Topnotch Book Thursday #3

My strategy for writing: "Trick'em."

If your students are anything like mine, they sometimes moan, groan and complain when it is time to write. Well soon, if not already, they will be asked to write for assessment purposes. So I "Trick'em" in order to prepare them. Its important to remember to make all of your assignment purposeful and relevant to the student. So you want your class to do a character analysis? How about have them to create Facebook pages for each character in the book? Cool, right? In this book:



Don't Forget to Write, the author has included 50 lessons that are ready for you to implement; such as the character Facebook activity. Which, by the way, comes with a black line master for reproduction. All of the lessons tell, you step-by-step, how to use to successfully use them in your class. In addition to black line masters and step-by-step lesson plans, Don't Forget to Write also has a section called "Superteacher Bonus Activities," where you can find tips on how to really "dazzle" your students.

There is also an elementary edition of this same title (it has a blue cover). And lastly, located in the back of the book is a matrix grid that shows how all of the, 50, writing activities are aligned to Common Core. Strand, standard, and all!

Now all you have to do is pick up this book and start planning for your classes. Oh yeah, and
Don't Forget to Write!

Topnotch Book Thursday #2

In elementary school, students read about 50% fiction and 50% nonfiction texts. With Common Core sweeping through our nation, it is now required that by the time these students reach middle school, nonfiction/ informational texts should be the majority of what is read. As teachers, it is our responsibility to prepare students for the 21st century, as well as the workplace. Most of what they will read as adults will be informational texts. Keeping this in mind, some may wonder, "Where do I begin?"

Well, I know that it is March and testing is just around the corner. But, here is a great resource that you can begin to use NOW, in preparation for end-of-year assessments. It is titled Texts and Lessons for Content-Area Reading, by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels and Nancy Steineke.

This book is organized by strategy. First, the authors will introduce you to an innovative strategy and then explain it step-by-step. They also offer variations of that same technique so you can choose the one that will work best for you.

BUT... that's not all!

They also provide you with the perfect article to go along with the strategy.

What more could you ask for?

Making Global Connections

Are "pictures worth a thousand words"? Yes, sometimes there are. During my first year of teaching, my seventh graders completed a novel unit for Journey to Jo'Burg by Beverly Naidoo. This story is set in South Africa during the time of Apartheid. I really wanted my students to get a feel for the culture and to my advantage, my school just happened to have a "Visiting International Faculty" or "VIF" member from South Africa.
-I love it when all of the pieces fall into place.

Anyway, I partnered with her so that my lessons on culture and government would be as authentic as possible. She provided me with lots of resources and even invited my students to her class. Her room can only be described as "breathtaking." I mean, it was like literally stepping into South Africa. You could just feel South Africa all around you; and to top it all off, she was dressed in traditional African attire. She spoke to the students in English as well as in her native language.
I thought that the lesson was going well, but then something, or I should say someone, caught my eye. One of my boys had a strong expression of disinterest on his face. I knelt down beside him to ask him what was wrong. He told me that I had lied to him. I'm thought to myself, "WHAT!?" So I asked him to explain himself. He said that I had told them that they were going on an in-school field trip, venturing to South Africa, and the best part was that their guide was going to be someone from Africa.
See, the problem that this student had was that the VIF teacher was, in his eyes, a white lady. He could not see passed her complexion. But, she was in fact, South African. This, of course, led to a history lesson.
This whole experience really opened my eyes to the realization that our students need to "see" what and where they are reading about. Simply reading about it is not enough.

To make global connections in my classroom, I map out the places we are studying. This shows the students exactly where we are in relationship to the setting of text.

Right now, my Language Arts classes are studying how children live around the world. They are reading a nonfiction text titled A Life Like Mine, distributed by UNICEF.

As we meet children from different countries in our reading, we locate and pin point them on our map.

Through this activity, my students are able to make connections to the children and to the information that they are gathering from the text. Oh, and did I forget to mention that by doing this, students are using Social Studies skills across content areas. YAY!

Don't limit the MAPPING idea.
Here is the same concept, but the focus is Central America; culture, government, population, religion, landmarks, and landforms.

My students created over sized brochures. One for each of the 7 countries in Central America.

My very good friend Mrs. Gaines, who teaches K-5 Art, has utilized mapping in her class as well. As they study different parts of the world, they create culturally inspired pieces of art. Mrs. Gaines has even "kicked it up a notch," by making a bilingual Word Wall. This is what I call "Global Greatness!"

Mrs. Wright has also joined in the revolution. In her computer lab she created a connections map to show the students PC and Internet usage around the world. So COOL!

One of the Best Teachers EVER!

Homophones and Homographs song to "Call Me Baby"

Awesome PD!

Just a few short hours ago, I had the pleasure of working with teachers from various schools in Cumberland County. They were AWESOME, which made this PD session AWESOME! We discussed the essential components of a novel guide, with aspirations of creating our own. In our discussion, someone brought to my attention that they did not have this:

This is the CCSS for ELA in shorthand. Every teacher should have this nifty guide in their lesson plan book. It's a time saver and stress reducer. If  you would like to have a copy of this, make a comment below and be sure to include your email address.

Topnotch Book Thursday!

Earlier this week I attended the NCRA Conference in Raleigh, NC. I had a blast! I met lots of interesting people who all shared my passion for reading and teaching. At this conference, I picked up more than a few books to add to my professional library. As I was perusing through them, I decided to share them with you all. So, every Thursday check the blog to see which "Topnotch" book I chose to share. This week I would like to introduce, The House of Comprehension by Constance D.Casserly.

This book is full of ready to use lesson plans and printables. Right now I'm preparing for a PD session on creating novel guides, and something told me to flip through this book. I'm so glad I did because I found this:

On these two pages, I have found an assessment tool that can be used as a post-reading activity.You can implement this as an individual or small group activity. I think that it will work well either way. But to add more excitement to my discovery, on the very next page there is a rubric that allows you assess the your students by skill (character, plot, conflict, point of view, tone, symbols, and theme).

This is the "Topnotch" book of the week. Hope you all enjoy!

Building Community

Establishing a strong classroom community is the key to a healthy instructional environment. I want my students to feel safe and have a sense of belonging. So at the beginning of the year, I created class teams. I always call my classroom "SmallsWorld." I thought it only fitting that my students be considered SmallsWorld citizens. They are all "defenders of their destinies.".