Nightly Reading Requirements

Today Jeanie posed a question on the Organized Classroom’s Facebook page.  It’s something I feel passionate about and have a system which I love, so I thought I’d answer her question here...

Jeanie wrote, "I teach 5th grade, and I am looking for a new easy reading log that I can check quickly without hassle. In the past I have assigned the students to read 20 minutes each night and have their parents sign the agenda...they tried to outsmart me and sign themselves. I have used "ThinkBooks" where they write two entries a week about what they read however it can take time on Fridays to read 2 entries per child when you have 25 children...plus I tried to comment on each entry. I was curious what others are doing. It’s important to read and be held accountable...I welcome any and all suggestions!"

I teach fifth grade in a self-contained classroom and am also a certified reading specialist.  I require students to read a certain number of pages instead of reading for a length of time.  Although I'd rather have it be for a certain amount of time, it's too hard to track (and verify) so I’ve found page numbers just work better for me.  This also enables me to easily differentiate when needed (so not all students necessarily read the same number of pages) and students also know they can come to me if they are reading something above their grade level that may make it more challenging to get their pages done each night (ie: Harry Potter is one that comes to mind).  I also tell students I may increase the number of pages per night when appropriate.  For example, sometimes I have fifth graders who want to read Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry, Magic Tree House, etc.  These are typically below my students’ grade level, so I might require them to read more pages.   I don't always change the requirements, but take it on a case by case basis.   I know some teachers cringe when I tell them I allow my students to read books that are so obviously below their grade level, but I look at it this way – I’m trying to help students become life-long readers.  I want them to read for enjoyment.  When I read for enjoyment I don’t read challenging, technical, or hard to follow books that I’m not interested in.  I read mysteries or historical romance, or whatever else I’m in the mood to read.  When I’m told to read something specific (maybe something for professional development), I do it, but with a different purpose.  I make sure we’re reading what I consider quality literature in the classroom.  I make sure they are exposed to a variety of genres in class.  I make sure they are reading books at their grade level (in class) on a regular basis….so when I’m asking them to read at home, for THEIR enjoyment, I think they should be able to read what they are interested in. 

Now, I do offer incentives – last year when my theme was oceans they each had a treasure chest that they put jewels on.  The first picture shows their treasure chests at the very beginning of the year with no jewels on them, the second picture shows them at the end of the year.  I gave them their chests at Meet the Teacher Night and they brought them back, decorated, the first day of school.

 

 

For every five AR points they earned a jewel (there were different colors for each month and each color had 10 different styles for them to choose from).  They got silver gems (diamonds) when they reached 25 points, gold at 50, and at 100 points they got a bigger treasure chest to decorate and put on the board. If they recommended a book they had read to another student and that student read and took a quiz, then they got a string of pearls to glue on their treasure chest.  I have even had several occasions where a student has recommended a book to me!  I love that and of course I read the book!  I love having them ask me what part I'm on and then having little informal chats about the book!  I also did other challenges that they could earn different "pirate treasures" (coins, cups, etc.) – if we read a book in class by a certain author and they read another book by that author the could earn something to glue onto their treasure chest.  Every month there was a special challenge that related to that month.  For example, in January I put out a number of books about MLK, Jr.  When we were studying something like the American Revolution I offered treasures for books relating to those concepts, too. Over long breaks I would assign a certain number of pages, anyone who read double that number got a special treasure.  They loved having colorful treasure chests and liked getting the next size chest!  Since they are still 10 and 11 year olds, these incentives worked for my students.  However, don’t get me wrong, I know it wouldn’t work for everyone – I just take it year by year! 

 

These are just a few of some of the jewels they could earn.  The green was March, blue was January, silver was 25 points, gold was 50 points, pearls for book recommendations, coin and cup for special challenges.

 

 

In terms of accountability, they have to take an AR test when they finish a book.  If they don’t pass the test, then I conference with them about their thoughts on why they think they didn’t pass and we decide jointly what the next step should be.  That said, last year my 13 students (it was a very small class!) took 629 quizzes and passed 619 of them.  That’s a 98% rate of success.  In addition, the average quiz score was a 93%, so I feel confident that for the most part they are reading and understanding their books.   Keep in mind my goal for this is to just get students reading on a regular basis.  I do not use my nightly reading requirement for any type of assessment purposes. 

I have a form I use to record page numbers daily.  At the beginning this takes a little while to do, but after a couple of weeks I can get 20 students done in under 2 minutes.  The first day this of course takes forever.  First, I get the title of the book everyone is reading and then they tell me what page their book begins on (many books do not begin on page 1!).  Then each day they simply tell me a page number unless they have finished their book.  On the day they finish their book they would say something like, “Island of the Blue Dolphins ended on page 218.  My new book is Number the Stars.  It starts on page 3.”  Then I call the next student’s name.  It really goes very smoothly once they get the hang of it!  You can click on the image to download an editable version of this chart. 

 

Here is an example of what a completed form would look like.  I write the page number they were on the previous Friday under page number and then document page numbers each day.  Once in a while we'll get busy and not take page numbers, but I typically take them at least 4 days per week and always on Mondays and Fridays.  A few other things I do…when they finish a book I put a star at the end of the page number the book ended on so I know the book is finished and I should expect to see a quiz taken. I usually check at the end of each week to make sure they’ve taken the quizzes they were supposed to. Once I’ve verified that they’ve taken (and passed) the quiz, I check it off in my grade book. Although it’s their responsibility to remember to take a quiz, when they tell me they’ve finished the book, I do remind them to take the quiz before the end of the day.

 

Just to make this sound a little more confusing...here's another twist...although students are required to read a certain number of pages each evening....let's say 10 per night for easy math...they can (and are encouraged to) read ahead.  Once I take page numbers on Friday, all page numbers start over.  They are then required to read 10 pages per school night (so 5 nights per week) for a total of 50 pages a week.  If they know they have something to do on Wednesday night, I encourage them to read their pages ahead of time.  Theoretically they could read all 50 pages over the weekend and then be done for the entire week.  I feel by allowing them to do this, they are able to start working on their time management skills, which as we all know is very important in life.  I still continue to take their page numbers and give them accolades when they are reading more than they are required.  When they are doing some great reading at home (above and beyond my expectations) I let them add their name to our class BINGO chart that students really like getting their name on.  I will say that I have NEVER had students who have read all their pages over the weekend and then don't read again for the rest of the week.  For whatever reason, my kids just read every night.  I have to emphasize, I'm really positive about students reading and praise, praise, praise them!  There are consequences when they don't read, primarily they don't get to go to recess until they are caught up on their pages (which rarely happens), but I really try to focus on how great it is they are reading and liking it!

I realize this really sounds complicated.  I promise you, it’s not.  If you want more information or clarification, feel free to email me and we can chat back and forth or even arrange a time to chat on the phone.

Word Wall Cards - Sports Theme (kind of....)

In anticipation of Monday's freebie linky hosted by the Organized Classroom, I've been working on some Word Wall header cards to match my sports theme.  Since I'd like to be able to use them from year to year, they aren't actually sporty at all - just the same cute style and colors I used for my job chart, student name cards, and schedule cards!  I teach fifth grade and I've always wanted a word wall in my room, but could never really come with an idea I liked well enough to justify the amount of space it would take.  During a professional development workshop this summer, merging some of the activities we were doing, an idea came to mind. So this year I'm going to try doing a Social Studies word wall.  I teach US History, so I'm going to do a Historical Figures Word Wall.  I'm going to take people like Abigail Adams, Crispus Attucks, James Madison, Robert E. Lee, Susan B. Anthony, etc. and make cards for each of these people.  I'm then going to assign different colors to differents eras of history like Colonialism, American Revolution, Early Republic, Sectionalism, Civil War, etc. and mat the historical figures according to what time in history they played a major role.  As we learn about each person, I'll hang their card on the word wall. If they were in more than one era, they'll get pulled down and we'll add another colored mat to their name.  I don't know how well this will work, but I'm forward to giving it a try this year!  I'd say my biggest concern is having enough different colors as I have 17 eras to include!  Wish me luck!
To download the freebie, click on any of the images below.

 

 

If you are looking for more freebies then check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies by clicking on the image below.

Fifth Grade Science TEKS

Check out my new product on TeachersPayTeachers! I cut and pasted all of the science Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (objectives) into a document that I use in two different ways. The first way is to create lesson plans. The second way is to track assessment of these skills.

Many educators find lessons they want to do in the classroom and then try to find corresponding TEKS. However, when I try to lesson plan like that I find I have a lot of holes! Therefore, I like to select a TEKS (or two) and then go looking for activities that will support those TEKS. When I find something I like, I write the idea on the appropriate page(s) and then I can easily see what objectives I still need to find activities for. Of course I really love being able to touch on more than one TEKS with a single activity!

To use this for tracking assessment, I simply print the objective I’ll be assessing, print a sheet of labels with students’ names prewritten on them (I use Avery 5160 and a template in Microsoft Word), and then as I determine an objective has been met by a student, I pull the label off my sheet and stick it on the objective page. These are 3-hole punched and put into a binder. This way I can easily tell which students need more work on any given objective. See the next page for an example of what this looks like!

 

If you don't want to use labels every time (I know, those can get expensive!) then you can print class lists on the bottom of each page.  An easy way to do this is to print lists and then put the paper back in your printer and print the TEKS on each page.

 

 

 

Schedule Cards - Sports Theme

I'm so excited!  I finished my job cards a couple of days ago and last night I finished my matching schedule cards to put up on my assignment board.  I have plain ones that I *could* use, but I LOVE using ones that go with my theme!

Here's a picture of my space ones from two years ago that I bought from Teacher's Clubhouse...

 

And last year's ocean ones...which I was not at all happy with (not to mention they were difficult to read!)

 

 

And introducing....this year's SPORTS THEME...which I made all by myself!!

 

 

 

Now, I haven't seen them on my whiteboard yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to LOVE THEM!  To purchase these check out my TeachersPayTeachers store!

Classroom Jobs

I honestly don't know why this took me so long to complete!  First I had to figure out what jobs I wanted students doing in the classroom.  Then I had to figure out how to change those jobs into jobs with titles that were more sports oriented to go with this year's sports theme.  Next I had to figure out background paper, which I ended up making myself....first time I've done that, and hopefully one of the last!  Finally I had to write up the descriptions and put it all together.  It doesn't sound like much, but with 2 children, teaching college courses, and keeping up on my household chores it literally took me over a week to complete this silly thing!  Now of course I worked on other things, but STILL!!  I think they turned out pretty well....I still need to make the student name cards, but that should be fairly easy!  I've got the templates made for those and will just need to type in students' names!

Here's what a couple of the job cards look like:

 

And here are the cards that I'll use for the students.  On the first day of school, I'll let them pick which color, sport, and boy/girl they want for their own card.

  

Classroom Management - Turning in Homework

When I checked in on Facebook this morning, I saw that the Organized Classroom was hosting a freebie linky.  The freebie I decided to post today is a homework notice, which got me thinking...how do other people collect homework in an efficient manner?  Here's how I do it...

After I greet each student at the door, they are expected to go in the classroom and complete their morning routine.

 

You'll see that #2 on the list is to turn in their homework.  My students turn their homework into the top tray (black trays to the far right of the picture-sorry the picture is a little blurry).  Now, I don't typically assign homework, students usually only have to turn in any work they didn't complete from the day before.  Just the same, it is work that they took home to complete, so alas, it's homework.

 

 

Once the homework manager completes his/her assignment book (#6), and before they begin their morning work (#7), they collect the homework from the tray and put it in number order (each student is assigned a number which they write along with their name on everything they turn in).  If there is someone who hasn't turned their homework in, the homework manager checks in with that student and reminds them they need to either turn their homework in or complete a homework notice. 

 

 

Once the homework manager has an assignment or homework notice from every student, he/she takes a student list (stored by the trays) and puts a check or HN (homework notice) next to each student's name.  They then put a binder clip on the papers (with the student list on top), and puts the stack back in the homework tray.  I make sure to check in with those students who didn't turn their homework in while they are working on their morning work.  All of this happens within the first 15 minutes of our school day. 

 

I chose to post the Homework Notice that I use in my class as today's freebie because I have found it to be invaluable in helping to not only keep students accountable, but also keeping parents in the loop!  I teach fifth grade, so students can (and should) be more independent at this age (but not too independent they are after all still just 9, 10, and 11 year olds!) 

I hope you find it as helpful as I do!  To download my freebie, click on the image below.

I'd love for you to post a comment (or a link to your blog) describing your homework collection procedure!

If you are looking for more freebies then check out Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies by clicking on the image below.

Printing on Sticky Notes Using Your Computer

Have you ever wanted to learn how to print on sticky notes using your computer?  Well, today's your lucky day!  Just click on the video below and in less than 2 minutes you'll be on your way!  You'll need this freebie, so be sure to pick it up on your way out!