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!