Guided Reading with Colleen from Literacy Loving Gals

Welcome again to guest blogger Colleen from Literacy Loving Gals!  She has been her before, and we are excited to have her join us again for a guest post!

Hello all! This is Colleen from Literacy Loving Gals. I would like to share with you a little peek into Fountas' and Pinnell's Blue Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) Kit, since I use it most often to support my struggling RtI students compared to the other colored kits. 

If you are not familiar with the LLI kits, they are ideal resources to support below grade-level students who are struggling in reading and writing.  The kits are used in a small group setting with 3 to 4 students, depending on the grade-level of the students.  RtI students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade (Orange, Green & Blue Kits) require groups of 3 students for fidelity of the program, while the 4th grade and 5th grade levels (Red & Gold Kits) allow for 4 students per group.  

LLI is scientifically-based and designed to prevent literacy difficulties. The program (along with teacher guidance, of course) provides students opportunities to extend comprehension through discussions and writing, to learn and apply phonics and word solving skills, to increase vocabulary and processing strategies, as well as improve fluency and phrasing through rereading.  Since the groupings are so intimate in size, I'm easily able to model appropriate reading behaviors, in addition to prompt for and reinforce effective reading strategies.  Fidelity of the program definitely correlates to student success.  I have seen much growth in my students' reading abilities, since I began using LLI in the early Fall. 

The majority of the students I service are in grades 2nd and 3rd, which is why I use the Blue Kit most often.  It encompasses guided reading Levels C through N.  There are 120 lessons.  Each lesson has 4 colored copies to use while in group and 6 black and white copies of each book for students to take home for additional reading practice.  Canvas bags are available to keep the Take-Home books in good condition.  In addition, a Prompting Guide and the resource book When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works are accessible in this kit.

The Prompting Guide supplies a variety of prompts for each targeted reading behavior.  A few prompting categories and examples are below. 

• Early Reading Behaviors "Say it slowly and move your finger under the word.", "Show me____ (a high frequency word) on this page.", "Point to each word as you read."
• Using Information "Can the picture help you think about this part of the story?", "You said____. Does that sound right?", "Are you thinking about what will happen next?"
• Solving Words "Get your mouth ready for the first sound.", "Cover the last part of the word.", "Look at the middle of the word.", "Do you know a word that starts with those letters?"
• Monitoring and Correcting "Why did you stop?", "Does the word you said look like the word on the page?", "It has to makes sense and go with the letters.", "Where is the tricky part?"
• General Problem-Solving "That won't help you.  This will help you .", "Try that again.", "Try it another way.", "Think about what you know." "What can you do?"
• Maintaining Fluency "Listen to me read.  Can you read it like that?", "Make a full stop at the period.", "Make your voice go up when you see a question mark.", "Take a short pause when you see a comma (or dash)."

The lessons are 30 minutes in length (45 minutes in length for the Red & Gold Kits).  There is a nice variety of fiction and nonfiction texts for the students to read.  For each set of 10 lessons, there are 5 instructional texts and 5 independent texts.  The routine for the lessons alternate depending on the lesson number.  Odd-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), introduction of New Book at the instructional level (15 mins) and additional Letter/Word Work (5 mins), if time permits.  Even-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books and Assessment of the instructional text (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), Writing About Reading (15 mins) and introduction of New Book at the independent level (5 mins).  

Rereading Books and Assessment:
At the start of each group, students are required to reread the new instructional-level book and independent-level books from the previous lesson or lessons.  During this time, you *listen in* while the students softly read, which allows you to support them with any needed prompting.  This is when the prompting guide becomes very handy.  Keep in mind, there is absolutely NO "Round Robin" reading, as was common before research confirmed it as a very unproductive use of time.  Not all of the students in the small group need the same prompting, so students taking turns to read aloud while peers wait for a turn is an ineffective strategy. 

Moving on...Face it, most struggling readers are unmotivated to read, which is why they're struggling in the first place.  It's such a viscous cycle.  Don't you agree?  Well, for those slightly unmotivated students,  sometimes a little *magical touch* is needed to spark interest.  I  have trinkets available for my students to use when reading, including whisper phones, "eye-lighters", sock puppets, hand pointers, magnifying glasses and holiday-themed knickknacks.  In addition, I supply fix-up strategy book marks as a visual support for students.  

In regards to the Assessment portion of the lesson, only one or two students' reading is coded using running records on a particular day, so students being assessed must rotate throughout the week.  I take running records weekly for each of my students because they are well below grade level.  I then alter my teaching and prompting based on the students' running record miscues.  The instructional-level text from the previous day's lesson is used.  Fountas and Pinnell have a (paid-subscription) Literacy Online Resources site containing all of the lessons' materials, including running record forms for each instructional-level text.  I pull up the running record form for the lesson being assessed and code the students' reading behaviors on notebook paper using the Coding and Scoring form below.  Cute binders from Target keep my running records organized.  In order to help save beautiful trees, I do not print the copies of the running record forms.  

Phonics/Word Work:
During this portion of the lesson, students are explicitly and systematically instructed on how language works.  The LLI kits provide an Alphabet and Consonant Cluster Linking Chart, poems, letter & word games, and lists of suggested words that can be documented on anchor charts with students.  Magnetic letters with cookie trays, beads with pipe cleaners, letter stamps with ink pads, flyswatters and paint strips of various colors are also available in my room to assist in our work work activities.  In addition, I often use iPad Apps to boost interest in recording the words being taught.  Some easy-to-use Apps include Screen Chomp, ABC Magnetic Letters, Doodle Buddy and ShowMe.  However, on occasion the students participate in QR Code activities focused on the phonics skill being practiced.  In that case, they use the SCAN App. :)  

New Book: 

When introducing the new instructional-level book, students are provided the gist of the story.  They are also given the opportunity to *walk~through* the text with guidance looking for tricky words, new vocabulary, language structures and important text features when necessary.  Previewing the text should only take about 3 or 4 minutes.  It's very similar to the routines of Jan Richardson's guided reading routines.  As mentioned in the Rereading Books section, teachers use the prompting guide while *listening in* on the students during this portion of the lesson, too.  (Remember, NO "Round Robin" reading!) Once the students have been given time to read the book in its entirety, a group discussion takes place referring the students back into the text to support their answers to questions asked.

Writing:
LLI involves students extending their understanding of texts through writing in 3 forms: Interactive, Dictated and Independent.  They record their writing in My Writing Book. The writing books are available in yellow, purple and red.  There is no particular reason for the colors for the exception of allowing for some student choice.  Giving *choice* to students is always a good thing!  On a side note, in the Red and Gold kits dedicated to the upper grades, the writing books are different and provide a word study portion. 

Interactive Writing:
During interactive writing, students compose a text with the teacher.  I ask students to write words or parts of words on the board as I offer guidance and support.  The students LOVE participating in interactive writing! 

Dictated Writing: 

My little ones often have trouble with dictated writing because they miss some of the spoken words in their writing.  I generally use some sort of manipulative such as beads, holiday-themed erasers, buttons, etc. to support students in counting the number of spoken words needed in the dictated sentences.  It supports 1:1 correspondence of spoken and written words.  We count out the manipulative together as I dictate the sentence.  The students must then make sure to have as many words in their sentence as beads/erasers/buttons in front of them.  For instance, a student writing the sentence "The boy walked to the park with his friend." would need 9 counters in front of him or her.

Independent Writing: 

Independent writing may take several different forms depending on the students' needs.  Students may write lists, labels for pictures, sentences, paragraphs, etc.  On days the students are required to write independently, I often supply them with graphic organizers or response activities to guide them in responding to their texts.  Those organizers or responses are then placed into their writing books.  The writing books become a keep-sake for them and a place to document their growth throughout the year.  If you're interested in fiction and nonfiction guided writing ideas for Levels A-I and J+, click the poster below. :)

Well, there you have it...a little peek into the F&P Leveled Literacy Intervention Blue Kit.  Do you use the LLI kits with your students?  I'd love to hear your story, if you do!  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. 

P.S. Thank you to the following graphic artists for the backgrounds, clip art and fonts! :)

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Top 3 Animations for Sparking Imagination

Hello!

It's Pixie Anne from Growing Little Learners here today to share with you my Top 3 short animations for Sparking Creativity when writing.

I love using short animations as a starting point when writing and as we have weekly creative/extended writing sessions which are largely independent - a chance to build writing stamina and for us to see how much of what we have taught is embedded (and because creative writing can be fun!), I am always on the lookout for new ideas. 

Animations are an obvious choice as they are rich visually, fun to watch and offer a lot of support when combined with plenty of talk and drama to help struggling writers and give reluctant writers a bit more inspiration!

Here are my Top 3 (at the moment!). It just so happens that all 3 are wordless which, in my opinion, is even better as it allows for more imagination and creativity.

 Click on the pictures to link to Vimeo where you can watch them all. 

Bubbles

This is my newest find. A sweet story of a girl who stumbles upon a bottle of bubbles and finds herself transported on an adventure! We blew bubbles and went on our own adventures this week. We wrote a letter  the little girl in the clip thanking her and telling her all about where we had been.

Whistleless

This poor little bird has no whistle! He finds so many people who do have a whistle on his journey to find one and eventually finds his own. We did a simple retelling following watching this in class.

What Goes on Above the Shelves in a Supermarket?

I love this animation and have used in as a starting point for so many types of writing: newspaper articles, character and setting descriptions, writing the dialogue and letters amongst others. The boy is in the candy aisle at the supermarket when he climbs the shelves. At the top he discovers a land made of candy! There is a great adventure with lots of action which the boys love.

I loved the worlds made of bread, computer games, vegetables, ice-creams, electronics and clothes that mine created and wrote about after watching this...

Which shelf would you climb?!

Do watch these clips and let me know if and how you use them in the classroom. They are all great for teaching other topics such as loneliness, friendship, perseverance, bravery etc. 

Please also let me know if you know of any other great animations I can share with my class!

Thanks for stopping by today!

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Cause and Effect with Poetry

Happy National Poetry Month! It's Jen here from An Adventure in Literacy. There are just a few days left of Poetry Month. As quality educators, we know that poetry should be celebrated all year- not just in April. However, I thought I would end poetry month with some tips on using poetry to teach cause and effect.

Poems are short and simple. That makes them perfect for practicing cause and effect. Two of my favorite poets for elementary students are Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. They are classic poets that I enjoyed as a child and my students continue to love their poems each year. Kids enjoy and appreciate the humor and silliness in their poems.

In Jack Prelutsky's books there are a lot of short, four line poems. Many of these have a cause and effect that young readers can figure out easily. We create a chart of poetry cause and effect and add to it as we're reading the poems. Most of these poems are silly, so students really enjoy the fictional cause and effect scenarios.

You can also use longer poems to analyze different causes for one effect . "I Should Have Stayed in Bed Today" by Jack Prelutsky is a great poem to discuss the causes of why the boy thinks he should have stayed in bed.

If you're interested in more great teaching ideas for cause and effect be sure to check out Bex's post on Literacy Land. Do you have a favorite poem to use for cause and effect? Leave us a comment and let us know. 

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Word Work Without Worksheets!

Hello!

It's Jennifer from Stories and Songs in Second here to share one of those "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" lessons that worked wonders yesterday when the copier was broken and my SmartBoard light bulb blew out!

When technology decided not to be my best friend--on a Monday morning no less--I had to pull out my "old school" supplies and improvise our Word Work lesson using the format of a party game that I'd recently seen played on Ellen and had enjoyed with friends a few weeks back.

If you've never experienced Heads Up, it is well worth a ninety-nine cent app download on your phone!  There is also another free app called Charades Kids that has many school-appropriate categories like Dr. Seuss, Fairy Tales, Animal Kingdom, and Countries.

My paper version of the game was easy and quick to make, and provided a new and engaging way for my second graders to meet our new list of Spelling words for the week!  No pencils or worksheets were required, but lots of oral language, phonemic awareness, and word meaning skills were still reviewed and reinforced!

It took me about fifteen minutes to make my word cards from index cards, staple two sentence strips together to make a headband, and cut and attach a sandwich-size Ziploc bag "word pocket" to the front. Once I explained the rules to my group, we had a grand time playing the game together!  Some students even asked to use the materials during indoor recess!

I've pulled together a quick FREEBIE for you {HERE} in case you want to try your own version of this activity!  I've included a 8.5 x 11 template as well as smaller blank word templates that you can print and laminate multiple copies for reuse with dry erase markers!  I hope your students enjoy it!

As always, thanks for sharing my story!  Know that I wish you all the best as your school year winds to a close.  May you continue to teach your children well and share the

wonder of words without worksheets with them!

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Reading Logs: A Parent's Perspective

Hi Literacy Land readers!  It is Lauren from Teacher Mom of Three.  Today I am going to try and take off my teacher hat and talk about reading logs from a parent point of view.   This post is an opinion post to generate thinking and discussion. 

The reading logs that I am discussing are the ones sent home to document a child's reading at home.  They usually are in chart or calendar form and require the parent or child to record the book title, pages read, and/or minutes read, as well as requiring a parent signature. Sometimes they are counted toward a reading grade or homework grade.

Now, a little preface to my post so you know from where I am come.  I have been a teacher for twenty-six years and a mom for twenty-two years.  Throughout my teaching career, I have utilized a reader's log in various forms over all grade levels as a classroom teacher and as a reading specialist.  As well, my oldest son is now twenty-two, and he was required to complete a reader's log throughout most of his school career.

There is no disputing that students of all ages need to read at home to become better readers.  You can call it reading practice, independent, or recreational reading.  We all know that to be a better reader, kids need to read.  A lot.  And they need to read both at school and at home.

Ok, now that I have put my parent hat back on, I will say that from my family's perspective, the reading log does not promote authentic reading, nor does it create life-long readers. But let me get to the why.

Why Reading Logs Should Not be Emphasized

•  First, many times the completion of reading logs is tied to a reward, whether it is a grade or a prize.  Sometimes students are rewarded for the total number of minutes read.  In this case, the incentive is extrinsic, not intrinsic.  Intrinsic motivation creates lifelong reading,  Extrinsic motivation is short-term and the motivation to read becomes not about reading for enjoyment, but rather to earn an ice cream party or a good grade.
• The log is usually a form of accountability to document whether students are reading at home for the required daily or weekly minutes.  I understand that teachers need some sort of accountability.  I also understand that not all students will complete the reading or have a log completed. Sometimes even teacher-moms forget.  At least this one does.  We get so caught up in the reading, that many days pass and no one can remember how many minutes Noah read last Tuesday.  All that Noah knows is that he finished his book and he can't wait to read the next one in the series.

        Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, believes that students will read if you give them great books. She doesn't require her students to keep a log for at-home reading. Teachers must help students to find books that they can get totally engrossed in.  Books that the students want to take home.  Books that are of interest to the students and books that the student has chosen herself.  There's two points here that I want to make. 

•  First, when students must document the minutes read or pages read, this can and does interfere with reading.  It sets up an artificial reading experience. not an authentic one.  Students and parents have to remember to set the timer, reading magically stops when the timer goes off, and someone has to document the minutes.  The reading experience can become tedious and frustrating.

• Second, many researchers, including Miller and Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide, emphasize that teachers must, must allow time for reading in the classroom throughout the day.  Both understand that for many students they may not have a support system at home to encourage reading or a parent available to sign the log.  When I taught middle school, many of the students came from single family homes with the parent working night shift.  The students had to remember to make arrangements for parents to sign the log before the due date. Seems like they should be responsible, but these same students were the ones caring for younger siblings and in charge of making dinner and other chores.  Sadly, reading was not a priority in the home.  Staying safe in high-crime neighborhoods and caring for younger siblings was the priority.  Reading logs aren't going to change that.

• The goal of education is to create life-long learners and readers.  The log isn't going to do that either.  For my sons, they read because they find it interesting and enjoyable.  The reader's log gets in the way.  We end up estimating exactly how many minutes they read because I will not have them or me running to the timer.  I do not want to communicate to them that reading stops when the timer goes off or when you have read 10 pages.  It's unnatural in this setting.  Real readers don't set the timer.  Real readers read in bits and chunks throughout the day. I don't document every time my boys read.  I can't.
• And the reason I can't is because very early in the school year, they got the impression that reading is about completing the log and racking up the minutes.  "I want to go the ice cream party".  "I want the special tickets".  No, I had to gently remind them.  This is not what reading is all about.  I want my discussions with my kids to be about the book, not how many minutes or pages they read.  We read for enjoyment and to learn not for recording minutes.

So in my house, the boys logs are completed each month, but I don't emphasize them.  My boys read much more than the required 15 minutes a night.  They read at breakfast, when they are bored, in their beds at night, in the car, and when their Lego magazines arrive in the mail.  The reader's log did not create these "wild" readers.  No, not at all.

Stay tuned for a second part to this topic where I will discuss my ideas for alternatives.

What are your thoughts as a parent and/or as a teacher?

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Building Fluency for Struggling Readers with Reader's Theater

Hi everyone! It's Bex here from Reading and Writing Redhead!  I am here to share some information about how you can support your struggling readers and help them improve their fluency with Reader's Theater.

I mentioned Reader's Theater in a blog post last year called No More Robot Reading. Check it out here. Are you wondering -what is Reader's Theater?  In Reader's Theater, students do not memorize lines. They use scripts and practice using vocal expression to get the audience (or imagined audience) understanding the story rather then by using visuals like props and costumes. There are so many Reader's Theater resources out there, and many are free! I will share some with you at the end of this post.

Reader's Theater is a  great vehicle to get students to improve their  intonation, pausing, and inflection and to read with expression. I love using this with my RTI Tier 1 reading groups and there is such a wide variety of reading levels available in reader's theater scripts that I can use it with all readers-from struggling readers to those who need a challenge.

I found some great advice over at  Reading Rockets for using it. Some of Susan Finney's advice includes: Starting out with fun scripts (limit boring dialogue), you can model each character's part and match the character to which student would be best to read it (OR my thought is, after your students are comfortable with the concept of Reader's Theater, challenge your students by assigning them a part that they may not have gravitated to), and provide teacher support for vocabulary and understanding characters.

You can do so much with reader's theater - as the title of this post states,  it is terrific for practicing fluency, but you can do a TON with vocabulary and comprehension too!

Here are some resources for Reader's Theater.

Aaron Shepard has some amazing resources on his blog!
      Aaron's Tips for Using Reader's Theater
      Aaron's Free Reader's Theater Scripts
Timeless Teacher Tips' Links to Reader's Theater Scripts - an old site but useful: scroll down for links  to scripts
Giggle Poetry's Poetry Themed Reader Theater Scripts
Joanne Griffin's Reader's Theater Scripts
PBS Kids'  Scripts
A post from an elementary teacher with her tips on using Reader's Theater
Using Reader's Theater Scripts for Homework
Ideas from a New York Times Post if you would like to adapt prose yourself for RT

   

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A Lesson with Tanny McGregor

Throughout the life of our Literacy Land blog we have posted several times about the lessons within the Comprehension Connections book by Tanny McGregor.  Her lessons have proven to make comprehension strategies "come alive" for my students.

Several months ago Tanny asked to do a lesson with my students....ummmm....YES!!!!

Her lesson centered around theme and my students left with a strong foundation of the meaning and purpose behind theme.  I go into great detail about the lesson and everything that took place over at Curious Firsties.

Within the lesson, Tanny used three different texts.  She called them "text cousins."
They were text cousins because they were each different but share the same possible or similar theme (much like cousins).  She explained this visually with a triangle and a heart.  The three texts make up the triangle and the heart is the "deeper" piece that they share.

She started with the poem.  The students heard the poem, read the poem about 2-3 times.  Then they had a quick discussion about the theme.  When Tanny moved on to the second text, Each Kindness, she used only the illustrations.  And not even all the illustrations.  Just a few of them.  Then students had a discussion about theme.  The third text used was Red.  Tanny read this story aloud and stopped briefly at certain points to discuss what was happening.  Then there was a discussion about the theme.

Now, there was much, much more to the lesson than this.  But the WAY that she used the texts sent me a powerful message.  And it got me thinking...

The lesson was probably 45ish minutes long (I was not watching the clock). Tanny used three different types of texts in one lesson within that time frame.  Each piece of text was provided so much meaning and connected well to the lesson.

The poem by Jeff Moss was short but immediately the students understood that someone was being left out, someone was being picked on, and someone was being mean.

I have no idea about the actual story from, Each Kindness, but we gathered quite a bit of information from the illustrations.  A quick discussion and some "turn and talk" time was completely sufficient for the students to make connections between the poem and illustrations.

The third text was read in its entirety.  Red was a beautiful story about the strength that children can have and it served as an excellent way to bring all three texts together.  But Tanny did not have to stop on each page and have a discussion for these connections to be made.  The story was powerful and clear enough on its own.

As I reflected on the lesson, materials, and pacing, I realized that I would not have thought to use multiple texts in one sitting, in one lesson.  I tend to use multiple sources over a period of days.  And I would never look at only a few illustrations from a picture book.  No way!! I would read the whole story, of course.

This lesson opened my eyes.

When planning lessons, I need to think outside my comfort zone.  Look at how I can make these text to text connections stronger for students by using multiple sources of information.  My teammate, Karen, decided that she could pair some nonfiction texts with fiction texts by merely using certain aspects of books (such as photographs, maps, or diagrams).  I will be sitting on this new learning for a little while.  I have a good feeling that it will be changing the way I approach lessons.

What are your thoughts?  Do any book pairs come to mind right away?

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