Guiding Reading during Guided Reading (Part 1)

Since I've upgraded my personal computer, I've had the extreme privilege of moving all of my pictures from one computer to the next, and as a result, have spent much of my time reorganizing them.  This also gave me a chance to see all the pictures I've taken for posts I haven't posted.

Let's get right to it then.

Guided reading.  This year I'm doing a guided reading and conferring combo meal plan.  For me, it looks like this (in a perfect world where time is no barrier and schedules are perfect):
1-2 weeks: Guided reading groups
1-2 weeks: Teacher/Student conferring

I take some quick notes on my students during/after meeting with guided reading groups and I will also take a week (usually two) in between re-grouping to meet with each student to confer about the book he/she is currently reading "for fun" (or in our case, for "stamina practice").  I can share more about conferring some time, but I'm focusing on Guided Reading for now...

I like to keep my guided reading time as simple as possible, meaning as little prep as possible for me. I do this by doing a few things:

1. Having the tools available every time
2. Keeping the same activity/skill for each group regardless of text level
3. Go-to skill lessons for last minute or early finishing groups (AKA The Binder) {More on this in PART 2- coming soon}
4. Documentation...dun dun dunnnn {PART 3...coming later than soon}

If I have all these things set up at the beginning of the year (and I do), then the only thing to plan/prep for guided reading groups is choosing books and choosing a skill/end result or activity.


The Tools

First, whisper phones.  I know I teach fourth grade, but I still love them- and so do the kids!  When students are back meeting with me, they are required to read in their "soft voice"- just above a whisper so that I can take turns listening in to each of them throughout the reading.  Most of the time, they don't find this distracting at all, but a few can be self conscious about it (it is odd, after all), so I hand them a whisper phone so that they can hear themselves more clearly.  Some of the kids like to use them for their independent reading at other times throughout the day as well.

Watch for them to go on sale- these were on sale for $2 each at the beginning of the year, so I stocked up while I could, and it saved me from taping piping together to make my own.

Teacher Note: Wash these.  We wipe them down often because there's a lot of heavy breathing going on when the kids are talking in them!  ...that sounds weird, but you know what I mean!

Up next, colored guided reading strips.  These are awesome tools for those kiddos with dyslexia or dysgraphia.  I also like to use them with my lower readers or ADHD to help stay focused.  I have all different colors to use at the guided reading table, or if a student needs/wants one to use on their own, I have a bunch of extra blue strips.

As you can see, I stock up on these as well, and they can get a bit pricey.  I picked these up at the USToy (Oriental Trading) at a tent sale, and they were $.50/dozen (yesss)...so I bought them all.  I have a lot.

Activity/Skills

I like to keep my prep to a minimum, so things are pretty simple in guided reading groups.  My school has a leveled book library, so I lucked out there- books are easy to get and levels are a breeze to locate.  I try to know the skill we are working on before I choose book so that I can cater to our needs in the classroom with book choice.

Generally, I keep the actual activity the same for each group.  The books are leveled, and I can level my instruction, so I stick to one overall goal or assignment regardless of group.

For example, we were working on summarizing, so over the course of a few weeks I broke down our problem/solution and story map and put together summaries in each group.  Everyone had the same physical product, but was working with text at their own level.

For these particular summarizing lessons, we did the problem and solution on gold paper (those were separate days), and then three steps taken to solve the problem (also all different days), to put together in one five sentence(ish) summery.

Finally, sticky notes.  I am completely addicted to them for a lot of reasons.  1) they are cross curricular, 2) kids love using them, 3) they are easy to use and quick to reference, 4) they can be reposted or pulled out of books to put other learning tools- posters, summaries, etc. together.

I could go on, but I won't.

Almost every time we sit down as a small group, we have our whisper phones, reading strips, and post it note guides ready and available to begin reading.  A lot of teachers use post it notes, and for good reason- they are great for focusing reading and reading with a purpose.  For this purpose, I made my own Good Readers Guided Reading Sticky Note Cards- I have different cards depending on which skill we are working on.  For example, if we are doing text features, then I pull the text feature sticky note cards out, plaster some sticky notes to the bottom and let the kids know which features we are focusing on- sometimes it's just a couple and sometimes it's all of them- depending on skill level and student ability.  I pair this with my Good Readers Flip Chart and we are off and running.

I love this system!  It is so easy for me to pull and focus our reading for the day.  Some of my students even grab sticky notes to use during other parts of the day in order to focus their reading.  Love that!!!

Now that I've written all this I'm thinking "gosh I really should pull some GR books so that when I come back from spring break I'm reading to rock and roll."  Add it to the list...

            

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Week'o'Fun! | NAEP Testing + Author Visit + Read Across America

This week is scheduled to the brim- staff meeting, teacher leadership meeting, student club meeting, math curriculum meeting (new curriculum texts...do you use something you love?)...and those are just the before/after school activities.

Once school starts we have a couple big things happening this week!

First, Monday we get to do the NAEP test.  I completed my little teacher questionnaire, and of course I requested to see the results of the teacher feedback once it was all in because I'm nerdy like that and wanted to see how I compared with teachers nationally...  Anywho!  I don't actual proctor the test- our state education department has people coming in to do that, so I just do work around the classroom for awhile.  

Now that I'm thinking about it, I should probably get some work ready to do around the classroom.  

So.  That should be exciting.

On to more thrilling school events.  This week, our school has author Seymour Simon coming to visit!  We have book signing and assemblies lined up for the day.  He has written a ton of non-fiction books and will be sharing his writing craft with our students.  We have done a lot of prep in the classroom using his books.   

Plus, this week is Read Across America and although my school hasn't done any real build up for it (besides an author coming...so I guess that is kind of huge), I'm planning a few classroom activities to sprinkle throughout the week.  First up, we are going to use this great (and free!) reading on Dr. Seuss to learn about him as a person/author.  I love it because it is geared toward the "big kids" and a lot of the Read Across America resources are more for K-2 graders.  I'm planning a few more little things to do throughout the week, plus ample reading/stamina time for students.  For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Read Across America board.

Follow Miss B.'s board Read Across America on Pinterest.

Lots of good stuff happening this week!  Mostly I'm spending my time getting everything ready so that I can have my act together!  Sometimes the prep is more work than the week's activities...

Link up with Farley @ Oh Boy 4th Grade to see what other teacher bloggers are up to!

I thought it would be fun to bring a few fun Dr. Seuss themed treats for the teachers tomorrow...because who doesn't love workroom treats on a Monday???  Sometimes the ideas in my head become more work than I expected... I'm off to prepare some Yertle's Turtles, apples, and goldfish, plus some bookmarks for the kiddos.  Lots to get ready!

            

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Vocabulary Instruction | Flocabulary

**Just sharing, not getting paid for it, per usual.  Opinions are my own.

Oh vocabulary.  I do love you.  I often think about how I should really work on expanding my own vocabulary.  Or maybe just using more of the words I know instead of the same old, same old.  I should get one of those word of the day calendars or apps or something.

Our district tells us we are to spend 5-10 minutes on spelling/vocabulary a day.  That's...not a lot.  We don't have any set vocabulary instruction, so it's basically up to us.  I love that.  So I set out to see what I can do that is low maintenance, but highly effective for our time in class.  

So this year I started with Flocabulary.  I wasn't quite sold on it because it's $99/year, but I signed up for the free subscription and then I couldn't NOT pay the $$ because I loved it too much.  Flocabulary vocabulary words are based on words that are most seen on student testing.  I was a little skeptical on how often these words actually show up but my students can't stop pointing them out to me, so now I know they see them all the time.

Then I introduced it to my students and OHMYGOSH.  We have to watch our video every day.  They love it.  They do have a few favorites, but they have yet to completely dislike or be unengaged during a unit video.  They sing and do their actions and memorize the lines.  They also have their homework done every time.

It always surprises me when I think students know what a word means, but they still don't use it correctly.  They can read a word and tell me the meaning, but they try to use the word in their own writing or speaking and it doesn't make sense.  So although there aren't a ton of words that the kids have never heard of, they still don't grasp the meanings well enough to use them properly all the time.    I think that's why I'm still drawn to the words that Flocabulary has chosen.  Plus, there are 10 words each unit, so it isn't overkill and I don't feel like I'm pushing words into their brain just to have them spit them back out at me.  

I can't just throw a video on the board and tell the kids to do some worksheets (well I CAN, but that's not really great teaching) so here's how I set up my Flocabulary lessons for the Word Up Project.  

I do put the "exercises" together into a unit packet for each unit.  We use it almost every day in class for lyrics and meanings, and the exercises are used as homework in my classroom.  They aren't hugely time consuming and the kids find them pretty painless.

During class, we watch the video every day.  At the beginning of the unit we make up hand signals or motions to help us remember the meaning.  The kids do our signals when they get to the word in the video.  Lots of the kids also do the signal any time they hear the word during the day, which really keeps me on my toes.

Flocabulary does offer two timeline approaches to unit instruction.  There are only about 15 units included for each level, so I don't do "weekly" vocabulary.  Instead I just teach by unit and when we are ready to quiz, we do.  It's around a week and a half per unit in my classroom.  

I teach fourth grade, so I use Level Orange.  My units look something like this:

*parenthesis "section" is corresponding to the printable exercises for each unit

Day 1: 

Hand out packet.  Introduce Words.  Watch the video.  Possibly answer the comprehension questions for the video as a class.  Done.

Day 2:

Highlight meanings in the song lyrics (section B), looking for synonyms/antonyms/text clues for the meanings.  Watch the video. 

Day 3:

Make hand symbols/actions for the first 5 words (section C).  Students make up the hand signals, I do not- I have no idea what they will come up with.  Watch video.

Homework- Unit _section D/E

Day 4: 

Make hand symbols/actions for last 5 words (Section C).  Check homework (no talking allowed, they show me the answers with our motions).  Watch video.

Homework- Unit_section F/G

Day 5: 

Review hand motions and meanings.  Check homework (again, motions only).  Watch video.

Homework- Unit_section H

Day 6: 

Review.  Check homework.  Watch video.

Homework- Unit_Bonus crossword

Day 7: 

Collect packet (all checked, yay!).  Watch video.  Take quiz.

Now my students walk up to me every time they see a vocabulary word in their reading to show me the word.  It's... well, it's a lot.  Almost to the level of distraction but it's so great that they are noticing them, and pointing them out, and doing the actions, and using them, that I just can't stop them!  Instead, once I said "We should keep track of each time we see each word!" and suddenly the "students" thought of the idea of putting all the words up and keeping track.  So now we have... this.

I can't stop laughing at "Happy Word Finding!"- obviously they are my students!  It's bright (it's all I had at the time).  But they tally themselves and we add our new words after each unit.  Now we can see just how often we are seeing these words.

Then we have special guests in our classroom teaching (guidance counselor, parent art docents, etc) and my students are interrupting them to tell them they saw a vocabulary word!  I can't help but smile and be embarrassed at the same time...then teach a lesson on how to keep track of those words without yelling it out and scaring our presenters.

Most criticism I've read about Flocabulary is criticism of the project as a stand alone way of instruction.  But since I've added motions, class discussion, plus our own keeping track of the words we are seeing and using, I feel like our class goes well beyond just watching the video and hoping the kids get it.  We take it to using the words in our daily lives, which is the point.

I would recommend viewing each video before you show it, particularly with older students, since it is "rap" there are some lyrics that you may not feel comfortable showing in your classroom depending on where you are teaching.  I haven't run into any problems myself, but it's always good to be prepared.

I like throwing in a bonus video for some of our other class units as well, since Flocabulary is more than just vocabulary raps, so when we did out unit on the solar system, we watched this video about the moon phases.  Most videos have activity pages that go with them as well.

If you want to check it out a bit more, here's some information (that isn't from the Flocabulary website!):

Review from Graphite|Teachers

Case Study: How to Reinvent a Failing Start Up (Flocabulary)

            

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All About Ivan the Shopping Mall Gorilla

I know I've blogged about Ivan before, but I just can't get enough of him.  I love him so much.

Bringing the story of Ivan into the classroom is so much fun because kids love animals and his story is so interesting and endearing.  It's hard to find stories with real emotion that both the boys and the girls will buy in to, but this story manages to do it.


We are almost finished reading The One and Only Ivan right now in class.  My students are hooked.  What I love about this story is that it is just a little tricky for fourth graders to comprehend, even when read aloud, because there is a lot of inferring.  It's perfect because that happens to be what we are working on in reading right now.  It's also quick and easy to find great mentor sentences to lift and use during writing time- especially for incorporating figurative language.  The writing is beautiful.

As I was browsing the shelves at the bookstore the other day, I found this new treasure... Ivan the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla.  I picked it up immediately and added it to my stash.

I love the contrast between the the true story of Ivan the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla and the One and Only Ivan.  In writing, we've been working on telling narrative stories and turning our true stories into fictional stories- this was PERFECT.  The author (Katherine Applegate wrote both books- bonus!!) took the true story and made it a "story we wish existed" by adding fictional characters to tell her story.  It is exactly what we are working on!  It honestly could not have been a more perfect fit or perfect timing.

PLUS, now that I'm in Seattle, the location of the "Big Top Mall" ("B&I Mall" in real life) is located in Tacoma, WA so my students were extra interested because it took place so close to us.  

The Urban Gorilla was a movie made about Ivan that tells his story.  The kids love seeing "the real Ivan" because they already feel like they know him.  If you're interested in watching the entire video, I included the link below where you can watch it online- or show parts of it to your class.

Since I read this book closer to the beginning of the year this year, I think I will have my class adopt a gorilla through WWF, since we will have the rest of the year to enjoy a pet gorilla.  Plus I can count this as a class pet and maybe be off the hook for the year.

You can learn even more about Ivan (and gorillas) by visiting these websites...

The One and Only Ivan

Meet Ivan: the Gorilla Who Lived in a Shopping Mall {NPR Article}

The Urban Gorilla {Entire Video- 53 minutes}

Zoo Atlanta- timeline of Ivan's life there

WWF Gorilla Fact Pages

WWF Gorilla Adoption

            

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National Geographic Leveled Reading (no strings attached!)

I just love teaching science.  Never did I ever think I would hear those words come out of my mouth, but science and math are the highlight of my days.

Awhile ago I created {this post about Newsela}, which is great for leveling news text for students.  There's a lot of features, including reading levels for the latest articles, so you should check it out if you haven't already.  I'm trying to find good sources for current events since this past year the school cancelled our Time for Kids subscription (is it bad that I'm also disappointed that I don't get the free adult subscription now, too??).  All ideas for something new are welcome!!!

During my search I came across this...National Geographic for Kids.  I get the NG for Kids magazine for our classroom, but not the individual monthly Explorer student magazine.  But no worries, because...

THEY POST ALL THE BACK ISSUES.

What, what!?!  Not only that, but as my title hints at, the don't have any pesky strings hanging around.  I don't need a subscription or a password to access all this good stuff.  They don't even want me to sign up and create an account with a password I will never remember!  One of the best parts of this discovery was that they post every issue in a "projectable edition" for the Pathfinder Edition AND the Pioneer Edition, so I can grab both copies of the same article at two different reading levels.

 I can project them in all their full colored glory and go through together....or print them for each student to have or to work on in small groups.  Yesssss.

The great part is that both editions look exactly the same (picture-wise) and it's only the text that is leveled.  I love that because I can hand it out and it looks the same to everyone!  Here's a quick glance at the difference between the Pathfinder (4-5th Grades) and Pioneer (2-3rd Grades) Editions:

And for those of you with little(r) ones, they also post the "Young Explorers" (K-1st grade) editions as well (you have to use a different link though- I have it below).  

Now I want to adopt a baby penguin.  

I feel like I hit the non-fiction/leveled reading science jackpot!  

You can click on the pictures above for links, or click below to check it out!

{National Geographic For Kids Explorer Magazine}

{National Geographic for Kids Young Explorer Magazine} 

            

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