Buzzing with Ms. B

August 3: Scheduling Your Day! How to spend your time in Reader's Workshop

For my complete Reader's Workshop Pack, visit my TPT store!

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Thursday, August 8, 2013

Reader's Workshop MiniSeries: Episode 3: Read Alouds *Freebie!

Today is my third installment of my Reader's Workshop MiniSeries! Today I'm sharing about an important instructional tool: Read Alouds

Unfortunately, read alouds tend to be the first thing to be cut when your day is busy. To meet the demands of an overburdened schedule, we do without the read alouds, even though they are a valuable tool for teaching reading. These are some great benefits of including a read-aloud in your daily program.
Benefit #1 Exposing Kids to New Books
Wouldn't it be great if kids went over to the library and carefully browsed through the baskets, thinking things like, "Hmmm... I know I enjoy Lois Lowry, but I think I'd like to try something a little different this time!" or "Ah! Look at that historical fiction basket! Maybe I can find something to help me use my background knowledge I gained from our unit on westward expansion!" HAHAHAHAHA I know, it's not nice to laugh. But really? That's something kids learn over time. I'm not saying they'll never get there (ahem ahem) but they aren't there when they walk in your door. Read alouds are opportunities to share books with kids who may not find their reading niche. By exposing them to a variety of books (often carefully chosen because you know your kids), we can help them see what exactly is out there to read. Many of our kids aren't readers because they haven't found the books they love yet. Benefit #2 Opportunity to Model Comprehension Strategies
Read alouds are excellent opportunities to model comprehension strategies. You're the teacher. You know where you're going with your lesson. So you can carefully choose your text and your pause points, making sure that they are the best possible places to pause and practice your strategy. For example, if you're teaching how to make an inference, you pull out your Chris Van Allsburg basket, and BAM! Inference CITY! An inference on every page! And because you're modeling, you'll provide a great example of how to make an excellent inference.

Benefit #3 Opportunities for Students to Respond Verbally
Sometimes, in the race to make student tasks rigorous, I tend to focus on student reading and writing. I often forget the benefits of leveling the playing field by reading a text aloud and having students respond verbally. It takes away all the effort they have to expend on decoding and encoding, and instead allows them to focus on practicing the strategy and verbalizing their responses to their buddies. By creating some well-chosen opportunities to respond, sentence frames, and response structures (i.e., Kagan Structures), you can maximize your independent reading time.

Benefit #4 Model of Fluency

There's a scene in Despicable Me 2 where Agnes is sharing her Mother's Day poem. She reads it like many of our kids do. Robotic. Monotone. Completely dull with no expression! Read alouds are our opportunity to model fluent reading, including expression, intonation, and how to express a character's feelings through tone. At the beginning of the year, I create the above chart (or something similar). It's great to read as a nonexample as fluent reading, and then identify what's wrong with it. Once you create the chart collaboratively, you can use it throughout the year to hold my own reading and the kids' accountable for fluency!
Benefit #5 Models for Writing
I use read alouds as the first opportunity to interact with texts I plan to later use as models for writing. Throughout the year, my students use texts as models. This requires very close reading and dissection of the text. But the first reading should always be for enjoyment. These are a few of my favorite writing model read-alouds:

Benefit #6 It's FUN! It's a sad truth that many of our kids don't love reading. They haven't had the comforting experiences that help us love reading and find it a cozy or exciting activity. Read-alouds are our opportunities to share a special time with our kids, close on the carpet, and grow the love of reading. The more interesting voices you use, the better. If your kids cry, you've hit the reading jackpot.
These are some of my favorite fun read-alouds.

These books won't make your kids cry... but anything by Eve Bunting might. To help you get your Reader's Workshop ready & rolling, here's a seven-page Reader's Workshop Freebie Sampler from my Rolling Out Reader's Workshop!
Check out the other "episodes" in the Reader's Workshop MiniSeries:

August 3: Scheduling Your Day! How to spend your time in Reader's Workshop

For my complete Reader's Workshop Pack, visit my TPT store!

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Reader's Workshop MiniSeries: Episode 2: Classroom Libraries *Freebie!

Today is my second installment of my Reader's Workshop MiniSeries! Today I'm sharing about an important instructional tool: Classroom Libraries.

Not everyone gets a classroom library issued from the school. Even when you do, yours may look more like this than you would like it to.

So the responsibility for a great classroom library is often on the teacher. A well-organized library can help your kids make appropriate book choices.

Key Points
1. Less is more! Well, not too much less. But when you're faced with having an enormous library full of books kids won't read, or a smaller library full of books kids will read, go for the latter. If there's too much in there, kids have to sort through the rubbish to get to the good stuff. And let's face it.... a lot of our kids don't have too much stamina for hunting through a crummy library! 2. Think Bookstore. I was taught this by my first Literacy Leader. She said that bookstores do things for reasons. (I know, duh. But wait! There's more!) They break up the monotony by placing books in different directions on the shelf and by putting some on display. This gives your eyes (and your kids' eyes) places to go. One easy way to do this is with book displays. Mine (in the picture above) came from a book set someone else purchased. It's durable cardboard, so I covered it with a glue gun and fabric. Bookstands are also great for displaying books you want kids to notice:

You can get a simple one at Amazon for 2.49 each! 3. Organization.

I purchase baskets at the Dollar Store and put labels on each one. In my classroom, the library is divided into sections: Fiction and Nonfiction. I often separate the two into two different spaces. I had a student who called the Nonfiction section "The West Wing." lol I also differentiated the labels by color, putting Fiction on green and Nonfiction on yellow, so students could easily tell the difference. More popular baskets often include... - Special authors, such as Lois Lowry, Barbara Park and Jerry Spinelli. - Series books such as The Magic Treehouse, Bailey School Kids, and A to Z Mysteries - Subjects such as school stories, holiday stories, and sports stories - Genres such as historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. 4. Teach and Track!
A library sign-out sheet is also important for keeping track of your books. It's easy for kids to toss books back willy-nilly if they've never been taught to take care of them and return them to a special place. I set a special day as the "Grand Opening" for the library. On that day, I teach students how to find books and we chart out some possibilities, using the color-code system. I have a "Return Basket" and a librarian. As students return books to the basket, they mark that they are returned in the Library Binder. In the morning, before school starts, or during breakfast, the librarian returns books to the appropriate place in the library. To help you get your Reader's Workshop ready & rolling, here's a seven-page Reader's Workshop Freebie Sampler from my Rolling Out Reader's Workshop!
Check out the other "episodes" in the Reader's Workshop MiniSeries:

August 3: Scheduling Your Day! How to spend your time in Reader's Workshop

For my complete Reader's Workshop Pack, visit my TPT store!

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Monday, August 5, 2013

Monday Made It! Citronella Wine Bottle Torches

I feel like all summer, all I've done is DIY. The only problem is that all the DIYs are for my wedding and I don't want to put them all online before the big day! But after October 5, I'll be set with Monday Made Its through February!

Today's DIY was something for the house AND the wedding, so I'll go ahead and share it. All it took was a trip to Lowe's and a lot of wine drinking. Lowe's isn't such a bad place (they have a lovely garden center) and I'm reeeeaaaally good at wine drinking.

Over the last few months, I drank wine from pretty bottles. This helped me prepare for my DIY, and it was all in the name of crafts, so I didn't feel guilty. You can use that excuse, too, if it makes you feel better.

I followed the directions here at Apartment Therapy for "How to Make a Wine Bottle Tiki Torch." It only took me a few minutes and I only needed a few materials!
- nylon thread tape - copper reduction coupling - Citronella oil - replacement torch wicks - wine bottles

I made six torches, but I only filled one with Citronella to keep it in the backyard. The others I'll save and fill for our wedding!

And check back on Wednesday for the second episode of my Reader's Workshop Miniseries!

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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Reader's Workshop MiniSeries, Episode One: Scheduling Your Day *Freebie!

Today is the first installment of my Reader's Workshop MiniSeries! It'll run until August 17, and all freebies will be available on TPT! Check back to make sure you don't miss a piece!

Scheduling is one of the biggest challenges teachers face, in my opinion. You have 1,000 things to do and when someone adds a new one in, they tell you, "It'll just take ten minutes a day!" As if you have ten minutes a day where you and your kids all sit and stare at each other. Now you know what to do with all that down time! Right. So every minute has to count. Schools have different amounts of time that they allot for each subject. It really irks me when schools give you 90 minutes and call it "Language Arts." That means that all the intricacies of Reading and Writing are being crammed into 90 minutes. It's beyond me! So ideally, you'd have 90 minutes for reading and another, special, dedicated writing time. (Don't misunderstand me: I believe in integrating; I just don't believe in replacing one with the other because you're short on time!) I included certain components daily in my Reader's Workshop block, and this is what I recommend to my teachers. Word Study

Word Study was not always included as a part of Reader's Workshop. However, kids need this time to work with reading skills so they can later apply them in their reading.

During this time, we worked with all of our word-study standards. This is not spelling. This is dedicated time for working with word patterns and parts, as well as decoding and word meaning skills. Prefixes, suffixes, root words, vowel teams, context clues, synonyms, antonyms, and dictionary skills all belong in this time. I spent fifteen minutes daily, and students had a special Word Study Notebook. For more about Word Study, check out Episode 6: August 15. Read Aloud

One of my favorite read alouds for the beginning of the year.

The Read Aloud is one of the most challenging pieces for me to fit into my upper elementary reading block. It seems like it frequently takes a back burner, with all of the challenges we face with scheduling. However, it is important because it is an opportunity for several important things to happen:

1. It helps expose kids to books they wouldn't normally read, include genres and levels of difficulty. 2. Teachers can model reading comprehension strategies that they want their students to learn. 3. Students can verbalize their responses without the hindrance of a low reading level. I spent fifteen minutes daily (on my best days!), on the carpet. For more on read alouds, check out the Episode 3 : Read Alouds on August 8. Shared Reading

Shared Reading is an important time for me. During this time, each student has a copy of the text (or somehow has access to the text, whether it is on a chart, projector, etc.). The text can be a picture book, chapter book, article, poem, etc. I use the genre of instruction in our scope & sequence. Shared reading, for me, includes a text, questioning, responding, and often charting. I also embed my minilesson here. I know that might sound odd, but I have never had success with the 15 minute minilesson. It may work well for many, but personally, I needed more time to interact with the text and the kids. So my shared reading time is usually 25 or so minutes long, includes a minilesson (or as I call it, strategy focus), and students have opportunities to share their responses verbally and in writing in their reader's notebooks. For more on shared reading, check out the Episode 4: Shared Reading on August 10. Independent Reading/Guided Reading

This is the most important time for the kids. During this time, students have to practice the strategy we worked on during Shared Reading. I usually provide a response structure or sentence starter for students to respond to after they've read, or during their reading time. Students read independently in a text they chose (with supervision) and respond in their notebooks. I am seated at the guided reading table and I work with two small groups a day. This requires a very tight schedule, and an eye on the clock! Each guided reading group can be 18 minutes long, and students know that, when the bell rings, the groups change. To help you get your Reader's Workshop ready & rolling, here's a seven-page Reader's Workshop Freebie Sampler from my Rolling Out Reader's Workshop! And don't forget to check back for the next episode of my Reader's Workshop MiniSeries!

August 3: Scheduling Your Day! How to spend your time in Reader's Workshop

For my complete Reader's Workshop Pack, visit my TPT store!

Pin It

Monday, July 22, 2013

Reader's Workshop MiniSeries: Mark Your Calendar!

This summer, I spent a lot of time thinking about what tools would help a teacher new to teaching, or new to teaching reading. We're going to have several of these on our campus next year, and I know that reading can be overwhelming. I don't know about anyone else, but when I think about reading, it almost seems like there are so many options, that I have a very hard time choosing what to focus on. It's true that you can only do a few things well and once we start to throw in everything, quality and consistency suffers. This is why I put together my Rolling Out Reader's Workshop Pack. To provide materials and tools that teachers can use to get their Reader's Workshop rolling. Starting August 3rd, I'll be sharing Reader's Workshop ideas, sources, and pieces of my Rolling Out Reader's Workshop pack with you as freebies and tips.