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Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!

Have you heard of this program? I was so excited to be able to test out a couple things in my class with my kids especially because we have state testing coming up. I thought this would be something fun to do to help prepare a little. I decided to start with the Nike set just to see what I liked/ would want to change for next time.

First, I made copies of the cards. First mistake- copied them in black and white on white paper. I realized I wanted them color coded. Next time, I decided, I will copy them onto orange (or the appropriate color) paper. So we had to spend time tracing them in orange before cutting them out. Once we did that, I stapled them together because I didn't have enough binder rings. We learned the raps two at a time and then cut them and glued them onto the back of the word cards.

One thing I LOVE is how Julie and Krista include the graphic organizers for each word. What I decided to do is print them front to back and staple them into a book. I loved that the students had their own little packet that they could work on in their free time. Once we did a couple examples together, I let them keep it in their classwork folder to work on at their own pace. I also stapled the activity page into the back so that students could work on that too.

As I was working through this with my kids, I realized that this isn't something that my students could really work on at their own pace. The program is meant for students to be able to work at their own pace but that isn't something that would work for my kids. So I came up with a plan to implement it in the future, in a way that works for my class. And here is what I came up with:

Each monday students will cut out their cards, glue the raps on the back, and staple them together instead of doing morning work. Then, we will work on two roots a day. Together. I will teach the root and then the rap. We will practice the rap together and I will let the students come up with their own motions to help remind them of the words. They are going to then teach their partner the words with their gestures (WBT). After students have the meaning mastered, we will begin working on the graphic organizers together. I will have these stapled into little books for them because I do love how that worked out. (Once we have done this for a couple weeks I think I will let my higher group go work together on their graphic organizers.) At this rate, students will learn all 10 roots in a week. I will assign the activity for a classwork grade on that Friday and then they will test. If they make an 80 or above they will get their certificate and their name on the wall. If not, they will have to take home another copy of the practice activity over the weekend and retest on Monday.

I will be honest and say that at first I was nervous about how my kids would respond to this. But they LOVED it. They asked me every day "are we going to learn any roots today?!" I think the hardest part for my kids was trying to come up with words that have the root in them. That part I think will come with time.

Overall I think it is a great program and am planning to continue using it!

And here is a video of my kids doing the first 4 raps. It is just really sound with the cover of their journals because I didn't want their faces in the video.

Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

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