Tag: 1:1 Reader’s Workshop

#ReadingThoughts

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Why yes, I am starting to use hashtags in my reading instruction!

The idea came to mind when a friend of mine, who is also a 5th grade educator, posted a story to his blog about making videos more interactive with a back channel. The one thing that stood out to me was the use/creation of hashtags after the students responded to videos to contribute to discussion. Check his sit out at Teachers Use Tech

After some thought on one of my commutes to school, I thought that idea would be perfect to use in my reading workshop. My students were having a hard time recording their thoughts on post-its, they just didn’t see the meaning to it and it was hard for them to relate to.

So, last Monday, I decided to introduce the idea of using hashtags to record their thinking as they were reading. We practice with me modeling and then having discussions based on our read aloud, Tiger Rising. NOW, it is really starting to click for them! It really has helped our discussions on books and those who wouldn’t normally participate, are starting to contribute. They are even bringing them up in conferencing discussion, just like I was hoping they would.

See the example below from one of my students. I’m really hoping this will be a huge help as we begin blogging.

Digital Catch-Up

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A lot of things going on this week in our classroom, almost too much to absorb sometimes, but the great feedback from our parent followers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook keep us motivated.

Let’s rewind and take it back to earlier this week….

Monday was filled with a very inspiring institute day. I sat in on a great blog session from a colleague at our local Middle School, who inspired me to get my kids blogging again! Operation blogger is on the mends in 5T this week!

Besides attending, I also got to present myself. If you haven’t checked out Aurasma, I highly encourage you to do so. It is a great way to turn what used to be the new and exciting idea of QR codes to the next level. My kids really love augmented reality and I encourage you to try it. View my slide show below that I used for our institute day. It will easily walk you through step-by-step.

Forwarding to the middle of this week, Nearpod has been an app that I have been experimenting with in the classroom. I’ve been implementing it during math to review our flipped assignments. So far, the feedback has been amazing from the students and they really enjoy using it. 
If you aren’t familiar with it, Nearpod can be used on computers or on the iPad. It is a way to mirror presentations to multiple devices. The instructor can create the presentation in advance, similar to a google presentation, and then publish and share a live code with the students. Students can view the slides and answer live questions using different formats of activities. You can even pull a report to see how students answered for an assessment review. 
After the response I had in math, I contemplated using it in reading. I figured, what the hey, might as well give it a shot. So, on Wednesday, I experimented with using Nearpod to guide my minilesson for Reading Workshop. The idea was to give my students the text and visuals to follow along with me, since many of our population needs ESL strategies. However, let’s be honest, those strategies are good for any students. 
Using the app, we analyzed a You-Tube video and did some shared reading from our current text. I encourage you to take a look at the website. Any feedback on how you use it in the classroom would be greatly appreciated! 
We also had a bit of fun experimenting more with our iPads during guided reading to focus on inferencing! 
1:1 Guided Reading photo BemxDoBCMAABaRC_zps8bde74d0.jpg Nearpod photo Bems4OVCAAEQzxU_zpsc9f67588.jpg  

That’s Genius!

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Nearly every educator who loves teaching with technology has heard of the two famous words “Passion Time” or “Genius Hour” at some point trailing its way through Twitter.

A colleague of mine introduced me to the topic from a conference he attended. It automatically intrigued me and I couldn’t stop reading about it. I was referred to the website of Paul Solarz. If you haven’t had a chance to meet him or follow his blog/website or Twitter handle, I highly encourage you to do so! (He also has some great information on Mystery Skyping) Mr. Solarz’ Website

I had the privilege of being invited to observe Mr. Solarz’ students in action, thanks to a colleague of mine, and I am so happy I took him up on his offer. I was blown away by what I saw!

I think many times we get caught up in education with making sure we follow workshops or curriculums that we forget about the students, even though we are trying to help them. One of the great things about common core, is that you can still hit various informational reading/writing standards by allowing the students to explore their own interest.

Passion time is just that, a passion….I couldn’t have been more excited to introduce this to my students.

In our writing workshop, we are currently working on informational pieces. I thought this couldn’t have been a more perfect time to introduce the idea to them. What better way to strengthen their research writing, but by allowing them to research something they are truly passionate about. Eventually down the road, our passion time will turn into Genius Hour. Right now it works out perfectly because of our unit of study, but in the future students will have that “hour” of time dedicated to them a week where they can purely research the essential questions that intrigue their brain.

Mr. Solarz explains the process very clearly on his website above. I think the important thing is to modify the idea to however you can fit it into your plans and routine.

My first general steps….
1. Have the students brainstorm questions that they have about their interests. (I showed many examples of what Mr. Solarz’ students had completed over the year)
2. Narrow those questions down to their top 3. Conference with students to construct an essential question.
3. Since it was writers workshop, we began with an on demand writing piece. You could just dive into their prior knowledge with a chart.
*4. This is where we are right now…I wanted a platform where my students could share their ideas, almost like an electronic portfolio. So, after break, each student began constructing their own google site.

I’m excited to take you along on our journey as well! I look forward to hearing any advice or feedback that you may have from experience too.

Gossiping About Books

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One challenge for myself, and I believe any teacher who is just beginning Reader’s Workshop in a 1:1 classroom, is learning how to integrate the technology into the new curriculum.

My students have been working extremely hard to identify character traits, sometimes to get ELL learners to describe a character can be quite the challenge. We did some fun activities last week where students pretended to be the main characters from our read aloud and then we stuck post-it notes to them to describe the character. This was by far more entertaining than sticking the post-its onto a wall or chart paper. ha ha

The students expanded on this trait activity by doing a comparison of themselves to a main character in their book. Students mapped out their traits with a web and then compiled their list into a wordle website so any traits that they had in common would eventually pop out larger than the other words. 
I have a habit of constantly changing my plans. I’ll be on my drive into school when all of a sudden, a new idea will hit me. In our first session, in the 2nd book of Lucy Calkins’ Reading Workshop, Lucy introduces her mini lesson with the conversations that are heard in the hallway and how students should talk about books just as they talk with their friends before or after school. So, we decided to turn “gossip” into a positive thing in 5th grade so we can “gossip” about our books as we construct our theories. I found a great FREE app in the App Store called Comic Maker. I had the students flag, or post-it, their gossip/reactions as they were reading and in turn the students are creating comics to illustrate their gossip. They were excited to begin and I look forward to reading them!

MyON Reader

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This year our school is piloting a MyON reading program that has an app even for the iPad! Similar to Accelerated Reader, students can complete a quiz after they have finished a book.

The great thing that my students like about this program, is that they have a whole digital library at their fingertips with a wide variety of genres! Students take a benchmark test and interest survey when they begin the program, it then recommends books for them based on their lexile and interests. Today, I observed a student reading a graphic novel about Zombies explaining Force and Motion! This was something that really grabbed his attention.

For teachers, it even allows you to pull reports where you can easily identify the improvements your students are making or if they are choosing to read books that are vacation (below their level) or future (too advanced for now).

Yes, this can even be incorporated into the Reading Workshop! Students can use digital post-its if you want them to multitask between applications or you can even have them keep a log in their reading life notebooks. As we are just being introduced to reader’s workshop this year, I prefer my students to jot their notes down via notebook until they can properly express their thinking.

Parents…. ask your students what they are reading…have a great discussion!

Thanks to Ms. G, a 4th grade teacher, who shared her poster where I was able to grab inspiration from.

MyON