Anchors Away Monday (Plot)

Happy Labor Day! Hope you all are enjoying your day off (or getting ready to start school if you haven't went back already)! I'm linking up with Deb from Crafting Connections for her Weekly Anchors Away Monday!

 We started school two weeks ago and it has been crazy busy since! The saying, "There is no tired like teacher-tired at the beginning of  the year!" couldn't ring more true!  I've been exhausted for the past couple of week and we still don't have everything running smoothly at school yet. Schedules are a nightmare (hopefully, this will be completed soon) and getting into the swing of things is grueling! BUT, it will get better! Hopefully... :)

This week my reading class will be focusing on plot! This is one of the anchor charts I plan to use as well as a video clip to help students understand the important aspects of plot!
                         

 

I also plan to use this video clip from

 Watch Know Learn

This is a GREAT site for quick teaching clips! 

  

I plan to combine these two activities with their interactive notebook in order to teach plot! We will be revisiting the story Because of Winn Dixie this week in order to dig deeper into the text! 

Have a Fantastic Labor Day!!!

Anchors Away Monday Double Entry Journal

I love anchor charts! I've seen soooo many great ones on blogs, pinterest etc. that I can't wait to use in my classroom this year! Today, I'm linking up with Deb from Crafting Connections for Anchor's Away Monday to share one of those fabulous charts!

This is one of the anchor charts I plan to use during the first few weeks of school to teach the students about close reading and thinking about what you read. This double entry chart gives the students an area to write information found in the text as well as an area to reflect on the information they find. Disclaimer: This is NOT my creation. I found this on pinterest and loved the idea. This chart is found on All Things Upper Elementary if you'd like to read more about it!

Three Fun and Engaging Close Reading Strategies for Common Core Reading, Speaking and Listening Standards!

 This year I'm excited about incorporating some new strategies in my ELA classroom as well as using some of my old favorites with my new set of students!  Some of the strategies I plan to use with my fourth graders include:

                                  Strategy 1  The Fishbowl

A Fishbowl discussion in Mrs. Gross's 5th Grade Class (Detroit Future Schools)

 

 

     This first strategy was first introduced to me by my cousin who teaches high school. The picture above is NOT her class, but one that I found on a blog using the same technique with younger students. The Fishbowl Discussion Strategy uses two groups of learners seated or standing in two circles. The first group, the fishbowl group, are the students in the center of the circle.These students are the ones who are actually discussing the topic or answering the focus questions. The outer circle of students, the observers, are watching the the discussion group, taking notes about what they are seeing and hearing and will use those notes to add to the discussion after the "fishbowl"  group has finished. Both groups have an important task and are contributing to the lesson. This is an excellent way to teach the common core speaking and listening standards.Students are also encouraged to use Accountable Talk with phrases such as "I'm hearing you say...."  "I agree with ...."  "I disagree with..." etc. Students MUST cite evidence from the text to support or refute their or their classmate's contribution. The diagram below shows the seating arrangement for the "fishbowl" discussion.

                                

               Strategy 2 Keep It, Cloud It, Junk It

This is one of my favorite strategies. I've used this for the past couple of years and the students really enjoy it!  My students have always caught on  well to this one and the lesson is truly run by the students rather than led by the teacher.

            

                     Strategy 3 Jigsaw  Method 

This is a short video clip of how one teacher uses the Jigsaw method. I like the fact the students are give a specific part of the text to analyze in their group. Then after small group discussion they will move to whole group discussion where they teach their peers what they learned, observed, noticed etc. about their aspect of the text.

Reused Summer Fun!

Summer is here and I don't know who is more excited-the teachers or the students! My guess it that it is a toss up! Personally, I love summer and all that it entails, but just because you take the teacher out of the classroom, doesn't mean you can take the classroom out of the teacher. 

This past week I decided to get my pre-teen son off of the computer games and outside for a while, so I planned some night time fun with s'mores, water balloons and glow sticks! The idea for a water bottle glow stick ring toss is not mine (but I really wanted to share this awesome idea). I found it on here on  Design Dazzle's Blog. You MUST check this site out for some really cool ideas for glow sticks!

As you all know glow sticks don't last very long. After a day or so they lose their magic glow and look pretty boring. So what do most people do with the old glow sticks? Throw them away, of course. However, the teacher side of me (see? you can't take the classroom out of the teacher even in the midst of summer fun) had an "aha moment" for  a wonderful use for those used glow sticks.  Venn diagrams!

For our ring toss game, I used the long necklace size which came two to a pack at the Dollar Tree.

These are PERFECT for the water bottle ring toss AND for small personal VENN DIAGRAMS!  I would however use a dab of super glue to secure the ends in the connector. Also caution the students not to try to bend and break them or you will have a liquid mess. Yikes! Upper elementary students should be able to handle this without a problem.

Collect your used glow sticks, secure the ends in the connectors with super glue and Voila! You now have instant hands-on interactive Venn Diagrams for centers, desk tops, small groups etc.! AND you have helped the environment by reusing summer fun! You could also use these for a ring toss review game if you wanted to. :)

My FAVORITE Strategy for Digging Deep into Text

Text Mapping! I happened to find this strategy while surfing the net. I was a bit skeptical at first, but decided to give it a try with my fourth graders. I'm so glad I did! It is fabulous and my students loved it! They also were very good at it! :) We did this several times during the year and my students were always excited to work on this skill.

The short version of text mapping is that students can have a deeper understanding of the text if they can see it all at once (as opposed to having to flip pages). This is great for the students who need to see the "whole" picture before they can understand the "parts".

I always write the focus questions on the board and we "UNRAAVEL" (this is another wonderful strategy I'll blog about a little later)  these questions as a class before they begin their group work. (Ignore my sloppy handwriting on the board :)  We were in a hurry due to end of the year activities and I usually display my standards in a more appropriate way as well. End of the year chaos and packing had already begun by the time I remembered to take pictures of this skill. :)

It is a little extra work for the teacher due to the fact you have to run off every page of text you plan to use and leave enough white space around the text for student to write.  You can see how the text is shrunk, copied and attached as a "scroll".

The students will then use markers and color coded key to mark specific text features. They do all of this BEFORE reading the text, but I encourage mine to discuss what they are marking and why with their group. They can even read the captions for the pictures or diagrams as they mark it. You can use any color-coded key of your choosing, but this is they one I did.

This is displayed on the Smart Board so students can use it as they work in their groups.

When they have finished marking each text feature, they will read the text as a group and work on the focus questions. (Sometimes they have already found an answer or the part of the text where the answer should be from their text-mapping). I also encourage them to write the question number down beside the part of the text they "think" might have the answer as they text map.

When they have finished text mapping, reading, and answering the focus questions we discuss the text as whole group. This is a sample of a finished text map.

For a more detailed explanation of  Text Mapping  go here.