One of my favorite things in the classroom is Reader's Notebooks. I have been doing them for several years, but here lately (at least in the past two years or so) everyone has started them and the ideas are AMAZING! Just hop on Pinterest and see for yourself. Some teachers order those expensive pre-made ones. Not me - mom of two in college - so I make my own. The way I did them this year will now be my go to procedure. Paper, journals, three pieces of packing tape, a mailing label and voila!
The classroom colors are black, white, and red so I went with the black and white paper set. There are many, many sets to choose from at Hobby Lobby. And the font.... Janda Swirly Twirly. Love. It.
I explicitly teach the students how to care for these journals and truly, they last all year. They are "as precious as gold" and should be treated as such. At least, that's our mantra. They store them in their book boxes, not their desks (aka: black holes) so the tabs stay in good shape. They store their books and all three journals (Reading, Writing, Math) in their book boxes.
Some of the early entries set up our Reader's Workshop procedures. Such as...
I also teach what qualifies as an appropriate independent reading level book by the codes E (Easy), JR (Just Right), and CH (Challenging). We use the coding system in our Reading Response letters as well.
The two on the left are based on the amazing book Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. When I taught the students about metacognition for the first time you could almost see the light bulbs going off over their heads.Using the paint color cards is not only free (although I did ask to make sure), but it is a visual that totally makes sense to them. I tied it in with the Post-It note thinking rating system (shown below) and they had it down amazingly well. It truly gave them ownership of their thinking.
I enlarged the graphic from McGregor's book and let the students write on it so they had another level of visual support for metacognition. I also made an anchor chart for the room.
The Post-It note thinking is something I adapted from Pinterest. I had been looking for a good way to have them rate their thinking and it went well with the above metacognition lessons so I went with it. I need to add a picture of the anchor chart we did together,but here is an individual journal entry.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, The Cafe Book changed the way I taught reading when it came out a few year ago. After identifying the area of need for each individual student (fluency, accuracy, comprehension), I start explicitly teaching the strategies. Those are the anchor chars you can see hanging on the Starbecks CAFE wall earlier posted. I also have them keep track of the strategies in one section of their notebooks. When teaching about fluency, I have to define it for them clearly. We did a word splash of what fluency is and is not, then each of them graph their words per minute (WPM) monthly based on either a formal or informal running record.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, The Cafe Book changed the way I taught reading when it came out a few year ago. After identifying the area of need for each individual student (fluency, accuracy, comprehension), I start explicitly teaching the strategies. Those are the anchor chars you can see hanging on the Starbecks CAFE wall earlier posted. I also have them keep track of the strategies in one section of their notebooks. When teaching about fluency, I have to define it for them clearly. We did a word splash of what fluency is and is not, then each of them graph their words per minute (WPM) monthly based on either a formal or informal running record.
The fluency graph was adapted from this site http://helloliteracy.blogspot.com/2012/06/progress-monitoring-vs-progress.html. I honestly try to give credit when I show something I got from Pinterest! Her blog is wonderful. The word splash is, well - a word splash. But I did see it on Pinterest as well. I had already come up with it myself though! Great minds. Seriously, follow my boards (Mechelle Beck) and I will follow yours. No need to re-invent the wheel, am I right? I am happy to share. In fact, as soon as I figure out how to add my attachments I will put them all on here. Let's not judge my lack of technological skill, please.
My favorite part of the Reader's Notebooks is the Reading Response Letters (RRL) that I have them write each week. They sometimes have a task such as writing about the theme of their book, telling me how the author's perspective affects the story, etc. Most of the time they are just asked to write. It is surprising how well they do incorporate what we have learned all on their own. Ahhh...the sound of learning and readers who think and reflect on their reading. Reading SUCCESS!
They have one letter due each week. I always return them the following Monday after I write them back. Some teachers grade these. I do not. They are a grade free, judgement free, write what you are thinking assignment. I tell them they have to write about their reading in the body of the letter, but may include a personal question or thought in the PS if they wish. Notice, I want Olivia's boots for Christmas. They really are great boots!! The letters not only show me how well they are thinking about their reading, but they also show me what they truly can apply and understand and what we might need to revisit. Love, love, LOVE them.
Okay...world's longest post. I could go on all day about these. I have a whole post about graphic novels (that I HATED and now I love) that I will do this week. Spoiler alert: My most reluctant reader, maybe the most reluctant reader in HISTORY, has devoured a set of graphic novels that I found. He actually said to me on Friday as he finished book four: "Mrs. Beck, those books just grab you in and won't let you go." Whoa. Reading SUCCESS.
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Beck
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