My Room

So, is doing a classroom reveal a month after school actually started a little like wearing white pants past labor day? I've been a total slacker when it comes to posting this past month which means room pics in October.  Sorry!  It would be great if I could say my room is done.  I'm actually about 90% there, and that's probably as good as it will get this year!  I do have a big area behind my meeting table that needs some serious straightening. Maybe in all my free time. . .  someday!

The pictures below were taken over a few different days, so that would explain why the lighting might be different or some posters might be different. I'm not going to bore you with lots of captions and explanations. Instead, I'll bore you with lots of pictures! :-) Here's a general view of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a little spotlight on some silly things about my room that make me happy.

Rubber ducks reading from Oriental Trading.  These twelve ducks sit on one of my windowsills.

 If ducks can read, so can you!

Lego blocks in my hand sanitizer for no good reason other than it's fun. They are suspended in the gel.  I have actually had to do a quick explanation on why they don't sink more than once.  This is probably the first thing kids notice when they come in my room for the first time.  

READ BOOKS.  My sister found these wooden words in Marshall's on the discount shelf.  I imagine, other than a teacher or librarian, there aren't many people who would know what to do with these. 

That probably explains them being on the discount shelf! 

But, they are perfect for a classroom where the only subject taught is reading.

The little boy I drew on my Self-Monitoring anchor chart last year. I love it because last week a little boy walked in to my room for the first time ever.  He looked at the poster and with a huge smile and wide eyes said, "That looks just like me!"  My mom is Spanish and darker skinned.  I remember growing up being very aware that none of the families in the books we read in school ever looked like my family. Never mind actually having posters in my classroom that were culturally diverse.  It made me very happy to have that little boy come in and immediately find something he could identify with.  Even if it is just a cartoon drawing.

Pumpkin chair covers from Dollar Tree.  A little bit of Halloween fun.

My picture book shelf.  These are just a few of the picture books I use.  In fact, I'm still looking for a box of picture books that must be tucked away on a shelf.  I have one in particular in mind that will be perfect for one of my students, Bad News for Outlaws.  I  know it will totally hook my reluctant reader friend.  

Now, if I could just find it!

So, that's the room this year.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another note, I'm currently reading Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic, Independent Readers by Jennifer Serravallo.

So far, I like it.  It has a lot of helpful information for those not totally comfortable teaching small groups or without a lot of experience teaching reading this way.  However, even being experienced with it, I am also  finding a lot of good tips.  I'll try and post more about it when I'm done.

Hope your school year has gotten off to a great start!

Reading Response Form Letters for Upper Elementary Students: Beginner Level

Recently, I received this email from a reader:

Hi there, I have been following your blog for quite sometime and would like to ask a quick question of you.  I have been using reading response notebooks/letters with my 5th graders for 8 years now and am still struggling with what is the best accommodation for my inclusion special education students.  I have 5 students this year with limited writing abilities. Do you use a cloze template for them to fill in?  If so, so you have an example one?  We have used verbal response, a scribe, cloze paragraphs, shortened response, etc. and I'm still wanting something a little bit different.  Thanks for your help and hope your school year is going well.    

There was a huge response to my posts back in 2011 on how I did my reading response letters back then. I had posted explaining how I set up my reading notebooks. I also did two separate posts on how I modeled writing a reading response letter, here and here.  At the time, I was working with enrichment students who had no difficulty in writing those letters.  Currently, I work primarily with students who sometimes have significant difficulty in writing even the most basic of response letters. While they aren't special education students, I completely understand the situation that email stems from!

picture source

As I worked more and more with my new students, I could see that they definitely needed more support in writing the letters.  As I noted, they weren't inclusion special education students, but there were still  many for whom the task was just too overwhelming. Cognitively, it was too much to put together.  There was deciding what to write about, then connecting that writing topic to selected information from the book to include in the letter.  There was getting all that thought together, and then putting it all in the specific format of a friendly letter.  For children who are struggling readers and writers, this is a tremendous task.

To help those students, I created a number of reading response form letters that address some different thinking stems (comprehension strategies.)  There is nothing cutesy about these letters.  I didn't put in borders, clip art, or use fancy fonts.  It's a basic form letter to fill in.  There's a reason for this.  My goal is that eventually my students are able to take a plain piece of lined paper and generate a letter on their own. I want my form letter to look very much the way the letter will eventually look in their notebook or lined paper. I also wanted nothing visually distracting.  I am focused on the content, and since I'm asking them to write in letter form, providing the format.  Content is exactly what my plain form letters focus on and modeling the format provides familiarity with it as they use the forms.

There are 13 letters in all that focus on setting, character, plot, making connections, asking questions, visualizing, inferring, predicting, plot, summarizing, synthesizing, an open response for fiction and non-fiction.
You can download the letters by clicking HERE.   It is a PDF that I uploaded in to Google Docs.  There shouldn't be any problems downloading them, but I know there are always a few people who have some trouble with it. For that, I apologize.  I would love to trouble shoot that for you, but my tech skills are just not that advanced! :-)

These letters are meant to be a tool in helping our students transition to writing independently.  However, there are students that will need extended time using these letter forms.  There are students that will need these types of forms for most of the year, if not all year.  That's okay!  It depends on the child's needs.

Now, let me tell you why you may not want to use the letters at all!

I do want to note that I strongly suggest not getting caught up in letter writing as your only form of reading response.  For upper elementary students, I like it because it is a way to organize their thoughts in a form (paragraphing) that will be necessary if not required as they head to middle school. But never forget that the content is of primary importance.

If you have a student that simply can't master using friendly letter format independently no matter how many times you show them or they practice using it, stop requiring it of that student.  At least for a while.  After all, you are asking for these responses to see if students are effectively applying reading strategies, if they are monitoring for comprehension, if they are extending their thinking. Think about what the goal is here.  It's not to see if they can write a friendly letter.  When the letter just isn't working, we may need to start providing variety in their reading response opportunities.

We've often been told our students need to be writing reading response LETTERS.  And, hopefully if you are doing that these form letters are helpful to you.  But, what they should be telling us is that students need to respond to their reading.  That response can and should take many forms and be as varied as your students' needs. Some alternate responses to a letter format response include:

• Conferencing - A conference discussing the book where a teacher takes anecdotal notes can be very useful for students who simply have difficulty getting the hand to write what he brain knows!
• Graphic Organizers - Some students need the visual organization a graphic organizer provides.  They also often allow a student who is limited in writing stamina to give specific, succinct answers in each section.
• Identify Key Words - There are a few ways to do this. Here are two examples.  One way could be, if you are looking for the student to respond with character analysis, to jot down three or four character traits on a piece of paper.  Have the student circle one and at the bottom of the page explain why they chose that trait.  Of course, you want them to explain what in the text makes them choose that word.  The support comes in that you have provided the possible character traits.  Another way to do it for non-fiction is to jot down a few words related to the topic.  Have the student choose the word that is most important to the book and tell why.  This is definitely higher level thinking.  We aren't trying to get away from higher level thinking, but instead looking for other ways to show it beyond a reading letter.
• Sketching - Have the student sketch the most important scene and explain what is happening and why it was important.  Or, have them sketch and label the character.  They can label with three things we can see and three things we know but can't see.   Notice I said sketch, not draw.  It is not meant to be an art project but a reading response.  A quick sketch should do the trick!   
• Record It - Write some general, key comprehension questions on index cards.  Give one or two to a student and have them record their answers verbally.  Hopefully, most schools have simple microphones for the classroom computer that make this easy to do.  

Those are just a few ideas.  Some are easy, and some require a bit more work.  But, what they all do is provide alternate response choices that might better fit the needs and abilities of certain students.  One of the most important things we can remember as teachers is that; 

Fair isn't everyone getting (or doing) the same thing, 

but everyone getting what they need to succeed.  

Reading response letters are just one way of doing it. So, please keep that in mind as you use these letters or if you go back  to my previous posts and follow my reader's notebook letter format.

By the way, if not using the form letters for a weekly reading response letter, throwing some in a folder can make a quick and easy literacy center.  I've also found them useful in my guided reading groups where time is so limited. If you decide to use them, please take a minute to comment and let us all know how.  You never know when your idea may be exactly just what someone else was looking for!

Do You Know Library Mouse?

Today, I'm sharing a picture book that is probably better suited to the younger set, but was one I used with my summer school friends who did not see themselves as writers at all.  Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk is the story of a mouse, Sam, that lives in a library. Sam also loves books and loves writing books.  In fact, he finds some scrap paper and writes several books that he displays in the library.  They become a huge hit with children and adults.  Everyone wants to know, "Who is the author?"  Eventually, Sam makes a "Meet the Author" box.  He put it out one night, and the next morning everyone took a look in the box to meet the author.  Here's the catch. In the box is a mirror. You are an author! Next to the box, Sam leaves a bunch of mini booklets like the ones he writes in for the children to author their own books.  This is a great book for teaching children that they are indeed authors.

If you don't know the book and are interested in it, here is  a video of a librarian reading it aloud. They do a good job of letting you see the text and illustrations as she reads.  You should know she has an English accent which actually makes it sound maybe kind of cool.  You should also know she has a puppet that helps her introduce the book.  I found the puppet to be a bit creepy! Why is its mouth always open?! Once you get past her intro, the book reading goes well.

Library Mouse is just the first in a series.  Daniel Kirk has written several books staring Sam, our friendly mouse.

picture source

There's Library Mouse A Friend's Tale  in which Sam does some collaborative writing with a child.  Library Mouse A World to Explore  introduces us to Sam's friend Sarah who isn't much on writing but is in to research and exploring.  In Library Mouse A Museum Adventure,  Sam and Sarah go on an adventure that combines research and journaling.  Finally, there is Library Mouse Home Sweet Home which is due out in September 2013. Amazon has a release date of September 3rd. This book continues the adventures of Sam and Sarah when the library is under renovation and they must find a temporary home.  I haven't read it, but it sounds like this one could be good for a social studies/community tie in as they make an igloo, a castle, a modern house, and more.

As I wrote, I think these books are better suited for the younger set, but my 3rd going into 4th graders enjoyed Library Mouse very much.  And, the message that they are authors certainly hit home.  In fact, to really make an experience of the book you could easily make the "Meet the Author" box that Sam makes.  Just put a small mirror in a tissue box, wrap the box leaving the top hole open, and make a "Meet the Author" sign.  It would be a fun way to introduce writer's workshop at the start of the year.

You can also make some mini books for your kids to write their own story or a mini "About Me" book as a back-to-school activity.  Here's a quick video on how to make an 8 page mini book using one piece of paper and no staples.  It looks just like the mini book Sam makes!

I linked to Daniel Kirk's author page earlier in the post.  If you explore his web site, you will see that he also has an activities page where you can print out book marks, posters, and coloring pages.  There's a cute poster of Sam saying, "Be Kind."  There are also suggested academic activities for his books.

Library Mouse isn't a brand  new book, but it is a good one! Plus, Daniel Kirk is a New Jersey author. How could I not brag about a fellow New Jerseyan?  If you live in the area, Daniel Kirk does paid author visits. His web page also notes that he does FREE twenty-minute Skype visits for classes doing an author study, schools with limited funds, and those too far from New Jersey.  Did I mention FREE? :-)

***********************************

One off topic question for you!  Does anyone out there use Remind 101?  I've downloaded the app, but I am hesitant to use it.  Just wondering if anyone else has used it and how it works.

A Project and Some Bookmarks

So, I mentioned in my last post that I was going to tell you about a project I completed inspired by a picture I saw on Instagram.  It was actually a craft project done by Hope King over at Second Grade Shenanigans. I love her blog.  She makes so many great printables.  In fact, Hope made the Good Reader posters I used for decorating outside my door this year. It was the project picture I saw on her Instagram page that led me to her blog and the reading posters.  But, back to the project.  Here is what my final project looks like!

Totally inspired by Hope's masterpiece. . . 

This picture is from Hope's post on how to do this project.

A pretty good match I think! When I saw Hope's pictures, I knew I had to do it. The READ display fit right in with my literacy themed room.  I'm not going to give any directions here, because you really need to hop on over to Hope's blog and see how it's done!  After all, she did master mind this project!  I will give one thought.  This took me WAY longer to do than it did Hope.  I mean WAY, WAY longer!  Obviously my crafting skills are not on par with hers! So for me, it was time consuming but worth it.

One of the reasons I like it is because the vibrant colors. . . 

. . . fit right in with the colors of my class library baskets! 

But, you could pick any colors that match your room.

I put the display up high to leave room for anchor charts, posters, and student work.

I will say that one of the things you have to do for this project is cut 24 squares for each circle.  Well, that left me with a lot of scrap pieces.  It turns out that each scrap piece made two perfect bookmarks for my friends.  24 x 2 x 4 = 192.  That's 192 bookmarks!  I used card stock for the project so they are sturdy.

 

I went to the dollar store and grabbed a couple of packages of stickers to fancy them up a bit. I put them on while watching TV one night.  How much school work gets done that way?!   I was going to laminate them, but then I came to my senses rather quickly when I realized that would mean cutting out 192 individual bookmarks.  So. Not. Happening!

Thinking on it more, I realized these are perfect for my guided reading groups as they are and have a ton of uses. The backs and most of the front are blank. These are prefect to have on hand to do things like. . .

• You can easily write the focus skill/strategy on the bookmark for your friend to have as a reminder when you send them off.  
• The kids can use them to write interesting words as they are reading.
• You can write a question for them to answer at the guided reading table after they read a section.
• A reading goal can be written on the bookmark as a reminder for the student. 

I'm sure you can think of many other things to do with these.  Even if you don't make the project, it would be nice to cut up some colored card stock as blank bookmarks for use in your guided reading groups.  Actually, you could even use small, colored index cards if you don't want to do the cutting.

 So, that's the project and a sneak peak at one area of my room.  

I'm still working on the rest, but getting close to being done!

READ in the Hall

On Monday, I finally started on my classroom.  It's been a project because 80% of everything I have was in a box.  This year, I am only going to be teaching literacy.  That means two things:

1. You won't be seeing a lot of math posts this year! 
2. My entire classroom from decoration, instruction, to function is focused on reading. 

 Every corner of my room relates to reading in some manner.  This includes the area outside my door.  Every year, I like to put something out there that can stay up all year.  I found these "Good Readers" posters and loved the content and color theme.  My room is all bright colors (a little too bright maybe, but I will explain that in a post to come) and these posters fit right in with what I'm teaching, my room colors, and have content all kids need to be reminded of.

 These reading strategies subway art posters are by Hope King.  They were exactly what I was looking for!  If you get them, I would suggest taking them to Staples or Office Max to print.  All that black ink would wreck havoc with your home printer.  I also find that anything I have printed at Staples is much more vibrant than anything my dinky little printer can produce.  After printing, I just laminated them.  Easy peasy!

Once I had the posters, I needed something to pull it together.  I made these READ letters to match the posters.  I think it goes together really well.  The lined letters match the "Good Readers" letters on the posters. I was going to put them up as a download for you, but I realized I used a font that was for personal use only.  If I get a chance, I will try to redo them with a font I can publish for you.

In the past, I have decorated the outside of my room several different ways.  I was able to find the past two years buried in my blog.  That's one of the things I like about blogging. It keeps a great record of things I've done in the past, for better or worse!

In 2011, I had a simple sign that actually fits in with this year's color scheme.

In 2012, I went with some motivational signs.

And for 2013, we READ!

If you look closely in the picture above, you can see just a couple of the many, many boxes I have been unpacking the past two days.  I don't dare show you the inside of my room just yet!  However, in my next post I am going to share a project I found via an Instagram picture that I knew I just had to do for my room.  

Stay tuned!

School Prep? Nope!

Getting ready for the new school year?

Uh, nope.  Not yet.

This is how I spent my day!

 

 

And, I'm planning to do it all over again tomorrow!

Thursday it's into the city (NY) for a taping of

the new Bethenny Frankel show.

Squeezing all the juice I can out of this summer

because. . .

room prep begins on Monday.



Author's Chair ~ Share Chair

Many years ago, I spent a lot of time making an author's chair.  If you aren't sure what an author's chair is, it is "just" (Not really "just," but there's more on that at the end of the post) a fancy chair your author-students sit in when reading their work to the class.  Somehow, one year, my chair disappeared from my room.  I'm pretty sure it was probably broken misplaced one summer during the room cleanings.  Lately, I've been toying with the idea of creating a new author's chair.  While the summer has flown by, I've not abandoned the idea.

I have an old, wooden chair like the one above that would be perfect for the project.  In fact, I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration and was so amazed at how creative my fellow teachers are that I decided to share some of it here.  The pictures are from the teachers' blogs or their Pinterest boards, and I have tried to link directly to each.  However, some of the pictures had no blog or site linked to them. The just linked back to the image.  If you know who a chair belongs to, please leave a comment and I will happily add the link to the teacher's blog, Pinterest board, or web page.

Let's begin with some . . .

Author's Chairs!

Lauren is not a blogger, but a pinner!  She pinned her author's chair on her Pinterest board: My Creations. Instead of a standard chair, she used a director's chair.

Angie Austin is an artist that paints author's chairs for teachers.  Below is one featured on her blog.  If you visit her blog, you can see some others she has designed.

Stephanie Mellon painted this chair for her classroom.  She doesn't seem to have a blog, but posted her picture on her Pinterest board. Her chair is amazing!  Her picture collage below shows you the many steps involved in this project.

Here's  another great chair from Pinterest that only links back to the image.  I love the pencils painted across the back.

Here's another amazing chair that links back to an image.  This chair looks like it took a lot of time, effort, and love of teaching!

The chair below is painted by Priscilla Zachary for her school teacher daughter.  As far as I can tell, Priscilla also doesn't have a blog, but posted her picture on her Pinterest board that you can see here. Priscilla is very talented as evidenced by this amazing paint job!

This picture also links to the image on Pinterest, but I had to include it for its simplicity.  If you don't have time to paint a chair, simply grab some ribbons, a chair cushion, and some Sharpies.  No painting needed.  Also, this chair could fold up for easy storage when not in use.

Share Chairs!

Share chairs are nice because they aren't limited to author's use only.  

You can use a share chair for any kind of presentation.

Heather, from Fifth Grade Frenzy has created a super snazzy share chair. I like this chair because it fits in with my room's color theme this year.

Ms. K at Teacher Blog Spot shares a genius idea for a quick, cheap, and easy share chair a teacher in her building came up with.  All you need is a plastic lawn chair and some stickers.  Imagine how cute this would be with a lawn chair in a cute color and some themed stickers.

Stools!

Who needs an actual chair? Stools takes up less space and need less paint!

Amanda at First Time for Everything has added some fun pom-pom trim to her stool.

Beth, the Inspired Writing Teacher, has this very colorful stool as an author's chair. If you follow the link to her blog, you will see that she also has an actual author's chair, too.

Here's another colorful stool posted by Kelly on her Pinterest board that is used as an author's chair.

All Purpose Celebration Chairs!

An all purpose celebration chair is more of what I had in mind for my classroom.  I like a chair that you can do an author's celebration in as well as be a reward chair to sit in for good behavior or birthdays.  

Hope at 2nd Grade Shenanigans made a most amazing chair.  Love the feathers!  You can hardly tell, but the chair is a basic wooden school chair.  Hope shows you the before and after in her blog post. I love her blog! 

Debbie Clement is an author/illustrator who visits schools.  She took the picture of the chair below on one of her visits and posted it on her blog, Rainbows Within Reach. Imagine the possibilities with a chair labeled Imagine!

Here's a really fun chair for those not into painting. Mel D. at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations made this awesome celebration chair using tissue paper, old Dr. Seuss books, and Mod Podge. Love it!

And, Finally. . . 

How about a reading BENCH?

I love how so many favorite books have been incorporated in the paining.  I also love all the books laying on the seat.  I'm not sure I'm talented enough to pull off something like this!  Again, this is a picture that only links back to an image, but I would love to know who created this gem.

Here's an amazing idea!  The Ethelbert B. Crawford Library in Monticello, New York had children paint reading chairs and auctioned them off.  If you follow THIS LINK, you can see several of the chairs the kids created.  The library was able to raise $1300!  If your school has some older chairs, wouldn't that be a great art/literacy project?  Instead of auctioning them off, they could be great additions to the school's media center or front office.

There's more to the author's chair than "just" a presentation seat.  When an author is in the chair, it is a time for the reader author to practice public speaking, fluency, and prosody. There is also the joy they get from seeing the power of their words.  I will always remember a time a friend was reading a story to the rest of our class that had a very funny moment in it.  When he read that part, the entire class laughed so much that he had to pause in his reading.  When he was done, I pointed out to him (and the class) that his written words had the power to make an entire group of children laugh for quite a while.  His words made people experience joy.  I told him, and the class, that THAT IS THE POWER OF AN AUTHOR!  The look on his face was priceless.  He really hadn't understood until that moment that words have power and as the author, he wields that power.

For listeners, it is a time to practice active listening skills and social skills for audience behavior.  Often, during author's celebrations, the class is asked to respond to the author with one specific compliment and a question.  You can't do that if you aren't actively listening!

If you are new to using an author's chair or just want some ideas on how to make it more meaningful,
here are a couple of resources that might help:

• Click here to see how Teacher Vision has outlined exactly what an author's chair is and how to use one.
• The Oakland Unified School District,  via their Writing Proficiency Project, has a nice printable of tips for making your authors' chair a successful experience for all.  Click here for the pdf.

   In addition to showing some great chairs, the links will take you to some great blogs to explore.

Hopefully, you have found some chair inspiration!