Workshop Wednesday {Poetry}

I am linking up for Workshop Wednesday with my fabulous friend, Jivey, at Ideas by Jivey to share some ideas about poetry! 

I was super excited when I started looking through this Poetry and Figurative Language unit by Amelia at Where the Wild Things Learn!

There are so many choices of activities to use in this pack but one activity I pulled right away to use was the poetry, prose, and drama comparison organizer. It aligned perfectly with this Common Core Standard for 4th grade:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.5

Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

We read a play from this Ready test prep book and answering some multiple choice questions (our state test is next week!).

Students worked in groups to sort characteristics of poetry, prose, and drama using Amelia's resource.

Then the glued the characteristics under each heading in their interactive reading notebooks.

Now my students are much better prepared to answer questions on their "big test" next week like these:

I also used this template for idioms in this pack. It is titled "Write Your Own Idiom" but I modified it and gave students a real idiom. I am not yet confident in their abilities to make their own idiom since we haven't spent a ton of time on idioms. There are so many real idioms that they don't know! I had them work in groups of three or four to complete the various parts and then present their findings to the class. They really enjoyed the "literal" illustrations. :)

I made many more copies of this idiom graphic organizer and will be challenging my students to "Make Their Own Idiom" soon! I know they will have a blast! I wish I had this pack when I taught my unit on poetry earlier in the year but I can't wait to use more of it next year! 

Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching also blogged about additional pages in this figurative language unit pack today! If you missed my post yesterday, check it out here for even more ideas on teaching poetry!

This Poetry and Figurative Language unit is just one of eleven instant downloads from an Educents deal right now! Wow! Just in time for poetry month! 

All eleven downloads are only $10.99 for a limited time (this is about 75% off!!). Click on the picture below and take advantage of an even better deal if you are a first time buyer at Educents!

Check out these other blog posts for more great ideas on products included in this poetry bundle!

Workshop Wednesday {Website sharing from the Past!}

I am linking up for Workshop Wednesday with my amazing, super talented BBB, Jivey, at Ideas by Jivey!  The topic this week is Wonderful Websites and Apps. Jivey has Alison from Rockin and Lovin Learnin (LOVE her!) as a guest blogger today. Check out her post at Ideas by Jivey!

I am totally cheating with my post tonight. When I saw the topic, I couldn't help but think about how much I enjoyed using Kidblog last year with my ELA students. By looking back at these past posts, I might just get the motivation I need to get the ball rolling this year with Kidblog. It has been a huge change being departmentalized and I think that I haven't wanted to tackle fifty student accounts on Kidblog yet. However, I know that they would love it so I will introduce it soon (hey, we go to school until June 27th so I still have plenty of time!). :)

I forgot that my very first "Tried It Tuesday" was about Kidblog! My eyes almost popped out of my head when I realized that the post was written almost one year ago! 

Where does the time go? 

Anyway, here is me cheating and sharing some of my past experiences with Kidblog...

October, 2012

So, Kidblog has been on my to-do list since this summer when I first read about it in bloggy land.  Last night I finally decided to get it up and running.  I was nervous about how it would work out, but let me tell you that it was a smashing success!!  The students were buzzing with excitement when they found out what we were doing in the computer lab (24 ELA kiddos).  It was the GOOD kind of quiet buzz and excited talking, not the crazy chaos of excitement like when our crayfish arrive in the classroom:)  haha!

I demonstrated the steps to login on kidblog first on my SMART board and then we went over to the lab.  I made a post about the novel we read, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

This was their assignment:

Hi students!  For our very first blog discussion, I would like to know what you thought of  the book we just read, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing!  

Share your rating of the book on a scale of 1 to 10 and at least one favorite part of the book as well as one least favorite part.  Use details from the story to explain your answer and your blog entry must be at LEAST four sentences for your first comment.  You may come back later and comment on other student’s comments if you follow good classroom blog etiquette.

• Include a topic sentence
• Include a rating 1-10
• Include a favorite part with details
• Include a least favorite part with details
• Include a conclusion

Have fun blogging!

Mrs. Snyder:)

Here are the screenshots of the page with my post:

Next, I wrote an example entry (in yellow) of what I would expect as an excellent response.

Students' comments were not displayed until I "approved" them as the admin of the kidblog.  This was tedious during class because I wanted students who finished theirs to be able to read other comments but that meant I had to have my computer open and approve comments.  It worked out well though because the students were so engaged that they were not raising their hands asking for help and were very independent.  Students did have to "refresh" the page to see the newly approved comments and many did not know how to do that.

The gray is a comment from a student on another student's reply to my post.  They loved this!

 My favorite part was that tonight I read all my students' comments (at least 4 sentences) about how they felt about the book and I replied to each one of them!  I would much rather type than handwrite and I gave them pointers and praise for their work!  My reply is in blue because I checked the little box to keep my reply private to everyone except the author of the comment.  Genius!!

 My students can go back tomorrow, read my reply, and then make the changes by easily "editing" their post!

When students are directed to the URL of your kidblog page, they simply select their name from a pull down bar.  The teacher enters all the student names in advance and sets the password.

I made all the passwords something they already use and it was SO easy to login!!  The blog is completely PRIVATE to the public and you need to login to see a post!  

I cannot tell you how engaged the students were and the excitement of learning that was taking place.  The students really worked on making a good topic sentence and using details too!  If you haven't checked out using blogs in your classroom, I highly recommend it.  I am going to incorporate it into a Work on Writing choice sometimes in my ELA class.

March 26, 2013 (First Tried It Tuesday)

I was super excited to use kidblog this year in my classroom!  See my post original post here. There was a lot of buzz about this in the blogging world last summer. I am STILL excited about using this tool in my classroom... It is an amazing (FREE) site and the students do LOVE it! My problem is that I haven't used it since January. Every year after Christmas, the panic sets in.  The test is only a few months away! Do students get to type on the test? Nope. Did Kidblog take a big chunk of time when we used it? Yes, definitely at the beginning.  The students want to add an avatar and make their page customized.  They want to comment on their classmates blogs.  Who cares if what they write is meaningful? hmmm...It was like a chat room and that was not how I envisioned it!  Part of me was so excited that they were excited and another part of me was thinking, this is taking forever!  Only a couple students were tech savvy enough to do make an avatar on their own (without asking me first!) and then everyone wanted an avatar.  So, being the nice teacher I am and not wanting to squash their excitement, I walked them through going to photoshop to make an avatar.   Well, we were in the lab, and if you have ever taught in a computer lab while the students are on the computer, it is quite a challenge when you are not used to it! Anyway, one tweak I made to Kidblog (when we were using it) is this post to my students:

As I sit here on a lovely Sunday afternoon watching a Bills game and reading your progress on the November Book Reviews, I am compelled to write about a few issues I have seen occurring on our blog.

1.  Please do not use neon yellow, blue, or green for colors when writing your posts or comments.  It is too difficult to read on the monitors.

2.  You must write using CUPS as you would on paper.  The computer alerts you when a word is misspelled by underlining it in red.  So, why am I seeing so many spelling errors?

3.  Using proper CUPS means that we do not use 5 exclamation points or 3 question marks instead of one on your posts.  

4.  Don't forget that you will be graded on your book review and this includes proper use of CUPS.  There is a time and place to use texting shortcuts but our blog for ELA is not one of them.

5.  I will be developing a rubric to grade your use of kidblog over the course of a semester (starting this 2nd quarter since the 1st quarter is over).  If you stick to clean, meaningful comments and posts using proper CUPS, then you will receive an A for this writing grade. 

Here is a sample book review from Jackson that is a great model for what I expect.

Title: The Sea of Monsters

Author: Rick Riordan

Genre: fantasy

What is this book about?  The book is about Percy Jackson who goes on a quest to save his best friend Grover. Grover is trapped on an island that is home to a cyclops. Percy also has to go to the island to get a golden fleece to save Camp Half-Blood.

What is my favorite part?  My favorite part is when Percy finds out that he has a half brother that is also a cyclops. He found he was a cyclops in the second chapter of the book. His name is Tyson.

What is my overall recommendation and why?  My overall recommendation is that it is a great book and read it if you like fantasy stories or Greek Mythology.

We discussed my post above in great detail as a class using the SMART board.   BUT, I still get students who like to test me (as if I won't see it eventually...the teacher has to approve all comments before they are visible).   These comments are waiting to be approved:  

That might be REALLY flattering (THE BEST YEAR EVER....), but it goes against my rules!  I also love how they capitalized "LARGE" but not "john".  Yep, that has to go!

I am not "trashing" the comments yet because when we go back to the lab, I will bring this screen up and give the students a friendly reminder of what NOT to do:)  

It just bothers me because in the time it takes them to write the obnoxious amounts of characters, they could be doing something more educational.  I know kids will be kids...

The last post I had the students write about was their New Year's Resolutions.  They all worked on them at different times during Work on Writing (I have four computers in my classroom).  They had to write about two resolutions, one for home and one for their writing.

The students have done a nice job overall and I may finally get around to grading all of the entries over my spring break:)  It takes hours to go through each assignment, make comments, and approve comments from other students.  It is worth it though.  The students love to see the notes from the teacher and their classmates!

And another...same student who didn't follow the rules about the exclamation points is writing in neon green...a no, no in my rules:)  Again, spending too much time on making the text look like a rainbow instead of proofreading.

Reading these posts again have me inspired to get the ball rolling on Kidblog this year. 

There are so many wonderful websites and apps out there that it is overwhelming at times to keep up! Now I am off to check out more websites and apps at Ideas by Jivey!

Workshop Wednesday and a Giveaway!

Yay for hump day!  For today's Workshop Wednesday with Ideas by Jivey, the topic is sharing how we get students to WRITE (especially the more reluctant writers!). 

Keep reading to the end of this post to enter an amazing giveaway!!

I have shared some strategies in past posts that I use during my Daily 5 work on writing (I use Daily 4, leaving out the Listening).  Especially at the beginning of the year, I just want my students to WRITE!  We work on building our stamina and writing about topics that are easy to write about.  If students see that they can actually write for an extended period of time, they will start to believe in their writing abilities.  I have seen it happen time and time again.  My students do not complain when they are assigned "work on writing" (I have not been giving them free choice of which center to go to but they do have their choice of which activity to choose at work on writing).  They really do enjoy going to their work on writing center because the choices appeal to their interests and are at a low frustration level for my students.

One of my students' favorite work on writing activities are the shared writing journals.  You can read more about them here.  I keep four journals at a time in one of my drawers.  

 Here are two entries from the "Bandaids and Boo Boos" journal from two of my developing students:

 Here is another entry in the "Bandaids and Boo Boos" journal from possibly my lowest writer.  He worked on this independently, with no prompting from me.  What student couldn't write about injury?  We know they have stories to tell!  Why do students always feel the need to write, "The End"?  

Here is one more entry from one of my average students.

 Another great activity for getting students to write are story starters.  You can read more about the story starters I use here.  These are the winter story starters that I just added to my bins this week (we have already had snow and temps feel like winter here even though it is not "technically" winter yet!).  You can download these story starters from my TpT store for free here.

Here is a picture of one of most reluctant writer's journal entry from a fall story starter!  He was so proud of himself when he was finished!

Here is a journal entry for a story starter from one of my highest writers:

I am always looking for fresh ideas to motivate my writers and I can't wait to check out the other linkups at Ideas by Jivey!  Don't forget to check out the giveaway below!

A bunch of bloggers have joined up to say THANK YOU.  Thank you for following us.  Thank you for your support, encouragement, and friendship.  We have learned so much from you.  

So, we wanted to say thank you with a Gift Card Giveaway.  

Simply fill in the rafflecopter below and you have a chance to win one of 3 prizes. 

(You can fill in the rafflecopter on any of our blogs, it's all the same one.) 

3 lucky winners will win a $25 gift card to TPT!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!  

Workshop Wednesday {Fractions}

Jivey's Workshop Wednesday topic of fractions has reminded me how much I miss teaching math this year!  If you read my blog often, you may remember that math is REALLY my favorite subject but, now that we are departmentalized, I am teaching all ELA.  I love ELA too and can't imagine not teaching reading and writing either but math is the subject that has always been closest to my heart.  

In 4th grade, fractions are the largest unit during the year and is probably the most difficult concept for students to comprehend.  When I taught 4th grade math last year and implemented the CCSS (see the standards for fractions here), my team made five "fraction booklets" using resources from various texts to use throughout the year.  We had "Fraction Friday" every week and continuously studied fractions throughout the year.
Our booklets focused on the following topics: 

Basic Fractions, Mixed Numbers and Improper Fractions, Adding and Subtracting Fractions, Multiplying with Fractions, and Decimals and Fractions.  

In addition to the focused fraction packets, I always incorporated fraction math centers as choices throughout the year for morning work time.  Here are a few of the resources that I used for fractions in my math centers.  Students truly benefited from this extra practice by engaging in these fun activities.

This is a freebie Fraction Dominoes game by Ideas by Jivey.

Here is a set of four winter themed monster fraction centers that I created last year.

The students below are playing a memory game for equivalent fractions from the monster set.

 This is a line plot with fractions center that I also created last year.
It is a top seller in my TpT store.

One last set of centers I created last year was for 4.NF.4 (multiplying fractions by whole numbers).

I try not to promote my own products on my blog too often but these are probably my favorite products that I have created to use with my students.  Please accept my apologies for the self promotion. :)  I created the centers originally because it was difficult to find fraction centers for the upper elementary.  In honor of Workshop Wednesday fraction week, these centers will be on sale at 20% off until midnight Saturday EST!  Thanks for reading and good luck with those fractions. ;)  I DO miss them!

Workshop Wednesday {Reading Tricks and Treats!}

I am linking up on this hump day with my BBB, Jivey, at Ideas by Jivey for Workshop Wednesday!  This week's topic is Reading Workshop Tricks and Treats.

We recently started working on our poetry unit.

My ELA classes are reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

Before we begin reading the novel, I have the students write some quick thoughts in their journal about poetry.  They can write anything that comes to mind when they hear the word "poetry".  I wish I had taken pictures of what they wrote because some were hysterical!  I will try to add pictures of this to my post tomorrow.  Here are some pictures of their thoughts:

Overall, they knew very little about poetry just like the main character in the novel, Jack (although they hadn't read about Jack yet).

Since fourth graders have such little background knowledge about poetry, I try to expose them to as much "fun" poetry as possible.  I spread out many poetry books on my back table and read from them as well as have students borrow the books to explore themselves.  Today, my students had to choose a couple of poetry books to read when they were at "read to self" or "read to someone" center time.  We only got through one center today and I have four stations, so tomorrow the other two groups who were at "work on writing" and "word work" will do read to self and read to someone.  

Here is a picture of some of the books at the end of the day today after they had been sifted through many times:

I gave each student a mini post-it note and had them stick it on a page of a poem that they like (name written on post-it).  I will photocopy that poem for them and they will try to memorize it to recite to the class.  We will recite our poems for a fun activity on Halloween.  It will be a "trial run" and students will be allowed to use their copy if they need to when reciting (most students will actually memorize it!).  After this "trial run", students will choose another poem and then be given about a week to memorize it.  We will have another poem reciting day.  See the post-it notes sticking out of the books in the picture below?

When I first started this years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Could the students really memorize the poem?  If they can memorize words to songs so easily, why not poems?  I found out that they ABSOLUTELY CAN memorize poems and they love it!  They are so proud to choose a poem and then be able to show off how they have memorized it.  We practice using the right expression, volume, and tone.  It is so much fun that the students slowly start changing their attitudes about poetry.  

It is my hope that when my students see poems, they will think that this is something they CAN read and understand.  Actually "liking" poetry is half the battle and if I can get my students comfortable with different styles, it may just allow their minds to work more freely instead of "shutting down".  

I think I can...I think I can...goes a long way!!

Be sure to check out more Reading Tricks and Treats at Ideas by Jivey!