These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

This is a jumbled post that is meant to share ideas...just give names of apps, books, and games that are at the top of my favorites list in the classroom. Some are at the top of my teacher list, but the majority are favorites of my students as well.

 

 

Decide Now is a customizable spinning wheel app. I use it to call on students. I am currently working on a Q & A spinner set up to resemble the current pop phenomenon know as Trivia Crack.

 

 

This book is wonderfully useful because it gives ready-made anchor charts for a variety of reading strategies, but I love to reference it when creating my own charts.

 

 

 

This app is called Classroom Timer Lite.  I can't remember if it was free or not.  I subscribe to an app called Apps Gone Free which offers me daily deals, so I think I found the timer through that.  If it did cost money I know it was cheap because I normally don't spend much on apps.

 

 

 

This classroom management app is a fantastic tool. I like it because it helps students stay on task. It does not make them stay quiet.  My classroom is rarely quiet because students should be talking, questioning, and discussing. This app allows you to customize your noise level preferenes.

 

 

The following is a list of apps that my students use in the classroom:

• Kids Discover (several topics and titles)
• Baloney! (multiple subjects and grade levels)
• Crazy Machines (science and engineering)
• iTooch (multiple subjects and grade levels)
• Far Faria (books)
• Frontier Heroes (history)
• Geography Drive (social studies)
• Mr. Nussbaum (multiple subjects and grade levels)
• My Talking Pet (I use it for creating talking characters)
• New-o-Matic (current events)
• Puffin Academy and RAZ Kids are programs purchased by my district
• Reading Timer
• Stack the States (social studies)
• Word Wizard (spelling)
• World Atlas

Anomia is a great game to build vocabulary and get the brain revved up for learning.  I use it at the start of class each day. Sometimes we share our ideas orally, but usually students write their ideas in their Reading Notebooks.

 

 

I love using the app Plickers to quickly assess students using multiple choice and T/F questions.  It is paperless and engaging with immediate feedback for students and teacher.

Honey, We Think Reading is Wonderful!

  

 

I teach 2 blocks of 4th grade Balanced Literacy. My students are at- or above-grade level. We use the Lucy Calkins units of study.  Our first unit is Building a Reading Life.For  Lesson 1, I chose to use the book The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco. During this lesson, students reflect on what makes reading wonderful for them. They think back over their lives as readers and identify pitfalls and peaks. In this book a young girl would rather be outside running than sitting inside reading. So her grandfather takes her on a journey to find a tree where bees make honey. Several people join their adventure along the way. Students learn that reading is as sweet as honey, but it takes hard work, support from other people, and some stickiness to become a successful reader.

 

 

At the end of the book, grandfather puts a drop of honey on the girl's book to remind her that reading is sweet. Right before I got to that part, I put a drop of honey on each child's finger. I told them not to do anything right away...I told them they would feel what to do when the time is right. They all started licking their honey as I read grandfather's words to the girl...perfection! The smiles and head nods told me they understood! For my Teach Like a Pirate colleagues, this Chef Hook was certainly a hit.  I hope these students will always remember that reading is sweet.

 

During Independent Work Time, students made jottings about a time in their lives when they discovered that reading was sweet and wonderful. I keep the blocks' sticky notes different colors so they each have their own identity.

 

Here are some of their jottings:

 

 

Invisible Reading Strategy

Invisible ink will hook any reluctant writer! Teach like a pirate and teach your students to record their thoughts without stress or judgment. My students are in the midst of the Lucy Calkins unit Navigating Nonfiction. I amped up the lesson about mentally recording main idea and details on your hand by calling it The Invisible Strategy!

 

 

Not only did the lesson reinforce main idea and supporting details, but I was able to extend the lesson and teach Common Core vocabulary.  Sometimes the main idea isn't called the main idea!

Students added the graphic reminder to their reading notebooks.

 

During independent reading the students practiced using the strategy.

The Invisible Strategy was a memorable introduction to the formal reading strategy of Boxes and Bullets and helped them grasp it more easily.

 

 

The students' understanding of main idea transformed from invisible to concrete!

Book Clubs: Books in a Series

I wanted to share a couple of anchor charts and some of the organizational tools I am using for the beginning of my current unit, Book Clubs: Books in a Series.

 

 

I decided to use a hot pink star as a visual cue for my students. 

 

I placed hot pink stars on the baskets of series books in the classroom library.



I added a hot pink star to the focus board to show students were studying a new unit, book clubs, but were still focusing our learning on following characters into meaning.



Students will have their first book club meeting tomorrow, so check back for more details!

Students use the following chart to help guide their Book Club conversations.

Students came up with reading behaviors that demonstrate what Book Clubs look like and sound like.

New Year, New Jottings

My third graders are on their way to becoming great readers and thinkers. I started them out slowly when creating jottings while they read. We made some jottings together and we used symbols to show our thinking. We did a sorting activity to distinguish weak jottings from wonderful jottings.



Then we moved on to some metacognitive thinking. During the read aloud of Stone Fox, students stopped and made three jottings: I wonder, I think, What if? Then during Independent Reading, students used the same three jotting stems while reading a leveled book of their choice.

 

I used these jotting stems to conference with students. I noted areas of strength and weakness in their jottings in order to compliment my readers and give them an area of improvement. Side note--yes, I know there are more technological ways I could record my conference notes, but I like my method of recording in writing.

 

Adjusting, Revisiting, Discussing

As I worked my way through my test prep unit, I noticed some common weaknesses among my students. While I was conferencing with them, they were not discussing characters in the same light that they had during our character unit in the Fall. They were also getting a little bit lazy with their descriptions of theme, morals, and central messages. Finally, some common assessment results showed me that they needed more exposure to comparing and contrasting between texts.

My reading teacher brain turned mathematical...an equation developed in my mind...

strong characters + strong themes + comparing/contrasting books by one author =

 

CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG

 

I created anchor chart #1 to review the character elements we have used throughout the year.

 

The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg for minilesson #1

 

In the front of the book I wrote a large green sticky note with my metacognition stems. Throughout the book, I put green tabs at the spots where students would stop and jot using the stems. The large yellow sticky note lists common core ideas for talking and inferring about characters. Throughout the book I put yellow sticky notes with my jottings and questions that match the common core stems.

 

Student jotting with my conference note to add in evidence from the text.

 

Student jotting--plus you have to love companies like Harris Teeter and Renaissance Learning who donate sticky notes! 

 

Student jotting with my conference note to use synonyms instead of repeating thoughts. The student also added in text evidence.

 

I conferenced with several students about how to use shades of an adjective when describing characters. Their art teacher told me she was teaching the same thing with paints so we were able to use each other as examples in our lessons! I love a great coincidence!

 

We conferenced about citing evidence and using shades of an adjective. This is a reluctant writer who enjoys reading. I scripted his text evidence for him. It is a fine line to push him to write because sometimes it shuts him off to jotting altogether.

 

I asked this student why he drew extra boxes and he said he heard me conferencing about adding evidence so he added it in before he met with me!

 

adding evidence and reviewing synonyms

 

 

I found several theme anchor charts on Pinterest so I combined them and created anchor chart #2.

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg for minilesson #2

 

In the front of the book I wrote a large green sticky note with synthesizing stems. Throughout the book, I put green tabs at the spots where students would stop and jot to show synthesis. The large yellow sticky note lists my common core ideas for developing and interpreting morals, lessons, and themes. Throughout the book I put yellow sticky notes with my jottings and questions that match the stems.

 

 

 

 

I used hot pink sticky notes to show my thinking that stretches between the two Van Allsburg books.

 

Student jottings and conference notes

 

 

During Independent Reading, this student found a copy of the book in our classroom library. He said, "this isn't my just right level, but can I please read it?" Of course!

 

 

The Wreck of the Zephyr--minilesson #3. I think it is important to make jottings about the cover of the book, not just the story inside.

 

 

In the front of the book I wrote a large green sticky note with inferencing stems. Throughout the book, I put green tabs at the spots where students would stop and jot to show their inferences. The large yellow sticky note lists my common core ideas for supporting thinking with evidence. Throughout the book I put yellow sticky notes with my jottings and questions that match the stems.

 

 

Once again the pink sticky notes show where I compare and contrast between the books. The orange flags note interesting vocabulary words.