ReTHINKing It Thursday
Exploring alternatives to worksheets in the literacy classroom.
I LOVE my mini dry erase boards. I use them for everything. They are easy to use and the kids really love writing on them as opposed to completing worksheets.
Try having students write their predictions of word definitions using context clues on whiteboards.
I believe in using real text whenever possible to teach literacy skills. In the pictures below our class was discussing the definition of the word venture as it appears in the book Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. Using my document camera, I projected the page in the book. The students read the sentence and wrote their prediction of the word meaning on their whiteboards.
This led to some discussion about the reasoning behind their predictions, context clues, word parts etc. The whole mini lesson took 5-7 minutes.
I snap photos and keep them in a digital file for future reference.
The discussion of word meanings in context is the best kind of support we can give our young readers. My students have also read "Out of my Mind." I think it is one of those important books to help us realize that not everyone is as they appear.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margaret. My students also enjoyed Out of My Mind, a real gem!
DeleteWay more effective than a weekly list of vocabulary words!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tibbitts!
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