Guided Reading Book Study Chapter 1

I am so excited to be participating in this book study on the book 
The Next Step in Guided Reading: Focused Assessments and Targeted Lessons for Helping Every Student Become a Better Reader

I was really excited because I was able to get the book on my kindle. I love reading professional development books on my kindle because it is so much more portable and it's also a lot cheaper. The downside is it is hard to flip through the book and find something quickly and I can't share it like I could a paper book. (Although I have discovered I can share The Book Whisperer and Growing Readers with a friend of mine.) As a side note, there are lot of forms and such in this book. I did discover that you can get a pdf download of the forms through the scholastic. I just opened the book on the kindle cloud reader on my computer and then clicked where it said get a pdf download. I was very happy.
I don't think guided reading is one of my strengths. I'm good at reading with the kids and working on things with them, but I'm not always good at being really intentional about my groups and planning. This is something I really want to work on. Especially because we've been given a framework to work on this year that involves tiers of RTI. Guided reading to me fits this perfectly.I'm excited to read this book because it gives practical information and actual lessons to follow.
Richardson starts in the introduction by giving the four elements of guided reading:

• analyzing reading assessments to id an instructional focus
• prompting students to use reading strategies when they encounter difficulties
• teaching skills that are necessary and appropriate for the reading stage
• utilizing guiding writing to support and accelerate the reading process

I think I'm pretty good at analyzing data to figure out what I need to teach. I need to focus on my planning of lessons and then executing the lessons. I seem to do a better job at the executing in kindergarten than I do in first grade.

The first chapter is all about preparing for guiding reading. I really like that Richardson emphasizes that students need to learn to work together, read together and laugh and play together.I found this past year that my students really struggled with what it means to work together. I hope that if I start this from the beginning I'll be able to foster an environment that is conducive to that. (Any suggestions for building teamwork would be appreciated.)
Richardson includes a great chart in this chapter that outlines the different approaches of reading and the grouping, text level, how text is read, and purpose. I plan to print this out and include it in my lesson planning notebook.  The approaches to reading are shared, read aloud, small group and independent. Each approach has a place in the classroom. We should be doing a balance of all 4.
The meat of this chapter is about setting up independent learning activities. Last year in first grade, I tried a daily 5 approach, but in kindergarten I really like using literacy stations. I like the 6 week routine that Richardson lays out for introducing literacy stations. She has a very gradual introduction and recommends using tub activities like puzzles, math manipulatives, clay, legos, block, and art projects. Set a time for 10 minutes and have the students work on one of the tubs. Set back and observe and then meet with the students afterwards. You do this each day for a week with each group using a different tub. The next week you introduce one station activity to a group and the rest of the groups work on the tub activities. By week 3 you introduce a new work station activity and lengthen the time to 15 minutes. So now you have 2 workstation activities going on and the rest of the groups are using the tubs. Week 4 you introduce another activity and extend the time to 20 minutes. By week 5, students are working from 25-30 minutes and you add 2 new workstations.Students will also rotate through 2 workstations during the period. By week 6 you have all students working in work stations and don't use the tubs anymore. Richardson suggests starting groups this week, but I personally would probably wait until the next week. Then this gives the students time to be working on workstations and I can observe.
One of the biggest points, she makes in this chapter to establish the routine that students can't interrupt you while you are meeting with a group. She suggests wearing some kind of silly hat that will help the kids see that they shouldn't intrupt you. I used to wear a crown and should probably find something else along those lines.
Richardson finishes up this chapter with a lot of suggestions about managing literacy stations and things that the stations could be. I thought I'd finish this post up with a few pins from pinterest that related to this.

This pin shows a neat way to manage the groups. You use a file folder, velcro and paper. Then you can move the names around without having to start a new sheet.

http://pinterest.com/pin/157555686936688222/

I'm thinking I'm going to use this method for showing the kids not to bother me during groups. I have some lights like this already and it's a fun reminder.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467398789338/

These are the big ideas that I took from this chapter. Be sure to head over to Kreative in Kinder for the party and check out what other people had to say about the book.

Schedule spotlight series linky: Calendar time

I'm joining the party over at Castles and Crayons again this week for her schedule spotlight series.

This week the focus is on calendar. I did a post 2 years ago about my calendar routine. I'll be honest. I'm revamping this post a bit. (I'm on vacation and I was told I couldn't do any blogging while I was gone.)

I use my promethean board for morning meeting/calendar time. I love love love my morning meeting and calendar time with the kids. I think I love it so much because I use a flipchart that I'm really proud of. It is a combination of different ideas and trail and error and searching promethean planet for things that work for my kids. I love it because I can adapt to fit whatever my kids need. All I have to do is add another page.
When I first started teaching kindergarten, I wrote my morning message on a small white board and did my calendar time on a bulletin board. I had a good routine with them. I keep my students for two years. I have them in kindergarten and then first grade and by half way through first grade I was tired of my morning message and my kids didn't seem to need it. But by using my board, I don't get bored or tired of it. I love it!
Here's my morning meeting routine:
When they first come in they see a chart that has their routine for the morning. I use pictures of what they are suppose to do and the words. I saw this idea on Mrs. Wills blog and just adapted it to fit my needs (At lease I think that's where I saw it. I can't find it now). The students can see what they need to do. As they are working on their morning work at their table, they answer a question on the board. I started this year with their favorite color. They moved their name underneath a square of their favorite color. I started these graphs to help them recognize their names. The next one they do is if they are boys or girls. This starts to get them used to the yes/no format we use the rest of the year and they can "read" it themselves. Then they have a yes/no question they answer everyday. I use their popcorn words and different themes and concepts we're working on. I also use a lot of graphing and math concepts with this chart.
When morning meeting starts, we start with a Dr. Jean song I've embedded in my chart. Then we go over our rules which I got from The Polka Dot Patch.
Here's a list of the next slides:

• Morning message (I enjoy playing around with the backgrounds depending on the season and holdiays) I also try to include skills that we are working. We might brainstorm words that have our phonics rule, answer questions about science or social studies, or answer some math problems.
• Calendar
• Days of the week (Dr. Jean song embedded)
• Days we've been in school hundreds chart
• A tens and ones base 10 chart to show how many days we've been in school
• Months of the year (Dr. Jean song embedded)
• Weather (Dr. Jean song embedded)
• Season
• Temperature
• Patterns with shapes
• Number patterns
• 10 frame activity. Students make a number using the 10 frame. We start small and eventually build up to multiple 10 frames.
• In first grade, I add a page for a number of the day. They have to come up with an addition or subtraction problem that equals the number.
• In first grade, I also include review questions from different test resources

 . If you download my chart, I put notes in each slide to let you know what I do there. I love doing my morning meeting this way because we practice so many skills in math and in reading and writing. I try to include questions in my morning message and my question of the day that review our science and social studies themes.
I don't have the activeinspire software on this computer so I can't share any pictures. You have to have the activeinspire software to use this chart, but check it out here.
Here's my flipchart for download in google docs.
Be sure to head over to Castles and Crayons and join the party.

Classroom Decor Pin Party

Surprise! Surprise! I found another linky party to join. Summertime=linky party fun! I start out the summer hoping to spend the month of June relaxing and not thinking about school. But it just doesn't happen. My brain will not stop. Pinterest, facebook, and blogging don't help my brain turn off. But I think I have had the best school years in the past two years since I've discovered all this. And I love it! I love the planning of a new year and getting a new crop of kids. It's like a fresh start every August. I guess I'm a weirdo for enjoying this so much.
So I'm joining the party over at Just Reed.

So here are some of my favorite classroom decor ideas from pinterest.
1. I love this idea of making a wreath with the kids hand prints. Then the kids have a part in the decorating of the classroom. This would make a great first day project.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400679935/

2, I love  this idea for displaying birthdays. I wanted to do this a few years ago and just didn't. But I think it would be great for number sense and getting the kids to connect the dates to their birthday.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400672998/

3. I have seen this idea floating around pinterest and really would love to do it this year. I keep my kids for two years so I think this would be a neat keepsake for my classes.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467398331195/

4. I am thinking about changing up my rules for this coming up school year. I love this way of displaying the rules. I like that they are more like expectations than rules. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400567760/

5. I made curtains for my first classroom but haven't used them in forever. I would love to hang some curtains again. Especially because we need to be able to cover our windows if we go in a lockdown. But I haven't been able to figure out how to hang them. This idea is perfect.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400647361/

6. I love subway art for my class. I had 3 or 4 posters with them up last year. I love this one and need to add it to my collection. I think they are colorful and great reminders for the kids and me.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400142699/

7. This is a great use of space. My whiteboards are not magnetic so it would be nice to have a magnetic surface for the kids to have some word work areas. It's just an oil drip pan. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467397963496/

8. I'm reading the book The Next Step in Guided Reading this summer and partcipating in the book study. This is an area that I haven't been as organized as I would like to be. I need to work on planning ahead and then following through with the plan. I love this idea of organizing all the materials in one basket for each group and color coding them. I'm big on the color coding this summer.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467399922852/

9. Here's another a color coding idea that I love. I have my word work and math station materials organized in drawers. Currently my word work stuff isn't even labeled. But I love the idea of color coding things so the materials get back into the right place. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400517902/

10.Last but not least is this writing center pin. I have loved this set up for a while but I haven't gotten the stuff together to make one. I guess I need to start hitting some thrift stores or yard sales for the perfect table. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400230801/

So those are some of my favorite classroom decor pins. Going through all my pins helped me to get some ideas of projects to work on this summer. What are you working on this summer? Be sure to head over to Just Reed and check the party out
. 

Morning Routine Linky

In an effort to get back into the habit of blogging, I'm taking advantage of all the linky parties going on this summer. Kelli over at Castles and Crayons is having a schedule linky party all summer long. It looks like a great party for getting some new ideas for how things work in other classrooms.

This week's focus is all about the morning routine. The kids at my school can come in at 7:30. They either go to the library or to the cafeteria. There is a teacher at each spot they can be and everyone has one day a week they have morning duty. I don't have morning duty though because I always have bus duty. The bell rings at 7:50 and the kids are dismissed to their classes. My students come in and unpack their backpacks. They put their notebooks in their cubbies after taking out homework and any notes and putting them in the completed basket. (Two years ago when I was in kindergarten I didn't have the kids take things out of their binders but when they are in first grade I do. I think when I go back to kindergarten in the fall, I'm going to train them to put their homework in the basket too. ) They take their chairs off their desk and all the desks in their group. They sit down and get busy on their journals. This is the first year I've done journals in kindergarten or first grade. This was what I did when I taught third grade. I used Rachelle Smith's Journals through the year as the covers of my journals. I also liked her prompts. I started the year in first grade just having the students use popcorn words to write sentences. As the year went on, I gave them prompts or had the students write in response to books we were reading or topics we were learning about. I think this is my favorite way to do morning work. They get writing practice and they stay engaged. As I'm going back to kindergarten I'm trying to figure out what I want to do during this time. I had my assistant go ahead and make journals for August - December. I loved the idea that Kelli had with their journals. She had her students copy a sentence and illustrate it for the letters. I'm thinking we'll do journals a couple of times a week but probably not everyday for the first semester. They work on these from 7:50 until about 8:15. I also have each group take a bathroom break during this time. When my students finished their journals, they would go to read to self. I discovered a few of my students weren't doing what they were suppose to in their journals so I started having one group turn in their journals each day and I would read through them and leave a note. I also used their journal writing to guide my writing and language lessons. It was great to see the growth in their writing.
So that's my morning routine. I usually have a large coffee in my hand while their working and do attendance and other things like that. Be sure to head over to Castles and Crayons to check out the party.
What do you have your kids do when they come into the classroom?

Book Talk Linky and update

So summer is here and I had hoped to get back in the swing of blogging again. But it's been a week since I've blogged. We've been so busy this past week. We had a blast in Charlotte for the Comic Book Convention and then we were on a youth trip Sunday - Wednesday. My hubby and I help with our high school youth at church. They are truly a great group of kids. I have to brag on one of them. Yesterday we went to one of the city pools in our county. It was packed. One of the boys who just graduated high school was raising a 6 year old boy down the slide. When they had raced a few times, the little boy asked our youth if he would be his best pal. The youth said sure and proceeded to swim and play with him the rest of the time we were there. It was so sweet and cute. Made my heart smile!
Anyway, Chris and I are home for a couple of days and then we head to the beach. I'm so excited to get away and relax. We will also be celebrating our 1 year anniversary on Sunday. So I'm trying to get caught up on some blogging. I had seen this fun linky party over at Reading Towards the Stars.

One of my favorite things about summer is that I get to read a lot. I read a lot anyway. I usually read before I go to bed. But summer lends itself to pool time and beach time which means more reading. And I can stay up later finishing good books. I just finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and loved it. 

I love fantasy books and especially young adult fantasy books. I had bought this one on my kindle a while back but just got around to reading it now. 

Percy is a sixth grade boy who has been kicked out of multiple boarding schools because of his behavior. He isn't a bad kid but things seem to happen around him. He also has ADHD and some learning issues. His father died when he was young and his mom remarried and lives in New York. Percy gets attacked by one of his teachers and no one seems to believe that it happened. Everyone forgot that the teacher even existed. On his way home from school, he has another weird experience. When he and his mother go on a vacation, they get attacked by a monster from Hades and Percy finally figures out who he is, a demigod. His father hadn't died when he was a kid but was a Greek god. I enjoyed the story. It moved past and the characters were likable. I'll be reading the second one while we're on vacation. Have you read any of these books? From what I've heard, the movie isn't really anything like the book but I'm thinking I might check it out. I'm linking up with Reading Towards the Stars. Be sure to head over there and see all the book recommendations. I'm hoping I can link up weekly or at least every other week. 

I would love for you to leave me a comment on what you are reading. I'm always adding to my list of books to read.

Summertime

Today is day 3 of summer vacation and it's the first time I've had a chance to be at home in the morning. But it's been a great start to a summer. Tuesday I got up to go walk with a friend and then we got to work on our summer reading project. She's a fourth grade teacher at my school and we're both on the board of our local library. She came up with a great idea of taking books out into the community and to the weekly rentals we have in our town. Several of the motels in town have been turned into week by week rentals. There are a lot of kids that live in these places and they are considered homeless. So through the library, we've been working on a summer program to bring books to these kids and read with them once a week for about 5 weeks in the summer. I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to be great for our community and a great opportunity for us to give back. Tonight we have our first training for the volunteers. So this is a big chunk of how I'll be spending this summer.
The next big chunk of how I'm spending my summer is keeping my niece one day a week. It is so much fun. She's 2 and a half and a riot. Yesterday I got up earlier than I normally do for school to go keep her. We had a blast going to the park, getting ice cream, target, and just playing. It amazes me how much she has learned and how much she retains. She loves Pete the Cat and Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. (I'm pretty sure that I have something to do with that.) We watched the ad video on Youtube for Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons like 15 times yesterday. She could recite it before the day was over.
This was right when she was telling me not to take my picture.
The next way to spend my summer break is to do some professional reading. This always seems to be my plan and I don't always get to it. I was reading some old posts from last summer and I had several books on my list that I never got to. So maybe this summer will be the summer.

Here's the stack. I'm not sure where to even start. I'm thinking either the Math for All or In Pictures and In Words. Those were on my lists last year and they didn't get read. Chris and I are headed to a Comic Book Convention this weekend and then to our youth retreat. Then we're home for a few days and then we go on our vacation. Busy Busy. But in a good way. I'm trying to keep myself organized. I've been wanting an Erin Condran planner for a while but I just can't seem to spend the money on one. I saw this pin on pinterest the other day that had a filofax planner and some great color coding. The filofax planner was just as expensive but this pin gave me an idea. So yesterday while wandering around target I found a planner I liked. It is made by Mead and has a page for each day and then a month calendar. I also got some flair pens to do some color coding.

That's the month of June all color coded and filled out. I have purple for personal stuff, red for school related stuff, green for library/reading outreach stuff, blue for scouts and church and then orange for all blog and creating stuff.  It's all well and good for now. I hope that I'll be able to stay organized and color coded. I'm such a nerd when it comes to school supplies and pretty pens.
I haven't figured out what projects I want to work on for school yet. I know that I want to work on materials for our new reading series. Our system has adopted Journeys and I'm pretty excited about it I think. It is at least going to give us the rigor that is expected in common core. But with any new adoption comes a learning curve. We don't have our teacher's editions yet but I was able to access some things online and get started on a document with themes, words, and letters. I hope to get some sight word items together and some flipcharts made this summer. I also know that I want to implement a sensory table for next year. I have a sand table for my classroom that I have never used. Something about sand just grosses me out. But thanks to some of my friends in kinder, I've been swayed to use the table as more of a sensory table. I've been pinning like crazy some ideas. But that's more like a July project. I need to be able to get in my classroom and get the sand table cleaned out. We are getting new floors in our rooms so I had to pack everything up more so than usual. On Monday during our half day, my room was emptied of all furniture and stuff. It was so weird. I had everything labeled but it still makes me nervous about it all coming back to my room. I think it was making me nervous because I'm going back to kindergarten and I switch out materials and furniture with the teacher next door. Hopefully they will get things back where they belong.
Well, I guess I should get off this computer and get busy on getting my house in order and things packed for our trip. I would love to hear about how you're spending your summer and what's on your list for summer reading.

Currently June

Hi friends! I've missed you. I've been MIA for a long time. The end of the school craziness just got to me. Between school and home, I just haven't had it in me to blog. Plus the heat. The heat kills me. It's just the beginning of June and I'm already having issues with the heat. It makes me not want to do anything. I've told Chris that when I'm pregnant I'm going to have to live in an air conditioned bathroom. :) So to ease back into blogging after this hiatus, I'm glad to join the party over at Farley's. Currently is one of my favorite parties around.

I still have a half day left of school tomorrow but my brain is already in overload thinking about next year. I've been thinking about what I want to try to get copied for the beginning of the school year. I have quite a few copies left and I don't want to lose them. I know now for sure that I'll be in kindergarten next year so I'm thinking about what I want to make over the summer. We're getting a new reading series and I've already made a list of all the sight words for the series. I was hoping it would be July before my brain started thinking non stop about next year but so far I'm already there. Chris and I have some trips planned in the next few weeks so hopefully I'll be able to do some relaxing then. My essentials for vacation are pretty self explanatory. I have to have my kindle. To me a vacation is a good book and the ocean. I try to keep my self sunscreened up while sitting on the beach and the perfect thing to wear after sitting at the pool or beach is a sundress.
Be sure to check out the party over at Farley's Oh' Boy 4th Grade blog.