Literacy Centers...

 "Practice with Purpose" is a wonderful book on how to implement literacy stations.  This book is full of practical and adaptable ideas for various centers.

Here is a sample of the cards I created for our stations.  They are placed in the literacy baskets.  We do lots of modeling before we release them into stations on their own.  All activities in the centers are strategies we've worked on in whole group.  These centers are an opportunity to practice and apply skills previously taught in class.  Our class motto is: "Practice makes Permanent"

Debbie Diller has many published books on Small Group Instruction and Literacy Work Stations.  Be sure to check them out as well as her website!

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.

Persuasive Writing

Here is a class chart we created together discussing the pros and cons of homework.  Once we brainstormed them, we filled in our OREO to guide our shared writing.  The discussions around whether there should be homework or not was enlightening!

Persuasive Writing

 This was the first time I used the OREO (opinion, reason, explanation/example, opinion restated) graphic organizer to guide students in writing a persuasive essay.  To begin with, after reading the book, "I Wanna Iguana", the students brainstormed ideas about what they wanted or things they wanted to change.  After generating their lists and discussing reasons they could use to persuade someone, they started to write some rough drafts in their journals.


Once students became comfortable with using the OREO and writing persuasive letters, we transferred that skill to our unit in social studies on the Pilgrims.

Students were asked to state opinion as to whether or not other family members should come to join them in the New World.  We put together a class anchor chart of pros and cons about coming to the New World.

 
Students then took a position and wrote a letter back home to a family member.

Here are some examples of their writing.

They made a wonderful hall display right around Thanksgiving.

Writing Folders

Using two pocket folders taped together, I created a way for students to manage the writing process.

The first pocket is for the pre-write (AKA: graphic organizer).  The second pocket is for their first draft (AKA: sloppy copy).  The third is for revision and the last pocket is for editing before publishing.  We use these folders when we want to take one of our journal writes and bring it through the whole writing process.  These worked out very nicely and lasted all year.

Know Atom

Our school system is trying a new program called Know Atom.  So far, I love it!  They have student readers and hand on activities.  Here is the first activity students created: a model of an atom.