A) Compare Word Families with Mixed Vowels Using Word Sorts

Dion Stocks

Quiz #2

J. Bloodgood

Question 1

Hannah and Justin seem to fall in the early letter name stage. They are able to attend to the first and last letter in most of the words. Their struggle seems to be with the vowels in the middle and while they do represent in all the words a vowel, they are confused as to the appropriate vowel to choose for the most part. There is still confusion as to the blends/diagraphs. Looking at Hannah I would use the following to assist her in spelling growth.

a)  Compare word families with mixed vowels using word sorts

-finding a definite starting place is hard with the small sample so beginning with any sort would be beneficial even it she masters and it serves as a review. I think in this case I would begin with an, en, un just to start since she missed fun. I would continue to work through this study to help her progress through the stage. I would use a header for each family and choose words that Hannah could hopefully read. I would then explain that we will place the rest of the cards under the header modeling one or two and showing her the importance of attending to the sound and spelling.

b) As Hannah progresses we could begin to add another sort with blends beginning with the easy contrasts of single initial consonants with a blend Words Their Way suggest beginning with st/s. This too would be a good choice as Hannah seems to lack this concept. We would continue working through the blends/diagraphs appropriately. We would discuss the sound that each of these makes and sort under the appropriate header. I would naturally model a few. We may even reinforce this would word hunts in simple books that we may be sharing in the classroom.

c) We would begin putting together a word dictionary of all of our sorts to help reinforce and help Hannah remember what we have done with the mixed vowel families as well as the blends and diagraphs. We might even begin our own word bank which would grow as she develops a stronger sense of the vowels and their usage.

d) A possible schedule may be that of rereading books, word study, sentence writing and introduce new books. Time would be determined by the classroom schedule.

e) I am not very familiar with books at this stage, but according to the Howard Street Tutor book, the following may be a viable list to use as part of the tutoring session.

1- Addie’s Bad Day Robins, J

2- Small Pig Lobel, A.

3. Sword in the Stone, The Hello Reader

Naturally I would look for text that have words that use patterns, vowels and diagraph/blends that we are using in the word study to help reinforce our work.

Question 2

Contrast Sort

Biomes

Land Biomes Water Biomes

Tropical Rain Forest Intertidal Zone

Deciduous Forest Near-shore Zone

Taiga Open-ocean Zone

Grassland Estuaries

Desert

Tundra

Part of the 5th grade science curriculum is the exploration of the land and water biomes. Students often have trouble remembering the characteristics and the categories under which each of the named biomes belong. After an introduction, students would be asked to sort these two types of biomes into the correct categories. After giving students the chance to explore each biome on the internet, students would then be asked to draw an illustration or list characteristics of the biomes on the back of their word sort card. This information would be used to help assist in making sure they place the words in the correct categories. Students would be asked to contrast the biomes that fall under each category as well as contrast the overall differences of Land versus Water biomes. It would be my hope that students would learn the characteristics of each biome and be able to correctly categorize them into the land or water categories while knowing distinct characteristics of the biome itself. I would then have the students create their own biome book that is like a non-fiction information book (which I would have shared many with them before this to help illustrate what I want) and ask them to include the information about each biome, their characteristics, the contrast and comparisons that they have discovered as well as illustrating each one.