Inside the ELA Classroom

According to literacy expert Richard Allington, there are six elements of effective literacy instruction that every student needs every day.

(1) Every child should listen to a fluent adult read aloud. Storyline Online

(2) Every child should read something she or he chooses. Whether with hard copy books or online, students can be offered choice. Visit The Smithsonian Institute, National Geographic, CommonLit and ReadWorks for material at various grade levels on a plethora of topics.

(3) Every child should read something she or he understands. Knowing the Lexile Level of students provides a frame to know their independent reading levels. CommonLit, ReadWorks and Raz Plus allows reading material to be chosen to challenge the individual readers.

(4) Every child should read accurately. Understanding phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, word identification, and vocabulary as well as overall comprehension. The Literacy CAFE System provides a framework for understand the key elements of reading instruction. (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanded Vocabulary) Fluency includes accuracy, expression and phrasing - NOT just speed

(5) Every child should write about something personal in meaningful way. (Use the November Writing Prompts provided in this newsletter.) Efficient Ways to Improve Student Writing

(6) Every child should talk with classmates about reading and writing. This may be a challenge in the hybrid environment. Remember students are more comfortable with technology than we are.

Six Elements for Effective Literacy Instruction pulled from Dr. Katie McNight.

Modeling through think-alouds is the best way to teach all comprehension strategies. By thinking aloud, teachers show students what good readers do. Think-alouds can be used during read-alouds and shared reading. They can also be used during small-group reading to review or reteach a previously modeled strategy.

Wilhelm (2001) describes a think-aloud as a way to:

• Create a record of the strategic decision-making process of going through text.
• Report everything the reader notices, does, sees, feels, asks, and understands as she/he reads.
• Talk about the reading strategies being used within the content being read.

There are many ways to conduct think-alouds:

• The teacher models the think-aloud while she reads aloud, and the students listen.
• The teacher thinks aloud during shared reading, and the students help out.
• Students think aloud during shared reading, and the teacher and other students monitor and help.
• The teacher or students think aloud during shared reading while writing on an overhead, on self-stick notes, or in a journal.
• Students think aloud in small-group reading, and the teacher monitors and helps.
• Students individually think aloud during independent reading using self-stick notes or a journal. Then students compare their thoughts with others.

When you introduce a new comprehension strategy, model during read-aloud and shared reading:

1. Decide on a strategy to model.
2. Choose a short text or section of text.
3. Read the text ahead of time. Mark locations where you will stop and model the strategy.
4. State your purpose—name the strategy and explain the focus of your think-alouds.
5. Read the text aloud to students and think aloud at the designated points.
6. If you conduct a shared reading experience, have students highlight words and phrases that show evidence of your thinking by placing self-stick notes in the book.
7. Reinforce the think-alouds with follow-up lessons in the same text or with other texts.

Taken from http://www.benchmarkeducation.com/best-practices-library/comprehension-strategies.html#section_3

There are six main types of comprehension strategies (Harvey and Goudvis; 2000):

1. Make Connections—Readers connect the topic or information to what they already know about themselves, about other texts, and about the world.
2. Ask Questions—Readers ask themselves questions about the text, their reactions to the text, and the author's purpose for writing the text.
3. Visualize—Readers make the printed word real and concrete by creating a “movie” of the text in their minds.
4. Determine Text Importance—Readers (a) distinguish between what's essential versus what's interesting, (b) distinguish between fact and opinion, (c) determine cause-and-effect relationships, (d) compare and contrast ideas or information, (e) discern themes, opinions, or perspectives, (f) pinpoint problems and solutions, (g) name steps in a process, (h) locate information that answers specific questions, or (i) summarize.
5. Make Inferences—Readers merge text clues with prior knowledge and determine answers to questions that lead to conclusions about underlying themes or ideas.
6. Synthesize—Readers combine new information with existing knowledge to form original ideas, new lines of thinking, or new creations.

Students quickly grasp how to make connections, ask questions, and visualize. However, they often struggle with the way to identify what is most important in the text, identify clues and evidence to make inferences, and combine information into new thoughts. All these strategies should be modeled in isolation many times so that students get a firm grasp of what the strategy is and how it helps them comprehend text.

It is important for students to understand that good readers use a variety of these strategies every time they read. Simply knowing the individual strategies is not enough, nor is it enough to know them in isolation. Students must know when and how to collectively use these strategies.

Taken from http://www.benchmarkeducation.com/best-practices-library/comprehension-strategies.html

Attention grade 6 ELA teachers: Review the updated 6th grade pacing guide for digital instructional support. New resources appear in deep goldenrod font. Ideas will be accepted until Friday, October 9th, 5:00pm.

Attention grade 7 ELA teachers: Review the updated 7th grade pacing guide for digital instructional support. New resources appear in deep goldenrod font. Ideas will be accepted until Friday, October 9th, 5:00pm.

Attention grade 8 ELA teachers: Review the updated 8th grade pacing guide for digital instructional support. New resources appear in deep goldenrod font. Ideas will be accepted until Friday, October 9th, 5:00pm.

Try the new vocabulary widget. Each vocabulary word in a passage appears bolded in blue and can be clicked to open the widget. Students will automatically see the widget for key vocabulary words in every assignment.

Find and assign Express Question Sets. These 5 multiple-choice question sets provide practice in key reading strategies, support understanding of a text’s main idea, and are automatically graded.

Add co-teachers to your classroom for easy collaboration.

Create groups in your class to differentiate. Assign to your whole class, groups of students, or individuals.

Update assignment settings to control if students can copy and paste from passages.

With the first four months of the school year in the history books, I am sure students are looking toward the winter break. We are situated within Autumn, the time of the harvest. In education it may appear that the seasons seem to be flipped. During this time teachers are planting seeds and nurturing readers.

To ensure growth, we most continue to add motivation and different reading techniques. Follow the link to access a Reading Strategies Guide developed by Reading Horizons.

Family Literacy and Picture Book Month

National Novel Writing Month

Thanksgiving

Real-Life Reading: Black Friday Ad

Cyber Monday: Online Advertising Techniques

Giving Tuesday

Bookopolis

The website Bookopolis provides students a method to receive and provide recommendations from their peers. This site captures thousands of student-written book reviews.

Epic! Books

Epic! Books allows students ages 12 and younger access to more than 10,000 digital books. The program is free to elementary teachers and librarians.

Whoo's Reading

This online reading log motivates students to read more with extrinsic rewards. Students earn Wisdom Coins for logging reading, answering open-ended and reading comprehension questions. The coins are used to "buy" accessories for their Owlvatar.

Reading Foundational Skills - resources for emerging readers. Lesson plans include research based best practices for teaching print concepts. Over 150 videos correlated to standards!

Speaking and Listening is separated into: Comprehension and Collaboration and Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas.Digital media, rhetoric, and conversations are additional topics presented in this segment. Find lesson plans and over 490 videos!

Informational Texts explore strategies and techniques used to read and write. Resources are presented as Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, and Range of Reading and LEvel of Text Complexity. Over 640 videos with resources for grades 6-12.

ELA Writing explores all genres of writing: argumentative, explanatory narrative, and personal. Lessons examine implicit biases and best practices. Workshops cover poetry and multigenre study. Over 375 videos for elementary and secondary support.

CommonLit is a great resource for teachers to use across the content. Text sets cover a range of cultural, historical, and political topics with relevant reading passages. Browse this resource by book, genre, grade level, literary device, text set, or theme!

It is obvious that Teachers are Superheroes as we navigate and create this new reality for instruction. Follow this link to access the new landing page within the English Language Arts Curriculum Site that focuses on digital learning support.

Are your students writing as much as they should be? Classroom writing, done with willful focus and daily diligence, remains an essential part of educating students of all ages, including adults. Here are five reasons why classroom writing is still a must:

1. Writing improves communication skills.

First and foremost, writing provides a vehicle for expression and communication. No matter the age or grade level of your students, diligent writing practice will boost both their skill and comfort level with revealing and relating their own thoughts and feelings.

2. Writing helps students review and remember recently learned material.

Isn't it always easier to remember a household task or a website to visit later if we write it down somewhere? A brief writing assignment at the end of class, focusing on the day's lesson and discussions, is a great way to reinforce the material, support long-term recall of the key lesson points and help build writing skills all at the same time.

3. Writing helps educators assess student learning.

Probably the most common use of writing in the contemporary classroom is for a given student to demonstrate that he or she knows and understands x or y concept. Whether the assignment is, for example, an intensive compare-and-contrast essay at the secondary level or writing and illustrating a haiku in the primary grades, writing assignments help teachers see what material students have mastered and where there may be gaps.

4. Writing encourages creativity and exploration.

Daily writing encourages a creative flow that can help students use their imaginations, explore possibilities, delve into problem solving, and engage in storytelling. In addition to "serious" writing assignments which are reviewed and graded, it is important to assign "free" or "creative" writing time, so that students can explore vocabulary, concepts, and writing styles that they wouldn't risk in a formal essay or heavily graded assignment.

5. Writing is essential for self-understanding.

Even a cursory search online will reveal a plethora of diary-like blogs, filled with entry after entry of highly personal content. In the same way that these blogs serve their authors, classroom writing can help students understand and make sense of their own experiences, locate contexts, and make (sometimes surprising) discoveries about their own thoughts and feelings.

Classroom teachers will find that reading through their students' writing assignments can give them great insight into each student's personality, style, and comprehension level of the material being presented. When a high value is placed on consistent writing in the classroom, it's a win-win all around.

So, write on!

Taken from http://www.scilearn.com/blog/5-reasons-students-should-write-every-day?utm_content=buffer16260&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

1. What puts you in the mood for the holiday season?

2. Describe three things that you are thankful to have in your life.

3. How can you practice gratitude?

4. What are your favorite sights, smells and sounds of autumn?

5. What does it feel like when someone thanks you for a gift?

6. Would you rather give or receive a gift? Explain why.

7. What does it mean to be thankful?

8. The weather is starting to get colder. What are some things you love about cold weather?

9. As the leaves change on the trees, we see many beautiful colors. Close your eyes. How many colors do you see? Describe the picture in your mind.

10. Persuade your parent to get you a pet turkey.

11. What are some ways to stay warm in the fall and winter months?

12. Imagine that you had a conversation with a turkey. What would you talk about?

13. Because it is cold the giant swimming pool is being filled up for the winter. What would you fill your swimming pool with and why?

14. Write a story titled "The Thanksgiving Day Disaster!"

15. Write about the most interesting person in your family.

November Celebrations

Aviation Month

Child Safety and Protection Month

Latin American Month

National Novel Writing Month

November 13 - World Kindness Day

November 15 - National Recycling Day

November 17 - International Students Day

November 22 - National Start Your Own Country Day

November 25 - National Cookie Day

Implementing the Three-Part Drill in a Virtual Classroom

Implementing a Vowel Intensive Routine in a Virtual Classroom

44 Phonemes

Practice Blending Sounds for reading CVC words

Practice Blending Sounds for reading CVC words (no audio)

Please review your Professional Learning Schedule. Dates and meeting locations may changed based on pertinent information.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. Through the Scholastic Awards, teens in grades 7–12 (ages 13 and up) from public, private, or home schools can apply in 29 categories of art and writing for their chance to earn scholarships and have their works exhibited and published. Beyond the Awards, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers produces a number of programs to support creative students and their educators, including the Art.Write.Now.Tour, the National Student Poets Program, the Scholastic Awards Summer Workshops and Scholastic Awards Summer Scholarships programs, the Golden Educators Residency, and much more.

Students may begin submitting work in September by uploading it to an online account.

The American Foreign Service Association’s national high school essay contest completed its twenty-first year with nearly 700 submissions from 41 states and five countries.

Age Group: 9th–12th grades

How to Enter: Each year a new prompt is published in September. Stay tuned to the contest web page so you can find it when school begins. Winners receive full tuition to the Semester at Sea program as well as a trip to Washington, DC, to meet with a leader at the Department of State.

Engineer Girl sponsors an essay contest with topics centered on the impact of engineering on the world. Students can win up to $500 in prize money. This contest is a nice bridge between ELA and STEM and allows teachers to incorporate an interdisciplinary project into the curriculum. The new contest prompt is published in October. Check out the educator’s page for more information about how to support this contest at your school.

Age Groups: 3rd–5th grades; 6th–8th grades; 9th–12th grades

How to Enter: Students submit their work electronically. Word limit varies by grade level. Check out the full list of rules and requirements here.

Contact Dr. Paula Baker, ELA/Literacy Content Specialist with any questions, comments, or concerns.

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." ~ James Baldwin

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

~Nelson Mandela

Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.

~Anatole France

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Email: paula.baker@cowetaschools.net
Website: http://curriculum.cowetaschools.org/
Phone: 770-254-2810
Twitter: @PBakerEducates