Disappointments

I just finished grading my students' writing proficiency exams. (Yes, teachers grade these.  No, we aren't paid to do so, it's just something that's expected to get done.)

Some of them did a great job with their expository pieces.  For their task, they were given two short informational articles to read and respond to.  In their responses, they were expected to refer back to the text for evidence and write with a problem and solution text structure.  This was their end of year task.

However, upon grading these papers, I became increasingly disappointed.  This frustration during grading is one of the hardest things for a teacher.  The "I know I taught you this!" runs through my mind quite frequently.  There were lots of careless mistakes by many of my students.  

One turned in two drafts, basically saying pick which one is better.  

One wrote a single paragraph.  Not once in the past ten months of school has a single paragraph been a satisfactory answer.

Several turned in work that wasn't complete.

One used no punctuation whatsoever. 

One wrote "thank you for reading my paper" while another ended with the dreaded "I hope you like it."  Neither of  these are appropriate closings.  We've addressed both of these big writing no-no's on every single paper we've written.  These two clearly didn't listen.

Another decided not to use any paragraphs, another wrote no name, another went completely off topic and the final completely disregarded the audience and wrote as if she was writing to her friends and not a formal piece of academic work.

Not a single one used the sentence stems for quoting accurately from a passage.  The sentence stems we went over and have been using all year were completely disregarded.

This is frustrating as a teacher.  I feel disappointed in their essays.  They rushed and I have to score them lower then I'd like because of their silly mistakes.  This is one of the hardest parts of being a teacher.

Sassy Hermione

I clearly love books. But more importantly, I love when my students love books.

For one of our must do activities, my students had to describe which character changed the most in their novels.

This student absolutely loved the sassy changes in Hermione Granger.  His specific evidence is when she slaps Draco Malfoy in the face and argues with Ron on a frequent basis.

Another student also loved that sassy moment from Hermione.

This activity challenged students to take their favorite portion of the book and create an eight panel graphic novel.  I like letting them be a little creative and draw, but still with a purpose.  This lends itself to having students apply their quotation skills and summarize their favorite parts.  

I love seeing how much fun they have with their must do's.

Bookopoly

For my final bulletin board of the year, I wanted to do something a little different.

So I decided we are making a bookopoly board.

Based off of the classic Monopoly game, I had students create game pieces about their novels.  On the front, they had to list their novel, author and one intriguing quote from the novel.  I was very impressed with some of the quotes they picked because they did a great job at capturing the essence of the book or inspiring reluctant readers to give the book a try.

(Hostile Hospital)

(The Strange Case of Origami Yoda)

(Tiger Rising)

Instead of "go to jail" which has a negative connotation, players are instead invited to go to the library to select a new book.

The chance cards encourage readers to take a chance with a new book while community chest tells them that reading is a wealth of knowledge.

Water works addresses that books sometimes make readers emotional and that's perfectly alright.  The electric company touches on the fact books challenge our preconceived notions.

They had lots of fun making their pieces!

Final picture:

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!

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.

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 product: teacher guide for the Lightning Thief

I'm pleased to announce that I just posted my teacher guides for Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief  on TpT.

 

This novel units, like my others, include vocabulary suggestions, pre and post reading questions, worksheets, homework for each chapter (responses to literature) and comprehension questions with suggested answers for each chapter.  

They are both aligned to the Common Core State Standards (RL 5.1 and RL 5.3).  Additionally, they correspond nicely with fourth grade standards on Greek Mythology!

Enjoy!

Ms. Vice

(PS...tomorrow I hope to upload my novel guide for the Sea of Monsters so that all the Percy Jackson books will be available...stay tuned!)

Classroom Tour

Classroom Tour

After spending a very long day in a hot, humid classroom, the goal of uploading pictures simply didn't happen.  The air conditioner isn't working in our hallway, despite our wonderful custodians calling in the issue to the district several times.  Since kids aren't there yet, we don't seem to be a priority.  Well, it's Nevada and since it's in the triple digits, I'd say we're a priority.  

But let's start with the classroom tour:

This is for when students enter my classroom.

Just a little something to remind them that they are welcome and accepted in my classroom.

Next, the resources station:

I had an old set of encyclopedias from the early nineties, but decided they should go to goodwill instead of taking up valuable shelf space.  I tried to pick supplies that students would need most often and put them all in one place.  You'll notice the upcycled pringles can is now a polka dotted and glittery ruler holder.  The pink supply buckets were a find at the Target dollar spot a few years ago and I used address labels to organize my supplies.

Next, here is where I organized most of my bulletin board border.  

I know I've blogged about it before, but here is the proof of what it looks like in an actual (slightly messy) classroom.

Next, my reading bulletin boards.

Here is the much blogged about graffiti board.

I've changed my mind just a little bit about how I'd like students to complete this quoting task.  They're going to write the quote on one side of the note card and justify why that quote matters on the back.  I'll model this during our first week when we start the read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief aloud (our first read aloud).

Next to the reading graffiti board is a copy of our school's chart on mastery of standards.  We no longer give grades but rather students are working toward mastery (or exceeding) of the Common Core State Standards.  For full details, refer to this post.

This next board is where I'll display the awesome Harry Potter themed CAFE charts I found for free on TpT.  They're zebra print, hot pink and Harry Potter. I feel like they were made especially for me :)

I don't hang these up right away because we go over the components in our small groups.  Since I'll have the higher readers, I'm focusing on vocabulary acquisition, comprehension and fluency.

The blank board with the green and white sheet will be where anchor charts are displayed, but for now there's a friendly reminder about fairness.

Next, our writing process board.

I refer to my students as "star writers" and each of them will have star magnet.  These magnets were a Dollar Tree find and at four for a buck, they're quite the steal!

I'm using the side of my metal cabinet because it's otherwise wasted space.  Students will move their star magnet to indicate what step of the writing process they're working on.

Brain drain: the brainstorming process

Sloppy copy: writing a rough draft, focusing on organization, content and ideas rather than spelling

Arrange to change: editing and revising (solo task)

Peer editing: for when we do buddy editing

Time to shine: publishing their final copy, either typing or hand written depending on the task

This cabinet is located near my kidney table and teacher corner.

Behind me is the massive US map where I'll display post cards as we learn about different regions of the US.  For full details, see my other blog here.

In fifth grade, we don't really have calendar time but I still think it's important to display one.

I made a Cox Cubs Corner (our school) with the calendar, an envelope for Cubs Cash (our school's incentive for specials), a bag of box tops (how we buy art supplies) and a math problem solving poster (named CUBS of course).

I also put up our schedule where students will be able to see what topics we are exploring each day.

The schedule cards were an awesome free download from TpT, available here.

I also have my "I'm moving to Australia" flags (see these two posts) and STOP cards for students nearby.

Classroom Management

NOISE

A few days ago, I blogged about NOISE and how I wanted to try this in the classroom.

Essentially, students lose letters when they're too loud and when they are down to NO, there is no more talking.  Of course, they can work together to earn back letters by making appropriate choices.

The letters are displayed under our chart about different noise levels and a motivational poster.

Cups

I use different colored cups on students' desks to indicate different needs.

These cups are in twelve packs at the dollar tree, but I think you can find them basically anywhere.

They correspond with this management tip and work really well with my students.  I don't like when students sit there with their hands in the air, wasting time for me to come check on them during group work.  So instead, I have this system where they indicate what they need based on their individual cup color.

Green: I'm good, I can do this task. I can answer my table team's questions about the task

Yellow: I'm a little stuck and need assistance and/or clarification.  I can keep working.

Red: I'm lost and need help immediately.

Blue: May I use the restroom? 

Occasionally, we use the cups for other purposes as well: answering A, B, C or D; true, false, agree or disagree; and for order of operations in math (add, subtract, multiply and divide).

Hand signals

In addition to cups, we use hand signals in the classroom.

One finger: I need...

This is usually used for band-aids or if a student didn't get a particular material that was being passed out.

Two fingers: May I sharpen my pencil?

Three fingers: May I get a drink of water?

Four fingers: May I get a tissue?

Five fingers: I have a question

I also have students cross their fingers if they need to use the restroom and it's an emergency.  I accept this sign or the blue cup (mentioned above).

First Week Prep

I'm getting excited for students (I meet them next Friday).

I've been preparing little treats for our first week of school to build our classroom culture.

Here we have green circles that say "Hey there smartie pants! Hope your first day is going great! Love, Ms. Vice".  They'll get these right after lunch on the first day of school with an attached Smarties candy.

The pink ones say "I hope you're bursting with excitement about fifth grade" and will have Starbursts candies attached.  I'll put these out on desks at meet the teacher day (which is the Friday before the first day of school).

These are their me bags:

It's part of their first week homework so their classmates can get to know them a little better. I'll model the first day as I'm introducing myself.  This is part of my back to school unit on TpT, available here.

Later in the week I'll also be making the lucky charms bags and first day pencils, but I can't work too hard on one of my final weekends of summer.  

See this post about additional back to school ideas.

You may notice I didn't include my desk set up in any of the images.  That's because my desks are currently covered in piles of things :)

Future pictures will be posted when my classroom is done!

Ms. Vice

New TpT quote sort for Catching Fire

I love this book.  I love the series.

I created a quote sort, available here on TpT for this novel. 

Students will read quotes and sort them into which character said what.

For example, who said "Maybe I'd think that too" said ?? bitterly, "if it weren't for the baby."

Poor Caesar, he keeps having to deal with Peeta's confessions.

Not only was that an emotional line in the novel but definitely a game changer for the rest of the novel.  A "golden line" if you will :)

This center supports RL 5.1 and RL 5.3 for the Common Core State Standards.  It's a must have for small groups!

May the odds be ever in your favor.

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!)

New TpT products: Gossamer and Holes Novel Units

With the start of the school year fast approaching in Nevada, I'm trying to put my teacher guides on TpT quickly to save you the work :)

My teacher guides include vocabulary and spelling word suggestions, comprehension questions with answers, pre and post reading discussion questions and extension project activities.  They are aligned to RL 5.1 and 5.3 in the Common Core.  There are responses to literature for each chapter, which require students to go back into the text to find textual support.

I just posted two new novel units: Holes and Gossamer

 

Holes was one of my favorite novels growing up and I love doing it with my students every year in small groups.  It lends itself quite well to inferences and most students have seen the movie version.  They are shocked that the book contains more detail (I'm not sure why that is still surprising), but that lends itself to discussing the differences between text and film (RL 5.7).

Gossamer I read for the first time a few years ago, but love Lois Lowry and once again, she doesn't disappoint.  This novel is wonderful for examining parallel story lines and character development.

Hope you enjoy!  You can download yours here.

Happy reading!

Posters, Round 2

As much as fire code will let me, I plan to cover my classroom in anchor charts that I make with my students.  I'll take pictures of our anchor charts and make notebook sized copies for my students. There will be anchor charts for phonics, writing, reading skills, science terms, vocabulary words, read alouds, the works!   However, I will be making a few of these posters about norms and expectations. I love these cute ideas from pinterest:

I love that this stresses the importance of learning :)

I don't know what book this teacher is using, but I love the anchor chart:

I really like the evidence component because it focuses on RL/RI 5.1.  For those readers not well versed in the Common Core State Standards, both these anchor strands require students to quote accurately and use inferences, which is nicely supported by this anchor chart's structure.

This is another great anchor chart with quoting:

This one is great too!

Here's a great TpT freebie:

This poster does a wonderful job at reframing what it means to fail:

Failure is part of trying. It doesn't mean it defines students, it just means there is more to the journey.

This one perfectly illustrates the 8 math practices, but in student friendly language:

(From this blog)