Fiction and Non-Fiction Sources

Informational text and sources are important components in balanced literacy. Education Week has several articles that you can read related to Literacy and the Common Core. You might also want to read about the International Reading Association and read about The Guidelines for Literacy Implementation for ELA Common Core State Standards.
Students in grade K-1 need the foundational reading skills, therefore text complexity begins with second grade. In grades 2-12, teachers should faciliate high-level, text-based discussions that empower showing evidence from the text. I simply state to my students, "Prove It, Show me where in the text the author states or the author leads you to believe."  Scaffolding and teaching research-proven reading comprehension strategies will empower students' motivation, confidence, and academics. Therefore, leading students to become college and career ready. Teachers need to provide opportunites and guide students to gain a deep understanding of text through questioning, drawing conclusions, inferring, citing evidence, analyzing, proving, and application. Integration ,among core subjects with reading and writing ,provide authentic learning and allow students to develop logical arguments, compare and contrast, explain phenomena using vocabulary, as well as, summarize, interpret, predict,connect, recall, and identify. Through teacher faciliation and practice, students become independent thinkers and are being prepared for real-life experiences. Teachers should focus on the process of reading and understanding reading comprehension, not just the final product. (Same in math-It is not always about getting the correct answer, but how did you find the answer or what process did you use.)
Here are some sources that I have used this year and in the past to aide in balanced literacy and comprehension:

1. www.readworks.org
2. Scholastic News or Scholastic Scope
3. Time for Kids
4. Comprehension Toolkit K-2
5. Comprehension Toolkit 3-6
6. http://docsteach.org/
7. newspapers or news magazines
8. biographies
9. science and/or social studies text
10. PebbleGo
11. books

There are so many resources to facilitate balanced literacy. As teachers we need to provide ample time and opportunities for our students to read, read, read, and write, write, write.  Instill a love for reading with fun-filled activities such as games, graphic organizers, technology,....the possibilities are endless.

Here are a couple of new ones I recently discovered at the Georgia Association for Gifted Children 33rd Anuual Convention-Discovering Our Way: S.T.E.M.

• Writing Prompts is a website that uses pictures, scenerios, words, and more to excite students about writing. One thing that I like about each entry is that a Common Core Standard has been included.
• Wonderopolis is a FUN-wonder of the day. Great for critical thinking activities, class discussions, writing, and much more.

Happy Reading!

Zippin Down the Bunny Trail

I am excited about being a stop on the Zippin Down the Bunny Trail and that you stopped by to pick up some items from me!

We have been zippin down this trail all week! Therefore, be sure NOT to miss out!

I have created a

packet. This Spring Package includes:

• A set of Hop into Reading Bookmarks

A Variety set of Spring Bookmarks

Lastly, a story organizer has been included for all that reading!

Be sure to click HERE to grab your goodies!

Keep on hoppin' to Tonya's Treats for Teachers for another AWESOME freebie!





Spring is in the Air and Zero the Hero

I have been working on some oldies with a techno effect. This means a long time ago I made some games the "old-fashion" way-you know the copy and paste and tape and markers and .....Well, I brought home some of these games and now I am making them using techno and posting them in my store.

Here is my newest series-Say, Stamp...

I have three versions thus far:

Say, Stamp, Write, Draw (Spring Words)

Say, Stamp, Write, Syllables (Earth Day Words)

Say, Stamp, Trace, Write (Dolch Words-Pre-Primer)

Here is a sneak peek at Dolch Words Pre-Primer

I will be working on more too.

I am also creating a Mystery Unit suitable for second and third graders and a Stock Market Unit suitable for fifth graders.

What are you working on?

Here is another tidbit I learned while blogstalking this evening-Go to Love2learn2day and enter the Zero the Hero discover how the book was "born" and join the giveaway.

Non-Fiction and SQ3R (Review)

Non-Fiction-Final SQ3R post

 

SQ3R stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review

 

Review-SUMMARIZE

Here

Before teaching the SQ3R process, I did some research (as I do before I fathom tricky or unknown territory). During my research, I stumbled upon the book, Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling: Skills for Better Reading, Writing, and Test Taking  written by Emily Kissner, and the book is a Heinmann publication. In this book, the author distinguishes the differences in paraphrasing, retelling, and summarizing. Chapter two also extinguishes myths about each and gives the reader a better understanding of paraphrasing, retelling, and summarizing. Here are some things she states about summarizing:

1. A summary should be shorter than the original text.

2.A summary should include the main ideas of the text. 

3. A summary should reflect the structure and order of the orignal text.

4. A summary should include important details. 

In this series of lessons, the students had a lot of practice summarizing using fiction and non-fiction. I started with fiction first using a variety of strategies and graphic organizers.  Then, students summarized non-fiction using different graphic organizers.

Before teaching my students how to summarize, I had them practice retelling fiction and non-fiction texts. During the lessons detailing summarizing, I wanted the students to understand how to summarize fiction and non-fiction. I had determined that I wanted  them to be able to :

•  locate important events from the story of fiction texts, passages, and articles. I introduced my students to the Somebody, Wanted, But, So graphic organizer.  Be sure to visit The students used this organizer during and after reading to help them remember what they read, summarize, and gather supporting details. Class discussions, lessons, and modeling consisted of each part of the organizer. Students also had to "prove" using evidence from the story to support their findings during their reading. After much discussion, we began creating thoughts and phrases that helped us with our evidence from the text(s). Therefore, I created a large anchor chart similar to this one at Create.Teach.Share. Then, I downloaded this for each student's notebook.  Reading skills used during these applications include identifying conflict/resolution, identifying differences, goals, and motivations, identifying main idea, and details, recognizing cause and effect relationships, making generalizations, understanding how shifting the point of view changes the aspect of the story. To grab the booklet organizer ready for students to use with reminders of each task, click here or visit my TpT store.
•  teach students how to identify text structures (compare and contrast, problem/solution, chronological order, cause and effect, etc.) to improve reading comprehension in non-fiction. (I used the SWBS organizer for non-fiction also, but I also have other organizers to aide in the text structures process-to be uploaded soon.) Other organizers used for non-fiction include the 3-2-1 and this booklet.

 How do you summarize in your classroom?

WOOT! WOOT!

LOOK! What I have just added to my TpT store . It is an I Have, Who Has  vocabulary game and quiz about the Life and Times of Cesar Chavez I am super excited because it includes  13 vocabulary words, but the quiz reaching into various depths of knowledge including multiple choice questions, constructed response questions, and a document based question. 

Here is a sneak preview:

*I am going to give one away  to the FIRST person that comments on this post.

 Be sure to leave your email in the comment.

Are you keeping your resolutions? (Freebie too)

Have you forgotten you New Year's Resolutions ?

or Are you keeping your New Year's Resolutions?

Are you continuing to set goals, check your goals, and improve?

Here are some ways that I have been keeping my resolutions:

 Spending time with my daughter at Statewide Honor Chorus (Bragging Time--Not only is she gifted, she is also talented with voice and dance.)

Spending time with my older son as he loves all sports.

Spending time with my hubs.

Valentines fun with my family-complete with chocolate covered strawberries for one, Nerds candy for the other, and banana for another. Look at all Valentines!

Universal Fun

You know you are a teacher when you are exercising at the gym with these crazy socks.

I have been blogging (more often). Be sure to read my posts on SQ3R.

I have been researching and increasing my professional knowledge, analyzing, and applying to classroom.

I have been creating new units and items to sell at my TpT store (Check back often.)

Here is one freebie:

Be sure to comment to tell me how you are keeping your resolutions. I can't wait to hear.

Non-Fiction and Animoto

Take a look at my 2nd grade Focus students research projects after our unit on Italy.

Click the link below to watch:

Non-Fiction Pastabilities


This was created using Animoto. If you have not heard about this website, you are missing out. It is easy to use and create videos such as this. Check it out at www.animoto.com