OMG-Envelope Foldables!

I have recently purchased Dinah Zike’s new book: Dinah Zike’s Envelope Graphic Organizers. I love it & I’m looking for ways to use her ideas in classrooms before the end of the year! I don’t know about you, but I have stacks of old, used envelopes. There’s even more in the office & in the workroom up for grabs! I think this is a great way to recycle and re-use :)

My third graders are working on research as their targeted writing mode for the last nine weeks. They are also working on the five US Regions in Social Studies. In an effort to maximize our time, I’ve started a project that incorporates both of these skills. Students are researching one US Region each week. After they finish note taking, we write a mini-report of that region. 

The mini-report becomes a page in the envelope foldable, and the notes are stored in the pocket of the envelope. 

By the end of the unit, students will have a “published” research book on the US Regions. 

Go to my TPT store to grab a FREEBIE of my regions pages. Please leave feedback! Anyone else using envelope foldables?

CCSS Literature Circles

I love using literature circles in the classroom because they build students' motivation to read and helps them become life-long readers. But, I hate literature circle role sheets….copying them, keeping up with them, and grading them give me a headache! So I decided to create simple job cards for my literature circle meetings. Each card tells students what to do to prepare for their circle meeting, and what the expectation is for sharing at the circle meeting. Students write their responses in a reading journal (we use these all year). Students choose their job from the board pictured below.

I give students a calendar of the literature circle's reading assignments and circle meetings. This example calendar was created at calendarsthatwork.com.

 

Now I score students weekly with a simple rubric and viola…..literature circles don’t give me headaches anymore! I've also updated my job cards to better support Common Core. 

 

Interested? The job cards are available for purchase in my TPT store. A preview is available as well.

Happy reading!

Text-Dependent Questions Poster

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Like many of your schools, we have been going through training to prepare us for Common Core. One message we’ve heard time and time again is that reading comprehension questions need to be text-dependent. Our current reading basal was adopted several years ago, when a student’s ability to make connections with their own lives was more important than making connections within text. So our teachers are spending a lot of time trying to “bump up” the questions within our basal to make them more text-dependent. I’ve created this key words poster to help with the process! Grab your FREEBIE here.

Differentiated Vocabulary Center

This week I was fortunate enough to work with a fourth grade classroom.  The teacher in this classroom wanted to look for ways to differentiate her reading centers. We decided to take small bites & start with one center at a time. She needs all of her students to complete work in the Vocabulary Center every Monday, because students use this vocabulary foldable in a reading notebook throughout the week.  So we decided to start there! When students go to the Vocabulary Centers on Monday, they see a set of cards on a ring. Depending on their reading group (based on reading levels), students complete a different color of card. The approaching reading group completes the red card, her on-level groups complete the green card, and her beyond group completes the blue card. Students know which color card to complete because each reading group has its own color theme. I’ve also included a blank yellow card for the teacher to customize. Visit my TPT store to download this FREEBIE! 

Workstation Frustration

Students love going to centers/workstations (or whatever you choose to call them).  However, teachers don’t always love them! Our students need something to work on independently while we meet with small groups, and we want students engaged with meaningful activities.  But, the planning and organization of workstations can be overwhelming for many teachers. 

So what’s an effective solution? Meet Debbie Diller! This educator has published books with time-saving solutions for work station management. She suggests consistent stations that stay up in your classroom all year. No more frantically creating (or finding) centers each week! Some of the stations she describes in her books are classroom library, buddy reading, big book, poetry, newspaper, writing, etc. She suggests different stations depending on the level of your students (primary or intermediate).  She also explains the teaching and behavior management thoroughly. I would recommend her products to anyone who has felt the frustration that running centers can cause.

I have created a set of posters that correlate with Diller’s workstations. This center set includes 24 signs with various elementary literacy skills. Most stations have 4 signs that can rotate daily. (Bonus signs are included if you need an extra fifth day activity.) All signs can be reused weekly. I put a clear sheet protector in my centers and switched which poster I put in the sleeve daily.
Stations included in this packet are: Classroom Library, Writing, Buddy Reading, Poetry, Word Work, Article, Game, & Computer.  You can find the intermediate posters in my TPT store at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literacy-Work-Station-Signs

You can get posters for the primary level (these are differentiated) at:  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literacy-Work-Station-Signs-Primary-Grades

While you’re here, grab my FREEBIE! I’ve created center rotation cards to go with my posters. Get them here!