Teaching Kids To Be The Change

We start our school year by teaching kids to take action and be the change in their communities.  We help our students to identify their communities. We focus on the central idea that, "The values and actions of individuals impact communities."  We explore values, rights and responsibilities, and the impact they have on different communities in the student's lives and the lives of others around the world.

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5 Reasons I {heart} Read Alouds in Upper Elementary

Hi! I'm Jamie from Not So Wimpy Teacher. I am a third grade teacher, wife, mother of four, blogger and curriculum writer. I am super excited that I was asked to guest blog today for Classroom Tested Resources! 

During my first couple of years as a teacher, I always had a class read aloud sitting on my desk. It would take months to actually finish it because I so rarely had time to just sit and read to my third graders. Too many standards and assessments. Too many interruptions and mandates. I am embarrassed to admit that I started to feel like taking a break and reading to my kids was a luxury that I didn't have time for. Thank goodness that I have evolved as an educator! My thinking has done a 360 degree change! A day does not go by in my classroom when I don't take the time to read to my students. It is one of the best parts of our day and something that I am passionate about!

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Keeping the Reader Engaged

 

 

 

 

My second graders are becoming such great readers at this point in the year.  However, it is always challenging to keep them engaged in the text and to be responsible for their reading.  I believe that students will be more engaged when they choose books for themselves.  One method I use is to have each student keep their own book box for independent reading.  In that book box  my students keep a reading log and track the genres of the books they are reading.  I use a very simple reading log sheet and a reading genre wheel.  The Reading Genre Wheel is a freebie from Rachael Parlett.  It is a great addition to your book box materials!! 

 

 

 

One of the most valuable tools I use are my Reading Buddies Talk Bubbles!  My students pair up with their reading buddy to read the anchor text each week as well as other selections they have chosen throughout the week.  Before reading they determine the genre of the selection and then choose a talk bubble from the appropriate tub.  After reading the selection the buddies discuss their question and then choose a writing response bubble.  I have found that these bubbles really aide in the comprehension of the story or informational text.

 

 

 I hope these ideas will be useful for your classroom reading instruction.  Please check out our

 CTR Reading Board on Pinterest for more great ideas!!

 

 

 

                                                                                

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Read Alouds for the Growth Mindset

Want to teach your kiddos never to give up? To make the most of their mistakes? To embrace challenges? You need to teach your students about the Growth Mindset! Read alouds are a great way to start the mindset conversations and spring board into new learning.

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Book Reports...Be Gone! 5-Kid Approved Book Projects

Teaching for 15 years makes a teacher wise.  As teachers, we are always looking for ways to make our students' time in the classroom the most meaningful and productive.  Like you, I don't have a moment to waste with my instructional time.

Novel reading is something I want my students to fall in love with and look forward to every day! While we read numerous whole class novels, students also read books independently.  When I am not working on a novel with them. I want them to reflect on the text and rather than complete some sort of report or typical reader response questions, I want them to extend their thinking and be excited to share what they have learned from their self-selected reading books.

As a language arts teacher, I have spent countless hours hovering over pages of different novels in hopes of finding the perfect tales to engage my students and make them enthusiastic readers.  I want them to reach the point in each novel where putting the book down is the hardest challenge they face.

With this expectation, my students complete novels at completely different times.  I need learning tools that my students can have at the ready to work on when they have completed their texts to showcase and highlight their reading and comprehension.  What I don't need them to do is take a test or complete a book report, where they relay literal information that tells me nothing more than that they may not have scratched the surface of thinking thoughtfully or or engaged with the text.

So what do I do to engage students and encourage them to share about the books they are reading?  I have them consider and focus on high-interest end of novel projects.  Here are a few tried and true ideas to share and implement with your student readers.  These projects can be completed after finishing whole class novels, books in reading groups, and fictional selections used for self-selected reading.

Idea #1: Character Dress-Up Day

Whether you are studying fiction or biographies, students LOVE the chance to dress-up as favorite characters or significant individuals they have read about.   Take the dressing-up a step further with students and allow them the chance to stay in the role of the characters for the duration of class.  What says, "I know everything there is to know about this character" more than taking on their persona for an extended period of time? 

Idea #2: Book Trailer Movie

Did you know that you can easily use Windows Movie Maker to create mini-movies with your students.  Even if you are overwhelmed by technology, you can easily assist students in creating video book trailers based on the stories they have completed using your classroom desktop computers or your school computer lab.   Students will read a novel and determine the fictional elements of their story, upload images, add their own words and narration, and create a fun snippet to entice their classmates to read their books.  Take a look at this example...

Here is a 5-minute tutorial so you can coach your students through the process...

 

Idea #3: Books in Action:

Did you realize students LOVE to perform? Any chance I give them to be a focus of the class, my students will rise to the occasion.  A few ways I encourage their acting skills is by allowing them to act out a favorite scene from their story.  This involves writing a short script and allowing that script to be performed in front of peers.  The performance can also be recorded with student iPads and turned into a movie using Windows Movie Maker.  The possibilities with giving students peforming roles is endless.

Idea #4: Novel Theme Park:

My students are obsessed with amusement parks and thrill rides because we live very close to Kings Island, a local amusement park.  The idea of coming up with rides based on characters and events that took place in a story, is a high-interest end of book project for my students.  Drawing and carefully mapping it out involves great reflection and detail.  These are Hunger Games Theme Parks the students completed after reading the novel.  My students had so many thoughts about characters and elements of the setting, that their projects reflected incredible detail.  Determine what criteria for the theme parks you want students to include and they will be thrilled to create your vision.

 

 

Idea #5:  Book Review Flip Book:

If you are looking for a way to really assess student comprehension as well as encourage students to share about the different elements of the fictional novels they have read, this Book Review Flip Book is the perfect resource.  Not only are students determining whether the book is a worthy read for another classmate, but they are reflecting on other reading literature components like summarizing, plot, and theme. 

With projects like these, students won't be able to wait to share about what they have read! While it takes a bit of organizing and planning, high-interest projects help students feel accomplished, prideful, and enthusiastic about the books they have completed.  ...then they won't want to STOP reading!  A teacher's dream!  Happy Reading!

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Ten Alternative Book Report Ideas

Hi!  It's Nicole from Learning Lab here to talk about some alternative book projects your students can complete after reading novels and other books.

Before that, I want to share my newest little love, Tessa.  She was born on October 21.  She has a very mild manner but still has her nights and days mixed up.  Her older siblings absolutely adore her.  

Now that you got a little baby fix, back to book projects!  My students complained a lot last year about boring book reports.  The ones that came with our reading program were terrible so I set out over the summer to create some exciting and fun alternative book projects.  

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Back to School Read Alouds and a Freebie!

Hey Y'all!  It's Susan, hopping over from Friendly Froggies to share some of my favorite Back to School books with you!  Like many of you, I'm planning, prepping and gearing up for my new class of firsties!  I can't wait to meet them and start forming our class family!  In the midst of printing and laminating activities and centers for the first weeks of school, I'm getting all of my favorite "back to school" books ready to read!  

I make some very purposeful choices to read books targeting specific behaviors or concepts.  These help set the stage for our discussions about classroom expectations and procedures!  

Two of my favorites are No, David! and David Goes to School by David Shannon. The kids always giggle and laugh and pay attention to the story.  We follow up with a super cute directed draw!  You can find the directions here! 

We then brainstorm appropriate choices to make at school.  What did David do?  What should David have done?  We complete a writing activity which is perfect for the beginning of the year.  You can download this freebie here!  Students choose either a "Yes" or "No" paper, write their name and an appropriate or inappropriate thing to do at school and illustrate!  It's hilarious and makes a great class book to kick off the year!

I also love to share Officer Buckle and Gloria during the first few weeks of school as we discuss school safety and review procedures such as fire drills, code reds, etc.  After reading the story, each student writes a safety rule for the classroom and draws Officer Buckle!  I love how different they each are!

 

Since we are the First Grade Froggies, I also introduce the Froggy series by Jonathon London. 

I start with Froggy Goes to School!  The kiddos love this book and the entire series by Jonathon London.  This series stays in a very special basket of Froggy Books that the kiddos enjoy during Read to Self or Buddy Reading time!  I've created this cute craftivity for my students to create this year!  I can't wait to see how there creations turn out!  My lovely daughter helped me make this one!

If you want to try this with your kiddos, you can download the templates here!  

Here are some more books I love sharing at the beginning of the year because of the great conversations we have as a class community!  

What are some of your favorite Back to School books?  Please share your favorites in the comments!  I'm always looking for new books to add to my classroom library!

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Summer Reading Challenge

Hi there!  It's Susan hopping over from First Grade Friendly Froggies to share a Freebie that I'm hoping will help my students beat the "Summer Slide"!  Now I know that most of you are out of school for the summer and you're probably thinking that this post is too late to be of value!  Please keep reading and enjoy a freebie at the end of this post!

Now where was I?  Oh yes, The dreaded "Summer Slide"! You know what I'm talking about!

You work with your dear students all year.  You and they work hard!  They have made growth. Maybe they are even reading at grade level.  And then they leave for the summer.

I always try to encourage my students to read over the summer so they don't lose all of those skills! In the past, I've given them bookmarks with reading strategies, books from Scholastic, you name it! Anything to keep them reading!

Well, this year I tried something a little different.  I gave them a simple gift of a "Summer Reading Chain" and a CHALLENGE!  I've seen this idea on Pinterest, so I tweaked it for my class.

I challenged them to read over the summer and show me their reading chains in the fall!  I promised a treat to anyone who showed me their chain in the fall…no minimum number of links.  My kids were over the moon with this challenge!  

Without realizing it (in fact, I was a little worried about not giving them more of a "present") I gave them the gift of anticipation!  They are so excited to see what "treat" I'll have for them in the fall.  I'm originally from Texas and return each summer to visit my family.  So they are all hoping it will be a treat from Texas!  

Now this is why I asked you to keep reading!  I think I may just "tweak" this idea a little bit more in the fall and use the "Reading Chain" as a fun way to kick off reading!  So download this Freebie now, but follow my blog to be notified later when I post the  updated version for the fall!  

Here are some pictures showing how I put these together.  I stapled an envelope on the back of the frog card (you can't see it in the picture) and put a handful of strips inside each envelope.   

Print and laminate!  I laminated them so they would  hold up over the summer and be more sturdy to hang on the wall.  I stapled an envelope to the back to hold the strips!

The strips have a spot to write the book title and the date.  I chose to color these on a variety of colors just to make it more fun!

Please download the Freebie to use with your own children this summer or to kick off the fall like I plan to!   

I hope you'll hop over and visit my blog, Friendly Froggies,  this summer.  

Have a great summer!  You deserve it!

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