Our Reading Log Journal

Hey everyone! While many folks out there are cursing the massive snow that is hitting the mid-Atlantic states, I'm finally finding time to get caught up on things. Two of my rugrats have been playing basketball, so our family has been running seven days a week lately. It is nice for us to finally get a chance to breathe, thanks to the cancellations. (I just hope no one loses power!)

I finally uploaded the reading log journal pack onto TeachersPayTeachers. 

Yay! 

It only took me three full months to manage this. Pathetic, I know. Like I said, we've been busy.

I LOVE this reading log journal because it really holds my students accountable for their independent reading and allows me to interact with my students. Last year I tried a log that required a parent signature but didn't require any type of response. This turned out to be an epic FAIL! Some parents/guardians forgot to sign it on a regular basis. Some parents lied for their children. (I suspected a few, but a few parents confessed that they signed it weekly without ever seeing their child crack open a book. Sigh.) I feel that independent reading is extremely important, especially when our entire Language Arts block in 4th grade is only 70-90 minutes long, so I couldn't just toss it aside. I read several teacher blogs this summer and someone (I'm sorry I forgot who) said he/she had encountered the same problem until a weekly reader response was required. This, folks, was a lightbulb moment for me. 

So, I scratched the parent signature and added a short weekly response assignment that reflects the skills we are currently working on in the classroom. It has made a great difference. I will never go back to the old way of doing reading logs.

My reading log journal pack includes a journal cover, a letter to the student and their family explaining the expectations, a list of 22 ideas for reader response assignments, two rubrics for assessing the journal, and two reading logs -- one page with a filled-in example week and two blank weeks and one page with three weeks worth of recording space.

Honestly, this journal has made a difference in my classroom and I believe it could help others. If you try this, please give me feedback on TPT under your "My Purchases" page. 

Have a great day! It's time for me to go play in the snow.

Daily 5 in the Intermediate Classroom... Continued... Finally!

This fall was an absolute whirlwind and here we are, on break and strolling into the winter season (even if it is an unseasonably 71 degrees here in the Virginia mountains).


While on break, it's good to reflect on the successes and areas still in need of success in my Language Arts classroom -- and my modified Daily 5 routines are a definite success that I'd like to share.

A Daily Five Diary Part 1: Implementing Daily 5 in a Departmentalized Upper Elementary Classroom

Over the summer I finally read The Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Due to the masters classes I'd been taking over the past few years, I kept putting it off, but now that I've read it I am fully in! All five parts that make up the daily regiment -- Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work -- are research-based and contribute to a balanced literacy program. A total win-win, right?

So, here are my obstacles I'm trying to overcome as I implement Daily 5 in my fourth grade classroom:

A Bookaholic's Confession: Classroom Library Conundrum

Is anyone out there dissatisfied with the state of their classroom library? 

For years I've contemplated going about things differently, but after realizing that all of my best series, my favorite titles and most of my new books were missing and I was left with my old and unpopular titles, I decided something had to be done. That's right, folks, it was a classroom library conundrum!

This summer I've spent a great deal of time researching and working on my classroom library. Here is what I found:

Fiction Comprehension Task Cards

The hubby is popping popcorn and the family movie is about to come on, so I'll be quick. I just posted to my TpT store a fabulous product that I use with my upper elementary reading students: I Mustache (Must Ask) You Something... General Fiction Task Cards. 

There are 16 cards included, but the great thing is that they are "general," meaning they can be paired with any fictional text with very little prep work from you. The questions range in complexity from easy, text-dependent to higher-level thinking.

I've used these cards with fourth and fifth graders in a variety of ways. Most recently, students used them after partner-reading upper elementary level picture books, while I worked with a small group of students. 

The download can be printed on card stock or good quality copy paper, and then cut into fourths. Laminate or cover them with clear contact paper for extra durability. (This also keeps you from reprinting them over and over.)

I honestly love these and use them quite a bit with different texts. I hope you will like them too.

Well, the movie has started. Have a great weekend!

(My informational text task cards are in the works, so check back soon.)

Virginia Readers' Choice Participation Certificate Freebie & Year-Long Project

Here we are only weeks away from the beginning of school. (Eeeekkk!)

I'm beginning to get freaked out and excited at the same time! I may be totally disorganized on some fronts this far out, but when it comes to my motivation for classroom reading, I have it planned. One of the things I plan to do this year, but on a bigger scale than ever before, is participation in the Virginia Readers' Choice Awards. Here in Virginia, our Reading Association, along with some other sponsors, release a list of potential best book winners. Actually, they put out four lists -- a primary, an elementary, a middle school, and a high school list, which you can check out here.

(Even if you aren't in Virginia, chances are your state has their own award. Check out this site for an incomplete, but fairly good list: Follett State Award Lists)

This year I plan to encourage this list more than I have in the past. I'm creating a bulletin board/book voting center (which I'll post once it's completed), which will feature a cover of each of the books from the elementary list. Also, I'm going to hand out a certificate and Virginia pencil each time a student completes one of the books. You can download the certificate (a FREEBIE!) on my TpT store. 

Students will get to vote on their favorite book (as long as they read at least four titles from the list during the school year). I really think the bigger deal I make of this the more my students will be encouraged to read.

In addition to all of this fun, I'm trying to work out a red carpet event for my classroom in which to announce the winning book for the Virginia State Readers' Choice Award. I haven't figured out all of the fine details on this yet, but I have until spring.

If you're a fellow Virginian, don't forget to download the "Virginia is for Book Lovers" participation certificate!

I'd love to hear your feedback on my plan. Do you participate in anything like this for your state? I'd love to hear from you!

10 Fabulous Items for an Upper Elementary Reading & Language Arts Classroom

Yep, it's here, folks! The bittersweet beginning of the end of summer break. The back-to-school sales are on, kids are picking out new bookbags and stalking the school websites for class lists and schedules, and teachers... Well, we are busy as well, decorating our classrooms, ordering supplies, and planning a year of exciting lessons -- which brings me to a bit of advice that I was once given and I've found to be true:
Always keep a wish list for your classroom. Seriously! You just never know when a grant or fund may come your way in education. It usually comes when you least expect it. 

With that in mind, here is my list of ten fabulous things for an upper elementary Reading/Language Arts classroom:

Reading Strategies Bookmark

I've been crazy busy this week and completely forgot to add a link to a freebie for you! These are Fix-Up Strategies Bookmarks that my students used to help them when they realized that what they had just read didn't make sense. We discussed that good readers are always making sure it makes sense and then we went over the steps they should go through when it doesn't make sense. 

Teaching Key Vocabulary for English & Reading Test Prep in Upper Elementary -- Ideas & Download Link

       Working in a rural Virginia elementary school, I found that one of the issues my students were having was a fundamental deficit in vocabulary language. It seemed that several students had the reading skills and strategies, but their lack of vocabulary knowledge prevented them from finding success on the reading tests that simulated the Virginia English SOL test, which is the standardized test that 3rd grade and up take each year. Obviously, I don't want to "teach to the test," but I also don't want to set my students up for failure either.

To combat this issue there were a few things we did this past school year.

Freebie!...And How to Assess Spelling Sentences With a Rubric

I don't know about you, but assessing and grading writing used to be a struggle for me. I tried several methods, but none of them seemed very fair, including the methods of some of my colleagues. However, once I tried assessing with a rubric, I knew I'd found the best