Balanced Literacy
My principal recently started up his own webpage, and is including a variety of podcasts for programs at our school. He asked me to write and record one for Balanced Literacy.
Read it here OR Listen to it here
Wake County Comprehensive Reading Model
Cumberland County, NC Comprehensive Literacy Model
Reading Research
Click here to read about current best practice reading research. Miriam Trehearne's presentation, Practical Strategies for Improving Student Achievement, is geared toward grades 3-6, but gives exceptional insight to K-2 teachers as we prepare them for the upper grades. It's filled with research tidbits and golden nuggets from reading researchers, Duke and Pearson, Allington, Harvey and Goudvis, Beck, Snow, Zimmerman and Keene, and Pressley.
Reading Assessment/Reading Levels
Reading Assessment from The Teachers College in NYC
Reading Levels Correlation Chart
Book Levels on Scholastic Book Wizard
Audio Tour of Scholastic Book Wizard
Developmental Reading Assessment
Fox in the Box Literacy Assessment
NC DPI K-2 Literacy Assessment
Phonological Awareness & Phonics
Phonemic Awareness Yellow Book
Scope & Sequence, Ideas & Activities
64 Phonological Awareness Lessons
Kelly's Open Court Phonics Resources
The following free, ready to use centers are provided for educators for immediate use, by the Florida Center for Reading Research, and available as pdf downloads in the areas of Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension. Once you follow the links below, scroll down the page to access the center activities. Once there, if you click on the Introduction and Contents link, it will list the activities by name for each reading area.
Student Center Activities: K-1148 centers
Student Center Activities: 2-3 170 centers
Student Center Activities: 4-5134 centers
Reader's Workshop
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| Readers Workshop |
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| Reading Response Logs |
My Photo Gallery on Picasa including charts & graphs
Reading Snapshot Form for anecdotal record keeping
Book Lists to Model Strategies
100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know
(New York Public Library)
Strategy Instruction Pacing (doc)
Strategy Instruction Pacing (pdf)
Conferencing Letter & Schedule
Non-Fiction Conventions Notebook (pages)
Non-Fiction Conventions Notebook (cover)
Weblink: Into the Book
Weblink: Literacy Success
Weblink:Ways to use Two Column Notes
Weblink: Questions for Student Connections
Weblink:Story Maps to Increase Comprehension
Weblink:Activities for Visualizing
Mini Lessons
Setting the Stage for RW: Procedural Mini Lessons
Making Connections Mini Lessons
Mental Image/Visualizing Mini Lessons
Making Inferences Mini Lessons
Determining Importance in Non-fiction Mini Lessons
Synthesizing Mini-Lessons
Book Lists to Model Strategies
Strategy Text Labels
Schema/Making Connections Text Labels
Questioning/Predicting/Inferring Text Book Labels
Dealing with Text Difficulty Texts Book Labels
Determining Importance/Summarizing Texts Book Labels
Strategy Cards - this is front/back document that is on page 3 and 4 of this pdf. Page 1 and 2 are the front and back of The Try Card that I use in Writer's Workshop, but they were scanned
together.
Reader's Workshop Parent Letters
Schema/Making Connections Letter
Visualizing/Making Mental Images Letter
Inferring and Predicting Letter
Determining Importance in Non-Fiction Letter
Summarizing/Synthesizing Letter
Reading Workshop Curriculum Maps
September - June: WEBLINK
These curriculum maps were created and developed by a teacher in California, Juli Kendall. The maps are included in a list format with other great RW resources above and below the Reader's Workshop Curriculum Maps.
Jackpot - Denver Public Schools - C&I
Denver Public Schools - Curriculum and Instruction Department: Elementary Literacy Program-click here
(tons of resources at this district website, this is the school district when Debbie Miller was still in the classroom, before she went out onto the workshop and conference circuit)
Elementary Planning Guides K-12
Living the Writer's Life Unit: Grade 1
Models for Guiding Dev. of Critical Thinking
Parent Book Clubs
With many children needing help with orally retelling of books that either they have read or books that have been read to them, I started having parent book clubs for guided retelling. Parents either choose a book of their own or ask for one, then read to a group of students. Together, they talk about story elements, character names, setting, author's message and connections as well as strategies for when they get stuck during retelling or "can't remember."
Higher Order Thinking
Several teachers have asked me about these HOTS fans (acronym for Higher Order Thinking Skills). They were made in the Print Shop of one my former districts in San Luis Obispo, CA) I have not been able to order them since, but the could be made. They are approxiamately 1" x 4" in size. There are six colors with three questions per HOTS. They are attached with a brad.
Marzano's Dimensions of Thinking Model
Word Work
Word Chunks and (pdf)
Word Wall Sentences for Dictation - beg. WWW 14
Lightning Words - the 25 words introduced in Kindergarten
Below are the words for the wall. There are created in MS Word using a standard font, Century Gothic, most of us have it, and it looks like Ball and Stick handwriting. It is large enough to be seen in the classroom and my word wall is in the front over my whiteboard. If you would rather purchase pre-made words for first grade, you can purchase them from Carson-Dellosa as a first grade Word Wall kit. Please note that these are listed as Week 1, Week 2, these word wall word sets correspond with the Word Work Pacing sheet above and with some review weeks here and there, these words will last you until the beginning of May, at which time, we take the words OFF the wall 15 at a time, and review those ONE more time. I keep the words on the board all week, and after the Word Wall
test on Friday, then I add them to the Wall.
I also store the sets of words in a pocket organizer like this one.
We also use this set of word family cards from Carson Dellosa. They are available online for $16.95. We introduce one or two a week as it fits in with the Word Wall Words. For example, during www1, we introduce the -at cat card, and the -y cry card because my and at are introduced to the word wall. Then, in www2, we bring out the -ay hay card, and the -am jam card because play and am are word wall word that week.
"Making Words"
I do at least one Making Words lesson per week. I choose lessons from Patricia Cunningham's book called Making Words. I do not follow the book in order. I pick lessons that may contain a word chuck or word family that we are currently working on. I also photocopy and reduce the lesson from the book so the entire lesson fits on the outside of a 6x9 manila envelope. Inside the envelope are the words and letters to make the mystery word. To the left, is a picture of an envelope for a Making Words lesson for "goldfish."
Here are some others, not from her book:
Enrichment Literature Units
This year, I have some very high readers who need and deserve more enrichment opportunities, more often. So, out of necessity, I have begun to create Enrichment Units to match the book titles in our Guided Reading book room. The first book the kids worked on was Stellaluna, a level 24-25 book. I was able to find a pre-made unit at our local teacher supply store, but I have been unsuccessful finding any more for the book sets we already have. So, the next book they are working on is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a level 22-23. They work with me on the first day of the book and we do some pre-reading strategies together. Then, on day 2-3, they read it on their own, but the 5 of them like to sit together. They then come back to me and I introduce the following pages, which are stapled together, it's called their Reading Contract.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Sheets
If You Decide to Go to the Moon
Chicken Sunday
Reader's Theatre
Wilifrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
My Rotten Redhead Older Brother
Gingerbread Man Unit
We having spending time reading different versions of the Gingerbread Man. We read The Musabi Man, the English version and the New York City version. We have been creating a class chart with student illustrations and captions. We also read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, and a letter from the Gingergread Man fell out of the back of the book while we were reading it. We also wrote back to him. Some of the blacklines for the activities are listed below.
Letter from the Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Man Problem Solving
Gingerbread Man Cookie Sheet(use w/ pr. solv. sheet)
Letter to the Gingerbread Man
3 Gingerbread Man Story Structure Chart - pic.
Text Talk Vocabulary Lessons
Text talk vocabulary lessons were introduced to me by a good friend with whom I taught at PK Yonge in Florida, Lisa Worthy. She is the lesson designer of several of the text talk lessons below, but it was she that inspired me to explicitly teach new vocabulary words to children every week using favorite read-aloud books. For a deeper understanding of text talk lessons, read this book by Beck called Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction.
Benjamin McFadden and the Robot Babysitter
Text Talk Lesson Template - if you want to write a lesson using a familiar text and email it back to me, I'll post it here for everyone to use.
Writer's Workshop
Lucy Calkins Units of Study. Click on each unit to read the session title for the daily lessons:
2.Small Moments: Personal Narrative Writings
3.Writing for Readers: Teaching Skills & Strategies
6. Non-fiction Writing: Procedures & Reports
Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages
The following links are month by month summaries of the Lucy Calkins as adopted by New York City Schools involved in the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project.
Kindergarten Writing Curriculum
First Grade Writing Curriculum
Second Grade Writing Curriculum
Third Grade Writing Curriculum
Fourth/Fifth Writing Curriculum
Blacklines & Mini-Lessons
When My Head Is Empty List (pdf)
Words Instead of Fun (pdf)
December Word Bank (doc)
November Word Bank (pdf)
December Word Bank(pdf)
Try Card - run on colored cardstock, double-sided
Writer's Workshop Mini lessons by Jessica Meacham
Writer's Workshop Mentor Texts by Jessica Meacham
Developmental Stages of Writing
Writer's Workshop Folder Cover Labels
During Writer's Workshop, after about a month into first grade, I introduce the Necklaces. There are 4 different "jobs."
Author's Spotlight (doc) or (pdf)
Teacher's Table (doc) or (pdf)
Writer's Basket (doc) or (pdf)
Independent and Responsible (doc) or (pdf)
To make the necklaces, print the above jobs on sheets of white cardstock, cut apart, and laminate, 2-hole punch at the top and string to necklace length.
Each child has one of each kind, there are name labels on the back of each necklace. The organization of this system is paperless, you do not need to keep track of who has done what, because by the end of the week, everyone will have done each job. The word "job" is not exactly the right word, moreso, it tells the students either was to do during Writers Workshop or what to do at the end of Writers Workshop. Either way, no matter what job they do, there is built-in accountability to do a good job because, if you are Author's Spotlight, you will get up in front of the class and read what you wrote to the class. If you are Writer's Basket, you will place your paper/journal in my basket to the left of my desk, where I will read it and make comments to you. If you are Teacher's Table, you will come to my table for a conferring. When I conference with students I always give them two things, one compliment (a positive) and one wish (an area I want them to work on). Independent and Responsible is kind of a placebo job, but the kids think it's important and I tell them that everyone is counting on them to look and act like writers, so they better be good role models. At the end of the Writers Workshop period, all necklaces are placed in a separate "out of rotation" (green) basket and resorted when all the necklaces are used for the week. This job assignment system for Writer's Workshop was shared by Marisa Ramirez, a teacher at my former school. The system may not work for everybody, but we've had success with it.
131 Mini-Lessons by Jessica Meacham
Writers "To Do" Checklist by Jessica Meacham
Mentor Texts for Writers Workshop by Jessica Meacham
Centers
My Center Signs-scroll down to my name
ABC Order Template(doc)
Write the Room - Math Words Sample
Scientist Observation Log Sheet
First Grade Center Posters (North Carolina)
There is also a ton of great Literacy Center ideas on the web, at www.fcrr.org, www.jmeacham.com, www.hubbardscupboard.com and www.kellyskindergarten.com Some of their ideas are listed below:
A-Z Fun Fonts for sorting
Listening Center Response Labels
Write the Room by # of Letters
Powerpoints
We Are Readers! by Jennifer Jones
Guess the Covered Word by Jennifer Jones
Poetry Folder Poems
