Day Three, the frustration continues

My day of frustrating them didn't end with math.

Later in the day, we went over sorts.  They did "no way Jose and that's a fact, Jack!" first.  In this sort, they separated statements about fifth grade into true and false statements. 

They also learned the procedures for gallery walks, where they critique the reasoning of others without touching the other team's sort.  It's a great opportunity for them to also practice using the accountable talk stems that we brainstormed together.

I color coded the stems to help my visual learners.

They also did an editing and revising sort which I used as a formative assessment.  They're still a little fuzzy on the differences between the two, so that's a teachable moment for me in the next few weeks.  We didn't provide any instruction on their writing task this week because we wanted to use it as an informal benchmark.  This week they wrote a letter to their future selves, which they'll get back the last week of school.

They were pretty good with the first two sorts, but then I gave them a syllable sort.

They were completely stumped.  Some groups used their responding cups to ask for help, one group tried to bribe me (both with food and a dollar), some made piles of what they thought they knew and what was confusing, some started sounding out the syllables, and others were on the right track.  They asked for help, but I let them struggle.  Struggle is a good thing.  When we came back together, I had a lot of grumpy students.  I told them that this activity helped me to see where I need to start phonics instruction (with what is a syllable), and showed me that they knew to ask for help, were comfortable asking for help, and could work together.  No groups quit during their struggle time (which was five minutes, I'm not that mean).  

They wanted to know the answers.  I said no, they don't get to know that yet.  We'll start instruction next week, but I'm not just giving you the answers without the practice.  

This was very irritating to many of my students, especially the higher ones.  I told them they won't always get the answers right away.  They won't know everything right away.  Learning is a process and it takes time.  They aren't used to not getting the answers right away and I told them this will be an adjustment.  They'll have to work through things.  They'll struggle. In the end, it will make them stronger thinkers.

I think some of them get it, but it doesn't mean they like it.

Best part of day 3?  This happened:

Oh yes, it happens in real life. 

Multi-syllabic words

Batter Up!

We didn't acknowledge Halloween in my classroom.  Quite frankly, the behavior of some of the students didn't lend itself to a celebration and many students don't celebrate the holiday, so we avoided it all together.

Instead, I celebrated Boston's win :)

I used this adorable baseball themed center, made by Katie Appel and available for FREE here for my intervention block.

We blended through the multi-syllabic word cards, identified syllable types (CLOVER) and played with a partner.  It was a fun sports-themed center and definitely worth downloading!

Happy reading :)

Syllables

We have been working on decoding multisyllabic words this week during our word study.

Well, day.  Monday was the only day we actually have word study since today was parent/teacher conference day, tomorrow is a field trip, Thursday is staff development day and Friday we are celebrating Nevada day and have no school.

I'm revising my small groups next week to start with blending through multi-syllabic words with a focus on specific affixes and roots.  We'll start with blending and word study, that way when students come in a minute or two late, they don't miss fluency and buddy coaching.

Our word attack strategy:

We also reviewed where to break apart syllables:

And hung this near our CLOVER chart:

Happy word work!

Syllables

This week in phonics, we're reviewing r-controlled vowels.  This aligns with CLOVER as one of the six types of syllables.  To help my students, we did our syllable sort in IE block and small groups:

Students collaboratively work together to sort syllables into the 6 CLOVER categories:

C: closed syllables
L: consonant -le
O: open syllables
V: vowel teams
E: silent e
R: r-controlled

By studying syllables and strategies for breaking apart multisyllabic words, students have multiple opportunites to practice this crucial reading skill.

Students also referred to our ever-growing phonics wall:

I got the ideas from another awesome co-worker. I love that I work with such amazing educators, I feel like I learn something new each day :)

Happy reading!

Snap shots

So in our performance zone in our district, we have a facebook page (which you can follow here).  Our school is clearly overachievers when it comes to anchor charts since we've got over a hundred pictures in our album.  Of those, about eight are mine which gives me some warm and fuzzy feelings.  

Here are two snap shots that haven't been previously mentioned on my blog:

Our QR code:

I was a little hesitant at first but this was actually super easy to create.  I turned my welcome letter and info packet into a PDF, which I then uploaded into dropbox.  From dropbox, I did "share link" and emailed the link to myself.  Then, I copied the link and went to one of the numerous free QR code creators and pasted in the url.  After triple checking from various devices, I printed on pink cardstock and stapled it outside my door.

I'm not sure how many parents have downloaded the welcome letter but it's a good strategy for those with smart devices!

Phonics instruction:

We were doing a power point presentation on the 6 types of syllables (CLOVER) at the beginning of the year.  My students were still working on getting the main idea into their notebooks, so I was modeling what to write down by using the smart board markers with the power point:

Just an easy way to give explicit instruction on exactly what you want your students to put in their notebooks :)

Our small groups

I love my small group discussions about novels.

It's a little tricky to manage 12 groups and they're still a little loud at centers, but it's a work in progress.

Here is our daily schedule for small groups:

Yes, making sure I set the timer is the first task! I need my small kitchen timer to hold me accountable to time :)

Here are some of our updated "keeping track of character charts":

I love how well they're doing with pulling out crucial details to see how characters develop over the course of the novels.

We also got our copies of Tuck Everlasting! Thank you donors :) I can't wait to use them with my young readers!

Our updated reading board, now that we've established what we are working on in class:

I also created folders for each novel:

Inside are various novel-specific thinking maps for them to glue into their small group reading notebooks to organize their thinking, make predictions, look for figurative language, etc.

To help with many of our word work and phonics centers, I created a smaller version of CLOVER to help students remember how to identify syllable types:

Happy reading!