Tried It Tuesday: Wonder-board and What's In My Cart!

So many bloggers are sharing all of their great ideas about RJ Palacio's book Wonder!  I love reading different blog posts and seeing amazing displays for extending kids' thinking about the book!  For this "episode" of Fourth Grade Flipper's Tried It Tuesday, I'm going to share how I used Fourth Grade Studio's Wonderboard in my classroom!

   

In her blog post, Meg shared a picture of her Wonderboard and said that she encouraged her students to write "a reaction, a theory, an explanation or some other thought of significance" on the board.  I love this because although I give my students prompts so they can respond to literature, I'm worried that I give too MANY prompts and they don't have enough opportunity to listen to their readers voices.  I have about 7 readers who are below beginning fifth grade reading level and I'm not convinced they actually have readers voices in their head, so by having other students write out their ideas, they can read the stickies to find out what their peers think about!

Here is the beginning of our Wonderboard.  There are actually several more stickies on there now, but I forgot to snap another pic before leaving today.

One sticky says: "Why people have to treat him like that. He's a {regular} kid with a bad face.  I know the other kids {have} problems too. Everyone has problems. Trust me if I knew August He would be my besttttt friend." My thoughts: Way to display compassion and empathy!
Another sticky says: "Why did Jack say that {in front} of the boys? Why {is} he {bummed} about August being mad at him?  My thoughts:  great question for writing and conversation!  We actually used this question as a quick write prompt. I asked the students why they thought Jack betrayed August and which
Jack did they believe, the Jack who said he wasn't really friends with August or the Jack who asked Summer why August was mad at him?

If you are teaching Wonder, you might want to take a look at my Wonder Comprehension Questions Booklet on TPT.

I use this booklet with my fifth grade students during read aloud to monitor comprehension. The questions range in complexity from basic comprehension focused on major plot points and characters to higher order thinking questions requiring longer responses. This product can be used for independent reading, read aloud or literature circles. The questions are not specifically aligned to Common Core standards, but many questions as students to cite specific text based evidence and most questions are text dependent. It would be helpful for students to have their own copy of the text in order to answer the questions.

I'm also linking up with Fifth in the Middle to share What's In My Cart!  Truthfully, I'm not ready to check out yet...but here are the definites:

From the top left, What's My Operation Task Cards by Teaching with A Mountain View.  I love her products!  We've done her fraction packet, multiplying decimals and I have the operating decimals task cards as well.  Right now, we are working through her FREE Titanic Math Pages!

Prefix Parlor by Teaching with a Touch of Twang. I'm ALWAYS drawing a blank when it comes to word work and word study.  And with the sale, this is only $1.60!

Fluency Bootcamp by MsJordanReads.  We need this like whoa.  I know the year is winding down for most of you, but we still have several weeks left!

Build a BETTER sentence by Lovin Lit.  We've been working on stretching our sentences for a while, but I think it would be great to try it a new way!  Also, Lovin Lit is having a big giveaway that starts tomorrow:

I donated my Language Arts Activities for A Day's Work by Eve Bunting :-)
Common Core Weekly Reading Homework Review {Set 1:Informational Text} by Jennifer Findley I probably won't use this until next year, but I love getting a peek into how other teachers structure their reading homework! 
So be sure to link up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday and Fifth in the Middle for What's In Your Cart!  And don't forget code TAD13 when you check out for an additional 10% off your order!