Literacy Centers & Student Achievement

Recently, I gave a professional development to the teachers who are new to my school as a requirement for the last semester practicum of my Master's (yippee!). The PD was focused on how to teach in and through literacy centers. But, not just any literacy centers. Real, data driven, standards based literacy centers. 

RIGOR is an important word these days with our new Florida Standards (as with Common Core). The goal of this presentation was to give teachers a deeper look into providing center activities that required students to do more than move task cards, match cards together, or order magnetic letters. I am not against the former. Yes, there is a time and place for both. However, the teachers that were in this PD were interested in how to create activities that would promote the thinking and writing that we are pushing for with our new standards.

After many requests, I've decided to share some of the slides with you below. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Before we start, I know many people cannot call daily academic activities "centers" anymore, because administration and some researchers associate centers with play. "Stations" is becoming the popular term because it seems more work-based. However, my school still uses "centers". Please think in this mindset as you read. :)

Why should you teach through literacy centers?
Literacy centers allow us to gradually release students throughout the year. We teach them directly in small group when they are just beginning, and then as they become more knowledgable, we allow them to work on their own. This gives students a turn to practice and reinforce the strategies that we teach them.

When students are at centers, it is easy to differentiate their work. Differentiation is also not as obvious to other students when it is done in centers. I can have completely different activities going on, but students do not realize it because they are around the room working in groups. Integrating content is SO simple when you teach in a classroom that is full of centers. Students can connect material throughout the day in reading, math, social studies, and science.

And of course, you can plan centers to align directly with your standards.

Finally, literacy centers should include the 7 main components of reading: comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, writing, speaking & listening, and vocabulary. Jen Jones, from Hello Literacy, calls these the Big 7 Rocks of Literacy.

If you do not have centers up and running in your classroom, the first thing you will need to do is figure out a layout for your furniture. Furniture should be placed in a way that will promote movement. In primary classrooms, it is convenient to have activities rotating around the perimeter of the room. In the picture above, you will see my first grade classroom last year. I placed my small group table in the back corner (with the ball chairs). My centers were then placed around the perimeter of the room so that I could "keep an eye on" everyone. Students who were reading would sit on the carpet in the center of the room. I liked this set up because the groups of students were separated just enough so that each group was able to stay on their assigned task.

Centers do not have to be at tables that are separate from desks. Frequently, I would set a center bin at a group of desks. Students would sit at that group of desks to complete the center. We also use the floor a lot. Students LOVE reading and completing sorting activities on the floor!

Is your school in love with data?
Mine is! There are state assessments, county assessments, school-wide assessments, grade level assessments, in class assessments, and observations. Whew! It can make a teacher crazy. However, we can use the important data to help us create center groupings.

In my classroom, I use summative assessments to determine reading groups at the beginning of the year. At this point, I do not know much about my students or their strengths and weaknesses. As reading groups are used throughout the first few weeks/months, I use the subsequent summative assessments to regroup students.

Formative assessment is perfect for taking note of how students are reading. While in small group, I use black return address labels to write little notes or observations that I see. At the end of the week, I simply peel each label off and place it on the inside flap of the specific student's folder. These notes are wonderful during conference time. I am just beginning to use the app Confer to do this same thing. See my previous post about this data tracking app here. Formative assessment helps teachers to differentiate center work. Don't wait for a formal test to change a student's assignment! If you see something that they need, go for it!

Mini-lessons are the first part of my day.
I teach a short 10-15 minute mini-lesson to introduce our topic of the week or review something that we need to practice. I always love using literature, a short movie clip, or a song to grab the students' attention! As teachers, we often teach too long in the beginning of a lesson because we are excited about the material. When we think about it, we are talking and students are "listening". It is important that we let the students do the talking. When you keep a mini-lesson short, it leaves time for students to show their independence on that particular skill.

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Literacy Centers
When you begin forming your literacy centers, you should think about the centers that you want to include in your classroom. Everyone has different preferences here. I had 6 different centers in my first grade classroom: read to self, spelling, word work, computers, content area, and work on writing.

How do you rotate?
Above is my rotation chart. I had three reading groups that I met with daily (horizontal across the top). These were homogeneous groupings. Vertically on the left, I had "center partners". These were heterogeneous groupings. One child from each of the reading groups was placed together as "center partners". So, at the end of the day, each student went to two centers and my small group.

When I asked students to find their first center, they would all go to the center in the first column. Three students would be at each center. Then, I would call my first reading group "Cardinals". One child from each center would come to me, leaving two kids at the center. This continued during reading group two and three. After about two weeks, I didn't need to send students to their centers first. They learn quickly and know to just skip the center during their reading group time!

Differentiation is my favorite part of centers. Centers make differentiation so simple! Look at the image above to see some fun ways to provide students with instruction that is at their individual levels. I love these ideas from two of my favorite teacher bloggers! The Brown Bag Teacher uses folders that are color coded to match student reading groups. These folders are placed in each center activity bin. When students go to the bin, they just grab their folder and begin working! Miss DeCarbo differentiates word work by integrating student choice and differentiated sight words. Students keep words for a short time or for a few weeks...depending on what the specific student needs.

Remember, these images are from the PD given to my school. In our county, social studies and science are NOT given separate times in the day. We must integrate social studies and science (and math!) into our reading block.

Integrating content into literacy centers allows teachers to create thematic units in the classroom. Students in my classrooms have always enjoyed learning when it is built into what they are reading. Using nonfiction texts or magazines in small group is a great way to integrate! As students begin to discuss and respond orally to what they are reading, it is easy for teachers to incorporate the new speaking and listening standards!


I compiled the following literacy block examples for different grade levels in my school in order to show teachers how to use the same topics and standards throughout many centers throughout the week. They may not work for your students or your curriculum. Please remember, these are just examples! :)

I also wanted to show teachers how the same six centers can be used in K-5 classrooms. I created these little charts as a way to show the progression of ideas and activities within each center from grade level to grade level. Again, these are just examples! Add or subtract anything you wish.

Small group is my favorite time of day. I love the "almost" one-on-one interaction that I get with my students. This is when I really get to know them. I love the layout that Dianna from Sassy Savvy Simple Teaching created. I printed it out and gave it to all of the teachers in the PD. It is easy to understand and perfect for planning your small group instruction! Below is an example of Dianna's layout as well as a tweaked version that I created for our 3-5 grade teachers.

Fonts: Hello Literacy & KG Fonts. Backgrounds: Sassydesigns.net. Clipart: Melonheadz.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed a mini version of my literacy center PD! Thank you for stopping by!

Wordless Wednesday - February 11 - Character Report Card

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday! I know this is longer than a normal Wordless Wednesday, but I'm excited!

This month we've been working on identifying character traits in books and short videos. This week, we watched Ormie the Pig. It is an adorable video about a pig who is attempting to get a jar of cookies off of the top of the fridge. He puts many different ideas to use trying to knock the cookies over. The kids LOVED this video.

Before watching, students were given this handout. We (teachers only) chose specific traits, and students copied them into the boxes. As they watched the video, students graded Ormie and showed their evidence. We explain a general scale aloud to students before they begin. As you will see below, we allow students to disagree as long as they have evidence to support their opinion! It creates FANTASTIC discussion in groups. And that's about it! Super simple. Highly engaging.

Example Grading Scale for the Character Report Card

A = OH! He is definitely _____!

B = I see that he is ______.

C = He can be _______, but _____.

D = He's not very _________.

F = I didn't see him being _____ at all!

Here, an on-level student accurately described Ormie's character traits.

Here, a below-level student gave different grades, but he was able to provide accurate support from the video.

Click the image to see more pictures of classroom activities this week!

Be sure to head over to Miss DeCarbo's blog to read more!

Close Reading: What's It All About?

Hey everyone! I wrote this post back in July as part of a 5-part mini-series and recently shared it on my collaborative blog, The Primary Pack. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from readers, so I thought I would repost it all together for you. Enjoy!

Close reading is the big hype these days with Common Core (or "Florida Standards" in my state!) and the push to expose ALL students to complex texts. I've recently done a lot of research on it for my Master's, so I decided to share it with you and hopefully answer some questions that are floating through your minds!

5 Essential Topics

1. What is close reading?

2. Background Knowledge

3. Complex Texts & Text Dependent Questions

4. Repeated Readings

5. Annotation

Close reading: “an instructional routine in which students critically examine a text, especially through repeated readings” (Fisher & Frey, 2012a). 

Close reading was used in high school and college in the past, BUT the implementation of Common Core has pushed teachers to use close reading in elementary school. So, there must be some modifications made in elementary schools. The teacher must build students toward independent reading. As teachers help students dig through reading passages, they are helping students to build habits of great readers. 

I think this quote explains it perfectly: “The teacher’s goal in the use of Close Reading is to gradually release responsibility to students – moving from an environment where the teacher models for students the strategies to one where students employ the strategies on their own to when they read independently” (Brown & Kappes, 2012). 

First graders work on annotating and finding
main idea during repeated reading.

Close reading gives kids the opportunity to take NEW information from the text and add it to their background knowledge and experiences. When they do this, they increase their schema (what they already know).

Close reading can be used with different genres, various formats, literature, and informational text. BUT, {This is a biggie!} it is only appropriate with some texts. Close reading does not work with everything. It should not be used with long chapter books or even some multiple page passages. It is not an appropriate strategy for everything and anything. You have to be thoughtful and purposeful when you choose a passage. AND, {This is a second biggie!} it should go along with other instructional practices throughout the school day. This is simple. Just don't make it the only thing you do. Yes, there's a huge push for it in schools. Yes, it is great for students in certain environments. I love how Brown and Kappes (2012) explain it, "Close Reading of text is one important strategy for fostering independence and analytic skills."

Remember: It is only one strategy. It is not the only strategy to use in the classroom. There are many others that are successful in the classroom. Choose a strategy that fits your students, your topic, and your teaching style.

This is perhaps the biggest debate in close reading. Period.

Here's why in simple terms:

Teachers have sometimes given students SO much background knowledge, that they were able to answer questions about the text before even reading it! {I mean, really, that sounds just plain crazy!} What is the point in reading if they kids already know the answers? It is boring for kids. It is a waste of time for teachers.

...in walks Common Core...

I have heard so many times that Common Core says a big fat "NO!" to background knowledge. This is not true by any means. But I do know where the idea stems from. Educators were afraid that TOO much background knowledge was given before reading. So they started encouraging teachers to pull back.

However, background knowledge has been proven to have an impact on student comprehension. Many researchers believe that you do not have to instruct kids on the topic before reading because it can be very easily done during reading. I agree with this. I would rather jump into reading and tackle questions as they come rather than spoon-feeding the kids before they have a chance to think!

During close reading (or any type of reading), it is important to:

-set a purpose for reading

-give definitions of unknown words that are essential to understanding the text

-not tell students what to expect from the reading

-allow students to interact with the text

-address clarification as needed throughout

Think about this:

“For the purposes of Close Reading, it is essential to distinguish between the background knowledge that is required to understand the text and the knowledge sought to be gained from reading the text” (Brown & Kappes, 2012). 

Remember: Some students may only have to ADD information from the text to their schema (what they already know) so that they understand. On the other hand, some students will lack background knowledge and are less likely to accurately understand.

You know your students. You know what they have absolutely no clue about. You also know what they are familiar with. Use that to your advantage and help those who need it!

Brief, high-quality, & complex text.

Reading lessons should match this description if you are implementing close reading. In my research, it was recommended that passages should be anywhere from 3 paragraphs to 2 pages.

Why shorter passages?

-Teachers can teach specific skills.

-Teachers can focus on specific ideas in the text.

-Students can practice really digging into the text. 

-Students of ALL reading levels can closely read demanding texts.

-Young students have time to gradually build up to independent reading because they are not overwhelmed. 

Time Consuming!

Close reading can take a very long time. So...teachers should choose smaller passages in order to be able to get through everything. When students are reading on their own, they can enjoy longer passages. For close reading, keep it short!

Modifications

Modifications must be made when using close reading in the elementary grades. Common Core calls for ALL students, regardless of reading level, to interact with complex texts. But how can kindergarteners and young firsties do this, you ask??? Answer: Modify!

Students in primary grades have a higher ability to comprehend while listening. So, it may be important for teachers to expose students by reading aloud to them and promoting independent reading. If you teach K or 1, you may even try a close read in which you read aloud to students. This modification will help kids to move from listening to reading independently in the upper grades.

Text-Dependent Questions

Common Core is focused on text evidence. So, teachers should form text-dependent questions for students. In other words, the questions MUST require students to use the text. 

In close reading, students are asked to go back to the text to find something that confirms their opinion or answer. Focusing on these questions causes students to reflect on the text rather than just quickly getting the gist of the passage (Brown & Kappes, 2012). 

Questions should be about and include:

-General understanding of the text

-Key details

-Vocabulary

-Text structure

-Author's purpose

-Inferring

-Opinons

-Intertextual connections

A struggling third grader came to understand new
vocabulary by interacting closely with the text.

Using many types of questions helps students to develop diverse discussions about the text. Think about it. If you keep asking the same key detail questions, kids will only talk about key details. But, if you ask questions that have them recall, talk about text features, infer from the images, form opinions, and make connections to their lives, they will have A WHOLE LOT to talk about!

Think about this: "Students who learn to ask themselves such questions are reading with the discerning eye of a careful reader. We can also teach students to read carefully with the eye of a writer, which means helping them analyze craft" (Boyles, 2012).

Goal:

Have students participate in active discussions to share their background knowledge and ultimately apply what they have learned. Eventually, students should begin to ask themselves the same questions while reading independently.

Repeated reading is a BIG part of the close reading process. Each time students interact with the text, they come to a deeper understanding of it. Each time, they have more background knowledge than before. Each time, their conversations deepen.

Struggling Readers or English Language Learners

Struggling readers and English Language Learners (ELLs) may need extra time when reading. Each has his/her various challenges. However, close reading is great for struggling readers and/or ELLs because of this repeated reading. It gives kids time and many different opportunities to process information and make connections. 

Who is reading?

The text is being read over and over. But who should read the text each time? Many times, the reader changes. It is usually suggested that the students tackle the text independently through silent reading the very first time. However, modifications must be made for younger students. This may mean that a teacher reads aloud as shared reading for the very first time. 

Types of Repeated Reading

-Individual

-Groups

-Teacher

-Partner

Repeated readings of this passage helped this
first grader to be able to write about Meerkats.

Remember that the type and number of repeated readings depends on the specific passage and students in the classroom. You do not need to use all of those listed above. Choose what works for you and your kids.

Annotation is sometimes known as "Reading with a pencil". In simple terms, that's all it is. Students use a pencil while they read to note specific things. Annotation is extremely important when analyzing a text.

Types of Annotation

-Underlining

-Circling

-Noting unknown words

-Noting challenging sections

-Writing margin notes

-Writing on bookmarks

-Writing on sticky notes

annotations for unknown vocabulary

annotations on sticky notes during a novel study

In high schools and colleges, students always annotate in text when participating in close reading. Elementary students have very little experience with this. {Most elementary teachers may have very little experience teaching it!}

So, how do you annotate in an elementary classroom? 

Can you guess? MODIFY! 

Ways to Modify Annotation

-Use wiki sticks to underline

-Use colored pencils or highlighters to show unknown words

-Number paragraphs or draw lines to separate paragraphs

-Use only a limited number of annotations

Highlighters make annotations instant fun!

Why Start So Young?

1. It is so important to teach students to do this at a young age. Start in primary! Use some of the modifications above to help you explain "reading with a pencil" to the little ones. As you model a few types, students will begin to use them in the close reading process. I recommend choosing just a few to focus on so that students become comfortable using them and understand why they are using them.

2. THEY CAN DO IT! Believe in them. They are capable of GREAT things!

This is an example of what I would say to students in my classroom last year (high achieving first grade) once we were comfortable with our annotations. I stuck to just 3. Keep in mind that we went over these one at a time earlier in the year.

1. Number the paragraphs to the left of each paragraph.

2. Circle any unknown or tricky words.

3. While answering questions, go back to the text and highlight the evidence. Make sure you have the question number next to your evidence and the paragraph number next to your answer. 

I have linked some of my close reading resources here. Check them out if you are interested in implementing close reading in your classroom. Or grab a FREEBIE here. Each pack comes with a weekly layout, CCSS alignment, passages, vocabulary activities, reading responses, visualizing & questioning handouts, graphic organizers, and writing prompts. Click the preview link under the images to see more before you buy!

I hope that this mini-series gave you ideas to bring back to your classroom! Please feel free to email me with any questions at creativitytothecore@gmail.com.

If you would like to read more about close reading, please see the references below. I promise you, they are not boring. :)

Fonts by KG Fonts & Hello Literacy. Backgrounds & Borders from Teaching in a Small Town. Clipart by Melonheadz.

Thank you! Wishing you many great close reading successes in the classroom! Happy Teaching!

Co-teaching Reading in 3rd Grade

It's been about a month since I began the leap from first to third grade, and I am loving it! Last year, I taught high achieving first graders who were almost (if not, just as high) as my third graders. So thankfully....the leap wasn't too difficult. :)

My friend and now co-teacher last year
in my first grade classroom.

Co-teaching with one of my best friends and another energetic, hilarious, engaging teacher has been an amazing experience. We are each other's physical, mental, and emotional help each day...which in the teacher world can be a wonderful thing! Today, I wanted to share a few of the things we have been doing...

Schedule
In our county, 18 is the maximum amount of students allowed in each classroom. Both third grade classes that I work in have about 25 students. Therefore, the school had to hire an extra teacher (me!) to work in both classrooms and provide support. I am teaching only reading. I begin each day with one teacher, and begin after lunch with the other.  The three of us have synced our schedules. This way, I am teaching the same lessons when I am in both classrooms. It is SO nice for the three of us to plan together and bounce ideas off of each other! Here's the layout we have. Grab an editable one here!

Because there are two of us teaching at all times, we try to maximize our time and meet with our students. We teach completely in small group during both reading and math blocks (although I am not with co-teaching with them during math). Each class has been broken up into 6 groups of 4-6 students. There are two groups of six students (groups 1-2 above) who are below grade level in each class. There are three groups of four to five students (groups 4-6 above) who are on-level or above-level. We each keep our groups for two days. Then, we swap groups for the last two days. This gives students the ability to hear the same concept in two different ways.

We basically split the entire room in half when we are teaching. This helps to keep the noise level down and also keeps students from getting confused. This picture was taken from my small group area. If you look across the room, you will see the other teacher's "side". She has the lower groups and is working with a small group while the other group is working at the red pocket chart on the far side of the room. When she is ready to switch, she will simply have those two groups trade spots. My "side" of the room is to the left of this image. We have a table of computers for one group and then a reading area on the floor for the other. My students go through two centers and my small group on this side of the room.

Minilessons

Almost every day, we give a minilesson on a new topic or an important topic that needs review. Both teachers discuss with the students and plan together for these lessons. Here I am leading a minilesson on comparing and contrasting using the book Apples and Oranges: Going Bananas with Pairs. The kids were obsessed with this book! It comes HIGHLY recommended for all grade levels!

Small Group

The main teacher is always "Small Groups 1" and "Centers 1" on our plans above. Each week she begins the week with her lowest performing students and lays a foundation. She ends with her highest students. I am considered "Small Groups 2" and "Centers 2". Each week I start with the highest performing students and end with the lowest performing students. Two small groups are running at the same time. However, we are at opposite sides of the room, so it is not too distracting. :)

During my first two small groups of the week (on- and above-level students), we are reading the novel, Stuart Little. Here are some of our supplies. You can grab them here. My readers are working SO hard on accountable talk and discussion. Some groups are getting really comfortable with it! One little boy even said, "Hey, you can't talk so much! You're suppose to be invisible!"

By the time the kids come and go, our table is a {big ole} mess! 

 Our on-level students still struggle with writing complete sentences and explaining their thoughts. We do LOTS of writing to try to fix this. Here is a prediction that one of my students made before reading chapter 3. It is not a perfect sentence, but she was working oh so hard!

Right now we are only 33 days away from our BIG state assessment that determines promotion of third graders, so our below level groups have been practicing comprehension strategies every.single.day. Yes, we know they need to do practice passages, but they also need to have fun! I introduced these sentence strips from The Teacher Talk as a way to extend our thinking after reading a test prep passage. These are the students who normally struuuuggggle with writing. However, these fun flippy prompts helped them to write quite a bit! I was one proud teacher!

When our below level groups are not doing test prep, test prep, test prep, we have lots of fun! We make inferences and find evidence in the passages. We read stories and determine character traits. We practice past skills with task card games in small group. Basically, the three of us remediate again and again until our little ones catch on!

Centers

My side of the room has two centers: Computer & Text Evidence

The main teacher's side of the room has two centers: Skill Practice & Vocabulary/Reading

Our lowest two groups stay in small group for 30 minutes each and only go to one center per day.

Our higher three groups have 20 minutes of small group and go to two centers day day.

• Computer - We have a program called iReady that is used throughout the school. All students take individualized reading and math lessons on the program during this center.
• Vocabulary/Reading - My novel study groups read their novel, make annotations, and respond to their flippy prompts (blue flaps seen above). When we are not reading a novel, students complete vocabulary activities at this center. Our lower groups do not go to this center because vocabulary is taught explicitly to them in small group
• Skill Practice - This center changes depending on our skill. It is differentiated for the two sets of groups. Sometimes, there are even two separate activities for certain students. This center usually includes writing. Sometimes it has task cards. Overall, it is based on the standard that we are teaching that week.
• Text Evidence - This center is completed only by on and above level students. They are given books or passages and questions. We make sure that they are focusing on finding text evidence and responding in complete sentences with evidence based sentence starters. Paired text passages work very well with students in this center. 

This is a Skill Practice center focused on point of view. Students were researching an animal and then writing about the animal from the animal's point of view. 

That's a little look into our Reading Block! I hope you enjoyed it!

Wordless Wednesday - February 4 - Professional Development

Today linking up with my friend Christina from Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday! My week has been filled with meetings, sessions, and testing. It has been crazy. BUT on the positive side, I am so excited to say that my first ever Professional Development session is complete! I am so thankful for all of the teachers who provide me with my own "Virtual PD" daily. Blogs and teacher friends are a beautiful thing!

Have a great week!