Sticky Note Summaries...A Reading Strategy -- And a FREEBIE!

Today I'm here to share a reading strategy that was a major hit in my classroom with my third graders!

Remember how I told you awhile back that I'm OBSESSED with sticky notes?? Remember this picture??

Well, I turned that obsession into a great reading strategy for my students to use!

At my school, we used Accelerated Reader. Now I'm not here to share my opinion on AR. It was part of our reading curriculum and I made it work in my classroom! Students had to get so many points every year based on their reading levels. They really loved it!

Third grade is a big year for readers. Some students are transitioning from picture books to chapter books. Some students are transitioning from beginner chapter books to more complex chapter books. And some students are transitioning from elementary chapter books to middle school-level chapter books with tons of chapters. Reading levels are usually all over the place in third grade!

I quickly noticed that many of my students who were starting to read longer chapters books and my students who were just beginning to read chapter books were having a hard time remembering what they were reading. By the time they finished the book and went to take the AR test, they had completely forgotten everything that happened in the book! Not good.

Enter my obsession (and my students' obsession) with sticky notes! I knew that this would be a great way to help my readers!

The only materials you need are a book, sticky notes, and a writing utensil. I used a flair pen because...duh. You'll also notice that I used my all time favorite book as an example: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! I did my summaries while I reread it for the one millionth time.

The idea is that at the end of each chapter, students write a short summary about the chapter and leave it in the book. When they get to the end of the book, they pull out all their sticky note summaries, put them in order, and review. After they refresh their memories and put their summaries away, it was quiz time! This strategy helped my readers so much!! I saw a vast improvement in AR test scores when we started using this strategy. And they LOVED getting to use sticky notes!!

We did have to have a mini-lesson on what to include on our sticky notes because our summaries were getting long!! To start, we included the chapter number at the top of the sticky note (just in case it fell out of the book). On the back we also wrote down our initials (also in case the sticky note fell out of the book). I liked for students to put the setting of the chapter at the top of the sticky note as well. We made sure to include new characters, new settings, and important events. I liked the students to underline any new characters. This was great practice on how to summarize a text!

After we started finding sticky notes all over the classroom, I knew we needed a way to contain them after they were taken out of the books. Students didn't want to just throw them away after they tested because they worked so hard on them and it was great to go back and refer to if they were talking to a friend about a text. So I made this cute little organizer for them to store their sticky notes!

I numbered the boxes to make it easier for my students to organize their sticky notes.

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And today I'm offering it to you FOR FREE!!!! Just click HERE to download it :)

I hope this strategy helps your readers who need a little extra help remembering their books! I know it really helped mine! I even had parents comment on how much they loved this strategy! They noticed an improvement in their child's retention of the story and AR test scores! That makes me one happy teacher!!

I hope this strategy helps your students as much as it did mine! Enjoy!

Citing Text Evidence Like a Text Detective!

Today, I'm here to tell you guys about one of my favorite lessons to teach!

It's my Citing Text Evidence Intro Lesson!! CCSS RL1 and RI1 are all about answering questions using text evidence! This lesson is perfect for test prep, especially since PARCC is filled with text evidence questions! Text evidence is always super hard for my third graders, y'all. They don't have a lot of experience citing evidence when they come to me, so an explicit lesson about text evidence is a MUST! So here's how my text evidence lesson goes:

Now. I always, always, always say that we as elementary educators have to leave our dignity in the parking lot sometimes for the sake of learning and fun! This is one of those days, folks. Dressing up as a Text Detective makes this lesson so much more fun for both the students and the teacher! Their faces light up with excitement when they walk in and you are dressed like this....

Next, I bust out my high school theater arts skills and start playing up the whole Text Detective role. I explain to students that we have to be Text Detectives to prove our answer with text evidence. I explain where we find text evidence (in the text of course). Then I show my students this handy-dandy anchor chart:

We go over using strong sentence starters to PROVE our answers. "PROVE IT" becomes a phrase used daily in my classroom! All I have to do is say "PROVE IT!" and they know that I want to hear some text evidence! 

After we go over the anchor chart and talk about what text evidence is, it's time for modeling! I like to use a book that we have already read so that my students are familiar with the text and can focus on answering the question being asked. For this lesson, I chose First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg because it was a fun and quick read. 

I blasted one of my Text Evidence graphic organizers on the SmartBoard and posed this question: "How did Sarah feel about the first day of school? Prove it!" I wanted to start with an easier question so they could really get the hang of using text evidence to find an answer. I then modeled going through the text with my magnifying glass to hunt for text evidence. When I finally found my answer and evidence, I started recording my answer.

First, I made sure to reinforce PQA (Put the Question in the Answer) when answering the question. Then I chose a strong sentence starter to prove my answer with text evidence. 

Then, I tell the students it's their turn to be text detectives! The kids always get super excited at this point! The first thing they want to know: DO WE GET MAGNIFYING GLASSES?!?!?!? My answer is always: OF COURSE!!!!!

I'm always jealous of math teachers because they get awesome manipulatives to use in math class, so I always get super excited when I can find hands-on tools to use in ELA! I bought these little magnifying glasses at our local party store for pretty cheap. The kids just love them!

Each child then gets 3 things: a magnifying glass, their own text evidence notes page (a version of my anchor chart), and a practice passage. This particular week, we were learning about character traits so I chose my citing text evidence page that covers character traits. 

Students read through the passage once to become familiar with the text. They then read the questions. They reread the passage and hunt for text evidence to answer their questions. They hunt for the evidence using the magnifying glasses and then highlight the evidence using a highlighter (this lets me see if they are really using the text to answer their question or not). They then answer the questions. The first part asks the text-dependent question and the second part asks the student to prove their answer with text evidence. 

In my PROVE IT pack, I have posters to use with a bulletin board but being the super busy teacher that I am, I never hung them up. So I just stapled the anchor chart to my bulletin board because we use this poster SOOOOO MUCH!! It is really convenient to have the poster hanging by my small group table where we use it almost everyday!

If you're interested in getting some resources to help your students learn how to cite text evidence like a text detective, make sure you check out my pack: PROVE IT! Citing Text Evidence Like a Text Detective!

Thanks for stopping by, friends!

Resources to Teach About Martin Luther King, Jr. (And a Freebie!)

It has been way too long since I last posted. Teaching got crazy. Please forgive me!

Anyways...you guys, I'm getting really excited. Some may think it's because I'm counting down the days until our next day off (MLK Day), but that just isn't it (although it will be nice to relax).

I'm excited because with Martin Luther King Day just around the corner (and Black History Month), I get to teach my littles about Martin Luther King, Jr. Y'all...this is my favorite unit to teach!

Elementary kiddos learn about MLK every year but I think that in Kindergarten through 2nd grade, students get a more watered-down version of history. There's nothing wrong with that; many of the events that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement were intense and very mature for younger ears. I feel like when students enter 3rd grade however, they are ready to hear more about the injustices of the time.

When I taught this unit last year, my kids were in shock that human beings could treat each other the way they did during that era. I do try to keep my unit focused on the positive things that Martin Luther King, Jr. did for our country, but I think it's important to explain to students exactly what MLK was up against. It helps them to appreciate his accomplishments more.

Okay well anyways...I just wanted to stop by and share some things I like to do during my MLK unit in case you are still looking for things to do to celebrate the life of this American Hero!

First, I have a few books that I love to read aloud and have on display during my Martin Luther King, Jr. unit. My absolute all-time favorite book to read during this unit is Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.

Here are some other books that are great to have around for students to read during this unit:

Next, I lovelovelove the Martin Luther King, Jr. leveled readers that Reading A-Z has. You have to have a subscription to Reading A-Z but I think it's totally worth it. I use their leveled readers in small groups ALL THE TIME! I use this leveled reader because this book is offered in 3 different levels! It's perfect for small groups. Each book also comes with Guided Reading lesson plans and graphic organizers for the skills being covered in that book. The higher leveled books really go into detail about the injustices that MLK and African Americans faced during that time and my students can't get enough of the history!

 Now everyone knows that I'm OBSESSED with ReadWorks.org (see post HERE). I do a ReadWorks passage almost every week. Well, ReadWorks has MLK passages for all grade levels! I can't wait to use some of these with my small groups! They all come with question sets, too so that is useful to check for understanding!

Toward the end of our unit, I like to show my students a video of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'I Have A Dream' speech. The kids are always captivated by his speech. It's so awesome! I like to use the video below (you can click HERE to be taken directly to the video). It begins with a clip of the actual March on Washington which is pretty cool.

   

I have a ton of other activities that I do during this unit but I just wanted to share a few with you so I'm sticking to my favorites.

Finally, my absolute favorite activity is a writing activity that I use as a culminating activity. It's called a RAFT and I just love doing them in my classroom! Students get to choose their Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. Get it? My students EAT this project up! I get some really creative responses and I can't wait to do it again this year! I make sure to encourage my students to use facts that we have learned from our unit in their RAFT. Many of my students like to reference our read aloud books, leveled readers, and passages to make sure they get their facts straight and that makes my teacher heart happy! I'm offering my RAFT as a freebie for you below (click the picture)! I hope you can use it during your MLK unit!

Finally, if you need some more ideas and activities to complete during your unit, make sure you check out my newly posted Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit. It's jam packed with reading and writing activities to spice up your unit! I can't wait to use it again this year with my class!

I hope your first day back from winter break was enjoyable and not too exhausting! Spring break is just around the corner :)