Classroom Pics & Book Club

Hey there!  I know that I've been a bad blogger lately, but I've come to share a few things with you in hopes that you will forgive my absenteeism :)

I realize that it's October now and that this classroom reveal is a bit tardy, but what the heck.....I'll show you the pics anyway!

View from the door, looking left

View from the door, looking straight

 

Classroom Job chart

Whole Brain Teaching posters

My small group table

Our Writing Corner, mailboxes, and 7 Habits posters

Our Bulletin Board (it's full of anchor charts now....but that's another post)

A little bit of me

My desk

Now, on to more important things! I had a few teacher peeps ask me about how I run book club and I wanted to share what I've done so far. 

Let me preface this by saying that you can totally tweak this to make it work for your kiddos.  It's a lot like literature circles, only I made the changes I needed to make for my students. 

In 3rd grade, we don't so much teach kids to read, but how to understand and manipulate what they have already read.  Having said that, I don't do guided reading (per my principal), so book club was my choice of applying my reading instruction.  I have focus lessons where we work on specific skills, but book club is their chance to apply those skills :)

Here's how I started:

I chose one book at first, Judy Moody, and I met with each group, separately, while the others were in Daily 5 stations.

I did this mostly because I only had 6 copies of the book and this allowed me to have a copy and each member of the group to have a copy. 

This is where I taught them about book club.  What it looks like, what it sounds like, and how it's run.  We read this book, as a class, but in groups, and they got a taste of what I wanted book club to become. 

We did prediction activities, comprehension activities after each chapter, vocabulary activities.....whatever I wanted them to get out of the book, we did!  Some of the activities I found on TpT, some of them I made.  I know that with Judy Moody, I bought three different units on TpT and combined them to make what I wanted for my kiddos.

Now, I have my kiddos divided into groups, by reading ability and each group has a different book.  I have 19 kids, so I have 4 groups (3 groups of 5 and one group of 4). 

This allows my higher readers to read more and read at their pace without becoming frustrated.  And this also allows my struggling readers to feel less pressure, because they are grouped with other readers who read at their pace and their level.

Each group has a different packet......that I put together.  They will use this packet for the entire book.  This packet contains work on the specific skills that we have covered (compare/contrast, sequencing, making predictions, etc.), and it always has comprehension questions.  I keep the books and the packets together in a colored tray/box (different colors for each group) and the kids know that when I say it's time for book club, they need to gather their materials, {cop a squat} and get busy :)

I am lucky enough to have a special education teacher in my room for about an hour and a half each day.  Of course, this is when I schedule book club!!!  She sits with my strugglers and keeps them on task and occasionally reads a page or two to keep them on track and to help with fluency and comprehension.  This frees me up to run around to my other 3 groups and check in on them and read some, too! 

I do book club for about 30-40 minutes each day.  Usually, that's just long enough for them to get their stuff, find a spot, document what they're doing for the day and read a chapter (sometimes they get done with the reading and do the comprehension questions, sometimes they don't). 

Each group is at a different point in their book and in their book work, and that's ok.  I check in with each group and I know where they are, what they did the day before and what they should have done by the end of their book club session.

Unlike literature circles, I don't assign jobs.  Each person is responsible for reading, with the group, and contributing to the discussion and helping to answer the discussion questions.  At the end of the book, the group will have to share with the class what they read (like a book report, but better!).  They will have their choices as to how they want to present, but each member has to participate and they will also get to grade each other on their participation within the book club.

So far, my kiddos love it!  Here's a pic of them working in book club this week.....

We haven't finished our first book yet, but when we do, I'll be sure to share how they presented/shared their book with the class.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend and I hope this was helpful :)

Livin' the dream,

Book club & TpT love!!

Hello all!!!!!  I finally feel like I have my head a little bit above water, so I thought I'd catch my breath and blog about it :)

I can't believe the first 3 weeks of school have already come and gone!! We have been crazy busy in room 14......we are being pushed to teach "bell to bell" and let me tell ya.....I'm doing just that.  We are late dismissing every day, but we are soaking up every bit of instructional time that we have.  I. am. POOPED!!!!!

On a more lively note......let me just say.....I {love} TpT!!!  What would I do without it????  I have never taught 3rd grade ELA & Reading before......only math and science.  And this is still my first time teaching the first semester of math and science (I moved midyear, last year.....remember???), so this is ALL new to me.  BUT.....thank goodness, I am surrounded by teaching geniuses......both at school and in the blogosphere :)

Not that I'm one to follow or imitate, because I have NO idea what I'm doing.....but I will give you a little glimpse of what we've been up to in room 14.......and all the great resources I found on TpT that {LITERALLY} saved my life :)

First of all, in ELA, we use Journey's as our basal.  Of course, we add to it......make it better and differentiate for our kiddos.  I also use Daily 5, so......after we read our story (whole group), the writing station and word work station in Daily 5 always link back to the story that we have read in Journey's.  In my "Work on Writing" station, we are using this **fabulous** creation from Nicole Shelby over at Teaching with Blonde Ambition.  It's perfect....especially when we are really trying to build a foundation of "responding to our reading".  I want my kiddos writing about what we are reading (for now)......and this baby does just that!!!!

Then, in our "Word Work" station, we work on our spelling words from our story for the week.  Luckily, I found the entire 3rd grade Journey's spelling lists on TpT!!!! Perfection!!!

When my kiddos are at their Daily 5 stations, I am doing "book club" at my table.  This is my first year to do this and I am loving it so far!!  We are reading Judy Moody and my kids love it!!

I was searching for some sort of "novel study" or "literature circle" activity that I could do with this book, and of course, TpT delivered.  Since I had never done book clubs before, I wasn't sure what to do......but, Praise the Lord, several other teaches have done this before and were kind enough to share their wisdom!!! I found 3 different products on TpT over this very book.....and I mixed and matched different activities from all 3 products to make it work for my kiddos.  Here are the 3 products I am using right now....

I'm sorry the pics are so blurry, but follow the links in the images and you'll get a better idea!  These products are awesome!  They have vocabulary activities, comprehension checks, discussion questions......the WORKS!  There's even a book review for the kids to complete after we finish the book.  It's so much cooler than a boring ol' book report! 

 

In math, we just took our Unit 1 test over place value/comparing & ordering numbers.  Thanks to Stephanie over at 3rd Grade Thoughts, we got to do some awesome *Monster Math* as a review before we took our tests.  The kids loved it!! 

This got my kiddos up and moving......which they needed.  Fridays we take our weekly reading assessment and our spelling tests.  It just so happened that our unit test landed on a Friday, too (which I hate).....but this activity got my kiddos moving around the room for a nice change in our day 'o testing!  Plus, it was a nice way to review before our test.  The kids rocked it :)

 

As you can see, we've been busy.....and the year is just gettin' started!  I hope to finally get back into my blogging routine and make a post at least once a week, but with my grad school internship (135 hours in one semester), that may not always happen!! 

 

I hope your year has started off with a *BANG* (the good kind) and that you are enjoying your weekend!  Be good :)

Keep livin' the dream,