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Sound It Out
Along with her background as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
The best way to sell a book
Being January, I know lots of parents and teachers have resolutions that include getting kids to read more and different kinds of books.
Around our house, one sure-fire way to pique Molly and Anna's interest in a book is to put it on my nightstand! I usually have quite a stack there...books I plan to read or re-read before handing them over to the girls. Like Harry Potter. It's been 10 years since I read the first one, and I wanted to do the “scary check” before letting Molly read it. Not a day has gone by that she hasn't asked me if I'm finished yet. Apparently I'm taking too long!
As a teacher, I had the same phenomena in my classroom. There was this tiny half shelf in the front of the room on which I kept our current classroom read aloud. As soon as a book appeared there, kids would scramble to the library to get their own copy. They enjoyed following along with me as I read, and I thought that was just fine!
Booktalks are another great way to get kids interested in books. A booktalk is usually a fun, teasing summary of a book told with the passion of someone who really liked it. In my class, we often used booktalks as sales pitches for the next round of reading group books.
In my opinion, the best and most convincing booktalks are led by kids. Who doesn't love those last minutes of Reading Rainbow where the kids talk about books they've read? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the show and you'll be hooked!)
Booktalks can also be led by adults. Scholastic has some video booktalks, mostly done by Scholastic staff. There’s something similar at Podfeed called Bookwink.
However you do it, whether it is by nightstand, shelf, or booktalk, find a way to sell a book to a reader today!
How writer's write
Lately I've been spending lots of time in my car. This week while driving around I was fortunate enough to hear two children's authors talk about their craft and what writing means to them. I love to discover how authors write, what inspires them, and how hard they work at their craft.
The first author I heard was Louis Sachar, who was doing a book tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of Holes. Sachar was part of the Authors on Tour podcast series.
Sachar's writing process is incredibly long; he writes at least five drafts before he shares it with anyone. He feels each draft shapes the characters and the plot in an important way. For any teacher who has pulled teeth to get her children to revise a piece of writing, Sachar's words might help them understand the value!
The second author I heard was Kate DiCamillo, whose book The Tale of Despereaux opened as a movie this week. Talking on Bob Edwards Weekend, DiCamillo spoke candidly about her writing process (only two pages a day!), and how important words and books have been to her throughout her life. She has a great regard for librarians, especially those who “recognized her as a reader” at a young age.
These extended interviews and readings are little treasures to me! If you like them too, be sure to browse the collection of video interviews we have on Reading Rockets.
Two of our sister sites also include author interviews. Adolescent Literacy has a Books & Authors section, and Colorin Colorado has a Meet the Author series. Enjoy!
'Tis the season….again!
Was it really a year ago that I wrote this post about feeling frenzied and guilty about the lack of quality reading and writing time at our house? Because it's happening again! And once again I realize that my girls ARE engaged in reading and writing. It just looks different this time of year.
Here what we're doing, language arts style, to get ready for the holidays:
Molly used Audacity to record herself reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. And because my Mom will be in SC for Christmas, we'll send her the .WAV file so she can enjoy that traditional retelling as much as we do. If you have a microphone on your computer, it's a pretty easy program to use.
Anna's been hard at work typing her list for Santa. New this year is her interest in learning more word processing features. Her (numbered!) list is complete with alternating fonts and a fancy Word Art title.
Our copy of The Elf on the Shelf gets read and read and read and read. This set is new to us this year, and Anna's very concerned that Santa takes the Elf when he comes (as the illustrations suggest). For anyone else out there who has one….does Santa take the Elf until next year?! Help!
Both girls have spent lots of time making Christmas cards for their friends. After filling our art area with holiday-oriented supplies, both girls happily design snowmen on skateboards (item 4 on Anna's wish list) and beautiful glittery snowflakes. Their handwritten greetings always bring a smile: We hope you have a great Christmas and have you got your tree?
And so it goes. What are your kids doing (language arts style) to get ready for the holidays?
Report card comment redux
Thanks for your feedback on the report card comment two weeks ago. Your comments highlighted the need for balance between the need to provide parent-friendly information with the need to provide accurate, research-based information. In a perfect world, a good comment would do both.
I admire the teacher's effort to provide specific information about Jack's reading. It's clear that she has a handle on at least three important aspects of Jack's reading: phonics, fluency, and comprehension. Maybe what's missing is some context? My notes are below. Let me know what you think!
Report card comment:
Jack's currently reading at a Rigby level 18.
Clearly this sentence needs more context. What does a Rigby level 18 mean? Jack's mom wasn't sure if he was reading on grade level or not. According to this equivalency chart, Jack's doing just fine.
_____
Report card comment:
At this level with narrative text, Jack's reading is fluent (75 WCPM) and he has adequate comprehension. With expository text, however, Jack's reading becomes disfluent (60 WCPM) and he's unable to answer implicit comprehension questions.
This part really needs some work. I wish the teacher had (1) provided some sense of the WCPM expectations for third graders, and (2) described "expository," "disfluent," and "implicit comprehension" questions.
_____
Report card comment:
We will continue teach strategies such as DRTA and graphic organizers to help assist Jack's comprehension.
Jack's teacher appears to be using assessment information to guide Jack's instruction. Hooray! Jack's mom, however, had no idea what DRTA's
and graphic organizers (see #3) are.
_____
Report card comment:
In spelling, Jack is a within word speller. He's currently studying long vowels and ambiguous vowel patterns.
Again, great info, no context! A short explanation of "within word," "long vowels," and certainly "ambiguous vowel patterns" is definitely needed! Maybe this article would help (see Dylan and Delayne).
_____
Those are my two cents. What are yours?
How do you cook a turkey?
Every year our paper goes into a preschool to ask the kids their expert advice on how to cook a turkey. I couldn't resist sharing a few of their answers. As a teacher, I'd feel compelled to put these into a class "cookbook," and as a parent, I'd hang the page in the kitchen!
Here are some of their recipes:
Maya: Put in salt and tomatoes and strawberries and ice cream.
Miles: Put it in the oven. Cook it for 6 minutes. Yell for my dad to come to the table.
Landon: Put it in a pan, salt, butter on top, then shut the door. Push the buttons. Add sprinkles. Cook for 40 minutes. Put it on the table.
Collin: Keep it on a high counter so my dog won't eat it.
Katelyn: I don't know! It's a lot of work. Just ask my mom.
Out of the mouth of babes! Anna came home yesterday with a real keepsake: a turkey made from her feet and hand tracings. On each feather she had written someone or something she was thankful for.
I know we're running out of years that include these types of crafts, which makes this one even more special. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
PS: Revised report card comment coming next week!
I'd give this report card comment an N (for needs improvement)
A friend in Northern Virginia sent me the text from her son's third grade report card comment. Her e-mail message to me said this: ??????????????????????????????
I've typed the text below, and would love to hear your thoughts. Is it clear? Does it make sense? Are there things parents might need more information about?
Comment in with your suggestions for improvement or with your own experience with report card comments. Next week: I'll combine our ideas to write a revised (interpreted) report card comment for my friend!
Jack's currently reading at a Rigby level 18. At this level with narrative text, Jack's reading is fluent (75 WCPM) and he has adequate comprehension. With expository text, however, Jack's reading becomes disfluent (60 WCPM) and he's unable to answer implicit comprehension questions. We will continue teach strategies such as DRTA and graphic organizers to help assist Jack's comprehension. In spelling, Jack is a within word speller. He's currently studying long vowels and ambiguous vowel patterns. Thank you for your support at home. Daily reading will support the work we're doing here at school.
Knock, knock. Who's there? Jokes and riddles.
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Banana in my cereal.
Yep. That's our six year old at the dinner table. She so desperately wants to make up her own side-splitting knock knock jokes, but she's not quite there yet. She loves jokes and all things silly, but she's just not at the point of being able to come up with her own word play to make up a (really) funny one.
The October 2008 issue of Reading Teacher published an article (on Reading Rockets here) by Marcy Zipke about teaching metalinguistic awareness and reading comprehension with riddles. For teachers and parents, it's a great refresher read about multiple meanings in words and sentences and ambiguous language. It's also a great reminder about the role adults can play in helping kids discover the fun of language!
Zipke includes an annotated bibliography of riddle books and ambiguous language books that is a helpful resource to those who want to torture themselves by having joke books laying around the house or classroom. The list includes books by Fred Gwynne like The King Who Rained and A Chocolate Moose for Dinner and the ever popular Amelia Bedelia series.
At our house, Kids Are Punny and our lift-the-flap Elephants in the Bathtub have both been read over and over and over and over again.
Because Anna's in a very intense joke-telling phase right now, I'm sure she's going to turn that metalinguistic corner very soon and start coming up with some real zingers. Right? Please?
How running a reading program is like running a campaign
As I write this blog on Wednesday morning after our historic presidential election, I'm struck by an article I read on msnbc.com. Howard Fineman summarized what he saw as Obama's seven-prong approach to his campaign that served him well.
It was easy for me to see how well these same seven prongs could serve schools and districts well as they consider how they teach reading.
Below are the seven prongs as described by Fineman, with each prong's relationship to reading summarized. See what you think!
1. Be decisive. Make an informed, research-based decision about the reading program you're going to use.
2. Have a tight circle. Listen to the voices of parents, teachers, and administrators. Don't go it alone and expect it to work.
3. Stick with the plan. Too often, schools change gears before giving a program a chance to work. If you have evidence that change is occurring, stay with the plan.
4. Sweat the details. Find out how things are working for all your kids: your ELL population, your kids with LD, and other subgroups. Find out what you can do to improve data collection and implementation.
5. Understand your brand. In reading, I think this means the daily reminder that our goal is creating a population of kids who can (and want to) read well.
6. Go digital. For classrooms, this means developing teachers who know and use technology for assessment and teaching.
7. Use caution. Be wary of programs and interventions that claim to have quick and easy solutions for struggling readers.
As I've said before, it's darn hard work, but we can do it!
Teachers, please reorganize those bins!
I read Lisa Koch's essay on Choice Literacy recently. Koch shares a poignant story of her son who desperately wants to read from the "L bin" at school, but his reading skills aren't quite there yet. The book choices in his lettered bin seem dull and dry. Koch watched as her son's motivation to read drained slowly out of him. At the end the piece, Koch pleads with teachers: please reorganize those bins!
If you're not sure what Koch is talking about, she's referring to classroom libraries organized using Fountas & Pinnell's Guided Reading
leveling system. Many, many classroom libraries are organized this way. Books are given a certain letter rating depending on specific characteristics of the text, which are described in various places, including Matching Books To Readers.
Several free databases (like this one) exist to help teachers know how to level a book, and determine which titles are on specific levels. Other grids help parents and teachers know what grade levels correspond to specific letter ratings.
But the real issue is whether kids can (should?) read outside "their" bin and how "their" bin is defined for them. Because I'm sure many teachers will be unwilling to reorganize their bins for a different system, here are three considerations for teachers that may make Guided Reading bins more appealing to parents like Koch:
1. Look through your bins, particularly the lower-lettered ones. Does each bin contain some interesting books? Do they include fiction and nonfiction? Something to keep even the most unmotivated reader going?
2. Re-evaluate your system for having kids read only from specific bins. Is there ever a chance for free choice reading from any bin? This might be a great way for kids to get excited about new authors and series.
3. Perhaps most importantly, re-evaluate every child's bin assignment on a regular basis. What are your criteria for moving a kid in or out of a bin?
I don't know whether these considerations would quell Koch's concerns, but I love to hear what you think. And I'd love to hear your suggestions, too!
How young is too young for cursive?
My friend Cathy called to talk about her daughter's first grade teacher. Lilly, her six year old, started complaining about school a few weeks ago, and over the past two weeks the situation has gotten steadily worse. Cathy finally coaxed it out of Lilly that the problem is all about handwriting. Lilly's teacher requires that all school assignments, including spelling tests, be written in cursive. In cursive! In first grade! Lilly's handwriting is apparently not up to par, and she's had to do lots of extra practice sheets to work on her cursive writing. No wonder she hates school!
When I taught third grade, I taught cursive. My students had handwriting workbooks, and right after recess we'd come in and do a page or two of handwriting. The students LOVED handwriting time; it was definitely the quietest part of our day! I still remember looking across the room to see my students, usually with their tongue stuck out the side of their mouth, really concentrating on those loopy lines and "letter shields."
Third grade seemed like a reasonable age to teach cursive; their fine motor skills were fairly good, and their understanding of locatives (words used for spatial and temporal concepts such as "up" or "next to") was solid. But first grade? C'mon! My first-grader is still working on her letter and word spacing. I can't imagine her trying to link two letters together to write in cursive.
Some folks question whether we should teach cursive at all, given that most students will do most of their writing assignments on the computer anyways. Others suggest that maybe kids' interest in learning cursive should be the deciding factor as to whether and when to teach cursive.
What's your opinion? Should we still teach cursive to kids? And if so, at what age should we begin?
No more Friday spelling tests!
I think I'll open a can of worms this week and declare that teachers should abandon the age-old practice of Friday spelling tests. You know the routine (because you went to elementary school, and it hasn't changed): students get new words on Monday, "practice" them during the week using various drills; they take a test on Friday, and then on Monday, misspell the words and all the other words that share that spelling feature.
I'm not the only one who advocates abandoning the practice; in fact this blog's title came from a similarly titled 2005 Council for Exceptional Children article. Loeffler, the author, describes how this approach of teaching spelling fails kids who struggle, particularly kids with LD who have poor memory skills. She recommends using a spelling rubric (found within the article) based on student writing as an alternative to Friday tests. I have a few issues with the approach she suggests, but I do think it's a step in the right direction.
Teaching spelling well is a huge topic, one that can't be covered here in a blog post. But it's clear that we need to teach kids to spell in a way that makes sense. We know that spelling supports reading and that accurate spelling of words supports fluent writing. We also know that methods like this just fail our kids.
Let's start a conversation about what we can do to teach spelling well. Is your child a good speller? Do you see the "Friday test, Monday miss" phenomena in your house? How can we make sure each child's spelling words are at the right level of challenge? How can we teach sounds, syllables, morphemes, and something about word origin?
Raising money during tough times
Raising money is hard work, and our PTO's really feeling it. It's a combination of our fall fundraiser not doing as well as we hoped, and our considering postponing the spring fundraiser because of the financial pinch we all feel. It seems like every fundraiser goes back into the pocketbook of our school families. It might be time to take a break.
The money we raise as a PTO is used for important things! Last year we voted to buy books for our bookroom, support our publishing house, purchase some technology, fund an amazing songwriting project and more. There's nothing on the list that doesn't enrich our kids experience at school.
So, what's a PTO to do to raise money? One thing we're doing is beefing up our redemption programs. These are the programs offered by grocery stores and other retailers. By sending something in, or linking your bonus card, some percentage of your purchase goes back to your designated school.
For example, with very little effort, our participation in the Box Top program brought in over $1,300 last year and almost $6,000 since 2002. Our grocery store offers its own program. At Giant, points accrue with each purchase that uses the Giant Card. At the end of each month, these points determine your school's cash total and that $$ amount is automatically credited to the school's account. Other grocery stores offer similar types of programs.
Redemption programs won't be able to replace our major fundraisers, and one can argue that some credit-card based programs encourage the wrong kind of spending, but I think the grocery programs are a start. We're all already grocery shopping, why not reap some benefit from that?
In this economic climate, what fundraising efforts are working at your school?
Mindful of Words
I recently reviewed Mindful of Words, Spelling and Vocabulary Explorations 4-8 by Kathy Ganske.
The book is a great resource for teachers and tutors who work with upper-level spellers. Based in developmental spelling research and vocabulary learning, the book helps teachers understand how to assess students' word knowledge and how to teach in a way that encourages a love of words.
Mindful of Words picks up pretty much where her other book, Word Sorts and More left off, and covers the challenging topic of syllable juncture and derivational constancy spellers.
As with all her books, this newest one is full of practical, teacher-friendly ideas for implementing word study within a classroom. Word sorts are provided for teachers, and the appendix includes 100+ important words for math, science and social studies.
In addition to those helpful timesavers, throughout the book readers will find "Did You Know?" questions that explain something about word origin (for example, where "Saturday" gets its name, the origins of the word survey and skyscraper).
So…this book can not only help you learn more about how to engage older students in a mindful way in word study, it will also give you ice-breaker material for your next adult gathering! For example, do you know the origin of the word pumpkin?
My 8-year-old wants an iPod
My husband loves music; there's always something on in our house. His enthusiasm is contagious, and Molly has announced that "her own iPod" is on the top of her Christmas list. Which she's started. In September.
I'll admit I'm not crazy about the idea. I envision her wearing her ear buds all the time, tuning us out. She's promised she won't do that, and that she'll still talk to us! Even at dinner time!
Listen To Your Buds, is a campaign sponsored in part by the American Speech Hearing Association (ASHA) that helps parents and teachers learn more about volume levels and portable music players. From the site I learned that kids should wear earbuds that fit outside the ear rather than the kind that you cram in your ear. There's other good information there too, about loud noises and hearing loss and how the ear works.
What will Molly listen to? Mostly Camp Rock songs, I think. And a handful of other pop music that she's heard — Hannah Montana, and (gasp!) a Talking Heads song she heard during Nim's Island. At least that's something the whole family can dance to!
Parents' Choice released a Spring 2008 Audio Award Winning CDs
which might be a good place to start looking for music to load on an iPod, although 8 year old girls are interesting. Most days she seems to be 8 going on 15 and wouldn't be caught dead listening to "baby CDs." As Molly puts it: She likes "real music."
I'm going to dig around some more and do some research on audio books for kids (I'm familiar with AudibleKids, but their prices seem high!) before making a final decision. I'll let you know what I find out.
Using volunteers in the classroom
Sometimes parent volunteers require a lot of extra work for a teacher. Other times, parents work as a second set of hands but don't really work one-on-one with kids. Somewhere in the middle is a setting in which the time flies by with both the volunteer and the students benefitting from spending time together.
Here's the system I used for volunteers when I taught second grade. I put a desk and two chairs (one big, one small) outside my classroom door. I put a cardboard cubby box on the desk that contained (1) a file with my class list, (2) a file for each student that contained a book on their instructional level and a work chart, (3) pencils, erasers, and a stopwatch, (4) a choice sheet, and (5) stationery.
The choice sheet described 4 things the students and volunteer could do together. Each time, the volunteer and child would read over the choices, pick one, mark it on their work chart, and get to work. Volunteers typically worked for 10-15 minutes with each child. My kids needed to do each thing one time before they could do something a second time. The choices changed during the year, but not too much. My goal was to keep the activities purposeful and meaningful while also not requiring tons of prep work on my part.
Work Choices:
(1) Read to me! My parent volunteers all knew to come armed with a book they'd like to share with a child. This was often their own child's favorite book, and my kids loved finding out what book a parent brought. When they were done reading, the student would write 2-3 sentences about the book.
(2) I'll read to you! Parent volunteers would listen to the student read the book from their file. The volunteer would make any necessary comments about the reading on the work chart.
(3) Lightning fast! A beginning of the year volunteer training showed the parents how to conduct a timed repeated reading. After a 5-minute reading warm-up, this work choice asked the student read to same passage 3 times, always for one minute. Together they counted words correct per minute and noted the numbers on the work chart.
(4) Let's write a letter! The cubby always held stationery and envelopes. Together the volunteer and student would write a letter to someone special. I'd stamp it and send it home for an address and to be mailed.
It worked for me….what has worked for you?
Favorite classroom read alouds
A friend and I were talking yesterday about the chapter books we used to love reading aloud to our second grade classes. We both have vivid memories of hot and sweaty kids coming in from recess, settling into their desks and reading aloud for 10, 15 or 20 minutes (!) with the class begging for more chapters.
There's something so magical about the right read aloud. For second and third graders, classroom read alouds open up the mysterious world of long chapter books. Usually the read aloud book would be too much for the kids to tackle on their own, but they have complex enough story lines to satisfy the students' want for meatier tales. Most kids this age really want to move beyond picture books.
Here's a (very!) short list of great read aloud chapter books for second/third graders. Please comment in to add to my list! We'll create our own list and put it here!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A "no-brainer" for this list. Each chapter ends in a way that leaves kids begging for ONE MORE! Even if they've seen the movie, there's nothing quite like this book.
Mr. Popper's Penguins. With laugh out loud images of Mr. Popper and his performing penguins, this one never gets old. Many silly antics for your class to enjoy.
The Magician's Boy is a terrific step into the fantasy genre. Released in 2006, this shorter chapter book is about a magician's apprentice who finds himself intimately involved in a puppet show of Saint George and the Dragon. I don't want to give anything away, but I bet your class will recognize some characters along the way.
There are lots of good resources about read alouds. Jim Trelease, author of the Read Aloud Handbook, has a list on his site, and we've got good tips on reading aloud. There are literally hundreds of suggestions out there; everyone seems to have their own criteria and opinions. Whatever you read to your class, don't forget…have fun! It's contagious!
I have a boy! As a teacher! And he’s tall!
Those were the first sentences out of Anna's mouth when she read her teacher assignment for this year. Out of 20 classroom teachers at our school, there's exactly one male teacher. He teaches first grade, and Anna got him!
She's thrilled, of course. All the kids know Mr. B. All the parents love him. "Gentle giant," they say. "A real calm presence." Sounds good to me. I'll let you know as the year goes along.
Male teachers, particularly at the elementary level, are a rare breed! I looked around to find any recent data on the numbers, but I didn't find much. I did read a 2004 NEA news release Are Male Teachers on the Road to Extinction? and a few blog posts (here and here) on the topic.
What's your experience? Are you a male teacher? Have you (or your child) ever had one? I'd love to hear about it!
New school year = rough transitions for some
My friend Kathy has a son with mild to moderate disabilities. Henry is going into third grade this year, and I just got an email from her:
"Back to school" has special meaning for Henry. Transitions are tough for him, so these first few weeks of getting adjusted are hard for everyone. I know things will eventually settle down, but I wish these this time of year could be easier. So many tantrums and tears.
In Henry's case, he has an IEP in place and a special education team that will be looking out for him. For kids who struggle in school but don't have an IEP, this is a time of year when parents need to be extra vigilant. Do everything you can to make sure weeks of instructional time are not lost — your child doesn't have a moment to lose!
What can parents of struggling students do during these first few weeks of school? Here are a few ideas:
Set up a conference with your child's new teacher. He or she is swamped right now, but see if you can't find a 10-15 minute window to sit down one-on-one. Advocate for your child's needs within the classroom. This article, Taking a Closer Look: My Child's Academic Success may be helpful.
Help your child's new teacher get to know your child. What does he like and dislike? What subject areas are challenging for him? What extra support do you provide to your child? What are your goals for the year? Here's an example of a letter written by parents of a student with ADHD.
Was your child tutored over the summer? If so, see if your tutor would be willing to write a summary of what they worked on and any work habits that may be useful for a teacher to know.
Breathe. Your child will pick up on your anxieties. Trust that a few simple actions on your part will help your family get off to a great start.
Want to read more on the topic? Check out a new article on our sister site LDOnLine called September Thoughts: Reflections on a New School Year.
My girls are having their first day of school today! I've got a special snack ready, and am planning for a nice quiet afternoon. How do you ease your transition to school?
Arranging your classroom
Our babysitter is starting her first year of teaching this week. She'll be teaching kindergarten at one of our highest needs schools. It's an Open Court school, so while most of her curriculum is already prescribed for her, how she arranges her classroom is up to her. And she's filled with questions!
As a teacher, setting up your classroom is one of the most exciting parts of August! Where should the classroom library go? Where should the teacher desk go? How should the student desks be arranged? In my mind, each decision says something about how the classroom will run and what the teacher values.
For desk arrangements, this site, from Huntington College shows various desk arrangements, and the types of learning encouraged from various styles (my classrooms were usually a variation of the horseshoe or the group work plan). Our own article, Classroom Arrangement, provides guidance about some things to consider when setting up all your furniture.
For classroom libraries, I think I've mentioned this site before, but I'll mention it again because of its helpful pictures and labels. A second good site on classroom libraries is here. I like the breadth of topics on this site, including ways to acquire books, labeling the books, and creating a welcoming spot.
We'd love to hear what has worked for you, August is a great month for veteran teachers to share their expertise! What's your classroom arrangement like?
Open House: what does a good classroom look like?
Our school has an Open House the week before school starts. It's always a day or so after we find out our teachers for the year. School is open for an hour so families can help kids find their new classroom, and meet their new teacher. There's lots of nervous excitement in the air!
We start school early here (August 20), so our Open House is next week. The girls can't wait, and neither can I. The promise of a new school year never gets old.
It's fun to look around classrooms too — they're as varied as the teachers. There are a few things I always look for in a classroom. I know that some things can't be seen too early in the school year, but other things set the right tone for me.
First, how's the classroom library? Are there lots of books? How are they organized? If you're wondering if and why that matters, here's a good read: Understanding How Classroom Libraries Work.
Second, does the classroom appear organized? Piles of clutter and paper early on signal an "organizational style" that you may need to get used to. I've seen many classrooms where the teacher workstation took up so much space that there were few places where students could work! If you're in need of some organizational help, see Classroom Organization Sites for lots of resources.
Third, are materials available for student consumption? I always had a writing area in my classroom, stocked with paper, tape, scissors, glue…anything the students might need to carry out their work. I knew that if the materials were out and available, my students wouldn't need to interrupt a reading group to ask for a rubber band or a paper clip. Giving students access also helps build a sense of pride and responsibility within the room.
Last, (and somewhat controversial) is it a "store bought" classroom? I get nervous when I see bulletin boards and walls loaded with posters and graphics from teacher supply stores. In my experience, displays like those are somewhat static, and leave less room for student work and teacher creativity. I'd much rather see just a title on a bulletin board with the understanding that the board (and the class) is a work in progress!
What about you? What makes a big impression on you during Open House?
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