Let's write quickly!

A quick write is a very useful tool that teachers from first grade to college can use with their students. I think everyone uses quick writes, they just don't know it. 

A quick write is when you take a topic and write everything that you know about the topic in a given amount of time (example: 1st grade: bugs- 3 min). During the time allowed the students are not allowed to erase or reread what they have written.  This allows them to get all their thoughts out before going back through.

These quick writes can be used as a student's brainstorming activity, a way for the teacher to see what the students already know,  an assessment after a lesson to make sure the students all understand and many more possibilities.

I like quick writes because it is an easy way for me to jot down ideas for my blog when my time is limited.  I think it would be a great idea to use in the classroom when the students finish early.

Even though I am a big supporter of quick writes I do believe that they should not be used every day.  This needs to be an occasional tool that is used. This will keep the children interested in the activity. 

New Year!

Happy New Year to you! As 2014 unfolds what are your resolutions for the up coming year?

This is something that I feel should be shared with students. Tell them some of your resolutions (school appropriate of course). After discussing yours have the students write some down for themselves.  Save these and during the last week of school pass them back out and see who is following their resolutions still.

With this new year try to come up with a pact with your students to stop bullying.  A new year can be a great time to talk about bullying.  Talk about what they should do if they see bullying. Explain how the victims feel when they are bullied.  Tell them the consequences of bullying.

Overall with this new year encourage your students to be better people!

I hope you had a safe and happy New Year!  I look forward to writing many new posts this year.

Stop Think Points

During this past semester I learned about a reading technique called Stop Think Points. Stop Think Points are places in a story where the teacher has the student stop and think about something. These can be made into a bookmark which each student will receive before beginning to read. 

This can be a great way to teach reading to the whole class. The teacher is able to have the class read a book and even with the different reading levels they are able to participate and do the same activities. 

When the students stop the teacher has a lot of options they can have the students:

•  think about a question and be ready to discuss 
• summarize what they have read
• draw a picture
• etc

This activity can be used for any grade and some Stop Think Points can be more challenging for the students who are reading above grade level. 

I used this activity in a second grade classroom where I taught a guided reading lesson. I had the children read a couple pages stop and pick out certain information to share with the group. This activity really worked for me and the children were all on task!

Here is the Stop Think Point I made :

This is a great  way to keep children on task and to see if they are fully understanding what they are reading!