[Ellie's Mom]

I've added a section to my web site for poems that go with our phonics sounds. My parents are printing a lot of things from the site so I posted the poems, too. Maybe someone else will find them helpful as well. I'm still searching for more and writing more for the existing sounds as well as the upcoming sounds. http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/...olin/index.cfm
The Poetry Page link is on the left and the sounds are listed as sub pages.

[jmartell]

I think your site is great!

[teach2read10]

A very nice site.

[teachgal25]

I love your spelling ideas and phonics poems!!

I have a question about your spelling for the week...I'm struggling with literacy stations this year and spelling...we are required to have a word study station and our spelling tests are Fridays and the new spelling pattern is introduced Monday...


My question is- do you have students practice their spelling words for the week in lit. stations/centers...or do you do it more whole group?

My worry in placing the words for the week in lit. stations is that since I'm only given 20 mins for whole group instruction they are not receiving enough direct phonics instruction to fully understand the phonics rule/pattern...do you recommend my word study station/center being a week behind my teaching?

I teach kindergarten, first AND second grade reading....any input would be helpful

[Ellie's Mom]

When the children first arrive they do a fluency reading with a partner, read their vocabulary bookmark (I have them for each story), practice individualized sight word packets, and do a mini-spelling test with a partner. They may write on the board, in a mini-note book, white boards, the back of the shelf (which is covered with white board contact, with a pen on a tiny piece of paper, whatever is allowed for the day. Any missed words are written 3 times. All of this is done in 20 minutes. Also, our spelling words are high frequency words for the most part.

[Rachell2000]

Thank you for allowing us access to your site.

[teachgal25]

Thanks for the quick reply....could you give a brief overview of what your reading block looks like? Mine is 90 minutes and we are required to use the basal so it makes it tough to get everything in.... wondering if you were in a similar situation

[Ellie's Mom]

I have 5 children that go to Title I every day during my morning. I have 4 that are monitored with RtI. And I have 6 that go to RtI every day. I also have a special every morning. I'm really struggling with fitting everything in around that schedule. (8:30-11:10) Oh, I forgot speech. There is one morning when there is NO time that I have all of my children. 3 are in both Title and Rti. I tend to do things in small fragments of time. We do reading vocab (basal-ugh) and read aloud time (them, not me). Working with words is a big chunk. That includes word wall, phonics, sight words, vocab. I try to keep as much continuity as possible but it's really a stretch this year. I give the STAR test every month just to make sure they are making progress. So far they have really done well. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.