I feel very unprepared for this Monday made it:( I have been so busy and enjoying as much friends and hubby as I can before school is back in full swing that my school projects are lacking!
Today, I spent 2 hours with my friend and co-teacher to talk about our literacy block this year! It was a great conversation and we both left excited for this school year! One thing we did talk a lot about was homework! The co-teacher is the certified ESL teacher so we do a whole group ESL class for literacy to best meet all of their reading needs. So homework always looks a bit different. We wanted meaningful homework and not busy work...but there has to be an accountability piece to ensure they are doing something!
So they have their nightly spelling homework and also reading homework. I worked on a new reading log for them to use this year. We modified it a bit and we both think it will work out great!
It is simple and gets the job done. Yes, it is not as cute as I usually do things but that really wanted the point with this. So students will get take home books each week. they are to read, and write a summary each night or write something about what they liked. A parent will sign and I will check it every morning in order for them to get their homework ticket. Students also must read 80 minutes each week to get their reading bead!
If you are interested in the reading log, just click on the picture! So that is it for my Monday Made it! I promise to make up for it later this week! Thanks Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for the opportunity to link up!
One more thing before I go...I have been wrecking my brain about how to do my math block this year. I have used Pinterest, goggled, blogs, PT, anything to gather ideas. I just can't decide how to do it:(
I need all the HELP I can get...so if you have an idea or suggestion, I would greatly appreciate it!
This is what I plan on doing, or not doing...haha...
1. I do NOT want to be a part of the center rotation. I want to be able to meet with a few kids, one kid, or a whole small group when needed. It has never worked adding me into the rotation.
2. I want a calendar piece
3. I do NOT want transition times where they stop, clean up, move and start again...ugh! too much time LOST. So...I am thinking of having them have a given amount of centers to complete at their own pace over a two week span? One week span? What do you think?
Thanks for listening! I hope someone can give me some suggestions!
I always give my students a certain number of centers to complete over the span of a week, and it has always worked well for me. I can't handle the "lost" time either. My co-workers seem to be afraid of giving them that much flexibility, but I find they always rise to the expectations set. I always make them very aware of the accountability piece too. Good luck with everything- I'm still working on setting things up for the new year as well. I can't wait to see what others have to say! Thanks for the reading log!
ReplyDeleteDo you know much about Guided Math or Daily Five Math? You'll find tons of resources if you ask Mr. Google. Sorry I can't be more helpful :(
ReplyDeleteTania
My Second Sense
Yeah I do...but it never seemed to work for me:( I hope this new idea does!
DeleteI am totally with you on the math center rotations. I want to add more centers into my math block this year but I do not want to be one of the rotations. I need that to be a time when I can pull kiddos as needed to work 1:1 or in small groups with flexibility. And yes, there really is so much time lost between each rotation during clean up. I know that my firsties would handle the whole completing a certain number of centers in their own time every week very well. Time management is not their strong suit. But if I were teaching 3rd I think I might give it a try!
ReplyDelete❤ -Stephanie
Falling Into First
Thanks guys! I played around with all different ideas last night! I think I got it:) Blogging about it today too!
ReplyDeleteHi! I just discovered your blog and I'm so happy I did. It is adorable and full of wonderful goodies! I would love your listening center cards! Thanks so much! I look forward to many more wonderful posts! Congrats on almost 500 followers!
ReplyDeletegobstoppersrock@gmail.com
I agree with not being one of the centers. I used to schedule myself as one of the stations, but there was just a lot of lost time. Now I am free to circulate and make sure everyone is on task or call students to work on in small groups or individually. I usually do a whole group lesson first, then the kids moved on to the stations. I had a really responsible group of firsties last year, so I was able to give them more accountability. What I did was to schedule and set up my stations and gave the kids a check off sheet where they could record when they finished a station. Then, they would just move to the next station.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've had less responsible students, I have scheduled just one to two stations for each day and told them where they had to go.
Teachin' First
krisspradlin4@yahoo.com
That sounds great! I think that is exactly what I plan on doing!
DeleteHey Tonya!
ReplyDeleteFor math, here's what I did last year that I think worked well. I had 100% passing on the NC EOG...which is great, even though I hate testing. Anyway, I taught my whole group lesson. I gave time for guided practice as I circulated the room. Then they went to independent practice. During independent practice, I got them "trained" to come to me with questions, etc. or when they finished. After checking independent practice, they could move on to some sort of math activity related to what we were doing, or not related, but still math. It may have been a premade game, a game made by me, flashcards, a Smartboard game...just something MATH to keep them occupied while I was busy reteaching the kids who didn't "get it". I Loved how it worked out. Sometimes, I had kids immediately come to my table after guided practice, some days I only a few, sometimes there weren't any...just depended on the topic.
Hope this helps in some way! Come check out my new blog. I'm just getting started so beware that it's definitely not as good as yours. You always share the best stuff and it is appreciated!!!
Susan
owlroom.blogspot.com
Don't forget to follow me! ;)
wow, lots of great ideas! Thanks for the suggestions!
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