Ancient Rome & Nonfiction

    I wish I would have taken more pictures during my ancient Rome unit.  I feel like at this time of year I am rushing to finish getting everything taught in social studies.  One thing I really enjoyed with ancient Rome was how much I constantly reviewed.  By the end of the unit, my students could tell the whole story of ancient Rome from the ages of the Kings to the fall of the empire.  I would review with vocabulary on whiteboards and also by telling the story of Rome and throwing a ball for a student to catch and fill in the missing word to the story.
    When teaching Julius Ceasar my class did a fun play.  I also showed the horrible history videos.  If you haven't seen those, you should definitely check them out.

    In Language Arts my students turned in their non-fiction book projects this week.  They had to read a non-fiction book and then make a cereal project out of it.  Their cereal had to include a prize on the inside, a summary on the back and a description of the book on the front to turn their book into a cereal.  I had some really creative projects and they really seemed to enjoy sharing their boxes with each other.

   Next up is the Middle Ages in social studies and reviewing for EOG's in language arts! Luckily a much needed Spring Break starts Friday!

What's working lately

    It is a new rotation at my school and with a new rotation schedule I have started to try some new things in my classroom.  One thing I have done is constant review of key words we are studying.  Every day we start the class period with a whiteboard game.  I call out a definition and they write the word on their whiteboard.  Sometimes we play the first person to 10 words correct wins, or they will just try to beat a peer in the room. I can tell this repetitive review is really helping my students and they look forward to it! 

   Another change this rotation has been what I do during what we call connections time.  This is the last 20  minutes of the school day where we are supposed to do some type of remediation.  I have grouped my students into groups based on what they need the most help with.  There is a group for vocabulary, comprehending non-fiction, comprehending fiction and even a phonics group. I have advanced students helping in each group and I work with the lowest group.  Everyday they know where to sit and what to get out, they begin working and usually do pretty well on their own.  I've found this to be a great way to utilize the mere 20 minutes we get for remediation.  Before I was just playing the news, so I find this much more beneficial. 

   In one of my language arts classes we are reading the novel, Tuck Everlasting.  We read most of it together and then have an activity to do with what we read.  During the activity students have a group to sit with and discuss questions or a mini-project with.  This has been working great because when I say move students know exactly where to sit and what to begin working on. At first I thought the book would be too hard for class but now it almost seems too easy.  It is a great book to use to review fictional story elements.

   Overall what I've learned lately is the importance of structure.  When my students know where to sit, what to get out before I say go they get so much more work done. Even in language arts I've made sure to give students something to look forward while they are doing independent reading.  Just having a consistent routine helps them stay much more focused.  It seems so simple but it's something I wasn't doing as well before now. 

   What has been working well for you lately? It's spring let's think positive! 

 

What I've been up to lately

I haven't posted much lately so I thought I would do a recap most of some things I've been up to so far in March.

1. Surviving all the weather days.

This year we have already had 15 or more days that school has been out, delayed or with an early release.  About a week ago our power went out for a couple of days.  Here is a picture of what my mom and I made for lunch using the fireplace.

2. Jack graduated puppy school

My sweet puppy has learned his manners and graduated puppy school.  I'm proud to say he can pretty consistently do sit, down, stay, leave it and walk on a leash.  We are still working on coming when called and drop it but he will get there.

3.  Lots of running

In April I am going to run my first 5k for the year.  I've been going to the gym about every other day and running.  It feels great to get into better shape.  Now I'm ready to buy some new running shows.

4. Trying out some new foods

This past Saturday I had an Irish meal for St. Patricks day.  It was corned lamb, tator tots and some kind of special bread.  The next day I made my own sweet potato fries which were pretty good, except I need to figure out how to make them a little more crispy.

5. Reading

I have really gotten into the Divergent series. I'm currently on the last book of the series.  It is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. Any suggestions on what I should read next?

6.  Catching up on my shows

I have really gotten into watching Nashville and The Following.  If you haven't ever watched Nashville and you are a country music fan then I highly recommend it.  Here is one of my favorite songs from the show.

Literature Circles

   One of the best things I've done with my AIG class this year has been literature circles. I bought some popular novels through Scholastic to use for the circles.  I tried to keep them all science-fiction related so I used Hunger Games, Matched, Divergent, Bar Code Tattoo and Search for Delicious.  To get started I had all my students read a summary for each of the books and select their top three choices.  I then grouped students based on their choices and reading ability. I spent a couple of days introducing literature circles and they could not wait to start their books!
     Each group was given a blank calendar and they had 3 weeks to finish reading their books.  It was up to the group to determine how many chapters they would read a night so that they were finished in times.  Groups would discuss every other day.  For example, I would have the Hunger Games and Matched groups discuss on Monday and the other groups of Tuesday, then it was back to Hunger Games and Matched on Wednesday.
   My daily schedule during literature circles always went like this: 15 minute mini-lesson, 30 minutes for the different group discussion (each group usually discussed for 10 or 15 minutes), 15 minutes for everyone to write in their journal and 10 minutes to review the mini-lesson as a class.
    Mini lessons would vary based on what I saw they needed when I met with their group. I started off with mini-lessons such as asking good questions during discussions and writing a good journal entry.  Once students got into the book we had lessons on theme, point of view and other story elements.  At the end of every class students were required to relate the mini-lesson to what they had been reading about.
    I was able to get several grades for literature circles.  I had rubrics for their discussions and journal entries that I averaged together.  I also had questions to go with each novel that I collected.  After the novels were finished everyone took a vocabulary quiz on their novel and then had a few days to work on a final project with their group.  Below is a picture of the rubrics I used for discussions and journal entries.

   For the final novel project groups were able to be creative on how they wanted to present what they learned as long as it was creative and showed they understood the plot, characters and setting of the story.   Groups came up with their own ideas and came up with creating an Imovie, skit, clay model and even a board game.

Here is project showing the scene of Rue's death in The Hunger Games.

This project shows a plot summary of The Search for Delicious and is also a board game.

   What I loved the most about literature circles was that students were motivated to stay up with their reading.  They knew they would be graded on if they contributed to their groups discussion.  They also were excited to get to discuss their books with their groups. At the end of the unit they were asking me if they could read the sequels of the books with their groups.
    I hope to post some more pictures of things that went on during literature circles soon!

Currently March

I'm so thankful that it is March, mainly because that means Spring is near!  I'm linking up to Farley for this month's currently.

Listening: In the background right now is the Carolina/Notre Dame basketball game.  I am not a Carolina fan at all.

Loving: I have the sweetest students this year and I am so thankful to go to work everyday to teach them. They actually want to learn and try really hard. I will really miss this group of kids at the end of the year. 

Thinking: I'm finishing up nonfiction this week so I need to figure out what fiction books I want to start teaching next week. I'm thinking about ordering a set of books from Scholastic with my bonus points.

Wanting:  Today students went home early because of a wintry mix. Yesterday it was almost 70 degrees.  This crazy weather change is making me really want summertime to get here.  I can't wait to lay out and soak up the sun everyday.

Needing: I will be going to Minnesota in May for a mission trip staff retreat. I need to buy my ticket to get there soon, but I keep thinking I might find a cheaper price.  I should probably stop procrastinating though because I'm guessing the prices are going to start getting higher.

???: So this a new game this month, where I have posted the answer and you try to guess what the question is. Take a guess for my stay, ok answer then post it as a comment. 

It is time for my Monday night tv shows to come on.  Have a great week and don't forget to link up to this month's currently. 

Currently February...

I'm thankful that it is February because that means spring is getting closer.  Since it is the first day of the month I decided to link up to Farley's monthly currently.

Listening: I am in love with the show Nashville on ABC.  On the last episode Scarlett made a single called "Black Roses," it is amazing! 

Loving: This week we had 3 snow days and a half day on Tuesday. I've had a lot of extra time to spend with my puppy Jack and I know he has been a happy boy.

Thinking: I had plans and copies all ready for this past week. For me to be perfectly planned out doesn't happen often so now I feel behind.  I'm super excited to be teaching Greece and finish up non-fiction so  I didn't really want to be out of school this week.

Wanting:  I'm in love with the book Divergent by Veronica Ruth.  It is one of the books I will be using in the literature circle units I am working on.  I am doing these circles with my AIG class and I've already let them pick the book out that they want to read.  Each group is reading some sort of science-fiction book that revolves around a dystopian society. 

Needing: Speaking of literature circles I really need to hurry and finish the activities I'm making for each book.  I'm putting together my own reading organizers and discussion questions for each of the books that are going to be read. I'm trying hard to include the critical vocabulary from the common core.  There is a book that talks about teaching these critical words, it's pretty interesting.  

2 truths and a fib:

Truth: I am happy to be gaining weight.  I have wanted to gain weight for as long as I can remember and somehow I have finally put on several pounds in the last couple months.  I know many people think the idea of actually wanting to gain weight sounds crazy but when you've always been underweight and finally break the number needed to give blood, then you are a happy camper.

Truth: I love mint chocolate cookies.  My mom found a recipe online that uses Ande's mints instead of chocolate chips.  I must say they are way better than any store bought cookies I've ever had.

Fib: I'm NOT sad that cheer season is almost over.  This isn't because I don't love my cheerleaders, it is because I can't wait to have more free time.  I've had enough of late night basketball games for this year.  Next week are playoffs and then our season will be over.

I'm going to finish reading Divergent. Don't forget to go link up to this month's currently over at Oh Boy, Fourth Grade!

Helping students love to read

  I was so excited this week at seeing how excited my students were about reading.  I try my very best to give students the chance to read books that interest them.  I only read about 3 novels a year as a whole class and the other novels they get to choose themselves.  The biggest challenge for me is getting students to start finding books that they enjoy.  So how do I foster a love of reading?

1.  Independent Reading Time

My bell work for both my language arts and social studies class is for my students to simply read.  It is easy for me and they always know what to do.  They come in my room, get their cereal box (which is what they store their interactive notes and novels in,) and then start reading.  They then have 10 minutes to read.  Anytime they finish something early, they know to read.  Having these expectations in place makes it easy for me to see who does not have a book that is just right for them.  Those that are looking around the room during independent reading time, usually need some one on one assistant finding a good book.

2.  Scholastic Reading Club

My students love getting new flyers from Scholastic.  I talk up the books in those flyers like they are the best things ever. I just got an order in this week and the excitement on my students face to see the book box come is priceless.  We ordered enough this time where I was able to give every student a free book coupon.  Every student that ordered also got a stretchy bracelet from Scholastic.  With all the points I have saved up I was able to buy several new books for my classroom library, which leads me to the next point….

3. A revolving classroom library

I don't keep the same books in my book bins all year.  I have a rack for new books that students always want to look at first when selecting a book to read.  I buy books from Scholastic, Goodwill and Salvation Army so that I'm constantly able to give my students new choices.

4.  Book Talks

My students are each required to give a book talk.  I have them stand at the front of the room with the book they want to recommend.  They give a short summary, make a connection to it, tell what kind of person would enjoy the book and then read a favorite part from the book.  I've already had students taking the suggestions of their fellow peers.  If I didn't have the books in my library then they have even gotten excited enough to go out and purchase them.

5.  Myself as a reader

I talk to my students about what I read.  It may be an article from the newspaper that I share with them. I want them to see that reading isn't just for school, it's for fun and something they should be excited about all throughout their lives.  I have a sign on my door that tells my students what book I'm currently reading.  It isn't rare to find a student with the same book I'm reading after I change my sign.

6.  Goodbye reading log

Last year I had a reading log that students had to fill out every night to show how many pages they read.  Then they had to do a short assignment like make a connection or give a sentence about the main character. I found that this just made students not want to read because it was a chore to them.  If students were interested enough in their books, then they would want to read outside of school.  If they weren't then they would just fake the reading log.  My best way of making sure students read at home is  to assign projects to go along with their independent reading, such as book talks or novel in a bag.

Here some of my students are reading their books while waiting in line outside the bathroom.  I have permission to post their pictures online, but I decided to dot out their faces in this so no one knows which were the ones that did or didn't want to bring their books.  I bet next time we go to the bathroom even more students will read while waiting in line.  The power of peer pressure can be a good thing!


How do you motivate students to read?