Words their Way

Let me just start by saying, I have a total love/hate relationship going on with this program. Words their Way is a differentiated phonics program that can be taken in about a million different directions. I use this book for my firsties. I first heard of the program through colleagues and with the help of one of my super fantastic academic coaches, I decided to give the program a go this year with my firsties. I really DID NOT know what I was getting myself & my students into! I started off by (frantically) reading The Tattooed Teacher's blog post on how she uses WTW in her classroom, that was big help to get started. I  also purchased her Word Sort activities pack which helped me understand the different sorts you can have students do each week. It also aided me in setting up my own WTW schedule. You can click the picture below to go to Rachel's  TPT and check out the file.  However, the program is set up to be completely differentiated, so in the end I had to decipher what would work for my students and my class schedule. I came up with 2 schedules, one for at school and one for the students to do at home for their 'spelling homework.' More on that in a bit.  First things first, I administered the Letter Name test. This test results in a LN stage score (# of words spelled completely correct\25) and a feature score which is the total # of features spelled correctly\5 in 5  different categories. 5\5 feature score would mean the student has mastered the feature, 3-4\5 means the student is using the feature but is still confusing it, this is their 'instructional' zone. 0-2\5 means the student knew only individual words, not the pattern\focus feature.  I used this information to group my kiddos based on the feature that was in their instructional zone, I keep my groups to a max of four per reading block. I started with more, but it is just too much to keep up with. Four really does provide just enough differentiation to keep my kiddos on target and to keep me sane.  After grouping the students and selecting their focus feature, I make the copies of each sort (4 different ones/per reading block).  Each student has a folder, notebook, plastic baggie, and index card. The folder has a short blurb to remind the students and their parents of the HW schedule, the notebook is for the sentences & word hunt. We also glue old sorts down on Wednesdays before the test. The baggie holds the current weeks words/pictures and the index card. The index card is for students to record their time and date during the speed sort.  Here is the schedule I use in my classroom, nothing fancy, if you want a copy, just click the picture! I have found that each group doing the same thing each day on their own level works best for me, I can not keep up with one thing on Monday, then next group doing that on Tuesday...this does work for some people & I saw tons of awesome set ups on the web, just not for me!  On Thursday, I call each WTW group one at a time and hold a mini-meeting. We discuss our focus feature, the pattern(s) we will be sorting by and go over the words (pictures) because some of them are odd (thimble, thermos, pin, pipe, jax) and the kids will be asking all week if not! When we close our mini-meeting the students return to their desks and scribble color the back of their sort for easy lost piece identification and sort their words a couple times before heading off to literacy centers. I find doing centers after WTW speeds up the scribble color & cut time from FOREVER to about 10 minutes. ;) The rest of my schedule is pretty simple!  On Wednesdays, I give the test in the same small groups I handed the sorts out in. I can usually test all 4 groups in less than 45 minutes while the rest of the class is at literacy centers. I use plain old hand writing paper cut in half. The kids draw 3 or 4 categories depending on their sort. I call out the words and they write the word in the correct category and spell it correctly, this includes the kiddos who had pictures instead of words. For my picture sorting friends, if they had 8 words, I grade 16. To get each +2 the word has to be in the correct category and the feature must be in the correct position and of course the correct letter or letter combo. This grading system works pretty well for us! My word sorting friends must have the whole word spelled correctly and in the correct category to get +2 for each word.  Here is a copy of the letter I send to parents to explain what we are doing in class and what they need to be doing at home. Click the picture for a copy! While I don't love having to grade the test right away & deciding who gets which sort the next day, it is SO worth it. So far this year from 8\28-10\15 when I gave the LN assessment again, EVERY SINGLE STUDENT this includes my second time around friends, SPED friends, GT friends, bubble friends, ALL MY FRIENDS showed growth. Most moved up more than 3 stages, I had several move up more than 10 stages and one go from 0 to 13\25 and one from 0 to 17\25! What! Amazing! I can see my students READING and using the focus features, it is really is great! I hope this helps anyone new to the program! If I can elaborate on anything to help you, please comment & let me know!