Five for Friday!

TGIF folks...TGIF.  I don't know about you but I don't know how we're going to handle four more days of school next week before spring break!  Thanks again to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this linky party!

 

Lately, we have been struggling with getting our students to either use ONLY what's important in a summary or to even find what's important.  A colleague found this (not sure where) and it has helped.  I added the "Why" and "How" because they needed it.  It helped my students realize the important pieces of information, especially for the non-fiction text about the Seven New Wonders.  They were struggling with how to put all seven into one summary.  This helped them think of what was important for each New Wonder and create two sentences for each.  I'm excited!  I want them to get to the point where they just automatically think of these questions in their heads!

 

My first graders really enjoyed their /PH/ book! It's the perfect activity for Wednesday when we only see each other for about 10/15 minutes.  Next week, we will be doing our /CK/ book on a Wednesday too!  Click here to get your own!

 

Omg love this!  I've done it with my second and first graders and it turned out great!  My first graders need to finish theirs but I was so proud that they could fill it in by themselves!  I love that it really got them thinking.  Pick one up here.

Another peek at what my first graders wrapped up this week.  This is from my new consonant digraph packet that I haven't been able to post yet but I will soon!  It was good to see them really use their decoding skills to figure out those tricky words.  I was proud!

Wrapped up Bossy R with my third and second graders this week. They both really enjoyed playing this jeopardy game.  It was a great way to end the unit!

Well folks I hope you enjoy your weekend!  I'm off to put the final touches on my consonant digraph unit and hopefully post tonight!

My 3rd Grade Intervention Group

Here's a peek at a typical day with my 3rd graders.  Some of it will sound the same as my 4th graders.

3rd Grade
As with 4th grade, we start our 40 minutes off with our weekly story/practice sheet from Lakeshore's Daily Comprehension Common Core Practice Journal Gr. 3-4.  They read a story on Monday and complete a quick activity for each day of the week based on that story.  Some of the things they must do is vocabulary, fact/opinion, true/false, comprehension question, etc.  This group is struggling with this.  For example, today it took them 20 minutes to answer 5 True/False questions.  That was WITH me telling them there were 3 false and 2 true.  I still had students giving me the wrong number of each let alone give me the correct answers.  I've been trying very hard to show them how to go back in the text, look for key words from the question in the story, underline where they find it, etc.

  
This group has an "everything" focus.  They need phonics, fluency, comprehension, and summary work.  So much to do in such a short time!  Since they do have a specific need for phonics and fluency, I base what we will work on off of their Nonsense Word Assessment results.  This means, I don't always use Everyday Phonics Intervention Activities from Newmark Learning like I do with 4th.  If it has something that goes with what we're working on then great.  If not, I compile various worksheets/activities into a packet.  We will do a page a day after the above mentioned work.  Again, it's quick and just to reinforce what we are doing.

After both of those things, we move on to our story of the week(s) or more detailed phonics work.  As I mentioned before we use Fountas & Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention Kits (LLI).  I am using the red kit with this group as well.  I focus on DRA type questions and summaries as our comprehension work.  Once in awhile, we work on a Reading A-Z text.  We are doing that now.  It's called "What the Boys Found."

As for the extra phonics work, we have been focusing on the great (tooting my own horn) units I created!  The past few weeks, we have been spending time on "Bossy R" using my "R-Controlled Vowels 'Bossy R' Activities Packet."   They really respond to the activities in it!

And that's a peek at my 3rd graders!  Hopefully I can figure some strategies to get them to go back to the text for evidence!  Any thoughts?

My 4th Grade Intervention Group

Hi friends!  I haven't had a non Five for Friday post in awhile!  Despite my failed attempts to blog, I am working on a lot of fun things!  I want to give you a peek into some of the things that I do with my groups.  I see K-5 daily so I will be telling you about one group, each day, for the next few days.

4th Grade
 We start our quick 40 minutes off with our weekly story/practice sheet from Lakeshore's Daily Comprehension Common Core Practice Journal Gr. 3-4.  They read a story on Monday and complete a quick activity for each day of the week based on that story.  Some of the things they must do is vocabulary, fact/opinion, true/false, comprehension question, etc.

  
Then we do our weekly phonics lesson based on another great intervention book.  This one is Everyday Phonics Intervention Activities from Newmark Learning.  My group really has a comprehension focus, but I do notice that they still have some phonics areas that need addressing.  This is a great way to slip this in for reinforcement.  Since I don't have a particular focus like some of my other groups (for example; Bossy R, Magic E, Vowel Digraphs) I am simply following it by week.  We will even put some of the given words into our Word House.  I've picked up some fun multisyllable activities from TPT that I look forward to sneaking in.

After both of those things, we move on to our story of the week(s).  We use Fountas & Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention Kits (LLI).  We only own up to the red kit which they call the 3rd grade kit.  This kit goes up to DRA 40, so the texts work for all the students we service.  Right now, we really use the kit for the texts.  The phonics lessons in them don't go with the story nor do they usually address what our students need at the time of reading that story.  We also don't prefer the comprehension aspect either.  Our students are in our room based on AIMS Web testing and DRA scores.  We use the DRA rubrics for retell, summary, and questioning for our groups.  My 4th graders just finished up summarizing "Girl With a Vision" using the DRA 40 summary sheet and responding to similar interpretation and reflection questions.

My 4th graders work very hard on their summaries.  Our problem lately is wanting to say EVERYTHING in the summary.  We've been trying to focus on only what's important which is so hard for them!

Before we know it, our time is up and I file their work away in the next day's folder. Our LLI stories take a week.  Once in awhile, we break away and use a Reading A-Z text like we are currently doing now.  I use the text the same way I use the LLI text.  Reading A-Z texts tend to take all my groups a lot longer than an LLI text.  I find the text more challenging and has a lot more to it hence the amount of time we spend on it!  

NOT 4th GRADE RELATED
I completed all of my Short Vowel Decodable Text & Activities packets AND bundled them together!  I also bundled together the Consonant Digraph books.  Click HERE to pick up my Short Vowel Decodable Text & Activities bundle and HERE to pick up my Consonant Digraph Book Bundle.  Keep your eye out for a FANTASTIC consonant digraph unit I'm working on.  It's a combination of things that I do in my Short Vowel Decodable Text & Activities and with my Bossy R, Talkers, & Whiners packets.  You can thank stupid jury duty for me being able to plan out the unit!  Hey, I wasn't going to sit there for hours and do nothing! :)


Check back tomorrow for a peek into my 3rd grade group!