Summary Writing- A Heroic Job!

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! 

It's a Summary Writer! 

Writing a summary isn't the easiest thing for my third graders to do. After YEARS of retelling on their DRA assessments third graders are required to write a written summary of the text they have read. This is no joke! In order to combat the evil of Dr. Summary each year we hold- Super Summary Boot Camp! We spend the day learning to write and practicing write summaries. 

I start by introducing my kids to this self-created anchor chart that defines the parts of a summary, what a summary is, and most importantly- what a summary isn't. 

The Superhero theme matches my Superhero themed classroom

Next, I read this SUPER fantastic book while using post-its to document the story elements that I will need to later write my summary. 

Then it's time to review and order my Story Element post-its to create my summary. We talk about the need to add transition words and to possible cross out plot points that we thought would be important, but don't belong in our summary. That's a TON of work! So it's time for a min break. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore has been turned into an Academy Award winning short film. The kids get out their snack and we watch the cartoon off Youtube. While the kids are busy watching I use our post-its to write my summary. 

We convene back together, we review my work, then it is time for them to get to work. Wearing their Superhero capes they get some leveled readers (one of the few times I use these) and they get to work reading, post-iting (that should totally be a word), and writing their summary. 

                   

Everything is more fun in a cape!  

From there I can collect their summaries, see who got it, and plan any strategy lessons necessary during upcoming Reading Workshop periods to help any heroes who struggled or need to clean things up. This boot camp prevents my kids who got the skill from having to write tons of unnecessary summaries and let's me get started with strategy lessons after only one day of summary instruction. 

Hope this post helps you to concur your summary woes. If you need more information feel free to comment below and I can share the Google Doc I created for my SUPER SUMMARY BOOT CAMP with you. 

Bye Buddies!

-Damien

Because of Winn-Dixie & Technology

Hello Buddies-

As I've mentioned before, we are a workshop district! We've been using the new Writing Workshop units of study for the last three years and have been using Reading Workshop for the last four. This year, however, my principal purchased the Teacher's College Reading Workshop units, one for each grade level and an entire set for third grade. My third grade colleagues and I were SUPER excited to receive them and dove into the character unit. The character unit uses Because of Winn-Dixie as a read aloud. This was a text I used when I taught fourth grade and was a little concerned that it might be a bit "over the head" of my third graders. However, they fell in LOVE with India Opal Buloni from the very first line. 

“My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog.” 

I mean seriously- what a GREAT first line!

After reading the novel, we got the entire third grade together in our APR to watch the movie and conducted a digital chat using TodaysMeet as our hosting platform. We watched the movie and compared it with the text. Can I just say- I don't know who was involved in adapting this heart-warming novel into a film but they MISSED THE MARK! BIG TIME! Although I was disappointed in the film adaptation, and think Kate DiCamillo should be as well, it made a great comparison to the novel. 

It was blankets, pillows, and chrome books for our digital chat. 

TodaysMeet is a quick and easy format to have
bachkchanneling while viewing any kind of film. 

Here are my two third grade colleagues and I facilitating our student chats. 

One of the coolest thing about our chat was the way it helped a poor friend who went home early. One of my littles got sick in the hallway (with yours truly-yuck!) the morning before our viewing. Not to be too gross, but as the little sweetheart wiped the vomit off his mouth he immediately asked "Can you tell me the time we are watching the movie in-case I get sent home so I can watch from there?" In-case! In-case! Honey- we are sitting on the floor in the hallway with a garbage can- YOU ARE GOING HOME! I felt really bad for this cutie so I coordinated with his Mom so that he could not only watch at home, but participate in our digital chat with the rest of the kids in school. How cool is that!?!?! Technology really helped to once us and make sure my little friend didn't miss out on the experience. 

Here's a picture of my little friend watching bat home and chatting with us while we
watched and chatted at school. 

If you haven't read Because of Winn-Dixie, you should! It's such  heart-warming tale with some really interesting characters. One of my favorites to read aloud is Miss Franny Block. In my interpretation Miss Franny is a former souther belle who is past her prime and runs the Herman W. Block Memorial Library. One of the best parts is when Miss Franny tells Opal and Amanda about her relation Littmus W. Block and his time int he Civil War. Miss Franny teaches the girls about the tragedies of war and that "war is hell". When I read that line aloud to my class I thought they were going to have a stroke. Here were my little third graders hearing their teacher say hell not once, not twice, but three times! (Thanks Kate) Each time the word left my mouth they gasped in a way that said "we are shocked but trying to keep it together". I just tried not to laugh because it was hysterical! 

You can't make this stuff up!
-Damien 

Third Grade Airlines- Regions Day!

Hello Buddies-

In third grade we have been studying the regions of the United States. Now, I'll give a #teacherconfession here- I do not like teaching Social Studies. I just don't! I didn't like it in 5th grade and I don't like it in 3rd. Phew- it felt good to say it outloud. 

However, every so often something clicks and I find myself looking forward to a particular lesson or activity that is Social Studies related. That day, was Regions Day!

We broke our classrooms up into the five regions and each took control of helping our kids board "Third Grade Airlines" and flying off to the next region. Airline ticket and all!

Prior to the day we decided that we would do some nonfiction reading, some writing, a little digital viewing, and they would make a souvenir to take with them. We also decided to dress up for each region. 

Here are my colleagues and I dressed for our region. 

My LOVE for Disney and my kind colleagues allowed me to be the Southwest. We did some nonfiction reading and writing from a regions packet I found on TPT. The kids used some of the information they learned to write postcards home. Postcards were a great format as they were quick and helped the kids to pick the best facts from the reading selection. 

Taking some notes to include in our postcards to our
friends "back home" in New Jersey.

Once our postcards were finished it was time to go souvenir shopping. We made Mickey Mouse Ears as no trip to the southeast is complete without a trip to Disney and no trip to Disney is complete without your own Mouse ears. After the ears were ready I told the kids it was time for the fireworks display. If you know Disney, you know they REALLY know how to do fireworks! We ended our rotation by watching Wishes fireworks show on the SMARTBoard. It was fantastic and the kids were adorable "ooh-ing", and "aah-ing" at all the right spots!

We really had a blast having the kids "fly-off" to different regions. We even made them wings to wear for their first flight on third grade airlines. Each classroom also had a walkie-talkie borrowed from the office so we could make sure our flights left on time. Communicating with my SUPER colleagues via walkie-talkie was hysterical! One colleague even announced that her "flight would be delayed" because they were running a little behind on their activities. It was also a ton of fun mixing the kids up a little bit. Each flight contained kids from all three classes and one special ed class. This is only 1/5 of what the kids participated in as they traveled the five regions. 

Just wondering- Is there any subject you really don't like to teach?

See you later buddies!

Damien 

Third Grade Metacognition

Hello Buddies-

If you have not read "Comprehension Connections" by Tanny McGregor then you are missing out! This book is filled with practical lessons to introduce comprehension strategies to kids. 

Kelly (again the more silent member of this blog) recommended this book to me and I a THRILLED she did. 

We started our third grade year work on Metacognition and thinking about our thinking while reading. We've also discussed and modeled REAL reading versus FAKE reading. The best parts of the lessons included in this book are that they do not immediately rely on text to convey and practice the concept. As an In-Class Resource room (an inclusion class with special education students) I LOVED that component.  Tanny's lessons allow my kids to practice complex comprehension strategies regardless of their reading levels-which is PERFECT!

This past week we made Reading Salad-combining text and our thinking to make real reading.  Modeling this lesson to my kids, showing how I was thinking while reading, and then including their thinking while I read the text really solidified their understanding of Metacognition. 

I took a picture of this chart with my phone and printed it out so that my kids could
put it in their Book Lover's Notebook as a reference point throughout the year.

I definitely recommend that you check out this book for your class! 

Have a SUPER day!

Damien 

Third Grade Superheroes

Hello Buddies-

I had a blast meeting my third graders and beginning our SUPER year together.  We started the day analyzing a scene from Disney's Incredibles asking ourselves, "What is the job of a hero?". 

Here we are watching the final battle scene from Disney's Incredibles

We put the qualities on a chart and they became our reference point for the month. I am constantly reminded my kids that I will need them to "be a hero", while pointing to the anchor chart. 

Not my prettiest chart, but I made it with the kids on the first day

After that we read "The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man", made our own Superheroes, and wrote about how we could be third grade heroes this year. 

After a few other first day, "getting to know you" activities we started our first Read Aloud of the year. I was super excited to find this series of books when they were recommended by my friends at Barnes and Nobles when I was searching for a Superhero themed book for third grade. 

Captain Awesome is a very funny book about a boy who loves Superheroes, particularly a comic book here called Super Dude, and creates his own hero identity called (you guessed it) Captain Awesome.  We will probably finish the book this upcoming week and the kids are loving it, particularly the way Captain Awesome sees everything around him like a superhero.  His arch enemy is his baby sister called Queen Stinkypants and he has visions that his new teacher is working for super villains determined to torture him Geography lessons. 

I could not imagine a third grader who wouldn't enjoy reading about
Eugene's, I mean Captain Awesome's, adventures. 

It has been a SUPER start of the year- the pun never gets old. 

Have a SUPER day!

-Damien