Ms. Young's Teaching Strategies
  • Home
  • Resources for Lesson Planning
    • On My Bookshelf
    • Technology in the Classroom
    • Cooperative Learning Activities
  • Directed Reading and Thinking Activities
    • DRTA Sample
    • Purchase DRTA Book
  • What Works Blog
  • Presentations/Workshops
    • Bio
    • Participant Feedback

Plays on Words

3/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Plays on Words in Middle School
New on Teachers Pay Teachers. Plays on Words is a book of one-page, “mad-lib” style vocabulary skits with an emphasis on developing oral language and high frequency vocabulary. The plays are designed to give students lots of repetition of new vocabulary in an engaging, interactive format unique to Plays on Words. After providing direct instruction on a high frequency vocabulary word, I have used this with middle school and high school students for an engaging practice or review activity.  Download your free sample below!  
Plays on Words Free Sample
File Size: 31 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

              Plays on Words in High School
0 Comments

WordBuilder Intervention FREE on the App. Store

11/3/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Please check out this wonderful instructional tool.  It is perfect for older struggling readers who want to improve reading and spelling of multisyllabic words.  For instructional videos please go to:  www.wordbuilderapp.com.  
0 Comments

Setting up a Ticket System

4/1/2019

0 Comments

 
When it comes to classroom management, I believe that the most important thing a teacher can do is establish strong relationships with his/her students, and while I love when students are intrinsically motivated this is not always the reality of my classroom.  I work with older struggling readers, and so often before we've even begun there is a resistance to learning-- this is one of the reasons I do like to use a ticket system and provide tangible rewards.  At the beginning of the year I use it to establish routines and certain behaviors, but towards the end of the year they are used more for encouragement, and as a "thank you for persevering even thought that was tough" reward.  Recently, I was asked how to set up a ticket system when setting up a new classroom.  I reflected on my process, and this chart is what I came up with.  I have posted other blogs about menu items and specific ways to earn tickets linked here and here.
0 Comments

Vertical Board Game

3/1/2019

0 Comments

 
I have word walls set up with common rimes of vowels patterns that we've learned in class.  I ordered some sticky men on Amazon (very cheaply) and created a new "vertical board game."  Students read until they get stuck, and that's where they put their man.  Then it's the next person's turn.  They loved it! 
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Irregular (Sight) Word Tip

1/30/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
I've been reading some research lately, and several people have mentioned the importance of having students connect to the parts of irregular words that they ARE able to sound out.  Then you tell them the part they just have to LEARN BY HEART you can help them remember this by actually drawing a heart around the irregular portion of the word.  I heard this wonderful idea in a dyslexia workshop with Dr. Nancy Mather.  Hopefully, you're able to use it with your students!  
0 Comments

Welcome Back to School!

9/16/2018

0 Comments

 
I hope your school year is off to a wonderful start! I love the beginning of the school year: teaching classroom routines, conducting icebreaker activities, and the energy I have from a restful summer break!

Previously, I've blogged about the importance of experiencing joy in the classroom: more-classroom-community-building-activities.html.  Just to reiterate, this is so important because during the year your students are going to have to trust you.  As teachers we are going to have to ask them to do some difficult things and to put themselves out there (I know that is true for me in my reading intervention program).  If you've also had fun together it makes it easier to do some challenging work together.  

Volleyball- This is one of my favorite activities yet.  We took 20 minutes on a Friday (minimum day to boot).  I hung a piece of yarn to divide the classroom, got the chairs out, and a ballon out (see picture for set up).  Then we played volleyball.  While some teachers might use those Friday minimum days to show a movie, I'm a huge advocate of using time like that to build connections.   
Picture
This activity and MANY MORE available at: https://www.schoolreforminitiative.org/protocols/.  For this specific activity go to "Indoor Volleyball."  
0 Comments

Reading Isn't Ruff

6/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Reading Isn't Ruff is a program within the Los Angeles Area that brings trained therapy dogs to libraries and public schools so that students can read to them.  This serves the purpose of lowering the affective filter for students (especially those who struggle with reading).  We experienced first hand how having animals around truly does lower stress levels.  Everyone had a blast!  Even if you don't live in the Los Angeles area there might be a program like this at your local shelter.  Here are a couple of tips to ensure the event runs smoothly: 
  1. Have students select something they want to read several weeks in advance.  Great options: poems, scary stories, jokes, Chicken Soup for the Soul type stories, or weird true stories.  Every student wanted to read jokes, so I put five on a page for each student.
  2. Have the students reading in groups, so they get to hear different stories (see picture of yellow paper). We rotated every 15 minutes, so we were able to be with different dogs and hear different stories.  
  3. In preparation for the event we also worked on introducing ourselves, our story, and asking questions about our story to the small group.  
This was a great experience, and I hope to do it every year! 
0 Comments

Fly Swatter Relay Races

5/4/2018

0 Comments

 
This great game for kinesthetic learners can be played as a whole class or in a small group.  

Small Group

Picture

Whole Class 

Picture
1.  Prefixes and suffixes are taped to the table.  (You can also use sight words, vowel sounds, vocabulary, etc.)
2.  Teacher calls out word that has target prefixes or suffix. (e.g. tolerate)
3.  The first person to hit the target affix gets a point.  

Other Considerations:  I like to make the rule that in order to get a point the student must hit the correct word part the first time.  
The set up: 
Picture
Picture
1.  Vocabulary words are written on the board. (Again, you can use pretty much any content.)
2.  Obstacles are cleared. (Furniture, cords, etc.)
3. Tape is put on the floor for the three teams to line up behind. 

Other Considerations:  Conduct a practice round; tell students they must wait for you to finish reading the clue before they leave the line.  Also, once they leave the line they cannot receive help from their group.  The first person to hit the correct answer with their fly swatter wins the point for their team.  Again, if they hit the wrong answer first, I do not give them the point.  They then return to the line and give the flyswatter to the next person.  Stand back and watch the fun!
I like to have my clues written out for this fast-paced game.  Download the sample to see the types of questions I ask.  
Fly Swatter Relay Races
File Size: 80 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

0 Comments

You are an Important Piece of the Puzzle

1/14/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is a FREE download from TeachersPayTeachers!  I'm always looking for "Getting to Know" you activities that I can use during the first days of school, or after a break.  The students loved this: they could do it independently, and it created a beautiful puzzle!  We did it after our Winter Break, so I had students put their name, three things that make them happy (they were allowed to use images/symbols, and their New Year's resolution for 2018.  After they completed their piece of the puzzle I had them present it to the class- I gave students tickets (my classroom reward system) if they asked a question to the person presenting*.  After each student finished they hung up their piece of the puzzle to create a whole.  

*I was amazed to see how challenging it was for students to ask and answer eachother's questions.  I know it's challenging for my students with academic content because we use reciprocal teaching in our class, but I didn't know that it would be challenging for them when it was about their own lives. 
0 Comments

Student Portfolios

12/20/2017

0 Comments

 
At the end of this semester, instead of just letting students take a pile of graded papers home, we created portfolios of their work.  They had to select, categorize, and reflect on their work from the entire semester.  At the end of this project, the pride in room 101 was palpable.  Following are some suggestions/points for implementation of the portfolio project: 
  • Below is a slide show of each piece of the portfolio (all documents are available in an editable version at the end of this blog).  
  • The only thing that I printed in color was the Table of Contents.  I made copies of the portfolio documents on colored paper to match the table of contents. 
  • We used paper folders with three prongs for the portfolios (Target .49)
  • This project was done in small groups rotations:  
    • Group 1 (Independent)- Vocabulary, Performance
    • Group 2 (Paraprofessional)- Writing and Fluency
    • Group 3- (Teacher)- Word Work and Reading Comprehension 
    • Whole Class:  Cover Sheet and Table of Contents 
Portfolio Cover Sheet
File Size: 2444 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Table of Contents
File Size: 125 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Comprehension Cover Sheet
File Size: 91 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Fluency Cover Sheet
File Size: 91 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Student Self Evaluation
File Size: 88 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Vocabulary 1
File Size: 45 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Vocabulary 2
File Size: 51 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Word Work Cover Sheet
File Size: 100 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Writing Cover Sheet
File Size: 19 kb
File Type: png
Download File

Portfolio Rubric
File Size: 62 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    March 2020
    November 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Author

    Ms. Young is a teacher who wants to keep a record of what works!  

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed