Differentiate your Literacy program!

As requested, I have bundled up the ESSENTIAL resources you need to help with:

planning

organizing

establishing routines

and implementing 

DIFFERENTIATED
WORD STUDY GROUPS!

You can find the complete bundle here at The K Files shop:
Differentiate Your Word Study Groups: 

The ESSENTIALS BUNDLE

Independent Word Study Centers

If you run literacy centers or a Daily 5 framework in your classroom then you know the struggle of constantly planning and prepping engaging activities for your students to keep behavior problems at a minimum so you can meet with your small groups for Guided Reading and Word Study.

Through the years, I have developed a successful routine for managing a Daily 5 framework that includes differentiated Word Study groups. I have tweaked the D5 system so many times, I finally feel that it is just what we need!

I’m so excited to share the newest addition to our Daily 5 routine:

Independent Word Study Centers

My students love the choice of activities available to them. These activities enhance our Word Study and Spelling program. In fact, my students call it Word Work Fun!

Included are 6 independent center activities/task cards that include step-by-step VISUAL directions to help my students complete each task independently and with accuracy.

Each activity touches upon a variety multidisciplinary tasks to build on their strengths while reinforcing phonemic awareness:

COUNT: Students build their words and count the value of each letter
BUILD: Students build with magnets and count the # of vowels and consonants.
BEAD!: Students use beads to build their words and build fine motor skills.
WRITE: Students rainbow-write their words. Simple, but they LOVE it!
STAMP: Students stamp their words and color-code the spelling pattern.
STORY: Students write a story using words from their list.

…and 5 recording sheets to help your students document their learning.

These center activities are perfect for differentiated Spelling lists (I use Words Their Way). Differentiating your Spelling lists can be a daunting task. These activities will not only support your curriculum but they will make your life easier! To learn more about how to simplify your differentiated Word Study and Spelling program visit HERE.

Here is a closer look at the independent Word Study Centers:

You will notice that I am a huge fan of color-coding EVERYTHING. Doing so, makes our life just so much easier. My students can find materials to match each center independently and quickly clean up after themselves. I found these awesome colorful space-saving stacking trays and durable baskets at LEARN365. I placed the stacking trays right in the middle of the center so that children can grab the coordinating recording sheet for their activity of choice! It looks and works out beautifully! Classroom organization at its best.

You will also need alphabet magnets, beads, stamps, ink pads and scrabble tiles. I found all of these items at LEARN365.

Once you have the materials prepped, your students can visit each center and practice/reinforce ANY phonics pattern they are studying in your classroom. These activities are low-maintenance and support any spelling rule. It’s a win-win!

Let’s take a closer look at how independent my students are at their Word Work centers.

I am thrilled at how versatile these activities are. You can assign these activities as a daily routine or you can make them available to students who finish their center activities early.

You can also utilize this resource in your Substitute Teacher Plans to keep your curriculum going in your absence.

If you are in love with our Independent Word Work FUN centers as much as we are, you can find them here at my TpT shop:

Independent Word Study Centers for Any Spelling List

A True Interactive Word Wall

Many of us Super Teachers have had Word Walls in our classrooms for years and years now. I have had one since forever! However, I have never found the Word Wall to be truly interactive for my students. Have you?

Of course, we practiced our words daily, and reviewed most of the words on a weekly basis. I would smile proudly when I found my students referring to the Word Wall during Writer’s Workshop but I always had this niggling suspicion it truly was not benefiting my students. Until I switched things up a bit and now it is TRULY INTERACTIVE!

You’re going to LOVE it!

8 years ago…
When I taught kindergarten, I had a traditional word wall. Later, I was sure that I included my students’ names and their pictures (adorbs! -not pictured, of course). Shortly after, I began to include Word Family Houses. This was a HUGE stepping stone for me. The FIRST step toward an interactive Word Wall. Here is a photo of my first Word Wall:

I thought I was so clever including the Word Family houses for short vowel sounds above our Word Wall! I mean, I was, right? It was great practice for my kinders. But was it truly interactive? Not really. We placed our sight words and our word family houses on display and simply looked at them on occasion. That’s it. A pretty bulletin board that took up A LOT of valuable wall space. So, the desire to create a TRULY interactive Word Wall was born.

3 years later…
Now, being a first grade teacher and since having begun my journey with differentiated Spelling lists with the help of Words Their Way (learn more about this journey HERE), I found the need to focus more on phonograms rather than letter sounds. So, I switched up my Word Wall. It then evolved into this:

Notice the post-its around each Long Vowel house! Yes! Those are words written by my students as they hunt for words in their decodable books that contain the current Spelling pattern they are studying! A bit more interactive, right? Yes, I was getting closer to having a truly interactive Word Wall.

But I still was not satisfied. So, the pursuit for a truly interactive Word Wall continued.

I spent a huge amount of time this summer working on individual Word Family houses for EACH phonogram. For example, there is not just ONE word family house for each long vowel sound but, FIFTEEN long vowel houses-one for EACH phonogram! Here is a glimpse of “Long Vowel Lane”:

I must ask you to take a closer look at one of the houses. Notice the windows are the exact same size as a 3x3 post it. Notice how the graphics all contain that ONE long vowel sound for ONE phonogram. In fact, you might even tell a story about the words that live in that house together. Here is a closeup for you to take a better look (click to enlarge):

Now it gets exciting! Since I differentiate the spelling lists for my students using Words Their Way, we mainly focus on one phonogram a week. If I am working with 4-5 different Word Study groups, that involves 4-5 different Word Family houses!

Just WAIT! …it’s coming…

First let me explain our Read to Self routine.

When I am working with my small guided reading groups, the remaining students are assigned differentiated Word Study assignments for Word Work AND Read to Self.

As a Read to Self assignment, I provide my students with decodable readers so they can practice reading words according to that specific spelling pattern. They hunt for words, record them in their “Gumballs Collection” (a notebook that contains a page for each phonogram -we call them "gumballs"-I’ll explain this further in a bit) and they prepare a post-it to share their learning with the class during “Share”.

You are going to LOVE this…

After our Daily 5 center rotations, I provide my students with the opportunity to share their learning from their Read to Self assignment with the whole class. This provides the whole group with the opportunity to learn from each other. Which will expose them to 4-5 different phonograms!

My above-level students will have an opportunity to review what they have previously learned when an “on-level” or “below-level” Word Study group presents their learning.

On the flip-side, my “on-level” and “below-level” students will be exposed to new phonograms that the above-level groups present (a bit of frontloading!)

It’s a win-win!

After the children share their “gumball”, we display their learning by adding their post-it to our Word Wall. We place them on the house windows or below the house for all to see and learn from. The children feel so proud to see their work displayed on the “Wall”.

To learn more about how I manage our Read to Self assignments and Share Time, please visit this blog post:

Disguise Read to Self as Word Study

Would you take one more peak at a house? I want you to notice one more thing about our Word Wall:

They are color coded! Be still my teacher heart! What teacher and student doesn’t enjoy color-coding?

You are going to LOVE this too…

My students benefit from using a color-coded system for our spelling patterns that we like to call "gumballs". The color of the houses matches the color-coded system!

This simple color-coding strategy has proven to be a HUGE help to my students when identifying phonograms in their reading AND applying these spelling rules in their own writing! I cannot begin to explain how well this works for my students and how much they enjoy it. I urge you to try it!

There are SIX different Word Wall sets available at my TpT shop.

You can find them HERE or by clicking on the image below.

The complete set is also bundled up for your savings:
The Interactive word Wall BIG Bundle

I truly hope you have found this information helpful. Be sure to try the color-coded system to help your young readers identify spelling patterns in their reading and their writing! It helps tremendously!

4 Tips to Motivate Struggling Readers to DECODE, not GUESS!

As phonics teachers, we spend most of our time teaching our children to READ, and READ some more.  This is not always an easy task.  We take on this responsibility and are continuously searching for the right strategies and tools that will provide our young readers with ample opportunities to feel successful and look forward to reading.  I have a few tips and tricks to share with you!

Young readers are training their eyes to identify the many phonics rules as they read.  As we read, we are constantly on the look out for word chunks that will help us decode new words we encounter in the books we love.  To help my students locate these "word chunks" we have a color coded system that we call "gumballs".

My students use this system all day.  They color code their sight words, the articles, poems and word problems we read.  They even love to "gumball up" their own writing!  It is a wonderful sight to see how they thrive using this visual and kinesthetic approach to phonics.  And their work looks beautiful.  To learn more about our Gumball Collections click HERE.

Up until now, my students were simply using their crayons or highlighters to gumball up the word chunks during our phonics activities.  But look at what I discovered at Oriental Trading!!!!

Washable Mini Dot Markers!!!!

They work like a charm.  The dot is the perfect size for printed text for primary grades!

Before reading the passage, students do a bit of word work by hunting for the spelling pattern. One dot and their pages are color coded with the current phonics rule we are focusing on.  Then when it comes time to decode the text, their eyes are able to identify the word chunk immediately.

In the photo above, you can see how one of my students is highlighting the /ea/ phonics rule with one quick dab of the Washable Mini Dot Markers.  The kids love using them, I love them because they come in a variety of colors...to match our color coded system!  It's a win-win!  Be still my teacher heart. I'm in love with them!!!

I have also found providing my students with a Phonics Goal to encourage them to take ownership of their learning. I have created a set of 22 posters with "I can" statements to help my firsties focus on the spelling pattern we are studying in our differentiated Word Study Groups. If you would like to learn more about how we go about this click HERE.

Have you found some of your reluctant readers having trouble with one-to-one correspondence when reading from leveled texts?  This is such an important skill for emerging readers.  However, it can be frustrating when they slide their fingers across the text and just GUESS!

Look at these Arrow Finger Readers I discovered at Oriental Trading to motivate my struggling readers to slow down and decode each word:

My firsties were so excited to use these new tools.  It's amazing how your tactile learners thrive when you give them a simple tool to manipulate.  These Arrow Finger Readers were proven to motivate my young readers!

Using these simple yet effective manipulatives along with a little encouragement and reminders...

"Get your lips ready, kiddos and make that beginning sound...  

Look for the word chunks...

Stretch out the word until it makes sense..."

young readers begin to utilize the strategies you have taught them. They know them by name!  In fact we have "Reading Buddies" in our classroom that remind us of what to do when we come across a tricky word:

You can find this set of 8 Reading Strategies Posters with "I can" Statements at my TpT store:Reading Strategy Goals with "I can" Statements Poster Set

And there you have it.  4 Tips to Motivate Emergent Readers to
DECODE and not GUESS!

If you are interested in BOTH the Reading and Phonics Goal Posters Sets you can download both HERE as a bundled set:

Disclosure: The K Files & Oriental Trading partnered for the purpose of this post. I received free samples of Oriental Trading products, but all opinions are my own and 100% honest.

Words Their Way, OUR way Part 7: Read to Self as Word Study

Why not take your Word Work one step further?  I have disguised Read to Self as a bit more... Word Work... and my firsties don't seem to mind.  Yours won't either.  It's a Win-Win!  Read on!

Read to Self Word Study Assignments

In addition to my students' Word Work during our Daily 5, one of their "Must Do" items is to Read to Self.  During this time the children are assigned a story to read from one of our decodable readers that reinforces their Word Study Goal.  (The students have the opportunity to choose what books to read later in the day during our Reader's Workshop or as a "Can Do" when they finish their Daily 5).

Since I have 5 differentiated word study groups (using the Words Their Way program), I have found it difficult to manage each group's reading assignment from the different sets of decodable readers that I have collected over the years.  I was using post-its, but that seemed like a waste of 20 post-its a day-they quickly disappear. I found it necessary to create bookmarks to mark the story to be read each day:

I currently use the decodable readers from the Journey's anthology that our district purchased for us.  I also saved the last set of readers from our previous anthology.  I have to admit, I finally have a nice supply of readers that allow for each group to have a story to read each day.  If I find I am a story short, I have several sets of reading comprehension passages that I have purchased and I provide them with a photocopy to keep.

Once I determine which decodable reader (and the story within) best matches each group's Word Study focus, I slip the bookmark right to the page and drop the books in their respective baskets!  

It takes me about 5 minutes to prep their Read to Self assignments each day...  now that I have created book marks as a management tool.  Not to mention, the kids LOVE using book marks!

Another plus...directions for the Read to Self assignment is printed on each bookmark to remind my young readers of what must be done.  You will notice that each Word Study group has a color coded bookmark with their group's name printed on it.  This makes it easy for my students to locate their Read to Self assignment for the day.

My students are also encouraged to jot down the words that contain that week's focus in a folder as they read. We call this notebook a "collection".  For example, if they are working on the long vowel sound of /ai/ they would list any words that contain that word chunk in their folder (we call word chunks  "gumballs" because we highlight them with a color coded circle). They love to see their collection of words grow.  This is their incentive. They also receive a real gumball after taking a weekly spelling test if they do well.  If you would like to learn more about our Gumballs Notebook please visit my post:

Our Interactive Phonics Notebook....Chunky Monkey's Gumballs!

As you can see, I have disguised Read to Self as a bit more... Word Work... and my firsties don't seem to mind.  Yours won't either.  It's a Win-Win!

And there you have it!  Words Their Way--OUR Way!

If you would like to download the Read to Self Bookmarks, Bulletin Board Display, bin labels along with the data tracking forms and related resources mentioned in this article visit my TpT store:

Differentiating Words Their Way: Organization & Routines BUNDLE

This is what is included:

This is a seven-part blog series.

Click below to jump right to what you need to know:

Words Their Way-- OUR Way PART 1: Getting Started

Words Their Way-- OUR Way PART 2: Getting Organized

Words Their Way-- OUR Way Part 3: Planning and Prep

Words Their Way-- OUR Way Part 4: Motivation & Goal Setting

Words Their Way-- OUR Way Part 5: Routine & Mini-lessons
Words Their Way-- OUR Way Part 6: Word Study Assessment
Words Their Way-- OUR Way Part 7: Read to Self as Word Study