Introductions

Gosh! I'm sorry I didn't think of this first, but we really SHOULD introduce ourselves, shouldn't we? :-)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Katie Muhtaris on January 22, 2011 at 9:48am

Hi Judy,

I teach 5th as well. I also read Miller's book over the summer and I loved it! I instituted a version of the 40 book requirement in my class and it's been amazing for helping my students read more widely. Although I call it a challenge and there are no rewards or repercussions. Sending you a colleague request so we can trade ideas.

Permalink Reply by MsLisaKate on January 11, 2010 at 9:02am

Hi everyone! I have just joined but I have been on Classroom20.com for a couple of years now. I am the Director of IT at the Boston Renaissance Charter School in Boston, MA, a K-6 school. I am interested in finding and sharing technology integrated lessons and resources for ELA in our Elementary school. I am looking forward to meeting more of you and hearing about what you all already know and practice.
My blog is at education.lkrdesign.com/blog.
Our school is bostonrenaissance.org
Happy New Year!
Lisa

Permalink Reply by Michelle Breum on February 20, 2010 at 3:54pm

I'm a certified elementary teacher taking time off to spend time with my children. After my twins were born in 2003 my 7 year teaching career took a backseat. My three children are all in school now. I'm staying involved in education by tutoring three children with reading from my home, volunteering four days per week in my children's classrooms, helping with a parent volunteer reading intervention program, and blogging.
I have a blog at http://beginningreadinghelp.blogspot.com
I'm in the first stages of starting a google group for homeschoolers, parents, reading tutors, teachers, and professionals to connect, discuss, and post information about teaching reading. I'm planning to leave it open for members to add their own page but not edit other pages. Please join, add a discussion, create a page, and invite others to make this a useful group for all. http://groups.google.com/group/beginning-reading

Permalink Reply by Diana Byriel on February 20, 2010 at 8:15pm

I am a first grade teacher in Boone, Iowa. We use Literacy Learning to teach reading, which integrates the reading and writing process. Our training for this initially came from the Learning Network & RC Owens company. It is labor intensive for the teacher, but a highly individualized way to teach reading, writing and spelling. I am always looking for new strategies for vocabulary and phonemic and phonics work to make sure my literacy program is balanced.

Permalink Reply by Angela Mitchell on March 14, 2010 at 12:46pm

Hi Diana,
Have you ever visited this site www.superteacherworksheets.com?
do that and go the section on wordwheels. This will help in your phonics work.

Angela

Permalink Reply by Sara Sparks on February 26, 2010 at 3:30pm

I am an early kindergarten teacher in Ames, Iowa. We use the Breakthrough to Literacy curriculum in our classroom for literacy instruction. It has a computer component which is great but it doesn't have a ton of phonemic awareness skills mixed in. Does anyone have a good resource they use to increase these skills in their classroom? I currently try to use some things from Lakeshore Learning, mailbox magazine and the book Phonemic Awareness playing with sounds to strengthen beginning reading skills. Let me know if there are other materials out there.

Permalink Reply by Marcy Prager on March 14, 2010 at 3:10pm

Sara,
Try Starfall Reading. It's free and it's a start!

Permalink Reply by Marcy Prager on March 14, 2010 at 3:13pm

Raz for Kids is around $70.00 per year, but every child can have a chance to read in school and at home. Most of the books are non-fiction and VERY interesting. The technology keeps track of the students' strengths and weaknesses. It is very individualized.

Permalink Reply by John Michael Tracy on March 14, 2010 at 7:56pm

This is in reply to Sara Spark's question about curriculum for reading instruction. I mostly use things I've invented over the years. I teach bilingual kinder, so I guess what I do is very particular. I teach the vowels first in Spanish, using a repeating melody. I show the upper case vowels, then the lower case, then with a questioning tone, I show the second lower case form of a. When kids have learned the vowels, cold, I go on to teaching the consonants. These are pretty straightforward, ba, be, bi, bo, bu, and kids also use the same melody/song to sing these. When kids have these down really well, usually about December, I introduce the English vowels by telling kids there is the name sound, and the picture sound. I use big posters with pictures of an apple, elephant, iguana, octopus and umbrella, and that's what I refer to when kids are writing in Writer's workshop.
Do you do writer's workshop every day?
I find it tremendously helpful for strengthening reading skills.
I use books from my classroom library - and I got lucky. Last year when we opened our school our principal spent money and bought each of us a 300 title classroom library. I have another 50 or so books in Spanish, which I supplement with books from the school library and the county library. Again I am lucky, there is a really good selection of Spanish picture books, and they aren't just translations of books written in English. Some of the really, really good ones are from Spain and Mexico and they really are first rate (which I wouldn't/couldn't have said ten years ago.
I taught for three years at a Spanish immersion school in St. Paul, MN, and there, though we had a fantastic library with Spanish and English titles, I often found myself using a camera and writing my own books because
most leveled books are written for native Spanish speakers, and they got really hard, really fast for the little anglophone spanish immersion students I had.
I play a lot of card games at the beginning of the year, which are short and sweet - maybe ten minutes daily with each group. Usual game is to show the card, and if the kid knows the letter/sound (depending on which I'm asking for) kid gets to keep card. Any cards the kids don't know I keep. At the end, we all count cards (good for one on one math skills) and I always make a big deal whether I win or lose. I especially make a big deal if I lose, which my kids usually love and which cracks them up.
My parents are usually pretty good about following up with working with their kids on letters and sounds. By Christmas break, all my kids knew 90% of their sounds. I always work towards doing this, if I can, before Christmas, because I've often found that kids who only knew their sounds just before Christmas often come back, magically, able to read.
I know this is a wordy reply, and I hope it is in some way helpful.
My kids are all high poverty kids. All are on free breakfast and free lunch. And I usually get 18/20 or so to leave my room reading in both languages at about a Rigby C or higher level.

Permalink Reply by Brandi on March 7, 2010 at 1:15pm

Hi,
I am Language Arts Consultant in Edmonton,Alta for grades 1-9. This is my third year in the position,.Currently I am enrolled in a Master's Degree program with a focus on language arts. In addition to reading and writing, I am also interested in curriculum planning. Web 2.0 tools have become my recent favorite topic of conversation.

Permalink Reply by Michelle TeGrootenhuis on March 12, 2010 at 6:23pm

Welcome to all of our new members! I apologize for not keeping up with the discussions lately. Like many of you, I have a busy family and many "hats" to wear at school and home. I so wish I had MORE time to spend on Classroom 2.0. What a great resource! If you even just take a SMALL role in discussions, you will learn SO much. So, make sure to participate in which ever way you are capable; leave a comment, reply to a discussion, start a new discussion, join one of the many online events, whatever! Just be INVOLVED!

Welcome!

Permalink Reply by John Michael Tracy on March 13, 2010 at 3:37pm

I teach bilingual kindergarten in Katy, Texas. We do two way; that is, I don't repeat lessons, but I spiral, and I teach one day in Spanish and one day in English. I have 20 students in all day kindergarten. A mainstay of my class is writers workshop and readers workshop. I teach for Morton Ranch Elementary; last year we opened it, this is my second year there. I have a Masters in Gifted Education from the University of Houston, and a bunch of certifications, some of which I've never used: bilingual, elementary, ESL, special ed, German.
I find teaching to be endlessly challenging, and working with five year olds a blast. I have the best job in the world, and I'd do it for free. There's nothing that compares to teaching kids how to read.