We have had a focus on Work on Words this week, to tighten up what each cohort group are working on. We talk about 'best fit' and being challenged. The main idea behind this aspect of Daily 5 is to expand vocabulary (see Cafe Literacy) and increase the accuracy of words used in daily writing tasks and reading work.
We want our students to use words from their daily writing as LSCWC. They look at the word, say it, cover the word, write the word and then check the word. This process consolidates words they use every day. Students who are in our top 5 cohorts work on this first before choosing from a list of best fit tasks.
Our students follow an editing process in Work on Writing and part of that is identifying words to work on. When conferring with the teacher - which is the last step, we place words in the LSCWC book with the student.
After checking their LSCWC book for words to practise and completing them, they then choose from best fit tasks. These include looking at dictionaries and thesaurus' - our Preps know the difference! They share these in our reading tent. We have letters they can use to form words from their M100W's (Most 100 used words). Each child has their own list and knows which word list they are learning to spell as well as read. We have containers that have salt or playdough in the bottom to enable them to write their words in them - great for kinaesthetic learners. We also use commercial games like Silly Sentences and Scrabble. A big hit this week has been Rainbow Words and the Alphabet Keys.
Rainbow Words - children write the words in grey lead and then go over them in different colours. An Alphabet Key is a grid that has all 26 letters on it and the children choose the topic - ie Lollies, so each entry for each letter must start with that letter. a - allsorts, b - bananas, c- chocolate
We have noticed an increase in stamina - time on task and increased accountability. Our students ae not letting us forget to put words in their LSCWC books. Our ultimate goal is independent readers and writers.