Thursday Thoughts: Benefits of Newsela

Our school was recently able to upgrade to NEWSELA Pro accounts. I've used NEWSELA in the past but more as a source for myself. Today, I dove in face first into NEWSELA as I needed articles for a nonfiction lesson. As we work toward harder texts, I felt like Scholastic News just wasn't cutting for some of my lesson's objectives. Plus, with need for annotations and differentiation, I was looking for a way to make my job easier. Today, NEWSELA did that for me!

I was about to assign all students via Google Classroom, a NEWSELA article to read and annotate. I was able to put directions at the top of the article and on the SMARTboard. The best thing was after students finished reading the article, I had instant feedback on their reading successes or failures! What?! I felt like reading the article digitally also helped my students be exposed to reading "differently" and allowed to practice using tech tools for annotations. I was nervous students wouldn't be engaged because even I have trouble with digital texts. BUT... My room was absolutely silent as students read and annotated.  I was also shocked and impressed by complexity of some of their annotations. 

Here's a snapshot of my day using NEWSELA: 

Another benefit is the ability to create text-sets for popular topics. I'm hoping to use these of our "research" portion of the nonfiction writing component to this unit. We usually write feature articles focused on space exploration and technology. There are also lots of sets that create an instant pairing with novels or social studies texts. 

Students can also "adjust" the reading level of articles as well. I made my students choose lexiles based on their Fountas and Pinnell and MAP data for their first read. I'm hoping the short quizzes and data points, will give me more information and feedback on my students as nonfiction readers. 

The free version is worth checking out as well! Today, I learned that sometimes you gotta be willing to jump off and take a risk. 

Do you use NEWSELA in your classroom? 

How do you promote digital literacy? 

Workshop Wednesday: Talking with a Text

This week is our third week of school and second full week. We're finally into a lot of our routines and we've been launching Reader's Workshop. Yesterday, we worked on adding "hieroglyphics" to mark spots in our reading. Today, we learned how to have a conversation with our reading. This is a newer lesson for me this early in the year but the students did such a great job. After our private conversation with the text, we met in groups and shared our reactions and questions.

We started with a "Fat Questions Starters" half sheet glued int our notebooks. My amazing teaching partner created our sheet which you can grab for free from my Dropbox.

Side note: Go check out her blog over at Endeavors in Innovative Teaching! She's just getting started but has some amazing ideas....


First, I modeled the strategy with the first paragraph/section with an article we chose about iPads helping students with autism. Here's my notebook:

Then students started their private "talk" with the text.
Here's what students came up with...

One student really struggled with asking questions of the text, so allowed him to just use hieroglyphics today... This shows me he was actively reading and not just sitting there but we'll still need to work on questioning.

How do you get students interacting with at text?

Tried it Tuesday: Reading Hieroglypics

I know I posted about the hieroglyphics before - but this is a Tried it Tuesday update! Recap: The team across the hall does such a fantastic job of getting students to use their reading "hieroglyphics" to code a text. Students even use them in the content area classes! So, my teaching partners and I jumped on board this year as well! We all have the reading hieroglyphics posters displayed in our classroom and we're also taking a page from our neighboring team and will be rewarding students for use great note strategies in all classes!

Here's my poster:

You can grab it for free on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Today, we introduced the idea of our hieroglyphics. We used Diane from Fifth in the Middle's Close Reading April texts as our mentor texts for this activity. I started by reading "Jelly Beans" to the class and then did all my thinking out loud as I coded the text. Then students were given "Ship of Dreams?" to do some coding of their own.

I was pretty impressed with their coding and thinking for the second week of school!
Here's some student samples:

Bonus: They were even able to discuss parts of the article afterwards. This lesson was a success and I can't wait to watch my new 5th graders use their hieroglyphics throughout the year. Tomorrow, we're building on this idea by "talking back to the text."

Don't forget to check out all the other great August ideas over for Tried it Tuesday over at Fourth Grade Flipper! Thanks for hosting Holly!

Happy Tuesday!

Tried it Tuesday: Winter Olympics Close Reading

It's been too long blogging world! This is what happens when you miss over a week of school with snow days and then have holidays... I think we've went one full week the past two months! So, I'm finally getting my blog back on track and organizing my thoughts!

Today, I decided to come back and link up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday! I know, I've mentioned Close Reading before but I'm really starting to fall in love with the concept of a close read! My students are doing such a great job at looking for textual evidence and really thinking about their reading this year. I'm one proud teacher!

Since, I loved Ashleigh's (from Ashleigh's Educational Journey) Holidays Around the World Close Reading bundle, I thought I'd check out some of her other products. Her Winter Olympics Close Readings do no disappoint.

There are three levels of each passage that rank from about Q/R to W for guided reading levels. The topics range from general Olympics history, to Sochi Russia, to many sporting events at the Olympic Games. Although some of my fifth graders are reading at a high level than W, these passages are still wonderful for practicing different close reading skills. Plus, the content is "not too boring" according to the fifth grader consensus. We've already read about the four different types of Skiing last and we will continue on with Bobsledding this week. Even if it's not a winter Olympic year, these passages do a great job getting students to thoughtful go back and reread.

 

Highlights from the lessons:
- Clear and concise directions for each read
- Students learn how to annotate a text by taking notes in the margin
- Students engage in metacognition and as they record prior and new knowledge
- Students practice answering text dependent questions
- Students  learn technical vocabulary for each sporting event

These lessons are great preparation for another close reading my class will do for a Social Studies text about the civil rights movement this Friday! Click the handout for a close reading excerpt & questions .

 

What new reading strategies have you tried with your students? 
Do you use close reading in your classroom?

Tried it Tuesday: Holiday Close Reading

I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above the snow recently! We've had two snow days and a 2-hour delay this month... now, this is wonderful don't get me wrong, but I also need to wrap up some units before break! I feel like I've been MIA from my blog and the real world! So, today, I decided to let my teacher bag sit by the door so I can write a quick post. I'm excited to link up with Holly at The Fourth Grade Flipper with some holiday cheer (and close reading)!

 So, today in 5th grade we got into the holiday spirit by using Ashleigh's from Ashleigh's Education Journey Holidays Around the World Close Reading Activity. Since, we've been studying regions of the United States we used her freebie about the United States to keep up with our close reading practice. The Christmas in the United States article was wonderful for our morning work time! Her directions were very clear and precise and teach great note taking skills! If you want a sample, check out the free version and then go add her entire Holiday collection to your cart or wait for another TPT sale! I wish I had more time this year to cover more of the holidays. We may have to pick up a few after our break. 

The directions are very clear and focused. The first read students go through and jot down notes in the margin of interesting facts. On the second read they look for key and unfamiliar words. And on the third read they add their own information to the passage! Plus, she has three different levels! Love, love, love! Since our students know their DRA reading levels it made it super easy to pass out each "Just Right Text" and since they look practically the same - the students didn't do the "What's that one?" face.

Check out the "higher" level passage.

My students seemed to really enjoy the short passage plus the clear directions. I loved it as a teacher because it also taught them some great note taking and text coding strategies. If you need something to do before or after break and you want to ease your students into close reading - check out the Holidays Around the World Close Reading pack!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their last few days. Hang in there... only 3 more to go!