Reaching Common Core through Writer's Workshop

So, I am sure that most of you are using the new Common Core Standards in you classroom this year. We started implementing them this year. When I looked at the Common Core Standards for Writing, I couldn't help but think that the writing portion of the standards is more about the writing process than standards we have had in the past. I started using Writer's Workshop in my classroom last spring, and my students loved it! Here is a brief overview of Writer's Workshop:

Writer's Workshop is what REAL writers do!

 

Writer's workshop is an  organizational structure that invites students to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum. Students learn to write daily through varied activities. In writer's workshop, students are exposed to the organization and thought required to create a story or write about a favorite topic and develop it into an understandable narrative with a voice and focus. Because they are allowed to choose the topic, students are motivated to create and complete works. Peer conferencing can become a central part to the creative process. The writer's workshop format includes story planning, revision, teacher editing or conferencing, and direct instruction in the conventions of English. This teaching technique allows students the opportunity to develop expression, revision strategies, and skill in writing, and encourages them to try a few new things during the revision process.

Writers Workshop can be paired with reading activities to create a powerful motivating, organizational structure when teaching literacy. Quality literature can become an essential source to model good writing, and a wise teacher will carefully choose books used as sources. In writing workshop, a teacher can quickly see a students vocabulary level, organization skills, their ability to learn, retain, and apply information, attention span, and how a student's abilities grow through the year.

 

 

There are generally four parts to Writer's Workshop. The first is a mini lesson. A mini-lesson is usually a 10 minute whole class activity. Mini lessons can vary from anything such as spelling techniques to teaching revision process. The next part of Writer's Workshop is "Status of the Class." I remade this board from secondgradestyle.blogspot.com to use in my classroom.

 

 

Status of the Class, is a time for the teacher to know where students are at in the writing process. This is also a good way for students to see who else is ready to revise and edit. This will help them to find a partner when it is time for the next step in Writer's Workshop- Writing and Conferencing. This is the part of writing workshop where most time should be spent. (about 20-40 minutes.) During this time, students work at their own pace. Students may be prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, conferencing with the teacher, or publishing a finished piece. The last part of Writer's workshop is Sharing or Author's Chair. This is the time when students get to share their published work. Author's Chair should last 5 to 10 minutes.

 

I have started implementing Writer's Workshop in my classroom this week. So far, so good! I will post more about the individual parts of WW in later blogs as well as share some of my mini lessons with you!

 

If you are ready to start learning more about Writer's Workshop and want to use it in your classroom then head on over to TPT and check out my "Learning Common Core through Writer's Workshop" packet.

 

 

Fall Means Apples

 

If you are a teacher like me, (which I'm sure you are or you probably wouldn't be reading this :) you LOVE fall! Fall means back to school, cooler weather, football, and of course... Johnny Appleseed!! and Johnny Appleseed means APPLES! I love apples! Growing up, my mother had our whole kitchen decorated with apple stuff. if there wasn't already a teacher in our school with an apple theme, I would totally do one! There is just something about apples. They are soooo classic teacher! Our first grade classes at our school do a big HUGE unit on Johnny Appleseed, so we as second grade teachers do not do much for this day. However, I cannot, as a teacher, go through September without even mentioning Johnny Appleseed or doing something fun with apples. Sooooo... I created this Apple Unit:

I had so much fun creating this! I love to think of new things that my students can do around a given theme. And what better theme for September than apples???? This product is available on my TPT store and you can get to it by clicking on the picture above. There are several Literacy, Math, and Science activities included in the unit. The last page of the unit is a list of other ideas to go along with the unit. I wanted to share those ideas with you today, because some of you may already have planned what you will do for your Johnny Appleseed Units, but these are just some more fun activities you could throw in :)

 

Here are the previews for my Apple Unit....

Head on over to TPT to check it out! I am also working on a Johnny Appleseed Crafitivity that I will be posting as a freebie.... hopefully TOMORROW!!!

Oh, P.S.... What do you think about me doing my first linky? I'm thinking of "Thinks My Students Say." My students are a HOOT this year! I am dying to share some of our funny stories and would love to hear some of yours! What do you think?

Inflected Endings

This week we are learning about inflected ending; -s, -ed, and -ing. This is always a really hard concept for my students to grasp. I think that the hardest part for my students is realizing that when you add "ed", you are not just adding a "d", but dropping the e and adding ed. This is a skill that we study twice a year. Last spring, I created this pack to teach inflected endings.

 

 

This product includes posters for teaching inflected endings such as adding ed and ing. Chants are also included that are helpful in teaching the rules for doubling consonants and dropping the silent e. There are also 2 games that are great for center or workstation activities. These games are super fun! My students loved them!

 

We learn these fun chants to help us remember the rules for inflected endings.

 

One Tired Teacher!

Week 3 and I am beat!! How are you all managing? I have a great group of students this year! But.... I feel like I am starting to sink! We have so many new changes this year! The biggest change this year is that we have to give actual number grades for Science and Social Studies this year, which is something that I did not even have on my schedule last year. We taught some science and social studies along with our reading stories but that was about it. Now we are having to add in a time for teaching science and social studies. With that, I have not even started center rotations. I feel like I am falling behind. Here is an example of my class schedule:

I haven't done reading center rotations yet so I am not sure if that will be enough time. But I do know that there is no time for math centers in this schedule which is something I really wanted to do better at this year. What do you think? What do your schedules look like? Do you teach Science and Social Studies? If so, how do you fit it all in????

On a side note, I would like to share some of the things we have been doing in class. At the beginning of the year, we read No David! and did a whole group activity in which we listed what makes a good student. We then turned this into an anchor chart that I will use all year. We also did a David craftivity and wrote our school rules. This was a freebie on TPT and I am not sure who to give credit for it, but it was wonderful!!

 My favorite was don't be gross and distracting lol!

This week, we read Exploring Space with an Astronaut. During this story, we learn about the planets and the sun and moon. It is a really fun week! One activity we did, was to put the planets in order by distance from the sun on black bulletin board paper. The fun part comes when I tell the students to bring a pencil and their project to the carpet. once they get to the carpet, I tell them to start poking holes all over their paper. The students have no idea why they are doing this, but they have tons of fun stabbing their papers with their pencils. It literally sounded like a hail storm in my classroom! Then, when all of the students were gone, this is what I did.....

See the stars???? The kids were so excited to come back in from related arts and see these hanging from the ceiling! This is a very temporary project due to fire Marshall regulations but they are so cute and the students love seeing the stars and their work hanging from the ceiling. We use these as a reference all week when we are working with planets. Anytime the students ask me a question, I say look up :)

Whole Brain Teaching Implementation

I am excited to announce that we started back to school Thursday! After a week and a half delay, I was so excited to be back in the classroom! I started teaching WBT rules last week. The students really enjoyed doing the rules with the hand motions. I also taught them class, yes, and we are working on Mirror. I think that we will continue to work on these concepts and maybe add teach, okay! There is just so much at the beginning of the year and  I am not sure how much my students will retain. How are you all implenting WBT? What are you starting with? I would love some more information about starting the process. The website gives great information but I would really love a layout of when to teach the different parts. Any suggestions?

Favorite Read Aloud Linky!

A Little late, But I am linking up with Teaching Happily Ever After to share my Favorite read alouds!

Tikki Tikki Tembo Is my Ultimate favorite read aloud! The kids really love his long name, and when I read it I do a really funny accent that the kids think is really funny.

Caps for Sale is another favorite of mine. When I read this I sing the lines, "Caps, Caps for Sale fifty cents a cap!" and when we read the monkey part we act out what the monkeys are doing. The students love when I get so mad at the monkeys! 

The Grouchy Ladybug, isn't Eric Carle the greatest??? He was my favorite when I was a child and still my favorite to this day! Again, when I read this, I always get REALLY grouchy!

My kids always love this sneaky little spider!

There are soooo many more books that I love to share with my students! I think any book can be a great read aloud, its all about how you read it! I always use lots of expression when I read and really try to make it come to life. For some reason, I can not do read alouds sitting down. I have to be standing so I can move around and really get into it. I feel like I get into it as much or maybe more than the students do! I can't wait to see all the great read alouds you all are doing!

Back to School..... Soon??

So most of you have probably already had your first day of school. I have gotten my class room ready, had registration night, met my new students and then..... "SCHOOL WILL NOT BE IN SESSION UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE"..... WHAT??? No school?!?!? That's right, our county commission and school board have been in back and forth discussions and meetings about funding our school system's budget. An agreement has yet to be reached, and our director of schools has delayed the opening of schools until an agreement can be reached. At first, I was very excited that someone was finally taking a stand and standing up for the students and teachers in our county. Our county is one of the largest in the county, yet we have the 49th (out of 92) smallest budget.... It has been a week and a half of discussions and meetings and I am ready to go back to school! I hope this issue gets resolved soon! Sooo to end on a positive note... I would like to share my completed class room pictures with you all :)

This picture is kind of blurry but this is my Wizard of Oz Door. I absolutely love how it turned out!

This is my closet door, I am going to post these classbook pages my students will fill out about themselves.

 Two of my Inspiring Wizard of Oz Posters that can be purchased at my TPT Store. :)

 Math Focus Wall. This is something new I am trying this year. I will post more about it, once I have gotten the chance to try it out...

 Messy middle round table. I think I am going to love having this round table here though. Excuse the mess... That was papers from Registration night.

 my reading area and Reading Focus Wall. This is new as well.

 My loft and I can Statements posting area.

Under the loft is where students will do fluency and word work centers.

 My desk/ Small Group table.

 Welcome :) and Whole Brain Teaching rules on the blue bulletin board. They are Wizard of Oz theme and FREE on my TPT!

 A view from the door....

 My table numbers

 Just another view...