1. Words Their Way
Notebook
How Do Your Students Use
Word Study Notebooks?
presentation started by John Altieri
Willard Elementary School
Ridgewood, New Jersey
http://willardgreen.ning.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License.

2. Inquiry Questions
Give students space to answer questions about their word
work.
- What did you learn about words this week?
- How is this column different than that column?
- What have you learned about words that you can use with
other words in the future?
- How are the words in this column all the same?
- What do you notice about the syllables in these words?
- Why is this word an oddball?

3. Word Expert
Each student is responsible for a word each
week/day. Students find the components of a word. They
will write the word at the top of their journal page. Guide
them to pick the word apart and get to know it really well.
Questions to guide his work:
How many vowels? Consonants? Syllables?
What sound(s) does this word make?
What other words do you see in this word?
Move letters around. What if you added/removed letters?
Use this information to make a Wordle, video, audio, etc.

4. Word Expert
continued
Examples of students finding word components.

5. Word Hunt
Students hunt for words using the generalization.
Word 'hunting grounds' include:
- books
- in a peer's writing
- library
- room
- anywhere
Find as many words as you can!

6. Open Sort / Closed Sort
Students can write sorts in
any way they see the words Closed sort
fitting together in columns. (glued/written):
Follow the pattern for the
Some possible ways to open week. Have students glue
sort words: words into the word study
number of vowels book.
number of consonants
beginning sound
ending sound
meaning

7. Illustrate a Word
Illustrate a word graphically (not unlike graffiti).
Draw a picture of what that word represents.
-Can this word be a noun and a verb?
Illustrate words on card size strips and use the illustrated
cards to play games like word poker (2,3,4 of a kind of
sound) or Go Fish!

8. Headbands
Students use their word illustration cards they have made
or word cut outs to play a guessing game.
One partner holds a word from their sort to their
forehead without looking at it. The partner gives them
clues about the letters (or meaning) so that they can
guess the word.
Guess it right, put it in the finished pile. Can't solve it
after x number of guesses, place it in the pile to try again.

9. Shared Stories
In a group (about 4-5 works well), students work together
to create a story using their words.
A student starts by picking a word from their list to create
a sentence. Other students build off of that first
sentence, helping to create a story. Students take turns
adding to the story.
One student acts as the recorder, or they pass the
notebook, taking turns recording their story.
Require certain patterns be used to reinforce the sorts.

10. Balderdash! and other definition activities
Balderdash: Students work to find and one real, and create
other fake, definitions for difficult words. Students then
bring their work together, testing one another to discover
which definition is true and which are decoys.
Dictionary Entries
Students create a dictionary entry based on their favorite,
most challenging or an assigned words that week. These
entries can be photographed and displayed as a slideshow on
the computer, or shared through a photo sharing site. This
can come together as a class dictionary.

11. Keep Speed Sort Times
Keep a section to maintain speed sort times.
Students are timed to see how quickly they can organize
the words in alignment with the generalization.

12. Beyond the Notebook
Act out Words
- a partner/class can guess the word the person is acting out
Record a sort
- record a student discussing their sort on an audio or video
recording to share with teachers, students, parents.
Fingerspell words using the American Sign Language alphabet!
This offers a way to connect body movement and memory. Find a
copy of the ASL alphabet here.
Dictionary Race - have students race to find a particular word in
the dictionary.