Character Trait: Searching for the Evidence

What an inspiring character!  A young girl shows you should never give up on your dream.  Although there were many roadblocks in her path, with determination, she found her way around everyone to finally achieve her goal.  What a great lesson for all of us.   And . . . a fantastic book to share with our students as they learn about the characters.

The Girl with a Mind for Math  tells the story of Raye Montague.  Early in her life, her grandfather takes her to see a submarine.  She quickly decides an engineer is what she wants to be when she grows up.  This isn’t an easy thing for a young black girl in the south.   The author, Julia Finley Mosca, uses narrative verse to share the life story of this incredible lady.   The illustrations, by Daniel Rieley, are unique and very eye-catching. 

                       

When I first read it to myself. I was struck by Raye's determination.  She starts with a dream and never gives up, no matter how many people tell her she can’t.  A Girl With a Mind for Math is the perfect book for helping students learn about character traits and how to find supporting evidence for those traits.  I created a character trait activity to go along with this book.  The activity can be used with your whole class during a read-aloud time or set up in a literacy center.   Click on the image below to be taken to this free product in my TpT store.

Disclaimer:  I was given a free copy of this book for this review.

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High Expectations are NOT Enough

      Picture this:  You have your centers set up and your small group lessons are planned.  The kids are working on their reading and literacy center tasks.  You're focused on your small groups.  You give yourself a pat on the back because everything is running so smoothly!

At the end of the week, you collect their literacy folders, which hold all their written work for the week, and their learning journals.  When you sit down to go through the folders and journals you notice the written work is uh . . . let’s say, not up to the quality you expect.  You wonder, “What were they doing all week?!”

Even if you’ve taught the routines and your literacy block runs smoothly unless you have high expectations and a way to keep kids accountable, what’s the point? That’s when center and reading tasks turn into busy work, and nobody has time for that.

I have a few ideas for ways to hold students accountable for the high expectations you set.  I firmly believe that expectations are pointless without the accountability.  I’ve divided the tips or suggestions between the three reading tasks and three center tasks that I use during my literacy block.  Every classroom is different, so feel free to take, use, or modify any of them to implement in your classroom.

One other note,  I've never found anything that works every year with every class.  Each group of students is different.  The accountability checks I did one year might not work the following year. As with everything else, teaching is about making adjustments for the students’ needs. 

My goal was always to foster independence and a habit of doing their best on every task.  Once the expectations and accountability checks were established, I was able to focus more on the content of their work.

1.  Journal Response

One of the most difficult literacy tasks to check is independent reading.  How do you know if they are really reading?  One way is to have students write a short journal entry.  The entries can be a short summary of what they read, a topic chosen from a list, or focus on a specific skill.   For example:  Write about the characters and how their words or actions affected the plot.  You need to do a lot of modeling of the exact format you expect for the journal entry. 
Here's a free set of reading response stems you can use in your classroom.

2.  Accelerated Reader (AR) Quiz

I like this program for one reason -- it held my students accountable for their independent reading. It is NOT a great way to check a higher level thinking skills, but it is a good way to quickly and easily know if a student has read a book.  I talked to each student at the beginning of every quarter to set goals. The reports made it easy for us to check progress.

3.  Buddy Check-in

In a couple of my centers, students read with a partner.  Part of the expectation is that they keep each other on task.  I choose the students for each partnership carefully so I can set them up for success.   In my fluency center, the students write a comment or two about their partner's reading and this serves as the check.  If there is a problem in the partnership, students can talk to me about the issue and I can help them work on a solution.  Buddy Check-in is also a way to recognize students who are focused, polite or helpful buddies.

4.  Discussion Monitor

One of my reading centers has groups of 2-4 students reading an assigned text.   As they read, they stop and chat about the text.  The discussion is focused on a reading skill we've been working on in our whole-class lessons.  Each student has a thinkmark with reminders about the skill.  It helps them stay focused on the purpose of the discussions.  One student can be assigned the discussion monitor for the day or for the week.  The monitor makes sure the readers stay on topic and prompt students to give complete and thoughtful comments.  At the end of the daily discussion, the monitor fills out a simple rubric/checklist about the group members' participation. 

5. Switch and Check

One of my favorite ways to hold students accountable for centers with a written task was to assign them a checking partner.  When both students finish the task they switch papers and use an answer key to check the work. This worked well for written center work because I rarely took grades on this work.  

6.  Star Student

I've seen this idea used in different class situations.  I like to use it during literacy block because it's an easy way to give recognition to students who are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Sometimes I was looking for a student who had over-all good behavior during our literacy block.  But sometimes we had a focused behavior for the day or week.  During literacy block I make a mental note of students who are on task, working quietly, keeping their area neat and organized, helping others, etc.  At the end of the block, I would choose one student to recognize as the Star Student for the day.  I would write the student's name on a small display at the front of the room.  Sometimes I would put the name in a jar for a drawing at the end of the month. 

Click on the image to download this Star Student sign you can use in your classroom!

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The 3 Essential Elements of Whole Class Reading Lessons

     When I first started teaching (back in the Stone Age J ), my reading instruction time had 2 parts. Most of the time was spent in whole-class skill lessons. Then, I'd listen to my high, middle and low groups read aloud.  I've learned a lot about teaching reading since then!  Also, the pendulum of reading instruction has swung from teaching totally whole-class to total individualized reading instruction.  Like most things, somewhere in the middle is best.  There is a need for both whole-class, small group, and individualized reading instruction.   That’s why a reading block needs whole-class instruction, guided small group lessons, and individual activities. (You can read this blog post to learn about the basics of a literacy block.)

     During whole-class instruction, there are three elements I think are essential; focused lessons, using a common text and setting goals/expectations.  These elements form the framework for my whole-class lessons.  Typically, I decide on the skill or strategy I want to teach in the focused lesson, choose the piece of text, and then set goals or expectations for the rest of the literacy block.

Focused Lesson

     The focused lesson is the main instruction time of the whole-class lesson. It can focus on reading strategies, skills, vocabulary, phonics, word study, reading behaviors or expectations, fluency, genre characteristics, etc.

How do I know what to teach?

     You might have a district-mandated curriculum or adopted reading textbook that outlines all of your lessons.  If that’s the case, then teach those lessons.  But, if you have more flexibility, deciding what to teach is the first step.  I begin by mapping out the standards for the year.  Filling out a Year-at-a-Glance planning page for the reading standards I need to teach helps keep me on track.  (See the bottom of this post for resources that will help with the planning. ) Then I move on to looking at the student data that's been gathered through formal and informal assessments, checklists, and observations.  Using the Year-at-a-Glance plan and the student data you’ll want to teach focused lessons that address the needs of the majority of your students. 

What types of focused lessons should I teach?

     Most focused lessons can be put into three categories; expectations, strategies and skills and literary analysis.   I’ve put together a very short list of ideas.  You can use this as a starting point and build your focused lesson list from here.  You’ll soon find that this list could be endless.

ØThe lessons on expectations focus on student behaviors and responsibilities.  These lessons are usually covered during the first few weeks of school, but refresher lessons will probably be needed throughout the year.  Here are a few topics for these focused lessons:

•getting out and putting away materials

•respecting the learning of others

•work quality

•how to write a journal response

•choosing “just right” books

•giving a book talk or review

•how the class library is organized

•caring for materials

•transiting from small groups to centers

ØStrategies and skills focused lessons focus on the standards you need to teach.  Here are a few of the broad areas you would cover in this category:  (Your lessons will probably be much more specific.)

•Phonics,  example- words with the long a sound, ai, ay, a_e, eigh

•Punctuation, example- how a comma placement affects the meaning of a sentence.

•Word Study, example- affixes change the meaning of words, treat, mistreat, treatable

•Comprehension, summarizing, using a SWBT organizer

•Text structures, example- how to use a glossary, index, and table of contents

•Fluency, example- using voice tone to express a character’s emotion

ØThe third category of focused lessons is literary analysis.  These lessons focus on different genres and understanding the techniques authors use when writing different genres.  Here are a few examples of focused lesson topics:

•Story elements, example- how the setting affects the plot

•Text organization, example- problem/solution organization of fiction stories

•Word choice, example- how words set the mood of the story

•Genre studies, example- characteristics of a specific genre

•Responding to literature, example- how a character made you feel

Common Text

     When teaching your whole class, you need to have the same text for all your students.  There are a few exceptions, which I’ll explain later.  This text can be a textbook or literature study book they each have, individual copies of an article, poem or workbook, text shared by two students, text projected onto your whiteboard, or a big book that all students can see.  I also include a read-aloud book or text as a common text.

Why?

     Having this common text gives all students the chance to interact with the lesson.  They’re all seeing the same text and hearing the same discussion. Are they all mastering the skills/strategies at the same time?  Of course not, that’s the purpose of small groups and independent activities. Whole-class instruction is when I introduce skills and strategies, mastery will come after students have more opportunities to use them in their independent reading tasks.

Where?

     In most classrooms, there are really only two places you can meet with your whole-class; on the floor in a meeting area, or having kids stay at their desks or tables.  The location will change depending on several things.

•What text is being used?  If you’re displaying the text on the whiteboard and that is closer to the student desks, then you’ll meet there.  If the text is a big book or a read aloud, you’ll probably meet on the floor in your meeting area.  If the students are in pairs to share a text, that might work in the meeting area or at their desks.

•What will the kids be doing?  If they will be doing much writing during the lesson, then I usually like to keep them at their desks. Although, clipboards and composition book journals can be written in when they’re seated on the floor.

•How is their behavior?   I’d like to say that all of my classes have been able to show model behavior when I’m teaching, but that would be a lie.  There have been days, seasons and sometimes whole years when my group of kids just can’t focus when we’re gathered in our meeting area on the floor.  No matter how much time we spend modeling behavior and setting expectations, some groups of kids just can’t handle this less structured meeting area for very long. So, we sometimes spend more time at our desks than I’d like.

What?

What text can you use?  This question is easy. . . anything!  The type of text, of course, will depend on the objective of the lesson.  Don’t limit yourself to the district mandated reading text.  Although they have great stories, articles, and poems, I think kids need to experience as many different genres of text as possible.  Here’s a short list of possibilities:

-literature or novel studies

-poetry

-newspapers

-content area textbooks (science, social studies, and even math textbooks)

-copies of travel brochures

-menus

-online articles

-fairy tales, folktales, myths, legends

-picture books

-plays

-how-to instructions

-owner’s manuals

These genre stickers will help you keep your class library and resources super organized.  They're editable, so you can type in the specific genres you need.  Click on the image to download your free set.

     Earlier I stated there is an exception to students each having a copy of the text being used in the lesson.  This might happen if you’re using a specific type of text but have different copies.  Examples:  travel brochures, how-to instructions, menus.  Even though students may have different copies, each one will have the same features you want to discuss in your lesson.

Setting Goals and Expectations

     My whole group time always ends with a class goal or expectation.  I want my students to take something from the lesson and apply it right away.  I send the kids off by assigning a short task that relates to the goal/expectation.     To keep the kids accountable, I check on these goals or expectations at the end of the reading block.  This accountability check will vary, depending on the task I’ve assigned.  The accountability check should match the task.  If the task is an action or behavior, then the accountability check can be a partner share or group discussion.  If the task is written then the accountability check can be reading the journal entry or note card.   These tasks and accountability checks are meant to be simple and quick.  The kids will have other reading tasks to accomplish during the literacy block so I don’t want to add too much to their workload.

One of my favorite ways to check on students is with thinkmarks.  These are bookmarks with a reminder or tips about the skill or strategy I want them to implement.  They keep the thinkmark with them as they read and then write a response either on the back of the thinkmark or in their response journal.  

To give thinkmarks a try in your classroom,

you can download this little freebie!

Here’s a chart with example focused lesson topics, goals, the assigned task, and accountability check.

     This is a very, very short list of ideas.  Hopefully, it shows the variety of tasks and accountability checks.  The point is for kids to immediately practice. or try out, the focus of the focused lesson.  


Helpful Resources:  

The Ultimate Literacy Block (Editable) Planner is free!  Click on the image to become one of my email friends and I'll send it to you right away!

Planning is a whole lot easier with this planner.  There are so many pages that will help you keep your teaching life totally organized!  Pages include calendars, monthly planning, weekly planning, small group planning, record keeping and so much more.  Click on the image to preview the planner in my TpT store.

Thinkmarks are amazing!  You can use them in so many situations. They give the student a little tip or reminder and help them focus on a recently presented strategy.  Accountability goes way up when readers use thinkmarks.

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Literacy Centers I Couldn't Live Without!

Time, the one thing every teacher needs more of.  My district guidelines said the literacy block in third grade should be 120 minutes.  That sounds great until you realize that includes reading, writing, grammar, phonics, vocabulary, handwriting, whole-group, small-group, and independent reading! 

You’re never going to have more time. What you need to do is make sure the time you have is used effectively and this includes your literacy centers. I've used dozens of different types of literacy centers throughout my teaching career.  These are my favorite centers because they are the most effective.  By that I mean they keep kids focused on what's important --- reading and writing.

#1  Independent Reading

I truly believe you need to give kids time to read if you want them to become better readers.  Worksheets and games have a place in your reading instruction, but they shouldn't replace independent reading time. My goal is to give kids at least 30 minutes of independent reading every day.  That means 30 minutes with a text at their independent reading level. Some kids will need help to choose a book at their independent level. When kids have a book in their hands that they can read and want to read, keeping them focused on reading will not be an issue. 

#2 Read with a Partner

I love this center because it's so versatile.  Partners can help each other with vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency, as well as communication skills.  You can let students choose their own partners, but I usually choose the partnerships.  First I decide on the focus of the center that week. If the focus is fluency I may pair students with similar reading levels.  If the focus is vocabulary or comprehension, I may pair a stronger reader with a weaker reader.  Of course, one thing to always keep in mind is how they will work together.  The trickiest part of this center is choosing partners. I've found that partner readers can either help each other stay focused or distract each other from the task.  So, choose partners wisely! 

#3  Respond to Reading

This is one of my favorite centers because it combines reading and writing.  When kids write about their reading, you're getting an insight into their understanding of the text.  You'll also get an informal look at their written communication skills.  For this center, I always give the kids a focus.  The focus ties in with our current reading comprehension strategy.  I want to see if they are able to take the strategy lessons and apply them to their own reading.  To keep the readers focused on the strategy, I use reading thinkmarks.  These are bookmarks, with a specific reading focus.  The thinkmark usually has reminders or tips about the strategy.  It can also have response stems or questions.  They're easy to give out to students after a whole-class or small group lesson.    One thing to keep in mind with this center---You must read the student responses at least once a week.  I always enjoyed reading their responses, but sometimes found it to be a challenge to get them all read. (Another time issue.) If you'd like to give thinkmarks a try, follow this link to download a few freebies!

#4 Write with a Partner

The reason I love this center so much is that the kids love it.  And, anything that gets them to write more is good for me!  Like reading with a partner, writing with a partner can have different purposes. The kids can help each other with revising, editing, or can work on a joint writing piece.  All writing genres work in this center.  Like all the other centers, the kids must have a focus.  This isn't a free write time.  I also choose the writing partnerships very carefully.  I want students who can help each other with the task and help each other stay focused.

#5 Word Skills

This is the center where I put my games and task card activities.  The most important thing to keep in mind is the kids should be practicing skills that have already been introduced and practiced in a whole-class lesson.  This isn't the place to introduce something new.  It's the place to give kids more practice so they can master those important decoding and encoding skills. To keep students accountable I always have some type of recording sheet.  Even in a game, I find a way for kids to have some type of meaningful written response.  

No matter what centers you decide to have in your classroom, make sure they are effective.  You don't have time for busy work.  The centers need to focus on your state or district standards and keep students focused on the task.  If you can do that, then your centers will be an effective use of time.

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The KWL Chart -- New and Improved!

      KWL charts have been around since the early 80’s.  Chances are you’ve used them either as a student or as a teacher,  maybe both. I remember thinking the traditional chart with three columns were wonderful.  I used them for so many of my science and social studies lessons and thought they really helped my students organize their thoughts and learning.  They guided a lot of our informative research and writing. 

    Well, it’s time to bring the KWL chart up-to-date.  I’ve found several really interesting ways this chart has been adapted.  Some are still simple and adaptable to many lessons, but others are more specific and may not fit with a wide range of activities.  Here’s what I found---

Traditional KWL

Let’s start with the oldie, but goodie.  The three columns stand for What I Know, What I Want to Know and What I Learned.  This is pretty straight forward and kids easily understand them.  After only a little whole class practice, students are able to use this chart on their own.  What I love about this chart is the versatility.  It can be used for almost any lesson or activity. (Click on image to download this organizer.)

With the traditional KWL chart, it's simple and easy to organize information for both literary and informative text  

Literary Text--

K:  background knowledge    Students list what they know about the topic, characters, or setting.  Students can even list what they know about the genre.

W:  Want to find out.     Students can make predictions of what they think will happen. Predictions can be added or adjusted as they continue to read. Questions they want to have answered as they read the story can also be written here.  Then if the question is answered it can be moved over to the Learned column.

L:  Learned from the story.    Students can write a summary of the story, or the lesson learned in the story.  Their predictions can be checked and their questions can be answered.

Informative Text,  video or movie, science experiment --

K:  Previous knowledge     What knowledge do students already have about this topic.  This could come from previous experiences, books they’ve read, movies or TV shows they’ve seen.  It can also come from previous lessons or activities.

W:  Want to learn     What do the students hope or want to learn about the topic.  Questions are best for this column because they easily lead to searching for answers.

L:  Learned from the text       Any facts and information that students learn from the text can be written in this column. The facts do not have to pertain to what they wrote in the W column. But, if they do answer one of the questions from the W column, it can be moved over to the L column as they write the answer.

Thinking KWL Chart

I really, really like this KWL chart.  It values the knowledge that students already have about a topic but requires them to find evidence to support their ideas.  Let’s face it, kids know a lot, but it isn’t always accurate.  I also like the fluidity of this chart.  Instead of writing on the chart, I like to have kids write on small sticky notes.  These notes can then be moved from column to column as they read and research.  

Here’s how the three columns work;

K: What I Think I Know-  The first column is the biggest change from the traditional KWL chart.  Kids can write down any facts, background knowledge or information they think they know about the topic.  The emphasis, though, is that this “knowledge” may change once they begin researching or reading the text.  Perhaps they write “bears hibernate” in the first column. But, from their research, they find out that they don’t truly hibernate.  They go into a torpor or a deep sleep.  Bears can be woken up quickly and easily from this torpor state, unlike hibernating animals. The note about bears hibernating can now be updated and moved to the last column- What I know I Learned column.

W:  What I want to Know-  In this column students write notes about what they'd like to learn, or questions they have about the topic or story.  As they read and research, they can update these notes with their new knowledge and move the note to the last column.
L:  What I know I learned-  The last column is where all the notes from their research are collected.  Only notes that have text-based evidence can be placed in this column.   Notes from the first and second column are moved here as soon as they are proved by the research and reading.


The next KWL chart comes from an article I read on the NSTA blog.  It describes a KLEW chart.  

http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=51519

I like how this chart guides students through their research.  The first column lists what students think they know, just like in my Thinking KWL chart.  In the second column, they record what they are learning, followed by the third column which lists supporting evidence.  The last column lists questions for future research.  To read how a third-grade teacher used this in her science lesson you can read the full article here:  Evidence Helps the KWL Get a KLEW.

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