Learn fun literacy and math ideas.

Happy Saturday!  My Saturday has been busy!  A semi-private Zumba class this morning, grocery store for fresh produce, cooking up ground turkey, the crockpot is full of apple chicken, and cooling on my counter are pear and walnut muffins.  The meat and muffins will be put in the freezer for lunches and dinners, because apparently I have to go back to work on Monday.  Three weeks until our next break, and hopefully I will have enough "good for me" nourishment stocked up in the freezer for the home stretch. This post is long overdue.  I promised this post so long ago, and I couldn't quite figure out a way to legitamately fit it into one of the linky parties on the loop.  Today, regardless of the linky or lack of linky, I wanted to get back to the reason I started blogging. The Read 180 Library Read 180 is an intensive reading intervention program by Scholastic.  It involves a wheel of instruction that includes whole group lessons that then move into rotations of small group, independent reading, and computer time with a leveled software, and back to whole group for the wrap up.  If you are thinking that it is complicated, you are right, and I have an entire shelf of teacher manuals to explain it all to you.  It is a great program, but it is difficult to master all the components in the first year.  One of the toughest things was figuring out how to manage the independent reading rotation and the library that comes with it.  After years of fighting with the blue plastic crates that came with the library, and desperately trying to keep it intact, I gave up. I would nag and carry on about keeping the books in order, and in reality, you couldn't even read the titles on more than half the books once they were put in the crate.  The books kept slipping back behind the divider and it was impossible to keep them in any type of order.  So I cannibalized the crates and used magazine holders from Ikea. This is one of my earlier pictures.  The audio books required two of the magazine holders (forever attached together with a generous application of packing tape along the bottom and back).  The plastic shoeboxes are holding the System 44 books (phonics) and some Level 1 books.  Recognize the blue plastic being used as dividers?  Yep, those are parts of the original crates. Now, they all have labels.  Each book has an adorable label from Alison Rose's Surfboards and Numbers.    The shoe boxes slide off the shelf for easy perusing, and the dividers and labels make checking to see if they are in order a breeze.   Some of the boxes have dividers too.  The books at the first two levels are thin, and the boxes can hold more than one set.  It makes it so much easier for the kids to find their books and to keep them in order.  The last group doing Independent Reading is responsible for straightening up the shelves, and it takes them just a few minutes.  This picture was taken last Friday, right after they went to lunch - this is what my shelves really look like.  These shelves hold the audio books, System 44 books, and some Level 1 books for Read 180. On the other side of the table are two more bookcases.  The top of both bookcases holds Read 180 Levels 3 and 4 books, while the shoeboxes hold Level 2 books.  The bottom two shelves on this bookcase, and all the shelves on the bookcase perpendicular to it hold the fiction books.  They are alphabetically by author - in shoeboxes.  Up in front, flanking the Smartboard are two more bookcases that hold non-fiction. Last spring, I got rid of the file folders full of QuickWrites and Graphic Organizers and placed them all by Lexile in binders. I cut the posters apart and placed them in fours inside sheet protectors.  The QuickWrites and Graphic Organizers for each book are behind the synopsis pages, in the same order.  It was pretty scary to step away from the crates and posters, but this has worked so much better!  No more loitering around the book poster, and endlessly looking for QuickWrites!  Keeping track of the QuickWrites and Graphic Organizers is now my student assistant's job.  She uses this list and once a week, she goes through the binders and checks to see what we are running low on. The complete list is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free!  Feel free to edit and revise to make it fit your Read 180 library!  Have a great weekend!  Don't forget to make your wishlist (and check it twice) for the BIG SALE on Monday and Tuesday!

Lexile Growth Chart

Well, we have had a very quiet day here at Canine Recovery (again, I will spare you the pictures).  With school starting tomorrow and my duties as Maddie's nurse, I thought it would be a good thing to do a quick post while I had a moment. Last year was a struggle, so this year I wanted to make sure that every possible structure was in place before they walked in the class room.  Organization is a key element in any successful classroom, but especially in a Read 180 classroom.  One of the things that I made were these Read 180 rotation signs with the cute frames that I got from Kristen Wallden's store. CreativeClips by Krista Wallden   After laminating the signs, I put lots of those wonderful peel off magnets on the back of them to hang on my unused chalkboard. For the rotations, I will move the group names to the appropriate sign.  Not only will they help with the movement of rotations, but they serve as a mini-checklist of expected behaviors for each rotation.  If a student is not on task, I can simply refer them to the signs to review the expectations.  These will go in their Read 180 folders too.  Before too long, I will probably end up revising them to fit the needs of this new incoming group.  Right now, they reflect problems specific to last year's group. Tomorrow is our "teacher day" or whatever they are calling it these days, and my classroom just needs a few finishing touches...like students and maybe a little more laminating (at this point, global warming is entirely my fault).  I will take some pictures before Back To School Night to post.  They are always happier and more realistic pictures after students have been in the room. Hopefully, I will have another post this weekend.  Just a FYI: I have decided to drop out of the linky circuit.  I found myself stressing and struggling to come up with things to post and link about that I would never use in my classroom, and making myself crazy(ier) in the process.  Not to mention trying to keep track of all the linkys.  So I am only "linking" when it works for me, and only to share what I am doing in my actual classroom.  I just can't keep up with all of you; I am old and I like things like sleeping and watching TV:).

Procedures for Whole-Group Instruction - students come up with the procedures as a class for how to start Read180. The teacher charts the students responses. They model and practice each step. This way students know exactly what is expected of them when they enter the classroom for Read180.

Great Flow Map for the Media Center!

Book trailer by Codie, a 6th grader from Pettus, Texas

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Governments and companies are not doing their due diligence in researching the labor practices of their mining sources

Read 38 reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. Rosie walks in on an armed robbery in her father's convenience store. Who is the masked man…

Browse over 120 educational resources created by Teach With Erika in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Elementary teachers share tried and true resources tested in our own classrooms - Classroom Tested Resources

Starting Interactive Notebooks was daunting, to say the least!  Starting Interactive Notebooks with a Read 180 class...well, let's just say that there was definitely a big daunting learning curve.  However, midway through the 2nd quarter, I have to say that I am unbelievably proud of our notebooks! Which is why I am linking up with Erin of I'm Lovin' Lit for her Interactive Throw Down Linky to POSITIVELY BRAG about MY STUDENTS! Just in case you are not familiar with Read 180, it is a Scholastic reading intervention program.  It comes with a language workbook (or L-book), a reading textbook (or R-book), a Lexile leveled class library, and an intensive computer software reading program.  It is intended for students who are reading far below or below grade level.  Overall, it is a really good program.  Now, I have been doing "Math Notebooks" or as they were called in the olden days, "Math ToolKits,"  for years before I realized that they were called "Interactive Math Notebooks," but it had been nine years since I had broken out of the Read 180 routine and tried something new with reading.  So earlier this year, when our R-books were trapped in Purchasing Purgatory, I took the opportunity to RUN!  Did I do it the right way?  Who knows?  I just ran through Target like a madwoman, throwing post-it notes and composition notebooks in my cart with a smile on my face. We started with reading Maroo of the Winter Caves, and instead of summaries of chapters read in class, I pulled passages and worked on "textual evidence."  I modeled, they wrote, I modeled again, they rewrote...it took a lot of work, but then this started happening.  And their passages started looking like this...   Then we started posting responses, because sharing them in the morning was taking too long:). Then I got brave and tried Erin's Plot Elements Foldable.  Did they need some help?  Of course, they did!  We went through the lesson as a class, for an entire morning (since they are a self-contained Intervention class, I have them for four straight periods), and they were totally involved in the lesson. After this we did some readings on the Iceman - which probably should have gone into a Social Studies Interactive Notebook, but I am not exactly following the normal template. Then reality hit.  Our R-books arrived.  No more small group time with our Interactive Notebooks because we had R-books to get through.   And that is when I rebelled.  We are totally using our Notebooks still.  We use them in small group for our responses and QuickWrites, with our Action magazine, and for homework.  I am taking a break from a class novel and giving them time to get into the Read 180 library books and novels. With every book in the Read 180/System 44 library, there is a Quickwrite and Graphic Organizer.  In the past, these tended to just fill up the Read 180 basket, and once in a while I would pretend to look at them.  They were awful and sloppy, because I didn't pay attention to them.   This year they are going in their Interactive Notebooks - which magically makes them special.   I watch my kids take their time, carefully writing and editing, cutting and pasting, and checking them over before showing them to me...and I am amazed.  They have to be perfect because they are going in "the Notebook." They started writing their test scores on the top of their Quickwrite pages, all by themselves.  About every two weeks, instead of small group with the R-book, we go over them together in private conferences.  This is the first year, I have been able to really keep track of the numerous tests and books.  And best of all, they are writing responses like this... Her Lexile is in the mid 500's.  Pure teacher joy:)! Without a doubt, this has been the most challenging year I have had in a long time.  There were days in August where I questioned my sanity and was tempted to revert back to the standard reading logs.  My strict Read 180 routine has taken a hit, but their SRI growth has skyrocketed.  Will I do it differently next year?  Absolutely, there will be changes even as the year goes on.  It has taken more time, and they definitely look different than other "Interactive Notebooks" that I have seen, but Read 180 and Interactive Notebooks definitely work.  Upper grade teachers are coming in and checking them out, which has the kids bursting with pride.  I couldn't be prouder or happier. The one thing that I was most worried about was that they would lose their Notebooks. To date, not one has gone missing.  Occasionally, one gets left in a desk or at home, but they have not "lost" one yet.  Middle schoolers, intervention class, one third of them are ADHD, two-thirds are boys, and they haven't lost one yet.   At his Student Led Conference, one of my boys was showing his mom his Notebook and said, "It makes me feel smart."  They haven't lost one yet.

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Casey Fashion Plates Detail | Los Angeles Public Library

Hey all.  I'm back with more Regency Fashions from Ackermann's Repository! I know these ladies look so prim and proper in their lovely Rege...