Exciting News!

Hey, ya'll!

I'm back this week with a quick check in!  First of all, it was announced {2 weeks ago} that I was named Teacher of the Year at my school!

It is truly an honor and something I am very proud of.  Since I became a teacher, I always wanted to earn this award.  Here's the catch... now I have to write a {VERY} lengthy paper this summer, but that's okay!  I am actually looking forward to sharing my journey to teaching.

This week, we are finishing up our state testing.  We had reading last Thursday and ELA last Friday.  This is a relief because these are the subjects I teach.  I feel relief knowing that part is over with.  We have the day off from testing tomorrow and resume on Tuesday.  Since social studies and science are coming up, I am going to spend tomorrow close reading an informational text about World War I.  So fun!

Right now, I am finishing up chapter 3 of Falling in Love with Close Reading and will be posting about chapter 2 this week.  Also, look for my May Print & Go packet similar to this April one.

I need to get a move on.. I haven't even started it yet... YIKES!

Looking forward... I am working on a close reading packet.  It will probably be a while before this one is ready.  I want it to be just right!

Happy Week!

Falling in Love with Close Reading

Don't you love the interaction between students and text when they close read?  I started {somewhat} using close reading this year, but I wanted to read a little more into it to get a better idea of what I was doing and how to guide my students to reach the deep understanding I want them to.  This past summer, I read Close Reading of Informational Texts.

This book was a great introduction to what close reading is and what it looks like in informational texts.  It left me wanting a little more.  Especially for my fiction readers.

That's when I found Falling in Love with Close Reading.  Have you heard about this book?  Maybe you have even read it!  I'm picky about my professional reads, because I can't read just anything.  I get easily distracted and bored... quick like!  If I'm going to finish a professional read, it has to be something highly engaging and something I can use in my classroom and small group instruction.

To be honest, the first chapter was just an introduction.. a little hard to get through.  So, I'm going to talk mostly about chapter 2.

This was a great chapter about helping students find text evidence in fiction and informational text.  I'm not going to give too many details, but I'm going to share some "Aha" moments I had as I read.  The focus of this chapter was based around a chart/anchor chart to help guide students  to close read their texts.  You can download the picture below to download a .pdf version of both fiction & informational.

• As students read, have them write down things from #1 on your chart.
• What do the characters say/think/do?
• What are some relationships?
• What do you notice about the setting?
• What do you notice about the time period?
• Then, have students sort through their notes and highlight related facts by color or by placing them in categories.
• Students should ask themselves questions from #2 on your chart:
• Which details fit together?
• How do they fit together?
• Then, students should look at any patterns and develop new ideas based on those patterns.

• First, students read and record any facts, phrases, descriptions, photos, or graphics they do not understand.
• Then, have students sort through their notes and highlight related facts by color or by placing them in categories.
• Students should ask themselves questions from #2 on your chart:
• Which details fit together?
• How do they fit together?
• Then, students should find patterns with confusing information.  Then, understanding can begin to come.

1. The reason why the character __________ is because __________.
2. It seems like this character tends to __________.
3. My thinking about this character has changed because __________.
4. These characters are really different because ___________.
5. One issue I am noticing in this book is ___________.
6. I think the author is trying to teach me __________.
7. I think this because the author wrote __________.

• Students can use stickies to record facts
• Students can use highlighters/crayons to color-code common facts
• Patterns help us see what's important
• Start with simple examples to share as a introduction so you will have room to revise
• Close reading may not be necessary every time

Overall, I was pretty excited about this chapter!  Don't miss chapter 3!

Text Features Anchor Chart & Activity

You may have read my post here where I discussed some text structure activities I completed with my students.  After we spent a few weeks on text structure, we reviewed some text features this week.  Although text features are not a 5th grade standard, I thought it would be a good idea to review these.  We looked at them briefly this week and will be moving on to review some fiction elements next week.  We have state testing in less than two weeks... YIKES!

Here are some activities we did together.

First, we started off with an anchor chart that contained several examples.  Each student had a Text Feature Mini Book that went right along with the anchor chart.  It is very similar to the Text Structure Mini Book that I used in my post linked above.  Both of these are from Jen Jones' Reading Comprehension Sheets for Informational Reading.  I love this resource!  All of the pictures on my anchor chart are also from this resource.

This is what it looked like before we added our information.  I forgot to take a picture of all the content we added.

I also created a short and to the point Powerpoint that goes along with this anchor chart.  I have it on my computer at work, so I will have to link it up later.

After we talked about each text feature, the students were placed in groups of 2-3 students.  They were given a Scholastic News magazine and small post-it notes.  The students worked with their partners to examine and identify the text features on each magazine page.

They worked so hard and throughly enjoyed this activity.  I was quite impressed with the conversations that were happening between the group members.

I gave students a recording sheet to reflect on each feature and analyze the information presented in each text feature.

This recording sheet is nothing fancy, but you can click the picture above to download the file.  Tomorrow, I will have some of the students present their findings to the class.  We will spend a few minutes at the end looking at our EQ once again and making sure the students can answer the question.

Lastly, we reviewed a little of comparing two text structures.  Here's the organizer my students helped me fill out today while we were going over our homework.  The hardest thing for my students is comparing the text structures and not the content of the passages.  That's been our most challenging task thus far.  Hence the reason we reviewed this today!

Like I said before, I think nonfiction is probably my favorite to teach.  I love helping the students develop critical thinking skills when reading and analyzing nonfiction texts.

What are your favorite reading skills to teach?

April Print & Go: 5th Grade Literacy

Hey, ya'll!  I'm back again {can you believe it??} to share with you my recent creation.  It's been a while since I've been motivated to make anything.  I was sooo comfortable with 4th grade math that 5th grade ELA seems so new to me!  I love making things I can use in my classroom with my own students.  I know I teach 5th graders, and many may argue that they don't care about cute things... well, THEY DO!  So, I created a packet of 10 April/Spring printables you can use in your 5th grade classroom to review various CC skills.

Here are the standards for the packet:

5L1a: function of conjunctions
5W2: informational writing
5RI5: text structure
5L2e: spelling grade-appropriate words
RL6: author’s point of view
5RI2: determine two or more main ideas
5L3a: combining sentences
5W1: opinion writing
5W3: narrative writing
5L5b: recognizing idioms
5RI8: supporting a point in a text

Here's a preview!

You can download it HERE.

I also created a freebie to give you an idea of what the packet looks like.  You can download the file by clicking the image below.

Now I'm off to bed!  Spring break has been good to me, but it's ending too soon!

Good Night, Ya'll!