Are you a fan of the "Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR)" model? Our district works this "I do it, we do it, you do it" method into all our unit plans. Let me share how I worked this model into my lessons on writing summaries. The one thing that I have heard many teachers discuss is the LINEAR nature of the model. This always reminds me a little of my high school trigonometry class. ... Read the Post
8 Reasons to Use Fish in a Tree as a Mentor Text
If you aren't familiar with the book Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, I am here to encourage you to CHECK IT OUT! I've tried to highlight some of the reasons I use this book every year as a read aloud, mentor text. I hope you find this information helpful! 1. A Foundation Text What I love about Fish in a Tree is that by using it early in the year, I find myself referring to it ALL ... Read the Post
More Than a Graphic Organizer! Written responses to reading
As you know, the purpose of a graphic organizer is to help students (or adults!) make sense of information and organize it into a visible, usable fashion. Sometimes using an organizer is all we need from students—a way for them to represent the information we are asking for. Sometimes, however, we want students to organize information for other reasons…like to do a piece of writing. I wanted a way ... Read the Post
Responding to Reading Character Prompts: Gradual Release Model
I often hear teachers stressing out about how they can get everything they need ready for all their book groups, standards-based grading, and so on. Sometimes I think we work WAY too hard--and I always work to try to do best quality instruction without driving myself into the ground. We focus on characters throughout the school year. The easiest way I do this is that I have a bank of resources ... Read the Post
Spring Bulletin Board Project: Writing, Culture Building, Creativity
Every year I try to break us out of our long Wisconsin winters by taking an hour or so of class time to create a spring bulletin board that brightens our spirits! Today I thought I'd share a little bit about what we do--and why we do it! I so often hear people say, "We don't have time for cute projects anymore." I certainly agree that I do LESS than I used to--but I definitely believe that ... Read the Post
Studying “Turning Points” of a Text
We are always in such a hurry, aren't we? We push, push, push all day long--moving from standard to standard--assessing where important. Sometimes I think we need to just slow down and let our students explore our content through a new lens. We have been working hard on identifying "turning points" in our books so we really studying texts we have read and looking for these key ... Read the Post
Using Partner Response Journals
Hey there! Just wanted to share a little information about a fun and practical lesson I did this past week with one of my favorite texts! I love using picture books to do "double duty"--to teach reading strategies and skills AND social studies or science content. For this lesson, I talk to my students about how writing is communicating--so we use our reading journals to practice our ... Read the Post