Five for Friday - 8/21/15

I was just about done writing this post on Friday when my internet suddenly went out. It was finally fixed this morning. Two days without internet was unnerving. Anyway, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday--two days late.

1. I finally reached the first TpT milestone! It took a little over two years and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears...but I did it!

2. I'm so excited for the new school year! While I'll still be teaching reading intervention, part of my time will be spent as the literacy coach for lower elementary. I will be coaching and supporting teachers in all areas of literacy, but will be targeting Guided Reading. Before I begin coaching in that, I will spend the first few weeks supporting the teachers as they set their routines with literacy centers or work stations. Here are a couple books I've been using as a point of reference:

3. I had the opportunity to lead a 3-hour literacy workshop at my school. I was so nervous! I was worried the teachers would be bored or wouldn't find any of it meaningful. However, it went better than I thought it would. The teachers seemed really engaged and I got a lot of positive feedback.

Our school uses a very specific letter-sound correspondence and blending strategy that is a Direction Instruction model adapted from SRA Mastery. Here are some of the teachers practicing:

We also discussed the importance of using cooperative learning structures. Too often we assume students know how to talk to each other. We, as teachers, need to provide the students ample opportunities to interact with each other. One of my favorite cooperative learning structures is called Rally Robin. I played the video below to the teachers to show how I first teach Rally Robin to my students.

4. No matter how much I try, I never seem to be 100% satisfied with my classroom library. This year, I am sticking with sorting my books by guided reading level, but I also added the Lexile to each label on the book.

The Lexile really helps especially since students' comprehension levels vary so much. For example, I could have two children reading at a level H, but one child may struggle with comprehension more than the other. So I would give that child a level H book with a lower Lexile. The other student would read a level H book, but with a higher Lexile.

5. My school is bursting at the seams! Our enrollment increases every year and we are at capacity. Thank goodness we are breaking ground in a few weeks for our school's new location for the 2016-2017 school year. Because we lack space, I no longer have a classroom for my intervention groups. I will have to make-do with empty classrooms and hallway space this year. It will be a challenge, but the teachers have been asked to be as understanding and as flexible as possible this year. After all, it's just one more year and then we will have a brand new school all to ourselves. Anyway, I don't have my own classroom this year, but I want to show how talented my colleagues are. Their doors look absolutely amazing!

Thanks to Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting Five for Friday!

Happy new school year!


Mai

My Top 5 Guided Reading Mistakes

As I make my frequent stops to Target, Office Max, Lakeshore Learning Store, etc. to find the best deals for the back-to-school season, I'm also thinking about how I will teach even better during this upcoming school year. In addition to teaching reading intervention, I have the added responsibility of coaching and mentoring the K-3 classroom teachers at my school in best practices for literacy instruction. 

In preparing for my additional role, I have spent the last week reading Debbie Diller's Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All book. (While also working on my tan...)

While reading, I couldn't help but reflect upon my own teaching practices. I cringe thinking about my first few years of teaching. How did those children learn anything from me?? Well, I must have done something right because I spent the following years watching them move on from grade-to-grade. But I also came to understand that my teaching practice is always evolving. For as long as I'm a teacher, I cannot be immune to my mistakes. I will always be growing, learning, and improving upon my teaching practice.

I compiled a list of my well-intentioned approaches that just, well, wasn't effective. I hope this list will help you in your guided reading instruction. If you want to read more, I included the page numbers from Debbie Diller's book that I used as a reference.

My Top 5 Guided Reading Mistakes

MISTAKE #1: I didn't have a thorough plan before teaching. 

Often times, my plan for guided reading only involved two things: the students I'll be meeting with and the book I'll be using with them. Since the books are short and at an easy elementary reading level, I don't even read them ahead of time. Admit it--I'm not the only one--you've been guilty of this too! While there is nothing wrong with this "plan" and when you're meeting with so many different groups, it's inevitable that you will not be able to plan anything more than this from time-to-time. However, when I spent an extra few minutes planning for each group, the results among the children were significantly better. The skills taught were intentional and not just happenstance.

*Takeaway: Plan a skill you will be focusing on with a specific group of students with a book you have read in advance.

**Further reading p. 5-9 

MISTAKE #2: I only used the leveled readers from my basal reading curriculum.

The leveled-readers that came with the Scott Foresman: Reading Street curriculum were terrible. The readers had no F & P guided reading level, Lexile, or any useful leveling apart from the words below-level, on-level, and above-level. In trying to use the expensive readers my school purchased, I sorted my students into those three groups for my entire first year of teaching. (CRINGE!) Thankfully, I learned a more effective approach during a guided reading workshop. I assessed my students so I knew what books to use in small groups at their instructional level. Book sets were expensive though, so I used book sets available through my school, book sets donated by Half-Price Books, ordered book sets using points accrued from the Scholastic Book Club, and printed books from Reading A-Z.

*Takeaway: Use running records to continually assess the reading level of students. Use texts that the students can read at 90-94% accuracy.

**Further reading p. 4

MISTAKE #3: The students were doing round-robin reading.

Round-robin reading admittedly was the biggest mistake I made when I first started teaching reading. What was my reasoning for round-robin reading? Well, nothing more than my teachers did it when I was a student and I continued to do it when I started as a teacher. Keeping in mind that the ultimate goal of guided reading is to give the students enough reading practice so they can eventually gain independent reading skills. Round-robin reading does not achieve this goal. The students are listening to each other but rather than focusing on word-solving and comprehension, they are more worried about reading perfectly in front of their peers. Some students are bored when a child is reading too slow. Some students are frustrated because they lost their spot and can't follow along with the child reading. While it is important to give the students opportunities to listen to each other read, guided reading is not the time. Students will be reading their new text during your small group at the same time, but independently of each other and at their own pace. You will then listen for a minute or two to each student as they are reading.

*Takeaway: Allow students to read independently of each other and at their own pace.

**Further reading p. 8

MISTAKE #4: When students come to an unknown word, I gave it to them.

I still can't help but give the tricky word to students sometimes. I see students, parents, and even teachers doing this all the time. But if you just keep giving the word to the student, then you're not teaching them how to word-solve, which is an essential independent reading skill they are trying to learn. Now, when a student gets to a tricky word, I wait 3 seconds. The 3 seconds of silence is really uncomfortable for the student and often-times uncomfortable for the teacher. However, it is important to give the student time to attempt the word. After 3 seconds, I use several prompts such as:

• Look at the anchor charts to help you.
• It's a sight word we've been working on this week.
• Can you chunk the word?
• You say the first sound, I'll say the rest.
• It rhymes with...

*Takeaway: When a child encounters a tricky word, don't just give the child the word. 

**Further reading: p. 8

MISTAKE #5:. I didn't connect the skills during guided reading to other parts of the day.

One day during guided reading, we were talking about how the setting changed multiple times in a story we were reading. This boy in my group was able to describe the multiple setting changes perfectly. Then, during whole group, we were reading a class story. I called on this particular student to describe the setting, but this student seemed to draw a complete blank and looked at me as if he had never heard of the term setting. I was so frustrated because we had just talked about it for several days during guided reading. The next day during guided reading, he successfully described the setting of the story. I then said to him, "I want you to think about setting again later today when we read a different story during read-aloud. I want you to think about where and when the story takes place." The boy smiled and nodded. Later that day during read aloud, I asked the students about setting and the boy immediately threw his hand up eager to answer. I learned that I was teaching skills in isolation and therefore not being intentional in how I wanted to the students to transfer their learning to other contexts.

*Takeaway: Connect the skills students are focusing on during Guided Reading to other parts of the day.

**Further reading: p. 9-10 

New teachers and veteran teachers, I hope this post has been helpful for you. If you would like to discuss guided reading, please join me this afternoon (Tuesday 7/21/15) on Periscope @msmaihuynh at 4:15 p.m. CST. If you are not available for the Periscope, the replay will be available for 24 hours. Otherwise, please leave your questions or comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Mai

Monday Made It - 7/13/15

I'm thrilled to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. It has been over a year since my last link-up!

My sister, Linh, is very crafty so she is always inspiring me in many ways! Over the weekend, I helped her set up this amazing art corner in her house for her kids. It was really simple. My school is moving into a new building in one year, so I will definitely set this up for my art wall in my new classroom.

We first put the "Every child is an artist" decal from Amazon on the wall. This decal also comes in other fonts too on Amazon for about $14. 

Then, we used little white hooks from Target and screwed them right into the wall.

We used twine and connected it to the ends of the hooks. Yarn can also be used too, but twine is more durable and doesn't fray as easily. The clothespins look like the standard size in the picture, but they are actually mini-sized clothespins from Michaels. It doesn't matter what size you use though.

I will obviously use the white Command hooks in my new classroom so there is no damage to the wall.

The revision of my 1st grade morning work packet bundle is still in progress. The morning work packets I have up on TpT are aligned to Minnesota State Standards so the math review includes concepts like counting collections of dimes, nickels, and pennies which are not part of the 1st grade CCSS. After receiving requests from a few of my followers, I decided to revise the morning work packets so that the skills are aligned to the CCSS. It's been taking me a long time, but I hope to have them ready by the end of July or the first week of August. If you have already purchased the packets, you will be able to download the revised files soon!

Teachers are flocking to Periscope. It's exactly what the teaching community needed to connect with each other to offer teaching tidbits, stories about life, and support. I will be hosting my first LIVE Periscope broadcast today at 2:15 p.m. Find me @msmaihuynh. I will be posting a reminder on Instagram, so don't miss out on my introduction!

If you can't make it at 2:15, the video will be available for 24 hours for you to watch. You won't be able to make a comment, but you will be able to give me hearts by tapping on the screen.

Thanks to Cher from Mrs. Harrison's Hive for such an inspiring Periscope last night! Also, I joined Angie's (of Lucky Little Learners) Periscope this morning and read her "25 Periscope Tips" post, so I'm feeling a little more at ease. You have both given me the courage I need...I'm still nervous though!

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Thanks to Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for hosting today's Monday Made It. Click on the image below to join the linky!

As my good friend Stacy used to always say to me, "Walk with a purpose!"

Mai

Five for Friday (7/10/15) and TpT Seller Challenge #3

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another addition of Five for Friday!

Spending a week in Costa Rica with Chris was absolutely amazing. We were both so excited to have a nice and relaxing vacation. Although, I had to lecture Chris about taking care of his things though. I'm sure you can guess which passport belongs to him...

We stayed 20 minutes outside of La Fortuna at the Lost Iguana Resort. We made such a great choice with this resort. There were two different hiking trails on their 120-acres in the rainforest that kept us busy in the early mornings. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Here are a few pictures I took from the resort:

There is so much to do in Costa Rica so it was very easy to stay active while having fun. We did a night walk and a day walk through the Arenal Hanging Bridges Park, kayaked in the Peñas Blancas River, hiked over the lava flow of the 1968 Arenal Volcano eruption, and crawled through the tightest spaces amongst bats and crickets in the Venado Caves.

I'm really scared of bats, so the cave tour was really creepy, but turned out to be my favorite activity. The limestone was beautiful and the water was so refreshing because we got so hot and sweaty from all the climbing and crawling around in the cave. We didn't have waterproof cameras (why didn't we buy a Go Pro??) so we only took a before and after picture of the Venado Cave tour.

I am a little late with the 3rd TpT Seller Challenge: Make Your Masterpiece. I worked on it for two days as soon as I got back from Costa Rica. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The CCSS aligned 1st Grade Morning Work for Back-to-School follows the same format as my best-selling summer packets with each day including 5 math and 5 literacy problems.

If you like the 1st Grade Common Core Morning Work for Back-to-School, stay tuned for the back-to-school homework packet. Also, my 1st Grade Morning Work packets currently on TpT is aligned to Minnesota State Standards (we adopted CCSS for Literacy, but not CCSS for Math) but I'm working to revise them so that the packets are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. I'm halfway done with the year-long morning work packets, so you can expect the updated version on TpT by the end of July or the first week of August.

I love going out to eat, so I don't end up cooking too much at home, especially during the summer. However, the few times a do cook during the week, I always avoid using fresh herbs simply because I end up throwing 75% of it away. I try not to be wasteful so I usually end up using dried herbs. I was elated when I saw smaller packages of fresh, organic herbs at the grocery store yesterday and only $1.50! I made crusted pork chops last night and they tasted significantly better with fresh herbs.

Chris is slowly moving into my condo and my closets are exploding! Time to look into a closet storage system!

I finished my 3-credit Minnesota Writing Project Open Institute called "Writing Process and Thematic Inquiry: Writing for Social Justice" at the University of Minnesota right before I left for Costa Rica. I learned how important it is to design lesson plans with social justice themes. Bree Picower (2012) suggests that an elementary social justice curriculum is beneficial to help "students care about and critically understand inequalities in the world around them."

I created a lesson plan with the social justice theme of bullying. Bullying prevention needs to be addressed in schools as early as possible. Jensen, Brisson, Bender, and Williford (2013) found "A considerable proportion of students who bully their classmates in elementary school continue to be perpetrators during middle school." Hopefully my proactive approach will be effective at the elementary level, in turn, hopefully deterring acts of bullying at the secondary level.

I chose this brilliant book called Nobody! A Story About Overcoming Bullying in School by Erin Frankel from Free Spirit Publishing. I created a lesson plan targeted for 3rd grade students, but it could be easily modified for 2nd grade and 4th grade students. You can download the lesson plan for free for use in the classroom. No part of the download can be used in any other way without the prior written consent from me by clicking on the "envelope icon" at the top of the page.

References

Jenson, J.M., Brisson, D., Bender, K.A. & Williford, A.P. (2013). Effects of the youth matters prevention program on patterns of bullying and victimization in elementary and middle school. Social Work Research, 37, 361-371.

Picower, B. (2012). Using their words: Six elements of social justice curriculum design for the elementary classroom. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 14, 1-15.

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Thanks again to Doodle Bugs Teaching!

And a shout out to Third in Hollywood, Sparkling in Second, Peppy Zesty Teacherista, and Teach.Create.Motivate!

 

Have a great weekend!

Mai 

TpT Seller Challenge Week 2: Dare to Dream

I am loving this TpT Seller Challenge! I definitely experienced a severe case of TpT-burnout during the school year, but now this much-needed motivation is pushing me to revise my old products and create new products. There's nothing better than binge-watching "Parenthood" and "Orange is the New Black" while working on my TpT products. Thanks to Teach, Create, Motivate; Peppy, Zesty Teacherista; Third in Hollywood; and Sparkling in Second for hosting such a fantastic challenge!

There are many things in life that I wouldn't be able to do on my teacher's salary alone. With a lot of time, research, and hard work, my growing TpT business may help me reach my dreams. Here they are:

1. I cannot wait to finish the K-12 Reading License program at Hamline University. Earning this reading license will be the next substantial step in my teaching career. I've completed two out of the required six courses, but decided to put the rest on hold until I've saved enough money to pay for the courses in full without taking out loans or borrowing money from my sister. I still owe her money from the course I took nearly a year ago! At least she doesn't charge me interest like my credit card companies do...

2. I bought my MacBook Pro in 2009, but it's time for a new MacBook. While I love what I've been able to create with my MacBook Pro, I just want to toss it out the window every time I see this hostile wheel of death:

I added the maximum amount of ram two years ago and it helped a lot, but now creating classroom resources, polishing up TpT products, and completing homework has gotten even more complicated with an aging computer that is so incredibly s-l-o-w. Also, the battery wants to be serviced:

I suppose I could replace the battery and install a solid state drive to improve the speed, but that would cost me several hundred dollars. It's been 6 years since I purchased my last laptop, so I think it's time I treat myself to a new one. Hopefully I'll be able to purchase a new MacBook or MacBook Pro within the next year.

3. I had a great time hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal in 2007 and loved every minute I spent during my 6-week trip to southern Africa in 2011 so it would only make sense to make a trip to Tanzania. I really, really, really want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, but it would be a very expensive adventure. Perhaps summer 2016?

4. I was elated when I became a first-time homeowner last summer in July. While I love my home, I had to cut back in other areas to make financial ends meet. Before I owned a home, I had enough money to go to a very special gym, The Firm. I was addicted to their spin classes. They were so much fun and made an hour class feel like it was 15 minutes. This gym also offered yoga classes. They keep the classes pretty small so the instructors were able to connect with everyone to ensure we had the best form possible. I was really close to doing a handstand! Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the membership anymore after buying my home so I had to cancel it. I can't wait to go back and reinstate my membership so I can one day do a handstand.

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Week 1 of the TpT Seller Challenge, Makeover Madness, inspired me to update my old products. Last week's post showed my "Tally Marks" makeover. I started out with the intention of just improving the product cover, but then it turned into an all-day project. I ended up revising the format of all the worksheets, adding an additional activity and adding an answer key. This makeover madness motivated me to improve another math product, my "Counting Coins" product. I created this coin product a year and a half ago, so it definitely needed more than a cover update. Here are the changes I made:

I really need to stay away from my blog, TpT, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. for the rest of the day so I can focus on finishing my "Writing for Social Justice" lesson plan. I will be presenting it tomorrow for the last day of my Minnesota Writing Project class at the University of Minnesota. My 3rd grade lesson plan focuses in on the social justice theme of bullying. I will write about this and share my lesson plan and resources next week in case you are looking for something to do with your students in October for National Bullying Prevention Month.

Enjoy the upcoming weekend!

Ms. Mai Huynh

Five for Friday (6/19/15)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! This is the end of the second week of my summer vacation. Since I'm not teaching summer school for the first time in nine years, I thought I was going to have tons of time to relax, but this summer is shaping up to be one of my busiest summers both personally and professionally.

I love creating resources for the classroom, but sometimes I really lack the motivation to spruce the resources up with eye-catching covers to post onto TpT. While it's a lot of fun and the production involved serves as my creative outlet, sometimes I would just rather relax and stare at the TV. Luckily a group of lovely ladies organized the ultimate 4-week TpT Seller Challenge hosted on Teach, Create, Motivate. The first week of the challenge involves revamping a product or cover. I was totally on-board! If you are a seller and haven't joined yet, make sure you read all about the TpT Seller Challenge and join. Here's my first makeover I did on my tally marks product:

My second makeover is the BIG makeover. I spent a lot of time creating first grade morning work for my kiddos that were aligned to the Minnesota State Standards for Math and ELA, but now I've decided to revise it to align with the Common Core State Standards for Math and ELA. Minnesota is unique in that we were the only state to adopt the CCSS for ELA but not for math. Our math standards are currently being reviewed and there are many rumors that suggest we may be adopting the CCSS for math, but who knows. Rumors are rumors. Regardless of our state's decision, I decided to make the change because I got a lot of inquiries asking me to make Common Core aligned morning work. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of July. If you wish to purchase the Minnesota aligned first grade morning work, then you should do so now. You would then have the added benefit of being able to later download the updated CCSS version for no additional charge. It's a pretty amazing 2-for-1 deal!

I just absolutely love miniLUK puzzles. Children are highly engaged with the playful design while reviewing key skills. If you don't know what they are you should watch this short video to learn all about it. Even though it sounds like it, I am not affiliated with this company--I just want everyone to benefit from this great product. It took just two activities with me for my niece to complete the rest of the activities independently. She was able to check her own work too so I was able to keep the other little guy occupied!

Since there are so many approaches to education, teachers constantly need to be learning and being a part of professional learning communities in order to be skilled and effective teachers. My friends and family are always saying, "You're in school again??" Yup! I'm not seeking any sort of degree beyond my master's, but I'm always looking for additional opportunities, whether at the university or at a workshop, to further advance my educational practice. An area that I've never been entirely confident in is my teaching skills in writing, so I enrolled in a 3-credit course at the University of Minnesota called "Writing for Joy and Justice." Our course is based on Linda Christensen's text Teaching for Joy and Justice.  

The final project involves writing a lesson plan that addresses a social justice theme. I chose to address the social justice theme of bullying. I've been busy gathering and reading resources, so I'll share the lesson plan that will be written, in a later post. Anyway, while researching, I stumbled upon this amazing publishing company called Free Spirit Publishing--and it's based right here in Minnesota! Here's their incredible mission: "Free Spirit has had the same mission for more than 30 years: to provide children and teens—and the adults who care for and about them—with the tools they need to think for themselves, overcome challenges, and make a difference in the world." Needless to say, I found many books and resources that fit nicely within the climate I have and would like to continue fostering in my classroom. Here's the first two books (in which I imagine will be the start of my Free Spirit Publication collection):

I wonder how long my two nieces will continue doing the work that I've created. As of now, they don't even realize it's work. They actually think completing these worksheets is some kind of fun! Here's my niece working on her summer packet:

I'm so excited to have fun this weekend and work a little less. I'm going to Rock the Garden (one of the largest music festivals in the Twin Cities) tomorrow to see one of my favorite bands, Belle and Sebastian. And the cool thing? It's happening in my backyard...literally! They are almost done setting up for the festivities that will begin tomorrow afternoon.

Here's a picture taken from my balcony:

Then I'm going to spend Sunday with my daddy (I'm 33 and I'll never stop calling my dad my daddy) and the rest of my family. Happy father's day to the best daddy in the world!

 

That concludes another entry from Diary of a Grumpy Teacher. Until next time, please enjoy your weekend!

Mai