The Return

My summer projects for school came to a halt as did this blog since the beginning of the month. BUT not because I became hopeless, rather because I became engaged!!!!

On July 2nd Matt proposed, and I happily said yes! Because we are hoping to be married before the year is through previous priorities were put on the back burner.

Now that some major wedding decisions have been made, I am back to blog! I met up with a colleague this morning after tutoring and she gave me a few books on Autism in the inclusive classroom. I have dived into one already, and am really enjoying it. I even love the title- "You're Going to Love This Kid!". It is written by Paula Kluth and I am looking forward to reading more of it. I will share my notes and thoughts as I read more.

Miss B, Busy Bee

If you are looking for another teacher blog to follow, take a peek at Miss B, Busy Bee.  To spice things up she is having a giveaway of some neat stuff! I especially like some of the genre stuff she has up. Worth a look-sy.

Stop and think, then jot

This idea comes from Danielle Mahoney. I've created a document to help students remember the "reading stems" (Angela Bunyi), and will use this system of post-it notes. The point is to take time out and practice thinking about reading to boost comprehension. 

Now, I am a big supporter of simply enjoying books for what they are, but I also think there is a time and a place for this purposeful reading-and when these skills do not come naturally I need to incorporate them into the classroom. 


Students will use post-it notes as they read at a guided reading center. The different "stems" (questioning, connections, inferring, determining importance etc.) will be introduced or reviewed as a whole class, and then practiced independently or in small groups. Students will record their thoughts and refer to the corresponding stem symbols on their post-it. On the post-it I will also expect them to write down the page number they were thinking the specific thought! :-)These skills will be then assessed with a Reader's notebook. Students will write a Reader's response letter to me about what they are reading weekly. In turn, I will meet weekly with each student in a conference setting to read their letters and talk about their writing. We will work one on one to create strong habits. I will share strong student work with the class.


Students will also keep a reading log. They will keep track of which book they are reading and include the genre. Parents will need to sign that nightly reading is completed. I am still undecided about doing whole class novels. I may allow students to vote on books of interest and do 1 every other quarter. Otherwise, it will be small group guided reading of leveled readers, the basal, novels, or independent reading. 


I've also been thinking about how all these ideas will realistically be incorporated into the time frame I have. 


I'd like to: 

-Greet students with a come in song and H (handshake, high-five, or hug) as they come in at 10:20. Last year I found myself feeling rightfully guilty for being busy setting things up or checking email or distractedly saying hello as students filed into my room.

-Allow students to get a drink and use the restroom, juggle, bounce on tramp until the end of the song.

-Teach a skill-whole class 15-20 minutes 10:25-10:45

-Spelling center/Wordly Wise center (this would be interchanged weekly)
- Independent  4 students for 20 minutes with tests and homework due on Wednesdays 10:50-11:10

-Reading center- 3 students and paraprofessional 20 minutes 11:10-11:30

-Conference center- Miss Zierke and 1 student pulled from spelling center (student must do Reader’s response letter the day before at one of the centers) 20 minutes 

On the days that I am not conferencing I will switch with the paraprofessional to hear the students read more. She will then guide the Spelling and Wordly Wise centers. This is a lot to do, but I think that it is possible. I also think it will be a much more productive use of my time. I'd like to do poetry folders too for fluency, so I imagine most days will have either only one center, or little/no whole class instruction. 

I've also finished one of my signs to go outside my door! How exciting!

P.S. If you're looking for a new giveaway to enter and are a part of TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers) read Miss B, Busy Bee. :-) 

Spelling

Ahhhhh!

One frustration I had last year was Spelling. How to incorporate it? How to test it? Which words to use? To do a phonics based/vocabulary based/basal based program....what to do, what to do? I was frustrated creating lists, and I was frustrated with the resources available. Students were frustrated with failing. I modified and individualized. My efforts were not consistently paying off. I was frustrated with failing.

Today I found some reassurance. I read 4/5 grade teacher Brent Vasicek's blog, found on Scholastic. I also visited his classroom website. You may see it for yourself here. It includes his way of teaching spelling. He calmed my fear of there only being right way of teaching spelling.

He differentiates spelling by requiring students to complete activities to earn points throughout the week. Scores on previous spelling tests determine the amount of points required. This way, students who 'get it' aren't wasting their time-they've already proven they know their stuff, while others who need it, are practicing. Each student chooses activities that they are comfortable with and that are meaningful to them. You can find his activity ideas on his website. He presents the activity choices with a Spelling Pie, Bingo Chart, or on a Checklist. These activities are strictly homework. The choices are given out on Wednesdays, and expected back on the following Wednesday, test day. I like the idea of having the entire weekend with the word list.

The word lists Mr. Vasicek uses include a combination of skills. On his website he even provides sample lists. These lists usually have prefix,suffix,root words, homophones, classroom words (pertaining to other content areas), and rhyming words.

Here's to revamping spelling next year!

Tutoring Samples

Well, here are a few samples. I still haven't figured out how to upload documents....Is it even possible? I tried saving them in multiple formats and couldn't add them as links either. I need to find an expert. : )

This is....Me model
(Me from 5th grade!)

The student I'm tutoring seemed to enjoy doing the "This is...Me" activity. He brought in a cute school picture of himself in a Bears jersey and right away said he is no longer a Bears fan...ha!

Visual Cue for "Preview"

I have also introduced him to the graphic organizer I use in the classroom for making predictions and previewing non-fiction books. We used it together with a book about rock climbing. He was able to make lots of connections since they rock climb in gym class. He didn't know what the word preview meant so he has prompted me to create a visual cue to use in the classroom next year. We related it to the movies too, and he had a little "ah-ha!" moment.

We've also done a bit with Math, and right away I have noticed that he has strong number sense, but lacks some functional skills like time and money. We'll have to change that! I love how "real-life" these concepts are.

Side note: Did you know that the origin of the term doughboy for the WWI American Expeditionary Force is unknown? I didn't....until after trivia on Wednesday. I also didn't know about 75% of the other questions so I suppose I need to watch more Cash Cab and Jeopardy.

Admission Ticket to 5th grade/Questionnaire
Student will include photo in empty box 

Golf, Cooking, Trivia

Found a few good references here. Check them out, from Mrs. Bunyi's classroom. She makes "the school way, the real way".  Good information and good reminders. She is also a runner. Cool.

Going to challenge my knowledge at trivia tonight at Backyard Bar and Grill, my cooking skills by making homemade pizza and a mango salad, and my golf game at the range. Amber is coming in to Belvidere for a little visit! 

I will update my tutoring progress after tomorrow's session. Let's just say, I'm excited! 

Tutoring Day One

Today is my first day of tutoring. I've spent much more time planning this summer than I did last year. I've created a binder for him (a student I will have next year) and I plan on "testing" out some of my ideas-particularly using poetry as a fluency/comprehension tool. I've chosen a few poems and tongue twisters from Timothy Rasinski and Lorraine Griffith's book Texts for Fluency Practice.

We are going to start today with a getting acquainted activity. Again, it is a gem I found yesterday on Victoria Jasztal's website. It is called "This is...Me." I've brought in a picture of myself from 5th grade, and written a paragraph about how I have changed since then. My student, will collect a picture of himself from 2nd or 3rd grade and we will talk about the changes he has experienced since then, and follow up by writing about them. Here is a link to her original pdf document explaining it in more detail.

I also plan on using "Foam Numbers", a program by Lou Ann Daniels, to improve said student's math facts automaticity.

Later today, mom, dad, and I are traveling up to Germantown, Wisconsin to visit my sister Abby. :-)