Reading Homework... Why You SHOULD Do It!

How do you utilize reading homework in your classroom? This has been a long-lived debate in the literacy community. Many argue about the types of reading homework that is being given to students. I give my take on reading homework and what I use in my own classroom over at the iTeach Fifth blog. Go check out my post and comment with how you utilize reading homework in your classroom!

Collaborative Blog & Book Shares

I am SUPER excited to be part of the iTeach 5th Teaching Blog!

Basically, it's an amazing group of eleven 5th grade teacher bloggers coming together to offer you everything to do with 5th grade!

Today I'm blogging over there about how I do book shares in my classroom. Do you remember this photo on my Instagram account about a month ago? 

Several of you had questions, now go check out the answers! While you are there, don't forget to follow our iTeach 5th blog on Blog Lovin, Instagram, Facebook, & Pinterest!

Check Out My Post Here!

Reading Strategies That Work

Do you remember the feeling you get when you find a PD book that totally grabs you in? Everything on the pages are highlighted and there are stickies everywhere with notes because it is just.that.good?

The last time I felt this way was when I read a close reading book a few years ago.

Well, have you read this book yet?

Available on Amazon.com

It is SOOO good! In fact, it's so good that I am planning on sharing some great take-aways that I've had while reading it. Right now I'm still digging in so it will be a little while. I'm thinking maybe a summer series? Keep looking for it because it's coming! Grab your copy if you'd like to join in with ideas! I'd love to hear some take-aways you have!

Drawing Conclusions: Day 1

Through assessing and listening to my students, I discovered that we still need to brush up on our literary skills. This week, I decided we would start with inferring and drawing conclusions. It was pretty obvious that these students would need something a little different. If the first (hundred) times didn't work, this time wasn't going to either. I decided to incorporate a variety of teaching strategies to hopefully help them understand!

First, we started off with this anchor chart I created. Sorry about the picture quality, I took it with my phone. I'm going to have to remember to bring my camera to my classroom!

Notice the faucet on the anchor chart? Wondering what that means? I used the faucet as an analogy to represent how the trickling water represents how an author gives us information. They don't always give us all the details (a steady water stream), so sometimes we have to use what the author gives us (the text) and what we already know to help us draw conclusions. I told them our conclusion represents the puddle of water that comes together (from the water trickle). Just like the way our schema and what the text says comes together to make meaning for us.

We then quickly reviewed schema.

After we discussed our anchor charts and answered questions, we watched a Pixar short film. The students loved the video and thought it was hilarious! 

As you can see, the kids had their total attention on the short film!

We did a cold watch, warm watch, and a hot watch! Each time we discussed the short film a little further and what our thoughts/conclusions were. During the short film, I had the students reflect on the following questions I had written on the board. Normally, I would have made a handout with the students, but I figured I had planned enough for them! LOL 

I did have a handout they used to record their observations and then their conclusions. I will include it later today for you to use if you would like. 

You can download the handout HERE!
The kids really enjoyed this lesson, and I did, too!

Teaching Theme

Theme is a {HUGE} 5th grade standard! Not only in fiction texts, but students have to identify theme in poetry and dramas. Theme is always a tricky standard to teach... especially for struggling students.

First, I started off with this anchor chart. Message isn't really a 5th grade standard, but they will be talking about it in 6th grade. I wanted to give them (especially my advanced and gifted students) a preview that although they are similar, theme and message are NOT the same.

To get things moving along a bit, we read Rumpelstiltskin and talked about the theme of the book.

To help them understand, we used this graphic organizer that I made for them. You can download it by clicking on the image. This was SUCH a useful tool for the students and really got them thinking deeply about theme. This graphic organizer matches up nicely with standard RL.5.2!

Then, we watched this Rumpelstiltskin video that you can find on youtube HERE.

After we watched the video, we compared the two. There were actually quite a bit of differences and similarities between the two! I created this graphic organizer just for this activity. You can download it by clicking the image below :)

I knew I would spend quite a bit of time teaching theme this year, so earlier in the year, I decided to create a little something to help me along :)

When it came time for my students to practice theme and constructed responses, I used my Close Reading Literary Passages for Teaching Theme.

You can find them in my TpT store {HERE}.  The passages are specifically written with a theme in mind. I love this packet because you can choose whether or not to include message with your instruction {the passages ARE NOT exclusively for message}.

I had the students read the passage and then fill out the challenge+response=theme graphic organizer. Once students identified theme and supported their theme with evidence from the text, I had them construct a response about the theme of the passage. I use my I.C.E. format. You can learn a little more about it below as well as download a FREEBIE:) There will be more about this when I {NEVER} finish my TBE packet.

Here are some pictures of students working and constructing their responses. Let me tell you that this was after MANY classes of small group instruction :)

What are some of your favorite theme activities?

Character Traits

So, even though character traits aren't technically a 5th grade CC standard, I thought we would spend some time in class talking and writing about them. After all, how are students going to compare characters (which is our 5th grade standard) if they aren't sure how to talk about the characters?

Well, what I thought was going to be a one week review turned into three weeks!! Say what? Finally on week three, I was thinking that we HAD to get this done with!  It didn't help that we had assemblies and things in the middle of it all!

First, I started off with this anchor chart.

Then we talked about the differences between physical traits and character traits. I basically did this comparison in conversation on the whiteboard. If I had it to do over again,  I would probably give the students a Venn diagram or a t-chart and have them compare the two with a partner.

Once we understood what character traits were, we read a few picture books and identified the character traits of the main character.

Then, we went a little deeper with our words. Leslie Ann from Life in Fifth Grade has a great teaching resource for teaching character.

One of my favorite things that it has are character cards. These not only help the students think of untraditional words, but it improves their vocabulary.

I gave the students a word card and made sure that everyone could say their word correctly and understood what it meant. The meaning is on each card so that task wasn't so difficult.

I then read a passage from Leslie's packet to the students. I placed it under my document camera so the entire class could see the passage, too. After I read the passage, I asked the students to raise their hand if they thought they had a word that described the character from the passage.

Once we would identify a trait, the students had to find evidence in the text to support that trait. What did the character do, say, or think that made them believe he/she had this particular trait. This was probably one of the BEST lessons I have ever done on character traits.

After our whole group lesson, I had the students break into groups of 4-5 students and complete the same activity on their own. They read the passage, identified 2-3 character traits, then highlighted the evidence for each be using a different color marker. Here are some pictures of them working! They really enjoyed this part :)

Once we could do this, I had the students identify two traits that the main character in our read aloud had. They did a drawing and writing response that we hung up in the hall. Getting the students to construct a valid response will come in a later post. I have a structured format that I use right now. I am planning on posting about it soon :)  Here's a preview of what the responses looked like. It was by far the best writing class I've had on constructed responses.

The outside are their physical traits {picture, what they look like} then you open the flaps to a constructed response about their character traits {we chose two}.

If you are stuck on how to introduce TBE (text based evidence) to your students, then I have a product I am working on just for you! I am super excited and can't wait until it is FINALLY finished! I have been working on it for about a month now! You can see this is literary, so I plan on making another for informational.

Literary Elements

I always like to review literary elements pretty early on in the year because we use it so much in our reading.  A BIGGIE for 5th graders is comparing characters, setting, and events in a single text and across multiple texts.  But, before we compare, I like to review first!  Although theme is part of literary elements, I like to save it until last because students seem to really struggle with it.  For this lesson, we reviewed character, setting, events, and plot.

First, I started off with making this adorable anchor chart!  We went over this during our whole group lesson on Monday.

As we went over it, I had the students record their notes on a simple cover page I attached to their packet I gave them for the week.

 Our packet includes pages from Jen Jones' Comprehension Strategy Sheets for Grades 3-6.  I LOVE this packet!  It is well worth every dime spent.  I use it any time I teach a standard.  It has the sheets organized by standard which is very time saving.  She also has an informational packet that I own, too!  Here's a two-page preview of the pages I use.  You should totally go check it out.  Our packet just for these four skills is about 10 pages.  And, since it includes standards 3-6, you can remediate or enrich as needed!  Score!

We work through this packet for the remainder of the week in whole and small groups.  We use our read aloud to complete the activities so we can all work together or with partners.

Before we moved on to talk about character traits that a specific character had, I introduced character traits with a character trait checklist that I found online.  Then, I use Leslie Ann's Character Trait Reading Passages to practice.  I also incorporate some writing about the characters and have the students support their writing with evidence from the text by using our evidence board.

Once we have mastered all these things we move on to theme and author's message.  We spent about 2 weeks on this unit.  Well worth the time!

How Do You Keep Your Students Accountable While You Lead Groups?

This is a common question I often get.  I was asked numerous times during my experience as a 4th grade math teacher.  Guided math really became popular a few years ago.  There weren't many people who knew a lot about how to manage guided math groups.

Reading, on the other hand, is a lot more common.  There are so many teachers who have their own 'thing' going on.  I wanted to share a little management tool I have found very helpful in my classroom.  It may not work for everyone, but if it can work for you, you are more than welcome to use it in your classroom.

I implement my very own version of Daily 5 in my classroom.  It's really more like Daily 3.  I just couldn't make 5 work each day with the amount of time I have.  I also have guidelines that my students must follow.  I have the guidelines listed on my calendar that students complete each month. To complete the calendar, students write in the code for the activities they complete each day.  They keep these in the front of their literacy binders.  At the end of the month, I take them up and grade them for a class participation grade.  I basically give them credit for each day complete.  This particular month would be ___ out of 21 possible points.

Small Group: I meet with my small groups three times a week.  In the upper right corner, you can see that students must have SG listed on their calendar three times.  They complete these three rotations on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Word Work:  I would love to have students complete WW each day, but it's difficult to fit that all in.  Students must complete WW activities at least three times/week.  They can work on these M-F.  The activities will come from my Word Work Choice Board that I am working on finishing up soon.  It will be in my TpT store very soon.

Read to Self: Students MUST read to self each day, M-F.  It can be during rotations or if we have time at the end of the day.

Read to Someone: My students love to read to someone, but it can get overwhelming at times.  My students want to do this every day.  Unfortunately, I had to limit them to only once a week :(  If we have time on our whole group days, I will try to let them read to someone during that time.

Individual Conference: This isn't listed on the key because it's random.  I may pull students to my desk at any time during the week.  The code is there if needed :)

I create new calendars each month, and I will try to post them here on the blog.  I know a lot of you will not go back to work until later this month, but you can download the August calendar HERE!

My Literacy Block Schedule

I get a lot of emails asking about my schedule at school.  Since last year was my first year teaching 5th grade Reading/ELA using a guided group model, I tried a lot of different schedules.  I changed it around quite a bit, but I finally got it down to an art by the end of the school year.  I modeled it after my guided math schedule that I followed when I taught 4th grade math.  Let's get a few things out there... I teach reading, writing, and grammar.  This year, our writing will be incorporated into our reading.  I'll tell you a little more about that later.  My grammar instruction is usually about 30 minutes each day.  I have NOT included it here since it's not really part of my literacy block.  I have about and hour and half for my literacy block each day.

I ALWAYS finish the day with binder work and a read aloud of some sort.  Most of the time, it is a novel that we are reading together.  The binder work is when the students take a few minutes to organize their binder, fill out any necessary forms to be turned in, and finish anything not completed.  I have learned a little through trial and practice and will post a blog post soon where I REVEAL ALL about my literacy binders.... the good, bad, and ugly!


Mondays:
Mondays are one of my two whole group days.  I use this day to distribute my homework for the week, have the kids write the entire week in their agenda, go over my expectations for the homework, introduce our vocabulary/spelling words, have a big whole group lesson for our weekly skills,  and conduct individual reading conferences with students on my conferring list while they read to self for about 25 minutes.  Individual reading conferences is something I want to get better about doing.  I did it last year, but not near as much as I wanted to.  I will also be using some of this time to complete running records on my students.  I purchased the Progress Monitoring packet from Hello Literacy that I plan to use to progress monitor my students.  We use FAST reading and math as a school level, but I am wanting to progress monitor some of my students myself so they can track their progress in their goals section in their literacy binder.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays:
These three days are spent reviewing our homework from the previous night, having a short 15-25 minute mini-lesson about our weekly skill, and meeting with small groups for three rotations.  What I do in small group really depends on what our skill is for the week.  We may do some reading response, close reading activity, or vocabulary instruction.

During my three rotations, my students are reading to self, word work, work on writing, or reading to someone.  This year, our work on writing will look VERY different.  Writing will now be incorporated into reading.  What does this mean for my classroom?  A lot of their writing will be connected to their reading in some way.  This is new to me, so I'm not sure exactly how this will look.  All I know is that our writing test is now incorporated into our reading test.

Fridays:
Last year, my students completed a weekly assessment that went along with our weekly skill from the week.  I downloaded the reading passages from here {FREE} and created my own questions to go along with them.  A lot of times, I used 3-4 from those already listed, but I added a lot of my own that required the students to go back to the text to support their answer with evidence.  By the end of the school year, this was something my students were experts at.

However, this year is going to be different.  I am still going to assess my students, but I am going to try to vary the way I do it.  One of the #1 feedback comments I received at the end of the year from my students was that they would have liked more projects.  So, I am going to try and incorporate more book reports {in a fun way} and other ways to assess my students.  I'm going to focus on doing more showing rather than telling.  Don't get me wrong, I am still going to assess my students with paper and pencil, but I am going to try and limit it to no more than every OTHER week.  I believe that by the end of the school year, the students became very bored with our weekly assessments (ahhh... shucks!).

BTW- the kiddos commented that their two favorite activities were our Hatchet projects and my text structure unit.  Say what?  Text structure?  I thought that was very interesting!

Hopefully this has helped you see how to incorporate components of the Daily 5 into your intermediate literacy block.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below.