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Do’s and don’ts for teaching young writers

TRT Podcast #22: Do’s and don’ts for teaching young writers

You know teaching writing is important, but you keep running into roadblocks. Your students are at such different places … can you really meet all their needs?

This episode kicks off an 8-part series about teaching writing. We’re going to tackle those roadblocks head-on!

In today’s episode you will learn important do’s and don’ts for teaching writing in K-3. You will also discover:

The best approach for teaching writing
An important tip to follow when writing in front of your students
When to schedule writing time

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Episode 22: Do's and don'ts for teaching young writers.

So I'm going to start this episode with a little backstory. Last week my daughter's wonderful first grade teacher, whom I love and respect very much, came to me in the parking lot. She told me that my daughter was having a hard time during Writing Workshop - to the point that one day she was in tears! The main issue was that she could not think of what to write about and she was shutting down. Now, this is my little girl, and I know how she shuts down. This did not come as a big surprise to me. We've been working on this at home, which I'll get to in a future episode.

But my point in bringing this up is to show you that teaching writing is an exercise in problem solving. My daughter's teacher has been teaching for a long time. She's a wonderful person and a spectacular teacher. Even though she's been doing everything right, she still has students like my daughter who need extra support. Here's the secret that no one wants to say out loud: teaching writing was never meant to be easy. It's not for people who rely heavily on worksheets and prompts. Teaching writing is for creative, problem solving teachers, like my daughter's teacher, who love their students and are always looking to improve their craft. Teaching writing is for teachers like you.

I have EVERY confidence that you can do this and that you can do it well. Starting today, I'll be sharing an eight part series about how to solve common problems when it comes to teaching writing. You and your students can look forward to writing time and enjoy it every day or almost every day. We're going to start today with do's and don'ts for teaching writing.

Number one: DO make time for teaching writing. Lately, when my first grader and her third grade brother get into the van after school, I do two things. I ask her to take off her mask because we're in the middle of COVID-19, and she's so used to that thing being on her face that she forgets she's wearing it! And then I ask her, did you write today? Now by that question, what I mean is, did YOU write today? When the teacher had you write, did you cry or did you think of something and write? But she always says, "Mom, I told you, we write every day." Even though she hasn't exactly answered my question, that's music to my ears because it means her teacher knows that kids can only get better at writing if they do it consistently. For that to happen, the teacher HAS to make it a priority.

Here's a good goal for you. Make writing time such an ingrained part of your day that your students never ask, "Are we going to write today?" Just like they never say, "Are we going to have lunch today?" They know they're going to have lunch; they should know they're going to have writing.

Our second do is: Do use the Writing Workshop approach. Now I've been over this many times on my blog and in other episodes, so I won't go into this in too much detail. But just a quick overview: the Writing Workshop is a structure that works for teaching writing across the grades. I would say kindergarten, even through high school, could use Writing Workshop. You teach a mini lesson appropriate to your students. Your students write independently for a period of time (of course, with very young children that could include drawing). And then they come together for a sharing time at the end. This approach can work in any setting, even virtual. Which (spoiler alert) we're going to talk about next week.

Tip number three: model, model, model. It is very tempting to put a journal prompt on the board or have a really quick mini lesson in which we just tell students what to do, but what we might skip is the SHOWING part. Students need to see you write. Most of all, they need to see you struggle with the same things that they struggle with. I challenge you to put yourself in their shoes. When you're thinking about the modeling you're going to do, try not to put too much thought into it in advance because your students don't get to. When you ask them to write, they just basically have to start from scratch. They haven't been spending the day before, most likely, planning what they're going to do. So I want you to try to do that. Challenge yourself to model writing without a lot of forethought.

So you might say, "Boys and girls, today, we're going to write about something real from our own lives. So I'm going to be in first grade today and I'm going to write just like you. I'm going to write up here on this big chart paper so all of you can see. What's the very first thing we need to do when we want to write?"

The first thing should be, think of a topic. What are you going to write about? So you want to help them see you do that.

So, "All right, boys and girls, let me think. You know, one thing we've talked a lot about in first grade is that we write about things that we've done with people we love. So, let's see... I remember when I was a little girl, I liked to play school with my sister. So I'm going to write about that today. Now, sometimes I find it helpful to think about a few things I'm going to write before I start, just to make sure I have some ideas for this topic. So I used to play school with my sister. We would play in our playhouse in the yard because it had a chalkboard. We used to use our old worksheets and workbooks from school. We used to put stickers on the papers. That's four fingers of ideas; I think I have enough to write about for this topic. So let me think about what my first sentence could be. Well, I'm in first grade, so I'm going to write this like I'm in first grade. I'm going to write, 'I like to play school with my sister.' Why don't you watch me write the sentence on the chart? Okay, now what else could I say? Well, I could think about what we do when we play school. We write on the chalkboard in the playhouse, so I'll write that next. 'We write on the chalkboard in the playhouse.'"

So there you go, you get the general idea. That mini lesson and that modeling is really about thinking of an idea and expanding on it. That's why I was really focused on what to write about and what to write next. You may have a different focus for your mini lesson, and then in that case you might focus more on those things. For example: what to do when you come to words that are hard, or how to revise your writing. But it's good to do a lot of this "thinking of an idea from scratch" and "getting started", especially if that's what your students are struggling with - which is a very common issue.

Tip number four: DON'T do all of the work for your students. Thinking of what to write about is actually a really big part of the writing process. Too often, we do this for our students, especially when we make a habit of having them write to a prompt in a journal. I'm not saying that you can never use journals or prompts. There are definitely times when those make sense, but it is not something you should be doing every day or have that being the only thing you do when you're teaching writing. Prompts should not be a regular part of writing time because students need to find their own topics.

In the same way that we don't want to do all their work of finding a writing topic, we don't want to do all their work for spelling. There are times that we will give a spelling, especially if a word they're going to use is going to be in the writing many times. We also have a word wall, and we show them how to use it. We might provide personal word walls. We're teaching them how to stretch out words and write the sounds they hear. If they're older, we teach them how to use a dictionary. We expect that they will spell patterns they've learned correctly. If you're not sure about the spelling thing, don't worry because I will have an episode coming up all about helping them with spelling during Writing Workshop.

Another thing that we tend to take over is the revising process. We shouldn't tell our students every little thing to change. We want to help them discover how to choose what improvements to make. If you're hearing that and thinking, "Fat chance, my students never want to revise." Don't worry because we'll be covering this in a future episode.

Number five is another don't: DON'T dive in too quickly. I am totally speaking from personal experience here because as a teacher, that was one of my biggest challenges. I had so many ideas that I thought were wonderful and that I wanted to start with right away. I didn't want to take the time to lay the foundation of procedures and routines to make sure it went smoothly. Often my great ideas, which were probably pretty good, fell on their face because I didn't spend the time in advance training my students: what to do when they need help, where to get the materials, what to do in different situations, etc. I ended up being interrupted and it just didn't go over well.

So you have to ease yourself into Writing Workshop. I definitely think you can start with Writing Workshop very early in the year, even the first day of school. But it's going to look a lot different than it's going to look three weeks from then. Writing time will be very short, so maybe two or three minutes of them actually being expected to write on their own, especially if we're talking kindergarten. You'll also be doing a lot more handholding at the beginning. You're slowly training them to be independent so that when you're ready to start individual conferences with students (again, coming in a future episode), they'll be more prepared for that and you'll get fewer interruptions.

Finally, tip number six: DO schedule writing time when you and your students are at your best. That's because all of you need patience. Your students need patience to work through those inevitable writing challenges, and you need patience as you watch them work through these challenges or get stuck in the process. Because they WILL get stuck, that's how writing works. I write for a living: I write blog posts, I create courses, I prepare these podcast episodes. Some days for me, the writing flows and flows and other days I just get stuck. And I've been doing this for a lot of years! We have to expect that our students are going to get stuck. Our goal is not to create environments where they're never going to get stuck because that's not realistic for any writer. Instead, we want to teach them strategies for what to do when they are stuck.

Now, certainly we want to create an environment where they're not going to get stuck every day. That's going to require a lot of things like modeling and supporting and teaching routines. But we can't be surprised when it happens. That's why it's important to schedule this at the beginning of the day, or if you have a break period for yourself, maybe right after that when you're fresh. Find a time that you are more likely to be patient when your students are stuck. Because if you've been teaching writing for more than a day, you know that it's going to happen. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to share an episode about what to do when students won't write. I hope that will help you solve this challenge of students who are getting stuck more often than not.

Let's recap what we talked about today. Tip number one: DO make time for teaching writing every day if possible. Number two: DO use the Writing Workshop approach: mini lesson, writing time, sharing time. Number three: DO model a lot. By modeling, I mean, basically starting from scratch a lot of the time. So have your students watch you think of a topic and develop it. Try not to prepare it in advance because that's not realistic for them, and you want to do what they're going to have to do. Tip number four: DON'T do all of the work. Don't think of all their topics for them; don't do all their spelling; don't always tell them what to revise. Number five: DON'T dive in too quickly. Take a few weeks to teach the routines and ease your students into Writing Workshop. Finally, number six: DO schedule writing time when you and your students are at your best - when you have the most patience.

Before I sign off today, I want to share with you two things that can help you as you teach writing. First, my guidebook for teaching writing. It's a Writing Workshop guide for K-8, so it has tons of ideas in there for how to start the year, how to teach routines, what mini lessons to teach, etc. Many of the chapters end with troubleshooting tips, like what to do when something isn't going well. I'd also like to share with you my online course, Teaching Every Writer, that I created with Becky of This Reading Mama. It's for classroom teachers and homeschoolers of kindergarten, first, and second grade. In that course, we go through all of this in great detail, and we include over 200 ready-to-use mini lessons for K-2. You'll find links to both of those in the show notes, which you can find at themeasuredmom.com/episode22. Thanks so much for listening, and I look forward to sharing the rest of our teaching writing series with you. Talk to you again soon.

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Resources and links mentioned in this episode

Writing workshop guide for K-8
My online course, Teaching Every Writer

 

The post Do’s and don’ts for teaching young writers appeared first on The Measured Mom.

What to do when kids don’t like to read

TRT Podcast#21: What to do when kids don’t like to read

How can kids possibly get better at reading when they don’t like to read?

There’s hope!

In this episode you will discover:

How to make time for learners to read (and insist on it)
How to find books your students will enjoy
My TOP strategy for getting kids to enjoy reading

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You are listening to Episode 21, What To Do When Kids Don't Like To Read.

This is the final episode in our eight part series about helping struggling readers. Today I'm sharing just three powerful tips that will help you help learners who don't like to read.

Number one is to make time for them to read and insist on it. Easier said than done, I know, but so very important! I know when one of my kids, who is now entering fifth grade was a reluctant reader back in third grade. It was really hard. It was like pulling teeth to get him to sit down and read a book. So, I realized the only way to make this happen was to put it in our routine and insist on it. Every day after school he had to sit on the couch and read for 20 minutes. This was so important to help him break through that reluctance and disinterest when it came to reading, because you can't learn to enjoy something unless you give it a chance.

I know in the classroom, most teachers have a specific time during the day that kids are expected to read independently. I would encourage ALL teachers to make sure this is a mandatory time and not a time that you have if you're done with your work, or if you're not doing something else, or if we have extra time. Build it into your classroom day, so that students know that from perhaps 1:15 to 1:40 they are reading independently. What I always recommend is that teachers move around the room during that time and have conferences with students about their reading. If you don't have this built-in time, it's going to be really hard for kids who don't like to read to ever learn to enjoy it. They need to have a time that they get to read books that they choose.

That brings us to tip number two: Find books that they'll enjoy that they can actually read. I won't go into reading levels here, but I will talk about how I think that you sometimes need to alter your definition of reading material, especially when you're dealing with kids who don't enjoy reading. Some books that kids really tend to get into would be comic books, like Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Baby Blues. These are all funny, clean comics for kids of all ages. Then you can also give kids books like graphic novels, which are very popular these days. There are many different graphic novels that kids can read. I'll link to a few of the ones that my own kids enjoy in the show notes here. There are also books like the Guinness Book Of World Records. You see, there are many different options besides traditional chapter books that can help kids get enthusiastic about reading.

Of course, I definitely think that kids should be reading chapter books when they're ready for them, and that's why I spent six months creating The Ultimate Guide To Early Chapter Books Series, which you can find on my blog. I'll link to that in the show notes. You can head to that post and check out over 250 early chapter books series. I go into detail about each series, and I give its reading level. You can use that list to help you find books that a child may enjoy, especially when you go the extra step and purchase the bundle associated with that blog post. It includes many book lists for particular types of interests. For example, I have a book list for kids who enjoy sports. There's a whole bunch of early chapter books series I recommend there by reading level, as well as book lists for kids who like animals. There are many different options there.

Finally, and this perhaps may be the most important tip, read aloud to all children, whether or not they enjoy reading. This is so, so important. Reading aloud has many, many benefits, but a huge one is developing enthusiasm around reading. If you're a classroom teacher, please, please, please build reading aloud to your whole class into your day every day. If you are a parent at home, I know it's so tough. Your days are packed. But if you can find a specific time even three days a week that you read a chapter book to your kids, I highly recommend it. Not only do kids get the many benefits from reading aloud, including a model of excellent reading, building vocabulary, and things like that, but you can also use this time to get them hooked on books you'd like them to read.

A few years ago, my oldest, who is now 13, but at the time was in about fourth grade, loved to read, but there were some series I wanted her to try that she wasn't interested in. One of them was the Nanny Piggins books. I can't remember the author, but I'll link to it in the show notes. I read one book of that series to her and her brother, and she was hooked. She went and read the rest, but prior to that, I could not get her to look past the cover. Reading aloud is very powerful. It's a great way to get kids into books they didn't want to try before.

Something else you can do with reading aloud, as you're working kids into reading chapter books on their own, is you read a page, they read a page, or you read a paragraph, they read a paragraph. Eventually, you read a chapter, they read a chapter, you read a chapter to them, they read a chapter on their own and tell you about it. You can gradually work them into this independent reading of chapter books by doing it as a team to begin with.

Those were three quick tips, but I believe they're very powerful. They were, number one, make time for your learners to read on their own and insist on it. Number two, make sure they have access to books they enjoy that they can read. Those may be comic books, graphic novels, or other types of books. One I forgot to mention was magazines, like Sports Illustrated For Kids, for example. Then finally, make sure you are reading aloud to your learners. Have a consistent time that you do this. Remember, this is a great time to sneak in those chapter books you know your students would enjoy, but haven't been interested in trying on their own. This is a great way to hook them on a series and help them change their attitude around reading.

I hope you've enjoyed this eight part series. If you'd like to check out all the episodes in the series, be sure to head to my blog, the measuredmom.com. Click on the podcast tab in the menu bar, and you'll be able to see all of our episodes. You can find the show notes for this episode at themeasuredmom.com/episode21. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you again next week.

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Non-traditional books your learners may enjoy

Garfield comic books
Calvin & Hobbes comic books
Zita the Spacegirl graphic novels
Chronicles of Claudette graphic novels

Book series mentioned in the episode

The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, by R.A. Spratt




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3 tips for improving fluency

TRT Podcast#20: 3 Tips for improving fluency

How can we help struggling readers build fluency?

In this episode you will

learn how to teach what it means to be a fluent reader
discover the best texts for students to use when partner reading
learn what texts help students build fluency during independent reading

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You are listening to episode 20, 3 Tips For Improving Fluency. Welcome to the seventh episode in our Struggling Readers series.

Last week, we talked about what to do when kids don't remember what they read. Today, we're going to talk about improving reading fluency.

Fluency, as you know, has three parts. It's the ability to read accurately at an appropriate speed with proper expression. So often our learners, and sometimes their teachers, think that fluent reading means reading fast, but fluency is our bridge to comprehension. And in fact, sometimes (particularly when we're reading a challenging piece of nonfiction), fluent reading actually means slowing down to help us understand. There's a lot we can do to help our learners improve their fluency. And today I'm going to share three tips.

Number one, be explicit about what it means to read fluently. In other words, model fluent reading and talk about what it is about your reading that makes it fluent. A great time to do this is during shared reading. So you have a large text that you're using together with your students, you model reading it and then you talk to your students about what it is that you did to make that reading clear. For example, you can call attention to punctuation and talk about how you adjusted the way that you read based on those punctuation marks. Or you can call attention to dialogue and talk about how you adjusted your speaking based on who was talking in the story.

Another time to explicitly teach what it means to be a fluent reader is when you're reading aloud to your students. When you're reading something challenging, talk about why you slowed down. So perhaps you're reading something in a science or social studies text. It was an advanced concept and so you slowed down as you read it to your students. Talk about why you did that.

This can just happen naturally in your day as well. Imagine that you have a piece of equipment in your classroom that's not working properly. You pull out the instruction book and you read it slowly so you can figure out what's wrong. Or if you didn't understand, you read it again. Talk to your students about why you did those things so they can understand that's what fluent readers do. They monitor their comprehension and adjust their reading rate accordingly. So, that's one thing you can do to help readers improve their fluency is to be explicit about fluent reading.

Number two is to use partner reading for oral reading fluency. Partner reading is when you have two students, they may be at about the same reading level, taking turns, reading a text. And I believe that there are so many benefits to partner reading, but the best reason is it gets students to read more. That's what they need, time to read. Partner reading helps them improve their word attack skills, builds comprehension and increases fluency.

It also increases engagement. They enjoy it, so they do it more, which means their fluency improves. I recommend doing partner reading regularly rather than hit or miss. You can have the whole class doing partner reading at once, or you can make it be a learning center that kids do several times a week. If you're wondering about the logistics of all this, I spell it all out in a mini-course, inside The Measured Mom Plus, my membership site for pre-K through third grade educators. And in that mini course, I explain when to do partner reading, how to choose partners, what kids should read when they're partner reading, ways they can read, how to get them to talk about what they're reading, and how to manage partner reading so it doesn't get too loud or out of control.

In this podcast episode, though, we're just going to focus on one of those things. I want to talk about what kids should read when they're reading with a partner. I recommend texts that easily lend themselves to people taking turns. So while they can certainly take turns reading pages of a chapter book or picture book, it's ideal if you can find texts that work especially well.

So, for young readers, books that have a lot of speech bubbles, for example, The Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems are great for partner reading. Poetry works really well. They can take turns reading lines or verses. There's a really good book series called I Read To You, You Read To Me. It has a lot of silly tales, usually fables or fairytales that are read in a partner rhyming fashion.

My very favorite reading materials, though, for developing fluency with partner reading are Reader's Theater Scripts and partner plays. So, Reader's Theater is when you have a bunch of children reading together, usually four to five parts, so that might not work as well for partner reading, but what works really well are Partner Plays. And those are plays with just two individual parts. And so students can practice reading it multiple times and they can take turns reading each of the parts. Rereading text is so important for building fluency and it can be hard to find texts that kids want to read over and over again.

Partner Plays really help with that, especially when they're fun. Inside The Measured Mom plus I've been sharing a variety of partner plays. Last I checked there were at least nine sets. Each set has three different plays in different levels, so you can use one set for your whole class, but assign different plays depending on the reading level of the pair. I highly recommend checking those out if you're in The Measured Mom Plus. If not, it's worth checking out the membership just to check out those partner plays, and you can learn more at themeasuredmomplus.com.

My final tip is to help students choose texts that will build fluency as they read on their own. Now, in this case, they may or may not be reading aloud depending on their level, but you can still find texts to support their fluency. Emergent readers, our very first readers, benefit from reading texts with a pattern. This is my hat. This is my coat. This is my scarf. Move ahead a little bit and early readers build fluency by reading texts with repeating sentences and phrases. So, the whole book doesn't follow a pattern, but there may be repetition within the book. And as students grow in their reading ability, they really benefit from reading series books.

For young readers, this may be Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant. As they get older, we have The Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. Eventually they can move to more challenging chapter books like The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne or Cam Jansen by David Adler. And then, build on those to more and more advanced chapter books. As for why series books are good for building reading fluency, I'm going to share a quote with you from the book practical fluency, which I will link to in the show notes. "Series books provide students with similar background knowledge. Students learn how a character acts, talks, and reacts while reading a series of texts. Students become comfortable with a writer's style, know the setting and how to follow the plot structure. Students use this background knowledge to read fluently."

Those are my top three tips for improving reading fluency with kids who are struggling. You want to be explicit about what it means to be a fluent reader through your modeling and talking about it. You want to make sure that your students have a chance to read out loud together. Partner reading is ideal. I know if you're listening to this in real time, we are in COVID-19 and this may not be possible, but if your students are learning at home, you can certainly send partner plays home for them to read with a parent or sibling. And it's possible kids could do partner reading over Zoom or FaceTime. Finally, the third tip was that you should make sure that students have books that lend themselves to building fluency when they're reading on their own. Those types of book will vary depending on the reader's level, but emergent readers benefit from pattern books, early readers benefit from books that have repeating phrases. And then our more advanced readers benefit from reading series books.

If you are looking for early chapter books series, I have an amazing blog post. It took me six months to put it together and it's got over 250 early chapter books series with reviews on them, reading levels, it will really help you find the right early chapter book series for your struggling reader. I will provide a link to that post as well in the show notes, which you can find at themeasuredmom.com/episode20.

Thanks so much for listening and I'll be here next week to share with you our final episode for helping struggling readers. It's all about helping kids who don't like to read. I'll talk to you then.

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Resources and links mentioned in this episode

How to be successful with partner reading �� from The Measured Mom Plus
Ultimate guide to early chapter book series
Reader’s theater scripts
Practical Fluency , by Max Brand & Gayle Brand
Great books for partner reading:

Elephant and Piggie books
Mom, There���s a Bear at My Door, by Sabine Lipan
Noodlehead books, by Tedd Arnold, Martha Hamilton, and Mitch Weis
Give Me Back My Book! by Ethan Long
You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You books by Mary Ann Hoberman

 

© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post 3 tips for improving fluency appeared first on The Measured Mom.

Color Me Readers

I created my Color Me Readers to help young readers learn concepts of print and basic sight words. Each set comes in three levels of difficulty so you can easily differentiate for your learners.

Just click on image to get to the blog post and download the printable!

 

��Spring ��Fall ��5 senses ��Community Helpers ��Insects ��Farm animals ��Arctic animals ��Fall ��Valentine’s Day ��Extreme weather

The post Color Me Readers appeared first on The Measured Mom.

Addition books

 

Looking for books that will help your learners understand the concept of addition?

Try these!

If You Were a Plus Sign, by Trish Speed Shaskan

This book explains what addition means, defines the plus sign, defines a sum, and more. It’s a great book for introducing an addition unit in kindergarten or first grade.

The Blunders: A Counting Catastrophe! by Christina Soontornvat

I read this book waaaay too many times at the request of my Four. In it, a woman has ten children. Exasperated by their behavior, she sends them out for the day. When it’s time to return home, the Blunder children believe one of them is missing. This is because each time one of them counts their siblings, s/he forgets to count him/herself. Help your learners see that 9 + 1 = 10.

Five Silly Fishermen, by Roberta Edwards

Five silly fishermen set off to catch fish. When they’re ready to come home, one fishermen counts to make sure they are still a group of five. The fishermen despair when they realize that one of them has drowned; after all, when the fisherman counts his friends, he counts only four. A clever little girl counts all five fisherman (and wins their fish in the process). A quick read, and another good one for teaching +1.

The 512 Ants on Sullivan Street, by Carol A. Losi

This fun story teaches the concept of doubling, which you can use as you teach the doubles addition facts. In this rhyming tale, a family brings a basket of goodies for a picnic. But ants (and more and more ants!) keep taking their food. First we have 1 ant, then 2, then 4, then 8, etc.

What I love most about this book is that it has extension activities in the back by renowned math educator, Marilyn Burns. Highly recommended!

One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab, by April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre

This may be one of my favorite counting books of all time. It���s a ���counting by feet��� book. As in��� if you have 2 people, you have 4 feet. If you have 10 spiders, you have 80 feet. The book is just plain fun to read, but it also offers many opportunities for addition and skip counting.

Ten for Me, by Barbara Mariconda

Two friends go on a butterfly hunt as they race to see who will catch the most butterflies. I like how each page features a number sentence that equals 10 (4+6=10, 5+5 = 10, etc.). My Four and Six both requested this one often.

Animals on Board, by Stuart J. Murphy

This is one of my favorite books for introducing addition. My Four loved it and learned how to read addition number sentences using the pictures. On each page, another set of animals is riding on the back of a truck. We keep adding the animals together until the final pages, when we learn that they are being mounted on a carousel.

Ready, Set, Hop! by Stuart Murphy

Two frogs, Matty and Moe, have hopping contests throughout this book. Which frog can get to a location in fewer hops? The math isn’t as straightforward as I’d like in a book that introduces addition; use this one after children already understand the concept.

Quack and Count, by Keith Baker

Use this book to show your students how many different ways you can make the number 7. The text and pictures are great but very basic, so I wouldn’t use this past the beginning of first grade.

Math-terpieces, by Greg Tang

This is by far the most advanced book in this list. Use it with students who understand addition and are ready to make combinations of numbers to achieve a desired sum.

On each page we see images from a famous piece of artwork. Children are asked to find different combinations to make a particular number. Use this as a class and make a list of the number sentences on the board. Another option is to have students use this book in pairs at centers. Have them record their number sentences.

12 Ways to Get to Eleven, by Eve Merriam

This simple yet engaging book shows listeners 12 different ways to get to 11 … whether that’s nine pinecones and two acorns, or something more complex: four corners, two traffic lights, two chimneys, two cars, and one bicycle (all on Eleventh Street, of course). This would be a great book to read before a number talk.

Mission: Addition, by Loreen Leedy

This is a fun book, but it’s best read in pieces. Each “chapter” features a different concept about addition, such as:

Addition is combining sets.
When adding 2-digit numbers, add the ones and tens column.
When adding a large group of single-digit numbers, add the first two and add that sum to the next number.
How to solve addition word problems

The challenge with the book is that it’s very busy, with lots happening on each page. For clarity’s sake, it’s not my first choice. But you might have success with it if you show it to the whole class with a document camera.

The Mission of Addition, by Brian P. Cleary

This is a popular book for introducing addition, but it isn’t my favorite because the text is so difficult to read.�� Your listeners won’t care, though, and will enjoy the rhyming text and goofy illustrations.

Domino Addition, by Lynette Long

This is a brilliant book that is best used one-on-one or with small groups because you need to read it with a set of dominoes. I love the way it invites children to find dominoes whose dots have a particular sum. Children can discover a variety of ways to make a number, and the hands-on aspect makes it extra fun. Highly recommended, but not as a whole class read aloud.

What’s New at the Zoo? by Suzanne Slade

This is my all-time favorite book for introducing the concept of addition; it was a big hit with my preschooler. Each 2-page spread features an animal family at the zoo. When we add the adults and the babies, we have a simple addition problem which is recorded in the page. The book starts with a simple equation (2+1=3), and gradually builds up to 12+8 = 20.

Mall Mania, by Stuart J. Murphy

There’s a contest at the mall; the hundredth shopper to enter the mall will win all sorts of prizes. Four children stand at the entrances and use walkie talkies to keep track of the number of shoppers. This book is great for teaching students to add groups of numbers; I love that it shows two different approaches for each problem. The end of the book has even more math extension ideas.

 

© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post Addition books appeared first on The Measured Mom.

When kids can’t remember what they read

TRT Podcast#17: 7 Tips for helping kids sound out words

Is “sounding it out” just not clicking for some of your learners? These tips will help!

Learn the pre-reading skills kids need before they’re ready to sound out words.
Discover the power of oral blending.
Learn three different approaches to teaching kids to sound it out.
Get even more tips for helping kids find success with this important skill!

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You are listening to Episode 19, When Kids Can't Remember What They Read.

It is one of my least favorite experiences as a teacher or a parent. You've got a child who is halfway through a book and they look at you and can't tell you what they read. You ask questions, you try to get answers, but the child gives you a blank stare or a terribly confusing summary that makes no sense at all. That's frustrating. And it can be hard to know what to do, especially if it's a book that you, the teacher or parent have never read. So today I'm going to talk to you about some things you can try when learners don't understand what they read. If this sounds familiar at all, it's because you remember a blog post I wrote some time ago with these very same tips, but now I'm sharing them in a podcast episode.

So here we go, 10 things to try when learners don't remember what they read. Tip #1: Know what to listen for. The way you find this out is you ask them questions about the book and they can't answer them, or they tell you things that aren't exactly accurate, or they try to tell you about the book and it's just very confusing and clear that it really didn't stick. So when a child is telling you about a book, the first thing I recommend doing is familiarizing yourself with the book as much as possible. So scan the book yourself. It's amazing what you can pick up from the summary on the back or the inside flap, or the titles of the chapters. And then listen to how the learner is summarizing the book. If they're giving you every single detail, that's actually a problem.

And it's also a bad idea if they can't really tell you much of anything, right? What you're really going for is for them to tell you only the most important details, a summary. When they're summarizing for you, do they rely on you to feed them? So do they need you to say, "And then what? Okay. But why did that happen? Okay. But why did that happen? And then what?" If they need you to do that, it's like you're pulling teeth, then their comprehension isn't very good. If they feel comfortable and excited about the book and enjoy talking about it, chances are good they understand it.

Let's move on to tip number two. You want to make sure the book is appropriate for the reader. And that's why I think it's really important to make sure you know the child's reading level and have them choose within that range. So I am a fan of the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading levels. I have a blog post all about them. I will link to that in the show notes. I think that's very, very helpful because it gives you a range of books that are good for a child, especially when we're doing early chapter books.

I did something that I can hardly believe that I did because it took so much time, but I spent about six months reading and reviewing over 250 different chapter book series so you don't have to. And I did that because I know as my own children are reading, it can be very hard for me to know what chapter book series to suggest next based on their level. And I figured if I have that problem, other people do too. I know as a teacher, I certainly had that problem. So I created this long blog post giving you a quick summary of each series and their levels to show you what I think is a good choice for kids at different levels and interests. And then I also bundled them into a pack in my shop, which includes a huge variety of early chapter book book lists. So book lists for kids who like sports, for kids who like animals, things like that. And then also I have them organized by reading level. So this is a goldmine, and in my opinion, it's worth every penny, because not only will you get these book lists to help you match books to kids, but you will also get 75 reading response sheets that are perfect for helping kids keep track of what they're reading in a chapter book. These are open-ended, they can be used with nearly any book. And it's just a way for kids to keep track of their learning. But I'll get to that more later in this list of 10.

So after you know what to listen for, you've made sure the book is appropriate, it's about their level and their interest, you want to teach them to preview the text before reading. Think about when you get yourself a new book. I always preview the text, right? I look through it. I check what the chapters are called. I just see how long it is. I always read the back or the front cover. Teach your students how to do that. That's just priming the pump and getting them ready to read the book. You don't want them to read a book cold. And that would mean just starting on the first page without any understanding at all of what the book is about.

Tip number four is to teach them to monitor their comprehension. I know when I was having this problem with one of my boys that he wasn't remembering when he was reading, I would come up and talk to him about it. And we could be halfway through the book and I would say, "Tell me what happened here." And he would be, "I don't remember that. That was four chapters ago." Or he would be reading to me and we would stop and I would say, "Tell me about what you just read," And he wouldn't know. Personally, I have had that experience where I read a whole bunch of something and it goes in one ear and out the other. That can happen with our students and we have to teach them to notice when that's happening, to monitor their comprehension. If they get to a stopping point and they don't remember what they just read, they need to learn how to go back and then reread. That's very important.

So that moves us into tip number five, which is to teach fix up strategies. They need to know what to do when they're suddenly not understanding. So one thing is to reread. Another problem could be understanding some tough vocabulary. So getting help from an adult or a dictionary to learn what some words mean. To slow down and read that confusing part slowly. Maybe there's some text features if it's a nonfiction book that can help them understand the text better, or teach them how to create a visual in their mind, or even sketch it on paper as they read. I remember when I was in college in biology, I would take a piece of paper and draw all the new concepts I was learning because science does not come naturally to me and really wanted an A in that class. So the only way for me to retain all the stuff I was learning was to create a visual of it for myself. Your students can do that too.

Tip number six is to make sure your learner has a purpose for reading. Now that may just be to enjoy the book, but if they're reading for school, the purpose is to understand it, right? And so we want them to sometimes set shorter goals than read and understand the whole book. So it can help if they have a sticky note maybe at the end of one chapter. And then you tell them, "When you find the sticky note, I want you to find me and tell me the most important thing that happened." And of course, if you're busy, they may want to write that on the sticky note or a piece of paper and they can come see you later. But if you're at home with your child, it's easy for them to come find you. Maybe you're cooking dinner and when they get to a certain page, they need to come give you a summary.

Other things they could do would be if it's a nonfiction book, tell them to read these two pages and then tell me the most important thing the author wants you to remember. Or read these pages or this chapter and tell me the problem the character is having. Or again, with a nonfiction book, read this section and then tell me a question you still have about this topic. So there are many different things that you can do to give kids a purpose for reading, even just a small chunk of text.

Tip number seven is to use a paperclip. This is a lot like the sticky note tip, but it is to put a paper clip where you want them to stop and engage with the text. And this could be talking to themself, maybe tell themselves what they remember reading. If you have some kind of recording device where they could actually record themselves talking about what they've read so far, if you're home, the child can just come to you and tell you what they've read when they get to the paperclip.

Number eight is to use sticky notes more. So I talked about using sticky notes as a stopping point, but they can also be a recording space. Sticky notes are seriously unappreciated and it's amazing how many possibilities they hold for our young readers. So imagine the things they could write on them. For example, I think blank will happen next. Or at the end of a chapter, they could write, blank just happened. The most important thing in this chapter was, or a question I still have is, so this is just a visual stopping space with a prompt on it so they know what they need to think or write about.

Tip number nine is to work through a graphic organizer. Now I mentioned earlier that my mega pack of booklets for early chapter book series comes with 75 graphic organizers perfect for early chapter books. And so if you go through that, you will find lots of ideas for helping kids talk through a story. At first, you may not have them write in the organizer and that's okay because having that visual of things to talk about can also be extremely helpful. Organizers are great, but I want to encourage you not to overdo it. So don't assign too many in one week or you'll burn your children out. Show them how to use that organizer to help them keep track of what they're learning. It may not be for a grade. It may just be a tool to help them understand what they're reading.

And my last tip is to think conversation, not quiz. This is really hard to do and I fail at it most of the time. But it's so important to remember that when you're talking to a child about a book, try to make it a conversation and not a test. So imagine you're talking to another adult about a book you've both enjoyed or that she or he has read and enjoyed and you want to know more about it. Try to make it be more like that rather than, then what happened? Then what happened? Why did he do that? Then what happened? What happened in this chapter? That can feel kind of like hammering and we want kids to enjoy their books and to enjoy conversations with us about them. So imagine you're in a mini book club so that your students know that they get to talk about it with you afterward, not be tested.

So those are my top tips for helping kids who struggle to remember what they read. Let's recap. Number one, know what to listen for. So scan that book so you have some ideas about what it's about and notice how the child is telling the story. If they're comfortable, if they're halting. Number two, make sure the book is appropriate by checking the reading level. Again, I encourage you to check out my early chapter book list. I'll link to that in the show notes. Number three, teach them to preview the text before reading. So take a look at the back. Look at the chapter titles before they read. Number four, teach them to monitor their comprehension. So they should be able to know when they're not understanding what they're reading. So that number five, they can apply fix up strategies like rereading or reading a part slower.

Tip number six is to give them a purpose for reading. And often these are smaller for smaller chunks of time. So you might say read just this chapter so that you can tell me this. Tip number seven is to use a paperclip so they can mark the place where you want them to stop. Or tip number eight, use sticky notes. And those are often a great place to actually record their thinking. Number nine, talk them through a graphic organizer. I've got 75 of those waiting for you. And number 10, think conversation, not quiz. So in the show notes, I will link to the early chapter book blog post that I have as well as the bundle in my shop and some other things that I've mentioned in this podcast episode. And you can check out the show notes at themeasuredmom.com/episode 19. Thanks for listening, and I'll talk to you again soon.

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Episode 19:

Related posts”

Fountas & Pinnell guided reading levels

Ultimate guide to early chapter book series

Fix up strategies

 

 

© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post When kids can’t remember what they read appeared first on The Measured Mom.

Books about Fall

Check out my giant list of fall books for preschool and up!

This post contains affiliate links.

Over the years, I’ve shared quite a few book lists about fall – because I absolutely love this season! I’ll start this post with a list of general books about fall. Down below, you can click on any of the images for even more books about fall … apples, pumpkins, leaves, scarecrows, Halloween, and Thanksgiving!

Short on time? Click here for a printable list you can take to the library.

Here we go!

Fall Is Not Easy, by Marty Kelley

This is a delightful rhyming book about a tree who struggles to change its colors for fall. Instead of turning into traditional fall colors, its leaves are colored like a rainbow, a giant smiling emoticon, polka dots, a hamburger (our favorite!) and more. Lots of silly fun while also teaching kids about the seasons.

Fall Mixed Up, by Bob Raczka

My Four and I giggled as we read this funny book about things that aren’t quite right during the Fall season. We get a hint that things are mixed up on the very first page: “Every Septober, every Octember, Fall fills my senses with scenes to remember.” The rhymes are cute, but it’s the illustrations that steal the show. Our favorites were the pictures of squirrels flying south for the winter (suspended by red balloons), and kids taking big bites out of caramel pumpkins.

Bella’s Fall Coat, by Lynn Plourde

Bella loves her Fall coat – that Grams made especially for her – to last forever. But the coat is worn out, and Bella is too big for it. Thankfully, Grams has a solution. This sweet, vibrantly colored book was a favorite of my Four.

Hocus Pocus, It’s Fall!��

This is a gorgeous book with hinged pages. My Two and Four loved taking turns opening them after the magic words. I love the simple, cheerful text – and the fact that it rhymes, which is always a plus when choosing books for toddlers and preschoolers.

The Busy Little Squirrel, by Nancy Tafuri

This is a simple book about a squirrel getting ready for winter. He’s too busy to nibble a pumpkin with Mouse, rest on a branch with Bird, or hop rocks with Frog. He’s too busy! The short story and sweet illustrations make this perfect for toddlers.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn, by Kenard Pak

I love the way the young girl has conversations with the flowers, creatures, and weather as the season changes into winter.

“Hello, trees.”

“Hello! Now that the cool winds have come, we love how our branches sway in the sun.”

This would be a great mentor text for teaching kids to write their own books in the same style. I will be honest, though, and tell you that my Four disliked it. She thought it was boring.

Yellow Time, by Lauren Stringer

My Two is learning to name all his colors, and the first one he latched onto was yellow – making this a perfect book for us! While my Four felt the story was boring, I liked the delightful artwork and gentle text.

I Know It’s Autumn, by Eileen Spinelli

This is a cheerful book that may be worth owning, especially if you are a classroom teacher of preschool through first grade. It has engaging pictures and just the right amount of text.

On each page, the narrator notices something different that tells her autumn is here. “When the morning light comes late … when Daddy brings my jacket from the storage box … when the class makes acorn art …” and so it goes. A bonus is that the book features a multi-racial family (a Caucasian mother and an Asian father).

In the Middle of Fall,��by Kevin Henkes

I love the simple text and gorgeous, soft illustrations in this gentle introduction to Fall. Perfect for kids with short attention spans.

Hello, Fall! by Deborah Diesen

This is a sweet book about a little girl and her grandpa. Together, they find beauty and wonder in the fall foliage.

Owl Sees Owl, by Laura Godwin & Rob Dunlavey

You’ll fall in love with the sweet baby owl in this poetic book about a young owl’s nighttime adventure. What’s very cool is that book is written as a reverso poem. A reverso poem is one in which the second half repeats the lines from the first half. You’ll have to check this book out to see what I mean.

Click on an image below to get another book list for fall!

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© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post Books about Fall appeared first on The Measured Mom.

Fall visual discrimination activity

Grab this free visual discrimination activity for Fall!

Visual discrimination activities are important. When kids have to look at a set of pictures and identify which one is different, they’re practicing the skills they need to distinguish between letters and numbers. This is especially important when comparing tricky letters such as��b and��d.

I simply printed the cards and asked my daughter to identify which image was different. Some were simple – like this one.

Others were a bit trickier – like this one with the pumpkin stem facing the opposite direction.

She enjoyed this activity and had no problems with it.

My Four asked if we should have my Two do this activity. He’s not quite ready yet.

I hope you can use these cards at home or in your classroom!

Looking for more free visual discrimination activities?

Grab a variety of printable cards at Prekinders��and Pre-K Pages.

More free resources!

 

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© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post Fall visual discrimination activity appeared first on The Measured Mom.

Editable fall spelling game

Check out this fun editable spelling game – perfect for fall!

 

I know how hard it is to spice up spelling practice … so I created this simple fall spelling game. The game cards are the same, but you can type your own words into the spelling word cards! The game is cute, but not��too cute, so you can use it for kids in (late) first grade through fifth grade!

To play, a student draws one of the 18 game cards and reads the directions at the top. Here are the various directions you’ll find on the cards (all are repeated):

Spell the next spelling word aloud.


Spell the next spelling word aloud. Then use it in a sentence.


Write the next spelling word on paper.


Spell the next spelling word aloud. Then use it in a sentence. Draw a picture of your sentence.


Look at the next spelling word. Read the word aloud. Then say all the letters. Now flip it over and write it.


Spell the next spelling word in your best robot voice.


Another player should write the word 3 ways. Only one way should be correct. Choose the correct spelling.


Rip a piece of paper into scraps (or grab small sticky notes). Write the word, one letter per piece.

The player to his/her right reads the next word card.�� Then the player follows the directions (as described above).

If the player is correct, h/she follows the directions next to the smiley face. If incorrect, h/she follows the directions next to the sideways face. If they spell correctly, they move forward. If they spell incorrectly, they practice the word a few times (as directed on the card) before moving forward a fewer number of spaces.

Which of course means that the die is not necessary. I’m not sure why I included it in the picture. Sorry about that.

I played this game with my first grader. I typed in words with short a, words with long a spelled CVCe, and a few oddballs, such as��have��and��what.��

We had fun with this game, and I hope your learners do too!

Get more freebies!

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© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post Editable fall spelling game appeared first on The Measured Mom.

15 fall sight word games (for all the Dolch lists!)

My blog subscribers have been asking for sight word games – so I created a set of games that feature��all the Dolch sight words … from the preprimer list all the way to the third grade list.

There are 5 main lists for the Dolch sight words: preprimer, primer, first, second, and third grade.

Since each game can only feature 20 words, I created three games for each level.

You can find the level for each game in the upper right hand corner. In the above example, the game is for the preprimer sight word list.

PP1, PP2, PP3 – preprimer games

P1, P2, P3 – primer games

1G1, 1G2, 1G3 – first grade games

2G1, 2G2, 2G3 – second grade games

3G1, 3G2, 3G3 – third grade games

I chose to use a kind of “code” to write the levels because I realize you may use these games with older, struggling readers. I don’t want them to be discouraged that they are playing a�� first grade level game.

Each game also comes with a set of word cards.

How to play:

Choose a game board. Then print the board and accompanying cards. Cut the cards apart.
Grab playing pieces and a die.
Take turns moving around the board by rolling the die. If a player lands on a word, s/he reads it aloud. If a player lands on a fall picture, s/he takes a card and reads the list as quickly and clearly as possible.
The first player to reach the squirrel, wins!

I played this game with my preschooler. She is not ready for the preprimer sight word list yet, but she does know a few sight words and can sound out words that end with -at. (This is all thanks to the lessons we’ve been doing from my favorite preschool reading curriculum, Reading the Alphabet).

Since she’s not ready for the games in the packet, I used the the free editable version and typed in my own words (email subscribers can find this for free in the subscriber library!).

I was so pleased (and, admittedly, a bit surprised) at how well she did! She enjoyed the game so much that we played it three times.

And even though she was playing against a much stronger reader, she won two times – thanks to the roll of the dice.

I do hope you can use these fun fall sight word games!

Get our giant bundle of EDITABLE sight word games!

© 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.

The post 15 fall sight word games (for all the Dolch lists!) appeared first on The Measured Mom.