Education, Stading Style

My elementary reading group is part of the Global Read Aloud this year.  It is over 100,000 students around the world reading the same book.  With four books to choose from, students of all ages can be a part.  It is so exciting to be a part of this!  I chose Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper to be a part of this year.  This book is about Melody, a girl with a lot of challenges.  Will she overcome them?

We are doing a weekly Skype with another classroom within our school district, though 70 miles away.  We are also contributing to a classroom blog in South Carolina, and then doing other things as we come across like this Padlet about Melody’s fish, Ollie.

The school year moves quickly like a snake slithering through slime or a tiger tempted by the toes of tourists.  What have we been doing?  Each of the following deserved its own blog post but time doesn’t wait for the blogger and quickly these things are old news online.

• Skype:  My elementary group has so far skyped with two classrooms so far this year, one in British Columbia and the other in Alabama.  Feedback from the kids was that it was FUN.  We will work at doing it again.
• Penpals:  In looking for Skype classrooms, we found a classroom of pen pals in Spain.  We will be working together on a blog.  We’re a little disappointed that we can’t Skype with them, pesky time zones!
• Reading Scores:  Allow me a shameless brag that my elementary students did well on their quarterly comprehension test.  It is an anecdotal confirmation that the Daily 5 structure is working for the students in class.
• Write Tools:  Write Tools is mostly organizational strategies for expository writing.  While it seems a bit overdone to say it is magic, nevertheless, the tools have a great impact on all the writers I work with.  I attended an ‘advanced’ training last week and have more tools in my box and can’t wait to pull them out for multi-paragraph writing aka “The Essay.”
• Goals:  While no longer 100%, I’m still running at a ‘proficient’ level for both my paperwork goal and my Book Club goal.  My read-to-my-kids goal…well, that isn’t going as well.  My little kids at home are so busy!  They don’t stop long enough to read a book with Mom!
• Writing Contest:  Many writers in our school will enter a local writing contest, myself included.  Check back to see how we do!