Theme Responses

I noticed on their last written responses were a tad lacking.

So I created a fill in the blank guide for their constructed responses:

I modeled the first paragraph on the smart board so they understood the new format.

I expected a little bit of backlash from them for the length of the response I requested.  Instead, they completely surprised me.  They think this response flow sheet is the greatest thing ever.

They're treating it like madlibs and writing pages and pages.  They're going back to the text for evidence and finding the specific quotes that support their answers.

Happy reading!

New Strategy

I saw this idea on pinterest and I'm really excited to try it with my small groups!

I'll have them write down their favorite quotes from the novel we are reading and then justify why they chose those quotes :)

I'm also excited to try it for characters.  Instead of having students keep track of all the characters in the novel, I'll have them keep track of one or two in depth.  When we're done with our book, I'll have them compare and contrast the characters.

This strategy would also work well for settings or interesting words.

I'm excited for them to try this new format in their notebooks!

Percy-a-pooluza!

Today was focused entirely on Greek mythology and I loved it :)

First we went to the Smith Center to see Jason and the Argonauts. It was great! It was a quasi-modern retelling and Spiderman made an appearance :) I love superhero and Star Wars references!

When we got back, we reviewed character analysis and read more of the Lightning Thief, pausing to make predictions, analyze characters, and practice all sorts of great reading skills!

Naturally, I stopped at the good parts :)

They're in the middle of chapter 10.  Percy, Annabeth & Grover just realized the Fates are on the bus.  Not only are they on the bus, but headed toward the back...

Cue dun-dun-dun music!

We also analyzed different characters with our table teams:

And recorded our thoughts:

I had them refer back to the portion of the text that justified their character analysis.  It was an easy way to review the importance of using evidence. 

We also analyzed the cover differences between the novel and graphic novel:

Happy reading!

An oldie but a goodie

I was looking through old facebook pictures of my classroom (because it's half time and my Arizona Cardinals are winning, so why not?) and I stumbled upon this old anchor chart:

I need to find it! I know I laminted it, so I didn't throw it away.

It's great for constructed responses where students need to analyze a character's change over time.  I will rewrite it to include "based on the text" stems so students know to go back to the passage for that textual support.

Considering this anchor chart is a few years old (aka pre-Common Core), I'd say it still does a pretty decent job at guiding student responses.  Besides, it's like Dr. Maya Angelou said:

It's time to do better.

New center (finally!)

It's been a few weeks since I posted a product on TpT.  Well, since it's 5 pm on a three day weekend AND I'm prepped for next week, I figured I'd devote some time to making new centers.

In my small groups, many of my students are finishing up their first novels.  Since this is one of the first groups I've done Kate DiCamillo's The Tiger Rising with, I knew I needed to make some centers to use as a formative assessment.  I created a 17 page center, available here, for my small group to use next week.

In this center, students will match descriptions and quotes to the 3 main characters (Rob, Sistine and Willie Mae) that are being described.  Writing extension activites are also included! 

This goes great with my teacher guide, also available on TpT!

Happy reading :)

Posters

I'm pretty sure I spent my entire prep today working on anchor charts.

Here are some updated images:

Our phonics wall:

We've been working on /s/, /z/ and /ch/ sounds this week.  I'm trying to use different colors each week for our phonics skills so that students know where to look.

Here is our updated writing genres poster (Being a Writer):

We're working on narratives during this writing unit.  We also just got new writing partners, so hopefully that help our writing time.

We also are working on buddy coaching for writing and fluency:

So I made a new pink sign to guide their conversations.

Here is another chart to help them with their partner conversations:

It was created for writing but can work for other academic subjects as well.

Next, here is our sentence starters:

In fifth grade, some of our standards (RL 5.1/RI 5.1) require students to "quote accurately" and "make inferences" from literature and informational text.  We have been working on responses to literature and constructed responses, so hopefully this will help my students with their answers.

Lastly, I changed the background on my classroom blog:

It's polka dots :)

New products

I posted some new literacy centers on TpT: 

Hunger Games quote sort & Mockingjay quote sort

(Catching Fire was already available!)

Hope your students enjoy!  If you like the product, please leave feedback.  If you have a suggestion on how this center can be improved to increase effectiveness or rigor, please let me know! I appreciate helpful, constructive, (polite) feedback :)

Happy reading and may the odds be ever in your favor :)

-Ms. Vice

TpT

As I'm sure you're well aware, I have a store on TpT.  (Teachers pay teachers)  I have been in the classroom for five years now and am proud of the rigorous novel studies and centers I've made.  Nothing in my store was made for the sake of posting it on TpT, but rather created for my own classroom and shared with others.  I know that I work hard and more importantly, my students make great academic gains.

Here is a short list of what is available on TpT

novel units (questions, answers, vocab, extension activities, homework questions)
Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief (1)
Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters (2)
Percy Jackson & the Titan's Curse (3)
Percy Jackson & the Battle of the Labyrinth (4) 
Percy Jackson & the Last Olympian (5) 
Steal Away Home
Loser
Gossamer
Holes
Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Number the Stars
Tiger Rising
The Giver
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

literacy centers/stations
Percy Jackson "Who am I?" center with answer key (based on books 1 & 2)
Hunger Games & Catching Fire "who am I?" center with answer key
Harry Potter "Who am I?" center with answer key
Series of Unfortunate Events "Who am I?" center with answer key
literacy stations bundle
Percy Jackson quote sort for the Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson quote sort for the Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson quote sort for the Titan's Curse
Percy Jackson quote sort for the Battle of the Labyrinth
Percy Jackson quote sort for the Titan's Curse
editing & revising sort (writing)
Tuck Everlasting quote sort
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone chronological order sort (freebie)
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets chronological order sort
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban chronological order sort
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire chronological order sort 
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix chronological order sort
Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince chronological order sort
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows chronological order sort 
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets quote sort
Hunger Games chronological order sort 
Catching Fire chronological order sort
Prefix concentration, CCSS aligned
Roots concentration, CCSS aligned
Suffix concentration, CCSS aligned
Catching Fire quote sort

math centers
math taboo (vocabulary activity)
math centers bundle

science centers
mixtures & solutions sort 
types of maps sort (geography)
"I have, Who has?" landforms review
5 themes of geography ppt (freebie)

misc
table of contents organizer for notebooks (multiple academic areas)
back to school activities bundle
teacher forms guide bundle
Teacher name plate


Coming Soon!
math strategies sorts
prefixes, roots & suffixes sorts
Harry Potter novel guides (1-6)
Harry Potter Quote sorts
Mockingjay chronological order sort
Teacher guides for the Series of Unfortunate Events
Teacher guides for Hatchet

and more!  I just need a time travel device :)

Small Literature Groups

While typing up notes for a novel unit on TpT, I realized I needed to revise my SG notes.  What worked for me my first and second year of teaching doesn't work for me now.

When reflecting on my teaching, I often come back to one of my favorite quotes by Maya Angelou: 

"When you know better, you do better"

Well, I'm going to do better.  I revised my units to add  in answers and increased the complexity of the questions by making them more open-ended.  I also included suggested homework questions for students.  These revised units are available on TpT.

I always have my students divide their notebooks into four sections:

I give them four questions to answer based on the chapter(s) for homework and we discuss those in depth.

For my small groups, I have them keep track of characters, analyze shifts in setting and make note of interesting vocabulary words in their small group notebooks.

We spend most of our time in our group meetings digging deep into the text.  I check their notebooks, set them up for the next discussion (usually allowing them to decide how much they want to read because I set the minimum) and then dive into the text.

Since I have six groups and only an hour each period, I can't meet each group every day. 

Here's our run-down:

First 8 minutes: fluency.

Students work with a partner to "buddy coach".  I set the timer for one minute and half the class reads in a whisper to their coach.  The coach keeps track of errors and at the timer, gives feedback on rate, expression, accuracy and phrasing.  After one minute of coaching, the students track their progress on this chart (from the CORE sourcebook).  Then they switch roles and repeat.

My beloved:

(yes, I'm a little type-A with my tabs)

I get my leveled fluency passages from reading A-Z but I know there are lots of websites and teacher's guides available.  I print them double sided so the students keep the passages for two weeks because that's better for our planet.

They chart on their fluency tracker:

After that, we spend a few minutes going over the week's phonics: Greek & Latin roots.

We look at the roots, add them to our anchor chart and then decompose multisyllabic words to decode the word's meaning.

From there,  I divide the remaining time in two and start pulling my groups.  I leave 2 minutes at the end for clean up and transition time.

To make sure all my groups get equal time at stations, I make this chart for my lesson plans:

That way I can make sure all my groups get the same centers.

This week, our stations are:

1. Fluency binder (like buddy coaching except they select the passage and can work in groups).  I've printed poems, songs, speeches and passages for students to read and buddy coach with.  I used FCRR printables to have students guide their discussions.

2. fluency quiz-quiz trade cards: they rate each other on their expression and accuracy, using these guides which are glued in their notebooks:

3. character jenga (I upcycled a jenga game and put open ended discussion questions for students to quiz each other).  This one gets a little loud but I love the discussions students have with one another about the book so it's worth it.

4. Kidblog.  This great, free resource allows students to respond to each other and to my blog questions on a safe, secure site:

If you view our page, that's all you see.  Students need a log in (their id numbers) and I get full approval of their posts.

5. "build-a-word": They take syllables and create multisyllabic words, recording their answers in their notebooks.  

6. "word-o-matic" (an FCRR center) where they create words.  I printed vowels on one color and consonants on another to make for easy clean up :)

Most of my centers are in manilla envelopes with instructions on sticky labels.  It helps keep students accountable for their behavior.

7.  Writing thank you letters for donor's choose :)  We got our new materials and love them! Thank you again donors!

8. Idiom cards: one of our new donorschoose centers to help with figurative langugage, which we've been working on during whole group reading!

I also posted our group norms:

I got this sweet card from a student today:

Happy reading!
-Ms. Vice

Trying to be positive

As mentioned in my rattled post, I've received some negative feedback on TpT.  I didn't take it well.  I received another piece of feedback on the same product but this one was less malicious and did cause me to be self-reflective.  Perhaps I need to look outside of my school district for professional development in terms of the Common Core.  I know Nevada is frequently at the bottom of educational rankings, but that's due to a plethora of factors, many of which we as teachers can't control.  Maybe I should look into other school districts (since there's really only one in my state) and how they're "ramping up the rigor" for the Common Core.

But at the same time, I don't think I'm unqualified.  If I was, I wouldn't be sharing my materials.  I've written assessments for my school and district for a few years and was on the unwrapping task force for both math and social studies when CCSD adopted the Common Core.  I've been CASL trained and I know what makes rigorous, valid assessments.  All of my materials have been field tested in my own classroom and tweaked as necessary.  I am a DENstar with Discovery and one of our district's DENambassadors (Discovery Education).  I attended DENSI last summer in Vermont and was the sole representative of my state.  Yes, state.  The summer before that, I attended both the Mickelson Exxon-Mobil Teacher's Academy and the Mount Vernon Teacher's  Institute, again being the sole representative of my state.  My list of qualifications goes on and on, so I think I'm a knowledgable teacher.  Of course, I'm never done learning and developing as a teacher, as evident with my current task of working toward masters +32 (so close!) then working on National Board Certification.  Yup, I'm a type-A teacher and I embrace it.  I know I work hard and my students learn.

I don't think rigor comes from worksheets.  I think rigor comes from discussions and analysis of the text.  Rigor comes from close reading, re-reading, deep discussions and interaction with the text.  I can offer those deeper level questions, which I do, in my discussion guides but it is up to the teacher to drive the discussion and challenge students to think deeper.  As with any teacher guide, you have to make it your own and implement it in the classroom.  

I stand by my products and I am trying not to let two bad reviews ruin my outlook on selling products online.  Last time I checked, 79 people had purchased a product with several hundred more downloading my free ones.  If out of that, two had an issue, I'd say that's pretty acceptable.  I do feel bad that my product didn't meet their expectations but it did meet mine.  For those of you that know me personally, you know my standards are meticulously high.  I don't like wasting time and I wouldn't feel comfortable wasting other people's time.

However, I'll let you judge for yourself.  I have three products for free on TpT: a novel quote preview for Tuck Everlasting, a chronological order sort for Harry Potter and a 5 themes of geography ppt.  Download them here.  If you like them, please rate me accordingly.  If you don't, I'd love feedback either here or on the site about how I can improve them.  Please don't tell me it was a waste of money (since it's free!) or a waste of time.  Offer concrete examples of how you'd like it improved.  I'm always open to constructive feedback, especially if it improves my instruction and benefits my students :)

Thank you,
Ms. Vice

Bulletin Board Hacks

If you've read my previous blog posts, you've seen the following tips for bulletin boards:

-Use a flat sheet or table cloth instead of fabric or paper.  Sheets tend to be cheaper (especially during back to school time) and you can pick up a variety of ones at Good will or other second hand stores for only a few dollars.  Plus, you can reuse the sheets over and over again, which is better for the environment.

-Use command strips and binder clips to store unused bulletin board borders.  You can hang these inside a wardrobe or off the side of a filing cabinet.

-Use colorful scrapbook paper to make your own letters. 

-Laminate bulletin board letters to make them last longer.

-Use black butcher paper for a "reading graffiti" board where students can record their favorite quotes from novels.

Today's new hack:

Glue pushpins to the back of clothes pins to display student work.

Dye the wooden clothespins whatever color you'd like using RIT dye.  So much faster than painting!  Plus you can color coordinate with your classroom theme!

Projects

A few days ago, I posted about my intention to make a pencil vase to hold flower pens.  

Today I bought my supplies:

I figured I needed a polka dot ribbon to hold the vase together and I think the green will blend nicely :)

(Finalized project picture coming soon)

I wasn't planning on the blue flowers being almost the same shade as the picture frame I bought for book quotes...but that's okay! (Hard to see from image)

I also wasn't planning on this project blending so nicely with my new behavior management tip of "noise":

Using these magnets and super glue, I'll turn these letters into my newest behavior system.

I will remove letters as students get too loud and when it's down to "NO," there is no more talking.  Students can of course, regain letters based on good choices as a class.

(on my fridge)

I'm excited for craft time and very appreciative that Hobby Lobby makes everything in similar shades!  It makes me seem much more coordinated :)

Craft Time!

A while ago, I posted about wanting to make a reading graffiti board to encourage students to read closely for that "perfect quote" and write it on black butcher paper with silver or gold Sharpies (depending which period they are in).  The quotes should encourage others to want to read the books as well because there is no better recommendation than peer ones :)

Link to original post: http://msvice.blogspot.com/2013/07/bulletin-board-idea.html

Today I found this super cute black chalk board/picture frame at TJ Maxx:

I plan to use this as my example for the quote board.  

I'll write my quote above, then put the instructions for adding their own to the black paper below.  I decided to use the side of a cabinet for the board, so I can display the frame above.  

(Picture coming soon...I'm not allowed in my classroom yet!)

Bulletin Board Idea

I saw this idea on Pinterest this morning and absolutely love it! 

It's called a "reading graffiti" board.

You need: black butcher paper and colored sharpies.  I'm thinking gold and silver so that both reading periods can have their own space.

Challenge students to find the "golden line" or "best quote" and write it on the board.  They will work on quoting accurately and close reading to find that perfect quote.  The board will also encourage others to read those novels as well. I'm excited to try it :)

Percy Percy Percy!

Apparently, I've been living under a rock since I just discovered there is a film version of the Lightning Thief.  Additionally, I only discovered these books last year...oops! I've definitely been missing out.  According to my students, Percy and Harry would be friends, which is why I needed to read these novels.

Which I did.

And love them.

So, if you like it then you should make a sort about it :)

Novel quotes for the Lightning Thief, the Sea of Monsters, the Titan's Curse, the Battle of the Labyrinth and the Last Olympian are available here!

-Ms. Vice