[LIT] Management Details (Lucinda)

[Lucinda Marcello]

Barb, I have the bell format paper at school and I can post it here.

Regarding what I use for bell work....I tie it into the vocabulary. We have 
a new language arts adoption by McDougal Littel. We LOVE the Wordskills 
Vocabulary Workbook that every child carries in their backpack. There are 
units of 15 words for 6th grade and 20 words for 7th grade. We study this 
workbooks aloud and on their own for 2 weeks M-F. The second Friday is the 
vocab/spelling test and they write the words in good, contextual sentences. 
It takes almost all hour to complete.

So during those two weeks, for bell work I have them look up 2 words from 
the list in back of vocab book each day, define them and use in complete 
sentences. They enter it on their bell work sheet that they keep for the two 
weeks in their hanging files in the room. I can easily walk the room to see 
if they have definitions and sentences. We share and talk about it for 2 
minutes afterwards. I use the star pupil's bell work page as my grading 
guide at the end of the two weeks. I give them 5 points a day and no points 
if absent so it is worth 50 points. This has reduced my bell work time but 
improved the focus and ease of recording. Their test scores have improved 
since they get another chance to review the word list at the beginning of 
each class. Some days I do something different like write your reaction to 
our guest speaker in 3 complete sentences using excellent word choice. Or 
how did you spend the weekend? Can you use any vocab words to describe it?

Lucinda Tucson, Arizona
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Punchak" <bpunchak at verizon.net>
To: "'A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades.'" 
<lit at literacyworkshop.org>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: [LIT] Management Details (Lucinda)


> Can you give examples of the type of bellwork you assign and grade?  Will
> you also share the 2-week paper you designed? Thanks.
> Barbara/FL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of Lucinda Marcello
> I have them do their bell work on a separate 2 week paper which is easier 
> to
> grade. Then I have them use the journal for notetaking, writing prompts,
> responses, etc. I grade it at the beginning of the quarter and at the end. 
> I
> try to do it in class when they have them out during a 50 minute
> vocab/spelling test that they take every two weeks. They refile it.
>
> Thanks. Lucinda Tucson, Az.
>
>
>
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