Teaching Manners

Every month our principal chooses a book of the month. Every other month we have to submit a classroom writing response to it. Then the book is sent home with a child everyday accompanied by a notebook for both parent and child to respond in. This months BOTM is "Do Unto Otters" by Laurie Keller. I've never heard of the book but when I read it I just thought it was the cutest book ever! The characters are adorable and the way she displays the text in the book is so unique. After reading we created a list of manners that rabbit spoke about. We also discussed the way rabbit said these things using speech bubbles! Our response to the book was creating a poster using speech bubbles. Students wrote in the manners they thought were most important. I wanted to have them write why they thought that manner was important but due to lack of time it just wasn't possible. I got the idea from rowdy in first grade. If you need a book that teaches good manners and is engaging then I suggest you check this book out. I also found these these awesome resources on picture book lessons blog. I really need to start remembering to take pictures of the work we do.

The First Two Days

So, it is official. We are now into our third day of school tomorrow. So far it hasn't been all that bad. This year we are on a new schedule since our school day changed. We used to have two days where we would support struggling students after school in ELA and Math. We really found that the extended day wasn't helping the struggling students because they were exhausted by 2:40. We now changed our day from ending at 2:40 to 3:05. We built the extra help into our daily schedule and now all students are serviced from 8:20 - 3:05. It's been a very difficult transition especially for our new first graders who had lunch last year at 11:00 and now because of the schedule change they have to eat at 12:30. That's INSANE! As a parent I'd be furious. Especially since we are not allowed to give snack. Basically from 11:00 - 12:25 I have a very whiny class who really isn't learning much but how to complain for 90 minutes. We are going to get through this week but if this continues to happen and they do not adjust then I'm going to push to have a working snack for my students where they can work and eat. How can I be upset with them when I'm starving by 11:00 and I eat breakfast. There is absolutely no food in the classroom which stinks that I can't munch on pretzels or something. I'm not sure what's going to be done but all the first grade teachers are experiencing the same issue.

Anyway, yesterday we read First Day Jitters, had Jitter Juice, wrote about ourselves in writing and then graphed how we felt on the first day of school in Math. I did this lesson last year and I really liked it. I gave my students circles and they drew how they felt on the face. They had to choose from happy, sad, angry, nervous, and excited. I think they really did an awesome job. For the most part they were all happy and they all came back today so I didn't scare them off. I do have one student who I can see already is going to need a lot of help staying on track academically and behaviorally. I hope we get him a para ASAP because I'm realizing I can't take my eyes off him for 2 seconds.

Today in writing my students worked on drawing about themselves. I taught them that good writers choose topics to write about (people, places, things). This month our mentor author is Joy Cowley. I think she gives students amazing ideas of topics to write about. She has great humor and such cute characters in her stories. I've really grown to love her in the last year. I gave my kids a blank t-shirt template to draw pictures about themselves. Tomorrow they are going to write about one thing on their shirt that is special to them. This is going up on our bulletin board this month. I will take a picture when it's finished. Hope everyone had a great first few days back. Summer is just around the corner.

Tomorrow is the 12th anniversary of 9/11. I have this amazing view from my couch that reminds me what an amazing city I live in. I'm truly fortunate.

Determining Complexity of Texts

Question: How does Common Core Learning Standards demand close reading of text?

Answer: CCLS expects and demands that all students have a chance to productively struggle with complex texts. Students need opportunities to strengthen their reading abilities but to also experience satisfaction and pleasure of easy fluent reading. Close reading is 80% of the ELA CCLS. WHOA!

Question: What are the opportunities during the course of the instructional day? How can we maximize these opportunities?

Answer: Close reading of text involves investigation of a short piece of text with multiple readings and deconstructing of text. Students analyze through discussion and reading and will appreciate things such as vocabulary, form, tone, imagery,word choice, authors message, etc.

Here's the dealio. We want students to grapple with advance concepts and participate in collaborative discussions. This is what will make them better thinkers. I've seen this first hand in Reader's Workshop. I had 3 kids last year who were just stuck on a level B. Every time I tested them they just weren't meeting the mastery. So, I experimented by just pushing them up a level. They saw the other students around them moving up and I know they desired the same. As soon as I pushed them up I noticed their decoding skills improve along with their fluency. Two out of my three strugglers ended up moving to a D by June. They still weren't on grade level but progress is progress. Let's face it.

This brings me to my next question...

Question: How do we determine complexity of a text?

Answer: There are three major components that go into selecting a complex text for your kiddies.

1. Qualitative Measures - Aspect of text complexity, word/paragraph/sentence length, number of pages
2. Qualitative Measures - Aspect of complexity, layout, meaning, structure, clarity, purpose
3. Reader/Task Consideration - How much prior knowledge do your students bring to the table? 

Qualities of Effective Close Reading

On Wednesday we had our first PD of the year on Close Reading. We started to implement this into our classrooms early this past spring and we modified it to 30 minutes three days a week. This year we are jumping right in first thing in the morning everyday for 30 minutes. Students will arrive in the classroom drop their bags at their tables and get right down to decomposing unfamiliar complex texts. I'm not sure how I feel about it right now but I'll let you know in a few weeks. Anyway, here's what I learned at our PD. I hope it helps you out.

Qualities of Effective Close Reading

1. Selection of a brief, high-quality, complex text.  Limiting the length of the passage allows students the opportunity to apply new skills and strategies through multiple readings of the text.
2. Individual reading to the text.  Students unable to read the text independently might engage in a partner read or a group read in lieu of an independent attempt.
3. Group reading aloud.  A group read aloud might be teacher-or student-led.  This practice supports the engagement of all students, especially those who struggle with reading the text independently, and reinforces the primacy of the text throughout Close Reading lessons.
4. Text-based questions and discussion that focus on discrete elements of the text.  Questions and discussion may focus on the author’s word choices and repetition, specific sentences, literacy devices, academic vocabulary, or particular passages containing information that is key to the curricular objective. 
5. Discussion among students.  These discussions, either in small groups or across the whole class, will ensure that the text-as opposed to personal reflections-remains the focus as the reader explores the author’s choices.
6. Writing about the text.  Students may be asked to reflect on the knowledge gained through Close Reading in short or long written passages.

First Day Jitters Activity

So the first day of school for NYC is upon us. On Monday I plan to read "First Day Jitters" by Julie Danneberg. I taught this lesson last year but I vamped it up this year with more questions for my students. I also found this really cute poem for "Jitter Juice" I plan to give my kids. I saw a lot of recipes that had soda in it and I'm not really comfortable giving that to them since we promote healthy eating at our school. So instead I'm going to mix lemonade or orange juice with seltzer water using equal parts. I created a powerpoint that goes along with the story using a venn diagram to compare how teachers and students got ready for the first day, leveled questioning and follow up activities to do in class. I believe this lesson can really be stretched out over 2 days if you really put some thought into it. You can find my lesson here on my TpT store.

iTeach. iCoach. iBlog.: Five close reading strategies to support the Commo...

iTeach. iCoach. iBlog.: Five close reading strategies to support the Commo...: I walked in to my first college class, Political Science 101, eager to learn. For my inaugural college assignment, my professor asked ...

Writing Bulletin Board

Yesterday I went in to set up my classroom so I can have my two full days next week to plan and not have to worry about cosmetic things. Of course when I show up my classroom looks as if it went through a tornado over the summer. Everything was out of place and I made the mistake of not taking a photo before I put everything away. So with that I decided to move things around because change is good. I'm on an owl kick if you haven't noticed. Since I've gotten photoshop I started playing and I've created owls, hence my classroom theme for the year.

I just finished up my reading bulletin board and you can check that out on my previous post. So, today I spent the day creating my writing bulletin board where I hang up the 5 major elements in writing. This is what I teach my first graders throughout the year. There are 5 areas we focus on: focus, detail, structure, voice and conventions. After the first month of school and assessing where my students are they are assigned reading and writing goals. We conference together and talk about their strengths and weaknesses in writing and how we can get better. Students write out their goals and stick a small post it with their name on the goal they are working on. I actually thought this would be too much for my kids last year but most of them really understood what we were expecting out of them. It was nice to see a piece of writing they did and how proud they were when they met or came close to that goal. You can find my writing goals on my TpT store. Here's a sample of my writing goals. I printed them on card stock and laminated them. They look amazing. Next up are my owl labels for my classroom door. Stay tuned!

Reading Strategies

Today I spent the day thinking about my bulletin board for Readers Workshop. I wasn't too thrilled with the layout I had last year so I decided I would change it up a little bit this year and make it bright and fun. I just started to play with Photoshop and I'm having way too much fun with it. I think I'm addicted. My first design was a simple owl and I created them in different colors to represent a particular area of reading. Under each heading are little subheadings or strategies I teach my students to improve their Accuracy, Fluency, Comprehension and Vocabulary. I can't wait to hang them up this week when I go in to set up. Here's a preview of my newest creation!

There are 34 different reading strategies I teach my students in order to be proficient in reading. In September when we launch Reader's Workshop I introduce my students to a new strategy at least once a week. If I see they are independently using their strategies then I'll expose them them to more or go over other strategies during Guided Reading. My next project is creating a strategy list for my students to place in their book baggy so they can take it home and use it in class. You can purchase my strategy set on my TpT page.

Conferring in Writing Workshop

This year I've been lucky enough to work with writing guru Carl Anderson. He's taught me how to not dread the conferring part of writing workshop. Let's face it, writing is just plain hard for some students and they dread the conference as much as you do. I had to take a step back and figure out why I had that dreadful feeling some days. The problem was me. I tried to do too much with a struggling student and I was the one overwhelming them making them dread me! I reorganized my teaching notes to have a clear teaching point for that day. I already knew where my students struggled so I knew to pick the most important area, whether it was focus, detail, conventions or structure. For one of my students I made her goal to improve her use of conventions in her writing (e.g. capitals, punctuation, and finger spacing). This is what we've been working on all year and boy have I seen improvements. She doesn't wince when it's time to conference anymore. I'd say all of my students now understand they have one clear goal to focus on in there writing. I think what we as educators need to understand is that our students already feel bombarded with information we throw out at them all day. Having a clear teaching point makes for an effective conference between teacher and student.

Qualities of Effective Teaching Points

1. We give clear, precise feedback to the student.
2. We should start the conference off by saying, "Something good writers do is....."
3. We name what we are teaching the student. For example: five finger rule in writing.
4. We give an explanation of what we are teaching (what is it? why are we teaching it?)
5. We give clear example of what we want the student to do by using mentor texts and our own writing samples.
6. We have the student give it a go by talking it out and telling them, "I'd like you to try this right now..."
7. We end the conference by linking the conference to the student’s work and reminding them to keep trying it in future writings.