Quick Literacy Tip #1

Teaching children to read can seem so daunting to parents and teachers, but there are so many simple ways young children can practice their reading skills.  I just have to share!  Years ago, I became a Title I teacher, and felt my job was to find the one "fail proof program" to help my struggling readers. After 3 years, thousands of dollars, and countless hours of reading and viewing videos, what did I learn?  It's simple.  Read to children, read with children, talk about reading with children, take time to get to know children as readers, and foster their love of reading any way you can. (Don't misunderstand me.  I learned much much more in furthering my education, but I also learned to trust my common sense.)

That's the "big idea" list, but it pretty much explains to parents and teachers that helping developing readers is not rocket science on so many levels.  Yes, there are best practices and specific strategies, assessment, and tools that can help, but being involved in a child's reading life CANNOT be left out.

I am creating a series for my blog called "Quick Literacy Tips" to share out all of the wonderful tips I've learned and tried over my years working with children and last but not least my actual life lessons I've learned as a reader.

My hope is to help people in their quest to help their own young reader whether you are their parent or their teacher.  Sometimes it's the littlest things that make the biggest impact!

I hope you enjoy!

Quick Literacy Tip #1:  

Turn on the caption feature on your television

How simple is that?  

Studies show that when young developing readers see and hear text simultaneously, it can contribute greatly to a child's vocabulary knowledge, word recognition knowledge, and even their background knowledge, meaning their schema will contain more words from which to draw from when reading independently.

Why is this idea powerful?

So many children love to watch movies and television.  Have you ever had a problem getting your child/student to sit and watch TV?  Ever had to force a child to spend MORE time in front of the TV or laptop?  Not likely. They will be learning and having fun at the same time.

Why closed captioning?

Our brains are trained to connect words seen with spoken words.  Ever watched a subtitled movie in another language?  I remember an experience I had with watching the movie "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson.  I had read the book, but so wanted to watch the movie.  When my husband and I turned it on and realized it was subtitled, we both looked at each other and questioned whether or not we wanted to "read" the movie.  After all, reading is harder than watching right?  Well to our surprise after a few scenes we totally forgot we were reading.  Now I'm sure that is because we are both fluent readers, but developing readers can benefit from the spoken word and the written word being experienced at the same time.  Think of it as an animated read aloud.  It can be very powerful!

So, when you are thinking about how you can help your developing readers here's one idea to try.  Is the "end all beat all" tip?  No!  But it is one way to add a little literacy practice into an activity that most children already willingly take part in a large part of their days.

I'd love to hear what this tip has done for you?  Shoot me a comment or an email at link2teach@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for more easy and quick ways to get the biggest "bang for your buck" when working with your developing readers.

Until the next post...

Visualize It! Game

Here's an animated preview of this fun interactive game!

Grab Your Copy Today!

(click the picture)

Santa Cam Student Engagement Program

Looking for a way to keep your super excited little ones focused and motivated to do their best in the weeks leading up to Christmas break?

You have probably seen the Santa Cam idea on Pinterest or Facebook.  What I've done is created an entire 2 week interactive program to engage your excited students to make the most of these two weeks before break.

Don't lose instructional time or your mind!

The Santa Cam Student Engagement Program comes with:

-An Acceptance in the Program video to excite and motivate students about the program

-14 days of interactive newsletters from the Santa Cam Headquarters all fully Editable

and include challenges for students to maintain focus and engage students!

-Intstructions on how to edit newsletters

-A Printable Santa Cam badge

-A link to my webpage where you can "download" your videos each night (adds validity for students)

-A Santa Cam Official Participating Class Poster

-A parent letter (Also to add validity and fun)

-Pictures directly from Santa and Mrs. Claus

Here are some examples of the program materials.

You can grab your Santa Cam Student Engagement Program here or click on the picture!

Until the next post...

Official Santa Cam Scanning Page

Welcome to the Official Santa Cam Viewing Page!

In order for us to view your video, please follow these steps.

1. Hold your Santa Cam bar code directly over the scanning box.  

2. Hold for 3 seconds and that's it!  

Scan Here!

3. Your videos will be viewed each evening and you will receive your newsletter from our viewing team each morning.

Thank you,

©Santa Cam Official Viewing Team

Monthly Assessing Bogging You Down? Well NO MORE!

Looking for a way to eliminate time spent assessing your middle grade readers?  I might have the answer you have been looking for!  After a year of searching, piloting, and working endlessly for a cure to the time consuming task of individually assessing each of my students once a month 

I HAVE THE ANSWER ! 

Best part? It's...FREE!

Materials Needed For Digital Assessing:

Any of the following devices:

-iPads

-Chromebooks

-Laptops

-Desktops

Classkick (FREE on Web or iTunes)        Learn More About Classkick? Click HERE

(Chromebooks/Laptops/Desktops)

-Web Version of Classkick

(iPads)

-Classkick App (iTunes Store)

Leveled Passages For Each Month:

-We use the DRA2 Monthly Monitoring Passages

-There are leveled passage at Reading A-Z

-Easy CBM has leveled passages

This is how you set it up:

Step 1:

Choose a passage for each month.

Step 2:

Make a Classkick assessment (assignment) using the monthly passage.

Click How To Make An Assignment on Classkick iPad Version

Click How To Make An Assignment on Classkick Web Version

Step 3:

Assign the assessment (assignment) to students with a code.

Click How To Assign Assignment on Classkick iPad Version

Click How To Assign Assignment on Classkick Web Version

Step 4:

Teach students how to add audio.

Adding Audio to an Assignment:

1.  Go to the page you are to read orally.

2.  Click on the microphone icon

3.  A recording bar will appear

4.  Move the bar so it is not covering any print

5. Click record

6. Read the passage orally

7. Click stop

Step 5:

Have students answer comprehension questions about the passage (if desired).

1.  Provide the questions on the following page.

2.  Students can provide all questions orally using the microphone

3.  Students can type their answers into the page

Step 6:

Have students fill out an assessment reflection page.

Include a few questions on the last page providing students with prompts that will assist them in reflecting upon their assessment success.

Step 7:

Listen to the audio and score the assessment accordingly.

Step 8:

Conference with the student. 

1.  Listen to the recording together.

2.  Discuss the miscues and other reading behaviors noticed.

3.  Discuss possible strategies.

4.  Set goals

5.  Record scores on graphs each month

6. Compare and discuss graphs

The following are screen shots from my laptop version of my Classkick assessment.  They will give you a sense of how to set up your assessment.

(Full Assessment View on Teacher Login)

(First Page View-I use a bold color for easy locating)

(First Page-I include audio and written directions)

(Reading passage inserted using an camera taken image and turned on its side for larger viewing)

(Post-reading questions with more audio and written directions)

(Optional Student Reflection Page-students can record audio or type answers)

I piloted this and found that passages at the same level and same genre scored extremely similar for a majority of the students whether using in person version or the digital version.  If the process is taught and mastered before doing an assessment completely independently, students can successfully take these oral reading assessments independently using these digital tools.

It can be presented and utilized as a center or completed simultaneously with students using their own devices.  I have found that by spreading students out, and using headphones, the process works very successfully.  

Digital Oral Reading Assessment Positives?

1.  Time! (I am a reading specialist ,so all of my students need to be assessed orally once a month.  I cut my assessment time from 5 sessions per group to 1 session per group.  This freed up some time for us to add more individual conferencing and goal setting!)

2.  The oral assessments are recorded for use when necessary. It is extremely powerful to have students listen to themselves read and it sets the stage for meaningful discussions about reading miscues and strategies that were observed.

3. There will be a digital record of all students' oral reading assessments stored in one easy to find place.  No more lugging around binders and folders full of assessment data!

4.  I have found that when my students know they are being recorded, they perform better!

5.  The objective of monthly oral reading assessments is to assess oral reading fluency and comprehension.  The goal is not for students to read to a crowd or in front of a listener.  When students can record their oral reading assessments in a private setting, some have less anxiety and therefore perform better.

I am absolutely loving using my devices for monthly oral reading assessments.  It was well worth all of the searching, trial and error, and frustration.  

My hope is to provide hard working teachers with ideas for maximizing their teaching potential and freeing up precious time allowing us to do all we can to meet students' individual reading needs.

My hope is this tool or the idea will help you in some way.  Good luck!  Please...let me know how this idea works out for you!

UPDATE:  

I am going to show you how to set this up and do this in a Periscope tomorrow afternoon.  Follow me @link2teach on periscope to view.  I will also discuss it in more depth on iteachtvnetwork's Facebook Live on Monday, September 12th at 6pm CST!  See you there!

Want to save yourself time and also gain some great additional tools to go along with this assessment idea?  Grab this full tutorial including videos, posters, and much more in my TpT store.  Click on the image to see the product.

Until the next post...

Data Collection Through Observation!

Guess what?  No matter what anyone tells you or how many assessment tools you learn about, data collection...

Collecting data can be as simple as:

1.  Watching a student independently read

2.  Taking note as to what books students choose

3.  Keeping track of oral reading while reading class materials

4. Having an informal "Book Chat" with students

5.  Plan lesson "stop and jots"

Let's take a deeper look into each of these...well not too deep.  After all this is supposed to be a quick and easy way to record student performance with daily lessons.  So remember...

Here's the Periscope Video Link:

Data Collection Through Observation Periscope Video

Track Independent Reading Behaviors

When students are reading independently in your classroom, take a minute to watch and write down the engaging type of behaviors you are noticing.

Are they...?

D=Distracted

E=Engaged

T=Talking

F=Faking

L=Looking at you

Mark the behaviors you notice next to each student's name.  Enter the date at the top and Viola! 

Data Collection Just Happened! 

This is a quick and easy way to track each student's independent reading engagement. You can discuss this at your Reading Conferences or file it for analyzing later.

Take Notes About What Books Students Choose

This one is super simple!  Simply hold conversations about what books students are reading.  I usually hold these conversations once a week with the entire guided reading group.  We take turns showing and sharing the books we are reading.  I have a page in my notebook where I jot down the name of the book.  This helps me to help students make choices when picking books.  

Sometimes I show book trailer previews from YouTube to show students about other books they may be interested in based upon the titles they are choosing.  Sometimes I find books that I think my students would like and I deliver them as a special delivery to their classroom.  This can be done multiple ways.  Since I am a reading specialist, I like to make a big deal out of presenting the book to students, by visiting their classrooms with the book, placing it in their book baskets in my classroom with a special note taped to it, or sending home an email or a video about a great book I will have waiting for them the next day. Be creative.  

The focus should be getting to know your readers' reading identities and acting upon it by providing them with great independent reading options.

Keep track of oral reading progress

Here is an Informal Running Record form I created to use when listening to students read during small group time.  I can use any text and any portion of that text.  There are 100 boxes included.  Each time a student reads a work place a check mark in the box.  If the word is read incorrectly than write the word said over the word read.  

I included a quick comprehension check for both fiction and nonfiction along with a rating scale of 1-4. Then you can put the results in the lower corner for quick reference later on.  File away and Poof! More Data Collection Happening!

Hold Informal Book Chats

I like to hold informal book chats/ not conferences about once a month. You can decide the frequency of the chats depending upon the student and the grade level.  This is an example of one I would use with all of my K-5 students.  I kept it basic enough that it would work across grade levels.  

The main purpose behind Book Chats is to simply talk about books with your students independently.  Use the form or stray from it.  Let the conversation happen naturally.  This is not a script, but I would suggest taking good notes for future reference.

Plan Stop and Jots

Plan ahead by reading the read aloud and locating stopping points throughout.  You can focus on a reading strategy or skill you are working on in class.  Plan a good stopping point to have students write down their understanding, answer a question, or perform a task such as questioning, inferring, visualizing, etc. Place sticky notes in the text to remind you of the stopping point and the task you would like students to perform. Students then jot down their answers on sticky notes or in their reading journals.  Have them write the date next to their "jot" or answer.

Ok...how easy was that? Keep it all in a notebook, binder, file, anything you like.  

AND

Use it!!!  So much of our time collecting data is wasted simply collecting data...to never be looked at again. DO NOT let this time wasting happen to you.  Collect useful information with ease daily and look at it often especially when planning instruction and guided reading group placement.  

You can grab your copy of this entire product by clicking the picture below!

Until the next post...

The Me Project: Digital Activity

This is a great way to teach your new students how to use Classkick along with finding out a little about each other!  Students will fill in fun colorful slides using text, photos, and drawings to tell you a little about themselves.

*Note:  if you choose you can simply print the images and use the paper version.  It's up to you!

Here is the Periscope I did to show you how to upload the pdf's or image files into Classkick.

View the video on YouTube (smart phone viewing)

Digital All About Me Project Video Using Classkick

Grab your free "The Me Project" lesson here today.  

Here's the answer to the question on Periscope about where to find free lessons on Classkick.  

I was right they are on the home page under Assignments. Here's a screenshot of the page.

Until the next post...