Reading Archives - Page 8 of 9

{{Bursting}} With Knowledge!! :o)

July 18, 2013

Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh!!!

I’m seriously bursting with all the knowledge I acquired at our Summer Literacy Institute. Have you ever felt that way after a workshop or really awesome staff development? You just can’t even wait to get started, but at the same time, you are overwhelmed with how to implement all the amazing stuff you just learned about…?

That’s me. And I taught a break-out session all three days, so I wasn’t even able to attend the other break-out sessions… I’m almost afraid of what I’d feel like if I HAD been able to attend other sessions too. My head might have exploded! 😛 What I’m sharing with you in this post came from our amazing keynote speakers we had each day! I’ll be sharing what my partner and I taught in our break-out session in a future post (or two) as well! 🙂 Of course, these are only just a few of the amazing things we were immersed into this week, but I hope you’ll find them helpful!

The first day, our keynote speaker was Dr. Marcia Tate, author of the books, Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites. She is all about using engaging instructional strategies to teach, and so am I! None of her strategies are “new ideas” to me really, but she was so positive and uplifting as she went through her presentation, it really pumped me up to ENSURE I use these strategies even MORE in my classroom.

(Background is by Clipart Cuties, the frame is by Lovin Lit, and of course, the font is by me!)

I’m going to print this to keep with my lesson plan book to remind me to incorporate these strategies daily, and if you’d like, you can, too! Click here to get this printout for free! 🙂

Our second day, we had Linda Hoyt for our keynote speaker. She is the QUEEN of non-fiction! She shared a strategy called VIP – Very Important Points. The students take a sticky note and cut it into smaller strips. As they read, they mark in the text the points they think are very important. Because they only have 3-5 (depending on how small they cut the sticky note), they must choose carefully to determine importance. After, they talk to each other to explain why they chose the points they did, and why they are important. I thought this would be a great help to researching, along with general comprehension of course. I will definitely be using this strategy!

Today was the last day of the Institute, and we ended with a bang! Dr. Douglas Fisher and Dr. Nancy Frey shared the stage to share about close reading and text dependent questions. (Click the links for articles written by these two!) I am going to share a video below that they shared with us today because whether you are a 1st grade teacher or a 4th grade teacher or a middle school teacher, this FIRST GRADE classroom should be an inspiration to you when it comes to close reading! If these first graders can take it to this level, we can totally do it in any grade! This shows the importance of setting high expectations for your students.

Some tidbits about the video:
*this teacher pulled the article they are reading together from NEWSWEEK. There is a push for complex texts in all grades, and we must not forget that we have to stretch their listening comprehension as their reading comprehension catches up!
*the teacher NEVER corrects “wrong” thinking. He keeps going so they can change their thinking later.
*I love the way he is constantly assessing their understanding having the students use sign language to demonstrate whether they agree or disagree with someone’s answer.
*I also love how he has trained them to speak politely when they disagree!

Get ready to be blown away by some smarty-pants!

There are lots of other videos on their YouTube channel if you’re interested! 🙂

I hope this post was helpful to you, and not overwhelming. 😛 I considered spreading this out over three days, but I just couldn’t hold it in! :o)

I’d love to know if there was anything that got you excited in this post!

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June Workshop Wednesday: Pinterest Professional Development

June 1, 2013

June 1st means…it’s Currently Time!!! Thanks Farley for hosting each month!

Now, onto the explanation of the summer version of Workshop Wednesday…

I know many of you are like me, therefore many of you are ~~obsessed~~ avid Pinners on Pinterest.

I love Pinterest. So much.

And if you’re even more like me (probably more than you’d care to admit, hee hee), this next ecard is for you, too!

So, I’m here to help provide you with your summer professional development credits! 🙂

Workshop Wednesday (but not just Wednesdays!! This one will last the whole month of June!!) will require you to do a little lesson planning…

Best kind of planning there is, right??

So here is the low-down for the link-up! :o)

Choose some of your favorite math, reading, and/or writing pins that you want to try in the new school year, and embed them in your post so we can click and repin the great ideas! You can post as many as you want, and as often as you’d like! You don’t have to post on Wednesday, even though it’s called Workshop Wednesday. Also, if you’d like us to follow your Pinterest boards so we can see all the lesson planning you’re doing this summer, be sure to include your link in your post!

Follow My Pinterest Boards!

Not sure how to embed your pins so your readers can just click on it and go straight to the pin itself? It’s easy peesy! Go to the pin you want to put in your post, and click embed:

Then just copy the code, and paste it into the HTML of your post:

Here are a few of my pins! 🙂

MATH:

Source: eberopolis.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I’d like to have my students assess themselves more in problem solving in math. These are terms that we use already in my district, so I want to make this as an anchor chart for my students to refer to when we do problem solving.

READING:

Source: sparklinginthirdgrade.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I love this idea for reading homework! So much better than a traditional reading log that the kids have parents sign after they’ve “read.” Ahem.

WRITING:

Source: imgfave.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I want to use more pictures this school year for creative writing prompts. This will be the one I start with because frankly, it is HILARIOUS. :o)

I can’t wait to ~~stalk~~ pin from all of your posts! Don’t forget to grab the button and link back to this post from your post! I’ll repost the linky weekly in June with some new pins of my own… remember, you can link up as often as you’d like, on any day you want! Feel free to link up weekly with me if you want! 🙂

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Workshop Wednesday: Response to Literature {FREEBIES!!}

May 22, 2013

Welcome to Workshop Wednesday!! 🙂

Today is my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! Oh my heavens, I can’t believe it. I can smell the sweet fragrance of summer just around the corner!! 🙂

Before I get into the meat of this post, I wanted to let you know that Workshop Wednesday will be changing JUST FOR THE SUMMER. During the month of June and the month of July, I will have two different topics (one for each month) that will remain open for the whole month. I hope that you won’t all forget about me this summer with a less frequent linky, but I just don’t think my linky parties lend themselves as well to our posts when we aren’t in school. I’ve got some ideas for these two though- I think you’ll enjoy them, and they’ll still be easy to link up to! 🙂 More to come soon!!

OK, so now on to the good stuff!! Today’s topic is reading responses! How do you have students respond to their reading?

I’m so excited to share this with you, because it has definitely been a work in progress over the last couple of years! I teach my students to record their thinking on sticky notes as they read. This requires a lot of modeling and think-alouds in the beginning of the year, of course, but they become REALLY good at it!

**I apologize for not having any personal pictures of all this!! My kids took home their notebooks before I could snap some pics! Darn it!!**

I give them this bookmark which I made based on the “Talking Back To Books” Poster from Beth Newingham. (I print them on different colors of cardstock and laminate them- mine still have them completely intact from the beginning of this year!)

Click to download these for free from Dropbox!

These bookmarks train their brain to think as they read. Once I feel like they have the hang of writing as they read, I discuss levels of thinking with them. I found this great anchor chart on Pinterest last summer and made it for this year (mine was already put up, so here is the original pin picture I found…):

We talk about how we only want level two and level three sticky notes because they really show we are thinking. I then teach them how to “write long” off of a sticky note. I found another great pin last summer to show this idea, although I have been teaching my kiddos for the last couple of years how to do this. Here is the pin:

It is very important that they have level two or level three sticky notes to be able to write long… otherwise, as you can imagine, their response won’t be… long. Ha!

I used to have them write me letters, but I feel like sticky note responses are easier for me to keep up with as far as grading and conferring goes. I still have them write me letters sometimes, but writing long from a sticky note is done at least weekly, and it’s super easy to check in on with them for comprehension! In fact- here are the labels I made for sticky note conferences! 🙂

Click to download this EDITABLE freebie from Dropbox, too!

I walk around with these labels on my clipboard and meet with as many as I can… then I just stick these down in the reading profile folders after I’ve filled up one label page! I have quick evidence of their independent thinking. We talk together as I fill it in about their compliment and their thing to work on!

Your turn! Make sure to grab the button and link your post back to this post (no TPT store link-ups, please), then make sure to leave some love for at least two others in this linky party!

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Spark Student Motivation, Mother’s Day Writing, and Daily Deal!

May 11, 2013

Linking up with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching to share another way I keep my kiddos motivated! On Wednesday, I shared how I use clipboards during writing time to let my students write around the room on the floor… well, I use a similar trick during Reader’s Workshop, too!

These are my book nooks for independent reading time! Every kiddo has a clip. The clips move once a week. Each “nook” comes up every third time- they have to sit at their desk one week (because there just aren’t enough nooks!!) and the floor one week, but then they get a special nook! They get SO excited on these weeks. The options that come up are green chair (under an umbrella because of my beach theme), a couple students have yellow pillow (just a cheap Walmart pillow with a yellow pillow case on it), a couple have blue folding chair (some cheap folding camping chairs I found at Walmart one year, too), pink pig (an oversized, soft, stuffed pig that one of my kids gave me one year… I used to have a pig theme in my room!), teacher’s chair, and their favorite: purple float. Because of my beach theme, I brought in an inner-tube and they seriously love it. I think I need to get a couple more for next year! Here are some pictures of some of the book nooks in my room:

Some of the nooks are empty in these pictures because they were at the library, or maybe taking an AR test… because trust me… desks aren’t chosen over nooks if they have the choice. I began using book nooks a few years ago, and I can honestly say that I have seen an increase of on-task ACTUAL independent reading. They know that if they “abuse” their book nook, they lose it, so they are always reading!!

I also wanted to share the activity we did for Mother’s Day in my room. Pin it for next year, because it’s a great one!! I got the idea from Joanne, who got the idea from AMC at Looking from Third to Fourth! We read the book, The Best Part of Me.

It’s a book written by children- each page is a different child and each child has chosen their “best” body part and describes what makes it the best. We read the book together, and then I had them think of what is the best part of Mom instead. These kiddos made me cry. Seriously. I am so proud of how mature they have become, and how sweet they were in these writing pieces to their moms! Here are some examples:

One last thing before I go today… 🙂 I wanted to offer one last “deal” for Teacher Appreciation Week, so I am offering my Mentor Sentence Unit over at Teacher’s Notebook as Today’s Daily Deal!!

If you haven’t checked these out, there are some really awesome products every day that are 40% off!!! Shut the front door!! 😛 I have gotten some great things over the last few weeks and decided to participate, too. So if you didn’t pick up the Mentor Sentence Unit in the TPT sale this week, make sure to head over and snatch it up now- this huge deal will be today ONLY!!!! 🙂

Enjoy your Saturday!

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Tried It Tuesday and What’s In MY Cart!!!

May 7, 2013

I’m linking up with two of my BBBs today! 🙂

First up, Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!

I have seen lots of lapbook products but… confession… I have never actually made the lapbook! I’ve always had the kiddos put the foldables into their notebooks. But not this time!! I was lucky enough to be chosen to try the Narnia Lapbook from Amelia at Where the Wild Things Learn…

Click to add this to your cart for the big TPT sale!! 🙂

And we made the lapbook folder- for real! 🙂

I went ahead and devoted one day for them to put all of the foldables in the lapbook so we can just work each day on the activities as we read. They are LOVING the book. We are almost halfway through it, and they don’t want me to stop! Most of them had never heard of the book or the movie, so the activities that Amelia has provided are wonderful because it is showing a true picture of their understanding. :o) I only wish that we had enough books for them to have one, or at least share, which she has said that her kids do. But it’s still totally do-able as a read-aloud, too!

Go check out what everyone else is trying over at Holly’s blog- and don’t forget to enter her AMAZING 500 follower giveaway!! There are 4 different Rafflecopters- seriously, there are some FLIPPIN’ fabulous prizes! 😀

Next, I’m linking up with Diane from Fifth in the Middle!

Obviously, by now (unless you live under a rock) you know that TPT is having a Teacher Appreciation Sale, and some of your favorite blogger TPT-ers are participating! My wishlist is out of control. Really. It’s not even funny. But I do have to share some things I KNOW I will be getting, and perhaps you will have to add them to your cart, too! :o) Click on any of the banners to go to the product!

Because as much as I want to, I just can NOT spend $50+ on an Erin Condren Planner. And April’s looks totally adorable and it’s EDITABLE!! I am going to bind it like she suggested at Office Max for $4!!

I so wish I had these YESTERDAY when I was typing up sub plans at 6:30 AM, hacking up a lung. But it’s ok. I’ll have it for another day now! :o)

I feel like all I say all day some days is PROVE YOUR THINKING!!!
I can’t wait to get Joanne’s posters- and there are some minis for the students to keep in their journals, too!!

You know I can’t get enough of this book. Although I won’t have time to use this whole product this year, I will have it for next year- because I WILL be reading Wonder with my class next year. Maybe even at the beginning of the year. 🙂

How does one even choose from all of Megan’s gorgeous papers?? I’m definitely getting these because they are so bright, and I LOVE bright!! 🙂 Thanks to Megan for the polka dot backgrounds on all these banners, too!

So what are you waiting for?? Ready, set, shop!! :o)

And P.S. I just revamped my George Washington’s Socks Unit- I added two more activity pages, and a lot more cute frames, clip art, and backgrounds! If you’ve already purchased the unit, be sure to go re-download for the updates! And if you haven’t… add it to your cart while it’s on sale! 🙂

See you tomorrow for Workshop Wednesday! 🙂

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Sunday Funday- SALE! and Memoirs of a Goldfish Mentor Text!

May 5, 2013

Happy Sunday Friends!

I hope the weather where you live has been better than here- it has been so disgusting and rainy all weekend. I have been down with a nasty cold though, so I suppose it was good that those happened together- there’s nothing worse than being stuck on the couch when it’s gorgeous out! I’m feeling a bit more lively today, thank goodness.

Before I link up with Amanda and Stacia for my Mentor Text this week, I wanted to let you know about my Teacher’s Notebook Sale! Now through May 10, I am offering 25% off all my products, and Teacher’s Notebook will give you an additional 10% off! They are also giving away $100 to Oriental Trading everyday! Be sure to go enter!

Now onto my Mentor Text for Language Arts! Collaboration Cuties has a weekly linky for mentor texts, and this week is devoted to books you read during Language Arts time!

The book I want to share with you today is Memoirs of a Goldfish.

This book is great for ALL ages. I fell in love with this book the first time I read it. It fits in perfectly with books like Diary of a Worm/Fly/Spider because it’s written in journal/diary entry format from Goldfish’s perspective. The book starts out with Goldfish, bored, in his bowl by himself. Things slowly start to get added to the bowl and Goldfish gets quite cramped… and aggravated! But then, something happens that makes him realize maybe being cramped wasn’t all that bad… you’ll have to read to find out! 🙂

Goldfish’s character is a great one to follow through the book because he changes from the beginning to the end.

Click here to download a freebie for Memoirs of a Goldfish!

The freebie came from my Memoirs of a Goldfish Unit, which you can download from my Teacher’s Notebook Store (ON SALE!) or my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! :o)

Make sure to head over to Collaboration Cuties to link up your favorite mentor texts, and get some great ideas from other awesome bloggers, too! 🙂

Also, get ready for Workshop Wednesday – this week, it’s a focus on Writing!

Let’s share those “tricks we have up our sleeves” for getting kids motivated to write! Common Core has such an emphasis on writing ALL the time, so how do you keep the kids energized to write?

Lastly, don’t forget to take advantage of the last day of Feedback Frenzy! Not only will you get a free item from me (valued up to $5), but you can use the feedback credits in the upcoming Teacher Appreciation TPT Sale, too!!

{{Bursting}} With Knowledge!! :o)

June Workshop Wednesday: Pinterest Professional Development

Workshop Wednesday: Response to Literature {FREEBIES!!}

Spark Student Motivation, Mother’s Day Writing, and Daily Deal!

Tried It Tuesday and What’s In MY Cart!!!

Sunday Funday- SALE! and Memoirs of a Goldfish Mentor Text!

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