2 Types of Readers

When I reflect on my years as a classroom teacher, I think about my students as individual learners. I spent a lot of time reflecting about teaching and learning this summer. It became clear to me that 2 types of readers have passed through my life.

The 2 types include those who get lost in books and those who read until the timer goes off.  In fact, the two different types of readers are represented in my own house as well.

My daughter read over 100 books in 6th grade last year.  Big books.  She has her nose in a book while she walks around the house.  I frequently find her reading under the covers with a flashlight long after her bedtime.  She has stacks and stacks of books waiting to be read in her room and frequently runs out of things to read.

My 9 year old son is a good reader, but he reads approximately 25 - 30 pages a day with a timer in his hand. When the timer goes off, he happily drops the book.  He won't pick up another book until I remind him about what research says about summer lag the next day.

This summer, I'm collaborating with some of our 5th and 6th grade teachers and our Instructional Support Team to re-read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  I have read this book six times and each time it leaves me reflecting on different ways to reach our young readers.

The first step for me (although I'll admit that it is painful) is accepting the fact that not all readers are born with a natural love for books.  The second step as a teacher (and a mom) is to let what we know about the reader and the books they choose "whisper" (as Donalyn Miller says) to us so we can support them as readers.  The third step is to never give up hope.

I'm hopeful that my son will soon fall in love with a series or genre so much so that he no longer feels the need to read for only 20 or 30 minutes. Until then, I'll keep modeling a love for reading.  I'll keep exposing him to different authors, genres and series.  Most importantly, I'll let the choices he makes whisper to me so I can support him even if it is for only 25 - 30 pages a day (for now).

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Extra!  Extra! Read All About It!

My favorite author released her newest book, Chocolate Milk, Por Favor!

Maria Dismondy is an award winning author, a former teacher and a mom who writes books that empower others and encourage us to celebrate diversity.  I've known Maria for a few years and have had the pleasure of hearing her presentations several times in my school.  My own children have also been empowered by her message when she visited their schools.  She is a fabulous presenter and I can tell you from experience that her positive message sticks with children and adults.

I've read and enjoyed all of Maria's books in my classroom and at home with my own children. Her new book is the story of a two boys, Gabe and Johnny.  Gabe speaks a different language than the other students in his new school and Johnny struggles to accept Gabe at first.  Throughout the story, Johnny learns to celebrate diversity with empathy.  Chocolate milk plays role in the story as well!

Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! sparked conversations at our house about important topics like ways we can make people feel welcome, getting to know more about people to honor the differences among us, celebrating diversity instead of pretending we are all the same and having empathy for others.  In our family, we want our children to do more than accept others.  We want them to learn from each others differences, accept each other without the expectation that we should all be the same and encourage others to be the best they can be.  I tried to teach the same to the children in my classroom. Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! is a book that I will definitely be recommending to teachers and parents for years to come.

I have a great deal of respect for Maria Dismondy's work and the positive messages she shares.  I am honored that she asked me to create a reader's guide for Chocolate Milk, Por Favor!.   The reader's guide includes activities that are aligned with the common core standards (but will work with any standards) for teachers and parents to use as they enjoy the story together.  You can read more about this book (and her other books) and download the reader's guide for free on Maria's website by clicking on the image below.

As part of the blog tour, Maria is allowing me to giveaway a signed copy of Chocolate Milk, Por Favor! to one lucky winner!  The giveaway ends on April 11th at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway    

Congratulations, Maria!

Another fabulous book!

Another powerful message!

Looking forward to filling our shelves and our hearts with more of your stories in the future!

Professional Books for Small Group Reading Instruction

Since I started my new job as an instructional coach, it's been a little tricky for me to figure out how to keep blogging.  I've been super busy, but I love my new job.  We have a fabulous instructional support team and here I am posting about something that I love. So, all is good with my little world.

One of the projects I've been working on this year is facilitating discussions, providing training and leading reflection groups about small group instruction for reading.  During this process, I gathered my favorite resources for small group reading instruction.

As teachers, we often provide small group instruction to meet our students needs in writing, reading and math.  Guided reading is a model of small group instruction, but not the only model.  During traditional guided reading, students participate in a book talk introduction, spend time reading at their instructional reading level (either at or away from the table depending on their level) and participate in a group discussion based on teacher led questions about the book.  It is recommended that students who fall within the levels for grades K - 2 (levels A - M) also participate in word work during this time. In Irene Fountas' model of guided reading, students also write about reading.  The recommendation is that students who are level N and above write about reading daily.  It is also recommended that students below level N write about reading as much as possible.  Many teachers are using post it notes and/or reading notebooks for this purpose.

The pros of this traditional model are that it allows teachers to learn information from student discussions/responses that they can use to plan their instruction for individual students or the group for the next week.  In my opinion, a con is that the students have a limited amount of time to read at their instructional level when the teacher is doing so much teaching/talking during their small group time.

Less traditional models that I've tried and observed working well in classrooms over the years include groups that are more flexible in classrooms that are using the reading workshop model.  With focused mini lessons in a large group setting, independent reading practice time and teachers taking notes on specific things each student needs to work on instructionally, students tend to have more actual reading time during small group instruction.  Flexible groupings are sometimes based on reading level and sometimes based on strategy focus.  Word work is sometimes done at the table for struggling readers in this model.  Students who are on or above grade level tend to do this word work away from the table. Many teachers are using post-it notes and/or reading notebooks for writing about reading in this model as well.

Another option is students visiting the small group instruction table in a staggered way (not necessarily by strategy focus or level), because one student is called at a time to get started.  The seats at the table fill up in this model in a staggered method that allows the teacher to have a quick (1 minute kind of quick) discussion about today's focus with each individual student as he/she calls them to the table. After quickly talking to the student about what he/she noticed the student needs to work on, the student gets started and continues reading while the teacher repeats the process with another student.  Within a few minutes, the table is filled and the teacher can take notes, prompt students as needed, ask questions with individual students while everyone else keeps reading.  Word work is sometimes done at the table for struggling readers in this model. Students who are on or above grade level tend to do word work away from the table. Many teachers are using post it notes and/or reading notebooks for writing about reading in this model as well.

Nontraditional models of small group instruction take some time to get used to, but they tend to increase the actual reading minutes in a big way.  I found this extremely helpful to build reading stamina.  It doesn't work for everyone, but I find that I learn more when my students spend more time reading and I can spend more time listening, noticing and noting how to plan instruction to meet the needs of each individual student and the class. As a teacher, my goal was to aim for each student in my class to be reading (actually practicing reading at their level) for 90 minutes a day. My goal was based on the recommendation of the work that Richard Allington did with the International Reading Association.  When I first heard that recommendation, it caused me to reflect on how many minutes my own students were spending actually practicing reading (not me instructing them for reading) in my classroom.  I was shocked to discover that I was no where near that goal and worked for the next several years to include more actual reading practice time for my students. Adjusting my small group reading instruction time was one of the things that really helped me reach that goal.

Here are my favorite professional resources for small group reading instruction.

This book is a great resource for getting organized for small group reading instruction.

If you use Fountas and Pinnell leveling (A - Z), 

this is a fabulous resource for ideas of things to work on at each level.  

This is my old copy of the K - 2 version, 

but the new version has a white cover 

and has several different grade level combinations including a K - 8 version.

This is my favorite reader's workshop resource, 

but it includes lots of information about small group instruction as well.  

I purchased this book after participating in a webinar by the author, Jennifer Serravallo.  

Her webinar was about conferring and she also has a book about conferring.  Two friends who participate attend the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in NY each year recommended this book as well.  The focus of this book is using assessment data to drive instruction.  

My copy is grades 3 - 6, but she has a K - 2 version as well.

This book has sample planning templates, ideas for working with students at different levels and ideas for scaffolding instruction at each level.

I'd love to hear about your favorite models of small group instruction and/or favorite resources for small group reading instruction.

October Daily Messages

At the end of September, I posted a set of October Daily Messages for Kindergarten.  Would you believe that I'm just now gettin' around to blogging about them?  Oy...  You can find them in my Tpt store and I'm working on a November set as well.

The messages included look about like the image below, but each one is a little different.

When I did a daily message in my classroom, I put it under the document camera each day. We solved the words with missing letters together.  That gave us an opportunity to talk about specific phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, word wall words, spelling words, decoding strategies and comprehension strategies together.  Then I gave each student their own copy of the message and they filled in the blanks, read it to themselves and read it to a partner.  Finally, they took their copy home to read it to their parents (or their dog, or a stuffed animal).

When we worked on blends, if we discovered a word that had a consonant blend at the beginning we added it to our Book of Blends.  You can also find My Book of Blends in my Tpt store.

I am lucky enough to visit lots of classrooms for my new job, which I love! I've shared my Super Spelling Forms and Autograph Bookmarks with several of my teacher friends for word work and accountability for independent reading time.

I'm off to a Painting with a Twist event with a friend!  Have a great week!

Book Talk Tuesday - Chapter Book Series (freebies)

In preparation for my looping experience and in celebration of my fancy new bins...I'm working on a giant book sorting project this summer.  It's still a work in progress, but I thought it was a good time to link up with Deanna Jump to share some of my favorite chapter book series.

 At the beginning of the summer, I reread The Book Whisperer. 

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book, which refers to student reading surveys.

"Their needs as readers, as people, call to me from the pages of those surveys, and I whisper back with books." (Donalyn Miller)

Since I am looping with my students, one of my goals is to really get to know my readers.  In first grade, we poured our hearts into becoming readers and learning how to love books together.  During our 2nd grade year together, I want each of my students to develop their reader identity.  As their teacher, I want to make sure I "whisper" to them by listening carefully to their preferences, fostering their interests, acknowledging that I know and respect their individual reader identity and making sure that I have a variety of books available for them to read independently.  Along with that, I want to make sure my books are organized in a way that motivates my students since they are now more sophisticated readers.  That is how I justify the outrageous amount of money I've spent on new books and bins this summer. Ha!

Another take away I had from reading The Book Whisperer was the importance of giving readers choice.  In her book, Donalyn Miller said that she used to read whole class novels with her upper elementary students.  She said she discovered that lack of control over reading choice was a problem until she stopped doing that and switched to a workshop structure instead. I do feel like I give my readers choice in my own classroom, but after reading this book 3 or 4 times I have a list of ideas of ways I can improve my own instruction.

I made a new Reading Interest Survey to use with my students this year.  You can click on the image below to download a copy.

I also decided to start with reorganizing my books (and buying lots of new chapter books) to start 2nd grade. I found these amazing chapter book bins from Really Good Stuff.  They have 3 divided sections, which are perfect for separating books in a series. They come in a variety of colors.

*We use Fountas & Pinnell levels.  Many of the series on this list are new and have not yet been leveled on many of the leveling sites, so I assigned levels that are close enough for me.  I'm simply sharing the list in this format in case it's helpful for any other teachers out there.  You can click on the image to download a copy of the list.

Today, I am going to my classroom for the first time to move my furniture around.  No flip flops.  Hair in a messy bun.  Pray for me. Surely this will count as my weight lifting for the day.

Head over to visit Mrs. Jump's Class to read about other great books.

Word Walls That Work

In my district, word walls have been a hot topic for a while.

Here are the issues we've been discussing...

Are you required to have word walls in your lower elementary classrooms?

What words go on the word wall?

Are they the same as your weekly spelling words?

Do you also put other words on the word wall?

Should words be added to the word wall each week?

Do you start the year with all of the words up?

Do you start the year with the words from the previous grade up?

How do you teach the students strategies for using the word wall?

How do you model interacting with the word wall?

So many things to think about...no wonder this is a topic of discussion.

There are many, many fabulous ways to use the word wall that are happening in my own building, in my district and in classrooms around the country.  I am by no means a "word wall expert".  But, here are my own answers about how I use the word wall in my classroom. My answers do not represent the decisions made by my district - because those decisions have not all been made by the big powers that rule the word wall.

Are you required to have word walls in your lower elementary classrooms?
I'm kind of required.  Plus, I do think it's a valuable tool (especially if it's used carefully).

What words go on the word wall?
Our weekly spelling words (which are Dolch words), but not the word family (vowel patterns) that we study are the ones that I put on my classroom word wall.  I don't include the word family patterns on my word wall, because I want the word wall to be a place for students to find high frequency words.  We make anchor charts with different word family patterns as we study them.  Those are kept in other places in the room so students can refer to them as we are learning each specific pattern.

Are they the same as your weekly spelling words?
Yes, the word wall words are our weekly spelling words.

Do you also put other words on the word wall?
Nope.

Should words be added to the word wall each week?
In my classroom we add the spelling words each week.  That allows us to have practice using only a handful of new words on the wall each week before other words are added.

Do you start the year with all of the words up?
Nope. I have a system for introducing and adding the words.  The words are added in front of the students and we talk about the words for the week during our Monday morning meeting.

Do you start the year with the words from the previous grade up?
I recently talked to some teachers from another district who said they were required to put up the words from the previous grade to start the year. My word wall starts empty.

When I started this post, I realized that I don't have a current photo of my word wall.  And...I won't have a photo of my "new" word wall for a couple weeks because all of my teaching treasures are currently in the hallway outside my new room.

Excuse this picture from 2011...

My word wall has gone through a couple makeovers since the picture above and I'm ready for another makeover this year.  I purchased fabric and borders this summer.  

I'm thinking about using some combination of these on my new word wall. 

Thank you, schoolgirlstyle.com for the chevron borders!

I recently sorted all of my words, so I can figure out which words I need to make since I'm looping with my class to 2nd grade this year. Isn't my granite pretty?  I love it.  Shhhhh... I use Windex on it all the time.  I know.  I know.  Pretty soon it will probably develop giant craters.  Blah. Blah. Blah.

I've also been collecting pins of my favorite word walls on Pinterest. 

You can click on the image below to check out my favorites.

Each year, I assess the students to find out if they can read and spell the words from the previous grade at the beginning of the year.  If there are words from the previous year's list that a child can not spell, I work on those individually with that child.

How do you teach the students strategies for using the word wall?
Since the words on my word wall are "spelling words", I want my students to have as much practice as possible interacting with the words throughout the week.  A couple years ago, I posted about the super spelling slippers my students are invited to wear during our spelling tests.  You can read that super old post here. Yes, I give spelling tests.  I don’t mind if some folks don’t like my “spelling tests”.  I also don’t care if other folks (even on my team) choose to give spelling tests or not to give spelling tests.  I feel lucky to work in place where we have some freedom to make those decisions based on what we feel is best for our students.

And since I’m famous for saying exactly how I feel...

I give spelling tests for 3 reasons.

1. It teaches accountability and responsibility.

2. I use the weekly assessments to plan my instruction for the following week.   

3. My students count on and look forward to our weekly spelling routine. 

Part of our weekly spelling routine is to do the Super Spelling Power Stations from my Super Spelling Forms pack.  Super Spelling Forms includes lots of different spelling forms and directions and checklists for my Super Spelling Power Stations.  The best things about the Super Spelling Power Stations are that it is a routine (not weekly stations that you have to keep creating/changing).  The words change each week in our spelling program, but the Super Spelling Stations routine stays the same.  Lots of the Super Spelling Stations involve movement, since many students learn best when they are active.  Some of the stations also require students to interact with the word wall.

Each day, my students interact with the word wall during literacy workstations and during Super Spelling Stations.  During our morning message, students solve mystery words by using the word wall each day.  They also stomp, cheer or clap each word wall word in our morning message. 

How do you model interacting with the word wall?
During read alouds or close reading activities that I do for reader's workshop, I refer to any new or "tricky" words that are on our word wall. I also model using the word wall to help me decode new multisyllabic words that have smaller word wall words in them.  For example, if I came upon the word "makeshift", I would point out that "make" is on our word wall.

The most helpful time for me to model strategies for using the word wall is during my writer's workshop mini lessons.  Modeling strategies for using the word wall during writer's workshop helps my students remember that I expect them to use the word wall to help them spell the words correctly or to CHECK THEIR WORK.  That's in big letters because it seems like I'm always yellin' that out. Ha!

As I plan to redesign my word wall for this year, I'd love to see pictures of your word walls! Anyone want to share a pic with me?  You can send them to me via email or I'd be happy to visit your blog or Instagram page if you have pics of your word wall there.  Just leave me a message and I'll hop on over to check it out.

Close Reading, Text Based Evidence & Finally a Crafty Activity!

Last week, we did a close reading using the book below during reader's workshop. It's from the Scholastic What Grows In Our Garden garden pack.

Throughout the week, we also gathered text based evidence from lots of other books about why fruits and vegetables are good for us to eat. Here are a few other books from the same pack I mentioned above (with a little bit of "evidence" that students gathered stuck to the front).

Food was the weekly theme for our March is Reading Month theme, which focuses on informational text.  We're traveling on the Information Highway...with a different theme each week. You can find the resources that we're using for this month long unit in my Information Highway unit.

Here are some of the nonfiction books I gathered for us to use during our food week.

We collected text based evidence about why fruits and veggies are good for us during our close reading and in small groups with different books from our collection. We added the evidence to an anchor chart throughout the week.  I included the resource and the page number in a different color under each "fact".

In between all these snowy/icy/whenarewereallygonnahavea5dayweek days, we finally had time to do an art project!  Ta da!

Fruits and Veggies in Your Bag Writing and Craftivity

(front view + writing on the back)

The parts and pieces (minus the bag) can be found in the product below if you're interested.  The writing page + the resources sheet to put on the back of the bag are also included.

My students were also super excited to practice their how to writing skills by writing about how to make a food of their choice.  I'm so proud of the progress they have made in writing!  We've been revisiting how to writing throughout the year.  I really wanted them to use first, then, next and last in their how to writing. In the past, I've had to guide them through the process, but this time they were able to go through the process independently...which makes my heart sing! (The pages for our graphic organizers and the writing are included in my Information Highway unit.)

Here is a student sample... 

This weeks theme is music.  Makes me feel like dancin' reading!

ROADTRIP!

It's time for our roadtrip on the Information Highway!  

We're traveling on an informational text themed adventure for March.

Our whole building is focusing on specific themes
for informational text each week.  

Passport Registration

I have a crazy amount of leveled books in my classroom.  I do mean CrAzY, but they all get used on a daily basis.  I have bins full of fiction and nonfiction books at each level for students to use throughout the day.  I also have a Nonfiction Book Nook full of just leveled informational texts. I created this separate area full of nonfiction books just to make sure my students have extra exposure to informational text.  The books in the Nonfiction Book Nook are organized by category (but are also leveled to help students choose just right books).  As you can see, the bins for some categories are super full and other bins have so few books in them that you can barely see them in each bin.

Nonfiction Book Nook Shelf

You can find the labels that I made for the bins in my Nonfiction Book Nook here.
The labels are available to download free at the bottom of that old post.

I'll be posting more adventures from our trip on the Information Highway over the next few weeks.

Then...we'll finish off March with Camp Read a Lot!

Nonfiction Writing (Freebie Friday!)

We are finishing up our penguin research.  Well we're trying...but we have only had 2 days of school this week.  Seriously!  (President's Day + 2 snow/ice days)  I was actually able only to teach for one day.  I did Dibels testing all day on Wednesday and returned as Granny Gillow to teach on Thursday for our 100th day of school.  I'll post about that soon. It was SO much FUN!

During reader's workshop, we're finishing up our penguin research using my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  You can read  a post with more details about that here.

During writer's workshop, my students are working on nonfiction writing.  I'm using the Lucy Caulkins unit to teach nonfiction writing.  My district has not officially adopted the program, so I use a combination of resources to teach different writing units.

Here is a reusable anchor chart that helps guide our planning.  

I laminate my reusable charts and use giant sticky notes to add the things myself or to let the students add things.  That allows us to reuse the same chart multiple times during the same unit and I can reuse it again in the future.

I don't know about your students, but my students struggle with spreading their story across the pages when writing nonfiction books.  When we are writing personal narratives or small moment stories, they are able to think of the story in terms of a beginning, middle and end.  That helps them spread their story across the pages.  That is not as easy for them when writing a nonfiction (teaching) book.

I made Sketch Across the Pages graphic organizers for my students to use to help them during the planning stage.  First, I ask them to tell the story out loud across their fingers.  Then they can choose either a 4 or 5 page graphic organizer to help them organize their ideas in the planning stage.  Some students return to me to get another copy of the graphic organizer if they realize they need to add more pages to their story.

If you click on the image below, you can check out the graphic organizers
and download your own copy if you'd like.  

I'm linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday!

Since there is no school again today, maybe I'll get some things done at home.  Happy Friday!

Penguins as a Model for Animal Research

It felt so good to be back in my classroom with my students this week! They worked so hard and I was so wiped out by the end of the week. Glad to be back either way.

Oh how I love Saturday mornings without anything on the schedule. My son is busy doing batting practice in the basement. My daughter is using the living room as a dance floor to practice ballet.  My husband is cooking breakfast, so I thought I'd sneak in a little post.

We started our penguin research this week. We research penguins as a group so my students have a model for how to do their animal research later in the year. We started out by doing a close reading activity with this book. It's my favorite nonfiction penguin book.  We spent the whole week digging into this book during our reader's workshop lessons.  I have a whole collection of penguin books (which are available to the students), but really digging into one or two helps my students understand the importance of using good strategies with informational text.

Throughout the week, we added details to our can/have/are anchor chart.

 Any words that were new, unfamiliar or super interesting to us during our reading were added to our penguin vocabulary anchor chart.  At the beginning of reader's workshop time, I give the classroom iPads (we have 2) to students who will be in charge of recording the special vocabulary for the day.  That allows me to keep reading/teaching while they use the Educreations app as a white board to keep a list of the vocabulary we should add to the anchor chart for the day.   Then I can take a screen shot of the new vocabulary words to use it with a small group later or email it to parents so the students can discuss our new vocabulary at dinner.

This is a screen shot one of the iPads
 after one of the reader's workshop lessons this week.

Here's another one.  This student chose to write lots of words that we
discussed even though we
knew the definitions of some already. 

We'll add more to this vocabulary chart next week
as we continue our research.

When the anchor charts are complete, I'll take pictures of them and add them to our Reader's Workshop Anchor Chart book.  Then students can go back to reread and  revisit the things we've learned long after I've taken the charts down in the room.  We have a writer's workshop anchor chart book as well. They are  favorites in our room!

The students also completed their own can/have/are sheet and a vocabulary wheel for one of the words from our chart.  They choose their own word from our Penguin Vocabulary chart to use in the wheel and I ask them to write down things that will help them explain the word to a partner.  When their wheels are completed, they find a partner who has a different word and share/discuss their thinking. I move around during that time to make sure students are accurately defining the word since they may or may not have included the definition we discussed in their descriptions on the wheel.  

The resources I use for this unit are all found in my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  It even includes pieces to make the anchor charts.  You can check it out by clicking on the image below.

When we finish this research project, the students will be well prepared to do their own animal research project.  They will choose their own animal and we'll use my Animal Research Book to guide them through the same kind of process we used to study penguins.  This was my very first Tpt product and it's my best seller.  I should probably update the cover...ha!  Add that to the to do list.

It's sunny and 10 today, so it's finally nice enough for a long dog walk. Not kidding... these poor dogs really need some exercise (and so do I)!  Happy Saturday!