If you love painless practice that builds higher level thinking skills, don't miss Albert's Insomnia! This new card game can be used by by 1, 2 or more players to practice mental math and math facts while learning the order of operations. Others report that it also develops attention span and concentration skills, which is especiallyhelpful for students with ADD/ADHD; provides communication and social interaction skills practice; builds collaboration skills; develops critical and creative thinking skills and enhances self esteem. This seemingly simple card game gives reluctant math students a way to have fun with mathematics!
While the game is marked for Age 8+, I had fun playing it with my granddaughter Ally, who is in 1st grade. With only slight adaptations of the "How to Play" guidelines, Ally amazed me with the different ways she used the numbers provided to make a specified sum. She had fun using addition and subtraction facts together to "make" a specified number.
Teachers are always looking for new things to add to centers/workstations. To use this game during reading instruction, teachers could write the rules for the different game options with grade-level-specific vocabulary; then students would read and follow written directions. Students can also write a set of rules for a different version of the game.
Go to http://rjb3games.com/index.html to learn about how as a kid, creator Rich Buchner used his digital clock to count sheep while trying to go to sleep. Watch how kids of all ages love to play this game!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
While Valentine's Day has come & gone, the focus on LOVE, LOVE, LOVE will be the theme of this issue of the Take a PEEK newsletter! I am passionate about helping ALL students become successful readers. As my friend Phyliss Hunter said, "Reading IS every child's civil right!" As you browse Take a PEEK, I hope you find something you LOVE so much that you share it with other educators. Remember, scientifically-based research, SBR, doesn't impact student achievement until it becomes scientifically-based instruction, SBI!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Wonderful Websites
http://www.storylineonline.net/ Studio Actors Guild members share quality children's books; this month featuring Lou Diamonds reading Polar Express
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp Interactive tools can be used to supplement a variety of lessons and provide opportunities for students to use technology while developing their literacy skills.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/homepage.php Bilingual site is part of Reading Rockets, WETA's multimedia initiative that provides information, activities, and advice to Spanish-speaking parents to help their children learn to read.
http://www.rif.org/ The RIF Reading Planet section provides educational games and activities for kids.
http://www.starfall.com/ For beginning readers; interactive books and rhyming word family games that teach phonemic awareness, comprehension, vocabulary building, and spelling skills.
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp Interactive tools can be used to supplement a variety of lessons and provide opportunities for students to use technology while developing their literacy skills.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/homepage.php Bilingual site is part of Reading Rockets, WETA's multimedia initiative that provides information, activities, and advice to Spanish-speaking parents to help their children learn to read.
http://www.rif.org/ The RIF Reading Planet section provides educational games and activities for kids.
http://www.starfall.com/ For beginning readers; interactive books and rhyming word family games that teach phonemic awareness, comprehension, vocabulary building, and spelling skills.
Adolescent Literacy
Stuck in the Middle: Strategies to Engage Middle-Level Learners By: Traci Maday (2008)is one of the many relevant and interesting articles I've read recently in the newsletter published at http://www.adlit.org/. Maday describes three strategies that can help create a meaningful curriculum to engage middle-level learners. Drawing from effective classroom practices across grade levels as well as from research about the social, emotional, and physical development of middle-level learners, Maday offers practical
and meaningful suggestions...that may have been easily overlooked in the rush to finish the curriculum. http://www.adlit.org/article/27334.
This resource is a wealth of information for parents and educators of kids in grades 4-12.
and meaningful suggestions...that may have been easily overlooked in the rush to finish the curriculum. http://www.adlit.org/article/27334.
This resource is a wealth of information for parents and educators of kids in grades 4-12.
Engaging ALL Students In Learning
Too often students wait and wait and wait for their turn to talk during instruction. While many teachers are striving to maintain a structured and disciplined classroom environment, they may unintentionally prevent students from elaborated responses, asking higher-level questions, and pigbacking thoughts based on other students' statements and wonderings. Granted there is a limited amount of instructional time and way too much content to cover, but if teachers must severely restrict student-teacher and student-student interaction so teacher talk is always predominate, then learning/achievement does not happen with all students.
As Marica Tate says, "Sit and get doesn't grow dendrites!" Her terrific book, Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, offers many suggestions about ways to actively engage all students in the learning process. Some of them include using humor and telling stories, integratating games into lessons, using mnemonics and metaphors to prompt memories, and purposeful movement.
Think, Pair, Share and Search, Find, Tell/Show are two routines that can be used to focus students' attention on getting meaning from print and then discussing it with another student.
As a society, we can't afford for our students not be be successful learners. If the "best and brightest" are bored during instruction, they will discover ways to entertain or to challenge their minds! If those students who are struggling to learn don't have a clue as to how to begin an assignment, they will discover ways to escape the classroom! Schools reflect excellence when everyone...educators and students...focus their discoveries on learning!
Besides, active engagement in the learning process if fun!
As Marica Tate says, "Sit and get doesn't grow dendrites!" Her terrific book, Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, offers many suggestions about ways to actively engage all students in the learning process. Some of them include using humor and telling stories, integratating games into lessons, using mnemonics and metaphors to prompt memories, and purposeful movement.
Think, Pair, Share and Search, Find, Tell/Show are two routines that can be used to focus students' attention on getting meaning from print and then discussing it with another student.
As a society, we can't afford for our students not be be successful learners. If the "best and brightest" are bored during instruction, they will discover ways to entertain or to challenge their minds! If those students who are struggling to learn don't have a clue as to how to begin an assignment, they will discover ways to escape the classroom! Schools reflect excellence when everyone...educators and students...focus their discoveries on learning!
Besides, active engagement in the learning process if fun!
Student Center Activities Search Tool
Have you used the great new Search Tool from Florida Center for Reading and Research? http://www.fcrr.org/SCASearch/ facilitates access to the 500+ individual K-5 Student Center Activies as well as to instructional routines from Empowering Teachers.
Don't forget ALL activities in a student center or workstation should be PAINLESS PRACTICE, skills they have previously been taught!
Don't forget ALL activities in a student center or workstation should be PAINLESS PRACTICE, skills they have previously been taught!
Storybook Project
During a recent trip to my neighborhood Barnes and Noble, I learned about the Women's Storybook Project of Texas. I chose to donate Runaway Bunny to this project; it will soon be in the hands of a child whose mother is incarcerated. The project volunteers take donated books to the prisons; record each mother reading a specific book; then mail the book and that tape to the mother's child. Although they won't be together, some child will get to listen to his or her mom reading Runaway Bunny.
Statistics indicate that 1 of 5 children of incarcerated parents end up in prison. This project hopes that by developing stronger relationships between imprisoned mothers and their children, these numbers may be changed. The Women’s Storybook Project of Texas started in Austin, Texas in 2003 and currently targets the children of women who are imprisoned at Gatesville prisons.
http://www.storybookproject.org/
Browse http://www.fcnetwork.org/storybook.pdf to learn the origins of this project in our country and for suggestions on starting a Storybook Project in your area.
Statistics indicate that 1 of 5 children of incarcerated parents end up in prison. This project hopes that by developing stronger relationships between imprisoned mothers and their children, these numbers may be changed. The Women’s Storybook Project of Texas started in Austin, Texas in 2003 and currently targets the children of women who are imprisoned at Gatesville prisons.
http://www.storybookproject.org/
Browse http://www.fcnetwork.org/storybook.pdf to learn the origins of this project in our country and for suggestions on starting a Storybook Project in your area.
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