As a reading teacher I am a full believer in the philosophy of
"the more someone reads the better reader they will become."
I want my students to increase in their reading ability along with their love of reading.
I use many different approaches to teach reading in hopes of accomplishing both of these goals. Students are listening to a read aloud daily from a picture book or chapter book. Through modeling of skills and strategies each student is able to apply what they have learned to their own reading. Students are also assigned to reading groups by their reading level. I meet with the different groups multiple times weekly for guided reading instruction. During guided reading, one group is with me and the other groups are working on activities and assignments that have been differentiated for their needs.
Many of the activities used during this time are a reinforcement of the Daily 5 framework. I have been using the Daily 5 framework for 3 years now. The framework has the 5 focus areas of read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, word work and working on writing.
By having mini lessons daily students are able to work through their writing and word work sessions during guided reading along with reading to self or read to someone. I have found this to be a quite successful approach to teaching and supporting reading concepts. I try hard to have engaging units and lessons to teach concepts to my students. Having a variety of activity helps to keep each students trying new strategies.
I have been told by students at the end of the year that "my class made them love to read,"
which is a wonderful feeling.
Activities, strategies, and lesson plans I use for
reading/lanuage arts instruction
Guided Reading is a daily occurrence in my classroom. Having the time to meet with a small group while the other students accomplish meaningful practice is important. Having the chance to listen to students read and being able to see their growth from week to week is amazing. Love this time!
Partner reading is one of the approaches students use duirng the reading day. Each has a chance to read aloud and as a pair they work through prompts or activites which help me to see their level of understanding.
One of my favorite units during the year is on the Underground Railroad. This unit is taught later in the year. I use this unit as a review of the skills students have learned throughout the entire school year.
During this unit I read great picture books, students read leveled readers, groups research the topic/famous person, skits are made and many different reading response activities I created are used to explore this historical topic.
I have included the culminating Choice Board activity, and two different read aloud response sheets as an example of work completed for this unit. During the later part of this unit the students visit the National Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati. My students are engaged in learning while at the museum because they have built a great amount of background knowledge. Students tell me this is their favorite unit of the year.
Students working on the computer are a norm. Throughout the week students are using the computers or Chromobooks we have to complete research, create projects such as brochures, Powerpoints, or reports, webquests and much more.
I use a variety of Reading Response activities and this is one of them. I also love having students write in their Reading Journals, creating brochures, using turn and talk pairs with recording sheets, and many other activities.
The Cereal Box Report is the first project I have my class create each year. The kids are able to be creative and start to love completing reading response projects.
As a way to differentiate each student reads a book on their current reading level. The class then presents their project to the class. With each presentation I can see the interest in reading increase ten fold.
The Free Choice Board for Reading Response is another great activity. Students are able to choose from the projects on the board and even create their own projects. Students use this board to make three of these projects throughout the year. Students fill out a choice sheet for each project. Parents are sent a letter with each project to let them know when the project is due.
I love creating Writing Menus for my students. Each quarter the Writing Menu changed. The kids really enjoy this approach and request more writing menu time.
Word work is more than just a Spelling list. Helping student master the English language is important. I tell my students that the more words you know, the easier their reading will become. I love word work!
Activity booklet I created for My fathers dragon
Stone fox powerpoint projects
As a way to expand my student's knowledge and interaction with a great text I had each person pick a topic to research which fit with the book, Stone Fox. To help students access information they used a website created to help them find appropriate information. After taking notes about their topic, I taught the kids how to create a PowerPoint as a way to share their information with others. Students were required to have a main idea and three supporting details for each slide. A photograph which helped explain their topic was also required for each slide. We used IPADs to research our topics in class and our schools computer lab to create these wonderful projects. Below is the link to the Stone Fox information site and an example of the PowerPoint my third graders created.
http://stonefoxproject.weebly.com/
http://stonefoxproject.weebly.com/