So many teachers have benefited from their decision to organize their word study block through a 7, 8, or 9 day cycle of activities that students move through instead of a Monday through Friday routine. After choosing the activities students will complete, staggering the schedule of activities for each group is the next step for a game-changing routine! (Ok, maybe I’m a bit dramatic, but I really believe that how you set up your word study schedule is a make it or break it decision that can be the difference between your word study routines running smoothly or constantly falling apart.) Believe me, you want to create a routine that survives day to day interruptions and a rotating schedule does just that!

WHAT IS A WORD STUDY ROTATION?

Stations, learning centers, rotations — what I’m encouraging you to try can be called various things, but the main concept is that students rotate through a schedule of different activities. My stations are differentiated based on the word study levels students fall into and each student in a group does the same activity on the same day (keeping things easier to follow and organize!).

In the traditional definition of stations or centers for other subjects, students likely move through more than one activity during a teaching block; since my word study block is only 15-20 minutes, my students “rotate” to the next activity on the following day. 

WHY USE WORD STUDY ROTATIONS?

1. Fidelity and Consistency

Remember when I stated that cycling your word study block is a make-it or break-it decision? We all experience interruptions to our school schedule. Sure, we put together a minute by minute daily schedule and post it on the wall, but interruptions like weather delays, in-school field trips and assemblies, or an altogether off day can cause us to squeeze our word study block out of our schedule over and over again. All of a sudden, we aren’t implementing word study with fidelity.

When we structure our activities with “On Monday, we do this…” and “Tuesday, we do this…,” reality makes it difficult to keep up the charade of the perfect schedule we’ve created on paper and we lose student buy-in for word study routines that don’t really happen. Not to mention, I’ve never felt that those five 20 minute blocks were enough time for my students to truly work with and delve deep into the learning targets for their given word list.  

With a cyclical routine, we can have an off day and still have a consistent routine because we just move to the next day of the cycle the next time we have word study. 

2. Differentiating is built into the routine 

I nerd out over differentiation and models of instruction that make it easier for one teacher to do all on their own! Imagine having just one small group on your schedule each day. It’s a dream! The station/rotation structure not only allows you to differentiate for students during their small groups, but you can also differentiate and modify the activities that students complete or use activities designed for their specific level. I love that with this word study stations model, I can provide students with more small group time and 1-1 feedback opportunities than I can with a whole-group structure.

3. Variety and Fun

Lastly, but notable, using stations allows me to incorporate a variety of activities. The surprise of a new activity or game increases students’ engagement and that engagement helps them progress more during word study. Since students experience a variety of activities for just 15-20 minutes at a time, they are either eager to get back to an activity they really enjoy or won’t have to work too long on those activities that are not their favorites.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR STAGGERED, DIFFERENTIATED WORD STUDY SCHEDULE

1. First, identify your chosen activities: word sorts, word searches, notebook activities, meet with the teacher, board games, card games, independent word-building activities, computer station, buddy or teacher-given tests, etc. If you need a primer on the activities I use during word study, you can learn about them all in this blog post.

2. Then, map out a sequence for the activities, imagining the schedule that 1 group of students will follow. It works well to develop a schedule for your on grade level/middle of the road group first. For example: 

• Day 1-2: Discovery Word Search

• Day 3: Meet with Teacher

• Day 4-5: Partner Games/Independent Hands-On Activities

• Day 6: Writer’s Notebook Day (a whole group day for editing spelling)

• Day 7: Word Study Notebook

• Day 8: Word Sorting (or "You Choose" Sorts) and Catch Up Day

• Day 9: Buddy Quiz 

If you want a shorter cycle, I recommend Discovery Word Searches (2 days), Meet with the Teacher, word sorting, Word Study Notebooks, and Buddy Quizzes for a schedule of 6-7 days.

3. Tweak the Schedule to Build in more Differentiation: While groups are differentiated by the nature of students' word study levels, you can also build other levels of differentiation into the schedule. Take these suggestions for examples–the lower groups can get a sneak peak of their words before word search day by meeting with you on day 1, have the lowest group meet with you twice during their cycle, and don't test the highest group on their words if they’ve shown they can spell most words correctly!

4. Then stagger the sequence of activities for each group! This means that although students move through most of the same activities, they begin their cycle (Day 1) on different days. You’ll move things around until each group’s Meet with the Teacher time is on a different day. If students are sharing space and materials like games or computers, you can make sure they access those on different days, too. 

You can see that my schedule is staggered in the "cascading" colors in the image below.

Now, you’ve got the schedule. How do you launch this thing?! In an upcoming post, I’m going to help you get this thing off the ground! (Think anchor charts and minilessons for setting up routines and procedures! 💃 It’s going to be oh so great and helpful!

It can be intimidating to get this schedule going, but the time you put in teaching routines, expectations will pay off big as the year goes on and word study becomes something you actually enjoy!

Want to see my sample word study schedules that can help make putting together your own rotations a breeze?!

Click the button below or here to make your own copy of sample word study schedules in a Google Slides format. The link will ask you to create a copy for yourself.

ACTIVITIES I’VE CREATED FOR MY WORD STUDY ROTATIONS

These word study notebook activities are meant to give students more structure as they delve into building a deeper understanding of the words and spelling patterns on their word list. While the activity sheets are designed for independent exploration, I am sure to go over how to complete the activity pages and recommend a gradual-release approach to using the word study notebook activities.