Monday Made It – July 22, 2013

Today I’m linking up with 4^th Grade Frolics for the Monday Made It linky event.  This week, I spent some time on a puzzle (one of my favorite time wasters).  I’m addicted to Revolution era and Constitutional history, and my mom bought me the coolest puzzles for Christmas.  I’ve actually done these puzzles twice, but the most recent completion was this week, so I figured they count for a Monday Made It!

The first is a puzzle of the Constitution. (Yes, I know I’m a geek, but I’m ok with it!)  This one was incredibly complicated, but I had a ton of fun doing it.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of this one, which is a shame, because some of the pieces are shaped like states and the very center piece is shaped like the Liberty Bell, which looks pretty cool.

The second puzzle does have a picture.  This one shows all of the important events and places from the Revolutionary War.  This one was easier than the Constitution puzzle, but still took some time.  It was a lot of fun though!

Multiple Intelligences Survey

The beginning of the year is all about getting to know the new kiddos in your classroom, and creating a great classroom environment.  But in my classroom, I like the kids to get to know themselves a little better, so I use a Multiple Intelligences survey to help.  The kids read a series of statements and either check that the statement applies or leave it blank.  At the end of the document, they use a scoring guide to determine which of the eight multiple intelligences they display.

After the scoring is complete, the kids write their names on note cards and display their names next to the intelligence that they display.  We leave this display up for the first quarter as a reminder of the ways that we are similar and different in our learning styles.

Both of these items are available on my (brand new!) Teachers Pay Teachers store here:

Survey

Posters

Reading Response Journals

Last year, I started using a Readers Workshop approach in my classroom after reading The Book Whisperer last summer.  I love the approach and found that my students grew as readers and developed a love for reading that I haven’t seen with other approaches.

While I loved the Readers Workshop method, I sometimes had trouble coming up with interesting and different prompts for the kids to use in their Reader’s Notebooks.  My goal for this year is to find more creative response prompts, and this morning I found a wonderful resource for that!  

 

The CaffeinatedLibrarian has a post on her blog called “The Best List of Reading Response Questions Ever” and after reading through the list, I must agree!  I copied the list into a MS Word document and it took nine and a half pages to list all of the prompt ideas!  There are several general prompts, but there is also a section divided into categories aligned to test readiness including: analyze, compare, contrast, define, describe, differentiate, discuss, evaluate, explain, identify, interpret, list, main idea, and outline.

I plan to use several of these prompts in the upcoming year, and hope they can be helpful to you as well!

A Little Pinspiration

My morning routine this summer has become a pretty established pattern of drinking coffee and trolling Pinterest for new ideas for my classroom.  Last week, I came across a wonderful site for third through sixth grade teachers (which was a nice treat!).  The board – Teaching UpperElementary – is dedicated to ideas for teachers in third through sixth grade classrooms.  This was a great find for me because the general “Education” board has a ton of ideas for primary classrooms, and while they are super cute, they aren’t very helpful or applicable to my classroom. 

The creator of this board has not only established a place for upper elementary teachers to share ideas, but has taken it a step farther to ask that you pin two to three free items or ideas for every paid item.  This is somewhat refreshing in a time when so many ideas are linked to a Teachers Pay Teachers site.

Back to Blogging

Like many other teachers out there, I’ve spent my summer trolling Pinterest for new ideas to use in my classroom.  Through my pinning, I have found several teacher blogs that have given me ideas and inspiration for my teaching this coming year.  A few years ago I started this blog as part of a grad school assignment, but I enjoyed the process.  Unfortunately, life got in the way and I stopped blogging.  After reading so many inspirational teacher blogs, I have decided to reignite my blogging interest and start this back up.  I hope I’ll be able to inspire or aid others in the way that I’ve been helped by the blogs I’ve read.
 
Because it’s been two years since I last posted, I’m going to start by linking you to a few of my most viewed posts to give you an idea of who I am as a blogger.  Then in the coming days, I’ll be posting some of my new work and some of the things I’ve been developing over the past two and a half years.

Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA)

DRTA is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, which enhances their comprehension. The DRTA model actually consists of three parts: D – Direct, R – Read, and T – Think. The process of those three combine to make the A – Activity.

Read Withthe Author in Mind

This is a chapter summary from Jeffrey Wilhelm’s book Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry. [Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2007) Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry. New York, NY: Scholastic.]  In this chapter, Wilhelm introduces us to authorial reading, a concept directly connected to the social nature of reading that encourages the reader to interact with the author while reading a text. Through the process of authorial reading, readers use the understandings that the author has put into the text to create a better understating of his/her own.

Content Area Reading Strategies

This is another reflection on reading, but this time from Cris Tovani’s book Do I Really Have to Teach Reading [Tovani, Cris. (2004) Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.]  In this post, I looked at chapters one and four in the book to describe strategies for reading nonfiction and content area text: Reading is an individual experience, and it is a different experience for every individual. Reading nonfiction and content-area text is especially different for every person. However, there are some strategies that all successful readers use, even if they use the strategies differently. Cris Tovani points out that you have to ask questions as you read, but that they have to be questions that you really care about and are curious about.

And she’s only 11!

Another idea from last week’s Big Fresh newsletter from Choice Literacy came in the form of a blog suggestion. This post from Reading Vacation is a wonderful post to share with students OR parents. The post talks about how this blogger chooses appropriate books. . .but to completely understand why that matters, you need to know a little about the blog and the blogger. . .

Reading Vacation is a blog written by Melina, an 11-year-old girl who loves books, loves to read, and isn’t ashamed of either trait! Melina’s blog is a pretty typical book blog. She posts reviews, author interviews, and even hosts a few contests (which is interesting because she can’t even enter contests until she turns 13 in two years!). As a book blogger myself, I’m pretty impressed by the content that Melina posts. She offers honest reviews, with enough detail to give you a feel for the book, but without giving too much away. However, it is the teacher in me that is most impressed with this blog. I work with 10 and 11 year olds, and if they could write like this, I would be thrilled! While blogging isn’t a super-technical form of writing, well-written posts do require organization, attention to detail, and a firm grasp of grammar rules.

Ok. . .back to the point. . .

The post linked above explains how this 11-year-old blogger selects books that are appropriate for her. She is a fan of young adult literature, but admits that several YA books have too much swearing, too many romantic scenes that are too mature for her, or they may just be too scary.

Even if you only check out this post, Reading Vacation is worth a look. Melina definitely has her blogging figured out – a fact supported by the 624 followers she has acquired (as of 2/1/11) – and could provide a model or a resource for the ‘tween readers we work with!

Is It Really Appropriate?

Last week, I got my “The Big Fresh Newsletter” email from Choice Literacy, and I LOVE the concept this month. It was entitled, “What’s Appropriate?” As a fifth grade teacher, this is a question that is constantly at the forefront of book selection for my students. Even though most fifth graders think that they are “all grown up,” they just aren’t. I am a huge fan of Young Adult fiction (huge), but much of it just isn’t appropriate for fifth graders, and it certainly isn’t appropriate for younger kids.

One of my closest friends teaches first grade, and she encounters even bigger problems in this area. She often has parents saying things like, “But he/she can read at a 5th grade level!” Which leads me to the point of this post. . . Just because they can, does NOT mean they should! Much of the literature available for older readers has content that is either too advanced, too mature, or too complex for younger children. That is why the books are written for older audiences.
One of the links in this Big Fresh newsletter addresses this matter exactly (and in fact, is called, “Just Because They Can, Doesn’t Mean They Should”). Enjoy the read, and feel free to pass it on to parents!
Just Because They Can Doesn't Mean They Should: Choosing Age-Appropriate Books for Literature Circles