Active Reading

I'm working with the concept of active reading in my classroom right now- teaching kids to recognize when they are using a specific reading comprehension strategy and to then stop and think about and record the thinking that they did while reading.

I created this chart below, with my students help! They came up with the italicized keywords below each reading comprehension strategy to help them remember the different reading skills they're practicing.

After they complete actively reading their story, students pick a few of their examples on the chart and explain how they used that specifc strategy on a certain page of their story book. Prior to this, I modeled how to conduct a Think-Aloud with their picture book so that after they complete this activity, they can do their own Think-Aloud with a partner or tin front of the he whole class even. When a student does a Think-Aloud, they read their book aloud and when they get to a page where they used one of the comprehension strategies they will have the language to say,  for example, "On this page, I used the synthesizing strategy to make sense of the character's behavior. At first I thought Trap (from Geronimo Stilton- Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye) was rude, but he is actually rather nice because he..." (This is an example from one of my 2nd grade students).

Strategies: Put the page number of your picture book or short chapter book in the boxes below each reading comprehension strategy as you use each one.

Questioning	Inferring	Visualizing	Determining Importance	Synthesizing	Making Connections
Ask yourself	Predict, Experience + Text Examples	Picture, Personal	Identify, Reread	Rethink, Changed thinking	Self, World, Text
Pg.

Cranes for Lisa

Fighting cancer with cranes! Students from the elementary school where I work made cranes for our librarian who is fighting cancer so courageously. We made a total of 1,201 cranes and our amazing secretary went to our beloved Lisa's house and strung the cranes for her to be reminded of our love for her and our wishes and prayers for a full recovery!

Biography Book Reports

My students have just finished up their 2nd book report of the year! These are some of the products they made...

Helen Keller
Annie Sullivan

MLK Jr.

On the back of the miniature people, students who chose to do the biography project had to write about the characteristics that made their person of interest important/famous and what they were famous for, his/her biographical information, and the student's reason for admiring that person. The Road Map...another project option, was done beautifully by a 1st grader. It takes you on a trip of Martin Luther King Jr's Life!

Opening Day!

Teacher Learning Target: I can create a blog.
Evidence of achievement: Published first post April 24th, 2012!

{Poster can be found at Scholastic.com}