Prepare Your Classroom for the 2016 Presidential Election

Is your classroom prepared for the 2016 Presidential Election?

Bundle and Save with my 2016 Presidential Election Bundle.

This is a combination of 2 of my hot Election packs:

- Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump
- Election Vocabulary Posters and Activities.

With these packs, you will get an article and paired passages to compare and contrast background information and viewpoints on various issues for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Students are also provided with graphic organizers and final copy paper to create and display persuasive letters as to which candidate they most support.

Print the vibrant posters in color or black and white to create a classroom display or word wall of all the important election vocabulary.

Provide students with mini dictionaries to keep track of all their new Election vocabulary words.

Use the playing cards for a quick matching game like Memory or glue them back to back to make flash cards for study.

Further practice these new Election vocabulary words with a matching worksheet, word search, and 4-square organizers.

Create trading cards for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Save 20% off individual pricing when you purchase the bundle!

How will you prepare your classroom for the 2016 Presidential Election?

Writing On a Stick

Are you looking for a way to spice up your writing centers while incorporating a fun spring theme?

Check out my writing on a stick sets.

These are quick and easy to put together.  Just print, tape, and go.

I have students grab a prompt and use the accompanying stationary to write various genres during their writing center time or if they finish work early.  I select a few students to read their writing at the end of the day while we wait for the buses.

Check them out here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

How to Use Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer & GIVEAWAY!

I'm very excited to share with you how we have been using Ali Maier's book, Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer, throughout the last few weeks of school.  As you may remember, I first mentioned this book right before Christmas break.  This book is about twins, Maggie and Max, who are challenged by their mom to write 12 journal entries together during the Summer.  The twins analyze a different event, situation, or activity for each chapter (or journal entry) which makes for a great book to focus on analyzing, comparing, or contrasting perspectives.  You can read my initial review here.

Here are my suggestions for using the book in your classroom:

Ways to Read in the Classroom:
- Provide individual copies for students to read independently.
- Read with a partner (one student reads Maggie's part while the other reads Max's.)
- Read whole class (teacher reads main text and chooses a student to read Maggie's comments and another to read Max's.)
- Project for the class to see so they can follow along with all Maggie and Max's commentary.

Using the Book to Teach Comprehension Strategies:

- Analyze characters and setting.

- Locate humor and descriptive details within the text.

- Create a list of Maggie and Max's character traits.

Initially, I recorded every student suggestion.  Then, students looked back, and debated whether or not each character trait really fit the characters.  If not, we crossed them out, and added a better fitting trait.

- Analyze perspectives.

- Compare and contrast Maggie and Max's experiences, perspectives, likes, and dislikes

Below, students compared and contrasted Maggie and Max's experiences at a hotel.

Journal Writing
- Analyze the genre of journal writing.
- Use this book as an anchor text to model positive characteristics of good journal writing.
- Use this book to launch an in-class journal writing center where students write back and forth to one another in the same fashion as Maggie and Max.
- Launch an at-home journal writing activity over an extended break (Christmas, February, April, Summer, etc...)

Want to snag a copy of this book for your classroom?  Enter using Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lastly, be sure to check out Ali Maier's website for more resources and information!

Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer REVIEW

I am always on the look out of new books to share with my fourth graders so you can imagine my delight when I was invited to review a copy of Ali Maier's Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer.

 I dove into reading the second this book arrived (for free) at my doorstep.  It didn't take long to realize that this book would be a huge hit with my students.

So what is it about?  A sister and brother (twins) are forced by their mother to write in a journal together over the summer.  There are 12 entries and each twin takes a turn writing their perspective of a specific event or topic as well as commenting on their sibling's entry.  The font for the twins, Maggie & Max, stand out so you can easily tell who is writing.  Maggie's is lighter, my "girlie" and has dots the letter i with a heart.  Max's font is bolder and more masculine. 
 

My students immediately fell in love with Max's sense of humor and Maggie's quick wits. Both are lovable characters who hook you into the storyline.

This book lends itself well for introducing journal writing to your class, as well as analyzing perspectives.  There is an amazing website that accompanies the book (and future books) containing helpful links, resources, and fun stuff for children, adults, parents, and teachers.

I began reading this book with my class last week and can't wait to complete it before Christmas break.

Check back in a few weeks to see how I use this amazing book in my classroom and for a chance to win a copy for yourself!

Assessing Student Writing with a 4-Point Rubric

I have been looking for a quick and easy way to grade student writing this year, given the fact that we no longer have an explicit writing block built into our schedule.  (You can read more about how I am weaving writing into reading centers here.)

I wanted a rubric that would mirror NYS's 4-point expository writing rubric used to score extended responses on the NYS ELA test.

I wanted students to be familiar with this rubric so that they would be well prepared for their state test.

However, I was having a little trouble finding a child friendly version of this rubric.  One that I could use on the fly with multiple genres because lets face it, there just isn't enough time in the beginning of the school year.

So, I came up with this.

I used the same categories, I just simplified them and organized my rubric as a checklist.

In the beginning of the year, I plan on checking off each box for student strengths, leaving them blank if that specific area was a challenge, and then counting the checks to get a quick score out of 4-points.

As we progress through the year, and dig deeper into the greater meaning of each rubric category, I plan on giving students a score of 1-4 for each category.  This will provide me with a total of up to 16 points which I will then divide by 4 to get my usual score out of 4 points.

Throughout the week students have been working on writing during reading centers.  On Friday, I have been providing them with a little time to select their favorite piece, edit & revise it, and submit it for scoring.

To submit their writing, I have them insert their favorite piece into the plastic sleeves I placed in their purple writing folders.

When I score their writing, I just slip the rubric into their writing sleeve with the corresponding piece.  That way they can easily see how they did.  However, I have not written on or marked up their wonderful writing piece.

I left just enough room along the side to jot down a few notes, compliments, or suggestions for students.

I've also placed a large copy of the rubric in the back of each folder for students to refer to when selecting a piece to be assessed.

I hope these writing folders will serve as a wonderful portfolio of their writing in fourth grade.

Snag a free copy of my writing rubric here.

How are you scoring writing this year?

Implementing Writing with NO Writing Block

I posted a few days ago about writing, and my lack of time this school year for it.  Yes, writing is integrated throughout our other subject areas, but this school year we will not have an official time set aside just for writing.

One thing is for sure, I am not going to let time stand in the way of free and fun writing in my classroom.

So, in my desperate attempt to infuse some extra time for students to hone their writing craft and free write about topics of their choice and genres of their choice I found Joey Udovich's amazing Interactive Writing Center.

Upon reading about the center on Joey's blog, and previewing it on TPT I fell in love and purchased it immediately.

I printed and laminated it for free at my local teacher center.  (Check to see if you have one in your county, you might be pleasantly surprised.)  To say this file is H-U-G-E is an understatement.  Joey has literately thought of it all.  It comes with teacher directions, photographs, word wall cards, examples of each writing topic, tips and cheat sheets for students, and printables, just to name a few.

Not wanting to overwhelm my students, I picked my 3 favorite writing genres:  a summary, a story, and a song.  I plan to introduce each writing genre during the first week (3 days) of school.  After the introduction, students will be free to choose which ever of the three writing genres they wish to work on.  I will add additional genres throughout the year.

When do I plan to use this writing center?  Hmmmm, morning work, emergency sub plans, as a finished early activity, or once in a while during AIS.  I also hope to be able to use it as one of our centers during guided reading, but that is still to be determined.

I posted this lovely sign on the center bulletin board in hopes that students will check their writing before deeming it complete.  You can download a FREE copy of this poster here.  Print on 11" x 17" paper for best results.

I purchased quite a few black egg crates from Walmart last year and had an extra one not in use so I threw it over in the writing center to assist with organization.

How will students organize their folders?

So what about student reflection, grading, and data?  I plan on setting aside time each week for students to select their best writing piece of the week.  They will spruce it up a little bit before submitting it. Here is how I plan to organize their writing pieces within their folder:

I plan on grading their chosen writing piece each weekend using a 4-point rubric similar to ones used to score their writing for their NYS ELA test.  I will use my noticings to form writing needs groups to meet with during AIS or when we work on writing about reading.

Will you still have a writing block this year?  If not, how do you plan on squeezing in writing?

Want to win some super sweet back-to-school writing utensils for your classroom?  Enter my BiC Back-to-School Giveaway before it is too late.  Only one day left!

Oh, and last but not least, some of the cute graphics that appear in this post are from the amazing Krista Wallden.  

She is hosting a week full of freebies, dollar deals, discounts, and giveaway!  Be sure to check it out.