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Guided Math - The FINALE!!

It's the last week - the last chapter and I am ready to put it all into action.  On Monday, I met with my besties, long-time first grade teacher, across the hall neighbor, and my bloggy partner in crime.  We worked through out first math unit - making plans to be totally GUIDED MATH ready!  

I have been so excited to plan out what we can do as a team to make Guided Math work in our rooms!  We met Monday to make plans.  We plan to revise our HAVE TO KNOWS.  We love using them, but Melanie and I noticed that some of what we listed as a HAVE TO KNOW has changed, so we want to revise as we go.  We also plan to make a grid for note taking during small group time.  This will help us match the lessons/activities to the HAVE TO KNOW's of the unit.  
We get a document that looks like this from the math dept (this is only one page).  Our math is a bit of a mish mash of a few programs.  

We went through each lesson to plan out group activities - and provide for more teacher/student time.  Right now they are written out, but soon I hope to put them on the computer.  For now, you can look at my messy Bessy handwriting ;)

I would NOT be the teacher I am without my team.  My school has a STRONG PLC community.  We meet at least 2 times each week to plan and look at data and group kiddos.  I am planning a WHOLE post on this soon, so be on the look out!!

I hope you have gotten even  half as much as I have from this book.  It has been a great experience and I am looking forward to putting my plan into action!!

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The Literacy Teacher's Playbook - Action Plan Part #2

Happy Wednesday!

Can you believe we made it to week 6 already!  We are back again with the next part of the action plan - what type of instruction will be just right to meet the goals we set?

In this section the author talks about gradually releasing responsibility to learners and giving students what they need to meet their goals. 

Students who need a high level of support would benefit from mini-lessons, interactive read alouds, and close reading instruction (see my falling in posts on Sundays for more on close reading!)

Students who need a moderate level of support would benefit from shared reading, strategy lessons, conferring, guided reading, interactive writing, and shared writing.

Students who need a low level of support would benefit from independent reading, partnerships, and peer editing.  

I know you all know about these instructional strategies, so I won't bore you with the details.  I did like how clearly it was set up - somewhat intuitive sure, but an easy go-to guide when planning.  

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you thought of some things you can take back and use in your room.  

Continue hopping to see what others have to say...

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Falling in LOVE with Close Reading - Chapter 3 - Word Choice

Happy Sunday! And of course welcome back to our weekly bloggy book study of Falling in Love with Close Reading.  I am happy just to be able to be typing to you today! Last week my computer shut off unexpectedly and refused to turn on - EEK!!  Luckily it is under warranty and I could get a loaner.  I hadn't backed up in a few weeks, so I lost some things, but it could have been ALOT worse!

This week we are diving into WORD CHOICE.  I will admit I was not sure how in the world I would make this applicable to my little ones, but I think I have found a home for these lessons as a partner to my informational text  lessons on main idea and details.  

Word choice for first graders??  Huh?

I can only imagine what you are thinking - and I was thinking the same things as I began reading this week, but I think I have found some ways to make this work.

I really like how the author introduces the concept to kids - using ads.  I'm not sure how well this would work for the little ones, but I think  it could be modified to match if the ads are carefully chosen. 

The close reading process is similar when modified to look at word choice:
1.  Read through lenses.
   -  choose specific words to gather - words that evoke strong emotions,     strong images, or a clear idea.

2.  Use lenses to find patterns.
   -  Which words fit together?
   -  How do they fit together?

3.  Use the patters to develop a new understanding of the text.
   -  Think about the author's tone, purpose, relationship to the subject, or central idea.

I really liked the way that the authors chose to talk with students about word choice in informational text.  I felt like I could do some of this work with my whole class or small guided reading groups when we are studying the main idea and details of informational text.  

Again, the authors gave us some sentence stems to use when kids are finding the patterns.  
-   One pattern I see is ______ with words like ____.
-  Some words fit together, like ____ and make me feel ______.
-  These words fit together because they sound ______.
-  The author could have _____ but instead ______.
-  There seems to be more than one pattern _____ and also ______.

I will be honest here - I think that the little kids may have a harder time working with word choice in fiction.  I am hoping to find specific texts that would work with my higher readers.  I will let you know what I try out!

Thanks again for joining me this week.  Hopefully, this week will be one with out ANY technological interruptions!

Make sure to enter this week's giveaway!

And of course keep on reading for more AMAZING ideas!

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