Reading Archives - Page 8 of 9

Sparking Student Motivation: Fun Informational Passages!

October 19, 2014

Let me tell you what I LOVE.

I LOVE tricking kids into thinking working is super fun. 😛

My kids were begging me last week to learn more and write more. Have you ever heard of such a thing???

I shared with you last week that I am working on getting my students to respond deeper using Jennifer Findley’s Rigorous Reader’s Response Letters. We are also working on reading informational paired texts… and we were working on some skills with Stellaluna this past week… so I decided to write some articles about bats for them to use for close reading and annotating, and for them to use for their response letters! The first day, I gave them the first article on Kitti’s Hog-Nosed Bat- the smallest mammal in the world! We did some close reading, then I had them practice their first independent response letter using the same checklist from last week. Seriously, with their excitement level, you would have thought I’d just given them candy. They could not WAIT to write about what they had learned about these bats, and what they could infer. Some of them are seriously impressing me with their inferring skills too! Check this one out:

Spark Student Motivation with Ideas by Ivey

As I was peeking at some of their responses, a few were still not going as deep as I wanted, so on Friday, I had a few students share (including the one above) and then we did another class shared writing response. Here is what the students suggested I write:

Then, I let them know they were getting another article about bats that day- they cheered! One of my students said, “Ms. Ivey, can we do more articles next week about other animals? This is fun!” I swear, I am not making this up!! (I actually thought to myself at that moment- I can link this up with Joanne!! Ha!!)

They did the same thing as the previous day with their new passage about a megabat- the Spectacled Flying Fox. I will most likely use these responses for a grade since we have practiced a bit now.

I decided to take these articles a step further and add some paired text multiple choice and constructed response questions…. then I thought, if they liked these articles so much, I’m going to need more… so I made some for owls and spiders, too! (‘Tis the season after all!)

And of course, you know I can’t keep them all to myself… you can get them in my TPT store!

For the first 48 hours, this product is 20% off! I hope you enjoy!

Stop Highlighting… Start Thinking!

October 21, 2014

Remember when you were in high school and college, and as you studied, you highlighted everything you felt was important… then you got to the bottom of a page, looked back, and your entire page was highlighted??

Yeah… that’s what we DON’T want students doing when they are reading.

If we teach students to annotate, we can eliminate that highlighter bleeding! The idea of annotating is to slow down and really think about what the author is saying.

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 my students might annotate:

1) With a text-dependent question (or multiple questions on the same standard)… 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!)

My students annotate during and after reading – one paragraph at a time. I teach them that if they get to the end of a paragraph and haven’t written a single thought, most likely they weren’t truly thinking while they were reading, and they should go back and reread one more time.

The best way to teach students how to think and annotate is to model it for them.

Check out a model!

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

You can see that I showed my thinking, but it is not necessary to underline or write a thought about every single sentence, just like it’s not necessary to highlight every sentence either!

It’s also a great way to get students thinking before discussing an article with a partner. I have my students turn knee to knee and share what they thought was most important, what surprised them, and also share their questions with each other. You can see them doing that here with the second pair of texts in the free sample:

A lot of times, these conversations 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:

Close Reading, Paired Texts

Text Dependent Questions with Annotations

March 11, 2015

I am excited to share about some things we’ve been doing with close reading and text dependent questions in my classroom. Many of you probably remember my blog post about annotating (if not, read it here). My kids have become annotating experts now!

Lately, I have been “trying” to give them a focus for their annotating with text dependent questions. We’ve especially been focusing on the “top of the pyramid” grappling with understanding what the text we are reading really means.

Text dependent questions with annotations witth Ideas by Jivey.

In Social Studies, we have been learning about the Founding Fathers and how they built our nation’s government, so I used my George Washington passage from my February and March Themed Paired Texts.

I wanted the students to think about what kind of person George Washington was using the evidence given- in other words, they needed to infer based on what was written in the passage. They did such a great job! Here are some of their inferences:

background and clip art from the fabulous Teaching Super Power!

I also have to share this amazing resource I found searching for examples of text dependent stems!!

I love having a bunch of possible questions I can ask about a text without having to rack my brain for them. This resource by Beth Burke has been a lifesaver for all types of question stems!

Text dependent Stems by Beth Burke with Ideas by Jivey

It is a free resource- definitely go grab it if you do close reading in your room! :o)

Read PART 2 here!

Uncategorized

Organizing Reading Workshop Conference Notes

June 28, 2015

Hi friends! I am linking up with the Primary Peach to share how I keep up with my conference notes during Reading Workshop. Most days, when I finish working with my small group, I confer with two separate students. I print labels with my conference points and keep them on a clipboard so I can visit each student without carrying much around in my hands.

I make my notes on the labels, and once I fill a sheet, I stick the labels onto my students’ folders (where I also keep running records and assessments). This way, I have all my notes during parent conference time in one place.

Want these labels? Grab them for free!

Want to know more about how I run Reading Workshop in my classroom? Check out Launching Reading Workshop in my TPT store!

Don’t forget to go check out all the other awesome ideas for organization over at the Primary Peach!

3-5, Mastering Mentor Sentences, Mentor Texts

Tying It All Together With Mentor Texts {with freebies!}

October 10, 2015

Mentor texts are perfect for students of all ages! If you don’t believe me, read here. 🙂 One of the best parts of using a mentor text is that it gives you more time to TEACH! Once you’ve read the book one time, you only need to re-read or refer to parts of it for your mini-lessons.

In this post, I am going to explain how I used the book, When Lightning Comes in a Jar by Patricia Polacco to review vivid verbs in writing (and help them implement in their own writing), review parts of speech and similes in grammar through mentor sentence lessons, and do a close reading lesson where they use text evidence to support their thinking during reading.

You can find all of the activities I will be discussing in these two freebies in my store:

The students were already familiar with vivid verbs, so I wanted them to “read like a writer” and listen for vivid verbs as I read the story to them for the first time. Patricia really has a beautiful way with words, and all of her books have great vivid verbs- this one was no exception!

Students wrote all of the vivid verbs they heard as I read, then they shared what they heard with a partner. This recording sheet becomes part of their writing resource folder, so they can use it during writing time to help them revise if they need ideas. Later in the week, I had them pull out their writing piece and work on revising their verbs.

Over the course of the week, we also used one sentence from the story as our mentor sentence:

The focus was still on vivid verbs to tie in with our writing lessons, but look at all the other great things we got to talk about with this sentence! Compound subject, simile, prepositions, proper noun, plurals… the list goes on! That’s what I love about mentor sentences- the students get so much out of it each week and it really becomes a spiral review if you consistently use them. They are also looking at why the sentence is written WELL instead of a bad sentence full of errors (trying to figure out what might be wrong with it).

One thing students always need more practice with is close reading and finding evidence… but you don’t have to only do this with a nonfiction article! As a teacher, you can legally photocopy an excerpt of a book for the students to use in an educational setting. I copied the two pages where the aunts and Gramma were telling crazy tall tales. Students read this quietly and annotated their thoughts as they read, then we discussed their thoughts. They agreed that Aunt Ivah was exaggerating her story because no one would pick up a rattlesnake with an umbrella, much less get close to one!

We did the first two jars together, then they tried it on their own with the last two jars.

There is also an activity included in the freebie where students find text evidence to support the theme of the book, if you’re interested.

So I know reading about how to do all this and actually SEEING it are two different things… so I’ve made a new video!! I have several videos on YouTube but wanted to show how I tie everything together with one mentor text. Now, I’ll warn you… this one is longer than the others with multiple lessons happening… go ahead and grab your popcorn! 🙂

Thanks so much for reading! For more mentor text resources, head over to my store or click the specific products below!

Mentor texts resources with Ideas by Jivey

Looking for ready-made, detailed, explicit mentor text lessons for the week?

Join the club!

No really… there’s a club!

Mentor Texts

Growing Readers and Writers with Mentor Texts

March 18, 2016

The book I am using for my lesson is Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco.

Although not a traditional Easter story, this book is a great one to read around that time of year. Patricia commonly recounts stories from her own childhood in her books, and this is no exception. Her childhood neighbors, Stewart and Winston, are much more like brothers to her, despite her Russian Jewish heritage and their being African American boys. The boys’ grandma, Miss Eula, is raising them, and Patricia looks to her as another grandmother as well. The three children decide they want to buy Miss Eula an Easter hat that she has had her eye on. Unfortunately, their good intentions are misunderstood, and the children learn a lesson about kindness and humanity, as well as how to make Pysanky eggs. The story is filled with family values, and it bridges racial and religious differences in a beautiful tale about building relationships.

Even before the day you read the book, it is important to discuss theme vs. main idea, as these two get confused often. Mary from Teaching With a Mountain View has a great post about this, and this gorgeous anchor chart, too!

Theme vs. Main Idea anchor chart from Teaching With a Mountain View

The day you read the book, remind students of the meaning of theme before beginning, and ask them to think about what lessons are learned, or what is the message in this book as you read it aloud to help guide their thinking.

After reading Chicken Sunday, ask students to think about the message of the book. Sometimes it helps to talk about the problem of the story and how it was solved to help see the “big picture,” or theme. Give students the activity and discuss (you also may want to return to parts of the book) the evidence that shows the theme they suggest.

Ideas by Jivey walks you through a reading comprehension lesson with the mentor text, Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco, and includes a free activity to use!

There are certainly several themes that could be supported in this story, but the one I saw the most was kindness.

The children wanted to get Miss Eula the hat she had been wanting to show thanks and kindness.

The children make Mr. Kodinski the Pysanky eggs to show kindness – even though he was mad at them for something they didn’t do.

Mr. Kodinski gives the children the hat to show kindness.

You can do this activity together as part of a mini-lesson if you are early on in teaching theme, or you could have students complete it on their own. As long as students can support the theme with three pieces of evidence from the story, I would accept any theme that is suitable to the story.

I included a graphic organizer for theme that can be used with any book in your free download above! You could have students use the organizer with their own book, or with another read-aloud.

You might also like to show the students THIS VIDEO about how Pysanky eggs are made!

You can find more activities for this book, along with 29 others in my Volume 2 Better Than Basal (collection of mentor text activities)!

You might also love to use Patricia Polacco’s books during your grammar and writing time with mentor sentences!

Looking for ready-made explicit mentor text lessons for the week?