Writing
Writer's Workshop
We will use Lucy Calkins Units of Study as the basis for our whole group writing lessons and incorporate mini-lessons to expose our writers to the craft of writing narrative, persuasive, and informative pieces. We also love to infuse the writing process with helpful mini-lesson ideas from read-aloud mentor texts by Cynthia Rylant or Patricia Polacco and adult writers like Ralph Fletcher.
Spelling
Third graders will learn and practice spelling rules, patterns and vocabulary relevant to the texts that they are engaged in. We will complete purposeful writing activities and embed our word study in the reading and writing process. The spelling resource we will use is The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics by Jan Richardson. and the IRLA assessment https://www.americanreading.com/leveling/overview/ . Please see these websites for more information.
Vocabulary
We have recently integrated a vocabulary study targeting both academic and content vocabulary. The study correlates directly to a specifically assigned and leveled RAZ-Kids texts. Within the context of the study students are performing independent/partner/and group work and activities. Below is an excerpt taken directly from the Vocabularya-z.com website which outlines the why and how of this study.
Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary learning is a foundation of literacy and a key determiner of academic success. Research has established that vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in students’ ability to comprehend text. The relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension relies partly on inference-making. Directly teaching vocabulary has also been shown to improve reading comprehension. Many studies advocate the necessity of multiple exposures to target words to improve both vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.
Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction
Several investigators have proposed similar approaches to teaching vocabulary. For example, Marzano (2009) describes a six-step method for teaching new words that consists of:
- Explaining the word using student-friendly language
- Having students paraphrase using their own words
- Asking students to show the word with a picture
- Allowing students to discuss the word
- Engaging students in refining and reflecting on their original writing of the word
- Applying the word through games.
Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2013) suggest a similar approach that includes saying the word, defining it, providing an example, and assessing on the meaning.
To provide an adequate vocabulary foundation, teachers need to directly teach between 400 and 700 words per year (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013). Because instructional time is limited, strategic word selection is a key step toward maximizing the educational gains of vocabulary instruction (Baumann & Graves, 2010). An adequate choice of target words ensures that students learn words that lead to academic success. According to Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2013), words can be sorted into three common categories for vocabulary instruction:
- Everyday, or Tier 1, words are simpler words that are typically learned before schooling begins.
- General academic, or Tier 2, words are commonly learned in school and used by mature readers and writers.
- Domain-specific, or Tier 3, words are more advanced words that are used in specialized domains.
Selecting target vocabulary words based on their educational value must then be followed by a plan to ensure that students develop a robust understanding of those words through effective instruction.
Features of Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary instruction should meet additional guidelines to ensure learning and retention: spaced independent practice with multiple exposures using multiple modalities.
Spaced independent practice refers to the frequency and duration with which students practice words independently. Multiple, shorter practice sessions are more effective at promoting understanding and retention than sessions that are longer but less frequent (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014; Willingham, 2002). In other words, practice sessions should be spaced out over time rather than condensed within a short period of time.
Multiple exposures refers to how many times students see a new word. Students are better able to understand a word and integrate it into their writing, speech, and play once they have been exposed to it a dozen or more times (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople, 1985). Experiencing multiple exposures to a word increases the likelihood that those cumulative exposures will provide the context clues and background knowledge to help students learn the word.
Multiple modalities refers to implementing variation into how students interact with new words–for example, by having students read, hear, and say the words (University of Michigan, 2016). Students also benefit from exposure to the phonemic properties of words, including hearing the word while simultaneously observing the corresponding letters in the written word (Marzano, 2004). Playing games that involve manipulating vocabulary words also helps students develop a metacognitive understanding of the function and role of words: when students see words as entities that can be used and examined, they become more interested in them (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2004).