Workshop Wednesday: Organizing it All!

Glad to be back into the blogging swing of things. I'm even more excited to share some of my workshop organization today thanks to Jivey's Workshop Wednesday linky! Such a great place to find Reading, Writing, and Math Workshop ideas.

We are still in our launching phrase of Reading and Writing Workshop. We're using poetry to launch our workshop and interactive notebooks. Last year, we had some issues on our team with students losing or missing supplies... so I knew storing notebooks had to be built into my workshop routine.

First, I used some "pinspiration" to create my interactive notebooks storage area. Here is a peek into one table's organizational set-up.

Each table has one double-decker crate. The crates are stackable milkcrates. Inside are magazine holders from the Target One Spot last spring. 

First "floor" is my morning class's Readers' and Writers' notebooks. Each magazine holder has a label so that students can easily grab and pass out the notebooks that are needed.

All supplies students need for Reading or Writing Workshop are also at the table in each caddy.

To organize book club choices and keep students moving through books in Reader's Workshop, I've labeled small stacking baskets from Target for book club novels. I'm hoping that having three baskets and sorting books by level will encourage "Just Right" choices.

 These hot pink baskets were a cartwheel and very sturdy for around $2.99! 

 For Writing Workshop, I stuck with one central writing area for my students. Students have access to colored pens, a pencil sharpener, editing wheels, self-revision guides (editing and revision posters shrunk down to create mini-books), grammar handouts, and whole class journals! This area is perfect for students who finish early or need to move to the next step in workshop!

This is the "Writing Depot"

  

Writing posters on the next cabinet for studnets that need "Fix-Up" Strategies.

  These include my ARMS and CUPS posters.

I don't have a lot of station supplies. All my extra "stuff" for Workshop is housed under the counter in some three drawer carts from Target. Those are for teachers only, however.

What organizational strategies do you use to keep your students on track?

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?

Workshop Wednesday: Poetry Invitation!

Can I just say that I love being on break?! The time I have to catch up on blogs and my DVR has been amazing! Today, I thought I'd try keep the blogging streak alive with a post about poetry! Thanks as always to the wonderful Jivey for hosting her weekly Workshop Wednesday!

For a poetry mentor text, I read Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. I adore this "novel" as many of you do as well. Since so many people use Love that Dog in their own classrooms, I thought I'd write about how I invite my students into my poetry unit.

I usually start my unit with the poem, "A Valentine for Ernest Mann" by Naomi Shihab Nye. I read this poem before we do any reading of Love that Dog. I tell my students that this poem is my invitation for them to become poets as we go through the unit.

Here's the invitation I give my students: (Click to grab it)

You can also watch Naomi Shihab Nye perform her poem via YouTube:


 

My students LOVE this poem! After reading it and listening to the commentary, we talk about how they need to find the poems that hide in their lives and write about! 

And our first poem in Love that Dog that we write is a tribute to William Carlos Williams' poem, "The Red Wheelbarrow." We read the poem together and watch this pretty neat animated version on YouTube.

Here's Mr. Williams himself reading his poem:


After discussing the poem and watching the video, I task my students like Jack, to be inspired by William Carlos Williams. They brainstorm things that are important to their 5th grade lives & what they depend upon.  I love how these poems turn out every year! After the first few days many of "haters" start to turn into poetry "lovers." I make a big deal (like Price is Right just called my name, type of deal) about students "converting" from haters to lovers and that helps add to the fun climate during our poetry unit!

Here's my brainstorming sheets: (Click to grab it)

What tricks do you use to encourage creative writing / poetry in your classroom?

Workshop Wednesday: Nonfiction Note Taking!

Happy Hump Day! I'm finally getting back into my blogging routine. Since it's Wednesday, I'm linking up with the wonderful Jivey for Workshop Wednesday!

According to Common Core Writing Standard 5.2 & 5.7, fifth graders need to research a topic using various sources and then write about. To meet his standard, we spent some time researching environmental issues for a feature article writing assignment.

My biggest struggle was teaching my fifth graders some effective note taking strategies. Some had a difficult time organizing all their thoughts and putting information into their own words. Although, quite a few students were natural note-takers, I had a few organizationally challenged students this year. So, I thought I'd share a few resources that helped me and my fifth graders get through our 2 months-ish of nonfiction reading and research!

To gather research for our feature articles, I shared Jessica Heeren's Nonfiction Notes Graphic Organizer. This laid out a great way to take notes for my students unsure of how or what to take notes on... it always allowed them to easy go back and find important information by source. We color coded our packets so that each source was a different color so we could cite our sources correctly! Best of all, Jessica's graphic organizer is completely FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers! So grab it up and give her some great feedback!

 

Jessica's Note-worthy graphic organizer!  

During the researching process, I also used Lightbulb Minds' Nonfiction Writing Unit to help guide some of my mini-lessons and discussions. I used the handouts on plagiarism, choosing a topic, citing sources, writing an "outstanding opening" and creating a glossary. Each of these handouts were well thought out and communicated a clear objective to my students. I loved this pack! Worth every penny! I was easily able to check topics, sources, and glossaries as students conducted their research and carried the piece throughout the writing process! 

The finished pieces were amazing! However, students had to publish the "old fashion" way by hand due to snow days so I don't have any digital copies to share. My teaching partner created a feature reflection sheet (grab a copy from dropbox) that allowed students to think and reflect on their own writing!

Check out Ideas by Jivey for more Workshop gems! Why reinvent the worksheet when so many talented teachers are sharing their resources!

Happy Workshop Wednesday!

Character Essay Brainstorming

In both reading and writing workshops we're digging in deep with character! Our students are really looking analyzing characters in reading workshop and have been tracking changes and recently even described how settings can impact characters! Today, we introduced our new writing piece - the character essay!

In our character essay, students are to select three character traits they feel represent their character through the book and show that the character is complex. Then through evidence prove that these traits paint an accurate portrait of their characters for their book club novels. We started today with some brain storming sessions. We've done so much background work in Reading Workshop with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching's Interactive Character Analysis Posters plus many other activities! Wish I would have remember to get a photo with all the post-its attached! But I do love these posters! The kids LOVED them too!!!

Just like a regular essay, students will form an opinion based thesis for this essay. Students will create a thesis that focuses on explaining the character in their novels. For this piece, they need to have summarized events from the book, quotes from the text, and cite pages/chapters that support their opinion/thesis statement. Today, we reviewed how to find a page and a passage from the book that support our thinking, We also reviewed how to summarize an event from a novel using Rules as an example.

We started brainstorming using Classroom Workshop's free Character Trait Categories handout! This handout was great because they traits are group with easily recognizable synonyms - although some of the words are not as higher level as Joanne's this handout was great for differentiation and allowed kids to work independently without me having to explain "scrupulous." The back of the handout also had sentence starters for kids who needed help getting started with their evidence statements. We modeled this in class and let our students take their own notes but students needed to use our model or the handout could use it if they needed it.

Students are looking back in books to find evidence! 

My students really got into their books today and even some of my struggling students were able to perform this task at their level! I'm excited to see the traits they choose to tomorrow that offer more evidence as to how their characters have layers! We will also be watching this short clip from Shrek! to remind ourselves that characters like onions are layered and we should be able to tell they are complex. Characters are more than just "nice" in a novel.


Don't forget to link up with Ideas by Jivey and share your opinion writing ideas!