Genre Webs

Since today is Halloween but our fall 'harvest' parties aren't for a couple of weeks, my coteacher and I decided to squeeze in some Halloween fun with our normal lessons.  One way we did this was with genre webs!

Our class has been talking about genres briefly all year as we read different texts, so this was a great way to review each genre and compare them side by side using only key distinguishing characteristics. 

To make it a bit more festive we gave students time at the end of the lesson to add fingerprint spiders to their pages.  Because really, what's a spider web without some cute (or creepy) spiders??  My 4th graders LOVED this lesson and hated that I made them put their webs into their response journal folders to use as references - they wanted to take the pages home to share!

 

If you're still feeling in the Hallween spirit and would like to use this with your students, I'm happy to share the web page I created!

Super Grade Level Team!

I'm so excited for our 4th grade team this year!  We've already been spending time together enjoying one another's company and doing some early planning and I am loving the flow of ideas among everyone.  I really got an idea of how this year is going to go as I left school yesterday afternoon and realized that the only teachers who had been at school working for the last 2 hours were our 4th grade team.  That kind of dedication to our students and enthusiasm for teaching is going to lead to some incredible things this school year!

Because we have such a SUPER team and 4th grade is such a SUPER grade, we've hooked ourselves on the SUPER idea and are zooming ahead full force.  On the first day of classes (not parent teacher conferences) our kiddos will be greeted by a unified front of SUPER teachers wearing this sweet shirts we designed and made.  I'm loving that it not only unifies our grade level in a way that will excite students, but with our names on the back, all of the little ones will be able to call us by name on that first day!

We made the designs on the computer and printed them on Iron-On t-shirt transfer paper.  The only other supplies were an iron and blank tshirts we picked up at Hobby Lobby.  Total cost per shirt?  Only about $7 - definitely cheaper for only 4 of them than if we'd gone to a printer and they turned out great!

Classroom Pillows

One of the things I've been wanting in my classroom for awhile is pillows!  I love letting my kids spread themselves out around our room while they are working and reading, but some of the positions they come up with look terribly uncomfortable.  I always wish they had a pillow to prop themselves up with or lean on but was hesitant about bringing pillows into the room.  I know how much dust and how many germs a pillow can contain and couldn't shake the idea of a head lice outbreak from my thoughts. 

Still - I wanted pillows!

I think I've found a way that I'm comfortable bringing them into the room.  I got some pillow forms at JoAnn Fabric - 50% off each with my additional 15% my total purchase as a teacher = great deal!  I then found some vinyl tablecloths in fun summer colors and used these as my fabric for pillow cases.  I'm excited about this because of a few reasons 1) they are so bright and cheerful! 2) they were really cheap - I didn't pay more than $2 a piece and I only used 3 table cloths 3) since they were cheap and super easy, if they get ruined I won't be upset about making new ones 4) since they are vinyl, I can wipe them off with an antibacterial wipe whenever I start to get the heeby-jeebies about how many little noses have been laying across them!

I'm excited for my classroom to be done being cleaned so I can get these into it!

Daily 5 Book Study

I'm currently working my way through The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser for the second time this summer.  I read it first on my own, and am now participating in a book study with other teachers from my grade level team and around the country.  Chapter 1 was due yesterday and it has been so helpful to read the thoughts and suggestions from others on the blog set up for this book study.

Chapter 1

I appreciated the Sisters' honesty throughout this chapter, outlining their progress from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction within their literacy curriculum.  I could match myself up to many of their experiences, feeling like I began the year on a much more teacher-centered mark than I ended it on.  My understanding of and comfort level with guided reading grew greatly over the course of the year, allowing my reading instruction to improve tremendously from day 1 to day 180. 

I identified closely with a question the sisters posed within this chapter: "Did things just keep the kids busy, or were they engaged in literacy tasks that will make a difference in their literate lives?"  I'm afraid that too often during the last year I was providing activities to students that, although aligned with our content standards and centered on reading strategies, were not truthfully improving them as readers.  I am eager for that to change this school year.

A second point I took from this chapter was the importance of explicit teaching and practicing of behaviors.  I have read this idea and understood it from many sources, but few as directly related to reading instruction.  Practicing each behavior and expectation until they become habits will help reduce the interruptions each of us face within the classroom due to off-task behavior.  How helpful that will be!

I am eager to continue rereading this book with a critical eye, knowing that my literacy instruction is going to be greatly benefited by both my own reflections and reading the thoughts of others.

The Book Whisperer

I have finished The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller!  What a fast read!  Donalyn's thoughts and experiences flow together so smoothly that it only took me two days of reading to get through the book.  Not that this was a book to rush through - I have lots of underlining and post-it notes marking thoughts I appreciated or pages I want to revisit. 
I love that Donalyn's classroom is set up for reading because she knows that learning happens through reading.  So many of us get caught up trying to find the best classroom set-up for learning to happen and delegate a corner of the room or a bulletin board to 'reading' when really our focus should be flipped.  If the classroom is organized as an environment for reading, learning will be occurring!

Although I will have to tweak the ideas I have gathered from the pages of this book to meet the needs of my classroom and students, I am really thinking now about my classroom library set-up and the format I use for reading journals.  My 4th graders had reading journals last year that included their reading logs and space for them to write responses to me, but those journals, as sorry as I am to admit it, were one thing that just did not work during my first year of teaching.  My kids were not connected to their journals and I had a hard time keeping up with 23-27 response letters each week and then even every 2 weeks.  I'm hoping some of the ideas I have gathered from Donalyn combined with the book studies I will be doing yet this summer will help me develop a better strategy for Reading Journals.  Believe me, I know they are an important tool to help students track their reading and share their thinking - I know!  It broke my heart that they didn't work with my class last year and I am set on making improvements to that practice this coming school year.

I would recommend picking up Donalyn's book sometime this summer - it may just change your thinking about reading instruction in the classroom or provide a thought to help tweak a program that is already soaring.

"The reality is that you cannot inspire others to do what you are not inspired to do yourself." - Donalyn Miller in The Book Whisperer