Differerence between word book and personal.. By Darci

Hello!
I will attempt to answer your question from my experience......We will see if it helps.
My word wall is actually on the wall. It houses mostly high frequencey words and any other words I expect them to know

in my classroom. The word book I have used as well.........If I am following your question correctly. I have used two different word books. One was homemade.......and we xeroxed it off for each student to keep in their desk. It had a letter of the alphabet on each page, along with a picture to help them find the correct page/sound. The commonly used words were on the pages. I

always put blank lines at the bottom so that if a child requested a word that he/she would probably be using often, I wrote it in at the bottom. (For example, one year the big thing was dinosaurs......this year it is transformers.......so I would write that in if the child was really "into it.")
I have also purchased the "Words We Use" books and they are great too. They are pretty much the same as the ones I made up, but already made and sturdier. (Watch though, the ones I ordered had some of the letters made incorrectly. I just wrote it correctly at the top and the kids and I teased that we were "Brilliant for finding the mistake!" lol (It was just a different way than our school uses, for printing.)
The personal word wall, I made from just a manila folder. I sectioned it off into 27 sections (one being used for their first and last name). Then I wrote the words I wanted them to have with them at all times during writing, in each appropriate (A - Z) section. I used the front, inside, and back of the folder. It was flat and stored easily in their desk. It was basically a copy of our word wall, but I added some words I felt were important to know/have on hand. They are easy to store in their desks, and some of the kids even used them at "offices" when they worked. Sometimes it is just much simpler for a child to locate the word on a folder that is right there with them rather than to find it on a wall someplace.
I still used the word wall though. It is located where everyone can see it and we read through it each day; play word wall games at least once a week; and have it there for reference. I refer to it when I am pretending not to know how to spell a word........so we look it up together.
I hope that helps..........
The only thing I am going to repeat here is that you should really look at Kid Writing. It has worked wonders with my kindergarteners. Most are writing / sounding out words just like a first grader now. It works for any grade level and has shown me awesome results this year! This is only my first year in using it. I had no training, which I feel would have helped, but I am learning as I go and have not been frustrated at all with the program. My kids can't wait for Kid Writing Time and when we miss it, they are so disappointed........That is the best proof that it is working!
Good luck with whatever you choose to use.......
Darci :)

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