Inside the ELA Classroom

Reading with fluency is critical for EVERY student. Yes, this includes middle and high school students as well. Research on learning to read shows us that without fluency of skill, readers struggle to pull words together in order to gain understanding - comprehension.

Think about fluency in comparison to cooking. When cooking with a new recipe - the first time it takes longer because one checks (and re-checks) the ingredients and continually verifies the next steps. Once the recipe has been made several times, the prep time is lessened because the cook has become fluent with the recipe. At that point when preparing the dish, the cook begins to experiment with spices and ingredients in order to change the recipes to better match individual tastes.

Reading fluency is similar in that the more efficient readers are with foundational and basic reading skills (phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, multi-syllabic words), the more brain power available for comprehension. All students would benefit from more 'brain power' in that the rigor and Lexile levels of the text continue to increase.

Reading comprehension is one of the most complex skills to teach. Because reading directly impacts all content areas, we could say it is one of the most important skills students must learn. Setting expectations for what reading looks like is imperative to ensure students understanding what reading and true comprehension looks like.

The cold read occurs when students read text independently for the first time without instruction or support. Cold reads can be used to determine students' instructional levels for fluency and comprehension. Remember cold read is an assessment tool - not a daily instructional tool. In order to strengthen comprehension, we build and activate prior knowledge about topics, genres.and vocabulary.

Once the cold reading activity has been completed the work begins. Comprehension strategies are designed to help students be purposeful, strategic, active readers. Below are a few strategies to help students inform their reading.

Teach phonics in context: Use authentic text and/or vocabulary words found in the grade level standards. Integrate phonics and content instruction when possible. By using relevant literature and content material, teachers can introduce and reinforce:

• beginning and ending sounds
• blends
• homonyms
• letter recognition
• rhyming words
• silent letters

Integrate phonics instruction with word study: Teach students how to identify word parts, break words down into syllables, and use word families. Use content specific words to practice this skill.

Quick review game: Have students search for particular sounds on specific pages or recite words that have designated sounds. Allow time for quick games of Scrabble, Hangman, and Memory to target phonetic concepts.

Include high interest/low readability texts in your classroom libraries. Also include pre-reading activities to activate student interest and strengthen background knowledge. For example, before studying the American Revolution, introduce the vocabulary by encouraging students to act out events that lead to the Revolution.

Even after kids can read on their own, they benefit from being read to. Here are 10 good things that come of it. By Regan McMahon 6/26/2017

Every parent knows that it's good to read to kids when they're little. It helps babies, toddlers, and preschoolers develop spoken language, recognize letters and words, and get ready for kindergarten. But it's actually beneficial to read to kids even after they can read on their own. Research shows that continued reading aloud after age 5 (and well beyond) improves reading and listening skills and academic performance.Everyone loves a good story, whether it's in the form of a paper book, an ebook, an audiobook, or even a podcast.

Here are 10 key reasons to keep reading aloud to older kids:

It builds vocabulary. Kids who are read to encounter more words -- and learn how to recognize and pronounce them -- than they would by just being spoken to. Studies show that having a large vocabulary can help kids perform better in school.

It improves comprehension. When kids are engaged and invested in the story, they understand it more thoroughly. You can check in as you go to see whether your kid understands what’s going on and ask what they think will happen next, what they think of the characters, and so on.

It's wonderful for bonding. Positive experiences and warm memories of hearing stories from a loved one can inspire a lifelong love of reading. Award-wining novelist T.C. Boyle told a crowd at the 2017 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books that he learned to read not in school but from his mom reading to him -- and that when he reads now, he still hears her voice in his head.

It provides positive modeling. Kids learn through observation and modeling. Reading aloud lets them hear what language sounds like. You can also model how to analyze a story as you read and how to figure out the meaning of a word using context clues.

It improves listening skills. Reading aloud nurtures appreciation of rich language and helps train kids' ears for understanding instruction in school. According to educator Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook, "A child’s reading level doesn't catch up to his listening level until eighth grade."

It's a way to discover the classics. Kids may be put off by the challenging language of Shakespeare or the old-fashioned settings of Jane Austen in school, but in a cozy setting at home, you can help the text come alive as you take on different characters' voices and fill in historical context.

It helps with discussing difficult issues. Kids may tune out if you lecture them about what to do and what not to do. But if you read a story that shows characters grappling with serious conflicts and the consequences of their actions -- or facing bullying, racism, religious or ethnic bias, or gender discrimination -- it's a way into talking about complex, topical matters.

It's a way to Introduce different genres. Reading aloud lets parents introduce kids to different types of books and stories, helping kids learn which kinds they'd like to choose for themselves. Reading a variety of material boosts all kinds of learning. Try poetry, satire, manga, and autobiographies.

It's a portal into your kids' interests. Reading books on subjects or in genres kids love (sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, graphic novels, Norse mythology, Minecraft, whatever!) gives you something to share and discuss, while also putting you on a level playing field -- rather than you always being the teacher who knows more than they do.

It sparks curiosity and a thirst for learning. Nonfiction books make great read-alouds, too. For older kids and teens, try books or articles by journalists covering current or recent events and world issues. And there are lots of popular histories that are so engaging they read like nail-biting fiction.

Taken from common sense media

A One Pager is a single-page response to reading. It allows students to be creative and experimental. This activity connects verbal and visual - it connects words and images. The one-pager becomes a metaphor for the reading. Follow the link to find a one page document that requires a high-level overview to complete. The one-pager is visually stunning, forces critical thinking, and allows students to showcase originality and perspective.

Click on the graphic above or HERE to access some step-by-step processes to help maneuver the new platform.

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Edit Monitor Password

The monitor passwords themselves are set in two separate preferences:

• the Monitor Password - Reading Quizzes preference (for Accelerated Reader quizzes)
• the Monitor Password - Star Tests preference (for Star Early Literacy, Star Math, and Star Reading tests)

Monitor passwords can be unique for each class; the passwords are case-sensitive, so teachers must enter the appropriate password exactly as it appears in the preference. Note that a monitor password is always required when you stop an Accelerated Reader quiz or Star test. Principals and APs use these directions to set the password preference.

Vocabulary development is a critical aspect of teaching.

Academic Vocabulary can be defined as words that are not tied to any particular course or content area.Students may be exposed to these words in during any class or subject (Literature, Math Social Studies or Science). Typically, these are words that regularly appear in academic texts and tests, but DataWORKS has found that they are not often explicitly taught. Academic Vocabulary words often show up as the skill words in Learning Objectives, but can occur at any point during a lesson as well. Because of this, it is most effective to teach Academic Vocabulary words as they arise, within the context of a lesson.

Contrasted with Academic Vocabulary, Content Vocabulary includes words that are specific to a given domain or subject area, rarely being found outside of the particular content area. Often, these words can be found directly in the content standards and are present as the concept words (typically nouns) in a Learning Objective. Content Vocabulary words are addressed extensively in the Concept Development of a lesson, through the use of clear definitions, examples, and Checking For Understanding questions, as these words and terms are frequently the foundation of a lesson.

The third type of vocabulary (as identified by DataWORKS) is Support Vocabulary. Support Vocabulary consists of any remaining words that students need to know in order to understand a particular sentence or phrase used in a lesson. Support Vocabulary words are unrelated to grade-level concepts and skills and can typically be found in reading passages or text. These words are often not critical for the success of the lesson, so little time needs to be spent on teaching Support Vocabulary beyond ensuring that the students understand any meaning in the context of the lesson.

Retrieved from dataworks Educational Research

In Bringing Words to Life, Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan use a three-tiered framework to identify words students should be taught. According to the authors, these three tiers include:




• Tier 1: high-frequency basic vocabulary words that are familiar to most students (happy, sound, ran)

• Tier 2: high-utility academic vocabulary words that are found across content areas (consecutive, depict, procedure)

• Tier 3: low-frequency domain specific words (photosynthesis, prime number, onomatopoeia)

Academic Word Finder as a tool to identify the tier 2 words that are used in a particular content-specific text. Simply select a grade level and paste the text into the online tool to generate a list of tier 2 words and definitions in the text.




Selecting a mix of the most appropriate tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary words for a content-specific text does take additional planning time, but I think this time is well spent because these are the words that will help my students better comprehend what they read.

January 1 (New Year's Day)

January 2 (Science Fiction Day)

January 3 (J.R.R. Tolkien born - 1892)

January 5 (Dr. George Washington Carver Recognition Day)

January 6 (Thank You Month)

January 7 (Youth Mentoring Month)

January 8 (Earth's Rotation Day)

January 9 (First iPhone introduced in 2007)

January 18 (Thesaurus Day)

January 21 (Dr. Martin Luther Kin, Jr. Day)

Analyze Dr. King's I Have a Dream Speech

January 23 (National Handwriting Day)

January 27 (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

January 29 (National Puzzle Day)

January 29 (Oprah Winfrey Birthday)

January 30 (Great Kindness Challenge)

January 31 (Jackie Robinson's Birthday - 1919)

Promote Deep Thinking! How to Choose a Complex Text

Interview: How to use ReadWriteThink in the classroom

Explore ReadWriteThink.org through the eyes of a classroom teacher

Writing & Publishing Prose (Grades 6-12) Student Interactive

Postcard Creator (Grades K-8) Student Interactive

Printing Press (Grades K-12) Student Interactive

Lesson Plans

Construct-a-Word (K-2)

Acquiring New Vocabulary Through Book Discussion Groups (3-5)

Teaching Point of View with Two Bad Ants (3-5)

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From IMage to detailed Narrative (6-8)

Thoughtful Threads: Sparking Rich Online Discussions (5-12)

Storyboarding the Transformation from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde (9-12)

Free-writing / Quick Writing. Use a clock, watch, or timer to keep track of time. Choose a topic, idea, question for consideration. It can be a specific detail or a broad concept. Students should write (on paper or on a computer) for 3-10 minutes non-stop on that topic. If they get stuck and don’t know what to say next, write “I’m stuck and don’t know what to say next…” At that point the students should asking themselves “what else?” until another idea comes to you.

Do not be concerned with spelling, grammar, or punctuation. The goal is to generate as much information about the topic in a short period of time and to get used to the feeling of articulating ideas on the page. It’s ok if it’s messy or makes sense only to the writer. This activity can be repeated several times, using the same or a variety of topics.

Clustering/Webbing. Use a clock, watch, or timer to keep track of time. Put a word in the center of a piece of paper and circle it. As fast as you can, free-associate or jot down anywhere on the page as many words as you can think of associated with your center word. If you get stuck, go back to the center word and launch again. Speed is important and quantity is your goal. Don’t discount any word or phrase that comes to you, just put it down on the page. Jot words for between 3-8 minutes. When you are finished you will have a page filled with seemingly random words. Read around on the page and see if you have discovered anything or can find connections between any ideas.

Cubing. This technique helps you look at your subject from six different points of view (imagine the 6 sides of a cube). Take your topic or idea and 1) describe it, 2) compare it, 3) associate it with something else you know, 4) analyze it, 5) apply it to a situation you are familiar with, 6) argue for or against it. Begin to write a paragraph, page, or complete essay using the six points of view.

Listing. On a piece of paper list all ideas you can think of connected to the given subject. List quickly and put the list aside for a few minutes. Go back and read the list and revise.

The Writing Center - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

by J. Polisena, Demand Media

Writing is an essential skill can benefit students for the rest of their lives. Introducing and practicing writing with engaging activities in elementary school, can foster confidence and a lifelong love of writing. Immediately, writing skills are important for elementary students' continued learning in all academic areas, communication and self expression, according to the Institute of Education Sciences.

Academic Development

In addition to improving penmanship, writing exercises in elementary school support development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Students also learn the writing process, from outline to finished product, which translates into other aspects of life and learning. For example, students can use planning and organizing, research and peer review to learn topics in mathematics and science, make dinner or build a doghouse. Writing about the world is also important for vocabulary and reading development.

Emotional Development

According to The College Board, creative and reflective writing exercises build confidence and appreciation for writing. Through journals and personal story writing, children can discover their identities and work through real life problems. A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services points out that when parents separate or children must deal with bullies, loss of a pet or other types of stress, writing can provide a therapeutic outlet to help them cope.

Social Development

Writing helps children connect to the world around them, both on and off the page. Since writing requires the student to consider audience and purpose, for example, practice can help the student apply the same considerations to verbal communication. The writing process, complete with peer review and feedback, allows students to learn from each other. Creating these environments at a young age teaches students to both accept and deliver constructive criticism. Further, collaborative writing projects, such as creating a class newspaper, enables students to achieve writing goals together.

Technology

As children progress through their school years, they will need to be both literate and computer literate to succeed. While the two skills complement each other, some computer tools, such as spelling and grammar checks, can inhibit developing writing skills. By writing with a keyboard, for example, students are not practicing handwriting. It is also important for students to know that these tools should supplement their own knowledge, not replace it, because even computers make mistakes.

1. Every snowflake is unique. I am unique because...

2. If I were a snowflake.

3. My favorite book to read on a cold winter day.

4. The snowman suddenly began to move...

5. Does snow falling have a sound? How do you know?

6. A snowman came to your classroom door. Give him a name and write a descriptive story to tell me about your day together.

7. The best and worst thing about winter.

8. You were awarded a pet penguin who loves to "tweet." Write a narrative about a day with your penguin build around two of his/her tweets.

9. The Abominable Snowman and Frosty found out they were related. Write a story to tell about the day these two snowmen found out they were related.

10. January is National Soup Month. You were chosen to develop a new soup for the cafeteria. What is the name of your soup? What are the ingredients?

11. January 18th is Winnie the Pooh Day. What would your adventure be if you met Winnie the Pooh?

12. January 24th is National Opposite Day. What would a day of opposites look like?

13. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is January 15th. Write your own speech about your hopes and dreams for the world.

14. Look at some of these photographs of the most historic moments of Dr. Martin Luther King's life. Write a summary of your thoughts to attach with one of the pictures.

15. Dr. Martin Luther King said, "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. he should sweet streets so well that all of the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." What does this quote mean to you?

16.Write a poem about winter. How does the air feel? What sounds do you hear?

Each school is invited to submit one entry per grade level (K-12) for the district level competition. Students may write from a genre of their choice. This link will direct you to the landing page to see 2020 winning entries and honorable mention entries. The revised Official Rules Booklet is available HERE. At the district level we will follow all guidelines provided in the booklet. Entries may include: Short Stories, Poetry, Essays/Literary Criticism/Analysis, Journalism, Academic/Research Reports, Personal Narratives, or any other original student work.

School level winning entries must be received by Tuesday, February 9, 2021, NOON. Please send four copies of each winning entry, the original piece, and the completed 2020-2021 Entry Form with parent signature.

A panel of reviewers will select the Coweta County School System grade level winning entries. District winners will be announced by March 2, 2021.

Leslie Walker - Writers of Promise Contest

Teachers are invited to submit up to 20 of their students’ most interesting pieces to our contest.

• Open to All Content Areas
• Entries are judged in three groups GRADES 3-5 GRADES 6-8 GRADES 9-12
• Submission Dates December 3 - February 12
• Entries may be submitted digitally via kmwp.org or e-mail and must include a Parent/Guardian Permission Form.

2021 AAW Prompt: My Community (#mycommunity)

"There are many kinds of communities. For example, some communities are based on shared culture, location, practices, interests, beliefs, or circumstances."

Purpose: To encourage high school juniors to write and to publicly recognize the best student writers.

• Schools in the United States, Canada, Virgin Islands and American Schools Abroad are eligible to nominate juniors. Nominating schools must be US accredited.
• Participating students submit two types of writing: themed writing and best writing.
• Electronic submissions only. Deadline February 15, 2021

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.

2021 Writing Contest: A Salute to Engineering. Write a piece that salutes engineering’s role in meeting and defeating the challenges presented by COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed how we work, learn, and play. Making these changes were – and continue to be – an immense challenge.

Fortunately, this is the kind of challenge that engineers are made for.

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

Essays must be submitted by February , 2021

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

1) To stimulate and recognize the writing talents of eighth-grade students and 2) to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students.

This year’s theme invites eighth-grade writers to explore their life in Nature. We hope that this year’s theme will support teachers’ efforts to facilitate both eighth-grade writers’ inquiries into their values and their experiments with embodying those values in social interactions with others, particularly those interactions mediated by reading and writing. In this way, this year’s theme promotes literacy education for social action and civic responsibility.

2021 Themed Writing Prompt: Change

Some years can be described in a word, and the events of 2020 seem to have settled on one: change.

Reflecting back on the civil rights movement in America in the 1960s in Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, leader and politician John Lewis wrote, “Take a long, hard look down the road you will have to travel once you have made a commitment to work for change. Know that this transformation will not happen right away. Change often takes time.”

In 2020, we have been simultaneously isolated and drawn together, by both the changes forced upon us, and the changes we see fit to bring upon our internal and external worlds. Amidst these challenges, youth are looking down their own roads. Many young voices are taking the lead, while others are effectively collaborating to build momentum through various social, political, and environmental movements. This year we also recognize anniversaries of historical change, their shortcomings, and their potential shapes in the future. Perhaps, youth will take these events as cues to continue their commitment to social, political, and personal change.

We invite you to write on the topic of change in a genre that best serves your message.

Timeline:

November 11-December 15: Encourage your students to write, edit, revise, and finalize their submissions.

November 15 15: Awards link will open to accept submissions.

DEADLINE for All Submissions: February 15, 2021*

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

Deadline for submission: April 6, 2020

Submissions should be at least 1,000 words but not exceed 1,250 (not including source information). They will be judged on the quality of analysis, quality of research, and form, style and mechanics. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers expected. Prizes include $2,500 to the writer of the winning essay in addition to an all-expense paid trip to the nation's capital from anywhere in the U.S. for the winner and his/her parents as well as an all-expense paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea.

2021 Essay Contest Topic

What characteristics lead to a successful effort by diplomats and peacebuilders to mediate or prevent violent conflict? The United States Foreign Service—often referred to as America’s first line of defense—works to prevent conflict from breaking out abroad and threats from coming to our shores. Peacebuilders work on the ground to create the conditions for peace and resolve conflicts where they are most needed.

Successful essays will identify, in no more than 1,250 words, a situation where diplomats worked on a peacebuilding initiative with partners from the country/region in question, nongovernmental organizations, and other parts of the U.S. government, and then go on to analyze what characteristics and approaches made the enterprise a success.

For more information on Essay Contest Rules and Guidance please visit this page. For additional resources and to view the 2021 Study Guide please visit this page.

This competition invites students to use their creativity to make a difference for our planet. As the creators share on their website, “Our contest is a call for young artists, thinkers, and activists who are concerned about the future of our human and natural communities to use their creative voices to explore, express, and advocate for issues related to climate change and our oceans.” Students are eligible for a wide range of monetary prizes.

WATER RISING

The 2021 Ocean Awareness Contest theme is WATER RISING. Your submission(s) should respond to one of the following prompts:

1. PROMPT 1: Global warming affects the water cycle, fueling extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts. Warming seas are also contributing to sea level rise around the world. Whether too much or too little, water is the primary way we will feel the effects of climate change. How do you feel the effects of climate change where you live? How will this change within your lifetime?
2. PROMPT 2: We are all interconnected through water. What does it mean to be up- or downstream from one another? Where does your water come from, and what is the journey it takes to get to you?
3. PROMPT 3: Though water is a basic human right, more than 1 billion people do not have access to clean and safe water worldwide. Access to clean water is increasingly threatened by pollution, privatization, and climate change, but these threats do not impact us all equally. Water contamination and environmental injustice overwhelmingly affect Indigenous communities, people of color, and the poor. How is water a lens through which we can understand and fight for justice? Consider water as a mirror of our society—it reflects back to us who we are. What do you see in the mirror?
4. PROMPT 4: Clean water is not only necessary to sustain human communities, but all life on Earth. There are many movements rising up to protect water and all those who depend on it. Who has historically led these movements? Who (and what–for example, policies) are our water protectors?
5. PROMPT 5: Think about the role that water plays in your life, and how that ripples out to connections in your community, society, and the world. What memories do you have of water? What is your water story?

Age Groups: Ages 11–14 (Jr. Division); Ages 15–18 (Sr. Division)

Contest deadline: June 14, 2021

How to Enter: Students may submit work in the categories of art, poetry, prose, film, or music which must always be accompanied by a reflection. Check out the contest details for a set of educator resources as well as the new contest prompt coming out in September.

Description: This annual contest invites students to write about a political official’s act of political courage that occurred after Kennedy’s birth. The winner receives $10,000 as well as a trip to Boston to accept the award.

Age Group: 9th–12th grades

How to Enter: Students must submit 700–1000 word essays by January 18, 2019. The essays must feature more than five sources and a full bibliography. Read the requirements and find the link for submission here.

Requirements

• The contest deadline is January 15, 2021 at 11:59 PM (EST).
• Essays can be no more than 1,000 words but must be a minimum of 700 words. Citations and bibliography are not included in the word count.
• Essays must be the original work of the student.
• John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Edward M. Kennedy are not eligible subjects for essays.
• Essays must describe an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F. Kennedy was born. The official may have addressed an issue at the local, state, or national level. See Contest Topic and Information and Helpful Tips for Writing Your Essay for more information.
• Essays about past recipients of the Profile in Courage Award will be disqualified unless they describe an act of political courage other than the act for which the award was given.
• Essays about the senators in Profiles in Courage will be disqualified.
• Essays must have a minimum of five sources.

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

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