5 Tech-y things I'm loving right now

I am home with a yucky tummy bug.  Since I have now started feeling a little better, I decided to write a blog post.

Hmmm. . . what should I write about?  It's Friday so I would like to link up with Doodle Bug Teaching for Five for Friday.  But I like to have a theme to my posts.  I don't want to get out of bed to do anything so anything requiring creating/ decorating is out.  Maybe some computer things I like/ am using currently?  Okay, let's go with it!

Cricut Design Space Link

 This is a nice Overview Video.  I love this Youtube channel for easy to understand directions. 

Not including a link as if you don't use Reading Street it's useless.  :)

 No links for this-- just play around in Excel just like Word or PowerPoint!

iTunes link to Jumbled Sentences 1

Dropbox

Differentiated Literacy Centers

I got this book from another teacher years and years ago.  Since then, I've had to REALLY streamline things.  In just a year I went from a big, overstuffed classroom to a bookshelf to half a bookshelf to just having a desk area.  This change has been dramatic! 

So, instead of keeping this book at school, I made some digital files of the ideas I liked.  I'm not as great as some at digital creations but I enjoy it and keep learning new things! 

I'm planning on using this as a digital file only.  I will present it to my students and as they work through a text, they will have to write what the character does, says, and thinks.  I'll probably have them use this evidence to go a little deeper in the text and think about character traits.

This is such a simple response sheet.  I am thinking about using it in a couple of ways.  Maybe they could use post-its or annotate directly on text with these symbols.  Or maybe they can write about text they read using one or more of these prompts.  Or maybe I will actually print this out, cut these out as cards and then use a Kagan structure to get them to discuss it.

This chart is pretty self-explanatory.  I've mentioned before that my district just adopted Reading Street.  It has an online option to have the story read aloud.  I thought I could put this to use with some fluency practice.  It will take double the time so I will maybe just have them do it with selected pages.  (I need to figure out the logistics of this option).  I think I will teach them to do this in small group and then work with the classroom teachers on whether it makes sense to do this during independent time. 

English Language Learners sometimes have trouble with these question words (see other ESL posts here).  Plus, reciprocal teaching is HUGE in raising achievement.  I may cut these out and use them for students to ask each other questions.  Or maybe I'll just project and they write their questions as they read.

 

This is designed as a tic-tac-toe board for retelling stories.  You can ask 2 students to play together, taking turns going back and forth.  Or you can ask each student to connect 3 in a row on the board.

Very simple chart.  I'll project this.  They will recreate it in their notebook.  It's a version of FQR (google Fact Question Response for more information).  We will do the response part orally.

I like the "I see" wording as it can be used to view pictures, not just text.  This is great for building background with my kiddos.

I hope these creations gave you some ideas for what you can do with your kids!

I will say these charts all came from a probably 30 page section of the (200+ page) book.  There are lots of independent literacy center ideas in this book.  It's all about students being on task and accountable even when you are with your small group.  If you are looking for ideas, I would recommend it.  Even in 4th grade, many ideas can be used with modifications.  If you are a primary grades teacher, there are lots of making words/ sight words/ easy book ideas.   The reason I'm not keeping it at school is because it's really more for the classroom teacher.  It stayed though several elimination rounds though. 

Of course I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics!

Reading Street Projects

Source

Why does education always have to go from one extreme to another?  When I started in my district,  we were able to teach (almost) anything for Language Arts (both a good and bad thing) but were severely lacking in district provided resources.  Now, we are adopting (with fidelity) Reading Street for reading and Units of Study for Writing.  We probably have too many resource and not enough flexibility. 

Since a big part of my job is to support the 4th grade classroom teachers, I've been trying to figure out how to make the vocabulary and language more organized and visual. 

I first looked at the vocabulary lists.  There are two lists:  Amazing Words and Selection Vocabulary.  

The way I understand it, Amazing Words (also called Oral Vocabulary) are the more difficult set of words, just above grade level.  These are Tier II words, words that will appear in other academic contexts.  Don't quote me on this though and please leave a comment if you know! 

For these words, I tried to create a slide with the word, several pictures, and a definition.  Mary Ellen Vogt talked at ILA about the importance of including both the visual and the definition.   Pictures are worth 1,000 words but they can also mislead you.

I also included a little visual for the week.  I put it on everything for that week.  My hope is that it will help students mentally organize each week's concepts.  For example, when they think about route, they can visualize the pioneer girl and remember when they read On the Banks of Plum Creek. (This week features the pioneer girl clipart from MelonHeadz.  It's a freebie!)  

I created one additional slide for each of these words.  Mostly it is a phonics question copied from the Teacher's Guide but occasionally I made up my own question. 

Selection Words are also Tier II words but are chosen because they play an important part in the reading selection of the week.  We have these vocabulary cards called Envision It! that has a great color photograph that illustrates the vocabulary word.  This is a perfect example of how just a picture can mislead you though.  If you just see the picture, you may guess that the word is "cat" or "arched" back.  By adding the context, you can relate the picture to the meaning. 

I developed these words more than the Amazing Words.  I created slides where students discuss and write about their Selection Words.  Each word has 5-6 slides.  I don't think that the classroom teachers will do every slide every week but I think it will be useful to review these words in small group.  My idea is that they will fill out an organizer like this for each word. 

My final project is a digital "focus wall" for my ESL students each week.  It is very simple, but I hope it helps them understand what they really need to focus on that week. 

Since this program is so new to me, I just made Unit 1 materials.  I need to figure out which set of words is more useful to explicitly teach.  Hopefully, I will tell you how this goes and any changes I made to this system.  Again, if you teach Reading Street (ESPECIALLY 4th grade) please leave comments and feedback about these projects. 

Since this last week was such a mess, I didn't manage to make too much.  However, I was determined to link up with 4th Grade Frolics again for Monday Made It.  It got me working!