Close Reading - Scratching the Surface

As a member of the International Reading Association, each month I receive a copy of their journal The Reading Teacher.  If I had to name one professional journal that most impacts my teaching and thinking, this would be the one.  Perhaps one of my favorite issues is from November 2012.  It was replete with articles that directly relate to what I am doing in the classroom. I find myself going back to this issue and rereading often.  I thought I would share some information and thoughts I had on a couple that were particularly relevant.  Today, I'm thinking about the article Close Reading in Elementary School by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.
                                      

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The article defines close reading as, "an instructional routine in which students critically examine a text, especially through repeated readings."  Until the common core put a spotlight on the importance of comprehension of complicated texts, I'm not sure how many of us were doing it in this manner.  We certainly have our students go back and reread to locate information, confirm predictions, etc.  However, I don't think the strategy of rereading a text in its totality two or three times to make meaning and synthesize their thinking is used regularly in elementary classes.

Fisher and Frey make a lot of compelling points in the article and if you were looking for more information on why you should and how you can incorporate close reading in your class, I would recommend reading the article. I've provided a few thoughts on some of what stuck with me.

Use short, complex passages for close reading.  Immediately, I thought of the social studies and science text books we use that have pages and pages of complex text that we often expect our students to understand with one reading.  If we took the most significant passage from that text and used it in a close reading lesson, it would provide our students the opportunity to know, not just read,  the information.  They would be making meaning in a purposeful way that actually makes sense to the student.  Using those content subject texts in reading is a great cross-curricular way to teach more material. However  the texts need to be complex and short.  If it is something they can understand in a single reading, it is not something to use in close reading.  It needs to be short so that enough information is given, but students are not overloaded.  It also needs to be manageable for rereading in a timely manner.

Limit the Frontloading.  This really made me think.  Don't we always want to activate schema prior to reading?  Don't we sometimes provide anticipatory sets to help preview the material?  Don't we often explain unknown and difficult vocabulary prior to reading?  This idea of not providing this type of support to the nth degree prior to reading was something to think about.  Fisher and Frey make the point that sometimes we can  provide too much information.  Ideally, we might highlight really obscure reference or vocabulary, but we don't need to prepare them so much that we almost remove the need to read the text.

Another reason Fisher and Frey like the idea of limiting the frontloading is that our students will often hijack (my word, not theirs!) the introduction you provide with connections to personal experiences that actually take away from the text.  So true!  If we are going to talk about Florida, when introducing the topic I know I would have four different students telling me how they rode a horse on vacation in Florida and went really fast or how they went to Disney and rode a roller coaster. That's all fine and well, but if my intent is to teach about the climate of Florida my students are not really making relevant connections.If connections are made after an initial reading of the text once the child has more information, chances are the connections will be more relevant and become even more so after repeated readings. Also, in my frontloading, if they are going to run into the unknown word of humid, rather than tell them what the word means I could just say be on the lookout for this word and see if you can figure out what it means.  I may need to explain the word after one reading, but it just may be that I don't.  That they were able to figure it out requires the application of reading skills, and I didn't remove that learning experience by telling them.

Guide the readings with text-dependent questions.  Fisher and Frey write that these questions are "specifically focused on the text and allowed students to consider evidence from the text."  I believe this is a critical component of close reading.  The article goes on to give six different categories of text-dependent questions: general understanding, key detail, vocabulary and text structure, author's purpose, inferential, and opinion/intertextual question.  For examples of each, you should read the article.  It explains how to use them across all grade levels.

One reason I found this to be a critical component because it directly relates to the standardized tests our students take.  If they are to do well on these tests, they must have the experience, skills, and knowledge of how to answer text dependent questions.  Practicing with shorter passages that your have had a chance to reread is a great way to practice this skill.  But more importantly, using text-dependent questions to guide student reading and thinking provides that scaffolding, that focus that our students need to make meaning of more complex texts.

Read with a pencil!  I know I've posted before on how my students are taught to annotate text as they read. I've even gone so far as to have custom ordered sticky notes to help guide my more struggling readers.  If you could see my copy The Reading Teacher, you would see that the articles are all marked up.  I underline important information, I circle words I don't know, I make notes next to the text, I write down questions I have while reading.  It's not something I think about.  I do it automatically because I know it helps me to understand the text.  My notations guide me in rereading the text to areas I didn't understand, or help me locate information I know is important.  Well, isn't that what we want our students to be able to do? It's a learned practice that can easily begin in the elementary classroom.


While I've shared some thoughts on the close reading article, there is much more to it than I have mentioned.  Please read the article if you have the opportunity.  It is well worth the read.  What I have here barely scratches the surface on close reading.  If you want more information, below are a few links I like:

• Here are two short videos, part 1 & 2, by Douglas Fisher himself.  He explains a bit more about close reading and CCS.  They run about three minutes each.

Part 1

Part 2

• Educational Leadership, a journal published by the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, has a very nice article called Closing in on Close Reading that further explains the concept and provides examples of questioning.  You can see the article by clicking HERE.

• Here is a video introduced by Lucy Calkins that shows the close reading of a non-fiction read aloud in a 4th grade classroom.  Now, what happens in this text differs somewhat from the type/style of close reading given in the Fisher and Frey article.  Students do not have a copy of the text as it is a read aloud, and students are provided with other texts and maps to help them synthesize the information.  One of the things I like about the video is the accountable talk the teacher requires of the students   She does ask them several text dependent questions and the students comments and answers are all relevant.  This video runs about ten minutes.   Click HERE for this video.  For some reason I couldn't embed it.  (For those of you who viewed this post earlier, please note this link has been edited.  I initially had a different video linked.  It wasn't until after I posted that I realized it wasn't the exact one I had meant to link to.)

• Of course, there always Pinterest!  THIS LINK will take you to their page of Close Reading Boards.  If you know Pinterest, you know anyone can pin anything so I can't verify how reliable the information is.  However, more often than not I find some very reputable links and great ideas.

Are you using close reading in your classroom?  

Any thoughts on the topic?

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY!

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The Most Important Conversation: Teaching the Use of Dialog in Writing

One of the things I miss most this school year has been teaching writing.  My day is spent in either guided reading groups or small supplemental groups for math and reading.  Rarely, do I get to focus with students on their writing skills. I am surprised at how much I miss teaching it.  

However, I was talking to one of my colleagues the other day regarding some trouble she was having getting her students to include dialog in their writing.  After talking about it for a bit, I was able to offer an idea that has worked really well for me in the past.  I thought I would share it with you.

The problems with dialog in student writing can be many:

• It's fluff.  They simply write dialog that does not contribute to the piece in any real way.
• It's overused.  There is dialog everywhere!  Sections that could/should be narrative are turned into dialog. Or, everyone is talking all the time!
• It's underused..  They can reach an important point in the story where dialog would enhance the mood, convey emotion, build background, or provide information to the reader in an interesting way but they don't include it.  Yet, there might be really ineffective use of dialog at another point in the story.
• It's not used at all.  I have often read stories with the most interesting characters and shocking events and yet never a word is uttered.

One way to help a student to effectively incorporating dialog is to focus them on what I call "The Most Important Conversation."  I sit with a friend and ask him/her, "If two characters could only speak to each other once in this story, what is the most important thing they would talk about?  What is a conversation they would just have to have with each other? What is it they simply must talk about?"

This important conversation will usually happen at a story point that either takes place in the beginning (to set up the story or build background for the story), at the climax (discussion of that amazing thing that just happened), or at the very end (where they wrap it up.)  If your friend is having trouble identifying where to place the conversation, point out a part in the story where something interesting happens and ask what the main characters would say to each other about it.  Sometimes I have even resorted to role playing where we both pretend to be a character and talk to each other about the story event.

I should mention that prior to this, I have found it helpful to first give my friends a mini lesson on why and when we include dialog. Sit down with your class and make an anchor chart that lists the ways dialog can enhance a story, such as set a mood, advance the plot, provide background to the story, show a character's feelings, etc.   Then, read them some examples from books they know.  I promise they will get it!

After some more discussion to flesh out who will have the conversation, when in the story it happens, and what it will be about, I give my friends one of the sheets below. There are two depending on the writer's ability.  Some will stick to basic dialog while others will write more involved dialog and need more space.   I usually copy the same sheet two sided so they aren't too limited on the length of the conversation.  I then send them off to write this conversation.  Having an organizer like the one below has been very helpful to my friends.  It helps them with the flow of the conversation between the characters.

Once they have the conversation written, we incorporate it into the story.  Now, depending on how much your friends know about dialog you may or may not have to go in and work on tags.  Great time for a lesson on not overusing said and using dialog tags to convey character's feelings.

Essentially, by focusing on the most important conversation, you are teaching your friends that dialog has purpose and can be a powerful tool for a writer.  It's not just put in a writing piece because the teacher says you should or we know it will get us a better score on a state test! Focusing on the most important lesson address all those problems I bulleted at the beginning.  It takes the fluff dialog out of the piece, limits the overuse or under-use of dialog to that one important conversation, and for those that never include dialog at all, it's a first step.

I've included a link HERE WHERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THE DIALOG SHEETS SHOWN ABOVE.  Of course, you don't need the sheets to do this.  I just find having the two types of speech bubbles helps to keep my friends visually organized on the flow of the conversation.  

By the way, I included a credit page on the download.  But, just in case you were wondering, the speech bubbles are by by Dancing Crayon Designs  (www.DancingCrayon.com) and the chevron background is from  Designed by Coffee, Kids and Compulsive Lists (http://coffeekidsandcompulsivelists.blogspot.com.au/)  

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On another note,

 I have this little list I keep of experiences that remind me

 "You know you're a teacher when. . . "  

Here's one!

Questions About Anecdotal Records in Reading

I am in the process of putting together a tutorial of sorts on how to take and use anecdotal records during reader's workshop.  It is something that is somewhat new to many of my super teacher colleagues and has generated a lot of questions. 

Some of the big questions I have heard are:

 

What exactly should I be writing down?

When should I be taking notes?

How do I take notes on a whole group?

What do I do with those notes?

How do I translate my notes into grades?

 

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These are all really important and valid questions, and I do have definite answers for them.  My position on these questions is based on what I know has worked well for me and what are best practices.  However, I have to combine that with the constraints of the reading instruction implementation and assessment expectations within my district to provide something that helps my super teacher colleagues. 

The answers to some of those questions can vary slightly depending on the constraints of your district.  For example, mine does not yet use a standards based report card.  So, the question regarding the translation of notes into grades may be answered differently for us than it would be in a district using a standards based report card.  If you even believe the notes should be used for summative grading purposes!  Personally, I fall firmly in the formative category but as I noted, we must all work within the parameters of our district's implementation.

One of my definite positions on the topic is that I believe tying your notes to the CCCS is a must.  I have not seen a whole lot out there that does this.  If we are using the standards to delineate what our students need to achieve, how can we not use them to guide us on instruction and assessment?  Using the CCCS to assist in taking anecdotal records is just one part of the tutorial I am working on.  I've also been doing a lot of professional reading on the topic.  Once I finish putting it all together, my plan is to share it all with you here. No date on that yet, as I am still in the beginning "work in progress" stage, but it will probably be at the end of the summer.

However, before I pull all this together, I would love to hear some thinking outside of my district. There are so many different methods and forms for taking notes and so many varied ways to use them. It can be very easy to become overwhelmed by all the note taking. I would love a better idea of what struggles and success others have had when it comes to anecdotal records in reading. 

If  you have a minute, please take a few and let me know what your struggles and success have been with anecdotal records in the comment section.  Please feel free to let your comments be a long as they need to be!  I know this is a broad topic, and I truly appreciate the time you take in offering your thoughts. 

Random Thoughts on a Random Day

Lots of random thoughts today on lots of random topics. . .


I went on an "I-am-bored-so-let's-go-to-Target-and-spend-money-on-random-things-I-don't-really-need" shopping trip.  You know those dollar bins they have in the front of the store?  Well, I found these gems on the right.  Orange, yellow, pink, and red striped magazine files.  Too cute!  They don't exactly match the cute striped ones below that I got at Ikea for my friends to use as book bins, but I love 'em anyway!  The best part is that all black dot items were 50% off, so I scored those babies for just fifty cents each!
  


I'm  making maracas!   On that unnecessary Target shopping trip, I also picked up two bags of plastic Easter eggs for 50% off.  These two big bags were just a dollar each. Last year, I wrote a post called Some EGGcellent Ideas that gives a bunch of ideas on what to do with all those leftover plastic eggs. In looking back at the post, I was surprised to see that I never included the maraca idea.  If you want more info on how to make them, visit the blog Dana Made It.  She has a perfect tutorial with step by step directions.

My plan is to make them for Cinco de Mayo.  Well, actually we will be making them on Tres de Mayo as the fifth falls on a Sunday. :-)

Above is my lame attempt to give it a trial run.  Lesson learned - Get better masking tape!  Mine wasn't so sticky so it didn't wrap around the egg too well.  I'm thinking of also getting some wider tape so that I can just have my friends wrap it once.



My latest library book sale haul!  If you read my blog, you may know that I love buying books on the cheap from my local library book sale.  Below are the books I was lucky enough to find on my last visit.  It was a good day!  Too many books to fit in one picture!

Buying books from library sales is a perfect way to stock your classroom library for what can literally be pocket change.  Since my teaching position changed this year, I found my library required a serious overhaul.  I needed a lot more books at lower levels.  Luckily, I've been able to find many good books over the course of the year.

SMARTIES for smarties!  Yes, I still give my friends Smarties on occasion.   The name alone makes them a school food!  Okay, I kid about it being a school food.  But, sometimes we all need a little sweetness in our day!


Which leads me to my next random thought. . .


My favorite "new" app is Color Splash.  I put new in quotes because this app has been around a long time.  I'm just late to the party.  But, what a party it is!  Essentially, this app lets you take any picture, convert it to black and white, and then color any part of the picture you want.  Above, you can see that I used the app on the Smarties picture.  I also used it on the pictures of the books and the trial run maraca, but since the backgrounds were originally on the gray side it doesn't show as well as it does in the Smarties picture.
I also used the app in my post about two picture books for writing lessons when I took this picture at Barnes and Noble.  Since I still can't find my camera and am using my iPhone for pictures at the moment, this app has made it all a little more fun.  It is well worth the $0.99!

And, finally my most random thought of all. . . 

I can't get enough of this stuff! :-)

So, what random thoughts are floating around with you today?

2 Picture Books for Writing Lessons

HAPPY SPRING BREAK!

I could not be any happier to be on break this week! 

There is a serious case of  Spring fever bouncing in my brain. My plan is to enjoy the heck out it.  Having free time is such a welcome novelty when you are a teacher.  Sadly, we had a snowstorm yesterday.  Who asked for snow on Spring Break?  Whoever you are. . . STOP IT RIGHT NOW!  It turned out to be more annoying snow than accumulating snow.  But, what to do on a Spring Break Snow Day?  Head to Barnes & Noble!

As you can see from the sign, they too have Spring fever!  I headed over to the children's section to see what was new in picture books.  I saw many familiar favorites, but there were two in particular that caught my eye.  Both books seem perfect for writing lessons.

The first book is Exclamation Point by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld.  Before I tell you more, let me just say I find it ironic that two people who write a book about punctuation choose to have their proper noun names in all lowercase letters on the cover. Thankfully, all the writing in the book follows the rules.

Exclamation Point is a dual purpose book.  It obviously teaches end marks, but it is also a great book about being yourself.  This little exclamation point tries to be a period and a question, but in the end it must be itself - a loud, proud exclamation point!  And, it is only once it decides to be itself that it is happy and admired by the other end marks.  What a great lesson to pass on to our friends.

I like the book as a good way to introduce sentence types and end marks.  For those friends who continually leave off those end marks in their writing, it would make a fun mini-lesson on how important it is to include them.  Below is a snapshot from the book.  Every time a certain end mark speaks, their sentence ends in their end mark.  Another cute point about the book is that its pages are ruled like primary writing paper.  Something our friends are very familiar with.

I might love this book simply because I am notorious for overuse of the exclamation point.  I'm also very guilty of using more than once even though I teach my friend that just one does the job!!!!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The other book I found and loved is One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo.  Since my pocketbook limited my purchase to just one book, I had to make a choice between the two.  This is the book that won my heart and my cash. :-)  I must have been living under a rock where this book is concerned because not only is it a 2013 Caldecott Honor book, it was on the New York Times best seller list of children's picture books back in February of 2012.  Where was I when all this was going on?

I love so much about this book!  First, I love that the author, Toni Buzzeo, is a former English teacher and school media specialist.  I also love that  David Small, is the illustrator of this book, but we also know him well from his many, many other illustrated books.  The Gardener, The Library, and So, You Want to be President? are some of my favorites.

One Cool Friend is a fun and surprising story of a little boy, Elliot, and his father who visit the aquarium.  While there Elliot asks his father, "May I please have a penguin?"  Thinking he would like a stuffed souvenir  the father hands him $20.  Little does he know that Elliot means a real penguin.  The story is wonderful.  I promise it will engage your friends of all ages.  There is even a surprise ending that tells us Elliot and his dad have a lot in common. :-)

So, where is the writing connection?  It comes in how the David Small chose to illustrate the dialog.  Take a look at a couple of pages.

Notice how the dialog is bubbled.  Perfect for teaching how to punctuate dialog.  Notice that the second line shows connected dialog. In the picture below, what Elliot is thinking is bubbled differently from actual dialog.
A great way to show the use of internal dialog to your friends. Notice the tags in both pages are different.  In one the father "announced" while Elliot "said."  You could easily use this to teach how to use different tags for dialog, even having your friends change the ones in the book.  This would be a good book to use with a document camera so your friends can get the full effect.

Right before I was going to publish this post, I thought to do a quick search and see what was out there on it.  I found something wonderful!  Toni Buzzeo has a six-trait writing guide available for free for  ALL of her picture books.  I guess once a teacher, always a teacher!  You can go directly to the download via THIS LINK, or you can get there through Toni Buzzeo's web site.  As I looked over her writing guide, I found that her idea for a convention lesson is exactly what I wrote about, the dialog bubbles!  However, her guide gives you a bunch of other good lesson ideas to use with the book.

I would say One Cool Friend is a must buy.  If your pocketbook allows two, don't forget Exclamation Mark.  Both books would serve you well as teaching tools, but both are also just great books to read and enjoy.

Refrigerator Papers

In my last post on personalized sticky notes for reading, I mentioned that I had purchased something fun and motivating from Vistaprint.  Here is the little item I ordered.  Again, the picture is a bit fuzzy because it is from a screen shot of my order.

It's a self-inking stamp for refrigerator papers!

What's a refrigerator paper?  It's a goofy thing I came up with many years ago that has been so well-received by my friends and their parents. 

Very simply, a refrigerator paper is a paper that shows me a friend's best effort.  It doesn't have to be an A paper, it doesn't even have to be a paper that was graded.  It is simply some assignment on which I noticed my friend had really done their best.  It could be that a student showed some real improvement or showed some great thinking.  It could be anything that I feel deserves a little recognition.

When I explain it to my friends, I tell them a refrigerator paper is work that is so good it deserves a spot right on the refrigerator for all to see.  I tell them it is so good, they need to make a long distance call to their great great grandma in Kalamazoo and tell her they got a  refrigerator paper.  It's a paper so good, they need to bring the dog over to the refrigerator and show the dog how great it is!  It's a paper so good, they need to get a flashlight and set up a spotlight on that refrigerator paper!  It's so good that if your family orders a pizza you might want to tell the delivery man about it! And, if their parents want to take out an ad in the local paper congratulating them on a refrigerator paper, that would be just fine!

Obviously I get really silly and over the top with my explanation, but that just builds the fun of getting the paper.  When I find a paper like this, I would simply write in big letters across the top, "REFRIGERATOR PAPER!!!" Honestly, when they get a refrigerator paper they get so excited.  I have had parents comment on how much they like it many times.  Their kids can't wait to tell them when they get one.  It's especially nice for the older crowd that thinks they are too cool to have a school paper on the refrigerator.  If I simply write the words refrigerator paper on the top, the cool factor goes right out the window.  They can't wait to put that thing on the fridge and take pride in their work.

From a teacher's point of view, I like refrigerator papers for many reasons.  Everyone, even your most needy student, can get a refrigerator paper.  If the paper is graded and they have done well, obviously I am going to make it a refrigerator paper.  But, it is not really about the grade. It's about the effort. For my friends who tend to struggle and not get very many high grades, it is a nice way to compliment something done well on an ungraded assignment.  Those parents especially like it because they don't often get to make a fuss over great work. 

It also allows me to compliment every student a few times throughout the year in an easy way.  I keep a class list in the back of my grade book.  When I give someone a refrigerator paper, I put a check next to their name.  I can see at a glance who might need a turn at getting one, so I then keep my eyes out for it.

Now, not every assignment will have refrigerator papers.  If you start doing this, I promise every time you return papers your friends will ask you if there were any refrigerator papers.  Lots of times I say, "There's lots of great work here, but I didn't look for refrigerator papers this time."  You want it to be something special, so if you do it too often the magic is lost. When I do it, I try to limit it to just 3 or 4 papers.  I also don't give it to every paper that gets 100.  In fact, I've had friends complain that they got a 100 just like Sally, but Sally got a refrigerator paper and they didn't.  I simply reiterate that it's not all about the grade.  In the same assignment I can have a variety of grades be refrigerator papers.

The other thing I like is that this is a no cost motivator.  Well, it was until I decided to order the stamp. :-)  But, it has worked for me for years by just writing it across the top of the paper using the same old pen I graded the paper with.  Nothing fancy needed.

So, that's my weird and fun little motivator. I am sure some of you out there are rolling your eyes and think it is ridiculous, but it works for me!  I've been doing it for years.  It's simple, takes no time to do, and gets great results.

So, what do you think?  Could this work for you?

What oddball things do you do to motivate your students?

Personalized Sticky Notes for Reading

I've been working with my small group friends on comprehension skills.  I know, who hasn't been doing that! :-)  One of the areas they needed a great deal of help with was monitoring their thinking as they read.  They would often just read through without any real understanding of what was happening in the text.  Or, they read on thinking they get it, yet when we discuss their reading they have significant misconceptions or have totally missed the important points of the text.  They simply did not self-monitor as they read. 

To help with this in their independent reading, we have been working on Stop! Think! Jot!  It is literally what it says.  Stop after reading a certain amount.  Think about what you are reading.  Do I understand what is going on?  Jot down a thought about it.

To begin, we worked on Stop! Think! Jot! as a tool to "check-in" with our mind to make sure we understand the text.  The "think" prompt was simply; Do I understand what is going on in this part?  Can I retell it in one or two sentences?  Those one or two sentences would be the Jot! part.  To help with this, I placed sticky notes in strategic spots in their independent reading books.  When they hit a sticky note, they had to jot down that one or two sentence retelling.  Having to put it in writing really stopped many of my friends in their tracks at first.  I would see them start to write, stop, put their pencil down, and go back to reread.  This shows me that they really didn't have full comprehension of their reading the first time. Most of my friends have improved tremendously with monitoring their understanding of the text.  Most now do it without the prompting of a sticky note.

We then moved on to making connections, asking questions, making predictions, or just noting our thoughts about the book, interesting words, etc.  In guided reading, I select the sections we read and where we stop to think and discuss.  However, when my friends are doing independent reading, they still need some guidance on when it is time to stop and think.  Even at this point in the school year. (insert sigh here) They are getting better, but  I still have a select few who will read through the text without ever stopping to think about the text.  I know that they are mentally stopping to "check-in" and make sure they understand, but then they just keep going.

Much like I did in the beginning of the year when we worked on monitoring comprehension, I strategically placed sticky notes in their independent reading books reminding them to jot down a thought.  I ended up writing a lot of sticky note reminders!  Now, I know there are tutorial and templates on how to print on sticky notes.  That link will take you to a great post on the blog Ladybug's Teacher Files that shows you just how to do it and includes templates.  I think that's great, but I have this fear of jamming my printer.  And honestly, I just don't want to print my own sticky notes. If you want to, great!  It just wasn't for me,  I needed a better way.

I ordered these personalized sticky notes from Vistaprint.  Vistaprint allows you to personalize just about anything for very reasonable prices.  The pic is a little fuzzy because I took it off a screen shot of my order form.

I created a sticky note that reminds my friends of exactly what they need to do and provides a spot to write the page number.  This is great for when we "write long" from a sticky.  I ordered ten pads of 50 notes each for $22.49.  Not a bad price for 500 personalized sticky notes.  They should last me a while as I only need them for a select few friends, don't overload their books with them, and use the printed notes to graduate them into doing it using their own blank sticky notes when they find a "sticky worthy" spot in their book.

This might be a good time to point out that while I do place these sticky notes in their books, it's important to just do a few.  My main goal is that they read with understanding.  If I overload their book with sticky notes it becomes more of a writing assignment.  It also steals some of the joy of reading. 

When I worked with my enrichment students, they would actually Stop! Think! Jot! to death.  I have  had some of my lower ability students do this as well.  Their books would look like a peacock in full plumage with sticky notes bursting out.  For them, one of the big lessons I would always do revolved around the idea that when everything is important, nothing is important. However, some of my friends this year still need the prompting that sticky notes placed by the teacher provides.

I love that Vistaprint allows you to personalize so many different things.  In the past, I have ordered thank you cards for my classroom, punch cards for rewards, and more.  In fact, with my sticky note order I also got something fun and motivating for my friends that I will share in another post.  By the way, Vistaprint is in no way sponsoring this post. They don't even know I exist other than to bill me and send me the goodies I order! :-)

Beanie Baby Centers

I was browsing around Goodwill a few weeks ago when I came across a table full of these.

A table full of Beanie Babies that were in super condition.  I think they must have been purchased by someone who collected them back when they were all the rage as opposed to a child because they really were in new condition. There were tons of them for just a dollar each.  On top of that, it was 50% off day, so I couldn't help but scoop a bunch up for just fifty cents each.  I immediately knew what I wanted to do with them and  went out and purchased a bunch of pencil bags from the dollar store.

I wanted to make some Beanie Baby center activities.  Tell me a stuffed animal is not a perfect way to trick engage your friends into doing a little work?  As I don't really have need for the centers this year, I've been sitting on this project for a few weeks.  However, I did work on a few and thought I would share.

This one is centered on creative writing.  It asks my friends to write a narrative telling about Rizzo Rooster's exciting and adventurous day.  The great thing about the Beanie Babies is that you can use them for any activity.  I think Rizzo would also be great for a description activity.  He is not your ordinary rooster!

Here's Rizzo tucked away in the pencil case.  I do think the fact that my friends can have that stuffed animal sit on their desk as they work will be motivating and fun.  And, possibly a distraction?  Maybe at first, but I predict overall it will work well in capturing the interest of my friends and motivate them to do the work.

Here's another.  This one includes two easier books I already had on the topic of penguins.  It asks my friends to identify some interesting facts and make a teaching poster.   If you have younger kids, have them read aloud to the stuffed animal.  Makes for great fluency practice.  My 5th graders, especially at this point in the year, think they are a bit too "cool" to read to a stuffed animal.  Insert eye roll here!

These books were a bit larger than the pencil cases I purchased, but they would fit in an over-sized pencil bag.  I just need to run out and grab a few.  Of course, a Ziplock bag would work just as well.

One more.  This one is a word making activity.  And, yes! I noticed the missing words in the second paragraph only after I uploaded this picture. I promise I will be fixing that before my friends get their hands on this it. :-)  Can you spot what I left out?

Those Beanie Babies are the perfect size for the pencil cases.  I also plan to laminate the task cards for durability.  Just place the Beanie Baby in the pencil case along with your task card, and your center is ready to go.  A basket full of these  is sure to grab their interest. I also love that you can change the task cards to do just about anything.  As I was working on the snake activity, I contemplated doing a math measurement center where they had to unroll the snake and measure it followed up with some other measuring tasks.

If you have some of those Beanie Babies stashed in a box somewhere, you might consider creating some centers with them.  If not, try the dollar store.  In the first picture, I did pick up the lady bug and skunk at the dollar store.  They probably won't be as durable as the Beanie Babies, but they are cute!

Update! (3/16/13)  I have been thinking about this project since I posted it and was thinking how it could be differentiated for your friends and/or provide some choice.  I'm a big believer in task choice, When your friends have a chance to pick what they can do, they usually are more engaged.  For choice, you can simply put more than one task card in each pencil case.  Students can then pick the task they would like to complete.  If you were looking to differentiate for different abilities, you could glue the task card on three different colored index cards.  Students can be assigned a color for center work, and when they take the center they complete the activity on their colored card. Just a thought!

Before I go, let me just apologize for the picture quality.  I can't seem to find my camera anywhere.  I think there is a black hole somewhere in my house because I've also recently lost my watch and eye glasses.  So, until I find my camera, we're going to have to suffer through with my iPhone pictures.  Sorry!

I should also mention that I'm still working on the blog design.  I am hopeful to really make some progress over our upcoming Spring Break.

By the way, if you have any ideas for centers for the other animals in that first picture, feel free to share!

I'm in Purge Mode!

See this giant plastic portfolio? 

It is one of two that hold my literacy/writing posters.  In addition to one more literacy portfolio, I have five more for math, science, social studies, decoration, and a big ol' miscellaneous mess of stuff.  I've been stuffing posters into these portfolios for years.  The time has come to finally purge some of the posters that I just don't need anymore.

I began with one of my literacy portfolios today.  I took out each poster and started creating piles; writing, grammar, reading, etc.  These are just a few of the many piles.  You can't see the stacks I had on other desks and the floor. It was amazing how much was stuffed in that portfolio!

There was even a pile of posters I had made with my friends over the years. I seem to have saved (and even laminated) some my favorites.  Great, except that I tend to just remake them with my new friends every year instead of pulling out these.  Since they are some of my favorites, I snapped a picture of each and plan to make a section for them in my anchor chart binder  instead of hanging on to these hard copies.

Upon starting this task, my goal wasn't to just organize what I had but to purge what I no longer wanted or needed.  Teachers tend to save everything.  After all, you never know when you might need it! I'm no different.  However, in looking at my piles of posters, I knew there were many I hadn't used in several years and it was time to purge.  I began by following some simple rules and asking a few questions. . .

Is this an effective teaching tool?

I don't know about you, but put me in a teacher's store and I get giddy!   My love of teacher's stores is only rivaled by my love of office supply stores! But, those teacher stores have a special place in my heart.  I love the borders, the posters, and all the doodads you find there.Since I seem to fall into this glaze-eyed euphoria every time I go in, I've been know to buy a poster of two because they are just so darn cute.  Those are just  the fun, decorative posters and signs.  

But, what about those we purchase to teach or reinforce content?  I've bought many, many posters simply because the content fits what I am teaching.  Oh, teaching a unit on persuasive writing?  Wow, this persuasive writing poster shows different ways to structure the argument!  I'm buying it! And, laminating it! And, hanging it up right away!  STOP!  This is where we really need to think.  That poster may say what you want it to say, but is it an effective teaching tool for your friends?    Below is one of those posters that I had to take second look at.  Is this poster an effective teaching tool?  In my opinion, no.  It is not.

Take a look at the same poster from just five feet away.  Not so effective. Too much information, too tiny a print, and too hard to see.  Do you really think the child who sits in the middle of the classroom sees anything beyond some colored blocks?

Everything that hangs in your room should have a specific purpose.  Think about what the poster is for. Are you using it to be a reference tool for all to use?  Is it for the whole class to use from their seats?  Then it needs to be fairly uncluttered and have larger print.  Is it to hang next to a center station where your friends can get a closer look?  Then, maybe a smaller poster with more print is appropriate.  Is it kid friendly?  I think this is actually one of the most important questions to ask.  Step back and look at it through the eyes and age of your students.  I think when you do you will be surprised at how many "teaching" posters are actually not so kid friendly.  They may look cute, but are often overloaded with content or so decorative the purpose is lost.   Ask yourself if the content presented in a way that is visually uncluttered yet appealing and easily understandable to your friends.  For an effective teaching tool, you have to be able to answer yes.

Can I re-purpose it?

I'm embarrassed to say I did hang that part of speech poster in my classroom for a few years early on in my teaching.  Looking at it now, I know it didn't do much for anyone.  There is still life for this poster, though.  I cut it up into the different boxes and am planning to make some grammar based center activities with them.  Each one becomes a great reference card, easily hand-held or kept on a desk, to use with the activity.  Then, it becomes an effective teaching tool.

I also had a laminated poster which showed two cause/effect graphic organizers, and I just never used it.  This poster was also re-purposed when I cut the two organizers out and put them in a folder along with an article from Scholastic News.  It become another center activity that allows my friends to use a dry erase marker and a colorful graphic organizer to identify cause and effect. Sure, I could have just put a photocopy of the organizers in the folder.  But, we all know how much our friends love those dry erase markers.  Just that simply, re-purposing these organizers in this way upped the interest level for this activity.

Could someone else use this?

Give It Away!  As I was sorting, I made a pile of posters that were still in good shape, but I knew I wouldn't be using.  Posters I might have hung in my room years ago are not necessarily posters I would find useful in my room today.  Over the years, our teaching style evolves. Just as our students grow as learners, we grow as teachers.  Materials that might have fit my teaching style before just don't cut it now.  

However, that doesn't mean it won't be a perfect fit for another teacher. I had these great genre posters for many years.  They are still in great condition, not faded, and visually engaging.  While they aren't good for my classroom, they are perfect for our school  library.  I quickly gathered them up and took them down to our media specialist.

It's also nice to make materials like this available to those new teachers with limited supplies and funds. There may also be teacher new to the grade level that are in need of materials.  With that in mind, I created a pile of posters that I put in the teacher's lounge with a sign encouraging anyone to take anything they might want.  

When in Doubt, Throw it Out!

No, really!  I mean it!  THROW IT OUT!   In going through my pile, I kept an eye out for any poster that was faded, torn, stained, littered with stapler holes, or just too raggedy looking.  It wasn't easy because some were loved posters that I didn't want to get rid of.  However, did I want to hang something in my room that looked raggedy?  No!  I took a picture of a couple of posters that I plan to either repurchase or make myself, and then tossed the rest.  It may not be the most economical answer, but I know me.  I would only see the messy parts every time I looked at the poster and it would irritate me to no end.  A little nuts, I know! 

Finally, remember that curriculum changes as do the grades and populations we teach. If you've changed grade levels over the years, you probably also have materials you haven't used in a while.   I know I had posters from the content areas that cover subjects I haven't taught in years.  I could hang on to them forever just in case I teach it again sometime.  But, to be honest I just don't have the storage space or really want to store all that extra stuff.  So, all those rules above still apply!  Do I need it?  Is it too raggedy to keep?  Is it an effective teaching tool? If I do teach this again, would this be something I would want to hang up?   It just may be that the give away pile or the recycle bin are options to seriously consider.

As for me, one portfolio purged and only six more to go!  

How often do you purge materials in your classroom?