Mea Culpa! Mea Culpa! And moving on....

Ok...I confess...I have stopped doing the book study. Just not into it for some reason. Plus, I feel pretty good about the dendrites I am building in my classroom right now!

So, no more guilt about not posting my chapter responses (hence the long absence from posting since I figured I should be posting about the book study!!! Aaaah...shoulda, woulda, coulda...) and moving on to new things...

I have recently started reading the book The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton to the class. Have you ever read it?

click here to find it online

It is a true Canadian classic written in 1961. It is the story of four children who go on an adventure to rescue their baby brother who went through a trapdoor in the floor of their playhouse. The trapdoor leads to a secret underground world filled with mysterious little green people.

I am loving reading it again and am really enjoying watching the faces of the students as the adventure progresses. One of these days I am going to get them to draw what they are visualizing as I read since I know that their imaginations are in overdrive listening!

This book holds a special place in my childhood memory. In grade 5, I found myself  in a new school, that I really didn't like, with a teacher named Mrs. Gordon whom I didn't really like all that much either! I think she might be one of the reasons I went into teaching as I seem to recall the teachers I didn't like more than the ones I did. I guess I was inspired to NOT be like them!!!! But I digress....

One of my only positive memories of that year is of Mrs. Gordon sitting in the front of the class on a stool, reading to us from her copy of The Secret World of Og. Back then it had only been around for around 20 years (do the math and you can figure out how old I am!!!!) After she read us the book, we wrote letters to the author and Mrs. Gordon sent them off to his publisher. I will always remember the day the reply arrived. A letter for us! Written by Pierre Berton! On bright Og-green writing paper with a little drawing of a man from Og in the bottom corner. Oh! The excitement! 

The only other late elementary memory that comes close to topping my Og one is when Gordon Korman came to talk to our class about his book This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall. He was only about 18 years old and had already written a chapter book (at age 12!) and published it! Wow! But that is a story for another day....  

Anywho, if you have never read The Secret World of Og then what are you waiting for? Go read it!!! And, if you have read it, go read it again! You won't be sorry. I promise!

Cheers!

Olwyn

Partner Reading

This week we started Partner Reading in Daily 5 (finally!) We went over why we Partner Read (to practice fluency, check comprehension, learn from each other etc...) and how to do it (sit EEKK, read the whole time, each student read book at their just right level etc...)

I hate to say that I was expecting it to not go very smoothly.

I mean, first week back from Spring Break? First week back with their classroom teacher vs. student teacher?

Not the best odds for a whiz bang showing.

But, they surprised me!!!! It went like clockwork.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

They were all beyond excited to get to read with a partner and I hardly had to do any re-teaching at all. Yay!

Check out how the boys above are reading.

Sitting EEKK (elbow to elbow and knee to knee).

Focusing on the other student while s/he is reading.

Book boxes on outside of their bodies.

Practicing "Do you want help or a hint?"

They were so into it. They were practicing "I Read, You Read" where each student reads one page and then the other reads one page.

It. Was. Awesome.

Go readers!!!!!

Cheers!

Olwyn

That's What I Am Talking About!!!!!

Family Literacy...Dr. Seuss Style!

I have finally gotten around to starting my Family Literacy bags again. I used these ALL the time at my old school and haven't used them once since moving to this school (8 years ago!!!!)

I was inspired this summer when I found some Dr. Seuss pencils and erasers at Target and then found a Dr. Seuss backpack at the Goodwill. (I know, I know, I was in Florida on vacation! What can I say? You can take the teacher out of the school but you can never really take the school out of the teacher!!!!)

So, I put together the Dr. Seuss bag and started it with one of the students last week. He was soooo excited to take it home (I have to be honest here, I chose him first because I knew he loved Dr. Seuss!)

When it came back to school and before I sent it off again, I took some photos. Check it out!

The bag...it cost me a whopping 99 cents!!!!!

The contents...3 stories, a pencil, an eraser, a journal and a stuffie.

The Cat in the Hat stuffie up close. I've had it for years. I also have Thing 1 and Thing 2 that I can add later to spice the bag up a little for its second go around!

Here is the journal.

And the letter that is glued in the front explaining the bag.

And here are the two pages written by the first student to take it home. He did exactly what I was hoping he would do! And, I also love that his parents didn't help with the writing. This is grade 1 kid writing at its best. And I love his illustrations. Aren't they great?!?!

The class is so excited about these bags that I have promised to get more bags ready. I have the makings of a Paddington Bear bag, a Biscuit the dog bag, a Curious George bag and a Frog and Toad bag. Now to find all the bits to go with them and I'll be all set. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Ms. Hughes

Keep an Eagle Eye!!!

Our school secretary came in just after recess today and brought us this amazing, sparkly package. What could it be?

It was a package from a reading friend! His name is Eagle Eye. He came to our class and brought us some goodies to help us use our own eagle eyes in our reading!

This is the one of the strategies the students will learn this year to help them beome better readers. 

Eagle Eye is a very important strategy.

Especially for beginning readers because he is all about paying attention when reading and using everything on the page to read words accurately.

For beginning readers, he reminds them to look carefully at the pictures if they get stuck on a word because sometimes (almost always in early readers series books) the pictures will give a clue to the word. 

For the more advanced readers, he reminds them to read carefully and look with their "Eagle Eyes" to ensure accuracy when reading.

To that end, Eagle Eye brought us some tools to use to be better readers. He brought everyone their own "eagle eye" to use when reading. This serves as a visual reminder for students.

He also brought us some magic "reading" glasses. When wearing these glasses readers are able to pay attention to all the details. The glasses are magic!!! (BTW, if you have old glasses or sunglasses you want to get rid of, we'll take them!)

And, last but not least, he brought us some reading wands. See them in the picture above? These glitter wands help students to track their reading and look carefully at each word. These should be a huge hit. Glitter makes everything better, don't you think?

Happy Reading!

Ms. Hughes

A Few Words About the Word Wall

I finally got my word wall all put up. Still need to add a few more words but it is up and ready for use during writing time.

The majority of the words on the Word Wall come from the Dolch Word list. This is a list that shows the 220 words seen most often in books. Now, when these word lists were created, these 220 words made up something like 50% of all books. I am not sure if that is still the case but I do know that beginning readers run into these words A LOT in books.

The idea with the word wall words is that students will become used to seeing them and be able to read them on sight. No sounding out. No trying to figure out the word. Just automaticity in reading these words.

This allows them to spend their brain power figuring out words that truly are tricky. When students have to spend a lot of time figuring out the words, they tend to forget what they have read by the time they get to the end of the sentence! This does not help with comprehension! 

So, if you are one of those parents who loves to have work to do at home, I would highly suggest going over the Dolch words until your child can read them automatically in any order. It will help their writing and their reading tremendously. My favourite place to download Dolch word is from Mrs. Perkins site or you can get simple lists from the sidebar on this blog. Look for the page named Popcorn (or Dolch) Words.

Happy Reading!

Ms. Hughes

Book Boxes Have Arrived!!!!

Earlier this week, we chose and filled our Book Boxes for the start of our reading life in Division 13.

Now, I haven't yet had the opportunity to test all the students for their "just right level" for reading but that isn't going to stop us from looking at and reading books!

Students got to choose a book box (I found some really nice ones at Dollorama for a great price! Gotta love Dollorama!), decorated their name label and then chose 5 books to read/look at during reading time.

Tomorrow we start Read to Self using the Daily 5 training techniques. It will be long, tedious work but totally worth it in the end when students are working independently and I can work with small groups and one-to-one on reading.

 

 

Happy Reading!!!!

 

 

Ms. Hughes

 

 

p.s. The class got to 3 minutes of quiet read to self today! Yay!!!! The first time we only got to 45 seconds before someone was off task but the second time (after another review of expectations) we made it to 3 and could have probably kept going (I wanted to stop with success!) The goal? 20 minutes of independent reading by Day 18. Fingers crossed!!!!

Daily 5...

What is it? And why do I use it?

I have been using the Daily 5 model to teach reading for around 5 years. When I first started (after being fortunate enough to attend a day long workshop with the two sisters, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, who created it) I followed it to the letter. Bought the book. Joined the website. Joined Yahoo groups just for Daily 5. Wore the t-shirt. Used the pompoms. You get the idea. 

But, as the years have passed, I have kept what I loved, thrown out the rest and added in a bunch of my own methods and techniques for teaching reading. I was already using teaching methods that were successful for teaching reading. I didn't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. It works for me and it has worked with the classes I have taught.

The aspect from the Daily 5 that I have loved from the very start is the way that they train the kids to be independent and build stamina. I have talked a bit about this before (remember my "teaching routines can be mind numbingly boring " post?) and, just like every other routine, getting the kids to meet expectations and criteria in Daily 5 is a slow but oh, so necessary step in the learning process.

We start by creating an anchor chart with expectations and criteria for Read to Self. The one below is one I found on pinterest (there are A LOT of teachers out there using Daily 5!!) and is pretty much what ours looks like (just prettier!)



Then we practice meeting the criteria. I have a student come up and demonstrate doing meeting all of the criteria correctly. Then (and this is key) I pick a student to come up and show us doing it wrong. Well, you can bet I have a lot of volunteers for this one! They all want the chance to not do what I want them to do!!!!

The Sisters say to pick the child in the class that you expect to have the hardest time following the criteria. I call that student up and they read to self all wrong - books are upside down, they wiggle around, they talk to everyone, they stand up, etc etc etc. THEN I immediately ask the same student to show the class meeting the criteria correctly. And, whamo!, just like that each and every child in the class (including the one demonstrating) knows that this child (who usually has trouble during group activities - talks, distracts others etc) CAN read to self properly. Everyone can do it. This is very powerful stuff.

Then all the kids go off to practice read to self and build their reading muscles! I make sure that everyone has chosen a good spot where they can be successful and then the timer starts. On day 1 this year we got to 30 seconds before someone in the room did not meet the criteria. This means that they either talked to someone, stood up and moved, stopped reading etc.

The second (and I mean the very second) that someone stops following the criteria I stop the entire class. We put our book boxes away, come back to the carpet and start all over again. Review the criteria. Have someone demo it properly. Have someone else demo doing it wrong and then properly. Choosing our spots again. Starting the timer. Stopping again the second someone stops meeting the criteria. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

We have been working on this for a week and a half or so and have now gotten to 5 minutes of independent, on task reading to self. I mentioned it in my Friday Favourites this past Friday. If you read that you might not have realized how much of an accomplishment getting to 5 minutes was! We had to practice read to self for about 3 hours to get to that 5 minutes!

This week I am hopeful that we will get to 10 minutes. I might be expecting too much but I am getting so impatient! I really want to be able to start working with individual children so that I can begin doing reading assessments and helping them to grow as readers. But I know, know that I have to keep it slow and steady and we will get there. Eventually.

Of course, once we are at 10 minutes with read to self, we will then continue to build time until we get to 20 minutes. And, then we will start practicing word work or partner reading the same way we started read to self. Model, model, model, try, model again, try again ad nauseum until it becomes second nature.

This goes on for each of the Daily 5 areas (I actually don't do all five - I like to do writing as a separate lesson) that we learn. I am thinking I need to come up with some other name for what I do than Daily 5 since, with the exception of the method of training kids to be independent workers, I am really not up to date on what the Sisters are doing in Daily 5 these days. I will have to think of a new acronym for my reading program. Any ideas?

Ms. Hughes

Summer Reading Tip #1

Have you been reading every day so far this summer? I hope so! I have been inhaling books like you wouldn’t believe. I have been reading a novel a day pretty much. I am so grateful for our public library. Imagine if we didn’t have that amazing resource! We are so, so, so lucky to be able to read so many wonderful books.

I wanted to take a minute to send out a reading tip for parents. I really want the students to maintain or increase their reading abilities over the summer and that means doing some thinking and talking about their reading!

Beginning readers often get so involved in decoding the letters and words that they forget to stop and think about their reading.

I tell them that reading is like a sandwich.

On one slice of bread is the words - being able to read them and know how to say them properly.

On the other slice is the comprehension or understanding what the words mean and how they come together to form ideas within a story.

You have to have both sides of the sandwich for it to be complete, for it to make sense and be a proper sandwich.

So, today I want to talk a little bit about comprehension. There are different strategies good readers use to help them comprehend what they are reading. I will be going over many of them this summer. But for today we are focusing on...

Connections

 Good readers make connections in three ways.

• They connect the text to something personal about themselves (text to self)
• They connect to something out in the world (text to world)
• They connect to another book (text to text)

Making connections gets our schema working. Connections make a book more meaningful and they help us to enjoy what we are reading even more.

I think that making connections is one of the easiest strategies to use - especially the text to self type of connection. We all have life experiences and so we are all capable of finding something within a story with which to connect. I find that the older I get and the more my schema is filled with life experiences, other books, trips, information etc. the more I make connections in my reading without even having to stop and think if I have a connection. It is just there!

I am going to walk you through an example of making connections with a very simple story. Imagine I am reading the book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (I am pretty sure that there is not a child or parent in our continent who does not know this story).

As I read, I stop every few pages and ask myself “Does that make me think of anything else?” or think to myself "That reminds me of..."

Each time I can answer or fill in what it reminds me of, I have made a connection! Just like that!

Here are some of my connections:

1. This book makes me think about when I was little and my nanny, Wilson, would read to me. I still have my first hard copy of this book given to me in 1974. (text to self)
2. This in turn makes me wonder about other children, in other countries reading this story. I wonder if they have this book in places like Africa. And, if they do, is it a prized possession?(text to world)
3. The cow jumping over the moon reminds me of l the nursery rhyme it came from (text to text)
4. The title makes me think of the book Goodnight Ipad which came out recently and which I read to my class, not in book format, but on the smartboard. So 21st Century!!!! (text to text)        
5. A bowl full of mush makes me think of all the cream of wheat I ate as a child.(text to self)
6. The ending where it says goodnight to the air and the stars etc. gives me a lovely, comfy feeling. It reminds me of the feeling of childhood. (text to self)
7. The little old lady rocking in the room makes me think of the rocking chair that my Grandmama had on her back porch (text to self)

So, you see how reading something can make your mind go in all different directions? Most of the connections a young reader will make are of the text to self variety. Or, at least, they will probably be able to think of these more easily. Often I find that when reading one story, it will make a child think of another story (text to text). This is especially true of fairy tales. Text to world connections can be a little trickier for the beginning reader. It just depends on their personal life experience and how much is already in their schema.

Parents, you can help your child to make better connections by sitting down once or twice a week and reading to them. Pick a book that your child wants to read (it does not matter if they can read it or not) and then read out loud to your child. Stop every once in awhile to share a connection you make with the story, stop every once in awhile to ask your child if they have any connections. 

I don't care if your child is already reading chapter books. Create a time when they listen to you read and ask them to tell you their connections. Don't just leave them reading on their own all the time and assume that they are understanding everything that they read. Chances are very high that they are not!!!!!

schemas!!!!

Worth a second (or third...or fourth...) look

I have watched this video many times and it still energizes me and makes me want to read. Enjoy!

Class Catch Up

Each week I give the kids time for catch up so that they can get up to date on their work. Well, seems like I am the one needing a little of it today! Here are a few photos of creations done during Math Stations and Choosing Time over the last little while.

 a house for the stuffies

bunny wedding mural (still not finished and the crew that started it seems to have lost interest)

I really am not sure where the time has gone. For a little while it was positively dragging and now it is flying by so fast that it seems I never have enough of it! It seems crazy that Sports Day is only 3 weeks away!!!!

Last week was Earth Week at school. Each day we had a different theme. Things like working without the lights on, bringing a litterless lunch, walking or wheeling to school etc. Well, our class won the Sitting Lorax prize for having the most kids walk or wheel to school on the same day. The cheers when they called our name over the P.A. were deafening. In fact, some of the kids were so busy cheering that they didn't even know what we had won! Here he is in all his Lorax glory.

I was also very busy last week putting together report cards that reflect how students did in first and second term. We never wrote report cards because we were doing job action. Now we've been told we have to. I am not sure how it is helpful to parents to find out how their child was doing at school 2 or 4 months ago but on high dictated that they be written and written they were.  I am really hoping that parents will understand that a report card is a reflection of how a child is doing at that time. It may or may not be accurate a week or month later. 

It is that time of year when students start to take off. One student recently went up 2 reading levels in just under 2 weeks! Another who does not speak English at home just wrote 3 sentences by herself that I could read! Awesome and amazing things are happening each and every day. Change and growth are happening very quickly for some students now. So, hopefully, parents will not get caught up in the marks that are on the reports when they go home. More important is how their child is doing right now. As I said earlier in the year, no news is good news. If I had any MAJOR concerns about how a child is doing I would have had a meeting with the parents already.

To that end, I thought I would give a quick idea of where each grade should roughly be at this time of year.

In reading, grade 1's are aiming to be at a DRA level 16 by the end of June. This is a RAZ kids level I. They should be able to read the words (decode) and understand what they are reading about (comprehend). I would expect the average student (and remember that to have an average you have to have students who are higher and lower) to be reading at about a level 12 at this time (RAZ kids level G).


Grade 2's in reading...They are aiming for a DRA level 28 by June. This would be a RAZ kids level N to P. At this point I would expect the average grade 2 to be reading at a DRA 20 or 24 (RAZ kids level L or M). I find that what often happens is that students get better and better at the decoding of text (reading the words accurately, with expression and fluency etc) but as the texts get harder many students do not do as well with comprehension. There is, after all, more to remember! You can help your child at home by asking them to stop after a page and tell you in their own words what they just read (a Daily 5 method called Check for Understanding) or you can have them retell you a chapter or story from beginning through the middle to the end. Making them stop to think about their reading makes them better readers. 

In math we have been working a lot on basic addition and subtraction facts in grade 1. Addition has been covered extensively. Subtraction has been introduced and will be covered a lot in the next 6 weeks or so. I am finding that the concept of subtraction is very tricky for a lot of the grade 1's. We will be working with manipulatives and using different math strategies to fully understand this concept. That said, math fact practice at home is never a bad idea!

Grade 2's have been doing addition and subtraction without regrouping. i.e. 25
                          +32
                           
Again the addition comes pretty easily to all of them but some of them are getting stuck on the subtraction. In the case of the grade 2's, it is not because they do not understand the concept of subtraction but that they need to practice, practice, practice their subtraction math facts. We are moving into addition and subtraction with regrouping.
i.e. 49
    +37 

where they have to carry a 10 over to the tens column in order to solve the equation. This is a more complicated concept and having a solid base in math facts is super helpful. If a student has to spend all of their time figuring out what 9+7 equals then they often forget the next step to take to solve the equation.

We have also been learning about ordinal numbers, telling time and adding money. Though they keep telling me I need to take out all of the pennies in the worksheets! I suppose I will have to eventually but I am leaving them in this year.

May is looking crazy busy. We have Mother's Day coming up. The kids are working on a very cool gift so cover your eyes if you come into class! Sports Day is on the 17th and, fingers crossed, it won't rain! At the end of the month we are going on a much awaited for fieldtrip! Yes, I said fieldtrip!!!!! Details will be coming in the next few days. I am going to need a lot of parent helpers so I am counting on my class parents being as awesome as they have been all year.

Anywho, it is late. The Amazing Race is calling my name from the Living Room. Can't you hear it? The faint but steady sound of  "Olwyn, Olwyn, come watch me....come watch me..." Far be it for me to say no to one of my favourite shows. Catch you next time!

Ms. Hughes



A Word About Word Work

Last week we learned some new word work activities to do during Daily 5 in preparation for beginning Word Work Tic-Tac-Toe. (I forgot my camera today but will take pics to post soon so you can see what each activity looks like.)

Today students got their first Word Work Tic-Tac-Toe page. The tic-tac-toe board looks like this:

Find as many words as you can that have the same letter in them. Clipboard Cruising	Word Work Game Play a word work game with a friend.	Magnet Words Build your spelling words using magnets.
Rainbow Words Print your spelling words using a different colour for each letter.	Stamp each of your spelling words one time. Stamp A Word	Scoop & Spell Take one scoop of beans. Make as many words as you can. Print the words on the worksheet.
Shopping For Words Print each of your words. Figure out the cost of each letter and word. Then finish the worksheet.	Super Sentences Write a sentence for each of your spelling words. Use details!	Boggle Words Use the boggle game to get your letters. Make as many words as you can.

Except the tic-tac-toe board the kids have has pictures to go with each item on the board. It didn't copy over for some reason. Oh well! 

Beside the tic-tac-toe board is a list with this week's words on it. The list has 10 words - 8 regular words and 2 challenge words. This week all students are working on words with a short vowel a sound (as in cat and dad). I know that the words are going to be too easy for some students.  As time goes on, students will likely have different lists so that they can work on attributes of words that are relevant to their developmental level. For the next few weeks, though, we will all be doing the same lists as we learn how the Word Work Tic-Tac-Toe system works.

During Daily 5, students are now required to complete one row of tic-tac-toe word work each week. They have to do the activities using this week's words unless it is an activity where they make up words (like Boggle) or search for words (like Clipboard Cruising). Some weeks there will be different tic-tac-toe choices such as alphabetical order or word sorts etc.

As a supplement to the word work in class, I have signed up to use the website Spelling City. At the end of the day today I showed the class how to get to our word list on this site. Here are the steps:

1. Google Spelling City (or click on the link above)

2. Go to Spelling City - it is the first link that shows up when you google it

3. Click on Find A List

4. Search for the list by entering my name Olwyn Hughes

in the search box. Make sure that the second box says you are searching by teacher name!

5. Click on my name at the bottom of the screen. It will be in bright blue.

6. Go to the box that says Vocabulary and Spelling Lists (it is about half way down the page)

7. Click on the list you want.

Spelling City has lots of activities. Students can take a test, practice flash cards and play games to practice their words. Students need to make choices from the Free Choices column (I do not have a premium membership).

When you follow the instructions above, you will see that right now there is only one list (Short Vowel A) but we will be having a new set of words every Friday afternoon. I will do my best to have the students write their list into their planners each week (we didn't do that this week as I was sick last Friday).

The goal with these word lists is NOT to have students memorize words and take a test once a week. The goal is for students to practice using words that follow different word patterns and then assimilate that learning into their reading and writing. I will not be giving a weekly quiz. If your child really wants to take a quiz, then I suggest they do the test on Spelling City on Thursday evening each week before getting the new week's words on Friday afternoons.

The class was very excited to get their first Word Work Tic-Tac-Toe board today and I am hoping that they will find Spelling City to be another fun way to practice learning more about word patterns.

Thanks for all your support at home!