Spelling Practice and Skinny Posters

Works4Me presents weekly practical classroom tips from real experts -- your colleagues!

1. Backwards Spelling

From Kathleen Sennett, a first grade teacher at Seoul American Elementary School in Seoul, Korea:

"Each week, I put the spelling words on 4x6 cards and tape them to the far side of the board. During the week my class plays a spelling game. Half of the class sits facing the cards and the other half sit facing away from the cards. Each child facing the cards quietly says a word to a child facing away from the cards and that child spells the word. After spelling the word, they change places and continue taking turns. They love playing this and ask to play it if I forget."
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2. Make Room for Skinny Posters

From Heather Gover, a reading intervention teacher at Toliver School in Danville, Kentucky:

"If your bulletin board space is limited but have lots of chart posters to hang around the room, then I've got the perfect solution. Instead of using a whole piece of chart paper to create class posters, I cheat. I cut the chart paper in half the long way (like a hot dog). I staple the two halves together to make one long skinny poster. The poster fits top to bottom on a bulletin board with no wasted space. Twice as many posters can fit across!"
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3. Question of the Week: Discouraging Drop Outs

From the Works4Me Worker Bees:

"What is your school system doing to discourage dropping out of school and/or encouraging students to stay in school?"
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4. Teaching Text Structure

Heard Last Week in the Works4Me Lounge from Karol McChesney, a fourth grade teacher at USD 109, East Elementary in Belleville, Kansas:

"I would like to find a book or any other source that presents lessons on teaching text structure (sequence, problem solving, etc) as it is included in our state reading assessments."
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