A Year in Reading Anchor Charts

I was *really* bad at uploading pictures of anchor charts this year (sorry guys).

As a result, y'all get the mega post with all of them! I took pictures so I'd remember for next year.  We make the charts with the students, so we don't reuse them over and over again.  I'll also upload the images to the "anchor charts" page with the blog.

Most of my anchor charts use multiple colors.  The black part is the part I read during a choral review on the carpet, the colorful words (key words) are what students read.  It's too overwhelming for them to read the whole poster together, but it's too boring if I read all of it.  It's our compromise!

Also, for the most part, my anchor charts are color coded.  This strategy helped my ELL students.  

My reading ones are blue.

Metacognition and Annotating for Close Reads

RI 5.2

RI 5.3

This standard focuses on relationships between people, events, and ideas.  We modeled with Dr. King, Rosa Parks, civil rights, and the bus boycotts.  They had a lot of fun with this standard!

RI 5.5

The large poster in the middle is a copy of the graphic organizer that was in their notebooks.

RI 5.6

RI 5.8

This standard focuses on evidence, so I like the acronym.

Writing

Narrative Writing

Some of these ideas are borrowed from Being a Writer, which is one of the resources at our school site.

Expository Writing

 
Word Parts

This technically fall sunder reading, but I chose to make all my RF (Reading Foundation) standards yellow.

I made this with my RTI group.  We also used magnetic word parts to compose and decompose words.

Oreo Reader

One of our strategies was teaching kiddos to be an "oreo" reader.  Basically we spent a lot of time modeling what it means to savor the text and really examine all the parts of a tasty book.

Inferences

Enjoy! 

Bulletin Board Ideas for next year

I get to be creative again with my bulletin boards!

In high school, I was class vice president. (Vice for Vice, see how well that campaign worked out?)  At Arizona State, I was a RA/CA (community assistant) with Residential Life.  This month marks year six of teaching.

So I've spent a lot of time with bulletin boards over the past decade(s).  This is a good thing...because I love them.  I love making them cute and showing off student work.

I'm at a new school, which means I can recycle old bulletin board ideas for a new audience!  This minimizes my prep work and well, who doesn't love that?

(I've also included the Common Core State Standards that I'll be teaching/assessing with each bulletin board.  You can read more about the standards here)

September

I was thinking some sort of Harry Potter themed "word wizards" display with types of syllables.  I don't know how much phonics instruction has been given in the past, but I like to start phonics instruction with going over the six types of syllables.  By knowing how to break apart words, students will get to practice reading those larger multisyllabic words.  They'll also get practice looking for affixes and roots, which aids in their comprehension.  I'm thinking some sort of foldable where they break apart their own names and justify the syllable types underneath.  I'll add a written component about how this helps them as readers, so they have to justify their thinking.  I'll also have them find words from their own novels to break apart as well, thus giving them some ownership.

CCSS RF 5.3a, L54b

October

By this point, we should be editing and revising our written pieces with Being a Writer.  I will do a mini-lesson on dead (zombie) words.  For those not in the know, these awful words like to pop up in fifth grade writing samples.  These words belong in primary writing samples, but have no business in upper elementary!  Zombie words include transitions such as first, next, last.  Zombie words are dead words that just keep reappearing.  I'm sick of said.  I'm sick of reading "good" and "bad".  We need more alive words!

So I'll reuse this idea (mainly the drawings...those took a while!):

To make this bulletin board more rigorous, I'll display their final drafts with copies of their rough drafts underneath.  That way, viewers can see that writing (like learning) is a process.  They'll be able to see authentic student work that has been revised and edited with the purpose of eliminating dead (zombie) words.

CCSS W52d, W53c, W54, W510, L52e, L56

November

By this point, my students have hopefully finished several novels, making my theme work bulletin board an appropriate choice.  Given that November is full of three day weeks, this would be an easy writing/reading project that students could finish at home.

I'd have them compare two novels within the same genre, focusing on how the author reveals the theme through characters' actions.  This would be guided at first, but then students would write independently.  Since I don't think I'll be doing full novel read alouds, I'd probably model this with poetry and have them practice with novels.  I'm hoping to have students that have read the same books so they can bounce ideas off of one another.  I'm also fully aware they might not be ready for this yet and my November bulletin board will become March's instead.

RL 5.9, RL 5.2

December

I haven't made my long range plans yet, but I can safely assume that by December, we've covered figurative language.  Most likely several times.

Which means a bulletin board all about idioms!

Since I assume many of my students will be English Language Learners, explicitly teaching figurative language is crucial.  I can even have them find examples of figurative language in their text, thus allowing for an opportunity to not only practice quoting accurately but also justify their thinking with a written response.  (Or a typed response, we'll incorporate technology as well!)

RL 5.1, L5.5a, L5.5b

January

"What's Your Problem?"

Yes, time for a math bulletin board.  I will give them a solution and they have to come up with appropriate, reasonable questions that would yield my answer(s).  This ties in with the eight mathematical practices and would have students use a variety of models and strategies to defend their questions.  This would be easily differentiated and I could have those fast finishers come up with a second problem.  This could easily be a spiral review of concepts where I could strategically differentiate based on which domain students need the extra practice.

CCSS: most of the math ones :)

SMP: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
(Rigorous math activities should use most, if not all, of the 8 math practices...just an FYI!)

February

I'm torn.  I have two ideas for February, both holiday-related...ish.

The first: book crushes

Students would use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two characters (their book crushes).  They would write a written response about both characters, using evidence from the text(s). 

RL 5.3, RL 5.1, W59a

The second idea: persuasive letters to George

(graphic organizer (by Ginger Snaps) and mentor text)

By now, I hope we've covered both persuasive writing and the American revolution.  I'd have students examine a historical view point and write a letter to either King George or General George Washington.  Students can choose to be loyalists or patriots and choose which leader they're writing to. I'd push the higher kids to pick a less popular perspective or to write from a neutral perspective.  This would incorporate informational texts, quoting accurately, persuasive writing, perspective of the narrator, and a bit of research.

CCSS RI 5.1, RI 5.3, RI 5.4, RI 5.6, RI 5.7, RI 5.8, RI 5.9, W51  (plus history & civics/government standards)

March

Mad Scientist March has a nice ring to it...

I know we are rolling out the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), so I'm not entirely sure what this will look like.  I know my new coaches mentioned going to lots of trainings and researching our school's science options before picking these green boxes.  I'm excited to learn more about NGSS and STEM :)

Perhaps this is where they could display their own inquiry projects and scientific proposals?

April and May...TBD. 

Maybe bookopoly again?

 I planned out eight months worth of bulletin boards...I think my brain can safely shut down for the evening.

What are your bulletin board ideas for next year?

Expository Writing

We started using the expository nonfiction writing unit in Being a Writer, but it simply wasn't meeting our needs.

This week is reading week and we are doing a travel theme.  

Our grade level was assigned Europe, so we are having our students research different European countries.  Instead of writing a paper, they're making travel brochures and loving it!

We reviewed text structures:

Then brainstormed research questions for each:

We went over a very simple organizer for note taking:

For this project, my students are required to use one print and one digital source.  My librarian shared Culture Grams with us.  I taught my students how to access this from our school's library site.  I like that we have access to different data bases and they're kid friendly!

We went over the outline of the brochure:

I modeled a thinking map about Ireland:

From my thinking map, I modeled writing research questions and then determining which text structure I'd use for my written response:

From there, I set up our hallway decoration using the map my awesome neighbor drew:

Norway, by the way, has a very difficult coast line!

We split Europe into four parts and I got Northern Europe.

Tomorrow we're finalizing our brochures and then our hallway display will be up to date!  I love how excited they are to research and learn about different places.

Opinion Writing

We are in the midst of Being a Writer's persuasive genre.  While this doesn't perfectly align with our standards, I'm still enjoying their suggestions.  For fifth grade, they're expected to write opinion pieces where they share their opinion and give factual reasons as support.  The persuasive component isn't a standard until sixth grade.

We've clarified the difference with the kiddos and let them know if they want to try to persuade their readers, that's just dandy.

We've also been doing mini lessons with commas:

They're doing pretty well with these language standards! I'm hoping they'll apply their knowledge in their writing, since that's a great way to see if they truly understand the skill.

I modeled writing my opening:

It really helps my kids to see my example and color code the different parts (opinion and reasons).

Yes, I wrote about football.  I think it's important to model real writing and for me, I would write about football.  It's more authentic because they know I'm passionate about my sports and as writers, we write about things we know.  I don't think they'd take the lesson as seriously if I wrote about why you should buy a pre-owned car instead of a new one.  Yes, I could write about how it's cheaper, etc but I wouldn't be super interested in the topic. It wouldn't feel genuine to me and they'd pick up on it.  It's important to bring a piece of yourself into the classroom and spread the joy of learning.

Dialogue

In writing this week, we were working on dialogue and narrative elements.

I wasn't a huge fan of the suggested mentor text from Being a Writer (no offense! I'm just not great at following programs word for word) so I made my own lesson.

We looked at the punctuation marks within our read aloud of The Lightning Thief:

I also pulled a student up to model what this conversation would look like when performed.  Some of my students had great "brain fireworks" as to the connection between literature and plays.

From there, we did a few quick writes based on images.

The third was the Manning Brothers before a Pro Bowl game:

They did such a great job with creating their own dialogue to go along with the images!

Happy writing :)

8 weeks down!

8 weeks in and things are finally starting to feel normal :)

My students are loving our read aloud of the Lightning Thief and can't wait to figure out who Percy's dad is.  The ones that have seen the movie or read the novel are doing a great job of keeping quiet to not ruin it for the rest of them :)

We analyzed the development of Percy over the first few chapters of The Lightning Thief:

I modeled the first chapter and students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to re-read, looking for specific details about the main character's thoughts, actions and motivations.

We ran out of room in the classroom and since I didn't want to disrupt the learning of the other classrooms, we went outside to share.

Of course, my principal happened to walk by when she was observing PE and monitoring playground duty.  Luckily the student she asked about our learning was able to fully articulate that we worked in small groups to re-read, looking for evidence and recording our thinking on anchor charts.  Granted, he was off task a few moments later but at least he could focus for that short period of time :)

We are finishing up our first set of novels, so my students have posted their charts of our interesting words on our word wall:

Each time they met with me, they shared the words they found in their reading.  I recorded their answers and changed colors each time so they could easily see which words were new.

They also posted their logs for keeping track of characters:

For the Series of Unfortunate Events, it will be interesting to watch these characters develop over the next twelve books.  AM and PM also compared and contrasted the charts that they made and had some great discussions about the novel.

I also posted their writing ideas chart on our anchor chart about writing genres:

On Fridays, we do our formative assessment on our weekly phonics skill.

My students track their own progress:

We glued trackers inside the front cover of their word study notebooks.  On one side is the skill we're working on and on the other is where they record their score as well as if they're emerging, approaching, meeting or exceeding on that skill.

Happy Friday! 

(Unfortunately, this weekend is devoted to grading and preparing for parent-teacher conferences, so it's a good thing next week is only 2 days with one of those days being a field trip!  We plan well!)

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 :)