K-6 ELA Resources & Updates
October
Student Engagment 101
Have you ever wondered if your students are engaged in the lesson or just compliant? Have you ever felt like you were working way harder on the learning than the students? Let's talk about some ways to get kids to use their brains and become more engaged.
Ways to increase engagement in your lessons:
- Introduce concepts through pictures.
- Provide real-world connections in your lesson introduction.
- Modeling your thinking for students to hear what you are doing. (This is done in all subject areas and not just during read alouds.)
- Teach with enthusiasm...even when it is something you do not like to teach!
- Celebrate the student's effort and not just the right answer.
- Teach through songs and motions.
- Provide hands-on learning activities. (This can also happen in ELA!)
PACKETS OF WORKSHEETS ARE NOT ENGAGING, but they are also not fun to grade!
To increase the engagement in your classroom, you must think about the task you will ask the students to complete. Focusing on the process standards is the first thing you must do. You might ask, what are the process standards in reading and writing? Figure 19 is your process standards in reading, and the writing process standards are the process standards for writing.
Another way to increase engagement is to provide students with time to collaborate with their peers! There are so many ways to build collaboration in your classroom throughout your day. Collaboration is more than one student working on the assignment while the other watches, it is having them complete the task together and discussing as they go.
Other Engagement & Collaboration Resources:
- http://www.edutopia.org/student-engagement-resources
- http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/seven-ways-to-increase-student-engagement-in-the-classroom
- http://www.edutopia.org/stw-collaborative-learning-resources
- http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/08/the-top-27-free-tools-to-collaborate.html
- http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/09/19/resources-student-collaboration-543/
- http://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/research_and_rationale/330/The-Essential-5-A-Starting-Point-for-Kagan-Cooperative-Learning
- http://www.psd150.org//cms/lib2/IL01001530/Centricity/Domain/23/DescriptionsOfStrategies.pdf
Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween by Melanie Watt
From costume ideas to trick-or-treating strategies, Scaredy Squirrel helps readers plan for the spookiest night of the year! Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween is the second in a series of nutty safety guides featuring everyone's favorite worrywart.
It's Halloween, I'm Turning Green by Dan Gutman
In this Weird School Special, It’s Halloween, I’m Turning Green!, A.J. and the gang from the My Weird School series are ready for one of their favorite holidays!
It’s Halloween, and you know what that means! Candy! Costumes! More candy! What would happen if a kid ate a million hundred pounds of chocolate in one night? One thing’s for sure—when A.J. and his friends from Ella Mentry School go trick-or-treating, it will be a Halloween to remember.
Bestselling author Dan Gutman brings his wacky, kid-friendly sense of humor to this all-new series of holiday adventures. With hilarious illustrations by Jim Paillot, plus My Weird School trivia and Halloween-themed games, facts, and puzzles, this is one weird Halloween special you don’t want to miss!
13 Poems for Halloween and More by Tom Clark
Walk with Me
Come walk with me,
in poetry,
and watch the moon ascend.
Come see what hides,
and there abides,
that none can comprehend.
So as we go,
there to and fro,
within this haunted night.
Don't be a fool,
remember the rule,
to stay within the light.
TEA Changes STAAR Writing
Last week the Commissioner and TEA made revisions to the STAAR writing assessments in grades 4 & 7. Each of these tests will now only be assessed on one day and no longer will they be asking students to test for 2 days for writing.
Big Changes:
- 18 multiple choice questions--ONLY!
- 12 of these will be editing questions
- 6 of these will be revising questions
- 1 writing sample--EXPOSITORY ONLY!
- One Day testing
This change should not change our good writing instruction we have established in the district over the years. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about this change.
Website resources:
Helpful Videos
Meredith Davis
K-6 ELA & SS
Curriculum Coordinator
Email: meredith.davis@southlakecarroll.edu
Website: www.southlakecarroll.edu
Location: 2400 North Carroll Avenue, Southlake, TX, United States
Phone: 817.949.8247
Twitter: @carrollcurric