Five Links For Friday - Five Literacy Links to Know About!

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

It's also a great day to link up with Doodle Bugs for:



http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/2015/07/five-for-friday-linky-party-july-17th.html


This summer I'm taking a Reading class taught by Sally Grimes.  You can read more about her by clicking The Grimes Reading Institute.  One of the assignments was to do a "Website Walk" by exploring five website.  Today I'm going to share what I learned.





The first site I visited contained demonstration videos by Anita Archer showing her teaching techniques.


This is an excerpt from the web site:

Explicit Instruction


Effective and Efficient Teaching

By Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes
Explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented—and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This highly practical and accessible resource gives special and general education teachers the tools to implement explicit instruction in any grade level or content area. The authors are leading experts who provide clear guidelines for identifying key concepts, strategies, skills, and routines to teach; designing and delivering effective lessons; and giving students opportunities to practice and master new material. Sample lesson plans, lively examples, and reproducible checklists and teacher worksheets enhance the utility of the volume.


To check out more of Anita Archer's videos on explicit instruction, click here.

There's even a book you can read:

http://www.amazon.com/Explicit-Instruction-Effective-Efficient-Special-Needs/dp/1609180410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437181532&sr=1-1&keywords=explicit+instruction

Click on the book to read more at Amazon.


 The second site I visited was    Vocabulogic..    The author of this site is Susan Ebbers who underlines the importance of "morphological awareness" -  the use and understanding of word parts like base words, suffixes, prefixes,...  Susan Ebbers has even written her first book:

http://www.amazon.com/Jamies-Journey-Savannah-Susan-Ebbers/dp/0983397198/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437344944&sr=8-1&keywords=jamie%27s+journey






Click on the book or here to learn more about this book on Amazon.





According to seminal research by Jeremy Anglin (1993), inferring word meaning via morphological reasoning predicts vocabulary growth. Anglin tested children in grades 1, 3, and 5, finding a sharp increase in word knowledge between grades 3 and 5. He suggested that this steep increase is largely due to increased awareness of the process of suffixation, in particular, the process of creating new words by adding derivational suffixes. Those students who were more skilled in this type of "morphological problem solving" performed comparatively better on the vocabulary test. - See more at: http://vocablog-plc.blogspot.com/#sthash.AyKbMnv8.dpuf
According to seminal research by Jeremy Anglin (1993), inferring word meaning via morphological reasoning predicts vocabulary growth. Anglin tested children in grades 1, 3, and 5, finding a sharp increase in word knowledge between grades 3 and 5. He suggested that this steep increase is largely due to increased awareness of the process of suffixation, in particular, the process of creating new words by adding derivational suffixes. Those students who were more skilled in this type of "morphological problem solving" performed comparatively better on the vocabulary test. - See more at: http://vocablog-plc.blogspot.com/#sthash.AyKbMnv8.dpuf
Next up was The Reading Institute.  This non-profit organization offers training classes for Simmons College and other courses about dyslexia and other reading disorders.  They are based in Williamstown, Massachusetts!






The Minnesota Reading Corps   is the largest state Americorps program.  This organization recruits reading tutors who work one on one with students needing reading support.






The last site - Reading Matters to Maine - underscored that:

     We can no longer afford to teach reading based on the false assumption that learning to read is
     like learning to speak.

All teachers need extensive training in all aspects of Reading.



I really enjoyed checking out all these websites to see what other states are doing to help their students improve their ability to read.  I'm glad that I'm taking this class because there is so much to learn!

Have a wonderful week!

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Tell All Tuesday vs. Wordless Wednesday!

Today I'm doing two link-ups in one because they're both related.

First up is this great link-up with Teach, Talk. Inspire for Tell All Tuesday:

http://teachtalkinspire.blogspot.com/2015/07/tell-all-tuesday.html


The goal is to same what your life would be as a reality TV show.  


Every day I'm trying to do a little better than the day before.  On my show, I'd have a helpful friend on the other side of the fence.  This friend would listen to me and help me solve my day to day issues.  Since this is a makeover show, organizers would come in and totally organize my house from top to bottom as well as my classroom.  Then these super organizers would find another unsuspecting teacher....What teacher wouldn't want this show?

Next up I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo for:

http://secondgradesugarandspice.blogspot.com/2015/07/wordless-wednesday-what-are-you-planning.html

In the summer I reorganize my teacher shelves, my closet,... with the hope of being organized until the next summer.  Here's my most recent project:


First, I take everything off the shelves on the bottom right; move the "stuff" onto the dining room table (lower left); recycle it or place what I'm saving in piles on the bench in the top picture.  The piles from the left are:  reading, math, science and social studies.  Now I have to go through each pile, organize it and put it away on my shelves.

How come organizing makes a HUGER mess before it gets better?  Do any of you spend inordinate amounts of time reorganizing every summer?  Guess what I'm doing next?  Back to reality....

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Remembering When Is Easier Than Remembering Yesterday!

Do you remember when?  If so, here's a great link-up sponsored by Big Time Literacy!

http://bigtimeliteracy.blogspot.com/


These are some of my daily summer activities when I was younger:

*I remember going to Pico Park in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and we had Park Teachers.  We spent our days doing gimp and making potholders.  I still know how to do the butterfly, square and ladder stitches (they call the last one the zipper stitch nowadays).

*I remember climbing trees in the marsh and making believe I could see places far away.  We used to make forts in the marsh, too - it was so much fun! (there must not have been ticks back then either).

*I remember going to get ice cream, and the only flavors were chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

*I remember that we had to go home when the streetlights came on.

*I used to have roller skates that went over my sneakers and used a key to make my roller skates fit.  I also had a bike with a banana seat.  We never wore helmets.

Wow, it's amazing that any of us survived!  It's also amazing how much life has changed in such a short amount of time!




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Five For Friday - Fourth of July Style!







I'm excited to link up with Doodle Bugs for:

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/2015/07/five-for-friday-linky-party-july-3rd.html



On Monday and Tuesday I took a Reading class.  Here's a great quote:



I love this quote because it gives me another great reason to have a Morning Meeting!


I finally got to go in my pool!  The first time I vacuumed, and the second time I got to do some water aerobics!




I love having the sun shine on me while I enjoy doing my exercises.






I'm reading a great book:

You can read more about it here on Amazon.






My father keeps me reminding me that this dates marks the "end of the summer."  UGH!  My vacation just started last Wednesday - summer has only just begun!  This is the 4th day of my vacation, too!





I've started washing some windows!  Every window = one window closer to my goal of cleaning all the windows in my house! 





Happy 4th of July!


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Currently July AND the first day of my summer vacation!

Hello!  Our last day of school was last Friday, and I took the first two days of my Reading class taught by Sally Grimes this Monday and Tuesday.  Finally, I can officially be on vacation which gives me the perfect opportunity to link up with Oh Boy 4th Grade For:



I am so happy to be on vacation.  I slept until six o'clock this morning; I did a crossword puzzle; read a book;...I do LOVE the summer.  On the other hand, my father (who is living with us now due to health issues) has to remind me, "Summer's almost over.  It's July 4th on Saturday."  UGH!  Of course, seeing all the Back to School sales and blog posts doesn't help either.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to start cleaning the windows - maybe one to start.  There's A LOT of cleaning and organizing to do around here.  I'd much rather be blogging or reading or....relaxing or doing something for myself.  This morning I went to the dermatologist, and there was a sign for Botox urging people to "do something for yourself...get Botox....look younger."  I feel younger already - now that I'm on vacation!

Happy 4th of July - the official start of summer (in my book anyway)!


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