Group items tagged

This fantastic site has famous people reading aloud children's books. My students loved when I would use this site on the smartboard and have them listen to the story and look at the pictures. Each story also includes an activity guide and related activities that have comprehension questions about the story. If used in a whole group situation, you can either pause the story and ask the questions along the way or have them answer the questions at the end. There are many stories to choose from and students really seem to enjoy listening to someone else read to them once it awhile.

+2

This is my blogpost which inspired our class activity.

This article was about labeling "readers" and how teachers identify students by whether they were or were not "readers". Not everybody has the same definition or meaning of the word "reader". What characteristics do we as teachers assume someone possesses when he or she is (or is not) a reader? The article suggests that most people refer to the word "reader" as someone that possesses the ability to recognize letters and decode some words and sentences. Yet the people in the study often categorized reading as an activity that they regarded as more focused, literary, and part of high culture, not daily life. Also, the reading that happens every day is not what most teachers mean when they talk about a student being a reader. This article further states that being a "reader" is generally a positive identity for young children and often negative for adolescents. The following paragraph was meaningful to me and truly hit home: I believe it is important that we talk more with our students about what kind of qualities we expect from the people we identify as readers. For one thing, we need to explore with students the multiple and varied nature of reading. We need to remind them that they are constantly being readers as they go about their lives, and we need to talk with them about all the ways they engage in reading and for what purposes. (We can also remind them that reading is often pleasurable and can be so in school as well as outside of it.) After reading this article, I believe teachers should take into account that outside of the classroom students are reading such texts as video game magazines. I plan on emphasizing to my students that good readers do not necessarily read fast, do not necessarily understand what they read the first time, usually read important works more than once, and often finish reading with more questions than they started.

"I plan on emphasizing to my students that good readers do not necessarily read fast, do not necessarily understand what they read the first time, usually read important works more than once, and often finish reading with more questions than they started." This is so important, Renee! Students need to know that even adults as experienced readers sometimes struggle with text or go back and re-read. Kelly Gallagher talks about how, as a high school English teacher, his kids don't realize that he "gets" all the symbolism, etc. in the Shakespeare works because he's read them 20 times. This article also gave me a different perspective on our "Me as a Reader" activity. Thanks for sharing!

PowerPoint that talks about OLD and some techniques to use including vocabulary development activities. Describes the 3 tiers of vocab words as well.

Fascinating!

Content Literacy Strategies: History/Social Science Here are descriptions of over 30 strategies and activities that may be used to teach the Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills from the History-Social Science Content Standards through children's literature. They were developed to support the Pages of the Past and Tales of Time literature lists. A really great site, and another one that I will keep and use on an assignment.

+2

Teaching spelling and vocabulary is easy with VocabularySpellingCity! Students can study and learn their word lists using vocabulary and spelling learning activities and games. Students can take final or practice spelling and vocabulary tests right on this engaging site. Premium games and automated student record keeping are available to Premium Members. I really like this because my 3rd grade daughter will write out words and help my first grade son with his spelling words. A great site to help kids spell

+2

This article is about teachers developing positive peer relationships in the classroom. Peer relationships and the experiences associated with them are an important aspect of the development of a children and adolescents. These experiences happen on different levels that include general interactions with peers, friendships, and in groups. With friendship it can serve the function of providing self worth, affection, building of relationships. Having supports help with personal problems, parents, being active. Peer groups are intimate groups of peers who interact regularly. Many peers groups according to research have shown to have similar GPA's, college aspirations, time spent on homework, and general engagement in school. Sociometric status is unique because it concerns overall peer acceptance. So if a child or adolescent is popular, average, neglected, rejected, and controversial has a major effect on one's peer relationships. All of these levels one's peer relationships such as the ways they develop, the experiences that come from them, and the types of pressures associated with them.

Resources for K-12 science lessons!  This is awesome and has everything from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Animal Farm reading with science. 

This website I still have from back when I was student teaching. My cooperating teacher wrote this website down on a sticky note for me and I have kept it ever since. I student taught fourth grade and have been successfully using Mandy's tips in my sixth grade reading classroom ever since. Here is a breakdown of what exactly is on this link: What Is Guided Reading? Schedule (of the guided reading) What Are the Other Kids Doing? Planning for Reading Groups Starting Guided Reading Guided Reading Activities That Teach What Does the Teacher Need for Guided Reading Lessons? Leveled Book Lists If you are new to 'guided reading' or are planning out your guided reading groups, then this is a great place to start. Her schedule is broken down for an elementary classroom but I have adjusted her schedule and tweaked it to fit my 50 minute blocks of students. Works well-depending on the grade and the reading level of your students.

+2

This article was very interesting to me. I teach reading in an urban district so 'Delivering What Urban Readers Need' caught my eye. The article talks about the reading difficulty in schools that are predominately minority and economically disadvantaged. This article contains information on: 'An Acute Problem', 'Strategies for Urban Readers', 'Provide Balanced Reading Instruction', 'Identify Those At Risk', 'Provide Supplemental Instruction', 'Encourage Active Student Responding', 'Teach Within Small Groups', 'Monitor Student Learning', 'Create Peer-Mediated Learning Environments', ' Practice Nonexclusionary Classroom Management', 'Help Parents Reinforce Learning', and 'Offering Learners Their Best Chance'. I found the section on providing a balanced reading instruction to be the most relative and intriguing to me. After reading this article, I feel more confident then ever that all students need repitition! "Good reading instruction is explicit, intensive, and systematic. Such instruction is beneficial for all learners, but it is nonnegotiable for students at risk for reading failure." This article is important for teachers in urban districts or even if you have 'at risk' students...truly worth a look.

+2

Although different opinions grumbled both sides in this article, I think it had a large nugget of truth attached to it.  For the last three years, a pilot program in NYC were taught to read using this Core Knowledge program.  Although a bit more complicated than this explanation, the Core Knowledge Program means that students primarily read non fiction books of their choosing in schools while teachers would conference from desk to desk with the students.  The study said it was most pronounced in kindergarten, where students that were apart of the study scored five times higher than those peers who were not apart of the study.  Note: it did not say what was on this brief reading test given to both parties.

This New York Times article focuses on students reading non-fiction, especially in content areas other than English. The studies show that students gain reading achievements higher than students who did not have this program in place. I think that nonfiction reading has taken a back seat, and students should learn how to read informational text. Newspapers, lab preps, and the like need to be expanded upon and used more in the classroom. Nonfiction reading is another great way to get boys interested in becoming active and engaged readers. Not to pigeon hold boys as total nonfiction readers, but I feel that many boys become tired of just reading fiction book in the English classroom, and content area reading is a great way to strengthen male students reading skills and attitudes.

+2