ELA Vocabulary

This last year, my team and I worked HARD to get our kids ready for not only the state test, but our rigorous programs in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. We use the Wonders teaching curriculum, which has great stories to go along with the common core standards, but isn't always the most organized when it comes to close reading. We also use Spalding Spelling and Shurley to teach parts of speech and sentence structure. While this last year was a huge learning curve for me, I learned so much! One area we reflected back and identified a need for more direct instruction after receiving our state testing scores is ELA vocabulary terms. Everyday, we go over math vocabulary terms but we do not go over vocabulary terms. So, I set out on a mission! My teammate found a list of vocabulary words recommended by our state testing - ISAT, and I also looked up other words, and looked back and thought about terms that our kids struggled to remember this year. I came up with about 150 vocabulary words to go through over the course of the year. Now, I won't hit all these words daily. Just like everything else we do at our school, it will be done in a spiral format. I will start with the first five words of set 1 and cover those on day 1, day 2 the first 5 words of set 2, etc... So, by the end of the first quarter, they will have heard all of the words at least 5 times (with the words at the beginning of each set being added to every time we go back, so once you've covered the first five words of all four sets, you go back to the first set and do the first 10, then the first 15 and so on and so fourth) . It's what we do to teach math vocabulary and it works wonders!

In each product, there is: a list of all words included, student vocabulary cards with and without pictures to help jog the memory, and a PowerPoint slide show to review slides everyday.

I don't post the cards in the room for the students to see for a few reasons - I want them to memorize the definitions in order to use them when it comes time for end of the year testing, and I just plain don't have the wall space!  


I am so excited to use these products! I cannot wait to see them in action, and know that they will work wonders...

To see them on TPT:

To see my teammates math vocabulary:

Assessment: How does it fit with common core and a spiral based teaching model?

I am on an assessment team at my school. We are working to create a school based plan on assessment and tie it in with our belief that spiral review - especially in math, is important for learning. This week, a few of us have worked to create a presentation on how to track your assessment and why it is important. We will presenting this information on Monday to our elementary school team.

This is something that I've always been good at, but have gone through a lot of changes in my short five years of teaching. I know that a lot of people are stuck in the mindset that they have to grade and track everything - but with Common Core and Spiral based teaching, that doesn't have to be! Yes ... there is light at the end of the grading tunnel!

Mr. D on Grading

What do you do to keep records? Which records do you keep? Do you have your students keep any records? Hopefully this presentation can help you answer these questions and more! Let me know if you have questions or ideas! 

Currently: February 2016

I'm so excited to be linking up with Farley at Oh Boy it's Farley for her February Currently ... I love this time of month, because I always have a fun way to chill out, self reflect and write some blog posts...

So, here's my currently!

Loving: Guys, I ordered the wrong size of blinds for my big front window. Not the cheap kind of blinds either - the faux wood slat blinds... I got a killer deal (50% off!!!) on the JcPenney Website after Christmas sale... I spent a whole weekend prepping - caulking, painting, etc... and bought power tools *finally* in order to hang them up and doll up my living room ... When I went to hang the last set of blinds... they were too big! So, I looked up how to fix my blundering error ... and it was so stinking easy! My boyfriend and I took to Home Depot and bought a ten dollar hack saw... that and some blue painters tape was all I needed to fix my silly mistake --- I measured, taped all of the slats together and got sawing... A little hard work and my blinds fit perfectl
y! I felt SO SO SO very accomplished when I finished that project!

Needing: Last weekend was not much of a weekend for me - I was sick, my boyfriend was sick, and my Puppers was sick ... I had some other things going on, and didn't really get a chance to rest. I'm hoping to spend some time at the hot springs this weekend and enjoy life a little bit!

Hope you are enjoying your February so far! Link up and share your thoughts on life:)