Google Docs

I first read about Google Docs on 3rdGradeThoughts.com. Ever since then, it's been life changing in my classroom! I love using Google Docs! You can do pretty much anything you ever wanted to do!

Just a few ways I use them in my classroom:

• homework checking
• reading conferences
• writing conferences
• parent teacher conferences
• getting to know the kids before they come to school (they fill out before the first day of school)

Like I said, pretty much AMAZING! It's so simple to create and share docs, it's unbelievable! So go ahead try it today, you know you want to! :) 

Here is my form for homework checking, which could be used for pretty much anything you need to check off that students have completed:

Here is my form for the beginning of the school year. I used this as a very basic assessment too for how well my new kiddos could put together sentences, spell, etc, and I learned a lot before they came on the first day!

Getting to Know You

 Happy Teaching!

New Seat Day

I don't know your classes, but mine get super excited for "new seats" day. My principal likes to joke about how often I change their seats, but not only seats but desk arrangements too! I love to mix things up, what can I say? So, anyway since I do change things around a lot, I have tried so many ways for new seating arrangements and seating charts. During my subbing days, I stumbled across a sixth grade teacher that used sticky notes for her seating chart and I thought that was just ingenious! But, I took my seating chart with stickys a step further.

I used four different colors. Each color represented a different level. You could use the colors for anything: guided reading groups, math groups, ability level, behaviors, anything really!

Using sticky notes for my seating chart like this has made rearranging seats such a breeze! What do you use as a seating chart? How do you arrange your kiddos?

Happy teaching!

Retelling...with Highlighters!

Do your students tell too much when retelling?

During assessments last week, I noticed my kiddos are telling way too many details in their retellings. I wondered.... what can I do to show how to retell correctly and for them to visualize retelling?

So.. voila!

 

Here's how:

~ Each student paired up and each person had the same passage, this class used Should Dogs Work from ReadWorks, the most *AMAZING* site ever for passages to use in your classroom.

~ The passage we used was broken up into three sections:

 Section 1: teacher model

Section 2: Partner 1 retelling

Section 3: Partner 2 retelling

(you could use any passage but I liked this one because each partner could retell their own section, and they didn't repeat from each other on the same passage)

~ While partner 1 retells their section, partner 2 highlights words or phrases their partner uses from the passage. Then it's partner 2's turn.

This was so helpful! The kids were able to see exactly what their retelling told! 

Happy Teaching!

Finding Main Idea- Cute Video!

Main idea is one of those tricky concepts for lots of kids.

The teacher down the hall discovered this awesome video for main idea; she says the kids are in *love* because it's to the tune of Justin Beiber's song, "The Beauty and the Beat"




I will certainly use this myself! 

Here is the anchor chart I use to teach how to find the main idea:

 

Happy Teaching!

 

Text Mapping

Recently, in my grad class, I learned about text mapping, have you? If you haven't, it's pretty much like having a conversation with the text, either "talking" about something in particular or just anything. The teacher who modeled it for our class told us that we could write thoughts, connections, questions, basically whatever! Then my professor continued by saying we could use text mapping for a particular skill also. Well, I decided to give it a go in my own classroom, to see how third graders do it...

We have been reading about how pictures and illustrations help us as readers, so I thought I would connect how having a conversation with the text would do the same. My students were in groups of 6, which I later found out was WAY too many! The next time I did this activity, I made groups of 3, worked beautifully!

To prepare for text mapping, you need to photocopy part of a book or print whatever text you want the students to talk with. Then, glue the text on a larger sheet of paper, I just used butcher paper that we use for bulletin boards. When you teach your students how to text map, model first! I used our document camera to show first how to mark what I want to say, then what I want to say.

Send your kids off, each with a different color, to have their own conversation! I walked around and wrote questions about their comments, or gave an answer to one of their questions, or made a connection.

 

Go give text mapping a try, you'll be glad you did!

Happy Teaching!

~Beth

Reader’s Theater

Reader's Theaters are known to be super beneficial for students. With a reader's theater, the kiddos can bring the writing to life and be the voice they think the author is intending. They are able to put context to their reading. I love using reader's theaters!! With PA taking the state tests for the past two weeks, we have had some extra time down at the end of the hall. I thought what better way to utilize this time than to bring in some reader's theaters?! Currently, our reading unit is focusing on the presidents and the preamble, so I scooted over to Scholastic and this reader's theater website and found a couple that we could use.


I am a huge advocate for letting students learn as they go, so I gave them the scripts, they practiced and helped each other with picking voices and movements, and they even got creative with props they made! I love seeing their little minds at work!

So, after a long two weeks of hard work and practice, we were ready to put them on. I invited the other third grade ELA teacher and her class over to be our audience.

 Do you use reader's theaters in your classroom?

Happy Teaching!


~ Beth

Reader's Workshop

I love reader's workshop!! Like I said in an earlier post, I've tried the Daily 5 for a few years and in a few grade levels, but just plain ol' reader's workshop is for this girl! Like any workshop model, we begin our day with a mini lesson on the rug. We have two rules: (1) I teach them something new and (2) the kids learn. I know, kinda cheesy, but when I ask, "What's your job today?", they all respond with "to learn!". Music to my ears : )

So then comes the fun part... I posted earlier about how I do individual conferences, so I thought I would let you all know what the rest of the kids do. Each kiddo has a reading binder that keeps everything in it, literally. We have tabs set up and everything. That's a whole other post in itself! Two of the sections are Reading logs and Reading Response. When they start a new book, they write it down on their reading log and graph it on the Genre graph. Both of these I stole borrowed from Beth Newingham; she's so awesome! In the Reading Response section, readers can write down their thoughts on stickies and keep them using the sticky note keeper, or on a response page.

The rest of the time is devoted to...you guessed it, reading! That's why I love this so much; how can we expect our students to grow as readers if we don't give them enough time to read?  I have carpet squares and rugs that my students can take to where they want to read. But, some still just choose to stay at their desks to read.

What do you do for reader's workshop? How do you have your kiddos pick where they sit? Leave a comment below!

Happy teaching! : )

Crate Seats

I just had to jump on this bandwagon; crate seats are super cute and great for organizing! I made my crate seats last summer and have survived this year with a group of third graders and held up surprisingly well! I got my crates at Big Lots, fabric, ribbon for the handles, and foam at Hobby Lobby, and wood slabs at Lowe's. All I did with the wood was take the crate into Lowe's, they measured the crate and cut the wood right there in the store for me. It was awesome! Here is what they look like:

I have my crates at my guided reading table and they have everything the kids would need for group: a whiteboard, eraser, Expo marker, pencils, highlighter, and post it notes. I put all the smaller things like pencils into a pencil box so they just pull that out when they come to group. They have been a real lifesaver.

Do you use crate seats in your classroom? What do you use yours for?

Happy teaching! :)

Reader's Workshop: One-on-One Conferences

For the past few years, I have become very familiar with the reading workshop model used by many classrooms, the Daily Five, but still only used guided reading groups. I used all the stations, the check-in sheets, and all that good stuff. After reading a post on Beth Newingham's Scholastic blog, I decided to make a change. I already used most of the components Beth already used, but I added individual conferences. I must say, BEST DECISION EVER! If you haven't already tried individual conferences, do it!  :)  I read Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop and it truly helped to get these conferences up and moving. The book breaks it down so easily!

So for the past few weeks, I have been seeing kiddos one-on-one and learning so much about them as readers. Each conference starts pretty much the same: I sit down next to them, that's right, even if they're on the floor :) and ask how their reading is going.

We talk about what we discussed the last time we met and decide if he/she needs to keep the same goal or move on to another. Then, I take a minute or so reading with them, and maybe taking some time to teach a skill or reinforce the skill they are already working toward. You may be wondering, how does a student choose a skill? Simply put, I ask them, "What do you want to work on as a reader?" Sometimes I get a "UMMMM, I don't know..." then other times, "I want to work on main idea and details because I'm not sure how to find details." I know the latter is quite amazing to hear! :) I keep track of everything we talk about in my data binder on a sheet I created.

 

Each box on the page has the child's book title, page # (to see how they're coming along in the same books), date, notes, and next time. I made the notes section very general because every student has a different skill they want to work on. I use the "next time" section to jot down something I need to remember to discuss with that student between conferences at the next conference. 

I love these individual conferences because it holds the students accountable for their own learning and I love seeing them be so excited about how they are getting better at their goals.

Happy teaching!

Prefixes and Suffixes

According to research, one of the best ways to learn vocabulary and comprehend better is learn word parts, or for third graders, prefixes and suffixes (Samuels and Farstrup 2008). I like to teach one prefix and one suffix a week. I introduce the affixes on Monday and then throughout the week, my kiddos are able to practice. Sometimes their practice is to find as many words that have that prefix or suffix in their independent reading books as they can. Some kiddos are working on learning prefixes and suffixes better for their personal reading goal.

After I introduce each prefix and suffix, I attach it to the door frame. The prefixes go on the left side and the suffixes go on the right side. As a quick assessment before switching classes, I can glance to the door, choose a prefix or suffix, and the kids tell me a word with that affix as they line up. They love it and I can tell who knows them! Here is what I do:

 I searched high and low all over Pinterest and TeachersPayTeachers and internet land and couldn't find a set of prefixes and suffixes that matched my needs exactly so I made a set myself. Click on the picture to take you to my store!

 

Happy teaching those prefixes and suffixes!

Snowy Days

I don't know about you, but my classroom is definitely benefiting from all this snow Pennsylvania has been getting. We've had so many snow days, I lost count! Since I live so close to my school, I was still able to make it in and spruce up the place a little bit. I revamped my big closet doors to make them pretty and of course to hang some student work. We have been working on our animal reports, and I needed the perfect place for them. If I'm allowed to brag, I am super excited about their work; they have been doing an AMAZING job! I'm very proud! :)

Anyway, I have been seeing all over Pinterest the cute double border, so I thought I would try it my self. I used a black background so my bright owl border would stick out much better. I ordered my owl border and little owl guys, they're soo cute! It's part of the Owl Stars theme:



 I first saw the idea on SchoolGirlStyle, click on the picture to see other awesome ideas:

 

I will keep you posted on the rest of my snowy day endeavors!

Happy teaching!

Vocabulary's CODE

Take a second and think about how you teach new vocabulary... This is what my reading supervisor asked the ELA teachers in grades 3-5 during a professional development day.  I learned several ways to teach new vocab throughout college courses and trainings in my district, but what my supervisor showed me next was very intriguing.

She introduced a book called The Core Six: Essential Strategies for Achieving Excellence with the Common Core, which can be found here.
In this book, there are lots of strategies for teaching within the Common Core, but we focused on the second strategy, Vocabulary's CODE.

The short version: CODE is an acronym. C is for Connect, O is for Organize, D is for Deep-Processing, and E is for Exercising in review. We tried some awesome strategies for these different ways to practice and learn words. As teachers, we should try for each of these ways to work with words. You can have kids sort words based on your own criteria or criteria of their own. They can draw pictures to represent meanings of words or make connections between different words in the same or separate books/passages. I've only talked about a few, but there are endless possibilities.

If your state has aligned their standards to the Common Core, you already know that deeper thinking is a big focus! Vocabulary's CODE is awesome for deeper thinking with vocabulary words.

Happy teaching! :)

The Beginning

Welcome to my teaching blog! I am super excited to get started on this new chapter in my life! First of all, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a first year teacher in a district that I grew up in. It's so wonderful to be working alongside some of the teachers that I looked up to growing up! I graduated from Shippensburg University in the fall of 2009. Since then, I have had loads of different experiences! I started out, as most do, as a day-to-day substitute teacher, fighting my way through the waters to get my name out there. Then, all of a sudden it seemed, my hard work payed off when I received a phone call for my first long term sub position in second grade. I have subbed in every single grade from Kindergarten to 12th grade, with the exception of 9th grade, with several long term assignments. Whoa, my eyes were certainly opened! Anyway, my last long term assignment landed me where I am now, happy as a clam, in third grade! Currently, I'm working on my Master's of Reading degree at Shippensburg University.

 I just started my journey on the teaching trail and I want to be able to share all of my ideas for reading, writing, and word work that I've come across over the years and help any other new or veteran teachers out there wanting a different way to do things. Stay tuned for some good stuff; you won't be disappointed!

Happy teaching! : )