Supermarket Saturday Linky Party: Fall Resources

I have the perfect learning resource to share with you this week if you are in need of high-interest reads for CLOSE READING.  While this is not FALL-only, it is the perfect tool to utilize during this time of year, especially if you have students that are obsessed with sports and learning about athletes.

Every year one of the questions that I ask students on our first days of school Interest Inventory is "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  I can honestly say that a solid 75% of my boys say they want to be "a professional football player or NBA star."  I am not a dream dasher, and I refuse to tell them they won't become what they are dreaming about, however, it is essential for them to understand that one does not become an NFL superstar on a whim!  ...and so I created this resource.

This All About Athletes: Informational Close Reading Fun Pack is crammed with passages that your student-athletes will love tackling.  This 35-page NO PREP Close Reading Informational Text BUNDLE is the perfect reading tool for your upper elementary or middle school students working to enhance comprehension with high-interest informational passages about current athletes. Inspired by my son-who is obsessed with all things NFL and NBA, this BUNDLE is sure to motivate your male hard-to-inspire readers!!!

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Teaching About September 11th: A Daily 5 Resource for Upper Elementary to Middle School

 
Two years ago I wrote a post on how I was not planning to change my already well-established lesson plans to teach about 9/11, but due to some resource finding and complete change of heart, I did.  While it shifted my plans for the day, I was so grateful to give my students the opportunity to understand a SIGNIFICANT event of our American history.

As educators, we have a job to do!  Sometimes it requires us to take on lessons that we didn't incorporate into our lesson plans when they were due the school week before, but if we don't include them, who will?  Who will step up and teach our students the information that is a part of their history?!  We owe it to those who were lost, those who were left behind, those who fought for our country, and those who continue to fight for our freedoms as Americans.  I feel and at the time felt, it was my job to do that.

This year I created this resource that can be used for the entire week to teach about September 11th, a reader's theater and close reading informational tool kit, that I plan to share with my students.  It is my story about what I experienced as a teacher on September 11, 2001 with a classroom full of 6th graders looking to me for answers.  It includes a 7-page, 13-character script for students to perform, reader response questions, context clue word work, an informational close reading passage with reader response questions, a compare and contrast organizer to compare the two texts, a student interview, research sites to find out more information about 9/11, and an interactive notebook tool to record information.

If you utilize the Daily 5, this incorporates: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, and Writing-you couldn't ask for more!

If you are looking for an easy to implement resource that will enhance student understanding, while allowing for them to be a part of history, grab it.  Your students will be better informed because of you!

Here is the link to that post...
http://mrsbeerslanguageartsclass.blogspot.com/2012/09/remembering-911.html

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.

Relaxed yet? Time to get ready for another school year!!!

The year is barely over, but for some reason your brain is already bypassing summer and heading into the planning of next school year.  Why in the world does this happen EVERY STINKIN'YEAR?!?!  

...because we are teachers and that is how we operate, the year ends and all we can do is think about: what we will do to make our students learn the content better, how we will make that tricky lesson go smoother, and what new tool we will find to organize and make life easier.  Tell me I am not the only one!

While I am just embarking on the nutty task of helping my own kiddos prevent the "summer slide" my mind is already focusing on what is to come in my future.  I will be home one more school year with my littlest, and then I plan to head back to the classroom where I will put all of my lessons back to good use.  I think my son will be relieved that he no longer has to put up with being my lesson/activity guinea pig.  While I will be excited to get back to the classroom, I have loved this time with my kiddos, and refining all of my classroom tools has been an awesome perk!

So while I know your brain is going one billion miles an hour in preparation for next year, take a break and check this out...I have teamed up with Educents with some instant downloads for you! It includes a full years worth of activities for your 4th, 5th, and 6th classroom!  So exciting because it's stuff for now, in a few months from now, and all the way through the end of the school year!  Check it out below!  

www.educents.com/4th-6th-curriculum-bundle.html#joethecat

The three products I have included will surely be loved by your students!  Take a peek...

This 32-page novel unit is an essential tool for on-level third graders, but works perfect for intervention in upper elementary.

I utilized my Boxcar Children novel unit with my intervention students-6th grade students reading between 4th-5th grade.  It was the perfect tool to focus on the mystery genre and keep them encouraged about the reading process.   This crew needed both fluency and comprehension work, so we read aloud, answered the reader response questions independently, checked our answers as a group, then read the next chapter independently.  It was the perfect way to navigate through this text.

I was inspired to create this close reading informational text bundle when my son began quizzing me over his NFL and MLB cards.  He is a fact kid.  This fun pack includes 9-one page informational text passages with text-dependent questions, graphic organizers to support informational text, and answer keys.  Some of my students tend to struggle with nonfiction and this was a way that I could really reach my struggling male readers.  They want to talk about athletes all day and this is the tool that allows them to do just that, but also work on their reading comprehension.

 

Journaling is an essential within my classroom.  It is a practice we focus on once a week.  I have also found that after state testing, students can get uninspired to write.  They feel as though their work for the year is complete.  I created this tool as a means of keeping my students motivated to write through the end of the year by thinking about the summer fun that lies ahead.  

Here is a sample prompt:

Students will keep working when they are inspired, so make sure they have those inspirational tools!  Here are a few pics of my students engaged and journaling in their writer's notebooks....

So here are the details...for a limited time it is $15.99 from Educents which is about 79% off - if purchased separately would be $74!  21 instant downloads with 38 different products sold separately! And almost 600 pages of materials you can use all year... it's hard to go wrong!

If you want to take a little break from your all of the planning in your mind, grab this bundle!

You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Surviving the End of Year CHAOS!!! Here is a tip...Contest OVER!

It always fascinates me how the first day of school and the end of the year have been placed on the calendar for MONTHS, yet it always seems to catch me off guard and come faster than I ever could have imagined!  Does it feel that way to you, too?

I am a planner, organizer, and a bit OC when it comes to having things in working order, but no matter how hard I try, I struggle to avoid even a little bit of chaos during these exciting times.  There always tends to be one last... bit of data to enter, report card to complete, gift to buy, meeting to attend, task that needs tending to, etc! Tell me I am not alone in this end of year cycle that I swear won't happen the next.

My one tip to surviving the chaos is this...always have one extra engaging lesson/activity/learning tool for students to work on that is copied, in an easy-to-access spot with any and all materials ready to go...because you never know when one of these LASTS may pop up! 

Just like my students, I am pumped for that last day of the year.  Being a 6th grade teacher and student, we get to look forward to the 6th Grade Graduation, which takes place every year at 9:30AM.  Problem is, the students arrive at 8:15AM and all of their materials have been taken home the previous day.  While a movie could work, this is the last time these students will be interacting in this specific setting!  I try to make it memorable!  This is the perfect time to put finishing touches on that Moments and Memories Reflection Journal by allowing students to autograph, add tidbits about the year, etc!  Have it ready to go! Grab this now for some peace of mind...

Thanks for joining our end of the school year blog hop today. Twenty teacher bloggers got together to celebrate the end of the school year with you by donating a product to the Surviving the Chaos blog hop bundle. 

Thanks for joining our end of the school year blog hop. We had a great turn out of hoppers. The prize pack part of the hop is now closed. Stay tuned for blog excitement in mid July.  

Please keep hoping along to read our tried, tested and true survival tips.

Is it St. Patrick's Day, yet?

Just kidding!  Although now that Christmas is over, I am more than ready for spring-like temps.  Better yet, just get me out of the single digits.  We are a family that spends a TON of time outside, but gangrene is not my best color!

I took some time off of creating and writing resources over the holiday break.  Managing three kiddos, preparing for family visitors, baking, wrapping, cleaning, crawler-chasing, and writing anything worth posting was a bit of a challenge.  My 10 month old's favorite activities to date are pulling out the outlet covers and pulling himself up on the art easel.  My house is baby-proofed and this child is blockaded in safe spaces, but he is fast as lightning when a gate is moved or a pillow is shifted.  Little bugger!  Needless to say I have had a few mini-heart attacks over the last few weeks.

Finally, with the holidays over and the start of a new year, inspiration hit!  Despite this quick baby and a snow day, yesterday I completed a St. Patrick's Day inspired reader's theater mystery.  My inspiration is always my students.  The daily occurences in a school building are plentiful for sure.  I have always found recess and the lunch room to be central settings for the greatest amount of drama content for my writing.  So recess and the lunchroom on St. Patrick's Day is right where this script takes place.

Text Summary: While the 6th grade students are participating in St. Patrick's Day team challenges, recess equipment goes missing. Students accuse one particular student, but it turns out that the culprit is not one that would ever be suspected.

Your students will love working on their fluency and comprehension with this high-interest, realistic fiction mystery. They will also learn that sometimes we can learn a great deal by making mistakes. A must have for this green holiday! 

This 20-page Fun Pack includes:
-8 1/2 page, 12-character script
-directions for classroom use
-a list of CCSS covered
-reader response questions
-context clue word work
-two high energy games for outdoor or gymnasium play
-a sweet St. Patrick's Day treat idea

I hope you had a restful break.  If you are one who plans far ahead, check out this brand new reader's theater resource.

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!

6th Grade Reading/Language Arts Lesson Plans...What template works for you?

Today I REALLY feel like I spent far TOO much time trying to re-invent the wheel.  For whatever reason, I got into my mind that my format for lesson plans is insufficient.  That they should look different, be in concise boxes, somehow cuter than what I have utilized for the last 5-10 years.

Each week in my school building we are asked to submit our lesson plans in order for title staff, intervention specialists, etc. to be able to see the work that is occurring in the general classroom setting, so they are able to support students in the most effective way possible.  Makes sense that if someone working with one of my 6th graders sees my lesson plans, they will know exactly what learning is taking place within my classroom and they can work to meet student needs.

I have long given up the handwritten model of lesson plans, but I have kept those smudged, penciled-in archives that I struggle to part with at every end of the year "clean out."  I am a "pitcher/thrower-outer" by nature, but something about all of that time and effort forces me to keep them around.  I love to show them to student observers, so they can see what planning looked like before help from Word and the internet.  I laugh at the thought of all of that laborious effort each week. 

I feel like I scavenged the internet with Google searches and  played around on Microsoft Publisher trying to create the PERFECT template.  Then I realized that just like each entry on my blog, I have far too much I need to get down for the words to fit into a pre-sized box.  Some weeks my plans are 4-5 pages long.  I find that I need to almost narrate what I am going to teach and how I will teach it within my weekly lesson plans, so that I implement my lessons most effectively.

I have shared my plans for the first three days of the school year.  Keep in mind that after this first week standards will be listed, assessment tools will be shared, reading and writing notebooks will be awaiting student thoughts and notes, and data analysis will be taking place.  All of that essential information will also need to be included into my plans for weekly meetings.  I will get to that before my new plans are due the following Wednesday.

For now, however, I will accept that the time I spent today was not necessarily wasted, but instead it just reinforced that the template that I have been using for lesson plans is the one that is most fitting for me.  Sometimes it is fun to think about how something can be jazzed up, "cutesified", and re-invigorated, but sometimes it is OK to accept and keep utilizing what is working the best.

 

If you have a moment to take from your planning, I would love to hear/see what planning template/strategy works best for you.  Good luck as you embark on your first lesson plans of the school year.