Uncategorized Archives | Ideas by Jivey

Help Your Primary Students Track Their Thinking While Reading

December 4, 2018

Annotation in the lower grades will look a bit different than it does in the upper grades. It definitely won’t be quite as detailed, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as important!

How should students annotate a text?

We know that close reading is the reading and rereading (and even more rereading) of a short complex text for several different purposes. Depending on the standards you are covering, you can use the same text for several readings and get something new out of it each time.

During close reading, students should annotate the text to help leave tracks of their thinking as well as to help with their purpose for reading. How you have students annotate (the marks they will make) is totally up to you, but making sure their marks are purposeful is what is most important to teach them.

There are two times students should annotate:

1) With a text-dependent question (TDQ)… This will help provide a student a purpose for each reading. We don’t want the margins to be full of random thoughts, but rather responses to their reading based on their purpose.

2) With a cold read… Students use an annotation bookmark at first to help remind them of the things they should be thinking about while reading, but they soon don’t need it because they remember.

(You can get these bookmarks for free here!)

It’s a good idea to have students close read and annotate one paragraph at a time. You might have them cover the other paragraphs in the passage with blank paper to “block” where they are looking.

The best way to teach students how to think and annotate is to model it for them. In fact, for the first several weeks, I would do it all together as a shared interactive writing activity so students aren’t overwhelmed.

Check out a model!

Below, I have modeled my own thinking for students with a passage I wrote about owning a hamster (which you can download and use with your own class in this paired text freebie).

We are mainly looking at a TDQ, “What are some of the responsibilities of owning a pet?”

I showed the tracks of my thinking with:

things that surprised me (hamsters can chew out of their cage, escape, and get lost)
notes to show understanding (it would be unsafe for the hamster to be in your pocket)
connections I made (the meaning of the word nocturnal was explained)
and questions that I have (would it be responsible to let the hamster play in its ball if you have other pets?)

… but mostly, I underlined the key ideas that answer the TDQ and numbered them by category:

where to keep your hamster
what a hamster needs in its cage
what to feed it
how to play with it

I would not annotate ahead of time. Work together as a class to think more deeply. Having in-depth conversations with students about each paragraph can help lead to new thinking for the students, which is exactly what we want from our readers!

Good luck annotating in your own classroom! If you are interested in even more paired texts, check them out here in my store!

PIN FOR LATER:

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The Importance of Differentiation in Reading

September 25, 2016

If you’ve been a teacher within the last decade, you know the word “DIFFERENTIATION” isn’t just the latest and greatest buzzword. It’s crucial across all subjects to be able to meet the needs of the different learners in your class.

For a teacher just starting to differentiate, the idea of it can sometimes seem overwhelming. It does require more planning, but once you get to know your students, it becomes easier. This post is going to focus on differentiation in reading instruction, but the ideas can apply to many subjects!

WHAT DIFFERENTIATION LOOKS LIKE

Teaching the standards with a variety of levels of texts to meet different levels
Teaching the standards in tiered levels (providing access to all learners for the standard)
Giving students choice on how they demonstrate their knowledge based on learning styles
LOTS of formative assessments to determine who understands and who needs more support

WHAT DIFFERENTIATION DOES NOT LOOK LIKE

Teaching the same lesson to every small group
Gifted students always teaching low learners
Ability-grouped classrooms

Why should you differentiate instruction in reading? And why AREN'T you differentiating reading assessments? Ideas by Jivey lays it all out for you and helps you head in the right direction!

I will go ahead and tell you upfront, I am NOT a fan of basal programs. They don’t allow for in-depth teaching of reading comprehension and, of course, many students either cannot read the story on their own or should be reading material at a much higher level.

For this reason, I believe in using a reading workshop model. I start with a mini-lesson to teach a standard using a mentor text then I pull small groups of students. While I pull small groups, students are reading independently (from a text on their instructional level). The small groups I pull are generally based on reading level, but sometimes based on skill need.

Ideas by Jivey reminds you to stop leaving students out teaching only whole-group. Teach students in small groups to differentiate for levels of learners.

In my small groups, I generally expand on the mini-lesson skill using a leveled text appropriate for the readers in the group. Depending on where we are in a chapter book, this isn’t always possible, so sometimes it is a review of previously learned skills. The students are learning grade-level standards, but not necessarily with grade level appropriate texts: some are lower, some are higher.

Activities in reading also look different, based on my students. They are STILL working on the same grade-level standard as everyone in the class, but with modifications. I might provide a sentence stem, partially filled graphic organizer, or word bank for students who are below level. Students who are above level will have more open-ended opportunities to complete the activity. (This is called tiered-level learning.)

Why are we differentiating instruction, but not differentiating assessments?

Reading assessments should also look different! After all, are you assessing whether they understand the skill, or assessing whether they can read the text? I believe if you are determining whether students have mastered a comprehension standard, the student should be able to read the assessment passage on their instructional level.

Using differentiated reading assessments has only recently become a common practice. For this reason, there aren’t many resources out there with grade-level appropriate questions with differentiated passages… which is when I come to the rescue. 🙂

I have created assessments for grades 3-5 that you can mix and match based on what your students need. The passages are written on four levels (2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th) so that you can assess on your grade level, but provide instructional level texts.

There are six fiction and six nonfiction passages for each strand: key ideas and details, craft and structure, integration of ideas, and all standards combined.

There are also a variety of ways to mix and match the assessments to create long and short assessments on different standards! I didn’t number the questions so that you can use as many passages as you’d like in your test. You might also consider assessing on just one standard with a few texts, or assessing multiple standards with just one text. You can even assess a standard with fiction and nonfiction! The possibilities to mix and match are endless!

Get your assessments from my TPT store by clicking here!

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Look who has been featured!

June 28, 2016

I am so excited to share that one of my favorite blog posts has been featured on the TPT blog! Check it out!

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Finish the Year with a BANG (and a SPLAT!)

May 15, 2016

I blogged over at The Primary Peach to share a fun end of year activity with OOBLECK! Head over and check it out!

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Balloon Pop Countdown {FREEBIE}

April 24, 2016

How did the last week of April get here so fast?! For many of you (some with less than five weeks left of school), you are beginning to think about how to wind down the year with some fun activities. But if the majority of you are like I was… you want to plan fun things, but your to-do list is sooo long and you are just so worn out! There were lots of things I would have done if only it had already been pretty much created for me. And that doesn’t mean you are a bad teacher… it means you are a busy, tired teacher.

You’ve probably seen the fun balloon pop countdowns before- perfect for ANY grade! But as mentioned above, sitting down to think of all the activities that could go in the balloons and typing them out might be one of those things that keeps getting moved to the bottom of the list… and then suddenly it’s the last day of school… so I’m here to help you cross that one off!! But sorry, I can’t come to your room and blow the balloons up for you.

Ideas By Jivey helps you organize a balloon pop countdown for the end of the school year with free pre-made slips of activities for the inside of the balloons as well as several ideas on how to manage the countdown in your classroom.

In this free download, I have provided MORE ideas than you could use to give you plenty to choose from. Most of what I’ve listed are “free” things to do. Some require students to wear or bring something from home. Don’t want to do any kind of food? Skip that page! Do as many as you want- you can make it a twenty-day-countdown or even a five-day-countdown! Make it work for you!

Cut apart the slips you want to use and roll them up, then stick each rolled up slip into a balloon before blowing it up.

One of the struggles you might have is actually managing the balloons. Here are a few suggestions of ways to have your countdown:

1. Print off two copies of the activity slips. One will be used inside the balloons, but the other will be for your records- number this page with the “days” you are doing each one, and number the balloons to match. NO SURPRISES with this method – well, not for you anyway. 🙂 This one is especially important if you want to use the food slips, for example. You’ll want to know when you need the supplies for them, and can ask parents ahead of time to send in goodies, too. (No one wants a note home the afternoon before an ice cream party that they need to send in two quarts of chocolate syrup.)

2. Maybe you DO like surprises! I suggest choosing activity slips that don’t require a lot of planning ahead, then stuff those balloons! You could let a student choose which one to pop in this case.

3. Use it as a behavior incentive. At the end of the day, if everyone has had a “good day,” pop a balloon to see what special activity will be the next day.

4. Hang the balloons from the board, a piece of string, or even from ribbons attached to the ceiling! Here are some ideas:

http://firstwithfranklin.blogspot.com/2012/05/10-day-countdown-baby.html

http://classroomcompulsion.blogspot.com/2012/05/making-end-of-year-pop.html

http://kinderfriendly.blogspot.com/2013/05/catching-up.html

5. The actual popping can be done with a pin or thumbtack, or by sitting on the balloon, or in the upper grades- (if you’re super daring) letting a student throw a dart! This could also be a great behavior incentive- let a student who had an AWESOME behavior day pop the balloon.

This idea is just one of many from the bloggers of The Primary Peach!