Monday, March 16, 2009
Making Words
Reflect on the teaching of your Making Words lesson. Write about (1) at least 3 +'s (what you did well, kids learned, what generally went well), (2) one wish (one thing you wish had gone better and what you might do better next time to make that happen), and (3) one question you have about any aspect of the lesson, the kids' response, your planning of the lesson, etc.
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Today, I did my Making Words lesson. Overall, I thought this went really well. First, I thought the kids enjoyed the lesson. Second, I feel like they learned about rhyming. Lastly, I thought I did a good job at executing this lesson. However, once again I wish I would have slowed down and taken a little more time to do this lesson. I taught this lesson with a small group of only three students. I will probably try another day and do the lesson with the entire class and see how that goes. The teacher said she was surprised at how easily the students came up with rhyming words to go with the patterns we found. One question I have is, what are some other ways to do making words lessons without having to make the letters, cut them out, etc.
ReplyDeleteHeather Johnson
I did my Making Words lesson today and it went really well. Because I was doing it with 5th graders, I had to tweak it a bit. I decided to use a resource that the teacher suggested called "Word Ladders". The students were already familiar with this format and it was a fun way to do the lesson. I cut out all of the letters needed and the students worked in pairs to figure out the next word, based on vocabulary clues. For instance, the first word was convention. The clue was "Take away two letters and add one. The meaning is a thing that someone invents". This helped with the students' vocabulary as well. Three positives: (1) the students seemed to enjoy working in partners and trying to get the correct word before the other students did (2) the students learned new words that they did not already know (they learned the word "pension") and (3) our follow-up of the lesson went really well. I asked the students what they learned from this lesson and not only did they understand that they learned new words, but they also learned that they can use words they already know to make new words. My one wish is that I would have had more time to follow up with more of the patterns with they words. What are some other useful resources with different ways to teach a "Making Words" lesson?
ReplyDeleteEmily Fox
I taught my Making Words lesson today to my 5th grade classroom. 3 positives included: (1) I explained the directions before the lesson and the directions for actually making the words well, (2) I asked students to spell aloud the words they made, and (3) I had students identify the two rhyming patterns then spell the new words they were trying to make. If someone couldn't spell it, I would get help from the class. One wish I have is that I would spoken more clearly to a boy in our class that is severely and profoundly deaf. I wore a microphone and asked if he could hear me, and while he shook his head yes, I didn't feel I was looking at him every time I spoke. Since we are working in a 5th grade classroom, can we chose a longer word that would maybe have more opportunities to make larger words because some of the words they could make were easy (form, normal) but some were not (amino, flora). Overall, I thought it went extremely well. At first I felt nervous in front of the whole class but I quickly felt comfortable.
ReplyDelete-Amanda Jackson
I taught my making words lesson on Monday in my kindergarten class and the mystery word was "brown". I looked at many web pages and it was the most common kindergarten sight word that had only one vowel. I thought that it was a fun lesson and the students enjoyed it. Three positives to my lesson were 1.explaining to students that the O was a different color because it was a vowel and that a vowel had to be in every word, 2. I remembered to ask students to change their word to match mine when they had completed the spelling of their word. 3. The students were very enthusiastic and involved in the activity. I wish that I would have spent more time going over similar beginning sounds that our words made. Looking back, I feel like I sort of rushed through the comparisons. My question is about having upper and lower case letters on opposite sides of the letter squares. Some of my kindergarteners are still a little confused over the upper/lowercase letters, how they look, and when to use them. Would it be more beneficial to use all caps? all lowercase? or use both ?
ReplyDeleteI taught my making words lesson on Wednesday and my kindergarten group did great. The word that I used was "trips". The kids really seemed to enjoy getting to used the letters to make new words which was a positive. While I went through the lesson I think I did a good job of giving the students time to think and come up with the word before moving on to the next one. The group that I worked with also did a great job of paying attention to me and listening to what I was saying. What really impressed me was at the end of the lesson when I had the students come up with more rhyming words for the two patterns I used. All of them gave examples of rhyming words for both patterns. I felt the lesson went really good overall. The one aspect that could have gone better was that I gave the lesson during center time which was a free time in centers for the kids. One little boy constantly asked if we were almost through so I felt like I may have rushed a little because I didn't want them to get behind on their centers. One question that I have is that my kindergarteners didn't really understand the concept of having a colored vowel in the middle of the word. It was almost like they didn't understand vowels even after I explained it to them. What are some ways to introduce vowels to students so that they remember what they are?
ReplyDeleteKatie West
I did my making words lesson on Wednesday. Our teacher gave us a book called Word Ladders. She had used it before in the classroom, so we thought it would be a good idea to use something they were already used to. We looked over the lesson and it seemed to be very similar to the one that you taught us. It was just presented in a different way. Overall the lesson went well.1) One good thing about the lesson was the children actually learned things! They learned knew words and how to spell words. 2) They used a trial and error approach to figure out the next word. This was a great way cause they tried different letters to see what made sense to them. 3)I wasn't nervous!! I felt that I opened the lesson well and concluded it well with what they learned and what the lesson was suppose to teach them.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I would have done a little differently was to manage them a little more. The children were excited that someone else was teaching them and they kinda looked at it as a game. I need to be a little more stern with fifth graders and make sure they are all learning!! Do you think it is okay to use words the children aren't necessarily fimiliar with so that we can also broaden their vocabulary?
I did my "making words lesson" on 3-32 and I have to say overall it went well, however I underestimated my planning. When you write it all out it seems that you have covered everything and the lesson will run smoothly. However, there were a few things I forgot to do. I started off by picking three random students and brought them to a table in the back. First of all I had to stand in front of them at an angle to block them from the classroom so they wouldn't be distracted and then I began. I used the word "brown" and had them spell no - then reverse to spell on - then add to spell now - then change one letter to spell bow, etc... 3 positives that I saw were: having the hands on letters to touch and arrange they liked that, 2nd was having the mini white board to show how the word is supposed to be spelled and not criticizing for misspelled words and finally the enthusiasm from the kids was good.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I wish I would have done better, was to change the scenery in which I gave this lesson because it was a little too distracting.
One question I have was that it seemed a little too hard for the kids (i have a kindergarten class) they struggled with the words that had more than 2 letters a great deal, so I don't know if it was a bad word that I chose (brown) or if I didn't get enough direction?
-Hannah Hobson
I taught my making words lesson to a fourth grade class this morning. Overall, I think the lesson went really well. At first, I wasn't sure if they would be challenged by the lesson, but I think parts of it were challenging. I used the word "Germany" because they are about to begin a unit on World War II. Three positives (1) I gave clear directions and having the words written out on index cards for them to see (2) the students learned two rhyming patterns and why words fell under each pattern (3) the students were eager to participate and were willing to spell all of the words aloud. I was in the hall for my lesson because I only taught half of the class. I wish I could've been in the classroom so there would've been fewer interruptions like students walking through the hall. I also wish I could've been in the classroom, so that I could've used the white board to write out the words instead of simply showing them the words on an index card. The fourth graders enjoyed this lesson and seemed to have benefited from it, so my question is, how does a making words lesson relate to the fourth grade standard course of study?
ReplyDeleteI taught my making words lesson today( April 1st) and overall it went well. Three positive things were: the students enjoyed the lesson, they participated and where very excited to announce the mystery word. One thing I wish I could change would be to make sure that all students understood the directions correctly. Two students knew the mystery word after the first few minutes and blurted out the answer to some of their classmates beside them. I would make it clear that no one is to say the mystery word out loud if he or she figures it out, (thank goodness the whole class did not hear).My question is that some of the words seemed to be too easy to spell for our class..is there a way that you can make the words more challenging without having to change your whole making words lesson plan?
ReplyDeleteJoy Cooper
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ReplyDeleteI did my making words lesson in my fifth grade class on Wednesday. Three things that went really well were: the students had to spell a few words that they didn't previously know how to spell, the students enjoyed finding the mystery word at the end, and the students enjoyed coming up with rhyming words at the end.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I wish I had done better was allow more time for a little boy with hearing impairments to catch up. I think that I might have gone a little too fast for him. Next time I would allow a little more time.
If you have students spell a word in Making Words, should you do word sorts at the end if most students had trouble with a particular spelling pattern?
Shelby Johnson
I taught my making words lesson on April 1st. Overall, I believe it went very well. The three things that went well were: The students seemed to enjoy the lesson because they were very attentive, the students had little trouble spelling the words and one student asked if we would be able to teach them more before we left.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I wish I had done better was use different words within the lesson. For instance, we had tear within the lesson. Even though it was used in a sentence, the students spelled it tare. In other words, there were alternate words with the same pronunciation, and I believe this was confusing for them. I wish I had been more clear about the words we were using.
When doing a Making Words lesson with a very advanced group of 5th grades, how can it be adapted to be a bit more of a challenge for them?
Kayla Rash
I did my making words lesson today, April 6 with my 3rd graders. I pulled out a small group of students to do this lesson. The lesson went really well. I was very pleased. The students seemed to get into it and they stayed focused. They also used their imaginations and came up with other words that I had not told them to make. After this lesson I realized how smart some of them really were by how quick they were coming up with these new words. I also thought that doing this activity in a smaller group worked out better than it would have for the entire class. They seemed to be more engaged with what I was saying and to show me what they had made. I wish that I could have gotten a chance to use this activity on some more of the students that were struggling. My teacher gave me AG and average students to do this on.
ReplyDeleteHow can you make this lesson work for both AG students as well as the students that are falling behind?
Laura Davis
Today I taught my making words lesson to my third graders. I used the word because. The first obstacle I believed went well was the organization of getting the words together. I made each child a baggie of the word because. This helped with distributing the words as quickly as possible. I also typed out what I was supposed to say to help with clarity. Second I felt as those I connected with the students and they learned a new word, “cues.” Many of them did not know how to spell cues or what it meant. Finally, I felt as though they enjoyed the activity and got a lot from it.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I wish had gone better was the time allotted to do the activity. Our teacher has a very structured day and it is sometimes hard to fit us in her schedule so I didn’t have much time to talk with the kids or make up rhymes afterwards.
Lastly, what do you do if one child keeps missing every word and everyone else can spell every word? I noticed this with my group, but I didn’t want to call him out every time.
Christin Jones
Today I taught my making words lesson to a group of 7 fourth graders. I thought it went better than what I originally thought it would have gone. I was really unsure of how it would go with fourth graders and I had a difficult time picking a word to use because I was not sure what would be too easy and what would be too hard. Positives: 1) the kids were genuinely interested in doing the lesson and had fun, 2) the words I used during the lesson were a good difficulty level (some of the words were easy and some of the words challenged a few students), and 3) the students enjoyed doing something with their hands on the floor other than just writing it on paper. The students in our class also wanted us (Kayla Sizemore and I) to switch our words so they could do more. There were several things that I thought could have gone differently. The students seemed kind of bored with the rhyming part of the lesson. They were interested in the first 2-3 rhyming words but they got the point really quickly and became bored. The "mystery" word I chose was playground which I was not sure if it would be too long. The words I got of anagrammer.com were excellent but they definitely needed help figuring out the mystery word (and I was cramped for time so the students were not able to really play with the letters), so I probably should have chosen a shorter word. Another thing was the teacher originally told us we were only going to have 3 students so I only made 3 sets. At lunch he told us we were going to have 5-6 students so I made 3 more sets after lunch. When he gave us our groups, I ended up with 7 students so I quickly had to make another set causing the students to get impatient. I know to be over prepared when working on another teacher's schedule for now on. Is there a different rhyming activity that might be more interesting for older students (or another way of doing it) that would still go along with the same lesson?
ReplyDeleteMegan Cockrum
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ReplyDeleteI did my Making Words lesson yesterday on the word "stick" with 4 kindergarten students. Three things that went really well were that the students were excited about the activity and really enjoyed learning, most of the students in my group seemed to understand the concept especially the further along we got, and they also understood how to come up with rhyming words and did well with the sorting. One thing that I would have changed about the lesson was that I might have tried using a word with more than one vowel even in kindergarten. I know the idea behind having one vowel was that they could recognize that vowel and use the same vowel in all of their words, but when it came to sorting it was a bit more challenging because the endings both involved the same vowel. The endings that we used were "it" for the words sit and kit and "ick" for sick and tick. When I had students listen for other words and which rhyme it should go with they heard the short "i" sound in both words. One question I have about the making word lesson is how early in kindergarten do you start using making words? This lesson seemed doable for some students, but for others, it was really challenging and they didn't really get it.
ReplyDeleteLeslie Sheppard
For this lesson I used the word listen. I did it with 3 second graders and it went better than I thought it would. All of the students got all the words correct. ALthough some of the words were easier, it worked because it went into harder words later. Also I noticed that they all know what vowels were and which ones to take out and which ones to reorganize. I also noticed they had fun doing this lesson. I tried to make it more fun by telling them that they were magic wizards trying to find the secret word at the end. I think this hands on lesson went well and was good practice for the students. One thing I would have changed was a bigger space because I noticed that when one person did not know the word they would look around a little bit on others to figure out the word. One question I have is is there ever a too easy word for this lesson or should there be those really easy words like "is" to build up to the harder words?
ReplyDeleteMeggie Colhoun
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ReplyDeleteMaking words actually went more smoothly then expected. I picked the word "stick" for Kindergarteners. It worked out really well because there were a lot of two-three words that were created. It helped to have all the words but the "I" in a different color. I really created the making words for them to understand. I went from "I" to "it" to "sit." I picked easy words that they somewhat knew. I am also glad I picked students that had a different range of intelligence. The one thing I wish I did different was to not do making words with Kindergarteners, or at least have more than one vowel. My rhyming words were sick and tick, and then sit and skit. They had a problem with the "i" sound for both the rhyming words. Other than that it went pretty well.
ReplyDeleteIs it a good idea to do making words with such a young age group?
Molly Suddes
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ReplyDeleteMy making words lesson went really well. I used the word "thunder". I pulled that word from a book that the teacher had me read to a small group for my DRTA. I was hoping that that I would have the same group for both activities but it didn't necessarily work out that way. I think there was one person who was in my group twice. Three things that went really well was that 1. the kids loved it, 2. it flowed really easy, and 3.the kids were able to rearrange all the letters to figure out the last word. One thing that I wish I would have done differently was make it a little harder for them. Since they are in the fourth grade changing one letter to make a new word was too easy for them I feel like. I wish I would have had it to where they had to change at least two letters or rearrange more to make a new word. The rhyming words part was way too easy for them. From the list of the words we made we picked out the the rhyming patterns and they just went crazy yelling out words that rhymed with the two patterns. I tried to emphasize how we can spell words using other words that we already knew how to spell, but I feel like they already knew that concept and I was just repeating information. My favorite part of this lesson was when they were trying to figure out the mystery word. They were all moving around the letters and trying to figure it out, and then it hit one girl. She wouldn't arrange the letters in the correct way because she didn't want the others to see so she came and whispered it to me. But I thought it was cool to be able to see the light bulb click in her mind when she figured it out. I guess a question I had would be how to modify it to make it more difficult for the students? Maybe just use a longer word or what?
ReplyDeleteKayla Sizemore
Today I taught my making words lesson to my fourth graders. This activity was something new to the students, and they really enjoyed it. I pulled the word "Biltmore" from the book I had to do my DR-TA. Two girls figured the word out even before I told them what we were going to do. I was quite suprised! Three things that went well was 1) I explained the lesson well and they understood what we were doing, 2) the students enjoyed it and wanted to continue making words even when we were through, and 3)the students learned words that they may have not heard before. A thing I wished I could change would be maybe to use words that they were familiar with because even though they learned new words they still had trouble understanding some of the words. Also, maybe have the students spell out the words aloud. Most of the students figured out the word, however I did have two students who had no clue what the word was. So, to help them I gave them a hint that the word came from the book we had read together. Onced I told them that, it was easy to figure it out. Can a making words lesson be integrated into other subjects?
ReplyDeleteSiomara Castillo
Today I taught my making words lesson to a group of my third graders. I used the word "discover." Overall I think it went pretty good. I believe I organized it very well and for the most part it went very smoothly. Also the kids really enjoyed it. They loved trying to guess the word. At the end it took them a few minutes but they were finally able to get the word "discover." The only problem I had was I couldn't get one of the students to participate. Everyone else was guessing and going along with the lesson but he just sat there and just wrote the words down I said. He is a child in the class with autism and I have had him for some of my other lessons and he usually keeps to himself. I have tried to include him but it's hard to pay so much attention to him when everyone else is participating. I tried my best though to include him. How should I go about dealing with a child who doesn't participate but he's not really doing it on purpose?
ReplyDeleteSarah Purrell
I did my making words lesson with eight third graders. I also used the word discover. Three positives would be 1) I feel I prepared my letters well and made them easy to use. 2) The children enjoyed making new words. 3) The children really got invovled and wanted to find words that I didn't even have on my list to find. Overall I think it went okay, but it seemed a little bit too easy for some of the third graders. Not necessarily the making words part but the rhyming patterns part. I tried to make it a little more interesting by allowing them to explore with lots of different words and rhyming patterns but it still seemed a little boring. My question would be: How do you step up a making words lesson for older or advanced students so it's not boring for them? Or is it okay for it to just be a review?
ReplyDeleteBrittany Norman
I did my making words lesson today. I was going to do it before spring break but because of the snow I wasn't able to. I took 5 kids out into the hallway and gave them the lets V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. I had them start by spelling out the word COIN and then gave them directions on how to change the word to make it something else. We gradually moved to 5 letter words, then 6. Finally, I had them guess the MAGIC word! As the kids were spelling the word INTO, one kid put the other letters saying VACA and said that if he had a TION he could spell vacation. He didn't figure out that those were his letters until the end. After we did the making words, we found some rhymes using the words Vain and Boat. I tried to pretend to trick the kids but they always laughed and said I was wrong. I think for my lesson I could have made it flow a little better. There weren't many words that they could make that sounded similar and connected. One question I have would be how do you make it more challenging when the kids find the work so easy? I know that if a kids gets bored they won't pay attention, so how would I make such a simple activity more challenging for the kids?
ReplyDeleteI did my making words lesson today with ten fourth graders. Overall the lesson went well. Three positive things that happened were; the students were highly interested in the lesson, the students learned a few new words, and my case study student was the first one to figure out the final word! I was very pleased that my case study student was the first one that figured it out. He was so proud of himself because he figured it out way before the others did. Another positive factor was that the students wanted to keep making words after we were done with the lesson. One thing I would change next time would be giving the students more room to spread the letters out and using more rhyming words. They also enjoyed coming up with the rhyming words! One question I have is would this be a good lesson to use multiple times in a week or month? Or would the students get bored with the lesson?
ReplyDelete-Heather Heath
I did my making words today with 4 kindergarteners and it went better than I expected! I thought I did a good job getting each child involved and helping them understand the activity. Also I think I did a job on giving the children enough time to figure out the word.However I do wish I had a little more time with this activity because I was on a time limit to get it done before the timer went off and it was math time so next time i would make sure i had plenty of time to do this excercise. My one question is, is it okay for the other students to help a kid figure out the word or do we want the child to get it on their own? Thanks so much!
ReplyDelete-Molly Maness-
I thought my making words activity went very well! My teacher had a really cool pocket chart just for word making. It had copies of all the letters in their own little pocket and then the bottom rows of the pocket is where they make the words. She bought it at Teacher's Pet if any of yall are interested. I went from the word list and told them to leave that word and add 2 letters to spell the Magic Word. One of the boys put lisetn, i repeated the directions and he put more letters inside the word list. I wish I would have told them not to move the letters in list and add the 2 other letters at the beginning or end to form the magic word. It probably would have been less confusing. They did a great job rhyming and deciding which pattern to use when spelling words. One question I have is how often should we do this activity in the classroom?
ReplyDeleteKarie Steelman
Three things I think I did well on for the making words lesson were: I made each set of letters for "brown" a different color so each student would have their own color and not get mixed up with the other student's letters. I plus is that I now have a set of 24 browns to use again one day. I did it with a small group of students so I could individually help each student and see their progress. The last thing I think I did well was to give good helpful hints. My final "magic" word was brown so my hint was that it started with the letter "b" and was a color. The students got to look at the color wall to help them spell the word. One thing I wish was that I would have had more time with the lesson to explain better and go more in dept with the rhyming words. My question that I have is about something I observed. After about the 7th word (5 minutes) the students got really ansy and their attention went. How do I make this lesson to where I can keep their attention the whole time so that they can learn everything the lesson has to offer?
ReplyDeleteBeth Hicks
I feel that my lesson went great. Three things that worked well was that I used foam letters that kept the kids interested and I used different colors for the vowels. I also related the lesson to a lesson that they were learning in history. One thing that the kids learned were two rhyming patterns. We branched out even more at the end of the making words lesson with the rhyming patterns. The kids did a really good job with their spelling and staying involved and focused. One thing that I wish could have gone better was that they would have had more challenging words to spell out. One question I have is like Tina, how would I relate this to fourth grade standard course of study?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI did my making words lesson with a small group of students. I would have to say that over all the lesson went very well. I think that three things that went really well was that over all the kids really liked having to think or figure out what word they were making each time. Another thing would be that I think by having a pre-made sheet that they were use to using when making words by following directions really allowed them to better understand the activity and complete it. The third thing would be that the words were not too challenging, but challenging enough that it made the students think and allowed the ones who really got it to help those who were struggling just a bit. I would say that next time I would rather have pre-typed the worksheet I used rather than handwriting it and that I would have a larger space to do the activity. I had just a round table to do the activity which was a bit limiting. My question would be how often should this activity be used in the classroom? I know it is used weekly in the classroom I have been in.
ReplyDeleteDanielle Epley
I completed the making words lesson with a small group of students. I used a blank worksheet and filled it in for the students to complete, instead of just calling out the commands to figure out the next word. I really feel that having this worksheet really helped the ease of understanding and completion of the different levels on the word making ladder and our assignment. I choose the word flowers, which offered a variety of different words and I chose the words to build upon themselves, I think that decision also helped the kids get all of the steps and the magic word (which they thought was the coolest thing!!). So, overall this assignment went well and I look forward to using it in the future. Are there more worksheets like the ladder one that I used for this assignment?
ReplyDelete