How to Make Your Students Fall In Love With Reading

Hey Friends! Sometimes in the crazy chaos life world of the classroom we forget the purpose of why we are there. Is it to make our students have the most AR points in the school? Is it to get the best prize in the school? No. The reason the students are there is to develop a love of learning and master the standards set by the state that you live in.  So how do you do both? How do you make sure that students make the progress on the districts program that they've purchased, master the standards AND love to read?

Create A Warm and Desirable Space

Creating a classroom library can be challenging. Research suggests that we should focus on creating a space that is inviting to the students and comfortable. For my library, I used a teal shag rug. It's lasted for nearly four years! The space was open so that I could always see the students and monitor what they were doing. The library was colorful so the students were engaged with the browsing process. You can read more about how I manage my classroom library here.

 Let Children Decide What To Read

I have my books organized by theme. I do this for a very specific reason. Fountas and Pinnell ( as well as many other reading researchers) suggest that in order to create a classroom library that fosters a love of reading, we should sort our books by theme rather than level. This allows students to "explore" books by their interest.  Children can then explore books that are appealing to them. Books that they desire to read and not books that they have to read or feel like they have to read because of a certain level.

Teachers should teach students how to pick a "just right book". First, students should look for a book that looks appealing to them or sparks their interest. Students should look for a book that they WANT to read. Next students should read the first page of the book and determine if the book is too difficult or too easy for them. If the student has a hard time reading more than five words, the student should pick a different book. In the primary grades, I would let me students browse through harder books. I would tell them "Browse for a bit, then find a keeper". This way, they are still exploring the books they WANT and then moving onto a just right book at the end.

  Independent reading shouldn't be something students have to do, it should be something they want to do. We do this by fostering a love of reading and peaking a students interests. If a student is very interested in sharks, find books about sharks. No matter the age .  For example, this book is for older readers.

I have an extensive classroom library and while it drives my husband crazy every time we (he) packs it up,  the students love it. The purpose for this is that we never know what books our students will like. When parents tell me "Johnny doesn't like to read", I try to respond with, "He hasn't found the right book yet".  When kids find the "right" book, it makes all the difference! For example, as a mom, I didn't particularly want my kids reading books like "Captain Underpants" and stuff like that, however, a child that "doesn't like to read", was READING. So I had to learn, to let go, and let it be. 

By building relationships with your students and discovering their interests,  you will  be able to determine what kind of books are right for that particular student. Creating a large classroom library is an important key to making this all work because you just never know what interest your  students will have. 

 I know this can be expensive. We are thrift store junkies! My family loves to hunt for books for the classroom with me. We hit up garage sales, thrift stores, Goodwill, and teachers who are leaving the profession for books. I have a list of common high interest books here. 

These library labels are easy to manage and ink friendly.

I do keep a separate guided reading section of my library. This is mostly for me and instructional purposes.  This allows students to read on their instructional level during guided reading time.

Display Books Around The Classroom

Displaying books around the classroom will peak students interest in what the books are about. I change these books out often and specifically use books at at different in culture and theme. This way, students are naturally curious about the topic before they ever start to read it! It's a win- win!

Read Aloud to Students

As a first grade and second grade teacher, I read to my students all the time!  When I moved to fourth grade, I wasn't sure if they would "like" to be read to, but, I wanted to make them like it. HA! It worked! The older kids STILL want to be read to. They loved it just as much as the younger kids. I was able to pick more complex text and with advance story lines. Through read aloud, you have the opportunity to model for students how to read while thinking AND get students excited about the text.  Select texts on purpose that purposely relate to the skill or standard you are teaching. Read them with enthusiasm, you are on a stage! Be careful not just to read a book to read a book, remember to always set a purpose for the reading.  One skill that is typically apparent in every book we read is making connections. The students like hearing about our real life experiences and getting to know us outside of the classroom. Through connections in read alouds, students are able to see a different side of their teacher. This is a very powerful teachable moment.
The important idea is that elementary students K-5 still need to be read to. The idea that this strategy for just K-2 is just not supported by research. Reading aloud allows you to teach a standard, while helping students develop a love of reading.



By peaking students interest, finding the right books, modeling how fun reading can be and creating an inviting space for students to read in, you will have readers who WANT to read in no time!

Teacher Tips for Student Engagement

Student engagement is one of the buzz words that teachers hear more and more of every single day, as we should. If our students are not engaged in the learning process, can we be sure they are learning the material we are trying to teach them? Student engagement doesn't have to always be big, flashy lessons. Engagement just means you are trying something different than you've done before and that the students are enjoying the way you are delivering the material. Novel idea, right?

One easy way that just about EVERY teacher can increase student engagement is to create props around their classroom. Our fourth graders recently finished a unit on measurement. We created a map around the classroom with trees and "pit stops" that students had to stop and measure different items. This was super easy to do and was very cost efficient. 

I used butcher paper from the teacher supply room the create a tree and a road map. The road map went around the classroom and I moved the students desks in the middle of the room. This was super easy to do! The students were shocked to walk in and see the room "transformed" into a road trip adventure! The magic of butcher paper and the movement of desks! We had another station where the students measured suit cases. 

That brings me to my next tip! One of the stations was to measure the sleeping bags. The students had to convert the measurement to both inches and feet. 

Another easy tip to raise engagement is to use a different type of materials for reading. For the same lesson, we used brochures that were free from the local travel station. I did a text feature station and added laser pointers that were a Dollar Tree find! The students had to find the text feature with the laser pointer. Some might thing, Ashley, that sounds like a classroom management nightmare! One might think, however, set your expectations and clearly state how the laser pointers are used. I did this with two classes and only took one laser pointer away. So if a student is using it incorrectly and you lay out the expectations, take it away if they break the rules. 

Another great way to increase student engagement is to put the worksheets a way and have students work out real world math problems on their desk using expo markers and counting chips.The colored chips really bring math to life for the students. Students are able to make connections and develop a deeper understanding for more difficult concepts such as multiplication and division.   In this activity, students had to practice dividing and determining if there was a remainder. While I was monitoring the students thinking, I was asking questions like "What if the problem was dividing people or a car, can you cut those in half?". I wanted my student to practice the basic skill of division, however, I wanted them to begin to think about interpreting the remainder and what it means. Even though I wasn't using a "workbook" to teach it, they still had to have a paper- pencil based assessment and these are the type of word problems we would eventually get to. I didn't want them to waste any time and wanted to have my students to start to think about these steps as soon as they started working with remainders. 

Once we moved past division, later in the year we moved into decimals, I used my handy expo markers AGAIN! In a different format though. This time, I used coins to show the students how they already used decimals in their everyday life. I wanted my students to connect to the fact that they could already apply this skill prior to the teaching, this is known as activating prior knowledge. Again, my students pulled out their expo markers and because I was using different manipulatives and in a different way, the students were still engaged in the process. Changing the way you teach in just the simplest manner can and will increase your students engagement! 

Fractions are such a difficult concept for students to grasp. Moving to a different area that students are not normally at, adding the white board, fraction bars,  and expo markers gives this student another chance to practice this skill. Students who are used to a workbook based model of instruction do well with this at the beginning of the year. This is an easy step to increase engagement at the beginning of the year. We also use our "Spin A Fraction" Mats to help us practice the skills using a hands on method. The students also love to use task cards! 

The last tip to increase student engagement is to transform your old board games! Students LOVE using these! In the photo below, I used a Jenga game for math facts. Another way I've used Jenga is for sight words! Students love the twist to the game and the game is so inexpensive. All you need is a label marker or dot labels and a sharpie!

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• Visit each blog and enter each rafflecopter.
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• Enter between May 1 - 5, 2017.
• Each of my friends will choose a winner.
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Math Intervention in the Upper Grades

Math Intervention in Grades 3-5

 Upper Elementary

*this post contains affliliate links* 

Hey friends!

Math intervention can be a difficult time to plan. The best thing I've EVER done with my intervention block is to simply go back to the basics. Most students who struggle with math concepts, do not have a strong foundation in number sense. I would give my students place value blocks, and just call out numbers for them to build. Then, we would write the numbers in expanded and word form. Students need to see the numbers in different ways to learn how numbers change and get larger. 

Since switching to the upper grades, I wanted to take my Math Intervention for Primary grades  and bring the same concept with me.

For small groups,  our plan looks like this:  We start with a Review skill. This is a skill we've previously taught in the weeks before.  Next, we do a preview skill. This is a skill that we will teach in the next few months or so. This gives the students the chance to be exposed to the skill prior full instruction. Then, we dive into our current skill. We use our Math Intervention Binder for Fourth Grade to review, preview and teach our current skill. We just use a different section of it. There are 14 sections to this binder and it's always growing as my students needs are always changing! The teacher  pulls and sees every student. We have a para for 30 minutes and she pulls our bubble students. She uses the intervention binder as well and does a spiral review of the previous week skill. I will often have the para go back to place value, multiplication or division because those are foundational skills that students need to grasp in order to do just about anything else. Students need a daily and quick practice with a variety of skills if they are falling behind. I strongly feel like by having students practice a previously taught skill for spiral review, will give you the biggest bang for your buck. One way I do this is try to stay four weeks apart from the skill. This gives the kiddos a little time in between, but not so much that you need to completely reteach the lesson. For the beginning of the year, I try to spend a lot of time on place value (regardless if that's what my curriculum tells me). Students who do not have a strong number sense foundation, will eventually struggle!! So it's important to catch that NOW!

These place value mats help the kiddos to visualize and understand the number. I want my kids to know the term value. What is the value of the thousands place? I might ask. 

I love using the place value disks. They are super cheap and the kids LOVE them. You can find them HERE. 

This activity is something that I do in my small group table first, then it moves to centers a few weeks later. I print them on different colored paper so that it seems like it's a new activity. The kids always enjoy it so much!. 

Also, that's another reason why I'm constantly updating these binders because as I find new strategies that work for my students, I add them to see if they will help with your students as well!

In this section, the students work on number sense. 

Students have multiple ways to practice "building numbers". This takes the boredom out of math. Students are engaged and ENJOY it. They look forward to this activity every day and ASK for it. WIN WIN!

We also use the place value pages as a spiral review in math centers. 

We spend a lot of time practicing and reviewing place value nearly all year long! It's a big and important skill. Students have to grasp this skill in order to move into harder skills like decimals later in the year. To do this, expanded form is important. Start with the basics, and move into the larger numbers. The intervention binder is put together in building blocks. It starts smaller and works into larger numbers to allow the students to gain confidence and a strong foundation. 

Using the mini anchor chart helps with a variety of ways. It helps give kiddos that real world application plus the visual format is a huge bonus for some kids. I will often copy the anchor charts and let the kids keep them in their math folder or notebook. 

In the geometry section, we work with symmetry, angles, lines, rays, points and more!

Division can be such a hassle in fourth grade. The kids get practice with partial products, the box method, traditional method, long division, base ten strategy, and more. 

My Journey as an Upper Elementary Teacher

Hi Friends! 

So, we've been SO busy the last 10 weeks that I haven't had a chance to mention all of the changes that have happened. We ended school in VA on June 20th. We packed all of our belongings up on the 21st and moved south on the 25th! We spent most of July by traveling and visiting family before we finally settled in. I started my new job on July 25th! So we had a very brief, but fun summer! I was pretty nervous about making the jump from my comfort zone (primary grades) to the big, scary world of fourth grade! We are only three eight weeks in, and can I tell you how much I LOVE THE BIG KIDS??!?!? They get my personality, they roll with the punches, and most of all, they still LOVE SCHOOL!! For some reason, I had it in my head that they do not like school past third grade! I was WRONG! They are witty, quick and just plain fun. They get my weird personality. Fourth grade is a whole new world, but man, I'm loving it so far!

Here's a peak inside my new classroom!

Give students a visual aide of expectations. 

My students really needed some math intervention in order to close foundational gaps I was finding in their number sense skills.  We spend a lot of time on place value skills so that they really understand how to break apart larger numbers. 

These activities were so great for small groups! My students practiced building numbers. When I came to the intermediate grades, I wanted to bring the mindset with me that students still needed to use manipulatives in math.

I found these jumbo post it pads at Target and we put them to use right away! We started our vocabulary maps before reading. We defined the word and discussed it's meaning. I encouraged them to point out when they come across the word in the text. During reading, if the students find the word, they would write the "example from the text". Next, the students would finish reading. After reading, they would identify a synonym and antonym of the word.

In this activity, students are using colored dominoes to build numbers. They can practice building numbers and place value skills literally everyday and develop a different number each day! 

We've had a blast so far and I'm excited to share this journey with you. Since I've not had as much time (like that exists), I've been sharing a lot on my Instagram  and Facebook pages on what we've been doing.

Since my Facebook page has grown so much, I've teamed up with my amazing friends Michelle and Fern to bring you some awesome prizes!

I will have TWO winners!
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