Comprehension Toolkit

        Do you have access to the Comprehension Toolkit at your school?  If you do not, you are really missing out and I would highly recommend you speaking to whoever holds the purse strings at your school to looking into purchasing this! 
        You may be thinking why do I need the Comprehension Toolkit?  There are a couple of reasons.  I love the fact that there are a variety of nonfiction articles available for printing on my students' reading level!  They also have six units that walk you through a total of almost thirty great reading topics and strategies.         
        This week we are going to use the articles (still deciding which ones since there are so many great ones) to review the questioning strategy, with nonfiction text this time.  Another wonderful advantage to having access to these articles is that if you choose you can have your students record their thinking right on the text, which is something that the students are not able to do when they read other materials.
        I just wanted to pass along a resource that I have felt has been invaluable since I was introduced to it last year.  It is pretty expensive, but definitely worth it!!!

How do you choose a book?

        My school is participating in "Celebrate Literacy Week" this week.  We will be reading lots of great books, helping log 20 million minutes of reading for the state of Florida, and then having a "Snuggle up with a Good Book" day on Friday.  I am super excited about wearing my pjs to school!  
        So with all of this rolling around in my head it got me thinking how I choose books to read (for me-not to the class).  I have a favorite author, Nicholas Sparks.  I LOVE his books!!!!!!  But, if I only read Nicholas Sparks books I would only read one book a year and that would not be acceptable for my students so it shouldn't be acceptable for me.  Every other book that I have read in the past couple of years has been because there was a movie that I wanted to see and the book is always better.  Seriously, I have read My Sister's Keeper, The Blind Side, The Help, and then on Friday I picked up Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.  I chose this book mostly because I love Sandra Bullock so I imagined I would like the movie and therefore, I will probably like the book-totally logical, right?  I say all of this to ask, how do you choose the books that you read in your free time?  I enjoy reading and honestly do not make enough time for "just for fun" reading.  I would love for any suggestions of great authors and/or books.

        Oops. . . I almost forgot the BIG FOX pdf for printing if you are interested.  Look over on the right hand side of my reading page, under the 25 Book Goal heading.  I know that doesn't exactly make sense for its placement but I am not using this strategy with my kiddos until next week. 

BIG FOX

       Have you heard of BIG FOX?  It is a strategy to help students read nonfiction.  The BIG part is for before they read and the FOX part is for after they read.  I stumbled upon this recently (I can't remember exactly where, if it was your blog-thanks!) and then on Wednesday when I received my class's newest Scholastic News I saw that they were also highlighting this strategy.  So on to the strategy:

B-bold (list the bold words you see)
I-italics or other special fonts (list the words in italics or other special fonts you see)
G-graphics (tell what graphics, pictures, illustrations, maps, etc... you see)

F-facts (list two facts that you learned from the article)
O-opinions (write one opinion you have about what you read in the article)
X-x marks the spot (draw an x next to the main idea of the text.  Then summarize the main idea there.)

        Of course you can tweak this strategy to meet the needs of your students and/or the purpose of your instruction.  Depending on the length of the text I may increase the number of facts and/or opinions that I would ask the students to find.  I would love to use the articles from the Comprehension Toolkit so that the students could actually mark right on the article-especially the "x" I think that that would be cool.
        I have not quite figured out how to upload documents onto my blog, so I usually just put things onto my class website and then link that to the blog-but I won't be able to do this until tomorrow because I am off to go visit my parents and celebrate my dad's 60th birthday!!! But I will definitely add to this post with a visual tomorrow so that if you want to print and use with your kiddos you can.

Clothing Question

        Hello everyone : )  I wanted to keep you posted on my Teacher of the Year status.  I found out that I am a semi-finalist (top 15) for my district.  Next is the interview.  My interview day and time is set for Wednesday, February 1st at 12:30 p.m.  I have already tried to think about the types of questions that I might be asked-so that I can (somewhat) have an answer ready . . . I guess I will find out in a couple of weeks if I have any psychic ability.  So I say all that to ask what should I wear???  I want to look nice and professional and I am planning on shopping but if anyone has any suggestions I am all ears (or I guess eyes in this case since I will actually be reading your response).  Please help.

Ashleigh's Having a Giveaway

        Ashleigh over at Ashleigh's Education Journey is having a giveaway!  If you do not follow her blog I would HIGHLY recommend it.  She has great ideas that she is always willing to share.  One of the things that she is willing to share with us now is a $25 Amazon card with her giveaway.  But don't delay she is selecting a winner on Thursday at 9 p.m.!!!

Geometry Vocabulary & A Funny Moment

      I don't know about all of you but in my district we are in the middle of our Geometry and Measurement unit in math right now.  And I must say that there are a TON of vocabulary words for the students to learn.  I made up vocabulary sheets for the kids to take home that match the anchor charts we have hanging in the room.  I wanted to share them with you now-just in case you are interested.  When I gave the sheets to my kiddos the picture box was blank and they had to fill it in with their own drawing.  If you are interested in a blank copy just let me know and I would be happy to e-mail it to you.

Lines and Line Segments         Angles        Polygons         Triangles        Quadrilaterals

        I also made a matching game with our vocabulary words.  The day after we went over the new words and worked with them and made our anchor chart and at-home study sheet I covered our chart and handed each student a card.  Each card (just a white index card from my drawer) had either the picture, the word or the definition and the three that went together had to find each other.  It was great!  I could tell who really new the words.  I also was able to see how their minds were thinking about the words.  For example, a couple of the "picture" kids and a couple of the "definition" kids both figured out the word and then tried to find the person with the word by saying something like, "I have the picture of the right triangle, who has the word and the definition of right triangle."  I would like to play it again but this time try a silent match up-since now we have had a lot more practice with all of the words . . . it could be very interesting. 

        At school I am a pretty organized person (OK, maybe not the closet but even in there it is organized chaos).  I try to put things back when I am finished using them and I train my kids to do the same.  This is really for two reasons.  I want my students to take proper care of things and also I want everyone to be able to find whatever it is that they need when they need it without having to organize a search party.  This has worked out great.  Even when I have a substitute the kids know to put things back where they go.  I may have accidentally transferred a little bit of my OCD onto them-but a little bit of OCD won't hurt, right?  So on to my funny moment.  At my school we have the privilege of having both a computer lab set up that we can take our kids to (on a rotating schedule) and computer carts that we can bring to our classrooms (also on a rotating schedule).  Yesterday was our day for the computer cart.  I moved my two HUGE stuffed frogs from their place underneath the word wall and went to go get the computer cart.  I had to move the two frogs because when I returned with the cart that it where I needed to put it.  By the time I got back four or five of my students had already come in, unpacked and were reading quietly in the hallway, this was before school.  And one of my little darlings saw the frogs out of place and put them back.  This made me giggle.  They didn't know that I had moved the frogs to make room for the cart they were just trying to take care of our room-which I LOVE!!!

15 Minutes

        Today I had my observation for making it to the top 25 for teacher of the year for my district.  I am a lover of reading-so I made a small adjustment in my schedule so that this is what they could observe.  I planned out my lesson.  I prepped my kids (as far as not being nervous that people were coming in to see us) and then the door opened . . . we went through the lesson . . . then fifteen minutes later they left.  I then felt a little silly about being so nervous.  I don't know if/when I will hear anything about continuing the process of this is as far as I will go.  I will be sure to share if I keep going.  Either way it was a tremendous honor to be a teacher of the year. 
        I hope that everyone has a terrific three-day weekend!!!!