Notice & Note Continued

Well it seems like ages ago I talked about the book I was reading Notice & Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst. I have been teaching the signposts with my students in mini-lessons and have loved the conversations coming out of class. The book is incredibly helpful in describing how to teach the signposts. The signposts have given my students a starting point when writing their thinking tracks. This year was a new ball game for them and I and they struggled with determining what warranted a thinking track in their book. I met with my students individually in student conferences, however they still struggled. Thankfully I found this book and it has helped turn things around. My students have opened up to the signposts and are having great conversations. I will say when I used a familiar text and was able to show movie clips my students engagement increased and the conversation was richer.

Well I have officially completed my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and hope to be more consistent and share my ups and downs of the classroom.http://www.amazon.com/Notice-Note-Strategies-Close-Reading/dp/032504693X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366141680&sr=1-1&keywords=notice+%26+note

Great Professional Resource

I love to read but have always been a little nervous branching out with my reading instruction. Thankfully some great educators have published books that help me develop a reading program in my class without using a basal textbook. I have been trying my hardest to meet everything the CCSS ask for but was unsure if I was meeting the standards to the level of rigor I need to. I have found a great resource to add to my collection Notice & Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst is a great book. An easy read that clarified CCSS in the classroom for me. I now feel that I am doing a better job guiding my students.

I am hoping to become more consistent in posting when my Master's Degree is completed by the end of the month. Thank you for following!

New Read Aloud

I am a little late on reading the wonderful book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  What an amazing book!  My students and I love reading it everyday.  The book is a great resource for teaching point of view and empathy something we can all use.  We have been using the book to look at persuasive writing.  My students are taking a point of view and writing a letter based on that character's point of view. I have also noticed fellow blogger http://www.wildaboutfifthgrade.blogspot.com/ has some great ideas for using the book as well.

Native American Heritage Month

November is in full swing and my students are loving our theme this month. We are celebrating Native American Heritage all month! I selected The Birchbark House a CCSS exemplar text, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Walk Two Moons for our literature circles this month. The Birchbark House took awhile to come in so I had that group start reading Who Was Sacagaewa first. They love those biographies. If you have not added some to your class library I highly recommend them. My students have been reading them up! In addition to the literature circles we have been reading creation stories from various tribes including the Dine (my students are Dine/Navajo). We have been comparing and contrasting the stories to the Dine creation story. For Social Studies we have been reading about the various regions and our read aloud is focused on the Navajo Long Walk. I will post about our research project next.

Busy Month!

What a busy month it has been!I have been busy with school, working on my Master's Degree, and the best job being a mom and wife! I have been reading a book I have heard of for a while, but have fallen in love with. If you have not already read Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis I strongly suggest that you do! The book has given me plenty of great ideas for my reading mini-lessons. I have also scheduled my day around the Daily 5 and loving my student conferences. What a great way to build relationships with your students. Well happy reading and hopefully I'll be back sooner!

Curriculum Mapping and Literature Circles

Well it is official I am behind on curriculum mapping and aligning my curriculum to the Common Core State Standards. I am also at a crossroads when it comes to my lesson plans. I found the more detailed ones that I started out putting on our curriculum mapper to be more beneficial to teaching to the standard. However the ones that I turn in weekly to administration is more beneficial to me on a daily basis. I am wondering if I should continue to use two different lesson plans.

I am also getting ready to implement Literature Circles. I have almost finished giving my old forms a much needed face lift. I always start out with my students all getting practice with one role before I start assigning all the roles. Discussion Director is a great place to start. We have been working on Question Answer Relationships and it is time for students to start applying that knowledge and writing their own questions.

Literature Circles

I am excited to get Literature Circles going in my classroom in a few weeks. I am making the final touches on my preparations and gearing the kids up for roles as discussion director. One of the things I do to prepare them is to teach the QAR's. QAR is a great way to get students thinking about questions, how to answer them, and how to write them. In the beginning while we are learning the different roles each student gets practice at the same role. I have already made posters for the roles and will be gathering my role sheets for the students this week and uploading them. For some Literature resources head over to my store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Ratliffs-5th-Grade-Rattles.