Reading Rubric

Yesterday, I posted about what I do for the first 20 days of Reader's Workshop and how I have it planned out so far for next year.  I dedicated two days to teaching a Reading Rubric to my students.  This is how students will be held accountable during independent reading time.  Once it's taught and appropriate behaviors are modeled, students are expected to be "Shining Stars" each day.

If you would like a copy, comment below and include your email address.  I will email you a PDF file!

Thanks!

**Update: I have added a new version of my Reading Rubrics to my TpT store.  Check them out here!

First 20 Days of Reader's Workshop

I've been doing Reader's Workshop in my classroom since I began teaching.  But I've done different variations of it.  I've done literacy centers, stations, guided reading, and conferring with students individually.  At my current school, we are given the ability to do what we think is best for our students.  I have seen a mixture of Reader's Workshop and the Daily 5.  It seems like the Daily 5 is the trend right now.  I would like to learn more about it and see if that would work for me and my students.  But for now, I am doing Reader's Workshop in my classroom.  I do a mini-lesson, then the students practice what we learn and then read, and then we have sharing/reflecting time.

What I wanted to share today was how I do the first 20 days in my room.  The first 20 days are how you introduce your reading procedures to your students during the first few weeks of school.  I found some information online about it, but I mostly use resources from professional development workshops I've attended in the past.  I've always done the first 20 days in my classroom, but I would wait until school started and then get out all my handouts and pick which "lesson" I wanted to do that particular day.  Since I have so much time on my hands this summer, I wanted to plan ahead by going through all my resources now and planning which "lessons" I want to do when school starts.  I am working on writing out actual lessons for each day, but for now I can share the topics that I'm planning on teaching and in which order.

Day 1 - How to gather on the rug; Readers read every day

Day 2 - What is Reader's Workshop; What do readers read

Day 3 - How to take care of our books; Introduce classroom library

Day 4 - How to preview a book; 3 ways to read a book

Day 5 - Making good book choices (Just Right books); How to put books away

Day 6 - Why readers abandon books

Day 7 - Reading rubric

Day 8 - Reading rubric

Day 9 - Reading is thinking

Day 10 - Thinking and talking about reading

Day 11 - Good listeners/sharing

Day 12 - Book boxes

Day 13 - Reading spots

Day 14 - How to use anchor charts

Day 15 - Solving unknown words

Day 16 - Solving unknown words

Day 17 - Buddy reading (EEKK)

Day 18 - Buddy reading (EEKK)

Day 19 - Reading toolkit

Day 20 - Review

That's how I have it planned out so far.  Some other topic ideas for lessons are:

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Small Group Expectations

Book Recommendations

Are there any important topics I'm missing?  Do you have something about the first 20 days you want to share with me?

Positive Postcards

I've been thinking about positive notes home for awhile now.  I've heard about a few variations of positive notes and postcards to send home to parents, and I finally just went for it.  Last night I created and ordered Positive Postcards to use next school year!  I ordered them through Vistaprint.

My plan is to use one per student each semester, so that all students in my class receive two throughout the school year.  I want to write a message on the back and send them to parents when their child does something wonderful or is successful in our classroom.  This is a new thing for me this year and I'm excited to begin it.  I'm hoping it will help remind me to focus on my students' successes.

Here's what they look like!

the front

the back

Inspirations

I'm taking it easy today after celebrating the 4th of July yesterday!  We took our boat out and had all sorts of problems.  But we did manage to have a few drinks and enjoy the water.

As I sit at home this summer, I am getting inspired to make some changes in my classroom decor and teaching strategies this next school year.  I have taught first grade for four years and I will be teaching second grade next year.  I am getting very excited about being able to teach some new stuff and make changes to how I teach.  I am working on a lot of stuff here at home, but I'm not quite ready to share any finished ideas yet.  So I thought I would share some of the inspiration that I've found.  You can click on the link under each picture to go to the original site where I found each idea.  Once I complete each project I will be sure to share it on my blog!

From The Hands-On Teacher

From Mom's Party Cafe

From Mrs. Bond's Fantastic First Grade

From Altered to Perfection

From Etsy - Our Hobby to your Home

From Dandelions and Dragonflies

From What the Teacher Wants

Money Saving Tip

My last few posts have been recipes, so I thought I'd share something about life today.  As you can see, the title for this post is "Money Saving Tip" buy this is actually a money earning tip!  Even better, right?  Does anyone else ever watch Extreme Couponing?  I'v seen it a few times, and sometimes I wish I had the determination to find all those coupons and spend $35 a month on groceries!  Well, this tip actually doesn't have anything to do with coupons.  BUT it does help you save and earn money.  It's called Mr. Rebates!  A friend from work kept telling me about it - how you sign up, and buy things, then they send you checks.  I'll be honest, once I hear I have to sign up, I usually say no.  I don't like getting a bunch of emails with "discounts" and "coupons" where there's always fine print.  I finally gave in, and my friend showed me what it's all about.  You do have to sign up, but it's quick and painless.  Then whenever you do shopping online, like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Shutterfly (and SO MANY more) you sign in to Mr. Rebates first.  Then find your store, go through to the link, and order away.  For every purchase you make you get a rebate.  For example, I make 5% back on what I order from Shutterfly.  If you order anything online, it's worth it!  My friend orders everything online, so she makes a good deal of money back.  I only order online if I can't get what I want in a store or if it's free shipping.  Check it out just to see what it's all about.  Look at the pictures below to give you an idea!

Mr. Rebates Home page

How to join

Search for a store and it shows you all the discounts

You can see that I've made $30.81 so far, and that's just for ordering things online

It's not for everyone, but I thought I'd share in case it's your kind of thing!  Also, if you do sign up, you can put my email (cyndiliskey@yahoo.com) as your "referral email" and I can get a little treat.  The same works for people you refer!  Go on, go to Mr. Rebates to check it out!