Dear Educator,
Keep up the good work and know that what you do each day MATTERS!
Happy Teaching!
-Kelly Harmon & Randi Anderson
Getting the Day Started
The first five-to-eight minutes of class sets the stage for the learning. Students need (and want) to be engaged and thinking from the moment they walk into our classrooms. Sometimes this can become a daunting task with all the morning routines we must complete before the first lesson of the day can begin. Being organized and intentionally incorporating student interests and natural curiosity will wake up the brain, get dendrites excited, and synapses firing!
We have compiled a list of some ways to wake up the brain and get students in a learning ready state of mind.
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Empowering Readers Through Read Alouds, Shared and Guided Reading October 25 - Dallas, TX 8:30am - 3:30pm Learn how the read aloud, shared, guided, and independent reading are connected! Explore and implement various ways to provide students with opportunities to read a variety of texts in many ways. Ensure that students are reading and comprehending at higher levels of thinking. For more information, visit our website! | Intentional Writing Instruction Workshop November 15 - Dallas, TX 8:30am - 3:30pm Join Kelly Harmon this fall to explore Writer's Workshop! Learn how to effectively teach the process, craft, and conventions of writing in engaging and rigorous ways! Explore strategies and ideas for exciting your students about writing such as using the latest technology to publish pieces and responding to literature in meaningful ways. For more information, visit our website! | Strengthening Your RTI Program- Two Day IntensiveNovember 9-10 - Minneapolis, MN 8:30am - 3:15pm This is a unique opportunity to evaluate your own Title I program in light of current research that identifies the most effective instructional practices, and gain an in-depth look at the key components of highly successful Title I programs and how these can be applied to your own Title I school or district model. Take an intensive look at what works for struggling learners and how you can adapt it to meet the needs in your school or district. For more information visit BER.org |
Empowering Readers Through Read Alouds, Shared and Guided Reading
8:30am - 3:30pm
Learn how the read aloud, shared, guided, and independent reading are connected! Explore and implement various ways to provide students with opportunities to read a variety of texts in many ways. Ensure that students are reading and comprehending at higher levels of thinking. For more information, visit our website!
Intentional Writing Instruction Workshop
8:30am - 3:30pm
Join Kelly Harmon this fall to explore Writer's Workshop! Learn how to effectively teach the process, craft, and conventions of writing in engaging and rigorous ways! Explore strategies and ideas for exciting your students about writing such as using the latest technology to publish pieces and responding to literature in meaningful ways. For more information, visit our website!
Strengthening Your RTI Program- Two Day Intensive
November 9-10 - Minneapolis, MN
8:30am - 3:15pm
This is a unique opportunity to evaluate your own Title I program in light of current research that identifies the most effective instructional practices, and gain an in-depth look at the key components of highly successful Title I programs and how these can be applied to your own Title I school or district model. Take an intensive look at what works for struggling learners and how you can adapt it to meet the needs in your school or district. For more information visit BER.org
Thinking Successfully- How To Teach Students to Manage Impulsivity
The purpose of school is to teach children strategies for becoming successful adults. Students need to learn academic skills and academic behaviors that will help them succeed in the classroom and in challenging life situations. Costa and Kallick have identified 16 habits of mind that help us respond intelligently when charting unfamiliar territories.
As an elementary teacher, Kelly selected one habit each week and used children's literature to help students understand what the habit is and how to develop the habit of mind. She started the day by setting the academic behavior goal for the week and discussing how this goal helps us think and act productively.
Being impulsive is a difficult characteristic to manage. Adults and kids alike are all impulsive at some point in time. Educators can give students strategies for managing the urge to be impulsive by encouraging students to take your time, think before you act, remain calm, and be thoughtful and deliberative.
One of the best ways to teach managing impulsivity is through interactive read alouds. Here are three children's titles that can help you illustrate and discuss how to manage being impulsive.
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Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel Mike and Mary Anne have a task that they are determined to accomplish in spite of the entire town doubting them. They are quick to react, but find themselves in a pickle when the job is done. Habits: Managing Impulsivity, thinking flexibly, Thinking Interdependently, and Persisting. | The Chocolate Chicken Max can't think of anything else but eating the chocolate chicken in the bird bath. He soon lets his impulsivity get the best of him and he eats the chocolate chicken without sharing it with his sister. Habits: Managing Impulsivity and Listening With Understanding and Empathy. | The Tortoise & the Hare This fable is a great way to illustrate how taking your time and not being impulsive can help you win the race, even when you think the task is impossible. Habits: Managing Impulsivity and Persisting. |
Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel
The Chocolate Chicken
The Tortoise & the Hare
First Up: Help Students Develop and Use Genre Knowledge for Strategic Reading
Why is Genre Knowledge Critical?
Start the year off building the students' knowledge of genre in order to think more critically about every text they encounter this year. Good readers use genre knowledge to get beyond surface-level comprehension. They orient themselves to each text and select comprehension strategies based upon the demands of the text. For example, you would think about character actions in a fiction text and key ideas in an expository text.
Genre Study
Students need to be immersed in various genres throughout the year. Start each genre study with a book flood in your classroom. A book flood is simply a collection of books in the genre that students listen to, read, and analyze. Letting students uncover the genre characteristics and elements on their own is key! They will have to use their inferencing skills to discover how the genre works by noticing similarities and differences across texts. #whoisdoingthework
Levels of Teaching Genre
In the book Genre Study, by Fountas & Pinnell recommend setting up an inquiry for each genre study.
1. Collect
Collect mentor texts and independent level texts for the book flood.
2. Immerse
Give students opportunities to explore examples of the genre they are studying.
3. Study
Analyze characteristics, elements, and structures of the genre. What do you notice the genre always has? What does it sometime, or often, have?
Create an anchor chart for the genre that lists "always" and "often."
4. Define
Create a class definition of the genre using the list of "always" and "often."
5. Teach
Teach the genre features in your mini lessons. Use your grade level standards to determine learning outcomes related to the genre.
6. Read and Revise
Expand students' understanding by continuing to read and explore the genre.
For more in depth information about teaching genre, attend one of our October workshops on Empowering Readers! For more information, click here!
Word Games
This month, we are featuring one of our favorite words game, Bananagrams!
Bananagrams is great because it encourages students to build words in the form of crossword puzzles. Players must use their phonics and letter pattern knowledge to create words that build off of each other. This game is fun and easy to play. You can use it as a classroom center, morning warmup, or homework game to play as a family! Check out Bananagrams on Amazon. There are also other related word games to explore, Apple Scrabble and PairsinPears!
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