BASAL doesn't have to be a bad word

Hello Literacy Land Readers and Followers!  I'm Deniece from This Little Piggy Reads.

BASALS

Today's topic might scare some of my fellow authors or make a few of our readers hit that X in the top right hand corner.  Hear me out, before you hit the X.

Basal has become a bad word in the literacy world.  I understand the argument and I fully believe that if kids aren't engaged & interested they aren't really reading, just calling words.  However, I'd like to explain why I used a Basal in my Reading Classroom. 

First and foremost, I taught in a school that gave me a basal & expected me to use it.  We have a library, but for the past 5 years schools in Texas were suffering from a budget crisis and simply didn't put money into buying new books.  Luckily, that seems to be changing.  Our students are very transient.  I looped with my 2nd graders to 3rd grade and out of 60ish kids, 24 of them were new to our school in 3rd grade.  So, although I had worked hard with my original 60, now I had a large chunk of kids who were reading below or WAY below grade level.  My final reason for using it was simply financial.  We didn't have class sets available and I didn't have the money to buy them.  Yes, I bought a class library for my students, but I simply couldn't purchase enough books for an entire school year.    

Our school adopted Treasures and I liked the program.  I made it work for me.  I loved their spelling and vocabulary programs.  I loved the online component and utilized it for my below readers and ESL students during stations/workshops.  The online story would highlight words as it read the story aloud.  I fully intended to flip my classroom using this component before I became a GT Specialist.  

I liked most of the stories in our basal; however, when I thought a story was boring or lacked engagement based on my student's interests I used the opportunity to include non-fiction, like magazine articles or online articles and a little poetry.  Since basal stories are short, you can run through the lesson cycle in one week. Our former Principal was ALL ABOUT the lesson cycle.  

Kick up your basal stories by making them meaningful to your students.  In the younger grades, teachers do amazing jobs of engaging and entertaining their students!  They make crafts, snacks, sing songs and make centers or even games for the stories they read.  As kids get older, we (the teachers) shift focus onto state testing and less on engagement ideas.  Before I left my Reading classroom, I was committed to re-claiming the engagement and entertainment.  

Ideas I came up with to engage students with basal stories:

-Art Projects

-Story Stones

-Snacks that Correlated to the Story

-Book Reviews

-Technology

- STEM Design Challenges        

BASAL doesn't have to be a bad word.  In fact, you can do some amazing things with basal stories that will have positive effects on your students.  

5 Ways to Motivate Kids to Read in the Summer

Hello, everyone! It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars!  It's hard to believe that summer is here for me.  You may still have some time left, but it won't be long!

My son has already started to tell me that there is "nothing to do" after being two days in!  Guess what?!  He is wrong! There is an entire world out there, and so much of it can be found in books.   I am here to share five ways to motivate your students or children to read this summer.

Read on to see the five ways I motivate my own children to read, read, read!

The first thing I do every summer is visit the library.  Just going to the library allows children to choose their very own books from so many books.  They are free, so if your child doesn't like a book, there is no money lost.  And most libraries have a summer reading incentive program where children can earn prizes for reading.

Finding that magical book or series is the moment that defines reading for students. Giving children choice helps them embrace that love of reading too.  We were given a suggested list to read, which my son turned his nose up to.  He already has his books ready for the summer. Here are a few he plans to read this summer.

My son has to have the right place to read.  One summer he took this old box and made his reading nook.  He loved doing this and spent much of his reading time there.  He also enjoys reading in the comfort of his own bed.

Another summer he hurt his legs at the beach and found that the beach was a perfect place to read.

The places are endless!  Go outside, stay inside, anyplace is a good place to read!

Reading socially is great for children, especially as they get older.  Now that my son can text, he and his friends can have book discussions and give recommendations.  Our next door neighbor is a middle school teacher and gives her son and my son different books to read.  After they read them, they switch and discuss.  How cool!

Another way to get kids to read socially is to form a little book club with a play date.  Children can discuss the books they have read.  Last year, Emily wrote a great post about hosting a book swap at your house or at school. This is another great way to discuss books and get new books at the same time!

Children can read anything to be reading!  My daughter is so excited when I read directions to her, and she can help me make something.  We had so much fun making this simple wand with household items while reading directions.  It was fun, and we were able to spend time together.

 

Get books that have some summer learning experiences with them.  Go outside and learn! If your family is going camping, read about what you need to do go camping.  Does your child like Legos or Minecraft?  There are books for those too!

But, to make it fun, it can also just be fun to read and enjoy it.  No projects or essays ~ just the pure enjoyment of reading, wherever and whenever they want!  That is the best motivation!

Enjoy your summer, and don't forget to read, read, read!

HELP! I don't know what to write about!

The key to teaching writing is to take away the fear and the excuses.  "I don't know what to write about," is the worst excuse EVER!  If your students give you this excuse, you need to rethink your brainstorming activities for Writer's Workshop.

Three ideas

1. Topic Cards 

I am an admitted thrift store junkie.  I have some thrift stores in the area I frequent for specific things. I go to the book section first.  Can't pass up children's books for 78 cents!  I also look for word books, but that's coming later.  Then I look for "Topic Cards."  Most people know these as flashcards, but they are really topic cards in disguise.  I put the cards in a container labeled "Topics."  If students want a new topic, they can choose a card.  Easy.  Last week I found old cards for a peg board (young teachers won't know what I'm talking about).  These cards didn't have words, but it was easy enough to add the words with a permanent marker.

2. Word Cards and Word Books

Seasonal or Topic-based Word Cards can provide students with many, many topics.  These word cards can be related to your state standards or could be fun word cards, like FIRE FIGHTERS!  This word card excites boys and girls. These Word Books or Picture Dictionaries are perfect topic books.  These books contain words with clear photographs.  

3. Vocabulary and Classroom Anchor Charts

Finally, using Vocabulary Anchor Charts in the classroom can provide a wonderful topics for your students.  They could want to write a new chapter for "Dinosaurs Before Dark" or they can write their own Jack and Annie story.  They might even want to write a completely different story about dinosaurs.  

I hope these ideas will end the "I don't know what to write about" excuses.

Teachers as Reader Role Models

Friday was my last day of school for this year and I am already thinking about plans for next year.  This school year I started a new role in a new school as a math coach and in an effort to learn more about the math content, I have left many of my reading coach thoughts behind.  However, next year I want to do my part in creating a community of readers in my school.  One of my favorite ways to show students that I was a reader was to show them exactly what I was reading.  I didn't take pictures of how I did this :(  However, I did find pictures of what my fabulous high school teacher/academic coach friend did, and I can't wait to share with you her display.  Her display put mine to shame.

Let's take a look at each part of her display in detail.  At the time, Mrs. Stone taught ninth grade English for two periods to a group of students she had been teaching since the sixth grade.  Each year she looped up with her students.  They had formed a very special bond with her.  She spent the rest of her day being a master teacher (academic coach) to the other teachers in the high school.

She, like myself, was always reading more than one book at a time.  In order to keep up with what was current and be able to recommend books to her students, she read a lot of young adult fiction.  Not mention that we both LOVE reading young adult fiction books!  I love how she printed miniature versions of the book covers to use instead of just listing a title.  Book covers are works of art themselves and I love showcasing them.  They are first impression students have of the book.

Using book covers again, she listed the books that were in her TBR (to be read) pile.  Her students had lists in their notebooks of books they were interested in next and hers was just a visual representation of that list.  The students liked to see what she would be picking from next and the list also encouraged the students to check out the books themselves.

Once she finished reading a book, she moved the book cover from "is reading" to "has read."  She would then give book talks on the books and the line would begin of students wanting to check that book out.

At the beginning of each quarter, Mrs. Stone had a conference with each student and helped them set a personal reading goal.  The goals were set in terms of number of pages read, not number of books.  Students kept this tracking form in their notebooks.  Students were not competing against each other; they were working on meeting their own individual goal.  The student completed the title and page number section.  Mrs. Stone would then initial the completed column after they showed her in some fashion that they comprehend what they read.  I really liked the progress bar at the bottom.  Once a goal was set (hers was 3000 pages), the students divided the goal by four (750 for her) and set smaller goals on the way to completion of the major goal.  As students neared the completion of their goal, they colored in the progress bar so they would have a visual of how far they had come.

This post is dedicated to Mrs. Stone.  She is still working at my last school and I miss working with her on a daily basis.  She is a true inspiration.  She cares deeply for her students and inspires them to take their reading to new heights.

Literacy Framework to Support RtI

This year we were Formally introduced to the RtI process.  We learned about interventions versus strategies and the RtI process versus the IAT process.  But we quickly discovered that we did not have the right structures in place to make the RtI process or interventions successful; leaving us feeling frustrated and that we were doing things all wrong.

I've been contemplating how to write up this blog post for a few weeks now.  Going through change can be hard but it is also the nature of our profession.  We learn. We grow.  We change.   Many times it can be hard to be brutally honest with ourselves and others.  But I wanted to share with you (honestly) the struggles that my school has gone through this year because your school may be feeling something similar.

My little school is comprised of four Kindergarten, three first grade, and three second grade classes.  They are departmentalized and the Title I teachers push into the classrooms.  Everyone meets vertically twice a week to discuss successes, struggles, and ways that we can help each other out.  All the teachers are working hard to do the best for their students.

After some data analysis and conversations, we discovered that the first thing we actually needed to do was examine our Core instruction to determine our strengths and gaps.  We could not really build the structures for a successful RtI process in our school until we had solid, strong, and consistent Core instruction, as a building.  We started immediately.

The first step we took: Analyze the Instruction

I wrote down every literacy standard and broke up the chart paper into K, 1st, 2nd.  The teachers then wrote down the strategies, materials, and time spent to teach that standard.  This was completed over a matter of a about two weeks during our vertical meetings or planning bells.

The next step:  Find gaps

The intervention specialist, me (a Title I teacher), SLP, and an RtI specialist from our county started to meet weekly to analyze our Core instruction.  We were looking for gaps in our instruction, strengths as a building, and the research to support it all.  Specifically we examined how much time was being spent on some standards versus others and the research to support the strategies being used.

This took quite a bit of time. Some heated discussions were had, but a lot of learning took place surrounding  best practices and the research to support them.

So now what?
We decided that one way we could support each other, our students, and our Core instruction was to create a literacy framework.  After looking at many different samples, we decided our framework would include:

* an outline of the components of literacy that should be found in each classroom (here is one example):

 * Guidelines of best practices for the literacy components (here is one sample):

* Description of what students and teachers are doing (another sample):

* Pages of resources for each component of the ELA block:
* Glossary of terms
* Definition of teacher roles
* Common vocabulary to use as a building

* Common materials needed.  We included the sight word lists that we would use as a building and some common vocabulary assessments that could be used.

After a couples months of work, we finally had a completed product.

What we discovered:
* As a building, we had a great foundation to start this framework.
* Many best practices were already in place.
* Teachers had a strong knowledge base about research based strategies.

We also realized:
* We needed to "tighten" our times spent on different literacy components in order to "free" up time for Tier II interventions. 
* We were not hitting vocabulary to the degree that we would have liked; therefore, we came up with a plan and a weekly assessment to integrate more vocabulary instruction.
* Common usage of terms would be beneficial to our students.

Analyzing the Core instruction at your school is similar to any assessment that is given to our students.  There are strengths and weaknesses.  As I reflected with the RtI specialist, she expressed that each time she goes through this process with a school different results are produced.  Each school comes to the table with a different set of needs.  The framework that works for one school may not work for another.  But  the conversations between staff members, the honesty, the tears, the letting go, the holding on, the learning, the growing, and the changing all help to create one strong framework and school.

With the literacy framework complete, we can now focus on our next chapter, "Tier II interventions."

Planning A Summer Literacy Intervention Program: The Comprehension Component

Hello Friends! Tara here from Looney's Literacy. I'm so excited to share my Summer Intervention Program: The Comprehension Component with you all today.

 In a nutshell,  I designed the comprehension part of my program in four simple steps. This program is based off of my study of Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design.

I established what my big ideas & goals were. As an interventionist I have a limited number of children. (This type of planning could be adapted to a whole class by applying the same principles and not so focused on one child's needs.) So each child has their own plan. I'm going to run you through one child's comprehension plan for week one. My overall goals for this particular student is to read at a third grade level with appropriate accuracy and comprehension, have a basic understanding of the different types of texts and their purposes, and asking questions to help understand text.

With goals established,  I determined the  assessment plan. I used end of the year summative assessments to give me a starting point. This information gave me a grade level and helped me focus on the level of standards each student would be able to accomplish in  three weeks.

Each child's assessment plan is designed to fit their needs and is *formative in nature. It may be as simple as a running record. Of course, with assessment  comes data collection. This year I'm going to try The *CCPensieve. This is a tool used for conferring during daily five time.

(This particular tool is a separate cost then basic membership to the 2 sisters Daily CAFE  if you're interested.)

*There will be one beginning and end summative benchmark to show total growth. 

This is week one's plan. 

Time  to focus on the "essential questions".  This plan is geared towards a 4th grade student who is at a 2nd grade level. The essential questions I've chosen for this student are:
Why do authors write?, How does story structure effect understanding of the text?,  and What's the big idea?

Steps three and four depend upon each other. In step three,  I decided which performance tasks that I will use in a formative fashion to determine understanding. The additional activities in step four aid in the learning/teaching process.

I paired each "question" to some essential standards that helped to further refine the performance tasks to check for understanding. Which is step three. Determine the performance tasks.  After reading Madonna's Mr. Peabody's Apples in week one, one performance task will include making a list of character traits for two of the main characters and using Tagul to make some character trait word clouds. Another performance task will be a journal entry about spreading rumors.

The learning plan is the actions that lead to  your big idea & goals from step one.  The difference between your performance tasks and your learning plan is the performance tasks goal is to get formative information. The rest of the learning plan list is used to learn the desired skills to meet the ultimate goal.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out! If you're interested, I'm working on putting together the whole program for grades 1-4. For each grade level "the whole program" consists of: 3 components- Reading, Word Work, and Writing, In each component you will find weekly ideas for both individual and small group activities, general formative assessments, teacher weekly planner w/ tasks and to-do list included, and more! I will be doing a series on my blog, as well, that will walk you through each component for one grade level.  So keep in touch! 

*The CCPensieve & 2 Sisters CAFE is not an affiliate link.  I just really like this tool and this site is a great resources if you implement the Daily Five and CAFE

Teaching Phonics

Hello!

It's Pixie Anne from Growing Little Learners here today to share a suggested lesson outline for teaching phonics with you.

The first 8 years of my teaching career were with the older primary children (10-11 years) and daily phonics teaching was not something I had to do. This meant that when I asked to be moved to teach the younger ones (6-7 years), phonics was something completely alien to me and I was completely out of my depth and comfort zone! 

I've been with the little ones for 2 years now and LOVE teaching phonics. It took a while to get to grips with it all and find a structure to the sessions that suited me (and still ticked the expected boxes!) but I finally have! I think my favourite thing about it is the pace - it has got to be quick, quick, quick and that keeps us all on our toes!

There are plenty of good schemes of work and websites (Phonics Play is my favourite) to help with planning and teaching ideas but today I thought I would share the basic outline of my daily phonics sessions with you:

Graphics: Creative Clips, Fonts: Kevin and Amanda, Comfortaa

This is something that works for me. Of course, I do change things up all the time to keep my class engaged and interested - please do not think I stick rigidly to this outline day in and day out! I am also always looking for new games and activities (so if you have any, please share in the comments below!) and for ways to improve my practice. 

I have shared this with newer teachers in my school and student teachers who have found it useful to have a simple outline to build their lessons around and I hope any teachers to be or anyone else who finds themselves switching year groups and facing phonics teaching finds this useful in some way too!

Thanks for stopping by today!