Progress monitoring. What's to say. Some do it without thinking about it. While others of us run and hide. Some think that in a data rich environment that there's no need. This may be true but if you had prove how students were responding to instruction, could you? In an Response to Intervention Model (RTI) it has to be done.

•  accelerated learning because students are receiving more appropriate instruction;
• more informed instructional decisions;
• documentation of student progress for accountability purposes;
• more efficient communication with families and other professionals about students’ progress;
• higher expectations for students by teachers; and
• fewer Special Education referrals.

1. is she making progress towards a grade-level expectation or long-term goal?
2. is she making progress towards mastery of a targeted skill?

Sight Word Fluency Prediction and Record Sheet
Tic Tac -At Word Family

It's hard to believe that the 6th graders I had this year are moving on. After three years of pushing and pulling, to help them learn to love learning. Being so close to grade level to read what their friends were reading, always made everyone smile.

Next year, the team will departmentalize K-2 and 3-6. This will be new to our building leadership. When I started teaching 8 years ago, I worked in a school that was departmentalized. I'm not sure how kindergarten will work, since grade level do reading at the same time; kindergarten is wanting to keep four teachers in the room for reading. (My school is small-two classrooms at each grade.) I think it will depend on how the master schedule gets laid out.  My school uses its Title funds to provide two teachers that go into all classrooms to provide extra reading support. In kindergarten, everyone supports doing the Daily 5 block to ensure that every students is with an adult during reading.  Currently, I don't know which block I have. I'll have to wait until I go back in the fall.

I have a long list of things that I wish to tackle before fall, SMART board things, books to read (Guided Math and Visible Learning for Teachers), and things to share with everyone along the way. Oh, and a nap or two along the way.  What do you hope to get done before going back in the fall?

Wishing everyone a restful and stress free summer.
Beginning Letter Path KLJVYZ

I can't see the bottom of my desk right now. I'm knee deep in all the end of the year paperwork while finishing a couple of IEPs. However, each May before I leave, I go through all my IEP files to make sure that they are up to date. This is a daunting task since I want to keep everything.  My district doesn't give a lot of direction on what needs to be kept because as long as the IEP is document is in the system. But, but, but what about your own copies? The data, progress monitoring, and the testing protocols. With the help of a former exceptional needs teacher, I create a Exceptional Needs Student Records form and both parents and teacher could use to track what information you have for each student folder. How do you organize your personal student records after each IEP meeting?
Exceptional Needs Student Records

Picturing Penguin

6th graders have wonderful visualization skills when paired with poetry. Last week (before our half day and field day) they started working of how to visually describe a poem in only pictures. Visualization is important because it means you have to infer using pictures. When readers visualize, students construct meaning by creating sensory images. I started with poetry to help my students gain a deeper understanding of inferring.

As a group, we started with Eloise Greenfield's "Honey, I Love and other Love Poems." Rope Rhyme helped students begin to think outside the box. I put both poems on an chart paper without the title. I wanted to group to infer a title before I told them. The group keyed into important words like "jump right in" and "clappedy-clappedy sound" to infer the poem was about jumping rope.  As we worked through the poems as a group, we created a list of things they saw. This list would then become the list of pictures they would go and find.

I also used "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to help a new student access the concept. She was able to see the poem and create a list of items that she could find pictures for. She list was more literal but with the help of the others in the group she added a space shuttle, moon,and  planets. The students each picked out their own poem to create a list of pictures that they could go and find that described the poem.

Once they had the list of pictures, they went looking for them on Google. When they have their pictures, they will go to Glogster to create the poster of their poem. The only words they can use are their name, the title and author of the poem. Nothing else. Pictures to come. How do you teach student visualization? Which mentor text have you found to be the best?

My new student joined us from out of state four weeks before the end of the year. I created both of these hand outs to help her classroom teacher understand Autism.
Tips for Working With Student With Autism Teaching Students With Autism

Getting kids to read over the summer is hard. The last two years, we have sent all kids in our building home with 6 "just right" books to read over the summer. We do this in the hopes that all of them will read over the summer because we know that not every student has books at home or a way to get to the library.

No matter how hard I plead with parents and my kids to read, it never seems to work. As they begin the final countdown to Summer Break, I remind them how important reading is and try to hook them up with authors they might like. Plus making sure they all have a library card.

A couple of years ago, I came up with BINGO Summer Reading game to take them through different genre and places they could read over the summer. The ones that do come back get a prize and its added to our PTA sponsored drawing; for student's who did read over the summer.

How do you encourage students to read over the long break? I'd live to hear about your ideas!



Summer Reading Bingo

Earlier this week, I posted about using Web 2.0 tools to create a final product. Prezi was the first one I tried. (Free account for teachers to use for educational purposed only.) Prezi is like a Power Point but its much, much shorter. I kept students to the templates, so they had three boxes to put the key word that would help them remember what the main idea was. No sentences. Plus, it's easy for the students to use and it doesn't take days. I'm a big fan of short, sweet, and student friendly when it comes to technology.

For my comprehension reading groups, I use The Comprehension Toolkit by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis. They have written a Primary version as well that I use. The Toolkit teaches students comprehension strategies through gradual release.

My sixth graders have been working on using the strategy "Sift and Sort" to determine what is important to help them find the main idea. Once they have found the main idea and written it down, they move on to creating their Prezi. The group will present to each other on Monday.  Here's a look at what they look like. All on a single screen. As they move through the presentation the document will move to each header.

My district is moving towards having students use Google. Next year, school websites will be on Google as well. I stumbled across Kathy Schrock's Bloomin' Apps. She has a wonderful tech based website. She has broken down Google apps, IPad apps, and several others by Blooms Taxonomy.

It's that time of year at school, where my team gets together with our preschool team for transitions. I have found that even though it's a special education meeting, we spend most of the time talking about kindergarten looks like, smells like, and how it is different from preschool.
I like to think the my kindergarten team has set up something special. They have a full time para-professional plus both a special education and Title 1 reading specialist that go in for reading. We seem to be unique in this fashion. It helps us provide services in the room instead of pulling students out.

We work very hard with the preschool team to ensure that we get to know the student and their family. We want to make sure that the student is correctly placed in kindergarten-its a big move even with the adult support; having twice as many students than they are use to in preschool and having to stay all day can be hard. 

This year I created a hand out to give our incoming preschool parents, to give them some ideas about what they can do at home over the summer to help get ready for kindergarten. Because we can recieve a varity of student with a wide range of needs, I have other items that give to specific families where the preschool team thinks that coming to the "Big School" will be hard such as social stories and  before school visits in the fall. Many of our special education preschool students have syblings at our school and know it better I do. What else to your teams give out to parents to help them? I'd love to hear how other teams help preschool students and their parents transition into kindergarten.
Helping Your Child Get Off to a Good Start in Kindergarten

It seems like after Spring Break classroom teachers start talking about students who they think need go be "held back." I should say that grade retention is NOT an intervention OR something that comes from special education. Research doesn't support retaining students. I do believe that it's a parent decision and they should be informed of both the long/short terms gains as well as the consequences of retention.

I always want to know what the teacher or parent is hoping to gain. What's point if you don't have plan in mind? What is going to be different for the student? If they didn't get the first time, what makes you think that they are going to getting if it is presented to them the same way again. You can't use it as a means to get someone identified for special education because you are comparing the student to their same aged peers. Retaining a student as a means to avoid or speed up the identification process can mess things up. That's because retention is not an intervention.
I have a kindergarten student with severe articulation difficulties which make it very hard for the classroom teacher to understand him. He also demonstrates many "attention-like" problem behaviors. The team has noticed that he is easily frustrated when he is not understood and can be very ornery with adults and kids in his class. This is student that needs to go to 1st even if he's not academically ready. Having him repeat kindergarten because of his "attention-like" behavior and his articulation will not make for a very productive 6th grade year for the adults in his life.

On the other hand, a mother of a different kindergarten student wants to retain her son to help close a language gap (3 plus years). He is currently where he should have been at the beginning of the school year. He didn't go to preschool. Missing that experience weights on his mother. Not going to preschool has made kindergarten very difficult for him and would most likly end up hating school by Christmas.

Our of the two kindergarten students the 2nd would be a better choice to retain. His language skills would grow and he could do some growing up. But at the end of the day it's parents who have to make that choice. My team supports the parents decision no matter they choose to do.

I have attached several articles that I would encourage you to read and pass on to teacher, parents, and administrators on the pros and cons in grade retention.

Grade Retention Is Grade Retention Right for Your Child Pros and Cons of Grade Retention Repeating a Grade

April is Autism Awareness Month.

CDC estimates 1in 88 U.S. children has autism

New estimates from the U.S. Centers forDisease Control and Prevention show that roughly 1 in 88 American children hasbeen diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, representing an increase ofmore than 20% over previous estimates. It is unclear why the number ofdiagnoses are on the rise, though some say the higher numbers are attributablein part to changes in strategies for screening, diagnosing and serving childrenwith the disorder. "One thing the data tells us with certainty: There are manychildren and families who need help," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director ofthe CDC.

Earlier this month I saw the heading. I know that in recent months there has been lots of talk about what the medical community isdoing with the DSM and the chages they wish to make to how Autism and otherSpectrem disorders are diagnosed. I have had more students with Autismmainstreamed into my school in recent years and am always looking for whatothers are doing to help students with Autism be successful in their homeschools.

I have added a page with information that has comemy way. Please let me know when links fail to work. As I find current andpowerful information I will add it to the page.

Autism is a hot topic this week in Colorado as weare hosting the CEC National Conference. The Council forExceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professionalorganization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals withdisabilities and/or gifts and talents. They have tons of information forclassroom teachers and parents.

One of my 6th grade students, has found Katie Perry's "Firework" inspiration this year and wanted to share a video that she found on You-Tube. It was created last spring by one of our local high schools. She has found strength and courage from it as she gets ready for middle school. I also smile and sing along when I hear it on the radio. (And at times dance)


Many of my students have mastered knowing the ending sounds are for words. But I have one that it's apart of his daily instruction as he gets ready for 1st grade. This set has the ones he struggles with. I hope you find it useful.
Final Set B M R S

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by the Lower North Fork Wildfire.

A find while on Spring Break that I wanted to share. Not far from Downtown Denver is a trial that has interpretive signs in Braille, and a waist-high guide wire, the short Braille Trail is designed for blind hikers. Which is very cool!  I have never seen another trail set up like this to expand access to individuals who are blind or have low-vision. It's student and dog friendly. My students don't have very many experiences with being outdoors in Colorado but I'm thinking this would make a great field trip because the sign posts are written in a way that 5th and 6th graders would understand what they are looking at. The sign posts highlight key aspects of the Colorado mountains including plants, trees, and meadows. A great way to see Colorado mountain vocabulary. Plus it's less the a mile of walking total. Colorado does have trails that have wheelchair access but nothing like this close to town to take student too.

No matter if its Wilson or Just Words, I have found the my students need more practice with Long A combinations and Long E combinations. Both Wilson and Just Words teach vowel consonant /e/ way before students are introduced to vowel teams; which is great for my students. They get a chance to mastery one before they have to take on another.  Word study also has to be built into guided reading. I try to pull it directly out of what the group is reading so that they can see and read the words in context. How do you use word work in your guided reading groups? Happy Sping Break--I'm off to enjoy Colorados beautiful spring time weather!!
Safari long a and e

Over the last two years, my building has used the gradually release strategy from Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey. In gradually release, the teacher gradually releases control of the use of the skills and strategies to the students. The expectation being students apply the strategies and skills learned in guided reading lessons to other reading outside of the lesson. Students should begin to 'own' the strategy as they mastery strategy or skill.  Guided reading is mosty on the students, where Modeling the strategy is totally me as the teacher, and in the middle is shared where both the students and I are working on the strategy together.

A highlight of their work is the learning goal; making sure that I have a clearly definded focus no matter what lesson I'm teaching. I weave my learning focus into my introduction. For example: Today, we will be reading another text that has lots of interesting information. When we read a text it has important things, sometimes something strange or not so important things. Today, we going to learn how to sift and sort what is really important and what interesting. This strategy is very helpful because you'll be able to use it with lots of different text.

For Wilson, this is far more interesting because it moves back forth between all three many times in a lesson but the lesson plans don't include a learning focus. Will I fixed that! I not have a lesson plan that includes lesson focus. I also couldn't find a lesson plan for think alouds and shared reading, so I made those as well. Just in time to use before Spring Break.
Modeled I Do Lesson Plan Shared Reading Lesson Plan Wilson Lesson Plan With Learning Goals

Getting students to ask for help is always a challenge. For the last three weeks, a group of 6th grade students have been working on asking of help to build their self advocacy skill set. I was surprised by the number of self-determination video clips, that I found on You Tube. I found three that would best illustrate self-determine to a group of 6th students with learning disabilities.






Using the videos to continue to build their background knowledge, they were able to create a 5-point scale of how they feel when they have to ask for help. I got the idea from "The Incredible 5-point Scale" by: Kari Dunn Buron.
I have used her voice scale with wonderful results.  Everyone created their own High-Low Scale with emotion icons. Then we created a group on, that I have posted in their homerooms as well as my room. Since their are no names attached to it, no one else in the class is aware of who it's for.

Last year I went looking for a new math curriculum, that had strong number sense and would work in either small groups or one on one. I had been using Saxon Math but I was finding that it align so well with our Curriculum Alignment Project (CAP). CAP outlines what needs to be taught when and for how long-its the curriculum and Investigations is the resource. CAP ensures that every student in the district is getting the same thing regardless of what building your in. The problem with Investigations is that it doesn't translate well to small groups or one on one, so it's not used frequently for interventions. We do use it for double dosing students (students getting the same lesson twice).

I found Singapore Math. It came from a recommendation because they had seen improvements in their intensive math groups. Here's what I love about it. It's deceptively thin text books were created with an understanding on how students actually learn. The lessons are structured with the gradual release model(which is huge in my district) which allows students to learn mathematics meaningfully and talk about it like mathematicians. It also aligns better with what they are learning in class. Students love this program because of all the hands on work they get to do. They have said way more tha what they get in class. The girls that I work with in math need all the hands on and language support they can get in math and then some. The down side is the language skills students need to work independently. One way I have worked around in more language supports is creating mini-anchor charts as a visual reminder of what key words mean.
Graph Key Words Math Key Terms

Homework is my nemeses. I have to grade it. I have to make sure it gets done and turned back in. Enough! This year I only give students reading homework nightly and told them at the beginning of the school year that I wouldn’t nag them and that they needed to be responsible for doing their homework one their own. I was not going to call home or take recess or write them up. If they wanted to go diving into the treasure chest that it needed to be done nightly.  And guess what they all stepped up. They did it nightly. They give me their homework graphs every morning to sign and didn’t complain when someone else in the group gets rewarded first way before them.

Interestingly, there is a growing voice that says that homework should be from what was taught two or three days ago.  I really like this idea because homework is to be independent practice (i.e., things that students can do on their own without help or the student has demonstrated mastery in class but you just want to make sure that they’ve got it).  How do you use homework? What strategies have you found work best to ensure that students do the work nightly and turn it in?

• Homework can keep concepts fresh in student’s mind and indicate when reteaching is necessary.
• Homework should never be very difficult and should only require materials that are generally available in the home.
• Tailoring homework assignments to students’ learning style strengths can immediately lead to better results.
• Never let students believe that homework is assigned as busywork. Give them a clear purpose for why it needs to be completed.
• Don’t use homework to lower student’s grades.
• Provide appropriate feedback on all homework assignments—written comments not just a grade.

• Communicate your belief that homework is an important part of learning.
• Make an agreement with your child about how much after-school time he will spend doing his homework each day.
• Work with your child to establish a homework schedule and do your part to honor it.
• Provide a place where your child can work.
• Remember that your child’s homework is his responsibility, not yours!
• It’s tough luck, if your child forgets their homework.

Getting Ready to Read is a wonderful website that is designed for parents and early children learning like transitioning to kindergarten. My parents have stated that the "Getting Ready of Kindergarten Handouts" have helped them be better prepared for kindergarten. 

Kindergarten as it was known five years ago is not the same as kindergarten today. Kindergarten twenty years from now will be vastly different than it is today. Kindergarten has moved from a program that focuses primarily on social and emotional development to one that emphasizes academics, especially early literacy, math and science, and activities that prepare children to think and problem solve. These changes represent a lasting impact on kindergarten curriculum and teaching into the future. Regardless of the grade or age group they teach, all early childhood teachers have to make decisions regarding what curriculum and activities they will provide for their children.

Longer school days and transition from half-day to full-day programs. Reasons for longer school days and full-day programs include:
             •Changes in society,
              •An increase in the number of working parents,
             •Recognition that earlier is the best option, and
             •Research which shows that a longer school day helps children academically.
             •Standards that specify what children should know and be able to do,
             •State standards that now include the kindergarten years, and
             •Political and public support for early education and skill learning because they reduce grade
                failure and school dropout.

               •The accountability movement and
               •Recognition that district testing that begins in third grade and earlier puts more emphasis  
                 on what kindergarten children should learn.

As the year winds down, my 6th graders are looking forward too and talking about middle school and all the cool things that they get to do. Many are taking an active part in their IEP meeting for the first time. One thing I do to help them transition into middle school is to talk about self determination--what it looks like and what it means for them to become their own advocate. It was an exciting conversation to have with them as their teachers are having them research jobs and careers. We talked abut what self determination and created a circle map to define it. (Self determination is a person's ability to control his or her destiny.) The group defined self determination as taking responsibility of their actions and choices, making independent choices and problem solving on their own, setting and achieving goals both short and long term, and doing things without an adult telling them that it needed to get done.

What was every cooler was that they were able to clearly identify how they demonstrate their self determination throughout their day. Some of the things that they came up with were doing nightly homework, doing chores, being responsible, and making a long term goal about what they want to do after high school. They also talked about things they needed to work on like asking for help and when they achieve a goal then setting a new one.

I have a couple of students that have become accustomed to listening for beginning sounds and leave off the ending one. It’s like they don’t hear it.  I have created a sort and game that will help these guys listen of the last sound they hear. It doesn’t matter if the word ends in a /e/ because they won’t hear it.  When I do word study with students who don’t have the decoding skills to read the word, I use pictures for concept, word sorts, or games. Some think that phonemic awareness instruction can be strictly oral but I have found that the students that need more than the average practice to master the skill pictures help all students. Fountas and Pinnell have several activities geared toward sound isolation in their Phonics Lessons: Letters, Words, and How they Work (grades K and 1).

My building doesn’t use their phonics materials as the core phonics program. In the past three year we’ve gone from Fundations from Barbara Wilson to Mondo Phonics. Mondo is our core guided reading program. Pick one and use it every day until students demonstrate mastery.

Helpful Websites:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/building-phonemic-awareness-with-120.html

ReadWriteThink offers a lesson to teach phonemic awareness. The lesson uses chants and matching activities to help students recognize words with the same sound.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/phonics/index.htm

This lesson may be too easy for second grade, but it reinforces words that have the same sound.

http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/longsmart_elem.html

This website offers many lessons for a SmartBoard. About halfway down the page, there is a lesson for beginning and ending sounds.

Supporting Picture Books:

Kellogg, S. (1992). Aster Aardvark’s alphabet adventures. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

This picture book is a good book to read-aloud. It features sound substitutions at the beginning of words.

Slepian, J. (2001). The hungry thing. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.

This book also features sound substitutions at the beginning of words. It helps students focus on the beginning sounds.

Gowler, R. (2001). Barnyard song. Hartford, CT: Atheneum.

If you want to focus on ending sounds, this book can help. Using it at as a read-aloud will allow you to find words that end the same.

Ahlberg, A. (1999). Monkey do. London: Walker Books Ltd.

This book also features words that end the same.

Over Christmas Break I stumbled upon TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). TED brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers and are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).  I have happily gotten lost in all the videos and ideas that are posted. This one is a hands on demo with play dough and how a pre-k child learned about circuits. I couldn't help but smile about how hands-on and easy this could be for older students who need extra practice with making circuits to help them understand how the concept works plus explain it. Fabulous!

 So here are the rules:
 1. You must post the rules.
 2. Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
 3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
 4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
 5. Let them know you've tagged them!

2. What is your best teaching advice? Use data to guide your instruction and don’t forget to progress monitor what you’re doing along the way

4. What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend? Go to the mountains and hike with my family and my 2 Italian Greyhounds (Aria and Louis)

6. What is your favorite teaching memory? A group of spelling changanged students walking into my room spelling all their requests and conversations with each other and m

9. What is your favorite activity to do with your students? Anything that gets them reading and laughing

11. Do you have a Pinterest? no



Mrs. Taska
Heather
Classroom Creations
Cortney
Classroom Ringmaster
Michelle
Sarah
SRadcliff
Mrs. Blanton
Mrs. Policastro
Fallin for Firsties


2 - What's your favorite book?  
3 - What's your favorite TV show?  
4 - How do you celebrate March is reading month? 
5 - Where do you live?
6 - What's your favorite thing to teach? 
7 - How do you track student progress? 
8 - How do you use technology in the classroom? 
9 - Do you use Accelerated Reader? How do you reward kids for points if you do? 
10 - Do you play sports? What? 
11 - How much time do you spend doing your hair each morning?  
12 – What’s your favorite memory from high school? 

I can't wait to learn more about all of you who write the wonderful blogs I love to follow:)

From KPM Doodles

This will one of three posts on isolating phonemes that I will share as I create materials for my small groups in kindergarten that are struggling with mastering these skills.
 
Isolating phonemes is a strategy that allows students to recognize individual sounds in a word. Attending to these phonemes increases students’ awareness that words are made up of individual sounds that connect together to form a word. When students apply this strategy, they are demonstrating their ability to think about and separate individual sounds from one another within a word (e.g., the first sound in dog is /d/, the medial sound in wet in /e/, and the final sound in like is /k/.  

Identifying phonemes is a strategy in which students focus on separate distinctions of initial, medial, and final sounds in words in recognize their similarities and differences. Students who can use this strategy are able to think about and notice that two or more words may have the same initial sound, medial sound, or final sounds. Identifying these sounds is important as students move through the development stages of reading, and it provides students with a tool for reading as well as writing.

Initial Sounds

Each year about this time, I start planning for the new kindergartens that are coming. The transition meetings are important for many reasons. I get a chance to meet new parents and in many cases the new kindergartner as well. The preschool team always plans on the meets lasting only 30 minutes but I have never had a transition meeting end on time. I usually end up doing most of the listening and answering as many questions that the parents have and we never hear from the preschool team. The preschoolers, always tell me that they are looking forward to coming to the "big school." I guess this makes sense because our preschool is right next door.

This year I'm giving my parents some concrete ideas of what they can do over the next 6 months at home. I have also given it my current kindergarten parents to help them build on what has been taught this year. How do you help parents get ready for moving into kindergarten?

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

It's funny--I spend most of my time at the beginning of the year using scripted interventions. Then comes the mid-year data and changes. By this time of the year, I find that I miss guided reading and seeing students in text and finding that love for reading. One of the Title teachers I work with asked me last week what I use for guided reading when phonics and word study still need to happen daily. I use "Jan Richard's "The Next Step in Guided Reading" or Beverly Tyner's "Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers" to give students a double dose of guided reading.

Since I don't have access to a guided reading program with lesson plans and books, their plans help me design lessons that help me make sure that students who still need phonics but not Wilson get that. What I love even more is that they work great for Kindergarten--who should be in books. Even if I have a group that still needs some skill work, I can get them in books. Even if with scaffolding they have a blast reading and talking about the books--making connections to their own lives.

The Kindergarten class that I provide support to during Daily 5 has several English Language Learners as well as other high need exceptional needs students. Thoses guys have fallen in love with a couple of mini-books that I have created to pre-teach the vocabulary of the books that they are going to read. I hang on to them for a couple of days while we are working in the book and then they take them home and "read" to their parents or to themselves.

Mini Book Who Lives in the Arctic