Happy Snow Day! Today I'm linking up with Erin from I'mLovinLit for her ways to make learning more interactive Thursday Throwdown. Check it out here:
imlovinlit.blogspot.com
Now my interactive idea begins with a mini-story: Each month, I have my students help me switch out numbers and little notices on our calendar. So as my students were stripping November and putting up jolly snowmen, I had a moment of sheer panic!
We had just begun our first class novel (From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) and I realized that December contained way less school days for us than I had thought. Yikes! (I would never want to have to finish a book AFTER break.) After that initial panic-stricken moment, I did some strategizing and thus my "interactive-goal-setting-and-tracking-reading plan" evolved!
Now trust me, I know that this is nothing fancy, but it worked! A few minutes (and a few pieces of masking tape) down,and my next three weeks were pretty precisely planned. I already had photocopied packets of (personally made) vocab activities and comprehension questions to accompany each chapter. (Since we are using ISNs this year, I provided my students with a novel folder <with pockets> that would house their packets and novels.)
FYI- I am a HUGE proponent for not teaching two things at the same time. I know it works well for other teachers, but it just does not work for me or for my students. For example, when teaching personal narrative, we READ many personal narratives and LEARNED many writing lessons techniques (including Figurative Language) to better my students' writing. Students also worked through the entire writing process with their personal narratives. So, in the month of December, when it came time to the novel, I focused just on the novel. I did incorporate vocabulary and grammar instruction as related to the language of the novel, but for my students, in their heads, the sole focus was the novel.
So- here was my plan!
A chapter a day, allowing for break/review days whenever there was a school assembly of sorts. (This was because I wanted both classes on the same page.)
The class/HW time would look as follows:
-go over HW
- vocab for new chapter (work with buddies, then go over with class, coming up with more valid definitions)
- READ chapter (Each student had a part and though it is not a play, we dramatized the novel. FYI-a great strategy for teaching students to understand dialogue and use of quotation marks.)
HW
comprehension questions in packet
(if we didn't finish the chapter, I would highlight the questions students would be capable of answering at home and a few times students finished the chapter and questions for HW)
Granted, the tasks weren't always in order, however it was nice to have the structure of vocab-read-questions for each chapter. The structure of December made me feel like I was coasting.... (Clearly happy with the idea of coasting, I sang this word in my head while typing!)
How is this interactive for students you might ask? WELL, my students decided that I needed to put my "today" post it to good use. They cut off the bottom and pinned it to the calendar. Each day one of my students would move it to the appropriate date. After that either the student or myself would announce the goal for the day. The kids got really into it, especially because there was a light at the end of the tunnel for them: If we accomplished the novel and all related activities (test included) before Christmas break, I would give them no homework for the holidays. Yup that little gift sealed the deal in getting kids to take charge of their daily goal tracking! ;)
(Don't get me wrong, we all definitely enjoyed reading and dramatizing the book, but with the holidays coming, focus is usually one of the last words on a middle schooler's mind. You know? So this was just a little push to keep everyone in gear.)
Well now that I've gabbed on and on, just take a look at my pictures and I think the rest speaks for itself. Oh and the last picture is a plan for how I am hoping to amp up my daily 3 in the new year.
Can you tell what my next unit of study will be?
imlovinlit.blogspot.comNow my interactive idea begins with a mini-story: Each month, I have my students help me switch out numbers and little notices on our calendar. So as my students were stripping November and putting up jolly snowmen, I had a moment of sheer panic!
We had just begun our first class novel (From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) and I realized that December contained way less school days for us than I had thought. Yikes! (I would never want to have to finish a book AFTER break.) After that initial panic-stricken moment, I did some strategizing and thus my "interactive-goal-setting-and-tracking-reading plan" evolved!
Now trust me, I know that this is nothing fancy, but it worked! A few minutes (and a few pieces of masking tape) down,and my next three weeks were pretty precisely planned. I already had photocopied packets of (personally made) vocab activities and comprehension questions to accompany each chapter. (Since we are using ISNs this year, I provided my students with a novel folder <with pockets> that would house their packets and novels.)
BEWARE-side tangent coming up in ...
3..........
2.......
1...
FYI- I am a HUGE proponent for not teaching two things at the same time. I know it works well for other teachers, but it just does not work for me or for my students. For example, when teaching personal narrative, we READ many personal narratives and LEARNED many writing lessons techniques (including Figurative Language) to better my students' writing. Students also worked through the entire writing process with their personal narratives. So, in the month of December, when it came time to the novel, I focused just on the novel. I did incorporate vocabulary and grammar instruction as related to the language of the novel, but for my students, in their heads, the sole focus was the novel.
So- here was my plan!
A chapter a day, allowing for break/review days whenever there was a school assembly of sorts. (This was because I wanted both classes on the same page.)
The class/HW time would look as follows:
-go over HW
- vocab for new chapter (work with buddies, then go over with class, coming up with more valid definitions)
- READ chapter (Each student had a part and though it is not a play, we dramatized the novel. FYI-a great strategy for teaching students to understand dialogue and use of quotation marks.)
HW
comprehension questions in packet
(if we didn't finish the chapter, I would highlight the questions students would be capable of answering at home and a few times students finished the chapter and questions for HW)
Granted, the tasks weren't always in order, however it was nice to have the structure of vocab-read-questions for each chapter. The structure of December made me feel like I was coasting.... (Clearly happy with the idea of coasting, I sang this word in my head while typing!)
(Don't get me wrong, we all definitely enjoyed reading and dramatizing the book, but with the holidays coming, focus is usually one of the last words on a middle schooler's mind. You know? So this was just a little push to keep everyone in gear.)
Well now that I've gabbed on and on, just take a look at my pictures and I think the rest speaks for itself. Oh and the last picture is a plan for how I am hoping to amp up my daily 3 in the new year.
Can you tell what my next unit of study will be?
Yup, ringing in the new year with informational reading and Common Core!
I like to teach this way too. I aim for each unit to last a month, and I try to do a heavy reading focus one month and more of a writing focus the next so we don't get burnt out. Of course, we're always doing both, but my SLOs will be more related to our focus. And I just throw in vocab and grammar wherever I can fit it. I know that part is terrible! ha
ReplyDeleteI like the way you organize things! I always try to center whatever we're doing in writing, grammar, and vocabulary around what we're reading.
ReplyDelete:) Erin
Thanks so much for your input (Miss Lifesaver & Erin)!
ReplyDeleteBecause we have a block for ELA all of the other teachers teach both a writing and reading unit at the same time, such as a novel and work on a persuasive essay. I just can't wrap my head around that and always felt like the odd man out in ways of teaching/organizing ELA units of study. It's good to know I'm not completely crazy!
And yes, isn't it funny that no matter what we focus on, all of the extras (grammar, vocab) always seem to creep in there anyway? :)