| | The Strategy of the Month. Where It's From. | Among other uses, tutors, mentors and teacher education students use the America Learns Network every day to share the amazing, one of a kind strategies, lesson plans and activities they've created and used to best support their students. Our team members and partners are also constantly creating strategies to meet the specific challenges faced by the educators and mentors we serve. Almost 2,000 strategies have been contributed to the Network since 2004.
Each month, we highlight one of these strategies on this page and in our free e-newsletter. More than 10,000 individuals worldwide -- tutors, mentors, teachers, parents, researchers and policymakers -- receive these strategies via e-mail alone.
| | | June's Strategy
By Lis David, City Year Chicago | 
| | Lis David, a corps member with City Year Chicago, created the June 2008 America Learns Strategy of the Month. Called Adventures in Spelling, the strategy offers tutors, mentors and student teachers a needed alternative to traditional forms of word study and review. We loved playing the game Lis created, and we're sure that you and your students or mentees will love it as well. Check it out below!
More About Lis
Lis decided to serve with City Year Chicago after visiting a friend who was working with children. Learning about his work motivated her to explore opportunities she could have with kids, and to see whether teaching could be a professional option for her. City Year Chicago appealed to her because she liked the idea of the community that City Year works to build among the children it serves. |   |
| | | | | Adventures in Spelling | Author: | Lis David, City Year Chicago | | Topics: | Spelling | | Level: | Kindergarten - Second | | Arrangement: | One-on-One; Small Group | | Materials: | | - Paper and a marker/pen/pencil to make the board (download a sample) | | - One or two dice | | - Optional: clip art or relevant images from a magazine or newspaper |
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | Situation: | The kids were getting bored with word sorts and word study activities, so I made a little board game where the kids can review the meaning and spelling of the words as they’re “going through the woods.”
The kids love this; it keeps them engaged and they do much better when they like what they are doing. | | | | | Step 1: | Create the game board.
On a piece of paper, draw a road with a start and finish point. Along the road draw four or five obstacles, like a log in the road or a bear or a river. Next to each obstacle make or glue in a piece of a sentence strip large enough for the kids to write the words in. If you don’t have sentence strips available, you can create a box near the obstacle for the student to write the word. See a sample game board.
Note that if the words you’re working on are adjectives or verbs, just draw a picture representing those words. You can also use clip art or images from magazines/newspapers. | | | | | Step 2: | You can play the game in a couple of different ways.
1) Spelling Practice Adventure (the game my kids love)
Ask the students to roll the dice. If they reach a space with an obstacle, they must write the word that represents that obstacle to pass it. So if they land on a bear, the need to write “bear.” If they land on a pile of logs, they need to write “logs.” Have them write the words in the strips or in the text box you created.
If a kid writes the word incorrectly, review the spelling with her, and then give her an opportunity to try again on her next turn. If your organization is a member of the America Learns Network, you can access a number of strategies to facilitate this review.
2) Vocabulary Adventure
If you want to turn this into more of a vocabulary exercise, instead of drawing pictures that represent the words, write the words themselves. Your kids will then draw or find a picture to get over the obstacles. (You may even start out by first creating cards of the images that the kids will need. They can then sift through the cards and place the picture on the correct word. You can then stop using the cards and ask the kids to draw the images on their own.) | | | | | Extension Activities | Extension #1: Write or tell a story based on the adventure
Ask your kids to write an adventure story based on the obstacles they had to overcome while playing the game. If you’re running out of time at the end of the session, you can also ask the kids to tell you a story based on the game’s obstacles (if you’re working with more than one child, they can take turns adding to the story). You or they can then write out an outline of what they say or draw pictures representing the events in their story. They may have a lot of fun acting out their story afterwards.
Extension #2: Ask students to make their own game boards!
The next time you read a story with your students, ask them to keep track of new words they run into and words they really like from the story. Each of the students can then make their own game boards and play them with one another. Be sure to photocopy your students’ creations as they may come in handy for future students as well! | | | | | Share Your Game Boards! | Special opportunity: Share your creativity. Get a free book.
We at America Learns would LOVE to see how you use Lis’s strategy. If you use it with your students between now and August 31st, we hope you’ll either e-mail or mail a copy of the game boards you’ve made to us. We’re hoping to create an online bulletin board of the amazing game boards so that readers of our Strategy of the Month can share and benefit from one another’s creativity.
The first three people who share their game boards will win a free copy of our award winning parenting and family literacy book, Bonding While Learning!
E-mail your game boards to: info@americalearns.net
Mail your game boards to:
America Learns
Strategy of the Month Feedback
15455 San Fernando Mission Blv., Suite 309
Mission Hills, CA 91345
Learn when the game boards become available by signing up for our Strategy of the Month newsletter below. |
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