Barb, I have the bell format paper at school and I can post it here. Regarding what I use for bell work....I tie it into the vocabulary. We have a new language arts adoption by McDougal Littel. We LOVE the Wordskills Vocabulary Workbook that every child carries in their backpack. There are units of 15 words for 6th grade and 20 words for 7th grade. We study this workbooks aloud and on their own for 2 weeks M-F. The second Friday is the vocab/spelling test and they write the words in good, contextual sentences. It takes almost all hour to complete.
So during those two weeks, for bell work I have them look up 2 words from the list in back of vocab book each day, define them and use in complete sentences. They enter it on their bell work sheet that they keep for the two weeks in their hanging files in the room. I can easily walk the room to see if they have definitions and sentences. We share and talk about it for 2 minutes afterwards. I use the star pupil's bell work page as my grading guide at the end of the two weeks. I give them 5 points a day and no points if absent so it is worth 50 points. This has reduced my bell work time but improved the focus and ease of recording. Their test scores have improved since they get another chance to review the word list at the beginning of each class. Some days I do something different like write your reaction to our guest speaker in 3 complete sentences using excellent word choice. Or how did you spend the weekend? Can you use any vocab words to describe it? Lucinda Tucson, Arizona ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Punchak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades.'" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:03 PM Subject: Re: [LIT] Management Details (Lucinda) > Can you give examples of the type of bellwork you assign and grade? Will > you also share the 2-week paper you designed? Thanks. > Barbara/FL > > -----Original Message----- > On Behalf Of Lucinda Marcello > I have them do their bell work on a separate 2 week paper which is easier > to > grade. Then I have them use the journal for notetaking, writing prompts, > responses, etc. I grade it at the beginning of the quarter and at the end. > I > try to do it in class when they have them out during a 50 minute > vocab/spelling test that they take every two weeks. They refile it. > > Thanks. Lucinda Tucson, Az. > > > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.412 / Virus Database: 268.18.2/692 - Release Date: 2/18/2007 > > _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
