Expository Text

A few cool things for expository text. Additionally, I have this vague little writing assignment in my lesson plan for later in the week that I need your help for! I've seen a few writing projects, but I want one that's going to target all of the things we've talked about.

Teaching expository text should cover several things, including:
- Text structure. This can include comparison-contrast, sequence, or even cause/effect. Questions related to the structure are always included on standardized testing! An example from today would be why did the author write paragraph 2 before paragraph 3?
- Text elements. This has several parts. This might include bold words, italics, maps, graphics, sidebars, captions, etc.
- Purpose and use. Kids love procedural text but there's a lot more to it!

A few resources to share!

FREE Expository text question cards for before/after reading. Click here to download.


I LOVE this FREE sheet to teach text structures! Visual! Yes! Click here to download.


From the same site as the above freebie, an awesome scramble and sort activity! Click here to get it.


Overall, this blog post pretty much rocks expository text and includes a ton of resources throughout with links to other resources at the bottom. Love it! Click here to visit.

Additionally, I have found several resources that I'm not choosing to post for one big reason, they just aren't particularly useful. I may have access to cute "Clue phrases" for text structure, but I've read what they will read. I've seen their tests. I've gazed into my teacher crystal ball and do not see any text that actually uses them. That sounds stubborn, but so be it. By the time they get to fifth grade they are expected to draw conclusions. It doesn't help them to give them training wheels they won't be able to take with them into a test. I'd rather spend our valuable class time learning how to analyze rather than teach them to look for clue phrases that aren't used much past 3rd grade. Know what I mean?

Let me know what you think!

Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions

This post literally took me 3 days to put together! So much stuff to share! I love it.

I'm going to start you off with the sequence that I'm using to teach this part of fractions. Our textbooks allow literally like, a day for this. But as we all know, I teach struggling learners. There aren't many things we can master in a day! So I'm breaking it up.

First Day- All about mixed numbers! We spend all of our math time on learning about mixed numbers and practice, practice, practice!
Second Day- All about improper fractions! We practice long and hard. At some point I pull in the work we completed yesterday and they write improper fractions for every mixed number they wrote. They've got to understand that the model stays the same and that there are two ways to write the fraction.

Third Day- Mixing it up. Bring in on grade level resources (including textbook). Learn the process for converting mixed numbers to improper fractions. We have gone through the steps a million times. After watching a video we do guided and independent practice on plain computer paper. Fold it into 8's and voila! I have them write the mixed number big with pencil. Then they go in and draw the multiplication and addition symbols with a highlighter. They do this over and over.

 If it helps, you can have them draw arrows with their highlighters.

Fourth Day- Still mixin'. Learn the process for converting improper fractions to mixed numbers. Bring in test style questions. How do our new skills help us answer a test question?

And now for the goodies! Let's start with videos.
Love this one. Teaches with and without a model. Teaches the process of converting.

This one is very, very basic and shows a demonstration of the process.



And now some other resources!

This is a poster guide that you can use to teach the process of converting mixed numbers to improper fractions. Make them M.A.D. (multiply, add, denominator)! Click HERE to view the article!

When you get ready to teach the process of converting improper fractions to mixed numbers, this site has a brief lesson and some practice worksheets for free! Click HERE to visit.

Need some writing to learn ideas? Math journal ideas? Visit this page HERE

I found an AWESOME fraction word play activity. SO cool! It's fall themed but I seriously think it's too cool to care about. I might make my own. Love it! Click HERE to check it out!

Enjoy!

Fractions Sequence

I've been round and round with fractions for two years now and I've found that it's really important to have a good sequence for teaching fractions. When they get to 5th grade there are so many things about fractions they learn, it's hard to put things in order. Here's the best system I've come up with so far (in order):

Writing Fractions- If you teach mainstream, you may skip this. If you teach Special Ed. or the lower grades it's important to start with this. You may think they could look at a pizza cut into 6ths with two pieces missing and be able to write a fraction but you would be surprised! Teach the basic stuff. Give them plenty of practice. Give them a packet of examples and ask them to write the fraction. Talk about numerator and denominator. Go over vocabulary you might think is basic (this year I had to explicitly teach shaded and unshaded!). Teach all 3 types of fractions including whole (most textbooks call it a region), set (groups of like items), and segment (number line). Glance through my fractions posts to give you some awesome ideas!

Mixed Numbers & Improper Fractions- Again, give them LOTS of practice. Allow them to practice the basic skill of seeing a picture and writing both a mixed number and an improper fraction over and over before giving them test style questions.

Fractions & Decimals- Awesome resources to come! It's important at this point to circle back to the previously learned fraction skills.

Equivalent Fractions- Saved the hardest for last!

I hope this helps. Awesome resources to come!

Guide to Nightly Reading Response Log FREEBIE

If you teach a Special Ed. class (like me!) you know the value of your commitments to modified work. Many of your students might have a stipulation (formally known as a modification) that says their assignments must be modified. I'm diligent when it comes to modifying for my kids who have that specific modification. However, I hadn't considered modifying our weekly reading response. It's pretty straight forward, already calls for only a short answer response, and is usable across a few grade levels.

Math Facts- To Teach or Not to Teach?

Teaching is a field with constant change and improvement. I myself am always looking for new, cool ways to implement my lessons. But theres one geezer of an idea I will hold dear for my next 50 years of teaching:

Kids.

Need.

Math facts.

That's right, I said it. Kids need math facts. I'm talking old school, rote memory, timed test, single digit whatever, math facts. Listen, I've done this both ways. Despite clinging tight to every minute I have availble for teaching, I absolutely make time for this. It didn't start as a "What does the literature say about this?" kind of thing. It developed naturally over time as I began to see the number of questions marked wrong and how impossible 5th grade tasks are without it. It is insane to ask a 5th grader to complete a long division problem when they are constantly having to use tally marks to add up their numbers or look up each multiplication fact. It takes them forever to complete the problem and without having addition facts, that division problem becomes that much harder. It interupts the process.

And just in case you weren't mad at me yet, I'm going to add that kids need math facts in all four operations. I've seen this huge focus on multiplication math facts (which I love) but really, kids need math facts for addition, subtraction, and division too.

I can yammer on all day about why I think it's necessary, but at the end of the day here's the big truth- Kids perform higher when they have math facts. They just do better. Now I understand in teaching theres got to be this balance. Things need to EARN a spot in your lesson plan because time is limited. But this should be on the list. It's earned it's seat. The science of learning agrees.

Let's hear from some people much smarter than I. The list goes on and on but I'll only include a few easy to understand articles.

Math facts fluency leads to higher order mathematics

Through automaticity students free up their working memory and can devote it to problem solving and learning new concepts and skills (Geary, 1994).  Quite simply, a lack of fluency in basic math fact recall significantly hinders a child’s subsequent progress with problem-solving, algebra and higher-order math concept. 

Get the full article here!



It's like a dyslexic kid who can't keep track of the flow of ideas in a long article because he's spending too much brain power (and hence time) on reading individual words...

And while I would agree that some of the very highest areas of math do not require automaticity of basic math facts, they do require automaticity of the skills that fall somewhere in between them and single-digit addition, and that those skills are very difficult to master and to automatize when the basic stuff isn't firmly in place. It's going to be very difficult to get to graduate-level mathematics if you can't hack calculus because you couldn't hack algebra because you couldn't hack middle-school math because you couldn't hack arithmetic.

Get the full article here!



There have been many studies on the effects of memorizing the math facts on student performance. The bottom line is that students that memorize the math facts do better in math than students that don't. Why? We can't be sure, but the prevailing theory is that memorizing the math facts frees up the part of the brain that students use for logical thinking, thus allowing them to focus on the problem at hand. Memorizing the math facts has also been shown to boost a student's confidence and reduce their fears and anxiety about math.

Get the full article here!

Teaching Point of View

Good grief! It is a struggle to find good resources for teaching point of view. Not to mention weeding through all of the resources that incorrectly label author's purpose as point of view. Found a few! Wanted to share.

First off, I'm going to share a resource from Study Zone. I LOVE StudyZone.org It generally has a lesson AND a set of practice questions for each topic which I think is great. We generally go through the lesson and then work through the practice questions in whole group. I'm going to link you to the page about point of view, but be sure to search your other topics on the site. Lots of cool stuff.

Click HERE to visit the main page for point of view. When you scroll down there will be a practice option with the questions.

Love Study Zone!


The next resource I'd like to share are some FREE printable color posters from TPT! Click HERE to download. What I like about these posters is that they are SO easy to understand. I hate getting excited about stuff just to find some crazy college definition tacked on to it.


This video is a little bland, but informative. It ends up adding on more than I am covering so I'm still debating on using it.


Lastly, BrainPop has a video on Point of View that is GREAT but probably not free :(

That's it for today folks. Short and sweet. Like I said, hard to find stuff for point of view! Maybe you should make some :)

Enjoy!

Using Pictures to Teach Theme

Theme is hard to teach. It's weird because, I feel like theme was one of the easier things to grasp as a young reader but teaching it seems to be a difficult task.

Theme (in literature) = The lesson or moral of a story.

What it comes down to is asking yourself this, "What did the character learn?"

I make it a point to teach that it could be any character. Often it is the "bad guy" in the story that brings out the theme. Typically a story map is necessary to pull out the theme when we are just getting the hang of it.

Before we start up tomorrow I'm going to review theme, but instead of using text we will use pictures. I will show pictures on the board and we will come up with the lesson or moral from the picture.

Possible Theme: It's important to wear a seat belt.


Possible Themes: Practice hard. Practice makes perfect. Work together. There's a lot!


Possible Themes: It's OK to be different/stand out. Be yourself.


Possible Themes: Be brave. Stand up for yourself.


That last one is cheating a little bit.. but I couldn't find that pic without the words so... cheating it is lol.

Your students will come up with many answers. The idea is to be a little abstract, but to pull out some age old wisdom and morals they've heard before. Enjoy! Let me know how this goes.

Images courtesy of google.com

Rock Star Writing

I recently attended a writing scoring training and came back with a few ideas. Writing is typically scored on a 1-4 scale. These posters have a "Rock Star" theme. and build on each other starting with "Nothing but Static" to "That's my Jam, Yo!"

Click HERE to download!




Enjoy!

Fractions

Kicking off fractions this week, so much to do!

I found this anchor chart we will recreate in our interactive notebooks. Tried to found the source but it's been deleted :( Otherwise I'd link you!

We will play with a Skittles fraction map I made similar to the one on this blog.

Finally we will break into groups and work on a worksheet from my favorite worksheet site- SuperTeacherWorksheets.com LOVE THIS SITE. Most of it isn't free, but it's definitely worth the $20 a year! Not only will I get our group work from it, but I will print tonights homework from it too. If you're going to spend your money on one site, this is definitely the one to pick! Has all subjects and holiday stuff.

I hate to buy things online when I could make my own, but this is a seriously good deal for only $2. Cannot pass these up. Click HERE to check it out. Multiple games.

I'm going to use the fraction videos from Brain Pop JR. videos as well as this one from YouTube to teach numerator and denominator.

I'll post more as the week progresses. Enjoy!

Teaching Plot- Story & Fiction Elements



I have lots of cool resources for you tonight. Enjoy!

We will start with this awesome FREE mini poster as an anchor chart. Click HERE to download.

I plan on sharing this awesome Flocabulary video on plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting. Click to watch.



I also plan to show the BrainPop JR. video on plot. Sorry folks, it's not free :( But if your school has a subscription it's awesome and very easy to understand!

Often I look for the newest, coolest resource available. However, when it comes to plot I plan on using the good ol' "Plot Mountain." We are going to recreate this poster on a sheet of computer paper for notes. View the original source HERE.

After that we will work in groups to complete an old worksheet I have on this week's story.  At some point this week I'd like to work in this awesome FREE game. Click HERE to download.

Enjoy!

Elements of Fiction- Freebie!

Sometimes I'll make you the best resource, other times I'll find it for you. This awesome FREE Resource comes from an education blogger on Squidoo. I'll link you at the end of this post.

This week I'll be covering the elements of fiction. We studied this in the first six weeks but ended up having some difficulty. I'd like to start my week thinking about the test I will give on Friday. It will be two pages long. I was absent most of last week but hopefully when I return tomorrow I will see that they finished our story with the sub. It's one of those awesome chapters from the Wayside series by Louis Sachar. Our textbooks show us this one chapter from the book called "A Package for Ms. Jewls." For their test I will use an accompanying page from the workbook and a self made page to cover elements.

In order to teach this, I'm using the cooking pot resources found here.

A brief overview of my week will look like this:

Monday- Present anchor chart, go over all elements of fiction. Focus on character and setting.
Tuesday- Plot and conflict.
Wednesday- Theme.
Thursday- Point of view.
Friday- Review all elements and test.

I know you're probably looking at this and thinking "Yowza! That's a lot to fit into a week!" However, we've learned these before and I am anticipating building on this for the next few weeks. Couple that with using every minute to teach and some new strategies and I think things will go well.

Here's a brief overview using the cooking pot.

I plan on printing out the flashcards, but using the page with blank definitions so I can add my own Sp. Ed. friendly ones.



Great resources. Click HERE to download.

Enjoy!