Things I am trying with my fifth graders...

1. Teaching greek and latin roots to improve vocabulary. I get the roots from The Reading Teachers' Book of Lists, a VERY helpful resource. They are working on their word trees with the root on the bottom of the tree and words with that root up in the branches, etc. They use the dictionary and try adding affixes to come up with more words that use that root. So it is good practice with affixes as well.

2. One of my team members had a great idea to support the Wordly Wise vocabulary program. We have a chart up in our room with all the WW words for lessons 1-20. Whenever the kids find a vocabulary word in their reading, they put a tally next to the word. It is fun during read aloud especially. There are some students who are really getting into it and are coming in with lists of words that they found in their recreational reading books.

3. Spelling and word games with a rules based spelling curriculum. We are studying syllabication rules, rhyming to find spelling patterns, finding small units of meaning in a bigger word, etc. The students love bananagrams, scrabble slam and scrabble apple among a few of the games for word play. I also have a great book with syllabication scramble, rhyme time, timed games, etc. The students have learned many strategies from this instruction. There is a flow chart in the room and in their writing notebooks about what to do when you don't know how to spell a word. Kids are just starting to apply all the strategies. We'll see how it goes.

4. Small, student led writing groups for revision. The kids give ideas to each other.