Dear Educators,
Happy Teaching,
Kelly Harmon & Randi Anderson
End of Year Activties
Celebrate Success
Focus on the the positive! Plan your end-of-the-year party as a "Success Celebration" or as a "Hall of Fame" day! Let students know how proud you and their parents are of all they have accomplished this school year.
Make a Virtual Yearbook
It is fun to look back at old pictures. With your students, create a virtual yearbook using pictures, including favorite read alouds, work samples, and student messages. Let students use technology to plan, create, and save their memories for years to come. Have students write captions or paragraphs telling about the learning that is depicted in each photo. Some great apps you can use to make the yearbook are Shadow PuppetsEDU, Book Creator, and Flipgram.
My Best Memory
Everyone has a different take on their favorite activity or time during the past school year. Ask your students to draw or write about their favorite day, activity, or project this year. Take a picture of the drawing or writing and insert it into the background on the app Tellagami or TellagamiEDU. Then record each student telling or reading about this memory. Put all the videos together in the app Shadow PuppetsEDU and play the video for the students on the last day of school. You can share the individual Tellagami videos with each student's parents. This makes a great "souvenir" for the year and it is fun to see what everyone enjoyed most!
-Randi Anderson
Take a Virtual Field Trip....For FREE!
Meaningful Reading Responses
Character Selfies
With "selfies" being a popular current trend among social media outlets, let's use them as a learning tool. Have students illustrate a "selfie" portrait of the character or real person from the text they are reading. Then create hashtags to show character traits, thoughts, and inferences about the character. Display your students' character "selfies" on an Instagram Wall or bulletin board! Get a FREE character selfie sheet here!
Post Cards
Post cards are a great way for students to write from the point of view of a character or author. For nonfiction texts, have students write about the topic as if they are there on location or off on a research trip interacting with their topic. Use the book Traveling with Anna-Postcards from New York City as a mentor text for creating the postcards. Click here for an activity for this book.
Choice Boards
Nothing motivates students to work and learn more than giving them a choice. A great way to give students a choice is by using choice boards. Choice boards are a table or chart with various activities to practice reading and writing skills. Check out a choice board to use for FREE in your classroom here!
-Randi Anderson
The First 25 Days of School: Setting Up Reader's & Writer's Workshop
June 24, 2015
8:30am-3:30pm
Learn strategies to establish clear and effective classroom literacy routines, including ideas for focus lessons, independent reading, guided and independent writing, word work, research, developing vocabulary, and building reading fluency. Tips will be given on how to get the year off to a great start as you guide and develop children's literacy behavior and motivation to learn. A plan for the first 25 days of school will be shared! Click HERE for more info.
The Best iPad Apps & Strategies to Increase Student Achievement
8:30am-3:30pm
Grades K-12
iPads are great tools for providing explicit instruction, meaningful practice, and student-designed projects and presentations. In this interactive seminar, explore the best apps and projects that will engage your learners and accelerate learning. Be sure to bring your iPad for the hands on make-and-take projects. Learn more Here!
Comprehension Strategies: Focus on Fig. 19
8:30am-3:30pm
Grades K-12
Join Kelly Harmon as she helps you navigate and plan effective instruction for the TEKS comprehension strategies (Figure 19) for reading with meaning. Learn how to help your students develop and use the strategies for close reading and recreational reading. Tips will be given on creating rigorous opportunities for practice and how to effectively teach students to read for meaning. For more info, Click HERE!
Using Learning Games to Review & Practice ELAR TEKS
August 4, 2015
8:30am-3:30pm
Grades 2nd-High School
Games are a great research-based strategy that engages learners in meaningful review and practice for all of the ELAR TEKS. During this seminar, experience and create games that target specific reading and writing skills and strategies. Discover how to incorporate game formats into daily instruction to practice the STAAR readiness and supporting standards. You will leave with games ready to ignite learning excitement and provide fun in your classroom. Learn more HERE!
The First 25 Days of School: Setting Up Reader's & Writer's Workshop
8:30am-3:30pm
Grades K-8
Learn strategies to establish clear and effective classroom literacy routines, including ideas adapted from the Daily 5 and CAFÉ. Tips will be given on how to guide children's literacy behavior and motivation to learn. A plan for the first 25 days of school will be shared! Learn more HERE!
Guided Reading & Literature Circles in the K-8th Classroom
8:30am-3:30pm
Grades K-8
Learn strategies for assessing students’ literacy needs and planning instruction to match those needs. Participants will explore best practices for guided reading and literature circles. You will leave ready to provide effective reading practice. Click Here to learn more!
Kelly Harmon's Book is Available!!!!
Practicing Skills, Strategies, & Processes: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Develop Proficiency explores explicit techniques for mastering this crucial strategy of instructional practice. It includes:
- Explicit steps for implementation
- Recommendations for monitoring students’ ability to develop fluent thinking
- Adaptations for students who struggle, have special needs, or excel in learning
- Examples and nonexamples from classroom practice
- Common mistakes and ways to avoid them
Essentials of Rigor Experience Day
Save The Date!!!!
Join your colleagues on August 3, 2015 at ESC-13 for a day of exploring essential strategies that prepare your students for the cognitively complex tasks presented on the STAAR and EOC tests. The Essentials of Achieving Rigor is a comprehensive instructional framework based on Dr. Robert Marzano's research of pedagogical strategies. From kindergarten to high school, these strategies help teachers design meaningful, student-centered instruction. You will definitely leave this workshop wanting more!
Visit the Marzano Center website to download the white paper on Teaching with Rigor to learn more. I'd love to talk to you about how this instructional framework can complement your current curriculum and assessment program. Please contact me for more information. ~Kelly
Free Teacher Products
Kelly Harmon & Associates Educational Consulting
Email: randi@kellyharmon.net
Website: www.kellyharmon.net
Phone: 817-583-1290
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-Literacy-Resources/185551092170?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Twitter: @texasliteracy