Fix It Strategies With Beanie Babies Lesson

Before Reading – Teacher Models Thinking

When we read a book, we have to think about how to figure out the words. Some teachers call these words, “the fix-it strategies.” I found the orginal idea on another website. I changed the idea by adding the beanie babies to my posters so that I can have the kids see the photograph of the beanie baby with the words. My students need to understand the concept of fix-it strategies. This lesson includes many pictures.

The eagle eye reminds us to look at the picture for clues to help figure out the word.
Tryin’ Lion reminds us to reread the sentence. Try a word that might make sense and read the sentence to the end. Does this make sense? Put your fiinger on the word you don’t know. Read the whole sentence. Go back to the word and think of a word that makes sense.

Here is stretchy snake.
Stretchy snake is stretching…….. out all the sounds!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H-Y snake is when we stretch the word out slowly. Then we put the sounds back together. Stretchy the snake helps us with segmenting and blending!
When I get to a word I don’t know, I have to think about the words I do not know. Is trying lion going to help me? Is stretchy the snake? What type of fix-it strategy do I need?
Look at this sentence. Look at this word. What fix-it beanie baby strategy helper will you us to help you?
Skippy the Frog is the favorite of kids who don’t like to work hard! Skip the word. Hop hop hop. But don’t forget that Skippy the Frog wants to only skip to the end of the sentence and GO RIGHT BACK! Skippy the Frog does not do his whole job if he doesn’t skip in both directions!

Lips the Fish helps us get our mouth ready. What sounds do the letters make in the word you see? Say the first few sounds in the word outloud. Read to the end of the sentence. Did this make sense to you?
Chunky Monkey is ready to help you Chunk the Word! Look for the chunks. Look for the word parts. Chunky Monkey is another wonderful beanie baby helper!

Trying Lion is encouraging us. Keep reading! Chunky Monkey is saying, “Look for Chunks!”

Helpful Kangaroo knows sometimes you need from Mama or a friend. After you have tried everything you know, ask for help. Roo has to ask Kanga for a ride.

Today when you are reading, pay attention to when you are stuck and need to you a fix-it strategy. Which one did you use? Why did you decide to use this fix-it strategy?
Remember we are going to share the strategies after reading today. Your job during reading today is to think about your reading fix-it strategies today.
During reading, teacher coaches kids while they look for places to use fix-it strategies. After reading, the students shared where they found fix it strategies.

Here is an article about the strategies. http://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/articles/whats_your_strategy_by_barclay_marcell.html

Fix It Strategies Posters

Some teachers prefer these squares instead of beanie baby fix it strategies. Email me for the documents. debrennersmith@comcast.net

More Morning Messages

The children are learning the concept of word, letter, and sentence in this chart. The teacher underlines each word. The teacher says one sentence to teach the concept that a complete thought is a sentence. “Can you tell me where start this sentence?” “Can you you tell me how many words are in this sentence?” “Can you tell me what letter makes this sound?” “Can you tell me what word comes after this word?” After the whole message is written, the teacher helps the kids to count how many words are in each sentence. Each child counts on their own fingers to figure out how many words are in the sentence. Each child understands the concept that sentences can be different lengths. “How many sentences did we write today?” “How do we know?” Our job as teachers is getting our students to notice. What do our students know about punctuation? What do our students notice and know about capitalization? What do our students understand about the concept of sentence? Word? Letter? Sentences have return sweep. Sentences are the complete idea, they do not end at the end of a line, but at the end of the idea. Students also circle one ‘letter’ each day. Today students circled the letter ‘g.’
This morning message shows the students are grasping the concept that words are composed of letters. The students circled ‘m’ today. The students will NOT circle letters all year. They circle all 26 letters until the 26 letters are completed, then move on to circling words. When we write a morning message, we discuss that writing is written left to right and top to bottom. The idea is that teachers teach all the concepts of print during morning message by writing the message in front of students so they understand that we construct meaning and notice what works. We study what is correct.

The teacher uses highlighter tape in the beginning of teaching popcorn words with the morning message. Students need to see long and short lengths of sentences. They continue to help write the morning message on most days. Students clap the beats/syllables of the words (today; Friday; chilly). Once students are comfortable with the morning message, make changes to the morning. “Dear class,” can become less predictable “Dear wonderful kindergarteners,”. The idea is that the children will have to be attentive and pay attention.

Morning Message is Interactive (Share the Pen)

The teacher stands so that all the children can see the writing. She does not block the children’s sight. She shares the pen. She pulled a name to decide who would write the word, “is.” The teacher has already said the whole sentence outloud so the sentence is not a surprise.
Another child is also writing the word ‘is.’ The teacher carefully plans several chances for the children to write the same popcorn word in the message to solidify the high-frequency words.

The birthday child made a period at the end of this complete thought. Some sentences are lots of words. Some sentences are a couple of words. At this point of the year, correcting how we make a punctuation mark or a letter is not emphasized. This was a beginning of the year morning message. Many teachers use ‘oops’ tape to correct mistakes in the middle or the end of the year to help fix the normal handwriting and concept development of students.
During the first 26 days of school, one letter of the alphabet is emphasized. Today is the letter ‘s’ as seen next to the morning message. The children are circled what they notice. I notice a ‘s’ in ‘is.’ I notice another ‘s’ in Mrs. 6 children had opportunities to circle a “s” after the morning message was written. 2 children wrote ‘is’ today. 1 child made a comma after the word kids. 1 child wrote a period after the first sentence. 1 child wrote a period after the second sentence. 1 child wrote a comma after love. This was just the interaction on the chart. This is only the third week of school!

SSR: oops / wow

Wow! We are really reading during Self-Selected Reading Time!

Sometimes we ‘oops’ forget to read and look around. Oops, sometimes we talk. Oops, sometimes we don’t read. But, most of the time we are “WOW” reading the whole time! Wow our eyes are on the reading. Wow our eyes are looking at the book. Wow our brains are thinking about our books. Wow we already had our books picked out. Wow we are not talking to our friends. Did you oops or wow today?

Writing Wall with Teaching Points

Writing Wall with Teaching Points

The teacher builds the wall as she teachers an idea or concept. For example, the teacher teaches the idea that at the end of writing you end with a sigh or you wrap up your writing with conclusion just like you wrap a present with a ribbon. It connects back to the beginning of your story. Then the teacher puts the birthday present on the board on the ending portion of the board to remind the students of the little story to remind them to wrap up their story and connect it to the beginning of their story.

SSR: Read Aloud "Don’t Be A Petunia!"

“Don’t Be A Petunia” is my first read-aloud each year. Petunia is a silly goose who thinks that carrying around a book makes one smart. She gets full of pride by carrying around the book instead of actually reading the words. I use this book to build understanding that the students must read the words, open the book, look at the words, comprehend and understand the words we read. This is why I say, “don’t be a petunia” to my students when they look around instead of reading. It is the first of many lessons I read to build stamina during Self-Selected Reading.

High-Frequency Words keep popping up!

The popcorn word “is” pops up by Today is Wednesday, February 6, 2008. The date keeps changing. The high-frequency words “Today” and “is” do not change. During math calendar the students make connections to the literacy block. Students requested the question, “What’s for lunch?” This teacher will help the children notice that “for” can pop up soon. Building connections between subjects is what building meaning in high-frequency words is all about.

This is a cupboard in a first grade classroom that helps bridge between the beginning of the year of first grade and the kindergarten classroom where the popcorn words have ‘popped’ all over the classroom throughout the year.

Pat Cunningham writes about high-frequency words in chapter 6 of Phonics They Use, version 5. Pat writes, “When readers are spending all their attention figuring out words, there is no capacity for putting together meaning. In order to read and write fluently with comprehension and meaning, children must be able to automatically read and spell most frequent words. As the store of words they can automatically read and spell increases, so will their speed and comprehension (page 87).”

Students need to build meaning around words. Pat helps us to understand that high-frequency words are functional, connecting, abstract words that children cannot connect any meaning to.

What we do in our classrooms, is help our students build meaning. Teachers often say, “Today is Monday.” We “POP” a popcorn word up by the date where we teach calendar. This helps to cement the location of “is” in the classroom so that the children can find the word. It also helps the children to build meaning.

The children put the popcorn word, “like” by the snack cupboard because the kids “like” snack. The children helped to put the popcorn word, “go” on the door because we go outside. There are no correct answers. We just have to build meaning with our words with our children.

OWL: Observe, Wonder, Link to your Life

What is the OWL strategy?

O=observe
W=wonder
L=Link

What is Observation in OWL?
What do you notice? As the students are looking at the book, they are noticing and observing numerous aspects of the book. They might notice the setting (time of day, constant place setting; or multiple settings). A child might say, “I observe that the child and father are walking in the snow at night.” Another child might notice that the child is skipping on the farm in the snow in the shadows. They might notice foreshadowing clues (Early in the book a student might notice an owl on the moon, and then later another child sees the owl flying over head.) This is another way to conduct a picture walk since the children are moving their fingers through the text and discussing the book by saying, “I notice… or I observe… something about the pictures.” Sometimes the students notice the words (Type of language used – British English, American English, slangs, use of foreign languages or words that the students do not know.) There is no right or wrong answer in what the students notice or observe.

What is Wonder in OWL?
Turn to the page that you made an observation on, then ask a wonder question. Wonder about stuff! What if…? Why did…? How did…? Where was this happening? When was this was happening? This is the questioning portion. Many of our students know how to ask questions. I want my students to ask a question about the page that they observed or noticed on.

Before Reading the Book

Procedure for OWL:
1. Have one copy of the book.
2. Have the students sit in a circle, this does not work as well in desks or rows.
3. Open the book to the story.
4. Teacher makes an observation about any page in the story. IE, “I notice…I observe…I see… that a boy and his dog are playing outside.”
5. Teacher passes the book to the student sitting next to the teacher. Student 1 makes an observation about any page in the book. Student 1 hands book to Student 2.
6. Every student has an opportunity to make an observation using one of these sentence starters: “I notice…I observe…I see…” The students do not have to use the sentence starters if they do not need them. This scaffolding is there to support learners, not to get in their way. 7. Book returns to teacher.
8. Teacher makes an “I wonder…” statement about the same page she/he made an observation about.
9. Teacher passes the book to the student 1 sitting next to the teacher. Student makes a “I wonder…” about any page in the book. Student 1 hands book to Student 2.
10. Every student has an opportunity to make an I wonder… statement about the same page she/he made an observation about.

During the Reading of the Book.

• Have the students each have a copy of the book, or have the kids partner read, or read the book to your students (Wise Instructional Decisions).
• Decide how the story will be read.
• Remember to make the decision of how to read the book based on these three criteria: 1. number of copies of the book; 2. the reading level of the students; 3. the reading level of the story.

Setting Purpose While Reading the Book

While you are reading today, think about your wonder question and the wonder questions from the other students.

• When we are done reading, we will share our wonder questions and a link to our life. Does this story link to you? Does this story link to another text (Text to Text Connection)? Does this story link to the world?

What is Link to Your Life in OWL?

As students read, they make connections to their life, to other books, or to the world. It is important that students are active thinkers while reading. By encouraging our students to share their ‘links to life’ after reading the text, many students dig into the story deeper. Instead of the student simply saying, “I saw an owl once,” the student might say, “This book helped me remember that spending time with my dad is important and special.” Did both of these students make a connection? Yes. One is deeper though. As students make more connections to their lives and we model connections, the students dig deeper.

After Reading of the Book

Procedures for OWL continued…

11. Put all the books away, EXCEPT ONE book

12. The teacher holds the book and makes a “Link to my Life” statement.

13. Then the teacher passes the book to the student sitting next to the teacher. The student makes a link to my life statement. If necessary the teacher rephrases the link to help the students understand that how the connections are helping them dig deeper into the text while honoring their language and ideas.

14. Continue passing the book the circle until everyone has a chance to share or pass. I allow passing since linking to your own life is personal and private at times.

Writing: Spaces between Words

Pose a question to the students: What do you notice? The kids see the difference immediately between the green and the purple writing. The teacher has worked on the concept of letter, word, and sentence. We use spaces to help the reader know the difference between the words. As writers we also put spaces to indicate that we are done with this word and ready to start the next word.