Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Looking for the perfect reading experience this and next week?

Fluency, we know, is one of five pillars for reading instruction.   I did some action research on the effectiveness of RT and the results were overwhelmingly positive.  My students made significant gains in reading fluency and had fun doing it.  Wicked motivating. So I thought I'd share this...


Reader's Theater works best in a 3-5 Script Reading.  Day 1 is a cast reading and vocabulary day.  Day 2 is a first reading with students giving and getting feedback.  Day 3  is dress rehearsal  and DAy 4 is the Big Show.

Invite another class to watch. This motivates readers to reread and reread until they perform it with prosody and perfect expressive pacing.

http://learni.st/learnings/379838-reindeer-names-a-christmas-readers-theater


I have rubrics and other resources if you would like to launch a RT with your students.  I have science and social studies scripts as well.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Teaching Vocabulary

Concept Circles are an effective tool you can add to your literacy toolbox.  C.O.D.E. suggests we ask students to delve deeply into new word learning and Concept Circles can offer that kind of deep learning.

Here is a link with info explaining this strategy and also will find the PDF for CC's on this link.  I've included a file to download on HGS Announcements.   I plan to use this weekly for words students will be collecting on Vocabulary Bookmarks and adding to their personal Word Walls.