Choice Lit Topic: Word Study and Vocabulary
Here is where you will find resources for teaching students about spelling, word features, vocabulary, and grammar.
Results
Word Work Basics
Could it be that children teach us more than we teach them? Many years ago, a Reading Recovery student, Derek, shaped the way I think about words. While rereading a...
Student-Generated Blends Chart in First Grade
At the start of each year, my first-grade students and I often sit down together near our chart stand to practice interactive writing. They sit clumped on the floor with...
Introducing Onomatopoeia Minilesson
Christi Overman introduces onomatopoeia to her second graders in this brief minilesson.
My Middle Schoolers Can’t Spell!
Dear Mrs. Taylor, I have a lot of concerns with John’s spelling. His previous teachers haven’t been worried, but I’m concerned about the volume of spelling mistakes that he still...
Launching a Sort
“Give me that!” my youngest son, Jon, yells at his older brother, Joel. “Come and get it!” an antagonistic Joel replies. I resume writing, but the back-and-forth banter continues. I...
Endings Minilesson with Second Graders
Cathy Laker uses her own writing as a mentor text with her second-grade students to demonstrate options for endings.
Capturing the Elementary Years with Photo Essays
In our district, sixth grade is the end of a significant time period as student prepare to move to middle school. Recalling major events spanning from kindergarten through sixth grade...
Mentor Reader: Words
It is the beginning of our morning literacy block in my fourth-grade classroom. A bit of text is being projected onto the whiteboard screen for the students to see. As...
Conferring About Word Learning
Sean Moore confers with Mikhail about his reading and strategies for highlighting new vocabulary.
Owl Research Word Study
Andrea Smith links vocabulary learning with content study in her owl research unit with fourth graders.
Word Observations
I am racing down the highway, traveling from Phoenix, Arizona to San Diego, California. Jagged mountain peaks, desert fauna, the Mexico/California border fence and periodically a town provide a backdrop...
Simplifying Word Study
Recently I was hiking. A bright yellow T-shirt with bold print caught my eye. “Life is simple,” read the slogan. Somewhere we all have encountered the message this hiker was...
Katie DiCesare on Word Learning (PODCAST)
Katie DiCesare chats with Franki Sibberson about word learning in Katie's first-grade classroom. A full transcript is available below the player. Franki Sibberson: Katie, you’ve been thinking...
Adding to a Word Wall in Kindergarten
Mandy Robek prepares students for adding to the word wall in kindergarten.
Conferring About Lemony Snicket and Vocabulary
Aimee Buckner confers with fourth grader Samantha about reading a series and tackling challenging vocabulary at the same time in this brief video.
So You Think You Can Combine Sentences? You Can!
Teaching conventions unconventionally is a passion of mine. Just because I’m using the word unconventionally doesn’t mean that these approaches are new. In fact, the work of William Strong and...
Sentence Combining in Workshops
Combining sentences is a putting-together approach instead of the taking-apart approach that has dominated much of the worksheet or drill work of grammar instruction. Tried-and-true classroom practice as well as...
A Tool Worth Exploring: Sentence Combining
A high school teacher tells me, “The students aren’t coming from the middle school with the grammar skills we expect of them.” The middle school teachers ask me, “Are elementary...
Explanatory Grammar Moves: Getting Verbal with It
The Common Core asks 8th graders to understand the use of verbals -- gerunds, infinitives, and participles. To keep myself from becoming verbally abusive, I will write about only one...
Formative Spelling Assessment
“In order to tailor instruction appropriately for children, it is important for teachers to learn about their students’ orthographic understandings. Ongoing monitoring of students’ writing is one part of the...
Words Chart Minilesson
Ruth Ayres introduces a word chart to help students monitor their spelling strategies in this second-grade minilesson.
