Summer is such a busy time of the year! Despite it being known as a time for a little R-n-R I have found myself being a busy bee and suddenly it is mid July. Where has it went? Knowing how fast time is zooming by, I have already found myself planning for the upcoming year. Reading is a subject that I find myself planning for a bit more than the others. Probably because it is one that instruction can vary from year to year and group to group. Plus, I love finding new novels to teach out of and inspire students to pick-up a book and grab onto reading.
I have been flying through books more than usual- for two reasons. One, I have gotten back into my nightly reading habit and two, I have found some really amazing books this summer that I can't put down. Check out my Instagram for a peek at those.
I have made a sloppy copy on all of the mini-lessons I'd love to get through in the beginning of the year (it's way to messy to share at this point). Granted, they will take me a couple months; however I rarely find myself getting into guided reading before October with all the instruction and ground rules needed before we begin. After all, the more they understand the do's and don'ts in the beginning- the easier it is on me in the long run. So- I've decided on starting off the first couple of weeks with the basic story elements: character, setting, theme, conflict and plot structure of a text. Granted they will be revisited multiple times in the year. If you haven't checked out Linda Hoyt's Interative Read-Alouds book- do so. She has some amazing lesson plans for very common picture books. Plus each lesson is laid out so well- anyone can do it. She has it broken down to "on page ___ say this; ask that" I literally will write the questions down on post-it notes and stick them to the page. I have found the kiddos love them just as much as I do.
Next, I am diving into my first read-aloud novel. It's either Fish in a Tree or Island of the Blue Dolphins. Both are amazing books and have strong characters- it will just depend on how many of my new kiddos have read Fish in a Tree already. Plus- they could both be considered narratives, which is the first genre of writing we cover in the year.
The first mini-lesson is going to be on internal and external traits. I always find that when I ask a student if they can give a character trait for a specific character, they go to the physical appearance. However, there is more to a character than that. I found this great anchor chart over at teachertrap.com that I am going to adapt and use with the kiddos- which they will copy in their Reader's Notebooks.
Then, we will work on creating a character trait chart for the main character- using evidence from the text to support our thinking. In order to help with this activity I am going to copy this character trait sheet from Read Write and Think. I am also going to introduce Ms. Leslie Ann's- A Trait A Day to increase their vocabulary and give them some more ideas.
Another resource that I absolutely LOVE from Ms. Leslie Ann is her Bloom's Taxonomy Ladders. I got them last year and used them very consistently with my students. There are both fiction and nonfiction- plus they can be used with any novel or passage and focus on higher order thinking skills. It was a great way for me to check my students comprehension on their independent and literature circle novels. I've also used her non-fiction ones for the students science textbooks. These are really a great resource and are super easy to use.
The technology integration is going to come with Level 6 and I can not wait for my kiddos to complete this. If you haven't checked out the app Tellagami yet, do so!
It is really great and can be used for many different types of projects in meaningful ways. Last year I had a student create a tellegami based on a character in his novel- he created the perfect job for him in the future. Not only did the student read the book, wrote a passage on what he wanted to say, read it aloud fluently, but also thought creatively and used his critical thinking skills to justify. Lots of skills were wrapped up into this one meaningful technology project.
How great was that! As of now- this is what my brain has come up with. At least I am set for a couple of weeks. Check out last year's character trait's post for some examples of the read-aloud books I've used in the past.
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