Must Read Monday Linky Party

Teaching Maddeness

I have made it my personal goal to read more children's books this year so that I can become more like the great "Book Whisperer", Donalyn Miller. I have made a Good Reads account (if you haven't you so should) and it lets you keep track of books you have read, want to read, and are currently reading. It also has a place to set a reading challenge for the year. My goal is 80 books. I've read 19 so far this year.

(The Social Network book is an interactive choose your own path book. I thought it would be perfect for kids to learn about Social Media since it surrounds their everyday life.)

The most recent book I read is the new "Who is J.K. Rowling?" book. As soon as I saw it at Barnes and Noble I decided I had to have it. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I have read all 7 of the books multiple times! 

I think this is a must read because it lets kids know how the infamous Harry Potter series came to be. Also for those of your students who are hesitant to start the series might want to read it after learning about how J.K. Rowling came up with her billion dollar idea. 

In general I love the "Who Was….?" Series because the books are written in kid-friendly language, the covers are attractive to the eye, and they get kids interested in the biography genre very quickly. My students are trying to reach their goal of reading 10 nonfiction books by the end of the year and they have just now begun to work towards it. (They spent the first part of the year working towards their 10 fiction books challenge.) I have showed them this series and now many of them are addicted! When I showed them my new book my students were begging to read it!

What is your favorite "Who was…..?" book?

Do you set yourself a personal reading goal?

Drop me a line below! :)

~Susan 

New Blog Design and Blog URL Address

I have updated my blog, added some new social media buttons, made an Adventures in 4th Grade Facebook page, and made a Grab Button! I feel so accomplished! :)  In addition to all those things I wanted to change my blog URL address from smgibson15.blogspot.com to adventuresin4thgrade15.blogspot. I hope you will follow me on bloglovin and on my new Facebook page! :)

Spring Cleaning Sale

I'm a day late but my whole store will be on sale (20 % off) today through tomorrow. 

Some of my top products are listed below:

Hope you find something you like! I'm off to shop with my favorite sellers! :)

~Susan

A Peek at the Week 3/31/2014

I am linking up this week with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings!

It has been quite a long time since I've posted in the blog world. Graduate School, my class, and reading tons of children's books have tied up all my time!

To kick off National Poetry Month we will be diving into poetry this week using some ideas from Hello Literacy's blog.

Idea # 1: Poem of the Week Focus Lesson
http://helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tracked-in-focused-on-poetry.html

I have had a Poem of the Week since the beginning of the year and I've been using poems and the Take 5 teaching points from the book below.

But after reading what Jen Jones has been doing with her poems I thought I would give it a shot! Click out her blog post and she gives you a sample of her lesson and a planning template. 

Idea # 2: Close Reading of Poems

http://helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/04/hello-literacy-says-hello-national.html

I took Jen's idea and tweaked it to fit my class. I decided that I would have poetry rotations so that I could meet with my students in small groups. I plan on have four rotations over a two day period. Each poem that we read focuses on a specific type of figurative language.

Rotations:

Teacher Time:

We will be reading the poem three times to practice our fluency. We will answer the following questions after the first read: What is the subject?, Who is speaking?, Who are they speaking to?, and What is the mood of the poem?. After the second, read we will be looking at the specific figurative language we are studying. To end the day, we will why we think the author wrote the poem. 

Get a copy of the materials I am using during this lesson here. 

Poetry Stop and Jot:

Students will use the Stop and Jot sheet in the link above while looking through poetry anthologies independently. Students are looking for verses they find interesting and record their thoughts about the verse. 

Fluency Fact Task Cards:

Another great idea from Jen Jones. Students will read the task card three times with a buddy to work on their fluency.

Writing:

In my last rotation, students will be answering questions from the book below. This will sharpen their opinion writing skills. 

I feel very excited to try out these rotations! Tell me below how you celebrate National Poetry Month.

One last note:

Last night a created a Donors Choose Project to get more high interest nonfiction texts for my classroom library. If you have read "The Book Whisperer" you know that she says the better classroom  library you have the more you can get your students interested in books. 

"Engaging students with reading and encouraging the development of lifelong reading habits begins with providing students with a wide range of interesting reading material and lots of opportunities to examine, read, write and talk about books with their teacher and classmates. Students should have access to lots of books in the classroom and the opportunity to self-select some of their own reading materials (Guthrie, J. T., & Humenick, N. M., 2004).

If you would like to donate or know someone who likes to support teachers check out my project below. If you donate by April 6th and enter INSPIRE at checkout they will match the donation by a $1. 

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/finding-the-inner-reader-in-every-child/1211022/?rf=link_siteshare_2014_03_teacherid_994396&challengeid=170067

Examples of the Books I'm Requesting are:

"Who Was…..?" Series

"What was….?" Series

Graphic History Series and Graphic Science Series

Thanks for stopping by!!