Organizing Research Writing

When I worked on the Common Core Units and District Assessments, I had the opportunity to work with some AMAZING teachers from all around our district.  One of the teachers there shared this organizational system for research that she uses with her students during the research unit for 4th grade. In our district several grades have to write research papers, so it could work for many grades.  I remember using a similar system with note cards when I learned how to write a research paper in 7th grade.  I love the way that her system stores the note cards though!  I am sharing some quick pics I snapped with my iphone, but I will share more when I use this with my students this upcoming school year.

The blue strip at the bottom is construction paper stapled to the folder (which is legal size).

The fabulous teacher who shared this with us told us that she just has the secretary at her school order library card envelopes (240 = 8 per student X  30).  The other teachers and I mentioned that you could make the envelopes yourself with construction paper or cut envelopes.  I have seen these at the Dollar Tree as well.

Here is a close-up of a few of the cards out of the pockets.  I LOVE this idea and can't wait to use it with my kiddos! 

How do you teach research writing?

Monday Made It

When I was a little girl, I carried around a Snoopy doll everywhere I went.  I might have even said that I was going to marry Snoopy.  So you could imagine my reaction when I saw the Peanuts line from Really Good Stuff.

Yes, I screamed and shouted really loud and asked hubby if he minded me changing my theme again this year.  He agreed and I ordered tons a few of the things they had.

But... I have a few classroom items that I use that I wanted to match, so for today's Monday Made It I wanted to show a few of the things I have been working on.  I haven't printed anything out or hung them up yet, but I have finished a few things on the computer.



The first thing I made were schedule cards.  My kiddos are constantly asking, "What time is recess?  What special do we have?" With schedule cards I can just direct their attention to the board.  They have to solve the elapsed time on their own!

 

 

I also use Whole Brain Teaching in my classroom, so I made the 5 rules Snoopy style as well.  Here are two of them:

 

They came out pretty stinkin' cute in my humble opinion!

 

I have also been hard at work on my place value unit for the beginning of the year.  It will be available at both TpT and Teachers Notebook when I finally finish it!

 

It has I Can Statements

 

Vocabulary/Word Wall Cards

Lesson Plans

Games

 

 

And Assessments

 

 

I will let you know when I finish it... It is a monster of a project.  Also, don't forget to enter my contest to win a TpT gift certificate and other great prizes!

July Currently

Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade has big vacay plans, so she posted Currently early - which was perfect for me since we are headed out to All Stars this morning and I have NO IDEA how long we will be gone!

Listening: With a house full of boys and a sports obsessed husband - I am surprised that this isn't ALWAYS my listening response!

Loving: I am not motivated to exercise - (at all!) but I know that it needs to be done, so I am loving the fact that I have been getting up every morning to run on the treadmill, and I was able to go to BodyPump class this week! I LOOOVE Body Pump but with our busy schedule I don't always get there.  YEAH ME!

Thinking: Tyler made All Stars for baseball this year, and we are heading out this morning.  The way All Stars works is if they lose two games they go home, but if they win, they stay until they lose. So... we have no idea how long we will be gone for!  We have packed enough for 5 days and figure we will find a Laundromat while we are there if we need to.  Packing is always so nerve wracking trying to make sure you don't forget anything.

Wanting/Needing: Yeah, these two are combined.  I couldn't make up my mind if it was a want or need.  Anything over 100 degrees is just WAY TOO hot! While it is exciting to be involved in something record breaking, a heat wave is just not my idea of fun!

Tips: Blogging can seriously take over your life if you let it.  As soon as I discovered you could schedule posts ahead of time, I definitely took advantage.  It allows me to still be with my kiddos and share with all of my readers.  Family needs MUST come first. :)

Don't forget to enter my Blogaversary Giveaway for a $25 TpT Gift Card and other great prizes!

Blogaversary Giveaway and Sale!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

 

I can not believe that my little blog is already a year old!  Where does the time go?  That means that it is time for a giveaway! I will also be having a celebration sale at both my TpT and Teachers Notebook stores this week.

 

Without further ado... here are the prizes:

 

A $25 gift certificate for TpT to get you ready for the upcoming school year!

 

 

And while you are browsing all of the goodies at TpT - you will be wanting to be sipping on a little something, so I will also be giving away a $5 Starbucks gift card as well!

 

 

In addition, the winner will receive any item of their choice from my TpT store.

 

 

Jessica from Teach on a Limb  is also offering a free item from her TpT store.

 



 



  Lacey's Letters also donated this word wall set.  

 

And Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees

 

donated her I've Got Money, Honey Bundled Set

 

 

      a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five For Friday and Giveaway News!

It is Friday again - which means time for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

Here are a few random things from my week:

 

I spent most of this week working on writing common assessments for our district.  I learned a lot from the other teachers there and I can't wait to share some of the great ideas! Above is a picture of an activity we did prior to writing the assessment.  It gave me some ideas for having students sort and sequence all sorts of things - place value, story sequencing, historic figure timelines, etc.  Have you ever used a sort like this in your class?  How did it go?

 

 

One of the teachers there had just purchased these books (she had the ELA one too) and shared them with our group.  I am thinking about getting them, but I'm not 100% sure.  Have you used these books (or types of books) in your class?  What were the results?

 

 

On a non-teaching note, this week had a touch of sadness and joy when my second son moved into his own apartment! Well, technically not his own, he is living with his older brother, but still!  Powell was born with special needs and we had been told he would never walk or talk.  He just graduated high school last month - with a regular diploma!  A bittersweet moment losing a son, but joyful knowing that he has overcome so much in his life to be able to take this step into adulthood!

 

On another kid note, Tyler got hit with a baseball at his practice Monday night.  It hit him so hard, you could see the laces from the ball on his forehead! OUCH!  But.. he is so tough - he smiled through it and asked to go back out after putting ice on his head for about two minutes.  We will be heading to All Stars this weekend - it is supposed to be 106 degrees!  YIKES!

 

 

And finally... can you believe it??? Today is my blog's one year anniversary!  Time really flies when you're having fun doesn't it?  But... that also means it is time for a giveaway!  I will be having a giveaway starting tomorrow where I will be giving away some of my favorite things!  A few fabulous TpT sellers will also be getting in on the fun with a few donated items as well!  Don't forget to stop by tomorrow to enter!

 

Clipart from MyCuteGraphics.com

 

 

 

 

 

What's Your Math Problem!?! Book Study Chapter 3

I am linking up with

Jennifer Smith-Sloane from 4mulaFun

Meg Anderson  from Fourth Grade Studio

Jamie Riggs from MissMathDork

and Jennifer Findley from Teaching to Inspire 5th Grade

for this book study on What's Your Math Problem!?!



 If you missed my previous posts you can find them here:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
                                         

Chapter 3 - Getting Started Strategies

This chapter focuses on four strategies:

• Restate the problem in your own words

Before restating the problem, Gojak suggests teaching the students to read the problem three times.

1. The first read is to provide a general familiarity with the information in the problem.
2. The second read helps you to put the problem into your own terminology, focusing on the specifics of the problem.
3. The third read helps you reduce the problem to only relevant ideas.

I'm not sure that I agree with this format exactly, but I do like the idea of having them read a problem multiple times.

• Identify wanted, given, and needed information

Gojak emphasizes the need to model this strategy.  She recommends getting students in the habit of recording wanted, needed, and given information so that they will focus on theses areas.

• Identify a subgoal

This strategy is for multi-step problems or problems where the student may not have all of the information readily available in the problem.  They may need to solve something or research something first.

• Select appropriate notation

This strategy shows students how to show their thinking in solving a problem.

This chapter reminded me of a resource that I was given during our unit revision workshop.

You can find a printable version of the poster above here.

Picture Books - A Linky Party

 Shhh! Can you keep a secret?  I have an addiction... to picture books!  Ok, maybe I have another addiction... linky parties.  So... I just had to link up with First Grade and Fabulous for this picture book linky party filled with books we use for the first week of school!

 

My shares are going to be two-part, the ones that I used last year, and some new ones that I will be sharing this year since I am most likely looping with my kiddos next year!

 

So without further ado, here are a few of the books I read to my third graders last year:

 

We all have jitters about the first day of school (even us teachers) and this is a great book to talk about just that! My kiddos loved making predictions about who the story was really about!

 Reading about Mean Jean the Recess Queen is a great way to begin a chat about recess rules and expectations.

The Wednesday Surprise is a great book to talk about the importance of reading. 

 

Here are a few new ones that I think I will begin this year with:

 

 

I just found this gem of a book at Barnes and Noble yesterday. It talks about a girl and her memories of first things - such as the first time she rode a bike.  I will be using it as a mentor text for generating "seed ideas" to write about - students will make a list of firsts.  It is also a great way to talk about those first few days of school, and being brave even though we are facing a lot of unknowns.

 

 I will start out reviewing expectations using Officer Buckle and Gloria.

 

What books are you reading the first week?  I need a few more ideas, and despite hubby's protests, my Amazon wish list is NOT that long! LOL!

 

Link up and share!