Is it too early to start planning for Back to School?

I know, I know... We don't want to think about going back to school yet. It's only the beginning of July! 

But if you're like me, a little part of your teacher brain is still working ahead, thinking about everything you need (or want) to do before things start back up. 

So, if you're up late at night thinking about what you need to do, let me give you a short little list of things that I use frequently in my classroom that you might want to think about. 

(These are all links to my TpT store, The Owl Spot.) 

1. Daily Review 

Whether you're teaching ELA or Math, daily review is necessary for students to practice and master their skills. Here are a few links that will help you with this! 

ELA Bellwork for Upper Elementary Grades

ELA Bellwork for Grades 2-3

*** Both of these can be used digitally or printed for your students. The daily structure helps your students review key, grade level (and some review) skills to keep their understanding fresh all year! Super easy to use! 

Math Word Problems - 180 problems to use all year!

 

*** These are perfect for grades 3-4! Simple word problems. A Daily Word Problems for grades 4-5 is coming soon! These will focus more on multi-stepped and higher math skills.

2. Poetry

If you struggle to teach poetry, know that you are not alone! While poetry isn't a huge focus in the elementary grades, it's still an important concept to teach. Most (if not all) state and national testing have poetry questions. And if taught in small chunks throughout the year, this could be an area that your students can excel in. Also, teaching and reading poetry frequently helps with reading fluency, so it's a win/win for everyone! Here's some tools that will be a perfect addition for you this year.

Daily Poetry for Upper Elementary Grades (10 Minute Poetry Lessons)

Daily Poetry for Grades 2-3 (10 Minute Poetry Lessons)

*** These can both be used digitally or in a printed format. Simple to follow teacher steps for teaching poetry. Don't miss out! 

Elementary Poetry Lessons Bundle

** If you want to dive a little deeper into the poetry lessons that are in the Upper Elementary Grades product, this BUNDLE is ESSENTIAL! Extended lessons are included (along with your instructions). Perfect to use all year - also perfect for SUB PLANS!

3. Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important part of any reading program. I've always been disappointed with the little available instruction in my curriculum. So, I created this AMAZING set of lessons that I've used in my classroom and have seen my students' knowledge of words, synonyms, and comprehension increase. 

Each lesson focuses on learning synonyms for new words, understanding and practice using tools (digital or hard copies of dictionaries - I gave a link to an online dictionary, but it's your choice), and then transferring their new word knowledge to sentence revisions and reading comprehension in texts. This is listed as a 4th grade resource, but I used it with my 5th graders to "catch them up." It can easily be used with 3rd grade as well. The link takes you to the Full Year Bundle, but you can also see details for each quarter.

4. Classroom Decor

Now, this is the fun stuff! I like to change up my decorations/theme every year or 2, so I'm always looking for something that's fun. There's also some great classroom posters below, too. Here's some items you may want to check out!

So, please enjoy relaxing and getting all of your summer bucket list done. When you're ready to start thinking about August, make sure to take a look at some of these things. I promise they will make your year easier!

Martha from "The Owl Spot"

So is independent reading really that important?

Yes, yes, and yes!

I know, I've been there, too. My schedule is jam packed, I have no idea how I'm going to spend extra time getting my students ready for those tests, and we have so many pull outs and interruptions that I'm lucky to get all of my content covered.  The last thing on my mind is free reading time.

But that's what my students (and yours) need the most, especially if their vocabulary fluency is low.  They need to be immersed in good vocabulary, and what better place than in good books.  

"[A] study found that the amount of time students spent reading independently was the best predictor of vocabulary development and reading achievement gains. The research indicates that independent reading is probably the major source of vocabulary acquisition beyond the beginning stages of learning to read." (Individualized Daily Reading Research, Center for the Collaborative Classroom).  

This study goes on to explain that the amount of time students are independently reading has a direct correlation to their amount of vocabulary knowledge and understanding. Books are so important!

After reading this, I've decided that I have to put more 

of a priority on independent reading in my classroom.  
I want it to be meaningful, not just something we use 
as a time filler.  But I don't want my students to feel like 
I'm forcing them to read. I want them to want to read.  

There are many student motivators out there, some better than others.  I'll apologize ahead of time here, but I'm not a fan of AR (gasp, I know!). While there are many good points to the program, I don't like giving my students the only reason for reading is to take a test and earn points.  We don't do that as adults. We read because we want to - either for fun or for information.  If we are asked questions about what we're reading, we can usually pick up the book and find the answers we need.  

Last year, I managed to be able to take my students to our local library once a month to check out books.  They loved it!  There were books there that I didn't have on my shelves, and they were around other people who really loved to read.  The bus rides back to school were usually pretty quiet as they were beginning to devour their adventures. Maybe checking into local library trips is something you'd like to do - the ladies at the library were very excited to help us make this a meaningful experience.  My students had to obtain their own library card with their parents.  

One of my goals this summer is to read "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller.  I've heard many teachers give raving reviews of how this book has changed their reading instruction. Have you read it? What is one of your                                most important/memorable take-a-ways?

  Martha

Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary instruction is key to comprehension in the content areas, such as history, social studies, and science. Well, I guess it’s key to understanding anything that you are trying to teach. 

I’m teaching summer school to a group of rising first graders in an area with a high percentage of Spanish speaking families. Some of these kiddos don't have any English spoken in their home, which makes it real tough for them to know what’s going on in the classroom. We were singing a silly camp song about ravioli, and one girl was just looking around the room with a completely confused look on her face. She had no idea what this ravioli was about! After taking time to explain the words in the song, she understood a little better. 

How many times does this happen in the classroom? Many students (not just your ESL/ELL learners) struggle with vocabulary. They can be just as confused in class as this sweet girl was about ravioli! So what do we do? 

I think that our biggest obstacle is time. We’d love to spend a day or two really working on the vocabulary. But we must keep moving and plowing through to make sure we finish. Or, we give up time so we can focus on those subjects that are tested. Because we all know those are more important. Or at least that’s what we’re forced into thinking. (Can you tell I despise what we are doing to our children with these government issued mandates that don’t allow us to teach?) 

I digress… 

Since we cannot do anything about the time constraints that we have in our classroom, we must find ways to infuse vocabulary instruction into what we do. 

“Learners move from not knowing a word, to being somewhat acquainted with it, to attaining a deeper, richer knowledge that allows them to use new words in many modalities of expression.” -Camille Blackowicz and Peter Fisher, 2012 

Our students fall into one of these three categories: 
1. Not knowing the words they encounter in their instruction, 
2. Having a loose familiarity with the words, or 
3. Knowing the words well enough to use them in their own expressions of their learning. 

I think we all want our students to be at the third category, but too often, we don’t give them enough time with the words to master them. 

Check out the list below for some different activities that can help you move your students from vocabulary confusion to mastery. 

1. Reading immersion! When students encounter new words in texts that they are invested     in, the words stay with them. 
2. Understanding Context Clues Strategies 
3. Learn Synonyms and Antonyms 
4. Importance of learning word stems and origins 
5. Vocabu-ladders! 
6. Vocabulary Games 

I will write more blog posts on each of these topics soon to give you a plethora of ideas to help you as you plan for teaching vocabulary to your students. What’s one way that you include vocabulary instruction in your classroom? I’d love to have a list of strategies here that we can share with each other!

  Martha