See It. Hear It. Do It.

I am so honored to be blogging with Adventures in Literacy Land this year!  My name is Sarah from Simply Literacy.  Literacy Land is celebrating their 2nd birthday and this month is filled with new and old bloggers highlighting their expertise in teaching.  I am so excited to introduce myself!  

For the past 9 of my 11 years of teaching, I have been at the same district, teaching third grade reading....and I have LOVED every second of it.  But I have not always had a love for reading.  In fact, it was quite the opposite.  In elementary school, I struggled so much in reading that I tried my hardest to avoid it at all costs.  Of course my parents and teachers did not let that happen.  Not only am I am a product of Reading Recovery, but I also received a lot of one-on-one support during the school day, plus a tutor in the evenings and on the weekends.   I disliked hated reading.   Luckily, all of the extra reading support helped me academically....but unfortunately it didn't change my feelings about reading.  My LOVE for reading didn't actually start until I went through my education classes in college.  After graduating, I entered the education world determined to help all students not only become successful, life-long readers, but I wanted to make sure I was able to help students build a love for reading.....especially the struggling ones.  I wanted students to change their minds from thinking reading is impossible to possible.

So.....how do I help my 3rd graders become successful readers? Each lesson I teach is thought out carefully.   Everyday I ask myself, "would the struggling-eight-year-old-Sarah from 25 years ago understand this lesson?"  I have found that it is as simple as incorporating learning styles that are appropriate for ALL students.

Let me show you how I include multi-sensory lessons in my teaching each day.  

Every year, I focus a lot on teaching my students how to make inferences while reading.  I stress the fact that authors do not always give readers all the information and that good readers have to infer or draw conclusions in order to understand a text.  Before starting this skill with stories, I emphasize to my students how we make inferences in our daily lives without even realizing it.   I start with a crime scene in my classroom.  This activity is taken from Tanny McGregor's Comprehension Connections. This crime scene usually takes place at the beginning of the school year. The students walk into my room on a Monday morning and see this in our classroom library:

Of course I always use my best acting skills, and show how upset I am that someone would leave this mess in my classroom.  I explain that we were going to be detectives by using the clues and activate our schema (background knowledge) in order to solve this case.  Little do the students know....but they are learning all about making inferences!  As the year continues, I have the students dig deeper by teaching inference through some multi-sensory lessons below.

-Who are my neighbors?- I create a story about a new family that moved in next door to my house.  I ask my students to help me learn information about my new neighbors by digging through some of their trash. This activity is a twist on Tanny McGregor's lesson in Comprehension Connections.

-Flocabulary- Flocabulary is a website that creates educational hip-hop videos, interactive activities, and online assessments for students in grades k-12. My students love to sing and dance along to the hip-hop songs.  Flocabulary is a multi-sensory approach that uses music, rhythm, and rhyme to increase student engagement.  The songs are so catchy!

-Picture Books-There are so many picture books that I enjoy reading to my students to practice and increase inference skills.  Such books include Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens, Enemy Pie by Derek Munson, and Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett.  But my favorite books for inferring are wordless picture books such as Window by Jeannie Baker.

-Poems-"Impressive Inference" poems are great to use when teaching inferences.  When read aloud, poetry is rhythm, music, sounds, and beats which can be great for the kinesthetic learners.   This activity was found here.

Videos-  There are several short animated videos that I use to practice inference.  Check out my Pinterest board of videos here .

Comic Strips- The students love getting in groups and filling in the speech bubbles for certain comic strips.  This is a good activity for students to work together with peers and make inferences.   I took this lesson from Speech Room News.

Tic-Tac PowerPoint- I use this PowerPoint in several different ways.  Sometimes I will break the students up into two groups and we play as a class.  I've also played this game during small groups, intervention groups, and in partners.  I have a Tic Tac PowerPoint for almost every reading skill.

Games-Throughout the years, I have purchased a large number of board games that review reading skills.  These games are an exciting and engaging way for students to practice and apply reading skills.  My students really like to play Crack the Case! Inference Center.  In this game, they like to become detectives, piecing together clues to solve mysteries. 

The example lessons and activities listed above focus only on one reading skill.  I do my best to teach all my reading skills with this kind of variety.  Students rely heavily on their senses to process information when they are leaning.  I think a multi-sensory environment will increase my students' focus, attention, concentration, awaken their memories/schema, and possibly improve creativity.

I am so excited to be a part of this group and share more lessons with you this year!

Hello from Literacy Spark

Hi there!  This is Jessica from Literacy Spark.  I am so excited to have joined Adventures in Literacy Land as a blogger this year.  The blog is celebrating it's second birthday and this month will be spent introducing you to our bloggers, both old and new.  Make sure to check back in to get reacquainted as well as to pick up some tips and freebies.  There will also be a large birthday giveaway at the end of the month!

So here's a little bit about me...I've been teaching for nine years. All of this has been in first and second grade.  The first five years I taught in Connecticut and the last four were in Texas (where I live now).  Two.  Different.  Worlds.  

A little over a year ago, I had my daughter Gracie and we also moved about 45 minutes north of Houston.  So, I left the classroom and am a stay at home mom for the time being.  

But JUST before getting pregnant, I had completed my master's degree in reading and language arts and received my reading specialist and master reading teacher certificates. So...kind of sad they aren't getting use...but future dream when I go back to work is to be a reading specialist or literacy coach.  

Because my first job was in first grade (and in the inner city with English Language Learners), I had to learn how to teach reading really fast!  Well, it didn't happen that fast as I clearly had no clue when I started...but I got there and it really turned into my passion.  

When I moved to Texas, I taught second grade and entered a district without reading specialists or coaches (who had really taught me so much at my previous job).  There wasn't even a guided reading library...yep, no books!?!?  And I was in a state obsessed with grading and testing.  It was a challenge.  But I was determined to still teach my students to READ (rather than how to take tests), keep the FUN in learning, and try to convince some of the rest of the staff to join me.

I look forward to blogging this year and bringing you the perspective of a classroom teacher but with the eye of a reading specialist.  I get it, really...the grades, the testing, the paperwork, the behavior, lack of materials, no interventionists...but we can still do the best we can!

We are supposed to be blogging about our "speciality" but I sort of feel like I'm in the middle of everything and nothing at the same time right now.  So for now I'm going to say my speciality is getting kids engaged, motivated, up and moving, and having fun while still learning concrete skills and strategies.

Since Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I've got a related freebie for you.  It's a little mini reader with ten right there factual questions.  Seems simple, but it really is a challenge to get young readers to actually go back and find the answers.  So this just reinforces the skill in a fun way.  

The questions are on full sheets of paper for you to put around the room in a scavenger hunt format to get your kids up and moving around.  Trust me, it makes everything a lot more fun.  Just post the ten questions somewhere around the room.  Read the book together, in partners, small group...whatever works.  Then have the kids get up with their books and go around hunting for the questions.  As they find the questions, they should refer to the little text for the answers, and record them next to the appropriate number on the back of the book.  Easy to prep, fun, reinforces a skill, and teaches some content!  You can grab it from my TpT store here.

Happy Birthday Literacy Land!

It is hard to believe that it has only been 2 years since we started this blog.  I feel like I have known these wonderful ladies forever!

If you are new to our blog, let me introduce myself.  I am Jessica Hamilton from Hanging Out in First!  I actually teach Kindergarten this year but I taught the previous 6 years in first grade, as well as 2 years of second and 1 of fifth.  I live in small town Virginia with my husband and 3 boys.

Since I have taught so many years in primary grades, I have learned a lot about it.  I have learned how to take a child that has never seen a book or a letter before and not only get them to read but to love reading!

There are many aspects of emergent literacy that a teacher has to be aware of in order to effectively teach it.  They can be summarized into categories:

Phonemic Awareness
-Understanding sounds and how words are made of seperate sounds.
-Knowing how to separate sounds and then learning to manipulate those sounds.
-Understanding rhyming - matching rhyming words, knowing if 2 words rhyme, and being able to produce rhymes.
-Isolating sounds - matching the beg/medial/end sounds of words, separating onset and rime, and being able to manipulate the onset and rime.

Phonics
-Alphabet - recognizing letters by name and by sound
-Blending (we call it stretching) sounds into words

Concept of Print
-Knowing the parts of a book - front, back, first page, first word, pictures, words
-Reading left to right, top to bottom
-Concept of Word - one to one correspondence while reading
-Knowing the difference between a sound, a letter, a word, and a sentence
-Understanding that the words on the page need to match the picture on the page.

Writing
-Handwriting - learning to physically write the letters of the alphabet
-Segmenting each sound and encoding it
-Understanding how to write a sentence - more than one word, spaces in between words, must make sense, periods/capital letters
-Illustrating the sentence that you write correctly
-Not being afraid of spelling errors

Comprehension
-Retelling a story in the correct order
-Knowing what a character is
-Understanding that you have to think while you read
-Understanding feelings of characters
-Understanding that we can read for fun or read to learn
-Learning to love reading!

Fluency
-Becoming fluent with letter naming, letter sounds, phoneme segmenting, blending, sight words, simple sentences

Vocabulary
-Remembering that these guys are only 5 and they are new to so many of the words that are found in stories!  Exposing them to language and not being afraid to tell them to "illustrate" their picture rather than to "draw" it!


The interesting thing about emergent literacy is trying to teach all of these skills while still letting them play and be children.  It can be easy to forget when we have so many skills to teach and so much growth that must be made, but I promise you that it CAN be done!

Rule number one of teaching emergent literacy:

They are just little and we want to SPARK their love for reading..... If you do it now, it will last forever!

Breaking Down Skills

One of the most amazing (but also challenging) things about our career as educators is change.

We grow from the yearly changes that we encounter.  And the biggest change we confront each year: a new set of students.  This new set of little individuals bring their own strengths, expertise, and challenges to the classroom.  Because no two years look exactly the same, we must grow and change as educators in order to meet the ever-changing needs of our students.

After leaving the classroom to become a Title I teacher, I feel that I had to adjust quickly to the intervention demands my students required. I was overwhelmed by my desire to help them become readers but felt that my knowledge base needed to grow and expand.  I didn't seem to have just the right tools in my toolbox for each kid.  And so I had to grow as an educator.  I had to learn, try, and analyze my results.  What I found out was that I became a much better and must stronger teacher.

Currently as a push-in Title I teacher, I am constantly working with my team to analyze student data, make changes, and produce educational plans.  My daily schedule incorporates Tier I guided reading instruction, Tier II intervention on specific skills, guided math instruction, writer's workshop, and more Tier II interventions.  We look at the data and change groups when new needs arise.

Through all my research, trial and error, and personal learning, I found out that my expertise lies in breaking down skills for students.  Helping them to understand the real life connection, while also making it more concrete.  My teaching was not always this way.  But through the literacy writing of Tanny McGregor and the math instruction of Donna Boucher, I have found my own path and intervention techniques to help meet the ever-changing needs of my first graders.

As young learners, it can sometimes be hard for students to understand how the foundational skills connect to real world experiences.  I truly believe that helping our students make these connections will help them to achieve and grow as learners.

I like to take skills...break them down and then build them back up.  For example, decoding small words will help students to read 2-syllable words.

 Reading these words will help students when reading sentences or paragraphs.  To illustrate this, I created a simple sheet that does just that:

I have found that my students get really excited to see that reading one small part of a word can help them to read an entire paragraph!

In other cases, I have worked with students that have a difficult time determining the difference between a letter, sound, and word.  Again, they needed to understand how those pieces come together to form the "big picture."  So along with manipulatives (letter tiles and word cards), I use an interactive powerpoint that helps them see how letters come together into words and the words come together to form sentences.  Here is an example of some slides:

Whether it is comprehension, fluency, math skills, or phonics, I work hard to find ways to break down each skill for my students that need it. 

Trying out these lessons is always the best part!  I love to analyze, change, and re-create them for the years to come.

Two years ago, I was invited to contribute to Adventures in Literacy Land.  I was excited to learn new techniques, push my thinking, and incorporate ideas from other experts.  And what I have found from this experience is that my students have benefited from the variety of experts that write, comment, and read this blog.  Thank you helping me to guide my students as they grow as learners.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Literacy Land!

Can you believe that Literacy Land is officially 2 years old?

Me either!!  

This has been a fun ride, and I have made some good friends who have taught me so much about literacy and helping students learn.  I have really enjoyed sharing my passion for all things literacy with all of you, our readers.

In 2016, we plan to continue bringing you literacy ideas you can take straight to your classroom. 

So, join us all through January as we reacquaint you with our bloggers and introduce some new bloggers to Lit Land.  Make sure you stop by all month for tips, freebies, and a giveaway at the end!  You don't want to miss the fun!

Hello, everyone!  It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars.  

I love spending time working with my students to make it fun and engaging. Though I love all things literacy, my favorite aspect to work with is comprehension.  When I plan for comprehension activities, I like to find things that will make it concrete.  

Our school uses Thinking Maps to help students think about what they have read or will read.  This helps them to put their thoughts onto paper and make it all real.

Another way I make it concrete is by working through activities that make them move.  Students may put sticky notes on a chart and move them around.  They may make foldables to show what they are learning. 

 And we play games to make it real.  

More than anything, we have fun ~ tons of fun!  Students enjoy working with me and look forward to our time together.  The students don't even realize we are learning!  

Join us throughout 2016 as we bring you literacy tips, tricks, and timesavers!

Before you go, grab this freebie of summarizing templates that are perfect for making comprehension real!

And join us at the end of the month for a huge giveaway!  You won't want to miss it!

There's No Place Like HOME for Holiday Reading!

Greetings of the season my friends!

It's Jennifer from Stories and Songs in Second, stopping in during this busy holiday time to share good cheer and a unique type of reading celebration with you!  This post was written last December as the sun rose over Bonita Beach in southwest Florida.....a place that my own family has called "home" for the holidays for sixteen years.

Many of my siblings are wake up slowly each morning when we gather here, warming their hands around a mug of coffee or cocoa, with books open on their laps.  We were fortunate to be "raised as readers" by our Mom and Dad, and I am here today to share a creative way to help other teachers and parents encourage children to make time to honor and enjoy reading magic at home!

Today's idea was inspired by a very special Nordic picture book and an Icelandic tradition that I recently learned about!  I hope that you'll find that it is an easy one to adapt for use at home during the winter break, and then implement in your classroom afterwards!

Engaging Our Students At Home

My winter break has officially started.  Woot, woot!  How about you?  It is a magical couple of weeks off that are filled with family, friends, food, and fun.  It is exciting, somewhat relaxing, and eagerly awaited; however, there is also be a hint of anxiety.

Why, you may ask?

It is two weeks off for me...but also my students.  We have worked hard over the past few months and sometimes two weeks off can impact the upward swing or momentum of our learning.  This ties right back in to the posts that we wrote about Summer Reading by Richard Allington and the need to have reading routines in the homes of our students.  These routines can help to prevent any sliding backwards.

And really this is (one) of our ultimate goals: Encouraging lifetime learners and lifetime (anytime) readers!
We want to light the fire in our students so that they WANT to read at anytime or anywhere.

In August, I had mentioned one way that I was going to try to light that fire in my students: through a Readbox.  Basically the idea was to roll out a cart everyday filled with books for families to check out with his/her student.  They read the book, return the book, and check out another book.  The hope is that families begin to establish more routines for reading when the books are high interest and readily available to them each day.  (If you want to read the full description of how we do it, just click on the image below).

It is now December and here is what we have found:

• Our students ask for the box to be rolled out daily
• Over 1,500 books have been checked out (in a school of about 200 students)
• Most families are returning "customers" that come each day
• Students are eager to talk about the books they check out
• Students request books and book titles
• There is excitement each time new books are added

 To us...this has been a success.

But two weeks without this routine, made me a little worried.  I still wanted those books in their hands.  I didn't want the routines to end!  So the Readbox is now in phase two.  And we call it...."Readbox at Home."  It is our way of engaging our students at home with high interest books and they get to listen to all their favorite teachers!

Here's what we decided to do:

1. We set up a YouTube channel and called it "Readbox at Home."

2. The teachers at my school have decided to videotape themselves reading a book either in their classroom, next to their Christmas tree, or maybe sitting by a fire.  Then the videos are uploaded onto our YouTube channel.

3. We passed out "business cards" and recording sheets to all the families in our school so that they would know how to access the videos at home.

KG fonts

I am nervous, excited, and eager to see if the families utilize the videos at home.  If we find it to be successful, it may become a new routine for the teachers and families!

Be sure to check back because Jennifer will have some more tips to get our students reading over the holiday break!

A-Mazing Fun!

Hello, everyone!  It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars with a fun and easy trick for getting students to focus on reading letters and words.  I love using mazes to help them read various different things and focus on it.

A few years ago, I found this wonderful video from Teacher Tipster.  Have you seen him?  He has AMAZING and simple ideas that anyone can use!!  This one was so easy I used it that very day!  You simply take any maze, add words, letters, math problems, etc. to it.  Then the kids have to follow the path to the end.  If they get to a "dead end", they have to go back and read all of the words they went over {or whatever you have for them to do}.

Here is a video because he explains it soooo much better than I ever could!




Here are some examples I have used in the past.

 I put the letters in order in the correct places in the maze.  There are other letters in the maze at dead ends.  To get through the maze, the students must go in the correct order.

A finished maze!

 This maze has CVC words in it.  To get through the maze correctly, they need to follow the short a words.  Other CVC words are placed throughout the maze.

And we're there!

  The students LOVE these, and they are so easy to make.  Here are some sites with some good FREE mazes!  Or you could always use coloring books pages with them in it.

Krazy Dad ~ "books of mazes"
Mazes Online
Print Activities.com ~ Has letter mazes to print
All Kids Network ~ LOTS of FREE mazes!

Or just "Google" free mazes and see what you get ~ LOTS of free mazes!

Hope this is something fun your kids will enjoy too!  Any grade level would love this because you can get some really intricate mazes and put in vocabulary or math problems for the older crowd.  My third graders love when I make these for them too!  I love watching and listening to them work them out!

State Christmas Books

It's Jen from An Adventure in Literacy here today to share some state specific Christmas books. I'm featuring the Virginia books, but if you change the title to your state you can find most of the other states on Amazon. I've used these books in my classroom and they are always a hit. Students love recognizing local places they have been. 

The Twelve Days of Christmas in Virginia by Sue Corbett

This book is part of "The Twelve Days of Christmas in America" series. Each state book mirrors the 12 Days of Christmas...with a little state flair. In addition to being super books, most are written by local authors. Search Amazon for "The Twelve Days of Christmas in America" or insert your state in the title.

Santa is Coming to Virginia by Steve Smallman

Join Santa and his reindeer as they fly over famous state sites.  You can find some regional versions of this book too. There is even a Santa is Coming to Washington DC to cover those patriotic symbols and monuments. Santa truly is everywhere! Search Amazon for your state.

Wishing all book lovers across the country loads of holiday cheer!