A Challenge

I challenge you to check out this TED talk by Dan Meyer.  What do you think about this?

Book Recommedations

At our last faculty meeting, we talked about the importance of our students and the sharing of what they are reading.  Came across this lovely display today outside of Mrs. Girse's room.  Students were pictured with their book and then they had written a summary of what the book was about.  

What is Close Reading?

One of the topics we focused on in our data team meetings this month is close reading.  You might be wondering what is close reading?  It can be defined as a careful and close REREADING of a text.  Typically students

This is a great anchor chart with ideas for marking text.

Check out this blog post for some great ideas for doing a close read. Some key points include:
- using SHORT passages or excerpts (this could be a couple paragraphs to several pages to a chapter in a longer book depending on grade level).
-limited pre-reading activities - rereading deliberately -discussing the text with others-responding to text dependent questions


Here are TONS of ideas on Pinterest that will help you support your students for close reading.  Check out this video about bringing close reading and accountable talk into an interactive read aloud of gorillas.


Bringing Close Reading and Accountable Talk into an Interactive Read Aloud of Gorillas (3-5) from TC Reading and Writing Project on Vimeo.

Summarizing

We noticed a trend in our data team meetings that students were having difficulties with summarizing.  Here is one resource that might be helpful. 

Another idea would be to use a hand as a model.  Here is some additional information on the "Gimme 5" strategy.

In addition, students need to be able to summarize nonfiction as well.  Here is an anchor chart that shows the difference between fiction and nonfiction.

At the end of your guided reading lesson, try having students write a summary of what was read.  Share them in the group and vote on the best.

Sharing Video of Your Students

Check out how Maria Clancy is sharing video with her parents in her weekly email.  She has created a 2013-14 playlist on her youtube channel.

Here is the text from her email:  You can find some adorable pictures of our third graders at the holiday program on our Class Blog. Some video clips can be found on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOFHPjJP04Gar8XG1bKViXA/videos?view=1 on the 2013-2014 Playlist. Thanks to Ms. Bowles and all of you for helping these wonderful kiddos shine on stage! Have a great week!

Snow Day Fun!

Tarren sent this home to her kiddos today for a fun way to engage kids in writing while at home.

Another good thing your student could do today would be to login to their google account (this will give them that wifi login practice as the info is the same 25firstnamelastname@lindberghschools.ws and their 10 digit PIN.

They could email me on their gmail account with a story about what they are doing on their snow day. They could type their spelling words. They could write a teaching story about how to sled, build a snowman, make a snow angel, ice skate, etc. 

Anything else you are encouraging your students while they are away from school?  Enjoy your snow day!

30 Apps Perfect for BYOD

Check out some new apps today!

Reading Resource

Looking for a good resource for short nonfiction reading passages?  Check out TeachingKidsNews.com. This site "was born from the desire to teach balanced literacy in a meaningful way. We provide teachers with a current events resource ideal for shared, guided, and independent reading lessons."  The articles on this site are current (their top article right now is on the Amazon delivery drones) and tagged by grade level or subject to make navigation easy.  You can project them, view them on devices, or print them out in PDF format.  Each article has teaching ideas for reading and writing at the bottom (note: the site is Canadian, so the standards they list may look a little strange).  Check out the site here!