Spell With Flickr

Spell With Flickr allows you to customize words or create logos using images from Flickr.  What a fun site and a great way to spice up a vocabulary and/or spelling program!  Words are created simply by typing in the desired spelling and choosing which image you want to represent each letter.  You could correlate the images for each letter to match a particular theme or its definition. 

Using Wordle in Language Arts

Our oldest daughter is completely crazy over Wordle!  What is Wordle?  To put it simple, an online tool that can easily spice up your curriculum and make learning, dare I say, FUN!  It takes a list of words and makes a word cloud.  Simple idea, right?  Anyway, in between her lessons, she hops over to my computer and creates a new Wordle: song lyrics, her cousins' poetry blog, words form the first page of Genesis, and her list of pronouns.  Anyway, you get the point.  The girl is crazy over Wordle.  She even taught her younger brother and sister how to make Wordles of their spelling lists. 

****You can check out a few of her creations at our St. Francis School- Building Language site.****

Due to all of the excitement, I decided to think of a way to utilize Wordle in her grammar lesson.  We use Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Town program with her.  It is both "outside-of-the-box" and challenging.  His philosophy is to spend the early part of the year teach the basics of grammar and the rest of the year learning how to apply them.  Last year, she learned the eight basic parts of speech and the basics of clauses and prepositional phrases.  This year, she builds on that prior knowledge by learning about the different types of pronouns and phrases, verb tenses, and clauses.  She is now at the point of reviewing the eight basic parts of speech. 

So, I thought it would be a fun Friday activity to use Wordle to review.  I created the "cloud" above of the basic parts of speech and printed a hard copy for her to use during the lesson.  Now, she basically will go on a scavenger hunt and color code the basic parts of speech based upon the following legend:

• red= nouns
• pink= adjectives
• purple= verbs
• aqua= adverbs
• green= prepositions
• yellow= conjunctions

I know the basic lesson is simple but sometimes the best lessons are not too cumbersome.  I thought this would be a nice way to fuse together a new passion with an old standard.  I have a feeling, though, she is going to find a way to do it all on the computer before all is said and done.  The wheels are constantly turning!  I would love hear how you have used Wordle or if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to take this further. 

*Just a note:  I have already been informed, by her of course, that she wants to do a final project for her  Bridge to Terabithia

Language Arts- Yikes!

As a math person, I am still finding myself when it comes to teaching language arts.  However, my anxiety is waning.  As materials slowly trickle in (via the big, brown UPS truck), I am becoming really excited about this upcoming school year.  

I recently wrote about the idea of using word sorts to enhance a spelling/vocabulary program.  My books, Word Journeys and Mindful of Words, arrived and I have begun reading through them.  I am very excited and beginning to see how everything is going to fit together.  I have to keep reminding myself of one of our main goals with homeschooling: helping our children develop critical thinking skills.  So, I have decided to begin a pretty intensive (but fun!!) word study program from the earliest grades.  I want to alleviate the need to memorize and help our children develop a true understanding and recognition of word patterns, word structure and word meanings.  I feel strongly that this can only serve to enhance their studies across curricula.  

As mentioned, I am starting to see the big picture.  I am using Spelling Power and Wordly Wise 3000 combined with strategies outlined in Word Journeys to form the foundation of their word study for the school year.  I am hoping to utilize some of these strategies in other content areas such as science and history.  In addition, Abby will continue on with her Latin root word study in Ceasar's English.  

All in all, I am really excited.  I am slowly starting to piece lessons together and plan our first three week session.  There is definitely much relief now that programs have been chosen and a plan has been made.  I am always much happier when there is a "plan."  

**By the way, links to the programs I am using can be found on the "Welcome" page of our school.**

Bored With Weekly Spelling Tests!

August again? It's that time of year where I start finalizing what exactly I plan on doing with the kids this year. I have been spending lots of time reflecting on what worked and what didn't work last year. One conclusion that was easy is that our children are really bored with weekly spelling tests. Quite frankly, I am too! Why should our study of language be confined to such menial tasks as writing lists of words five times each, using them in sentences and testing on Fridays. Then, repeating the procedure with misspelled words. No wonder there was so much complaining!

I am slowly breaking free from the chains that bind me to the traditional way of thinking in terms of educating our children. I am especially fearful to "take the leap" in realms that are not as comfortable to me, for example, elementary language arts. Being a math educator, I find while I have a perfectly fine grasp on the English language myself, I am not as comfortable in teaching others. I would much prefer to teach someone how to solve an equation or create a mathematical model. With that being said, I have decided to tackle the problem of how to make language arts more interesting, though-provoking, less rote, and more appealing to our children.

I decided to begin with addressing the issue of how to teach spelling. As I approach this topic, I quickly discover the question is not as simple as "What spelling program do I choose?" or "Which speller would be best?" As many of you know, there is an ongoing battle in the language arts world between phonics and whole language. Dr. Jon Reyhner in his article, The Reading Wars, explains both approaches and details the history of both types of pedagogy. Which one is the Old Republic and which is the Evil Empire? Aha! I will leave that for you to decide. Another day, another discussion. I simply want to choose a spelling program for our children.

As I continue to proceed down this path of how to approach spelling and language in a meaningful way, I ran across Word Journeys by Dr. Kathy Ganske. Originally published in April 2000, I find her approach to language instruction interesting and refreshing. In her book, she outlines how to integrate reading, word study, phonics and spelling. Using the method of word sorts, students are able to build upon prior knowledge and apply that to their acquisition of word patterns. Then, they are able to more effectively make generalizations about spelling and phonics rules.

As students progress, more sophisticated methods of sorting can be integrated, such as comparing and contrasting words according to meaning, word origin, root words, prefixes or suffixes. Another benefit I found with this program is the ease in which cross-curricular integration can be utilized especially in literature, history and science. Finally, I am always striving to find ways to promote critical thinking among our children and students in general. Using the method of word sorts outlined by Dr. Ganske, students must conceptualize relationships between words and effectively convey their reasoning to you. Wow! Wouldn't a meaningful discussion with your student (our children in this case) be much more rewarding and valuable than having a list of ten words regurgitated back to you. I feel this method will be easy to implement while fostering active manipulation of words rather than rote memorization. After all, as educators and parents, our goal is to encourage our children to be independent, critical thinkers.

Great Resources

• Word Sorts: This series of lessons provides a framework for introducing students to short-vowel word families.http://readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=795

• Word Build: Students build words after selecting a word family. Students can print out the words that they build and use the printout to make a word sort.

• Two Voices of -ow: Using nursery rhymes, students see how each vowel represents a different set of sounds when used in different spelling patterns.
• Sort, Hunt, Write: Students are able to work with their spelling lists in a meaningful way.
• Word Identification for Upper Elementary/Middle School
  
• Word Sorts and Activities : Follow up activities and games to supplementa word study of various vowel sounds and unique letter sounds.
• Mindful of Words:  Supplementary material for fourth through eighth grades written by Dr. Ganske
• Examples of Word Sorts:  A quick guide to open versus closed word sorts. (pdf document)
  

As I continue with my own research and development of materials, I'll post materials here.