Literacy Resources from Jen Bengel
Do you use readers theaters in your classroom? They are such a great way to:
I’d love to give you a FREE set of 3 scripts! Simply click the links or images below to grab your free scripts now!
If you’re looking for a quick review of comprehension skills, then this is a great opportunity for you to try a free week of daily reading morning work!
If you’re looking for a quick review of comprehension skills, then this is a great opportunity for you to try a free week of daily reading morning work!
• Learning about diversity
• Growth Mindset skills that build empathy
• Daily reading comprehension practice• Differentiated learning
• An ‘I Can’ statement with a helpful reading comprehension reminder.
• An original story for each week. Stories are broken into 5 sections, so that students read a different part of the story each day of the week.
• A custom illustration to match each day.
• A challenge activity.
• A ‘Pro Tip’ for students to think deeper about the comprehension focus
• Two multiple choice questions about the passage that are related to the mini lesson focus statement.
• One open-ended question about the comprehension skill.
• Use them as bell work at the beginning of the school day.
• Use them as a warm-up to reading during your reading workshop.
• Use them as ‘exit slips’ at the end of the school day or reading workshop.• Place them in a literacy center for comprehension.
• Use them in guided reading as a quick warm-up to the lesson.• Send them home for extra practice and support!
• Have students work in partners or small groups to complete the daily work.
• Use them for tutoring.
• And any other way you see this working for your unique schedule and student needs!
Shauna is a third grade teacher in Texas. This is what she had to say about implementing Reader's Theaters into her very own classroom:
"At our school, we are required to integrate social studies into language arts. One way I found to do this is with Reader's Theater. We are in the middle of an economics project based learning. I found the economics Reader's Theater to be just perfect. My class was so excited to try these and had a blast doing them. Over the course of the week, we learned about such things as goods and services, wants and needs, supply and demand, opportunity cost and being a responsible consumer, all through this Reader's Theater. I literally had cheers each day when I would tell them it was time for reader's theater.
What I really liked was the collaborative work that took place among the groups. Each Reader's Theater is differentiated. I split my class into 3 groups and had them teach the class about their topic through the scripted play. As the students practiced their lines, there are also included discussion questions to guide their learning. They loved presenting to the rest of the class. This is a great way to get listening and speaking grades too. After they finished, they completed a true/false exam. I love this because they take the test before they read the script and after too, so you can see the learning that takes place. They can also do additional lists that are differentiated with each play. All of this is included in Reader's Theater. Go check them out NOW!!!"
Take a look at the Reader's Theaters in action!
If you love to integrate fun and collaborative lessons in your class, this is a great resource for you! This resource is SUPER special because it includes EVERYTHING you need to have a successful Reader's Theater experience with your class and allows you to put into practice everything you've seen here today. You can check out all my Reader's Theaters HERE!!
I’m super excited to offer a way to try out ALL 26 levels {from A-Z} in The Guided Reading Program I've created at Out of This World Literacy™ for free!
**Just add the leveled text and students and you’ll be all set for Guided Reading!
**Quickly plan and teach Guided Reading lessons with these objectives and table cards.
**Assess students’ understandings of the reading skills with the graphic organizers that work with any text they’re reading independently.
"It is definitely worth the price because of all of the wonderful graphic organizers and accompanying questions that come with it. I love that the I can statements are already written on the graphic organizer for me. These graphic organizers really help engage my students and support their understanding of our learning target for the week."
Megan F.
"This has improved my practice! So easy to collect data with the standards listed beside each question. I use the passages for close reading and use guided reading prompts as scholars read the text aloud! Its a WONDERFUL resource. Thank you!"
Lena H.
"This resource is a life saver! I am new to upper elementary guided reading, so this has been my life line. Thank you!!!”
TyLee H.
"This is such an awesome resource! One of my favorite purchases from TPT. I Love how I can see the progression of learning for each level and it's connected to common core standards. LOVE it! It's so clear and easy to follow. Thanks so much for your hard work! Can't say enough about this product. Thank you!"
Shellye M.
"This resource takes the guess work out of planning for guided reading! This is an amazing time saving resource. Every thing you get is this bundle is fantastic. This product has helped me to plan for guided reading independently without having to compete for the limited resources that the entire schools shares. Thank you for making a product that makes planning for advanced readers so much easier."
One Urban Teacher
I hope you can enjoy this free Guided Reading Support today!
Happy Teaching!
Jen
I’m super excited to offer a way to try out EVERY level range {from A-Z} in The Reading Intervention Program created by Out of This World Literacy™ for free!
**Each passage contains everything you need to teach fluency, comprehension, word work, and vocabulary!
**Gather data through progress monitoring for ORF, comprehension, word work, and vocabulary.
**Discover how quickly and intentionally you can work with students using the Reading Intervention Program passages.
The reading passages work great for small group instruction including tier 2, tier 3, and guided reading groups. Because they are short passages, they can be read quickly, allowing more time for rich discussion and higher-level thinking.
Use the passages to quickly assess which level range each of your students falls into. Organize instruction and small groups based on student results from running records and comprehension.
The Reading Intervention Program written by Out of This World Literacy™ underwent two years of research from a pilot team. Grab all the research for free by clicking this link.
Hear what they have to say:
This tool raised 4 of my students reading levels by one year in three months!
Theresa P.
This is one of my absolute favorite resources I have ever purchased on TpT. I am LOVING using these with my high second graders. Thank you for all your hard work on these!!
Shelley S.
If you haven't already bought this, DO. IT. Hands-down, best money I have spent in my teaching career.
Mrs. G in Third Grade
You have made my progress monitoring a million times easier. I know these are for RTI but these will be a great way for me to document growth/progress toward IEP goals for specific skills. Thank you times a million!!!!!!
Renee V.
AH-MAZING! Your product is amazing! I am so excited to get started with this intervention resource with my kiddos! Thank you for all your work! Our district should be paying YOU instead of Fountas and Pinnell! 😉
Love in Learning
These have been a great tool in my special education classroom!
Amelia R.
Wish I would have had this years ago. It's everything in one!!! LOVE it
Jodi L.
This is an outstanding resource!! Thank you so much for making these reading intervention bundles. I highly recommend them, they are so easy follow and the students really enjoyed all the readings!
Jennifer E.
As with your other products, this is wonderful! Thank you for putting it all together in one place! This helps me to help my students become better readers.
Jamie H.
This is a great fluency resource, because it is very comprehensive. I love that the students have to answer questions about the passages, so that they are reading for meaning as they improve their speed. Thanks for creating this wonderful resource!
Karl K.
Great to use in small group instruction--and it doesn't take forever. The nicest thing is that it's still READING!
DeaGramatica's Literacy Land
These intervention sheets are GREAT! Thank you! You have made my intervention time a lot easier to plan!
Jennifer L.
Once inside the crash course, you'll be able to quickly discover all the ELA resources available.
You will see each curriculum broken into easy-to-digest sections, with...
It's super easy to navigate through all 10 sections. And, you can go at your own pace!!
Have an awesome day!
Jen
Hello friends!
Have you ever wished for a way to gain access to every resource created by me, Jen Bengel?
Up until now you would have had to purchase each resource separately.
But, today you can get it all in one spot with the brand new OOTWL™ Membership Site!
Why a Membership Site?
Think of the site like Netflix™ (I mean, who doesn’t love Netflix!?)…
Once you become a member and make your first low monthly payment, you’ll gain INSTANT ACCESS to EVERY resource Out of This World Literacy™ has created!
You’ll be AMAZED to see that you have access to it all…you can download from the full library of resources anything that you need.
Like Netflix™, as long as you pay your monthly low fee, you can keep your access.
Check out everything you’ll receive as an Out of This World Literacy™ member!
Now you will have a place to go to get EVERYTHING you need for your literacy instruction in one spot…all year long!
Here are some big changes that will happen as soon as you become a member!
The membership site will be closed to new enrollees on Feb. 1 at 11pm CST. It will not open again to new members until late summer.
I hope you can join the membership site!!
Happy Teaching,
Jen
Post ID#6277 is not a valid giveaway.
With the holidays right around the corner, I wanted to send some gifts to you…
and say a big thank you to all the amazing work you are doing with students each and every day. There is no end to the impact you have on each child’s life.
Just yesterday I was in the Target self-checkout line with mounds of Lego and Nerf toys for my boys when I heard an excited, “MRS. BENGEL!?” from behind.
You know that sound!? It can only come from a former student. I spun around to see one of my beautiful little 3rd graders all grown up and eager to tell me about what’s happening in her life. She was ecstatic I remembered her name…of course I did! lol
But, for real, those moments are a treasured reminder of all the hard work teachers put in day after day, conversation after conversation.
So, to say thank YOU for all your hard work, please enjoy these 12 days of Christmas gifts!!
How to Receive Your Gifts:
I wish you all a very Happy Holidays!!
Jen
This blog post is for you if…
The Mini Units for Mastery include everything you need to plan, teach, re-teach, and assess 36 different comprehension skills all year long!
Here are 6 steps to organizing the Mini Units for Mastery…
I hope you find these ideas for organization helpful!
Happy teaching,
Jen
Hello! Today I wanted to take some time to discuss what exactly are reader’s theaters and some of the roles that go along with them. Reader’s theaters have evolved and moved from theatre classes and into everyday literacy instruction for young students.
Reader’s theaters are a fun and creative way to get students involved in listening, speaking, and reading! They create not only a fun environment in the classroom but a sense of collaboration and community. Here’s everything you need to know about reader’s theater!
Two or more people read a brief piece of writing from a script, assuming the roles of particular characters. So in reader’s theaters, there will always be at least be two characters, but most of the time even more! These students will have their script and their assigned character from that script and will read each part when it’s his/her time.
Reader’s theater may be performed in a variety of ways for an audience. You can be as creative as you want with this! The great thing about them is you can go over the top with props and actions, or simply just read the script normally and both ways are still super effective and engaging with the students. Essentially, you can spend one day on a script, or several days planning a more formal presentation.
Reader’s theaters are NOT memorized and don’t have to necessarily be acted out. Students don’t have to worry about memorizing lines or parts, they simply just read off of a script. The voices are the main focus of the reader’s theater. Actions can enhance a particular meaning but the student’s voices reading the scripts carry the most weight.
You can always assign roles earlier and send home scripts. This allows students to really practice their roles and will cause them to really want to bring their best. The more invested the students are, the more exciting and effective the reader’s theater presentation will be.
And lastly, reader’s theaters are fast paced and fun! Your students will love being thrown into these roles and acting out different characters. Other students will enjoy hearing these stories being read to them by fellow classmates! It’s great for all students.
So we’ve discussed what reader’s theaters are, now what are some of the roles students will play in them?
The Narrator:
The narrator’s responsibility is to read the neutral and descriptive parts of the script. The teacher can be the narrator or if you wish. The role of the narrator often has more lines than other roles. Sometimes there are 2 or 3 different narrators to break up the lines.
Characters in the Script:
The next roles to be filled in reader’s theaters are the characters inside the script themselves. The teacher assigns individual students to read specific dialogue from the characters. Students love to read out these characters dialogue and will have fun doing it with their classmates. Most scripts include different levels of difficulty. There can be basic, average, or advanced character roles.
Group Roles:
The great thing about readers theatre is that not only will certain students be involved, but the whole class will be apart of them! With group roles, all students can be assigned to read aloud in unison or just the boys/girls can be assigned to one part. This invites the entire classroom to be engaged and bought in, rather than just the main characters.
I hope this has really helped you understand what a reader’s theater is and some of the roles that come along with it. Reader’s theaters are a great and fun way to teach literacy. In my next blog, I’ll go over 15 benefits that come from readers theaters. If you would like to see all of my reader’s theatre scripts available, you can check those out at readertheater.com
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today I have 4 quick tips for you when asking students questions in your class. Plus, these work awesome in any subject! So let’s get started!
Allow for those awkward moments of silence in your classroom. Embrace them. If students don’t answer your question right away, it will be okay, I promise!
Count to 5 in your head, and then ask the question in the same exact way! Asking the same question, but in different ways, often times leads to confusion. Your students are now trying to process 2 questions instead of just one even though they both are the same question! Again, don’t be afraid of the silence. Kids need time to process the question before another is thrown at them.
If after a couple of times you’ve given the same question in the same phrasing and they still don’t understand, then its time to rephrase. Again, even if you have to rephrase, wait for a little bit to give the students time to process the question. Don’t fill that empty space with more questions or information.
Once the student finally processes the question, whether when its first asked or later, try responding with the phrase “Tell me more.” This gets the student to think deeper. Often times students will only give you those surface-level answers. By using those three words you give students a chance to think deeper and on a higher level. And don’t be afraid of a little silent processing time.
Start implementing these tips into your everyday classroom routine and you’ll see a much larger response from your students!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today I wanted to spend some time on the classroom library and more specifically, how to organize it. The classroom library can be one of your greatest assets to your class! It can very easily become your student’s favorite spot to go to and spend time, and that is exactly what we want! In order to achieve this though, you have to make sure your library is set up properly. So let’s get started!
One of the things I personally like to do when organizing my library is to create a space that makes a U shape. I then put a beautiful carpet in that space and make this amazing little spot for my library. I collect all my books in bins! So I’ll get some plastic bins and I’ll use index cards to label each bin! I’ll label the bins based on the types of books that are in them. So I might have a bin that’s labeled “Adventure”. Some other bins that are labeled might be “record books”, “fairy-tale”, “sports”, “silly”, “informational”, “scary”, “drama”, or “classics”. I may even label a bin based on the author. If have a lot of books by Beverley Cleary, I’ll label one bin Beverly Cleary.
A lot of times I’ll do a book talk before my reading workshop and I’ll tell the kids about all the books that are available in the bins just to get them thinking about what’s available in our classroom library. As the year goes on and the more I learn about my students and their interests, the more I’ll be able to add different bins to my library. For example, if I have a class of kids who are really into horses this year guess what I’m going to do? I’m going to look for as many books as I can that talk about horses. This allows me to start a couple different bins about horses. Maybe I’ll start a realistic fiction bin or an informational bin all about horses. For some years I had kids that really got into big-foot and the Bermuda Triangle so I made bins relating to those topics. I then filled them up with as many books, magazine articles, or any material related to those topics. When you cater to the needs of your kids you know your kids will enjoy reading the books!
I want my kids leaving the year we had together knowing that they enjoy reading, are excited to read, their confidence in reading was built, and they have fun when reading! Reading is something we can enjoy for the rest of our lives! So hopefully you can begin filling up your bins with things that are interesting to your students each year as well. If you’re in the search for reading materials for your class check our all my Interactive Read Aloud’s.
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today might be the very most important blog yet! It might even be the most important thing you do all year in literacy. The best part about today is that it’s actually super easy to implement this strategy and you can start doing it as soon as you’re done reading this!
So what am I talking about? I’m going to share how and why you need a class “Books We’ve Read” anchor chart in your room. To begin my “Books We’ve Read” anchor chart I start out with a big piece of paper of butcher paper or an anchor chart. Then I make 4 columns on that chart. The first column I put the title, the second one is the author, the third is the genre, and the fourth is the date. As I read books to my class as an interactive read aloud, I add those titles to my “Books We’ve Read” anchor chart. So I have this running list of books we have read as a class. You don’t have to get super fancy with this either or maybe you want to! Some people go full on Pinterest with there chart. But for me, I just like to have a nice simple running list all year long and I keep it up as an anchor chart. This grounds all of my learning that I do with my kids in my reading and writing workshops and even in grammar and English.
So what are the benefits of having this chart up? Well for one, those books become mentor text for your reading and writing workshops. So say you read a book to your class in November, you can pull that book off the shelve in April if it fits the lesson you’re teaching on and they will remember what it was about. You just remind them of a few pages and the memory will come back to them of when you read it together. That book now becomes an awesome mentor text for your lesson that day. When you have the “Books We’ve Read” chart on your wall you can quickly look back and have this amazing visual chart of all the different things you’ve read together as a class and think about which book would be a great mentor text for your lesson you’re planning. You can use these books all year long and the kids won’t forget them.
I also love that you can see all the learning you’ve done as a community. That’s another great benefit for having the chart up. You can compare characters in the different books. By having a conversation with your class and drawing their attention to the “Books We’ve Read” chart, you can talk about which books have characters that are the same or have characters that are very different. You can even look for patterns in genres that you’ve covered in your class as well. Maybe you’re reading a lot of biographies or your class loves fiction or poetry. It’s a great way to compare genres.
You can also quickly look at the chart and use any of those books for an upcoming lesson. It’s a great visual representation. You can recall an author’s writing style, use it as an example of writing styles within certain genres, and identify themes across books, authors, and writing styles. You can even compare books about similar cultures or topics that you have read together by analyzing your chart together.
So if you’re not keeping a “Books We’ve Read” chart the good news is you can start today! It’s really simple. All you need is a marker and a piece of chart paper. Make and label those four columns of title, author, genre, and date, and start writing down the books you’re reading with your class today! I hope this has inspired you to keep a “Books We’ve Read” chart in your class! If you would like to try an engaging yet no planning required text, you can check out all my Interactive Read Aloud’s HERE!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today I’m sharing 10 little knowledge nuggets all related to teaching writing. My challenge to you is to latch on to one or two of these “Ah-Ha” moments for teaching writing. Spend the day thinking about a few ideas that really resonate with you as a teacher of writing. Decide how you can expand these thoughts and implement them into your class to help your young writers today. Here we go!
1. This Idea comes from Carl Anderson’s work in the book called “Accessing Writers”. He says “Let’s stop calling the time before a rough draft pre-writing. Our students are actually writing here! Instead, let’s call it rehearsing.” I love this idea of shifting from a pre-writing mindset to a rehearing mindset. The students really are writing during the rough draft stage so why call it pre-writing? Rehearsing is a much better fit.
2. What do we as teachers understand about writing, and can we bring to the table to teach our students about writing? Think about that today. What do you really understand about writing and what do you actually teach your students about writing?
3. What does an effective process look like? For you personally what does your process look like? Take some time to think about this so that you can transition this into teaching your young writers about the process of writing.
4. Let’s take some time to watch our students write and access what they do. Try taking some time today to just step back and watch. Be an observer. Are they re-reading their work? Do they spend time rehearsing or jump straight into a rough draft? How is there writing stamina? Are they writing for more than five minutes or is it five minutes and then they’re done? These are some great example questions we can find the answers to by observing our students.
5. The most important thing we can teach our young learners is to see themselves as writers. We want them to see themselves as real writers who have something important to say that matters to this world and no-one else can say it the way they can. Start addressing your students as writers.
6. As teachers, we need to accept that writing can get messy. We have to be okay with lots of marks, fixes, corrections, and do-overs. We can’t just focus on conventions.
7. Just like students learn math differently, they all have their own approach to the writing process. We need to teach different ways writers write and give students the option to try out what works for them as a writer.
8. To have an effective writing process kids need flexibility. They need to be able to try out new approaches to their writing.
9. Our young writers must have an audience and a sense of purpose so that they can see their writing as not just another assignment, but rather as something of great value for themselves and for their future audience.
10. Teachers need to be writers in order to teach writers. We cant lead students where we ourselves haven’t gone. So make sure you spend time writing on your own as well! Maybe even have some fun writing with your students.
I hope this chat gave you some ideas to take and sit on about how you can improve your ability to teach writing. If you would like to check out my line of writing activities you can click HERE!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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So often our young writers struggle with being able to focus for more than a few minutes. This is especially true at the beginning of the school year, or after a long break away from school. Today I’ll share one of my favorite writing mini-lessons with you on how to help students build their writing stamina.
I begin the lesson by writing the mini-lesson statement on an anchor chart piece of paper before I meet with the class. The mini-lesson statement I use goes like this:
I also write a title for a list the students will help me complete. The title of that chart is “Ways We can Build Our Writing Stamina”. So on the top of my anchor chart, it says “Writers work to build their writing stamina so that they can spend more time doing their best writing”, and then I have a title that says “Ways We can Build Our Writing Stamina”.
To start the lesson out I’ll get everybody out, read over the statement, and then I’ll talk about how writers need to work on building their stamina so that they can write for longer periods of time. Then I’ll mention to them that we’re going to practice that. I’ll give the kids a few examples of ways we can build stamina. I might say things like “Practice writing for a little bit every day!” or “Write down all of our ideas and thinking and not just the ones we think are the most important. Then I’ll invite the kids to help me add to the list that our class comes up with. After a few kids share from raising their hands and inviting them to learn, I will put those ideas on the list. Then I’ll have everybody get actively involved by having them turn and talk to a partner about other ideas we can put on our list.
Here are some things your student might say, and of course, they can come up with all kinds of unique ideas. You might have on your list: “Ways to build stamina is to keep our minds focused on our writing.” So, talk about being focused when writing and not on other distractions like what’s for lunch or what am I going to do tonight. One might say re-reading our writing to get more ideas, this helps build our stamina. So talk about going back over and reviewing your own writing and letting our imaginations take over and not being so worried about language and spelling, but just simply giving ourselves that freedom to write. Understanding that there is no wrong answer when we are writing and to keep writing down whatever our brains our thinking is key to remember.
By using the prompts in this lesson I get students to understand the importance of building writing stamina. We start practicing right away. I like to use writing prompts to help begin their writing on topics that interest them.
I hope you can use this lesson to help build stamina with your writers of all ages in your class! If you need student-friendly writing prompt ideas you can check out my writing work HERE!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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If you have yet to read my latest blog post where I define the 6 characteristics of interactive read aloud’s that make them so great, I highly encourage you to read it HERE.
Today I’m going to share 5 big payoffs that come from doing interactive read aloud’s in your classroom. So even if I didn’t have you convinced to be using this teaching approach after the last blog, this will hopefully really get you thinking! So let’s dig in a little deeper into what makes interactive read aloud’s so remarkably powerful.
1. The reason that interactive read aloud’s are so great is because it creates a shared experience that contributes to rich literature circle discussions. Kids will understand how to have conversations about books because of all their interactive read aloud experiences.
2. Reading lessons in reading/writing workshops are amazing to use! The interactive read-aloud books that you are reading to your class will become invaluable tools as examples of what good readers and writers are doing during your workshops. So they really are the heart and soul of your lesson.
3. Reading and writing conference discussions are another great place to use what you’ve done during your interactive real aloud’s. You can use the interactive read aloud books during a one-on-one conference to provide support for your young readers and writers.
4. When your students are reading and writing independently they can use the interactive read aloud books to look over again for ideas about thinking like readers and writers.
5. Guided reading and strategy groups are a great time to look back and use those interactive read aloud books to quickly introduce a skill or review thinking during these small group times.
The best part about interactive read alouds, aside from all of these things, is that it really levels the playing field. Readers can learn with grade level appropriate text that includes rich interesting content regardless of there individual reading levels. All students can think and talk about books even if they can’t read and decode those words by themselves. They can do this by listening and contributing in a read aloud. This is great news for ensuring that you are covering grade level standards for kids who are a year or more behind in there reading abilities. I hope this explanation helps you think more about using interactive read aloud’s and their power today. Especially in literacy instruction.
If you love reading aloud to your class, I have a great resource for you! This resource is SUPER special because it includes EVERYTHING you need to have a successful Interactive Read Aloud experience with your class and allows you to put into practice everything we learned here today. You can check out all my interactive read Alouds HEREIf you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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To see more literacy support visit jenbengel.com
Some of you may be unsure as to what an interactive read aloud is. A brief description is when the teacher reads a picture book, or a section of a chapter book aloud to the class and engages the students in becoming active participants in the thinking and reading. They’re not just passive learners. We as teachers aren’t simply reading to them. Let’s dig a little bit deeper into what exactly an interactive read aloud is by going over 6 characteristics that make them up. Each one of these descriptions will give you a better understanding of interactive read aloud’s.
Both the teacher and the students think about, talk about, and respond to the text. Instead of the teacher reading AT the students, the teacher actually engages students in conversation and thinking.
The students are engaged in the text, therefore, the learning is active. It is not passive.
Students process information, language, ideas, and make connections just as a reader normally would.
The teacher stops intentionally at places planned ahead of time to share thinking. So the teacher will plan a few places before reading aloud to stop to share his/her thinking and invite the students to share their thinking as well.
The read aloud is interactive and fun. There is no way to plan ahead for what listeners might share when they are talking about a text which makes read aloud’s unique and fun!
There is a shared text experience. The conversation is grounded in a shared text experience that is new every time. You can read the same book to the class and have a different experience each time!
I hope these 6 characteristics help you gain a deeper understanding of interactive read aloud’s and helps you discover just how valuable this time is. If you love reading aloud to your class, I have a great resource for you! This resource is SUPER special because it includes EVERYTHING you need to have a successful Interactive Read Aloud experience with your class and allows you to put into practice everything we learned here today. You can check out all my interactive read Alouds HERE. If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today I would like to talk to you about some classroom library do’s and don’ts. I’ve got a few things that you should not do in your classroom library as well as some things you SHOULD do in your classroom library. Let’s get started.
First thing I always say is, do NOT level the books in your classroom library. I am a firm believer in keeping the books leveled behind the scenes. I only use book levels for my direct instruction with students, like in guided reading. I want the classroom library to be a place where there is no leveling. I don’t want to tell my kids you can only read books that are a level “G” or that are the color red. So I keep the levels behinds the scenes. Instead of organizing them by level, I organize them by either genre, author, or by interest.
Another thing to keep in mind is to not have “open” classroom library time. Instead, establish library times in advance. At the beginning of the year, and sometimes in the middle, as a refresher, I will do a mini-lesson in my reading workshop about the classroom library. In this mini-lesson, I will establish the times that are appropriate for students to be visiting the classroom library. We will come up with rules and expectations and make an anchor chart. Then, I’ll take that anchor chart and display that right there in the classroom library. That way, there will be no excuses for a student to be in the library at the wrong time. For me personally, I like the times to be either before school, after school, between class, or maybe right before recess. Whatever is an appropriate time in the day for your class to be visiting the classroom library, set that up and make that plan together.
Do not limit the students book choices in your classroom library, instead, teach students how to choose books that are appropriate for them. Teach them to choose books not only appropriate for their ability, but for their interest as well. Not every book will be interesting to every reader. So, teach students how to find books that are a good fit for them.
Another thing to keep in mind is don’t depend on students to organize and label your book. This is a big one. I’ve done this in the past and its gotten me into trouble. Instead of having your students help you, use your best judgment to group and label books on your own. As your library grows, of course, you’ll be adding more bins, books, and labels. Just make sure you are the overseer of that because even with the most trusted students, it can get messy.
Also, I recommend having someone on library duty. At the end of the day, this student will go to the library and make sure that everything is right. All the books made it back to their bins, and that the library is clean. That’s another great mini-lesson you can do. Talk to your kids about how to check out books and how to put them back correctly so that everyone can enjoy the library for the entire year.
I hope this chat helps you to think about how to organize your classroom library and to think about some things to do and not to do with it. If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today I want to talk about the difference between old school traditional spelling programs and the differentiated spelling approach. So many teachers I have talked to have told me that the old way of teaching spelling just doesn’t cut it for them and that they wish there was a different way to meet all of their spellers needs. Well, what if I told you there was? Today I want to take a little time to compare traditional and differentiated spelling programs. Here we go!
In a traditional spelling program, every student gets the same list of words on Monday. It doesn’t matter if that student has all the words spelled correctly and they’re going to ace the test for Friday or if they will never do well on Friday at all. They still get the same list of words. In a differentiated program, however, every student’s list is unique to his or her own ability levels as a speller.
Another difference is in a traditional spelling program, words are pre-generated from a curriculum. Often times the teacher has all the words for the entire year already ready to go at the beginning of the year. They come in a boxed set. It doesn’t matter what the student can or can’t do, they’re just all ready to go. Whereas in differentiated spelling, the words are actually generated by the students and through their own writing. So there really personalized to the student’s abilities each week.
In traditional spelling, the focus is on basic thinking, oral recall, and rote memorization. Whereas in differentiated spelling the focus is on word strategies, solving words, and understanding word parts. In traditional spelling, the words are always isolated to that list of 20 words, so it’s more memorizing than learning for the students. In differentiated spelling, the learning of those words patterns can be made in connection to those other words. So there not just thinking about the words that are on there list that week, they’re thinking about what other words may have the “igh” pattern in them.
In traditional spelling words are not in the context of reading and writing, they’re just on a list. There’s no deep meaning. In differentiated spelling, words are often used in context so that there is a lot of high-level thinking going on. Students are practicing those high-level skills such as analyzing, predicting and connecting. In traditional spelling, the words are often isolated to just one week. So not only are they isolated to just a list, but they’re also isolated for just one week. Monday you get your words, Friday you take your test and boom! You’re done. You start the whole process over on Monday. You never think about the words you just learned. However, with differentiated spelling, the leaning builds week after week! It lasts all year long.
In traditional spelling programs students study to take the test, so they learn for the sake of a test, and not for the sake of understanding words. In differentiated spelling, they study the word to spell correctly and they learn for life. They aren’t just learning for a test, there learning for life. Traditional spelling programs are often boring and very passive. The teacher is bored so of course, the students are bored! But in differentiated spelling the learning is fun! Kids are actively involved and taking there own personal role in the learning.
And last but not least, in traditional spelling, you are really just memorizing spelling rules. Such as, when there’s an “e” at the end of a word it makes the vowel say its name. In differentiated spelling, though you are learning patterns and you are actively involved. Just look at all the differences there are between a traditional spelling program and a differentiated spelling program:
So the biggest takeaway is that when you use a traditional spelling program you’re teaching to the textbook. You’re teaching whatever that textbook says for the entire year and you can’t really take into consideration the students needs. When you use differentiated spelling, however, you are teaching to your students! You’re finding out their abilities and then meeting them there to teach them at their instruction level. This way, they will make the most gains as spelling throughout the year. I hope these comparisons have helped you see that there is a need for a differentiated spelling approach for our students to reach their highest potentials. If you’d like to check out an interactive spelling program for grades 2-5 that differentiates spelling instruction while still teaching the grade-level standards for FREE, click HERE!!!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Today I wanted to quickly go over the 3 tiers of instruction for literacy. These tiers are common across many grade levels in schools. They are great to understand exactly how instruction can be differentiated to meet the need of all literacy learners. While these 3 tiers are widely known and practiced in schools, the actual content, lessons, and teaching strategies inside each tier can vary greatly. There are a lot of factors for these variances, including, student needs, schedules, and types of curriculum that might be available for teachers in schools. Let’s dive into these 3 layers.
Tier 1 is known as the start of literacy instruction. It is the time when educators teach the entire class a lesson. It is almost always based on a specific grade level standard that needs to be covered and is appropriate for the average reader at that grade level. So tier 1 instruction is the overarching blanket of instruction that every reader at that grade level should receive. Often time for the majority of students, this is the most instruction that they need before going off to practice the skill on their own. However, some students are reading below grade level, or beyond their grade level, and these students require additional support. This is when tier 2 instruction comes into play.
Students reading 1 or 2-grade levels below their matching grade level need additional support on top of their tier 1 instruction, this is known as tier 2 instruction. In a tier 2 level of instruction, students meet in groups of 3, 4 at the most, to receive additional support on top of their whole group tier 1 instruction. This instruction will target a specific skill that students have demonstrated a lack of understanding in. Typically a research and evidence-based intervention program is used to provide instruction. Usually this happens about 3 to 4 times a week here. Again, this can vary based on schedules and student needs. Tier 2 interventions last approximately 20 minutes. They can be led by the classroom teacher, a specialized teacher, or maybe even a trained aid, tutor, or school volunteer. To be effective the intervention program must be implemented with fidelity. Often times the teacher collects data in the form of running records and comprehension checks. On average, in a tier 2 intervention, the teacher conducts a running record on each student either weekly or bi-weekly to track reading progress. This also allows you to monitor whether the student is making gains with this intervention.
When a student does not show enough progress through data collection in a tier 2 intervention, he/she may require a more intense form of instruction. This is known as a tier 3 intervention. In tier 3 interventions the instruction is often more intense, it lasts longer, and it is more individualized. It will happen on a one-on-one basis. More data will be collected in a tier 3 intervention as well. This is often for students who are 2 or more years below their grade level. Running records are typically taken weekly and more data for progress monitoring is collected. The type of instruction in tier 3 is often the same research or evidence-based curriculum being used in tier 2 but at a more intense one-on-one support level. If a student still is showing no signs of progress after going through all tiers of instruction, it may be time to explore more alternative options for instruction, such as testing for special education services.
I hope this explanation of the 3 tiers of reading instruction helps you understand the layers of support for literacy learners. If you teach literacy and would like to try a free week of a research and evidence-based Reading Intervention Program for all grade levels that has everything you need to plan, instruct, and progress monitor at each of the tiers of instruction, click HERE!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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Several teachers have approached me before asking how they can revive or motivate their reluctant readers. This issue seems to be a common problem for teachers alike. So I thought I would take a minute to share some ideas on reading motivation. Today I’ll be sharing 4 ideas and mindsets to help even the most reluctant readers in your class. These strategies have worked for me over my years as a classroom teacher and I’m sure they can help you and your students as well!
This is a question I got from a teacher just recently. She asked, “My upcoming class of fourth graders are somewhat unmotivated. How do I keep them engaged and excited about reading independently without forcing them to?” This was a great question that I’m sure many of us as teachers of had so I thought I would share some ideas. I’ve got 4 ideas for this teacher and for you!
You’d be surprised at how often our kids are simply responding to our own attitudes. If we come into class tired and really down, they’re probably going to follow our lead. But, if we come super excited they’re going to hopefully follow that lead as well. So be really excited about the books that your reading. Get really into it, even dramatic. I promise you, its okay.
One year when I was teaching fifth grade, I had a group of students that got really into the Bermuda Triangle. They couldn’t understand what was happening to all the boats and the planes. It turned into a huge mystery within our class. So guess what I did, I collected as many books about the Bermuda Triangle as I could find: informational books, option books, magazines, articles, chapter books, picture books, personal narratives. Any type of book, realistic or fiction, that I could find about the Bermuda Triangle, I collected. This got my kids, who originally weren’t very motivated, really interested in reading those books. Because we were socially engaging in conversation so much around the Bermuda Triangle, they wanted to read about it as well. They were really motivated. We also got really into Bigfoot that year, whether the Sasquatch was real or not, so I also collected a bunch of books about that. So whatever your class gets really involved and into, start collecting books and articles around that topic and build it up.
So if you have kids who are reluctant readers but know they are really into video games, look for articles or books, about cheat codes or how to win a video game. Get them excited about those types of readings. When you have a reluctant reader but have a book they’re interested in finding out about, it changes their whole demeanor.
When you are talking to your students about books that their reading, sometimes we can get caught up in collecting grades or taking notes from them, but let’s just try to pause for a second. Have a conversation about books just for fun. Model to them what real readers in the real world outside of your reading workshop class do when they talk about books. Ask questions like “Did you like the book? Was it fun? Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing!” And if you only are getting one-word answers from them, be really engaged and interested. Make good eye contact and just focus on that conversation. I know as teachers we have 1000 things going on, but just slow down, and take a minute with those reluctant readers. Tell them that’s fascinating. If they mention something about a boat getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle, tease their interest. “You’re kidding me?! It got lost? I need to know more about this.” I use this specific three-word phrase all the time: “Tell me more.” And they’ll reply with “Well the boat just never got back.” You know, because they don’t really want to talk, they’re reluctant. So I’ll say “It got lost? How in the world did it get lost? Tell me more!” And I’ll change the way I phrase “tell me more” so that they stay engaged and I slowly begin to peel the reluctance back layer by layer. That simple phrase gets them thinking intrinsically to want to say things about the book they’re reading.
The overall theme, is to be really, really excited. Be the motivation for them to actually want to take ownership over what they’re doing in the class. I hope this has helped you to get excited about motivating your reluctant readers to want to read more. If you would like to try a FREE sample of my Reading Intervention Program you can click HERE!
If you enjoyed today’s lesson you can find this post and many more on iTunes, Spotify, or Alexa Briefings. Click here to listen
Happy teaching!
Jen
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To see more literacy support visit jenbengel.com
I'm giving away free Guided Reading support for all 26 levels, A-Z!
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There are 8 schools in this refugee area. There is one more refugee resettlement with another 8 schools.
Learn how here...http://bit.ly/2IJfKUx
As many of you know, I'm in Uganda with my son (who's from Uganda).
We visited a refugee resettlement, where 60,000 people from South Sudan are living to escape the war in their country.
There are 8 schools at this refugee area. There is one more refugee resettlement with another 8 schools.
The children get one meal a day at school.
In order to feed the 52,000 children, the government of Uganda is requiring a $6,000 tax on every container of food that is being donated. They will NOT allow the food to leave customs until the tax is paid. (I know, right 🙄😒)
Please click the link above to learn how you can enter the giveaway AND help these beautiful children.
I call this a WIN WIN!! 😍🤗
There’s no better feeling than being with fellow teachers, learning from each other, and building each other up in our journeys to change the lives of students.
These teachers are world changers and I had the honor to spend some time with them today!
