The Red Pyramid

One of my small groups decided to read The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan and they are absolutely loving it so far.  I'm enjoying the subtle nods to the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, which only add an additional layer of complexity.  I'd love for some of my small groups to read both Riordan's Greek and Egyptian gods books, then contrast the two parallel universes...but that was probably something I should have started in October if I wanted them to be successful.  Perhaps next year :)

I'm in the process of reading it as well and creating my teacher guide, which will hopefully be done by the end of the month.  Of course, it's being revised as we go since I'm developing it with my group of students, but it will be available on TpT once I'm done.

In the mean time, I found this great resource from Barnes & Noble, snag for free here!

Seed Folks

We have been using Seed Folks as mentor text during our whole group reading block.

They tried the passage independently and then I modeled metacognition.

Most of them wrote down character traits (which is what we have previously worked on) but didn't write down supporting details for the task (how did the character interact with the garden).

So they tried it again independently, then shared their thoughts with a partner.

There were four different chapters, so I was able to make small groups for them to discuss their character.  They then switched and repeated the process with another character.

We then compared and contrasted how two characters (in the same text) reacted similarly and differently to the same event, in this case, the garden.   They did a pretty good job with it!

We also previewed the book beforehand and talked about how the organization of this text was different than say The Lightning Thief. In Seed Folks, each chapter is written from another character's perspective.  

They did well with this concept of comparing how two characters react different to the same event.  Next up, we are going to be comparing how characters in different texts respond to a similar event.

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!

97!

Now that it's Winter Break, I have the time (sort of) to catch up on movies.

So I decided to check out the new(ish) film Sea of Monsters.

Like it's predecessor The Lightning Thief, I didn't love it.  It was cute, but I feel strays too far from Rick Riordian's novel to make me gush.  Granted, this director seemed to do a better job than the first one so that's a positive move.

However, due to the differences between film and novel, my students should be able to engage in great conversations about the similarities and differences between the novel and the film adaptation.

So I created a sort for them and you can snag it too here!

Just like my first one, this center has students sort task cards into categories:film only, novel only and both.

An answer key is included!

Happy reading :)

New Sort! RL 5.7

So we read 90% of The Lightning Thief before winter break and watched the film adaptation on the last day of school for the calendar year.  In a perfect world, we would have finished the novel first but...that didn't happen.  

It was my first time seeing the movie and I must say, I wasn't too impressed. 

Yes, the film was cute but didn't really follow the book.  There were lots of differences and I'm glad my students picked up on these differences.  Comparing & contrasting a film with the text is a great, critical thinking skill to have!

(Plus it corresponds with RL 5.7 in the Common Core State Standards)

So I decided to make this into a sort where students can independently or collaboratively sort the descriptions into the following categories:

1. Just the book

2. Both the book and the film

3. Just the film adaptation

There are over sixty different task cards to sort and an answer key is included!

I'm excited to have my students try this center after winter break!  

You can download a copy here on TpT!

#95! Comprehension Question Stems

I'm pleased to announce my favorite center is now available on TpT!

I'm an advocate of guided release, which means over the course of our school year, I relinguish more and more control to my students.  This comprehension station perfectly aligns with this teaching practice.

This mega center (50+ pages) includes question stems to help students guide their own discussions.  It is color coded and includes different fonts for easy clean up!

The skills that students will practice are:

Snapshots of the center:

This product is priced at $6.00 on TpT, which is quite a bargain considering it is 59 pages long!

The best part is this station can be used for literature or informational text! (The second best parts are that the center is in color and uses fun chevron prints!)

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!

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!

The Raven

We've been working on poetry, so in honor of Halloween, we read Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.

I read the first stanza to them and they listened for alliteration.

Then, we watched two videos on teacher tube. 

The first was with an actor (Christopher Walkin?) reading aloud the poem with spooky sound effects.  The first video did a great job at establishing an eerie mood, similar to the true intention of Poe.

The second was the animated Simpson's version:

Students took notes on the video:

Then compared and contrasted the multimedia elements in the presentations.

They had a great time with the poems :)