I should be posting the file soon, but here's a little preview! EDIT: Read the post here http://teachingsweetshoppe.blogspot.com/...
In class this week we were introduced to this idea of “constructing meaning.” For this blog posting, you are to investigate strategies that can be used to develop or construct meaning.…
Take a deep dive into the common 5 structure options for your ELA literacy block with benefits of each outlined in an informative & actionable manner.
Okay, I have a new favorite reading lesson-- my asking questions lesson! When I got a chance to work with Scholastic last spring, they gave us a bag of swag that any teacher would love, and it included the book This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen, which is perfect for teaching a reading lesson about asking questions! (I’ve linked it to Amazon here, but I also highly recommend finding it through Scholastic Reading Club :) On my CRAFT board, we list "Ask questions before, during, and after reading" as a reading comprehension skill (although some of my kids think it belongs under Response to Text, so we concluded that it could go as either!). This is a really important skill for some of my struggling readers, because some of them never question what they read. They are just reading to get it over with! (oops- took this picture before we added it!) Asking questions before reading gives them a purpose for reading and gets them engaged. When they are looking for the answer, students read more intently. Asking questions during reading makes sure they are thinking about what they read. Asking questions after reading causes them to be reflective about the author's choices and sometimes helps them draw a personal opinion about the text. Asking questions is a great place to start students’ thinking while reading! I love teaching questioning towards the beginning of the year, because this is a gateway skill to deeper comprehension. Asking questions about the text isn't too hard to do (especially with a well-chosen text!), so it helps to build the habit of thinking as they read. It's also a great way to get students started in their reading response journals because it's a pretty clear-cut type of response that most of my students feel confident trying. I used this book with my 2nd grade group and all the way up to my 5th grade group. It's great for teaching this skill because the title and cover instantly intrigue them. Kids wonder, "Whose hat is it?" and "Why is a fish wearing a hat?" I tell them we are going to look for the answers to our questions as we read, and we start the read-aloud. As we read, I stop every few pages and ask the students to whisper to their partner something they are wondering about the story. Then, I choose a few students to tell their questions out loud. (I get 100% participation this way, and more confident kids who are willing to share!) We keep track of our questions on a chart like this- both adding new questions, and putting check marks next to our questions that get answered. (My markers are dying—ugh!) Of course, the chart I made for my partner turned out even better. (Isn't that always how it works?) She actually laminated it so she can use it again sometime (which is such a great idea, especially for us as reading specialists who might teach a version of this lesson to each grade level!). This book also makes a great review for "the three ways to read a book," or using the pictures as readers to help us understand. (Actually, you could use this book to teach that lesson, too, but I just used it as a review.) The book is being told from the little fish's point of view, and so the text only tells us so much. If students don't read the pictures, they won't know the entire plot- and they won't enjoy the book nearly as much! (Here, the text tells us that little fish doesn't think the crab will tell anyone where he went... but the illustration tells us that the crab does tell!) The younger kids, especially, love "catching" the discrepancies between the text and the pictures. At the end of the book, the text stops and we just see illustrations. Some kids are always shocked by this! And, immediately, they all have opinions about what happened to the little fish. Some think he was eaten, some think he just gave the hat back, and some think he ran away. The ending of the book is left open and never actually tells us what happens, and so my students are always left with questions about the book after we finish it! (See why I think This Is Not My Hat is such a perfect picture book to teach questioning?) With the older students, we went a little deeper and discussed the author's choice to leave the story open-ended, and debated whether or not we liked it as readers. (Reviews were very polar in my group-- most kids either loved it or hated it!) The next day during another mini-lesson, I read aloud a different book (usually tailored more towards the group's grade level) and let students practice asking their own questions along the way in their reader's response journals. Eve Bunting's books tend to work really well for Asking Questions lessons (like The Wednesday Surprise), but I also love The Lotus Seed and Chicken Sunday for teaching asking questions. And don't forget to throw in a non-fiction book-- sometimes these are the most important ones in which students need to use the comprehension strategy of "ask questions!" Once we've practiced as a whole group and shared with our reading partners, I'm able to look through their notebooks and make sure they seem like they're getting it. (Glancing through their reading notebooks- even if you don't take a grade yet- is so important, because this is the perfect time to lead a strategy group for those students who need some extra support). From here, I like to let students use Post-It notes to practice this strategy in whatever they're reading independently. I also try to fit in a little time at the computer lab (or at a computer center) using the amazing site Into The Book. If you haven't used this free site, you are missing out! For each reading comprehension skill, there are videos, a song, and an in practice activity. Usually, there are at least two, so you can do one together (especially if you have a SmartBoard or something similar) and have students complete the other independently. Their questioning lesson is a great way to guide student practice of using this strategy to actually help them comprehend. A good list of mentor text suggestions: http://www.mauryk12.org/literacy/reading%20mentor%20texts.htm A great list of resources, including some sample lesson plans for teachers: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/comprehension_strategies.html#questioning Share your tips in the comments below or on my Facebook page here! I would love to know your favorite books for teaching kids to ask questions and what other strategies you use.
Take a deep dive into the common 5 structure options for your ELA literacy block with benefits of each outlined in an informative & actionable manner.
Last week we began our Questioning reading strategy. I use the Reader's Workshop model in my classroom and study the seven comprehension s...
In today's post, I'll explain the differences between shared reading and a readaloud!
Engaging, fun ways to teach your students summarizing skills. Strengthen their reading skills and provide practice with this challenging concept.
I've finally begun adding my strategy cards to my CAFE board. Yee-haw! I teach in a very standards driven school so adding the standards to my CAFE board was a no-brainer...why didn't I think of it the first time through? Live and learn! So I'm sharing my copy of my CAFE headings from my board. The format gets messed up every time I load it up as a document to scribd or google docs, so I'm loading 2 files which are pdfs. 1 is the GPS 3rd grade version, one is a plain jane version with only the CAFE letters and titles, no standards. I will be sharing pictures this week of my classroom, now that we are finishing up our first 6 weeks and things are they way they are going to stay...I think. ;)
Hey Chickaroos, I wanted to thank you so much for your kind words about my observation. The kids were a tad bit "off" but my principal didn...
Our teachers have been working diligently to work with our students in guided reading. Once they got started, they asked some questions! Th...
First of all, I'm home today with the FLU. Yuck. Double yuck. All last week, I had no fewer than 4 kiddos gone each day. I Lysoled, I Cloroxed, I Purelled... But I, too, have been attacked by the flu bug. I'm hoping a little R&R will let me be back in the classroom tomorrow! I thought this would be a good chance for me to post a couple freebies that hopefully will help some of you all with assessments (particularly as we reach the end of second quarter - and grading/comments loom overhead)! First, this freebie is a guided reading rubric to assess your students on a range of key skills and behaviors. And here's a freebie rubric to assess your kiddos as they use the Daily 5. You can click on either image to download from Google Drive, or hit up my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking {here}. I am currently at 79 followers - just 21 more till the big 100! I plan to do a big giveaway here when I hit that mark, so if you or anyone you know might be interested in donating a product for the giveaway, please let me know by clicking {here}. I'm linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies! Happy Monday!
Today was the first day this year for me to be away from my sweet kiddos. I spent my day in Common Core training, secretly wishing I was in my classroom reading and writing with my kids. I am anxious to see how my first day with a substitute went. While I was out, I left a fun writing activity for my kiddos. I cannot wait to see their finished products! Before hand, I created my "Writer's Eye" (I) as explained by Jeff Anderson in Mechanically Inclined. (I also have seen it on Julie Ballew's amazing website A Literate Life.) This will be one more resource for them to use as begin working our way to writing our narratives. As we have launched into writing, we have spent many hours talking about where writers get their ideas! Using our writer's eye to look closely at ourselves is a perfect way to gather the ideas that just may lead to that perfect story. Yesterday, we revisited Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter. We discussed how the character Eva had to really be observant to help her become a better writer! Sometimes it is the little things around us that can make the best story. Another great example of using observation in our writing is Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher. LOVE, love me some Ralph Fletcher! Such an amazing writer and teacher of writing! I share so many of his ideas every year! I am really looking forward to the coming weeks as we focus on sensory detail and figurative language. So many great mentor texts ahead of us as we continue adding ideas and strategies to our notebooks. OK...so I know I am a little late in the game, but I have finally started my Reading Cafe board. It is not exactly where I would prefer it, but with limited space, I am glad to have it up at all. :) With hardly any wall space in my room, I tend to take over the hallways... Well, ready to call it a night! Off to steal pin a few more ideas from Pinterest as I drift off to sleep. Happy Reading!
One of my first purchases from TPT was from Amanda Nickerson at One Extra Degree. I have to say, it has been my favorite and most used purchase. (You can check it out by clicking the picture.) Each comprehension strategy is tied to a tool. This is the toolkit I made using Amanda's instructions. (I added the caution boarder. I also labeled each of the tools.) My students loved to use the toolkit. It was great for my visual and tactile learners. I ended the year with synthesizing. We learned this cute poem I found on Pinterest. (The link no longer works. =( So if this is your's, please leave a comment so I can credit you! ) I also recreated the toolman. He's from Scrappin Doodles. The kids helped label and define all the strategies. We read a few poems and charted our synthesizing on this. Then to show what their synthesizing, they read a poem and completed their own graphic organizer. At the end of the week, and after much practice, the students selected their own text. They used this graphic organizer to show their thinking. I have gone back and tweaked it some. I added some anchor chart statements to help the students create "I am thinking" statements. Grab your copy here!
One of the things my students have struggled with this year is to identify the theme and the lesson in a story. We use the DRA to monitor students’ reading progress throughout the year and I noticed I was always creating strategy groups for students to who needed to explain the theme or lesson in ... Read More about Theme Vs. Lesson
Story retell hands are perfect for story sequence, character, and setting in kindergarten and first grade classrooms. It's a reminder for students
Looking for some lesson plans ideas for dialogue, imagery or point of view? Then this post is for you!
We are going to read Green Giant by Jack Prelutsky and create mental images. I'm excited to see what they end up creating. I wrote the poem ...
Take a deep dive into the common 5 structure options for your ELA literacy block with benefits of each outlined in an informative & actionable manner.
I found this Character Book Report Project on Pinterest, It was all kinds of amazing & I knew I had to give it a try! It was created by R...
Freebie! One of the keys to teaching reading comprehension is showing kids how proficient readers think about text. Teachers have to find a way to make their thinking visible. One way is with graphic organizers.
Last week, I began reviewing the comprehension strategy: making connections (mainly text to self). This strategy is essential to enhance student understanding while reading. Since all of my students are "at risk" anything that I can do to engage the students is key. Linking the text to events from my students lives is one way to increase their understanding. To introduce the topic, I read the book The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant to the students. Since I working in small groups that amount to around 20 minutes each it took several days to read the entire story and discuss student connections. This is a great book to use when doing TEXT to SELF connections. Most students have had interactions with family, or traveling (even if it is just a short trip). With some students it is really hard to get them to vocalize their connections for many different reasons. One of the major obstacles that I face is limited language. There are times were I really have to stretch the text to link it to a student's life. I love to use music to reinforce concepts that I am teaching so I was so excited when I stumbled upon songs that teach reading comprehension strategies by One Extra Degree. I really like that she used tunes that the kids already know so it is easy to sing not only for the kids but for me as well. (my picture was not cooperating tonight) I decided to create a little book to assess my students understanding of the "connections" strategy. I created two different versions for students. One book requires students to write a response and the other book allows the student to draw a picture of the connection. Click the picture below to grab your freebie! My students have begun reader's notebooks so I made a little cheat sheet to insert in their notebooks to accompany the other work we do with connections. I am linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies to share my new creation. I hope you enjoy this freebie!! Please leave a comment and share your thought and ideas on teaching text connections. I love new tips and tricks:) I hope everyone has a great week! Until next time,
A blog about reading and writing, and sharing ideas about literacy and RTI for your classroom/ reading, writing, & RTI resources
Are you looking for ways to teach cause and effect? I love to think outside the box and find ways to teach reading skills in a variety of ways to meet the needs of all learners. I hope you find some ways that are helpful to your students! Offer
Hi! Hope that your summer is great! I love being a teacher, but I think part of the reason I love it so much is because we get those 2 summe...
Hello Everyone! Yes, I am still around. I have not started my summer yet. I've been working hard with a small group of amazing ladies to integrate our social studies and reading curricula. This kind of integration is right up my alley, so I had to say yes when approached about doing this for our district. We have about 5 more days of work before we will be ready to share. Lots of work, but fun and I think, rewarding! I am also working on a district sponsored facebook book study. I think I mentioned last time that we are reading "...And With a Light Touch" by Carol Avery. Great resource for teachers of K-1 reading and writing. In her book she devotes some time talking about little mini conferences for both reading and writing, and trying to conference with every kiddo every day. I am going to strive to do that this coming year. But knowing that I am the worst when it comes to documentation, I knew I needed a quick form to show with whom I've conferred and just a place to show observations. Here's what I created based on my reading. These short sheets are meant to be a quick documentation of observations from a roving conference, just check or highlight.They are not meant to take the place of guided reading anecdotes or records. For a very quick conference observation sheet, move quick and click here! :) Let me know if you can use these, or if you would like to see them in a different form. As always, thanks for stopping by! Joyfully! Nancy
Hello Everyone! Thanks for taking a peek! We have been having so much fun using the themes of "The Lorax" as springboards for other cutrricular areas. In math we have been working on composing and decomposing addition facts. We have been working on the strategy of making groups of 10 to help solve those additon problems. Using a 10 frame is a way to show kids how to compose and decompose using 10's. The frams also show kids different ways to solve the same problem. To make the concept clear and multisensory, I decided to find some "Truffula Tree Tufts" to use as manipulatives. Alas! Hobby Lobby had some large bags of bright colored pom poms in all different sizes. They so reminded me of Truffula Tufts and the kids couldn't wait to get their hands on them!! We practiced using the tufts to show how to decompose (or move) enough of the tufts from one of the addends to help the other addend make 10. We were then able to compose a new related addition fact. 10 + anything is easier to add!! The kids really got it!! We finally had the time to make our little Text Connection books I talked about last week. We, of course, had to use the story "The Lorax." The kids cut out their own hearts in specific colors, and wrote their connection ideas on each color, Yellow= Text to Self, Green= Text to Text, and Blue= Text to World. The kids had some great connections. The pics didn't turn out very clear (I so need a new camera) but I hope you can get the point of their connections! "It reminds me of a book called Grizwald. He had to move because were cutting down the trees." "I am a Daisy, and it reminds me of the Lorax." A final fun craft connection we did to go along with "The Lorax" was of course to make Truffula Trees! I needed an inexpensive craft connection that the kids could easily make. I decided to have the kids make some tissue paper tufts with striped pipe cleaner trunks. We took 4 sheets of brightly colored tissue paper (about 8x12) layered evenely. We then fan folded starting from the short side. We trimmed the ends either round or diagonal, and twisted the pipe cleaner around the center. Now the fun part! Gently pulling the layers apart!! This so reminded me of creating hundreds of flowers for parade floats way back in high school!! :) The kids had a blast making these and wanted to make a whole Truffula Forest!!! A Truffula Tree Forest! Thank you, Dr. Seuss, for your inspiration!! We've had a fantastic week! Hope your week was just as inspirational!! Joyfully! Nancy
Freebie Friday! Enjoy a FREE non-fiction text structure reference sheet for your classroom! Students can use this resource to identify features of various non-fiction texts while supporting their learning of content.Visit my store to download this freebie, or click on the picture below! (Click on the picture above for a direct link to the freebie!) Interested in collecting more resources for integrating non-fiction text structures? Check out my blog post here! It shares many lesson ideas and additional freebies!
I started The Daily 5 this year in kindergarten and I am soooo excited about it! This is what we have been doing each day. Thi...
During the month of January my class focused on visualizing. This is one of the skills that I love to teach. I found this activity over at Lacy's Letters...Cyndi has a lot of great ideas on her site! Below you will find a copy of the sheet my students used to record their visualizations. First my class read My Neighbor's Dog is Purple by Jack Prelutsky (one of my favorite children's poets). We did not read the last few lines of the poem. I did not show my students the last few lines of this poem until after our first visualization. Students made their visualizations in the first box. We then highlighted focus words that helped us visualize...I another copy on my SmartBoard. Then we read the rest of the poem. My students were SURPRISED with the ending of the poem! Next they went back to their desks and filled in the second box with their new visualization. My students did a wonderful job on this activity. Another cute poem to read by Jack Prelutsky is Green Giant. My students made their mental images in their poetry journals. I don't have pics of that but can get some soon. We not only made visualizations with poems but we also read a lot of books! One book in particular is In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming. My students' favorite part...SHARING! Free Copy of My Neighbor's Dog is Purple by Jack Prelutsky...
Let's face it - it's exhausting to come up with new reading responses for your students to complete for the books they are reading during independent reading time. I've got a great solution for you! Read and Roll! Get all the detail on how to use it in your classroom here! Then, snag your free copy here! Happy Reading!
Hello Everyone! Thanks for stopping by our blog to see what's happening in our first grade classroom! This week we are working very hard on "retelling"stories we have read. Learning how to retell a story helps our little learners as readers and thinkers. It helps to organize thought, and recognize the thoughts we have during reading. It helps us recognize when our thinking changes throughout our reading. Characteristics of good retelling are: using character names, telling about the setting, including the happenings or plot (beginning, middle, and end), discussing the problem the character is having, and describing how the problem was solved. Today I introduced our "retelling rope." Each symbol represents the parts of a story. I have used retelling ropes before, but revamped this with some better visuals. The kids really get it when they can actually manipulate the parts. This year I wrote a simple poem to go along with our retelling activities. We practiced retelling several stories together using the large retelling rope, and then the kids got to make their own mini one to manipulate during their own reading time. After putting these together, some kids chose to work with others to retell a common story (The Lorax has become a favorite for some reason :) !) We also practiced recording our retelling thoughts. We will continue to work hard on this important skill! When I read a story! For your printable of these pages plus larger visuals to make your own retelling rope click here! :) here's the link to the printable with student rope pics! :) Or click here! :) I love helping kids improve their retelling skills!! Don't forget to retell your own stories with your kids!!! Stop by again soon!! Joyfully! Nancy
