Word Wall Words:
This year we use Patricia Cunnigham's Word Wall Words. Each week we present five words to the students and they do the following sequence.
Say the word
Take a Picture of the word
Skywrite the word
Write the word in your personal dictionary
As the students write and read they are responsible to have these words spelled and read correctly.
Read Alouds
Read Alouds are when students are listening to an adult read a story that is above their instructional level. The value of this is the students are exposed to vocabulary, fluency, think alouds and discussions.
***Hot Off the Press***
During snack time we do our read aloud. Each day we choose a new story for the students to hear. When presenting the story we say the title, genre, level and where the book is located in the classroom library. We read the first chapter or a few pages so the students can have a taste of the book and if they want to read more they can do so independently. This is a great hook, kids are excited to read various books. "I want to read Cam Jansen tonight for my "just right" book because I enjoyed learning about Cam and her ability to take pictures in her head. I wonder if they get her aunt at the airport on time? I can't wait to read more to find out!" said a 2nd grader.
Guided Reading and Book Talks
The groups are exposed to word attack strategies, word study, summarizing, predicting, text features, author’s purpose, and story elements. The students have been developing dialogue and responses about the book through discussions and reading response journals which incorporate background knowledge, connections with the text, beyond the text, and about the text.
***Our Hooks***
Students are excited to read their book because we watch a You Tube video to get them excited about the topic they are reading.
We take picture walks, develop vocabulary and connect to their own personal lives.
We discuss, develop and create a link to the story they are reading.
Examples of Links:
Living In An Igloo: created an ice igloo
The Pumpkin Tale: grew a pumpkin, made a sequence film strip about a pumpkin and carved a pumpkin.
The Magic Finger: created a play with feathery costumes.
The Hermit Crab: created a film strip of the hermit crabs life.
Comets: develop a space scene with glow in the dark paints.
Seas and Oceans: created a submarine and ocean floor with various animals.
Centers:
Centers include reading around the room, reading poems, reading and singing songs, science investigations, making words, word study, independent reading, smartboard activities, computer games, word games, drama station and partner reading.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Welcome!!!!
Come visit a snapshot of my 2nd grade classroom. My goal is for teachers, learning consultants, specialists and adminsitrators to share and learn ideas of how to apply research to the unique little minds that walk through the doors of our learning world each day.
The Paths I Have Taken to Understand All Minds
Since I was little I always wanted to become a teacher. As a young learner I became motivated to overcome my learning difference by the help of my resource room teacher, Cindy Cooper, my parents, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Bloom, my Study Skills teacher, Mrs. Miller, my tutor, Mrs. Pierie and my husband, Al. Each of these individuals believed in me and allowed me to realize anything was possible. My goal, I wanted to do this for other children too.
I soon developed an understanding of how my brain worked and what strategies and accommodations I needed to succeed, the key: become my own advocate. I lead Speakers Bureau in High School and talked to parents and teachers of how they can help their children.
Working with children has always been a part of my life. At the young age of eight I was a babysiter, soon I moved up to a mother's helper, camp counselor and then to a nanny. Each of these jobs ensured me that each child is different, each child needs love and support and guidance to be successful.
In 2003 I graduated from Mount Saint Marys College with my degree in Elementary Education. These teachings in the classroom and hands-on experiences with my internships allowed me to begin to understand how I can take my own personal experiences and theory and place it into practice.
My first classroom experience was in Baltimore Maryland in Title I school as a 5th grade teacher. Taking my experiences from my former jobs and my work in outreach I felt this experienced provided me the opportunity to work with underprivileged families, a full classroom of 27, and many different learning needs. I soon came to realize that I was on my own often and these students needed someone to believe in them and show them that they could do it. I called it the "one room school house." We created daily incentive charts for each subject, behavior modifications, centers and various hands on activities to get each student intrigued to learn. My goal: for each child to smile at least once during the day, to build trust, provide clear expectations and a belief that they did matter.
After my first year as a classroom teacher I looked at the areas of my own learning journey that I struggled with and what could I teach children specifically. I remember it clearly, sitting in my third grade classroom and we were supposed to read the chapter book Little House on the Prairie, during independent reading I would flip through the pages and pretend to read and in reading groups when I was called on my two responses were, "I forget or I agree." My secret became known and it was evident that I could not read. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing, but the support of those I mentioned before brought me to want to teach reading and today I can truly state one of my hobbies is reading.
I relocated the following year and began my masters with Walden University online and studied Reading and Literacy. Walden University provided me the newest research and approaches that I could use in the classroom with readers. It allowed me to come to further understand reading differences and strategies to help these students. We were taught to observe, assess, provide feedback and insight to the parents and students, and various reading approaches: guided reading, reading workshop, multisensory spelling, differentiated instruction and how to apply interactive sites for reading.
In 2005 I began working as a Learning Specialist at a small independent school in Pennsylvania. Wow, I was provided the opportunity to work with 230 kids ranging in age from 4-12 everyday. The next three years my job molded and meshed as I continued my studies about the mind, observed and worked with students, created protocols, provided professional development and communicated to parents, teachers, administrators, students and specialists. My true accomplishments and joys from this job were:
• Collaborate with teachers to write and continually update learning profiles for Greene Street students. Learning Profiles contain strategies, accommodations and interventions geared specifically to each student’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Lead The Learning Support Team in the development of a Learning Support Program Guide for teachers and administration. The guide is an extensive system and protocol for identifying and supporting students’ individual learning needs.
• Implement and provide The Attuning diagnostic tool to gain an understanding of students’ neurodevelopment profile. The tool provides accommodations, interventions and strategies for parents, teachers and students as developed by Mel Levine.
• Create and provide ongoing Professional Development and tools to faculty and staff. Topics include: Learning Centers, All Kinds of Minds, Differentiated Instruction, Making Words, Fine Motor Skills, organization, enrichment, and Multisensory Spelling and Reading.
As a life long learner I thrive to continue to develop new goals and tools for myself and others. I left the Learning Specialist position to put into practice all the tools and strategies I learned. For the past two years I have been the 1/2 and 2nd grade teacher at the same independent school. Being a classroom teacher has brought joy to me everyday. Working with the same students daily, observing and learning about their interest's, strength's and weaknesses is exciting, energizing and enriching. Take a step into my classroom to view some of the tools, strategies, and ideas we have created.
My future dreams are endless:
~ Become a Reading Specialist
~ Become a Learning Consultant
~ Continue to develop my tutoring business
~ Degree in Leadership or Administration
~ Become an Administrator
Enjoy ~
Katie Portela
I soon developed an understanding of how my brain worked and what strategies and accommodations I needed to succeed, the key: become my own advocate. I lead Speakers Bureau in High School and talked to parents and teachers of how they can help their children.
Working with children has always been a part of my life. At the young age of eight I was a babysiter, soon I moved up to a mother's helper, camp counselor and then to a nanny. Each of these jobs ensured me that each child is different, each child needs love and support and guidance to be successful.
In 2003 I graduated from Mount Saint Marys College with my degree in Elementary Education. These teachings in the classroom and hands-on experiences with my internships allowed me to begin to understand how I can take my own personal experiences and theory and place it into practice.
My first classroom experience was in Baltimore Maryland in Title I school as a 5th grade teacher. Taking my experiences from my former jobs and my work in outreach I felt this experienced provided me the opportunity to work with underprivileged families, a full classroom of 27, and many different learning needs. I soon came to realize that I was on my own often and these students needed someone to believe in them and show them that they could do it. I called it the "one room school house." We created daily incentive charts for each subject, behavior modifications, centers and various hands on activities to get each student intrigued to learn. My goal: for each child to smile at least once during the day, to build trust, provide clear expectations and a belief that they did matter.
After my first year as a classroom teacher I looked at the areas of my own learning journey that I struggled with and what could I teach children specifically. I remember it clearly, sitting in my third grade classroom and we were supposed to read the chapter book Little House on the Prairie, during independent reading I would flip through the pages and pretend to read and in reading groups when I was called on my two responses were, "I forget or I agree." My secret became known and it was evident that I could not read. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing, but the support of those I mentioned before brought me to want to teach reading and today I can truly state one of my hobbies is reading.
I relocated the following year and began my masters with Walden University online and studied Reading and Literacy. Walden University provided me the newest research and approaches that I could use in the classroom with readers. It allowed me to come to further understand reading differences and strategies to help these students. We were taught to observe, assess, provide feedback and insight to the parents and students, and various reading approaches: guided reading, reading workshop, multisensory spelling, differentiated instruction and how to apply interactive sites for reading.
In 2005 I began working as a Learning Specialist at a small independent school in Pennsylvania. Wow, I was provided the opportunity to work with 230 kids ranging in age from 4-12 everyday. The next three years my job molded and meshed as I continued my studies about the mind, observed and worked with students, created protocols, provided professional development and communicated to parents, teachers, administrators, students and specialists. My true accomplishments and joys from this job were:
• Collaborate with teachers to write and continually update learning profiles for Greene Street students. Learning Profiles contain strategies, accommodations and interventions geared specifically to each student’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Lead The Learning Support Team in the development of a Learning Support Program Guide for teachers and administration. The guide is an extensive system and protocol for identifying and supporting students’ individual learning needs.
• Implement and provide The Attuning diagnostic tool to gain an understanding of students’ neurodevelopment profile. The tool provides accommodations, interventions and strategies for parents, teachers and students as developed by Mel Levine.
• Create and provide ongoing Professional Development and tools to faculty and staff. Topics include: Learning Centers, All Kinds of Minds, Differentiated Instruction, Making Words, Fine Motor Skills, organization, enrichment, and Multisensory Spelling and Reading.
As a life long learner I thrive to continue to develop new goals and tools for myself and others. I left the Learning Specialist position to put into practice all the tools and strategies I learned. For the past two years I have been the 1/2 and 2nd grade teacher at the same independent school. Being a classroom teacher has brought joy to me everyday. Working with the same students daily, observing and learning about their interest's, strength's and weaknesses is exciting, energizing and enriching. Take a step into my classroom to view some of the tools, strategies, and ideas we have created.
My future dreams are endless:
~ Become a Reading Specialist
~ Become a Learning Consultant
~ Continue to develop my tutoring business
~ Degree in Leadership or Administration
~ Become an Administrator
Enjoy ~
Katie Portela
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Recommended Books that have Inspired My Teachings
The Read-Aloud Handbook: Sixth Edition
by Jim Trelease
Making Words Second Grade: 100 Hands-On Lessons for Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Spelling by Patricia M. Cunningham, Dorothy P. Hall
Making Big Words: Multilevel, Hands-On Spelling and Phonics Activities
by Patricia M Cunningham, Dorothy P. Hall, Tom Heggie
Phonics Lessons ~ Grade 2 (Letters, Words, and How They Work)
by Gay Su Pinnell, Irene C. Fountas
The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-2: A Guide to Teaching
by Gay Su Pinnell, Irene C. Fountas
The Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Book List, K-8+: 2010-2012 Edition, Print Version (F & P Professional Books and Multimedia) by Irene C. Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell
Craft Lessons 2nd Edition by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi, Philippa Stratton, Martha Drury/Cathy Hawkes
Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6
by Lynne R. Dorfman, Rose Cappelli
Complete set UNITS OF STUDY FOR PRIMARY WRITING: A YEARLONG CURRICULUM: Conferring Handbook, Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Writing, CD-rom, 7 books: Launching Workshop, Small Moments, Writing for Readers, Revision, Authors as Mentors, Nonfiction, Poetry
by Lucy Calkins
One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers
by Lucy Calkins, Amanda Hartman, Zoe Ryder White
Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence by Luke Jackson
Drven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell, John J. Ratey
Wilson Reading System Deluxe Set (Complete Kit) by Barbara A. Wilson
The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension by Timothy V. Rasinski
Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers: Strategies for Classroom Intervention 3-6
by Dorothy S. Strickland, Kathy Ganske, Joanne K. Monroe
All Kinds of Minds: A Young Student's Book About Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders by Melvin D. Levine
The Myth of Laziness by Mel Levine
A Mind at a Time by Mel Levine
Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 by Chip Wood
by Jim Trelease
Making Words Second Grade: 100 Hands-On Lessons for Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Spelling by Patricia M. Cunningham, Dorothy P. Hall
Making Big Words: Multilevel, Hands-On Spelling and Phonics Activities
by Patricia M Cunningham, Dorothy P. Hall, Tom Heggie
Phonics Lessons ~ Grade 2 (Letters, Words, and How They Work)
by Gay Su Pinnell, Irene C. Fountas
The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-2: A Guide to Teaching
by Gay Su Pinnell, Irene C. Fountas
The Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Book List, K-8+: 2010-2012 Edition, Print Version (F & P Professional Books and Multimedia) by Irene C. Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell
Craft Lessons 2nd Edition by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi, Philippa Stratton, Martha Drury/Cathy Hawkes
Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6
by Lynne R. Dorfman, Rose Cappelli
Complete set UNITS OF STUDY FOR PRIMARY WRITING: A YEARLONG CURRICULUM: Conferring Handbook, Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Writing, CD-rom, 7 books: Launching Workshop, Small Moments, Writing for Readers, Revision, Authors as Mentors, Nonfiction, Poetry
by Lucy Calkins
One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers
by Lucy Calkins, Amanda Hartman, Zoe Ryder White
Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence by Luke Jackson
Drven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell, John J. Ratey
Wilson Reading System Deluxe Set (Complete Kit) by Barbara A. Wilson
The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension by Timothy V. Rasinski
Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers: Strategies for Classroom Intervention 3-6
by Dorothy S. Strickland, Kathy Ganske, Joanne K. Monroe
All Kinds of Minds: A Young Student's Book About Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders by Melvin D. Levine
The Myth of Laziness by Mel Levine
A Mind at a Time by Mel Levine
Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 by Chip Wood
Friday, October 30, 2009
Communicating Home Through a Classroom Blog
View our 1/2 Blog. You can see our various classroom activities we did last year: http://theall-stars1-2.blogspot.com/.
Supporting the Struggling Reader
"Struggling readers need more than effective short-term interventions; they also need effective reading instruction in their regular classroom programs" (Hiebert & Taylor 1994).
Children who are read to daily are found to be more successful in reading and literacy activities than those who do not, Dolores Durkin. Students need to know that reading is important and also they need to hear how you read fluently. Read Aloud are a wonderful way to incorporate reading to your class everyday. I place it into our Science and Social Studies themes. During the read aloud I demonstrate reading strategies through think alouds and questioning.
Children who are read to daily are found to be more successful in reading and literacy activities than those who do not, Dolores Durkin. Students need to know that reading is important and also they need to hear how you read fluently. Read Aloud are a wonderful way to incorporate reading to your class everyday. I place it into our Science and Social Studies themes. During the read aloud I demonstrate reading strategies through think alouds and questioning.
Literacy
Recommended Sites:
http://brainconnection.positscience.com/teasers/
- Students can work on memory, word and sound retrieval and sound discrimination.
http://brainconnection.positscience.com/teasers/
- Students can work on memory, word and sound retrieval and sound discrimination.
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