Purpose and Motives for Presentation of Info Part 2

As I mentioned in my last post, I couldn't find a presentation that met my needs for meeting Common Core English Language Arts Standards » Speaking& Listening » Grade 8, so I created one.  Actually, I made two.  This is the second one and the foldable that goes with it.  As my class goes through it, discussing it, they will take notes in a foldable, which they will then add to their interactive journals. 

 

 

 

I wish I had some new and fabulous foldable design to share, but I went with the tried and true layered design because it can hold so much info.

 

The definition for demeanor that I used came from Bing Dictionary.

Purpose and Motives for Presentation of Info

I couldn't find a presentation that met my needs for meeting Common Core English Language Arts Standards » Speaking & Listening » Grade 8, so I created one.  As my class goes through it, discussing it, they will take notes in a foldable, which they will then add to their interactive journals. 

 

 

This is the foldable they will create.  The cover template came from HERE.

 

Below, you will see photos of the foldable while I was making my sample.  I am a visual person.  Messy writing, particularly mine, drives me nuts.  I also spend a great deal of energy explaining to my students that first impressions count, and when it comes to their work, that often means their handwriting/neatness.  Even most of my poor-handwriting students slow down and try to give their best once they realize this fact.  Anyhow, I created the lined portion.  Students could have just used the lines in their notebooks, but many of my students bought wide-lined notebooks instead of narrow.  They would not fit all the info in on the wide lines so making something I know will work for all of them seemed my best option.  I printed the cover, measured it, and created a back that was sized to match. 

 

As for the cover, again, I don't like mess.  I show my students how to lightly pencil in guide lines that show them where to write. 

 

 

I hope this helps those of you who will also be working to meet this Common Core learning standard.

Interactive Reading Notebook Post 1

For the past couple of days, I have been working on setting up example, interactive notebooks for language arts and reading.  For the first week of school, my students will be setting their notebooks up and creating some pages that tap into background knowledge and (hopefully) help them take ownership of and pride in their notebooks. 

I figured I would share how we are starting the reading notebook.  The students will have to create a cover for it that titles it as their interactive reading notebook.  They can draw it, write it, or create it on their computers.  (I am very lucky.  My district has a laptop initiative that allows every student from 6th grade through 12th grade have a school-owned laptop to use at school and at home.  It has a VERY low initial fee and a contract that governs usage and a $100 deductable should the student damage the laptop.  Most families take the district up on this deal.  I also have two laptops in my room that students, who were unable to afford the plan, may use.  Thus, the only students that really do not have computer access are those that lose the right through misuse of their laptop from a prior year.)

The Last 10 Books I Read, where students will reflect on the books they have read most recently.

My Reading Timeline, where students will reflect on the books that have shaped their lives.




I Read Because... will help students consider the reasons they read.





My Heart Map helps students identify what is important to them so they can use it as criteria for picking books.

The first 4 pages are set up as a table of contents.  Then, the students will create some pages that demonstrate their reading background and allow them some creativity to make their notebook theirs.  None of these page idea are mine.  I came across them on Pinterest, and they are all pinned at various points on my reading board.  Some have been slightly modified for my grade-level or preferences, but others are exactly as the originators designed them.  The pages with book images were printed on my home printer.  My students will have the option of printing at their homes in color or on our grade-level printer in black and white.  The "I Read Because..." page uses random scrapbook papers I have collected over the years punched with a 1 1/2 inch circle punch.  The timeline is made using blue masking tape I had leftover from a painting job.  Finally, the cover art/title was sealed using packing tape so it can stand up to the use it is going to receive.  For the covers, I used backgrounds by http://www.etsy.com/shop/beartless and a digi font by http://www.etsy.com/shop/kpmdoodles.

 

I hope to get photos of the language arts notebook up soon, and I need to finish a few more pages that will be part of setting up the reading one too.

    

Common Core Standards for 8th Grade English/Language Arts

Here are the Common Core Standards for 8th grade English/Language Arts as I will display them in my classroom. They are printed two to a page, but I separated them before laminating so I could hang the one (or multiples) on which my class is focused each day. The boarder is from BeArtless, and the font is Champagne & Limousines. You can download a copy of it HERE.

"You Are" for My Middle School, Language Arts Classroom

A couple of years ago, a pin on Pinterest inspired me to create this You Are list for my 4th grade classroom. Last year, I moved to middle school, where I teach 8th grade language arts. I still love the idea of this list, but the one I had no longer worked for my students and what I asked of them in my classroom. Here, then, is the one I created for my language arts classroom and my older students. You Are file to download. I've started using 4Shared instead of Google Documents, since I was having so many issues with Google Docs. Please let me know if you can't access these. By the way, this is on a wall in my house! We are moving into a new building, and I will try to remember to post a photo of it in the context of the school as soon as it is up.

Close Reading

Recently, I attended one of my district's workshops for middle school English-language arts teachers. The idea was to give us some instructional strategies, particularly for those teachers that hadn't begun to implement Common Core last year. This will be the first year my district requires Common Core standards at the middle school level. While I supplemented our state/district standards and benchmarks with Common Core standards last year, I was still excited to have some ideas tossed my direction. One of the lessons we were shown was how to use Close Reading more effectively. Here is the poster I've made to put up in my classroom to help my students understand what I am asking of them when I indicate 1st, 2nd, and 3rd reads. In case it is useful to anyone else, here' the link to get it: Close Reading It is formatted for a 11" x 17" paper.

Make Mistakes

I love this quote and wanted to make it artful to hang in my classroom. You can print it from Google Docs here if you like it too. It comes from Neil Gaiman's blog. The backgrounds are from Be Artless, and the fonts are skinny jeans solid and lemon chicken. :)

Grading Expectations

I love Pinterest! Each time I visit, which is daily, I find something that inspires me. Eventually, I follow the links to things I purchase or download, or I recreate them. Today was a recreate day. A while ago, I pinned this pin. It originally came from There's a Dragon in My Art Room. However, I am way too critical of myself to feel like I could hand-draw something similar. So, I hoped on my trusty computer and made something similar. I slightly changed the scoring and expectations to reflect my classroom. The best part for me is that I am working on improving a specific strand of our model of instruction, which is feedback. Our district asks us to ask ourselves "What will I do to communicate learning goals, communicate high expectations, track progress, celebrate success?" Hanging this in the room and discussing it is part of how I plan to improve in this area this year. The background graphics are from Be Artless.

I am having it enlarged and printed at Staples. Hope this helps or inspires. If you would like to print it, I have loaded it as a Google Doc here.

Non-Fiction Insert for Reading Journals

While I would love to share this, I don't feel quite comfortable doing that, as it is very closely based on this pin on Pinterest. It is something that the pinner purchased. Although it covered all the types of non-fiction I need to touch upon, there were things I needed to change to make it work for my classroom. First, I included "The Internet" instead of "digital media." Really, this was more for the familiarity/vernacular of my students than anything. Next, the definitions came out of the dictionary I use in my classroom; this way, the information is kept at a higher level for my older students. Additionally, although I included images, I wanted the written info to be the focus and the images a supporting piece. I also included a few items we discuss in my classroom that were not on the original, such as subtitles and subheadings. Finally, I made sure there was a place along the middle for folding. I will have my students glue this into their reading composition books. The page is too large, but I did not want to reduce it. There is a lot of info here, and it needs to be easy to access. They'll be able to fold it where the crease won't interfere with reading the words. Still, for younger grades, purchasing the preexisting one makes sense, and thus, I don't feel right about sharing mine for free. However, if you want to make your own, I can tell you what I did. The "books" are simple shape and line art. The definitions come from a source my class uses and trusts; I highly suggest that the definitions take into consideration the age of your students. If the wording is too high, the kids won't get what they need from it, and if it is too low, it talks down to them and lessens its perceived value. The images are from Microsoft--the ones that come with the Office software. I built my page in power point, as it gives me the most freedom to manipulate things; all I had to do was click 'insert clipart,' and search for images using keywords. I reduced their size to fit and gray-scaled the images for copying.

It has been a while!

It has been quite a while since I last posted, and a lot has changed since then. When school starts again, I am moving to a new grade and a new school. I have loved teaching 4th grade and didn't think I'd be leaving it so soon, but through a dear friend, a middle school principal heard I love teaching language arts. I've dreamed of teaching it all day for as long as I can remember. My friend's intervention led to an email, a phone call, an interview, and an offer to teach language arts, primarily to 8th graders. Of course, I said yes! This does mean that the focus of my little blog will change just a bit to reflect what I will be teaching, but many of my ideas for reading and writing will still be adaptable to upper elementary. In the meantime, I have started working on some words of wisdom to hang in my classroom. Here is the first. I have it in two styles/colors, as I am not sure which I plan to use. My classroom interior is going to be built around brown, blue, and green (to try and make sense of the very old and eclectic furnishings in my room). I was inspired by Dots on Chocolate, http://www.creativeteaching.com/c-438-dots-on-chocolate.aspx, which I think is mature enough to work in a middle school classroom. That color combo led me to look for digi fonts, which took me to http://www.etsy.com/shop/TracyAnnDigitalArt. I am still waiting for permission to share the items I make using her digi alphabets, and if I get it, I will have several new things to post. Anyhow, the second offering works with those colors. The first offering, instead, is rainbow-colored. Last year, I made my version of http://pinterest.com/pin/180707003768276016/, which I shared in an earlier post. I still want to hang this outside my classroom, as I think it is inspiring no matter what age the students. Since it is rainbow-colored, I made this poster to match, figuring that I will likely hang them together outside my classroom. This was made with various fonts (most from dafont.com and http://www.kevinandamanda.com/). It was inspired by http://www.scribd.com/tbentson/d/62787273-In-Our-Classroom-We-Do. However, I have changed several of the statements to reflect my ideas and the needs of older students. In This Classroom Documents

"Because"

Because Doc

Not something I can put up during testing, but I was in the poster-making mood, what with my new alphabet and everything! (See previous post for alphabet info.)

I failed to credit my inspiration for this poster in the original post. I have two teachers in my district (including one of my son's middle school language arts teachers) and helloliteracy.blogspot.com (the boarder was a freebie she posted on her blog as well!) to thank for sharing their ideas on how to get students to explain answers with the use of the word "because." I would never have managed this poster without their ideas!

It's Kind of Fun...

After discovering KMP Doodles, I knew I had to have her alphabet to make a poster! I bought them this morning, had them in my in box within an hour, and of course, immediately started playing with them! Here, I used Alphabetsoup and Brightflowerpatch.

As always, I hope this is a poster you can use in your classroom too.

It's Kind of Fun Doc

The [Person] Who Doesn't Read

As I mentioned in the last post, I am on a poster-making binge, in order to decorate my classroom during testing (and beyond). Here is another one. My students have all learned that brackets [] are used when you change or add to someone's words in a quote. If yours do not know this yet, you may need to explain it. The original quote uses the word "man," but I want my girls to relate to this as much as my boys, which I am sure is what dear Mr. Twain (or Samuel Clemens, which was his real name) intended.

The [Person] who Doesn't Read Doc

Teachers Open a Door...

I'm taking down and/or covering all of my educational posters per state testing requirements, and I hate the idea of a bland classroom. So, I'm working on turning some inspirational quotes into easily-printable "posters." I'll upload them in Google Docs and share them here for anyone that might find them useful or fun. :)

Teachers Open a Door Doc

You are...

A few weeks ago, I was thrilled by this pin. I've been thinking about doing it ever since seeing it. Well, it is spring break, and although I have spent most of it reading (Good Reads is suggesting I increase my 2012 reading goal!), I do want to do a few things for my classroom. We start state testing next week, and I thought this would be a wonderful ego boost for the students as they return to face this daunting task.

You will notice that I changed some fonts, colors, and words, but the overall gist is the same. I am including a link to the download of mine, in case anyone wants to do this without having to recreate it. When I cut the words apart, I made the strips 2 1/2 inches wide and a 1/2 inch longer than the word at each end. The frame, then is 3 1/2 inches wide and another 1/2 wider on each end. I hope that makes sense... For "scientists," it required it to be printed in two parts, and some of the longer words have frames that are two parts as well, if you use 8 1/2 x 11 inch cardstock. I want to get these laminated before hanging, and I don't think the seams will show much after that.

Anyhow, I hope this helps or inspires.

You are...

I was visiting other blogs...

...when I came across this post about apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian writing. I giggled loud enough that my husband and son came in to ask me what was so funny, Needless to say, after reading it to them, they were laughing too, which is why I must repost here. I could hardly keep such a giggle-worthy post to myself. You can read it HERE.

Fourth-Grade Writing Rules

Inspired by someone's pinning of the poster on Squidoo's writing tips , I created something to hang in my classroom that expressed my thoughts on 4th grade writing.

I've loaded it here for those that want to use it too.

States of Matter

This isn't much different from all the other matter foldables out there, but I figured I'd post it anyhow. The stickers (ie hole reinforcers) we used were just something I had on hand. I'd like to find smaller stickers next time, so they can fit more on to really see the relationship of molecules and the space between them.

The foldable is just a sheet of paper folded in half landscape-wise. Then, the fold is glued together about an inch down, to create a title area. They measure in 3 1/2" from both ends to create the cuts for the flaps.

Disney Biography

I've spent the morning working on the biography my class will do next. We do the Dr. Seuss one together, with me teaching them how to determine important info from smaller details and the importance of chronologically presented info. This one, Disney, will be done in partnerships. The students will work together to reinforce the skills they just learned. Again, they get a more creative and engaging way to present their learning. (Pay no attention to the fact my floor needs to be swept! It is the basic teaching dilemma--clean the house or work on lessons...) We won't get to this for another week, but I was feeling motivated today!

I Mustache You a Question

Does anyone outgrow Dr. Seuss? This is one of the 'staches I made for my class and our kinder book buddies. We were supposed to celebrate Seuss' birthday and Read Across America Day together, but the snow day has postponed that until Monday. My high schooler thought this meant he could mess around with a 'stache. LOL It seems like only yesterday he was in a crazy hat parade; now, he is shaving--not that the bushy 'stache show it! BTW, he's wearing a Dr. Seuss shirt under that robe! :)