Read alouds

A read aloud or modeled reading, is more than picking up a book and reading it to your students. A read aloud is a strategically planned lesson where the teacher chooses a text to help students with any of the ideas below.

Inquiry Kits for integrating Science into the P.W.I.M

I am really excited about the Inquiry kits that the Curriculum Materials Center in my division has made to accompany some of our  P.W.I.M. cycles.

 The following grade one photo incorporates all the requirements for an engaging  P.W.I.M. photograph.

Classrooms can study elephants and eventually move the inquiry to other large grassland animals in other places, including the bison, thus taking students  to somewhere far away and then returning to something more familiar. This kit contains a variety of fiction and no-fiction books, as well as a DVD and two stuffed elephants-one African, one Asian.

Teachers can take a photograph with each student holding the elephant of their choice. This photo can be glued into a class notebook. Each day a child can have the elephant as a “buddy” and write about the elephant in the notebook. It could be creative writing about an adventure with the elephant or non-fiction writing with facts about elephants. The notebook can be kept in the classroom library. Use the kit to introduce compare and contrast writing between the two kinds of elephants which can then lead to compare contrast writing about bison vs cows. A culminating activity for this inquiry could be  painting photos of elephants to sell at a fundraiser to send to save elephants.

Another kit that has been added, which accompanies the grade two photo of the Ridley Turtle.This kit contains a variety of materials about turtles and tortoises. Studying the life cycles of the Ridley Turtle and why it is endangered covers many of the required  grade 2 Science outcomes in our province.

The following photos are of the grade one eel kit. Many teachers find this topic “gross” but really, what is more engaging to young children than something that is kind of gross and scary? This inquiry can lead to an understanding of needs and characteristics of living things,

My personal favourite kit is the grade 2  sloth kit. The sloth photo depicts someone holding a sloth beside a destroyed forest. Sloths are fascinating (and gross) creatures to study. Tying the inquiry to the devastation of the rain forest and the impact on sloths makes it really interesting for all students. Connecting this inquiry to how humans and animals depend on each other is a good cross curricular science tie. Assess the interdependence of humans and animals in natural and constructed environments. Having students become active world citizens by writing letters to help save the rain forest is a powerful culminating activity for the inquiry.

Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate

In this age of technology, we are seeing more worksheets in classrooms than ever before. It’s so quick and easy to run off a set for the classroom and yet ,we know that the person making the worksheet does the most thinking. Why then are children spending countless hours merely filling in the blanks? Marcia L. Tate provides the reader with many alternatives to those time filling, brain stopping work sheets. Consider some of her ideas in the Wordle below:

If you haven’t read her book, I highly recommend reading it whether it is for your own classroom or to support teachers.

Text Structures-Compare Contrast Writing

I’ve started trying to organize my work in a way that is a little faster for me to grab when I run out to schools.

For my work with comprehension text structures, I purchased some clear thick plastic envelopes. I labeled the envelopes according to the text structure materials I want to use.

In each folder,I have the requirements for text structures per grade as outlined by my province. I have a copy of the text structure anchor chart that I plan to create with the students , and I have a variety of books that are good mentor text for teaching the author’s craft.

These are some of my favourite texts that I use to teach Compare Contrast Writing:

   

After reading parts of the book to the students, it is always useful to co construct  a Venn Diagram for Compare Contrast Writing.It is also important to create an anchor chart with the necessary signal words for the text structure.

Compare and Contrast Signal Words

alike           also         as well as            both           but       different

in the same way        like         similar          still      too      unlike       while

Lesson plan using Gradual Release of Responsibility

Compare Contrast Writing

 Explain what structures are and why authors use them (reading/writing

connection)

 Talk about signal words-look for them in your reading and use them in your

writing

 Mentor text :Share Jim Arnosky’s writing and what you like about it including

last sentence

 I use  Rhinos and elephants  for my model

 We do: Ideas skating to hockey-cats to dogs-before treaty after treaty

 Do we do again

 You try!!

 Head into writing alone

Read More

Grade One Writing – Ecriture en premiere annee

I was invited into a classroom to work on writing in a grade one room. The teacher really wanted her students to start writing more than labelling few words at a time. Merci B.S. for sharing your students with me  🙂

I suggested that we start with a simple text that had a predictable pattern as a model. I also wanted to reinforce the gradual release of responsibility as I modeled this lesson. I told the students I wanted them to feel more comfortable in writing a sentence so we were going to work on it together. I chose the following book to start my lesson:I read the book to the students. They understood the simple pattern before I was finished the book. I told them which attributes of the book I liked, as I wrote them on an anchor chart to use for future reference. We went back through the book again to check and see if the book actually had all the attributes that I had mentioned.

Next, I modeled  a piece of writing that I had written, using the same format. I added the pictures as we read. The children practiced reading the story aloud several times.

Together, we decided on a topic to write about . They wanted to write about food, so after some discussion they chose carrots. At this point the children were quite comfortable with the format. They gave me the simple title. We looked at our attribute chart and I asked them how I should start the piece of writing. They told me what to write, and I printed it out, reinforcing the punctuation as I wrote each line. The children took turns illustrating. Again we practiced reading aloud.

At this point we told the class that we wanted each table group to create a small book just like in the book 1,2,3 chauves-souris…and just the way we had written about the cats and the carrots. We had each group pick a topic. They had to decide who was going to write page 1, 2 … Each student was given a blank page with simple lines at the bottom. They were to follow the sentence pattern and then illustrate it. We asked them all to stick with the food topic. Next time they can change the topic.

When each group was finished their writing and illustrating, the books were stapled together with a cover page. The children practiced reading their little book aloud in small groups and then presented it to the class. Some groups read the entire book together while others chose to read page by page individually.

The result? 4 new books to add to the class reading basket.A great basket to put in the hallway for parents to look through at conference time.

   Assessment was simple-did the picture match the writing, was printing an issue, could the student read their own writing, how well did the group cooperate.

 

 

Puppet Reading-(simple yet brilliant)

One of best parts of my job is working in classrooms with teachers and students. Everywhere I go, I learn something new.

I recently visited a classroom where the teacher showed me her student’s reading puppets. Each student has a “puppet buddy” which is kept in their take home reading bags. The puppet goes home every night and comes back to school everyday.

The puppets were made from scrap material so no two were alike. The fronts and backs were not the same.(put out a call for left over material, find a friend who sews and whip them up on a weekend) The puppets are faceless which leaves creativity and imagination intact. Students are able to draw how the puppet is feeling or what it is wearing on paper and store it in the reading bag.

 

Students are given the option to read to the puppet-they hold it up and read aloud. The puppet listens carefully. This is particularly great for students who have nobody to read to at home and need to practice oral fluency.

The second option is to have the puppet help the student read. The puppet helps the student track the words and read along with them.

The students were very excited to show me their puppets and how they use them. What a great way to build engagement in reading 🙂

Thank you J.C. for inviting me into your classroom and sharing this creative idea.

No More Phonics and Spelling Worksheet

   

By Jennifer Palmer, Marcia Invernizzi, Curry School of Education, Edited by Nell K. Duke, Edited by Ellin Oliver Keene

This was one of my great finds of the summer. I read it twice. It made me reflect on my practice. I made notes as I went along….I’ve been trying to be more concise and colourful in my note-taking…

Here are some of the thoughts I collected. The authors say plainly no more work sheets. Children need to be doing more thinking than the teacher is. (Usually with worksheets, the person who created the worksheet has done most of the thinking, but that’s another blog post!!) Children need flexible groupings for spelling, the groups need to change based on need and growth.

If you are struggling with the concept of spelling tests, read this book!!

So what can you do when you’ve thrown out the worksheets for the year? This book suggests assessing your students word knowledge regularly.  Use the Words Their Way Assessment or the Monster Test. Decide what your students need and do word sorts (open and closed), play games, have a word study notebook, have a good word wall, use lists, poetry, songs and chants. Connect the word study to what they are learning in school and to what they are reading.

I have struggled for years both as a teacher and as a parent with the concept of spelling tests…I have tried so many kinds until I gave them up for good. There are so many questions!!! What are we actually testing- spelling ability or memory recall? Do students retain the knowledge once the test is over? Should students be spending more time at home memorizing lists or should they be simply reading and writing? Is this a worthy use of my time or my students time? Am I giving weekly test because parents want them? Aren’t there better ways to assess how my students are spelling than through a weekly test?

The more I read and research, the more I say NO to worksheets NO to the weekly test.. In simple terms, in order to spell we need to understand letter sounds and words. We need to know the parts of words and how they fit together. We need to understand word meaning.

For more information on this topic read No More “Look Up The List” Vocabulary Instruction

http://theconversation.com/why-some-kids-cant-spell-and-why-spelling-tests-wont-help-20497

The Reading Strategies Book

I’ve been reading the Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo. This book was first recommended to me by my colleague L.H. and by  Aimee Buckner ,whom I had the great pleasure of working with , this summer at our school division’s “Back to School Ignite” session.

There are many things I like about this book. The layout is really practical. Jennifer starts with a concise introduction explaining how to use it. The introduction is followed by 13 goals influenced by the work of John Hattie, to help students improve their reading, by setting clear goals for students. Within each of the 13 goals there are answers to questions such as “how do I know this is right for my students?” accompanied by suggested strategies. There is a side bar on each page titled “who is this for?” which tells you which Fountas and Pinnell  reading level the strategy is intended for, what genre(s) it addresses ,and suggests what skills students might need.  There are also book recommendations and colourful photographs of anchor charts to co-create with students.

This book is a must for every school’s professional library, but I would highly recommend it as a support for beginning elementary school teachers as well.

I will be posting lessons I try from it!!

We’re Back! (What is your classroom like this year?)

So summer flew by and school is back in session. The excitement of a fresh start is everywhere . Students will be with you all day every day. What are you doing to make them feel at home? Have you really thought deeply about the environment they are spending so much time in?

My question as I visit classrooms this week is: so who does this classroom belong to? It is always interesting to see where teachers find themselves.

• Does the classroom belong to the teacher store?- with cute cuddly purchased cartoons, many bright colourful posters, pre-made rules and nothing created by the students? A great many words yet to be taught on all the walls…An overwhelming load of brightness…
• Does the classroom belong to the teacher?- with a great portion of the classroom sectioned off as teacher space, teacher’s possessions and teacher’s rules. Very much  this is the teacher’s classroom and students are mere visitors…
• Does the classroom belong in an institution? Devoid of any colour, joy ,motivation, or connection to learning…
• Does the classroom belong to the students with photographs of them, as well as their families(building community and a sense of belonging) along with co-constructed anchor charts and a variety of learning spaces being created as the days go by…

In my career, I have had all of the above kinds of classrooms…I got better as I learned more. I wish I had a re-do for some of those years. I’m pretty proud of other years.

What does your classroom look like this year?

To read more on this topic:

One of my favourite resources is Teaching With Intention by Debbie Miller   Stenhouse Publishers

https://saskatchewanreads.wordpress.com/learning-environment/

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/734

http://deb-frazier.blogspot.ca/2011/01/teaching-with-intention-by-debbie.html