Daily 3: Word Work

**Edit 8/2/12: The activities described in this post are now available for a FREE DOWNLOAD on my brand new Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Awhile back I did a post about how I run Daily 3 (modified Daily 5) in my classroom, including how I manage my materials.  Since I showed my Word Work choice board, I've received some questions about what exactly my students do for their independent Word Work.  Well, fasten your seat belts, it's Word Work time!!

When I first started learning about the Daily 5 a few years ago, I struggled with the word work piece.  The examples that The Sisters outline in the book are really better suited to primary students.  Also, they are predominantly based on spelling practice.  When I became unhappy with those choices, I reverted to having my students do vocabulary context sentences for their word work.  Not only were these sentences torture for the students to do, they were also torture for me to grade!  BORING.  Also, they totally neglected the choice element that is so much a hallmark of the Daily 5.  Midway through last year, I decided that there must be something better out there.  I scoured the internet and my own brain and came up with several short, meaningful vocabulary practice activities and graphic organizers.  Some are my original work and others are adaptations of vocabulary practice activities I came across at one time or another!


First, the set-up:
Materials management is an important part of any smoothly functioning classroom, and is an especially important part of a Daily 5 classroom.  The kiddos need to be able to access any materials they may need during a rotation without interrupting my guided groups.  I have all of the choices displayed on one of my cabinets:

Below, all handouts and instruction cards are stored in a bin of hanging files:

Here's a closer look inside the file bin:

At the very front is a folder with the Weekly Word List.  Even though the words are displayed, I provide copies of the words and their definitions so there is no confusion.

Also mounted on the cabinets are two pocket charts with the weekly words:

The blue pocket chart has the 8 weekly words from our literacy story.  The red pocket chart has our science/social studies words as well as a couple of "real-life" words.  (The literacy words are the focus for the Word Work activities.)

Next, the activities:

Inside the hanging file bin are neatly labeled folders, one for each activity.  Inside each folder are two laminated copies of the instructions for that activity, as well as the handouts to go along with it.  Students can go up to the bin and grab the instructions and handout they need to work independently.  Here are the activities I use...

Connect To:

For this activity, students attempt to make as many connections as they can between the vocabulary words, with the end goal being to link them all in a chain.  For example, if three words were "rigid," "tyrant," and "physical," the students might connect them by saying, "Rigid is connected to tyrant because a tyrant has very rigid rules.  Tyrant is connected to physical because a tyrant might order physical pain to be inflicted on someone who broke the rules."  This one takes a little creativity!

Vocabulary Story:

In this folder, I keep the instructions as well as colored "stationery" (aka lined paper with a pretty boarder I make in Word and copy onto pretty colored paper).  Every Thursday, I assign a writing prompt relating to the weekly literacy story and require students to use their vocabulary words in their written response.  This is pretty much the same thing, except I let students write about any topic they want.  Their only requirement is to use at least 5 of the words in their writing.  This is a popular one among my avid writers!

Vocabulary Sort:

This one is a little bit of a higher-level activity.  (These activities lend themselves well to mixed-ability classes, because students pick their own activities.  No matter the challenge-level, they all accomplish the goal of practicing the words!)  Students analyze the words and come up with 3 categories.  They might have to do with part of speech, definition, word structure, etc.  They sort the words and then explain the category and why it works in the bottom of each column.

Four Square:

This is by far the most popular activity.  Students choose four words to work with.  For each word, they write a detailed sentence and illustrate.  The sentence and illustration really need to show the meaning of the word.  I love seeing the pictures and sentences they come up with!

Own the Word:

Probably the most basic activity, the kids just fill out this graphic organizer about the word.  They usually use the dictionary and thesaurus to find the part of speech and synonyms/antonyms.  It's not complicated, but it gets them thinking about the words and offers an opportunity to practice using reference materials.

Word Detective:

This one is pretty basic too.  The kids find the vocabulary word in their literacy text book and write down the sentence that uses the word.  They then fill out the graphic organizer looking at the context clues, and write their own sentences using context clues to show the word's meaning.

Assessment & Grading:

cloze, usually a story related to the weekly theme.  We grade these as a class immediately.  This is a win-win I think.  It's less grading for me, and it's a better assessment.  The weekly work is the formative, ungraded assessment, and the quick quiz is the summative.  It's been working really well!

Word Work Outside the Literacy Block:

I implemented a "Word Watcher" program towards the end of last year, and it was really popular with my students!  

Anytime they saw or heard a vocabulary word (past words and content area words count too!), they were able to fill out a Word Watcher slip and put it in the bucket.  I would pull a slip or two a week to raffle off a homework pass.  This year I may also add some component where, when I hear kids USING a vocab word, they can also enter their name in the raffle.

PHEW!  I think that sums it up!  Be sure to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to download these materials (for free!) and check them out for yourself!  If you have any questions email me at juiceboxesandcrayolas AT gmail DOT com.  If you have any other ideas for independent vocabulary practice that you use with your kiddos, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear them!!!!  Please share them in the comments section!  My system is by no means perfect, and I would love new ideas!

Organization Week Day 2: Literacy (aka Daily 3 Bootcamp)

Yesterday's organization linky party from Mrs. Patton's Patch was on literacy centers.

As yesterday was a crazy day (make that Crazy with a capital C!) as Mondays tend to be, I'm a day late.  :)  Actually, I'm a day late and a little off topic, since I don't use literacy centers in my classroom.  Centers just DON'T work for me and my kiddos.  I use the Daily 3, an adapted version of the Daily 5.  My Daily 3 are Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Word Work.  Since I am required to use a basal reading series (McGraw Hill Treasures), my Daily 3 is pretty different than the Daily 5 model presented in the Sisters' book, but the essence is still there! :)

After Shared Reading, we usually get to two Daily 3 rotations a day (3 if we're really flying!!).  During these rotations, I am always meeting with guided reading groups.  Because I teach the "big kiddos," I ask them to plan out their weeks on Monday morning.  I give each kid a literacy packet (don't cringe when I say packet, it's not busy work, I promise!!) that has their graphic organizer, vocabulary words, and comprehension questions for our weekly shared and guided reading.  On the front cover is a blank schedule that says when they will meet with me.  The kids then fill in which Daily 3 choice they plan to do when they are not meeting with me:

I also keep a visual schedule of who I'm meeting with when on the board:

(BTW, the kids choose their own group names, in case you were wondering how I came up with some of these gems!)

Now, for the Daily 3 choices.  Here are our anchor charts:

We made these as a class the first weeks of school when we were modeling, practicing, and implementing each of the Daily 3.  Now, I refer back to them when we need a little bit of re-teaching, which is fairly often. :)

Read to Self: The essence of the Daily 3 and literacy instruction. :)  For Read to Self, the kids read.  Plain and simple.  They bring their book box to a quiet spot in the room (I have pillows, bean bags, etc.) and read.

Work on Writing: For WoW (as the kiddos like to call it), most often the kids choose a piece from their Writing Workshop notebook/folder to work on.  Some will draft, some will revise/edit, others will grab construction paper or a laptop and publish.  It's very unstructured and I don't monitor it carefully, but it WORKS because I have a successful Writing Workshop foundation in the classroom.  Last year, it was like pulling teeth to get the kids to write during Daily 3.  This year, because we have spent so much time developing Writing Workshop, the kids not only know what it looks like to sit down and write, but they have pieces in progress at all times.  We store writing folders and notebooks in bins (by team) on top of our computer cart:

I am currently using notebooks and 4-pocket folders, but am considering switching to looseleaf binders next year...thoughts from anyone who does Writing Workshop?

Word Work: Okay, I JUST revamped my Word Work program TODAY.  (While I know most primary teachers use WW to focus on spelling, I focus on vocabulary during this time.  Spelling is important, but I think a rich vocabulary needs more of a focus in intermediate grades.)  Up until now, I was using vocabulary sentences for my main Word Work activity, plus some fun extras once those were finished.  You guys, it was awful.  It was like pulling teeth to get them done every week, plus I HATED grading them!  I had an epiphany in the past few weeks: my WW was tanking because I had failed to include the most crucial element of Daily 5--CHOICE!!!  So, my fabulous Lit Specialist and I brainstormed some new vocabulary activities.  Now, every week the kids will have to choose one activity from the Word Work board:

All of the handouts and instructions, as well as lists of our vocabulary words, are stored in the hanging files below:

Most of the new activities are things like graphic organizers that ask for parts of speech, sentence, picture, etc.  I also have options for writing a story using vocabulary words, illustrating the words with a sentence, sorting the words into categories, etc.  I'm hoping that these work better because of the choice factor.  I'll let you know how they go in the next few weeks!

Last but not least, here's how I display our vocab words.  We don't have a word wall, but I hang the 8 vocab words from Treasures in the blue pocket chart.  The red pocket chart has 6 social studies words + 2 "real world" words (based on current events).

 So, that's how we stay organized for literacy and run Daily 3 in my room!  Phew!

Classroom Organization: Take 2

As you may have noticed, I have been obsessed (to put it mildly) with getting my classroom organized.  So, when I found out school would be open this week, of course I had to go in.  Uninterrupted, quiet, kid-free time to get my room in order?  I'll take it!

Let me introduce you to my new friend and ally in the battle for the organized classroom...My Labelmaker:

Be still my heart...

I know, he's beautiful, isn't he?  I'm in love.  The rational part of my brain has managed to convince the psychotic obsessive part of my brain that I do NOT need to label every single thing in the classroom.  Thankfully, Rational Brain HAS allowed me to do some pretty awesome labeling damage.  Observe Exhibit A, my beautifully labeled binders of literacy transparencies and originals:

Do you keep your papers in files or binders?  I keep all of my math and literacy units in binders because it's easier to keep everythign in order, but everything else goes in files.

My other organization LOVE of late has been these amazing bins from IKEA.  I searched high and low on the website to link them to this post, but couldn't find them.  Odds are they're there and just called something silly and amazing like a fraya or preuge...I love IKEA.  Anyways, these bins are deep, fairly sturdy, and (drumroll) only $1.99!  I've already made a second trip back for a bunch more, and used them all up today.  They are helping me immensely get my messy cabinets under control.  Once they all have their own labels, I will truly be in heaven:

 Misc. supplies that heretofore had been shoved in any open space now have their own homes!

4 more also solved my problem of messy text books.  Our literacy texts (which are all numbered on the spine) are now organized into bins.  It's WAY easier to get 10 year olds to put text books neatly in a bin with 5 other books than to hope that they can manage to get all 25 neatly in order in a cabinet.  I have the bins in the front of the room under the white board for now, and as long as I don't trip over them when I'm teaching, I think they'll stay there.  Gotta maximize every available space, am I right?!

Because I am on the never-ending quest to cram more literacy into my day, I decided to make two new little independent literacy activities: Word Watchers and Book Recommendations.  Vocabulary and Word Work is an area that I have definitely been brainstorming ideas for improvement lately.  I decided that encouraging kids to be on the lookout for words would be a good, easy addition to what I'm already doing.  Enter Word Watcher.  In the pocket on the left are little slips that ask students to write down the word, where they saw/heard it, and what it means.  Then, they will put the slip in the empty (for now) pocket on the right.  I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I'm thinking a raffle--I'm planning on asking the kids what they think a good reward for being a Word Watcher would be.

Also new to Miss Teacher's classroom are Book Recommendations.  I recently read some research on best practices in literacy that said teachers should give kids real life opportunities to talk about books, just like adults read and share and discuss books.  Adults rarely do dioramas or mobiles when they finish books!  Instead, we like to tell our friends about them or discuss them with someone we know!  Taking this into consideration, I've been talking to the kids lately about my own book club and how my friends and I love to share books with each other.  I think that one crucial element of good quality literacy instruction is modeling what it really looks like to BE A READER, and to me, this example is part of it.  So, today I made book recommendation slips that ask kids to record the book they enjoyed, who they would recommend it to, and why they think that person/group of people would like it.  For now I'm going to have them just stick the slips in the pocket, but my plan is to have a recommendation time maybe once a week where we share them.

BTW my idea for making the pockets like this comes from the fabulous Ladybug Teacher who uses laminated construction paper for pockets for her exit slips and things.  (I STRIVE to be as organized as she is!!)  It always looks fabulous on her blog, so I thought I'd try it!  Success!  (And I jump at any opportunity to laminate...)  One more organization idea I'd like to pass on is this beautiful To Do List printable I got from another fabulously organized teacher, Persnickety Pickles.  How cute is this??  I think my world would collapse without my To Do Lists.  I usually make them in a notebook, but I loved the spaces on this form for meetings and reminders for the week.  Thanks, Pickles!

Of course, while I was at school I just HAD to restock my snack drawer (aka the most important part of my room!).  Since I pretty much live in my classroom and since I have the metabolism of a 15 year old boy, a snack drawer is crucial.  Currently in the drawer: Oh My Omega trailmix from Trader Joe's, chocolate covered edamame and chocolate covered espresso beans (YES!  Both of my addictions in one convenient snack!) also from TJ's, variety of Kashi TLC crackers, brand new jar of sunflower butter (YUM!), and nutrigrain bars leftover from ISAT testing...not as appetizing as the rest of the goodies!  I also have a little fridge in the room with yogut, cheese sticks, and chocolate milk boxes.  Wow, after listing all of that out, it seems like a completely ridiculous amount of food!  But I like to have a mid-morning snack, plus a little something right after school, so it works. :)  Do you have a snack drawer?  What are your MUST HAVES?

YUM!!

I'm glad I went in today, but I still have gotten nowhere on the grading pile...if there's one part of my job I HATE it's grading.  Anyone want to do it for me?  Please?  Pretty please???

As always, if you are interested in my Word Watcher Slips or Book Recommendation Slips, I would be happy to send them to you!  Email me at juiceboxesandcrayolas AT gmail DOT com
(One of these days I'll get my you know what together and hop on the google docs band wagon...)