Blog Name Change

Hello All,

I hope this doesn't cause too much confusion but I am changing my blog name. It was My 2nd Grade Smarties but ..... I'm no longer a 2nd grade teacher. At least as of Friday, I am now a first grade teacher. I am adjusting to the idea. So, I decided to just change my name to something that would work for whatever grade I am in.  I LOVE Black and White Polka Dots.  I have been "accused" of black and white thinking...you know it's all this or all that but no gray! Is that considered inflexible? LOL So, anyway, I digress. I made a punny. (A funny pun!) It's not all Black and White .... Polka Dots. It amuses me....sorry if it's not your type of humor.

I believe it's fitting to my teaching career journey. Nothing is ever black and white and there all kinds of shades of gray (or grey which is right?). So for now we're going for it.  I am going to try and remember how to change my blog background. I made my own out of scrapbooking materials I made for my scrapbooking blog.  But my friend Lisa is so much better at it. I might see if I can BEG her to do it....be looking out for those polka dots.  I hope I can let my readers (all 3 of you) know that I have moved my stuff! :)

I hope you'll continue to read my blog....that is if you can find. it.

I'll be posting soon on the final two chapters of the Book Study soon! :)  It has been a great book!

TTFN (TA TA FOR NOW .... in case you didn't know!)

Blessings,

Dina

Chapter 6 Phonemic Awareness

Hello All,

I'm trying to get caught up here. So I'm posting about Chapter 6 Phonemic Awareness  now. This was another great chapter.  The lessons of course are more geared toward KK and 1st grade as you hope by 2nd grade that many of these skills are already developed or at least on their way. However, as we all know as teachers, this is not always the case. So, it's important information for 2nd grade teachers also.

What is Phonemic Awareness?  We often confuse and use phonemes and phonics interchangeably but they are different concepts.  They are both developmental and foundational to helping children learn to read. "Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that refers to an understanding of spoken words, and includes the awareness of words, syllables, rhymes, and individual sounds." Whereas a phoneme is the smallest unit of speech a word can be divided into.  Once a student has mastered rhyming they are able to then manipulate words down to the phoneme. In this description it appears that phonics mastery leads to phonemic awareness.  What do you think?

Given that rhyming is indicative of readiness for phonemic awareness she spends a section of the chapter on stages of rhyming.  There's a chart and an example of a folder in the book to be used to see where your students are in regards to rhyming.

Heidi has made up a sheet to be used in a binder and it's on her blog here:  Stages of Rhyming

She points out that students need to learn about these:

• phonological awareness, including listening, words and sentences, awareness of syllable, and playing with onset and rime (word families).
• concepts about print (read left to right; top to bottom, spaces between words, print has a message)
• letter names, shapes, sounds, and formation

Phonemic awareness is about the sounds. Phonemic awareness activities may include:

• sound matching
• sound isolation (initial, then final, then medial sounds)
• sound blending
• sound segmenting
• sound addition, deletion, substitution

Phonemic awareness activities should be playful and engaging not drills.  They should begin only with sounds with no letters. Overtime, print can be added to phonemic awareness activities.

Key point in this chapter to me is that ***Phonemic Awareness is the most potent predictor of success in learning to read (Stanovich 1986, 1994).  That's crucial to understand. So, if you have struggling readers in second grade, clearly, it's important to understand where they may be gaps in phonological and/or phonemic awareness. 

There's a 2 page spread on possible lesson topics and activities so you definitely will want to check those out (pages 94-95).  Possible phonological focuses include: rhyming, alliteration, sentence segmenting, syllable blending and segmenting. Possible phonemic awareness focuses could include:  onset-rime segmenting and blending, sound matching, counting phonemes in a word, blending phonemes to make a word, isolating beginning phoneme in a word, isolating the final phoneme in a word, isolating the medial phoneme in a word, segmenting phonemes in a word, and substituting one phoneme for another.

Much of your phonics and phonemic instruction can take place in whole group about 20 minutes 3 to 4 times a week.  Those that struggle with an aspect could benefit from small group help.  Small group is probably more helpful than one-on-one. She has a folder for the stages of Phonological Awareness. I made one  up that you could either put side by side in a binder or print out and glue in a folder. Click the picture. It actually has some clipart on it but I added it after the screen shot.  

She makes the point to state not to move on to phonemic awareness until children understand how to rhyme, segment sentences into words, and clap their names by syllables, and are beginning to be able to separate onsets from rimes. (Diller,  p. 96)  

Phonic and Phonemic instruction should be explicit. Therefore, like her other chapters, she gives you a chart about Prompts for Phonemic Awareness. Yes, I typed it up for you!

Click the preview!

The idea is to build "your students' sound base, one block at at time -- from words, to syllables, to onset and rime, to individual phonemes." (p. 112).

Another great chapter with many lesson plans for both phonological awarenes and phonemic awareness.  I have typed up the lesson plans. They are here but no preview!  

Phonological Awareness Lesson Plan     Phonemic Awareness Lesson Plan

I hope you have enjoyed the information in this post and the shares.  Still loving the book and all the great information!

I was surfing pinterest and came upon this FREEBIE! She has an assessment for all of the phonological awareness areas. If you don't have something you already use in your school/district this would be GREAT!! And did you read it's free???

Assessment FREEBIE

Thanks,

Dina

Classroom Decor Freebie

Hello All,

I made these for my own classroom. I thought maybe some of you would enjoy them as well.  I started off by making some word wall letters to match my black and white polka dot themes.  I decided to add numbers for centers, cubbies, etc.... you can use them for many things. Then I added a title for Math Buddies.  Since you might have something else you can use them for I added two blank titles. You could use them for name plates or labels or whatever you see fit.  I hope you like these.  Please do give me feedback. At some point I might break down and get a TPT store. That's why I am starting here on my blog to see if what I am making is even desired or worth someone paying a $1 or $2 for?  So, please do leave me feedback!  I appreciate you checking out my blog.

Click on the preview to download the file:

I hope you like this and can use it. I laminated my word wall letters with my Scotch laminator. The cutting out was super easy with the lines on there. They are all "near" perfect size and match each other! :)

Enjoy!

Dina

Chapter 5 Fluency

Hello All,

I'm a little behind on posting about the Summer Book Study (#SBS14) with Heidi over at Mrs. Samuelson's Swamp Frogs.  In case you are just happening upon this then we are reading Debbie Diller's Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All.  It's a great book and if you are looking for a way to step up your Reading Small Groups it's a must read.Chapter 5 is all about Fluency.
There's a lot of great information in the book. Let's look at some highlights.

First, it's important to understand that "Fluency includes decoding accurately, reading rate, expression, intonation, phrasing, pacing and pausing."  So often we think about fluency as only the reading rate. But it is so much more than that.  Reading rate is only one small part of this.

How do you know when a child is reading fluently? Well for a few measures they need to be able to read text at 95% accuracy or above.  They must also be able to read with automaticity. Read with little effort to decode (which goes hand in hand with the reading accurately).  This can be measured by wpm. By the end of second grade students should be reading 90 words per minute. Hopefully they will be coming in around 50/60 words from 1st grade and then you have the school year to get up to 90.  You could think about it like 10 words per minute per quarter. Obviously, they will need to be practicing A LOT to increase this way. Lastly, students need do be reading with expression. You can check out this by listening to students read orally.  You can use a rubric for this. Debbie had one in her book. Yes, I typed it up and have it for your here to use if you would like.  Fluency Score Rubric  Click the link and you'll get it in a google doc. The graphic is from www.mycutegraphics.com  (Be sure to support her. She is so kind to let teachers use free clipart because she appreciates teachers!!)

Some other important quotes from this chapter --
"Fluency is a bridge between phonics and comprehension."  This is important because if they cannot decode they use up too much brainpower trying to read the word that they have no energy left for comprehension. Which as we know is the goal of reading.  Remember no comprehension = no reading. That's also why fluency is so important. When children read fluently, they will comprehend! Practice is imperative to fluency and then to comprehension!

Given all of these facets of fluency which leads to our goal of reading -- comprehension what do you focus on?  Here are her suggestions for Focus for Lessons.

• Decoding words effortlessly and automatically
• High-frequency word work
• Reading punctuation
• Reading in phrases
• Reading with intonation
• Reading dialogue
• Regulating the speed of reading

Here are some factors for choosing materials for fluency work:

• Choose books at students' easy reading level -- at least 95% accuracy.
• Larger print appears easier to read than small print and less intimidating for struggling readers
• find books on topics that interest the students
• familiar stories with repetitive phrases
• gradually reduce support and present text that is a little more challenging as you progress

As is the format for the other chapters, there are sample lessons for High Frequency Words, Phrasing, Reading Dialogue,  and Adjusting Rate. 

Here is a blank lesson plan  Small Group Fluency Lesson Plan

I love also how she has information to help you link these small group lessons to Whole Group and Work Stations.

She had another chart about Prompts to say based on what the child is having trouble with.  So, I want this handy for my groups and so I have typed up here to share with you.  Prompts for Fluency

One thing that came to mind about teaching to read the punctuation was a video I saw, I think at Responsive Classroom training. The teacher had taught them to make a signal/sound for each type of punctuation mark to emphasize what is done when reading based on the punctuation type.  I googled and couldn't find anything about it so it must be just this teachers doing.  I did find this article online that said to use percussion for the punctuation during shared reading.  This is the same idea. The other was just more active and interesting.  I will look for the video and see if I can find it.  Here's a link to the article with some other ideas  you might find interesting as well.  Percussion for punctuation

Well, here's my shares. I will get to Chapter 6 later this week.  I think I'm behind a week now....but don't worry I'll catch up.  I hope you are liking our Book Study. It's a great book. I highly recommend you purchasing it. There are many sample lesson plans you could use to get started and many resources from the book.  Please leave comments. I like hearing your comments and if you have any questions or comments about the shares please let me know.

Have a great weekend,

Dina

Teaching your students to ask questions

Hello All,

In the last post about Chapters 3 and 4 we mentioned thick and thin questions. I found a great resource for teaching children questions. This website has book suggestions and then multiple mini lessons/activities for teaching them how to ask questions.  I haven't gone into it deep but it REALLY looks great I just wanted to share it:

Questioning Resource  Check it out by following this link!

I made some posters you can use in your classroom. There are 2 introductory slides you could use to teach from as well. Nothing spectacular but hope they are useful.  We must be deliberate about teaching them to think as they read not just decode the words but really dig in deep. Helping them understand asking thick questions will help them to do this.

Thick and Thin Questions

Sure hope you like these. Please do leave comments. I enjoy your feedback.

#SBS14 Chapters 3 and 4

Hello All,

Sorry I am a little behind on posting about the Book Study on the Book, Making the Most of Small Group Instruction: Differentiation for All by Debbie Diller. I'm in Illinois as my Mom was supposed to have surgery. They just postponed it until next Monday, July 7, 2014.

So, let's get started. I have to say that I am really enjoying this book. Chapter 3 was about Grouping. This is very important.  Key points about forming your small groups:

• Use anecdotal notes to help create groups
• Use formal and informal assessments combined with anecdotal notes and observation 
• Listen to students read in formal and informal settings

I am really interested in what we will use for testing and progress monitoring next year with the new Journeys reading series.  I really want to track this so I know how my students are progressing and try to find ways to fill in any gaps they may have.

Guidelines for Managing Formal Testing

• Wait a few weeks if possible
• Do the "easy" testing first -- starts with students you think will do well may make it go a little faster
• Engage students in fun activities that require little supervision while you test the other students
• Write about or draw their favorite things to do, their family, etc.
• Let them play with play dough on individual mats -- spell their names and other words.
• Give them stencils or patterns to make their own creation
• Give them a "back to school" packet with easys fun-to-do review sheets
• Read books independently or with a buddy (use guest readers such a parents or grandparents)

The next section was Managing Anecdotal notes. There are so many options here. I am going to try the notecards suggestion. I bought colored 4 x 6 notecards. I am going to put them out in front of each student like she suggestions. Then as I listen to each student read I will be able to jot down quick notes and they will be handy right there.  I bought a file box to keep them in my small group teaching area.

I really like her idea for a "flexible flexible groups folder" I really plan to use that with the sticky notes and color coded of course so they are easy to move around and switch groups easily, hence the flexible flexible connotation. 

There's so much important information in this chapter.  She also talks about how many groups and how long you should meet with each group.  The suggestion is 2 groups a day (3 if you can work it in). Each group need only be about 20 minutes. If you're doing kindergarten groups they could be only 15 minutes. She suggests you meet with your students who struggle most every day. Every day may actually be only 4 days as typically Fridays are for assessment. Then you need to gage how many days you need to meet with the other groups.  To keep track of lessons she suggests using a small-group lesson-planning notebook which was described in Chapter 2. I definitely suggest this and plan to do this as well.

Chapter 4 -- Comprehension

Another Chapter with some great information. Comprehension is understanding. As we all know sometimes kids can decode better than some but they lack understanding. They don't comprehend. But what is reading without comprehension? So, it is imperative that we help our students learn skills and strategies that will help them comprehend because really without comprehension you have no purpose for reading. Everyone needs to meet in small groups to learn comprehension. If they are comprehending they need to learn how to go deeper.

What's great about this Chapter is all the sample lessons for many areas of comprehension. She gives great tips about choosing materials. If you can choose books based on student's interests and backgrounds it helps comprehension.  Which would you rather read a book about something you're interested in or a manual for how to operate a toaster? She suggests using both fiction and nonfiction.

There are lessons about:

• Text Structure
• Monitoring for Comprehension
• Schema/Characters We Know
• Usisng Graphic Organizers
• Asking Questions
• Visualizing

One thing that seems really helpful is this chart she has for Prompts for Comprehension. If a student gets stuck you could have a response to help them think rather than giving answers. I liked this chart and wanted to have it readily available so I made one to have handy at my table and when I am lesson planning.

 

Okay, I give, I can't get that picture to link for me so here's the link to get this document.

Comprehension Prompts

I also liked the lesson plan but because it has no disk with it you would have to hand-write them. I try to avoid that at all costs.  So, I typed it up.  All rights go to Debbie Diller. Please do not remove that from the lesson plan.

Here is a link to the typed up lesson plan:

Small Group Lesson Plan

I also liked the section on questions for deeper understanding.  She mentions thick and thin questions. I have used this before.  Here's a link to Pinterest on this very subject!

Thick and Thin Questions

I'm going to do more research. Maybe I'll have a freebie for you on this at some point.

I have been so wordy and I am not even sure I did these chapters justice. I am excited to put all of these things into practice this new school year.  

What are things you doing to help your students comprehend? What do you do to manage small groups and forming them?  How do you keep records?  I would love to hear your comments.

Please share!

Thanks,

Dina

What in the World is SRSD?

Hello All,

I've been attending a Literacy and Math Common Core Training this week. I have really enjoyed it. The Writing Strategy we are learning about this week is called Self-Regulated Strategy Development. I know the first thing you say is HUH? :)  It is shortened to SRSD. It is well researched and gains are well documented. Tennessee had pretty good writing scores when they were doing (wait for it) decontextualized narrative prompts. Say what? You know those prompts, You wake up in the morning and you are flying on a magic carpet. Where did it come from and where will you go?  Totally out of left field with no context (hence decontextualized). When the prompts moved to being information text based responses writing scores in Tennessee went down. So, the State implemented this Common Core Training this summer on Writing and specifically on the SRSD.

I have actually enjoyed the training. The Coach was great and enthusiastic and "real". You know what I mean, right?

There's a process for it which is important. The Development part of it that are scaffolding them from the very beginning. You start with pre-assessment and then walk them through the mnemonic Pow TIDE by using an exemplar writing. You take apart the exemplar and apply it to the Graphic Organizer.  Now, there are some more out there on the web that you can google to find however, I have created my own "cuties" to share with you.  One thing you do is color code the exemplar. They used red, green, and blue in the training. You will see on my graphic organizer I used yellow, pink, and blue because I plan to use highlighters that will be easily accessible for them. These colors coordinate with the highlighters hence the yellow, pink and blue. You can choose whatever colors you want.

POW stands for Pull Apart the Prompt (What is it asking me to do?) Organize my Notes (use the graphic organizer) Write Some More (develop your essay/writing).

TIDE stands for Topic Sentence, Important Detail (you want 3 ideally) and Ending.  Sounds really simple but it works. The beauty is that it's used K-12. You add more as you get to higher grades for instance 3rd grade adds LL. They stand for Language and Links. Language meaning word choice and Links are using transition words. Now, this is all according to my understanding. Someone else may have a totally different take on all of this.

Eventually, you want your kiddos to create their own graphic organizers. Then when they are on a test that you can't use one they'll be able to create it on their own. It's a good system and I have totally bought into it. If you teach in Tennessee and haven't attended this training yet check it out.  The other half of the training was on math. I'll post about it later! :)

Here's the "cutie". Hope you enjoy. I would love to hear your comments if you'd be so kind as to leave me some!

Here's the preview. I know there is a way to link the preview to open the google document but I can't seem to find the directions to do it right. I know how to link a picture to a web address but can't get this to work right. I wish you could see the whole thing big but this is all I know how to do right now. Maybe someone will see this and have mercy on me and show me how to do it right! Link is below the preview.



POW TIDE Cutie