Do you have reading pals? Interactive Notebooks for Reading Pals...Summer Stock Up on this perfect tool!

Each year my sixth graders are teamed up with the first graders as a way to connect our diverse groups of learners.  The idea began about six years ago when I realized that many of my sixth graders needed practice to enhance fluency, and my first grade teaching pal, Mrs. Eshman, had students that really needed practice listening to reading.  We decided it was the perfect match!  We brought the students to the cafeteria with books in hand, paired them up, and prepared for them to sit together and read.

My 6th graders have always loved reading with their reading buddies.  It is a treat each week to see a special little person that looks just as forward to spending time with them.   For the first few weeks it is a novelty and everyone seems to be on their best behavior, but as the first weeks of school turn into months, focus eases up and merely reading is no longer an activity that keeps everyone’s attention. 

Over the last few years I have found that the reading time seems to go very quickly and my sixth graders are trying to find the best way to fill up the rest of their time.  The little ones can get off task easily, which can be a challenge for my sixth graders to manage.  In addition, my sixth graders that are supposed to be the role models can have issues of their own at times.  Despite teacher re-direction, the time wasn’t being utilized the way we had envisioned.

After one week of far too much re-focusing of our students, we began planning and coordinating what was read from that point on.  It was ideal.  The sixth graders were armed with more than a book, and wanted to take ownership over not just reading, but also helping their first grade pal develop a skill.

Teachers are busy and have minimal time for extras, and so this interactive notebook was born.  Instead of having to plan each week for reading pals, this is the tool that will allow your older and younger students to thrive when working together.  The work is done for you!  Simply print, grab student book boxes/baskets, cut, glue, and go!  Your students will be more than excited to work together and there is enough fun to keep your reading pals engaged.  There is nothing like seeing the older students guiding the younger learners.

Check out this tool in action and grab this sampler...any summer time you had scheduled to plan for reading pals is no longer needed.  Grab this sampler and get back to some fun in the sun!

Here is a pic of one of the activities that helps the old pal and younger pal get to know each other.  It leads into the perfect tool to enhance understanding of compare and contrast and Venn diagrams.

Here is the entire Reading Pals Interactive Notebook Tool Kit for Grades 1-6.

Happy New Year! FREEBIE and Word of the Day: CCSS Word Work for Middle School-UPDATED

Happy New Year!  I am having a hard time believing that 2013 is a memory, and we have embarked on 2014!  Where did this past year go!  As I reflect, I am grateful for so many things...
Here are 9:

1. We added a new member to our Beers' clan!  My baby boy, Landon is now a few days shy of ten months old-holy moly! Watching him grow has been a joy! 
2. My family is healthy!
3. I have had the opportunity to stay home with Landon and see my other two kiddos off to school each day, as well as enjoy lots of different school fun that I might not have had the chance to take part in working full time.
4. My husband has a new job that he loves.  The AMAZING sunglasses I get are a nice perk, too!
5. My three kiddos are mostly good listeners and treat each other well the majority of the time.
6. I have gotten to spend more time with my Gram this year.  We can't wait to take her to the Cincinnati vs. UCONN women's basketball game in February!  She is a superfan!
7. I have had the time to create resources that I will be able to use with my students when I return to teaching.
8. I can still run sub-8 minute miles and do Shaun T.'s Insanity workouts.
9. The fun we have as a family!  My kids and husband make me belly laugh DAILY!

What I resolve to do in 2014:

1. Keep my cool when frustrated.   Ohhhhhh, there are days where my patience is thin and the crumbiest plate with apple sauce flies off the table and onto the floor because of a small person not sitting in her chair.  I am working to keep the steam in my ears and the fire from flying out of my mouth.

That's it!  There are so many things I can work on, but this is for sure the thing I currently like the least about myself.   So I will continue my work!

Enough about me...onto you!

I hope you are ready to head back to the classroom well-rested and eager to begin again.  Over the break, I updated the very first TpT resource I ever created.  It is a Word of the Day CCSS Word Work resource I created to enhance vocabulary with my students.  I realized it needed some HUGE changes and updates based on how I used it.  It has been revamped and is a pretty great tool, if I don't say so myself:)  One component that I updated was the organizer used by students.  It is one that you can either copy or have students re-create daily in their vocabulary notebooks. (to save copies)

If you are looking for a word of the day organizer for your students, click on the image and download this FREEBIE.  If you want to purchase the whole resource click below.

Enjoy these next few days of break and my fingers are crossed for some more snow days!

Holiday Essay Writing: The Fun Way FREEBIE

I am getting really excited for the holidays!  The malls are getting ready for Santa, Christmas music has started playing, Christmas lists are getting fuller...I LOVE this time of year! In addition, I know how expensive this time of year can be, so I wanted to give away this holiday essay writing how-to FREEBIE.  If you head over to my TpT store, you can download this for free.

It is a tried and true tool/organizer I have used with my students to help them grasp the organization of a 5-paragraph essay, I have just spiced it up for the holidays with holiday writing topics. 

If you grab it, I would love to hear what you think and how it worked for you and your students.  Feel free to follow and leave a comment/feedback.  Keep me posted and happy writing!

Reader's Theater for the Middle Grades...check it out in my TpT Store!

One of my favorite things to do with my 6th grade students is Reader's Theater.  They "hoot" and "whoop" every time they know they have the opportunity to perform.  Something about having the chance to get lost in a character, read aloud, and take on a different persona for a short period of time really excites my students.

I also LOVE TO WRITE! This past week of not working in a classroom and adjusting to our back to school schedule, has afforded me some time to write.  I have taken on the task of writing a Reader's Theater passage called Speedy Racer.  It is a common core focused, high interest, realistic fiction passage that students will LOVE in the middle grades.





Speedy Racer is a script about a boy who learns the hard way that in order to compete, you must practice and be dedicated.  This 12-character script is one that will have your students thinking about the kind of person they want to be and be friends with.  A must read with your middle grades students.

In addition, I have included 5-reader response questions and a summary organizer.  Ideal tools for work on common core reading literature standards.

My emergency plans always contain a Reader's Theater passage with specific instructions on how to utilize it with my three different classes.   While the students can get a bit "over-enthusiastic" at times with another adult leading the class, I know that it will keep them focused and engaged, which leads to fewer behavior concerns in my absence.

Please leave a comment on how you utilize Reader's Theater in your classroom.

Happy first week of school!

Happy New Year! A Resolution Essay Organizer FREEBIE!

Happy New Year! While I know many school districts went back to school this Monday, we have been back in school since January 2nd! At this point in the school year, I love to take the time to challenge my students to think about their work so far and where they hope to be by the end of the school year.  To incorporate the start of the new year, we work on goal-setting and we resolve to do things that will help us to be an even better version of ourselves.

I started the week-long writing assignment discussing commercials students have been seeing a great deal of on TV.  Many confirm they have seen lots of commercials for gym memberships and weight-loss companies.  I ask them why they think these are so "in your face this time of year?" and they were able to respond that "with the new year comes people setting goals to become better."

We created a brainstorm cloud where students listed ways they could improve upon themselves.  Some were very forthcoming and willing to share things that they thought needed improvement.  Examples were: practicing harder, putting more effort into school work, listening more to a parent, being more responsible, etc.  We discussed the difference between setting a goal versus achieving a dream.

Next students decided on the three things they wanted to work on, starred them on their brainstorm cloud, and got to work on their organizer.  We tackled the topic sentence first, so students understood how they needed to begin the task of organizing their writing.  I helped them through this by modeling with my three resolutions: saving more money, being less quick-tempered, and saying only respectful things about others.  
 
Once we established our topic sentence, I showed students that my BING paragraph would be all about saving money, my BANG paragraph would be all about being less quick-tempered, and my BONGO paragraph would be all about saying only respectful things about others.  I have to share that my students loved hearing the stories behind my resolutions and were very enthusiastic about helping with with the three strategies to achieve each of them. In addition to having three strategies, each paragraph needed to include an opening sentence-introducing the resolution and a concluding sentence-bringing the paragraph to a close.  

After the modeling, students began working independently as I moved around the room.  I was so thrilled to see how enthusiastic they were about writing to achieve their personal goals.

Day 2: We discussed what we did the previous day and got to work on our introduction and conclusion.  Some may find this strategy backwards-I have have found that it can be tricky for students to find a place to begin.  With each of their body paragraphs completed, I explained that now they simply have to grab the reader's attention, and then bring the work to a close.

I gave the example of crime shows.  Often the writers open the show with a person dead on the sidewalk to grab the audience's attention, so you are hooked and don't want to change the channel.  They got it, so we began working together to create a "hooky" introduction.  They agreed that asking questions and using exclamations would hook a reader.  We created a model and did the same for the conclusion.

For the conclusion we discussed how we are bringing the piece to a close and sending the reader on their way.  This is NOT the time to share new information, but instead give the reader the chance to reflect on what we have shared.  Again, they got it and were on their way! The students completed their organizers and were ready to draft.

Here are a few pics of my students drafting...

Yesterday I had the chance to have writing conferences with them.  They signed up for a conference once they completed their draft.  My focus in conferencing was: mechanics-CUPS-capitalization, usage/grammar, punctuation, spelling.  Lastly, we discussed organization and the use of transitions in their sentences. Students re-wrote their drafts and will be publishing them on the laptops tomorrow.  I will share a few examples of these final pieces soon!

While students are at different levels in their writing abilities, this is a writing strategy that they will find useful through their college years. In addition, it can be modified for multiple uses: friendly letters, persuasive pieces, and expository writing where directions are given.  I would love to hear about the tools you utilize to enhance writing in your classroom settings.  Happy 2013!  May you work to achieve all of the resolutions you set out to accomplish!

FREEBIE: An Interactive Reader's Notebook Page

Our focus this week is making predictions and hypothesizing about information in a text.  While this is an extension of our learning with inferential questions, it is vocabulary that students need to have to understand what it means to predict and hypothesize. 

My hook...the students will walk into the classroom to find a bucket of water balloons on the floor in front of the classroom.  I will ask them to predict on a post-it what they think the balloons are going to be utilized for?  They will display their post-its on chart paper.  We will then read aloud the different predictions. 

Possible prediction: We are going to throw them at the 5th graders as they head out to recess.

Upon completing their prediction post-it, I will ask them based on their prediction, what they hypothesize might happen if the water balloons were utilized for that purpose?  They will then record their hypothesis onto another post-it and place it on chat paper.  We will share again.

Possible hypothesis: We will have to clean up the mess, we will be in a HUGE amount of trouble, and Mrs. Beers might not be our teacher any longer for allowing us to make this poor choice...

Here is a simple interactive Reader's Notebook flap that I created for students to utilize when discussing this concept and to keep as a tool they can utilize later in the year.   While I don't suspect they will soon forget what it means to predict and hypothesize, we will create an anchor chart with the same terms displayed, discuss the meaning of these words based on our water balloon hook, and add this information drafted on the anchor chart under the flaps. 



While I am NOT planning to bombard 5th graders with water balloons before recess in freezing cold November, it is a way that I can make a concept stick with my 6th grade learners.  The more outrageous-the more memorable!  Happy Cyber Monday!



Teaching Author's Purpose...what resources do you use?

The learning target for this week-"I can identify an author's purpose and target audience for a text."

I was inspired after some "Pinteresting."  A blog I follow is Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher.

She is a superstar teacher with some refreshing strategies that I have been able to utilize in my classroom this year.  A favorite of mine is her Interactive Notebooks, which I have incorporated into my students' learning this year to really emphasize the various concepts my students are responsible for learning.

I began these binder/notebooks with my students on the very first day of school.  The Reader's Notebook section is filling up with each week's learning target.  This week our focus was on author's purpose.  My students quickly grasped the PIES acronym for persuade, inform, entertain, and share as they completed their interactive notebook page and filled it in with the information we developed as a whole class. 

Students cut, fold, and glue the page to a piece of loose-leaf paper.  The notes get documented in their
Reader's Notebook.  We fill in all of the necessary information on the back of and under the various flaps as a
whole group.  We refer to the notes all week and whenever needed in the future.  I feel this strategy is more memorable than simply recording notes on notebook paper-it gives a visual to remember the concept.

Reader's Notebook Table of Contents

A snapshot of our anchor chart and additional notes needed to grasp the concept.  

The interactive notebook flap can be seen at the bottom of the anchor chart.

Derrick answering reader response questions focusing on author's purpose.

 



Working on author's purpose through Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith



I utilize my Interactive Notebooks with all three of my reading classes.  While the other two classes are reading Hunger Games and applying their learning at a different level, all of my students no matter their current reading level, are able to benefit from and utilize this effective organizational note-taking system.  Each of my different groups were able to grasp a concept at different levels, but through the use of one effective learning tool.  I am glad I found this idea and will continue to implement it with my students for years to come.

Here are a few other resources I utilized this week for author's purpose...

• https://jeopardylabs.com/play/authors-purpose6   A jeopardy game reviewing the concept for all three classes...I utilized this for two purposes for my two higher groups...1) Once in teams, the student that had chosen the question had to read it aloud to the entire class to work on fluency, 2) students had the opportunity to challenge their learning for the week in a friendly interactive review game format.

FYI-there are two slides with typos so check them over and fix them before sharing them with your group.  One misspells the word entertain.  The other uses the word "humped" instead of "jumped."  If you want to give your students a good laugh-let them find the errors. I wasn't so daring!!!

•  http://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/authors-purpose-worksheets/A few different resources I utilized for morning work to check my students' understanding of the learning target.  I like that the RTF allows you to modify them to meet the needs of your students.

I am working on grading this week's assessments of our learning target, but I am pleased with the progress my students made as readers and the work they put forth.  After our data charting...onto inferential questions next week...wish me luck!

Student Enthusiasm for Writing and Teaching Plot

This has been a really productive week for my students-I am thrilled to share.  Our interactive Reader's and Writer's Notebooks are filling up with learning, student writing is taking off, and learning targets seem to be sticking.  Two of my students informed me that due to the fact that there is not a movie to go along with the novel that we completed a few weeks back, they would like to write a play and turn it into a Reader's Theater for their 6th grade classmates to perform.  IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER, DOES IT???!!!  Having to remind students to eat their lunches and not spend their entire lunch writing is an argument I will take on any day!

While writing is thriving-it has been a week of chock full of lots of reading too.  Learning target: PLOT...While plot can seem to be an easy concept to teach, there are lots of components that can be tricky for some students to grasp and identify when it comes to tackling a text on their own and determining the problem, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Since we recently completed Crash, that was a perfect place to start with students identifying characters, setting, and the minor and major events of the novel.  We then moved onto our Reading Street text.  I had my students listen to Viva New Jersey and identify all of the elements of plot in their small table groups and then share their findings as a whole group.  Today was fun to watch...I pulled a variety of picture books, gave students the chance to work independently or with a peer, and they were off.  Each student/partnership read two books and identified the plot structure from each.  A favorite comment by a student was after he read The Toll Bridge Troll by Patricia Rae Wolff.  Kenny asked, "I love this book-can I put it in my book box?"  Again, it doesn't get any better.

Here are a few of the texts I pulled for teaching plot and the graphic organizer I utilize to teach plot structure from Reading Street:

 

 

Good luck as you embark on this skill with your students.  Please share any strategies or texts that you utilize for plot that help the concept stick with your students.