Tweet! Tweet! A reading response option

In an earlier post, I shared that  I am working to mix up my reading response options for my students.  One of the options that I am giving students this year is Twitter.

I used Twitter in the classroom two years ago successfully, but with last year's craziness, I kind of dropped it.  I am planning to really make it work this year.

I have a class account for Twitter, and that is what the students will use.  Even though all will have access to their own computer, I pull our account up on our classroom computer, and that is where they post their tweet. 

This year, I will recommend that everyone try to do one tweet every two weeks.  When they think they know what they want to say (about a book they are reading independently or one that we are looking at as a class) they will write the tweet into their Reading Notebook.  Once I give it the okay, they will be allowed to put it out there on Twitter.  So that I can keep track of who has tweeted, students will be asked to put their initials at the end of their tweet.

I am even thinking that we may find a way to keep track of retweets, quotes, and responding tweets.  We found two years ago that there are a lot of other classrooms on Twitter.  It was cool to connect with students around the world.  This year, I am really going to encourage our parents to follow us on Twitter, too.

We will also use our account to create class tweets after learning new accounts or to share other things we are doing in our classroom.  It is a great way to focus on main ideas and determining importance!

Do you have other ideas for using Twitter with your class?  I would love to hear them!

Independence Day + Close Reading

I have been motivated by my patriotic spirit....I am so incredibly blessed to be part of this fabulous nation, and weekends like this remind me of all of the great things that our country has to offer.

One of the most difficult things I am finding with all of our new initiatives is being able to find time to teach social studies and science.  Many people are okay with pushing them aside in favor of more reading time, and while I am a huge proponent of reading, I also believe that we need to expose our students to necessary background information in the content areas. 

I think what I have created will help in a couple of ways.  It will allow me to incorporate more exposure to history and geography while also exposing students to more reading of nonfiction.  In addition, the hope would be that kids will begin to pick up on key words in the text to help them solve the question.

What I am attaching is a sampler of what I made for my class.  It is an activity called "What's My Name?"  I will display it in my room by revealing a clue each day of the week and offering students the chance to guess who/what they think it is.  I have seen commercial versions of things like this before, but I think they typically are just people.  In my version, I am also including cities and landmarks.

Feel free to use if you wish.  It is nothing fancy, but it is good information.  I learned some new things preparing these pages.    I hope you and your students enjoy!



Click on the flag for the link to the What's My Name Sampler

Notebook Connections

While traveling last week, I had the time to read Aimee Buckner's book Notebook Connections.  As I stated earlier, I am really looking to "beef up" my student's reading responses this year.  I have done workshop for a long time, and I have had my students respond to their reading, but not to the level that will help them to meet the CCSS.  This book was a great read and really broadened my ideas!
I am still considering having the students choose from a variety of writing choices as I discussed in my earlier post, but instead of having them choose one response for me to score, I think that I will use Ms. Buckner's more holistic approach and collect their notebooks every two weeks and give them a grade for variety and depth of entries in the notebook.  I will score the notebook and make one response in general to the four-five entries they have written.

Another goal for this year's reading workshop is to do a better job of using the notebooks while conferencing with students.  I work hard to meet with students quite frequently, but I do not do a great job of reviewing and discussing their notebook entries with them.  I want this to be an area where I grow this year.

I am now going to read Ms. Buckner's writing notebook book called Notebook KnowHow.  I am sure that, while it focuses on writing workshop, it will still help me to continue to fine-tune my thoughts on student responses to reading.

Have you read either of these books?  Do you have any ideas to share?

Words Their Way Game Freebie

This fall, I will begin my 3rd year using Words Their Way in my classroom.  It will be the first year that it is district curriculum.

I am glad that I have used it for a couple of years, as I have been able to become more comfortable with it and make changes to my plans as I go.  In general, I think it is a good program.  I have found parents relatively receptive to it although some still struggle with understanding how it works.

This game I made for Monday Made It with Tara.  It is a pretty easy game, and I will continue to develop it for more sorts as the  year continues.  So far I have made the game for sorts 1-15 in Book 3.  The majority of my 3rd graders have been falling into the Syllables and Affixes stage, so I decided this was a good place to start.

I started with some of those little gems that you use in the bottom of vases.  I got these at Michaels.

I used circle labels to mark some as Free Choice, Lose a Turn, and Oddball.  These will be able to used throughout the year for all of the sorts I create.

Next, I began with Unit 1 in the above book, and I put the headers for the Unit 1 sorts onto other gems.  As we start sorts, I will pull out the gems the kids need to complete the sort. Most sorts have about three headers.  That will mean 3 gems plus one free choice and lose a turn gem making a total of about 5 gems for the game.

These gems will be placed in a bag or cup in the middle of the two players. The students will take their sort cards and lay them in a pool face up.  (Each player will have their own pool.)  They will then put their sort headers onto a piece of paper in front of them.  They will follow these directions to then play the game.

Basically, the first player to place all of their cards in the sort correctly wins.  We will typically have about 20-30 minutes of word work each day, so I think that this game will be able to be completed during this time.

I am making three sets of gems for each unit which will allow 6-9 kids to play.  Most of my groups do not have more than 9 students in them.

Well--There is my Monday Made It!  Go check out Tara's website to find more great ideas!

Writing about Reading

What do you do to have your students write about their reading?  This is an important part of reading workshop, and I have tried many different ideas. I am working to merge what my district wants with what I feel best about for my students.

My district uses reading and writing workshop for our literacy instruction.  I love it!  I have implemented reading workshop (in a variety of forms) for about 20 years now.  One piece that I am working to make stronger is my students' thoughtful entries.  I was having them write one strong blog entry a week plus a comment on another person's blog.  This worked well for most, but for some of my students it was just too much. 

Last school year, I made it one thoughtful blog entry every two weeks.  This seemed more manageable for most of my kids and allowed for more time for them to read!  However, about midway through the year, we were told that our kiddos should be completing two thoughtful entries PER WEEK!  Ahh!  Not only is that a lot of writing, it could also equal up to a lot of grading!  Upon further exploration, we were told one should be a thoughtful entry and another could be a graphic organizer or something else that shows good thinking.

SOooooooooo...here I am trying to figure out how to do this and keep my mind.  (what little is left of it)  I am a huge believer in student choice.  So I am going to set my students up in a two week rotation.  Every week, half of the class will be responsible for choosing one of the responses they have done in the last two weeks and turn it in to be scored.

My current plan is that each student will have one of these in their binder and will check off as they finish different responses in the two week period.  When they choose which one they want to submit for me to score, they will mark it on this chart, too.  That way they will be able to see if they are offering me diverse responses to score.  (The tweets and book tree options will probably not be offered as scorable opportunities)  The blank columns are for weeks when they are given a different type of response option.

This is TOTALLY still a work in progress.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Do you have a thoughtful response method that you find to be really valuable?  I want this to be good learning for the students, but I also want them to have some control, too!

PLEASE...

Share your thoughts and ideas.

Monday Made it!

I really do try to make my summer projects be ones that are functional as well as cute, but this one is only for looks.

I am sure you have seen the ribbon chandelier on Pinterest.  Well, I decided to make one to hang over my classroom library.

 

This was my beginning.  I wasn't satisfied with its look though.

 

I had seen one on Pinterest using a hula hoop as a base, but I decided to use wire wreath frames so that I could layer it.  I have a larger frame on the top and the smaller one suspended in the middle.  My room colors are greens and blues, so I used green, white, yellow ribbon on the outside frame and blues and purple ribbons on the inner ring.

 

I decided to add more tulle to the tops of the frames to not only hide the frames better, but to give it a more finished look.  I used fishing line to connect the two frames and to hang the entire thing.  I think it will look cute in the classroom.

 

 

I will make sure not to hang it too low.  Don't want to tempt any kids to pull on those ribbons!

 

 

Thanks again, Tara, for the motivation to get things done in the summer!  I know it will make a big difference when school starts!

 

 





So....

I have taken a more than HUGE hiatus from my blog.  The last school year was a very trying one for me.   Our district's initiatives and expectations required so much of my time that I had to step away from my blog.

I have begun summer by doing a lot of NOTHING.  It has felt good to give my teaching brain a break.  I have read a lot of books.  Here are some I have enjoyed. 



The Titanic series was a fun and easy one to read.  I know many of my students will enjoy it.  Even though I know a lot about the events of the Titanic, this gave me some new information, and I really enjoyed the characters.  They would be good to help kids better understand the beginning of the 20th century.

 I liked As Simple as it Seems.  It was a "girl growing up" book.  It had a voice that I enjoyed, and I can see some of my strong girl readers enjoying it, too.

Masterpiece is by no means a new book, but one that I had not gotten around to reading.  I liked the mystery, but I enjoyed the art history lessons more.  It reminded me of the Blue Balliet books that I love--Chasing Vermeer, The Wright 3, and The Calder Game.  What better way to teach students art history than through a good mystery and strong characters?

I read Ghost Train to Nowhere because I thought some of my more reluctant readers will enjoy it..  It was probably too much for many of them, but I think I will have an audience for it.  It kind of reminded me of a Scooby Doo episode.  :)

Adventures in Cartooning was cute.  Definitely good for my reluctant readers and for my students who enjoy writing cartoons. 

You may remember from other posts that I am really enjoying the Theodore Boone series.  The Accused is not the newest in this series, but it is new in paperback, and I don't typically buy hardback books for my classroom.  Theodore Boone is a kid detective/lawyer who is easy for kids to understand.  This book is actually a continuation of the first Theodore Boone book, but  I don't think it is necessary to read the first to understand this.  Another good thing about this series is that it is written by John Grisham.  I like to expose my readers to authors that they can enjoy throughout their lives.

One Amazing Thing is not a book for my classsroom.  It is a book that my son is being asked to read as part of his university's freshman reading program.  It was a nice book to read, and I am glad that I read it to share my ideas with my son.  He is not much of a reader, but I think that he will be interested to learn about the characters in this book.  In the story, the characters are trapped in an office after an earthquake, and they decided to pass the time by sharing one amazing thing about their lives.

So today's post is my effort to get back in the swing of things.  I have  a lot to share from the last school year plus things I have been working on this summer. I hope there are still people out there that are reading....:)

A Chance to Catch my Breath!

You would think after doing this for 25 years, it wouldn't still seem so overwhelming...however with writer's workshop, reading workshop, Words their Way, math workshop, and my own 4 children, IT IS!

I really do love the challenge of trying to meet all of my students' needs through the differentiation these approaches offer, but I need a secretary to keep track of all of the other "teacher stuff" I have to do.  If I could just plan, teach, and assess, I think I could handle it all.  It's all of the extras that have kept me away from my blog for the last month and a half.

Tonight, I am going to try to catch up on my blogs, and hopefully I can post some of the things we are doing later this week. (If anyone is still reading this blog.  :))

Classroom Reveal!

This year, I have been going in to my classroom little by little, and it has seemed to be less stressful!  Today, I got to a point where the room is pretty much done. I am still waiting for my class list.  That will be more things to complete, but for now, here is what I have.

 

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Math technology for the new school year!

I am starting to get into the mode of preparing content for school rather than just thinking about what my room will look like and organizational materials.  I know those are important, but they tend to require less thinking than writing lessons.  I am slowly trying to gear my brain up for lessons...

Anyway, I have come upon some fun math technology tools that I am hoping to use this year.  I have posted before about math websites.    Most of these are new ones that I have recently found.  I thought I would share with you!

You know I love SUMDOG, so I'll just give them another quick plug in case someone out there still hasn't been to their awesome site.  My kids love Sumdog!

McGrawHill has a great work site with math tools that you could use on your SMARTBoard or have students use on individual computers.  Parents might even like to be able to use them from home.

http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html

Everyday Math has a very similar work site, too.  Both have their tools setup by grade level.

  http://everydaymath.com/EM_eToolkit_Demo/eTools_v1.html


This site from the UK has a puzzle each day.  Love it!

The MathFacts CAFE is free and gives you access to math worksheets, factsheets, and flash cards...

Finally, I liked this resource from Teacher LED will  help students visualize the process of multiplication.

I know there are so many great sites!  It is hard to pick which ones to share!  If you would like to share your own math technology sites, I would love to learn about them!

Another Monday Made-It!

I have to give it to Tara...I certainly would have had a hard time staying motivated all summer prepping my classroom if it wasn't for her Monday Made Its!  Thanks so much!

This week, I made some stools for my guided reading table.  These six little guys are going to give my crowded classroom a lot more seating options!  I am very excited about them!

Here they are!  I don't know why I decided to surround the pole in the dining room with them, but....

To make them was very simple, and pretty cheap, too.  I bought the paint tubs and lids at Lowe's.  4 of them had permanent labels on them while the other two had removable labels.  Because of the permanent labels, I decided to use the duck tape to help hide the imprints.  They helped a little...thankfully, the labels are only on one side of the bucket.

I removed the handles from the paint tubs, and I used the lids as my pattern for cutting the material.  (I used canvas. I alreday had the blue, and I picked up the bright plaid at JoAnn Fabrics.  They will both match my room wonderfully!)  I cut the material in circles with a 6 inch bigger diameter than the lid itself.  It doesn't matter if it is perfect....just leave about 3 inches around from the lid to the size of the circle you cut.

Finally, I stuffed the lid by stapling the canvas to it and filling it.  I decided to use a duck tape trim around the bottom edge of the seat cover.  It helped to conceal the staples, and I liked the finished look it gave to the stools.

What do you think?  As I said, I really like them.  My sons have already tried them and decided that they were sturdy and comfortable.  I can't wait to use them around the table, for partner work, and for just extra seating around our gathering spot.

Go check out all of the great ideas over at Tara's linky party!

Welcome to Success!

What do you do in your classroom to help all students feel successful?

For many years, I used to have a banner in my room that read WELCOME TO SUCCESS! (a la Harry K. Wong)  I really do believe that all of my students have something to offer our class.  I want them to feel comfortable with themselves, and I want them to feel like they are contributing and growing in our class.

It has been a couple of years since I hung that banner.  I may have to do it again this year.  I wqant them to know that I believe that they are special and talented.  I try to show them this in my language, by offering a variety of choice activities, and by pointing out my strengths and weaknesses.  They need to know that very few of us are full of only strengths.  We all have areas that are more difficult for us.  When we work in groups, we try to "play to our strengths."  We do it as adults, so I think they should learn to do it some as children, too.  That doesn't mean we avoid trying to strengthen our weaknesses...

What things do you do to help students feel talented and successful?

Monday Made It!

This week, I worked to make a tool that I can use in the classroom to know where students are all of the time.

I had seen one of these on Pinterest, but I didn't want to make one that was quite so big.  I bought a pizza pan at the Dollar Tree, and used some cute scrapbook paper, a little Modge Podge, some buttons and magnet strip, and here we have it!

It is ready for 30 students. (But I am hoping to have a few less than that!)  The kids will start each day in the classroom section, and then we will move the kids who are absent at the beginning of the day, and as students continue to move in and out throughout the day they will move their magnets as necessary...

 This is what it would look like with 2 kids absent, a student in the bathroom and one at the nurse.  With so many kids in my room and so many in and out for various things, it will help me to keep track.  I like the pizza pan because it will not take up much space.  I placed little carets after each location to show students where to place their number.  (I know that makes it slightly more confusing, but I think they will get used to it quickly.)  The others I have seen are made on square cookie sheets, but I was just a little concerned for space.

I used the remaining paper to cover this cute little friends sign that I am going to place in my room.

I may still have to recover the paper holder I made last week so that it all coordinates better.  :)

Go check out all of the other great creations at Tara's blog!

QR Codes, Book Choice, and a freebie

Last year, my students created QR codes to share their products with the class.  This year, I am hoping to continue this, but to also find other ways to use QR Codes into our classroom.

What is a QR code?  QR codes are the little boxes with black and white design that you sometimes find in advertisements or on products.  They can be read by a smartphone or other devices (like an Ipad) when you have a QR reader app.  (There are plenty of free QR reader apps.)

I have one outside my door of my classroom which directs parents to our class website.

My class's website

One of the ways I have decided to use them this year is to attach them to some of the books in my library so that kids can find out more about the book before they read the book.  The QR codes I created take the students to websites, book summaries, or a book trailer (FYI--some are from YouTube).

I am excited about trying this with my students this year, and I hope to continue to "grow" my number of codes.  I teach 3rd grade, and I tried to create codes for a wide range of books.  The one thing I haven't done yet is create any for non-fiction books.  I will have to work on that next!  :)

I use the site called QR Code Generator.  I find it very easy to use.  Just paste in the URL for the site that you want the device to go to.  For the document I am sharing today, I used my snipping tool to take a picture of the QR code and then I pasted it into a word document. 

If you would like to have a copy of the 17 codes I have created so far, you can either scan the QR code  or follow the link at the bottom of the post!  Leave me a comment to let me know if you have other ideas for how to use these codes or other QR codes in your room!

Enjoy...I think your students will!

QR code link to Google doc

OR.....link to Google Doc.

You still have time to join the Find your Voice Linky party for mentor texts to use when teaching voice.  C'mon...I know you can think of a picture book you use to cover this skill...

Story telling with Storybird.com

                                                              Refrigerator Babies on Storybird

Have you tried Storybird.com yet?  It is a fun online site for kids to use to write stories/books.  The site provides sets of illustrations, the student chooses pictures from a set and writes a story to accompany the pictures.

My students last year liked it, and I liked that it was an easy way for them to share their writing with me, their classmates, parents, or grandparents!

On this site, you create a class and enter your students names.  Students then use their username and password to access the site.

It was a great option for my students to use during their independent writing time.  It also allows for the teacher to create an assignment for the class.  I would recommend that you check it out as an option for the next school year!

Thinking of writing, you still have time to link up and share a mentor text to use when teaching students about voice. 

Made It Monday!

Here I am linking up again with Tara's Made It Monday.

I am truly going to work on organization this school year.  It just is not something that has come very high on my priority list.  I am committed to improvement though!

This week, I made a desk organizer for papers.

I used a box about the size of a cereal box.  I cut the box so that one piece was bigger than the other.

Then, I used glue stick and packaging tape to reinforce the box and attach the scrapbook paper.

Here it is with some papers put in it.  I know it is nothing too fancy, but it will work for me in my classroom, and it was the right price!  :)

I think it has possibilities as maybe a student project for Mother's or Father's  Day gifts or a Christmas card holder?  It would be cute in Christmas paper!

FINALLY--Don't forget to link up with my Find your Voice Linky party!  Link up and share a good mentor text for teaching voice!  This is a to build our texts to use in the classroom when teaching voice!

 

Find your Voice! Linky party

Hey There!  I am having a Linky party to develop a group of mentor texts for teaching kids about voice in writing.  I hope you'll join me!

I am trying to work on my Writer's Workshop this summer.  I feel like I am on the verge of making it happen, but I have to say, I feel like it is the blind leading the blind when it comes to writing.  I think that it is because I don't remember being taught how to write until I was a senior in high school, and then, Mr. Meyer never stopped!  Before him, we were just told TO write, nobody conferenced with us or talked to us about writer's craft.  He helped me a lot, but I certainly can't teach my 3rd graders the same way he taught us!

So,  I am working on some mentor texts, and I thought I would start with VOICE.  I have two that I use, and I am sure you are familiar with them.

I LOVE The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka.

This book is the story of the 3 Little Pigs as told by the wolf.  It is very cute, and the wolf's voice is very strong. 

My kids love it, too, but it is one they are very familiar with.  I like to use it for CAFE lessons, too, like point of view and author's purpose.  So, while it works well for voice, I thinkit might be a little overused by 3rd grade.

I also love the story Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose.

This is a great story, too.  It is the story of a boy who is trying to decide if he is going to smoosh an ant, and the ant's argument of why he shouldn't be smooshed.  Very cute.  It is written in rhyme. 

Often, my kids aren't familiar with this book when they come to me, but I have so many ways that I like to use it!  It is good because their are two voices, but it is also good as a persuasive mentor text, and for many CAFE lessons.

Do you have any mentor texts to share for teaching voice in writing?  Please, please, please link up with me and share!  I would love to find some new books to use for teaching voice, and this should give us plenty of time to find them before school starts!  Just grab my linky button at the top of this post.

Word Work Websites

One of my many summer goals is to strengthen my word work choices for my students.  I was pleased with the way my students worked their way through their Daily 5 Choices last year,but too many of them still view it as spelling practice.  I really want them to get the idea and fun of playing with words.  There is so much to be learned that way. With Words their Way, I have a number of sorts and other games, they can play with partners, but for many of my students, that is just busy-work.  They already understand the word and spelling patterns.

For my students, I am going to put together a list of word work web options.  They are typically assigned a word work goal for the week, so when they complete that task, they can move to a web activity if they wish.

Below are some sites that I think will be worth my students' while...
:

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/frog/frog.html

This Word Frog game is a little easy for some of my students, but it will be a good review for many.  They will like the animation and the game part of it.  Arademic Skill Builders has some other good word games, too.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/synsam.html

This game is from Between the Lions and it is called Synonym Sam's lab.  Again, it is a little simple, but I like the exposure it will give my students to words.  It will be esp. good for those kiddos who are not really reading at grade level as well as my ESL students.

http://www.wordcentral.com/games/bigbot.html

This Merriam-Webster site offers a much more difficult set of vocabulary for kids to use in finding synonyms/antonyms.  It will be great exposure to new words for some of my kds.

http://smarttutor.com/home/lessons/Vocab_PrefixSuffix_L3_V1_T3a.swf

This balloon pop game practices 3rd grade prefixes and suffixes,  but the site does offer similar games at other levels.  This one looks like ones my kids will like, and I like the way it makes them think about the prefix on different base words.  It will be a great reinforcer!

http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/

I am going to probably let my kids do these Mad Libs with a friend.  That is what makes them fun!

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/pinball/vocabulary/pinballvocab1.htm

Probably, a lot of kids have never played pinball, so this will be a novel idea for them!  This pinball game is similar to hangman.  As the kids send the ball over letters in the word, the letters are revealed at the bottom of the screen.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/soup.html

Not only does this Between the Lions game practice making/spelling words, it offers some higher level thinking for my kiddos by using jokes.  Jokes are often a difficult skill for student who are not familiar with our language and those who struggle with reading.  Fun little game:  Alphabet Soup!

http://www.quia.com/hm/114901.html

This hangman site reviews the 300 most common words in our language.

http://host.exemplum.com/hasbro/boggle/boggle.html

This is just like the game Boggle.  I plan to have a boggle board on my wall this year, but I think this will be a fun alternative.  Besides, kids can practice at home!

http://www.abcya.com/letter_blocks.htm

This Letter Blocks game on ABCYa is a fun challenge for all.  It will add automatic differentiation for your kiddos.

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/

This site offers something for all of my kiddos.  Good games like Hangman aqd Crosswords for my higher students, and syllable games and homophones for some of my students who find these skills difficult.

Do you have any good word websites to share?  I would love to have a great set of choices for my students!