Analyzing ORFs

Today, we had early release. It's new. Our district has given us one early release each month.  It's so we can get caught up on paperwork, collaborate with our team, plan, etc...

I'm actually excited about it...except it's not really early release. It's only an hour early. ha!

What did we do today??

We got together with our team and analyzed our data.

OOH...ahhhh....

More specifically, we analyze our oral reading fluency tests (ORFs)

Here's what we did...

After we have their data, we tried to figure out if they were:

Slow and wrong

Slow and right

Fast and wrong

Fast and right

If they are fast, they are meeting the minimum words per minute.  If they are right, they are getting at least 95% of the words correct.

Slow and wrong - These are your lowest students. Do a screener—phonics or maybe even a phonemic awareness screener.

Slow and right - Think about it—why are they slow??

You may need to do a phonics screener...or maybe a fluency group?

Fast and wrong - Do a screener:

Why are they wrong??

They may need phonics intervention

Fast and right - Enrichment students:

give these students activities such as literature circles, Time for kids/Scholastic magazines, etc to enhance their comprehension skills.

Take into account why your slow and rights are slow...are they slow because they are sounding out each word and struggling, or are they slow because that is how they are normally??

I put it into a pretty little chart for you...We've used something like this in the past, but I couldn't find it, so I just quickly made one. 

Would you like to know which box most of my kids are in??

Sure, I'll tell ya...

I have THIRTEEN SLOW AND WRONG students - just in case, I'll give you the standard form for that number...13. ONE Slow and right, and THREE Fast and Right....which means I have THREE students who are on grade level.

Now, what do we do with those kids???

the slow and wrongs are the target group, and those get separated into smaller groups - we use Barton, Voyager, 95% Group, etc...some are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension...it all just depends on who needs what...and we progress monitor every two weeks and adjust the groups as needed....

Click any of the pics above to grab a copy...let me know what YOU guys do for your intervention...

Oh!  wanted to show you my latest craft...

It's my new purse!! I made that....I'm so proud of myself.

No, I didn't do a step by step as I was doing it - sorry....I just kind of did it..lol.

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Sound Mapping

So, today I want to share with you something I do in my small groups in Reading.

Sound Mapping.

So. What I use this for is for my phonics skills, or for my struggling readers/spellers.

I have done this with 1st, 2nd, and even my 3rd graders...and of course it's great with ELLs...

First, 

I give them a word, and they count out the sounds..

Looky here:

I've even had them use counters to move for those that are more tactile...

THEN, they write the sounds in each box...

(yes, I do nonsense words too)

When I do real words, the next step is to cover the boxes, then they try to write it from memory on the next line.

Then they write it in a sentences. 

I've done this for YEARS, but I just made it cuter, as I was looking at them today and thought they were SO boring...lol

AND I made a teacher cheat sheet so you can know how the sounds go in the boxes...

Click {HERE} to download from TPT.

Let me know what you think - or what do you do with a phonics/spelling/reading intervention??

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TGIF Ramblings

Hi my friends!

This week has KILLED me...I'm SOO exhausted. I don't even know from what....lol.

I think it's all just catching up to me.

My immune system has been compromised.

Which is odd, because I do have a daily dose of vitamins...

Yes, that is MY vitamin holder thingy bobber....what exactly do you call those things??

You can laugh. I have one of those FILLED with vitamins...

and last night we had dinner with friends and went to the beach afterwards to play around...

(yes, that IS where we were...I am thinking I want to blow up that picture and hang it in the house)

it was soooo nice and relaxing - and great laughs with friends....much needed!!

But apparently, my exhaustion has overridden and my immune system has shut down..

because, my friends, I feel horrible..lol.

In fact, I feel SOOO horrible, that I FORGOT my momma's birthday.

Worst.

Daughter.

Ever.

She's flying in tomorrow (yaaayyyy!!!!) and I called her to tell her "I know you're coming, can't talk tonight, on my death bed. See you tomorrow."

She goes, "well, can you at least wish my happy birthday?"

Oh my gosh. I wanted to cry.

I felt SOOO horrible.

And still do.

BUT, she's coming tomorrow for a week!! yay!!!

So, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting while she's here...

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I got called into the principal's office today.

lol.

you KNOW I had butterflies in my stomach.

I was stressing so much about what I might have done wrong, why was I getting in trouble?? 

You know.

Well, I wasn't in trouble - whew!

BUT, she did spring something on me....which is making my head spin and go 100 mph, which is making it hurt even more....

Remember?? not feeling well here. lol

I don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet, but let's just say, it's going to be an interesting year. And I'm going to have to rethink a lot of what I've got planned - haha!

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I realize, I haven't given you any pics of A and B lately...

Here are some of my most favorite recent ones...

A will jump in ANY water that she sees, clothes are NOT a concern...haha!

and my happy little B, she just LOVES the beach.

Now, I leave you with a smile. 

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A Little Help From My Friends!

(mmm...gonna try with a little help from my friends!)

I just love that song!! And I love the Wonder Years ...hehe..I digress.

Sorry.

Anyway.

Today, I'm going to show you a few activities we've been doing in class that have been "inspired" by some of my friends' activities.

I say inspired, because, do we ever really use the things we get on TpT VERBATIM?? 

Are they scripts??

No.

Are they the ONLY way you can use things?

No.

Are they WONDERFUL ideas???

YES!!!

Am I a better teacher because of them??

For sure!

The first one is...

There are some GREAT ideas in here for the beginning of the year...

As soon as I looked through it, I knew EXACTLY what i wanted to do with it...

First, I read THIS book...

Which is actually perfect because OH. MY. LAND...my kids do NOT stop talking...lol

So, we did a little anchor chart on what it means to be a good audience.

And they wrote about how NOT to be an "Interrupting Chicken."

Then...I needed a quick chicken, and I KNEW I had one in my Spring Files, so I grabbed my tracers I made from Christie's Big Chicken unit...

and Voila!!

See??? SO CUTE!

Next up...

One of my FAVORITE units to do in the beginning of the year is Elmer.

My FAVORITE part of the story is the end, when they have the Elmer Day Parade.

 So that's what they did...

I just love how they are all SO different!

Which is perfect since they wrote about how they were one of a kind. Isn't it amazing how MUCH reading and writing go hand in hand!??!

You can download the freebie {HERE}

So, there ya have it...

Some cute activities for the beginning of school.

Feel free to pin and leave some comments!

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Classroom Pics 2012-13

Tada!

from the door...

from the bathroom...

from my reading area....

Do you notice the rolly carts at the end of each group?? that's where I have each group's plant and box of tissues...and in the rolly cart is the math manipulatives for that group and all of their pencil bags/boxes. I can't STAND to hear them fall all day long, so this is where they keep them...

Here is a close up of my front board..

It's our calendar, days we've been in school and center rotations...

Under the board is my alphabet - which is also going to be my word wall. I put id down low so the kids will be able to interact with it. I have been getting some great ideas on how to have my students interact with their word wall. (check out my word wall linky I did!)

To the left and right of my board is my student display boards...I don't have one big one, so I have divided my students into two small boards...

Each clothes pin has their student number on it, so their work always goes in THEIR pin...I got this idea from Katie...LOVE her idea!

Here is a close up of my Center Rotations

The left side is the math centers...I have groups with certain students in them....The ones on the right are the reading centers - they actually choose which center they want for the day. They move their dot with their number on it to that center...the menu is hanging up for them to remember what is in the center boxes (they also have this menu in their center folders. Check out my post on my center menus here...be nice...it when I first started blogging..ha!! Oh wait...I did a guest post for Gladys too, on this...check it out HERE)

And here are my center buckets....which I got at wally-world.

All the supplies they students need are in them...as you can see there are glue sticks in some...the green 2 center has stamps and an ink pad for the "trace, write, stamp" center I made using Michelle's new tracing letters clip art!!

Here is my author of the month table...well, it's more like 2 weeks...lol

This time around is Kevin Henkes....LOVE him!!

Here is my reading area/library....

the white shelf to the right also has books...

see??

All of my baskets are labeled using Reagan's book labels...they are really small, yes, because I printed 6 pages on one when I printed because I needed to fit a few on one bucket - see below...you'll get it. ha!! They are normally quite nicely sized. 

This shelving unit is my "a little too old for you to read, but good for me to read to you" chapter books up top, then my non-fiction, and then my fiction

my fiction buckets are labeled with reagan's labels as well as letter ones that I made...I wanted my library to be as authentic as possible...how would they find books in a real library?? That's how I have mine set up.

This middle shelf is my A.R. board (it's blank right now because we haven't started yet) and my teacher's picks books...whatever our theme/subject is...

the bookshelf on the right is my math books up top, and then organized by months...and the bottom shelf is my poetry and fables/traditional literature/ etc...

my back board also houses our Genre board....I am using Ginger's Genre posters...again, I shrank them so they would fit on my board...and the "life size" ones are hanging there to the left...every time we read a book together, we put the book under the genre...

Here is my Surfin' Through A.R. board...goes with my pack...can't wait to get started with A.R!

in my "closet" is my organization area...

Tubs upon tubs....all labeled of course :) Not with pretty labels...but I did all this WAY before I found clip art...I just don't think I have enough time to go through and make all this pretty...lol

close-up

Guided reading area....

(Denise - LOOK I made my clocks!! lol)

my monthly bins with all the centers and random things to do....

How I stay organized for my days...

(yes, those are bags of M&Ms....I will show you what I use those for soon-hehe)

Pictures just don't do it justice....I love my room..and I am thankful for having met all of you for helping to make it even more fabulous!!

Here's to a great year - I am so thankful for having joined this blogging community - bloggers are such WONDERFUL people, to share their ideas and their friendships...and all of you followers just  make my day with all your comments and encouragement!!!

I hope you found some useful ideas - and please let me know if you have any questions!

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