The Heart of a Reading Conference

Before we get started with the nitty-gritty of a reading conference...go check out how Andrea over at Stepping Into First Grade adapted my "If I Was a Snowman" art activity!  {My daughter is the model...lol.} 

Don't forget to come back here...I have some more "Kate" wisdom to share with you.  If you haven't been with me very long, you will want to type in "Kate" in the search option to your right to read more about our amazing district reading coach!

Once a month or so, Kate comes to our staff meeting to present on a reading workshop topic.  This past week, it was on conferring...the HARDEST part of reading workshop in my opinion!  Our morning staff meetings are only 25 minutes, so it was a quick overview/reminder of what we should be doing during a reading conference.

When you meet with a reader, you first have to decide what you are going to teach during your 5 minute (approx.) conference.  Once you decide what you are going to teach, you can go about the teaching 3 different ways.  We'll start with the easiest and move to the hardest...

1.  Coaching/Guided Practice:  the teacher can remind the child of a previously taught strategy, the reader tries the strategy, the teacher prompts and gives tips as the reader tries the strategy.

2.  Example and Explanation:  the teacher chooses a strategy that has previously been taught and reminds the reader of the example from the previous lesson about that strategy, the teacher can then show the child another way to use the strategy or how to come at it from a different angle, the reader then tries it on his/her own.

3.  Demonstration (this is the hardest for teachers to execute properly):  the teacher says to the child "I am going to teach you {insert strategy here} and watch me as I {blank}."  The teacher could use a mentor text to think aloud through the process.  The teacher is the reader, IN the moment.  The teacher then restates what the child should have noticed.  The reader then can try this strategy out on his/her own.

I like to use the demonstration teaching option when I am working on fluency with a child.  For example, I would say: "listen to me read these 2 pages (I would read), then "let's read it together" (child and I will read the same 2 pages together), then "let me hear you do it on your own now" (child reads the same 2 pages alone).

To help me remember the 3 different options of teaching during a conference, I made this:

You can click on the image to download it using Google Docs if you are interested.  I am going to put them in the inside cover of my conference notebook to help me remember.  I  made the most important one the biggest for an extra reminder!

I know this post isn't all glittery and crafty, but sometimes I feel like I have to get my #1 passion out there...teaching reading to little ones...I hope you enjoyed!

Singing Penguins and Struggling Readers

What do singing penguins and struggling readers have in common you ask?  Keep reading...

Once every few months, my son is in charge of a snack for his preschool class.  Being a first grade teacher and wanting to make everything cute, I usually make a "creation" out of food for his snack.  I have made skeletons out of veggies, turkeys out of melons, cheese and grapes, Christmas trees out of Styrofoam cones and grapes, rainbows and pots of gold out of fruit and marshmallows, etc.  His teachers always tease me and tell me that it is ok to send in plain pretzels or goldfish crackers.  My friend's son also goes to the same preschool and she just rolls her eyes and wonders where in the world I find my time.  The time I brought in little penguins made out of olives and cream cheese, she said "let me guess, these penguins sing, twirl around and explode firecrackers from their beaks."  I just about died laughing!!! 

I forgot to take a picture, but I also had a cheese ball in the shape of an igloo for these little guys!

Hang on...I'm getting to the part where these penguins have something to do with struggling readers. : )

Almost every blog post I write, I feel like I have to come up with this "exploding with fireworks" post that is about glitter, cupcakes, and butterflies so people will read it.  Who wants to read the boring stuff (like the pretzels and goldfish) about struggling readers?  So if you are all about the fluff, stop reading now.  If you would like to hear more about the amazing day and information I learned about this past week, keep on reading!!!

I was blessed to have spent the day with our District Literacy Coach (if you have been with me for a while, you have heard of the Amazing Kate!).  We met to talk about what we can do about those readers who are stuck between DRA levels 3 and 4 (C and D).  WOW, did we get some awesome professional development!!!  We are now armed with some great mini lesson topics and conferring points for kids who are stuck at those lower levels.  Here they are (underlined headings are the big ideas and bullets are the teaching points):

How to Teach "Picture Walks"
• Readers use pictures to tell about the setting.


• Readers use pictures to tell what the character is thinking.


• Readers name the things in the pictures during their picture walk and make it sound like a story.
 How to Teach "One to One (1:1)"


• Readers touch under, not on the word.


• Readers touch under each word to keep their place.


• Readers use phonics to check for 1:1 using letter sounds.


• Readers know that spaces separate words.


• Readers know that words with more syllables need to hold their finger under the word longer/slide finger under the word until the word ends. (ex. The word umbrella would be held longer than pointing to the word is.)
 How to Teach "Look Through the Whole Word"


• The size of the word needs to match the word coming out of the reader’s mouth. (Ex. Umbrella is much longer than the word under.)


• Ending sounds must match the word readers try while reading.


• Middle sounds must match the word readers try while reading.
 Look at the Picture


• Readers name the things in the picture and check with the first letter in the unknown word to see if it makes sense.


• Readers recognize that pictures can have more than one name. (ex. Couch, chair, sofa)


• Readers cross check pictures with letter sounds.


If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my singing penguin story as well as the not-as-exciting topic of struggling readers.  : )  I wish you all could meet Kate and enjoy her as much as my coworkers and I do.

New Conferring Shortcuts! {and winners}

A huge thanks for everyone who entered my Brag Tags giveaway!!!  What a fun giveaway!!!!

The lucky 10 winners have already been contacted by email.

Did you download a set of my FREE Conferring Shortcuts yet?  If you have, and you love them, a new set of 10 are now posted and are $2.00 for a limited time!!!  Click on the picture below to go straight to the listing!

Included in this pack are the first 5 from my original free set and 10 more series books:

Princess Posey
Roscoe Riley Rules
Poppleton
Max Spaniel
Lighthouse Family
Biscuit
Iris and Walter
Moose and Hildy
Fluffy
Frog and Toad

A total of 15 Conferring Shortcuts for only $2.00!  This deal won't last long, so don't delay!

If you aren't familiar with Conferring Shortcuts, and you teach reading using a workshop model or the Daily Five, these are for you!

What You've Been Waiting For

It's Here!!!

If you read my post last week, you know that I have been working with my District Literacy Coach, Kate (aka Debbie Miller, Donalynn Miller and Kathy Collins all rolled into one) to bring you an amazing resource!!!!  Hold on to your seats...I hope you are just as thrilled as I am when you download your FREE sample!

Here is a little background about how these Conferring Shortcuts came about...

During Reading Workshop or the Daily Five when your kiddos are independently reading and you are going around conferencing with them, do you find yourself doing a "drive-by" conference? 

By a drive-by conference, we mean this:

Teacher "How's it going?"

Child "Good."

Teacher "Can you read a little of your book to me?"

Child {reads}

Teacher "Great, keep up the good work."

During this conference, the teacher listened to the child, gave a compliment and went on to the next child.  Where was the TEACHING in that conference?  Maybe the teacher didn't know how to find a teaching point with the child because she has never read the book herself.  Maybe the 4th grade teacher doesn't know how to conference with a lower-level reader because she has never had to deal with a 4th grader who can only read level J books.

If you have a solid conference with a child about his/her reading, a conference should have:

Research (listen and talk to child)

Decide (what are you going to teach)

Teaching Point/Compliment (actually teach something meaningful)

These Conferencing Shortcuts were developed because Kate was watching teachers struggle with what to teach to their readers during a reading conference.  Conferring Shortcuts were designed to be used with series books like Elephant and Piggie, Commander Toad, Minnie and Moo, Henry and Mudge, etc.

Here is the product description straight from TPT:

Conferring Shortcuts

Reading Workshop Conferring Shortcuts are life savers for busy teachers (if you have plenty time . . .this isn't for you). In the research phase of conferences teachers often struggle with what to confer about. Constantly searching for the perfect teaching point is frustrating especially when you haven't read all the books. So . . . for each series, Conferring Shortcuts suggest 4-5 teaching points that will not only work for any book in the series but will also meet the needs of children at that independent level and be generalizable to their entire reading life. Whether you are using a reading workshop approach like Lucy Calkins or Daily Five, these conferring bites will help guide your one on one time with learners. Each bite is a 2" by 4" label (Avery 5163) that can used inside the cover or on the back of a series book and presto . . .you have a teacher guide OR labels can be adhered to index cards and placed in a 3" by 5" binder for teachers to carry with them as part of their conferring tool kit.

Who says you can't cheat in school?

Come on over to my TPT store {HERE} to download the FREE sample and start changing the way you confer with kids.  If you download the sample, don't forget to follow my store so you don't miss any more Conferring Shortcut Series Labels.  Kate has over 50 already made and almost ready to be posted in sets of 10.  Please spread the word to your coworkers and blogging friends about this amazing resource!  If you have any suggestions for more Series Shortcuts, please leave me a comment.

Halloween Food Fun, a Freebie & a Major Announcement

Wow...I couldn't think of a shorter title!!!  This post is packed, and you are in for a treat!!!  Stay with me to the bottom and I hope you will share in the excitement with me when you read the news I am going to share!!

First, the Halloween Food Fun!

We are getting ready for our Halloween Celebrations and of course, we have to remember the healthy treats, too!  This one is a little time consuming, but too cute!!  The bigger the orange you can find, the better.  Cut off the top, take out all of the insides and "carve" a simple face.  Fill the orange with grapes or any other small healthy food.  Cut a small slit in the top and put your spoon or fork through.  I forgot my green spoon for the picture...so much cuter with a green spoon handle sticking out like it is the stem.

I make this veggie skeleton for my own kids' preschool snack.  Healthy and fun!

Here is your freebie...a fun "following directions activity"!

Click on the cover page to go to my TPT store to download it for FREE!

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.

And now, for the major announcement!

A little background first...I am so very fortunate to work in a district that has a full time literacy consultant. Kate is a blessing to our staff and has transformed our district into a K-8 Readers Workshop world! If you enter any classroom during a reading block, you will see a mini lesson, active engagement, independent reading, conferencing, partner work and a share. Kate has made this possible across our whole district in 2 short years! Readers workshop has transformed the way I look at reading instruction and it is proven in our reading scores! Kate is the Donalyn Miller, Debbie Miller and The Sisters all rolled into one...just without a published book or website. This girl is amazing!!!! People in the teaching job market get interviews in neighboring districts just because she is a reference on their resumes! Yes, ladies and gents, she is THAT good!  My friend and I always say we feel smarter every time we talk to her!  : )

Kate and I met today to talk about some amazing resources that she has created for the Daily Five and Readers Workshop model. They are almost ready to be rolled out and posted here on this little blog of mine. When she pitched the idea to me, I was in awe and saying to myself..."why didn't you think of this sooner!" You all will be totally amazed!

So...sit tight, follow my blog or subscribe by email so you don't miss the post that is coming very, very soon.

Sticky Notes for Readers Workshop

I hope you enjoyed the free Apple of My Eye sticky notes in my post here!  I also wanted to thank you for the thoughts and prayers for my father-in-law.  He is going to take the trip to Florida's Mayo clinic for his road to recovery on October 10th.

I have a wonderful pack of printable sticky note templates at my TPT store here.  The pack is for reading comprehension activities used during independent reading in a readers workshop model.  If your kids independently read during the school day, this pack is for you!  Graphics are courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.  This pack is  on SALE for $5.00 (regular $7.00) until Friday!

Click on the pictures for a closer look of the preview.  : )

Printable Sticky Notes {Freebie}

Sticky notes + Me = LOVE! 

I am so excited to give you this freebie!  Your kiddos will love a surprise sticky note on their desk from their teacher!  Click on the image below for the template.  Directions on how to print are below.  Graphics are courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.

Steps to a perfect print:

1.        Print the page(s) you would like to make into sticky notes.  I do this in greyscale so I don’t waste my colored ink.

2.       Place sticky notes on top of the boxes for the sheet you would like to print making sure the sticky strips are all at the top of each box.  It is very important all sticky notes are facing the same direction.

3.       Place the paper in your printer.  Depending on which direction your printer feeds, you will want the sticky notes to go through the printer top first.

4.       Print the page (be sure to select the page you chose the template from) in greyscale (again, saves ink and colored images turn out just fine).

5.       Cross your fingers and hope for no paper jams!   J 

  

I just uploaded a sticky note template pack to TPT here.  It has templates for your students to use while independently reading during Readers Workshop!  Text to text connections, I wonder, My favorite part, etc.  (One of the templates can be seen in the printing directions above.)  I am in the middle of working on a holiday pack of sticky note templates.  Stay tuned...

As I was writing this post, I got a call with some terrible news.  My father-in-law just got test results back and he has bladder cancer.  : (  And...this news comes on my birthday.  : (  If you pray, please say an extra prayer for my husband and our family.

Reading Memories {Freebie}

In my classroom, Readers Workshop is off and running!  We are working to build our stamina to 15 minutes before the kids can go book shopping to fill our independent reading bags.  This week we talked about our favorite reading memories.  Feel free to download the reading memories page by clicking on the picture below.  The pdf document has one for girls and one for boys. They would be perfect for a hallway display or to make into a class book!

{Clip art is from Scrappin Doodles}

At the end of the day today, I was changing out my book display case from "beginning of the school year" themed books to Fall themed books and I overheard a little voice say "she's putting out new books and I see some great ones.  I think I am about to have a new favorite reading memory!"  MELT.MY.HEART!

PS  If you have not checked out this new first grade blog, New Adventures in First Grade, head on over!

Making Your Teaching Stick

First things first, I am having a 20% off sale at my TPT store August 1st-4th.  Paired with TPT's back to school sale, (use promo code B1T1S for an extra 10%) you can score some of my units for an awesome price!  I have Frog and Toad stuff, fun with Mo Willems, Caldecott stuff and more!  My store link is in my side bar to your right.  Come check out the deals!


If you teach with a workshop approach, this resource is for you.  It was written in part by Lucy Calkins for writers workshop, but it works for readers workshop, too!  I read it during Teacher Lab and was impressed.  Read about mt Teacher Lab experience HERE.  Here is a bit about the book from Borders' description:



Recognizing that there is a vast difference between children getting it and children holding on to what they have learned, Shanna lays out the universal principles of "stickiness" and describes how they can be used to tweak your teaching for a more lasting impact on young writers.

A Quick Guide to Making Your Teaching Stick is part of the Workshop Help Desk series.

About the Workshop Help Desk series
The Workshop Help Desk series is designed for teachers who believe in workshop teaching and who have already rolled up their sleeves enough to have encountered the predictable challenges. If you've struggled to get around quickly enough to help all your writers, if you've wondered how to tweak your teaching to make it more effective and lasting, if you've needed to adapt your teaching for English learners, if you've struggled to teach grammar or nonfiction writing or test prep...if you've faced these and other specific, pressing challenges, then this series is for you. Provided in a compact 5" x 7" format, the Workshop Help Desk series offers pocket-sized professional development.

Happy Reading!

Must-Have Resource for Readers Workshop

Do you teach using Readers Workshop in your classroom? 

You have to get your hands on this book:

First Grade Readers by Stephanie Parsons.  The foreword is by the one and only Kathy Collins, author of Growing Readers.  It is a fast read and actually fun to read!  : )  I discovered it when I was participating in Teacher Lab in my district.  Click HERE to read more about Teacher Lab.

Teacher Lab and Reading Notebooks

In my district, we were fortunate to have a full time Reading Coach that helped K-5 teachers fully implement Reading Workshop this past year.  Part of her job was to hold Teacher Labs for K-5 teachers.  Teacher Labs allowed groups of teachers to enter another teacher's classroom to observe Reading Workshop.  There were 1-2 hosts in each grade level and around 8-10 teachers who would watch the host teacher in each lab group.  We were able to observe our host 3 times during last year.  It was so successful, we are doing it again this coming school year.  I can't wait!  It is always fun and refreshing to go into another teacher's classroom to learn new things and to confirm that you ARE doing the right thing in your own classroom!  : )  Attached to the lab was also some reading assignments from books like Growing Readers and The Book Whisperer.  We would meet to discuss our reading assignment, discuss what we were about to observe, participate in the observation, break for lunch (together at a nice sit-down restaurant...how often do teachers get to do that???), come back and discuss what we observed and made plans for the next lab date.

During one of our lab days, I discovered these AWESOME reading notebooks.  Our coach had one and showed us how to make them.  They are on my summer to-do list to make for my new students this coming year.  The first grade classroom that used them had poems (trimmed to fit) glued in the pages.  They used the notebook at the beginning of independent reading as a "warm-up."  The ribbon made for a great book mark.  I suppose older grades could use them for a reading response journal.  



You will need a composition notebook, fun ribbon, a hot glue gun and some sort of name label for the cover.



Hot glue the ribbon (about 2 inches) to the inside back cover near the spine.  If your ribbon is one sided, glue the pretty side down. 

Bring the ribbon up and over the pages like a book mark.

Add the name label (I used a piece of scrapbook paper and a flare pen).

 

What do you use for reading notebooks?

Reader's Workshop Reading Spots

In my first 8 years of teaching, I never had a theme to my decor.  This year I decided to go all out with the bee theme.  I'm not even sure why I picked bees...maybe the DJ Inker Bee stuff reeled me in when I was browsing catalogs last summer!  Here are a few of the fun bee reading spots we have in our classroom...

My most favorite reading spot in our whole room is the Bee Hive tent.  It has antennae, wings and a stinger!!  We have 2 bee Pillow Pets inside, too.  My mom found it on Amazon and bought it for my birthday.  I set up the tent on the very first day of school, but the tent didn't open until the kids built their reading stamina to 20 minutes.  (It didn't take long!)   

I found this cute bee beanbag at a Mom To Mom sale last fall.  The lady didn't have a price tag on it and offered it to me for a dollar!  Maybe she could tell I was a poor teacher who constantly gets suckered into buying things for my classroom!  : )

This bee reading spot is actually a kid's garden cushion.  They have them at Big Lots for $1.50 each.  I have a bin with lots of these for the kids to use during independent reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check this out...