The Thing About November...

The thing about November is that it really makes you stop and think about what you are thankful for...and it is a time when you can share your thoughts about what you are thankful for (especially now that Facebook is around!).  I am so thankful for so many things...I am thankful for my family, friends, the blogging community, and you.  Yes you!  You give me a reason to write and a reason to share when I'd be just as happy if I crawled back into my shell and sat back and watched life happen.  Thank you!

Speaking of watching life happen, I am the world's worse when it comes to schedules.  I have a HORRIBLE time following them when it comes to the classroom.  So, when I heard about the linky that Susan Jones was linking, I figured I might as well join up. 

 There has been a lot of talk about RTI and how it fits into schedules and I have to confess that I am REALLY worried this week as I begin teaching 2 different RTI groups while trying to put the BALANCE into Balanced Literacy with only 120 minutes to teach literacy.  That gives me an hour to do all of my guided reading groups, my read aloud, my shared reading, throw in some social studies and science, teach some phonics, create my anchor charts,oh, and I forgot....writer's workshop.  And to think, I stopped biting my fingernails years ago...anyway...here is my schedule.

My Schedule 

8:15 Folders are out kids 'Read to Self'

8:30-9:00  RTI

9:00-9:30 Whole Group

9:30-9:45 Small Group

9:45-10:15 2nd RTI Group

10:15-10:45 Small Groups

10:45 Related Arts, except on Friday. 

11:30 Clean Up 

11:40 Lunch 

12:05 Recess 

12:30 Math and math activities 

2:40 Clean up and get ready for dismissal. 

This week I am using Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy as my read aloud!

I also wanted to show you what I am using in my classroom this week!  I'm not big on visual plans, but how about a visual list??  =)

Here is a fluency pack from none other than the NUTTY AS A FRUITCAKE, Missy Squirrels!  

This packet was created by Amanda Madden from Teaching Maddeness!  We are teaching about producers, consumers, needs, and wants this week.

And, of course I am using my old standby to teach sight words!  Lori is awesome!

I don't have any big ideas for a craftivity.  Any suggestions?  Just leave them in the comment section!

Revised Sight Word Phrases with Games

Just wanted to add an update:

The sight word phrase cards discussed in an earlier post have been revised and games have been added!  I am using these with my guided reading groups and they are helping with sight word identification and phrase fluency. I am ecstatic!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Phrase-Cards-Fluency-Center

Best Practices With Sight Words and Vocabulary

I'm going to start my first 'real' blog with a subject that is near and dear to me. After years of teaching first grade and then moving to second grade inclusion, I began to realize that teaching sight words in isolation was not working. About 10 years ago, I began to search for a better method and read a book by Timothy Ransinski (I believe that is how to spell his name--I'll need to double check!) , one of the leaders of balanced literacy and differentiated reading. He reported success with sight words after developing sight words phrases rather than sight words in isolation. I took his words and ran with it. These days, when I am working with my lower reading level students, you will find me introducing vocabulary words and sight words within the phrases they are written in by the author. For example, if the sentence in the reader is "The train tried and tried to push up the hill", I would pull out the phrases 'tried to push' and 'up the hill' in order to create a 'mind picture' or 'mind action picture' so that the students can build schema and make connections to the words through visualization. Instead of sight words on a ring to drill, I use sight words phrases. As the students internalize more words, they are asked to use the phrase to complete a sentence and illustrate it to prove their understanding. I have seen a huge increase over the years in sight word vocabulary! Try it!

Jenn

P.S. If you feel that writing or typing out the phrase cards is too big of an undertaking at this time of the year, I uploaded the sight word phrases that I use on teacherspayteachers.com. You can find them under my full name, Jennifer Harness Ayers.