Green Day and Natalie Merchant Came to School!

I love the feeling I get when a student completely NAILS an assignment. It is an amazing moment when you read a student response and they explain their thoughts with depth and feeling. I am so proud of the responses my students shared during this lesson.

 

During our unit, Following Characters into Meaning, we read the book Wonder by RJ Palacio. Several times in the book, the author refers to songs or uses songs as chapter titles. She uses quotes from songs to divide the book into sections. She cites certain songs that relate to certain characters. Two of the songs she happens to use are in my list of favorites on my iPod. They are songs I have heard live in concert. They are songs that my students had never heard.  So I felt it was my duty to change that. 

 

That is why my students grooved to Wonder by Natalie Merchant and rocked out to When September Ends by Green Day!

 

One of my professional goals this year is to make a concerted effort to spend more time exposing my students to a variety of genres. I'm not just going to teach the typical units that are required. I plan to incorporate genres throughout all of my teaching. Music is poetry so it fit perfectly into my plans!

 

I gave students the lyrics so they could follow along as they listened to the songs. The first time they simply listened to the song. The second time they sang along (if they wanted to), danced, and played air guitar and/or drums. The third time they made notes on their lyric sheets. For the first song I simply had the lyrics printed on the sheets. For the second song I added in guiding questions.

 

 

You can tell this student takes music lessons by his notations.

She made a personal connection to her religion by commenting that God should be capitalized.

He labeled the poetry pattern in the stanzas of the lyrics!

Switcharoo With No Snafus...So Far!

I'm moving you. I usually hear these words every 4 or 5 years. Teachers are THE most flexible professionals I know!  A hospital administrator would not go to a pediatrician and say, "I'm moving you to brain surgery." Teachers though...we do it all!  This year I have moved from teaching 3rd grade inclusion Literacy to teaching 4th grade catalyst Literacy. Last year my students ranged in reading levels from A to O at the beginning of the year.  This year my students range from O to U at the beginning of the year!  Quite a switch...

 

Not to mention I have also been moved out to a mobile unit. This means I have had to totally reconstruct my "perfected" Balanced Literacy classroom setup that I had created in my former classroom...carpets, tables instead of desks, individual reading sweet spots.  But it is ALL good! I have a new plan, new setup, new ideas, new requests, and a new attitude! So let's get started with the first blog of the 2014-2015 school year!

 

 

There wasn't enough room for me to do tables in the mobile so I went with longer rows in an H configuration. I haven't decided what to do with the meeting area yet because I don't have a large carpet. I also am not sure about the size of my students so I am not sure if all 25 of them will sit comfortably in the front meeting area. I will just wait until our first Reading Workshop mini-lesson on Tuesday and see what the students think. Hey, I have my rocking chair and easel so I am ready!

One section of the classroom is devoted to Word Work and Writing. I have my hanging baskets ready for students' Words Their Way folders. I have my Writing tubs with dictionaries, thesauri, frequently misspelled words list, rhyming dictionaries, and other reference materials. There is a variety of paper on the shelves along with my writing anchor books and exemplar texts.

 

The classroom may look bare right now, but I think it is important to put your anchor charts up as you teach. Behind my desk I display my diplomas, teaching license, and awards because students should be able to see what makes a teacher a professional. Show them what it means to have a career. The purple pocket chart by the back door has cards in it that parents can take if they would like to make a donation to the classroom. I currently would like: jump ropes, kickball bases, bathroom mats, cloth tablecloths, Smarties, decks of cards, chess/checkers sets.

 

Last year I used Stone Fox for my first unit (Building a Reading Life) read aloud. This year I am going to read Wonder. I chose this book because I want to start the year out teaching the importance of accepting others' differences in life. I put this bulletin board up for Open House to spark an interest (Teach Like a Pirate)...students and parents were talking about it!

 

The most important part of a Balanced Literacy classroom is the classroom library. I packed away by low level books and dug out my high level books. My co-workers are amazing at sharing! Plus I reaped the benefits of a retired teacher who left me MANY high level books.

 

This year I organized my library into chapter books (N-Z), fiction picture books (N-Z), nonfiction books (N-Z), and several topic-related sections.

 

I saw the idea for "readboox" on Pinterest, so I cannot take full creative credit for it!  The example on Pinterest was much more elaborate, but I like the message it presents for students.

 

The special topics for this section of the library are based on 4th grade interests from a survey I read on Twitter (I'm sorry I can't find the link):

 

Star Wars

Series of Unfortunate Events

Animal Ark

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys

Beverly Cleary

Who Is?

I Survived

Strong Females

Sports

Award Winners

Dogs

Fairies and Magic

Mysteries

 

In the nonfiction section, I also added in a collection of animal books called Nature's Children and the Magic School Bus series (I know this is narrative nonfiction, but I will address it in a mini-lesson).

 

The organization part of my classroom is ready for the year to start on Monday, so today I will spend my time at work preparing for the academic events!

A-Z with F&P

I need to begin this post by giving credit to my Literacy Facilitator, Vicki Douvikas, for sharing this idea at a Balanced Literacy training. She showed us how to create a toolkit to help us have more effective conferences during Reading Workshop. I took her suggestions, added in my own ideas, and created my version of a conferencing toolkit.
 
The basic idea of this toolkit is to give teachers a readily available set of books and questions to guide your conferences with readers based on their reading levels.

 

I used a thick, 3-ring binder with plastic pockets. You could choose to color-code your plastic pockets with green for at-level, yellow for strategic, and red for intensive based on your grade level text. I did not color-code mine because I wanted it to be flexible just in case I ever have to change grade levels.

 

There is one pocket for each letter of the alphabet which corresponds to the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Levels. Inside each pocket there is a set of prompts to use when conferencing with your readers, one or two books at the particular level, and questions stems to guide your discussions.

 

 

 

 

I use books from the website Reading A to Z. I chose these books for a few reasons. They are readily available and you can print as many copies as you need. These books are leveled to the Fountas and Pinnell scale. The books are also part of RAZ Kids, so the students can independently read the books you use during the conference. There are a variety of genres and interesting topics. These paper books are not as bulky as real books.

 

 

**Please take note of the inside cover of the book--the correlation is sometimes a letter off.  Make sure you have the books leveled correctly. A Reading A to Z book may be a letter L, but its F&P level may actually be a K.**

 

 

 

I cover the stapled spine of the book with duct tape so it will last through many reads.

 

 

I also place jottings inside the book to help guide my discussions with readers. I will be honest and say I do not have all of my books coded with sticky notes yet because it is very time consuming. This binder is an ongoing piece of work. I am sure I will add, delete, and change several things as the year progresses. That IS what good teachers do--we change instruction to meet our learners' needs.

 

 

 

The books I put in my toolkit are not random.  For the lower levels, A-F, I used mostly realistic fiction. With levels G-U I chose to use as many fables, mysteries, and biographies as I could find because these are the genre that my students struggle with the most. I added in some nonfiction books and chose topics my students are interested in such as dangerous animals and the Titanic.

 

The prompts and question stems come from a couple of different places. One set of prompts is from our TCRWP coach. I'm sorry I do not have these to share with you. They were part of our district's training and I only have hard copies. If you are part of Balanced Literacy with Teachers' College, I would ask your coach for a set of them.You also could use any questioning stems or prompts you are comfortable with such as Marzano's or Bloom's.

 

The other prompts I use are based on Reading 3D and mClass (you know, the DIBELS people). They are taken from the TRC section. The website http://www.mybookezzz.net/mclass-comprehension-stems/ has PDF files of the questions broken down into F&P levels. If you look at the screen shot below, the first PDF file will give you a bulleted list of questions and the second one will give you a matrix version of question stems.

 

 

 

bulleted lists

 

 

matrix

This toolkit was time consuming. I had to use a lot of ink, a lot of paper, and spend a bit of money to purchase the materials. I think it is definitely worth it though! After you create your toolkit, you will have instant lessons tailored to your students' reading levels. You will have talking points all ready for when you conference with your readers.

Thank you again, Vicki, for the great idea.

 

Know Your Students, Know Your Books

I scored a tremendous treasure at the used book store, The Last Word. I bought 68 books for my classroom library and paid $100.  I added up the original publisher's price and the books would've cost $478! So I am going to celebrate this incredible deal with you by explaining why I bought these specific books.

Teachers not only match their students to books using reading levels, we match them up by interest. My students love the funny Dan Gutman series, My Weird School.

I found 12 of them for only $1 each!

I was excited to find a book to use for teaching. I am familiar with Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, but I did not know that the author, Eleanor Coerr, had written a picture version of the story for younger readers. I look forward to developing a lesson incorporating these two books.

I bought this book because it was a lower level historical fiction book. These can be hard to find.

I have a few students in my class who have low self-esteem. They realize their reading levels are low and are sometimes embarrassed by it. I chose this book because it is about a boy who always strikes out in baseball and how he overcomes his embarrassment. I think books are a great way for students to connect with characters who have similar problems or obstacles.

I bought 10 of these books this summer and I was stoked to find they had 6 more in stock!

I have a VERY talkative class this year, so this book was an obvious choice!

This series is written by the same author as The Bailey School Kids. My students like the Goosebumps books in our classroom library, but those books have too high of a level for some of my readers. These ghostly books are a lower level and less scary (in my opinion).

Girls and science...

There are lots of football and baseball books in my classroom library, but the boys said they would like to read more basketball books.

I love this graphic novel series. I mentioned it in class one day and my students never heard of Babymouse...no excuse now!

A book about the Titanic AND a dog?! Perfect for my third graders. These two topics were at the top of several interest lists.

I was reorganizing the classroom library this year and I noticed that I was on the weak side of literature with male lead characters. I picked up these 3 books because they looked fun and exciting for boys.

More books for my boys.

Yes, I know there are girls that may enjoy reading them, too. 

More male lead characters. The Hank Zipzer books are written by Henry Winkler.

Dogs, penguins, and sharks are the top animals my students enjoy reading about. They were also yelling Marco Polo on the swings during recess the other day, so that was a bonus interest match.

I can never resist legends from other cultures. I found a Cuban, a Japanese, and two Native American books.

This book is stunning. I have never heard of it before, but now I cannot wait to use it in a lesson. It will be perfect for a genre discussion because students might think it is nonfiction, or realistic fiction, or even poetry. This book will be great to launch a genre discussion. The vocabulary is high level and colorful, so it can also be used in a writing lesson.

My current copy of this book is torn and taped. I HAD to buy a new one.

Who can resist Seymour Simon?

The Usborne Discovery books all contain internet links throughout the text so that students can do further research. I think this book will be a useful addition to our classroom since students can now bring their own technology devices to school. 

Fractured fairy tales are always a hit!

I have never read this historical fiction tale.

I consider this book to fall into the category of complex text due to the author's style of writing and organization. It also has some serious themes in it. I plan on using it for a lesson on point of view.