Second Grade, SIOP, & Summer School

My last post was in November. That says something. I'll leave it to you to figure out what :).

The First Grade Flair is going to second grade! I'm excited but so nervous. I've taught kindergarten and first grade. Second grade is going to be a new adventure! I will miss my amazing first grade team but I'm staying in the first grade hallway. What a perk! I have the same butterflies I had my first day teaching. Some friendly faces will help!

SIOP, SIOP, SIOP! You've heard the joke right? "SIOP is like an onion, it has many layers and makes you cry." Sorry, I channel that inner dork sometimes. I recently went through SIOP training for the millionth time and this time I learned something! We watched videos of lessons and rated them. It's definitely turned me onto the power of peer observations. What do you think stops some teachers from visitng each other's classrooms?

My SIOP goals for next year (I will have 30 ESL students in my class):

• More randomizing and rotating 
• Trying higher order activities (Jig-Saw, Gallery Walk, 4, 3, 2, 1, reader's theater)
• Increasing time on task (I feel like I worry so much about the schedule...)
• Promoting cooperative learning skills 
• Exit Tickets 
• Informal assessments (thumbs up, thumbs to the side, white boards, student writing)

That brings me to summer school. I have 2nd graders entering 3rd grade. They are as sweet as pie! We have a terrific instructional coach who works with us once a week for 2 hours. We are implementing "The Core Six."

It's a great and easy read (I get nothing for saying this). We have talked about "Reading for Meaning" and "Compare and Contrast." Reading for meaning  promotes a closer reading of the text and using text evidence to support your statements. We have had a blast using it with the "Little Red Hen!"

An example:

The students were able to go back to the text and find evidence for supporting or disagreeing with the statement. We also did a few other activities from my Little Red Hen Activity Set.

I have a few more reading activities planned for next week from my "Reading for Meaning Unit." I will post pictures next week! In the mean time, take a peek at the unit!