Breaking in our Reading Spirals - Genre Overview

Once school started, my mailbox seemed to fill up with Book Orders rather quickly. Now, I'll be the first to admit I love browsing the new selections from Scholastic, but do I need 2 bundles of the same book order... twice in one week? No... No I do not. 

Bouncing off an idea from colleagues and Pinterest, I decided to use those Book Orders to chat about genres. To start the school year, I felt it was important to have an overview of some "big" genres they will encounter as readers. 

We discussed the general characteristics of about six genres and created a chart in our spirals. Then, students searched through the Book Orders to find examples of each genre. 

While students were working, questions and conversations were centered around the books they were previewing in the Book Order. We even started talking about OTHER genres I hadn't intended on bringing up - talk about a teachable moment! For example, I was able to introduce the Dystopian genre for my class. Pretty awesome!

How do you teach genres to your students? Share with me!

Reading Graffiti

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Donalyn Miller speak at a conference here at the Lake of the Ozarks. I blogged briefly about it here. Thanks to her presentation, I've been inspired to try out a few tricks in my classroom. She also introduced her participants to several resources, one of them being The Nerdy Book Club blog. If you're not following, you should be! 

I loved Donalyn's idea for a Reading Graffiti board. Using a large piece of black paper and metallic sharpies - reading magic is made! Students can write one quote per book per student. This challenges them to find the perfect quote. Below, you see our first being written... 

As of yesterday, we had six quotes written on our board. Students are so excited to add quotes and find that PERFECT one. I've had a few tell me they've found quotes, but they aren't quite sure what to write on the board. I've also had one gentleman who has shown me a quote on each page of his current read. When students find a quote, I've asked them to come read me the quote first. This has given me another glimpse into what type of reader they are. It's interesting what quotes and lines from the story they pull from the pages. 

Do you have any type of reading graffiti board in your room? Share your tricks!

Let's Make an Inference

First! A big congrats to my beloved Missouri Tigers for beating Alabama tonight in their first SEC match up! Big win for our basketball team. MIZZOU-RAH!

This week, our reading time is focused on making inferences and writing thoughtful responses. To start off, I used the 'ol "What's in my bag?" lesson plan. I showed my students a bag and pulled out items one by one. Inside the bag was a pair of sneakers, headphones, shorts, a t-shirt, and water bottle. As I pulled out each object, I asked the students to use clues from the bag to figure out what the purpose of the bag was. They all were able to conclude that my bag was for the gym, a run, or maybe even a hike!

Next, we watched the Pixar Short Film, "One Man Band". In short, the video (roughly 4 minutes long) is about a little girl who has one gold coin to give to street performers. There are no words in the film... only music and incredible animation. We watched the video once all the way through. Then, we watched again and paused to jot down notes on our graphic organizers. After our second viewing, students shared their ideas and inferences with the group.

Here are some great student quotes that stuck out to me. Yes, I prompted them to use "I infer":

"I infer that she's making a wish in the fountain because that's what I always do when I have a coin next to a fountain."

"My inference is that this takes place in Italy because of their clothing and the way the village looks."

"I infer that the little girl has little money because of her clothing and that she only has one coin."

...And so on and so on!

As a closer activity, I asked the students to write in their Reading Spirals to the following prompt: "Describe what you think the little girl did with her new bag of coins. PROVE IT!" (When I ask the students to prove it, it means to use details from the story to support their answer). While reading their responses this afternoon, I was floored by some of the things that I read! I was very impressed by their imaginations and their elaborate thinking and more importantly.. how they were able to WRITE ABOUT IT! 

Now, my teacher friends! How do YOU teach inferences to your students? How do you get them to read between the lines and identify what the author isn't telling us?

Hangin' in Brazil with Jaguars

We just wrapped up our literature study on Roland Smith's Jaguar and it was a BLAST! Not only were my students captivated by the story, but they engaged in meaningful discussions about the story. It was an awesome two weeks!

To begin our lit study, I started with a mini lesson on using post it notes. We brainstormed different ways we can use post it notes while reading chapter books. After coming up with a vast list (connections, questions, predictions, etc.), we decided (with my influence) to write a summary after each chapter.

Along with the story, I distributed a packet of comprehension questions and strategies. Each day, or every other day, had a different focus. For example, the first day we discussed questioning. As a group, we brainstormed questions prior to reading Jaguar. Then, I sent them on their merry way. The next day, I had small groups read the assigned chapters and determine story elements. After small groups had time to collaborate, we met together as a group and shared our ideas.

The discussion parts of the day were my favorite! Since I was reading the story with my kids, I was just as into the mystery and drama as they were. Some were begging to read more!! 

Throughout the two weeks, I had students read in small groups, in partners, independently, and I read chapters outloud. I definitely saved the last three chapters as a read aloud. It was so fun to participate WITH my students in the excitement. 

Thanks to my awesome high school teacher friend, Kelley, she helped me with ideas to make my kids "think outside the box". To wrap up our literature study, I gave my kids two different tasks. First, they had to dig deep into character analysis and write a haiku on Jacob, free verse poem about Taw, or create a comic strip detailing Jacob and Doc's relationship. I will admit, they struggled with the comic strip. This is something I would like to try again with a different approach.

As a final task, students were asked to create a new book jacket for Roland Smith's story, Jaguar. Inside the book jacket would contain a summary of the story and a mini bio on Roland Smith (an author my kids have grown to love!!) We can all thank my sweet friend Kelley for this idea as well. :)

I look forward to doing more literature studies similar to this one next year. Have you completed in any lit studies in your room? What types of activities and/or tasks do you assign to your students?

I posted this unit on my TpT account, but if you email me.. I'll send it to you for free! :)

Happy Monday, folks!

That's a FACT!

How many days until Christmas break? Not that I'm counting down or anything...

Anyway! The past week or so, we have been focusing on Fact and Opinion. I wanted to find a super-duper-fantastic idea that would leave my kiddos begging for fact and opinion daily, but I came up short. Many google and pinterest searches came up inconclusive. So! I racked my brain and came up with an idea of my own. Shocker! I didn't know I was capable of this anymore.

I'm a big big BIG fan of anchor charts. I don't know what it is, but I love rallying the troops around the carpet and charting information on a piece of chart paper together. Maybe it's the second grade teacher in me. Anyway, I love it. My original plan was to create an anchor chart for fact and opinion, create our own definitions and write examples... blah blah.  (I say "blah blah" like its a bad thing, but I still highly enjoy that idea!)

I decided to give the anchor chart a little face lift. Paging Dr. Paul Nassif (RHOBH, anyone?)!

Using a bulletin board, I created a giant T-Chart with border and my cricut. One side labeled, "Fact" and the other "Opinion".

First, we ironed our own definitions of fact and opinion and wrote those on chart paper. Then, using sentence strips I modeled writing down an example of an opinion. My opinion statement was, "I believe the Grinch is the best Christmas movie, ever!" We discussed why this was my opinion and it couldn't be proven true. Then, I handed the sentence strips over to the kiddos and let them write! They were chomping at the bit to write down examples of facts and opinions. We were writing, stapling, writing examples, and stapling some more. It was super interactive and high energy in my classroom for the entire lesson!

Yes, 3x3=9

Eh, Football is okay!

Overall, it was a pretty fun lesson and now we have our stellar bulletin board to refer to. Anyone have any other great ideas for fact and opinion? Send them my way!

Have you seen my friend Ashley's delightful blog One Fine Day? If you haven't, you should head over because she's hosting her first giveaway! She's a talented blogger and if you aren't following her, you must start NOW!

Smitten & Swell