Savor the Flavor! Becoming closer readers

Hi y'all! It's Rachel here today dropping in to tell you about a delicious reading lesson!

Do your kiddos love the speed read? Mine sure do! Many 2nd graders have been told they need to read faster, faster, faster! We have focused on those fluency scores meeting grade level expectations and we forget that sometimes we need to stop. to slow down. to be sure we are comprehending!

My teammie and I did the best (and dare I mention delicious) reading lesson on December to help our kids remember to slow down when we are reading to learn. Of course she found the idea on Pinterest, so if it's your idea BRAVO! Let me know!
So here goes!

What you'll need:
>Scholastic magazine or other article
>package of OREO cookies or some other kind if you prefer, but OREOs are perfect for "savoring"

Pass out your article or magazine and immediately ask them to open it up and follow along. Read the article aloud or even round robin it! I read it aloud.

After reading, tell them we are going to take a quick quiz on what we learned. I had mine put the magazine inside their desk for the time being. Have them number to 3 or 5, nothing too long, on a white board or paper! Ask them questions that could be found right in the text. Ask them things that really were big ideas that they should have heard!

insert groans. hurting bellies. panic.

Now, set their minds at ease. Pull out some OREOs! Woo! Cookies make it all better. I brought my kids to the rug and handed each one an OREO and told them they could eat it. They scarfed them down like they'd not eaten in a week! Then I asked them to tell me about the OREO. I got basic things like it's brown. It's good. It's really good. So we discussed why they couldn't really describe the taste, the feel, the look of the cookie. It was because we shoved them in and swallowed them right up! We didn't think about the cookie! We wanted a snack!

I explained this was just like hearing that article and having a quiz. They couldn't answer the questions because they didn't truly pay attention to it. They didn't have it to refer back to. They were probably playing in their desk!

So everyone got another cookie. We closed our eyes and savored the cookie. Boy was it good. In fact, some had snowmen or Santa on them, They were creamy inside, but hard on the outside. The OREO was really two cookies put together. It was scrumdiddlyumptious (we were reading The BFG!) It was sweet. They felt rough on our tongues. Now we were able to talk about these cookies. We took the time to think about them rather than just gulping them down as fast as we could.

We then applied newfound skill this to the Scholastic article. I had them read one section at a time, marking important info, underlining unknown words to come back to our ask about, talk about it; all the things we ask them to do when we do "close reads"-which we do not begin until January with our kids.

Amazing the difference noticing a cookie can make!

And here's a little lesson overview for you!

Happy Monday Blog Hoppers!

Rachel

Close Read Halloween Freebie!!

Hey Blog Hoppers! I'm Erin from Eberhart's Explorers and I'm here to talk about Close Reading. Let's face it.....close reading is not a skill that often comes naturally for our students. When our students are exposed to a text, their first instinct is to often race through the text rather than engage deeply with the reading assignment. Can anyone relate? Getting your students to slow down, reflect as they read, and engage with the text (in different ways) are all part of being a good reader and are goals of close reading. Not to mention, these skills are at the heart of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards. While this can be challenging for teachers, it's something we need to model for our students and work on continuously. Nurturing these higher level skills takes time and many different techniques. 

So how can you get started? It's easy....I'm sharing a Close Read with you today! My friend Jennifer Horner and I have teamed up to create Close Reads for primary students. We have set up our Close Reads in an easy to follow 5 day lesson plan and are sharing a Halloween Close Read with you so you can get started NOW. It's not too late to implement these lessons into your school year and work towards students' digging deeper. How does it work? Each day, you will read the text and isolate a different skill. 

Day 1 is your Cold Read. You're going to build background knowledge, set a purpose for listening, and read with minimal stopping. This is the day you really want to hook your students and get them excited for what's to come! After I discuss our essential question, I might show a picture of a car with a LOT of people in it and discuss what students think might happen to the car. As I read, students will begin to make connections to my picture and I'll ask students how the picture and the story were similar. 

Day 2 is all about Vocabulary. I start out reviewing our essential question and set a purpose for listening. "Today, boys and girls, I would like you to listen for tricky words within the text." Please keep in mind I have already read through the text and identified the unfamiliar words! ;-) When selecting vocabulary, make sure you choose words that are most significant to the plot or meaning of the text. As we read, I will chart vocabulary words and model the words within the text. Students will repeat the word, say the definition, and come up with a motion. 

Today is the day where Close Reading really comes alive! Of course, you re read the text and establish your essential question. I start out (at the beginning of the year) modeling this and answering the questions whole group...but as we progress, students are able to do this independently. It's so exciting to see how they develop as readers! We discuss finding "evidence in the text" and "going back to the book" and students are able to show me specific details when coming up with their answer. I model and record my answer on chart paper and students engage in discussion. Multiple text dependent and text inspired questions are included with each of our Close Reading units as well as recording sheets.

Day 4 includes Collaborative Questioning. On this day, after re reading the book and establishing the collaborative question, students turn and talk with partners. They LOVE doing this and getting to share! I'm very specific on what's expected during this time and try to get around to all partners and conference with them while they are collaborating. Students are also encouraged to be good listeners and write or draw what their partner said, as well as rate them. This rating holds, both the student and partner, accountable. After I have allowed enough time, we come back together as a group and I have 1 or 2 students share.

Day 5 is the Cumulative Wrap Up! We do our final read of the text and I incorporate some type of activity to ensure comprehension. This includes anything from writing and answering comprehension questions to completing a story map or reenacting the story with retelling cards. A variety of activities are included to differentiate your instruction. 

So what do you think?? Anxious to try? Click the unit cover below to grab this Halloween Close Read from my TpT store for FREE (for a limited time only). Be sure to give it a whirl and let Jennifer and I know what you think by leaving feedback at my store. I'll also be posting more of our Close Reads soon - we have close to 17 ready! 

I hope everyone enjoys and has a great Sunday. 

Interactive Read Aloud Lessons in Grades K-2!

Interactive read aloud, do you do it?!

In my first grade classroom I used to have the class sit down after lunch/recess and I would read them some of my favorite books – Junie B., Flat Stanley, etc. It was a time to calm down, enjoy a good book, and get ready for an afternoon of learning. I wanted to save and protect this precious time when the talk of “rigor” and “time on task” would come up often in professional discussions. A little planning can put this read aloud time to good use and prove to be academic as well as enjoyable!

Interactive read aloud is essentially a planned and purposeful read aloud that encourages thoughtful and respectful discussion!

An interactive read aloud has your students actively thinking about one certain skill during a read aloud. It is a skill that the teacher will model and that students will discuss throughout the read aloud. It takes your basic read aloud and turns it up a notch (or two!). I would always ask comprehension questions throughout my regular read alouds, but I found that when I really research and plan my questions and stopping points before hand, I could provide a deeper discussion for my students!

I figured since I was planning out all these lessons around my favorite books, I would start writing down my stopping points and questions in case other teachers wanted to use them as well!

I created a scope and sequence of skills that I teach throughout the year and found some of the best classroom favorites to help teach those skills. Each book has a convenient, 1-page printable lesson plan for you to reference as you read. 

Some of the focus skills addressed are:

- Illustrations & Text relationship

- Concepts of print

- Character traits

- Setting and story elements

- Making connections

- Problem & Solutions

- Cause and Effect

- Main idea/Theme

- Non fiction text features

- Character changes

- Reading a variety of texts

- Inferring

- Point of view

- and more!

I have a free one here for you to try that goes with the book Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann I use this book at the beginning of the year to help teach the concept that illustrations can give readers more information than the text!

{Just click the image above and download the preview to print this lesson easily!}

In my first grade classroom, I actually have a specific interactive read aloud block, but if you don't you can see that the read alouds can easily be used in your guided reading block, small group, or even to print out and add to your sub plans!

If you think these read aloud lessons can be used in your room, check out my unit below to get a better idea of what is included:

Close Reading Summer Passages

While others see the end in sight, I am still 6 weeks away from sweet, sweet summer. There is definitely a countdown going around, but we still have a ways to go!

I am using this limited time to really prepare my first graders for the rigor of 2nd grade. One way we do this is through our close reading passages in small groups. I love this time of year because all but one of my small groups can complete these with little guidance from me.

There they go, reading with highlighters and pencils in hand - swoon!

My groups complete either a fiction or non-fiction passage each week during their independent reading time I check in with my higher groups when they are finished with the vocabulary and comprehension pages and I check in with my middle group as they complete it to make sure they are going back into the text and gathering evidence to support their answers.

Our fiction passage for the week!

Comprehension page to answer after they read the text.

The fiction passage for the week! This little guy is highlighting the vocabulary words in the text (tropical, treetops, rigid) before he uses context clues to figure out the meaning of the word and complete the sentence frames.

I am hoping this act of reading and re-reading a story closely will better prepare my students for 2nd grade in a few short months!

The passages above can be found in my Close Reading Summer unit! All four seasons can be found below for a discounted price:

Free Nonfiction Passage about Turkeys!

Happy Thursday everyone!

My sweet, little boy just turned 5 weeks yesterday which means I am still home happily enjoying my maternity leave. Here is a little Theo pic to make you smile:

My poor boy has been sick with a cold so the hubs and I have been spending most of our hours cuddling him. While Parker has him, I have been writing up a quick freebie for y'all!

With Thanksgiving only 2 weeks away, I know my first graders will be learning all about the holiday. I also know that soon my first graders will be diving deep into non-fiction, so I thought I would create a quick, non-fiction passage on turkeys. I created this in the same way that I create all my close read passages (both fiction and non-fiction). It comes with a short passage, a vocabulary sheet, and 3 comprehension questions that require you to go back in the text to find or infer the answer.

You can download the passage by clicking the image below:

If you are interested in how I implement these more in my 1st grade classroom, check out the post below that I wrote last year about close reading :) - there's another freebie in that post!

[Close Reading in 1st Grade]

Enjoy!