Vocabulary Practice: Making it Meaningful

Gadzooks! I just LOVE words!  These are just a few of my favorites!  Do you have some words that you just love?  So what is all this brouhaha over teaching vocabulary you ask?  Well...vocabulary is such an important part of reading instruction!  Research says that kids need to be exposed to a word 6-12 times before they actually master the word!  Putting words into a center for kids to "work on" just isn't enough!  Having them look up words in the dictionary is not only boring, but a meaningless activity!  I'm not saying throw the dictionaries out but giving a list of words and having them copy definitions is a waste of time!  1.  Some definitions leave the students stumped and continuing to question the meaning.  2. Copying definitions isn't going to help them master a word's meaning. 3. Many words have multiple meanings, so more than likely they are going to copy the shortest definition whether it is the one that matches the meaning you are teaching...or they are going to be asking, "Which definition do I copy?"    When it comes to vocabulary practice, there needs to be more!!  

But what?!?

Are you bumfuzzled at what to do?

   Well, I have some activities that will please even your persnickety students...and it won't cause a great hullabaloo in your classroom!

Daily 5 Book Study Begins!

If you have done Daily 5 {D5} or will be doing D5, you know the feeling that I have from within!  I am so excited to start this that I could burst!  lol  I have read about D5 for a couple of years now, but have never implemented it, or even read the book for that matter.  However, with making a move to 2nd grade next year, I thought this would be the perfect time to start.  So, I bought the book and began reading...only to find a wonderful book study here in Blogland! 
Mel, from Seustastic, and Nicole at Teaching With Style, are hosting a Daily 5 Book Study...WITH SOME AWESOME FREEBIES!!!  I am soooooo beyond excited!
So our challenge is to answer the questions that are posed in Chapter 1. So here goes...1.  On pages 4-6, the authors present two different pictures of their classrooms.  In thinking about an dreflecting on your own practice, how would you characterize your literacy block?  Does it look more like the first or second scenario, or is it somewhere in between?  How will you change it?I've been teaching for 14 years in elementary {I taught preschool for 9 years before that, but I'll just focus on my years in elementary in this post.}  When I first started teaching third grade, 14 years ago, I implemented centers in my classroom {and still do}.  My first year, I was the only teacher that did centers, to my knowledge.  When I think back, my kids were pretty much always on task, but what they were doing might just be "busy work".  In my 6th year, our school received the Reading First grant, so came the 90 min. block.  I have to say that it was a great thing for our school, and my students were no longer engaged in meaningless but when the grant was over, there were resources that were no longer available to us.  Also, students were grouped homogeneously, and center were set for them.  I truly believe in my heart of hearts that students will be more involved and enthusiastic if they have ownership in something.  I have heard so many positive comments about Daily 5 that address these issues.  
2.  The typical teacher is very busy having students do lots of different activities.  How is what you are having students do now in your classroom creating quality readers and writers?I feel that I really did well at creating quality readers...but writing?  Not so much!
3.  What sets the Daily 5 structure apart from what you are doing in your classroom?As I mentioned previously, my students have been homogeneously grouped by me with with very little input on what THEY want to do.  Also, I really want to create quality writers, which I don't feel that I have adequately done.
Thanks for Mel and Nicole for providing this awesome book study and great freebies for us!
My teammates and I are really hoping we will be able to attend the Atlanta workshop by the 2 sisters in August.  Anyone else going to that one?
Now, check out what others are saying about Daily 5 Chapter 1.
Waving from The Teacher's Chatterbox,