Writing Choices

This week our must do in small group reading is a writing extension.  

Their choices:

1) Silently read & write questions for others (Battle of the Books)

2) Rewrite your favorite part of the novel from another character's perspective.

3) Create a reader's theater script of your favorite part.

Here's one student example for her favorite part in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

One of my students took the idea of reader's theater and ran with it:

She made it her own by combining characters from two novels!  

She used Rob and Sistene from The Tiger Rising and Percy and Annabeth from The Lightning Thief.

I love watching them interact with their material in new and exciting ways.  It's wonderful when they make connections with and between texts!

Happy reading!

Character Analysis

In whole group reading, we've been working on comparing and contrasting characters.  In fifth grade, the expectation is to go much deeper then "one is a boy and one is a girl" responses. 

We've looked at how characters in the same text respond similarly and differently to the same event using Seed Folks as mentor text.

We've looked at how characters from different novels respond similarly and differently to a similar event using Tiger Rising, Because of Winn Dixie and Sarah, Plain and Tall as mentor texts with Rob, Opal and Anne.

We've moved on to looking at Matt and Attean in Sign of the Beaver and how they interact differently with the environment.

As you can see, I broke the reading into three sections.  I modeled the first day, reading the passage aloud and sharing my thinking (metacognition).

They worked with a partner or in a small group of three on part two and on Monday, they'll do part three independently.  They read the passage, take notes since they're "reading with a pencil" and then discuss their ideas.

They're taking notes in the graphic organizer we made in our whole group notebooks:

 While they work, not only are they building their stamina (since testing is a few months away) but I get to see how well they're doing with annotating (stop and jot) as well as analyzing the text. 

 It's a great way to do a quick informal assessment, I just walk around and make notes on a post-it.  I can also do a quick intervention if needed.

Some of them will struggle with this independent task and as I've said before, this productive struggle is perfectly okay.

I'm impressed with how well they're doing!

character charts

As we're finishing up our novels, we're posting our character and setting charts on the wall:

 I think I'm running out of space! I think I'll take them down, put them on a book ring:

And create a flipchart.

Plus, that'd free up valuable wall space!  Based on one of my fabulous neighbor's suggestions, I'm going to make a "shout out" board where I can post good examples of their "must do's" and work.

I had a major problem last week with a very small percentage of my classes not doing the must do correctly and on time.

Part of it was my fault for not explicitly modeling, but part of it was due to their desires to rush to do centers. 

So, as always in teaching, I'll make adjustments for next time.

I think having the positive motivator of being on the display board will definitely help! Stay tuned :)

Tiger Rising Chronological Order Sort

I've just posted another chronological order sort to my TpT page!  This is product # 84 :)

This one is for Kate DiCamillo's novel The Tiger Rising.  It includes twenty six events and an answer key for students to check their work.

In doing this, students will see how Rob, Willie Mae and Sistene develop over time (aligning with RL 5.5 of text structure with the Common Core state standards). 

My students play this center as a culminating activity when they're done with the novel (because the center reveals events that end at at book).  They usually play it once or twice before moving on to another novel but I have 12 groups, so another group reads the novel soon and I can reuse the center the whole year!

As a challenge, I like to have my students create additional events to put into the sort or choose an event to write about.  They love the challenge!

My students love these sorts and you can snag one for your students too!

Snap Shots

As stated in a few prior posts, I don't have anything in my TpT store that I wouldn't and haven't used in my own classroom.  Everything I make is for my students, then shared.

I guess I'm taking advantage of this magical "free time" before I start a family to create these timeless, rigorous activities for and with my students.  

I'm only in 2 college classes and my boyfriend has an odd work schedule, so it works out in my students' favor.  I'm not very good at relaxing.  I'm great at watching Netflix, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I need to be doing something else too.  Good thing I can type without looking at the keys!

My students used 2 of our centers this week.

The first is our new Tiger Rising center:

They were quizzing each other on the characters in the novel based on descriptions from the text.  It's a great way to compare and contrast characters!

The second is our map sort center:

We used this as a small group review before we took our science test today on types of maps.  Technically, this is a science & social studies hybrid assessment (geography) but students had to create topographic maps, so it ties in with landforms as well! 

(Yes, it's pink.  That's normal for my classroom :)  )

Just some snap shots of our collaborative learning this week!

Small groups in action!

I love small group reading :)

I feel like I'm a literacy specialist since so much of my day is spent with literacy:

9-9:40: phonics, whole group reading
9:40-10:40: small group reading
10:40-11:25: writing
11:25-11:55: science
12:30-1:05: intervention/extension block (fluency, comprehension and vocabulary)
1:05-2:05: small group reading 

Here are some snapshots of our centers:

Blogging:

My students are using kidblog to respond to one another online:

Snapshot of our afternoon blog:

They're doing such a great job!

Reader's theater:

They're doing a Greek mythology passage this week :)  I love that they picked one that aligns to our grade level read aloud, The Lightning Thief. We're also going on a field trip next week to see a performance of Jason and the Argonauts

Our new centers, based on the novels they just finished:

All are available on TpT!

We're also doing our weekly affixes:

On Tuesdays I challenge them to find non-examples of this week's affixes.  Today, it was words that appeared to start with un- or re- and end with -s or -es that were non-examples of these affixes.  They did a good job at coming up with ideas.

Since both of my groups (AM and PM) finished Hatchet, I had them compare their anchor charts:

They did a good job with picking out the same big ideas from the novel and analyzing how Brian developed over time.

Since I don't have enough books for both groups, one is reading The River while the other is reading Brian's Winter with the idea they'll switch when they're done.

We also looked at how the cover illustrations had changed over time:

They were highly amused by the early 90's version :)

My students are so excited about our books and that's just awesome.

#64

My streak of productivity continues!

Much like the Red Sox, I am on a winning streak.  Except instead of baseball, my task is refining centers for next week.

I just finished my second center for Kate DiCamillo's novel The Tiger Rising.

For this sort, students are given clues about the characters and have to use details from the passage to determine which character is being named.  An answer key is included for the eleven characters from this novel!

You can snag yours here on TpT!

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 :)

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

New Product: Tiger Rising Novel Study

I stumbled upon Kate DiCamillo's The Tiger Rising when taking a professional development course on literacy, novels and the Common Core for my district.  I had high expectations for this course since it seemed to combine all my favorite things.  

There were four people in the class, including myself and my co-teacher.

Most of the class was geared toward making sure teachers knew that not all students needed the same things or read at the same level, thus the point of small groups.  Not quite what I signed up for.

Nevertheless, we were assigned this book to read as homework.  Technically, just the first 8 chapters but I don't like starting books and not finishing them.  I wouldn't read this with my highest readers but it's a good book for my slightly below grade level readers because:

1. It is a chapter book and that makes them feel grown upl

2. It's about animals and a mystery, which intrigues them.

3. There are social issues of bullying and feeling like an outsider that they (unfortunately) can relate to.

Scholastic has some decent free resources, but I didn't feel it was enough for my small groups.  So I made my own teacher unit, which you can snag here.  I included pre and post reading questions, homework, comprehension questions for each chapter (with answers), vocabulary and more!

Happy reading!