So many things to share! In my immediate procrastination upon sitting down to blog, I had to share that I love this blog! Hope King is fant...
Earlier this week I posted this picture: I'll admit...it was totally a teaser. We had such a great time watching Tanny McGregor's lesson on Wednesday that I just couldn't wait to share all about it. But then this little one turned five and wanted a dragon party...so my post had to wait. But I think my time has finally come to to share this amazing experience. Tanny McGregor is the author of Comprehension Connections and Genre Connections. She is a co-author of Comprehension Going Forward. The reading teachers within my school have read her book Comprehension Connections. They have discussed it, marked it up, tagged it, and taught it. It has changed the way that we approach our introductions to new comprehension strategies. Honestly, it has changed the way I introduce many topics in all subjects (but that is for another day, another post.) Let's dig in...Tanny's topic: THEME! The lesson began with a discussion around the word theme. Immediately a hand shot up..."You mean like a birthday party theme?" Yes!! Our first connection was made! To build a better and more concrete understanding of theme, Tanny dug into her bag. She pulled out a container of sand with a note card at the bottom that said "theme." Using her fingers to touch the top of the sand, Tanny explained that the sand is the surface thinking that we do. But when we dig deeper (with a small shovel), we use deeper thinking. We uncover the theme. This was illustrated right away with a short poem by Jeff Moss. The kids analyzed all the surface level things about the poem with Tanny: there are 14 words in the poem, capital letters, and 2 contractions. As these things were pointed out, my students touched the surface of the sand. We chorally read the poem, the teachers chorally read the poem, and the students chorally read the poem. Then it was time to take the shovel and "dig deeper" into the poem. Students discussed what they thought the theme of this poem may possibly be. As the possible themes arose, they were written on this chart. The triangle represents the three text cousins: poem, pictures, and book. The heart represents the possible themes that they all contribute to. We moved on to the pictures. These were found within the text Each Kindness. Tanny did not read the book or even look at all the pictures within the book. She just showed a few of the illustrations and briefly explained what may be happening in them. Students were asked to "turn and talk" about what the possible theme of the book. The theme ideas that were generated were added to the chart. Then it was time to turn to the last text cousin: the book, Red. Students listened intently and made some great inferences and predictions about what was going to happen as Tanny read the book. This was my first time hearing the text, so I was eager to see how it connected to its "cousins." As the book came to a conclusion, the students and teachers were once again asked to conclude what possible themes the three texts share. All of these ideas were recorded: We never decided on a definite answer for the theme. She allowed students to make their own connections between the text cousins. These were possible themes and she did not discount any of them. To bring the lesson to a conclusion, Tanny brought one student up to the front. She discussed surface level things about the child as she played with the top of the sand. He has on a red shirt, he wears glasses, etc. Then she asked the teachers to "dig deeper" with the shovel and share deeper things about the child. What a great way to bring the lesson full circle! It was powerful, meaningful, and we enjoyed every second. When our students traveled to their next class, math, they were busting with excitement. They said, "We met a REAL author...like a REAL one!" I have to agree with them..."I met a REAL author...an INSPIRING one!" P.S. I would like to dig just a little bit deeper into my personal learning from this lesson. I would like to talk a bit more about the text choices that Tanny made. You can find this post at Adventures in Literacy Land on Wednesday. Another topic I want to discuss: the power of observation!
If you’ve been following my blog for a bit, you probably already know how much I love Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor, because I rave about it constantly, and I use a lot of her ideas in my classroom! I just love how fun and tangible the lessons are! This is another example. Brace yourselves …
Something you may or may not know about me is that I'm a bit of nerd. I actually really enjoy LOVE going to professional development works...
Earlier this week I posted this picture: I'll admit...it was totally a teaser. We had such a great time watching Tanny McGregor's lesson on Wednesday that I just couldn't wait to share all about it. But then this little one turned five and wanted a dragon party...so my post had to wait. But I think my time has finally come to to share this amazing experience. Tanny McGregor is the author of Comprehension Connections and Genre Connections. She is a co-author of Comprehension Going Forward. The reading teachers within my school have read her book Comprehension Connections. They have discussed it, marked it up, tagged it, and taught it. It has changed the way that we approach our introductions to new comprehension strategies. Honestly, it has changed the way I introduce many topics in all subjects (but that is for another day, another post.) Let's dig in...Tanny's topic: THEME! The lesson began with a discussion around the word theme. Immediately a hand shot up..."You mean like a birthday party theme?" Yes!! Our first connection was made! To build a better and more concrete understanding of theme, Tanny dug into her bag. She pulled out a container of sand with a note card at the bottom that said "theme." Using her fingers to touch the top of the sand, Tanny explained that the sand is the surface thinking that we do. But when we dig deeper (with a small shovel), we use deeper thinking. We uncover the theme. This was illustrated right away with a short poem by Jeff Moss. The kids analyzed all the surface level things about the poem with Tanny: there are 14 words in the poem, capital letters, and 2 contractions. As these things were pointed out, my students touched the surface of the sand. We chorally read the poem, the teachers chorally read the poem, and the students chorally read the poem. Then it was time to take the shovel and "dig deeper" into the poem. Students discussed what they thought the theme of this poem may possibly be. As the possible themes arose, they were written on this chart. The triangle represents the three text cousins: poem, pictures, and book. The heart represents the possible themes that they all contribute to. We moved on to the pictures. These were found within the text Each Kindness. Tanny did not read the book or even look at all the pictures within the book. She just showed a few of the illustrations and briefly explained what may be happening in them. Students were asked to "turn and talk" about what the possible theme of the book. The theme ideas that were generated were added to the chart. Then it was time to turn to the last text cousin: the book, Red. Students listened intently and made some great inferences and predictions about what was going to happen as Tanny read the book. This was my first time hearing the text, so I was eager to see how it connected to its "cousins." As the book came to a conclusion, the students and teachers were once again asked to conclude what possible themes the three texts share. All of these ideas were recorded: We never decided on a definite answer for the theme. She allowed students to make their own connections between the text cousins. These were possible themes and she did not discount any of them. To bring the lesson to a conclusion, Tanny brought one student up to the front. She discussed surface level things about the child as she played with the top of the sand. He has on a red shirt, he wears glasses, etc. Then she asked the teachers to "dig deeper" with the shovel and share deeper things about the child. What a great way to bring the lesson full circle! It was powerful, meaningful, and we enjoyed every second. When our students traveled to their next class, math, they were busting with excitement. They said, "We met a REAL author...like a REAL one!" I have to agree with them..."I met a REAL author...an INSPIRING one!" P.S. I would like to dig just a little bit deeper into my personal learning from this lesson. I would like to talk a bit more about the text choices that Tanny made. You can find this post at Adventures in Literacy Land on Wednesday. Another topic I want to discuss: the power of observation!
Last Sunday, I was excited to host a dinner party for Tanny McGregor and several of our teachers that participated in a book study. Gotta b...
Something you may or may not know about me is that I'm a bit of nerd. I actually really enjoy LOVE going to professional development works...
I love summer! I went to school to meet with Emily, stopped by the library and grocery store, spent a couple of hours in the sun, and t...
I use this record sheet with a metacognition lesson. I got the idea from the book "Comprehension Connections" by Tanny McGregor. After teaching a concrete lesson, I have the kids choose a children's picture book and a partner. They will read the book and pause to do their thinking. Their partner wil...
Throughout the life of our Literacy Land blog we have posted several times about the lessons within the Comprehension Connections book by Tanny McGregor. Her lessons have proven to make comprehension strategies "come alive" for my students. Several months ago Tanny asked to do a lesson with my students....ummmm....YES!!!! Her lesson centered around theme and my students left with a strong foundation of the meaning and purpose behind theme. I go into great detail about the lesson and everything that took place over at Curious Firsties. Within the lesson, Tanny used three different texts. She called them "text cousins." They were text cousins because they were each different but share the same possible or similar theme (much like cousins). She explained this visually with a triangle and a heart. The three texts make up the triangle and the heart is the "deeper" piece that they share. She started with the poem. The students heard the poem, read the poem about 2-3 times. Then they had a quick discussion about the theme. When Tanny moved on to the second text, Each Kindness, she used only the illustrations. And not even all the illustrations. Just a few of them. Then students had a discussion about theme. The third text used was Red. Tanny read this story aloud and stopped briefly at certain points to discuss what was happening. Then there was a discussion about the theme. Now, there was much, much more to the lesson than this. But the WAY that she used the texts sent me a powerful message. And it got me thinking... The lesson was probably 45ish minutes long (I was not watching the clock). Tanny used three different types of texts in one lesson within that time frame. Each piece of text was provided so much meaning and connected well to the lesson. The poem by Jeff Moss was short but immediately the students understood that someone was being left out, someone was being picked on, and someone was being mean. I have no idea about the actual story from, Each Kindness, but we gathered quite a bit of information from the illustrations. A quick discussion and some "turn and talk" time was completely sufficient for the students to make connections between the poem and illustrations. The third text was read in its entirety. Red was a beautiful story about the strength that children can have and it served as an excellent way to bring all three texts together. But Tanny did not have to stop on each page and have a discussion for these connections to be made. The story was powerful and clear enough on its own. As I reflected on the lesson, materials, and pacing, I realized that I would not have thought to use multiple texts in one sitting, in one lesson. I tend to use multiple sources over a period of days. And I would never look at only a few illustrations from a picture book. No way!! I would read the whole story, of course. This lesson opened my eyes. When planning lessons, I need to think outside my comfort zone. Look at how I can make these text to text connections stronger for students by using multiple sources of information. My teammate, Karen, decided that she could pair some nonfiction texts with fiction texts by merely using certain aspects of books (such as photographs, maps, or diagrams). I will be sitting on this new learning for a little while. I have a good feeling that it will be changing the way I approach lessons. What are your thoughts? Do any book pairs come to mind right away?
I love this idea from Tanny McGregor — a sketchnoter and author of Ink & Ideas: Sketchnotes for Engagement, Comprehension, & Thinking —around capturing your experiences with a visual calendar: Tanny writes: ‘Tis the season! For many people around the world, the upcoming wee
When I went to the National Reading Recovery Conference last week, I had the privilege of taking a session from Tanny McGregor. You can find her
Maggie’s teacher’s wall chart-based on Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor
Tanny's other book is Comprehension Connections You know it will be a good inservice when the presenter starts with that rule! And trust me, she DID NOT waste my time! Tanny McGregor was worth the entire time I put in watching her! Let me tell you a little about who she is and what she shared! Tanny McGregor is a Heinemann author who was invited to my district by our AWESOME representatives, Trudy and Nancy! And, to make it even better, it was a FREE event for us! She is a keynote speaker and workshop presenter who focuses on metacognition! I have been a firm believer in metacognition for about 15 years now. I've read Mosaic of Thought and been a fan of Strategies that Work! I was totally into the idea of seeing this presentation and it was worth every moment of my time! Her presentation was entitled "The Transforming Power of Reflective Thinking", another thing I've really renewed my interest in since reading Learn Like a Pirate! The nice thing about Tanny's presentation is she focused on the THINKING aspects of reflecting. Teaching this skill is key to developing the comprehension of our students in ANY area! She shared an example from recent research by Hattie and Marzano. John Hattie's research says that metacognition is the 14th most important strategy to improve students learning out of 138 strategies! That's a good place to be! In Marzano's research, he calls metacognition the "mission control" of learning! Tanny says it makes the student more "brilliant" than others. Not the self-named brilliant, but the shining, thinking, wonderful brilliant that we want our students to be! I like that!! She also talked a bit about what kills our ability to really teach metacognition-mandates, strict standards, expectations, kids schedules that are filled with "other", and TIME! All of these things rob us of what we used to do naturally in a classroom, which used to make the kids think deeply and "brilliantly" because we could take that time. This was my last year. I felt robbed by all of these things, robbed from teaching my students what they needed. I promised myself this year that it wouldn't happen-and I'm keeping that promise! Even more so now that I've heard it from Tanny! She also reminded us to carefully examine our texts before teaching. Do you remember a time where you felt like you can do that? That you could really plan out materials and create those awesome lessons that lasted long enough to get good thinking! She reminded us to do that because if not, you, the teacher are missing connections you can't get back! The first read of a text is so important! That's where you make the discoveries that you teach from, that you build from! We need to slow down, just like the students do, not just in teaching, but in our planning. I was so happy to hear her point this out-it's what I've been doing this year, slowing down. I've also been doing her next point-Make it your own! Take time, as a teacher, to create a system that works for you. Use the spaces in your manuals, (which, I hate) the WHITE SPACES as my own! She recommends that students come up with their own coding systems, to make it their own and build their knowledge based on something they understand! I say, let's take this back in our own planning, our own learning, our own classrooms and build thinking, brilliant students who do the same! The final thoughts I would like to share from this awesome inservice are research findings that are the most current. Tanny shared that the two most important findings are: 1. Deceleration trumps acceleration: This doesn't mean slow down a novel to the point of boring. It means slow down your reading and teaching. We need to make our teaching and learning mindful about reflection on what we've read and learned. This means we need to stop the rush of learning and step back into quality! Standards won't be mastered if students can't think! Period! 2. Spacing is more effective than cramming: YES! Little things matter, like turning and talking, drawing about their reading, and anything that makes them reflect! Tanny clearly said, "STOP thinking, "If I have time..." We need to make the time! The gains students will make by thinking trump the cramming of curriculum down their throats! The following statement pretty much sums it up, "It helps at our heart level!" Because, you see, if you don't read and take it from their head to their heart (18" problem as she calls it!) you won't improve their comprehension! So, let's step out and make a "conscious choice in our lesson plans" and stop cramming and spamming them with useless materials that aren't making it the 18" it needs to go! And let's thank Tanny for the research behind this choice! (Trudy and Nancy-we owe you so much for this opportunity too! Thank you will never be enough!) P.S. I'm looking forward to diving into her information on Genre Connections! So blessed to have WON it at the presentation because Heinemann ROCKS!
Teaching is about growth. For the students (of course) but for ourselves, as well. Each year, I challenge myself. This year I had decided to really work on maintaining relationships and building new ones with students. I'll get back to you on how that is going. Because while this was the goal I had my eyes set on, a new one came into focus. Third Grade. I have only taught K-2 intervention. Not third. But here it is. And it is outside my comfort zone. One positive...the third graders know me and I know them. The content is what frightens me and "the test." So I step back and remember that I believe in my philosophy and my ultimate goal is build up children that want and love to read. I take a breath. Then I decided to take another step outside my box. Sketchnoting. There are a couple students that could really benefit from this as a way to support comprehension while reading fiction and nonfiction books. I am no expert on this matter because my brain is still learning how to take notes this way. But, through Tanny McGregor, I was able to get us started. Her new book just came out and I am excited to dig in and help these students dig deeper into the books that they read. Once I feel a bit more confident in my sketchnoting, I will post some tips for your readers. If you have used anything like this with your readers, please share any tips you may have!
This has been such a productive summer for me! I just finished my third "teacher" book and I am so proud of myself! I feel like I ...
I am always looking for ways to blend subject areas together to get more bang for my buck! 🙂 This FREEBIE file can be used to teach students about culture and our human fingerprints. It can also be used in tandem with Tanny McGregor’s trash can inferencing lesson! Hope you can use it!!! 🙂 CLICK …
A blog about reading and writing, and sharing ideas about literacy and RTI for your classroom/ reading, writing, & RTI resources
Earlier this week I posted this picture: I'll admit...it was totally a teaser. We had such a great time watching Tanny McGregor's lesson on Wednesday that I just couldn't wait to share all about it. But then this little one turned five and wanted a dragon party...so my post had to wait. But I think my time has finally come to to share this amazing experience. Tanny McGregor is the author of Comprehension Connections and Genre Connections. She is a co-author of Comprehension Going Forward. The reading teachers within my school have read her book Comprehension Connections. They have discussed it, marked it up, tagged it, and taught it. It has changed the way that we approach our introductions to new comprehension strategies. Honestly, it has changed the way I introduce many topics in all subjects (but that is for another day, another post.) Let's dig in...Tanny's topic: THEME! The lesson began with a discussion around the word theme. Immediately a hand shot up..."You mean like a birthday party theme?" Yes!! Our first connection was made! To build a better and more concrete understanding of theme, Tanny dug into her bag. She pulled out a container of sand with a note card at the bottom that said "theme." Using her fingers to touch the top of the sand, Tanny explained that the sand is the surface thinking that we do. But when we dig deeper (with a small shovel), we use deeper thinking. We uncover the theme. This was illustrated right away with a short poem by Jeff Moss. The kids analyzed all the surface level things about the poem with Tanny: there are 14 words in the poem, capital letters, and 2 contractions. As these things were pointed out, my students touched the surface of the sand. We chorally read the poem, the teachers chorally read the poem, and the students chorally read the poem. Then it was time to take the shovel and "dig deeper" into the poem. Students discussed what they thought the theme of this poem may possibly be. As the possible themes arose, they were written on this chart. The triangle represents the three text cousins: poem, pictures, and book. The heart represents the possible themes that they all contribute to. We moved on to the pictures. These were found within the text Each Kindness. Tanny did not read the book or even look at all the pictures within the book. She just showed a few of the illustrations and briefly explained what may be happening in them. Students were asked to "turn and talk" about what the possible theme of the book. The theme ideas that were generated were added to the chart. Then it was time to turn to the last text cousin: the book, Red. Students listened intently and made some great inferences and predictions about what was going to happen as Tanny read the book. This was my first time hearing the text, so I was eager to see how it connected to its "cousins." As the book came to a conclusion, the students and teachers were once again asked to conclude what possible themes the three texts share. All of these ideas were recorded: We never decided on a definite answer for the theme. She allowed students to make their own connections between the text cousins. These were possible themes and she did not discount any of them. To bring the lesson to a conclusion, Tanny brought one student up to the front. She discussed surface level things about the child as she played with the top of the sand. He has on a red shirt, he wears glasses, etc. Then she asked the teachers to "dig deeper" with the shovel and share deeper things about the child. What a great way to bring the lesson full circle! It was powerful, meaningful, and we enjoyed every second. When our students traveled to their next class, math, they were busting with excitement. They said, "We met a REAL author...like a REAL one!" I have to agree with them..."I met a REAL author...an INSPIRING one!" P.S. I would like to dig just a little bit deeper into my personal learning from this lesson. I would like to talk a bit more about the text choices that Tanny made. You can find this post at Adventures in Literacy Land on Wednesday. Another topic I want to discuss: the power of observation!
Last Sunday, I was excited to host a dinner party for Tanny McGregor and several of our teachers that participated in a book study. Gotta b...
When I went to the National Reading Recovery Conference last week, I had the privilege of taking a session from Tanny McGregor. You can find her work and links to her books on the Heinemann Books’ website by clicking HERE. She was, in one word: amazing. Tanny is the author of the book Comprehension Connections. In […]
Hello Everyone! Happy weekend!! And it is a beauty here!! Great weather for some baseball, some yard work, and some skydiving! What?? That's right! On Saturday, I went with my hubby to watch him take his first jump. He's been so anxious to skydive with a friend of his. I went along to take pictures! Well, while we were there, guess who decided to jump as well????!!! Ding! Ding! Ding! You got it! ME! It is something I never thought I would ever do. I am the one who gets queasy just floating on a pool float. But I actually sucked it up and jumped out of a plane at 13,500 feet! It was simply one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life! I really can't even believe I did it!! My husband and son, Toby went as well! We are all still kind of on cloud 9! Toby and I before... and after! Very empowering! I can't wait to do it again! I feel like I can do almost anything! Even teach first grade!! :) My jump actually came in handy at school because we were talking about wind/air/weather in science. I was able to tell the kids how cold it was way up there, and how it got warmer as we got closer to the ground, and how the wind was helping to guide the canopy all the way down. We ended our unit on weather by making our Flutterflies. I have posted about these little gems the past couple of years, but here are a couple of pics anyway. Cloud shapes are loaded with weather vocabulary and made colorful with rainbow streamers! They add so much color to the room! In writers workshop this week, I introduced another writer's tool for the toolbox. Writing partners. Lucy Calkins gives lot of suggestions for this. I put all the kids names on cards with a 1 or a 2. Paired the cards up and set them on the floor. Kids sat with their new writing partners. We talked about the rights and responsibilities of writing partners, and the fact that all authors have partners. I shared the mini poster and talked about what the 1 and 2 meant. (taking turns) I showed the kids how a friend helped me with a piece I was writing. Then I sent them off to meet with their new partners. I loooved how they got busy right away and worked to help each other make their writing even better!! Such a precious sight! You can click HERE for my collection of writer's workshop posters Next week in reading we will focus on using our schema to help in comprehension. Some kids may not have ever heard that word before, or even thought about thinking about their thinking. I love opening that door for them and helping them make connections. I put together a few little visuals to help me help them. This little unit introduces kids to what schema is and how good readers activate that schema to help understand their reading. If you need help teaching schema, CLICK HERE for the mini pack! I will have more info on using schema to make text to self, text to text, and text to world connection a bit later. For now we will work on realizing that we have, will grow, and can use our schema!! Well, have a great rest of the weekend!!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek! Don't forget to take a second to leave a comment! I love hearing from you! Joyfully! Nancy
I never realized how much I was talking about my lessons until my husband came home one day from doing business down in Cincinnati. He said, “If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn I saw you driving down 77 today.” I gave him the stink eye, because I guessed that he was …
Comprehension Connections is a fabulous book! Every single lesson I have taught from this book has hit on the strategies students need to learn about comprehending and becoming a better reader. The
Inferring, questioning, determining importance. It's not easy to explain these abstract reading strategies to elementary readers, yet knowing how they work and how to use them is an important first step to connecting with texts. Fortunately Tanny McGregor has developed visual, tangible, everyday lessons that make abstract thinking concrete and that can help every child in your classroom make more effective use of reading comprehension strategies. Comprehension Connections is a guide to developing children's ability to fully understand texts by making the comprehension process achievable, accessible, and incremental. McGregor's approach sequences stages of learning for each strategy that take students from a fun object lesson to a nuanced and lasting understanding. Her lessons build bridges between the concrete and the abstract by incorporating writing, discussion, song, art, and movement into a web of creative connections that reinforce each strategy on a variety of levels. All the while Comprehension Connections offers an inside look at the dynamic of McGregor's teaching, showing you how her ideas look in action, and including the language she uses and that she encourages her students to use as they build their facility with: schema inferring questioning determining importance visualizing synthesizing. Many students struggle to understand what it is they are supposed to do as they learn to read strategically. Help them make connections to the ideas behind reading and watch as your readers go deeper into texts than ever before.
'4B' was the code our school secretary used to easily identify our class back when I taught 4th grade. 4 = 4th grade. B = Bongers. I later went on to teach Language Arts at a middle school, so this blog documents the learning we did in reading and writing each day, in addition to many posts from when I taught fourth grade. I figured keeping it all in one place was better than having two separate blogs. One more thing: please feel free to PIN anything you see!
One of my favorite books ever for teaching comprehension strategies in reading is Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. She has some wonderful lessons that allow students to use the comprehension strategies in real life and really set the stage for using them while reading! Each strategy has an anchor lesson to start with that you can use it to create a really concrete experience for your students. It really makes the connection to reading so much easier for some kids. In addition to these anchor lessons, Tanny goes on to provide ideas for lessons using art, music and wordless book- all to get your students ready to use these comprehension strategies in reading! I don't always have time each year for each lesson before jumping into the strategy use in reading, but I almost always use this lesson when teaching inferring. I start with collecting a strategic bag of trash from around my house a few days before I plan to do the lesson. Keep in mind that you have to have an idea of the "family" that this trash is going to belong too, so your trash, or evidence, is going to have to match that family. You can see from my chart that I collected trash that I knew would help my students to hopefully infer that this family consisted of a mom, dad, and baby. So, I had things like store reciepts, old magazines, baby wipes containers, diapers, certain old food containers, etc. The day of my lesson, I bring in the bag of trash and tell my students that I have a new neighbor. I explain to them that I know they moved in because I've seen their cars and saw the moving van, but I never really seem to see them out and about- I've even tried stopping by their house, but they're never home. I tell them that I really wanted to find out more about them, so I stole their trash hoping it will give me some clues about who lives there. At this point, the kids are usually looking at me like I'm crazy, but they (usually) completely go with it. (I often wonder how many of them go home that afternoon and tell their parents that I was digging in my neighbor's garbage!) I tell them that I really need their help using my neighbors garbage as clues to figure out who more about the family. Then, I take out one piece of trash (my evidence) at a time and my students tell me what they think that this can tell me about the family (their inference). I chart this as we go and at the end of the lesson we sum it all up and figure out what all this evidence tells us about the family that lives next door. They then go back to their seat and draw a picture of the family that lives there on their recording sheet and tell me about 2 inferences they made based on the evidence. Let me tell you- this really sticks with my students! I can't take credit for this cute heading or recording sheet- the idea comes from Simply Sweet Teaching. Although I've done this lesson in the past, I've never used any kind of recording sheet and I really loved using it with my class this year. It really helped me gauge who "got it" and who didn't get it so much right away and i was able to hone in on working with those students. Beth & Karen no longer have the recording sheet up in their TpT store, but I remade it and you grab it here (for free) if you'd like to use it in your classroom. How do you teach inferring in your class?
Added two new freebies to my Teachers Notebook shop tonight. Determining Importance lesson activity and follow up activity based on Tanny ...
