing with extra details.  They loved sharing their stories on paper.  On my morning message one day last week, I asked the students to check off which subject had been their favorite the day before, and fifteen out of twenty-three students chose writer's workshop.  I'm so glad that writer's workshop has been such a hit in our classroom, and I can't wait to see the results of my students' efforts as they improve over the course of the year.