Teaching Different Style Learners

Hello Literacy Land Friends! Tara Looney here from Looney's Literacy (currently on sabbatical on my personal site).  I'm so excited and honored to be part of such a fabulous group of teachers willing to share their expertise, tips,  and tricks with me so I can continue to learn and grow! If you've been following along you know it is Lit Land's second birthday. Bloggers old and new are coming together to share their expertise and a little surprise for you!  

Teaching K-6 is a very wide range on the literacy continuum.  I've spent 11 years studying this continuum and will continue studying it until I no longer teach. Not only is it important to understand the continuum but it is as equally important to understand where individual students fall on the continuum and how we can support them as individuals. My district has adopted the Fountas & Pinnell leveled literacy program which comes with a very handy guide to the literacy continuum grades K-6.

I'm very fortunate to teach in a small district in a building with just a little over 200 children. Because most attend this same building pre-school through 6th grade we have ample opportunity to get to know all our students very well. We've also created a family environment where we  all have mutual respect and encourage the same responsible behaviors from all our students and staff. This makes a tremendous impact on student learning. 

It also makes an impact on our lesson planning strategies. When you know your students well it is easier to tailor plans to meets different styles of learners. I try to met their needs by offering opportunities for them to learn in which ever fashion suits them best. 

Today I'm going to share with you how my third grade intervention groups have opportunities to practice classroom skills in ways that are easy for them. I create lessons that give my students different ways to learn literacy skills that may be difficult for them.  

I plan a variety of lessons that include strategies to meet the needs of visual, auditory, verbal, kinesthetic, logical, social, and solitary learners. Most learners use all of these styles of learning they just may have one or two that are more dominate then others. This is why I decided to create these weekly notebooks that offer something for all learning styles. Click the graphic below to get a free sample.  

These activities include: read alouds, anchor charts, graphic organizers, manipulatives, movement and chances to work independently. 

6 MUST-HAVES for a Writing Folder

I was born to be a teacher.  My brother and sister will attest to that...I made them play school from the time they could hold a pencil.  I had a Raggedy Ann chalkboard and a box of carbon paper.  That's right, I could make 2 worksheets that were identical. See, I was supposed to be a teacher. I am excited to share all about writing folders for kindergarten and emergent writers.

Kindergarten students can be given Writing Folders in January of the school year.  By the time, they get their folders they are ready for them.  We have practiced writing and learned procedures for our writing time.  Let me walk you through the folder.

1, Front Pocket Label

As you can tell, I use 2-pocket, 3-prong folders.  The front pocket is labeled "Works in Progress" and the students learn to put their writing in this pocket while they are still working on it.  Before students have folders, we are doing whole group writing on chart paper.  Students walk through a daily process for writing that includes storing their writing day-to-day.  Creating this habit while it's a whole group activity, supports the students independent activities.  

2. Writing Ideas Page

Once students are asked to write independently, they need to be allowed to CHOOSE their topic.  Providing topic cards, picture word books, and writing lists, students can choose 2 or 3 topics.  This sheet can be kept in the front pocket...behind the works in progress.  As they finish a story, the student moves the writing to back pocket and the writing ideas page takes center stage again.  Students can either choose a topic on the existing list or find new topics.  I have found the more they are allowed to choose what they are writing about, the more they write.  

3. Sound Chart

I'm kind of a freak about sound charts.  Emergent writers need something to hang their sounds on...and I want to be in charge of the connections.  I want short vowels.  I want hard c and hard g.  We practice these sounds every day and they are "experienced" in using this chart to stretch words and write sounds through our whole group writing lessons.  There are sound charts all over the room, but having another sound chart easily available is optimal.  As the students progress from this initial sound chart, I like to add a blends linking chart.

4. Rubric 

Another tool we use ALL THE TIME is the BIG 3.  We have made a giant anchor chart.  We sing the song every day.  We have hand motions to make sure we include capitals at the beginning, spaces in the middle, and an end mark at the end.  I like including a Big 3 rubric in the writing folder as another reminder for students.  Providing the rubric also allows students to self-evaluate their writing.

5. Personal Word Walls

Including a personal word wall allows students to be independent and grow as writers and readers.  I include all the words introduced in the first and second nine weeks.  At the beginning of the third nine weeks, I switch out the word walls to include all of the words that will be introduced that 9 weeks.  I do the same at the beginning of the 4th nine weeks.  I can also add words as students ask for them.  I try to add sight words not topic specific words.  The word walls should be useful with all writing and I don't want to fill the word wall with story-specific words that won't help them beyond that one story.

6. Back Pocket Label 

Finally, the back pocket is just as important as the front pocket.  I include a label that reads, "Completed Works."  Students put their "completed works" in this pocket.  When they have 3 completed stories, they are allowed to publish.  Students are allowed to choose their favorite of the three stories and re-write the stories on "special" paper.  "Special" paper is simply paper with a decorative edge or design.  When they choose the story for publishing, the others go home.

Allowing students to have choice and control over their writing will inevitably produce better writing.

If you would like a FREEBIE writing folder handout, click the link.

Technology and Literacy

I'm so excited to be joining the talented teachers of Literacy Land as Literacy Land celebrates its second birthday.  I am Amanda from A Very Curious Class.  This month we are sharing our area of expertise, but I also want to introduce myself.

I began teaching in third grade reading, and I was there for two years.  This is now my 10th year in kindergarten, and while that first year was quite an adjustment, I am loving it!  Our building serves all the preschool and kindergarten children in our district.  Last year, I had the opportunity to have a "high ability cluster" in my classroom and meet the needs of our building's highest students.

At the beginning of my career, we had a phenomenal technology teacher in our building.  She was excited to teach me about the different technology available to our students.  I was lucky to work with her a couple years before she moved to a different building.  Since then, I have been excited to explore new technology and connect with others to learn new ways to make learning more engaging for my students.  I, by no means, feel like an "expert" as I am always learning something, but this is something I enjoy doing and see many benefits for my students.

I am very fortunate to have access to technology in my classroom and building.  My building has a computer lab of 25 computers as well as iPads in every classroom.  We use iReady as a computerized assessment tool in our district.  We also have subscriptions to Raz-Kids, which my students use in our classroom during reading centers.

I love reading and learning about new apps that will benefit my students.  One of our favorites is Book Creator.  If you have not used this app, try out the free version.  It allows you to write one book to try it out.  My students, in kindergarten, are able to use the app relatively independently at this point in the year.  Their biggest struggle is formatting and making everything (text) look the same.  Books can then be published in the iBook store.  Here is our latest book about letter sounds.  We choose to publish all of our books free, and a technology integration teacher in our district takes care of doing this for all of us.  He tells me it is very easy to set up an account for publishing.

At this point, I realized that we have only focused on nonfiction writing using Book Creator.  I have a couple kids who I know would love to write a story on here, so we might have to break this app out during our writing time for them to write their own stories.

Another app we love is ChatterPix.  I've used this one with nonfiction text the most. Students can record up to 30 seconds of speaking and make the photo "talk".  Students love talking about their topic using this app.  A different way we used it was to interview staff members at the beginning of the year and take their photos.  Students then shared information about each staff member interviewed through the ChatterPix app.

Interviewing one of our staff members.

Here is the ChatterPix of our awesome literacy coach.

Pic Collage is a great way for them to organize their thinking. We used this to create an "All About Me" collage at the beginning of the year.  The kids took a selfie then used the app's search tool to find pictures that showed things they like.  This was a great intro to technology at the beginning of the year.

Last year on a snow day, I sent a message via Remind and e-mail telling students to look for 2 or more things in their house that rhyme.  They brought these items for show and tell the next day then used Pic Collage to take photos of their items and label them.

Working a collage this year.

Some apps we love to practice literacy skills include: 

• Hideout: works on word families
• PeaPod Apps alphabet apps are great for theme vocabulary
• Grasshopper Apps : I like these because you can easily customize them to work on skills your students need.
• Sight Word Ninja: great for practicing sight words 
• Endless Alphabet: another good one for vocabulary

We were fortunate to have author/illustrator Todd Parr visit our school this year.  It was an awesome experience for our kiddos (and teachers/community).  My students loved all his books, but we chose to write our own book about feelings. We used KidPix computer software to write a feelings sentence and illustrate in Todd Parr's style.  I then e-mailed these saved pictures to myself to get them on the iPad and we turned them into a book using Book Creator. The pictures were also printed and displayed at our local library, where Mr. Parr presented that evening for the community.

As you can see, I wrote their ideas out on a white board for them to copy as they typed.  Because we were publishing it, spelling needed to be correct.

I hope this post gave you an idea or two about incorporating technology to help with literacy skills.  I'm looking forward to sharing more with you throughout the year!

Thematic Teaching With an Interdisciplinary Twist

Two years ago, I graciously accepted an offer to contribute to Adventures in Literacy Land, and I have been blessed because of it! Not only have I learned so much from my creative and talented co-authors, but I have made friends that offer support and encouragement. One of the greatest things about connecting on-line with other teachers and working collaboratively to support and share our passion for literacy is that we all bring something different to the literacy "table". 

As we celebrate our 2nd birthday (WOOT!), we also celebrate Lit Land's authors- new and old. We celebrate our diversity of backgrounds that allows us to grow professionally from one another and from interaction with YOU, our loyal and royal readers!

This month we are sharing our area of "expertise". As a passionate literacy educator and coach, I have many areas of interest. One constant that has spanned my career of working with students and teachers in pre-k through grade 12, as a classroom teacher to reading specialist to literacy coach, has been instructional planning, specifically thematic teaching.  I have written curriculum and planned with vertical and horizontal building teams as well as written curriculum at the district level. One of the things that I loved the most as a literacy coach was the opportunity to work 1:1 with teachers to plan and write lessons that integrated literacy as well as those that were interdisciplinary in nature.

My teaching style reflects the way my brain works when planning: I think holistically in terms of themes. I always start with the question of "What interests do my students have?", "What would they enjoy learning about?" and "How would they best learn and study this theme?" There is much research to support that thematic teaching is an efficient and effective model for both students and for teachers.

Advantages of Thematic Teaching

There are many advantages, but here are my top three:

• Increases students' interests~ engaging
• Helps students to make and understand connections among content areas
• Compacts curriculum and makes efficient use of time

Depending on your position and school district, you may have more of a dictated curriculum and perhaps even mandated lesson plans. I've worked in schools like those too, yet I have also had the complete opposite where I had (almost) complete freedom, as I was writing my own curriculum whether it be for the classroom or for student intervention purposes. 

Currently, I am homeschooling my youngest child who is in the 3rd grade.  I want to share with you a little about how I plan a thematic unit in the hopes that it will inspire you and give you ideas to use with your own students.

We are at the end of a snow unit. I try to be as student-centered as possible, capitalizing on students' interests and what I call "wonders" (i.e., things they are curious about).  Up until this week, we had not had even one flake of snow. Both my boys were lamenting this fact when I had a last-minute idea!  How about a mini-snow unit?  

Questions to Consider When Planning:

How do I start planning a thematic unit?
I don't think there is a right or wrong way to plan a thematic unit. You might begin with a big picture question (e.g. How is snow made?). Or, you may select a topic/theme that you know will motivate your learners.  Some districts and schools still use basals and anthologies.  Many of these books are arranged by theme and you may get an idea that sparks your interest.

What things do I include?
To determine this, I consider how much time I have to spend on the theme and what resources I have.  For my snow unit, I knew I wanted to integrate science (how snowflakes are formed and how snow is different from other forms of frozen precipitation) with reading and writing.


Purpose: Why am I doing this?
This is where differentiation and individualized learning probably comes in.  For some classes (and for my son) that I have taught, sometimes I selected a theme because I knew it would motivate and inspire them if they needed a "pick-me-up"


How much time do I have?
I actually find that I save time when I teach thematically. Content areas such as social studies and science are merged with ELA and sometimes math.


What are the curricular standards/objectives expectations?
To compact curriculum, think about whether you can meet a science or social studies objective during ELA time. I often use our social studies text during our reading block, which merges two curricular areas and maximizes our time.

Other Considerations

Interdisciplinary Connections
With so much to cover in English language arts and math along with other expectations, it can be difficult to cover content areas such as social studies and science. Integrating other content areas into your thematic unit can "kill two birds with one stone"~ save you time by making efficient use of your time. Plus, this is so effective in teaching students how to make connections among contents and is an authentic application of math and ELA knowledge and strategies. Of course, it all depends on what your scope and sequence looks like in the content areas and how much flexibility you have.

Integrate genre- go beyond paired texts
In my snow unit, I included fiction (short story and poetry), a biography (Snowflake Bentley), reading from the science text, a science/STEM experiment, and an informative PowerPoint.

Integrate the "arts" and "specials"- music, art, P.E., etc
My son loves art, especially art and music. We made our own snow, made "shivery snow paint", and created a snow globe topper for informative writing. Plus, it was also a fun surprise that part of his piano practice for this week include some winter themed songs!

Highlights From Our Snow Unit

Science and informative writing 

Snowman Shape book from Creative Clips

Snow globe writing!

Snow paint!

After reading Snowflake Bentley, he worked on a lap book to synthesize and showcase his learning.  I used resources from these two fabulous teacher-authors for the lap book:

Of course, there is a whole lot more that goes into planning a thematic unit, such as assessment and reflection. I hope you were able to gather some new ideas for your thematic planning that integrates the content areas.

You can read more details about my snow unit (including lots of FREEBIES!) over on my blog.  Just click the picture below!

Enjoy!

Inspiring Little Readers

Hi! I am Jonelle Bell from A Place Called Kindergarten. I teach Kindergarten in Ohio and am a mom to 3 sons. (Both rewarding and challenging jobs.) I am excited to be joining Adventures in Literacy Land as it celebrates turning 2. 

I look forward to sharing my love of literacy with the readers of this blog.

My expertise comes from 25 years of teaching and learning from little readers. There is no greater joy as a Kindergarten teacher than to watch 5 and 6 year olds gain the skills needed to become readers. From phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, concepts of print, listening comprehension, vocabulary to decoding and comprehension every milestone is a cause for celebration. 

(Read more about these skills in Jessica Hamilton's post HERE.) The list of skills little readers need to build a reading foundation is long, but they also need to think of themselves as readers and make connections to books and authors to fall in love with reading. 

We start the year off with establishing reading routines at home and at school. At the beginning of the year many Kindergarteners do not think of themselves as readers and reading may not be a part of their routine at home. 

Here are some things that I do to inspire my little readers...

Develop Family Reading Routines

It is important for early readers to spend time reading and being read to. One of the first things that I do at the beginning of the year is help parents understand the importance of making reading a part of their daily routine. Read to Your Bunny is a great book to read during your parent information night at the beginning of the year to establish the importance of nightly reading. 

"Read to your bunny...and your bunny will read to you."

Create an Interest in Characters and Authors

I have a huge book collection in my classroom. Most of the books go untouched until we spend some time reading about a character, learning about an author and making connections stories. Then...watch out...there becomes a frenzy for that character or author book box. 

-keep your book area organized by your students' interest

-make finding books and putting books away manageable

-keep a list of characters and authors displayed and make connections to them

-buy several copies of class favorites like...

               

Make Connections to Books

Connecting 5 and 6 year olds to stores, characters and authors make for some interesting conversations. I had a conversation with a student about how he is afraid to go to sleep at night, but is making a plan just like Scardey Squirrel does to help him fall asleep. Priceless!

Read Favorites Again and Again

Both at home and at school you need to read little readers their favorite stories again and again and again. During read to self I love hearing retells of Goldilocks or Pigeon stories, especially from my struggling learners. They are able to do this because we have read those stories several times. 

Readers and Book Lovers

I call my students readers and book lovers all throughout the year after we establish what it means to be a community of readers and book lovers. 

A community of readers is a place where children...

-want to read every day

-refer to themselves as readers

-choose books thoughtfully

-handle books carefully

-share favorite books with their peers

I love teaching literacy skills and inspiring my little readers! 

It is my hope that they will leave Kindergarten with the confidence to continue to think of themselves as readers and book lovers as they continue to grow in the area of literacy throughout school.

Using Twitter to Improve RtI Instruction

As we continue to celebrate Literacy Land's birthday this month, I'd like to introduce myself! My name is Daliene, but many teachers know me as Not JANE (Not Just Any Nerdy Educator).  I'm excited to join the Literacy Land blog and share my RtI instructional strategies as well as Professional Development ideas for intervention and reading teachers.

During my 11 years of teaching, I've had the privilege of teaching in grades K-8 in three different states and two countries.  I started my career as a middle school science teacher, transitioned to intermediate ELA, loved being a Gifted and Talented Coach K-5, and enjoyed two years as a first grade teacher before joining the world of K-5 RtI Reading and Math Intervention. (Just typing that list feels exhausting!)

Though each move provided the challenge of learning sometime new, it also gave me the experience with learner needs across the grade levels. It is often easier for me to see the big picture because I have lived it as a teacher at some point along the way.

This helped me realize my goal is to share with you about my passions vs. my expertise. Having such a variety of experience can at times make it difficult to define what my niche or expertise might be. One might say it is my ability to quickly adapt to the different ages and ability levels I work with in RtI. My true passion however, is my love of incorporating useful small-group strategies and education technology in my classroom, as well as sharing current and relevant professional development tools with my teachers and staff.

One of my favorite tools to use for professional development is Twitter! I love joining in weekly Twitter chats related to reading and intervention teaching. Whatever your interest or grade level, there is probably a Twitter chat for you! I love hearing fresh and new ideas from teachers all over the world.  Their Tweets often help me get out of a planning or creativity rut.  For example, tonight I'll be joining the #Read4Fun chat all about Reading Resolutions hosted by ILA.  I find it difficult at times to keep up with the latest and greatest literature out there, and these chats are full of other teachers and library media specialists who always have great recommendations!

Some people may be hesitant to join in a Twitter chat. The first few times it can feel overwhelming, especially if it is a popular chat and the feed moves quickly.  Have no fear! Many chat hosts will "Storify" their chat, which is essentialy a slide show of all the tweets that used their chat hashtag that day. This is a great way to quickly read through ideas and information shared.  If you want to know more about using Twitter, I'll be sharing a tutorial and more details in the coming weeks.

How has Twitter helped me with RtI? When I first started this job, I felt very isolated. I didn't have much district-provided PD or support for something that was completely new to me. I turned to the power of the internet and social media for ideas. I was quickly able to find other intervention teachers sharing ideas on Twitter, which then led me to their blogs, other collaboration spaces such as Voxer, and even a mentor I would have never found were it not for the power of educators sharing their knowledge and ideas online!

I look forward to sharing more about RtI and professional development with you. Cheers to a new year for Literacy Land and to each of you who come here to read and learn!