Questioning

Good readers ask questions.  Before each lesson, I go around the class and ask students what good readers do.  As  learning progresses throughout the year, they are able to give more and more strategies of what good readers do.  Here is an example of a chart we created in science class.  The question "How do I ask and answer questions based explicitly from the text  is based on common core standard I.3.1.  This anchor chart shows what we can look at and 'how' to answer the question.

Here are some questions that were formulated using the headings in a nonfiction text.  The questions highlighted ways to determine importance and to use only the essential information required to answer the questions explicitly.  Asking third grade students to highlight only the essential information is like putting an ice cream sundae on the table and being asked only to eat the cherry.  They love to highlight EVERYTHING.  So, lots of modeling and think alouds needs to go on here for quite some time.  However,  students will get the idea!!!  I was very impressed with their progress.

Folktales

Our unit on Folk tales was a lot of fun!  However, explaining that while all folk tales have similar characteristics, there are elements that define them into different categories.  To make this visual, I developed this wall display in our classroom.  At the top of the pyramid is listed what all folk tales have in common.  Below are the specific types of folk tales that have more identifiable elements.  The students were able to use this pyramid as they read various types of folk tales to determine the specific type.  Great visual...glad I made it.

Additionally, I printed each of these on small labels, which students then adhered into their reading journals.  As we read various stories, they had to determine which type of folk tale it was and write the title of the story next to the sticker.   This gave us a great way to chronicle all of the stories we had read.

Based on the Common Core Standards this is the guiding question we read every day.  At the end of each lesson students are asked to write an answer to the question on their 'ticket to leave'.  As the days progress, so do the responses to the same question.  This method allows for students to add to their learning and allow multiple opportunities to answer the same question.  It is also a great way to do some quick formative assessing.

Additionally, our Essential Question  guided our thinking throughout the unit: "What life lessons can we learn through folk tales?"

Here are some of the folk tales we studied: porquos, tall tales, and fables.

Character Traits

While reading "My Brother Sam is Dead" with fifth grade students, they filled in the following chart to reveal character traits of the major characters. By using this form, students were asked to think deeply about the characters and discuss how their traits influenced the events in the story. One group filled in a chart on Father, another on Tim, and yet another on Sam. Some students also wanted to do a chart on Mother...a quiet, but pivotal character. At the end of the story we were able to take the charts and compare the characters. Interesting to learn how members of the same family can have similar traits, yet act and behave so differently.

Rhyming Books

If you haven't heard of Dr. Suess's Learning Library Series, you are in for a treat!

"I'm the Cat in the Hat,

and I think that you need

to come take a look at

this thing called a seed."

This book discusses what grows from seeds and how

they are useful. Students enjoy the rhyming and rhythm of the story. It is so much fun to read these books-even for your reluctant readers. The series has several other content related themes. Be sure to check the out!

Read with a Pencil!!!

It is always a challenge getting students to read and comprehend what they are reading, especially second language learners. Our students now 'read with a pencil'! While reading, students are given little sticky notes to label their thoughts. We started off by having students recognize facts that were unusual or had the "WOW" factor. While reading students would place a sticky note with an exclamation mark (!) on the page where they read something that was unusual or 'wowed' them. The next step was to add the (+) when the learned something new. We then added the (?) when students were confused or had a question about what they were reading. Finally we added the (check mark) for students to label what they already knew. At the beginning the students were 'flagging' everything in the text, so we asked them to limit their findings to only the 'most' important or unusual. We noticed that students really started paying attention to what they were reading!!!! Yahoo!