Workshop Wednesday: Reading Groups Organization

I'm linking up with Ideas by Jivey for Workshop Wednesday! This week's topic: reading groups organization.  Here's a little peak into my guided reading organization!

Ugh!  Glare!

I keep everything for guided reading in my guided reading binder: class lists, groupings, lesson plans and conference notes.

 

The first page in my binder is a flexible grouping sheet that my school provides.  We use this sheet to note the groups of students and their instructional focus.

I use a few gradebook pages from BusyTeachersCafe to keep track of the center rotations for the week.  I list the centers along the top to keep track of which student has been to which center during the week.  It's a little sloppy by the end of the month, but it gets the job done!

  You may notice that there are some students who do not go to centers.  This is because we have AIS and ESL during reading workshop, so those students are pulled out.

I use the same gradebook page to keep track of my reading conferences.  This page is from the first marking period, so it's a bit sparse.  I just note the date of the conference on the gradebook page. 

The rest of my binder is organized by guided reading group.  I keep my lesson plans and observation sheets in those sections.  

My school has one uniform conference/observation sheet that we all use:

This stays in the binder as well until it is completely filled in and then I move it to my data binder.

For lesson plans, I keep most of my questions in stickies in my books, but I like to jot down a few ideas before I start the lesson.  I made this little sheet to write my plans for two days of guided reading.  

I like having two days side-by-side.  It helps me remember what we've discussed and where we are headed. 

If you want to grab any of these forms, you can download this freebie from my TpT store!

Be sure to link up with Jivey to show how you organize your reading groups!

Finished Early Work in Math {Mixed Review Test Prep Task Cards}

There is nothing I LOATHE more than wasted time.  I can't stand seeing notebooks close when students are finished with their work.  With most classes, I spend a few days at the beginning of the year reminding them of all the things they should be doing when they "finish" early and they are independent for the rest of the year.  This class is different.  It's April and I'm still reminding them that there is no such thing as "finished" in school.

After thinking on this over the Spring Break, I decided to make one subtle change to my math workshop.  Instead of keeping the task cards on the back table, I decided to move them to the table bins, along with the recording sheets.  Instead of having to get up and move across the classroom, now the cards would be right at their fingertips and they can work on a few cards while waiting to move on with the rest of the class!

My students worked on the cards in little spurts throughout math workshop.  Today we worked on algebraic thinking and when they finished their work, they took a few task cards to review the major content for fifth grade.

I just posted these Mixed Review Test Prep Task Cards on TpT.  The cards help students review operating with decimals, fractions, algebraic expressions and volume concepts.

There are 36 cards, but I am pretty certain that I am going to be adding to the set and updating them throughout the month.  Most of the cards are word problems with different skills embedded, so students have to practice the same skills they will have to apply on their State tests at the end of this month.  But these task cards are a little cuter and a little more fun than a page of test prep!

I'm going to share these cards with the first three people to comment, so tell me, what do you have your students work on when they finish early in math?   {Be sure to leave me your email!}

Mentor Text Linky {Language Arts} The Tiger Rising

I'm linking up with Amanda and Stacia for their Mentor Text Linky Party!  This week, the subject is language arts and I'm going to share one of my favorite favorite favorite books with you: The Tiger Rising!

Source - Amazon

If you haven't read it, The Tiger Rising is about a boy named Rob who finds a tiger in the woods behind the motel he calls home.  He then meets a girl who is new to town (Sistine) and feels compelled to tell her about the tiger.  She tries to convince him to let the tiger go and, as luck would have it, the keys to the cage are presented to Rob.  I won't ruin the end for you, but your students will have some very lively discussion about what Rob and Sistine should do and about how the author chooses to end the book.

I use this text to introduce symbolism to my students.  There are pretty heavy, and somewhat obvious, symbols used throughout the book.  My students love talking about "the cage" and Rob's suitcase.  In the text, the cage is an important image and students can discuss the characters who feel trapped in the story.  Rob's suitcase is an imaginary place where keeps his feelings and "not-thoughts" tucked away.  

Here is an organizer I used with my class to keep track of the symbols that popped up throughout the novel.  Click HERE to grab it!

 There's SO much you can do with this book.  It's great for inference, character analysis, simile and personification!  I'm working on editing the reading response sheets I used with my class and compiling all of the mini lessons we did so I can share them.  Hopefully I'll be done before I'm ready to read it to my next class!

Update: I'm done!  I just finished compiling the unit and I'm SO proud of it! The Tiger Rising Unit and Novel Study on TpT

This is an 83 page product filled with resources to help you teach the novel The Tiger Rising.

Included in The Tiger Rising Novel Study, you will find:

- Chapter by chapter notes for the teacher about the characters, symbolism, examples of literary technique and possible extension activities

- Comprehension questions for each chapter. 

- Quoting text mini lessons and text based evidence transitional phrases

- Vocabulary for each chapter, a graphic organizer for finding word meaning in context and a sheet for writing definitions and meaningful sentences.  I've also included cute, themed word cards for your to use on your word wall!

- Symbolism poster and graphic organizer

- Compare/Contrast mini lesson support; many of the prompts require the students to compare and contrast, so I've included posters for this topic.

- Reading Response Questions: these questions are more indepth and promote higher order thinking than basic comprehension questions.  There are 18 pages of questions with space for student responses.

-Character analysis graphic organizers: one organizer for each of the main and supporting characters in the text.  Students will use the character's words and deeds to support a trait chosen.

-Figurative language mini lesson resources to help you teach author's craft

- Fact and opinion sort 

Check out my TpT store to see the unit!

Have you read The Tiger Rising with your class?  What did they think?

Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday!

1.)  We had a short week this week; only three days!  It's so nice to start the week when it's half way over, especially when this sweet girl is turning 2 on Sunday!

2.)  As I blogged yesterday, my guided reading group started reading The One and Only Ivan this week.  We had some ups and some downs, but we are working hard on writing "thick" questions.

3.)  My students are ROCKING division with fractions!  I'm SO proud of them!   That's the last *big* skill I needed to teach them before their state test at the end of this month.  We will spend the rest of this month reviewing and reteaching with small groups and centers. 

4.)  Our read aloud this week was one of my FAVORITE books: A Day's Work by Eve Bunting.  We had great discussions comparing Francisco's mood before and after work, his powers of persuasion and the importance of honesty.  AND, I tried my hand at writing some nonfiction, so we could read about the plants mentioned in the story!  I'll write a much longer post about some of the things we did with this book pretty soon.

5.)  My partner who teaches ESL was sick this week, so I had to do some improvising.  I decided we needed a break from test stress, so we did some spring art!  I found this beautiful Georgia O'Keefe project on Deep Space Sparkle and combined it with another inspiring flower project from Working 4 the Classroom.

Next week, they will put these pieces together to make flowers on a background of swirls and spirals!  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

I hope you all had a great week!

Teaching Students to Question

Last week, I blogged about starting The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate with my reading group.  Well, yesterday was the big day!  My kids were really impressed by the size of the book and the fact that it has a hard cover (LOL!).

After introducing the book, I briefly revisited "thick" and "thin" questions.  We've written "thick" and "thin" questions together as part of our read alouds, but this was the first time I was working with this group of readers on questioning.  Click HERE to download posters!

I told the group that they would be responsible for writing the questions we would discuss after reading.  I assigned the chapters "hello" though "the littlest big top on earth," which is about ten pages but with a lot of white space and some images.  As they read, I kept the "thick" question starters up on the SMARTboard to help them out.  They had the option of recording their questions on a sheet I made, or on their stickies.

Sounds good, right? 

It was disaster.

Not a complete disaster though.  One of my students, C, did a FANTASTIC job writing thought provoking questions to ask the group.  He was awesome.

Why does he compare himself to humans?

What does he tell us about himself and how he feels?

Where does he live?
Why does he live there?

Who are Stella and Bob?

 The other three students really struggled.  It was painful.  Even with the question starters, they weren't able to piece together questions that even made sense.  I started conferencing with one of my students and I could see that the mini lesson just wasn't enough, but I was kind of baffled as to why???

During my crazy long commute home, I kept thinking about how this group could not put a question together.  I kept coming back to two things:  first, culturally, many of my students are told to come to school, be quiet and listen to the teacher.  Therefore, they are not used to being the questioner.  Second, the task was just too broad.  Even though the text was short, it would require my readers to take a huge risk to write a question worthy of good conversation.  Since there isn't too much I could do about the first thing, I did think I could do a better job with the task, so I scrapped my plans and decided to meet with this group again this morning.

This time, I gave C a writing response while I worked with the other students on QAR.

Source - Organizer

Right There - Who is Stella? 

Think and Search - What is on the domain walls?

In My Head - Why is Ivan never angry?  Who is the elephant on the cover?

I selected just one page to text to read with them.  As we read, I modeled writing Right There Questions for a few sentences.   

"My domain is at the end of one ring."  Where is Ivan's domain? 

"Stella is an elephant."  Who is Stella? 

Quickly, I saw my readers more willing to ask questions, even if they were the "thin" questions.  We moved on to writing Think And Search Questions, first together, then independently.  Finally, we tried writing thicker, In My Head questions.  My readers still needed assistance, but were more willing to try.  Rome wasn't built in a day, right?

Coincidentally, one of the questions my readers posed was the same question I asked C to write about!  

A silver back uses anger to maintain order and warn his troop of danger. Anger is for protection.  But Ivan don't go no one to protect.

Update: I just created a reading response booklet to use with The One and Only Ivan.  It contains questions for most chapters of the book.  Check it out on TpT:

Tell me, how do you teach questioning?

Tried It Tuesday: Prezis!

I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for another Tried It Tuesday!

This week, I'm going to share how I used a Prezi in my classroom!  If you don't know about Prezis, they are sort-of PowerPoint-esque.  A Prezi is a really dynamic and engaging way to presenting information.  For those of us with SMARTboards,

Here is what they say about themselves:

About Prezis

I made my first Prezi last year.  I spent some time playing around with the technology to see what I could do with it.  My Prezi was about Spanish Conquistadors.

Click to see the actual Prezi

Some things that worked:

- My students loved the movement across the screen.  It kept them really engaged and focused and allowed us to get through a lot of content quickly.

- Being able to add graphics (paintings, maps, flags and primary sources) to the Prezi was great for all students but especially my English Language Learners.

- It was really easy (and kind of fun!) to make.

- You can pack a TON of information into a pre-made template. 

What didn't really work:

- My conquistador lesson was very teacher driven.  Other than tapping the SMARTboard, the students didn't really interact with the lesson.  However, I think if you want the students to create a Prezi, they are going to need to see one first!

What I'll try next:

- I'm thinking of using a Prezi for a read aloud.  I JUST finished reading Wonder by RJ Palacio last night, and I think it would be awesome to create a Prezi focusing on the different narrators and points of view in the novel.  Once testing is finished, I should be able to get my class into the computer lab, so I'll have them work on the different characters in the book.  Once they have their pieces done, we can put it all together in one large Prezi to share.

Have you used a Prezi in your classroom?

Currently and Anticipating the Month Ahead

Today I'm linking up with Ms. Farley and with Jessica at Literacy Sparks to think about April!  I love this month!  My little girl will turn two on the 7th.  My 7th wedding anniversary is on the 8th.  We have three other birthdays in our circle of friends.  And {usually} the weather is amazing in NY in April!

The only thing that probably isn't self explanatory is wool and copper.  My guy and I like to do the traditional anniversary gifts.  For the seventh anniversary, the traditional gift is copper and the modern gift is wool (or the other way around. ;)  and my mind is BLANK.  I may have to stray from our tradition, because I just can't think of anything I'd like to give him! 

Here are the rules for Jessica's linky:

• Share one thing you are looking forward to during the month of April.
• Share one thing you are dreading during the month of April.
• Share one thing that you hope to accomplish during the month of April.
 

Looking forward to:  Reading The One and Only Ivan with one of my guided reading groups.  I'm really hoping to transition them into a mini literature circle.  They will need a ton of support, but I think this book will spark great conversation!

Dreading:  Tests.  That is all.

Accomplish:  I have an Earth Day/Poetry Project I really really REALLY want to do with my class.  I'm going to try really hard not to let testing mania take over our lives this month and get this project done!  We are going to do some review of metaphors and similes and then some new work with personification.  And if I can really get my act together, there will be some art fun in the midst of testing craziness!  It's nothing crazy elaborate, but it hits Earth Day and Poetry Month.  I just love a project that can serve double duty! 

I hope everyone is having a joke-free April Fools Day!