Reader's Response and Think Clouds

We have been working up a storm in my second grade classroom to become more comprehensive thinkers as we read. Overall, my students are excellent readers. Their ability levels definitely keep me challenged to continue thinking of strategies and literature that takes them to a deeper level in their thought process and comprehension. My kiddos also LOVE to read...by this I mean they even ask if they can read at recess {What????}! I definitely want to keep all of those positive thoughts flowing for a VERY long time!

Last week, we began reading Mr. Popper's Penguins during our shared reading time. I am sad to say that up until this point, I have never actually read this book and/or seen the movie! Boy...was I missing out! My students have absolutely fallen head over heels for Captain Cook {the penguin} and the whole Popper family. This book is a scream...from the Poppers turning their refrigerator into the proper habitat for this tuxedo wearing creature to Captain Cook building his rookery from daily household objects!

Each day, I read a new chapter from Mr. Popper's Penguins. While reading, I have a student recording "important words" on sticky notes. These are words that we stop to discuss or words that our recorder thinks we may want to remember. This books has a wonderful selection of words to really build a student's vocabulary. After we read the chapter, we discuss our words and add them to our sweet little version of Captain Cook! This book has really been providing those "teachable moments" that we all know and love! We have learned all about prefixes, suffixes, dialogue, adverbs...and the list goes on! Have I mentioned...I LOVE this book????  

Each day, we dive into another chapter. I have almost decided to move shared reading to the very beginning of our day because my kids enter the door asking about our dear Popper family. After reading and some class discussion, each child responds to a writing prompt from the chapter.  Click on the cute little penguin below to take a look at those journal prompts.

 Each student has their own written response journal that they use when responding to prompts. I tried using their writing journals but everything began getting all jumbled up, so separate journals were the ticket.

I have been so impressed with the progress that the students have made in such a short time. They are now responding with two paragraphs for each prompt. {definitely something we had to work towards} One paragraph identifies details that happen from the story and one paragraph is used to make text-to-self connections with the events that occurred during that chapter. Not only has this improved my students comprehension skills but MY OH MY how their writing has improved all around! Again, the kids are just so into the story they can hardly wait to get into their journals. One of my boys who once despised writing is now writing up a storm. It's all about tapping into their interest!?! Right??? Right!

Prior to beginning this little unit of study, we really spent time exploring written response, reading examples and creating a rubric to identify the things that we thought we would need to include to have a powerful response. Here is what we came up with...

You can click here for an example Reader's Response Rubric from ReadWriteThink!

I just can't wait to find out what happens in this story! I may have to read ahead! :)

Random Alert:

On a little random note, I saw the amazing little invention of the "think clouds" on pinterest and had to create some to include some of the skills that we have been working on. {author's purpose, fix-up strategies, predicting, etc.} As the students independently read during guided reading groups, they can grab a think cloud when they would like to share a strategy that they used while reading. For example, if a student made a connection while reading, they would grab the "Make Connections" think cloud. After reading, I allow each student to quickly share the strategy that they used while reading. This really makes the discussion meaningful for each student. You can click on the picture below to download the think clouds if you would like! :)

 

Happy Wednesday Friends!

Making Up for LOST Time! {FREEBIES}

Hi to all of my sweet bloggin' friends that have been patiently waiting for several of things that I have been DYING to post for all of you! I have just recently received my Scrappin' Doodles license for freebies and so we are good to go!

I have been having SO much fun in second grade but BOY is it a CHALLENGE to create everything {and I mean EVERYTHING} from scratch. I am so fortunate to have the same sweet kids from last year {they are so AWESOME} but I want everything to be new and exciting for them...SO...materials from last year are all a thing of the past! Good thing I LOVE a challenge...right?!? So, as promised, here are a few things that we have been working on in second grade. I also have many more ideas/printables to post...hang tight and I will get them all up here just for you!

Author's Purpose

Last week, my kiddos and I spent several days learning about why author's write books and analyzing text to find that purpose. After introducing the three reasons author's write books, three students took on "the role" of each purpose. They presented their scripts and the class had to decide the purpose of each script and character. They truly got a kick out of this little activity. So much in fact...that we did it...TWICE! :)  After the presentations, we made up little movements for P.I.E. The power of movement with these youngsters is priceless and they remember these words probably better than most adults. I will TRY my very best to explain our little movements to you!

Prior to assigning movements to each word, we analyzed the words for "chunks" or sounds that would help us to remember the meaning of each word.

Persuade: Using "sway" as our key word to help us remember this definition, the students stand up and sway back and forth pretending to change their mind and think about something in a new/different way. 

Inform: In this word, we found the word "In" and we recognized that it also looks a lot like the word "information". As we say inform, we pretend to put information into our brain!

Entertain: This word was a little tricky...but we found the chunk "enter" and pretended to enter into a state of being a STAR! We created a capital "E" with our bodies (hand sticking out above the head, hand sticking out in the middle, and our leg sticking out at the bottom...can you see it??? OK...just checking! HA!) As we created our "E" we used a little spirit finger action and shouted "Entertain!" It made everyone laugh and so the students concluded that we did our job of making everyone "feel" silly!   

I am so sure that I just confused the heck out of you but I promise you...it worked like a charm! :)

After learning the meaning of each word and analyzing text, I split the students up into three groups...each with their very own purpose. Each group had to write about the zoo {Animals = 2nd Grade Science Standard = Science Integration with Writing = YES!!!!}. One group had to write to persuade, one group wrote to inform (this group was a research group) and the last group wrote to entertain (they chose to write a funny story...similar to Madagascar!) I am hoping to get pictures of their writings up for you very soon. They were AWESOME!

These activities were very successful with my students and I now can't get them to stop analyzing text and identifying the author's purpose for writing. Love when they are so enthused!

Click on the picture below to download the posters {inspired by Pinterest} and scripts!

2nd Grade ROCKS! {Song inspired by the Biebs}

Every morning, we begin our day by singing our Welcome/2nd Grade Rocks song. I created this song to really get my students pumped up and ready to learn each day. There has only been one morning that we have not had time to sing {due to an assembly} and y'all it truly threw our entire day completely off! They are so in love with this song that many times, we just HAVE to sing it at the end of the day too! We sing it to the instrumental of "Baby" by Justin Bieber along with imaginary microphones! Yes, I even have some kids doing a little slide across the floor at the end of the song! Honestly...one of the funniest things that I have ever watched. But then, of course, they know it is time to get SERIOUS and get to work! They do a great job with this transition!  Click on the picture below to download the lyrics!

Coming Soon...and a FREEBIE

Next week, it is ALL about weather in science. My room will be transformed into the land of CHEWANDSWALLOW! If you haven't read "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" you may be a little lost here! But...I have decided to center my weather unit around this amazing little story. I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on this unit and I will be posting lots of pictures as well as the unit in the next two weeks! Just so you don't have to wait for the entire thing....here are the vocabulary cards that will be included in my "Cloudy with a Chance" Weather Unit. Click on the picture below to snatch this little download up!

One Last Thing...I SWEAR!

 {I told you...I have SO much to catch up on in the blog sharing world!}

It is FINALLY....FINALLY FINISHED and ready to go!

Wait...Did I hear a "Praise the Lord" or was that just me!?! 

First Grade Word Work will be posted TOMORROW to TPT! So...for all of your firsties

I hope that you are all having a well deserved LONG weekend! Happy Sunday Friends!

OH SNAP!!!!! Motivating Young Readers!

I think that all teachers would agree that motivating students to read and practice reading on a daily basis can sometimes pose a little challenge. Sometimes, students may need a little incentive to direct them towards a true love and passion for reading! As I was thinking about how I wanted to motivate my readers, I had two things twirling in mind. I wanted my incentive program to be something AWESOME that would actually motivated my students and excite them about reading. AND...the OCD teacher side of me wanted something that would be easy to maintain and would not require a great amount of "housekeeping."  I combined these two things to create OH S.N.A.P. {Get it.."snapshots"...that's where the cameras come into play...I know...cheesy is my middle name and it is totally part of a teacher's job description!}

OH S.N.A.P. does not only reward those students who are demonstrating progress by advancing levels in their reading. We all know that it may take some of our struggling readers several weeks to advance and these students are the readers that we need to target and keep consistently engaged and motivated. This program also rewards those students who are going above and beyond to become the very best readers that they can be. Rewarding effort is just as important as rewarding achievement! While using OH S.N.A.P. to encourage reading, students will be rewarded for four different reading achievements: Reading Practice (Reading Logs), A.R. (Accelerated Reader: If your school does not implement this program, there is an alternate point system), Reading Level Advancement, & Readers Response.

The students will earn OH S.N.A.P points as they accomplish their reading goals. They clip their point cards on individual ribbons to keep track of what they have earned (I Use the OH S.N.A.P. Student Records Chart to keep track of my students points each week). On Friday, I hold a small celebration to reward students with point clips and certificates.

The students will add their S.N.A.P. clips to their individual ribbons. The students are rewarded with special rewards as they reach a specific amount of points. 

They students receive the reward as soon as they have earned the needed points. The point system does not start over until the student has reached 150 points. So, by this point, the student will have received all 7 rewards. The student will then begin working towards 150 points again earning rewards along the way!

If you would like to pick up OH S.N.A.P., head on over to visit my TPT store!

Here is a weekend FREEBIE for you to enjoy! OH S.N.A.P. Reading Log!

How do you motivate and reward young readers in your classroom?

The Count Down Continues...3 days until I see the most amazing second graders...EVER! :)