Again? -YEP! This past year we worked through the year using a few tweaks to our {previous} Words Their Way routines and procedures.
I think we’ve almost reached….PERFECTION!
FRESHLY CLEANED-UP SLIDES:
I think I’m a closet-graphic-designer by nature. I just love making things look a certain way. For some reason my slides were creating a desire in me to clean them up a bit. I wanted my students to see a clear delineation between each day’s steps, or tasks. So, we now have cleaned up slides!
A few changes:
- I added the “I can” statement to each slide.
- I divided the three daily tasks by color (think paint chip).
- The activity divisions translate easily into a chant:
- Day One: “Number, Cut, Sort and Read”
- Day Two: “Sort, Glue/Write, Picture/Read”
- Day Three: “Sort, Glue/Spell, Picture/Read” OR “Sort, Glue/Highlight, Picture/Read”
- Day Four: “Sort, Glue, Picture and Read”
As you can see, we have a four day rotation. This allows us to get done with one sort per week — even if we have a short week.
Download the SMART Notebook file here: 
BETTER SYSTEM FOR LOST SORT PIECES:
Coloring the pieces was JUST NOT working! Adding the color to the fronts of their notebooks helped a little, but it still wasn’t amazing me with its effectiveness. So, my students now turn their sort page over and add their student number or their name to each piece before cutting them apart. This works really well in any classroom. Of course if you have a window, it’s really easy, but if you don’t have a window, don’t worry, I have students that forgo the window and just do it at a table spot.
NOTE: Previous WTW posts: http://jessicameacham.com/category/words-their-way/
What works really well for your Words Their Way Routine? Share out below…!
2 Comments
I’ve been considering using Words Their Way, but I’m a little intimidated by the management piece. I don’t think I can manage all the moving parts!!! How do you do it? I only have 25 minutes for phonics instruction and I can’t use but maybe 10 minutes of GR groups for phonics instruction. How do you get it all done?
It is a dilemma! That’s why I chose to incorporate it into a literacy station rotation. My students use one of their independent work time rotations to do the activity for the day. It is their choice if they take the entire 20 minutes to complete it, or stay on task and complete it in 10 minutes, or less, and then work on a different Daily 5 choice. It’s not the best solution, as I’d venture to say it’d be better if I was more available during that time for extra help/teaching/reteaching — but that’s where Seesaw comes into play! They record their work and read it, so I can check for understanding and application!