Takeaways: Charts I made for my future classroom.

 I absolutely LOVE Mrs. Casey's use of text coding with almost every lesson. She has a chart similar to this one, and she uses it usually with informational texts like TIME for Kids. The students' first read the story and put their own text codes beside the passages as they read. Mrs. Casey also projects the copy of the text on the board, and she puts a few text codes as she reads as well. Then she calls on different students' to go put a code on the board where they put one on their paper. They then read the text together. They pause throughout to discuss the codes that are beside a particular passage. I love this because readers are thinkers! This really encourages students to think about the text as they read it!

Another takeaway I will use in my future classroom is think, pair, and share. I was already familiar with this strategy, but I really liked Mrs. Casey's anchor chart and reference to it throughout her lessons. I made this anchor chart to use! I even added think, pair, and share strategy to all my lessons taught in Mrs. Casey's class.

 

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Continuing our study of tall tales: Comic Strip Tall Tales

We have been talking about tall tales for a few weeks now.  Tall tales are definitely a favorite genre for all students', and we have been reading some unfamiliar tales in our study.  I love Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs because it has easily identifiable tall tale elements and even problem and solutions or cause and effects throughout the story. First we read the text and discussed the elements that made it a tall tale. We would pause throughout to discuss some of the problems and solutions as well. Then students' got to write their own tall tale. I decided to have them write a tall tale comic strip of sorts, so they would have clear instruction and not stray from including the key elements that all tall tales have.

We folded our 11x9 papers together to create our template or sections, and then we discussed what each section would include. The students' went right at it, and their tales were really impressive! They were also able to illustrate in the spaces throughout their comic strip tall tale.

 

 





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Comparing and Contrasting: Problems and Solutions

We have been reading a lot of literature that involves cause and effect, problem and solutions, and compare and contrast. We most recently read Mama, I'll Give You the World by Ronnie Schotter and a story called "What if it Happened to You?" from our text. Both of these stories had problems and solutions. The students at first, felt that a problem had to be a concrete, obvious, problem. For example, the picture tore, so we taped it back together. These stories helped them to realize that problems can be emotions, lack of interest, and etcetera.

After reading and talking about the text on two separate days, I wanted to see if students could compare the two selections. I divided the class into three groups, and each group worked on comparing a specific relationship. This helped students focus on the problems and solutions with just that small relationship. It also helped them see the specific text evidence that proved that particular problem or solution. Then we started feeling in out Venn Diagram by groups. Students were surprised to see all the similarities of the stories!

I feel this activity really helped the students in answering the writing prompt portion on their literature tests. They were all able to identify problems and solutions within two passage selections!

Ending Our Study of the Planets

Mrs. Casey's class has been studying all about the planets, sun, meteors, asteroids, and comets. We ended their study with a little election of the class's favorite planet. Mrs. Casey teaches two science classes, so that's why their are two posters featured. First, I read Meet the Planets by John McGranaghan. The students really enjoyed this book because of it's silly humor in presenting each planet along with it's facts. Then I divided the students into groups. Each group was assigned a planet to research. The groups used classroom books, library books, and the internet to gather their facts first. Then, they had to make a poster with an illustration, at least 10 facts, and one favorite fact. They also had to come up with a neat way to present their poster like Pluto did in the book.

The students absolutely loved this project. I like that it involved reading, researching, art, science, and even a little drama with their presenting. They really got into the theatrics of presenting their planet! Some groups even shared facts to the beat of popular songs. When it came time to vote on the class favorite planet, we first covered the facts that made the planets so interesting. Then we had a anonymous voting. After the results were in, I awarded the class favorite with it's winner ribbon. We talked about which planets we voted for and why. Then I added the class posters to our hallway display!