Happy Spring Break & Weekly Photos

YAY! I am on spring break for the next week. I am going to enjoy my stay-cation! I plan to read, nap, and read some more. I will throw some spring cleaning in there too!

It was been a busy few weeks. I was sick for the second time which was a bummer. NY had the state test in ELA. Glad that is DONE!

Here are some photos from my lessons:

I asked the library media specialist to help with a book tasting for one of the 5th grade classes I push into. It was a hit. The best part was students saying the found a book they would have never considered reading! 

The students wrote summaries using the academic vocabulary words from different articles. I modeled an example first so we could talk about how to find the best academic vocabulary words. 

I began a poetry unit with my 7th graders. I always begin with song lyrics. It hooks the kids. The students got a kick out of this song. 

The students chose their own word to "kill." It was powerful reading their thoughts. Here is just one example: 

As a way celebrate the beginning of spring break, the students has rotations for the afternoon. This was planned by the PBIS committee which I serve on this year. I was in charge of the reading room. I had some kids partner reading. It was a nice quiet way to begin spring break!

 

Happy Reading!

Ready for Spring!

It is snowing outside and there are weather warnings of a winter blast. I always tell my family to not expect spring until after March 13th. That's my birthday and ONLY ONCE was it above 60.
It snowed like this when I turned 21, so I guess a birthday blizzard is due! It is also VERY COLD! Single digits!

I was sick for two weeks and still have a lingering cough! I went to the doctor for a work note because I was so under the weather! I cannot believe it has been a few weeks since I posted classroom pictures.

This was a reading passage from a TPT seller that I used to teach a new strategy to my students with key vocabulary words: 

I adapted the "chunk it up" strategy (which is NOT my original idea)

We began reading about Dr. Seuss and we are finding vocabulary words related to the text. The students will begin with a one sentence summary and them move onto a longer summary. Here are the photos: 

I push into a grade 6 8:1:1 setting. The class and small and the students work hard during reading. The classroom teacher asked me to teach a lesson on context clues. I decided to teach it using this mini chart to help with the strategy: 

 

The students seemed to catch on to this after A LOT of modelling. 

Here's hoping spring is around the corner!

Happy Reading. 

Weekly Photos

I have been enjoying school, but this week was rough. I am not sure if it was the full moon, the winter grumps, or the need for a vacation, but boy oh boy were the kids tough this week!

I We have one week and then we have a week off. It will be nice just to take a week to read for pleasure and watch The Today Show.

Here are some photos from my lessons:

 If you have not tried Story Works by Scholastic - you are missing out on some great literature and nonfiction lessons.

The students have been working on finding the most important detail from a text. I write it and put it in a secret envelope and the kids have to guess. They love it when they match mine.

 I found this on TPT and used it with my word study group. 

The sort 

I began a unit on working on determining character traits in stories and poetry. I used the acronym FAST. I have used this strategy in the past.

 The boys are minimalists. LOL. 

 Applying it to a poem:

 The poem was from Super Teacher Worksheets. Another great website, I recommend. 

We then began writing the response to the prompt about the character traits from the story: 

 

We need to work on the rest of the essay next week. 

Earlier this week I went to a workshop about student engagement and  then the next morning this popped up on my twitter feed: 

Student engagement is hard to find for struggling readers. I often wonder how to motivate those students who have no interest, no motivations, no commitment. 

Here's to a great week!

Happy Reading! 

Weekly Photos

JANUARY 29, 2017

Weekly Photos

I am SO HAPPY it is the last weekend in January. I do not like the cold! I am ready for warmer months... BUT sadly I sill have a ways to go before it is spring!

I had a nice busy week. In grade 5,  I am teaching the students to find the most important details of a text. I make it like a game. The kiddos have 2 chances to see if they can match my detail.  My grade 6 students have been working on different reading skills depending on the class. My 7th graders are making PowerPoints about the career they researched. I am planning on having the kids read and grade each others this week.

Here are a few pictures from the week.:
The students partner read the text and took notes. On the back of the sheet, the students choose the fact they thought was most important from the book. It was interesting to see what the students chose.

 Here is an example: 

 Example #2: 

The second day we read a new text and I had individual kiddos write the most important detail.

The students had to match mine.

One kiddo was able to do ti!!  

 Group Two Same Lesson

I gave them an "I Can.." statement. 

 We defined "determine."

 I use Storyworks by Scholastic for lessons.

It's a great investment if you teach small groups. 

This kiddo guessed my most important detail. 

 

 A quick game of Outburst: 

 

Grade 5 - I took my supplies from my RACE unit and made a bulletin board. This strategy really helped the students respond to a text using evidence.

   

Happy Reading! 

Happy Sunday

I feel like I just posted my weekly photos. I had a busy week - one day we had an assembly and another day I sat in on CSE meetings. I finished teaching my RACE unit. Now I am going to have the kiddos respond to a nonfiction text using the RACE strategy.

I only had time to take three photos this past week. Here they are:

 This is the literacy term sort I made for all grade levels. These are the terms we worked on from September to December.

 Here are my grade 7 learning targets from last week. 

 

This was what the kiddos saw before they color coded my answer. 

I have a nice four day work week. I have AM committee meetings for two of the days. I am now in my 3rd year of teaching 5th grade reading and I feel like I am in a nice groove. I am still learning lessons for grade 7. Sometimes I enjoy those kids, and other days, I would much rather see my 5th graders all day every day. One thing is for sure, I am always learning! 

Have a fantastic week!

Happy Reading!