Wednesday, February 29, 2012

And the award goes to...

Casey @ Second Grade Math Manic awarded me with the Top 10 Award.  I feel honored...thanks Casey!
Top 10 TBA




I now get to pass along the award to 10 bloggers that always captivate me to keep coming back to their blogs :)
My picks are......................................
Lori @ Conversations in Literacy http://conversationsinliteracy.blogspot.com/
Sandra @ Literacy Minute http://literacyminute.blogspot.com/
Julie @ Second Grade Style http://secondgradestyle.blogspot.com/
Christie @ Teaching in Flip Flops http://flipflopteacher.blogspot.com/
Teri @ A Cupcake for the Teacher http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com/
Shawna @ The Picture Book Teacher’s Edition http://thepicturebookteachersedition.blogspot.com/
Heather @ First Grade Rocks http://1stgraderockss.blogspot.com/
Kelli @ Tales from a Traveling Teacher http://talesfromatravelingteacher.blogspot.com/
Valerie @ in third grade & frazzled http://ms-noles.blogspot.com/

Congratulations ladies!  You all have awesome blogs that I enjoy immensely!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

March Madness

March Madness has something to do with basketball, right??  It makes me think of the countdown till spring break and how quickly the days pass after it.  I told someone today that being in my class was like heaven on earth.  They are so wonderful, I can't even think about June when they will leave me for grander horizons.  I need it all to slow down!


Saw this wonderful idea on Pinterest and knew I had to use it: 
Pinned Image
I couldn't find the original person that uploaded it but kudos to whoever you are :)

Mine is a bit simple but you could print it on colored paper. We are starting to select our goals during conferences tomorrow!  Get yours below :)





Writing Goals, Traits





I've been working on a guided reading instruction pack.  It came about when I was trying to share it all with my intern.  It's hard model and talk about all the ins and outs.  We all know that it is overwhelming to begin and follow through with!

The pack I created has a checklist of materials needed, helpful hints about grouping students, a chart to schedule time for each group, running record forms, ways to analyze a running record, daily note page for each group, record log for individuals, and a format to follow when working with students. It's far from perfect but a quick and dirty overview to get started.






Here are pictures from my classroom that explain my set up:
These are my guided reading books. All the copies are in one bag and filed under their level.  You will notice I wrote various levels on the books because it seems that everything differs.  My school uses the Guided Reading levels develop by Fountas and Pinnell. 
 The baskets are leveled.  Each level has around six different text selections.  The books have the level listed on the back.  This set is PM Rigby.

In case your school doesn't have the funds for a different series of guided reading books you can always level your readers that go along with your basal.  Most of the time they aren't used in a leveled order, they are based of comprehension or phonics strategies.  Leveling them helps your readers because it puts just right books in their hands.  


Here is my binder:
 I have a schedule in the front and a list of needs for each group.  Currently I am working with 2 groups a day and my intern is working with 1 a day.  So you may notice I only have 3 groups listed, she is in charge of the other 2 groups;)
 This is my note taking page.  It defintely helps with planning effective lessons.
 Goals for the following week based of noticings.
 Leveling guide in front pocket developed for our school's needs.
 Running Record cues in the back pocket.


 Bins for each group with books to reread and new reads, writing journal for each child and a couple other things based off the needs of the group {2 bins are stashed behind}.

 Whiteboards, fluency rubric, easy button and bell for clean up warning.

Back of easel that is used for word work.

Large book covers make great seat sacks for whisper phones because each kid is reading at their own pace.

Running records organized by level.
 What the individual bags look like...several copies of the running record and one book.

Check out these links for helpful guided reading resources:
Developmental DRA chart tells where your kids should be and when
Fountas & Pinnell Text Level Descriptions  <-----so helpful! tells what students do at each reading level

Enjoy!


Monday, February 27, 2012

Writing Workshop Revisions

I have been using a couple different elements to plan for writing.  First being our road map that dictates the order in which I present the material.  Second,  Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for Primary Writing and lastly items that I see or create. 

I still felt something was lacking.  Our curriculum doesn't always make sense to me {so much to do, so little time to actually write} and while I love Lucy Calkins and the Units of Study, I find that they are drawn out and don't have the depth I'm looking for.  They are a great base and it really teaches you the language to use with your students.  I especially like her format: Connection, Teach, Active Engagement, Link.  I use her lessons when they fit into what we are doing.

So I started questioning and reading.  In our literacy team we are reading To Understand by Ellin Oliver Keene.  Now I didn't read expecting to find what I did....I just came upon it and knew it was something worth trying.  Ellin's book is not an easy, breezy read.  It's rather heavy, so tread lightly!  She has reworked the literacy workshop and used new terminology {to reshape to address the misinterpretations and rather unimaginative use of the literacy workshop}.

Crafting- shared reading and writing or large-group instruction
Composing- independent reading and writing
Invitational Groups- small groups or guided reading and writing
Reflecting- sharing

Now I'm not sure that I need to change the names of what seems to be a common thread at our school from kindergarten till fifth.  That's something to give a lot of thought to. 

The information that really stuck with me was during the section about Crafting: Writing:
In a large group, the teacher is writing aloud, thinking aloud about the decisions a writer makes, the strategies and tools he/she uses at least three times a week. It is the students' time to study the craft of writing, to view themselves as apprentice. Students are involved in sharing their observations or in sharing their thinking with a partner. Last 10-20 minutes three to five times a week.

The difference I saw here that I hadn't read before was that you are modeling frequently...its not shared.  You teach your mini-lesson through your own writing and the students are thinking and observing. Don't get me wrong, I have modeled before but not like this.  It's short, sweet and frequent!

So I tried this out...a couple days modeling and the other days for explicit minilessons {Lucy Calkins style}.  Oh my word!  What a change I have seen in my writers.  I never thought something so simple would make all the difference.  It even allows me to follow my curriculum in a more succinct way. 

Give it a try, it's simple and easy.  I hope you will see the impact I have seen.

Here are two forms {planning and writing} to help your little ones with How To writing:


Enjoy!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Spiraling back to inferring

So we are headed back to inferring later this month.  I wanted to take it deeper with the texts we worked with and release it to the kids.  Last time we did a lot of whole group, this time I think they are ready to do it themselves.

I started with David Shannon books because we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them.  You will see that it relates to my last inference post but builds upon what was taught.







The second item is based off all these wonderful pin boards from Pinterest with pictures that the students must infer the meaning from.  Not sure who started it but awesome idea!  I can't get on Pinterest at school so I made it into a document to access at school.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Change is in the air

Over the past month, my class has had some changes.  First, being our new intern and having to be responsible to two people rather than one {they can't get away with anything :)}.  Second, my principal came back from a workshop that took her into the classroom of the author of The Literate Kindergarten, Susan Kempton. Susan's class has no chairs which made a lot of sense to me.  The students can get comfortable in various seated positions, their legs won't just hang, it helps my students with weak cores and it helps with the wiggles.  So I took the plung and got rid of my chairs at the student tables!  It has been so great for our class....AND they are so much calmer!! {Don't worry between teacher work tables and computers there are enough chairs if everyone wants one.} Plus I'm not having to do the endless reminding of, "Push in your chair please!  Oops who forgot?"


The third change comes from my intern.  She wanted to try out Beth Newingham's Math Workshop in which the students are grouped by ability and rotate from teacher {small group}, to math pages and to an acitivity based off the unit of learning.  Today was our first time testing it out (unfortunately our intern is ill...all those germs) and it went really well.  If it can fit into your schedule I reccommend it.  Beth also suggests changing the group names to fit the unit, so since we are in geometry our names are reflective.
 Here is the whole set up.  The math board with group names (the kids signed their names), their rotation schedule, their assignments and over to the right is unit vocabulary.

I got this idea from the daily 5.  Students jobs while working and the teacher's job.  The bins above our storage for each center and match the color table.





 And here are a couple other things that have changed in the room!

Theses spelling chunk cards are from Mrs. Jump's Class.  The students are using the back of two filing cabinets to do their word work.  They either spell or sort words under the spelling chunks.{Looks better than the actual backs to the filing cabinets!}



After I made new math word wall cards I got started on my math word wall. 
Get your cards here: Math Vocabulary   Math Vocabulary Cards 2

I'm off to dinner...yay!


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