andrea - what grade do you teach
Grace/IL - Hi all! I'm retired from first grade.
Sarah - I am student teaching in first grade.
Grace/IL - Sarah, in what part of the country are you working?
andrea - i teach fifth grade and I have taught first
Sarah - Indiana
Grace/IL - Andrea, fifth grade is fun. They can do so much work independently.
andrea - Iagree
Grace/IL - My first year of teaching was in 4th, then a year of 5th, and after that, all primary.
Grace/IL - cpbirch, how about you?
andrea - Sarah, do you use the 4 blocks program
Sarah - I love first grade! How long before the 4 block chat? Time zone confuses me
Sarah - My teacher is trying to use it, but hasn't had a lot of training.
Sarah - I thought this might give me some ideas.
andrea - I use some four blocks ideas in fifth
Grace/IL - Sarah, this IS the 4 block chat -- started at 8 p.m. CDT.
Sarah - Thanks! Time zones confuse me
andrea - Do you use making words?
naneb - Hi!!
mj - i teach third, and just started with four blocks this year. I have some students who are on a first grade level. Any suggestions?
Grace/IL - I think the important part of 4blocks is covering the four areas. 4blocks is a framework for getting the job done.
Sarah - We haven't tried that yet. Does anyone have any suggestions to start out with?
Grace/IL - Hi, naneb (and others)
naneb - Hi Grace
mj - i use making words, i bought the making words book for grade 3
andrea - My students enjoy the making word and guess the covered word
emma - Hi I'm 2nd grade. I could use some tips on the Writing Block.
mj - i found a great book for beginning to write. 10 easy writing lessons by scholastic
Grace/IL - mj, I think those lower students need a lot of word study in order to bring their decoding skills up to level.
naneb - Grace, what type of activities do you reccommend?
emma - What grade do you teach, mj?
Grace/IL - Some of those low ones can't MAKE words until they know what words consist of.
mj - they weem to really love the working with words, and I have been pleased that they are using chunking techniques. It's really hard to keep them interested in SSR
mj - i teach 3rd
Grace/IL - naneb, you know I'd teach them to spell rather than have them try to assemble letters into words.
emma - I have the Writing Mini-lessons for 2nd grade and love it but feel like I'm going a little too slow on teaching them to edit their pieces.
andrea - I think that it is important to teach children word chunks and have them apply that to their writing
naneb - although Grace the mapping of sounds into words really has helped my kids to hear the sounds and read the words
naneb - I am going to start AVKO spelling with my really low kids
Sarah - what is AVKO spelling?
andrea - What is that
mj - what is AVKO
emma - Making words does teach the kids to spell.
Grace/IL - That's exactly what teaching them to spell does. They have to say the words slowly inorder to separate them into sounds, then write the letters that represent those sounds. It really forces them into thinking about both.
naneb - It is a very systematic spelling program, uses root words and suffixes
naneb - i will get the link
andrea - Does anyone teach fifth
mj - my sped student is in the room when we do WWW. He does very well in making words and using words you know
naneb - http://www.spelling.org/Catalogue.htm
naneb - I teach 6th , special ed
Sarah - Do you have suggestions for doing conferences?
naneb - writing conferences?
Sarah - sorry, should have said...SSR conferences
Grace/IL - I've been to the AVKO site. Their methods are so similar to the other OG programs.
Sarah - we have some very emergent readers...are conferences still okay to do with them? their books are so basic
naneb - I have used AVKO before with really low kids and it has worked well. I have kids who cannot spell at all, they have really no decoding skills
Grace/IL - Sarah, I think it's hard to do SSR conferences with those students who haven't yet learned to decode.
Sarah - That's what I was thinking.
naneb - I would have them read to you and discuss their story, why they chose it, do they think it is a just right book, what kind of story they want to read next, and then help them select their next book
Sarah - Do you think just reading one on one and helping them to decode would be more beneficial?
Grace/IL - Yes, Sarah. That's what I did with first graders. I virtually had an individualized reading program with 25 students -- using decodable text that matched the spelling lessons.
Sarah - our spelling comes from the basal stories
Sarah - with the basal it seems like we have some slipping through
Grace/IL - naneb, I think at 6th grade level, one needs to be more sophisticated. Working with base words and suffixes is really appropriate.
Grace/IL - Sarah, what kinds of spelling words have you been pulling from the basal? Are they phonetic? High frequency sight words?
naneb - Grace, the kids I have for language are reading at a 2nd grade level, they cannot decode, they had no skills in decoding
Sarah - the spelling words are from the story, and relate to the phonics concept, this week it is short o words and adding s to make a plural
Grace/IL - naneb, don't you use phonografix (sp.)?
Sarah - two of our word wall words are also on the spelling
naneb - I am using phonographix with another class and doing some parts of it with this group. I really have too many students in this class to do PG effectively
naneb - I do word wall words and pattern words for spelling
Sarah - I don't me to interrupt, but when either of you get a chance can you explain phonographix?
Grace/IL - Sarah, you might take a look at my website at http://www.spellangtree.org. Then click on the Classroom Data section to see how teaching spelling to them really made a difference with my students.
naneb - this week the pattern was (ea) and we added suffixes to the base word ( read , reading)
Sarah - thank you!
naneb - it is a way of teaching decoding a program, go to www.readamerica.net
Grace/IL - Isn't the ea pattern interesting -- nine different pronunciations represented?
naneb - we did long e sounds and that is all
Sarah - Thank you for the websites. Bare with the student teacher
Grace/IL -It's still an interesting pattern. At the second grade level we hunted for words with those two letters in them, then sorted them and discovered all the patterns.
Grace/IL - Hi, Sunny -- I missed your logging on. What do you teach?
naneb - my biggest problem this year is the block schedule, I only see my students every other day and I hate that
Grace/IL - That does make things difficult. Special populations need to be worked with every day. What do they do on alternate days?
Sarah - Are you at a middle school? I remember block scheduling in high school, but I can definitely see where that would be a problem for sixth grade.
naneb - yes, middle school
naneb - all of the 6th grade teachers are having problems
naneb - all of the 6th grade teachers are having problems
naneb - oops sorry!
naneb - we have 8 periods but we only see even classes one day and odd classes the next
Sarah - I remember having problems with that as a senior, I just can't imagine doing it in 6th grade.
Grace/IL - Sarah, a really "fun" activity is to take a simple word like "pin" and see what you can do to expand children's knowledge of pins. You can show them a decorative pin, a safety pin, a straight pin, a cotter pin, an oar pin, a rolling pin. There's so much one can do to enrich decodable text.
naneb - teachers like it because we only have 3 classes a day, plus they are 90 minutes long which I like
Sarah - that's a great idea! Thanks!
Grace/IL - naneb, have you had Project Read training -- I forget.
naneb - Grace, I am investigating your website, your spelling roots is similar to AVKO
naneb - No, I haven't had that training
naneb - I am going for training in the REWARDS program from Sopris West next week, I will let you know what I think
naneb - it is teaching multi-syllable words, I will use it with my 8th graders
Grace/IL - I took that training, also attended a couple of conferences where all the phonics people gathered. It really changed my way of thinking. I took methods that were meant for the lower third of students and used them whole class. The results were astounding.
naneb - really, I am looking forward to the workshop
Grace/IL - Sopris West is another group that adheres to the Orton-Gillingham methodology.
naneb - my special ed director is sending all of the sped secondary reading teachers to the training
Grace/IL - AVKO is really quite like my stuff. Everyone approaches it just a little differently.
naneb - I have an old AVKO book so I am going to use it, my kids are just not getting what I am doing now, it is too hard for them
Grace/IL - Oops! I didn't take Sopris West training. I took Project Read.
Grace/IL - Sing, Spell, Read and Write also has an excellent program for older students.
naneb - That's okay, I'll still let you know what I think. It looks to be a good program from what I have heard about it, made for older students with fair reading skills but poor spelling
Grace/IL - I think Sopris West handles Language by Jane Fell Greene. I've glanced at it at conference exhibits.
naneb - I think you're right
Sarah - Ladies-thank you so much for your help. I need to go work on lesson plans!
Grace/IL - Sarah, it's been fun chatting with you.
naneb - night Sarah
Grace/IL - That leaves the two of us. You might also take a look at my Trunks program. Teachers have bought it to use with high school students although I field tested it in second grade.
naneb - okay, I will, I have been browsing through your site while we have been chatting, I had been there before but I did not need that level of material before this year, these kids are really low
naneb - I always have liked a challenge!!
naneb - I'll talk to you later, I am going to browse your site some more and then go to bed
naneb - good night
Grace/IL - Night, naneb
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