Reading Response Journal

So here is my reader response journal.  This will be my third year to use these guys and I love them for mid to upper elementary school.  My first year using them I used a comp book.  The second year I decided to use a binder.  It was a disaster!  The kids' papers fell out everywhere.  It just wasn't good.  So this year I am back to using old faithful.

We use these pretty much everyday during readers' workshop.  We take notes and do practice exercises in them during the lesson.  Then I typically give some type of reading assignment and a response activity that they do in their journals.  So journals might include lists, graphic organizers and paragraph responses.  I am choosing not to include a table of contents or other text features in my RRJ.  However, I am sure you could.  I will be posting pictures of our progress periodically. 

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

Writer's Notebook

So today I finished decorating my Writer's Notebook for the school year.  Here it is!

The writer's notebook personalization has a slightly different purpose than other notebook personalization.  For the most part in other notebooks, we personalize simply to give a sense of ownership and to be able to easily identify the notebooks.  For writer's notebooks, the act of personalization is a brainstorming activity of things you can write about.  For example, my writer's notebook includes a picture of my husband, a picture indicating my love to travel, Minnie Mouse (showing my Disney love), teacher stuff, books, Chik-Fil-A, and a pic of me at our cooking class we took at our last anniversary.  I can use this to generate ideas for an endless number of writing assignments.  For example, I could write a travelogue of my trip to China, a how-to piece on how to cook a meal over an open fire, an opinion piece on the recent Chick-Fil-A debacle, a personal narrative on my trip to Disney, etc..  It could go on an on, just from these few symbols of my life.

This is about my fourth or fifth year to have a Writer's Workshop in my class.  For the longest time I couldn't figure out how a comp book worked for Writer's Workshop.  I needed free sheets of paper for the drafts, editing, and revising.  The comp book was way too restrictive.  Finally, someone asked a question in PD last year that made it all make sense.  You use the Writer's Notebook for journaling, recording writing ideas, planning, brainstorming (all pre-writing activities) and for exercises and notes during craft lessons.  This is the place you keep all your writing "stuff."  I use a separate folder with notebook paper for their rough drafts and final drafts of writing pieces.  I think Writer's Workshop and keeping a Writer's Notebook makes an incredible difference in my student's writing.  What are your Writer's Workshop tips and tricks? 

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

Guess What I Got Today??

That's right!  My very first FOSS kit.  Now, as its proud owner, it is sitting on the floor of my teeny tiny apartment living room.  ha!
Today, I went to the FOSS measurement training.  This was a great training for the fourth grade science GLE's because our first unit in Science covers measurement.  I felt that I could use pretty much all of the activities we did today and that it was right on target with my fourth grader's needs and ability levels.  It was a loong day, but I did feel like I got some really good stuff.  I can't wait to use it as we begin the year this year.
Most folks receive their kit after they attend training, but I was the "lucky" winner of the one the presenter used.  I am very glad it went to one of us at BCP so we are sure we have it for the beginning of the year, but I am beginning to get ready to get all this school stuff back in it's proper home instead of being all over my living room!

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

Social Studies Notebooks

I have been completely inspired by the notebooking movement.  I have done a lot of research over the past few weeks and it seems PERFECT for my fourth graders.  I am an anchor chart girl.  Usually floor to ceiling of my classroom is covered in my anchor charts.  But I have been thinking, I want my fourth graders to OWN their thinking and understanding.  What better way to do that than to record the information and log their thinking themselves??  I hope that each notebook becomes a source of pride for them as they see all they have learned throughout the year. 

The type of notebooks people are the most familiar with are reading response journals and science notebooks.  But I found a blog about social studies notebooks, and I thought, "Well, why not go whole hog??"  Mostly, these are called interactive notebooks online if you want to look them up.  I will simply call mine "Social Studies Notebooks" because I can't keep up with the different terms for each composition book. 
So I will have 4 composition books in my classroom.
Writing Journal: For Writer's Workshop, exercises during craft lessons, planning and prewriting. 
Reading Response Journal (RRJ):  For notetaking during ELA and response exercises during Reader's Workshop
Science Notebook: notetaking, foldables, exercises, labs, and responses
Social Studies Notebook: notetaking, foldables, exercises, responses

I have decided that I will grade 3 of these notebooks (RRJ, the Science Notebook, and the Social Studies Notebook).  I am going to take one up each Friday, so their notebooks will be graded every 3 weeks.  I have a rubric, thanks to the ever Fabulous Mary Beth Newchurch.  Each rubric might be a little bit different, but basically I will be looking for completeness, neatness, and thoughfulness in all of the entries.  I will have the student glue in the rubric, shade in yellow what THEY think they should score, and then I will shade in blue what I think they should score.  This will give them an opportunity to practice self evaluation, which is such an important skill as their work becomes increasingly more independent. 

I am very, very excited about this for my students.  I am not a worksheet person for the most part so I think this will be a great way to organize our learning.  One thing that many notebooking pros suggest in personalization of the cover of the comp books.  My disclaimer here is that I am usually NOT a very touchy feely teacher.  As long as it is organized and functional I am good to go.  I have never decorated Writing Journal's in the past because I felt like it was a gargantuan waste of time.  BUT due to the importance I feel that this notebooks are going to play in our learning life this year, I want to give them all the POMP and CIRCUMSTANCE they deserve.  I am (gasp) decorating all of my comp books.  I am going to give students the option of personalizing each comp book at the beginning of the year.  I am going to ask that each book is unique and theme related so they can clearly see which comp book is which when it is in their desk or cubby.  However, I am not going to force this because it is, after all 4 comp books and I do LOVE my sweet parents.  I want them to love me too so I try not to torture them. 

So anyhow, here is my project for tonight.  My Social Studies Notebook.....

In 4th, we study the U.S.  I cut out of magazines words, phrases or pictures that reminded me of the U.S.  I loved how it turned out!

I wanted part of my notebook to have a U.S. History focus and the front turned out very geography based.  I love U.S. history, so I picked out some favorite quotes and inspirational historical pictures for the back.  I still need to cover it with contact paper, but I got the wrong kind at the store.  That will be tomorrow's project!

Each notebook needs a title page.  I love the ELA tie-in to text features.  My comp book will be our master copy that students who are absent can copy out of. 

The science and social studies notebooks will each also have a table of contents and an Index.  Students are responsible for keeping the index and table of contents current.. I will give them time at the end of each lesson to quickly update this.  I got this grid online.  Just search science notebooks...  I will do the table of contents with my kids.  You need to allow between 2-4 page at the front just for the table of contents.

Hope you have enjoyed my start of notebooking.  Do you use notebooking in your classroom?  Please leave a comment and share your experiences.  :-)

Love,
Mrs. Kelly

What I'm Doing Over the Summer....

Well at the end of last year, I got BIG news!  I am moving on up with my kiddos to fourth grade!  At first I was really sad because I LOVED teaching third, but now I am getting really excited about teaching 4th.  I am mostly excited because I know right where they left off and exactly how much I can throw at them.  I am beginning this blog because I survived completed my masters degree as of this summer and am now able to put lots of my time back into teaching.  I have a lot of neat ideas for the classroom, and want a place to store them so they don't get lost in the shuffle like they usually do.  So, as I prepare for 4th, I will be posting the things I am up to during these last weeks of summer. 

Much Love,
Mrs. Kelly