Hi everyone! I'm linkin' up with Ms. Lindsay from:
...for her AWESOME party about Reading and Writing Workshop MUST HAVE items!
Before I jump into this AWESOME linky party, I have to tell you, SUCH a small world again!! Lindsay is living in Texas now, but when she lived in Michigan, her and I did our student teaching at the same school!!! She just recently commented on my blog, and I didn't even know she was a blogger!! Isn't that funny?! I am SO happy to have found her blog because she has some AWESOME ideas!! I have to laugh too because I secretly want to have a linky party also, but thought the same things as her, what if no one shows up to mine! I laughed when she wrote this, because I had the same thoughts!!! ;)
I love this linky party because Reading and Writing Workshops are very near and dear to my heart! I have written in some previous posts about my love of using mentor texts to teach my kids a strategy, pulling my kids to the carpet and really breaking down some important skills that make reading and writing come alive for them!
With that, my TOP must haves include:
A great library that is organized for your students, easy for them to use and contains a whole plethora of books. I organize my library with book baskets found at Really Good Stuff. I organize them by genre, series, authors, Newbery Award Winners, etc.
I kind of go overboard when it comes to purchasing books for my kids. If they have any interest, I go out and buy it right away. Many of my kids don't have any books at home, so I never mind doing this!! If you're looking for good, cheap books, I recommend ebay, Craigslist, and of course Scholastic! Encourage your parents to shop online, because with every online order you get 1 free book for your classroom!
Another must have are some great mentor texts. I put a lot of love into choosing a GREAT mentor text for a lesson. Some times I will read the text over the course of a week, sometimes I will just read a snippet, but usually my kids beg me to read the entire story. Some of my all time favorite mentor texts for reading and writing are:
Another MUST HAVE are some great anchor charts. I am obsessed with anchor charts. I create them with my students and post them throughout my room. Here are some anchor charts I have done with my students in the past.
Lastly, my must haves include my reading binder and my writing workshop notebooks! You can click the picture below for some free superhero themed covers!!
I know I have talked about my reading data binders in the past, but here are a few more things my students have in their binders:
In each students' binder is a copy of EVERY single ELA Common Core Standard written in kid language.
Students are to track their learning and progress with these graphs that are also in their learning binders. I will grade a writing piece, for example, with a rubric, and students will then input their rubric scores into these tracking graphs.
We are a data heavy school, so we progress monitor quite a bit. My students have graphs to keep track of their AR points, STAR reading assessments, DIBELS data, fluency data and more!
**All of the above products can be found here (or click the picture):
I could go on FOREVER talking about more things I use, but these are just a few of my top favs!! Head on over to Lindsay's blog to link up! I'd love to see more teachers' ideas of their top Reading and Writing Workshop must have items!!!
P.S.- I wanted to give a QUICK update on some products I am adding to my store. I had quite a few requests for a 6th Grade Common Core Math Student Data Tracking Binder: DONE! (click the picture below to check it out)
I also completed the "I can" and "We can" statement posters for 6th grade to go along with this packet above: (click the picture)
**Update: 4th Grade Common Core Math Standards Assessments and Teaching Notes!!! Click on the picture below to check them out!!
This girl is off to go do some Hobby Lobbyin'!!! TROUBLE!!!! ;)
