common core · daily 5 · Data and assessment · ELA · literacy centers · reading intervention · Uncategorized

Letter Sorting

Before students can become fluent readers, there are many foundational skills needed. One skill is knowing the difference between lowercase and capital letters. An easy way to help your students practice this is by SORTING! Here’s an easy no prep cutting/gluing sorting page:

slide02

Another foundational skill that readers need is the ability to distinguish between letters and words. Here’s  a sort for that!

slide13

 

If you think you could use these in your class, check out all 12 of the sorts I’ve created right here: LETTER SORTING! 

Thanks for stopping by!

-Mrs. B

back to school · classroom management · Data and assessment · ELA · reading intervention · Uncategorized

How to Easily Assess Sight Words

I always get a little anxious before report cards and conferences. I am the type of teacher that spends so much time debating what grade I’m going to give each student for every single standard. I have found that the easiest way to ensure each student is getting the most accurate and appropriate grade is to have artifacts/assessments/work samples from each student that demonstrate their knowledge on each thing. Sight Words is a big one in second grade. It comes up multiple times directly and indirectly on the report cards we use (sight word knowledge, reading fluently, reading at grade level, etc.). I want to make sure I know exactly what sight words my students know and don’t know. So, I created this easy assessment!

Slide01.jpg

Using this assessment pack, you can assess students’ sight word knowledge one on one in about 5 minutes!

Here’s what you do:
Slide1.jpg

Have one of these checklist pages printed for EVERY student. I keep an assessment binder with a divider for each student. On the divider I write their name and number so I can easily find their tab.

Give your student this sheet below. I have ones made for all the DOLCH word lists (pre-primer, primer, grade one, grade two, and grade three).

slide03

The words on these sheets are in the same order as the checklist. As the student reads them aloud, you are highlighting or checking off the words read correctly on the checklist! It’s that simple!

I have found that this way is extremely effective, and I have a list of all the words that the student knows (and doesn’t know) when I’m ready to do report cards and parent teacher conferences. I also give these word lists out to parents at conferences so they have a copy of the words to practice at home.

HERE’S THE LINK TO THE ENTIRE ASSESSMENT PACK! 

I hope this assessment pack will help some of you before conference and report card time!

Let me know how you like it!

-Mrs. B

classroom management · daily 5 · ELA · literacy centers · reading intervention · Uncategorized

Reading Strategy Cards

I remember a day a few years back when I was reading with a student. That student was completely guessing on words she didn’t know. I had recently taught the class the strategy “cross checking” (Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?). I knew that we had an anchor chart displayed in the room somewhere and I kept reminding this student to look at it. It was apparent that the student needed a reminder right in front of her to help her with this strategy. So, I created READING STRATEGY CARDS! 

picmonkeyreadingstrategycards.jpg

Here’s what you do:

  • Print a bunch of them (I suggest at least 20 of each strategy card)
  • Laminate and cut them all out
  • Organize them in baggies, a file folder, a binder with sheet protectors and dividers, or any other way that works for you so that you know how to easily get to each strategy card
  • Have them ready wherever you work with students (mine were in a binder on my guided reading table)

slide1

Then, when you are working with a student and you see that they need to be taught/reminded of a strategy, bring out the card, teach/reteach the strategy to them, watch them practice it, and send them off with the strategy card. They can keep them in plastic bags or keep them on binder rings.

I have all my students have all their strategy cards out in front of them while they read in the classroom. When I meet with students one on one to read, they have them out and we review them. When I meet with small guided reading groups, they have them out. When they partner read, they have them out. They are ALWAYS out when reading.

When I notice that a student doesn’t need that strategy out as a reminder anymore, I have them return the strategy card to me. This just makes it so they don’t have 15 cards out in front of them. I suggest no more than 3-5 cards at a time.

I have created 36 reading strategy cards that are all aligned with the Common Core Standards. Here are the strategies that are included:

Slide03.jpg

You can get the reading strategy cards here!

Still aren’t sure you will use them and LOVE them? Try a few out for free here!

Let me know how you like them!

-Mrs. B

daily 5 · ELA · literacy centers · reading intervention · Uncategorized · word work

Sorting Vowel Sounds

As I’ve mentioned before, I am OBSESSED with sorts. I think sorting is such a great activity for so many reasons:

  • teaches students about relationships of things and classification
  • encourages logical thinking
  • helps students organize ideas
  • helps with compare and contrast
  • students love it!

 

I had a handful of second grade students that were really struggling with long and short vowel sounds. They would overgeneralize a rule (ex: when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking)  and run with it. Each of these students had a strategy card in front of them when reading reminding them  to “flip the sound” (if the short vowel sound doesn’t work or make sense, then flip the sound and try the long vowel sound). If you’re interested in this strategy card (along with other reading strategy cards),  you can check them out here! While the strategy card helped at times, they still needed more practice and support with their vowel sounds.

I decided to create some long vowel/short vowel sorts to help the handful of students. It ended up being such a success, that I implemented them during my Daily 5 time for word work for many of my spelling/word work groups.

 

GET LONG VOWEL/SHORT VOWEL SORTING FUN HERE!

If you have any students struggling with vowel sounds, you need an engaging activity for word work, Daily 5, or literacy centers, or you just want some easy no prep sorting pages to keep on hand, here you go!

-Mrs. B