Spy Photos: Creating and Responding (Schlosser, 3rd)

These gems come from a top-secret teacher: Agent Schlosser. Her 3rd Graders collect and present their learning in highly-classified foldable documents. Agent Leary has employed this learning technique as well. (Agent Leary: Send some pictures in!)

Spy Photos: Anchor Charts (Levan, 1st Grade)

The last one is my favorite. Everyone should have an anchor chart for friendship.

Wow! Mentor Text Project Takes Off!

We now have 131 entries in at the Mentor Text Project, including some from California and one from the United Kingdom!

The Mentor Text Project is, quite simply, a way for all of us teachers to collaborate and create the biggest searchable database of mentor texts. 

 - Do you need a chapter book to teach inference skills? 

 - Or how about an informational picture book with great leads and endings? 

Select your options in the database and find a text a teacher in our district has used for the same purpose. (Or, maybe a teacher in the U.K. used it.)

Check out these super-cool recent entries:

• Toad or Frog, Swamp or Bog?: A Big Book of Nature's Confusables – Informational/Explanatory Text; Picture Book; Search and Use Information/Synthesize/Summarize/Compare & Contrast
• I Wanna Iguana – Opinion/Argument Text; Picture Book; mentor text for writing

 Be greedy for mentor texts, but don’t be selfish! Contribute your mentor text titles, too. It only takes a minute.

Textbook Adoption Time

Come check out the upcoming options with these teachers on the Adoption Committee at these fine establishments:

1. Teresa Calbaugh, Rivermont Elementary
2. Kathy Daniel, Nolan Elementary
3. Anna Gray, Big Ridge
4. Elaine Hollenbeck, Allen Elementary
5. Tiffany Lundy, Westview Elementary
6. Ruthie Panni, Shepherd Elementary
7. Lindsay Rowe, East Side Elementary
8. Jennifer Zeigler, Normal Park Museum Magnet
9. …plus W. 40th.

The following publishers have been approved by the State for consideration:

• Benchmark Education
• Cengage Learning
• Houghton-Mifflin
• McGraw Hill
• Pearson

Mentor Text Project

Fountas and Pinnell write, "Rather than picking up a book because it is 'good for teaching inference,' you'll want to decide what you want to teach and then look at any good text through that lens--that's basic to teaching readers rather than teaching texts."

However, many teachers are asking for such resources because planning time is scarce. So, how about we all chip in and put together a quick-look resource?

If each teacher filled out the form below just once, we would have around 2,500 entries in no time. We'll take the data and collate it here -- you will be able to look up a book by literary element, genre, unit of study, author, or title. Pretty cool, right?

Click the green button to begin. It takes about 37.4 seconds per book.
You can use this link as many times as you are willing!


Or use this direct link (better for tablets/phones): http://paulsonlearning.polldaddy.com/s/mentor-texts

Common Core Writing -- TN Assessment

http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/writing_test.aspx has some general information.
Also, a teacher at January 8th's Common Core Writing PD shared:
"In iTunes, search for TNCore to get videos and information about the writing assessment."

Spy Photos: Self-Checking Writing

This was spied in Mrs. Maxwell's first-grade classroom.

Spy Photos

So, I was poking around in Jeana Turner's stuff, and look what I found: a little guided reading toolkit.

Let's see what's in here.

Jeana Turner's Guided
Reading Toolkit

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge. Mm-hm.

Comprehension Prompt Cards!

What!? MORE Comprehension
Prompting Cards?!

Oh, that seems fun.
One mini-crate per reader.

Hope for the Future

My second-grader took the initiative to create a standardized test for Kindergartners.

I discovered this as I stopped by the Art Table to peruse the latest creations. There on top sat a multiple-choice, bubbled-in test of four questions about Littlest Pet Shop in an eight-year-old's handwriting. She had administered the test to her six-year-old brother after instructing him to bubble in his answers completely.

After a quick data review, it became apparent that the six-year-old boy performs at the Proficient level when it comes to Littlest Pet Shop (LPS). He missed an Advanced score by one question, but—to be fair—there were only four questions on the test.

“What did you want this information for?” I asked the test creator.

She looked at me blankly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, did you want to see what your brother already knew about Littlest Pet Shop? Did you want to know what he was ready to learn next? Was it a baseline assessment so that you could show growth in the future? Were you applying for grants?”

“No. I made these Littlest Pet Shop worksheets. If he passed the test, then he would win them.” She showed me the worksheets, which were small and resembled trading cards.

“Did he pass?”

“Yep,” she said.

“May I borrow your test?”

“Just bring it back.”

As I scanned the two-page test into my computer, I couldn’t help but marvel at what a great test it is. In the multiple choice options, the detractor choices are plausible; the correct answers are almost equally distributed among A, B, C, and D.

This gives me great hope for the future. So far, our daughter has told us that she wants to be a writer, an artist, and owner of a restaurant, and we have encouraged her to chase these desires. If she does all three simultaneously, she might earn enough to live in our basement. Perhaps she should consider writing state-mandated assessments; after all, the state of New York alone paid Pearson $32 million last year to produce a standardized test. If she writes test questions for Pearson, runs a restaurant, writes books of poetry, and sells her art, maybe we could live in her basement.

Pinterested in Literacy?

Batman and Robin Bambrey, of course!
Holy Pinterest, Batman!

Check out our very own Robin Bambrey's elementary literacy pinterests. Of course, you'll have to do that at home. Some things are too pinteresting for the school firewall.

(Thank you, Robin!)