A Peek at My Week {Spring Break Edition}

I'm linking up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings. Head on over to see what others are doing during the week.

My Spring Break is FINALLY here. Boy do I need the break. Some of my students have been giving me a run for my money. But now that it is here I'm all rested and plan on taking some day trips. Today my husband and I are planning on going to Linville Caverns! Pictures will be posted on my instagram! :) Tomorrow we are going to the NC Zoo with some great friends! On Wednesday, I'm going to visit some family. Then on Thursday one of the girls in my grad school class and I are going to observe some teachers at Ibraham Elementary School. Finally on Friday I am going into school to level my classroom library. (We had three optional workdays this week due to the snow days. I took off two but felt bad taking off all three). 

Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to level a classroom library? I plan on using Scholastic Book Wizard to get the levels. But I'm not sure the best way to organize them. 

I'm also going to link up for Must Read Monday over at Teaching Madness.

The focus this week is on Poetry.

Below are some of the books I use to teach poetry. I like to focus on free verse poetry when it comes to writing poems because students aren't required to write poetry for the CC standards. This gives them no limits and they can get used to writing in the poetry genre. In order to prepare students to write poetry I have them read a variety of poetry forms for weeks before we start writing. In Katie Ray Woods's book Study Driven she called this the immersion stage.With that said, here are some books the students have been using to immerse themselves in the poetry genre .

Here is the Amazon description: 

The wind and I play

tug-of-war with my new kite.
The wind is winning.

When you’re a guy, nature is one big playground—no matter what the season. There are puddles to splash in the spring, pine trees to climb in the summer, maple seeds to catch in the fall, and icicles to swordfight with in the winter.
       Nature also has a way of making a guy appreciate important stuff—like how many rocks it takes to dam up a stream, or how much snow equals a day off from school.
 So what kind of poetry best captures these special moments, at a length that lets guys get right back to tree-climbing and kite-flying? Why, guyku, of course!

Here's the Amazon Description:

Homework, chemistry class, food fights, and accidental farts-this book covers all the ups and downs of school. Starring an adorable cat and a colorful cast of animal classmates, Jack Prelutsky′s poems come to life in fully illustrated spreads.

Then of course you have the trusty old Shel Silverstein. It's what kind of poetry I read when I was a kid. 

Amazon Description:

Millie McDeevit screamed a scream
So loud it made her eyebrows steam.
She screamed so loud
Her jawbone broke,
Her tongue caught fire,
Her nostrils smoked...

Poor Screamin' Millie is just one of the unforgettable characters in this wondrous new book of poems and drawings by the creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. Here you will also meet Allison Beals and her twenty-five eels; Danny O'Dare, the dancin' bear; the Human Balloon; and Headphone Harold.

So come, wander through the Nose Garden, ride the Little Hoarse, eat in the Strange Restaurant, and let the magic of Shel Silverstein open your eyes and tickle your mind.

That's all for now. :) Please leave me comments below about your favorite books to use with poetry! 

~Susan

A Peek at the Week {4-7-14}

Hello fellow bloggers! Susan here with a peek at my week with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings.

This week should be pretty easy considering two of the days my students will be taking the 3rd Quarter benchmark assessments. I'm anxious about how they are going to do with it being so close to the EOGs. I'm sure they will do fine because we have all worked so hard!

Now, for the rest of the week I have some exciting activities line up.

#1

For my guide reading groups, I am using books from Reading A-Z. The books I've chosen are Wildlife Rescue and Titanic Treasure. I plan on trying something new this week that I heard about at the NC Reading Conference during Jen Jones's presentation. She introduced the idea of using TBE (Text Based Evidence) Graphs to get students to refer back to the text. Students get to shade in boxes on their graph for the quality of response they give to a question asked. They are required to use quotation marks and tell where in the text they find the evidence for the question. Students should display their answer on whiteboard. The graph gives the students instant gratification when they answer a question correctly. I am super pumped to finally try this out this week. Wish me good luck. Here is a picture of her product in use below. Click here to take you to her TPT store.

#2

I plan on continuing my poetry rotations that I blogged about on last weeks Peek at the Week. But my focus this week is on Alliteration and Hyperboles. The poems I will be teaching with are called The Base Stealer by Robert Francis and I Ate a Spicy Pepper by Unknown Author. 

#3 

If you haven't read any of my posts before you probably don't know, but I'm getting my masters in Reading Education at Appalachian State University! Currently I am taking a poetry class as an elective and I have learned some fun teaching activities that I can take back to the classroom. One that I've been dying to try out is using scripted poetry. It's basically the same as a reader's theater but you use poetry instead and usually there are only a few speakers. The students are going to read it and answer the same questions above about the poem. I want to make sure the get the general gist of the poem. Then they are going to re-read it several times. Eventually they will add gestures, lots of expression, and have a performance. If time allows, I'd like  them to find pictures to go along with the poem, background music that fits the mood, and make an Animoto with their poem. But with it being so close to the end of the year who knows if we will get to that. (Maybe an after the EOGs plan) Below is an example of one of the poems I scripted today! It's very easy to do and I believe it is going to be a real hit with my kids!

Keep A Poem In Your Pocket


By Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Person 1: Keep a poem in your pocket


Person 2: And a picture in your head


Person 3: And you'll never feel lonely


Person 1, 2, 3: At night when you're in bed.

Person 1: The little poem will sing to you


Person 2: The little picture brings to you


Person 3: A dozen dreams to dance to you


Person 1, 2, 3: At night when you're in bed.

Person 1, 2, 3: So - -


Person 1: Keep a picture in your pocket


Person 2: And a poem in your head


Person 3: And you'll never feel lonely


Person 1, 2, 3: At night when you're in bed.

#4

I started a text talk with Wonder last week using the first 5 chapters and plan on finishing up the vocabulary portion this week! Text Talk's are typically used with K-2 to build vocabulary and comprehension but my teaching partner and I decided that if we did it with a 5th grade level book we could make it work. The kids absolutely love Wonder and are dying to read more.  The vocabulary portion includes a yes/no example game, word associations, what's the word, and which word works best. If you haven't used a text talk in the lower grades I highly suggest it! :) 

Thanks for stopping by this week!

~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!!