Book Review: From Striving to Thriving

This is a book I have been so excited to read. I love everything by Stephanie Harvey. I use her Strategies That Work book and The Comprehension Toolkit for whole class comprehension lessons.  There's a primary version that's awesome too. In fifth grade I use her Short Nonfiction for American History texts for the American Revolution, Westward Expansion, Colonial Times, and the Civil War. She also has From Striving to Thriving Writers: Strategies that Jump-Start Writing coming out in September 2018. I linked everything directly to the Heinemann site when appropriate because I love being able to have the online resources too. I have also linked to Stenhouse Publishers. However, the book I'm talking about today comes from Scholastic, so I'll be linking there also.

Clicking on the book cover takes you to Scholastic.

This book has just been sitting on my desk since the fall. I've been dusting around it just waiting to get to it, but last year was hectic at home and work and the summer slowdown finally gave me the time I needed. I think you'll love this book, plus Scholastic sent me an extra to give away so make sure you sign up to win a free copy.

From Striving to Thriving is broken up into three section: Trust, Teach, and Transform. I am going to mention just a few of the things I loved about each section so you can see how much this book has to offer to teachers of all grades.

Trust

This section is filled with chapters about cultivating curiosity, letting go of labels, increasing reading volume, setting up a strong reading environment, and so much more.

Teach

Matching books to readers, encouraging reading outside of school, comprehension strategies, digital material, and flexible instructional methods are just a few of important topics in the second section.

Transform

Part three includes assessment, analyzing data, and advocating for students.

This book is loaded with information whether you are a new teacher or a seasoned educator. There is literally something for you. I love how this book is loaded with action plans and research, lessons and practical advice. There is so much here.

Pages like this one run throughout the book to highlight what research tells us about reading. The authors make the research readily accessible to help you put the research into action in your classroom. 

But you don't have to just take my advice. You can also read more about this book on the Scholastic site by clicking here. You can also enter to win a free copy of From Striving to Thriving. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Task Problem Tuesday

Where did the past year go? Seriously...I don't even know where it went. Life was crazy at home, crazy at school, and the first thing to fall off my radar was this blog.  But I'm back and I'm looking forward to a less hectic year. I've planned out a blog schedule for the upcoming year and I'm excited to share some things that I've been working on. I also have some book reviews to finish up and some books to give away. So stay tuned. But for now,  I'm going to get my groove back by jumping right into another Task Problem Tuesday.


This is one of my favorite tasks for coordinate graphing. I use it as an introduction to coordinate graphs, input/output tables, and linear equations with my fifth graders.  I originally wrote it during a measurement and data class for a state math endorsement. I've used it in fifth, a friend of mine used it with fourth and with a little adjustment and maybe a little extra direction, I think you can have fun in third with it too. It's a pretty flexible task. If you have already introduced these topics, this task would also work as a great practice task or an assessment task.

Now get out some graph paper, rulers, colored pencils and get ready for some fun.

After we talk about the story, I give them the number of cans each student brings in. This is a good place to differentiate the task. Change up the numbers to make it easier for younger students. The numbers included in my problem have students starting with a set number of cans and then increasing daily. You can have everyone start with zero to make it easier. You can also limit your problem to two students instead of four.

Depending on your class, you may want to give one task at a time or you may want to display all five of these tasks. If your class likes a challenge, give all the tasks and let them get started.

 This was the best table anyone created.  Once it was finished, I had this student share her table and explain how it was organized. She did a great job of explaining an input/output table, I just had to give them the correct math terms. Most other students were still finishing their tables and some adjusted and used this student's ideas.

Getting it on a graph was a little harder. I had a few try to use a bar graph and line graph. It was really helpful when someone came up with something resembling a coordinate graph. I showed the class and we started talking about what others were doing. The discussion we had helped those who were trying coordinate graphs to perfect their efforts and it helped those trying other things to move toward coordinate graphs. 

Here are what a few others looked like after our discussion.

Task 3 was a question that most students thought was easy to answer. But we dug a little deeper into the mathematical ideas of slope and equations that work for all number of days in our discussion. A few students were able to write equations with variables that worked for all days and we called it a day. My students loved this task and I think yours will too. You can grab it by clicking on the cover image below. It's free at Teachers pay Teachers.

Click here to go to TpT and grab this free task.

Happy Graphing!

Disrupting Thinking

I've had Disruptive Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst sitting on my desk for a little while, it was one of my planned summer readings.  It didn't take long to hook me on this one.  I'm going to share some of the ideas that really resonated with me, but you'll want to read this book for yourself.

Clicking on the book cover will take you to Amazon.

These are some of the ideas that really hit me:

• Books should change the reader: books should disrupt, alter, and change the thinking of every reader in different ways.

• Tomorrow's Leaders need to do more than extract information.  They need to "learn to think creatively, critically, collaboratively, and compassionately.  To get there we need to change the way they think as they read."(page 22) As teachers this means we need to look closely at the questions we ask students.  Are we simply asking them to extract information or are we asking them to respond to their own thinking about the text?  "We ask students why Jess took Maybelle to Terabithia when we should be asking how Terabithia has changed their understanding of who they, the readers, are." (page 21-22)

• Book, Head, and Heart (BHH) Reading - We want kids to know what's in the book, we want them thinking about what's in their own head and we want them to recognize what they took to heart, what changed in them from reading the text.  This anchor chart is shown in the book to help students remember that we start with what's in the book, but ultimately need to get to how it affects us.   This chart would be great as an anchor chart or in a reading toolkit.

Honestly, there are so many great things in this book, I could go on with those bullet points for a long time! Other topics in this book include: 

• Silent reading and what research really does say
• Focused silent reading
• Best practices and next practices (things that may work better in the future)
• Disruptive practices
• Teaching about topics that are relevant to our students
• Giving students choice
• Using real conversation in the classroom
• Making change that impacts students and their learning

If you are looking to change how your students read, you'll want to pick up this book. It would also make a great faculty book club book.  

Happy Reading!

Favorite Read Aloud Books

One of the most difficult tasks in upper elementary classrooms is finding books that are brand new for your students.  I LOVE to read aloud books that no one has read and that can be pretty difficult by the fifth grade.  Here are a few of my favorite read alouds from the past year.  (Clicking on any of the covers will take you to Amazon.)

I start my year off with Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate because it's the recommended text for the Units of Study in Reading for Grade 5's Interpretation Book Clubs.  So while we are reading Home of the Brave together, I'm teaching whole class mini-lessons that deal with comprehension strategies.  After about the second week of school, I try to get my students into their book groups using realistic fiction.  There are a couple of things that I really love about this novel.  It's written in prose, so there's few words but so much food for thought.  It really provides a common ground for deep discussions and growing thinking.  The main character, Kek, is a refugee who escapes his own war torn county and joins some of his extended family in Minnesota.  The book moves seamlessly from funny misunderstandings as he tries to adjust to live in  America to scenes that help students build empathy as the reader learns more about Kek's previous life.  It is a fairly quick read that will have you hooked.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill was the last book that I read aloud to my fifth graders last year.  My poor class was worried sick that we wouldn't finish before the last day. But we did.  This is a fantasy novel that makes a great read aloud for fifth and sixth grade.  The tension builds up toward the end of the book and my students were begging to read more.  The book creates a lot of great discusssions centered around who the "bad" witch really is.  What happens when evil is called good and people are struggling to survive?  Would you stand up for something that's right, even if your life is in danger?  This is definitely one of my new favorites.  It's also the 2017 Newberry Award Winner.

 
Wonder by R.J. Palacio was absolutely one of my favorite books when it first came out.  The first year I taught fifth grade, no one in my class had read it and it was a fabulous read aloud with lots of great discussions. It's a little too popular now.  But because the movie is coming out in the fall, I am definitely going to read it to my class at the beginning of the year before they have a chance to see the movie.  I have to admit that the trailer looks good and I usually hate movies that are based on books.  In the book you never fully understand what Auggie looks like and the movie will definitely ruin that aspect so I won't be showing the trailers until after we finish reading the book.  Wonder is perfect for talking about issues such as disabilities, how we make others feel both intentionally and unintentionally, kindness, friendship and empathy.  Just make sure you finish the book before November 17.

 
I would love to read A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen during our historical fiction unit, but then I also want to read it at the end of the year when it fits into our social studies timeline.  So for the past two years it's ended up somewhere in the middle.  But regardless of when you read it, this is a great read aloud.  The story is about the Berlin Wall and how it affects one family who gets split up.  It brings out questions about government control, free speech, Communism, bravery, and the importance of family.  It's a fifth grade favorite at my school.

I was looking for something funny to read and Ungifted by Gordon Korman was the perfect book for my class.  This is a light-hearted book about a boy who doesn't find trouble, but makes it himself.  My students were hooked when Donovan gets himself in trouble and accidentally ends up in the gifted academy.  It's a story about self-discovery, friendship, and learning to help others all mixed into a hilarious mayhem of events.  

I hope there's a new book here for you to try.  Leave a comment with your favorite read aloud for upper grades.  Happy Reading! 

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Building Fluency in the Upper Grades

If your students are like mine, there are a few that need some serious fluency practice.  And they're the ones that don't love to read in their free time and definitely don't want to spend their time rereading.  Then there's the majority of your students who are great readers, but they really lack when they read aloud.  Last there's that student who is trying too hard to put expression into his/her reading and it's so distracting, plus a few who really do have great fluency.  So how do you help all of these students become more fluent readers?  Even more importantly, how do you get them to do repeated readings without hearing all of those complaints?  And what about those students who really do have good fluency, what will benefit them too?

Fluency in the upper elementary classroom is too often neglected. But here is an easy to implement fluency practice that your students will LOVE.

Picture Books

Go to your school library and pick out 30 repetitive and fun picture books.  I'm sure your librarian can help with titles.  I just went down to the basement and looked for the books my own children loved when they were 3 - 6 years old.  I picked out the books I've read so many times that I practically know them by heart even today.  Most of them are short, repetitive, and just fun.  I brought them to school and put them in a tub.  Right away my fifth graders wanted to know why these books were here.  They were so curious, but I waited until the afternoon to tell them about the books.  I figured a little anticipation wouldn't hurt.  

When our guided reading time finally came,  I gathered them around me and explained that I was worried about the students in the younger grades and how they really needed good reading models to help them learn to read.  We talked about how reading out loud is very different from reading to yourself.  I barely got past the fact that you need to slow down so your listener has time to think and my students were already thinking of people who were good at reading out loud and those that weren't.  They were thinking of adults who were good and some who they didn't like to have read to them.  (Ok, I promised, I won't let any substitutes read our read aloud anymore.  I had no idea they hated that!) I let them help start a list of what good reading models would sound like and what they would do.  I explained that we were going to practice to make sure we're good models for the kindergarten and first grade classes. Then I started pulling out the books one by one and giving a quick one sentence summary about each book.  

My students took 5-10 minutes each day for the next four days practicing for our first class.  Each student picked one book.  They read to themselves, they read to partners, some even read to their families.  They graded themselves, graded each other, and worked hard to make their read aloud perfect.  Click on the picture below to grab my grading sheet.

On the fifth day we met up with a kindergarten class.  I had more students, which actually made it easier to move around my fifth grade readers.  Each fifth grader took a kindergartener to a spot in the library.  They sat side-by-side and my fifth graders read their books.  The extra students stood in a line by me.  When a fifth grader finished, they raised their hand and one of the extras ran over and took their place.  Then the fifth grade reader hopped into line and waited to read again.  Most of my fifth graders read their book 3-5 times in the 20 minutes and they loved it.  We did it again with a first grade class the next day.  My fifth graders thought it was all about helping the younger kids and really enjoyed it. 

 Any picture books that aren't too long will work.  I especially liked rhyming or repetitive ones because they were easier for my students to get the flow of the reading. Remember that when the books are a little on the easy side, your students can focus on the fluency.  Here's a list of some of the books I used (clicking on the titles will take you to Amazon):

The Day the Goose Got Loose

Hip, Hip, Hooray for Annie McRae

I Need My Monster

On the Morn of Mayfest

The Seven Silly Eaters

Big Pumpkin

If You Take a Mouse to School

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (If You Give...)

If You Give a Pig a Pancake

Bedtime at the Swamp

The Napping House

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? (Brown Bear and Friends)

Chicken Little

The Rain Came Down

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

The Wolf's Chicken Stew

Where's My Teddy?

Duck on a Bike

The Three Little Gators

Watch Out! Big Bro's Coming!

Silly Sally (Red Wagon Books)

My Friend Bear (Eddy & the Bear)

The Magic Hat

Wild About Books

How I Became a Pirate

Alice the Fairy

Almost

The possibilities are really endless.  Just pick fun books.  I have a few other fluency ideas for upper elementary classrooms, so follow The Research Based Classroom to make sure you don't miss those posts.