Keeping Busy - Reading Products that Work!

I hope you had a good weekend.  Mine consisted of "trying" to clean my house.  It's one of those 2 steps forward, one step back type of things...  One thing that I loved was having all my papers & tests graded before I left school on Friday, I contribute that to my husband bringing me my favorite Starbucks drink to school.  Gotta love a little caffeine to power through.  I know, he wins the best hubby ever award!   

What are we tackling this week at school?  

Reading

Our main story this week is Chapter 3 of Charlotte's Web "Escape".  We are actually reading the entire chapter book as our read aloud, so the kids have already heard it before.  I love when these kind of weeks happen, as then there is more time to spend working on skills and strategies.

2 Truths:

*These kids really need to work on their reading skills.  

*These kids are probably already sick of working on their reading skills since we are constantly working with them.

This year my school is in full Common Core mode.  We have new texts for Math, but not for Reading.  So I am using our old textbook as a jumping off point, but adding a lot more (since we have been given the green light to expand, create, delete, and not follow everything in the old text).  

During the typical week, I am using these following products for as much practice as possible:

Open Court Supplement

We use this for our vocabulary and writing practice.  I didn't copy it off for the kids, but I use it as my jumping off place to get the kids thinking and extending their thoughts.

Strategy Graphic Organizers

Every week I try to tackle at least 2 strategies.  I printed these off 1/2 size and the kids glue them into their Reading composition books.


Close Read Posters
I'm not an expert in Close Reading... yet.  But I'm learning about it!  I printed these off half page, and they are perfect for kids to glue into their notebooks.

Weekly Reading Homework

I printed these off at the end of last year, and so far we are using them for Close Read Practice (whole class), and then comprehension is homework.  Each week there is an one page article/story, a page with comprehension questions, and a skill page.

Reading Log Menu

I use these for homework practice.  This year I decided to print them half size - perfect to glue into their composition books.  Now it's easy for them to keep things organized by month in their booklets.  I love how it's working with their exact standards.

September Close Read

The kids are using these for fluency practice with a parent helper, and then we go through the Close Read part as a class.  Since I have so much other stuff going on, the plan is to use one of these per week (instead of daily).

Reading Mini Packs

Like I mentioned, we read together every day.  I have the kids write about it every day.  It keeps them focused and only takes a few minutes.


Better Than Basal
You know I use Mentor Sentences in my classroom.  Since I already have that going on, I added this to our morning routine too.  This contains activities for each of the mentor sentences from Jivey's program.  I don't copy everything, but I do use the lessons and the ideas to have the kids dive a little deeper with each book we read.

Partner Plays

These kids need to practice their fluency, and I'm excited about how excited they are about reading together.  I set these up just like the example.  The kids take time to practice during our workshop time.


Reading Response Newspapers
Every once in a while (like once a month), I have the kids do a mini book report over what they have been reading at home.  I change up what skills they need to report on - such as characterization, or setting, etc.  These make an awesome bulletin board!

Reading Response Prompts
After the student's silent reading (Read to Self), I have them take out their reading logs/journals to write in for 5 minutes.  I have these printed out, laminated, and color coded with a dot on the top corner.  The papers are rotated around on Fridays from one team to another.  I think it helps keep kids accountable for their reading. 

Okay - I guess the main point is that I use a lot of stuff for reading in my classroom.  All of this on a weekly basis, even more stuff for those "special" projects.  What did I do before TPT??  :)  What do you use on a weekly basis?

  

Simplifying Read to Self

For years I have used a modified version of Daily 5 in my classroom.  They have options for the other 4, but for Read to Self we do it together directly after lunch.  Every year I let the kids sit on the ground to get comfortable for Read to Self.  This year I decided not to after that first day of school when they were absolutely silent at their desks... It was so peaceful and calm.  No kids were off task.  Everyone was able to easily be seen, so I decided to keep that as the standard.

 Monday through Thursday the kids stay at their desks unless they are switching out their books.  On Fridays that changes and students can have "Friend Friday" (partner reading) or "Flashlight Friday" (by themselves under their desks).  Yes, I like alliterations.  This little switch is making me a happier teacher.  

Another thing that I've added this year is allowing my students to bring their devices from home.  They can't read on their phones (though they have asked me if they could), but they can have their Kindles, Nooks, and iPads for reading only.

If they wanted to bring it in, they had to have their parents sign the permission slip.  If you want a copy of it, it's over on Google Docs.

Hope you have had a great day!  In other news, my Facebook page is about to hit 3,000 likes.  I know... Wow!  I picked up a $25 TPT gift card that I will be giving away over there when we hit the magic number.  Stay tuned!

Simplifying Data and Awards

Last year I had way too much going on.  It did feel like Pinterest and Blogville blew up in my classroom.  So this year I decided to keep the stuff that worked, and whittle it down to maintain my sanity.  

Going into this year I wanted to have a Data Wall.  It was important to me to be able to work together on our goals as a class.  So I have a small board that has everything we need - standards, class average graphs, tree for things we've done this year, etc.  The board has changed over the past 3 weeks though.  

Last year my students used award necklaces to keep track of their accomplishments, this year I didn't buy necklaces, and I haven't passed these new things out to my kids.  Instead, each student has a binder ring on our data wall that they will update with their award cards.  

We have also gotten into a routine of updating our board.  When I'm done grading, I pass out the graded tests to the students.  Their binders have a divider for each subject, and a piece of binder paper where they write the test, date, and their score.  Then the test goes in their homework folder for their parents to see, and the binder goes back into their desk tubs.  I then update the board with our class averages.  It's working so smoothly so far! 

What do you do for data?  Hope you had a great day!