TAG-IT Reading Strategy

Today I am sharing a strategy for answering those open-ended Reading response question that are all the rage in the "big tests" now (Common Core, PARCC, Smarter Balanced, or TNReady as we're now calling it).  It has a simple acronym to remember: TAG-IT... this started out as just TAG as in "TAG your answer," but I realized I needed to add just a bit more scaffolding for the 4th graders, so TAG-IT was born!

Each year we create an anchor chart together. Then I take a picture, copy 4-to-a-page, and give one to each student to glue in his/her interactive notebook.

T - Turn the question into a statement (such a pet peeve when they start with It means... or She said... In fact, I forbid starting any answer with a pronoun).


A - Answer the question (simple enough)

G - Give evidence from the text (students were getting pretty skilled at citing quotes and evidence from the text, but...)

I - Include, in your own words, why that information is important (they weren't going above & beyond the text or telling WHY they chose that specific piece of information)

T - Take time to re-read your answer to make sure it makes sense (Finally, they spend so much time making sure that they have all the pieces above, that sometimes their writing doesn't flow properly.  This makes them re-read their response and add in crucial transition words, punctuation, etc...)

What do you use for teaching your students how to respond?  I love hearing new ideas!

Teacher Faves #1

I'm excited to join up with Ramona from Ramona Recommends, Layla from Fancy Free in 4th, and Jamie from a Not so Wimpy Teacher for this month's linky party:  Back to School in a Flash!  This week is Camera Roll #1 and we will focus on my Teacher Faves, yay!

Fave #1:  My Planner
In the past two years, I splurged on an Erin Condren planner, and while I loved it there were a lot of unused pages and the size was just a bit too big for my comfort.  This year I decided to opt for a Plum Paper planner, and so far I'm loving it! Here are several pictures & captions explaining why I like it so much!!  (I take terrible phone pics, sorry in advance!)

My two favorite colors, green & pink!  The green is much more vibrant than this picture shows.

Monthly Spread, very similar to EC.

One of my favorite parts is that I got to select what subjects to have pre-typed in the planner and in what order, this little thing will save so much time!  Also, the dates are pre-populated as well.

I opted to add 1 double-sided checklist page to every month.   I have an online gradebook, so I plan to use these for my standards I teach each month to keep track of student progress:  Reading/ELA on front, Math on back.

Parent contact lists, I think I'll have the parents write info on a label, and stick them in here.

I like that my parent communication form is in my binder as well, makes documentation all in one place!

Professional Development page, this may be simple, but I'm soooo glad they've included it!  In my district, we put in all of our hours at the end of the year, and it's hard to remember what dates & for how long we met 10-12 months ago.  This & the parent contact page will be great for documentation at end of year.

A personal goal is to track my fitness better, so I paid a bit extra to have fitness pages put in my planner.  This is the generic page for the whole year (beg / end)

There are 12 of these pages, one per month.

Also 12 of these.

Notes, you can see I've got a few blog posts to think about!

I <3 stickers!!!

Folder.  The only bad part about these is due to the smaller size of the planner, papers would have to be folded before they can fit in here.  You maybe can tell, I tore out my pencil pouch from my old EC planner, put in extra / unused stickers, and placed it in the folder - yay for upcycling!

Size comparison, to my favorite book series.

Thickness comparison.

Fave #2:  Pens, Pencils, and Markers
My name is Amber, and I've got a serious addiction to writing utensils:  especially Flair pens & Sharpies... it's a disease I tell ya.  Here are just the ones I have here at my house, I have at least this many also at school.  I will say in my defense, I never pay full price, I stock up during BTS and other sales to last me all year + some.

Fave #3:  Cowboy girl Boots
My third favorite thing, are my cowgirl boots that I purchased last Spring, I am in LOVE with these boots!  They're super comfortable, go well with jeans and dresses, and the design is cute without being too gaudy.

Fave #4:  Tennessee VOLS
Last, but not least, are my Tennessee Volunteers!  I go to at least 1 football, basketball, and LadyVol game each year, but football is far & away my favorite.  This picture always puts a smile on my face, it's our mascot Smokey (blue-tick hounddog) on a very, very cold day snuggled up in his coonskin cap and orange blanket!  I dare you not to smile at this pic :)

Thanks for stopping by, let me know if you have any questions or if any of these favorites are yours too!

Five for Friday - Books, Beverages, and Boys!

This is my first Five for Friday post with Doodle Bug Teaching!

 I am addicted to the Harry Potter franchise:  mainly books, but movies, YouTube clips, clothes, some crafts, just everything!  So I've been re-reading the books this Summer and I'm currently on #6 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  This is probably my favorite book, because I love all the backstory we finally get on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

 I'm also re-reading The Indian in the Cupboard.  I haven't read this book in about 5 years, but am wanting to do it as a novel study or literature circle groups this year with my students.  I love to have students read books in a series, or by a respected author, so they can keep reading more by that author.  I am working on a novel study to go with it, and plan to post it to TPT as my first sellable item when I finish!

 

 Thirdly, I'm reading Teach Like a Pirate, by Dave Burgess.  I'm a bit behind the bandwagon on this book, and he's recently come out with his 2nd book Learn Like a Pirate that I will read next.  So far, I'm loving the strategies in this book, I'll make another blog post soon to share my favorites!  If you're on Twitter be sure to follow him @burgessdave (he'll probably even follow you back!), and join his weekly twitter chat via #tlap on Mondays at 9 p.m. EST.

This actually happened last week, but I'm so excited and can't wait til September.  I bought tickets for my mom, my grandparents, and I to go see the Tennessee Vols vs. Oklahoma Sooners at Neyland Stadium!!!  I am a football FANATIC, and this will be our first home game, night game, and the *most likely* the first time we have been ranked in 7 years!

This picture is a bit blurry, but what it represents is amazing.  Peyton, a Vol4Life, came to TN to pay his respects to the 5 fallen Marines in Chattanooga.  I am proud to associate Peyton with our state & university!

I had dinner & drinks with some friends from school this week, great time getting together!  If you're in SC, TN, or GA I highly recommend Carolina Ale House - great drinks & yummy food!

Happy Friday ya'll!

Worldess Wednesday - Planners

This is a picture (a bad one, sorry) of my teacher planner.  My question to you this week, is do you use one planner, such as an Erin Condren or Plum Paper planner, or do you use several different ones:  planner, gradebook, data binder, etc...?  I am thinking of starting a second planner to keep my students' data, but I'm not sure if that's too much.

Monday Made-It: Math Workstations

As the school year nears closer, I'm getting more crafty to get ready!  This week I "created" several workstation games for students to play when they finish their classwork.  I got all but 1 of the games from this 4th grade PDF file: Building Conceptual Understanding and Fluency Through Games.  I created several copies of 4 games, all related to Place Value.  I plan to create another 3-4 before next week!

 Game 1:  Variable Digits
Students select any spot on the board.  Then they use a pencil and a paper clip to spin a digit, and can move to any touching space that has that digit.  That student records the value of that digit, and the next person gets a turn.  After 5 turns, all players add up their scores and the highest (or lowest if you want a change up to the rules) wins!

Does anyone else remember the Price is Right game where you could move forward, backward, or side-to-side by standing on the squares... that's what this game reminds me of.

Game 2: Digit Ski
Another spinner game, in this one they spin for a place value position and draw a card.  Then, the students says the digit and value that are in that position.  I hope this will reinforce the positions, my students often get the thousands, ten thousands, and hundred thousands places confused!

Game 3:  Becca's Battle
I added a picture of the gameboard to this one, since you can't see it in my picture.  Each student puts 5 game pieces on the letters START, the goal is to move all of his/her pieces to the opposite side.  The student draws a card and rounds it to the value on the board.  This is one of my favorites because it involves place value, rounding, and critical thinking - and allows you to "kick" your opponent's game piece back to START, hehehe *evil laugh.*

I'm thinking I need to make an answer key to this one, since rounding is such a tricky skill for the kids. I don't want them to be practicing wrong.

Game 4:  Appalachian Steps
I think the kids will love this game!  They draw a card and figure out what step they are on.  Depending on their luck they may either stay on the step, move up one level, or move down one level.

Example:  If the 1,000's digit is less than 7, move down one step or Take two cards and tell which is larger - if correct, move down one step, incorrect move up one step.

Thanks for reading, I hope these activities / games will help someone else out that wants to use workstations or centers in their Math class!

Read Alouds Part 2

Welcome back to my Read-Aloud series, with Part 2:  Books for the second half of the school year.

Mysterious Benedict Society

This book requires a commitment to reading aloud, as it is quite a thick book at over 500 pages!  I usually have to leave about 3-4 months to read this one, but from page 1 the kids are hooked.  It follows 4 kids who are gifted in their own ways, and must become secret agents to take down a crazy guy set on ruling the world. 





Hatchet

Hatchet is a great book for my reluctant boys, although the girls get just as sucked-in as the boys. It follows a teenage boy, Brian, who gets standed in the Canadian wilderness with just his hatchet that he got from his mom for his birthday (and thought was hokey at the time).  The reader really feels what Brian is feeling, the sensory details are in this book are excellent!





Indian in the Cupboard

Both Hatchet and Indian in the Cupboard are books that I read in late elementary school, and the kids love that they're reading the same books I was read-aloud when I was their age!  This book is a great introduction to the fantasy genre for those kids who aren't Harry Potter fans and think that fantasy = magic, wands, and spells.  Indian in the Cupboard does involve magic in that the little plastic Indian, Little Bear, comes to life and Omri, his "owner" must face several gut-wrenching decisions for the good of Little Bear.



Stay tuned for Read-Alouds Part 3:  Teaching key skills using read-alouds

Currently-July-2015

I'm joining Oh Boy 4th Grade for July's Currently.

Listening:  My husband thinks I'm crazy, because I can sit in absolute silence for hours and be perfectly content.  However, my dogs must agree with him because they're outside barking at who-knows-what, so I call them "ghost squirrels."

Loving:  I am updating my Math and Science interactive notebooks for the first quarter, and I'm having wayyyyy too much fun writing, drawing, and coloring my way through the pages.

Thinking:  I just started this blog less than a week ago, because I've been reading blogs for awhile, but was afraid to comment because I didn't really have a true connection.   I'm hoping within the next several months to a year I can form some meaningful relationships with other educators to share & gain ideas.  (I hope this doesn't sound like a plea for attention, it's really not!)

Wanting:  My old stand-by shoes were black semi-ballet flats from Naturalizer, and my dogs decided one would make a good chew toy.  I'm now on the lookout for comfy, attractive, and my-sized (4.5 - 5) shoes for this quickly approaching school year.

Needing:  My home office is exploding with junk important school supplies that I could never live without, and I really need to take them to school before my hubby sees and kills me.

Allstar:  I've been wanting to start blogging for a couple of years, and have been seriously considering it for several months.  I finally bit the bullet, and HERE I AM!!  I'm proud of myself for getting it up and running, but I still have a lot of plans in the next 3 weeks to have it looking and sounding marvelous.

Here's a blank copy for you to join in as well: