Reading Strategies Book-Week Three

What a nice week!  My husband had this week off and we spent some time together relaxing, visiting the fair, doing some odd jobs around the house and eating at new restaurants.  I also read another book for pleasure!  I think I'm up to four this summer!  Obviously I'm also reading for professional development, too.  Let's talk about Goals 4 & 5, shall we?

Goal 4-Teaching Fluency

Jennifer Seravallo, along with Rasinski and Kuhn, notes that, for the reader, pace, phrasing, intonation, expression, and emphasis shows "the text is making sense and makes sense of the reading."  Fluency is a sign of comprehension.  Though this can be difficult for a young reader to synthesize, I think.  Just as students at beginning reading levels are working so hard to read the words, that their comprehension dips, I think it is also true that students focus on the comprehension, thus their fluency dips.  I believe this all seems to come together in about third grade. 

As a third grade teacher, I found several strategies that would benefit my students.  Some of my favorites include:

4.1 Read It Like You've Always Known It

Seems pretty obvious, right? But I think sometimes it takes students so much effort to figure out a word, that I am just glad they've completed the task.  Most likely, I congratulate them and we move on.  I need to remember to have them reread that part so it becomes more fluent!

4.16 Read Like a Storyteller

I like this strategy because it incorporates several other strategies into one when the student is ready.  Using this strategy, students read like a narrator and like the character taking into account the character's feelings (strategy 4.11) and the tags the author uses with dialog (strategy 4.10 and 4.21) improving their intonation and expression.  I can easily see how including these strategies reflects a student's comprehension. 

4.19 Snap to the Next Line

So often students read right through punctuation or stop their phrasing when they get to the end of a line of text.  By looking ahead to where the punctuation is and snapping to the next line, students   see where their voice should stop. This strategy works well with Get Your Eyes Ahead of the Words (4.14) as well as looking at Punctuation at the End of Sentence (4.6) and Punctuation Inside a Sentence (4.8)

4.18 Partners Can Be Fluency Teachers

Teaching the students to really help their classmates when working together is a tricky, but necessary, use of time.  By noticing mistakes their partner is making, students are more likely to recognize their own mistakes.  Teaching them to guide their partner and perhaps making an anchor chart similar to the one on page 125 is a great reference that students can refer to to coach each other. 

Goal 5-Supporting Comprehension in Reading

This seems to be my favorite chapter so far, since this is where my students struggle most.  I feel like I ask the same question over and over to get students to think about their reading.  "Tell me what happened in this book/chapter/section."  I am so glad to have some new ideas!

The first sentence resonated with me as a book lover myself, "To help students achieve that lost-in-a-book, engaged sort of reading that makes reading enjoyable they have to understand what is going on." So true! How can you get lost if you're not understanding!  When looking for comprehension can a child tell you what they read sequentially and include the most important information?  Sorting through what is important is difficult for third graders-they want to tell EVERYTHING that happened!

These strategies will be helpful in my reading groups and book discussions:

5.4 Uh-oh...Phew

What a great way to think of plot and important information!  Something happens (the first uh-oh) then the problem gets worse (UH-OH), finally there is a solution (Phew!)  The visual that accompanies this strategy can easily be used as a kiddo reads through their book.  I also love that this can be used with the F-L readers (and beyond)!

Seravallo, p. 137

5.14 Chapter-End Stop Signs

Students at the third grade level (and their parents) feel like they SHOULD be reading chapter books.  Whether they are ready or not, and even in complex picture books, a child may not read all in one sitting.  This strategy suggests students note what has happened in what they have read, then review those notes before continuing to read.  Sticky notes would be the perfect tool since what the students write needs to remain brief and can also be attached to the page they just finished when writing. What a great way to monitor a book club or group as well as discuss perceptions based on what the students have read (different points in the story) as well as the personal connections they have made!

 

5.20 Not Just Page Decorations

This strategy is so perfect for my advanced readers (P and above)!  What great discussions we could have using higher level thinking when noticing the breaks and marks an author uses to signal changes in setting or time!  

P.S. Did you notice that my book is spiral bound?  For about $5 and an hour or so, I was able to go to the Kinko's/FedEx and have them re-bind my book.  I got this idea from I Teach, What's Your Superpower when I was researching this book.  Great idea!!  This has already proved helpful in reading through this book and I am sure to appreciate it when I am flipping through it as a reference while using with my class!  

The next two chapters continue to focus on specific elements of comprehension in fiction; characters and themes/ideas.  I'm sure it will be difficult to discuss just a few!  See you next week!

Reading Strategies Book-Week Two

Well, I hope you have been enjoying your week so far.  I just finished week 2 of summer break.  This week I got a few things done around the house, went to see the Incredibles 2-that was fun, enjoyed some time with my mom at a PlantNite event, and had Russian/Ukranian food with friends. My younger daughter just finished her summer school, so I no longer have to worry about that schedule and my husband is off this next week so we plan to get out and about in this wonderful weather.  PS if you have Plant Nite in your area, try it I created this cute amethyst bowl and had fun doing it! 

*Reminder my book study is based on a study of the same book published in 2017, found here on the blog Teaching Little Miracles.

Goal 2: Teaching Reading Engagement

In this chapter Jennifer Serravallo notes the importance of engagement.  In fact, she concludes, based on several studies, that "Research has shown that the amount of time kids spend practicing, on-task, with eyes on print, makes the biggest difference to their success as readers and across content areas".  This can become a bit tricky in that students at the third grade level (my students) are learning to find their own reading materials, but at the same time are required to read several types of text in the school setting, many of which they would likely not choose themselves.  

In Crystal's blog she notes that she doesn't like book/reading logs.  I admit, I'm not a fan either.  In my experience, many children (and parents) are dishonest on reading logs.  Either they sign off on the log whether or not the reading has been completed or they write down titles that have not been read or may be inappropriate for the reader. (Like I don't notice when they are "reading" books they are not ready for or that are too easy, and it is pretty obvious when a poor reader has a full reading log each week!)  But I want to mention that I may have found a solution.  I came across these Skill Based Reading Logs from Miss DeCarbo that I plan to try this school year. They focus on a reading skill rather then the number of books or minutes a student reads! Now, why didn't I think of that!?  I'm hoping it is the answer to my battle with reading logs!

Some of the strategies I found interesting include:

2.6 Fixing the Fuzziness

As a student reads, they learn to check in with themselves to be sure the reading makes sense.  If it doesn't, they need to go back and reread.  This seems pretty obvious, but I never really thought of it for the lower level readers.  I was much more focused on the word recognition/phonics than on context, which makes it perfect for a third grade reader at any level. In this strategy, she also suggests making a personal connection with the text, encouraging strong comprehension.

2.8 Set a Timed Goal

This strategy focuses on stamina.  It incorporates a mental break to help students stay engaged.  A break that is appropriate for each student!  What really drew me to this strategy was the goal setting visual.  I think often we ask the students to read so manny pages or for a certain time period without truly thinking of the students' needs.  This anchor chart includes multiple goals.  

2.15 Choose Like Books for a Best Fit

Another a-ha moment!  This strategy develops book choice.  Of course it makes sense to teach students to choose a new book based on a book they enjoyed--I do that all the time!  I just never really thought to use the internet tools I use.  I frequently recommend books to students based on authors or series that students have already read, but there are so many new books being published that I just can't keep up.  Maybe I can even incorporate this into my library by flagging specific books and even having my class write a recommendation.  I saw these a few years back, and, after much searching I finally found these speech bubbles where students can write book recommendations to put into your classroom library.  So cute! I'm going to make sure to use these this year and highlight a few "lost" books myself!

2.26 Does it Engage Me?

Also emphasizing book choice and focus, is this little strategy.  After reading the first page of a book, ask a series of questions to the reader to determine if they would really be interested in the book.  Often, in the school library, there are some fabulous books with worn or unappealing covers.  Students really do judge a book by its cover (and who am I kidding?  so do I!).  Books such as The Hardy Boys are so captivating for students, but they've often been in the library for quite some time and don't have the cover appeal as newer titles.  This is a different way to approach a quality book.

I had trouble understanding the Go/Stop mat in strategy 2.11.  If this strategy was clearer to you, would you please explain it in the comments?  Thanks!  Do your students need support with engagement? What strategies did you find most appealing? 

Goal 3: Supporting Print Work

This goal is all about decoding.  I love how Jennifer Saravallo compares the integration of meaning, syntax, and visuals to a juggler with three balls in the air.  "It take coordination, mental effort, and strategic action." The reader has to put these skills into a mental tool box for later use while instead focussing on comprehension.  As a former second and first grade teacher, these strategies were very familiar to me.  However, these two stood out:

3.19 Take the Word Apart, Then Put it Back Together

What I liked most about this strategy was the wording: "readers are like detectives who try to figure out the mystery of a new word."  I think just using this phrasing will help students remember the skill!

3.22 Unpacking What it Means to "Sound Right"

By determining the parts of speech of an unknown word, the student is able to try different words that may sound right in the sentence.   This kind of thinking synthesizes student learning of grammar and reading and is perfect for the reader that occasionally comes across an unknown word.  I believe this strategy would work very well with my third graders.  

I also like how Crystal tells here students to "Spot the Vowel" when decoding words.  You can find her blog post about Goal 3 here as well as a cute TPR video to help students remember decoding skills. What decoding skills did you find most helpful? 

The Reading Strategies Book-Week One

This week I will be focussing on the chapters Getting Started and Goal 1.  Following Crystal's lead from her book study last year. After reading these first two chapters I was impressed by the loads of information that will be in each chapter of this book! This is really going to help me focus on what my students need to support their reading growth!

Getting Started

Favorite Quote:

My favorite quote from this chapter does just that, sums up the focus necessary to help young readers succeed.  

Here is where I struggle: My reading focus does not focus on the individual reader! The students just participate in the reading.  This is not to say they are not learning, they just aren't goal centered so have no focus themselves!  What is your favorite quote from this chapter?

Goal Setting:

Crystal asks, "How do you fit in time for conferencing and/or goal setting?"   Well, this will be something new for me.  I intend to use these strategies in small group guided reading, though I'm sure they will spill into Shared and Close Reading as well.  

I am thinking that once students are assessed and divided into small groups, I will make some time in the early weeks, while training my students on independent work and stamina, to have mini-conferences with each student to discuss and make goals for the first part of the school year.  I think I will modify their reading notebooks to make them more interactive.  These composition books will hold their goals and mini anchor charts that define and describe strategies so students can revisit them later, as well as include work toward that goal such as writing, vocabulary, etc.  How will you make time for individual conferencing or goal setting?

Scaffolding:

Jennifer Serravallo discusses the importance of offering a variety of strategies to students but "once the reader becomes skilled, the process, the strategy, becomes automatic and something to which the reader no longer needs to give conscious attention." (p. 9)

Crystal asks us to think about a temporary scaffold in our classroom and how we assure it is temporary.   One thing that comes to mind is the use of manipulatives during math.  I teach the students to use these when regrouping a number, but as the students internalize the understanding of the base-ten system, they no longer need those base-ten blocks.  For some, the removal of the blocks takes longer than others (thus the individual differentiation), but by the end of the unit few students will still need them.

This is exemplified in the Getting Started chapter by the types of charts noted on p. 16-18 and specific feedback on p. 11 as well as what Ms. Serravallo mentions in the "Visuals" section of each strategy. All are scaffolds that, with plenty of practice, students will no longer need to access after practicing specific skills.  What kind of scaffolding do you use in your class?

 Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers

This chapter is full of wonderful ways to support those emergent readers!  As a third grade teacher many of these strategies would not be beneficial to me (but thinking back to my first grade days, wowza--TONS of stuff!).  I could see several of these strategies helping with my students that are struggling readers, have IEPs, or are English Language Learners.  Three of my favorites are:

1.9 Back Up, Revise

With this strategy, students are revising their reading (and thinking) to be sure what they have read makes sense.  Often students read a text in one way and, even with their errors, it does make sense.  Then they find inconsistencies as they continue reading.  Using the prompts to have students revise their reading helps support the comprehension piece that is so essential to third grade and supports their confidence, even when the text appears to be simple to the student's peers. 

1.16 What I See/What I Think

I like this strategy because again, it does not scream, "You are a below level (or emergent) reader!" to a student's peers and because it can be used for both narrative and nonfiction texts.  In this strategy students make multiple connections to what they read in either the pictures or the text.  Again, this allows students to monitor their reading and understanding of a text.  This comprehension can support the phonics of reading words and self-correction as well.

1.19 Connect the Pages

Similar to What I See/What I Think, this strategy works with narrative or nonfiction and requires students to make connections within the text.  Students here are focussing on the big idea of the text, connecting the events or information from one page to another throughout the reading.  

It is easy to see myself using these strategies with my third graders that are at the emergent stage.  Unfortunately, I think these would have been very helpful with one of my IEP students last year even though he was in my low reading group, the other students were much further ahead than he was. He was could have been easily been working with the same materials as the other students but in a different, more effective, way that fit his ability level!  I look forward to having this resource for future students like this guy.  What strategies spoke to you from this goal?

Next week we will be reading Goal 2: teaching Reading Engagement and Goal 3: Supporting Print Work.  I look forward to reading your thoughts and sharing again next Tuesday.

Happy Summer! and a Book Study

I've been out for a week now and have spent a lot of time reorganizing things, planning out my summer, and generally relaxing-I've already completed two books for pleasure!

As teachers, though, we are always learning! Each summer I like to choose a book to read for Personal Professional Development. Seems I only write on this blog in the summer, but it keeps my ideas together and maybe someone will join in...  I chose the following book several weeks ago with the plans to improve my guided reading instruction (and consistency)!

The book itself came recommended (among others) in a teacher group on Facebook to the group as a whole.  I looked and looked for a book study, but it seems I missed the boat on that one-people read it a while ago.  So I'm jumping in on the study Crystal and Kristi did last summer on their blog, Teaching Little Miracles. --hope that's ok ladies--  I'll follow their lead, and from the study guide provided by Heinemann, but post my reflections here if you'd like to join me.

Here is my schedule for the summer:

Getting close!

Well, it is the end of July and I am quickly running out of summer!  The good news is that I have been productive, the bad news is I still have a LOT to do!  I forgot to post last week so here is what I've achieved recently.

See what others are up to on Tara's Monday Made It blog link.

I know there are lots of teachers out there in LOVE with their Erin Condren, Plum Paper. and other fancy plan books but those just don't work for me.  For years I have been creating my own plan book with the pages and layouts that work just for me.  (I also create my own personal planner.) So with my new grade level and theme, I updated my plan book.  Here is a sneak peek:

I went into my classroom last week and, to my surprise, it was already cleaned!  I wasn't even scheduled until July 24! My daughter and I started organizing my library and moved furniture.  Once that was complete, we planned how my boards will be laid out.  My Carson Dellosa order should arrive any day,  so this week I prepped some of my materials.

I cut the backgrounds for my student work board out of 12x12 scrapbook cardstock, printed and cut out student numbers, and created a new job board.  I also laminated and cut out the task cards for Third Day of Third Grade from Not So Wimpy Teacher.

Also, while on a scrapbook weekend with my girlfirends I used the Cricut to cut out letters for my motivation wall and the words that will go around the speech bubble for a reading board.  This is just a sample of the words I cut. 

The actual bulletin board photos are my Pinterest inspirations and you can click them for more info.  

Finally, I made some little gifts for my new team. (Again on my Scrapbook weekend--good thing my girlfriends are also teachers!)  I just made two sets of simple blank notecards for them and attached these cute tags to the top.  One of them is Vegan so I thought these would little gifts would be just right.  

 Next week I hope to go back in my classroom and get my bulletin boards in order! You'll see those photos next week!!

Being Productive

I'm linking up today with Tara and Maribel for

and I think I've been pretty productive if I do say so myself!  What do you think?

I started off by finishing up my Brag Tags, or at least the ones I'll be starting the year with.  Once I get my class list (the day before school starts) I'll make and laminate their name tags and string them on the ball chain necklaces and they'll start earning right away.  I think storing them in these "toolboxes" is both fun and functional.  Word to the wise: use a guillotine style cutter-you can cut more at the same time AND find a punch that requires less wear and tear on your hand muscles-I finally remembered that I had a Crop-O-Dile Punch and that saved my life!!  You're welcome!!

 I even have a few empty drawers to add to right away!

While I was busy having colored cardstock printed at Office Depot, I decided to also put together my fun welcome gift.  We start on Thursday this year and I always give pencils on the first day. I decided I wanted to continue that so I'll probably give these out Friday at the end of the day.  Looks like I forgot to add my name to the tags, oops! 

The template came from Cassie at Teaching and Technology.  You can find it here.

I also completed a rough version of my long range plans. It is only rough because I haven't been able to talk with my new team about their plans.  I figure not too much will change though.  I really liked this quick visual version that I saw posted by Jessica at the Teaching Oasis in last week's Monday Made It.  I then downloaded it from Ginger Snaps' website and changed it up a bit.  Here's my first page:

I really need to figure out just which wonderful ideas I will use the first few days of school and will probably pop into my classroom in the next two weeks to work on my classroom environment. Thanks to Fourth Grade Frolics, you are all holding me accountable to get stuff done this summer! Thanks!

Happy Fourth, America!

Although it is already Tuesday I wanted to share with you a little of what I have been working on this week along with Tara with a

 

I want to use these Monday Made-Its to keep me on track with all of the changes I want to make in my classroom this year, so stop by on Mondays to see what I've accomplished!

My first Made-It actually has nothing to do with my classroom though!  However, I was shopping for classroom items at the Dollar Tree when I was reminded that I wanted to make a new wreath for my home.  Lucky me, I found the wreath form at Dollar Tree and the fabric squares were on sale for $1 each at Joann's! 

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest and it looked easy and cheap so I gave it a go! I tried to pick some summer-y colors and I think it turned out pretty cute. Not as cute as the one in my Pin, which is much more full (and I even put more fabric strips than the directions said!), but cute just the same!

Now, I don't really know if this counts, but I have been prioritizing the things I PLAN to make and even purchased some materials for future Made-Its, but honestly...I'm waiting for a TPT sale!  Once I purchase and print, I'll be "making" up a storm and will share the final products with you then!  I've also done some serious cleaning in my home office but will share the final result next week.  I need to take a break until the trash pickup comes.  Between me tossing all sorts of paper and my daughter's 6-pizza-box pool party, the recycle bin is FULL!

Now its off to enjoy some Independence Day festivities and celebrate this great country I live in (flaws and all)!