Guest Post With...Flip Floppin' Through 3rd Grade

I am so excited to be a guest blogger here on Third Grade Tidbits.  Thanks to my friend Gina for giving me this opportunity!  I thought a lot about what I might like to share with you all today and I decided to show you my plan for word study in my classroom for the upcoming school year.

We use Words Their Way in my building, so I am guided a bit by that decision.  I have used this study in the past, and I like the flexibility it gives you to be able to differentiate for each student.  What I have found to be the biggest issue is managing the program.  I want to be able to provide students with a variety of ways to manipulate and practice their words, while also providing some student choice.  Recently I created a companion word study pack that offers a way to manage the word sorts for each students:

This pack helps with student organization and parent understanding of the assigned weekly word study. Included in this pack is: 7 each of (orange, red, yellow, green, blue, black, pink, purple) folder / binder cover pages - for a total of 56 choices. Also included is: weekly word take home packet, 3 cover choices, student choice menu boards (5 versions), daily directions, parent signature required section, homework recording pages, and word work sorting mats. Works with any word sorts. 


The word work sorting mats are a freebie that you can download by clicking the image below:

I also wanted to be able to quickly create a set of word study cards for each sort that I assigned to students.  This is my Word Study Sorting Card template that I can pull up, type header cards and word cards, and print. Viola, differentiated word sorts for each student.

Before school begins, I plan to purchase 3 prong pocket folders and laminate a cover page that coordinates with the folder (I plan to use the red, yellow, blue, and green colors that go along with the Words Their Way spelling stages).  This will be the students weekly take home folder for word study.  Each week I will include a student choice menu board and homework recording pages.  Students will take this home each Friday with a list of their new words.  They will have the weekend to become familiar with their new words, and word study activities for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Students will return the folders on Friday morning and will take their word study assessment.

I took a lot of time to plan out the management of this pack and I am excited to be able to use it this year in my classroom.  I feel like I am already organized and that once the students understand the process for word study in our classroom, that management will be a breeze.

I hope this sparks some interest in how you plan to manage word study in your classroom.

~Chelsea
www.flipfloppinthrough.blogspot.com
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