My Thankful Post

When thinking about what I wanted to write about for our weekly blog one thing kept popping into my head.  Just how thankful I am that we have been back in school!  That we were given the gift to be back with our students and fellow teachers!!!!! 

 

Virtual learning was hard in its own way but I really do

think the isolation was harder on us than we realize. 

 

So here are my Thank-Fuls! 

• I am thankful that I get to get out of bed and drive to work everyday.  (I get to be with my PVES PEEPS!)
• I am thankful for innovative teachers that are NOT scared to try new things!!!!! (That's you PEOPLE!  U are trying crazy things and making them work.) 
• I am thankful for our PEP Squad and how they have been spoiling our staff!!!
• I am thankful for the energy that is buzzing through our halls.  

• I am thankful that we have an admin team that knows their teachers on a professional level & a personal level. 
• I am thankful for our custodians who have been kicking BUTT at sanitizing our classrooms and busses. 
• I am thankful for our TAs that support our teachers 1000000000%!  
• I am thankful for our office staff!  They work together to answer ALL our questions, help us unjam the copy machines and find all the lost lunches! 

• I am thankful for my Instructional Coach Team!  They always have my back and support me through all my crazy ideas! 
• I am thankful for a district that chose Plan B.  They are helping us to stay safe and still see our students Face to Face!
• I am thankful for all the smiling eyes I see above masks!
• I am thankful for the teamwork that we have engaged in.
• I am thankful for the bravery of my BTNTs in charging forward into this profession with so many unknowns.  
• I am thankful for everything I am leaving out...I know it is a TON!  We have sooo much GOOD going on at Park View!

Things might be up in the air right now but what I know is, it WILL work out.  

We WILL find a way!  

We are EDUCATORS!

Please enjoy your break & rest!  The mountain will be there for us to climb when we return! 

  

Bringing BACK Poetry

We do such a great job teaching fiction and nonfiction text structures in our classrooms but there is one structure that sometimes gets left behind...POETRY!

The amazing thing about poetry is its versatility!  Poetry can be taught in reading, writing, and language.  It also can support math, science, and social studies!  Poetry easily follows a theme and can be part of our morning meetings or shared reading times in the classroom. 

Poetry can also be a great connected text for students to support decoding! Phonics poems allow students to practice decoding and fluency at the same time.  They are also GREAT for shared reading!

Enhancing your themes with poetry is also super easy and fun!  Check out my Fairy Tale themed lesson below with an embedded poetry activity!

How cute are these shape poems to go along with Goldilocks!   

 

Poetry also allows us to hit our speaking & listening standards along with fluency!  Great discussions can be had and students will have opportunities to focus on meaning, connections, and visualizations.  

Check out this blogpost from Lindsey Kuster!!!!  SOOOO many connections being made through poetry! I absolutely LOVE the ideas behind The Phonics Poetry Station!

Students will be able to explore language through rhyme while also supporting grammar, sentence structure, word building and fluency. Poetry also builds vocabulary by exposing them to words they have not heard before.  

Older students can begin to analyze poems.  Watch this short video that will walk you through 5 simple steps.  

This video is a great explanation of the structure of a poem.  Click below to view!

Check out these freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers!  Lots of goodies to get you started!

Be sure to head over to Teaching with Jennifer Findley and read all about poetry in her classroom.  Plus, download her FREE poetry booklet!  Click below!

Her poetry BINGO is super fun too!  

Be sure to check it out!

Get your kiddos writing poetry using this nonfiction book on Epic Books called, How to Write a Poem.  Touch base with nonfiction text features while you are at it.  

Teaching poetry is so powerful and it can be pushed out to support so many different curriculum areas!  Think-your READ centers!

The Simple View of Reading

Happy Weekend!  

I have been waiting since last Friday to write this post for you!  During my IC PLC last week, we dug into the Comprehensive Plan for Reading Achievement and had a GREAT discussion about The Simple View of Reading. 

*It can ONLY be proven as true! 

Grab a comfy seat and a cup of coffee or tea and watch this video!!!!

Reading is made up of 2 Components: 

• Decoding 
• Language Comprehension (Background Knowledge) 

How can we use these components help our struggling readers?

When a student is struggling with reading we NEED to determine if it is a decoding problem or if it is a language Comprehension problem!  HELLO!!!!  

This is the key that we need to help move our students into the world of reading success! 

*Decoding is easier to correct with explicit phonics instruction and practice with the skills in decodable readers.  (Must be taught until it is VERY strong!) 

*Language Comprehension is not finite...we are always learning and adding to our language comprehension. 

I LOVE the idea of using a picture to help support students with reason and syntax. 

In small group, students can practice looking at a picture and describing what they see!  

Language Comprehension is broken up into to areas:

• Vocabulary Knowledge-Easy to Correct 
• Reasoning Syntax-More Difficult to Correct

Take a look at Scarborough's Reading Rope!  You can see how the strands work together.  

I love the connection between The Simple View of Reading and the ROPE!  

I am going to end with one more video and a great BLOGPOST on how children learn to read!

Is My Kid Learning How to Read?

Hi All!  Thank you so much for the amazing work in PLCs this week.  We had such awesome conversations about The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy.  

I am still growing and learning in this area too!  I have been gobbling up everything that I can find on it.  

AND I found the coolest experiment! 

The PURPLE CHALLENGE!!!!  

Prepare yourself for this one friends!

You are going to see some things in this video that you as an educator have used to teach reading with.  

*You are going to see guessing strategies.

*You are going to see leveled readers that have words well beyond grade level phonics skills. 

*You will see the 3 Cueing System.  

Remember, don't panic!  I have used all of the above in my classroom too.  I was just lucky that my district in OHIO also made Phonics a PRIORITY!  We used The Phonic Dance in K-2 so my students were getting the phonics in to support the decoding.  

We have Letterland and I know that is happening in your classrooms and MGSD has made it a PRIORITY as well!  We have really good things going on in our classrooms.  As far as I can see,  our BIG shift will be with our small group reading.  

We just need to support our students with grade level text and provide the scaffolding to help them be successful. 

Students will need PRACTICE time with new phonics concepts and that practice can be during centers or during small group reading with a decodable text.  

Need some proof?  Check out this next video showing what a little explicit phonics instruction can do.  Pay close attention to when she reviews what phonics levels are required to read the words in the text.      

So what do we do next?  

*We keep having the conversations that we had this week in PLC.  

*We start scouring our school for decodable readers and we as a school invest in purchasing decodable readers. 

*We follow our Letterland manuals and make that time in our classroom a priority. 

*We assess our students quickly on Fridays about the weekly phonics skill.  Struggling students get reteaching the following week with word building and decodable readers! 

*Students successful with the skill dive into small group reading focused on the weekly comprehension skill using a GRADE level text!

WAIT...what about words that you can't sound out?  Like sight words? 

Well, HEART WORDS of course!  Teaching students that there are parts of words that you have to know by heart.  Some words you can use parts of your phonics knowledge to decode but other parts you must know by ❤️!
Check out this site with TONS of great videos and activities to teach HEART words!

Little steps!  We can do this. Let's keep talking and sharing what we are learning about what science says about how students learn to read.