Teacher Inquiry - Vocabulary

After discussing my backwards mapping with my senior syndicate in Term 2, one of the things I had planned to do was to have a visual display for vocabulary and draw the students' attention to it.  Below is an image of what my whiteboard would typically look like before starting our reading programme for the week.  

Alongside the tasks for the week, I would write the list of words the students would need to 'SACAWAC.'  You can click here to read more about SACAWAC.  At the start of a guided reading session I'd sometimes get the group to make predictions about the text based only on the word list.  As a result of the SACAWAC activity, students began challenging me to test their spelling ability.  From this, our reading programme grew to include a spelling test every second session - after the students had time to SACAWAC the words.  I have made the spelling lists incorporate vocabulary from the texts they read, as well as vocabulary that have similar patterns to words they may come across in their Peter Schonell Spelling Test.  

How the students responded : 

I feel the students have engaged with this approach to teaching word consciousness / kupu hou.  They are eager to participate in SACAWACing words and spelling tests as they feel a sense of ownership over that part of our reading programme.  They have shown they prefer to do their spelling and marking on paper so that is what we have implemented.  After a spelling test, any words the students got wrong - they had the option to continue to SACAWAC those for homework or when they had completed their other work.

What worked : 

Having a physical copy for students to write on.  This proved more effective than students who just copied and pasted ticks into their Google Docs.  Having a different list for each group - this allowed them to become 'experts' at the particular set of words and the students began teaching others the meanings of the words without being prompted.  Some of the vocabulary has also begun to show up in their writing which has been awesome to see.  Having a spelling test the next day also served as a good purpose for them to be doing the SACAWAC activity and sharing their results with them helped build confidence and a desire to do better.

What I could change : 

I could make an actual wall display of all the topical vocabulary instead of just writing it on the whiteboard.  I am yet to try this as I find the turnover between words could be too much for them to feel like they need to memorise.  I could also do more with their results for spelling as at the moment they just receive a certificate for spelling.  At the moment I store their spelling results in my reading workbook where I can see if/how they improve over the weeks.