Summer Blog Party Kick-Off

Happy Summer!  I hope this blog hop finds you ready to tackle some summer relaxation and fun!  For my family, we are in the midst of tournament play for baseball, attending various sports camps, spending lots of time at the pool, and enjoying time with friends.  We will be heading to the beach for a week in August, but for now, we bask in the warm weather and minimal schedule.

Despite our busyness, one thing we continue throughout summer is reading.  As a reading teacher, I enforce daily reading time in our house.  I say enforce because grabbing a book and slowing down is NOT a favorite past-time among my kiddos.  My littlest can sit and read book after book, my middle loves to be read to, and my oldest knows that his allowance gets reduced if I have to ask him to complete his daily reading more than once.  If a friend calls for a playdate for my daughter, or a knock comes at the door for my oldest, reading is the last thing on their minds.  Therefore, I have to mandate that it happens. 

I have given up on the idea that my kids should want to read. I want them to want to read, but ideally, if my children could be outside playing every moment of every day, that is what they would prefer to do! And so, before we head outside and grab for any type of technology, reading occurs.  Some might argue with this strategy, but it works for my family.  There are no written rules, no chart to keep track, just the expectation that for 20 minutes a day, we read.  Very manageable.

My heading into 4th grade son has tackled Chocolate Fever and is on to Frindle.  I am offering him the chance to choose the books. I am not making him complete any novel units to accompany his reading, but they are available, just in case.

My heading into 1st grade daughter is tackling Level D books and inspired me to create this FREEBIE text unit for my intervention students.  She loves Young Cam Jansen books.  She struggles a bit to read them independently, but loves when we read them together.  This unit is perfect for reading comprehension for grades 1-3, and an intervention resource for students that might be struggling a bit in grades 4-6.  If you are a teacher in the midst of summer school, or a parent wanting to help your child with comprehension, this text resource is ideal for you! It includes: directions for use, lesson plans, character analysis work, context clue word work, chapter by chapter reader response questions, and post-reading writing prompts for FREE!

It is a forever FREEBIE and I would love to hear how you put it to use at home or in your classroom.  Grab some more HOT resources as you move on to the next stops!  Michelle from Big Time Literacy has a great one!  Grab it at the next stop!  Happy Hopping!

Sub Plans in Case of Emergency: Don't Leave School Without Them!

It is 3AM and the sound of a child's feet bolting to the bathroom and barely making it to the toilet before vomiting, wake you from a dream you were too tired to even know you are having because you are a teacher!

It is 3AM and you bolt out of bed and race to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before getting rid of everything you ate the day before!  Yuck!

As a teacher you don't stand over the toilet rubbing your child's back, wiping a pathetic face, or your own for that matter, and think, "Looks like a sick day tomorrow."

Instead you go into panic mode!  You get the floor/your child/yourself cleaned up, and you race to your computer.  You shakily put in for a sub, and pray to the sub gods that someone is able to cover your class in a few short hours.  Then you get frustrated with yourself because you should have gotten things together before you left the day before.  You should have sensed that you or your child could possibly get sick and planned better.  Ugghhh, I know that feeling.

I also know the feeling of driving to school at 4:30 AM after getting a sick child settled back into bed and putting in for a sub, so I could race to my classroom, make copies, set out my sub plans, all to make sure my students' learning would not be interrupted in my absence.  As teachers, it is more of a hassle to be out for a day, which is why so many of us tend to "warrior-it-out" when we are sick and come and teach anyway.  You can't do that when you are throwing up or when you have a sick kiddo, however.

As organized and prepared as I think I am, I still get caught off guard.  In order to be as prepared as possible, I always have a binder on my desk with Emergency Plans.  In this Emergency Binder I keep:

• the names of my teammates so that they have a go-to person all day
•  a schedule for the day: times for each class, specials, lunch, recess,dismissal, and any duties I have
• up-to-date seating charts
• lunch count and attendance lists
• lesson plans that match the copies and work materials that I have left so the substitute knows exactly what needs to be completed, turned in, etc.
• specific directions about lining up, dismissal, etc.
• reward bucks for students to earn (yes, I bribe while I am out)
• info about how I want the classroom left-chairs pushed in, garbage off of the floor, desks lined up.  This may seem jerky, but here is how I word it, "At the end of the day, please have the students organize the classroom exactly how it appeared when they entered in the morning."  I despise walking into a classroom that looks like a hurricane swept through upon my return, so this is how I try to fix that.

Despite having my binder with random student work, I wanted something even better.  So I created  Print and Go Emergency Language Arts Sub Plans for Grades 4-8 resource to make my life a bit easier.  I plan to make about 4 more of these to cover myself in case of any future-sick-kiddo years.  Depending how long your ELA class periods are, this CCSS resource will last for 2 days of instruction.  It includes:

• 4-page high-interest reader’s theater script-Estimated Lexile Measure:800L
• Reader Response Questions
• Context Clue Word Work
• Summary Strategy Organizer
• Story Map
• Text-Based Journal Prompt
• Word Work Word Search
• Story Cover Makeover
• 3-High Interest Journal Prompts for Writing

You can grab it here if you are interested...

I would love to hear what you do to prepare your classroom for your unexpected absence.  In the meantime, here is to healthy thoughts!

Supermarket Saturday Task Cards: How are you using them in your upper elementary classroom?

As an upper elementary reading teacher always on the hunt for resources and tools to motivate my students, I have been busy creating.  I find that I am always in need of teaching tools that are engaging and motivating, capable of being used in a literacy center, incorporated into Daily 5 instruction, small group, or even whole class work, and can be utilized with minimal prep time on my end.  Does that sound familiar? Or like any type of resource you could use?

I have found task cards to be one of these sought after resources.  They are a perfect way to be able to reinforce a concept and meet ALL student instructional needs.  Here is a peek in to how I have found them to be most effective.

PREP...
First, print them and have students cut them out.  I know that there are always a few students that I can heavily rely on for secretarial work each school year.  Pass this job along to those students that like to come in early, stay in for recess, or spend a little extra time with you in your classroom.  While there is not a ton of prep in organizing these for classroom use, students love to be put to work and help out.  Have students cut out the task cards, you can laminate them so they can be re-used, then re-enlist students to cut out the laminated cards, and use as you see most suitable for your classroom.

Ready for student cutting!

IDEAS FOR USE...
Task cards are an easy tool to incorporate into your classroom any day.  I have three sets that you can grab for $1 today only and start using immediately to enforce reading literature skills and vocabulary.

These Character Analysis Task Cards are perfect for deepening student understanding of how characters are feeling based on information that is shared in the text.  These cards have a mini-lesson and allow for students to support their understanding of the different feelings of characters with evidence.  Understanding characters can be a bit complex and I need my students telling  me more than just that a character might be feeling "sad."  I need to know why they are feeling sad and what information from the text made them arrive at this conclusion.

Read more »

Harvest of FREEBIES Blog Hop

Thanks for hopping over...

Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year!  I love the cool, crisp mornings that heat up in the afternoons, the fun of all of the Halloween festivities, the anticipation of my children's costume choices, and everything PUMPKIN!  I know many others who share this same sentiment about fall as well.  With this love of fall, the harvest season, we have decided to create a blog hop to share a "Harvest of Freebies" for you to take back to your classroom.  I have created TWO freebies for you to utilize with your upper elementary to middle school students...

The first, Pumpkin Harvesting, is an informational close reading text with word work and reader response questions.  I utilize close reading passages with my students that are struggling with comprehension and having challenges going back into a reading selection to cite evidence to determine correct responses.  While we work on these skills throughout the year, I am always in need of high-interest passages that I can use for whole class, small group, or independent practice.

This Pumpkin Harvesting Close Reading FREEBIE will help your students:

1. better understand/reinforce CLOSE READING strategies
2. identify how to harvest pumpkins
3. determine the meaning of unknown words using context clues
4. cite evidence from the one-page text to support responses. 

 Click the image to grab FREEBIE #1:

Read more »

Reader's Theater in your Upper Elementary to Middle School Classroom For Any Day and All Seasons

Reader's Theater is an AMAZING tool to utilize with students at so many levels.  My daughter's teacher, Mrs. Bell from A Place Called Kindergarten seems to be a guru of primary reader's theater.  She does Theater Thursday with her kindergartners using resources that she has created based on various books, and my daughter couldn't love it more.  Would you believe that older kiddos LOVE it just as much?

A few years ago when we began utilizing Reading Street, I was lucky enough to land the Reader's Theater Anthology.  I don't know about the other grade levels, but 6th grade has some great scripts.  The idea is that each unit has it's own script, so they range from historical fiction, fantasy, realistic fiction, poetry, etc.  At first, I had no idea how to implement it into my week with all of the other instructional components of my day, but I knew fluency was something that we needed to enhance. Our DIBELs scores were not where they needed to be, and in addition to more read to someone time, I needed to make fluency work fun, so on an inconsistent basis, we tackled some if the different scripts.

While it helps to have a group that is willing to perform, what I found was that the enthusiasm of the students when performing is contagious.  Students that might be more reserved as you tackle the first few scripts with your crew, will become more comfortable and engaged the more you incorporate them into your instruction.  While they may have been reluctant, it will soon pass and students will be crossing fingers for the characters with the most lines.

By having this additional fluency practice, I began to see that students were much more animated readers.  No longer were they just racing the clock and reading words as quickly as possible during 6-minute solutions or with weekly progress monitoring, instead they were much more expressive.  I have been truly impressed with how beneficial reader's theater has been for my BIG kiddos.

I soon realized that sharing the same scripts year after year was BORING for me, so I began turning some of the happenings at school into scripts of my own.  I also found that I could include other components that I knew my students needed additional work on...extended response questions, context clue word work, and prompt writing.  My students LOVE these even more, and anytime I have a sub, I leave a script and fun pack for my students to perform and the day is usually issue-free.

If you have an anthology you love, but are looking for some additional high-interest scripts and fun packs that go along with the different seasons, here are a few of my favorites:

For FALL and Halloween

For EVERYDAY fun!

To enhance a study on FABLES

More EVERYDAY fun!

To teach about our American History

I have included a FREEBIE!  With St. Nicholas Night arriving in a few days, this is the perfect reader's theater to share with your students.  It is only 6-characters, so you can have multiple groups working and performing.  Click here to snag it up, and be sure to let me know what you think with some feedback...

I would love to hear about some of the awesome reader's theater resources you have utilized!

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.

May the 4th be with you...My Top 4 Novel Units

In the teaching world it can feel like you are standing on an island at times.  Despite all of the work that happens in the classroom, the interactions you have with other teacher and staff during the course of a day, and the numerous meetings attended each day, it can sometimes feel like we are fighting an uphill battle all by ourselves.  

As the only 6th grade reading and language arts teacher in my building I am at a loss at times to find the perfect learning tools for my students.  One size does not fit all in my situation, and our Reading Street 6th Grade Level resource is not always the perfect tool for teaching my learners.  With students at such diverse levels-believe it or not-from kindergarten-tenth grade level, I have quite a span of readers. 

What's a reading teacher to do, but work to find the tools or MAKE them in order to make sure everyone is learning and growing.  So that is what I do!

Novel units are a huge part of my instruction.  While I do utilize Reading Street, I do believe that students need to read WHOLE texts and NOVELS.  I can honestly say that there are some students that arrive in my classroom is the fall and have never read an entire novel cover to cover by themselves.  I take this sad reality, and turn it into a positive goal.  In order to make ensure my students leave me as better readers, I help them find texts that they won't want to put down and help them to navigate them successfully.

A few novel units I have created for my students have become hits with others on my TpT store.  In fact, my top selling four products are novel units.  I want to share them with you today.  Each unit is common core aligned and comes with an answer key in order to make your life as easy as possible as a teacher...something we all need.  Take a look below at how I utilize each of these tried and true tools with my 6th grade learners...

     

Crash by Jerry Spinelli is the novel I love to begin the school year with in order to model a few of the different elements of the Daily 5-listen to reading when I read aloud, read to someone for partner read, and read to self when reading independently.  Because it is a high-interest, realistic fiction text that my students connect with so well, it is one that they can't seem to get enough of reading.  In addition, a theme of the novel is bullying, which I believe to be a perfect issue to tackle right at the start of the year.  The rich discussion that comes from this novel is incredible.  I find that students think some of the bullying in the beginning of the novel by Crash toward Penn is humorous, but by the end, no one is laughing when Penn is getting mistreated by Mike DeLuca.  Lastly, this novel makes it easy to enhance student understanding of setting, point of view, antagonist vs. protagonist, and flashback.

How do I utilize these novels? I make each student their own novel folder with the novel unit inside.  We do share books because I teach 60+ students and only have 22 novels.  This is one that I bought for my classroom library, but the public library does have a teacher collection that can be reserved. The chapters are incredibly short in this novel, so I will always read aloud at least one chapter each day.  We will answer a few of the novel unit questions and engage in discussion about what has been read.  Next, the students will partner read or work independently on the remaining chapters and corresponding questions assigned for the day.  I will also pull students in small groups and work with those that might need more assistance.

I created the Chocolate Fever and The Boxcar Children novel units for my intervention crew this past school year.  They were 6th graders that were eager to achieve as learners, but struggling readers.  I wanted them to have success with high-interest novels that they would enjoy reading.  also, it is imperative that students have success reading complete novels.  Both of these texts made that happen for my intervention students.  Each of these units were incredibly well-received. 

 

My intervention group read 3 more of The Boxcar Children novels after tackling this one.  Many of the students in that group had never read a mystery and loved trying to infer how things would turn out.  They loved reading these novels aloud, which really improved their fluency.  In addition, our discussions were terrific.  If you are looking for books to read with upper elementary intervention kiddos, this is the perfect series.

I am a Jerry Spinelli fanatic.  I just adore the novels he writes because I feel they really make an impact on my male readers.  His main characters tend to be boys dealing with various issues of which my male students can relate.  Wringer is the same way as Crash, but deals with peer pressure and how we sometimes go along with something just because others are, not because we agree.  Palmer LaRue really battles that in this novel with the idea of having to become a wringer.  Like Crash, this novel makes it easy to enhance student understanding of setting, point of view, and flashback.

If you are looking to enhance your classroom library, these are perfect books for your upper elementary students!  Grab these discounted novel units to save you some planning time and money!

Happy Reading!

How do you teach FABLES?

My students LOVE fables!  They are clever little stories that involve talking animals, and convey a lesson!  What is more fun than that?

The other day my neighbor stopped me.  She is a mom of three teenagers-a college freshman, a high school junior, and an eighth grader...YIKES!  She asked if I wanted to come over to check out some books she was planning to get rid of? "Of course!" I said .

Side note-I am not a pack rat-I am a pitcher-trasher!

1. I hate clutter!  
2. I have a hard time watching Hoarders!
3. When things are left around the house by my children, I contemplate whether they will miss them if I throw them away!

So off I go to my neighbor's!  To my dismay, but my daughter's pure joy, she has a GIANT bag of crap stuff that she is wanting to send my way! Everything from craft supplies, broken trinkets, stickers-you name it-it was in the bag.  My daughter wanted EVERYTHING, darn her!  She then went through a stack of books! Among them a version of Aesop's Fables I had not seen...inspiration for my latest reader's theaters.

After reading through this version, I found some fables I have never read with my students and created four, one-page, three-character scripts with corresponding reader response questions to give students the chance to: work on fluency, enhance comprehension, and learn about the fable genre in a FUN way!

Fable scripts included in the BUNDLE:
The Fox and the Crane
The Fox and the Cat
The Wolf and the Crane
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

Moral of my story: my neighbor's trash turned into my latest treasure!

Click the image to check out my latest FABLE creation.