[SaraFirst]

Last year, my students did well with reading their sight words when they came to them in a story. Some students did well with remembering to spell the words correctly in their writing, but other students forgot to check the word wall and would sound out sight words. I almost screamed when they would spell "uv" not "of" !!! While students write, I would try to walk around and remind them if a word was a word wall word or if I found it later when I was checking the papers I would have them correct any mispelled word wall words. Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to make sure students apply their knowledge and use the word wall when they are writing?

[working_mommy]

We have used student dictionaries as well. These have the common word wall words and usually space for additional words as well. Or you could make them yourselves. Sometimes writing the words in the dictionaries helps them to rememeber. Also, I found that some of the kids really enjoyed finding the words in their dictionaries. Good luck!

April

[SaraFirst]

My aunt, who just retired, gave me a set of those same student dictionaries, I will definitely try that and hopefully it will help.

[BookMuncher]

You may already do this, but I:

1) have the students point to where the word goes and we put it up together

2) play one game a week that requires cross-referencing. I feel that these games are what REALLY affects my student's abilities to find a word. From playing them, they not only know what general vicinity every word is in, but also if a word is a word wall word or not on first glance.

My favorite one is Mystery Word. Kids number their paper or white board #1-5. The first clue is always: It's on the word wall. They write any word. NO ERASERS! The 2-4 clues are always stuff like: it's between A and F, it has a basement letter in it, it has 2 vowels, it is a noun, it fits this shape (draw shape of word on board), it has more than 3 letters, etc.... When the last clue is ready to be given, it is always down to about 3 or 4 words it could be. The last clue is always, "It fits in this sentence: _______" I attribute all my kid's success with the word wall to this game!

[kbbteacher]

I also put my word wall words on velcro, so that students can take the word from the wall and use it at their seat. Also, our first grade team does something similar to Book Muncher...
Each week we have 5 new words and each day of the week is a diff. activity:
Monday- we introduce the words and put them in ABC order

Tuesday- Rhyme Time- I say "the word wall word I am thinking of rhymes with...."

Wednesday- Secret Sentence- I make up a sentence for each word (I try to make a story) and they have to fill the appropriate word in the blank

Thursday- Hot Seat- I pick a student to sit in the hot seat in front of the other children. The students are in charge of giving 3 clues for the chosen word wall word. This is good recall for the children, but I have also let the hot seat student have the words in front of them to help decide what the word is

Friday- Mystery Word- this is like hot seat but I am giving the clues to the class

We always clap and chant as a review before we start these activities...

[Mel's1st]

Referring to word wall words as "freebies" helps me get my kids thinking about spelling them correctly. I will have the kids go back over their work to look for just the freebies to check their spelling. They have red ink pens to make any corrections.

[Bobbi4178]

I used spelling dictionaries last year in my class. The children definitely loved using them. However, I felt as though they took away from their writing time. A good number of children would spend SO much time looking through their writing dictionaries for a word, if they couldn't find it, they were coming to me. I was usually also filling in words that weren't in their books for them. I didn't find my experience with them to be a great one last year, so if they are not ordered for us, I will not be so upset to not have them. I try to do a lot of word wall activities as well to get them to utilize the wall. I think some of the ideas already posted will definitely be helpful to me this school year.

[readerabbit]

At the begining of the year I make a folder with regular writing pages 30
Then I go through with the students have them label each page starting Aa, next Bb at the top (guide) then as I introduce new words in the basal I have them write it in their dicitionary They only use first letter for abc order so it doesn't matter if you have "ask then am". Then when Sue ask me how to spell "What" and I know it should be in there I direct her to her dictionary. It works. Sure you have those that write messy but this gives them a reason not to because they will have to read their own handwriting. I put in extra pages for seasonal words and personal words that the kids want to know like a friends name. I still have the wall but it just gives them 2 ways of doing. You never know if a child has sight problems or if when there are so many words of the wall it is distracting to that child. That way it is personalized. My kids love to take their dictionaries home at the end of school. There really is no work for the teacher because the responsiblity relies on the student.