Thanksgiving for your kids...

Here's a web site that has the absolute cutest Thanksgiving placements for you to print out (http://familyfun.go.com/magazine/ ).  They're actually checklists with pictures.  Cute for coloring, for use in the cafeteria...and I think I might even use them with my family for Thanksgiving to stimulate some discussion!  Enjoy! 

Most Important Activity

Isn't it wonderful that the activity that research says is "THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT activity for creating the motivation and background knowledge essential to success in reading" is simply reading aloud to children?   (Anderson, Heibert, et. al.)  And, ironically, I think it's also the easiest and most pleasurable part of the school day!  Do you? 

Conference

If you live within easy traveling distance of North Charleston, SC, there's a mini-conference sponsored by SCIRA on Saturday, November 13.  For a mere $30, you'll have your choice of 21 fabulous sessions, breakfast and lunch, exhibits with book sales (think Christmas!), and doorprizes!  The conference ends at 2 p.m....so you can still enjoy much of your Saturday with family!  Register quickly with the form at SCIRA.org.  See you there! 

Most Important Activity

Isn't it wonderful that what research calls "the single most important activity for creating the motivation and background knowledge essential to success in reading" is simply reading aloud to children? (Anderson, Hiebert, et.al.) And, ironically,it's perhaps one of the easiest most pleasurable parts of the school day!  Be sure to make time for it! 

Alternative SpellingTest

Spelling tests aren't inherently bad!  What's bad is giving students a list of words to memorize for Friday's test and just calling out the list!  If you test, test quickly and smartly and teach smart as well.  Of course, I could have a far better picture of students' true ability from looking at their rough draft writing and not taking any of my students time out from instruction.  Here's a link to an article worth reading which includes an alternative test---a rubric that might give you some good ideas.   http://www.dldcec.org/pdf/teaching_how-tos/spelling_tests.pdf

Great Read-Aloud!

I've got a great new elementary read-aloud to share-----Bad Boys by Margie Palatini (Bedhead) and Henry Cole.  Students will love the colorful, funny illustrations of these two wolves who are up to no good.  There's a cute "refrain" in the text that goes, "Oh, yeah!  We're bad, we're bad.  We're really, really bad." The kids love to chime in on that!  Hope you can find this one and share it with your students. 

book

I've just gotten The Tale of Despereaux, The Graphic Novel by Matt Smith and David Tilton, based, of course, on Kate DiCamillo's book and the movie.  The pages read like a comic book with wonderful illustrations.  Graphic novels have become quite popular, and I believe they're particularly good for boys and for struggling readers.  Thought you might want this one for your classroom! 

SAT

I'll have to give NBC's Today Show credit for this great tip.  Some altruistic young man created a web site to tutor students for the SAT for FREE.  Yes, I said FREE!  Check it out at www.ineedapencil.com and pass it along to any middle and high school teachers you think might need to recommend it. 

rimes and rhymes

I don't know what I would do without the web site wordsmith.org.  I use it constantly to plan Making Words lessons.  Click on "anagram" on their homepage.  Then, just insert a big word that correlates with your theme and the site will tell you all of the word arrangement possibilities for that word.  For example, the word "investigate," a good science word, has over 1,600 little words that can be made by those 11 letters! 

Editing Idea

Lindsey, a teacher in the AISA school in Abu Dhabi where I worked last week, shared this idea about encouraging students to edit their writing.  Once Lindsey has her students in writing cylces (where they write several good pieces before choosing one to publish), she asked them to edit their work before coming to her for their conference.  To encourage this part of the writing process, she asks that they turn backwards in their desks, straddling the seatback with their paper propped up on the seatback as they read their own paper to themselves.  In just a glance around the room, she's able to see who's editing and preparing for the writing conference.  She also says the students love the idea because it's novel.  Great idea, Lindsey!  Thanks for allowing me to share it! 

 

Great classroom game!

This idea came from my granddaughter's teacher in Charleston.  She uses the web site http://www.superteachertools.com/millionaire/ to create a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" type game for her class to review important points in her lesson.  The kids love it, and I hope you will, too!  The site makes plugging in your questions easy, and the format really motivates kids.  Let me hear from you if you try it. 

Time Lines

No more boring timelines!  You'll love this web site for having students design interactive timelines.  Timetoast.com allows you and your students to create timelines with text, pictures (you upload), and links.  There's no audio but you can link to sites that have audio (speeches, etc.).  The site is free. Students can log onto your account without creating accounts of their own.  Hope you'll love it and share back your experience with it! 

Tool Kits

If you haven't tried them already, create some tool kits for your students here at the beginning of the year.  They're good at all grade levels for keeping kids hands-on engaged in text.  You'll just need a seal-top plastic baggie for each student.  Gradually, give them tools that you'll direct them to use for different purposes such as: glitter sticks (craft sticks dipped in glue and then in glitter, used to track print or to locate clues, etc.), word frames (dye cut shapes with rectangular windows cut out and then laminated so that words can be located through the window), highlighters, Wikki-Stix, PC highlighters (opaque plastic strips in various colors), VIP strips (a small pack of Post-Its cut towards the sticky end without cutting through----used by ripping off the small strips to use as flags by words/clues in the text), notecards,  and other items.  When students read, you'll tell them to get the VIP strips out of their toolboxes to flag all clues that let them know the traits of the main character or to find the characteristics of a certain type of rock or to flag key points that they can use to summarize the piece.  These keep students from day-dreaming and let you know in a glance who's with you and who's not.  There's a piece about tool kits on my web site in the Fun Stuff section.  Hope you'll give them a try!

Ways to use wordle.net and wordsift.com

One of my readers asked that I share some of the ways that this week's training group in Pennsylvania brainstormed using Wordle.net and wordsift.com.  Here are some of the ideas:

If you cut and paste text in the box or add your own words to the box to have the web site create the word cloud, use with students to:

• Have them make predictions about what they'll be reading/studying.
• Review the words that will be in the text.
• Explicitly teach the words that are rarest (wordsift shows you which ones).
• Have them vertify by reading whether the words are truly key words and have them prioritize them in order of importance to the topic/meaning.
• Insert a few words that don't belong in the word cloud and ask that they defend all words that belong and indentify thewords that don't belong.
• As assessment, let them use your word cloud to write a summary of what was read.

If students are creating the word clouds:

• Have them read and decide which are the key words and design their own word clouds.
• Have them crreate a word cloud for every chapter of a text, based on importance of the words.
• Have them create a wordle that describes the character, setting, conflict, etc. of a piece of fiction.  They can present it to the class and let their peers guess which character they are describing.
• Have them create a word cloud that explains their thinking as they solve a math problem/equation.
• Have them create a word cloud that represents the era of history that they're studying.
• With wordsift.com, let them create words and pictures that best represent what they are reading/studying.  (Using the workspace option, you can drag words and pictures into a new cloud.)
• As assessment, ask students to create word clouds that show the key words of what was learned.
• Let coop groups create word clouds as they read.  Then these word clouds can be traded wtih other coop groups to compare and contrast the words that were selected.  Why were some words selected and others not?

Hope this helps!  If you have additional ideas for the use of these 2 web sites, please share them with us!

 

 

Personalize geography in your class!

Geogreeting.com is another neat web site to use in your classroom that will help you personalize world geography.  On this site, you can input a short message or greeting.  Then, the site will take you on a "google earth" type trip to find buildings and structures around the world that physically spell out your greeting.  Too cool!  You can easily email your message to others, or you can just show this on the screen in your classroom.  It amazes students!  If you try it, let me know how it goes.

another resource

Here's another web site that you'll LOVE!  Wordsift.com is initially a lot like the site I shared last week (wordle.net), but it has so much more to offer.  If you can project this site onto a screen in your classroom, you'll have unbelievable teaching opportunities.  Again, you start by pasting in the text you want to explore.  The site will choose the top 50 key words that appear frequently and will organize them by font size from the rarest to the most common words or just the opposite.  This allows you to teach the rare words.  You can click on any of the words and images will appear as well as a word web of related words to teach the nuances of the word.  Also, the sentences from your text that contain those words will appear so that you can explore the word in different contexts.  There's a short video at the site that suggests different ways to use it, including making predictions and even using it for assessment.  It's an amazing site!  If you use it, please share back how it went in your classroom. 

Teachers, you'll love this web site!

If you're a teacher who deals with vocabulary (and what teacher doesn't deal with vocabulary?), you're gonna love this web site!  At Wordle.net, you can paste text that you're teaching, and the site will determine the keywords and will arrange them into a really neat,  eye-catching graphic.  You can also just type in a list of words that you want students to explore, and it will arrange them in a dazzling graphic.  If you don't like the way they mix the words, click on "random" and it will continue to give you different configuration, colors and fonts, or you can customize your own.  How can you use this?  1) Prior to studying a unit, flash the list on your SmartBoard or print the list for students.  Give them time to discuss and make predictions about what they'll be studying.  2) After studying, give students the graphic of keywords and ask them to use it to write a summary of the unit.  Or, 3) Let your students create their own Wordle from what they think are the key words in your unit.  You're gonna love this site!  Let me know how you use it! 

Pocket charts you'll want!

Our Target store has a great deal on affordable desktop pocket charts right now.  They are approximately 11" X 15" and come in a durable canvas-type material in bright, pretty colors.  They are trifold to allow for 5 pockets on each side of the chart.  These would be perfect for individual students (maybe all your students!), small groups, or tutoring situations.  The cost is only $2.50!  They are displayed in the front of our store where the dollar-store type bins are.  I can think of so many ways to use these!  Get 'em now while you can!

 

We could provide greater help to struggling readers...

Research studies suggest that we really do have a good idea of how to accelerate reading development of the instructionally needy students in our schools.  The problem: Most schools provide nothing like the interventions that were offered in these studies.  (Allington, 2009)  In Allington's What Really Matters in RtI, he actually lists the programs that are supported by research....and the ones that aren't.  Among the ones that have NO independent research to support them: Breakthrough to Literacy, Carbo Reading Styles, SuccessMaker Reading, Soar to Success, Direct Instruction...among lots of others that I see in many schools.  Hope your reading program isn't on that list! 

Welcome to Teachers Lounge with Cheryl Sigmon

Thanks for joining me here at the Teachers Lounge!  Just as with the lounge at your school, we'll come together to discuss issues, vent about your pet educational peeves, and share great ideas for your classroom.  I hope you'll visit often!