Hey English Teachers! Check out Commonlit.org!

I recently stumbled upon what looks to be a jewel of site called Commonlit. It boasts that it is made by teachers for teachers. "COMMONLIT is a collection of poems, short stories, news articles, historical documents, and literature for classrooms."

In three simple steps, you can find thematic texts connected to an essential discussion question. Texts are sorted by grade level bands for 5th-12th grade, and also include the Lexile measure.

STEP 1: Choose a theme
There are several to select from, such as resilience, power & greed, and love.

STEP 2: Choose what they call a discussion question from within that theme. Most of themes I clicked on had two discussion questions.

STEP 3: Download the PDF versions of texts you are interested in using. The text selections I clicked on included text-based questions, discussion questions, and most had a text pairing guide for teachers. We all know that we have a range of readers in class, so I suggest looking through all the grade level options to see what will work best for your students.

It's online and free. Awesome. You don't even have to register for an account. Even more awesome. However, you can subscribe to get email updates. I hope you find some good stuff on there. Let me know how you use it! (Below is a screenshot of the homepage. The link is below the pic.)

http://www.commonlit.org/

Happy Reading,

Chandra

What Are You Reading?

Most of us understand how teacher modeling helps readers. A small step you can take in modeling how reading is a life-long process is by discussing books you have read for pleasure with your students. You will be surprised how casual book talk can influence what students are willing to pick up for independent reading.

The ladies in the curriculum and instruction PDC offices (Dr. Julie Pack, Dubraska Stines, Betsy Hammond, and Lori Eggleston) and I have started posting our current reads. If you would like a sign to post outside your classroom or office door, click here. Just click on "File" and "Make a Copy" to add it to add to your Google Drive; after that, you should be able to edit the document to customize to your liking. If you put it in a plastic sheet protector, you can write on top with a dry erase marker and reuse over and over.

Happy Reading!
~Chandra

Welcome Back! Let Me (Re)Introduce You to FAT-P!

Those of you who have visited my blog before may have noticed that I did a little face-lift to the design. I've changed the name from Literacy Links to ACS Teacher Talk because this will be a place to share instructional ideas that span wider than just literacy. The URL address remained the same, just to reduce headaches. 

All of us here in ACS started the school year with professional development on project-based learning and writing instruction. I plan to use the first several blog posts to support learning and implementation in those two areas. If you have ideas, success stories, tricks, tips, or documents related writing instruction or PBL that you would like to share with others, please email them to me so I can share on the blog!

Here is a little something to get you started with keeping writing a focus:

One of the easiest strategies to try out in your classroom is pre-writing and reading analysis with FAT-P.  If you have forgotten, the acronym stands for:

Form:  What are you being asked to write? 

article, letter, blog post, proposal, instructions

Audience:  For whom is this piece likely written?

friend, classmates, teacher, employer

Topic:  What are you writing about?

Purpose:  What is the author trying to accomplish with this?

to inform; to persuade

These are a few ways to use it in your class:

• First, have students write the acronym in their daybooks. If you want a typed version for them to paste in notebooks, click here.   It is also a good idea for them to flag it with a small sticky note or highlight the edge of the paper since we want them to reference it often.
• Have students read articles or text and determine the FAT-P before they begin discussing or writing about the piece.
• It can be used to "attack" a writing prompt and help students to understand what they are being asked to create. (Sample below)

• After writing an initial draft, have students answer the FAT-P for their own writing. 
• During peer review/conferencing, have students read someone else's work and see if they can provide the FAT-P for their peer's writing.

If you have other ideas, please leave them in the comment section.  Have a great year teaching and learning!

Chandra Manning

Graphic Organizers for Reading Strategies

Several people have provided good feedback on www.newsela.com, the leveled news articles website I shared a couple of weeks ago.  Please share how your are using it in your classrooms.  Let's get stronger by learning from each other.

Lee Wright, 7th grade science teacher at SAMS, recently emailed me this site with several graphic organizers:  http://pacehighschool.net/Documents/GraphicOrganizersforReading.pdf .  She is working hard to have appropriate resources to support literacy in her classroom.  Lee was excited for me to share with all of you, so please thank her for the resource!

News You Can Use

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across newsela.com.  Currently in beta and free, this site posts news articles appropriate for K-12 students.  I know how many of you have been searching for nonfiction articles to fit your content area, so this is a gold mine!  The categories for the articles are War & Peace, Science, Kids, Money, Law, Health, and Art. Here is the neatest feature:  for every article, there are versions written in different Lexile levels!   I have not played around with the classroom function, but it looks like teachers can also create "classes", register individual students (no student emails required), and assign articles. Some articles have brief comprehension quizzes.  Even if you do not use all those features, it is best to register for the free account.

Below is a screenshot of a newsela.com article at an 1170 Lexile.  Note the blue bar on the right side. When on the actual site, you can simply click on a level and the article adapts in seconds to match the the Lexile you have selected.  If you prefer hardcopy versions, the printer icon is also located in that blue bar.  As you can see beneath the title, the text was originally in the Los Angeles Times, but has been adapted by the Newsela staff.

Here is the same section of the article, but with a 720 Lexile.

I shared this with a some teachers and the feedback has been good.  NAMS sixth grade teacher, Michelle Marsh, mentioned it in an email to me yesterday, which prompted me to share with everyone via the blog. The site adds about three articles daily, so the material is pretty up to date.  I hope more people check it out soon for text sets, Socratic Seminars, summarizing practice, and more...it may not be free forever!

Chandra

Getting Rid of Round Robin

"The classroom is quiet.  All the students have the same book open on their desks.  One student is reading aloud.  Other students are counting ahead or gazing out into space.  The student who just finished reading sighs with relief when her turn is over." (Hilden and Jones, 2013)

The description above is of Round Robin Reading (RRR).  In RRR, all students are expected to follow along as individual students take turns reading, usually in a predictable order.  There are also several variations:

• Popcorn Reading:  students read aloud in "random order"
• Combat Reading:  students call on one another to read, trying to catch each other "off task"
• Popsicle Reading:  teacher writes students' name on popsicle sticks and then randomly pulls the sticks to determine the reading order)

We all have done it, or it at least seen it. Although it is a popular instructional practice, there is little research to support its use.  There is no research evidence that RRR contributes to better readers, either in terms of fluency or comprehension. The drawbacks (slower reading rates, off-task behaviors, problems with comprehension, and problems with self-efficacy and motivation)  far outweigh any possible benefits.  

Here are some alternatives to Round Robin Reading:  

Partner reading

Small group reading

Choral reading (all read together)

Readers Theater

Alternating-teacher reads one paragraph aloud and students read one silently

Jigsaw

Want even more ideas? >> Click here. <<

Reading Practice Google Site

It is that time of year when people are starting to prep for end of semester/year testing!  With the addition of Common Exams, I figured more people may want some reading practice passages or videos for review since reading affects every subject.  I have put together a Google Site with exercises for a range of reading skills.  It is definitely a work in progress, so don’t be surprised if you see changes to the links or layout.  I tried to compile sites that allow for self-study.  Please preview all the links before assigning them to make sure the level is appropriate for your students; many of the practice items do not specify a target grade level.  Most examples are appropriate for middle school while the high school may have to hunt for what is challenging enough.

Here is the link:  https://sites.google.com/site/readingstudyhall/ 

Feel free to add to your class's Moodle or Edmodo sites!

Infographics

Several weeks ago Ms. Holland and Ms. Shinn, AHS media specialists, approached me about my Marketing Principles classes helping to promote Teen Read Week. Along with my fourth block we brainstormed ideas and narrowed it down to a few that  I felt we could manage. One of those ideas was my own and it was to produce an Infographic about reading and literacy. It has been a goal of mine to implement a project based around Infographics as I have wanted to learn how to create them myself. After grouping students to work on various Teen Read Week projects I sat down with the Infographic group and I explained that an Infographic is a visual display of statistical information and informational text. In the essence of time I assigned each student a topic and provided them with at least one link pertaining to that topic,  i.e.:

1 . Literacy statistics – economic and social

2. The neuroscience of reading

3. How reading affects memory

4. Why it is important to read to children beginning at a young age

5. How e-readers have affected reading – both positive and negative

The students researched the site I provided and summarized pertinent information for me to use in the collaborative Infographic. They were also asked to search and find at least one additional source for their topic.

Not only did the students work together to research information pertaining directly to the importance of reading and literacy  - they used summarizing strategies to sort through and filter the information.

Here is a small .png version of the Infographic.

Here is a link to the Infrographic:

http://www.gliffy.com/go/publish/3972225/

Mrs. Shinn also has resources on Infographics:
Pinterest Board:  http://pinterest.com/cshinn4/infographics/

LiveBinder:  http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=599437&backurl=/shelf/my

~Sarah Beth Robbins, AHS Career and Technical Education Teacher