Melissa's Teacher Mall: 2015

Teacher's Little Helpers: Holiday Products to Get You Through the Month

Just a little help getting through December!

Getting Through December?! What that's possible? Wow, the students are bouncing off the wall. My personal life is out of control. And you want to know what we are doing in the classroom?

Okay, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. Here are a few products to get you through the month. I like to mix it up a little and keep the kiddos moving around and doing things that are not routine. While Holiday themed activities are always fun, I don’t like to start using them this early in December.

So let’s start with a Puppet Show. This project will take a week. Have fun and put a new spin on Point of View.

What's Next?

Take a peek at Will’s Winter Weekend. This is a winter themed Unit that covers:

*Text Structure *Summarizing *Paraphrasing *Cite the Evidence

Last but not least, let's have some fun. Here is a Christmas themed Multiple Meaning passage using the word run.

Thanks so much for joining me today and hop on over to Focused on Fifth to find other great ideas to get you through December.

Happy Holidays, Enjoy

An InLinkz Link-up

Today We are linking up with bloggers from Focused on Fifth to share some of our favorite products for fifth grade.

Here is a great Resource that I have been using for 9 years. Yeah I know, that is unheard of. Who has a resource that they have used year after year for that long? Here’s the thing, it is a great resource and once I have it running it is effortless on my part. That is always a good thing. I love to use my time creating ways to address what the students need. And I hate the monotonous duties of changing centers.

So Word Work was born. It consists of a list of words (the Word Bank) and a bunch of recording sheets. I use this in my center rotation.

What is different about this word work?

All the words are listed in the Word Bank. The Word Bank is a file folder with 2 pages of words attached.

Every time Students use the word bank they are looking for something different using standard based recording sheets. Here's a short list of some of the recording sheets.

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Interjections

Long words

Short words

3 Syllable Words

4 Syllable Words

Multiple Meaning

Silent Letters

Students grab a Word Bank Folder and a recording sheet. Follow the directions on the recording sheet. Read the words in the Word Bank to find the words, next use the words in a sentence.

Word Work is a great way to reinforce how words are used, every week the students are looking for something different. It really helps them gather a deeper understanding of words and how to use words correctly.

Hop on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, Melissa’s Teacher Mall, for a good look at this resource. You can find the complete list of recording sheets, and also see the other grade levels that are available.

Take a peek at all the wonderful resources that we are showcasing.

Focus on Fifth Blog Launch

Have you seen our new blog, Focused on Fifth? We are a group of 5th grade teachers who share their love of teaching. You will find tips and ideas geared at 5th grade.

To launch this blog we are having a giveaway.

Take a look at these great prizes.

There are 10 great resources, and 10 lucky winners will get all 10. Plus one very lucky winner will also receive a $35 TpT gift card.

Hop on over and check it out. You need to enter to win. See you over at Focused on Fifth!

Welcome, we are discussing the final chapter of Readicide by Kelly Gallagher

Chapter 5, Ending Readicide

Gallagher ends his book with some information on the number one schools in the world. In Finland children do not start school until they are 7. There are very few standardized test and very little homework. But, I live in the United States and I have to teach in the system that we have here.

So what can I do? Let’s start with homework. The nice way to say it is: I have never been a fan. In fact I hate it. Yes, I just said that out loud. As a teacher, I think it is a waste of my time to correct something that many times the parents have done. As a parent, I find it very stressful to fit it into our busy evening.

I am forced to send homework home. So over the years, I have gotten into a rhythm that is a win, win as far as homework goes. I send home paragraph of the week on Monday. This gives the family plenty of flexibility as to when to finish the homework.

I have also worked on the reading log that every student is required to fill out and return each week. Instead of logging daily minutes I have the students answer 1 question a week about the book they are reading. This really works for me and the kiddos. I still have some parents who complain about the lack of homework, but I plan on suggesting that the non-believers read the book Readicide. I will even offer them my copy.

Gallagher wraps up his book by reviewing the 50/50 approach.

50% Recreational reading and 50% Academic reading. The one thing that leaps out at me with this approach is:

Teach less material and teach it deeply. This is my big challenge. While I know it will be difficult, I will be working towards this goal.

Thanks so much for joining us. I hope you have found some interesting take aways from our thoughts on a great book.

Hop on over to The Big Kids Hall and see what Lizzie has to say.

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Welcome, we are a group of fifth grade teachers sharing our thoughts and experiences while reading the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher. Thanks so much for joining us.

Chapter 4 Finding the Sweet Spot of Instruction

In chapter 1-3 Readicide focuses on the over teaching that has become common practice in our classrooms. We slice and dice and try to fit every standard into each novel we read. We need to stop this over teaching so that our students can get into the reading flow and love reading.

The Sweet Spot

That perfect blend of NOT over teaching or under teaching.

In chapter 4 Gallagher tells us that the under teaching of complex text is just as harmful as the over teaching. What? Don’t over teach and don’t under teach. We need to find the sweet spot. My first reaction was, really? Really? Yes, I almost shouted the second really. But then I took a step back and calmed down.

According to Gallagher we need to set the purpose of complex text. Ok, I do that. We need to give our students the background knowledge they need, we need to frame the text. We need to teach the students strategies to help them comprehend the text. In short we need to teach.

I love the saying I don’t teach reading, I teach children to read. As I was reading this chapter I kept thinking of all the tools that we use to understand a complex book. And all the ways that we need to help the students use these tools.

Big Chunk/Little Chunk

Gallagher likes to have the students read a chapter and then he will pull a passage for close reading. Yeah! I am doing something right. This is an excellent way to find the Sweet Spot. Every year the kiddos need something just a little different. By using the close reading it allows me to focus on what they need. By giving the students the strategies they need to comprehend the difficult text we can find the Sweet Spot.

The 50/50 rule.

50% of the reading should be fun, enjoyable reading. 50% should be complex text to push our readers along. Yes, I know the standards are all about Informational Text. Please don't forget about the recreational reading. It is my belief that the fun reading will go a long way in creating life long readers.

Hop on over and see what Lizzie has to say in The Big Kids' Hall.

We would love to hear your comments, And don't forget to join us next week.

We are a group of 5th grade teachers who are reading and blogging together. Thanks so much for joining us as we read and discuss Readicide. Please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Chapter 3, Avoiding the Tsunami

Readicide Factor: The Over Analysis of Books Creates Instruction That Values the Trivial at the Expense of the Meaningful.

Wow! Imagine that. Great teachers are contributing to readicide! Here’s the recipe:

The Kill-a-Reader Casserole

*Take one large Novel. Dice into as many pieces as possible.

*Douse with sticky notes.

*Remove book from the oven every 5 minutes and insert worksheets

*Add more sticky notes

*Baste until novel is unrecognizable, far beyond well done.

*Serve in choppy bite-size chunks.

Yes, I am guilty. But over the years I have adjusted and found a balance. I changed the way I was teaching because the students did not like reading novel. What? How come? I was teaching the novel the same way I was taught when I was in middle school and high school. Insert “Ah Ha” moment. I hated every single novel I read in school. Why? Because the teachers used the above recipe.

Now I do more pre-reading activities to cover things like vocab, dialect, and any background knowledge that the students need. I use the first couple of chapters to work on the basics of character, setting, theme, cause & effect, etc, etc. and then we read. Yes we do sometimes stop and discuss and I might throw in a fun activity, but most of the activities take place after we have read the book. We sometimes go back and reread a section or page. But I am not disrupting the flow. My students really love the novels now (even the ones I hated as a child).

As we discuss the novels the class somehow always hits on the value of each novel on their own. I am always ready to steer them in a certain direction but rarely need to. As an example we read Sign of the Beaver, the class will bring up the differences in culture and how the Native Americans were treated. I have never needed to bring that up. So by letting them read and enjoy the book it seems that they are able to pick out the valuable lessons. As an educator you know I am bursting with pride when this happens.

Now what do you do with all of the huge, super comprehensive novel study unit that you bought? Total waste of money? No, I still use them. Not every piece every year and I use them in the beginning and at the end. The middle is for reading. I find that we use different worksheets and activities each year. I know my class, what they need, and what will they enjoy? Different groups just need different things. So even though I do not use the whole unit over the course of time I have used most pieces.

Hop on over to The Big Kids Hall and see what she has to say about Readicide.

Interested in joining in? Here's our schedule. We'd love to know what you think.

Readicide

If this is your first visit to our hop, we are reading Kelly Gallagher's book Readicide. Take a peek at our thoughts and leave us a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Chapter 2, Endangered Minds

Kelly Gallagher made a couple of points in chapter two of Readicide that really hit home with me.

The Importance of Knowledge Capital.

According to Gallagher because our students are not reading a wide variety of texts their knowledge capital is very small. Today’s students do not know what is happening in this world. Gallagher’s example was al Qaeda. Remember the book was published in 2009. He had students who did not know what al Qaeda was.

Now you may not expect 5^th graders to understand al Qaeda, but exposing them to a wide variety of reading material will certainly help them improve their knowledge capital. But how do we expose them to the type of reading that adults do, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and websites? I really do not have the time to implement this into my class. And I am not sure what is appropriate for 5^th graders.

However a few years ago I started showing the news during our snack time. We have a late lunch so the kiddos bring in a snack. We take 5 to 10 minutes to eat our snack and I turn on CNN Student News. The class really gets into this and when a good discussion develops we run with it, so it sometimes takes much longer than 10 minutes. I am thrilled at how engaged they are and I always learn something. I think this is a great age appropriate way to expose the class to current events and the rich vocabulary that accompanies it.

There is a Dearth of Interesting Reading Materials in our Schools.

Dearth? Not a word that I use every day, I even looked it up to make sure I had the correct meaning. It means lack.

So what is interesting to a 5^th grader? That is the question of the day. I do not think 5^th graders know what they love to read yet. I remember when I was in 5^th grade. Our school had just added a new library. My classmates were reading mysteries. I did not like mysteries. Yet today, I love mysteries. So as educators I think we need to expose our students to many different types of literature.

To help with this Gallagher recommends a book flood zone. Since I love garage sales adding material to my class library has been easy. My problem is finding room in the classroom for all the books. ;)

Hop on over to The Big Kids' Hall and see what she has to say about Readicide.

Interested in joining in? Here's our schedule. We'd love to know what you think!

Readicide by Kelly Gallagher

OMG! I threw out morning work. I've never told anyone, I have not even said it out loud, but after reading Readicide, I know it was the right thing to do.

In the first chapter of Readicide, Kelly Gallagher talks about how standardized testing has effected reading in our schools, and the fact that the struggling readers are the most affected. I teach in a Title 1 school, those struggling readers are my students.

I wanted to read Readicide by Kelly Gallagher when it was published a few years ago. Instead readicide was happening in my life. I was changing my resources to incorporate the standards. My district was moving to a basil reading program, and test prep was all the buzz. So I spent the summer planning, creating resources and making test prep the focus. What happened? I hated it, and the students hated it. One student even said, “Where is the fun work and the centers.” Wow that hit home.

So I needed to regroup. Ugh, what to do? We were 3 weeks into school and everyone was stressed. I needed to make a change and the sooner the better. We had a class meeting, what the students were communicating to me was they hated reading the same the stories in the basil program over and over again and they hated the worksheets. So what could I change? I was pulling worksheets from the reading program as morning work. OK, I could change that.

I quickly decided to throw out morning work. We would use the time to read novels. I had packed away novels, you know, the novels that we were getting rid of because now we had this great new reading program. But they were packed away. I wanted to start now! So I decided to let the students have a free read time. They could pick any book they wanted and read. Just read, recreational reading, no work sheets, no test, no book reports. It would give me time to regroup.

This has really worked for me. We change our book every month. I still use free read, but I also have the class reading the same book. We have our special rotation, art, music, PE, etc., first thing in the morning. We have 15 minutes before they leave for their special rotation. One day a week we have 45 minutes. It is on this day that we discuss the book we are reading. We do some of the fun activities to go along with the book. When we have free read, students can share what they are reading or I conference with them. I love these conferences. I learn so much.

Here is a fun book your students might like: