Scheduling...How do you fit it all in!?

Well, I have been asked by two AMAZING teacher-bloggers to join them in this #2getherwearebetter LINKY PARTY! Some linky parties are definitely better than others (in my opinion). This linky is going to be a very informative read for you! 

LINKY=We are all posting about the same TOPIC this month and after you read mine (informative or not), you can look at the bottom of my post at the LINKY and find all of the LINKS that other bloggers that are part of this have added and you can easily hop over to their blogs to see what THEY have to say about this same topic. TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER! :) #2getherwearebetter

The topics that these two ladies have scheduled are to help all of us! TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER!!! Collaborating about important teaching topics from state to state and across the country, what could be better!? Well, I suppose we are even doing it AROUND the world! Let me know where you are from in the comments. I would love to hear how far away people are reading my blog posts!

Thank you Angie and Ashley for putting this together and letting us collaborate about SCHEDULES this month! Also, thank you for inviting me to a part of something so awesome! I'm honored!

        

I'll start by just showing you my overall schedule for the day! Keep in mind that I teach in the biggest district in Indiana and a lot of my schedule is not very flexible and determined by the district. When it comes to the length of blocks and intervention, it's district mandated. Then when it comes to the placement of those blocks, that is determined by our school. This is important so they can schedule para-pros to be in our room during our reading block, etc. 

Intervention Block

Our intervention block is a time that the reading and math interventionists (sometimes ELL too) come and pull groups of second graders from all of the second grade classrooms to work on skills. We also have a small high ability group that is pulled at that time.  Depending on the class, that sometimes leaves just a few kids in the classroom. Other times, that may leave a huge group, so depending on the time of the year, I do different things during that block. It’s always some kind of enrichment for the kids that are left with me in the classroom.  I say “depending on the time of the year” because at the beginning of this year, I had a lot pulled out, but now that they are learning and succeeding in the intervention some of the kids have graduated from intervention and now I don’t have as many pulled at this time of the year. So, depending on how many kids are still there, that makes my decision on the kinds of activities that they do.  Usually, I have students doing either math games or reading/literacy games. Right now, we are working on money, so I use every chance I can get to give them a few extra minutes of practice with coins!

 Reading Block

We use the Reading Wonders reading series. This is our second year using it. I have a more in depth blog post about how I use Reading Wonders and my “thoughts after one year of using it.” Our basic reading block schedule is 30 minutes of whole group reading, 60 minutes of literacy workstations/small groups. This year, I have four small groups and I do 20 minutes with each group. I meet with Groups 1 & 2 everyday (lowest), then I alternate meeting with 3 & 4 each day. I also have many posts about how I do workstations in my classroom! My workstations are differentiated and each student has a work plan that indicates which stations to visit, based on their readiness level. 

Math Block

I spend a lot of time on math in my room! My district uses Envisions Math. In my opinion, it doesn’t have enough included with it for the kids to really gain a solid understanding, so I have added many other things in. I have a detailed post on how I do my math centers/rotations that I recently posted. I start my math block with some kind of activity on the kids’ desks when they get back from lunch. This gets them busy right away and lets me have a few kids at a time do a quick bathroom break. Usually, it’s one of my monthly problem solving activities that they glue in their math notebooks and complete. Other times, it might be an interactive notebook page (From LuckyLittle Learners) that they know to cut, paste, and complete the activity in their math notebooks. All of these routines are taught at the beginning, so whatever is on their desk, they know what to do. I give them 15 minutes to complete this (along w/ bathroom!)

   

Then, we do whole group. (Approx 15 minutes) The kids come down the carpet with their white boards and dry erase markers. We use Envisions, so at that point we do the “Technology Bridge” video. I’m going to be honest and admit that at first (like the first three years!), I didn’t like those videos. I tried them, got bored with them myself and had decided I could teach it better. It wasn’t until this year that I really started to see the value in the videos because I started having the kids LEAVE THEIR DESKS, come down in front of the screen and interact with the video on their white boards. (Also, I’ve gone to math rotations after the video, so then I feel better that I can teach them anything they didn’t understand in the technology bridge when they are in my small group!) If you are teaching Envisions and get frustrated with the videos, I’d love to hear if we are on the same page. Like I said, it took me awhile and I had to give them a chance again this year. Also, it’s all about the logistics of it. I have a laptop that is always hooked up and ready to show the video. In the past, I had to move my laptop, hook it up to the projector every day during math time and honestly, I didn’t have time for that!

After the technology bridge video is finished (we have interacted and I have stopped the video throughout to show things to them on my own white board, etc.), we break into our groups and rotations. Each group/rotation is about 10-12 minutes. I don’t set a timer for it anymore. I take the time I need with each group. The first group that comes to me has the highest need, so they take a few minutes longer. The last group that comes to me is my highest math group, so if I have to cut that one short, I can! I have an entire blog post on how I do my math rotations in more detail! My centers each day are: Teacher Table (my small group where I teach the concept in more detail!), Computers, Math Games, and Seat Work. Students always go to seat work after they meet with me. They complete whatever we started in small group! They always go to computers after seat work because that way, if their seat work isn’t done, they can skip computers. The rotation schedule that I have works PERFECTLY for me. I am completely in love with it!

After math rotations/groups, I do the Envisions Quick Check that is included with each lesson as an actual grade and check for understanding. This can help me determine what needs to be worked on the next day in small group and if we are ready to move on in small groups. 

Science/Social Studies/Health

These are subjects that I have always had an extremely hard time fitting in! I don’t have much advice on this and I know that a lot of teachers have gone to completely integrating these subjects. The good news is that I have come up with an answer for myself now that I have moved to a new school. The great thing about the new school is that we have FOUR second grade teachers and they already had a plan! (Better for me, right!?)

Here is what we do:
4 teachers/4 subjects/4 days/4 quarters

(The 4^th subject is something extra that we need to cover, could be another science unit, a monthly unit, a needed unit like “Character” and/or anti-bullying.)

Here’s how it works. The last twenty minutes of each day, the TEACHERS switch classrooms. We each have a subject assigned to us for the entire quarter. We teach our own class on Mondays, then we switch Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays. We don’t switch on Fridays. So, for example: I’m teaching Science right now. I teach my class on Mondays, class B on Tuesdays, class C on Wednesdays, class D on Thursdays. Then while I’m teaching science to them, my kids have a rotation each day of social studies, health, and an “extra” subject. 

I’m not sure if my schedule can help others, but I hope it can give you some ideas! Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and ideas that you’d like to share!

TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER!

Where are you from? {Comment below in the comments section!}

An InLinkz Link-up

Reading Wonders---My Thoughts After One Year

Hello everyone! Looks like a lot of you will be starting to use the new Reading Wonders basal series this year. My district in Indiana adopted it last year, so I have been through one full year with it in second grade. I have had a lot of questions about what I did and didn't use, etc. I think that it is all going to depend on your school and district and what you do and don't need to use. For example, I am under the impression that we are pretty much expected to use it. (Imagine how much money they spent on it!) Plus, I'm in the largest district in Indiana, so a lot of things are set up for us. Curriculum maps, calendars to keep us on track, etc. That is all district specific stuff. We don't ONLY use this basal, we do use other things. For example, we don't use the spelling or the writing that is in Wonders. So please keep that in mind when you see my outline below. We are required to have a 90 minute literacy block (writing is not included here, that's separate) and at my particular school last year, we did a 120 minute block in K-2. That extra 30 minutes was typically independent reading and independent reading conferences. Also, I teach in an inner city school with very high poverty and a very high ELL population. My whole group is 30 minutes, but the real "meat" of what I do is in workstations and small groups because without differentiation there, I would never meet half of my students needs.

A lot of readers have mentioned that they are very overwhelmed by it all and some didn't have a series before so it seems like a lot. I actually had Treasures for the 5-6 years before Wonders, and it's pretty much set up the same. Wonders just had even more. This is purely MY theory and opinion, as I said before, it all depends on YOUR principal and district, but YOU CAN NOT DO IT ALL! There is no way to do it all. I use this series simply as a tool and guide to follow. Although it has a lot, and I can't do it all, there are also things that I feel it DOES NOT have... like good quality workstations/centers. That is why I've created my own. (Please see other posts and my TPT store for free samples for 2nd and 3rd grade!)

As I said, I have been asked this question before, so I'm actually going to copy/paste/edit the quick outline that I gave someone in a Facebook group that I'm part of:

We have a 30 minute whole group time, then 60 minute workstations/centers/small group guided reading time. So I will focus on what I cover in my whole group (to the best of my memory!)


Mondays-Introduce new phonics skills, high frequency words, vocabulary words and definitions. (honestly that's about all I got through in 30 min on Mondays because of course Monday mornings were so hectic)

Tuesdays-Quick review of phonics skills, high frequency words, vocab. Read the story in Readers/Writers Workshop book together. Introduce comprehension skill and strategy and try to apply them to the story read. (create anchor chart usually)

 

 

Wednesdays-review of words above again, then read the story in the Literature Anthology together. Apply skills for week to story.

 

 

Thursdays-Usually there is a short poem or article to read in the literature anthology. Apply skills. Sometimes I'd do my own read aloud and apply the skills from the week. And overall a "catch up" day to go over grammar skills for week, etc.

 

 

Fridays-Weekly Test **I only gave the first half of the test. One passage (two pages long!) and 10 questions. I did that for probably 75% of the year because they still weren't ready to move onto the full length test. Plus just  half of a test would take them a good hour. Also, I read the test aloud and we worked on it question by question same time until December. After December, I let them try on their own, except my special cases that would sit in a small group with me and I'd read it with them. The kids had a hard time with the tests all year, but we didn't give up. They got better and better eventually. I will have to compare to this year's group because last year's group was honestly very tough, so I don't know if it was Wonders or that class.

Also, I did do one of the written response questions on the shortened test. Usually the written response question included was about both passages, which they hadn't read, so I would just do a little cut and paste (literally) and fix the question so it was just for the passage they read. I made a big deal about the written response and use RAPP in my classroom. See my blog post on RAPP here.

 

 



I'm remembering what I did do everyday for my WHOLE GROUP Time, but it's hard for me to remember what I left out (since I didn't do it! LOL) One thing I STARTED the year with was the Interactive Read aloud. In our quick training we had by the company they made a big deal of this and I felt I needed to do it. I DID try it for a few weeks but in MY opinion, it ended up being a big waste of time, so I discontinued it. With only 30 minutes for whole group, I had to pick and choose, as you are figuring out when you go through the text yourself.

 

Another question I was asked was if I did the "Review Week." For the first part of the year, yes, I had a review week/week between two units where we worked on a big "Unit Test" that was included in the series. However, I chose to do it as more of test taking strategy lessons without a grade. We worked hard on this and talked about how they'd take the state test in 3rd grade. Now, halfway through the year, Indiana was hit with one of the worst winters ever, so we ended up having to skip the review weeks in order to get through all 6 units because our time ended up being limited. But it was still okay, it was nice to do those test taking strategies in the beginning.

 

I'm sure this year will be different and I will use some things that I learned from using Wonders last year. I am also at a new school this year where the weekly test data is required to be turned in. I have yet to find out if they are to take the entire test each week or if I'll be allowed to still cut it in half. This of course worries me. The kids need experience in taking a long "standardized" test since that's what their future is, but I can't imagine how long it will take them and how they will do at the beginning.

You are probably wondering more about what I do in what I call the "meat" of my literacy block: Small groups and literacy workstations. Last year, I used all of the literacy workstations that I created for Wonders, plus some others and differentiated them. If you follow my blog, I had a "Workstation Wednesday" series in the spring where I went into great detail about my workstations. As for small groups, I differentiate those to meet the needs of each group of students and often they are different from year to year. I use many TPT materials and I do use the leveled readers from Wonders, if the level fits a particular group of students. However, sometimes a group will fall between some of those levels and I'll have to resort to other leveled books from my school's bookroom.

 

I know this is a lot, and you might need to read through all of my babbling a few times. But I truly hope that I can at least help if you are overwhelmed with the series, and I hope I didn't overwhelm you anymore!

 

My resource packets that I've made include workstations/centers, graphic organizers, posters for a focus wall, high frequency word cards, vocabulary cards, plus more. Please download a free copy to see if you think it will help you this year! Just click on the pictures below. I have 2nd and 3rd grade resources.

 

Also, here is a picture of my Reading Wonders Focus Wall and you can download the titles/headers for it free!

 

If I think of any other information that I feel is too important not to share, I'll update this post. If I update, I'll let you know on Facebook, so be sure to follow my Facebook page!

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!

Fall Break

Heading to Florida for fall break. Catching up with a great friend and her new baby! We used to teach in Florida together, my first teaching job. Thought I'd update you on some more recent happenings in 2nd grade.

We love using all the of the new Reading Wonders materials, and although you may think I am biased, I just love using the Reading Wonders resources that I've created! It's so nice to just pull them out every week. I've been trying to stay ahead of myself on them by having them printed, laminated, cut out and ready to go. It's amazing to think that next year they really will all be ready for me, no prep needed! What will I do then? Oh,I'm sure ill have other ideas that I will be excited to try out!

Here is my vocabulary center area. I have a vocabulary match, vocabulary puzzles, vocabulary maps, and a place on the pocket chart where students can work wait the vocabulary words. In my professional opinion, this center is great because it doesn't CHANGE!!! I don't have to research it each week. I just put the new words in, along with new copies of the a accountability sheets. Easy as that. 

In my fluency center, I have two students listening to a leveled reading passage on cd, then practicing to read the passage fluently with a partner. While those two students (who are the same level) practice that, the other student practices fluency with my Super Reader Fluency Phrase cards. They love those and it's a good way to practice phrasing when it comes to fluency.  

Another thing that we have been working on a ton the past few weeks is how to write a response r literature/constructed response type of answer. We use the RAPP strategy.


We have been practicing hard and it has taken some time, but most of my students are finally starting to get there. We worked on it some during our unit test and I used a lot of explicit modeling to show them specific test taking skills, then practicing answering written response questions. The hardest part for my kids is starting out their answer, the restating the question part. It just really took them awhile to grasp what I was trying to tell them. We are now doing at least one written response weekly in their small groups after reading the leveled readers and my higher kids are also doing one on their own during workstation/center time. Practice makes perfect!

My next test taking skill that I hope to tackle next week (which maybe I should have done before this one, but I'm just realizing they don't already have this skill!!) is highlighting answers in the text when trying to find the answer to multiple choice type questions. Hopefully later this will turn into highlighting as they read. I'm trying to teach them the whole concept of looking back into the text to find the answers and understanding that if they take the time to look, the answers are there! I bought a set of Fall passages from Kayla Parker on TPT to work on this skill and I can't wait to use them! They look so cute and seem like they will go along great with the things we are working on this month!! I'll update this with some pictures later because I am also trying my own little strategy of copying the one page passage and questions side by side on 11x17 paper so that students can see the passage very easily and won't have to flip back and forth to see the passage. I'm hoping that if the passage is RIGHT THERE, they won't forget about it?!?!?! LOL

 

That's all for now, enjoying my time in Florida. Maybe more on the trip back!!!!