Book Bingo!

Hello and welcome to Adventures in Literacy Land! I'm Pixie Anne from Growing Little Learners and I'm here today to share an idea for promoting and encouraging children to read for pleasure in your classroom and at home!

I hand out recommended book lists most years and have set up challenges to read a certain number of books with rewards many times. However this year, I wanted to do something across the school that was a little different and would get children a little more excited.

The idea of book bingo is all over pinterest. I loved one I saw by Children's Books and Reading which included challenges to read certain book types as well as ways to read such as 'read by torchlight' and the ideas from Ebook Friendly.

I decided to use a mixture of specific books which were age and content appropriate for each year group and more general challenges to encourage children to choose their own books and have more control over the challenge. So year 4 might be asked to read Fantastic Mr Fox or Journey to Jo'Burg, but can also choose to read any book that was made into a film, or a book with a number in the title!

I created book bingo cards for ages 7-11 (year 3-6):

The reverse of the bingo card explains the rules, rewards and how to record which books are being read.

Books must be newly read and there must be a different book recorded for each square. There will be certificates and small prizes for 1, 2, 3, 4 lines and a full house!

 (Apologies for the terrible photo!)

For each line completed, children must complete a book review (I've just used ready made ones from sparklebox and twinkl) and hand it to me for display in the library so great recommendations can be shared with everyone!

The kids were so excited when I introduced Book Bingo to them and, while not everyone is taking part, there are quite a few who don't usually read that much who are definitely making more of an effort. 

They'll do anything for a stamp, sticker and certificate!

Have you any other great ideas for getting reluctant kids to read or to encourage them to read different books? If so, leave a comment below as I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Using Framed Paragraphs to Help Young Writers

Hello, again, Literacy Land!  It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars. I have been working closely with our second-grade teacher to help her struggling readers {and writers} to show success in literacy activities.  Recently, took on the writing aspect with these 5 students. We started by writing about someone in the group.

I started by modeling the entire process for them.

First, I made  T-chart about my "friend" Beth.  Now I don't have a friend named Beth, but she reminds me a lot of my daughter. We chose three items in each column to use in our paragraph.

Then I used the T-chart to write a short paragraph describing her.  The kids helped a little, and we talked about making sure our sentences were not all the same.

The best part of the process was letting them work on their own paragraphs.  They first interviewed a person in our group and wrote the information on the T-chart.  _____ looks like and Things _____ likes to do.  Then they chose their items wisely.

Finally, they used a framed paragraph that I created for this purpose to help them write a paragraph.

They loved doing this because they could feel successful in writing something that makes sense. It's amazing how something so simple can help students be successful in writing and take that success with them everywhere they go.

Seasonal Literacy: Valentine's Day

Happy February and Happy Groundhog Day!  Are you hoping for an early spring or more winter?  It feels as if we haven't had much of a winter here in NE Ohio, but no complaints here.  This month, I want to share a couple ways I have incorporated the excitement of Valentine's Day in our classroom.

The first one involves those little mailboxes they have a Target in the Dollar Spot; you will need 5 of them. The ones pictured are the metal ones with a detachable opening in the front, but I've also used the plastic ones with a slot for math.  You could absolutely use those for this too.  I used a piece of index card to write each of the 5 vowels and taped one vowel to the flag of each mailbox.  I pulled out old valentines and put them to good use.  It seems to every box has a few more cards than I need, so I decided it was time to stop letting them pile up.  I circled a character or object on each Valentine for students to focus on.  They then determined the vowel sound heard in each character and sorted them into the correct mailbox.

This center has been a big hit with the kids over the past 3 years.  I laminated the valentines so they can be used again and have added the valentines I've received from students over the last couple years as well.  You could sort by whatever skill you are working on; we just tend to be working on vowel sounds are this time of the year.  Old valentines could also be used as writing prompts!  I use the plastic mailboxes from the Dollar Spot for math; we practice fact to 5 to build fluency with this freebie.

Our writing center becomes the post office.  Students busy themselves writing letters, special notes and drawing pictures for their friends. I do not have mailboxes in my classroom (though if I could find some I loved I would totally splurge), so I taped a brown paper lunch bag in the hallway for each child.  After creating their "mail", each child donned a mailman vest, purchased at Pat Catans (a local craft store) to deliver the mail.  Mail is transported to the mailboxes in a special mail sack, a felt bag from the Target Dollar Spot.  

Making her deliveries

This task certainly increased the traffic at the writing center!  On each bag, I wrote the child's name and added their little school picture that you get from the photo company. This made it easy for children to deliver their mail.  I have a variety of paper, hearts cut from the Ellison machine, envelopes and stickers for them to make their special mail.  At the end of a few weeks, everyone read the mail in their mailboxes.  This year I'm having students decorate their own mailboxes at the art center for this project as mail delivery starts tomorrow!

I hope this gives you a couple ideas that you can either put to use now or begin gathering materials as they go on sale/clearance and save for next year!

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Research: The Key to Unlocking the Door to Discovery

Just about every classroom is expected to teach students to research, but just about every child wants the work to be done quick and simple. Yet researching is a lifelong skill kids need. Researching takes perseverance, doesn't it. BUT, if we give kids the knowledge of how to research, we unlock the door to discovering pretty amazing things. Kids are curious, aren't they?  So, tap into that curiosity and work researching skills into your routine.

As students work through the process, other reading skills are included such as main idea/details, text features, determining importance, and fact and opinion. As writers, students learn how paragraphs are organized with a topic sentence, supporting detail sentences, and a closing, and how paragraphs come together to explain in depth. So how can we make all of this easier for kids?

The first step in researching is to make the assignment clear and share why researching is important. Kids need to know exactly what is expected right from the beginning, so using anchor charts to outline what they will be doing and the steps involved, modeling how to get started, and what information students will be looking for breaks the assignment down into chewable bites.

Next, list the information sources they are expected to learn to use and demonstrate how to use them. Kids need to know how to use key words and which resources match the needs they have. Will the internet be used?  Are kids allowed to search on Google?  It's important that the kids know the rules in order to avoid breaking them.

Once the kids have the gameplan, they are ready to dig in, or are they? Well, you probably should model with anchor papers what is expected and demonstrate with a class paper how to conduct research. Outline the steps in a checklist to keep your kids organized and provide due dates for each section. As you ask the kids to do a step, model with the anchor paper how to do it.

As students work through the process, keeping them on task and working toward completion can be a problem. You can avoid that by having them use self evaluations to monitor their own progress. Collect and give feedback on the pieces of working leading up to the final project. If the kids have a rubric to follow, it will help them know how they will be graded.

If you have struggling students, you may find assigning the same topic to a group helpful. Then, you can pull them into a small group for guidance versus spreading yourself thin trying to reach and help them all. I'd suggest preselecting resources as a way to get students started, and you may also want to enlist the help of teaching assistants and/or your school librarian. If you want students to use the internet, you can use QR codes to ensure that your students get to the correct location on the web. 

Well, I hope these tips help you the next time you're scratching your head and trying to figure out how to get your kids to the final draft. To help you out, I put together this step-by-step freebie that you can use with any topic. Enjoy!

Happy Researching and see you next month!

Close Reading ~ What is it?

Hello everyone!

This  is Laura from Where the Magic Happens  and this is my first time blogging with this great crew! I have  been crazy busy at school and have had a million things going on!
Anyhow, I have been reading and reflecting A LOT about how to transform my literacy teaching  in this era of higher standards.  For about a year I have been a close reading groupie enthusiast.  There is so much literature out there and so many materials that, I did not know what to read or where to begin. I am so lucky to have my BFF Marie from The Literacy Spot… she always recommends the best reads.   My Amazon wish-list is about to pop!



So really what in the world is close reading?

According to Fisher and Frey, close reading is:

“an instructional routine in which students are guided in their understanding of complex texts.”  Basically, close reading is a component of dynamic reading instruction where students:

• Read strategically
• Interact with the text
• Reread to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deeper understanding
• Analyze multiple component of the text and illustrations
• Focus on the author’s message

These are some of the most important things that I have learned about close reading:

• Not all texts deserve a close reading
• Close reading is also not necessary when the text is fairly accessible. In other words,  when choosing texts for close reading… you want to pick a text that do not give up their meaning easily or quickly.
• Close reading is MORE than a worksheet!!! Our students need to interact with their peers and their teachers using academic language and  argumentation skills as they discuss the text.
• Close reading is not one-and-done reading! Rather, it is purposeful, careful, and thoughtful.

And honestly, I could go on and on…

I really could give you a million reasons.

Close reading is not to be confused with guided reading. They are two extremely important instructional approaches that must be part of your balanced literacy.  Close reading  is not exclusively about eyes on print or reading accurately. In close reading we seek to explore the comprehension of ideas and structures more deeply. In other words, there will be times (especially during the first read) that my students will read, but some texts demand to be heard  and read aloud – poems are a good example.
These are some of the benefits of close reading:

• It leads students on a cognitive path that begins with discovering the literal meaning of a text and ends with the exploration of deeper meaning and  a plan of what should occur as a result of the reading.
• Close reading will help our students understand the mechanics of a text, especially vocabulary, text structure, and the author’s craft.
• Close reading will require that all students cite textual evidence in their products. 

These are some of the differences between close reading in the primary and upper elementary grades:









If you are thinking that a close read is an easy task for the teacher… then you might be like Santa Claus in the month of August.
Close reads are divided into four different phases:

• What does the text say? (general understanding and key details)
• How does the text work? (vocabulary, structure, author’s craft)
• What does the text mean? (author’s purpose)
• What does the text inspire you to do? (extended thinking)

These four phases provide our students to explore, practice, review, and navigate through literary and informational text-dependent questions. {Hello again mCLASS!} Text-dependent questions drive close reading!

You go right ahead and download this evidence based terminology poster to use during your close reading time! {click on picture!!}
 

And just in case you are wondering, this is what Fisher & Frey recommend as the best think marks for close reading based on their research.

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Until next time!

Increasing Pupil Engagement

This was a tricky post to write as I wouldn't really consider myself to have any particular area of expertise! I have led literacy in my school before but currently lead math, I love teaching phonics but fins myself teaching more RE each week these days than anything else, I deliver a lot of staff training, but this is on a whole range of different topics - definitely not just literacy. 

So I looked back over the posts I have written for Adventures in Literacy Land over the last year and realised that pupil engagement strategies was a common thread...

Making Writing Special: one way I set up the classroom environment to engage and motivate writers.

Using Story Sacks: a way to help children get exited about and explore different aspects of stories.

Learning Grids: a great and easy strategy for making learning more hands on and fun!

Consensus Activity: engage children by developing speaking and listening and collaboration skills.

This year I am cover teaching one day a week for a particular class and I am struggling to hold their attention for any significant amount of time. I am not used to this! I'm finding it hard. I need to cut my teacher talk time down even more.

The jigsaw strategy for imparting information is nothing new. I've read about it, been told about it on courses, watched video clips even. But for some reason I've never really used it as a strategy in my classroom.

Last week we celebrated World Religion Day and I wanted to give the class time to explore some of the main religions represented in our school. There are lots of lovely PowerPoint presentations out there that I could have talked through but instead, I thought I would try out this strategy with the class.

I set children in home groups of 6 and paired them up with each pair assigned a different religion. Each pair of children was given time to explore the religion using the information sheets I provided and a laptop to read the always useful information pages on the Woodlands Junior site!

After a short time, I moved the children to form their expert groups - pairs of children from different home groups who had been researching the same religion. They got together and discussed what they had found. Pairs had discovered similar information but each also seemed to have something new to share that the others hadn't read yet or taken in.

I then asked these expert groups to create an interactive poster to share at the end of the afternoon.

I gave them access to some lovely interactive notebook templates by Meredith Anderson and off they went!

I deviated from the traditional jigsaw strategy in that I didn't have them report back and share their expert knowledge in home groups again but rather had them present to the whole class...

 And there you have it! Very little teacher talk, lots of learning and lots of pupil engagement!

Celebrate our 2nd Birthday with a Giveaway!

It's time for us to finally have our giveaway!  We hope you have enjoyed meeting the new bloggers and becoming reacquainted with some of our seasoned bloggers. We still have a few more bloggers for the month of January, but we are ready to start our BIG giveaway!  One you don't want to miss!

You read that right! We are giving away a $100 Amazon gift card that you can use for you and your classroom!  What will you buy with all of that loot?  I don't even know where I would start!

Just enter the Rafflecopter below! Good luck!!

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