Saturday, February 7, 2009

Week 4 readings

My CT allowed me this past week to give the spelling test to the class.  I talked to my CT to find out how she picked the spelling words each week.  Normally the words will all be similar like week, seek, peak...But my CT actually has a pretty interesting way.  The whole school is on the plan where beginning in first grade they start their list with the most common english word.  There was research done and ranked each word by how frequently it is used.  The students learn those words in order.  I thought that was a really interesting approach.

I also liked how in Tompkins chapter 4 they talked about word walls.  I am sure I have mentioned this before but my CT has word walls all over the room that the students make up during their writing lessons.  They may be good describing words or words to use when using dialogue.  These lists really help students develop their writing and make it more mature.

1 comment:

  1. Your CT's approach is very interesting! It makes so much sense, but from my experience never seems to happen. My students use the same book I used in elementary school, which I can't recall the name of at this time. I also really enjoy the word walls. We talk about scaffolding students to writing, which is great. But, lets be honest we don't always scaffold everything or have the time to. With word walls that can help a student when they are stuck or lost, the students can be much more productive during writing time!

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