The Reading Strategies Book Study - Goal 13

Hi there! I can't believe we are at the end of our book study. I have so enjoyed learning from others as I dug into this book. If you have yet to purchase The Reading Strategies Book (affiliate link), I highly recommend it. I'm excited to give some of my new favorite strategies a try this year with my students. 

Today we are taking a look at Goal 13 - Improving Writing about Reading.

If you're just getting started with the book, don't worry. You can catch up by visiting these posts:

Getting Started

Goals 1 and 2

Goals 3 and 4

Goals 5 and 6

Goals 7 and 8

Goals 9 and 10
Goals 11 and 12

This goal is something that I haven't really been concerned about teaching younger students, and Serravallo agrees as she explains, "It's the rare first-grade student for whom writing about reading will be the most important goal at any point in the year." 

I would add to that few second-graders as well. I spent three years teaching 1st grade and four years teaching 2nd grade. Most of our reading time was spent on strengthening decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension.

Here's a few of my favorite strategies:

13.2 Quick Stops Using Symbols

This strategy teaches using symbols to remind the reader of their thoughts. It is the idea of a "stop and jot" to lessen the interruption in reading engagement. Then when the student wants to revisit their thinking, they can look at the symbol to remind them of their thoughts. Love this anchor chart:

13.7 What's Worth Keeping?

I picked this strategy because several of the strategies use sticky notes (I love sticky notes...I mean I really wanted to pick the strategy titled Buying Stock in Sticky Notes 13.4 just because of the name! Ha!), and I can see how it would be important for students to evaluate when a sticky note is worth keeping.  Here's some thoughts about sticky notes worth keeping:

It helps me understand my book.

It connects to my goal.

It will help me talk to my teacher about my reading.

I will use it to springboard conversation.

I intend to use it to write a longer entry about my reading.

13.18 Reacting, Responding

I just love this...from the Teaching Tip section: The point of this lesson is not to kill the aesthetic experience of reading with an assignment. Instead, it's an invitation to children to use writing as a tool to hold on to their most powerful feelings in response to something they've read.

Yep! I mean...this is how I study the Bible. As I'm reading, I stop and jot notes about what the Lord is speaking to me about concerning specific verses. There is just something about writing things down that more permanently imprints them on our minds and hearts. 

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I want to hear from you! Tell me about your favorites either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Don't forget to check out the other blog posts below for more thoughts and ideas!

This concludes our weekly book study. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Wishing you a wonderful and blessed school year as you head back (if you haven't already)!

An InLinkz Link-up

Writing Frames

I have to admit that I am not the best writer and I have a hard time teaching writing.  I'm always looking for ideas.  We have learned a little bit about Anita Archer.  She does a lot of explicit instruction teaching and has talked a lot about writing frames.  If you haven't watched her, you should check her out.  

She talked some about writing frames and how they are good to use still with kids. Using writing frames with kids seems to actually improve their writing according to what she has researched.  I was excited when I learned about it.  Therefore, I have started using writing frames once a week.  We do the Daily 5, so for most days the kids get to do free writing but one day they do a writing frame.  The writing frame gives them parts of the sentences to write and they complete several of the sentences with their own thoughts.  The kids love doing them and my one kids that have a harder time with writing get so excited to show me what they wrote.  I love using them.  

In reading, we had a story called On My Way to School.  In the story, a boy is late to school because he keeps running into different silly animals.  Our writing frame this week was about our story.  The kids had to come up with their own silly animals.  They did a good job on it.  Here they are:

This one got cut off and says, I see a red crab.

Have a great day!

Reading Stories and Writing Biographies

Hey there! 

It feels like it has been forever since I posted...that could be because I missed my Friday post last week. We had a ladies conference at church that kept me busy. 

I'm back today to catch you up on a few things going on around here before I race off to my children's band concert. It is definitely that time of year when the days and evenings are just crammed with activities! Yikes! 

We were supposed to have "Farm Day" this afternoon, but we were rained out. :-( 

So...I thought it was the perfect day to visit the computer lab. 

You see, earlier this week we had interviewed classmates and wrote a biography in our journals. It was time for the final draft.

Here we are practicing our interview skills.

They were so excited to type their biographies! Before we headed to the lab, I explained that they would need to really listen and follow my directions exactly. If they failed to do so, I would become annoyed and I would want to quit. Ha!

This class is absolutely amazing! I just can't say enough good things about them. They did a great job, and we only had one student move another student's folder to an unknown location by mistake. Hee hee. I call it a success! We'll have to finish typing next week.

We have also reading our basal stories differently the last few weeks. I like to do this at the end of the year to keep things exciting and secretly work on learning to cooperate with one another. 

I take each story and type up the questions from the teacher's manual. The groups then read the story and take turns being the teacher by asking the comprehension questions. We discuss the importance of getting along with each other and make sure there are no "hogs or bumps on the log." They are getting pretty good at working together. It is fun to watch!

That's all I have for today! I'm off to the band concert. Both my kids play...my son is playing piano in the jazz band for the first time. He's talked non-stop about it for weeks (and if you knew my son that in itself would tell you how excited he is--he is not a talker)!

Have a great weekend!

Opinion Writing - What's Your Favorite Candy?

Last week I started an opinion writing unit with my 2nd graders. I wanted to try some easy things first before jumping into our Writing About Reading (Lucy Calkins). We have talked about Fact and Opinion a lot already this year, so the kids had no trouble with the concept. I used these great anchor charts to get us going:

Here's a few of my favorites:

 

 

By the way, what is your favorite candy? Leave me a comment below with your e-mail and I will send you a little freebie! Freebie no longer available.

 

 

TPT Finds, Rainbow Editing and the BEST Folders

 

I had to get in on this fun linky over at Blog Hoppin' to show what I picked up at the TPT sale. I'm pretty excited about my finds. Unfortunately, as I'm checking out the linky I'm finding more things to put on my wish list! Ha!

 

So take a look:

 

Can you tell I'm thinking about taking the leap into interactive notebooks next year?

 

It's all because of these Grammar Flippers that I got this summer as a freebie from Teacher's Clubhouse. (I'm sorry, but I don't think they are a freebie--or for sale--anymore--can't seem to find them.) I've been using them all year long with our grammar skill for the week. We do them and the kids take them home never to be seen again...and that grammar skill (unfortunately) is forgotten or confused with the next thing... So I had this bright idea that next year, I could use them in an interactive notebook that the kids (and I) could refer back to as needed.

 

Anyway, these Interactive Science Journals (bundled) by Primary Graffiti have been on my list for awhile. I haven't had too much time to look them over yet, but I am so excited to use them next year!

 

The other one...2nd Grade Interactive Reading Notebook by Nicole Shelby seemed like the perfect choice to go along with my grammar notebooks. I'm planning to use them together in one notebook.

 

Okay, moving on to Listen Up! by Fluttering Through First Grade. I knew I wanted this as soon as I saw Christy and Tammy blog about it. My kids could definitely use some help in the area of listening skills! I'm going to try one (or two, or three, or four) next week. ;-)

 

And finally, Building Skills at Home Parent Handouts by Primary Junction. No need to wait for a sale on this one. It is only $1.00 regular price.

 

Now for a TPT find that I purchased awhile ago...

 

Rainbow Edit Writing Process from Emily at I Love My Classroom.

 

I finally got around to putting it to use and my only regret is that I didn't start sooner! We went through each color and looked through our most recent story as a whole class. Now I realize I should have had a story on chart paper and modeled it first, but I can definitely tell that it is going to help my kiddos check their over their own writing. And next week, I'll be modeling the rainbow edit on chart paper (duh, right?) as we go over it again.

 

One last thing...if you are looking for some folders that will hold up all year, you need to check out Nicky's Folders. The Teachers...Parents Communicator is perfect for a homework folder. I'm going to be using them in my GO Books next year. The intermediate school has been using them for years (since I was the secretary there). They are AMAZING!

 

Hip Hip Hooray! I have to Celebrate!

I have to do some celebrating this week and let me tell you why....I have always had a hard time with helping kids to constantly remember to start with a capital letter when writing a sentence.  I would always talk about it and when I ask, "How do you start a sentence?"  they could always recite back to me, "with a capital letter".  But, when it came down to it, the capital letter was forgotten a lot.  

This summer I was looking for ideas to help with this and I came across these cute writing goals anchor chart posters at Made by Lucy De Nio on TPT.

I decided to attach them all together and put clothespins with the kids names on them.  I told them that they were all starting with the first goal of starting sentences with capital letters.  They knew that whenever they were writing, I would be checking to see if they started their sentences with capital letters.  The kids were so excited about this because they knew that once I saw that they were doing this often, then they would graduate from this goal and move on to the next goal.  I am happy to say that the majority of the students graduated this goal and are now working on ending sentences (without reminders).  I did tell them that they still have to remember to capitalize or they would have to move back up the chart and redo that goal.  

When they graduated from the goal, I gave them the following certificate that I found at http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/english-award-certificates.html

I have one of my students that is going to be graduating this goal this coming up week and all last week he kept saying "I am always going to remember to capitalize at the beginning of a sentence and I keep reminding myself of it every time I start a sentence because I want to graduate that goal really bad".    :-)

So, I am celebrating because I have found something that has helped my kiddos to always remember how to start a sentence and I don't have to remind them every time we write.  YAY!

On another note, I wanted to share some pics of my cat's new favorite place to lay (what a smart kitty cat!)

Laying and praying on the holy bible.  :-)

Have a great week and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Writing Like Scientists...and Catching Up!

Well, I feel like I haven't chatted with you all in forever. To be honest, I feel like I haven't chatted with anyone in forever (well, except my students). It has been crazy around here...

 

...so if you don't want to hear about my life, skip to the bottom for some school stuff...LOL!

 

You may remember I was sick...ugh...still fighting that but finally on the mend I think.

 

I haven't told you that I started coaching middle school basketball (the assistant). My daughter was so excited to have me help...although she did tell me, "Just don't yell at my friends too much." HA! She knows me too well. :-)

 

In music, we are working hard on our Christmas program (yes, already -- remember this is my first time teaching music). I'm happy to report I think it is coming along nicely...my family is sick to death of hearing me practice the songs though!

 

We are getting a furnace!!! Hip hip hooray! We have used only a wood burning stove the last three years for heat (we used to have a wall furnace as a back-up but it had died). It works great, but made for some late nights getting the fire going after we got home from games, etc. I'm so excited to actually walk into a warm house at the end of a long day. And, hey, it made hubby have to put in my walk-in closet I've been waiting for so I'm really happy. Well...I will be...when it is all finished. Right now it is just a messy and dusty house, but hopefully we'll be done soon.

 

Saturday we had family pictures on my side...that is 19 of us. We hadn't done it in 17 years!!! I can't wait to see the real thing, but here is some the kids snapped with my phone while we were waiting (FOUR hours).

 

 

Okay...on to Writing Like Scientists! I'm using Lucy Calkins' Units of Study. We started with a simple experiment to answer the question: "Will this car go farther off the ramp on carpet or a bare floor?" We did the first experiment as a class and worked on writing a lab report last week. Today we talked about how scientists use experiments to come up with more questions. I encouraged them to work with their shoulder buddies and adapt the experiment in some way. Then we headed to the gym (benefit of small school - pretty much can use it whenever we want!).

 

Most of the kids just tried different objects or heavier cars to send off the ramp. Some of them made steeper ramps. The picture below shows my only really inventive idea...these two decided to use the ramp and try two different objects instead of comparing distances on the carpet and bare floor. Of course they didn't really realize that is what they were doing when they started! They were just excited to use the big ramp. ;-)

 

 

One more thing...I'm loving the Grammar Flippers that I got from Teacher's Clubhouse. They gave the file away this summer and I snatched it up. I don't see that it is still listed in their store, but if you can find it, I'd highly recommend it. I use it in my small groups to review our grammar skill of the week. I'm able to differentiate with it by requiring more from some groups. Love it!

 

Have a great week!

Psst...Coming Soon...and Schedule Spotlight Series - Writing!

Okay...okay...enough with the suspense. Here's the big secret I've been keeping.

 

 

Did you see that? Second Grade bloggers... As most of you know, our blog has become a 1st and 2nd grade blog with Kristi still teaching 1st and me moving to 2nd.

 

Still feels weird not to be a firstie! 

 

You are not going to want to miss this freebie hop! There are so many great bloggers teaming up for this, I know the FREEBIES will be amazing! While we are targeting second grade, there will be some freebies that would work for multiple grades. The hop will start on Saturday so check back here for directions on how to get started.

 

And if you are a FIRST GRADE teacher, don't worry. Kristi and I are planning something just for you, too!

 

Now on to...

 

When you're done reading, click the picture to go check out all the other great writing ideas!

 

Writing!

 

I have been waiting for this one! I have done my writing differently every year I've taught (3 years) and am already planning changes for next year.

 

Let me give you a quick history (in first grade)...

 

Year One - Taught writing using the basal (Treasures) and was not at all happy with the lack of growth in my kiddos.

 

Year Two - Writer's Workshop! Loved this...mini-lesson followed by 30 minute block of writing time.

 

Year Three - Insert Daily 5. Not enough time for seperate Writer's Workshop so it became their "Work on Writing" time and I required students to do it daily. I did my mini-lessons in the afternoon with no immediate practice time for the kiddos. Did not like this!

 

Next year...regardless of grade, I would have went back to a seperate Writer's Workshop time.

 

Here's what I'm thinking my schedule will look like next year in 2nd grade:

 

8:30-10:00  Reading Block - Daily 5

10:00-10:30  Recess

10:30-11:40  Math

11:40-12:10  Lunch

12:10-12:40  Writer's Workshop

12:40-1:00  Science/Social Studies Extension

1:00-1:30  MTSS (or RTI if you are not in Kansas)

1:30-2:30  Specials

2:30-3:00  Snack/Read Aloud/Pack Up

 

Obviously, it is not finalized yet... The one thing I know is that I will definitely have a seperate Writer's Workshop and "Work on Writing" in Daily 5 will be more 'fun' types of writing...choosing to make a card, write a letter, etc. By making my main writing seperate from Daily 5, I won't have to require students to do "Work on Writing" daily so I will be able to rotate kids through more of the Daily 5 activities. I will also be giving the kiddos time to practice immediately after the mini-lesson which is what I thought was so successful my second year teaching.

 

As for resources, I have been using Mrs. Meacham's mini-lessons and writing workshop ideas. I'm in the process of begging my district to buy this for me:

 

 

Well, I think that covers it. If you're still with me, I'd love to hear from you. How do you teach writing in your classroom?

 

Do you have Lucy Calkins' Units of Study? If so, what do you think of it?

 

Have a blessed day!

 

 

 

Acrostic Poems = Giggles

The end of April is fast approaching and we hadn't spent a lot of time on poetry yet, so we started writing Acrostic poems.

 

First we did the seasons and the kids did a great job! Here's a few of my favorites:

 

After the seasons, we tried to do our names. That was amusing! I didn't want to take pictures--too revealing of my little kiddos--but here are a few of my favorite things they came up with. They made me laugh - maybe they will give you a giggle!

 

N - Naughty (true of this one :-))

N - Nosy (he said his mom calls him a Nosy Nellie)

O - Obnoxious (HA HA!)

T - Talker (several came up with that, all true! This is a talkative group)

E - Extra special (sweet)

I - Important :-)

U - Unmean (we had been working on the prefixes un and re)

 

Have a great rest of the week!

Crystal