Gossiping About Books

One challenge for myself, and I believe any teacher who is just beginning Reader's Workshop in a 1:1 classroom, is learning how to integrate the technology into the new curriculum.

My students have been working extremely hard to identify character traits, sometimes to get ELL learners to describe a character can be quite the challenge. We did some fun activities last week where students pretended to be the main characters from our read aloud and then we stuck post-it notes to them to describe the character. This was by far more entertaining than sticking the post-its onto a wall or chart paper. ha ha

The students expanded on this trait activity by doing a comparison of themselves to a main character in their book. Students mapped out their traits with a web and then compiled their list into a wordle website so any traits that they had in common would eventually pop out larger than the other words. 

I have a habit of constantly changing my plans. I'll be on my drive into school when all of a sudden, a new idea will hit me. In our first session, in the 2nd book of Lucy Calkins' Reading Workshop, Lucy introduces her mini lesson with the conversations that are heard in the hallway and how students should talk about books just as they talk with their friends before or after school. So, we decided to turn "gossip" into a positive thing in 5th grade so we can "gossip" about our books as we construct our theories. I found a great FREE app in the App Store called Comic Maker. I had the students flag, or post-it, their gossip/reactions as they were reading and in turn the students are creating comics to illustrate their gossip. They were excited to begin and I look forward to reading them!

MyON Reader

This year our school is piloting a MyON reading program that has an app even for the iPad! Similar to Accelerated Reader, students can complete a quiz after they have finished a book.

The great thing that my students like about this program, is that they have a whole digital library at their fingertips with a wide variety of genres! Students take a benchmark test and interest survey when they begin the program, it then recommends books for them based on their lexile and interests. Today, I observed a student reading a graphic novel about Zombies explaining Force and Motion! This was something that really grabbed his attention.

For teachers, it even allows you to pull reports where you can easily identify the improvements your students are making or if they are choosing to read books that are vacation (below their level) or future (too advanced for now).

Yes, this can even be incorporated into the Reading Workshop! Students can use digital post-its if you want them to multitask between applications or you can even have them keep a log in their reading life notebooks. As we are just being introduced to reader's workshop this year, I prefer my students to jot their notes down via notebook until they can properly express their thinking.

Parents.... ask your students what they are reading...have a great discussion!

Thanks to Ms. G, a 4th grade teacher, who shared her poster where I was able to grab inspiration from.

MyON

Class Dojo..a favorite!

Today's favorite App: Class Dojo I'm sure many have heard of Class Dojo and are aware of the features, but it is one App that I love to use when managing my classroom. Last year, before integrating Class Dojo, I experimented with different color cards in a chart pocket, even created a custom clip chart that fit with my Mac themed room. The clip chart was a great visual for students, but I felt that it was more of a time waste having to remind students to clip down or up. Class Dojo takes the same concept as a clip chart, but it puts a fun avatar twist for the students. Pros for the teacher: custom behaviors, you can pull custom behavior reports, easy access to reflect on student behavior for the year, easy to use from iPhone, iPad or android device, best of all.... parents can sign up to receive emailed reports on their students. Pros for students: they can design their own avatar, older students can login independently to check and monitor their progress daily.

 Check it out for yourself!

Class Dojo Website