Helping Elves

You know what makes a teacher's heart soar? When other students, older and younger, help each other out. I believe that being a teacher is more than just work, it's a part of who you are. You don't have to have a degree to want to help others, you can simply have a compassionate heart. It makes a huge difference to younger students to have someone to look up to and look towards for help with homework, and just with life. So I am thankful for those students who have that desire!

Time is flying and I can't believe it's November! My small leveled literacy intervention groups are running well but I feel like the kids are starting to get drained! I'm noticing that they are starting to zone in and out while I am trying to teach them the tools that they need to better their reading! It's so frustrating to see these distractions! I cannot wait for Thanksgiving Break because I think the time off will help them get focused for the last few weeks before Christmas Break!

All About...

During the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to create "All About..." posters with my students in my various Guided Reading groups based off of the nonfiction AND fiction books we have read. It was really cool to see the students getting excited about what they were reading and pulling away from their books. They spent a lot of time and effort on these posters and they came away from these books knowing more, about the different subjects, than if they had just read the book. When parent/teacher conferences came around, my friend, and co-teacher, and I were able to put up the posters we both created with our groups, on a bulletin board outside our room. Today, I was thinking about how excited these students are going to be to see all of their hard work displayed for everyone else to see! It's always nice to know that your work is appreciated and thought to be "cool" by fellow students.
From: http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/newsletter/14_4nl_1.html
"The work shows our best efforts, not just perfect work.The work shows growth or improvement...We feel proud of the work.The work is important to us."

Starting off on a Good Note

As we are coming to an end of this quarter and we are preparing for parent/teacher conferences, I am realizing how important it is to have good communication between parents and teachers. If you don't start off the year communicating with parents how well their students are doing in class so far, then it will be harder to communicate and have parents on your side when "bad" things happen in class. When you start the year off on a positive note, then things work out so much better throughout the year.

Modeling: What We Should be Doing

The Reading Coach

Making the Most
Of Guided Reading

 

Researchers Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell identify the ultimate guided reading goal as helping children learn how to use independent reading strategies successfully.

So how can you make the most of guided reading in your classroom? Use the checklist below.

More Guided Reading Resources Website Resources: * Guided Reading: From the Jefferson (TN) County School System * Using Anticipation Guides to Improve Comprehension * Making Guided Reading Work * Guided Reading in Kindergarten Print Resource Leveled Books K-8: Matching Text to Readers for Efficient Teaching, Fontas and Pinnell. Heninemann, (2005).

 Ensure that the heart of each guided reading is actual reading and practice. At first, support students heavily with explanation, coaching, and interaction. Gradually release support as students learn to use guided reading strategies independently. Commit at least 2/3 of total guided reading time to actual reading practice. Never do anything that isn’t aimed directly at the goal of independent reading.

 Let students’ needs drive instruction.One group of students might need extensive decoding support; another might call words well, but get no meaning from what they read. Examine the results of informal observations and formal assessments, and then create an “I want This Student to Learn…” checklist for each member of the class, based on the gaps you see. The checklist will double as an informal progress report. When your guided reading groups meet, keep students’ individual goals on the front burner. Don’t deviate, and give them time to mature the skill.

I WANT ____________________(student’s name) TO LEARN

Identified Need	Targeted Teaching	Success! (date)
* Can’t read multi-syllabic words (intimidated, doesn’t understand patterns)	Create a checklist: questions the student can ask himself or herself to solve mystery words.	1. 2. 3. 4.

*Place a check next to the date each time the student uses strategy successfully.

 Highlight the three top needs in your class, integrate and repeatedly focus on them throughout the day, no matter what you are teaching. Otherwise, students might learn to use specific strategies during special instruction time, but fail to use them elsewhere when they read.

 When teaching independent reading strategies:

• model it;
• when the class reads together, ask “does that make sense?” and show them what to do when it doesn’t;
• remind students to ask the same question when they read independently;
• explicitly describe to students the strategy you used.

 Dissolve and create new groups whenever students’ needs change.

Miller, Cathy. "The Reading Coach: Making the Most Of Guided Reading."Education World 08 Sep 2005: 1. Web. 14 Oct 2010. <http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/miller/miller011.shtml>

Wacky Weekends

 When told by a student last week that he didn't want to go to school anymore, I asked him why? He went on to tell me that he was tired and just wanted a break. Little did he know that sometimes teachers get frustrated and just want breaks also. Which is why I love weekends. They allow me to relax and revamp for the next week. I think they are also great for students. So to all of those teachers and students out there...enjoy and relax the next few hours of your weekend! :)

Here is a picture from my weekend!

Stinky Skunks

So today I decided to inform my students from my various groups that like them, I too have homework. I told them my homework consisted of writing about things that I have learned throughout the day or questions that I have about teaching. In one of my groups we are currently reading Horrible Harry Takes the Cake. In this book it talks about investigating and defending various animals. So we, as a group, started thinking of different animals we would like to investigate. Some of the students were telling me some animals they would pick and then turned and asked me what animal I would choose. I then thought to myself and came up with the skunk.The group then asked me why? I honestly told them that I didn't know too much about the skunk and I wanted to investigate it more. They told me that was my homework for tonight. :)
Here's what I came up with...
Interesting Facts You May Not Have Known About Skunks:
1. Skunks mainly come out at night.
2. Skunks usually live by themselves unless they are with their mother and other babies.
3. Skunks are mainly a non-aggressive animal and don't get in trouble.
4. A skunk's spray consists of sulfuric acid and is harmless against cars.
5. Skunks are in danger of becoming extinct in certain areas that have heavy traffic because their sprays are harmless against cars which is why you see a lot of them dead, on the side of the road.
(information taken from: http://www.pleasebekind.com/skunk.html)
In summary, the skunks are animals that don't go looking for trouble but if they do come across it, they have a stench that is STRONG and STINKY! :)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baby_skunk.jpg

Always Learning!

      As a teacher I know that my job is to teach others new things. But what some people don't realize, is that I am still a student, always learning new things. My goal this week at school, is to not only teach my students, but to also learn at least one new thing each day. I spent a few hours today preparing for different reading groups by reading books and writing lesson plans for those books. I cannot wait to read Horrible Harry takes the cake with one of my groups! In this book it talks about different animals and some of them I have never heard of! I can't wait to hear about what students know about them and the possibility of looking the animals up!
     To go along with looking things up, I wish I had an ipad to be able to look things super quick in our groups when we have questions about words, animals, or something else. I love technology and I love the idea of having something smaller than a laptop and easy for students to work with. An ipad would be AWESOME when working with my lower reading groups also, because we can use different manipulatives to help with "building" words and spelling. I guess I better start saving!

The Simple-minded

I love how little children's minds work. The look in their eyes when they are reading to you and when they learn something new and their eyes light up! This is why I am teaching...I love making a difference in their lives, especially with the ones that are struggling in every other area of their little innocent life. If I can make them smile and get excited about something new they have learned with reading, then I go home  feeling content, even if my life is crazy busy with a zillion things on my mind....

Welcome to my Reading Korner

Hello! My name is Mrs. Kilgore and I will be blogging about my every day happenings as a Reading Teacher. I will reflect on my day, ask for opinions and comments, and talk to my friends. Please feel free to leave me comments and come back often to read my posts!
Goodbye for now!