Out with the Old...In with the New!

This summer is proving to be very productive!  So far I've traveled, visited with family, and updated some decor around my home.  Now I'm on to updating my TpT store and products!

First stop...one of my oldies but goodies...Beanie Baby Decoding products.  I continue to believe that these strategies have been the missing link in many of my students' reading lives.  They continue to be the hottest topic in my classroom and the Beanie Babies have been replaced recently due to all the lovin' they get all year long by my younger struggling readers.

I have decided to make my posters a little smaller than the previous ones so I can easily hang them in 8x10 frames.  This way I can display them both on the wall and on my table when it is the focus strategy.

Taking them down and putting them back up was taking a toll on the poor dears...all crinkled and losing their lamination.  (Don't you just love teaching from your wall?  Interactive decor...YES!) These puppies deserve to be treated a little better.  So I spiffed them up with fun new graphics from Scrappin' Doodles and off they go to my store with a pep in their step!

I can't wait to frame them and hang them this August.  (giggle)

Next stop...Beanie Baby Comprehension Strategy Posters!

Grab Beanie Baby Decoding Posters HERE

Enjoy!

Jenny

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TpT Sellers Challenge

Week 1 Challenge:  Makeover Madness

Makeover Madness it is!  Summer has finally arrived.  Two vacations under my belt.  Time to sit down and get busy with my TpT business!

First, I decided to change my button.  Mine was ok...blah...so I decided to try to spruce it up.  My hope is to make enough $ to have an experienced blog designer help my with all the cutie patootie stuff that goes along with creating an appealing product/blog.  After all...that's what I look for in a product.

You'd think this would take about an hour or so tops, right?  NO!  I stewed over it for hours. Why am I and so many other teachers that way?  I'm really into things looking exciting for me and my students.  It helps to make each day a little brighter and puts a little pep in our step...I think anyway.  Or it could me I really am OCD!

I also spent some time working on changing over all of my social media accounts to my store name. It gets confusing to me for goodness sake...can't image what I'm doing to you all!:)

Well, it's time to jazz up those other boring items I'm embarrassed to say I created.  Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll get some time to squeeze in some reading time for all of those new award winning children's books I bought for my students' readbox.   

Literacy Ramble Alert!!!! 

By the way, has anyone read The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson?  

It won numerous awards:

Amazon.com Best Books of the Year 2013: Ages 9-12; 2014 Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Younger Readers; ALA 2014 Notable Children’s Books, Middle Readers; 2013 Cybils Awards, Young Adult Nonfiction, Finalist; 2014 Christopher Award Winner, Ages 10 & up.

I purchased it to read with my 5th grade RTI group of struggling readers.  It was beautifully written and I am positive it will keep my kids on the edge of their seats.  I plan on using it as a nice lead in to their homeroom Holocaust unit.

Sorry about the rambling on.  I can't seem to end a conversation without it leading to a great children's book or a great lesson I stumbled upon.  Guess that why I'm a reading specialist...

Have a great weekend!

Jenny

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Please...Interrupt the Story!!

Good readers use what they know about the world to interact with what they are reading. This helps them create meaning from text.  Teaching young readers how to create this meaning is vital in the quest to gain independent reading comprehension.


I begin teaching each grade level each year the importance of text interaction. I reintroduce interacting with text using my Beanie Baby Comprehension Strategy: Interacting Chicken. This chicken comes from our anchor text for text interaction, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein.  This amazingly popular children's book does a fantastic job of teaching young readers the concept of text interaction.  Although many teachers/parents use this book to teach good manners (not interrupting), I found a deeper lesson within this story.  

Little Chicken continues to interrupt each bedtime story Papa Chicken reads with creative additions/endings.  Although Papa is not pleased...I AM!!  Think about it.  In order for Little Chicken to interrupt in this way, he has to do quite a bit of higher-level thinking.  He has to recall the story, construct meaning of the events, plan for the perfect time to add to the story, and create a new ending to solve the ever-present problems faced in fairy tales.  What an amazing thinker Little Chicken is!

When I first read this story to my students, I provide them with a little chicken on a craft stick manipulative aka. chicken stick, not to be confused with chicken strip. Believe me my tongue has slipped a few times in presenting these sticks, but it gave us all a good laugh.  (We certainly don't want to advertise our chickens as dinner though.) :) To find this lesson and much more click on the image of the chicken sticks below.

Each time Little Chicken interrupts, we raise our chicken STICKS and stop and talk about what he did.  What did he say?  How did he decide to say this?  When did he say it?  Why was this time a good time to interrupt?  What did Little Chicken have to know in order to interrupt in this way?  All of these discussions and more lead us to the idea that Little Chicken is a real thinker!  He predicts, creates, remembers, and plans his interruptions.

The bottom line in the lesson is that when one is reading/listening, they should never be inactive and uninvolved.  Readers/listeners should always be involved. Using a manipulative, graphic organizer, or other tool can help us to share our ideas in a more polite and organized manner, so that all ideas can be shared effectively.

I then post and discuss our new Beanie Baby Comprehension Strategy: Interacting Chicken poster and our favorite new comprehension animal friend.  The kids love him!

I hope you enjoy all the fantastic and lively conversations that come with this lesson!  It's one of my favorites to teach.

Grab this Comprehension Unit on Text Interaction on my TpT site. (Click below)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Text-Interaction-Unit-Interacting-Chicken-Strategy-1789223

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Lights, Camera, Action!...Book Trailers!

Unleash the dramatic side of your readers!  Create a book trailer using iMovie. Give students the opportunity to utilize their creative side using technology. What a great way to incorporate those CCSS ELA Speaking and Listening Standards with a twist!

No matter the student's age, book trailers can provide an extremely fun way to present, share, and expand children's knowledge of what others are reading. Once iMovie is figured out, making these trailers can be easy and very powerful.

I began having my students make book trailers last summer at our local library program. Students read a book of their choice, conferenced with me about the major highlights and "do not miss" sections of the book.  We then planned pictures or moving backgrounds and taped short one to two sentence segments. The rest is in the editing. You can add as little or as much as you want.  

Here are some samples of the ones my students have created.

Here's a link to my Lights, Camera, Action...Book Trailers Product from my TpT store.

Click Here to Go to this product.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lights-Camera-Book-Trailer-Making-Kit-1792635

Here is a picture of our readbox and the QR codes placed inside each book that has a student-made book trailer.  When students check out a book from the readbox, they can scan and view all of the book trailers available for that book.

Use a QR reader to scan this QR code and view another book trailer my students made:)

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If You Build it...They Will Come!(and read)

So the year is starting its downward slope toward summer...yet I'm still not ready to wind down.  How did you spend your spring break? Camping, traveling, visiting family, or creating a reading nook for your students?  Well I'm sure I'm one of the few that did the latter. :)

I have been longing to create an area where my reluctant readers will want to grab a good book, cozy up in a soft place, and read!  I thought about how I could instill a "need to read" in my students before they are off on summer break.  I decided to create inspiration for them by creating a cozy reading corner in my room. 

The plan is to visit some Pinterest sights with my students to help them plan out an inexpensive and easy to create reading getaway for their summer reading fun.

What great ideas do you have to start sparking the "need to read" in your students/children this summer?  What will you build?

Enjoy!


Jenny

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