Monday, October 29, 2012

Reading Research Monday: The Positive Effects of Preschool

This recent Planet Money story on NPR instantly caught my attention:  Why Preschool Can Save the World. The episode discusses “decades-long studies that found preschool made a huge difference in the lives of poor children. And [they speak with] a Nobel prize-winning economist who says that spending public money on preschool produces a huge return on investment.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Books: Lark

http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/large/3/9780061122873.jpgAuthor:  Tracey Porter
Age Level:  12+
Pages: 180

Overview:

After sixteen year old Lark is kidnapped, raped, and left to die, her friends Nyetta and Eve struggle to cope with the loss of their friend and problems in their own lives.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Friday Freebie: Fluency Tracking Sheets

Since I mainly work with students in Tier III interventions, it is vital that I track their progress, but all students benefit from timely monitoring of their progress.  Formative assessments provide teachers with so much information.  Are the students on track?  Are they growing?  Are they growing at a rate that will allow them to get on track with their peers? 

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then we as teachers know that something needs to change.  If I look at the results of progress monitoring and see a stagnant line, that tells me I need to change the interventions my kiddos are getting.  Obviously these particularly strategies are not working with these particular students. 

One area that many of my students are working to improve is their reading fluency.  To help track their fluency progress, I created four Fluency Tracking Sheets



The four sheets have different ranges of words per minute on them, making them useable for any grade level.  They are great visuals for seeing how students are progressing.  They're available for free on TPT.  You can get to them by clicking: Fluency Tracking Sheets.

I hope you find them useful too!


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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Ideas for the Classroom: Word Spinners


Back in August when I entered my new classroom for the first time, I spent most of the day going through the piles of resources in the room.  Most seemed unorganized.  I found several intervention resource series with at least one book missing, piles of miscellaneous worksheets, papers shoved in corners, a tub of reading games, and a box of random items.  I'm sure there was some order to the room that made sense to the person who was there before me, but I was lost.

I immediately started organizing things by priority.  The last box of random items fell to the bottom of the list.  Recently, however, I reopened that box, and found a packet of black arrow spinners, and I started wondering how I could use them.

Spinners are fun. I loved them when I was a kid, and it makes learning seem more like a game.  There is excitement in and anticipation when you get to spin something.  Where will it land?  What will I get?

So after thinking about my kiddos needs and what they were struggling with, I came up with these CVC spinners.

Basic Spinners


They are pretty simple and easy to make.  All you need is:

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Ideas for the Classroom: Alphabet Game

Many of my first grade intervention kiddos need help with letter naming and letter sounds.  For a fun way to help them master these skills I made "The Alphabet Game," which is extremely customizable for whatever your kiddos needs are.

Here is the basic set up:


Sunday, October 21, 2012

TPT: 1st Grade Common Core I Can Statements

My school is converting to the Common Core starting in January.   To prepare for this I made 80+ ELA Common Core "I Can" Statements for 1st grade.  (Other grades will be coming soon!)

They come in five designs including:
  1. Polka Dots
  2. Plaid (Argyle)
  3. Pink & Green
  4. Retro
  5. Plain
You can customize the plain statements any way you like to fit your classroom.  Examples of the four other styles are below.

Polka Dots
Plaid (Argyle)
Pink & Green

Retro



Friday, October 19, 2012

Friday Freebie: Daily 5 & CAFE Posters

This week's Friday Freebies relate to the Daily 5 and CAFE created by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.
These two resources are posters that can act as headings for the ideas presented in the Two Sisters' books.

First are Daily 5 Posters:
  1. Read to Self
  2. Read to Someone
  3. Listen to Reading
  4. Word Work
  5. Work on Writing
There are five individual posters and one smaller poster with all five activities on it

Second are CAFE Reading Posters:
  1. Comprehension
  2. Accuracy
  3. Fluency
  4. Expand Vocabulary 
 




 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

FREE Literacy Resources Link Party

Here is a list of free literacy resources! 

Feel free to add your own resources to the page, but please only add FREE resources.  Thank you!

1. 100th Day of School Poetry Possibilities  52. Compound Word Freebie  
2. ABC Research Page  53. persuasive writing election themed  
3. Diamonds or Coal: A Context Clues Activity  54. At The Writing Center  
4. Fishy Blast Sight Words  55. Olympics Writing Contract -6 activities  
5. Writers Notebook Evaluation Rubric  56. Reading Log Bookmarks  
6. Active Reading Strategy Bookmarks  57. Story Map for Novels  
7. Said is Dead Poster  58. Shakespeare Scavenger Hunt  
8. jane Kotinek  59. 29 Graphic Organizers  
9. Lined Writing Paper  60. Irony in The Catcher in the Rye  
10. Heather from The Wild Rumpus  61. Review Questions for 4 Different Short Storie  
11. Persuasive Writing Prompts  62. Graphic Organizers  
12. Letter-Word-Sentence Sort  63. Cheryl Litton  
13. Walking Punctuation  64. 5 W's Bookmark - Mrs. D's Corner  
14. The Fun Factory  65. Beginning Color Word Word Search  
15. Sounds For -ed Center  66. I'd Pick You Writing & Craftivity  
16. Following Directions Freebie Sampling  67. Thankful Writing Papers  
17. ABC Order for Veterans Day  68. ELA Review Task Cards Freebie  
18. End of Book Activity Ideas ~ Book Report Alternati  69. Hat Idioms Book  
19. Vocabulary Chart/Bookmark Can be used with any boo  70. Writing Structures Posters - 6 Traits  
20. Creation Castle: Jan Brett's "The Hat" Activities  71. Poetry Possibilites - MLK Day  
21. SOAPS Anchor Charts  72. Valentine's Day Hink Pink, etc  
22. A Reading Graphic Organizer for C in the H!  73. License 2 B U  
23. character traits  74. Alphabet Word Work Mats  
24. Gingerbread Man reading comprehension unit  75. textbook reading strategy - non fiction  
25. Listening Center Response Ideas  76. Letter to a Veteran!!  
26. "T.A.G. You're It" Peer Review for Writing  77. VERBS!!  
27. Fluency Progress Graphs  78. AlwaysLearning  
28. Author Study Planning Page  79. My Alien FREE Writing Lesson  
29. Non-Fiction Text Structures (MsJordanReads)  80. HFW Flashcards 1-400 Fry List  
30. Sight Words in Context  81. Critical Thinking Reading Response Sheet  
31. Clearing Word Comprehension in Complex Text  82. Checklist Paper for Conventions Unit  
32. Adjective Anchor Charts  83. Coach's Corner  
33. My First Crossword Puzzle  84. Llama Llama Misses Mama Litaracy and Math Pack  
34. Primary Book Report Forms  85. 'at' Word Family  
35. The One and Only Me An Autobiographical Party  86. Printable pumpkin book  
36. NonFiction Student Worksheet Use with any text  87. Open Ended Comprehension Question Cards  
37. Partner Games for the Word Wall  88. Figurative Language Log  
38. Ellen Weber  89. Newspaper Center  
39. Spanish My Thankful Mini Book  90. Danielle Knight  
40. English My Thankful Mini Book  91. Turkey Activities!  
41. All About Me Introduction Booklet  92. Posters for Literacy Centers/Stations  
42. Santa's Wacky Reindeer Preview! Grades1-2  93. All About Me Student Book  
43. 20 Easy Ways to Publish Your Students' Writing  94. Short a CVC Board Game  
44. Name Activities  95. Mrs. Lindsey - Thanksgivng Literacy Activity  
45. Book Activity David Goes to School  96. Superstar Antonyms I Have Game  
46. I Spy Syllables with Fall Words  97. Reading Two and Three Syllable Words  
47. We Can Write About {People, Places, Things}  98. Reading Warm Up Phrases Pre-primer level  
48. Vowel and Letter Matching  99. Drawing Inferences While Reading  
49. Alphabet & Music - The Letter A  100. Punctuating Dialogue PowerPoint  
50. Writers Notebook Rubric  101. Possessive Nouns Unit  
51. Sink My Letter! (Letter Names/Sounds Center Game)  

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)
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Quote of the Week: Fran Lebowitz


Monday, October 15, 2012

Reading Research Monday: Parents' Influence on Student Performance

Today's Reading Research Monday isn't directly related to reading.  It is related to school in general, but implications for improving reading ability can be easily inferred.

Research

Published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility on September 5, 2012, Does Capital at Home Matter More than Capital at School?: Social Capital Effects on Academic Achievement examines how parents influence student performance. The study analyzes results from 10,000 12th graders.

Co-authors Dr. Toby Parcel, Dr. Mikaela Dufur, and Ph.D. student Kelly Troutman found that parents have more influence over student success than schools do.  Parcel summarizes their findings by stating:

The effort that parents are putting in at home in terms of checking homework, reinforcing the importance of school, and stressing the importance of academic achievement is ultimately very important to their children's academic achievement.

This new study is supported by many other sources including: Pamela E Davis-Kean's The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of Parental Expectations and the Home Environment, and the Michigan Department of Education's What Research says about Parent Involvement in Children's Education in Relation to Academic Achievement.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

TPT: Short Vowel Word Work Activities


To help build early literacy skills, I created Short Vowel Packets for each vowel.  The packets mainly work with CVC words and common word families like -an, -et, -ip, -ot, and -ug, but a few other non-CVC word families like -ill, -ock, and -uff are also included.

Here are a few FREE sample pages from the Short A Packet:




Each packet includes:
-Two Vowel Posters
-Five Word Work Activities and Games:
1) Circle It
2) Highlight & Rewrite
3) Word Sort
4) Matching
5) Roll 'em & Read 'em

You can purchase each vowel packet individually or bundled together for a discount.  To see a preview of the packets or to purchase them, you can find them here:

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Books: Everybody Sees the Ants

Everybody Sees the AntsAuthor:  A.S. King
Age Level:  14+
Pages: 279

Overview:

Caught between daydreams of ants who taunt, tease, defend, and support him and real dreams of saving his grandfather from Vietnam, Lucky Linderman tries to survive his freshman year of high school.

Friday, October 12, 2012

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