An Exploration of Genre

Hey everyone!

Happy Sunday...otherwise known as my last free-of-school-Sunday!! I head back to work tomorrow. I am both excited and terrified...probably also a little depressed. My summer was (as yours was) way too short!

Today, I've been going over my first 15 days of school I mentioned in an earlier post that my district got a new reading program. It offers a "First 30 Days" similar to "The First 20" of Fountas and Pinell. My principal feels that 20 days (much less 30) is far too many days to spend on classroom cohesion and prepping for the reading block for the year so we get a condensed NINE days. That means, roughly three mini lessons a day. I have no problems fitting this in because there is no small group reading during this time while we test the students to see what level they're reading at after the summer. Still, though, it's a LOT of information to try and squeeze into 20 minute blocks. Not to mention I am a Daily 5-er and I like to start my stamina building DAY 1, so I have to fit that in too!

In any case, to help get a leg up on the year, I also try to squeeze in a genre review during these first couple of weeks also. Since I use an interactive notebook for each of my subjects, Genre is the first thing to go into Reading.

Because this isn't actually a full blown unit, I needed to make something that got me the biggest bang for my buck. Fifth graders are expected to have a good understanding of genre already and I like to bring in some more sophisticated subgenres like memoir and the individual fictions instead of just going with the generic Fiction (realistic) vs. Nonfiction (informational).

First things first....the Genre Overview. For this I used a t-chart to do a broad comparison of fiction and nonfiction. I left room for notes as well as a listing of subgenres. I know not everyone makes as comprehensive list as I do, so I made two versions to suit.

Now we get into the specifics! I created a Fiction Overview and a Nonfiction overview to detail out each chosen subgenre...

I would use the one with with ALL my subgenres listed. This is the more generic version for those people who maybe wouldn't cover quite as much as I will. I did create similar versions of each that are not showing in the pictures above.

I then created two versions of Venn diagrams for each of the comparison subgerenes. I like to compare:

1) Realistic and Historical

2) Mystery and Adventure

3) Fantasy and Traditional Literature

Here are two examples...

You see that the first has a cut and paste (similar to the drag and drop option on our state tests!) and the second has an open-ended written response question based on a situation prompt.

I also created a page for Science Fiction where the student reads a summary and decides whether that IS or IS NOT SciFi and explains why.

For nonfiction, I made one organizer for all of it since most of the subgenres have many things in common. 

I'm excited to use these because I know that they are far more in depth than a lot of genre overviews out there. Using them as a quick reference guide will be perfect for my students when labeling book genres in their 40 Book Challenge log. If they have any questions, they can simply refer to these for help! 

If you like them, join my blog below and I'll send it to you for free for the next week! If you get to this post too late, fear not, there are in my TPT store HERE.

Brianna 

Fast Finishers: MATH

Hey everyone, and happy Tuesday!

Random fact for ya...did you know that Tuesdays boasts the label of LEAST likely to schedule services or appointments in the United States? That's right, Tuesday is the least popular day to go to the doctor, have Home Depot come measure your flooring, have your teeth cleaned, or get your therapy on. I know it's the least likely day for me to do it because Tuesdays are faculty meetings at my school!

Anyway, moving on. Today, as I worked to label my remediation station folders, I thought about how my remediation block went last year. Specifically, I tried to think of any "Wishes" or "Suggestions" that showed up on my informal evaluations for that time period. Academically, it went swimmingly. The only thing I can remember my administrators saying is that they thought that my students were finishing too early and that meant my stations weren't rigorous enough. Now, mind you, I work with some of the higher students in the building, so I could give some of them Algebra I or Moby Dick to read, and they'd still be done before 30 minutes was up! Needless to say, however, I needed a fix for this.

I put that set of thoughts on the back burner for a few minutes while I attempted to organize some math materials on an extra set of shelves I have over by my desktops. They were dusty from lack of use. I was standing there thinking to myself how VALUABLE these resources are, but sometimes I just feel like I have SO MANY resources, it's impossible to use them all, and I constantly am forgetting about these because they're not able to fit in with the rest of the resources in my large cabinet.

BAM!

It hit me.

Clearly what I needed was a fast finishers area. I know a couple people in my school have some QuickWrites or flashcards for fast finishers, but I wanted something more substantial. These extra math resources were the answer I had been waiting for! I hardly ever use them during ACTUAL math, and there are such a variety of options, the kids would be able to choose a different activity every day of the week if they finished early all five days.

Here's what I decided to offer...

This first shelf has a variety of math games in that magazine rack on the left that can be played by one to two players. The next set of folders to the right of it are resources I got from Lakeshore. Here is an example of one of the folders.

Inside there are 4 different scenarios, each with two different question cards. These are all Real Life types of of questions. It also comes with two other pieces to help students answer the questions, and an answer key. This particular one discusses money (decimals) by talking about neighborhood jobs students can have. I also have a set for fractions/decimals/percents, measurement, geometry, and another number/number sense. These are perfect for one person, AND they're entertaining!

The last thing on that shelf is Math Literature. I am a firm believer in Real Life Math and that students needs to be exposed to math in more ways that just solving problems. Math Lit. helps this and the kids really enjoy it. This is where I keep all of my Sir Cumference books, etc., for those of you that use them. I actually recently added Math Literature as one of my Guided MAATH Rotations. You can check that product out HERE. It's one of my best sellers!

On the second shelf for Fast Finishers we have....

On the left, I have several games that were designed as take-home games for students who need continued work in a skill. They come with a two-sided gameboard, pieces, die, question cards, and a letter to the parents explaining why they are receiving the game, how/when to return it, and the instructions for how to play. This particular kit is Level D, which equates to grade 4 (which is what I taught when I purchased it). I cannot TELL you how valuable this kit has been to me even though I have NEVER sent it home with a child. It's excellent for building math stations stamina where children are learning how to control volume during math stations, not to mention just the skill review it offers. Games like this are 2-4 players. If you don't like to have noise, then these are probably not for you. Onto the next!!

These are AWESOME, one-player, all inclusive file folders (also from Lakeshore). I have one for Fractions/Decimals, Number Sense, Measurement, Geometry, and this one for Data and probability. It comes with ten individual folders with the title and skill covered on the top tab. Inside each folder it comes with cards and coverall pieces as well as a self-checking answer key for the kids. They LOVE these. I have actually used these as Fast Finishers before for my math stations. They can just come over, pick a topic they like and play!

I forgot to take a picture of the third shelf up close but here are some of the games I have one it. All for individuals.

Caps Off!

I forget where I read about this, but several years ago I decided to try it in partners and it worked really well, but collecting, cleaning and labeling like ten sets of bottle caps (let alone keeping track of them) was frustrating and time consuming. So I combined them all together and let the kids dump them all out in the circle, face them the right way and then begin collecting. For ever one they pick up and get right, they get to keep like points. Anyone can join in and begin collecting at any time. I would say no more than five players though.

Grocery Shopping

For this one, I laminated several grocery store circulars and give the kids a sheet to record their exact prices and estimates. You wouldn't believe how excited the kids get about buying their OWN food, instead of tagging along with their parents (which they all hate...shocking, right?). If you are interested in money computation or estimation, check THIS and THIS out.

Oh Snap!

I also forget where this one came from because I have been using it so long! Let me know if it's yours!

This is basically like the game War except the winner is not the higher card, the winner is the person who can add, subtract, or multiply the fastest. The only thing the kids need to know other than that is that all face cards are 10 and aces are 11. They can also use three "Checks" where they make their partner prove it. I have even made this a little higher in the past by requiring partners who have been CHECKED to create a pictorial or written explanation of why their answer is correct. Partners can also use Checks when they thing their opponent is wrong.

Time's Up!

This one is also an easy setup. All you need are flashcards and a timer. This is designed to help students master their math fluency. Students take ten cards at a time and time themselves adding them up. Then they take the same ten cards and flip them over trying the other side, recording their times on a sheet of paper. Then they do a second round with each side to see if they can beat it. They are so proud of their scores when they improve!! If you are into math fluency, you should check out WBT's site and see their game SuperSpeed Math. It is also a great Fast Finisher that I have used in the past. The only thing I have have a hard time with is that for each student to track their own progress, they really need their own binder with it and that can become cumbersome! 

Okay, so there you have it. Tons of Fast Finisher Options! Some of them cost a little more than other (Thank you DonorsChoose), but some are easy to throw together at the last minute that aren't the "same old thing."

How do you handle your fast finishers?

Brianna

Reading Graffiti

How many of you have read The Book Whisperer or Reading in the Wild?

I have read both and one of the things that I incorporated into my room last year OTHER than The 40 Book Challenge was to create a reading graffiti wall. If you don't know what this is, it's an area of the room where students can write their favorite quotes from the books they are reading. Here is one I found on the internet...

 

Last year, mine wasn't very successful. I had maybe six or seven quotes on it, and two of them were mine from our read alouds. Probably fortunately for you, I don't have a picture of it to show you, so you can't feel THAT bad for me. 

Needless to say, I still love the idea, and rather than throwing it out with all the trash I've been accumulating, I decided to try something a little different.

A really good friend of mine made me some of these last year...

With a piece of plywood and a jigsaw, really what CAN'T you do? #amiright

They are painted with whiteboard paint (that you can purchase from your local home improvement store...I'm pretty sure it's made by Rustoleum).  Last year I used a few of them on a bulletin board I created in the hallway outside my room, but they ended up being mostly decorations. 

SOOOOO....Why not combine the best of both worlds??

I started putting them up just to see how it looked and I liked it so much, I decided to do the whole door that way. 

Here is the whole door covered...

Then I thought to myself that it looked kind of plain so, see that marker hanging on the door? That's what I was originally using on the black paper. Now, I don't need it since the bubbles are dry erase, but that doesn't mean I can't use it in the meantime!!

I decided to spice it up a little bit!

I'm still not done yet. I think I'm going to back and add a little border or something. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, my intention is that hopefully the kids will WANT their quotes up there now, since there is limited space. The brilliance of dry erase is that if more kids have quotes, we can simply rewrite them a little bit smaller and make more room. Either way, this year it won't look so sad :(

How do you keep your kids invested in their reading?

Brianna

Classroom Reveal 2015!!

I know that this post is late considering that almost everyone is back in school by now, but so be it.

Today is going to be a lot of pictures and just a few words here and there...I apologize in advance if anything is blurry because my phone literally has a 5 megapixel camera. I'm pretty sure a Kodak Disposable from the 90s takes better pictures than this phone!! Also, the lighting in my room is weird for some of the photos because I like to have the lights off most of the day. About halfway through taking pictures, however, I realized that YOU GUYS might not be able to see it all so I flipped them on. I didn't go back and take repeat shots though #aintnobodygotimeforthat!!

Here we go....

The view as you walk in the room. I will say upfront that most of my walls are bare right now. I like to have things open so that when class is in session, we can make anchor charts together and put them up around the room, organized by content area.

Reading Nook #1: At the front of my room I have a rug with some cubes that I got for 60% at Michael's last summer #heckyeah

Reading Nook #2: As you can see, this is by my teacher closets. You would think this would be a problem but I never go in those during reading because I am usually in small group or conferencing so it actually works out okay. Those pillows do not stay on the carpet though. You can't tell but my desk is to the left of this area. The kids would be traipsing all over them to get to me during the day and I just CANNOT HAVE THAT!! I store them in a different bin which you'll see in the next photo. The kids are surprisingly good at putting them away if they are trained right from the start #thankyoudaily5

Reading Nook #3: This is my tiniest reading area and my FICTION ONLY library (I forgot to take a picture of my NONFICTION ONLY library # merp). Notice how under the desk on the right is the basket I was talking about in the previous picture. It stores all my pillows from the big carpet AND my collection of MINI PILLOW PETS (given to me by my T.A. Jennifer). The M.P.P.s are used on the tiny carpet only.

This is my personal space at the back of the room. All of my binders are labeled and organized using milk crates (more of these in a moment!). I have my Teacher Toolbox and just out of view on the right are my student mailboxes. Behind my desk I have my Homework Club and my Class Bingo, which is designed for whole class discipline goals. I can't remember if this was an original idea or if I read it somewhere years ago, so if it was your idea, lemme know and you'll get credit, I swear! 

ALSO OF NOTE: don't you love my chalkboard apple??? It was given to me by one of the most challenging students I have EVER had for Christmas last year. I HEART it :)

Homework Zone and While You Were Out. Pretty self-explanatory. This is where they drop off HW in the morning and pick-up WYWO if they were absent. At the end of the day I collect all the foldables, interactive notes, worksheets, etc. on their desk and stick it in a folder with their number on it. When they come back, it's all in there just waiting to be put in their notebooks!

MATTH Rotations Board (T2 not pictured)

Small Group Area with Word Study board in the background. On the left side of that board I usually write different topics for the kids to write about. It normally consists of a list they can make, a What if..." open ended question stem and a "Would You Rather..."

My Writing Process and Six Traits Board (I just love to make thing POP up off the boards!)

Organization is my #favorite! That little yellow sign says "Stealing from Ms. Burch is WRONG!" Care to take a guess what I had an issue with last year??? My favorite thing in this area is definitely my color coded crayon drawers. I give each of my kids a box of crayons each year...but then they take it home for one reason or another and it never comes back. Well, that doesn't help when I do foldables and interactive notes on the daily, now does it?! So, sometimes I'll say, "Choose three colors of your choice," or "Take out a red and a blue." Either way, this allows kids to get ONLY what they need. 

This is part of my Writing and Word Work activity area for Daily 3 + Me. The binders of the left say "Mad Libs" (I store all the mad libs the kids have already written here for inspiration- after I check them for vulgarity of course) and "#NotRight" (This binder is where my kids have the opportunity to write about real things that have happened to them or someone they know that aren't right for one reason or another. It's truly amazing how open they are about it sometimes.) In the green bin are my Class Journals and on the far right are my new Reading Response Letter Journals. In the middle are mostly resources for Writer's Workshop like peer editing checklists, drafting paper, and final copy paper. In the front are my magnetic letters with white boards and behind are my Bananagrams with cork pads for sound muffling.

This is the table at the front of my room. It stores items I use daily including whiteboard, lined paper, staplers, tape, and all the bins that keep my daily math stations materials. You might remember from the MATTH Rotations board the M (math facts), A (at your seat), and H (hands on). I love to you use mild crates to make additional storage! Have you tried this?? To the right is my Power Up area. I have mentioned before that we have a mandatory remediation block each morning. While I am with a small group working on a skill, the rest of my students are rotating stations, one per day. Each one of these bins holds a different activity in the manila folder and when they are done, they stick it in the purple pocket folder behind it. You see that the last bin is already full...that's got my brand spankin' new Comp. Files in them!!

Okay...that's all she wrote on the classroom reveal for 2015. Let me leave you with one last picture...a picture we're all familiar with...

Yep...you too jam pack that cabinet, don't lie!

What did you think??!!

Brianna

Reading/Writing Notebooks and a FREEBIE!!

Every year since I began teaching I have used a Reader's/Writer's notebook.

Every year I change it.

Some things work, some things don't, some things work only part of the time. It's frustrating. I desperately want to find something that work every year so that I can stop reinventing the wheel in THIS particular case, and begin reinventing the wheel in a different area !:p (Sidebar: when are they going to invent emojis for blogging??! #whoiswithme?)

The first couple of years I went with a five-tab model
1) My Stuff
2) Reading
3) Writing
4) Vocabulary
5) Response

My stuff was(/is) mostly like reading log, Daily 5 reminder posters, quick reference genre chart, and R/W Notebook rubric for when I grade it twice a quarter.

The Reading and Writing tabs were where we put all our mini-lesson work for those subjects. This, of course, was BEFORE I was introduced to Interactive Notebooks (INBs) and all their glory.

Vocabulary is self-explanatory.

Response was where I was having my students write their weekly letters to me. This year I have put them into journal format which you can read about and see more about HERE.
___________________________

The next couple of years I went with a three-tab model
1) My Stuff
2) Vocabulary
3) Writing

Everything was mostly the same, except since I had introduced INBs for Reading and Writing mini-lessons I eliminated them from the binder and left a writing tab only for drafts and other pieces student's were working on for a grade (for organization purposes). I also took out Response because I was having a hard time monitoring it and chose to do it in small group with "Think Marks" (More on this in a different post).
___________________________

This year I have settled on a four-tab model with the following format
1) My Stuff
2) Response
3) Vocabulary
4) Writing

All tabs from the three-tab model above have the same purpose, and I am still using INBs for Reading and Writing mini-lessons. Now, I have gone back to a Response tab, but since the creation of my letter journal mentioned above, I'll be using it a bit differently. My school wants students to be responding to their reading every day. Sometimes this can be difficult when you're only being given an hour to get all small group work done AND you favor a Daily 3 model which requires working through a variety of other components other than just independent reading. I have decided that this year, my students will respond with me IN small group twice a week (using their Think Mark) and respond in their notebooks on the opposite two days that they DON'T see me in the Response section of their notebook. I created a new Reading Response Record form for this purpose trying to combine all the elements of response logs that I've seen that I liked. Tell me what you think!

If you have read Word Nerds then you understand why I've got a Word Nerd Alert section. I am CRAZY PASSIONATE about kids being crazy passionate about words. I like for them to look for interesting/unknown/cool words every time they read. That section may be full or empty on a given day, but at least it's there for them to be reminded of their Word Nerd Mission!

If you're interested in it, click on the picture for a link to it.

__________________________

With all this reinventing of the wheel, I needed to update my rubric as well. It is featured as one of my freebies in my TPT shop right now so make sure you grab it! If you like the style and you want me to customize it for you, I'd be happy to do so! Email me and I'll see what I can do for you. Click the picture below to see it in my shop!

As with each year's changes, I get very excited that THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL LAST FOREVER. Well, we'll see about that, won't we! How do you set yours up?

Happy Hump Day,

Brianna

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

I was on vacation this week in Colorado. Man, it was beautiful. Initially we decided to go there for a concert that was happening at the ever-popular and truly magical venue that is Red Rocks. If you have never heard of Brandi Carlile, do yourself a favor and listen to the snippets of her music here. The idea that SHE would be playing THERE was too good to pass up

This is my panoramic view from my seat right before her set. Tell me that doesn't make you go "ohhhhhhh!"

So, combine that venue and that artist and we were signed up with a quickness. We also got the opportunity to head to the small ski town of Breckenridge, which is super adorable and I can only imagine how crazy it is when there is actually snow on the ground. We hiked, we ate, we hung with friends...the only thing we didn't do was indulge in the *AHEM* dispensary goodies...though the shops were conveniently located every couple blocks!

While we were in Breck I bought these...

(These are SERIOUS contenders for FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL socks. Usually I wear my pencil socks, but these are adorbs!)

...and put this on my birthday wishlist...

(Who doesn't needs a new Very Bradley bag in their lives?)

UGH! It was hard to come home...but I was a little excited too. Coming home meant it was time for our 5th Grade Summer Summit. Each year my principal invites the teachers of each grade level to a meeting with her to discuss the scores from our state testing the year before, introduce changes that have been made over the summer, and ask if we have any suggestions or questions before we begin the year. The meeting was ultimately pretty uneventful, but I always enjoy it because it gets me back in the swing of collaboration! (*NERD ALERT!*)

Being the afore-mentioned nerd that I am, I of course, spent the hours of the day NOT in the Summit in my classroom. I lost hours again, guys. I was in there a long time, but if you asked me what I got done I wouldn't have a clue. I mean...I know I did tons of stuff, and I certainly never had a moment at rest, but I couldn't give you a list of my accomplishments if I tried. I just get so absorbed in what I'm doing!

I can tell I'm getting close to the end of my list of Things To Do though because I've started creating piles of papers for my first week (which is still three weeks away!). I always do copies last. I've found myself struggling this year though, because I have so many amazing resources and I just want to be able to use them all! How will I fit them all in?!

What's crazy is that I'll be purchasing even more resources tomorrow at the follow-up TPT sale! My entire store (and everyone else's) will be on sale. Check it out by clicking on the TPT window in the right margin or clicking HERE.

With that, I'll leave you with a view from the top of one of the mountains in Colorado.

Brianna

It's HERE!!

Yes, friends. Today was the day. I wasn't planning on blogging today, but I had to.

You know what I'm talking about.

I was on my way to tutoring when this sweet, delicate, feminine, HANDLE YO' BUSINESS, bad mamba-jawamba planner landed on my doorstep.

I was so excited, I.PUT.IT.IN.THE.FREAKING.CAR.WITH.ME.

I tried to remain strong. While my student was working independently I opened it, just to take a peek. I didn't mess with the tissue paper. I just teased myself by looking at the assortment of cute stickers and things I got with my invoice on top. I am a glutton for punishment. Ugh! It nearly killed me to wait until I got home to open it.

 Voila! Customized to my color selection. Personalized with my name. #teachersheaven

#tabsfordays #hellaorganized

I was super lucky. I ordered mine on the 29th of July, and having missed the Back2School sale, I was bmmed because this fresh slice of teaching necessity right here is costly. Lucky for me though, I Google'd "Erin Condren Coupons" and found one that worked 100% of the time thus far using code JULY25. I popped that into the "Promotions" box at check-out and PRESTO CHANGE-O, 25% off my order!

I got busy immediately...this is August so far. 

I bought the pack of perfectly sized sticky notes to place into my monthly calendars, BECAUSE OCD AWESOME! I even backdated stuff, just to feel MORE organized and successful. Have you ever done that? Made a To Do list that included items you had already completed, just so you could have something checked off? Don't lie...you totally have. 

I was thinking to myself that I was going overboard on the stickies and that I needed to ration them carefully when I realized that there are more stickies that I got for free in the back of my planner. They were even already conveniently labeled with things like "Fieldtrip" and "Assembly" and "Meeting," along with dozens of blank ones in an assortment of colors that Crayola would be jealous of! 

If you decide to buy one, click this link. You'll get $10.00 off your first purchase! Totally worth it!

Okay, I have to go. I need to get back to me (super appropriately named) Life Planner.

Life is good today, friends. Life is good.

Do you Erin Condren?

Brianna