Word Sort Superheroes

Word Sort: Past and Present Tense Rationale: The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the word study words for the week through a word sort and comic strip activity. The word study for this week focuses on sorting the present and past tense of the selected words. This lesson is important because word study is a necessary part of the curriculum and it is essential that students enhance their vocabulary through learning new words. Incorrect use of the present tense of these words has also been a consistent problem in my classroom; therefore, the word sort is necessary for students to understand the correct tense of these words. This lesson addresses the West Windsor curriculum. An understanding of these words and their use is necessary for the successful completion of third grade.

Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.2e Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness). o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.2f Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words.

Source: The original source of this lesson comes from the West Windsor curriculum for word study The word study sort comes from best practices used by my cooperating teacher The comic strip sheet comes from http://www2.sd5.k12.mt.us/elrod/multiage/Spelling.html While the word sort activity is the practice used by my cooperating teacher, I made this lesson my own by adding in a comic strip activity as an assessment piece rather than having the students only complete a group word sort.

Objective: Goal: To introduce and categorize word study words for the week Students will be able to categorize assigned word study words as either present or past tense through the completion of a word sort. Students will be able to choose appropriate word study words to create a meaningful comic strip.

Materials: 14 copies of word study words for word sort 14 copies of comic strip Comic Book cover sheet

Smartboard word study chart Word study notebooks Sample Comic Strip

Procedure: Anticipatory Set (5 min) o Have the blank Smartboard word study chart on the Smartboard. o Call students in Word Study group 2 to the floor in front of the Smartboard with their Word Study notebooks. Okay Third Graders, today we are going to be introducing your new word study words. I need everyone to open up to a new page in their notebook, so we can do our sort. o Drag the word Sweep to one side of the chart and the word Swept to the other side of the chart. Boys and Girls, I think that these two words go together on the chart just like this. Can anybody tell me why I might think that? Allow for students to answer that there is a present/past tense relationship between the words (note: this group of students is a relatively high group of spellers; therefore, minimal scaffolding should be needed to reach the target answer) Lesson Development (10 min) o Boys and girls, you just told me that the relationship between your words this week is that they are the present and past tense of the same word. Who can tell me when you use the present tense? Past tense? Allow students to respond with the present tense being when something is happing right now and past tense when something has already happened o Right. I noticed last week in your sentences that a lot of you were confusing when to use present and past tense, so make sure that this week you pay extra attention to the tense that you are using. o Now, boys and girls, we are going to continue doing our word sort together. As we sort the words on the board, I want you to copy it into your word study notebook. o Who wants to come up to the board and sort the next two words that go together? Allow students to volunteer until all the words are correctly sorted Have Megans class return back to her classroom; keep Jesss class on the floor. Closure o Okay, third graders, we are going to do something a little bit different than usual for the rest of the period. I am going to give you a hint. Lets see if you can figure it out. Hold up comic strip from newspaper Who can tell me what this is? o Allow students to respond with comic strip Right. It is a comic strip. Who can tell me some things you notice about this comic strip? o Cartoon pictures o Speech bubbles o Listen carefully. You must use at least 2 pairs of word study words in your comic strip.

Does everybody understand? A pair of word study words would be something like sweep and swept or bring and brought. You can use any 2 pairs that you want in your comic strip. You will have 10-15 minutes to get as much done on your comic strip as possible. If you finish, you can bring it over to me to check. If you do not finish, you are going to finish it up for homework and bring it to class tomorrow. Once it is checked and all your words are used correctly I am going to put all the strips together in a class comic book. We can keep the comic book in class the rest of the week if you want to use it to help you study. Get to work third graders.

Differentiation: Differentiation in this lesson is hard because it is only being presented to a small group of students who are differentiated into their groups by what stage of development they are in. Students in this group really do not require many accommodations with the exception of making sure certain students do not sit next to each other so they do not talk. For a challenge activity, if they finish early, students may put their words in ABC order.

Assessment: Evaluation of student understanding will be done through their participation in the word sort. Also, students use of the word study comic strip will demonstrate comprehension of past versus present tense of a word. Through this assessment, the objectives will be met. o Criteria: Must use two pairs of word study words Must tell a story Minimal grammar errors Pictures must make sense with the story I will be walking around throughout the assignment to be sure that students understand the concepts. This will also allow for conferencing with the students that seem to be confused or need help with the words. Follow up: The next day, students will be asked to write sentences using their word study words. By completing the assignments the day prior, students will be better able to write sentences that correctly use their words.