Characterization FREEBIE

Introducing a brand new FREEBIE: Characterization Graphic Organizer (for any text)

(click on image above to download)

Focusing on the the CCSS in Reading for Literature, specifically looking at Key Ideas and Details as well as Craft and Structure, middle school students are asked to demonstate such skills as to "analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot)," (RL.7.3) and to "determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text." (RL.8.2)  The first step to begining such tasks is to understand the concept of characterization. (HERE is a link to a great summary of the difference between direct and indirect characterization via Read.Write.Think.org.) Addressed and practiced in earlier grades, the above graphic organizer will assist students in navigating through text details to glean information about specific characters.  Supporting details recorded on this page can then be used to respond to questions pertaining the more complex analysis of a character's development.

I hope you find this FREEBIE useful.  I'm linking this post to Classroom Freebies' Manic Monday for April 22nd.  Be sure to click on the link below and check out all of the great resources available to you!

Friday Favorites

One of my favorite things about the teaching-blogging world that I've discovered during these months in which I have become involved is the willingness to share and support each other.  I love knowing that there are others, just like me, who love teaching - with all of its ups and downs - and have days so full that often things like sleep and time to exercise are sacrificed to fit it all in...yet are never too busy to share a tip or resource to make the days a little easier for others.  Whether it's a funny meme on Facebook or a poignient post communicating the real and troubling concerns about the path down which education is being steered, I love knowing we are negotiating the day-to-day challenges for teaching together!  For this Friday, I will be sharing with you some places to look for great resources to help with planning and creating fun and interactive lessons and activities for your students:

First up, you may have seen that one of my favorite blogs, Teaching Blog Addict, is celebrating its 2nd birthday this April!  Starting today, April 5th, you can go to this site and download literally hundreds of products that have been created for teachers - by teachers, and are absolutely FREE!  What a way to celebrate and share some love!  Lots of Middle School resources can be found within the 5th and 6th grade collection.  I've found some great things in the PreK- K and 1st-2nd grade collections to use with my little guy at home, too. Thank you, TBA, for such a fantastic opportunity to share.  Happy Birthday!!

Next, just in time for Poetry Month, Pam at Mrs. O's Rockin Resources has put together a Poetry Linky Party which already has tons of great materials and resources for all grade levels.  Take a moment to visit and check them out and/or share some of your products as well.  It will be time well spent, for sure! 

Lastly, I'm sharing with you a link to the Education section of today's New York Times.  In it you will find some fantastic ideas for teaching narrative, argumentative and informative writing - alligned with the CCSS - using baseball as a theme for this week's writing prompts.  

New York Times Writing Prompts

Common Core Practice | Narrative, Argumentative and Informative Writing About Baseball

The baseball season has begun, and our New Jersey classroom collaborators -- many of them passionate Yankees or Mets fans -- explored America’s pastime for this week's writing prompts.

Be sure to also take a moment to check out last Friday's post on Preparing for Testing and the Linky Party that is ongoing here.  There are a couple of great posts that have been shared, thanks to Erin at Miss Lifesaver and Kristy at 2 Peas and a Dog.  There's still time to share your ideas and tips as well.  Hope to see you there! :)

7 Reasons Why the Teaching of Roots and Affixes Is a Middle School Matter

In the 14 years that I've been teaching, I've seen a real shift in the philosophy of English Education.  When I started, whole language was the focus of all reading and writing instruction.  Quite honestly, this was a shock to me since, as a student in a very small K-12 school in upstate New York, I only knew traditional methodology.  My English classes were filled with diagramming sentences, memorizing the forms of the verb "to be," and studying vocabulary - including root words and affixes.  That being said, as you can imagine, seeing my own students read and write just for the love of reading and writing...not concentrating on the number of complex sentences versus compound-complex sentences in a passage, was exciting!  I loved it!  My students loved it...ELA was fun!  

But...the question of whether or not it was wise for the pendulum to swing so far to one side and seemingly abandon the systematic teaching of grammar, conventions and vocabulary - specifically Greek and Latin roots and affixes - now arises. Is there something to be said for the shift to a "back to basics" approach that the Common Core Standards require?  When looking carefully at the CCSS and researching the benefits of learning and internalizing the basic building blocks of language, to me the answer is a resounding, "Yes!"  The interesting thing I found is that the CCSS vocabulary standards pertaining to Greek and Latin affixes and roots begin at 4^th Grade and end at 8^th Grade.  Here's some of what I've found and why I think this is so:

1. Quite simply, let's start with knowing the parts helps our students to understand the whole.   Knowing commonly used roots and affixes can help students infer the definitions of new words in context.

2. The ability to infer meaning: Knowing Greek and Latin word parts helps students recognize and gain clues to understanding of other words that use known affixes and roots (Nagy & Scott, 2000).

3.  Over 60% of the words students will encounter in school textbooks have recognizable word parts; and many of these Latin and Greek roots (Nagy, Anderson, Schommer, Scott, & Stallman, 1989).  This means that word study can helps students' comprehension in all content areas.

4.   Recent reading research has supported the morphological approach to vocabulary development in elementary and middle school.  In linguistics, this practice of identifying and analyzing the parts of words in a given language is helpful in its acquisition.

5. Content area vocabulary is largely Greek and Latin-based and research supports this instruction, especially for struggling readers (Harmon, Hedrick & Wood, 2005).

6. Knowing commonly used suffixes can help students identify a word's part of speech, further helping with correct usage in writing.

7. Lastly, standardized tests assess students' vocabulary.  Whether we like it or not, state testing seems to be here to stay.  That being said, giving our students the tools necessary to be successful can turn what is often a stressful situation for many into an opportunity to confidently show what they know.

In doing some research to answer my own questions for this post, I also found a very well-written and thorough research summary on the topic created by the National Middle School Association.  In it you will find a great deal of research that not only supports the instruction of vocabulary in language development, but the need for word study at the middle school level.

So, with all of this said, we now need to examine how.  How do we meet the needs of our students without swinging the pendulum all the way back in the other direction...forsaking student-centered instruction for skill and drill?  I think balance is the key.  Direct instruction of vocabulary is a place to start, but time should be given for students to explore and analyze word parts in small groups or learning centers and on their own.  This gradual release of responsibility approach - which we know so well in the instruction of reading - pertains to vocabulary as well.  

In an effort to help you find materials that can help with organizing cooperative learning opportunities for word study, I'm also including a link to my Content Areas Roots, Prefixes and Suffixes - which includes a PowerPoint for reviewing word parts and their roles in language.  

CCR and CCSS aligned for ELA 5 - 8

 

It includes charts and Memory Match cards for roots in ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies as well as for commonly used prefixes and suffixes. My Student Accountability Form and my My Vocabulary Keeps Growing graphic organizer are also included.

Please feel free to click HERE  if you would like more details.

In providing links to some of the free materials I've created for vocabulary, and following the post I wrote for Common Core Classrooms, I've received some great feedback, and questions as to the whys and hows have been asked.  I'm hoping that I've given you some more information, places to look for additional answers, and have offered some resources that may be helpful.  Are you teaching roots, prefixes and suffixes in your classroom? If you have fun ways that you have had your students review or practice...please consider sharing more in the comments below.  The more insight and resources we can gather, the better!

Harmon, J., Hedrick, W., Wood, K. (2005).  Research on vocabulary instruction in the 
Content areas:  Implication for struggling readers.  Reading & Writing Quarterly, 21, 
261-280. 



Nagy, W.E., Anderson, R.C., Schommer, M., Scott, J.A., & Stallman, A.C. (1989). Morphological families in the internal lexicon. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(3), 262-282.


Nagy, W. E., & Scott, J. A. (2000). Vocabulary processes. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. III, pp. 269–284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

My Vocabulary Keeps Growing!

"Why do we have to learn Latin and Greek in English class?" Good question, and one that I'm sure your students have at least thought of - even if they didn't go as far as to articulate it.

The truth is, beyond the fact that root words, prefixes and suffixes are specifically addressed in the Common Core, reading and writing English can only become easier by learning the Greek and Latin roots.  If we are to guide our students to reading both literature and informational texts closely, empowering them to analyze and truly comprehend a text, and then take it a step further to acquiring knowledge from that text, the ability to decipher meanings of new words is essential.  Not only in the ELA classroom, but in all content areas, students can only be more successful if they understand what they are reading and what they are being asked to do.  Recognizing the patterns created by commonly used roots, prefixes and suffixes will help them negotiate meaning in challenging texts and the kinds of questions that are being asked as students write and speak about what they are reading.

One tool that I have created to help students with developing these language skills is the My Vocabulary Keeps Growing graphic organizer.

(Click image for FREE download.)

This graphic organizer is also a part of a much larger bundle for literacy center activities pertaining to roots, prefixes and suffixes.  Feel free to stop by my TpT store to check it out, but please be sure to download the above FREEBIE either way.  I hope you find it helpful! 

I'm linking this post to Classroom Freebies to make it easier to find.  Be sure to click the link below to stop by the site and see all of the other great FREE resources for your students.

Classroom Management Magic - Making Review Fun

This time of year can be wonderful, magical and full of fun.  Children seem to ooze with excitement; walking into my son's Kindergarten classroom, the energy is honestly palpable!  Our younger, elementary friends are not the only ones who may seem to have a little trouble focusing on the necessary tasks at hand during the school day.  Between concerts, and snow days, and professional development days, and vacation days...not to mention the extras that go on outside of school this time of year in December, Middle School can quite easily become Crazy Town in the days nearing Holiday Break.  Though these are mostly the best of times - they can also be the most challenging of times, especially when we know that CCSS and benchmarks wait for no one...not even a distracted child.   This is when, much like Santa and his magic toy bag, if you have a few tricks to pull from your sleeve to harness the energy and keep the kiddies focused, everyone will be that much happier to prepare for things like... any assessments you may be giving in December. ;-)

My Winter Tic Tac Toe Review is one such activity that is an easy game to set up, and provides not only for a creative review, but a chance for you to gather some formative assessment data for your students as you check questions and answers and observe game play.  I'm always looking for quick review activities that require students to process and internalize new information. This version of Tic Tac Toe is perfect because students must first create their own open-ended questions and answers to those questions - which require details for support - before they can play. Students then work together, quizzing each other, as they move their way to a Tic Tac Toe.

This download includes:

Complete Directions

Game Board

18 Game Pieces (Students can cut these out.)

Question/Answer Planning Sheet

...AND a link to a FREEBIE on my blog that can help with easily creating cooperative learning partners that can be used for this activity or any other quick think-pair-share kind of brain break you like to practice in your class.  The key to keeping activities like this from taking too much time to make worth it is having a system already in place to quickly get students working together...you'll find that here.

You can download a preview of this at my TpT Store:

{click image}

and you can also find other activities to help with some fun review that will leave your students asking when they can play again...and not, "When does this class end?!"

Grammar: I have...Who has...?

Common ELA Vocabulary Review Game Pack

ALSO - I'm linking this post to:

Be sure to click and check out other great resources for this crazy time of year...all for $1.99 or less!

Any activities that you like to do this time of year that keep kiddos focused  while having fun?

Please think about sharing below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Grammar At a Glance

(image from funny-pictures-blog.com)

Yoda is not the only one who struggles with using correct grammar. :) Check out my store for Grammar At a Glance and some quick, basic review of parts of speech and sentence structure.  My I have...Who has...? game is a great CCSS aligned activity (grades 5-8) for the days just before or just after Thanksgiving break! 

Here is what's included:

- Grammar At a Glance: This is a 1 page (front and back) reference sheet with basic parts of speech and sentence structure terms and definitions. This sheet can be given to each student and placed in their binders for review and a quick reference when needed.

- Teacher Guide: CCSS alignment, directions, suggestions for use of the game AND an answer key

- I have...Who has...? card game: 24 cards 

Please consider visiting my stores and taking a closer look:

Teachers Pay Teachers

OR

 Teachers Notebook

I hope that you'll find to be a great resource and review tool for your students!

CCSS Aligned Close Reading Activity

Aside from the focus on nonfiction, the Reading for Literature standards within the Common Core State Standards encourage close reading of classic literature that is at a grade-appropriate level of rigor.  Close reading is the act of really reading like a detective.  It requires a careful reading, and often rereading, of a given text with the purpose of analyzing the structure of the text and the author's choices for writing as he/she did.  My newest product is an example of this type of reading using a classic poem.

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" is a poem written by Robert Service and is located in the Public Domain. It is a classic ballad telling the story of two prospectors as they make their way through the Arctic North looking for gold. A promise is made while on their journey, and to fulfill it is a challenge that is almost too much to bear. The mysterious ending of the tale makes this a fantastic poem to share for Halloween, but it is fun to read and analyze any time of year!

(Click the image to see a preview.)

This product includes:

- a PowerPoint prezi giving background information about Robert Service and includes slides of the poem itself to be used in close reading with the class

PLUS:

- a student packet that contains the poem, vocabulary and space to write responses to questions

-a Formative Assessment Sheet to be used for the "Do Now" activity, 2 focus questions that direct students to support answers to questions with details from the text AND the "Ticket Out" activity (This will be handed in at the end of class.)

-complete lesson plan with Teacher Directions section

-alignment to Anchor Standards and specific grade level standards as well

This contains all that you will need to roll once downloaded. I hope that you enjoy using this lesson with your students. My students truly love this poem every year! Any feedback that you can provide on this resource is greatly appreciated.  Once again, I hope this is a useful resource for you and your students.


***UPDATE:  I've had some great feedback on this lesson and I'm so happy that colleagues are finding it helpful!  Here's what some teachers are saying:

- "This was a very helpful resource to refer to while teaching this poem."

-"Great resources for a wonderful poem."

- "I've taught this poem for YEARS! Thank you for the fresh approach!!!"



Thank you so much for the kind comments!

Halloween Bundle - ELA Resources for Next Week

Here's a great opportunity to grab all of my Halloween resources at one time for one low price. These activities are sure to provide opportunities to practice and develop important ELA skills while giving your students an opportunity to have some fun at the same time! 

This bundle includes:

 -Halloween Bookmarks

 -Halloween Cinquain (Poetry Activity) ($1.25)

 -Trick or Treat ELA Vocabulary Game ($2.00) 

 -"The Cremation of Sam McGee" ($3.00) 

_______________________________________ 

 ALL for just $4.50 for a limited time!

Just click {HERE} to find this great deal.  Please feel free to look at any individual product as it's listed in my store and check out its preview. I hope you will see what a great value this bundle is. Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat

New Halloween themed product :

When looking at the ELA Common Core State Standards, regardless of the specific grade level, it is easy to see that the ability for students to understand some key words and concepts that are the foundation of the expectations of the CCSS would be extremely helpful.  I have pulled 28 terms from the standards that are common across 5^th through 8^th grade and created a study sheet that can be given to each child.  It is foldable so that children can quiz themselves by hiding the term or the definition  - just like flashcards, but on 1 piece of paper, rather than 28 separate cards for them to lose. (I Middle School!)

Next, I have created a review game called TRICK OR TREAT.  The setup and game play are both very simple, but the element of surprise makes this game one your students will want to play again and again!

Click {HERE} to visit my online store and get a closer look at this fun way to review the vocabulary that is necessary for our students to be successful with the Common Core.

Jigsaw Puzzle Book Project

October is not only the start of what really feels like fall in the northeast, but it is also the season of Open Houses, parent conferences and midterm reports.  Knowing this, I love to have a creative project for my students in the works.  The Jigsaw Puzzle Book Project is a great example of a reading project that is not only aligned with the Common Core and a fantastic review of the elements of story that combines reading and writing, but it's a creative way for students to share what they are reading that can be displayed for both peers and parents.

As the Common Core requires, for this project students are expected to show they can:

• identify the specific elements of a story and analyze how they interact.
• determine the theme or central idea of a story.
• provide an objective summary of a story.

 

This 9-page packet includes step-by-step directions for students to create an 8 piece puzzle - the front of which is a visual representation of the book that the student chose to read.  Once the puzzle is cut apart, the back of each piece has a specific writing task that addresses each element of the story - plot, character, setting, theme, conflict/resolution - as well as summaries and recommendations.

Students have a self- assessment rubric that corresponds with the rubric that is used by the teacher for grading.

The packet also includes planning pages for each of the writing tasks.

The finished project can then be shared with the class.  I have had students present to the whole class in the past, but last year I set my room up as a book fair and it was so much more fun!  Over a 2 day period, half of each of my 7th grade sections displayed their books and puzzles for the other students to see.  Much like a science fair, they talked about the book they read, showed their puzzle and answered questions.  Then the next day the students switched roles - again with half of the class presenting and the other half viewing the displays.  Left set up, the puzzles can be a great display for Open House or to share at parent conference days.

This just may be the creative alternative that you've been looking for to supplement the assessments that are being given to monitor reading comprehension.  If you would like to see more of this project and download a preview, please click {HERE} to visit this product page at my teacher store.  While there, feel free to look around at some other products that may be helpful as well - including FREEBIES! (My Work Order for students is a great freebie to accompany this project!  It will help your students budget their time for long-term assignments.  Featured in this month's The Cornerstone for Teachers Best Teacher's Freebies collection, this simple form can help your students begin to develop a very important life skill.)

My 1st Post on Common Core Classrooms

I'm so excited to say that I am now the newest contributing author to an amazing blog called Common Core Classrooms!  This blog is a place where teachers can go to find tons of great resources, ideas and tools that will assist with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in our classrooms.  Although many of the posts are geared toward specific grade levels, in reading the ideas that the contributing authors have, it's easy to see how to adapt resources for your own instructional needs.

My first post is regarding the importance of providing support to parents, especially those of children who have been in school and may seem to have begun struggling. Although many students are taking the challenges of the CCSS in stride, there are also students who are losing confidence as standards and assessments have become more challenging.   It is the parents of these older students caught in the middle of this transition in education that will need the most support.  As their children come home, frustrated or confused, it is they who need to know how to comfort them, how to guide them in advocating for themselves to get help at school, and how to support their growth and learning at home.  So...now we have the question, "How can we, as teachers, help?"

Click {HERE} for some suggestions and additional resources that you can take a look at to help with informing parents about the Common Core and providing necessary support.

While there, take time to look around Common Core Classrooms - you'll be glad you did! :)

Reading for Information - Common Core

I've just completed my next part of the Common Core project I'm working on! Yay! :)

(Click the image above to go to my TPT store.)

RI.7 - Reading for Information at the 7th Grade level has now been broken down into student-friendly "I can..." statements. In addition, I've defined key terms for each standard in the strand AND included a Reading Response for Nonfiction printable for each standard (except RI.7.10).

Please consider clicking on the image above to go to my store and have a better look.  I hope that this pack is a helpful tool to use for planning and checking for your students' understanding. Writing and Language Strands are on their way, as well as similar packs for 8th grade.  Check back soon! :)

Common Core, Here We Come!

As an educator in New York State, I've been very aware of the The New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards, which were adopted by the New York State Board of Regents in January 2011 for both ELA & Literacy and for Mathematics. The overall implementation of them, however, is new this year to many in our state.  When thought of in its entirety, a daunting task to be sure.  Yet, with a little help in breaking these standards down into manageable chunks, the overall goal for every state that is implementing Common Core - that of ensuring our students are graduating from K-12 schools college and career ready - seems much more attainable. 

It is with this in mind that I have begun tearing down the Common Core Learning Standards for ELA.  My first project is working with the 7th grade standards, as I am most familiar with those.  The first "bundle" I have completed in this project is the Reading Standards for Literature Strand.  

In this bundle you will find each of the Reading Standards for Literature for 7^th grade (RL.7.1 - RL.7.11).  I have taken each standard and created “I can…” statements in simpler, student-friendly language.  You will also find that next to each standard, taking into consideration the “I can…” statements, I have included definitions of terms that your students may need to help them truly understand what is expected.  Once our students know what they need to do, reaching the standards will be much easier! J

 Standards - "I can..." - Definitions of Key Words

The next part of this bundle is a collection of graphic organizers that I have made to help students negotiate meaning from literature and make connections following the learning standards of the Common Core.  I call these Stop, Think and Share Sheets, as I often use these to facilitate classroom discussion and, of course, as a means of formative assessment while I'm monitoring who's "getting it." While your students are working on stopping and filling them out...thinking on paper BEFORE they share, you can easily monitor and intervene with one-on-one attention when necessary.  You’ll know for certain who may need some extra help, and your students will feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts with others.  You will find that there is one graphic organizer for each standard, save RL.7.8 and RL.7.10, for which graphic organizers are not useful.  At the top of each graphic organizer students will find the standard, an “I can…” statement and any necessary definitions that will help them understand the task at hand.

Examples of Graphic Organizers 

I am also including a copy of my Daily Plan Template.  This tool is a freebee also found in my first post here and in my store, but I feel that the tips I include with the template may be helpful with incorporating the standards into you teaching, so I am attaching my template to this bundle as well.

I hope that you find all of these resources to helpful tools as you start your school year.  I am planning to make similar bundles for each strand of the Common Core for ELA at both the 7th and 8th grade levels.  Be sure to click here for an even better look if you are interested in the first of many Common Core resources I have planned.  Let me know what you think below.  Feel free to suggest other ideas as well.  If I know what other teachers are looking for, I can more easily create resources that will fit your needs for your classrooms.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller