SQ3R

Have you used this strategy?  I use it with my 4th and 5th graders every year but 3rd graders could use it too.  For those of you who aren't familiar with SQ3R, it is a great strategy to use with non-fiction, especially textbooks.  It keeps students actively engaged while writing.

To use it, have each student fold a piece of paper in half hot dog style and give them a non-fiction text.

S - Survey - Students should survey the text.  Read headers, bold words, titles, captions etc...

Q - Question - Ask questions about the text.  I have students turn the headings and titles into questions.  These are written on the left side of the paper.  

R- Read - I have my students read one section at a time.

R - wRite - (I know, it doesn't really start with an R) Students write the answers to their questions on the right side of their paper.

R - Review - Students use their notes to review the information in the chapters.  

I made a quick template to use with your students - although you can just use lined paper too.  Click on the picture to grab your copy!  

Assessment Organization

I have been a terrible blogger lately!  The last two weeks have been spent writing IEP's, calling parents, writing 40 progress notes (still not done), and getting all of next weeks plans to my principal....All of this was due yesterday!  Thankfully, my principal gave me until Monday for my plans and the progress notes have a secret 5 day extension.   I was at school until 8 on Thursday trying to get everything done.  It has been a loooong week and needless to say, I didn't have much time for blogging!  

I am ALWAYS nervous to write IEP's and progress notes.  I like to make sure I have student work to back up what I am saying.  I keep almost every paper/worksheet my students do.  The only thing they take out of my room is scrap paper.  Storing all of this is a nightmare, at least for me.  I don't want to get rid of anything that I may need for documentation just in case some sort of lawsuit opens up (which happens in my district).  This is what I have been doing: 

All student work goes in a "finished work" basket.  When that fills up I bring everything home and sort it by student (as you see here).  Then I hole punch everything and put it in my assessment binder. 

I bought numbered tabs from Staples and stuck it in my binder.  Each student has a number.  I laminated the cover sheet so I could write names in a wet-erase marker and use the sheet year after year.  Last year, I just dumped all their work behind their tab...not very organized :) 

This year, I added a cover sheet under each tab with the students IEP goals.  All their work is then organized by IEP goal. 

I have progress tracking sheets for each goal...

and I keep their assessments/work behind the progress tracking sheets.

The problem is the binder gets way too full.

To cut down on the amount of loose paper, I started making assessment notebooks for each kid.  This is a math fact notebook.  Most of the time, math fact goals are assessed bi-weekly.  I printed out and numbered 20 addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division fact drills.  I spiraled them all together this year because my students needed all 4.  Next year, I will have one spiral for each operation.  I am doing the same thing with   word problems, and writing assessments.  This won't be totally up and running until next year but I am hoping it will cut down on the amount of paper I'm keeping.

I'm off to a baby shower...enjoy your weekend!

Complete Sentences

Do you find it hard to teach sentence writing to your students?  I did until I started breaking the sentences down into:
Who?  Did what?  When?  Where?  How?

Using this method really improved my students sentence and paragraph writing!  I made some writing sheets for my students a while ago but they weren't cute.  I bought some adorable new graphics last week and decided to use them to update my old boring sheets.  

Both of these kits include a sample lesson plan, brainstorming cards for the board, sentence writing pages (with primary and intermediate lined paper), and paragraph writing pages (also with both types of lined paper). 

I also made this mini-preview freebie for you to check out before you buy one of the other kits.  

Click on the pictures to be taken to the products!  

Pinterest Inspired Classroom

As many of you are, I am working on getting organized this year.  I don't want to just organize though..I want everything to look cute, colorful, and clean.  To keep me focused on this goal, I thought it would be helpful to visualize what I want my room to look like/feel like.  I gathered some pictures I've found on pinterest that inspire me and I thought I'd share them with you.  Click on the pictures to be taken to the original source! 

I love this word wall!  

Sticking with the colorful theme, I like the rainbow of binders!

I love this desk...My desk is terrible! 

I'd like to hang something like this over the whiteboard.

This would be a great addition to the shelves above my desk.

I like the idea of organizing materials in binders.

This weeks prompt from Clutter Free Classroom is to share pictures of your purging.  I don't have a lot of materials so I didn't do any purging.  I figured this would be my supplementary post.  

Versatile & Liebster Awards!

Two awards?!  Are you kidding?!  It still surprises me when people read what I write.  I know how much other blogs have helped me as a teacher and it's weird to think that I could be helping others in the same way.    Okay, on to the awards!  

Thank you to Ms. D at  superlativesix.blogspot.com 

and 

Carrie from ateachersobsessions.blogspot.com

for this award!  

1. Thank the person who gave it to you. Thank you:  

Haley from followingoptimism.blogspot.com 

AND

Kristin from krissyskindergarten.blogspot.com

2. Share 7 things about myself. 
-I have an obsession with polka dots.  I have a polka dotted rug, dishes, curtains...my kittens even have polka dots on them (that was not planned)

-I also have a problem resisting bags.  When I see cute bags, I buy them and now I have way too many! 

- I live in pajamas.  If I'm home, I'm wearing pj's. 

-I love trees. 

- My second career choice was being an interior decorator. 

- I have a bunny who has his own room in my house.  He is free to do what he wants in his room and is never locked in his cage. (He is litter box trained). 

- I'm a Yankee fan. 

3. Pass this award on to 15 other bloggers who deserve such a great award!

 I can't choose only 15 bloggers so if you follow my blog, feel free to grab this award for yourself as well!  You all deserve it!  

Sight Word Book Freebie

Halfway through my first year, I was assigned a group of 1st grade girls.  Up to this point, I was used to working with 3rd-5th graders.  My plans for the girls were the same as my older kids - read a book and do some sort of writing with it plus a little word work.  The girls were done in about 10 minutes.   I still had 20 minutes to fill.  The girls needed to work on sight words so I decided to make a dolch kit and practice sight words during our sessions too.  Since I still had time left in my sessions, I made a simple sight word book template.  I had the girls choose one sight word from their list that they struggled with and write a predictable book using that word.  

Here is a  small picture of the cover.

Sorry that these pics are sideways - I can't figure out how to make them the correct way!  These are interior pages from a students book called "They had Animals".  Her pages say things like "They had an elephant."  "They had a cat."  The girls were able to recall & retain the sight words they made books with.  Within 2 months, they were discharged from AIS (academic intervention services).   You can grab your free copy of my book template at my Teachers Notebook store!  

Organizing Plan

Today was one of the first snowy days we have had this winter!  I don't have any other pictures for this post so I figured a nice snowy day picture would be a good addition. 

I really wanted to skip this post.  I want to snap my fingers and be organized...that would be nice, wouldn't it?  Unfortunately, I don't think that is a realistic plan so here is a more realistic one:

1. Create permanent sub plans
2. Create a schedule for when I write plans and do them a week ahead
3. Re-organize my assessment binders
4. Set up my special ed binder with all the forms I need each year
5. Buy and keep items on hand to help me keep up with the paper piles (file folders, folders, binders)
6. Clean up the My Documents folder on my computer and back everything up onto an external hard drive
7. Clean out my filing cabinet...I am getting rid of

• Duplicates
• Items that are no longer relevant to my curriculum
• Old student work

My organization issues do not come from having an abundance of stuff in my room.  I am still a fairly new teacher and I was not given any materials from other teachers when I was hired so everything in my room, I bought.  My rooms are pretty empty honestly so I'm not doing a lot of purging.  I need to create systems for myself to help me keep up with all of my paperwork.  This plan isn't done but it's a start!  I look forward to reading what everyone else is doing! 

On an unrelated note, I am looking for some cute math/literacy units for students at a second/third grade level.      Everything I'm finding is at a 1st grade level so if you have anything or there are any Teachers notebook or TPT stores you like, let me know!  Also, I am posting a sight word freebie tomorrow so stay tuned! 

   
Don't forget to link up with Clutter Free Classroom with your de-cluttering/organizing plan !

Daily Materials

This year started off so well!  I was always planned ahead...I was on top of paperwork...I made like 20 games from all of your TPT stores...It felt great!  This all fell apart in the second quarter and I'm not really sure why.  Now that I have fallen behind, my paper piles are coming back and I can't find things.  I need to set up permanent systems for taking care of all the paper.  

I stopped at staples last week for $3 file folders and $15 rolling carts.  I like to keep file folders on hand so if I find materials that I want to keep, I can quickly make a file for them.  I planned on using the rolling carts for my daily lesson materials.  My school uses a 6 day cycle and these have 6 drawers - 1 for each day!  So this weekend I started making labels and I LOVE how they came out.  

Here they are in my classroom with my new sub plans holder:  

I'm hoping that this will absorb a lot of my paper mess...like when I go to the copier and come back with a 100 copies that end up sitting on my desk for the next month.  The next project on my to-do list is permanent sub plans (I already made the cute sign).  I'm going to grad school full time starting February 1st and I really need to get my act together before then!  

Clutter Free Classroom Project

I am sooooooooooo excited to join the Clutter Free Classroom Project!  As soon as I heard about it, I knew it was something I had to do, after all it is my biggest new years resolution!  I did a whole series of posts on how I organized myself (search or use the tag Organization to find them) but I have a lot more to do.  There have also been a TON of changes in my state and district since I wrote those and I need to re-organize with those changes in mind as well.   

My before pictures: 

 Wasted unorganized bookshelf space

 Shelves behind my desk :( 

 Counter behind my desk

 The top of my filing cabinets collects a lot of random clutter.

Messy desk drawers...I really don't use the inside of my desk

Here is this weeks prompt to respond to:

What were your thoughts when you took your before pictures? Was your "current state of affairs" better or worse than you thought. What are you most excited about tackling?

I don't feel too overwhelmed by these pictures.  I think I'm better off than I thought...I feel so disorganized though!  My shelves need to be straightened but if I had 5 minutes, they would at least look neater.  I think my biggest problem is with my systems, not my room appearance.  I'm most excited about organizing lesson materials for the week and my assessments.  Visit Clutter-Free Classroom to join in! 

Early Start and 50 followers!

Okay, first of all, I am SOOOOO excited that I have 50 followers.  I started this blog as more of a journal and place to collect ideas.  Over the summer, I started reading some blogs and quickly became addicted!  That is when I started using this blog more as a place to share my ideas.  As a thank you to my 50 followers, I have a few freebies for you! 

As 2011 comes to an end, I have been reading everyone's new years resolutions...organization and planning seem to be two goals most of us have in common for 2012.  I have been wanting needing to come up with some forms that will allow me to do long range planning.  So I got an early start on my 2012 goals and made a few different sheets. 

 This is a general sheet you can use to jot down ideas for the future. 

This is a sheet I made that outlines each week in the quarter.  The blank section next to the week is for the dates.  You can get them both for free by clicking on the pictures or by visiting my Teachers Notebook store!  

Enjoy! 

2012 Resolutions

I'm linking up with  Tammy at Live, Laugh, Love  Everyday in Kindergarten to post my goals for next year.  I'll be honest, last year I had no resolutions because I have a hard time keeping them so I'm going to try to keep it attainable this year.  Maybe sharing them with my readers will push me to keep them :)

Personal:
1.  Eat better than I did in 2011
2.  Exercise more than I did in 2011 (these two really shouldn't be to hard...the bar was not set high in 2011 haha)
3.  Get married (Odd resolution but I've been engaged for 2 1/2 years - it's time to start planning again!)

Professional:
1.  Organize!!! (This probably should be a personal goal too but that's just not realistic) All of my goals for this year fall under this category so more specifically I want to:
      - Make a sub tub
      - Get my probe (assessment) books/kits made
      - Start and maintain a lesson planning/prep routine (long range to weekly/daily)
      - Organize lesson materials

Organization is such a hard thing for me and I don't know why.  With my upcoming grad school semester, I am going to need to be super organized so I will be getting started on this resolution tonight.  And as always, anything I make that may be useful to you, I will post here.  Now it is your turn!  Go post your resolutions and  link up with Tammy! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  

Autism Tip

Since this is a special ed blog, I figured I should probably post something special ed related every once in a while!  This year, one of my students with autism has been complaining about the lights bothering him.  Fluorescent lights can be very troublesome to students with autism and these lights are everywhere!  The lights hum and flicker all the time, not just when they are about to go out, and it causes sensory overload for some kids.  While Christmas shopping, I grabbed 6 sets of cheap white Christmas lights ($2.70 at Christmas Tree Shoppes) and some command hooks and here is what I ended up with: 

I need to go back and make them straighter now that they have stretched out but these go all the way around my room.  It doesn't add a ton of light (it did in my tiny apartment bedroom) but it's a good start.  I'm going to look for cute, cheap lamps to place around the room as well.  These are not just for Christmas - they are staying up all year!  The student who was having trouble was ecstatic!  As an added bonus, I love being in my room when the lights are on.  If you have students with autism, you may want to try alternative lighting as well.  

On an unrelated note...I'M FINALLY ON BREAK! :) I need this time to get caught up on work and to reorganize before the second half of this year which will include: 

-Student teaching (for my masters)

-Two grad school classes

-Writing a research paper that must be submitted to a professional journal

-My 3-year district portfolio is due

-Applying for tenure

-& teaching! 

Merry Christmas!

Ready for break!

I am so ready for Christmas break!  Unfortunately, my first day off is Friday.  I had my plans all set for this week - a week of gingerbread activities from Erica Bohrer's unit BUT I took home all the game pieces to cut and ended up getting sick & not going to school for 2 days.  My poor students have had NO holiday activities this week and my poor substitute has to deal with hyper kids and boring assignments...I really need to get a better substitute kit made!  Between a very hectic final week of grad school and then being sick, I feel so behind.  Thankfully, all of you wonderful bloggers make units and materials to sell on Teachers Notebook or TPT that I use when I have no time to make my own materials!  Speaking of TPT, one of my favorite blogs (2nd Grade Shenanigans) is having a HUGE giveaway right now...she is giving away EVERYTHING in her TPT store....EVERYTHING!  

Head over there for your chance to win! 

Magnetic letters

I'm a sucker for a good deal...who isn't?  A year ago, I found alphabet sets at a ridiculously cheap price (I don't remember what it was now but trust me, it was good).  I got carried away and long story short, I ended up with 20 alphabet sets in a big zip-lock bag.  No kid is going to dig through 520 letters to make words so this was obviously a terrible storage solution.  I finally decided to sort all the letters and figure out a new storage solution. 

That was not an easy task so these sat on my windowsill until I thought of something.  I went to Michaels to see what kind of container I could use and here is what I came up with: 

Photo boxes!  Sorry for the sideways pictures...

I put one complete alphabet in each box.  Every student can grab their own box and work independently. There is probably room to keep 2 sets of letters in each box but I think that may be too many letters to sort through for many kids.  I plan on making a set of task cards for each box as well.  I'm keeping a few alphabet sets for those times when kids need 2 of one letter.  I can't wait to reveal these to my kids next week!

If you have a different way you store your magnetic letters, please share in your comments!

Introducing New Reading Strategies

I was writing a post about how I am using my readers's notebooks and I started to explain how I introduce strategies but I think this deserves it's own post!

I stick to the Modeling, Guided practice, Independent practice layout.  First, I tell the students the name of the strategy and a 1 or 2 sentence definition of it.  Next, I model how to use the strategy with a picture book & a think-aloud.  I select places to stop & use the strategy in each book.  The first few stopping points I model how to use the strategy with them.  The next few, I let them try and I guide them.  The last 1 or 2 stopping points I have the students write down how they would use the strategy (Independent practice).  If we have time, I let them free read and practice the strategy more.

I realize that may have sounded confusing so here is my lesson for Checking for Understanding:

Intro: "Today, you are going to learn a new reading strategy called Check for Understanding.  When you check for understanding you simply make sure you understand what you are reading as you read.  After you read a few pages, stop and retell the story to yourself.  If you can do that, keep reading.  If you can't go back and reread.  I think this is one of the most important but simple strategies you will learn.  I'm going to read The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers and show you how I check for understanding while I read."

Modeling: I will read 2-3 pages and then stop and re-tell what I have just read.  If I can retell the important parts, I keep reading.  If I can't, I stop and re-read that section again.  

Guided Practice: I will continue reading and stopping but instead of retelling the section myself, a student will.  

Independent Practice: The last 2 stopping points, I have the students write down their simple retelling.  We go over the first one together and I assess the second one.  

Closure: I have the students share their final retelling and explain what checking for understanding is or how to do it.  

The next day, I introduce the strategy card and sentence frames for that strategy.  The students practice using the strategy independently & writing think-marks for that strategy.  I don't have them write think-marks for checking for understanding so they would read and I would stop everyone a few times and have them check for understanding by writing their retelling - just so I know they are using the strategy.  

This isn't the most creative way to introduce strategies but my students need structure and consistency so it works for me! 

Reader's Notebooks

A week or so ago, I posted about my new reader's notebooks.  I wanted to share with you how my students are using them.  

First, I am introducing the notebooks slowly.  The first day we created Do's and Don'ts, took a tour of the notebook, and decorated the covers.  The next day, we read the Cafe menu and created reading goals.  Since I only have 5 students at a time, one worked with me on choose a goal or two while the others filled in their reading interests.  

     

For the next few days, we practiced using think-marks.  The students reviewed a strategy a day (5 minutes) and I showed them the sentence frame(s) for that strategy.  They independently read and filled in a practice stop & jot page (not one in their notebook, I wanted to give them time to practice and make mistakes).  We went over their use of the strategy and their writing until I knew they understood the strategy and how to write about that strategy.  

Now that my students have a few different strategies to write about, they read a book and used their notebooks to document their thinking.    We will continue to do this until Christmas break.  In January, I plan on introducing the reading response journal section.  

I am using paperclips as bookmarks for the response section and the stop & jot section.  The paper clip goes on the page the students are working on so they can quickly find the correct page.  

I might add ribbons to the paperclips to make them a little more fun.  

You can purchase the Reader's Notebook at my Teachers Notebook store.

Writing Center

Every year, I say that I am going to focus on one subject (reading, writing, or math) and perfect it as much as possible.  Apparently, that is impossible for me to do.  Two weeks ago I decided to focus on reading, then I switched to math for a few days and now I'm working on writing.  

So here is a picture of my updated writing center - it's nothing fancy but it was completely empty before! 

I stapled colorful file folders to the wall to hold some resources.  The Brainstorming folder holds our favorite graphic organizers, the revising and editing folders hold the revising and editing checklists.  On the table there is a tissue box with writing prompts in it (the box says "I've caught the writing bug" on it).  Next to that is where the different types of paper are stored (first draft, publishing paper, notebook paper).  Finally, in the plain magazine file, I keep my spiraled copies of Banish Boring Words! which is an excellent book for word choice!  

(Click the picture to view it at Amazon)

I also keep a list of 200 commonly misspelled words in the magazine box. My kids can use it independently and it's organized.  It's just a start and I know I could make it 1000 times better but it will work for this year. 

  

12 Days of Christmas

Have you heard about the 12 Days of Christmas giveaways?  They sound AMAZING!  Head over to Oh' Boy 4th Grade to check it out!  Here is a list of the bloggers doing the giveaways:

& Congratulations to both of my giveaway winners Gladys and Manda!