StoryWorks Magazine

Check out this resource for 3-6

Book Lists

Follow this link to see book list suggestions from Lucy Calkins and The Reading & Writing Project. Some are by genre and topic, others are by grade level. As you write your units of study and order books to be used during your whole group interactive read alouds, this is a good place to look for suggestions. Also consider these titles when choosing books to add to your classroom library.

The image below gives you a glimpse of what you will find on the site...there are other great resources as well, dig around the rest of the site a little!

Reader's Notebook Examples from the Reading & Writing Project

The Reading & Writing Project is the collective work of Lucy Calkins and Teachers College at Columbia University. Their site is full of examples and info that always reminds me of whats possible. Today I want to show you some examples of what can be done in a student reading notebook, its fun to see pages like this;

And once you teach the students how, they can create these response pages with little support!

Look here for more Student Reading Notebook Examples

Five Child-Centered Principles to Guide Your Teaching- from Sharon Taberski

1. It's better to do fewer things well than many things superficially

2. Balanced Literacy is a menu, not a checklist

3. The parts of our balanced literacy system should work together as a system

4. We learn through multiple exposures over time

5. Our practices should be developmentally appropriate

Comprehension from  the Ground Up, Heinemann 2011

Questioning Texts

A great example of how teaching students to question texts fosters deeper comprehension

Jeff Wilhelm talks about Inquiry in the Secondary Classroom

Book Recommendations

On her blog www.allaboutcomprehension.blogspot.com, Heinemann author Sharon Taberski has listed some recommended books for different instructional purposes and reader interests, here they are as of today, but check back there as she adds to the lists often:

Short and Sweet Chapter Books: Older Elementary-Grade Readers

• Joey Pigza series by Jack Gantos
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
• The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
• Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Picture Books to Help Kids Infer

• The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli
• The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting
• Charlie Anderson by Barbara Ambercrombie
• The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
• Elephant and Piggy books by Mo Willems
• Hurricane by David Weisner
• Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
• Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen

Books to Help Kids Visualize

• The Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London
• Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman
• A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood
• Atlantic by G. Brian Karas
• In November by Cynthia Rylant
• Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher
• Hurricane! by Jonathan London
• The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Patricia Harrington
• Saturdays and Teacakes by Lester Laminack
• The Five-Dog Night by Eileen Christelow
• Down the Road by Alice Schertle
• Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• I'm in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor

Books That Give Kids Something to Think and Talk About

• The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli
• Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne
• Martina the Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Agra Deedy
• The Yellow Star by Carmen Agra Deedy
• 14 Cow for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
• How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham
• Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
• The Three Questions by Jon Muth

A look at the Reading Workshop in action- 5th Grade

ELA Schedule Explained

If you are still trying to get a handle on how your literacy block might look, here is an explained example for you to look at. If you would like to see some other options, visit the
K-6 page!

As a classroom teacher I not only planned when my groups met, but I planned what my other students were going to do during those times. Knowing how essential it was for them to Read to Self every day and write about their reading, those were my priorities. I also tried to build in as much time to partner read and talk about their reading as possible. After all, oral language and vocabulary development are directly tied to how much time a student has to talk to others. Here is what the days would look like based on the schedule above.

Rigorous Reading

Small Group Lessons

If you are ready to jump right in and plan small group instruction but are unsure of what should be included, feel free to use these resources.

The first, are some pages from the K-8 Continuum about Guided Reading. The second page of this pair is a framework for what can be included in small group instruction.

The second resource is a template that can be used to plan small groups in reading, it looks like this;

but you can find a blank one HERE.
Please note that there are many options built into this plan, you would never be expected to do everything in the sequence column, but they are reminders of appropriate lesson components that you may consider including. Notice it is very short, and since your "I can " statement would be copied from your

Reading Conference Binder....It's time, trust me

So now that you have several assessment forms for each of your students and your are beginning to imagine how you might help make each one make progress this year, I believe its time to introduce you to one of the best things you will do this year.....make yourself a Reading Conference Binder. If you start now, it will actually be very easy to maintain and use.
Here is mine from last year:
           
You can see that it is LARGE, about 3 inches thick, it may not be full right away, but trust me it will fill throughout the year and you want to be certain you have enough room for that growth. The next thing you will notice is that it has many colorful tabs, one for every student in my class. I used really heavy duty dividers and they lasted me over 4 years, so it was worth it. I think these are the ones I ordered.

In the front I stored class charts and a calendar for marking down when I met with each student, obviously I was seeing some more than others. 

Once I started assessing, each student's assessment forms went into their section, then as I met with them to do more running records and confer with them I used various forms to guide and remember my time with them.

HERE ARE SOME FORMS I MIGHT USE AND PUT INTO MY BINDER IF I WERE YOU :)

 There was so much power in being able to open up this binder in conversation with parents and collaborating specialists, it allowed me to be an expert on each student because I had so much data! I would encourage you to find a summary form for each student to use at the beginning of their section. I used it to keep track of changes in level and important growth points.

 Happy Reading Conferences!

Questioning Circle- Anyone can do it!

From Engaging Readers & Writers Through Inquiry By Jeff Wilhelm

F&P Benchmark data into small groups

Here is a demonstration of how you might make your initial groupings for small group instruction after collecting your benchmark assessment data.

Practical examples for your reading workshop!

The Continuum of Literacy Learning

Regardless of the version you have (PreK-8, K-2, or 3-8) this resource is sure to become endlessly helpful to you, IF you learn how to use it! I am excited to see some of you really digging into the sections as you write your units of study, evaluate Benchmark assessment results and plan for small group instruction. I know it contains a lot of information, and it can be overwhelming, but I personally have not found another resource to be so valuable in my classroom teaching. There are seven Curriculum Components covered in the each version of the Continuum, but the layout of the book is different in the different versions. If you have the large PreK-8 continuum, you will find these 7 as the tabs that divide the book, with each grade level having pages within the tab. If you have the orange (K-2) or purple (3-8) versions, your tabs are organized mostly by grade level with the 7 components covered in each. Here are the 7 components:

* Interactive Read Aloud & Literature Discussions- here you will find a year-by-year list of specific behaviors to support and teach to the whole class

* Shared & Performance Reading- here you will find a year-by-year list of specific behaviors to support in whole group readings and guided small group readings

*Writing About Reading- a description of genres, and evidences of thinking within, beyond and about text for each grade level

*Writing- As we move in the direction of incorporating writing into our literacy blocks strategically, this section can begin to help you imagine which units of study can help you deliver instruction on various writing skills and genres. 

*Oral, Visual & Technological Communication- Year-by-year understandings and behaviors to support

* Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study- This is an overview of phonics skills to be covered at each grade level. Synthesizing this with your standards and (if possible) the Detailed Phonics Continuum in the back of the PreK-8 version, will give you a well rounded idea of how to embed phonics instruction. If your team has the F&P Phonics set, you will be able to get all of the information you need for scope & sequence from that. 

* Guided Reading- If you ask me, this is one of the MOST important parts of the Continuum. As we grow in our knowledge about text complexity and levels of readers in our classrooms, this resource provides everything you need to know about certain kinds of books and the sequencing of skills in order to expedite growth towards and beyond grade level expectations. If you are interested in learning more about how to use this section to inform your instruction, please contact me and I can come join you at a team meeting or prep to talk you through it.

Beyond "Turn & Talk"

I'm really excited about these. More can be found at THIS SITE, but I'm going to put a few up here as well. The biggest thing to note is that you will need to teach these procedures to your students just like you teach lining up, hand raising and a other classroom routines. Once they know them, you can reference them quickly by flipping back to an anchor chart or poster you create as a class about the sharing procedure.

Reader's Notebook

Many of you are starting to teach your students how to write in notebooks in response to your whole group, small group and independent reading times. I found this other blog, that has great examples of what you might have students do with their notebooks. Take a look and start talking with your collaborative team about which ones would best fit in your units of study! Here is her list of what might be in an intermediate notebook.

Writing About Reading

"Writing down what they think about what they've read allows readers to clarify their thinking. It is an opportunity to reflect. Readers better understand their reading when they have written about it. The writing may be a summary or a response. Sometimes just jotting down a few notes will clarify meaning."- Cris Tovani

As your students become more comfortable with your expectations of them as a reader, you should begin to introduce them to what you expect of them as a writer. The best way to do this is to use a reader's response notebook, folder or procedure. Just like with all your other literacy activities, the expectations should be delivered through modeling and scaffolded instruction. Unlike book reports and other "product" tasks, writing about reading should naturally flow through the thinking process of a reader. It should be about creating an authentic way to record a reader's thoughts, feelings, wonderings and analysis of texts they are reading. According to Fountas & Pinnell (2001) there are multiple appropriate and engaging ways for students to write about their reading, including:

                             * Recording comments on sticky notes

                             * A paragraph or page reflection on what has been read 

                             * A letter to a friend or teacher about what has been read

                             * A web, chart or list 

But, students need to be taught how to do these things, they need direction and modeling. There are simple and more involved ways of responding, but F&P provide some great starting places and graphic organizers that can be used as you teach students what their options are. You can find a folder of those PDFs HERE for your classroom use. Be creative, look at your standards, try to allow your students to have as many opportunities as possible to write about the meaning they create when they read! 

Reading Workshop

We're a few weeks in now. Many of you have spent your days wading through the first unit of study your team wrote back in June. You're quickly finding out what works and what doesn't. Your team is tweaking your plans and changing how you plan for the following units of study. Many of you have students deep in books, some even with overflowing book boxes, and it is a wonderful thing!

So take a minute with me to reflect....

 I love this video. I have watched it several times at different points in this journey and I am always grateful to be reminded of the impact a well-designed, well-run reading workshop. There are a few things that stick out to me from the video, I've noted them and connected them to our work below:

"Outgrow yourselves, over and over and over"

This process of crafting units of study, assessing and collaborating is an opportunity for increased student learning, but it also provides job embedded professional development as well. Don't pass up the opportunity to grow as a teacher, growing pains aren't always easy to handle, but its worth it!

"The reading workshop works, not because its based on market research but on reading research."

I love the way Calkins directly addresses the issue of "teacher-proof" curricula. There are some intelligent people that have written some great resources, but the simple fact that they have never been to EP, or met an EP child, should mean that we approach with caution. In effort to be sure we "cover" all the standards, we often seek an external source to tell us what to do. I believe that familiarizing ourselves with research and standards, tuning into our students, and collaborating with our professional learning teams, we can deliver high quality instruction to EVERY student. 

"Explicit and direct instruction through demonstrating and scaffolding."

This is the real purpose of large and small group instruction. The expectation is not that our students would learn everything they need to know in those times with us, but rather that they would see high quality examples of what to do, be guided in how to do it and then given time to practice doing it. If we're the only ones talking, we're the only ones learning and working. 

"Time to talk about books" 

Notice Calkins was talking about kids talking about books, not adults. I have already seen some great examples of students in our schools who are learning what it means to have meaningful conversations about their reading with their peers, keep up the good work!

"Access to a variety of texts"

This is essential. It does not matter how old or young the student is, how much they like Volcanoes or the Harry Potter series, it is our job to expose and explore many different kinds of texts with our students. It is also our job to create an environment where they want to branch out of their comfort zones. 

"Consistent and predictable environment so that students can carry on and teachers can teach."

If  you're having trouble with this as you begin your second unit, go back. Take a day to address it and revisit your anchor charts. Your reading workshop will only be effective if your students gain independence in reading and writing about reading. 

"Teaching our hearts out, so no child gets left behind."

You do this, the best you can. I just like hearing her say it.

"It's not ok to have 80% of our kids at reading proficiently." 

Overwhelming, yet profound and so very true. Especially when we are aiming to inspire each student every day!