Collaborative Reader Responses

My students love working together on collaborative reader responses - they get to work with their classmates, it changes it up from their regular reader responses ... and best of all, they get to talk.  ;)

This activity works with read alouds, whole group novel studies, shared reading activities, literature circles, content area reading … basically any activity where the whole class or groups of students are reading the same text.  

Students first answer the reader response question individually (on their sticky note), all at the same time, and when all students in the group have completed their answers, they stick their notes on the sheet.  They then take turns reading their answers aloud to the group. 

After all answers have been shared, working together, they will reflect on the strengths and areas of need in their own answers to take their individual responses and combine the best parts of them to form the best possible answer, making improvements as they write.  

You can see on this picture how the group examined each answer and circled the part they would use from each.  This collaborative discussion really helps the students dig into what makes a great reader response - and how the individual parts can work together to make an excellent answer.  

I have made a resource using this collaborative reader response strategy.  My Stick-It Together - A Collaborative Reader Response Activity contains organizers with 100 different reader response questions covering the reading comprehension strategies, story and literary elements, genre, and text structures.  Each organizer has information about the strategy behind the question, and a checklist of success criteria for the reader response.

I have also included a rubric for assessment (for teacher or peer assessment - my students really enjoy doing peer assessments with these group responses), and an exemplar for each level - level 1, 2, 3, 4.  These exemplars come in two forms - one assessed with the criteria, and one without the criteria so you can examine and level them as a class.

You can take a peek at my newest resource by clicking HERE or on any of the pictures.

I also have a version specifically geared to 1st - 3rd grade.  You can take a peek at it by clicking HERE or on the picture to the right.

Primary Grades

5

A Peek at Last Week

We started our new read aloud this week - Because of Mr. Terupt, written by Rob Buyea.  This book came highly recommended by a few of my followers at the beginning of the year, so I scooped it up.  SO glad I did - my students are LOVING it!  (There's a sequel, too).  We're still studying summarizing as our comprehension strategy, so I've had the students working on summaries in various ways - through turn and talks with a partner, sticky note summaries, written reader responses, and different kinds of organizers.  One of my favourites this week as a 30 word summary I asked my students to write - exactly 30 words, no more, no less.  There was a lot of great thinking going on as they worked to add or eliminate words to hit the number target.  We've also used the book to start a lot of great discussions on characterization, as the book is written from the point of view of 7 different characters.  I think we'll move on to Making Connections as our next comprehension strategy as I'm pretty sure my students will relate and connect to some of the characters and situations/problems in the novel.

Also inspired by the book, we've added "Dollar Words" into our daily number talks.  The characters in the book had a math project to find as many dollar words as they could (words that add up to $1.00 or 100 - a=1, b=2, c=3 and so on).  I made a quick template page for our smartboard, and give the students 3 or 4 minutes at the beginning of each number talk to try to find a dollar word.  Students that find one can share at the smartboard when they are done.

We've also been working on our Remembrance Day tribute this week.  Every year my students participate in our Legion's annual Literary and Poster Contest.  My students have been working on their posters (colour or black and white) and poems (at least 4 quatrains with a rhyme scheme) throughout the week.  We've also been working on our Poppy Craftivity, but we won't finish these up until Monday.  I'm going to use the poppies and copies of their poems for our November bulletin board display.  I can't wait until we are all finished - they are doing such a great job!

Yesterday we finished our slideshow for our Remembrance Day assembly at the school - made with Windows Live Movie Maker.  I used the students' posters in the slideshow, and had them each write one word on their hands that made them think about veterans.  (Please ignore all the spelling mistakes on the posters - although I checked and proofed all the rough copies before they started their good copies, many of my students apparently can't transfer the correct spelling.  Ugh.)  I posted our video below - you may have to click through to youtube to watch it (it's doing something funny on my computer).

Happy Saturday!  It's a rainy day, and my oldest and my hubby are feeling under the weather.  Hoping for a quiet rest of the day, already back from dancing lessons with my youngest two, and new winter boots, hats, and mitts bought for all the kiddos.  Now if I could only convince the cleaning fairy to visit my house.  ;)

12

A Peek At Last Week

I'm totally procrastinating working on my report cards, so I thought a new blog post would be in order.  Here is a peek into last week in my classroom.

We're working on summarizing as our comprehension strategy right now.  We've added it on our CRAFT board and written about it in our CRAFT books and reader response books.  Next week we are going to start our new literature circles, so we've been practising this strategy orally through the week.  When my students have finished their daily independent reading (about 20 minutes a day), they get together with a partner for a "pair share".  During this pair share, they each read a page from their books, and then ask their partners some questions related to our current reading strategy.  To aid with this, I use my Comprehension Question Fans.  One or two groups will get the printed out fans on the ring to use, and for the rest, I project the checklist sheet over the computer onto the smartboard so everybody has access.  They must pick at least 2 questions, and the partners can't choose the same question.  After about 5 - 10 minutes, students come back to their desks and I choose 4 volunteers to share with the class.  They must share a summary of what their partner read to them, and then share how their partners answered the questions they asked.  A quick and easy daily formative assessment for oral language. 

In writing we're working on our fictional narratives beginning from a Halloween prompt.  We've been using the story map planning sheet from my new Story Elements Concept Posters.  When students had finished their planning graphic organizers, they met with a partner to share.  After they read through what they had, partners had to give them "a wish and a star".  Following this, they had to make revisions to their planning sheet based on the feedback from their partner.  They LOVE sharing their work with their peers in the class, and it's so beneficial for both students.  Students are almost finished with their rough drafts right now, and after some guided editing and revising lessons planned for this week, we'll be publishing them for our writing wall.

Wednesday was our big science day.  Students had been working on their independent inquiry projects for Space for about a week and a half, and Wednesday was presentation day.  They had to present their findings through a physical project and an oral presentation.  They did such a great job!  We had poster boards, science fair boards, slideshows, movies, powerpoints, and plasticine dioramas.   Here are a few pics - I took a picture of each student presenting so I could send home a pic with the rubric.

On Thursday, I kept the students busy in the morning with our Halloween mad libs (at their request).  When they were finished I had them complete a comprehension exit slip (give an example of a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb) and post it on our traffic light exit slip board (red circle for some difficulties, yellow circle for a few questions, and green circle for good understanding).  Accountability - love it! 

Yesterday I combatted (well, tried at least) the sugar highs with a data management activity.  We finished up our patterning unit this week, so for our data management diagnostic I asked the students how many (and what kinds of) candies they had in their lunch bags that day.  We made a tally chart with the results.  Students then had to take the data we compiled and represent it in two different ways (their choice).  I was more than a little horrified to find out that my 24 students present that day had a total of 277 pieces of candy in their lunches ... thank goodness we had a presentation for the last block of the day that kept the students engaged ... and the teachers sane.  

Last weekend I added a new resource to my TPT store - a poppy craftivity we'll be working on for our Remembrance Day assembly.  There are two versions in the resource - one with general questions about veterans and the day, and another that has students studying and answering questions about the poem, "In Flanders Fields" (that's the version we'll be doing in the class).  You can click HERE or on the picture to the right to take a peek at it.  

So, there it is ... a peek at last week.  I have successfully procrastinated for a bit now, so I guess it's time to tackle those report cards.  Sigh.  Happy Weekend!!!

Reading Comprehension Strategy Bundle

Book Report Bundle

Building Better Reading Responses

Reading Concept Posters Bundle

InLinkz.com

5

A Peek at Last Week

Is anyone else as exhausted as I am?  I usually have my energy back by the beginning of October, but it hasn't happened yet.  I wanted to do this post yesterday and link up to 5 for Friday, but I fell asleep by 8:30, and didn't get up until this morning (quite early I must add - the girls have dancing and soccer at 9:00 am both Saturdays and Sundays ... perhaps another reason why I'm still exhausted).

Anyhow ... enough whining.  I had another great week in the classroom (LOVING my class this year), and just wanted to share a few of our activities.

In science we're finishing up our inquiry projects.  Students chose 3 questions that they still had about space and the solar system at the end of our unit (I did have a list of questions for those that were stuck, but many came up with their own questions).  They have finished up their research, and are working on their presentations for the material.  They could choose to present the information in any way they wished.  Watching them work right now is awesome!  I have some students making slideshows in photostory (complete with an audio file of their research), some are making powerpoint presentations, some are making 3D models with plasticine, a few are doing dioramas, others are doing poster board presentations ... it's definitely exciting!  Students will be presenting their projects on Wednesday, so I'll share some photos with you next week.  

In Language this week we've been studying poetry.  We're into summarizing as our reading comprehension strategy right now, so we've been summarizing the poems we've looked at, and I threw in a little study of figurative language, poetry elements and structure, and word choice.  Our big poem this week was The Raven - definitely challenging for my sixth graders, but not too difficult.  We looked at one page per day (4 pages in our copy), and each day, each group took on one stanza to summarize into their own words (the orange sticky notes on the papers).  Yesterday, students took their reader response answers (they had a page of questions they completed while studying the poem) and we used Tagxedo (like Wordle, only a little cooler) to make these awesome raven {yes, I know they look like chickadees ;) } word pictures.

We also wrote our own Halloween poems this week to add to our writing portfolio bulletin board.  I LOVE how they turned out.  I shared the stationery we used on my facebook page this week.  You can grab it from google docs by clicking HERE. 

To go along with our Word Choice in poetry, we also finished up our Tombstone Synonyms this week.  We completed our Plot Pumpkins last week.  I think they look great decorating our classroom library.  You can check out both these craftivities (and one more) HERE.

We're studying patterning right now in math (actually, just finishing up).  We've been working on completing our Concept Posters (I use them as a second summative assessment right before our final test so I can see what areas need a little more review right before the test).  If you can see on the picture, I left up one example of place value (our last unit) and added some examples from this unit.  When we finish this unit, I'll just leave up the one example of "pattern rules" and add some more from our current unit.  This way, we'll build a concept wall bulletin board over the year.  We've also been doing some three part math lessons with problem solving.  The students are getting pretty good at explaining their thinking, and posting some exemplars has really helped them organize their work on the page.

But, the most exciting thing to happen in math this week was our start of Number Talks.  This book came highly recommended to me (I put the amazon link at the bottom of the post) and will be perfect for our school focus on "operational fluency" this year.  It focuses on mental math strategies through number talks with the students.  I made this quick template for the smartboard this week, and we will use it for our talks.  I'll post a little more about it in a bit ... we're just getting started so I want to have a few more talks under my belt before I share more.  But ... the kids and I are really excited about it, and I can't wait to see them take ownership over it.

Ok - that's about it for now.  Sorry for the rambling post ... I was just excited to share.  ;)    Happy Saturday!!!

Other Autumn-Themed Resources:

8

A Peek At Last Week

Okay ... I just may be getting the hang of this year.  ;)  It's been a busy start, and I'm exhausted ... but it's a good exhausted.  I have 28 students in my grade 5/6 class this year.  And they're chatty.  But, they are such a GREAT group - motivated, leaders, and full of personality.  I am so excited to see what this year brings, and of course, I'm excited to share it all with you.  :)

It's been quite the start to the year.  We amalgamated with another school this year, so over half the students in each of our classes are new to our school.  So, the first week was spent learning and reviewing a lot of routines and ways to make the year successful.  Then, just as I was excited to really dive into the second week, we were hit with some extreme weather which caused a lot of flooding and washouts in my community.  Buses were cancelled for 3 days (some routes were 4 days).  I only had about one third of my students from Tuesday - Friday ... so much for a regular week.  Which brings us to week 3.  YAY for a regular week.  I feel like we accomplished SO MUCH this week - but I know it's just relatively speaking comparing it to the last two weeks.

Which brings me to our first big writing assignment.  We wrote paragraphs on "Looking for the Heroes".  With so many of our students affected by the flooding and washouts, we decided to write about the good that came from the whole situation.  Students wrote about the heroes that emerged after the storm (whether it was a family member or friend, or city or community workers).  The paragraphs were so touching and thoughtful - especially from those students who wrote about a family member.  I can't wait for their parents to read them.  They are all hung on our writing bulletin board (which will be cumulative throughout the year - new assignments will be hung over previous ones - really allowing ALL of us to see that growth over the year).  We also started our Writing Goals Clip Chart with the students' personal writing goals.  We all started at the top goal - writing an effective introduction, but during individual writing conferences with the students, their goals will change based on the needs in their writing.

Our first read aloud of the year is The One and Only Ivan.  We are IN LOVE with it.  It's a fictional story based on the true story of Ivan the gorilla, who spent much of his life on display in a shopping mall.  We've been studying the reading strategy of visualization while reading the novel (we completed Visualization posters from my Reading Comprehension Strategy Posters resource), and working on building better answers with our reading responses.

We even "adopted" our own silverback gorilla through the World Wildlife Fund store (we ordered from the Canadian site, but the American site has a similar option).  With a small donation (I think it was around $50) we received a plush gorilla, an information booklet, and a certificate of adoption in the name of our classroom.  We love our mini Ivan.

We've also gotten a great start to our CRAFT (CAFE) board for the year.  I have a blog post in the works that explains a little more about the process, but here's a peek at how it works for us.  I've been adding a new strategy every two or three days based on needs I see in the class.  We have focused a little more on the "R - Reading Responses" because I really wanted to start building better answers right away.  In a nutshell, we have a short minilesson when we add a new strategy, post the new strategy on our board, and then students complete a short, reflective note in their CRAFT journals.  We then use our strategy as a focus for everything else we complete during reading activities (independent reading, pair/share activities, our read aloud, reader responses, etc.)  Again, I'll go into more detail in my CRAFT blog post (but if you search CRAFT or CAFE in my sidebar, you'll find some information on our start-up from last year).

Whew ... sufficed to say, Language Arts wasn't our only subject for the last three weeks, but I think that's enough for now.  ;)  

I've been having a lot of fun uploading one pic per school day on my facebook page.  I'm doing "Project 188" - a spin off of Project 365 where people take one picture per day for every day of the year.  Click HERE to make sure you're following me on facebook.  :)

Hope you're having a GREAT weekend!  My oldest daughter is away at a soccer tournament, so it's just me and the little two for the weekend.  We're heading out for a dinner and movie date soon.  :)

Reading Comprehension Strategy Bundle

Book Report Bundle

Building Better Reading Responses

Reading Concept Posters Bundle

InLinkz.com

6