Literature Companion Units {Corduroy}

Well, this is so fun and exciting for me! I've always had my certain favorite read alouds for my 2nd graders, and while I'm reading, I have all of those teachable moments and end up using the book for a variety of lessons. I've decided to organize all of those thoughts to share with everyone else! Earlier this week, I completed a Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse Unit (one of my FAVORITE read alouds!) and it was so exciting sitting down and writing down and PLANNING all of the things that I could use that book to teach! 

Now I have moved on to Corduroy...another favorite! I use a basal reading book in my district, but I love to incorporate in as many read alouds as possible. KIDS LOVE TO BE READ TO! It's amazing to sit down and dig into one book and discover how many lessons you could teach from it! 

I have created this "Companion Pack" to be used during and after reading Corduroy to your class. There are vocabulary cards and definitions included, ideas for anchor charts, graphic organizers for story mapping, 

I have also included five hand-on workstation/centers that can be used throughout the week that you read the story, or even all on the same day, whichever works for you! There are two centers to practice the vocabulary words, then there is a Cause and Effect center, Synonyms center, and Compound Word center. (All using words and scenarios from the story!) 

   

I also had a ton of great response to literature types of questions that I would ask my students, which I think would work great at writing time to tie everything together for your day/week, however you choose to plan this Corduroy unit! I'm showing two examples below of the writing that I included, but there are actually a few more in the packet. 

I said this when I blogged about my Lilly unit, I think it'd be great to use for an emergency sub kit..just leave the book and this unit. However, I wouldn't want to miss out on all of this fun with my kids, so I'd probably want to do with them! 

If you are interested in trying out this packet, please check it out in my store and see the full description, there honestly is a TON included. Also, be watching for future blog posts of me actually using these packets in my own classroom. Like I said before, I have actually pulled out a lot of these skills during those "teachable" moments, but I'm so excited to finally have all of my thoughts and ideas organized and ON PAPER! 

Just a quick sneak peek...here are some of the other books that I plan on working on "organizing my ideas" into companion units: Chrysanthemum, The Pout-Pout Fish, a bunch of Eric Carle books, and The Napping House. What are your favorite read alouds that you would like to have units to go along with? Let me know if you have any that you think I'd love too!

Workstation Wednesday: Response to Literature using RAPP

I hope you are enjoying our Workstation Wednesday posts so far. This is #4 already! Just in writing and sharing these, I've been motivated to come up with even more ideas for my kids. I can't wait to share more and the new things I've come up with just in these last few weeks!

Today I'm going to share my Response to Literature workstation, which isn't too complicated or involved, but I'd like to share the work I've done with my kids throughout the year (in and out of workstations) to practice Response to Literature using RAPP.

The station that my students do every week includes a question about our weekly story from Reading Wonders. They have to use their book to go back and use text evidence to answer.

You could write any question from your own stories that your students have read and include "use two details from the text," for example. My students have been trained (conditioned!?) to use RAPP....well, most of them anyway. If you haven't seen RAPP before, just wait, I have lots of pictures to show you below! :)

In order for you to understand how much I teach and RE-teach RAPP and how students should use it when answering a question, let me show you all of the places that students find RAPP in the classroom:

Anchor chart at the back corner of the room
(near my small group table for me to refer to anytime I'm there)

Randomly posted around the room, in case they need a reminder!

Across this long bulletin board on the other side of the room:

And, last but not least...ON EACH OF THEIR DESKS!!!

Yes, I may be crazy...but guess what? Some of them still forget.

Here are some of the tools that I have used to help me along the way. I use these tools on whole group type assignments first, before I let them try them on their own in workstations.

Graphic organizers:

If you'd like to purchase my RAPP Detective Packet, which includes the posters (color and black/white), bookmarks, desk tags, and graphic organizers, click below:

More next Wednesday!

Check out what Abbie is doing with workstations over on her page!

Workstation Wednesday Introduction

 

I'd like to share how literacy workstations work in my classroom. Do you do workstations/centers? (We call them workstations in our district.) Are you required to do them? We are required, but we have some flexibility in how we do them. I've been doing them in this district for 7 years now and I've pretty much always used this same "work plan" idea. I've changed things as the years have gone by, but I have really found this to work well for me as a teacher and for my students. The stations are differentiated, the students can work at their own pace, and they aren't stopped in the middle of a station to move to the next one like they may be in some "center rotations."

When I explain to students at the beginning of the year how we do workstations in my room, I tell them that it's sort of like a list of chores. They can choose the order they do them in, they just have to be done by the end of the week. Students can work in partners/groups if they choose to and if those other students have those same workstations on their "work plan" or they can work alone if they wish. 

As I said, workstations are differentiated. I have anywhere from 3-7 different work plans, depending on the year and the time of the year. Many of the stations on each work plan are the same, but their work plan tells them which level to do in the workstation, for example. Other workstations are completely different on each work plan. For example, some will have sight word stations, word work stations, and phonics skills, while some students that don't need those skills quite as much might only have one of them, plus some higher level comprehension stations.

I'd like to share some pictures of my workstations in full swing. Then, I plan to do a short "series" of blog posts called WORKSTATION WEDNESDAYS where I will go into more detail on one specific workstation at a time. Also, good news, Tales from the First Grade is going to team up with me and do the fun blog post series too! So you can see how she does her workstations in first grade, and also how I do my workstations in my second grade classroom!

 

 

Here are my students' work plans. This shows a few differentiated versions that I'm using at this point in the year. I do change things around as the year goes on and as the years go by, all depending on my students' needs. The plans are personalized to meet my students.

 

 

       

Here are a few cuter examples of what I used at the beginning of the school year. As you can see, the levels of the tasks are easier because this was the beginning of the year and my second graders needed more help with those skills that are listed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Response to Literature

 

 Vocabulary Stations

 

 

 

 

Read and Retell

 

 

 Scholastic Brain Bank

Meet Miss Parker's Animal Kingdom Passages (Non-fiction Comprehension Station)

 

 

 Word Work & Grammar



 

 

 

 

This was a quick tour of my workstations in full swing. Coming soon, I will have posts that give more detail to each of my stations/groups of stations. Check back each Wednesday!

 

Here are a few freebies from my store to help out with simple workstations. Please leave me feedback on the products if you download them, I'd appreciate it!

Back to School Freebie

CVC Word Sort Apples

 

Spelling Center Freebie

 

Buddy Reading Freebie

 

Sight Word/ABC Order Freebie

Read & Retell Freebie

 

Literacy Centers Freebie Packet (5 centers!)

 

To see how Abbie does her stations in first grade, see her post here:

 

 

 

 

 

 



Response to Literature

When assessing whether students have comprehended literature that has been read, we can use a response to literature assessment.  I've noticed that this can be difficult for some students, especially when it comes to tying what they read to the answer and actually making sure to state part of the question in their answer.

With my 2nd graders, I often tell them to pretend that the reader doesn't know the question, so they have to restate what they are answering. Simple daily conversation examples would include "What day is it?" "Today is Wednesday." (Instead of just answering, "Wednesday.")

I think that this simple tool is a good reminder for students to tie what they read into their response to literature question:


RATT Poster
RATT Graphic Organizer