An Observation

This week the only choice students have had is Read to Self and completing different tasks on their Independent Reading Contract, and while this seems to be going ok I have noticed that I have been bothered with the "Can I go to the bathroom?" questions quite a few times during reading this week, and usually that NEVER happens, partly I think because they know when they get in their spot and get started, they should not need to get up. At one point today when a student asked I responded by asking if they really needed to go, or if they were just bored... they smiled a little and said they really had to go, but I have other thoughts.... I am looking forward to getting back to our usual routine, I hope the students are too!

Less Choices Today!

As I attempt to help twenty five 4th graders create their Christmas present for their families I also decided to change up Reading Workshop... after Day 1 I am already wanting to go back to the way we usually do things in Reading Workshop. I miss our familar routines. I feel like this will provide some good insight into the way the students actually feel about Reading Workshop, I just hope it doesn't make for a stressful two weeks before Christmas.

Our Christmas project requires some small group teacher supervision, and Reading Workshop usually provides a quiet enviornment where this can happen, so we will be multi tasking during Reaidng Workshop for the next two weeks. While I am helping student choose letters that go together, sand, paint, and modge podge their work the students will also be completing an Independent Reading Contract, while also taking part in the Read to Self choice. Today was Day 1 and I already had students asking me if Read to Someone was a choice today. After students got working they did great, I think it is good for them all to have some quality Read to Self time! We will see how this continues... 9 days of Read to Self, while also completing some independent activities that relate to their reading. Here it goes!

Our CHRISTMAS Project: On an unrelated note I thought I would take a moment to share our Christmas Project Idea, as we consider it to be a fairly inexpensive, but cute project. Each child makes a wooden sign with a holiday word on it, like the crafty type signs you sometimes see in stores. We buy the wood from the bin at Menards and then cut it down to size. Then using my Cricut and holdiay scrapbook paper we cut out letters and give students the choice of what word they would like to put on their board: Merry, Hope, Joy, Jolly, Peace, Noel. Students mix and match the different letters and styles to create their word, then they paint their board, and Modge Podge the letters on. I will try to post some photos after we are a little more underway.

A week with ALL the choices… and limited interruptions!

This past week was probably the last “normal” week until after the holidays and I took time to enjoy it before all the hussle and bussle begins.

 This week students had all 6 choices available to them everyday, and while I have not taken a look at this week’s logging sheets I can say based off of my observations that most students accomplished a variety of choices throughout the week.

Word Work/Spelling was offered for the second time this week and the students really seem to enjoy the Wikki Stix and the Stamps, just as my observations had shown in the previous week. I am not fully satisfied with this choice yet, although in some very unofficial data I did notice a lot of high spelling test scores this week, on a pretty typical list of words. While student really seem to enjoy these hands on ways of practicing their spelling words, I want to tie in a little more vocabulary and use of spelling skills and strategies. In these week’s survey I did as the question, How do you feel about the Word Work/Spelling choice? and I found that the results varied. There were 5 the Loved it! 11 that Like it! 4 that said Ho Hum… and 5 that Don’t Like it! This was one of the largest spreads I have seen for a choice, and I feel that my “high” spellers found this choice boring and not challenging, and those that struggle with spelling a little more found it as a good way to practice. This choice is one that I am definitely still thinking about… how can I improve it and make it better?

Some of the other data this week showed that most students continue to have a positive attitude towards reading, and enjoy the choices being offered. I was bummed to see another one fall into the Don’t like it! but it is just another challenge to overcome, another reader to inspire!

How do you feel about Reading Workshop in 4th Grade?
Love it! 7	Like it. 14	Ho Hum… 3	Don’t like it! 1
How do you feel about having choices each day in Reading Workshop?
Love it! 11	Like it. 13	Ho Hum… 1	Don’t like it! 0

 I was particularly happy to see that students are enjoying the choices, on the survey after they answered this question I asked them to explain their choice. Many of the things students wrote down involved the fact that they like to have the choice. Some of the responses I got as to why they like having choices were:

“It is fun, so you can do something different everyday!”

“It is OK, it is nice to be able to choose a choice.”

“I like it because not every day is the same.”

“Well, it is fun switching it up every once and awhile.”

Overall, as the numbers show, the responses towards having choices were positive! J It definitely makes me feel like choices  are a good fit in our Reading Workshop, something the seems to motivate these 4^th graders!

Next week will be different, from now until Christmas there will be no choices in Reading Workshop, well… kind of. Students will be getting an Independent Reading Contract that they will need to complete while doing the Read to Self choice. Along with this contract students will have 4 choices in the areas of Reading, Writing, Skill, and Art for which they will have to choose an activity and relate it to their I PICK book. I am interested to see how this goes and if students miss having their “regular choices” during Reading Workshop, I feel this will be a good opportunity for data comparison with my Action Research topic!

Happy December everyone! Good luck with all that there is to get done before BREAK!

Choice #7: The FINAL Choice - Word Work/Spelling

This week was another short week for the students, and I was finally able to introduce our FINAL Reading Workshop Choice: Word Work/Spelling. As I have expressed before this is the choice that I was most hesitant about... being that I did not know exactly what would make this a benifical choice for my 4th graders. The main focus of this choice during this first week was practice with Spelling Words, although I feel that I would like to incoperate some more vocabulary into this choice in the future. These were the observations I made regarding Word Work/Spelling during Reading Workshop Choice Time this week:

Whiteboard: Practice writing your spelling words in print or cursive on a small whiteboard. After you have written each word you may then draw words to go with each spelling word. If you do not know what a word means, look a dictionary to look it up. A few students choice this option throughout the week and it seemed to be an ok way to practice spelling words. One student told me, after completing this choice, that if you got almost all the words right on your spelling pretest then this is not a great choice because it is too easy.

Wikki Stix: Practice your spelling words by writing them with Wikki Stix. Do not cut or break the Wikki Stix, find ways to use them as they are. This was a popular choice with students. I had enough Wiki sticks for 3 students to do this each choice time. As students started this we found that using their clipboards provided a good surface for them to work on and allowed them to still work in their Book Nook spots. I found this to be a good way for students to practice their spelling words, and after they made the word they could trace it with their finger - allowing for more kiethestic like practice.

Grammar: Read the directions of the folder and complete the corresponding activity. If there is a sheet you need to fill out with the activity please attach it to your logging sheet. This choice was not popular with the studnets this week, as many were more interested in "fun" and "different ways to practice their spelling words.

Vocabulary: Look up this week’s vocabulary words using the glossary in your reading hardcover book. After you write the definition using words you may then draw small picture to show what the word means. Most students do this during Morning Work time, so the number of students completing this during chocie time was limited.

BONUS: Occasionally there will be another option for Spelling/Word Work. Look for a note card on the back of this sheet for more information about this option. This week the additonal choice was using letter stamps to stamp out the spelling words and this was a hit with the 4th graders! I only have 3 sets of letter stamps, so only 3 students could be doing this per choice time. However, this was so popular I feel that I may need to make it a regualr choice for Word Work/Spelling.

The theme of this week's words was frequently misspelled words, but in the future when there are more specific letter sound themes to our words I would have the students underline the sounds and or pattern when they are practicing their words on the whiteboard, with Wikki Stix, or with Letter Stamps. Patterns are something I feel more students need work with, in regards to spelling so I see this as another way to focus on that spelling strategy.

Overall I would say this first week of Word Work/Spelling was successful, of my 25 students I think about 18 were able to try it out this week. I look forward to asking some Word Work/Spelling questions on my next student survey to get a better idea of thier thoughts.

Also this week during Reading Workshop students practiced and performed Reader's Theater plays. We considered this to be our fluency practice for the week so Read to Someone was not a choice this week. Students LOVED doing the Reader's Theater plays, but were bummed that Read to Someone was not a choice. It was reaffirming to know that they do enjoy having the choice to Read to Someone, but also a good change of pace to have them practice their fluency in a different way and spend some time on other choices they may not do as much.

                                          Word Work/Spelling with Wikki Stix

                                         Word Work/ Spelling with Letter Stamps

Two five day weeks and then a four day week lead us into Christmas Break... and with a lot of extra things going on I am sure some of our Reading Workshop time will be affected, however I am looking forward to seeing all of our choices in action over the next three weeks and taking some time to reflect with my students about what they like and dislike about our Reading Workshop time in 4th grade.

Going forward I am looking at the organization of our Reading Workshop choices. I am asking myself questions like: How can I better organzie who does Listen to Reading and Word Work/Spelling - because these choices have limited spots and/or supplies? How do I make sure those that REALLY need it get to specific choices? How can I keep better track of student choices? I am also thinkign about how I can continue to keep students motivated during Reading Workshop now that all of the choices have been introduced.