Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Slice of Life - Slowing Down



Finished the unit, moving on and launch the Unit 6 Week 1 Day 1.  That was Monday early afternoon word study until my students went to lunch and recess.  Mondays are great, I get an hour of no duties and meetings.  Quiet promotes reflection and barely obtainable in an elementary school.  My reflections kept circling around the suggested resources guidance of 80% scores on post assessments are considered mastery of a unit.  Half of my students just missed it.  There was overall improvement but we didn't meet that expectation.  

Then my reflection went to the unit itself.  In this unit we were to work on combining syllables to form multisyllabic words.  A further description is two closed syllables together which is really code for compound words.  If there are three consonants together, the blend usually goes with the second syllable to divide the word, like children.  The students were introduced to more suffixes; full, meant, it, ness, less, able, and en.  We introduced the sounds of au and aw while reviewing previous suffixes and some other various sound groups along the way.  We also had 6 tricky sight words to learn, which we did.

I've been asked/told to use this resource.  I know the creator put a lot of thought into it.  It's a spin off of an individualized program for word study and I'm really thinking taking something individualized and smashing more together for a whole classroom setting isn't the best idea.  These are a lot of concepts for you average seven year old to wrestle with.  So, we are jumping off the Unit 6 Week 1 Day 1 bandwagon and spending more time with spelling multi-syllable words to breathe and enjoy words.

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for inviting teachers to write and share their writing with each other.  This community helps teachers and students grow in writing.

5 comments:

  1. Reflecting and making changes because you know it's best for your students is what good teaching is. Wow, that program sounds very intense for seven year olds. Best wishes for enjoying the words as you said!

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  2. Curriculum outlines, pacing guides don't take into account the teacher or the students. I think of them as suggestions, but really it is the teacher who needs to decide when to move slower, pause, or speed up. I love that you will take time to breathe and enjoy words.

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  3. Sounds complicated. And a bit familiar. I'm wondering if you may use the same program we use. :)

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  4. So powerful to read your reflection. Glad you jumped off the bandwagon to breathe and enjoy words.

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  5. It is key to watch the kids and see if it is transferring to authentic reading and writing. We need to make sure they understand what they are learning, why they are learning it and how it will help them as readers and writers. These programs often need to be supplemented with lessons that give them time to notice, wonder, try and explore. Glad you decided to revise your plan!!

    Thank you for being brave enough to share!
    Clare

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