No More Weekly Reading Logs

Judging from conversations going on in blogland and the Twitterverse, it seems like the topic of weekly reading logs is hot, hot, hot.  Some people love them, many people hate them, others want to get rid of them but either can't or don't know what else to use in order to hold students accountable for their reading.

I felt this way...for a long time.

So I kept sending home a weekly reading log and my students kept filling them out and returned them every Monday.  When I checked them over, these are a few of the things I noticed:

A student who read 50 pages in 20 minutes
A student who read the same (picture) book all week
A student who read a different (chapter) book every night

Oh my!

Can you relate?

There HAD to be a better way to monitor independent reading that kept students accountable and provided me important timely data.

There is!

It's called Status of the Class and it has saved my sanity this year.

Here's how it works...

Every morning after attendance, I call off students' names and they tell me the title of the book they read last night and what page they are on.  I keep a record on a chart like this:

I simply jot the title (or part of the title) and list the page number. I even developed a code to make things easier:

•  If it is the same book, I draw an arrow.  
• The "Q" means a student has finished a book and is ready to take an AR quiz.
• A box around a box (like at the very bottom of the picture) means that a student did not read enough pages the night before and we had a short conversation. 
• "No book" means the student forgot to bring a book home and didn't read
• "A" stands for book abandoned
• "Abs" means the student was absent that day

At first, Status of the Class took us about 10 minutes to get through.  Now, we're down to about four minutes because students yell out "Same book, page ___" when I call their name.  Super fast!!

How has Status of the Class helped ME as a teacher?

• I  realize the students who abandon books on a regular basis.
• I can recognize my students' book genre preferences and can guide them toward other genres.
• I can see who is really reading at night.  The students came up with the expectation that between 20 minutes of nightly reading and 30 minutes of daily DEAR time in class, they should be able to read 20-30 pages.  They now hold each other accountable for that too!
• I can make sure that students who have a habit of "forgetting" to bring home a book, don't.
• I can recognize my wild readers and give them immediate feedback.

Giving up the weekly reading log is one of the best teaching moves I've made this year!  If you are a member of the "I Really Dislike Reading Logs But Don't Know What Else to Try Club," I encourage you to give Status of the Class a try!

Thanks to Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for hosting this weekly Tried It Tuesday linky party!

Tried it Tuesday -- Dry Erase Dots

How often does this happen to you...

You gather your students at the table for small group work.  You are in the middle of a great discussion and it comes time for the students to answer independently on their whiteboards.  So the entire table gets up, searches for their whiteboard, searches for a marker, searches for an eraser, come back to the table....only to have their great thinking escape in all of the searching they just did.

It happened to me all the time.....Until I found these babies!

They are called Wall Pops and I think they are pretty cool!  (And no, I am not receiving any compensation for saying this.  I know how much easier they have made my life and know they can help you too!  :)

The are peel and stick right to my guided reading table, are repositionable, and dry erase easily.  The kids LOVE using them.  I love the pop of color they give to my drab table and how much TIME we save because our dry erase board is right in front of us all the time.

I bought mine through Amazon, but I have heard they are also available at Michaels.  I get lots of compliments on them when someone visits my room.

So since I love this "Tried It,"  I'm linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.  Now I'm off to find other goodies to help make my life easier!  :)

The Two Biggies -- Organization and Management, Oh My!

Well, dear blog friends, we are on the down side to another week.  I began teaching summer school today and I am exhausted!  (It was only a half day, what's my problem???)  I need to retrain both my bladder and appetite that they run on "teacher time" now!  :)

I'm doing a little catch up here on Teacher Week '13...today I'd like to share how I organize for instruction and handle classroom management.  Two days rolled into one!

First, Organizing for Instruction.

I'll admit it...organization is definitely NOT my strong point.  (But I'm trying to be better, so I get points for that, right?)  My organization system basically consists of neat piles -- and I DO know where everything is, it just doesn't look pretty.  :(

I like to conference with my students as much as I can and last year, I discovered the Confer app for my iPad.  This app has been a godsend for helping me stay organized with my conferencing!

I love that I can put notes in for multiple subjects.

I create a class list (which I will not show because it contains student names even though I tried to cover them up :) and can add comments and goals for future conferences.  It also is a great way to sort my students into intervention groups and to make sure that I am conferencing with each student on a regular basis.  I can even export the data to a Google doc to share it with administrators, our reading specialists, or future teachers.

Next, Classroom Management.

Source:  David Sipress/www.classroommanagementonline.com

I was lucky...when I went back to school to add my teaching certificate, I had a FANTASTIC classroom management class and an awesome professor, Dr. Corey Thompson!  I learned so much in his class about the importance of building community and relationships in our classroom. 

One of my favorite sayings from Corey (which I still quote often) is:

They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care!

 



Isn't that awesome???  In other words, "if you can't reach 'em, you can't teach 'em."

Building community and relationships are something that I try REALLY hard to do every year, and I feel my efforts consistently pay off in better management.

However, there are a couple other tricks that I have found work for me to help keep everything under control.  The first is the use of Behavior Chips and something called the PROPER Chart.

Students receive five Behavior Chips every Monday.  Their goal is to keep at least three of them by Friday.  If they do, they get to participate in Fun Friday.

Students keep their chips unless they get a checkmark for breaking one of the PROPER rules.   If they break a PROPER rule, they get a checkmark on a chart and have to give me a chip.  (The chips serve as a tangible reminder for students of how they are doing.)

PROPER is an acronym and stands for...

Punctual:  Comes back to class on time, doesn't dilly-dally in the hallway
Respectful:  Towards everyone and everything at school
On Task:  Work when given work time
Participation:  Works to advance the learning and goals in our classroom
Effort:  Always tries their best and takes pride in the work they produce
Responsible:  Homework is done and returned on time; has materials for class

Last year, the 4th grade adopted the PROPER system because it was done throughout 5th grade and since we share the same hallway, we wanted consistent expectations.  There is also a PROPER chart on a clipboard for each class that will travel to specials so the students remember that good behavior is expected everywhere.  (The chart is also a good thing to share with parents at conferences, especially if a student is having a problem in a certain area.)

So what is Fun Friday?

It is a reward for students who have kept at least three chips.  It could be a kickball game, open gym, board games, extra recess, etc. for about the last 30 minutes on Friday afternoons.  Let's face it, by Fridays at 2:45, everyone is pretty exhausted from all of the hard work we did for the week.  Why not end with a little fun, right?

How do you handle organization and management in your classroom?  I'd love to hear from you!

Monday Made It {July 29, 2013}

My daughter says I have gone into crafting overdrive...That's probably true considering I have been busy with the National Writing Project for the past three weeks.  (She has even started calling my office/craft room the "Mom Cave"-- Love it!!) I was excited to get back to it this weekend and to catch up on making some of those great ideas I found out in blog land.

Just in time to link up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  YAY!!

 

Project #1:  Dry Erase "Erasers"

Tired of students never having an eraser for their dry erase marker?  Hot glue pompoms on the end and they'll never be without an eraser again!  I've seen this idea all over Pinterest so I don't know who to give the original credit to, but I thank you for your creativity!

 Project #2:  Cute Corner Bookmarks

So cute and SO EASY!  Found this idea on Pinterest and tracked down the original website here.  I am thinking about making one for each of my students for their first day goody bag.

 

Project #3:  Clothespin Magnets  

 

Found these beauties in the dollar bin at Michael's and they hopped right into my cart!  I glued some magnet strips on the back of a few and on a few others, I hot glued a tack to use as a push pin.

 Project #5:  Behavior Beads from Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera.
I bought these the very first day I saw them because I love the idea of brag tags. She has so many fun varieties! I found some chain necklaces at Hobby Lobby and went to work with my laminator.  This week, I have worked on cutting the sheets apart and putting them in a storage case.

 Kara helped me cut the necklace chains...

Some words of advice if you take on this project...

1.  Print them on WHITE cardstock, not colored cardstock.  Look at the difference it makes...The first guy looks normal, the second looks sunburned, the third looks ill and the fourth looks sad.  I am going to get some more white cardstock for the rest I need to print.

2. To make hole punching them easier, cut the page into three strips, hole punch with a tiny hole puncher, then cut into individual cards.

3.  To store them, I would rubber band them into groups.  It makes it easier to get them out of the case and let's say you get a visit from your Puggle who overturns the whole case because she's trying to convince you that you need to go feed her, you won't be separating them again.  I'm just saying it could happen...

Project #6:  Chair Book Pockets
In addition to being a Monday Made It project, this next project is an organizational tool, which qualifies me to link up with Optimum Organization with Fun in Room 4B and Ladybug's Teacher Files.  (I just made this linky party at the last minute...this is their last week!  :)

I grew tired of my students shoving their (my) paperback books into their desk and ruining the covers.  Also, whenever we moved desks or brought our chairs to group work, the students always had trouble making sure they got THEIR chair back.  So I came up with this plan....

Buy some Home Depot fabric tool belts for 77 cents each.

 I made some student numbers to print and glue onto cardstock.  The Home Depot logo is about 4 inches square, but I picked orange cardstock in case I didn't cut it exact.  (I'm a little OCD with that...)

Talk your daughter into laminating them since she's sitting around waiting for you to take her to the horse farm anyways.... 

 Hot glue (lots of glue!!) to cover the Home Depot logo.

 Attach to the back of your students' chairs.  (You can see that it even works on my kitchen table chair!)

I have made the numbers available in my TPT store to save you the trouble of making your own numbers if you'd like to do this too!  However, if you pin this project and leave me the URL of your pin, I can send you the numbers for FREE!  It's a win-win!!  (Just make sure you are not a "no reply blogger.  Not sure?  Visit Ideas by Jivey for a tutorial to find out.)

Can't wait to see what everyone else has done this week!