Crazy about Newsela.com

If you have not heard of this website then you are missing out! It's a great way for your students to read non-fiction relevant news articles. The website also offers comprehension quizzes (short and sweet- 5 questions max) for them to answer after they have read the article. The questions center such things as determining main idea and drawing conclusions...whoop whoop! Just the kind of practice these youngsters need! 
You can also track your students progress whenever they take a quiz. It's a beautiful thing. 

:)

Teaching with Songs- Like totally OMG

My middle schoolers love when their nerdy, not cool teacher says something that somehow paints me in a somewhat hipper light in their eyes. I mentioned having seen Jay Z in concert and this totally rocketed me to awesome status in their eyes. Of course they weren't even born when Jay Z was putting out his first album but whatever..still cool.
They love me even more when I use something they deem cool in an actual teaching lesson. I pull out a Katy Perry song or reference Annoying Orange and ding ding ding- they are engaged!!!

Here are a few lessons and ideas that will keep your middle schools entertained and-even better- learning!!!

Using songs for a Socratic Circle:
If you have not tried Socratic Circles or seminars then you are missing out on something HUGE. Socratic circles help your students dive DEEP into a text by making connections, asking thoughtful questions and thinking about multiple perspectives. Here's a quick video to catch you up on how they work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pGVR6ZF_2M:

My students had been reading and analyzing a few non-fiction texts about perseverance and overcoming obstacles. P.S-If you need a great place to get non-fiction texts teentribune.com is a great resource. 
I paired an article a disabled girl becoming prom queen with the song Katy Perry's roar. 
Before their socratic circle I asked the children to come up with questions that somehow connected the two texts. What resulted was an amazing conversation that revolved around metaphor, author's purpose and believing in yourself. These are 11 and 12 year olds talking about literary terms and life issues in the same setting. It was a beautiful thing. 

Other songs that are great for Socratic Circles include: Taylor Swift's Mean, Katy Perry's Firework, Michael Jackson's The Man in the Mirror, Black Eyed Peas- Where's the Love, Bette Midler's The Rose, & Rihanna's Umbrella
Any song that you can pair with a non-fiction relevant text is going to give your student's a great text to relate to and understand it's relevance! 

Taylor Swift Songs:
OK. I have to admit I'm 33 and I love Tay Tay like any other 12 year old girl. She is such a gifted writer and English teachers can really utilize her songs as a great way to teach similes, metaphor and other types of figurative language. My favorite Taylor Swift song activity is using her song Red as a writing activity.  
Step 1- Give your kids the lyrics to Red. Play the song for them and have them pay attention to the colors. Discuss how colors can be tied in with emotions. Discuss mood  and what the author feels when writing. 
Step 2- Play it again and have them write down what each color word means to them.
Step 3- Put the kids in groups and give them (secretly shhhh don't let the other kids know what color they have) a color. Have them list words that describe this color
Examples- Red- (love, passion, anger, hearts, breaking up) Blue (sad, loneliness, depression, peaceful, calming, losing a puppy) 
The kids will have a great time debating what they think each color represents. 
Step 4- Once they have finished, have each group share out. Students can add more words to the color. This is a good time to discuss the mood Taylor Swift was trying to convey when she wrote this song. 
Step 5-After this, have each child pick a color and write about that color but not including the  They can there share whole group or with partners or groups. The fun part is having to guess what color they are writing about! 


Finally, I know, I know What Does the Fox Say? is super annoying BUT...if you show this funny Annoying Orange video to teach Personification AND Onomatopoeia you will be a rock star in their eyes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19z4VTCR9M

I know my kids love it!!

OK OK enough typing..I have to go give two little monkeys a bath! 

:)
P

Snowball fight in 90 degree weather!

It is certainly not feeling like Fall in good old central VA. We have been hitting above the 90 mark all week. Today for a quick vocabulary review  we decided to cool off by having a fun "snowball fight" with the kids vocabulary words. It was a blizzard of post its and the 6th graders loved it. 

Each student was given a post it note and instructed to put their name on it. Next, they had to pick one of the four vocabulary words from their Article of the Week and either illustrate one of the words or describe it without using the actual vocabulary word.

Then we formed a circle, I counted down and BAM!

Snowball fight.

When it was over, they had to find the person whose snowball they had caught and guess what word it was.

It took about 5 minutes and was a great way to review our words!

Book Recommendation Lists

I have made it to the 3rd day of school! It's shaping up to be a great week. All  of my babies are as sweet as can be and I think, "think" most of them like to read! Whoop whoop.. yesterday we went over our Independent Reading expectations and created our first anchor chart about what IR time looks like.

I also let them peruse (love that word) our classroom library. The line to check out books was extremely long in all of my classes! I'm so excited that they were excited about books!

Today, we head to our school library where our fabulous librarians will introduce them to even more great books. Below is a book recommendation resource for you. I printed off lists of books to help students who are looking for just the right book. Also, there is a sheet below (thanks Lindsey) that they can use to add even more great books to the list!

Happy Thursday! 

P

____________Books 

	Synopsis
Title:
Author:
Recommended by:

	Synopsis
Title:
Author:
Recommended by:

	Synopsis
Title:
Author:
Recommended by:

Great Back to School Motivational Videos

The day they put a projector in my room was one of the highlights of my teaching career. Not really, but FINALLY, it's 2013 and my room "almost" looks like it's in the right century.  I don't show videos everyday but YouTube can definitely be a powerful motivational and educational tool. Below, I have listed a few great video clips to help our student's ease into the school year with a more positive attitude. Many thanks to my fellow coworkers for finding some of these! 

This video will certainly make you smile on the first day of school. Yes really it will! It's beyond adorable and you could literally reach in and squeeze their cheeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP9yEVqbfvM

There are a few bad words in this video (probably better for high schoolers) but you can't help but get excited when watching it (and have a tiny urge to be an engineering student at  GA Tech!)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/21/if-this-video-of-a-freshman-giving-an-absolutely-epic-convocation-speech-doesnt-pump-you-up-check-your-pulse/

This is really a Honda Civic commercial but ignore that for a moment. It's also a fantastic message all students need to hear as they begin or continue on their journey through school. It also reminds me of how I used to drive my own little Honda Civic around while working full-time and going through college. Thanks Honda!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiH0hAO-U0&feature=youtu.be

Pay  it forward. Enough said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT-HBl2TVtI

:) P

Writing Contests for the 2013/2014 School Year

Making  writing assignments relevant to your students is the only way to truly inspire them to dig in deep and create a high-quality product they can truly be proud of.  Writing contests offer an exciting way to accomplish this.  Below I have listed a few for the upcoming 2013/2014 school year. Many of these contests have amazing prices ($1000-say what?) and chances for students to publish their writing in an online or print format. I am so excited to introduce these to my students and make it a part of my writing curriculum this year.

The YES Magazine National Student Writing Competition asks students to read a non-fiction (yay Common Core!) socially relevant article and respond to a prompt regarding the article. Winners will have their response published in YES magazine in their print edition and online. TEACHERS win a classroom set of YES posters.

Due Date for teacher registration is October 18th and student submissions are due November 22nd.

Totem's Head Story Contest is an exciting (and 21st century skills) chance for a student to create an amazing fiction story using an interactive webpage. Students must start their story with this line "So there I was.." and following several steps complete a 1500 words or less adventure story that models Poe or Hitchcock. My kids are going to rock this assignment out.

Due date for submissions is December 31st.

The Letters to Literature contest from Read.gov combines  reading with a writing assignment and offers a $1000 reward.  Yes please! Students must write a letter to an author of a book, poem or speech and tell them how the text affected them personally. The best part? It has to be a persuasive letter!! I'm so excited I could crush a grape!

Finally, The Legacy Project is offering the Listen to a Life Contest for students ages 8-18 years old. Students must interview a grandparent (or grand-friend) about their life and write a 300 word story about this person and their legacy. Grand Prize? A computer! I swear!

All of the websites include previous winner entries to use as exemplars for students. These are great ways to show students what a high quality WINNING piece of writing looks like. We can't reach the top bar until we know how high we need to jump!

Have a great weekend! Work week starts on Monday!! I am spending the weekend with my high school best friends and the boys in Baltimore for an Orioles game and a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium.

One last summer hurrah before reality begins!

:) P 

More Classroom Pictures!

Technically, I am not supposed to be back at work until next week but today felt like a full work day! Now I am awake and wired, thinking of the gazillion things I have to do at school. It's going to be a long couple of weeks. The good news is I have finished setting up my classroom. Here are a few pictures:

The hanging folder holder on the right contains Absent Folders/Samples of Figurative Language/ Grammar Examples/Quotes/Editing Checklists & Genre Book Lists. Schedules for Reading and Writing Days are next to it.

 The pictures above the counter  are different reading strategies and writing traits. I will create anchor charts for these throughout the year as well. My entire back wall is blank. This is where the anchor charts will go. I am going to post writing contests on the Contests Wall.

My desk. Hopefully I can really make an effort to keep it like this all year long! If not, at least I have a picture to remember it before it gets paperwork thrown up all over it! The file box on the window holds papers I need to file and papers I need to print. Their is a TO DO list for each day of the week next to it. It's a sticky dry erase sheet. So cool!

This is where my three class blocks will turn in their work. The white drawers are for Read Aloud Notebooks.

The Graffiti Wall is where students will put interesting quotes they find while reading their IR books. Students will put favorite book recommendations under the Books We Love board. On the far right (you can only see one) are 3 pieces of chart paper titled Books We've Read. This is where the students will put down EVERY book they read this year. I hope to make it a friendly competition amongst the classes.  The empty shelves will house Writing Binders. There is a small whiteboard and marker where children will sign out when they leave the classroom for the bathroom or whatever else.

 My co-dept chair/partner in crime Lindsey sent me this great YouTube video to share on the first day of school. It is so RELEVANT and really something our middle schoolers need to really hear and hopefully will motivate them to really push themselves this year.

I hope this helps!

:)
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Amazing Blog Shout Out

Stumbled across this gold mine this morning! Mrs. E's Literacy Daydreams is about to become my favorite blog. She has practical, useful, RELEVANT advice and tools for not just English teachers but all content teachers. I shared a few of her free downloads with my Social Studies teacher husband. 

http://literacydaydreams.wordpress.com/

Plus she's British so I already love her :)

Motivating Relucant Readers

My co department chair and I are planning a Parent Coffee at our local Barnes and Noble in October. The topic is going to be on How to Motivate Your Reluctant Reader. Unfortunately, I can relate to this because my two very active boys do not necessarily embrace reading. While they love being read to (and we do that a lot) they can't stand sitting down and reading a book on their own. My husband and I are both avid readers so our modeling obviously hasn't worked. I am always searching for books for my almost 8 year old to read on his own. I hit gold this week when I found a Spongebob joke book. He has been reading and giggling all week. He will also occasionally read a few pages of Diary of a Wimpy Kid but it's really hard for him to get into "the zone" as Nancy Atwell, my hero, would say. 

I pray he has a second grade teacher next year who really sets that flame burning and inspires him to WANT to read on his own. Teachers play such an important role in their students lives. My students absolutely love when I have read a book they are reading and I can discuss it with them on their level. They think that I am actually a person and not just a teacher.  My hope with the parent coffee is to give them some pretty grim statistics

(thank you The High-Tech Teacher) and hopefully show them amazing books they can not only get for their kids but also read with their kids to inspire them to read!

If you have not read The Reading Promise, I highly suggest it. Not only is it an amazingly sweet story, it will really make you see how important reading aloud to your children continues to be even as they get older. 

I am off to go work on my classroom for a few hours! Shamelessly, I have bribed my 14 year old sister and her friend with Chic Fila and Starbucks to come help me! My hope is to at least get my chairs and desks in order! Baby steps!

:)
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Classroom Pics and Donalyn Miller!! What a Great Day!

Today was amazing! Not only was I able to get a ton of work done in my classroom, I was also fortunate to be able to meet and listen to the incredible "Book Whisperer", Donalyn Miller. It was a terrific day!!

Here are a few classroom pics:

My desk: The polka dot folders make me so happy.  I have a To File and To Print holder attached to the window. The drawers are for Monday-Friday papers. My cute little $4 lazy susan is holding paper clips, post its, binder clips and rubber bands.The organizer hanging on the right is holding sharpies and other teacher supplies.

 My classroom library (certainly not as big as Donalyn Millers but I am working on it!)The books are numbered to correspond with the number on the tub and it's separated by genre. I'm going to have a library helper in each class to help keep it organized. 

I am 1/2 British and love this mantra.Every teacher needs to be reminded of this constantly! More pictures will be posted as I keep working on the room.

OK, here are a few key points from Donalyn Miller today.  She was so gracious by the way. During turn and talk times, she would walk up the aisles and thank everyone for being there. So down to earth!

But here are the grim facts she presented:

"The number one reason kids drop out of school is because of poor literacy skills." Obviously if they can't read, they can't comprehend, not just in English class, but Social Studies, Science, Math and even Health class are going to be difficult to be successful in.

"If you are an avid reader at 16, then you are 3 times more likely to have a professional job than a non-reader." Stephen Krashen The Power of Reading

DM is all about increasing children's exposure to books. Her classroom library has THOUSANDS Of books in it. She hits up yard sales, Goodwill  and subscribes to this website Booksalefinder.com. It tells you where local libraries and other places are having CHEAP book sales. I signed up today and have already found a great sale going on in September literally 2 minutes away from my house!!!I also hit the local Goodwill and yard sales. If you are fortunate to work in a middle class area you can ask parents to donate books. If not, ask a local church to do a book drive for your classroom or school. My church is always doing outreach projects like that.

DM's students typically read over 30 books a year. She sets high expectations and reads the books that her students are reading. I have talked about how important this is for a Language Arts teacher. Children want to know that you are interested in what they are reading.

Another great suggestion  was to ask your other content area teachers to expect their students to always have their IR books with them. I am definitely going to suggest that to my team next year. If they are always held accountable for having this book then it will make keeping up with the book into something they do not want to lose or forget.  It's also a great "busy activity"  to do in the other classes when children have finished their classwork early. It's helping everyone! 

DM was truly inspiring and I was so grateful for the opportunity to meet her. Now I just need to go pop some tags at the Goodwill!

Polka Dots!

I've gone a little overboard with the polka dot theme in my room but I don't care. Our school colors are red, white and black which is a combination I LOVE.  I have ordered polka dot border..polka dot file folders..polka dot sentence strips. My room is going to look like it's throwing up dots! Sorry for that visual.

I wanted to have a really cute cork board to hang over my desk so I searched and searched and got an idea from this website. 

My dots are bigger and I painted the inside dots too. I'm not very crafty so this is kind of a big deal for me! This is also the first time I have ever used a can of spray paint! 

Also hit up my new favorite shabby chic store (if you live anywhere near Chester, VA). 

The Lazy Daisy has adorable items for home and school. I'm a little bit obsessed with it. Today I got this bright red lazy susan to put on my desk at school. I plan to put my paper clips, rubber bands, post it notes etc in it! I'm really getting too excited about the beginning of the year! I start setting up my classroom on Monday and will post more pics. 
:)

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On My Nightstand August 1, 2013

I just finished Divergent last night by Veronica Roth. It started out a little slow for me but man it really gets going about halfway through the book. I stayed up super late reading it and then had to immediately order Insurgent, the sequel, on my Kindle. Technology rocks. I would have loved having a Kindle when I was 12 years old and waiting days and days for my mother to take me to the library! 

Anyways, Divergent is a great book if you love The Hunger Games and other Dystopian Tales. There is a great interview in the back of the book with Author Veronica Roth. I love when books add this special touch. It's so nice for students to read how an idea is formed and how the novel comes to life. They even show Veronica Roth's music play list that she listened to when she is writing the book. Writing to music is a great way for a writer to get into the mood of the piece they are writing. 

I am almost halfway into Insurgent and it's pretty exhilarating too. I get sucked into a good love story and Tris and Four have a lot of that great on again/ off again... are they? aren't they?will they last? stuff that keeps you hooked!  It also poses an interesting question about society like most Dystopian tales. Are we better off separated into sects of people that think and act like we do? Or is a mixture of personalities the way God intended us to be? Great discussions to have with students!!

 I am sure it's going to kill me to have to wait until October to read the final book Allegiant!! I might have to go ahead and pre-order that sucker now..

There is a lot of buzz about the Divergent movie too which is out March 21, 2014.  This is is such a great year for great books that have been made into movies.  Ender's Game will be out November 1st.  Catching Fire is November 22nd (already on my Outlook Calendar-my husband thinks I'm really sad) Maze Runner hits theaters February 14th.
I will be having a lot of great conversations with my sixth grade babies about whether or not the movie is better than the book! 

It never is right?

So that's what's on my nightstand now. After Insurgent, I plan to start Unwind by Neal Shusterman, Prodigy (The second book in the Legend Series) and then move onto a few grown up books!

:)

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More Classroom Organization Tips

I found a great website from scholastic that lists 100 classroom organizing tips. It really has some terrific ideas for keeping your classroom organized. Organization is a problem area for me so I am hoping that I can really get myself straight this year!

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/100-classroom-organizing-tricks

Another great tip I learned from a friend is to use this countdown timer on your projector when you are trying to keep things going smoothly. This is not only for my students but for myself as well. I tend to get off track when teaching sometimes!

 (Thanks Caitlyn!)

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/

I am so unorganized that I start a To Do List and lose it right after I have written it.  This year I have created a To Do List that I plan to laminate and use everyday when I leave school. I'm going to staple it to my polka dot cork board so I won't lose it!  I will also have Student End of Class Checklists Posted on large chart paper and in their individual folders.

 

Teacher End of the Day Check List:

o             Clear board/write up homework

o             Clear off desk and straighten top drawer

o             Straighten files and file papers

o             Look at or start To Do List

o             Set out anything for tomorrow am

o             Pack up Laptop/lunch box/papers to grade

Student End of Class Checklist:

o             Check that you have correctly written    down homework

o             Empty Desk except for Dictionary

o             Clear any trash out that is in or around your desk

o             Put up Binder/Notebooks in ORDER

o             Put back any borrowed pencils or highlighters

Beginning of Class Checklist:

Always have out:

• Sharpened pencil (sharpen NOW if it’s not)
• Homework folder and planner
• Independent Reading book

On Writing Days:

Writing Binder

On Reading Days:

Read Aloud Notebook

Reading Notebook

Be in your seat when the bell rings, ready to rock and roll. 

 Hope this helps!

P

Using Article of the Week to Increase Vocabulary and Background Knowledge

If you don't know this already, I love, LOVE, LOOOOVE Kelly Gallagher. I try and use as much of his ideas as possible in my classroom. It's kind of a joke amongst my other english teachers. My husband is a little worried ;)

My favorite KG idea is his infamous Article of the Week:
http://kellygallagher.org/resources/articles.html

It is a great tool to use to increase student's vocabulary as well as build their background knowledge regarding the world around them. Science and Social Studies teachers really appreciate it when you give your students a little boost in what they are learning through non-fiction texts. It also helps students with our English/Language Arts standards which requires them to analyze and comprehend non-fiction texts.

Lindsey and I are fans of using tweentribune.com for articles. We require this as a weekly homework assignment. But first, on Mondays, we introduce the article and read it in class. Depending on our students, it's read aloud by the teacher or read in pairs or silently.  I also like to do this activity on Mondays from this awesome book Making Thinking Visible:

http://books.google.com/books?id=KtVmUjwhTbMC&pg=PT145&lpg=PT145&dq=word+sentence+phrase+making+thinking+visible&source=bl&ots=b0qUdtCyyR&sig=Kyh8lmVOlnQli5a-N4MSHyPz0pM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3rXzUeLLCLWo4AO38YGgAw&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=word%20sentence%20phrase%20making%20thinking%20visible&f=false

Students also spend lots of time "turning and talking"  about the article. We pick articles that are relevant to what we are learning about and/or the students can make connections with.

 http://old.newteachercenter.org/collaborative-discussions/turn-and-talk/plan

Here is an example below of what a nightly homework assignment might look like:

Monday-  Read the article/mark your confusion. Write any questions or comments you have on the side. Underline any vocabulary words that you are still unsure of.

Tuesday – Find words to complete the chart below according to the part of speech.

verb	adjective	noun	adverb

Wednesday- Write a super sentence about the main idea of this article. Be sure to think about unique sentence beginnings when you are revising your sentence. Remember to also make sure that you wrote a complete sentence and not a sentence fragment or run on 

Thursday- Write a one paragraph (5 to 8 sentences) reflection on the article. Be sure to include at least one of the vocabulary words and examples from the text that support your thoughts.  Possible topics:

·         What surprises you about this article and why?

·         Are you left wondering anything after reading? What from the text leaves you wondering?

We also pick between 3 to 5 vocabulary words from the article to study for the week. On Friday, they are given a quick quiz about the vocabulary. It really helps when vocabulary is taken from something the students are reading and is made RELEVANT. :)

These articles are also occasionally used for our Socratic Circles which we do every couple of weeks. If you have not starting using socratic circles in your classroom, please start researching them! They are an incredible way to stimulate class discussion and analyze a text in a deeper and more meaningful way. It's an amazing event to watch and very simple to do.  

Lindsey and I have also taken the AOW idea and used it to help our student's analyze songs and poetry. We use the same format but change a few of the questions. The student's really love when we pick a song they like (Taylor Swift!) or a poem that relates to something they are studying in SS or Science. They love making connections.

This year we want to give the articles and poems for the first semester but second semester we are going to turn it around on the students. They will be responsible for finding articles and creating questions. Hopefully we will have modeled it enough the first semester so that this becomes an effective activity.

I hope this was helpful! What are some ways you use non-fiction texts in your classroom?
:)
P