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. 

The Reading Wars

Hi All!  Hurricane Thursday was definitely a surprise! Thank you for regrouping and adjusting to a last minute decision that needed to be made!  

I spent the afternoon on Wednesday in an incredible PD about The Science of Reading and the shift our district is making to work smarter and not harder!  

Meaning...we are going to follow the science of how our brains learn to read!  We made this shift last year in math with the addition of our Clusters and the focus on the following:

This year is definitely crazy and we are having to adjust to so much but it is the perfect time to step back and punt!  We can dabble in The Science of Reading and REALLY get a handle on what we want this to look like in our classrooms.  

This article on The Reading Wars says it all! 

WATCH this video on The Reading Wars!!!!!  We are going to heal the wounds! 

WATCH this TOO! 

I know what you are thinking...SCHROEDER!  What does this mean for us?  Well it means we are going to make small adjustments to our instruction to get the most bang for our buck! 

First, friends we are NOT going to be leveling our readers like we have in the past.  (I know, you may need to sit down.). 

Levels are for BOOKS NOT Kids!

• We will NOT be doing Running Records to determine a level to group students. 
• We will NOT be reporting to parents a LEVEL as a grade. 
• We will NOT be having the L group come for guided reading.  

Friends~We are putting the MCLASS anvil DOWN! You are not holding this over your head all year!  Your district supports The Science of Reading!  

Well SCHROEDER, what will we be doing then? 

• We WILL be doing running records to drive our instruction. (The letter score is for the teacher!!!!!!)You can use any book or passage!!!!
• We WILL be using decodable readers connected to our Letterland lessons. 
• We WILL be presenting grade level material in LARGE GROUP! 
• We WILL spend a good amount of our 90 minute reading block focused on Letterland!

We WILL be moving to STRUCTURED Literacy in place of BALANCED Literacy.  

Wait but what if I teach 2nd or 3rd grade and my kids are reading high levels?

Aren't decodables for kiddos learning to read?  Ours are reading to learn!

NO!  Decodables are fantastic for students at high levels if the teachers connects the text to their Phonics Skills!  

• Students will work with connected texts based on our Letterland pacing. 
• They will read grade level texts in small groups and focus on the standards. 
• Students will interact with the read aloud text during small group-zooming in on certain parts fo the text.  Students will work on higher level questioning and written response. (We want them to be secure with grade level material!)

*This is just a SNEAK PEEK at the direction that MGSD is going in READING.  Remember it is going to be a work in progress this year.  

We are in this boat together!

Multi Sensory Learning

Hi All!  Thank you for an amazing week at PVES!  There were so many smiling faces and happy people...what we all have REALLY needed!

I have been dabbling in all that is out there about the Science of Reading and I LOVE that it supports multi sensory learning.  Structured Literacy supports SOR because it is systematic and cumulative!  Read more about Structured Literacy over at Sarah's Snippets!   

I am a huge advocate for teaching to different learning styles.  Check out this quick video about the multi-sensory approach!

The term multi-sensory means that when new information is presented to a students they will interact with that new material using multiple senses all at one.  In a nutshell, the more ways they interact with new material, the more pathways they create for retrieval. 

When planning your lessons, think about visual, auditory & kinesthetic approaches. When I plan my lessons,  I always have something visual like a video or image projected, a song or chant to support the learning & and hand motions! These simple additions give children something to link their learning too. 

Take a look at the Language Triangle! 

SEE HOW it is all CONNECTED!

Think about Quick Coding!  Allowing students to mark up word parts hits visual and kinesthetic learning. Take it to the next level and have your students quick code with play dough or pipe cleaners! That would make one engaging center!

Can we make comprehension multi sensory!  Sure can! Try color coding your graphic organizers & then have your students respond about the text in the corresponding colors!  Check out this JAMboard! 

Can we use the Multi-Sensory approach in math?  

Yep...we sure can! 

It takes us back to the concrete, representational and abstract! 

I love this connection for tapping out numbers.  Reminds be of tapping our letter sounds in words! 

The act of tapping out the numbers allows students to connect symbols to actual amounts.  

It is like FEELING the NUMBER!

Read about more fun ways to multi sensory your math at Understand.org!

Using multiple senses allows student to connect in more ways with new subject matter.  It helps them tap into how they learn best.  What approach they need to take when presented with new material.  

I have been thinking about our 3rd grade Letterland training this week and decided to MULTI Sensory the black line masters to be used in centers.  So SUPER easy to do!

In the first picture, you will see the reading passage for the unit.  This activity would be great for a buddy reading activity!  I used color coding and cut and paste to add the visual & kinesthetic.  The speech bubbles are where the students will be discussing the meaning of the boldface words.  I added the word mapping at the bottom.  

*Echo Microphones would be great for reading the words! 

*And perfect for ROBOT reading! 

Picture 2 is the word sort, again I added the color coding & cut and paste for the visual and kinesthetic.  This could also be put in a pocket chart with words on large cards or create the chart on a shower curtain.  

Multi Sensory learning is about thinking outside the box and upping the engagement through learning styles!  I can't wait to see what you all come up with next week! 

Positive Self Talk

Happy Fall Break!  I hope you all find a way to decompress and relax.  I am so very proud of all of your hard work and dedication to your students.  Thank you for being amazing.  Thank you for never giving up.  Thank you for being problem solvers, tech support, counselors, entertainers and so much more!

This post may seem like a bit of a hodgepodge but I have some fun things to share! 

SURPRISE...I can't keep this to myself!!!!  

WE NEEEEEED something to look forward too!

THE PEP SQUAD is making a come back!

Our goal for this resurrection is 2020!  It has been a HARD year and we all need to put some PEP back in our step!

Be prepared...after break you are in for some fun surprises thanks to our PEP Squad members.  We have been working franticly behind the scenes to spoil our Patriot Staff!

(There is still time to join the PEP Squad!) 

We will find the POSITIVE in 2020!

Speaking of positive and spoiling check out some of the simple self-care ideas that you can start right away.  

One of my favorites from above is Positive Self Talk.  This has become common language at my house over the years.  Both of my kiddos are athletes and my daughter Lily spent 4 years with a mental strength coach.  She has always stressed POSITIVE Self Talk.  

We have to treat ourselves in a positive way.  Talk kindly to and about ourselves.  

 

This is the cutest video from The Kid President! 

Did you know that positive self talk has some heath benefits too?  

• Increased Vitality 
• Greater Life Satisfaction
• Improved Immune Function
• Reduced Pain
• Improved Cardiovascular Health
• Better Physical Well-being
• Less stress and destress

Research also suggests people that practice positive self talk may have mental skills that allow them to be problem solvers, think in different ways and be able to handle stressful situations better.  This reduces STRESS!  

Check out this blogpost from Very Well Minded.  Lots of good ideas to help you reframe your thinking. 

My goal since March has been to wake and let yesterday go.  To focus on the day ahead with a positive outlook.  Is it easy?  Heck no but I sure am trying and it is making a difference for me!  

I am trying to check in with my feelings during the day and make sure I am not traveling down that negative road.  My real trick is finding the humor.  Looking for the funny and the light hearted.  

Mr. Rogers says "Look for the Helpers" in a crisis.  I totally agree but I also look for the humor as a way to break the stress level.  I think I have always been a jokester and humor is my love language! 

Why else would I say yes to doing an Instagram review of these teenager sun glasses!  Because I knew I would look hilarious and hilarious makes me happy!