Thanks to those who commented to enter some great gift certificates from Banners On the Cheap! Here are the winners….. (Check your email, to claim your prize!) 
Elizabeth- enjoy your car magnet!
Karen Mueller- have fun creating your banner!
Megan- Congrats on winning the canvas print- enjoy your first class!
I am always looking for cheap ways to get signs, banners, and prints made, whether for home or school.
I recently came across a website- Banners on the Cheap and was REALLY impressed by their prices for custom banners. I decided to try it out and I created a poster for my classroom that I put above my door.
I realized I had sent a low quality image to them, so I was able to get the banner I wanted. * The winner must be a US resident with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii due to shipping costs.
Looking for an awesome multi-media nonfiction article that will engage your students in ways that they haven’t been engaged before?
Then, you must check out this article! The New York Times has really outdone itself with the info graphics that are included in this amazing article about an avalanche in Washington state last February. The text tells the story of a group of skiers that ended up caught in an avalanche. As you read the text, there are video clips that you can watch. They range from interviews from survivors, actual footage of some of the skiers looking for their friends in the aftermath, and short clips from avalanche predictors. There are also slide shows throughout that students can click on, actual 911 sound clips, and amazing pictures and info graphics that show exactly what happened, where.
I wasn’t sure how to present this lesson, since I hadn’t come across anything like it. I decide to summarize the start of the article for my kids to get them excited and interested. I then scrolled through the article and tabs and showed them some video clips and sound clips to pique their interest. The article is broken down into different sections as the story progresses. Each section has its own tab at the top. Each section is a great example of a lead, and how to draw a reader in. I read the start of each section so they knew what kind of information they could find in that section.
I then told them that they could look and read through this article in any way that they want to. They could start at the beginning, read just the sections they wanted to, or just watch the videos and listen to the sound clips. I was very curious to see how they would engage in this type of article, and what they thought about it.
As they were checking out the article , there was silence in the room. Everyone was really into reading the article, watching the clips and they loved the freedom to explore as they wanted to (after all, wouldn’t you want to read an article like this, the way that interests you, instead of having a bunch of questions to answer or things you had to read?!) . When they were done, I had them fill out an exit ticket listing three things they learned, thought was cool, or how they liked this new type of reading experience.
What I learned was that, yes, many students went to watch the videos, but they ended up reading a ton of text around it, as they wanted to know more. Many of my students bookmarked this site on their phones and tablets so that they could go back and check out some more things that we didn’t have time for.
And- since the Common Core has been all the talk lately and we also used this article to – Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums ( e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.
Perfect lesson for a cold, snowy day.
Tomorrow I will begin reading aloud to my 8th graders the book, Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
If you haven’t read this book, or even heard all the buzz about it- you’re missing out! Check out this book trailer. You also may want to read the summary and reviews. This is also a strong contender for the Newberry (which will be announced tomorrow!)
Each chapter in the story has a different narrator. At the start of each chapter, there is a picture of the character and his/her name. To help keep my student’s interest, I am planning on making a copy of the first page of the chapter and put it on the Elmo as I read. The story also has lots of references to songs, which I plan to play for my students. The teacher in the book also has the students write precepts down. I plan to have my students keep a list of precepts in the book. I may even have them try to find or write their own after we have read the book.
While searching around for other ideas that I may want to do with this book, I came across this AMAZING website. This teacher has already broken down all of the pop culture references that students may not know, and has images that we can share with our students- making this a little more of a multimedia type read aloud. If you plan to read this books aloud to your students, you must check out this website. You also need to check out the author’s page for the background of how this story came about.
If you have read this as a read aloud, let me know if you have any ideas to share. So many possibilities…
Non-fiction is something I really want to focus on this year. I want to increase my non-fiction selections in my classroom library and I want to read more nonfiction aloud.
One of the ways that I found to incorporate non-fiction into our classroom is at a website that I found. It is called Wonderoplis. It has what they call a wonder of the day. A question is posed and then there is a video that relates to the question, an article, wonder words that are in the article that students can look up and then a what’s next section that links to other places with more information.
Students can read the wonder of the day, or search by a category they are interested in. I am still throwing around ideas of how exactly I want to use this with my students. I will share my ideas when I have them finalized, if you get an idea of how to use this in your classroom, share it with us here!
I definitely think the website is worth checking out though!
Is anyone still reading this blog????
I have been absent form this blog for a while. Life has been a whirlwind the past few months as I welcomed my daughter into the world. I have plans to post regularly again and share my reading, writing and learning ideas. There have been some big changes in my school this upcoming year and I now have 80 glorious minutes to teach my 8th graders language arts! I am very excited about getting an extra 20 minutes every day, but I also know that I need to carefully think about how to use the time effectively and to keep my kids engaged.
I have done a very modified version of reading and writing workshop in the past and this year with the extra time, I hope to make my reading and writing workshop better.
I have ideas swirling around in my head, in notebooks, on scraps of paper and saved in my Iphone. I just need to gather them all together and I hope to post them on this blog to keep them all in one place, and to share with others who may find them helpful.
So.. hopefully you check back here soon to get new ideas and share your ideas with me! Better yet, follow me and this blog will pop up when a new post comes up!
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner She has also written Snowmen All Year.
Since we are in the middle of winter, I thought I would share a short create writing activity that you can do with your class.
I recently read to my students, Snowmen at Night. It is a neat book about snowmen that come alive at night and the adventures that they have. After the students llisten to the story, I give them a choice of various writing activities that they can do. I then have them share it with the class.
Here is an example of my activities:
|
TALK IT UP! Create a dialogue between snowmen/ snowwomen about how to keep their late night fun a secret from humans. |
EXTRA, EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! Create a news report. You can use your own winter ideas or use the article heading: |
WHAT IF? Take your snowman on a journey through the seasons! What if a snowman/ snowwoman was alive all year long? What would you have to teach him/ her about since he/ she is only used to cold weather? What activities would he/ she love to partake in? |
|
TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY! Create a debate between a snowman and the sun or winter and summer. Give reasons why they don’t like the other. |
SING A SONG! Create a song about snow, cold, snowman, winter or anything related. You can write it to the tune of a Christmas song, or take lyrics from a popular song and change them to fit your topic. |
CONVINCE ME! Have a snowman/ snowwoman persuade a kid to help keep him/ her alive and not let him/ her melt. |
|
MY LIFE! Write a story from the perspective of a snowman/ snowwoman. Tell us about the good and difficult times in the life of a snowman/snowwoman. |
POETRY TIME! Brainstorm words related to winter to create a poem. Some types of poems you may want to choose are: free verse, two voice, This is Just to Say, Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird, limerick etc.. |
YOUR CHOICE If you want to take a topic from a square and pick a different genre than listed you may. If you have another idea, see the teacher for approval. |
Read… Write… Talk
