Reading Portfolios Part 2

So I'm back to show you the 2nd grade version.

As I said before the 2nd graders I have are mostly Title 1.  So we all did the same book for our project. I used it more for them to demonstrate the skills we had been working on.  Check out my last post to get all the templates I used.  Also, as I mentioned in that post I precut and folded ALL the pieces  the kids just glued them, and only one students had a complete disaster!!  (side note:  Don't use bottled glue for this with 2nd graders.....it got very messy despite an impromptu lesson on how to glue)

the parts that 2nd graders had to do

• Before and middle of reading predictions
• front cover picture
• problem and solution
• connections
• favorite part
• setting
• main character
• They did not do a back project (however next time I would give this option to some of my higher 2nd graders)

First we previewed the book and made predictions about what would happen

Then we choral read the first half and made our middle of the book predictions (I'm trying to encourage active reading)

We also drew our pictures on the front and wrote our title and author

That was all we had time for on Day 1

Day 2

Students read the book with a buddy.  They they filled out their problem and solution along with the main character.  This lead to quite the debate if the main character was Miss Nelson or Miss Swamp.

Day 3

Students read the book independently (if they need to).  They then filled out their connections, main character, setting, and they favorite part.

Sorry I don't have more pictures.  I ran out of time.  The kids were very proud of their work and I had many parents say how much they loved seeing all the skills we had been working on displayed in one place.

Reading Portfolios

I found this awesome idea from Beth at Thinking of Teaching.  I love her blog.  She is a 4th grade teacher so I started thinking about how I could use her idea with my students.

 You can see the origional blog post here

There are a couple of things I should tell you.  My 3rd graders this year were considered High Achieving with all of them at grade level, many well above.  I had one students reading as high as 10th grade.  However, even though they could read and comprehend at that level they couldn't always pull out literature elements the way a student of even a grade higher could.  My 2nd Graders were mostly below level or Title 1.  I did not use these for literature circles like Beth did.  I used them as a way for students to show what they learned this year, more like an end of the year wrap up/brag book.

I made templets for everything written that the kids did.  You can get those here....I hope...I've never used Google Docs before. 

 I also precut all the construction paper foldables.  My 3rd graders did all the folding, I just cut everything to the correct size since we used foldables a lot this year.  Fir my 2nd graders I precut and folded everything.  It took forever but it made things easier in the long run.

3rd Grade

Students put together their project and we talked about what would go in each section.  I had them pick their favorite 3rd grade Fiction Chapter book.  

• A picture to represent the book on the front cover
• Book Review using O.R.E.O format
• Main Character
• Connections
• Summary (this was a simplified version of Beth's)
• My Favorite part
• Setting
• They also have the same options for the back project as Beth offered her students.

This Kids LOVED IT and DId an Awesome Job.  They did it completely independently.  Many had to reread books because they found they couldn't remember parts accurately.  It really was a great way to assess students on the skills that we learned during the year.  Here are some 3rd grade examples.  Sorry for all the Pictures.  I just couldn't help myself.

Front Cover

Inside View

My Favorite Part

(Note: Yes, one of my students read THe Hunger Games.  Yes, she is that high of a reader.  Now I am not one to make judgments on content, I leave that to the parents.  However, we did have a conversation how some parts are not ok for others in the class and she was not allowed to share those parts.)

Making Connections

Setting

Accordion Fold Summary

O.R.E.O Book Review

These are all Picture of the back project.  YOu can get information about this from Beth's blog!!

 She made her own Foldable for the back!

I love the rips and ink spots because we all know Ron would do that!

This post took up way more room than I thought it would.  Come back tomorrow to see how I adapted Beth's AMAZING idea for 2nd grade :)  Check out Beth's Blog too.  As I said...AWESOME.

The End of the Road

It's always bittersweet packing up the classroom at the end of the year.  Seeing a room where so much learning took place and so many memories were made being broken down makes me sentimental.  It also gets me excited for next year.  I'm hoping over the summer to share some of my projects that I want to improve on as well as some new curriculum ideas I have.

For now though my Records are done and I'm almost ready for break.

(my almost packed up room)

I'm a very messy packer.  I like to pull everything out before I pack it away

All those small blue lockers are filled with my awesome library.  Packed away books make me sad :(

 I will have a post soon about our reading portfolios we made the last 2 weeks.  I know I've been talking about these for a while, because I'm so excited about them, but I just didn't have the energy to type everything up yet.

Here is a sneak peak!

Best Last Day EVER!

Wow!!  What a week.  It was a week that ended up with the teacher passing out at 5:00pm and not waking up until 9:00am.  But it was worth it.

a short recap of our week.

Monday:  We finished our reading portfolios, did Literacy Place Studies.  Basically I let the kids pick which story, that we hadn't read yet, that they wanted to focus on for the week.  On Monday they had to look up the vocabulary words, write sentences, and draw a picture.  I used a modified Fryer diagram for this. (I did this with both the 2nd and 3rd graders)

Tuesday: Students read their stories, then answered the comprehension quetions at the end of the story.  Then we did some centers!

Wednesday: Students had to create a poster for the story they read with their partner.  The poster had to have the setting, main character, and a book review on it.  Then we did centers for the last time :(

Thursday:  Students presented their posters...THEN WE CLEANED!!!  My 3rd graders were AWESOME  they left very little for me to do.  THe 2nd graders only had to clean out the books in their bins and then I had them clean them out with cleaning spray and a paper towel.

The 3rd graders also got their end of year gift from me.  Since I loop with my homeroom for 2 years I only do this every other year.  Every kid in the class has to write a compliment to everyone in the class. We did this last week, the only rules were that they had to keep them a secret.

Then I typed them up creating each student a poster that looked like this.

On the back was a class picture and an end of the year teacher poem.  I then laminated them.  I present them by reading off each students compliments.  Let me tell you it was amazing!!  The kids were ALL smiling and laughing and I had many parents e-mail me and tell me how much their kids loved it.  the secret....this is an old cheerleading thing that I have done with my teams like every year I coached.

FRIDAY:  Wow what an exhausting day!  We played outside all morning!  I have to thank my good friends across the hall for letting us crash inviting us to join in on their Fun in the Sun Morning.  When you hear one of your quietest students scream with glee "BUBBLES!?!?"  you know you did a good job planning.  Then we did our end of the year awards.  It was so great to see all the kids proud of their friends for their accomplishemtns.  Then we had KONA ICE!!!  Shaved ice is so much better than snow cones.  Then I achieved the impossible.  I had a quiet class for the last half hour watching a movie.  I think a lot fell asleep. lol I know one of my teacher friends said her son fell asleep in the car on the way home:)  Then it was time to say good bye.  I almost cried like 28 times, was asked to go to 4th grade at least 10, and hugged a million.

Let me  tell you something.

Test scores don't prove if you are a successful teacher or not.....

seeing something like this on the last day of school is what lets me know I did my job.

I did not ask them to do this.....they wanted to have one group hug since it was their last time together.  Sorry its blurry but I couldn't show their faces.  

I'm so sad to say good bye to this awesome class.  They were my babies for 2 years.  My friend who is the resource teachers swears I will love my 2nd graders next year just as much....but I doubt it ;)

Its the Final Countdown!

5 Days With Kids.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.  They were crazy last week and I can't imagine what they are going to be like on Monday :/  I just have to keep reminding myself how much I love them....right!?

I have a lot to do this week:

• Have students make parent thank you cards
• Finish my part of the classroom compliment project (more on this later in the week when I have pictures!)
• Complete reading portfolios (a cute idea I found on Pinterest...pictures to come when they are all done)
• Make up vocabulary sheets for reading choice study
• Make up direction sheet for non fiction choice study
• Clean out lockers, book bins, and folder bins
• Plan the LAST DAY with my teaching partner
• Grade final writing assessment (I HATE grading these and always leave it until the last minute)
• Take text book inventory
• pack everything in the room on my shelves with wheels because they "might be painting" this summer.
• And report cards are due Monday. 

See!?!?!  I'm tired just thinking about it all and I'm sure I forgot something.

So to tied you all over until I get pictures of my end of the year projects here is a cute simple project I did with my 2nd graders a few weeks ago.

In third grade students are expected to write summaries for almost all their quarterly reading assessments and they are also a part of DRA2.  So I have been working with my 2nd graders are identifying literacy elements.  This weeks focus was problem and solution.

First the kids buddy read the story The Enormous Carrot

Then they had to identify the main characters, setting, the problem, and state how the characters solved it.  Then we made these cute carrots.  We put the problem on the carrots top because that was the part that was sticking out during the story and "if they didn't see the top they wouldn't know they had a problem"-they can be so smart when they want.  Then we put the solution on the carrot because "they couldn't get the carrot out until they solved the problem"-see just genius

The kids still refer to the problem as the top and the solution as the carrot

These boys were hard at work...at my desk..hey, whatever it takes to get them to focus is my motto.

Well hopefully I will be back with some pictures of our end of the year activities....if I survive :)

I Saw It On Pinterest Linky!

I love Pinterest!  It really has changed how I'm doing a lot of my teaching and my husband says it's the best thing that happened for our kitchen.  So when I saw that Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher was hosing a "I saw it on Pinterest" Link party I had to join ASAP!  Head on Over to her Blog if you want to join up.




and you can follow me on pintrest by hitting the button on the right side of my blog...or here!  

Now for my favorite Pinterest things...this was hard.

I could probably start a brand new blog on all the food I want to make but this is my new favorite thing that I haven't made yet!

No-Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake via thekitchn.com

These drinks will be delicious to drink on my deck with my fellow teacher friends.

Strawberry mimosas via lauriearons.blogspot.com

I really want o better utilize my Reading notebooks for my kids next year.  Along with their social studies, grammar, and writing.  I have a lot of ideas that I found on Pinterest now I just need to pick and choose to figure out what works best for me.  I actually think this weekend I am going to start a new Note booking Pinboard.

blogs.scholastic.com

 I also REALLY need to get more organized in my classroom.  Teaching reading to two different groups of kids has been an organization nightmare.  I really need some help!

ourclassweb.com

I would also like to get more conference time in with my kids during writing.

flamingofabulous.blogspot.com

And I want to make these along with many other crafty things to decorate my new house!

rachelmahan.tumblr.com

What things did you find that you can't wait to try over the summer?

Don't forget to follow my blog too to see some of my ideas I come up with over the summer!