Literature Foundations: Ada Twist Scientist

This is a great story to start your science off for the year.  Students can be inspired with Ada and her passion for finding answers.  

Students go outside and make observations and ask themselves questions. 

Why do ants live together?

How are clouds made?

What are the bumps under the leaf?

Now let's find the answer!

Learn to research ideas in books, online or even interviews!

Literature Foundations was developed out of the need to incorporate the love of literature and teach fundamental skills at the same time.  I have coordinated these skills to the Common Core State Standards.

Share a fiction title with your students for 3 days along with a nonfiction close reading article. The reading portion of this program is set up to take 20-30 minutes a day.  This allows you to incorporate guided reading groups into your day.  Guided reading is where your students will get independent practice reading books at their level. 

The writing portion should be given additional time.  Aim to have 30-45 minutes of writing a day.

This lesson plan is full of great activities to use with your class.  You will utilize fiction and nonfiction while addressing comprehension skills along with writing and grammar.

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Literature Foundations: Interrupting Chicken

I just happened across this book and it's so cute!  Little Red Chicken is always interrupting his Papa when Papa's telling a story because he doesn't like the path the story is taking.

I'm going to read this with the class next week and discuss how frustrating it can be when we are interrupted. Hopefully it will inspire a bit of respect for listening.

We will also be working on collective nouns, beginning, middle and end, and writing fairy tales.  We are also going to read a close reading article on fairy tales.

I'm excited about this unit because I am working on having a small amount of time devoted to whole group reading and spend more time in guided reading.  These reading lessons will take 20-30 minutes each day.  I will be able to address fiction and nonfiction each week, read aloud to demonstrate fluency and dive deep into the nonfiction passage!  I'm hoping to continue this method throughout the year with a different book each week!

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A Pollution Solution and Earth Day Freebie

Earth Day is such a great way to inspire your class to show empathy and compassion.  They show their love in a most beautiful way!  They really want the world to be beautiful!

Inspire the class with the book, Earth Day from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler.

$3 at my TpT Store

Previous Posts about Earth Day

Day 1 on making shirts!

Day 2 on finishing shirts!

Earth Day Persuasion Posters

Earth Day Unit for $4

Do you Twitter?

I've been tweeting a bit more!

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Follow Me and I'll Follow You - I'm looking to follow more blogs!

Thanks for reading all this way!  Here's your Freebie!

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How to Own the New Literature Companion with a Lower Cost

Not sure why kids get so excited over St. Patrick's Day but they do!  They sure put a lot of faith in those little leprechauns! So let's use that excitement and inspire them with a Black Lagoon Adventure book and some Irish History on Luck!!

Click Here to purchase it through Paypal for 3 days until 3//10/17 

then it will go up to $5 on TpT.

Check out my previous St. Patty's posts for freebies!

             

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Ocean Animals and a large freebie!

This summer I had a blast teaching a section on Ocean Animals.  I called it Under the Sea.

We started with learning about the levels of the ocean and then learned about specific animals in each level.  The kids couldn't wait to see what animal was next.

For every animal I read a book, watched videos, read articles that I wrote about the animal and then made a craft.  The craft ideas were found online.

Includes 7 different animals: jellyfish, squid, octopus, puffer fish, sea turtle, clown fish and hermit crab.

Black and White or Colored Copies

 Pick up Hermit Crabs for free!

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Close Reading MLK Jr.

It's time to dig deep in reading the story Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington by Frances E. Ruffin.

Close Reading is broken up into 4 phases.  I prefer to do one phase a day but phases can be combined based on how deep you wish to go into the comprehension.  

The phases dig deeper in comprehension as you go on.  It starts with basic questions and goes to higher level thinking.

You should always choose complex text to work on close reading with.  That being said students may struggle with reading this independently.  Close Reading is not meant to be done as a center or homework either.  Each time it is read it is read out loud by the teacher.  I sometimes like to have the students listen to someone else reading it.  I especially like having them listening to a video on the first day.  Click on the video link above to have the book read to them.

When I do a close reading I like to have a printed copy for each student.  Of course that isn't possible so I type up the story. Above you can click on the story to get a copy of this book for you!

Have their own copy is important so they can add annotations while we read.

I also add all the questions I'm going to ask the students in a red font.  These questions get asked orally to the class.  Give the students time to look for the evidence and talk with their partners.  After they have been given this time you then call on someone to orally share the answer.  You want everyone a chance to look for the answers and you want everyone to hear the answers.  You also now have the opportunity to ask someone who wouldn't normally know the answers to share with the class.

The following poster shows the annotations that I'm using with my second graders.  Teach one annotation at a time.  Click on the poster and read about my annotation posters in a previous post. You can pick up the poster and bookmarks for free.

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Annotations for Close Reading

This year I am taking a focus on Close Reading with my professional development.  I was able to attend a Smekens Workshop on Close Reading and gained a great foundation for this process.  I have a lot more to learn!  You can take this adventure with me.

One of the things students get to do in Close Reading is spending a lot of time evaluating the complex text that we are reading.  For me this works best when each student has their own copy of the text and especially a paper copy.  This allows for the students to write on it and explore their thinking.

When we read a trade book I type up the words and add paragraph numbers so it makes it easy for us to share where we are reading.  This then allows the students to add their annotations.

I'm starting out with some easy annotations.  I've seen many lists shared and some just have too many to remember!  I want the students to focus on the comprehension, not worry about what annotation to use.

Hope this helps you out!

I'm currently reading TDQ; Text-Dependent Questions by Douglas Fisher.  So far it's a great book and what I love most about it is the video links that are included so you can watch teachers in action!  There are 2 grade levels available; K-5 and 6-12.

Thanks for stopping by.

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