Reading Along Side Students

A colleague and mentor of mine recommended tonight's post.  I am grateful for her support and suggestions along the way as I grow as a teacher in many ways, but particularly language arts this year.  

A few weeks ago I mentioned my desire to focus on modeling more intentionally and frequently for my students.  The last few weeks, I have done this in many ways, but particularly in the world of at home reading.  Some students are not fortunate to have family members modeling adult reading for them.  I decided that I could do this through keeping a reading log posted in the front of my classroom each night.  I come in every morning and record the previous night's reading for my kiddos to "see" my reading life outside of the school walls.  

After a week of doing this, my students started making comments about how they could beat my reading minutes in a week.  I took them up on the challenge.  If they beat my minutes come Monday morning, they would get a little extra treat (homework pass, classroom money, candy, pick from the prize bin, popcorn pass, etc.).  The first week, I had one student beat my minutes.  The second week...

I had 5!  Not to mention that these five students went above and beyond racking up 1800, 3130, 1970, 910, 480 minutes!  Many students in my class today said that they were setting a goal to beat my minutes for next week.  I can't wait to see them all achive that goal!

My excitement around this extends beyond just the number of minutes being read by my students, but the conversations they are having around the many books they are reading.  They are sharing about their books more because they are reading books more!  One of my reading groups hijacked my plans and had a book talk about what they were all reading independently.  I enjoyed this reading group last week where I could set my plans aside, and observe the support, encouragement, and excitement they were providing one another.  I even have one kiddo that is on me to finish my current read ("A Snicker of Magic"  by Natalie Lloyd) because she can't wait to read it herself.  They are pushing one another in their own reading as well as pushing me to get books completed faster!  

Book Auctions/Introductions

The value and excitement that a new book brings to a classroom is incredibly addictive!  Today, I introduced about six or seven new books that I recently purchased for our classroom library.  You would have thought that it was Christmas morning in our room... again.  It was even all the chat on our class Twitter account today, winning our official class post for the day.

All this excitement makes me so excited to share the new books I bought today from our school book fair with them (I planned on 4 books, walked away with about 10 instead).

The thing that my kids enjoy about days when we have new books for the library, is that we "auction" them off for students to be the first to read them.  After I introduce all of the books to the class.  I ask who is interested in a particular book.  If more than one student can't wait to read the book, we "auction" it off by picking a number between 1-10.  If there majority of the class can't wait, we go to the sticks and the first person drawn who wants to read the book, gets it!  They LOVE this and can't wait for their peers to finish the new books if they are waiting.  

It warms my heart to see their excitement about new books in our classroom.  They can't wait to hear about the new books when they see a pile on my desk!  

All evening I have been thinking about how to rejuvenate some of this same excitement for current books in our classroom library.  After all, I can't purchase new books every week (even though I so desperately want too)!  I am thinking that I will have a time of book reviews next year, either each week or every other week.  This would be a time when I can share a few books from our library with students (and some weeks this would be a pile of new books).  I am thinking that I can even have my students share books they have been reading from our classroom library as the year progresses.  Not a novel idea, but certainly the next routine and adventure I am looking forward to starting and tackling the remainder of this year and next year!

How do you go about introducing new books and old friends to your students during the school year?

The Challenges of When to Model for Learning

One thing that I am constantly reminded of in my teaching is the importance of modeling, modeling, modeling for my students.  I have found that it is easy to forget and so easy to assume that my students will get the idea and we can move on.  After all they are in fifth grade!  But on the other hand, they are only ten and eleven years old... still kids at heart and mind (and should be).

Why am I finding myself thinking this?  I feel that it is the large amount of content that I feel pressured to cover in a given year.  Having now taught in my own classroom for almost two years, I am amazed at how 180 school days does not seem like enough to get through the pages of standards (which seems so doable before the kids show up at the start of the school year).  That leaves me, at times in a rush, thinking that my kids will get the idea and we can continue on to something more challenging.

When I go to assess their learning progress, I am reminded of how I may not have modeled or modeled enough for them to be successful and feel successful.  I then have to take a step back and model the expectation and learning for my students.  I am finding that some classes need modeling in some areas, but not as much in other areas.  How challenging it is to determine what each class needs from year to year!  There truely isn't a "cookie cutter" school year for a teacher!

One thing that I have recenctly realized is that my current class has trouble with their at home reading.  I don't think they have the motivation on their own, an at home model, or perhapes a real world example of how important reading is in their future adult worlds.  I have decided that I am going to complete a reading log, along with my students, to track my at home reading this week.  I am hopeful that by having this log posted in the front of my room all week, my kids will begin to see the value of reading and how/why adults read daily.

What are some ways you are reminded to model for your students during the school year?

Celebrating Individual Strengths

I had the pleasure of spending all day Saturday listening to and learning from Ruth Ayres (read her blog here: www.ruthayreswrites.com).  I attended a session where she talked about celebrating in the world of writing.  This year, I have really worked hard to celebrate my student's writing, intentionally, not only at the end (product), but also in the process.  On Saturday, Ruth gave us more ideas for how to celebrate our kids work.  I left this professional development session with my head spinning and ideas flowing!

This is a time of year that I remember being more challenging last year as my fifth grade students were excited and focused on their big changes with middle school on the horizon.  This class is showing no different signs of excitement and anticipation.  That being said, their focus, thoughtfulness, and kindness towards one another has not been at their best for a few weeks now.  On Saturday, we were asked to select one student to record all the things I could celebrate about them over a few short minutes of writing.  What I ended up with was a list of five students, lots to celebrate, not enough time to celebrate/write more, and an idea that has turned my student's classroom community around quickly!

I made the decision on Sunday to write each of my students a brief, two sentence note letting them know what I celebrate about them, individually, as a part of our classroom community.  No two students had anything similar on their notes.  Take a look at some of my comments below.

The response I got, blew me away!  I stood in the hallway greeting my students and watched their reactions as they found their personalized notes.  They looked around the room with smiles and confusion on their faces.  They walked around sharing one another's notes and reading eachother's note.  They talked to one another.  They came to me and told me how they had no idea I had noticed.  They wanted to share more because they were so happy to hear I noticed their behaviors and choices in the classroom.  I even walked to my desk to find notes from my students that left me smiling ear to ear.  

The results I got have turned a frustrating, at times, day into a pleasent day(s).  We have had fun as a classroom community and we have started listening to one another again.  My kids needed to know their value in our classroom and know that they were noticed for their individual strengths.  I will certainly do this again... only sooner!