I'm glad you have found my website to be useful upon your return to teaching! I hope things are going well for you back in the classroom!
You asked about the Word Study Center activities and the word study program we use in our classroom. Last year my teaching partner and I created our own lists for each week of the school year. Each week a challenge list and a regular list is sent home based in students' performance on a pre-test. Students also have individualized words to study based on spelling inventories given at the beginning of the year. On the final test, students are given ten additional words that they were not able to study so that we were able to determine if they have mastered the application of the pattern taught for the week.
After implementing the program for one year, my teaching partner and I have been spending time reviewing each list and making some changes each week. Since the program continues to be a work in progress, we are not posting the lists online until I feel that they are "perfect."
The books/programs we use to help us create the lists and determine our sequential teaching of specific patterns for our third graders are Words their Way by Donald R. Bear and Word Study Lessons (Grade 3) by Fountas and Pinnell
Words their Way: http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_bear_words_3/
Word Study Lesssons: http://www.heinemann.com/products/002132.aspx
Many of our ideas for word study center activities come from common board games and card games. I just use tables in Microsoft Word to create cards for the games, and I use clipart from MS Word or Printshop to create the board games.
MaryAnn,
I'm glad you have found my website to be useful upon your return to teaching! I hope things are going well for you back in the classroom!
You asked about the Word Study Center activities and the word study program we use in our classroom. Last year my teaching partner and I created our own lists for each week of the school year. Each week a challenge list and a regular list is sent home based in students' performance on a pre-test. Students also have individualized words to study based on spelling inventories given at the beginning of the year. On the final test, students are given ten additional words that they were not able to study so that we were able to determine if they have mastered the application of the pattern taught for the week.
After implementing the program for one year, my teaching partner and I have been spending time reviewing each list and making some changes each week. Since the program continues to be a work in progress, we are not posting the lists online until I feel that they are "perfect."
The books/programs we use to help us create the lists and determine our sequential teaching of specific patterns for our third graders are Words their Way by Donald R. Bear and Word Study Lessons (Grade 3) by Fountas and Pinnell
Words their Way: http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_bear_words_3/
Word Study Lesssons: http://www.heinemann.com/products/002132.aspx
Many of our ideas for word study center activities come from common board games and card games. I just use tables in Microsoft Word to create cards for the games, and I use clipart from MS Word or Printshop to create the board games.
Some of our word study center activities also come from teacher resource books. Here is a link to the Scholastic Teacher Store: http://shop.scholastic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10002&langId=-1
If you search using the terms "centers" or literacy centers," you will find a variety of useful center materials!
I hope these resources help you out!
-Beth