After teaching reading for many years and trying to teach children good skills to analyse and understand the text, I was delighted to find the specific strategies of Reciprocal Teaching. Obviously,…

Use the powerful strategy of reciprocal teaching and Google's new Rivet reading app to empower struggling students and engage them in reading.

My Gaeilge Board- An Teilfís To help my class learn the names of the different television programmes. I had them draw them out on...

So all this talk about anchor charts really got me thinking about my to do list. Last week I started mapping out what I need to do to meet the curriculum maps for April till the end of the year in ELA. When I do this I make a list of books I need to gather, anchor charts I need to make, and any centers, writing prompts, or work pages I need to create. I decided to tackle the anchor charts first. So far I've only accomplished 1 of 4 that I need to create for April ... But I felt accomplished so I thought I would share it with you and give myself a well deserved break :) I decided that since I was going to share I would give you a quick how to based on my process for creating anchor charts. So here we go! Now, like I said before I just start whipping these bad boys out there is planning to do. The first step is to write down the topics on my first to do list. For April these topics included, finding key events in texts, predicting, writing drafts and revising, and writing summaries using temporal words. And yes folks, that's 1 topic per week - add in spring break that's already one week with 2 topics - OH MY! I decided to tackle predicting first, well, because it seemed the easiest to me. So I moved on to work with my trusty friend Pinterest! That lovely photo of my chicken scratch (not my normal handwriting!) is what my Pinterest research turned into. What I do is search my topic then I write down key words or phrases that I liked from various anchor charts posted on Pinterest by all of you lovelies. I then compile this mess into the anchor chart that you will see below. Now, this may not work for everyone, but this is the process that works for me. Next I sketch out my poster in pencil and then go over in Mr. Sketch markers (MY FAVORITE!!!). Now, here's what the finished masterpiece looks like. I choose two colors that are for key points. Here I chose purple and green. Here I used purple to highlight the topic, predictions, and I used green to highlight the steps and key vocabulary. Then I will go back through and highlight anything else important in yellow - usually sentence frames like here. I try to add as many visual pictures as possible because they help the students remember the steps quickly. If you are interested here is the link to my Pinterest page that contains many anchor charts that I have used to create some of mine. One last bit of information - I would highly suggest purchasing a good art eraser for your anchor charts. I use a Staedtler Mars Plastic one. This helps so that your marker doesn't smudge and there aren't pencil smudges left when you are all done. Hope this was helpful! Enjoy the week!

Summarising - Sharing what I read in my own words. This part is about ... Please summarise for us ... (pick a group member) My summary is ... The child who has acted as the teacher can then pick the next person to be the teacher. Practise the process using text. Prompt Chart for the child being the teacher. Lesson three - We will revise all the strategies quickly. Using an easy text to start Teacher will lead dialogue Teacher to model strategy for children Students add their own predictions and clarifications Students to respond to teacher generated questions Students comment on teacher's summaries Evaluation of Reciprocal Teaching/Reading After practising for at least 20 sessions/lessons, to ensure children are first able to externalise strategies then internalise them and use them independently. Then students can - move to instructional level text develop more responsibility for initiating and sustaining the dialogue And the Teacher will - move to more of a monitoring role providing extra modelling if necessary give feedback for improving strategies

The Best Easter Egg Potato Stamp Ideas for Kids, This is such a Great Easter Craft for preschoolers, toddlers, and Kindergarten children, Check out the cutest Easter Craft and how to make Potato Stamping for kids, Easter Art for preschoolers, and Spring Activities for Kids, Easter ideas for preschoolers