Hi everyone! My name is Jennifer McCrann and I am a 4th and 5th grade split teacher. I have been teaching at Main Street CEC for seven years now, and have taught all grades 1-5th at some point in my career. Main Street is a private school in the southern portion of Campbell County. I have a very small classroom of just 15 students this next school year.
http://www.mainstreetcec.org/ My school's website.
http://www.mainstreetcec.org/ My school's website.
1. I love using technology. I use PowerPoint, internet games, Microsoft Word, and I currently began using Photo Story. For those of you that have never used Photo Story, try it! It is free and easy to use. It is like PowerPoint, but easier! I use it especially as an after field trip activity. You can post pictures you take of your trip, make captions, and can even use your students’ voices to help narrate the story. It really went over well with my class when I incorporated it in the classroom. I also use Bookadventure.com in my classroom. Since my school is so small, we didn’t have Accelerated Reader, “AR” so I found this free website where students can read books, get points and earn prizes. Last year my class began Bookadventure.com, and we won a contest from the site for reading that was a competition with the entire country! Our prize was free movie tickets to see The Owls of Ga’hoole. It was a big motivation factor for my students.
http://www.bookadventure.com/ This is the website to bookadventure.com.
2. I have literature circles in my classroom. The students get placed in reading groups based on their reading preferences. They have jobs that they share with each other everyday. This helps them to work as a group to comprehend the book and gets them actively thinking more about the books they are reading. In the past, when I used basal readers, my students hated it. There is a wealth of information on literature circles on the internet if you have never done it in your classroom. Trust me, the students love it!
http://www.lauracandler.com/strategies/litcircles.php
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/reading/literature_circles/
http://www.burgettstown.k12.pa.us/725220823232627560/lib/725220823232627560/Lit_Circles.Role_Sheets.pdf
http://worksheetplace.com/index.php?function=DisplayCategory&showCategory=Y&links=2&id=51&link1=43&link2=51
3. I love placing my class into small groups and giving them a prompt or a problem that must be solved within their group. I ask them to brainstorm, analyze different solutions to their problem, relate the problem to them personally, list pros and cons, etc. When they are in groups and working on a higher thinking level, they come up with the best ideas. In the beginning of the year, I set up rules of respect and basic etiquette for them. This really helped as well.
I too have wanted to implement more differentiation into my classes. I teach freshman boys in health and PE. I have all levels of learners, so hopefully through differentiation, I can help each individual have success in my classroom. I look forward to hearing your thoughts throughout this class!
ReplyDeleteLiteracy workstations are basically what others call reading centers. However, the workstation may have a science activity but some type of literacy is incorporated in it. Also, by calling it a "workstation," it reinforces that this is a place for learning and working not just playing. Do you currently do any type of workstations in your classroom?
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteI love all the resources you've posted on your blog so please don't take them down for awhile! I just taught reading for the first time this past school year and I would love to do literature circles/workstations. I have taught fifth grade for 9 years but for 8 out of the nine years my focus was math/science/writing.
I picked the book "Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies" by Sherry Parrish. The ideas in the book would fit right in with your 3rd strategy though the "walk" is done with the whole class--by the way so jealous that you'll only have 15 students next year though it will be just as hard as 26 since it's a 4/5 split
Heather L. Turner
Wonderful resources! This will be an asset to enhancing instruction. Your students will love it. The only challenge I see for you is finding time to implement it, however, once you start it will become easier. Your students will catch on quickly and be able assist one another.
ReplyDeleteChapter 8 of the book I am reading: Reading, Writing, and Learning in the ESL, elaborates on how to use response groups and set up literature centers that extend response to literature. The ideas would work for students who are not ESLs as well. Some ideas were: creating videos, reader's theater, book jackets, story maps, creating songs, posters, mobiles, etc. The idea would be to encourage students to try a variety of response extensions. Have them sign up at the beginning of the day and keep track of response extensions they choose.
ReplyDeleteJennifer your resources are amazing. It's so interesting to see so many different points of view. I will be excited to hear about how you like implementing so much technology, especially using "Who wants to be a millionaire."
ReplyDeleteI do something similar in my classroom with literature circles, but working within the resource room with students creates a bit of a challenge, but they love the individual attention that is given to them during the lit. circle time. I like that you give each of them jobs that they have to share, this might be something I would like to try. My kids often have a hard time focusing on specific tasks, but they eventually get the work done.