Tchrgrl

How to Organize Your Picture Sorts

2015-08-16T11:04:00.000-04:00

Having 72 sets of picture sorts and 6 copies of each, I thought long and hard about how I would organize them. If you are wondering why I would have so many, my last blog post , "Why You Need Picture Sorts" may be of interest to you. Once I identify my students' particular phonological needs, I create groups or pull them individually for RTI activities. Picture sorts are not only a great way to introduce and practice sounds, but they also can be an important intervention in which teachers can target student’s specific letter or sound weaknesses.

How Pinteresting!

Organizing picture sorts was vital because they have become such an integral part of my teaching and interventions. One day I was casually Pinteresting (I know that's not a word, but we seem to be adding -ing to everything now, ie: googling), and I found my solution! I saw a picture in which duct tape was put on the bottom of freezer bags and holes punched through them. Perfect! I copy each sort on 6 different colors (so kids don’t mix their set up when I am pulling a small group to work on the same skill), put them in a freezer bag, and bind them in a binder. I have four binders: Consonants, blends and digraphs, short vowels and long vowels. It was a lot of time creating my own picture sorts, copying, and cutting. You can see why I wanted to have a permanent system. Once the system is set up you are good for years to come.

In each bag, I have six sorts on six different colors. That way, when I am working with a small group, each student knows which picture goes with which set.

But that wasn't enough!

In case a picture turned up in the lost and found, I wanted to know what set it was missing from. So I created my own sorts that were double-sided and had the title of the set it was from. Then I printed all of the sorts out double sided and voila!: The perfect system that I don't have to recreate for years to come. I even used the duct tape to label the outside of the binder for a cutesy-matching the duct tape inside.

If I wanted (which I don't, but some people might), I could create a self checking center by highlighting the answer on the back.

If you are interested in obtaining picture sorts, you can download some free samples here:

Consonant Blend Picture Sort

Blends and Digraphs Picture Sort

Short Vowel Picture Sort

Long Vowel Picture Sort

If you are interested in purchasing 72 sets of picture sorts that cover all of the levels, you can find them here:

Picture Sorting Center Bundle 72 sets of Literacy Centers/ RTI Interventions

We have already begun our year and it is off to a good start. I wish you the best in your beginning of the year as well! Thanks for stopping by!

Anna

Why You Need Picture Sorts

2015-08-16T10:24:00.001-04:00

Picture sorts are a valuable tool in teaching beginning reading. To start with, students are actively engaged in manipulating pictures during which, they are thinking about sounds and feeling for them in their mouths. The more students become fluent in identifying how and where the sound is made in their mouth, the more fluent their knowledge of letters and sounds becomes. Picture sorts can be a valuable tool in whole group instruction (introduction), small group instruction (reinforcement/remediation), and individual instruction that targets a specific sound based on assessment.

Which Picture Sorts to Use

When introducing sounds, you can simply find a picture sort that matches the sound you are teaching. However, picture sorts are not only a great way to introduce and practice sounds, but they also can be an important intervention in which teachers can target student’s specific letter or sound weaknesses. Look at the assessment below.

The test is a 25 word list that has a variety of short vowels, beginning and ending blends and digraphs. This test comes from Kathy Ganske's Word Journeys. You can make your own test, just have a variety of words with these features.

In the example, you can see that each time the student is asked to spell the sound of short u, he/she writes an o (drum, bump, much, mud) and also the opposite, when asked to spell the sound of o, writes u (chop). In one word, the student uses both (rub). This student clearly needs to become fluent in listening and identifying short o vs. short u. That is when you pull out your O vs. U picture sorts and have the students work on this.

What else could this student work on? How about sorting pictures with /s/ vs. /sl/? or /d/ vs. /dr/? Also, when spelling grab, the student used an o. Perhaps that gr blend was difficult and the student reverted back to an old confusion and could use some practice with that vowel combination.

Drive-by PD

I created this poster to hang in the workroom of our school, so that teachers could see how to notice and use picture sorts. I call it my Drive-by PD, because teachers just look at it in the workroom while they make copies. Just like kids learn from pretty anchor charts, adults can too. I wish all the PD's I had to attend were nothing but attractive anchor charts!

The Assessments

You can use Kathy Ganske's assessments found in Word Journeys, which has a 25 word test for each stage of spelling, or I have made my own assessments with a variety of short vowels, blends and digraphs. I also made an ending blend assessment for certain students who, every time they were presented with a word that contained a difficult ending blend, they would revert back to their short vowel mistakes that they had mastered in easier words! This informed me that they needed more practice solidifying their knowledge of certain short vowels and practice feeling for the short vowel in the presence of blends and digraphs. This is why speech is related so much to beginning reading.

Next Blog: How to Organize Your Picture Sorts

If you are interested in obtaining picture sorts, you can download some free samples here:

Beginning Consonant Picture Sort

Consonant Blends Picture Sort

Short Vowel Picture Sort

Long Vowel Picture Sort

Download them here:

Consonant Blend Picture Sort

Blends and Digraphs Picture Sort

Short Vowel Picture Sort

Long Vowel Picture Sort

If you are interested in purchasing 72 sets of picture sorts that cover all of the levels, you can find them here:

Picture Sorting Center Bundle 72 sets of Literacy Centers/ RTI Interventions

Thanks for stopping by!

Anna Sanders

Training Students to See Long Vowel Patterns: 2 Free Phonics PowerPoints with Interactive Activities

2015-05-06T18:20:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my annual blog post! Just kidding.........Here are my latest freebies, products, and thoughts....

I am always looking for ways to move students from the sound level to the pattern level and to REALLY understand the difference. I don't know if any of you are torn between "discovery" during word study and "direct" teaching. I certainly know that I am. Since I am not the regular classroom teacher, I sometimes feel I can't afford the luxury of guiding students to be independently noticing things. I am the quick in and out teacher who is supposed to come up with something fabulous. I do know that there is nothing more powerful than a student coming up with a "rule" because they own it when they do that. But there have been times that I am not sure I can lead them to discovering things in such a short time. I go back and forth.

Because I push in to do a quick word study lesson, I designed the following long vowel PowerPoints to do several things.

First, I wanted to train students to distinguish between long and short vowels. So, the first PowerPoint is solely designed to do this. Pictures fly in and the students hold up signs that read "Short" and "Long" before the answer is revealed.

However, if it seems like too much work to hot glue short and long onto sticks (I actually ended up using tongue depressors), then you can use them as "pinch" cards. Students have a piece of paper in front of them and they pinch the answer. I just knew I would be using them for each vowel and they were bright and pretty and probably more fun for kids to feel like they were voting. On a different day, I would have picked the easier way.

In the second PowerPoint, students are given a sheet with patterns in columns. As the picture flies in, they predict which pattern the picture will have by pointing at the column. Then, the pattern flies in and the student writes the word under the correct column. Then the rest of the word flies in and students check the whole word. This continues for 30 pictures.

I lead them to understand that if they hear a short sound, they use one vowel. If they hear a long sound, they pick a pattern. Here is the anchor chart I use:

(You can get this anchor chart in the sample file, which is a FULL Long A set, including 2 PPTs, the writing sort and the Long A story.)

Finally, I got creative. I wanted to connect the spelling to reading. I wanted to emphasize to students that spelling can help them in reading and to have them practice looking for the patterns in their reading. So each long vowel PowerPoint has a story connected to it. Here is the long A story. It is rather difficult to make up a story using spelling words. I remember the agony we used to go through when one of my son's teachers required this weekly. So I did it one last time!

The kids have so much fun using highlighters! It is amazing to see kids get so excited to do this reading activity!

To get the FULL Long A set click here:

Free Phonics PowerPoints Short A vs. Long A

To get the Long Vowel PowerPoint Bundle, click here:

Long Vowel Phonics PowerPoint Bundle

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great rest of the year!

Anna

Rhyming Picture Sort Center--Response to Intervention Activity

2014-12-07T13:15:00.000-05:00

Hello Fellow Teachers,

I hope your year is going well and you are finding time to enjoy the holiday season. I am not one of those amazing people who have their Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, so I am finding time here and there to shop. Although my outside lights and decorations have been out since last week, we have not gotten our Christmas tree up yet. But today is the day!

Before I head out, I wanted to hurry up and post. My blog posts are few and far between. Mostly because of the business of teaching. Although I don't have my own classroom anymore, my RTI position keeps me pretty busy.

Lately I have been exploring all of the RTI resources on the internet. My search is in the early stages, but I have found some valuable websites. For example, did you know that the Dibels benchmark assessments and progress monitoring tools are all FREE on the dibels website? You can find them here: https://dibels.uoregon.edu/. Another fantastic website is http://www.easycbm.com/.

There are many phonological assessments available on the internet. Some good testing resources can be found here PAST test, and PAST answer sheet. For more resources, Jen Jones at Hello Literacy has a wonderful blog post:Hello Literacy RTI Assessments.

Anyway, I just used the PAST test on a few students who are struggling to find out where their holes were in their phonological awareness knowledge and both had an issue with rhyming. I wanted some quick rhyming activities, and while I had rhyming cut and paste picture sorts (Sample), I wanted a center that I could hand to a student to complete more quickly than cut and paste. I also think my rhyming cut and past picture sorts may be too difficult when first teaching rhyming because they contain a lot of voiced vs. unvoiced sorts, and really, I need two distinct rimes for these students to start with and then maybe reinforce the skill with the cut and paste rhyming sorts later.

So I created these easier Rhyming Picture Sort Centers that start out easy and then have a few difficult ones at the end.

You can obtain a sample center here: Free Rhyming Picture Sort Center

If you are interested in all of the centers, you can find the set of 13 here:

Rhyming Picture Sort Centers

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I will blog again soon ;)

Anna

Free Digraph Posters

2014-10-19T22:07:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

I know it has been a while since I posted!!! Well, I decided to move to Louisville, KY. While I loved my family, friends, and colleagues in Charlotte, NC, it became very clear to me that being a teacher and growing old in NC are not compatible, unfortunately. I hope things will get better in that wonderful state. The amazing weather alone might have made me stay. The great news is that I love living in this wonderful new city! Locals here constantly say how much they love Louisville and growing up here. I have not picked between U of L and UK, but I hear that it is only a matter of time until I will be forced to decide. I am now an RTI coach/teacher and love my new school!

Creating things has also been on the back burner, but necessity being the mother of invention, I had to get back into the swing of things. During the move, I downsized a little too much and could not find my digraph posters, so I made new ones. Here they are:

You can get them free here: Free Digraph Posters--Ch, Sh, & Th

I hope you all are having a wonderful year!

Anna

Good Readers Pay Attention to Patterns of Behavior

2014-05-15T20:45:00.001-04:00

As the year winds down I am reflecting on the teaching I've done this year. There are many parts that I am proud of, however, sometimes I tend to dwell on the things that I could have done better. I am writing this post to lay my thoughts to rest once and for all about this particular comprehension piece of instruction.

We were teaching our kids that good readers pay attention to patterns of behavior in stories. I was reading Cynthia Rylant's book Pinky and Rex and the Bully. With the help of my fabulous literacy facilitator, I created this anchor chart. I had never taught student to look for the pattern in a character's actions so deeply and I was very excited to see how far I could go with the students in such close reading.

It wasn't just noticing the pattern of the actions. The students had to evaluate the main character's response to the bully and then look for a pattern in his response-something first graders would probably not do on their own. We noticed that Pinky was always insecure about himself and that he always was allowing someone else to solve his problems. After realizing this, we had rich discussions about why Pinky does what he does throughout the story: He wants to stop being called Pinky (his favorite color) and decides to give his beloved stuffed animals away to his sister. Instead of being confident and standing up to the bully who is teasing him, he decides to change who he is.

So far so good, right? Kind of. We had an awesome discussion, and many students fell in love with this book. I could tell, because they constantly wanted to write about it in their Reader's Workshop Notebook.

But then reading assessments came at the end of the year. It really didn't effect the kids who were at grade level, but it mattered to a student who was above grade level. You know the student who will learn and remember everything? All you have to do is teach it right the first time and he/she will remember and apply everything. The sponge. During a reading assessment, she noticed the pattern of the main character's actions. I was so proud.

And that is when I realized I had failed to emphasize one important detail. As I looked at the assessment rubric, I realized her answer was not sufficient. What she was not able to do was to explain how the character's action at the end (when the pattern changed) effected the story.

So I added the green words on the bottom of the anchor chart. We revisited Pinky and Rex and I asked her the questions. We had a wonderful conversation and I think she would have been able to do it had I just taken it one step further. What a wonderful growing experience. For me.

17 more days until summer. I hope you all had a wonderful year.

Anna

Free Rhyming Cut and Paste

2014-03-22T07:02:00.001-04:00

It has been a while since I created something new, but I felt like I needed a resource that only involved listening. Rhyming is such an important skill. When I was a literacy facilitator, an enormous amount of students who had difficulty reading, also had difficulty rhyming. This experience really drove home the value of phonological and phonemic awareness. So here is my latest creation, a book dedicated solely to rhyming.

Click here for the Free Rhyming Cut and Paste Worksheet

If you are interested in the whole book, you can find it here:

Cut and Paste Rhyming Pictures Short Vowels

Happy Spring!

Anna

Free Listen and Write Long Vowel Patterns Worksheet

2014-02-28T22:32:00.001-05:00

I have been an awful blogger as of late, not attending to my blog, but this year has been a year of change. I wonder how many of you out there feel the same way. There have not been enough hours in the day to keep up with it all. However, necessity is the mother of invention, and I have some kiddos who needed some extra beginning long vowel practice, so something had to be invented.

These students have completed the Cut, Paste, and Spell picture sorts, and while that has helped them a lot, they need a little more help practicing noticing the difference between long and short vowels. Here is a chart that I am using to help them take charge of their learning by encouraging them to "discover" long vowel pattern rules like, if you hear the long o sound at the end of a word, use the ow pattern. There are lots of discoveries kids can make. I spent the first few years teaching word study and pointing things out, thinking that kids would remember. I said things like, "look! If you hear a long vowel use ch (like in peach) and if you hear a short vowel use tch (like in catch). I would hear "ooohhhh" like everything was clear as a bell but many still would forget the rule. Now I do everything I can to have students discover their own rules. I won't give it to them ever. It doesn't help. If they discover it, they own it. You will sometimes see me pulling my hair asking kids what they hear and what they know about sounds and how are the sounds the same and how are they different and any question I can think of without telling them a rule.

I also created some worksheets that are not cut and paste, but I still wanted the students to look at the pictures and practice listening to themselves say the words and write the words looking for patterns. In addition, other students are finishing their morning work more quickly these days and I needed something that provided some more practice but was quicker than the cutting and pasting. I created phonics worksheets that was similar to sorting, but also made them choose whether they heard a short or long sound first, so that I could train them to ask themselves that question first. Until it is automatic, it will delay them noticing patterns related to sound.

Here is how it turned out:

You can grab this freebie here: Free Listen and Write Long O Worksheet

If you are interested in the full books, I have created 4 of them to correspond to the pictures in the 4 Cut, Paste and Spell books. They are available as individuals or as a set. Each book has at least 30 pages.

Listen and Write Books, Set of 4

Listen and Write Word Families
Listen and Write CVC Words
Listen and Write Blends and Digraphs
Listen and Write Long Vowel Patterns

Thanks for stopping by! If any of these are useful, please let me know in the comments section. I have had almost 30,000 visitors, and I would love to hear from some of you!

Happy Teaching!

Anna

Blind Sort Mini-Lesson

2013-11-26T06:07:00.003-05:00

Welcome! I know it has been a little while since my last blog post, but I am sure everyone can relate to the amount of work we all have in the beginning of the school year. I am especially busy this year because our school is in transition from Imagine IT to a balanced literacy model.

Lucy Caulkin's Reading and Writing Workshop
Our school has been following Lucy Caulkin's Reading and Writing Workshop, as we move toward balanced literacy. In this format, word study does not look the same as I have taught it in the past. I used to meet with each group during literacy centers and have students sort words at a small table while we discussed the features of that group's words. It was taught in a more isolated fashion, with students of different levels having different mini-lessons. Although I still meet with students and target their developmental levels, there is a big push in this new design for a common word study mini-lesson each day. Instead of pulling groups during a designated word study time, I pull students during different times of the day based on their needs. For example, the other day I pulled 3 kids for a quick picture sort comparing short i and short e. Although I have 5 kids in my Letter-Name group, only 3 were struggling with this skill. In addition, I created a short vowel anchor chart with all of the short vowel patterns and make the kids refer to it during writing and morning work (individualized Cut, Paste & Spell). So even though I am not rotating through word study groups, I am still using targeted word study, it just looks a little different and is more integrated. I like that. I can already see how this will be a more efficient model because I am able to have a larger writing block.

Whole Group Mini-Lesson
In order to move toward this model, I have returned to introducing the words from all of the groups as a whole group lesson on day 1. This is especially important for the students in the lower levels to be exposed to words in the higher levels. However, I wanted a routine for the whole group lesson, so I am working on what that looks like. I needed a way to work in the blind sort, so I began to do it whole group and I love it! I led the class in a blind sort with short o, long o spelled o_e, oa, and ow. I wanted to make sure all the kids were on task, so I gave them all an index card and had them write the categories and columns. This could also be done by folding it into 4 sections and having students write a pattern in each of the four squares, which I have done before (it all depends on how small a child can write). Next, I had the patterns printed on chart paper and as I called out the words, students pointed at the category on their index card where they thought I should write it. After their prediction, I wrote it on the chart and told them to think about whether they got it correct. I then modeled blending the word by underlining the pattern as we repeated the word as a class and continued to the next word. I hope someone can use this. I am known for talking too much, so if this blog post is too long, here is a graphic that may help you put it all into perspective. I am definitely a big picture person and need something like this!

You can download a copy of these directions here: Blind Sort Mini-Lesson Directions

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Anna

Word Study Routines

2013-09-16T21:13:00.001-04:00

I was sharing my word study routines with my colleagues today, so I thought I would share them here. Part of my problem as a teacher, is that while it is easy for me to teach first graders and understand their background knowledge, it is very difficult to know how much my fellow teachers know. I have difficulty knowing where to start explaining things about word study because I think some things are already known. I was so excited to share my routines when someone asked today. I get very excited when discussing word study and have to hold back my enthusiasm because not everyone wants to stay after school and talk about it like I do! So here goes. Here are the in-class routines each week:

Day 1: Cut words, Teacher Sort (I tell them how to sort it using the pre-printed guide words at the top of each list), Speed Sort.

Day 2: Student Sort. "How else can you sort it?" Students usually sort by first letter or last letter until they know the terms "L-blends", "R-Blends", digraphs, etc.

Day 3: Blind Sort (also called "no-peeking sort"). Students work with a partner in the same spelling group. One student has all of the spelling words and lays down the "rules" or "guide words". I call them rules but others call them guide words. Anyway, the guide words are at the top, and the student with the words reads one while the other student listens and says which column the word should go in. This helps the student that is not looking to picture the word/pattern in his/her mind and receive immediate feedback. If student is correct the word is placed down under the rule. If not, the caller shows the student the word and then places it on the bottom of the pile so that the student can have another chance to get it correct.

Day 4: Word Hunt: Students find words that fit the rules they are working on in books. This helps kids make the spelling-reading connection. Many kids do not understand that something they learn in spelling will help them in their reading. You want them to make this connection so that they will use the skills they learn in spelling during their reading.

Another way to sort:
Concept Sort. This is tricky. It takes a lot of modeling. I can't say that I have taught it it all year because it takes a lot of work to get kids to think of things. It was easy with pictures, but with words you have to go through a routine to get them to come up with similarities between words. Using the words in their lists, students sort their words into concepts like kitchen items, or things to do with water, things that remind me of my grandma, etc. The key to getting kids to be successful is to hold up a word and ask them to tell you everything they know about the word. Then repeat it with the other words until the students hear anything that can be seen as a similarity. It takes practice, but I think it really helps practice abstract thinking and generalizing.

If I can help anyone in any way, please email me or leave a comment below with any questions. I have had 15,000 visitors to this site, but not a lot of people leave comments. So I know you are out there!

Happy Monday!

Vocabulary Posters for Common Class Times

2013-09-08T13:34:00.002-04:00

Word Consciousness, an awareness of words and how they work, seems to be the gateway into developing a students' vocabularies. Michael F. Graves, Susan Watts-Taffe in "For the Love of Words: Fostering Word Consciousness in Young Readers" (2008) promote a six part framework for Fostering Word Consciousness:

1. Create a word-rich environment

2. Recognize and promote adept diction

3. Promote wordplay

4. Foster word consciousness through writing

5. Involve students in original investigations

6. Teach students about words

In the beginning of the year, my focus is on #1, creating a word-rich environment. To begin addressing vocabulary acquisition in my classroom, I try to use posters like the one below (there are five) during my daily routines in order to remind me to use "spicy" words during common class times or transitions. I hang them up in non-prime location spots because they are just there for me to use orally so that students are exposed to rich vocabulary at all times of the day.

You can download this file here: Vocabulary for Common Class Times

I don't recall where I got this list, but a while ago, I typed it up and hung it in my classroom. Please let me know if you have any other words to suggest and I will revise the file and repost.

I hope everyone has gotten off to a good start this year!

Happy Teaching!

Anna

Word Study Homework

2013-07-29T09:49:00.001-04:00

Hi Fellow Teachers,

Today I thought I would share my word study homework schedule for the week. Let me first say that I am not an advocate of lots of homework. If I can get away with it, I only give word study and reading homework.

NO Math Homework
I have stated before that I had a friend who completed her thesis on "Does Homework Help With Math Mastery?" and she found the answer was no. In general, the high kids got it right away, the middle kids learned it the second time, and the low kids needed more help than could be found at home. Besides, I have been teaching an hour and a half of math nowadays and if a student is struggling after that, I have already addressed it with the parent and given additional suggestions and activities.

No Projects Please!
I also don't like to give projects unless my colleagues force me. I will go along with a project if a colleague feels passionately about it in order to maintain good relations. Nothing is better than going to work everyday happy to see everyone with the intent to having a good time. But aside from that, I feel parents already have their own "Projects". For some it is a project just to get dinner on the table at the right time. For others it is a family project to attend baseball/football/soccer practice at night. As you can tell, I don't like telling families what they must do after school and I guard their time as if it were my own. I also tell parents that if a child doesn't complete his/her homework to please know that I will understand and it will not affect the child's day at school. We are here to have a fun time learning and if there is a repeated problem, I will address it with the parent. Life is stressful. We all need to relax about the little things.

Only Word Study Homework and Reading
Below is my schedule for Word Study Homework. The only other homework I have students complete is reading homework. Parents must write the title of the book the student has read in the agenda. That is it. Word Study homework should take 10 minutes on most days. The blind sort is done on Tuesdays because my friend Alyson (she is the famous person on the cover of Words Their Way!) focused on this during our masters project and found that it helped students earlier in the week. I think it is because it is like a practice test in the beginning of the week that enables students to isolate the words they don't know. Some teachers give students a pretest so that they will know which words to practice more during the week. I find that this takes the place of that and it is more of a game.

Here is an editable copy (Word Document) of my homework instructions: Word Study Homework

It looks like this:

Notice how I only collect papers on Monday and Thursday. I tried to have them use their word study notebooks, but I like to keep those at school.

Good luck with the beginning of the school year!

Anna

Google Docs Forms

2013-07-18T22:48:00.000-04:00

Hi Friends,

I am still vacationing, but I thought I would take time out from the beautiful Jersey shore to blog. Actually, I got a little burned at the beach and must take a day off out of the sun. In any case, I thought I would share my favorite management item for the beginning of the year with you all.

In Google Docs, you can create a form that enables parents to type in their information and answer questions that you create. You can have the answers turned into a spreadsheet as they are entered. Here is a copy of my form that you can edit to meet your needs:

Ms. Sanders Parent Contact Form

You must click on "File" and "Make a Copy" before it will allow you to edit the document.

I have parents fill it out at home, or in my classroom at Open House. This is what it looks like on my website:

I have mine embedded on my wikispaces class website. You can visit my class website here: http://arodriguez.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/

You can start with this form and edit it, or you can create a new one.

Here are instructions provided by Google on creating a form: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/87809?hl=en

Google has a video you can watch on that site as well about how to create a form. Once you have created your form, under "Form" you can click "Go to Live Form" or "Embed in a Webpage".

I hope this helps you have a great start!

Anna

Developmental Spelling meet Picture Sorting

2013-05-24T22:52:00.000-04:00

Do you love picture sorting as much as I do? Don't you wish your students could spell the words after they get through sorting? These 3 books are designed to do just that!

You may have seen my first two, but the 3rd book focuses on contrasting all the short vowel combinations while including blends and digraphs.

Picture sorting is an awesome way to help your students develop Phonemic Awareness. Students manipulate the pictures by cutting, sorting and gluing them in categories. Because they are pictures, students are forced to listen and feel for the sounds in their mouth.

I have had picture sorting a major part of my reading curriculum for some time. However, I have always had the students spell the pictures by using their invented spelling because most picture sorting materials use any words. Some have many syllables, and others are a higher level than a student who is picture sorting would be able to spell. I dreamed of someday creating all of my own picture sorts that would contain ONLY pictures that would be developmentally appropriate to spell.
I have finally created these.

If you are new to picture sorting, you must get into a routine of introducing the pictures before the activity. Even simple pictures are not always interpreted the same by students. However, it is well worth the effort, because in picture sorting, the student is active and in charge. They are not being talked to, but they are listening to themselves and feeling the sounds in their own mouth instead of listening to the teacher while the teacher is in charge of the phonemic awareness activity/routine.

I feel the picture sorting is one of the biggest "bang for your buck" in the teaching of beginning reading. Once you establish a routine of picture sorting, so many "aha" moments occur for both teachers and students. As a teacher, when you observe a student saying a sound wrong, you understand that your student will not understand those letter combinations until they are making those sounds in their mouth correctly. One of the most common examples is the word drive. Many teachers know that students who are beginning to learn to read spell it JRIV. This is because they are feeling it that way in their mouth. But picture sorting gives you a chance to discuss it with students and not have the focus be on the letters, but on the formation of the sound in their mouth. In addition, you are also providing another way of learning to spell by incorporating the kinesthetic association with their mouth.

Another way to focus on how the letters are formed are to teach kids about voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds. For example, B and P are both made the same way except one is made with your voice and the other with a puff of air. Highlighting this for your students will help them to become fluent in letter-sound correspondence and help them get through the letter-sound (letter-name) level more quickly. I tried to highlight these combinations in the Word Family Cut Paste and Spell book. Here is a sample page that focuses on ending voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds:

As an added bonus, students get practice cutting and pasting. Fine motor skills lead to advancements in other areas as well. I have noticed that when I teach handwriting solidly in the beginning of the year, that my students are much better writers by the end of the year content-wise. This is because fluency in handwriting frees up brain space so that students can concentrate on what they are writing and not how they are writing it. Don't let anyone tell you handwriting is not important. Interested in the link between handwriting and quality writing? Google "handwriting fluency" and you will see that there are many studies that link it with writing quality. Click HERE for one good article. But I am digressing. Just know that LOTS of cutting and pasting are good for students.

Here are some free samples of the books. I hope you like them!

Book 1 Cut, Paste, and Spell Word Families Mini Sample

Book 2 Cut, Paste, and Spell CVC Words--Contrasting All Vowels Mini Sample

Book 3 Cut, Paste, and Spell-- Blends and Digraphs--Contrasting All Vowels Mini Sample

To purchase the full books, please visit my TPT store here:

Cut, Paste & Spell Picture Sorting Books 1, 2 & 3 Combo Pack Phonemic Awareness

They are also sold separately if you are interested in a particular one.

Thanks for stopping by!

10 more days of school for me! How about you?

Wishing you the best summer!

Anna

Word Families SMARTboard and Cut, Paste and Spell Worksheets

2013-05-10T23:29:00.003-04:00

Hi Friends!

The year is winding down and summer is on the horizon. The sand and sea is calling me and creating SMARTboard centers is one of the way I am passing my time until school is out. It is nice to be able to do this now, because in the beginning of the year there is no time to create SMARTboard files.

I love my SMARTboard, but creating good centers is soooo time consuming. And I do not want just any centers, I have high standards.

SMARTboard files need to meet 3 criteria. First, they must match my word study/spelling for the week. I mean, they don't have to match perfectly, but if I am teaching short vowels to a group, they need centers that target their level. Second, all centers have to be self-checking. I cannot have a center that will pull me away from my word study groups. Finally, the center needs to be long enough to last the whole time, which means 15-20 minutes or more.

My latest SMARTboard files have turned out wonderfully. I wanted some SMARTboard files to start off next year in first grade that targeted beginning short vowels. I specifically wanted short vowel word families and a high rate of student success. Here is what I came up with:

I contrasted many word families that had voiced and unvoiced consonants. If you are not familiar with that, the /b/ sound is voiced, because when you make the sound, you use your voice and vibration. The /p/ sound is unvoiced because when you make the sound, you do not use your voice, but a puff of air. However, you use your lips in the same way to make both of the sounds.

Teaching students to feel for the sounds in their mouths is vital at this stage of developmental spelling. The more you can call attention to this, the quicker you can move them forward.

After dragging the pictures to the boxes and writing the words on the lines, students click the purple octagon in the right hand corner and this is what appears:

They are able to check their work independently.

In addition to this center, I wanted matching cut/paste/spell worksheets, so I created a set that matches each slide perfectly. This way I can either use them for an assessment after they have been in the center, or at seat work as reinforcement.

You can download the mini-files here:

Free Word Families SMARTboard With Matching Cut, Paste & Spell Worksheets

Would you like to win all of the Short Vowel Word Families SMARTboard and all of the matching Cut, Paste, & Spell Worksheets? Follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers and enter to win it all! (If you don't have a SMARTboard and would still like to win the Word Families Cut, Paste, and Spell Picture Sorting, I can just send you that file if you win).

(CONTEST ENDED, WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED)

Happy May!

Anna

SMARTboard Teaching Time Presentation and Interactive Math Center

2013-04-22T19:23:00.000-04:00

I am proud to say that my students (all first graders) can tell time to the minute. I just posted two brand new SMARTboard products for teaching analog clocks and time that will help you teach them how to do this. Both products took me a long time because of the graphics—clocks are labor intensive!

The Common Core Messed Up!

The first product is intended to help you teach time. I fully believe that the Common Core messed up in this area. No other area of math do we ask students to memorize over learning the concept, yet that is what we do in first grade for time. We ask kids to memorize what hour and half hours look like without explaining anything.

Brainpop Jr. Responds!

I believe in teaching the concept over memorization. So I created a SMARTboard that helps you break it down and show kids that analog clocks are really two clocks (the minute clock and the hour clock) on top of each other! I also contacted Brainpop Jr. and told them that one of their videos seems misleading. In it, Annie says that when the big hand is pointing at the 3, it means 15 minutes. NO! It is NOT pointing at the 3, it is pointing PAST the 3 at where the 15 on the other side is or is assumed to be! They responded to say that it was an interesting way of teaching it and they are looking into it. Lol. To read my original post, click here: Measuring Time

My Teaching Time Presentation SMARTboard will help you explain this to your students and they can come up to the board to slide the hour clock over the minute clock and Voila! An analog clock! I break the whole explanation down to make your job easier.

You can preview/buy it here:

SMARTboard Teaching Time Presentation

It also comes with “My Time Book” and 8 leveled assessments/worksheets.

Perfect Math Center

To complement the Teaching Time Presentation or use as a standalone practice in your math center, I created a 25 slide, multi-level, Time practice SMARTboard. I don’t know about you, but it took me 4 years to let my kids use the SMARTboard as a center. First, I didn’t have enough good SMARTboard files to use as centers. Next, I was not comfortable with the distraction it could cause. But now I have the files (especially for word work centers) and I found out that with 3 other computers and an Ipad, the SMARTboard isn’t the novelty that it once was. I really enjoy creating centers that last a week, and I think that you could probably get 2 weeks out of this center.

The product is called SMARTboard Interactive Telling Time and can be found here:

SMARTboard Interactive Telling Time

There is a bundle for both of them here:

SMARTboard Time Presentation and Interactive Telling Time Center

P.S. If you missed the free clock template, you can find it here: Blank Clock Template

CVC Cut and Paste Picture Sorting

2013-04-04T11:56:00.001-04:00

Spring Break can be productive and fun. In between the fun, I have created some cut and paste activities that compare and contrast short vowel, CVC words.

I love students practicing cutting and pasting. I firmly believe kids should practice this fine motor skill EVERY day in kindergarten. Building fine motor skills is vital in promoting fluency in writing. Similarly, I believe a lot more handwriting instruction should happen in kindergarten than seems to be happening. Classes that I have taught handwriting a lot during the first half of the year have come so much farther in their writing CONTENT. This is because getting students fluent in the physical act of writing frees up important brain space and enables them to concentrate on what they are writing. So I love every opportunity to develop fine motor skills. I believe they are a VITAL part of balanced literacy that is sometimes overlooked. That is why I spent time developing these cut and paste activities.

But I am a stickler for efficiency, so not only can kids practice their fine motor skills and phonemic awareness, but they can also practice their phonics skills with these cut and paste activities.

Below is a free sample file of the cut and paste book comparing and contrasting short and and short i:

For the free sample click here:

CVC Cut and Paste Picture Sorting--Short A and Short I Compared

For the entire 30 page book that compares and contrasts all vowel combinations, click here:

CVC Cut and Paste Picture Sorting--All Short Vowel Combinations

Hope you are having a great break!

Anna

Measuring Time

2013-03-13T06:15:00.000-04:00

It is funny to me that we have talked about the calendar this year and still kids need help making the link between measuring time in seconds, minutes, hours, etc., to measuring time with a calendar. Actually, it was difficult at first helping kids see that seconds, minutes, hours, etc., were types of measurement. It is also funny how something seemingly concrete becomes abstract the more you try to explain it to six year-olds.

What I don't understand, is why I seem to be the only one I know looking at the clock in a certain way. At first, I just thought the teachers around me looked at it different. There must be someone looking at it the way I do. Well, if there is, I haven't met them and it is starting to make me question myself. But it really is the only way it makes sense to me, so I am going to share it with you:

Clocks are two clocks on top of each other.

I played a Brainpop Jr. video (I usually LOVE Brainpop) about time yesterday and I couldn't stand the way the girl was explaining that the minute hand is pointing at the 3, so it means 15 minutes. Um, no. I can't get some kids to understand that two letters make one sound (in the beginning of the year anyway), let alone tell them that 3 actually means 15!!!!!! No. The minute hand is not pointing at the 3. It is pointing PAST the 3 to the 15 minute mark on the other side.

I also don't understand why even the common core is saying that first graders should only have to learn to the half and quarter hour. Teach them how it works and it will make sense. The way I taught it was to have kids write their numbers around a blank circle with tick marks on it from 0 to 59. We did this 6 times until everyone could do it without telling them it was a clock. When I introduced the clock to them, they were used to reading numbers around a circle, because they had to write them that way.

Anyway, I created a time booklet that you can find at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here: My Book About Time or you can get it for FREE:

I would love for you to follow my blog and visit my TPT store and follow me there as well. If you do that, send me an email at tchrgrl@gmail.com and I will email you the MY BOOK ABOUT TIME for free.

The booklet goes from years to seconds and includes an open ended assessment. If you download the preview file, it is the complete booklet. It took me a week to get the graphics the way that I wanted them, so I would love to pass on the time savings to you. It has been especially hard since we just lost an hour. I don't know about you, but I could not afford to lose that hour!

If you just want to use the clock template I created to help me explain the two clock theory, click on the picture below. It is free.

I hope that I can persuade everyone to look at the clock the way I do. I would love it if they changed that Brainpop video. Maybe I will email them my idea.

Anna

New Sound Box (Elkonin) Task Cards--Ending Blends and Digraphs

2013-03-09T17:14:00.001-05:00

I admit, my posts have been few and far between. To tell you the truth, I have been neglecting this blog because I am working on a book. I have the "meat" of the book written, which is more of a resource book than a text book. I will save my text book for when I get my doctorate someday. I am looking (not actively) for a professor who is into speech and pathology and early reading. I don't know if one exists, but that's my dream. If anyone knows of a professor like that, please email me. Maybe my resource book can help pay for my doctorate. Dreaming big!

This blog is up to 3,500 visitors! Unbelievable! Yay! (That's how I spell it, I hate spelling it yeah.)

Anyway, I just finished creating some more Elkonin Sound Box Task Cards. This time they focus on ending blends and digraphs. It is very difficult to find words that can be represented with pictures, but especially hard to find words that are also short vowel words. Students who are at the end of the letter name phase of spelling, are the ones learning ending blends, and still need to reinforce short vowels. Interestingly, I have noticed that kids who I thought had mastered a certain short vowel, will sometimes misspell the short vowel in a word that has a difficult ending blend. It trips them up and they make mistakes on the vowels that need reinforcement and have only been mastered recently. This is happening repeatedly in my classroom this year.

I have been careful when creating these task cards to use only pictures with short vowels, but I couldn't find enough "th" words that are able to be represented with pictures for the digraph, so my solution was to include two words with long vowels, but write the long vowel patterns on the cards.
I did not do that in the set I created, just my own personal set. I figure it is up to the individual teacher to determine if they want to do that. However ALL of the ending blends are short vowels.

If you are interested in them, you can get them separately or as a bundle at my TPT store:

Digraph Sound Box Task Cards
Ending Blends Sound Box Task Cards
Digraph and Ending Blend Bundle

There is also a bundle of short vowel task cards here: Short Vowel Sound Box Task Cards Bundle

You can laminate the task cards, or put them in plastic sleeves. I personally like to use plastic sleeves. I printed off several copies of the sets and made multiple folders (the plastic ones with brads) out of them. I made 6 of each vowel so that I could use them for centers. I also purchased plastic sleeves at the office supply store that holds 25 pages in one. I print off the answer sheets and keep them in the expandable plastic sleeve (I hate prep work, so if I can find a way to do it once, I will).

Thanks for visiting me. Next week, I will be writing about why teaching sight words is an inefficient use of your time. In the world of teaching, that is bound to spark some controversy. I will be discussing why I think there is enough scientific evidence to support my views.

Happy Teaching! We only have 59 days of school left! (Yes, I love kids, but I can't wait for summer. Have you ever heard of the phrase "sharpening my ax"? )

Anna

p. s. If you have not downloaded the free Short A Sound Box/ Elkonin worksheet, you can do so here: Short A Sound Box worksheet

Degrees of Words / Shades of Meaning

2013-02-07T19:48:00.003-05:00

It is getting to be that time of year. The time when I have read enough read alouds to start harvesting vocabulary words for my degrees of words word wall project.

Basically, I go through all the books and look for words that mean scared. I put sticky notes on the page where the word is (first graders would have a difficult time reading 2nd and 3rd grade books that I have read to them in order to find a particular word, but scaffolding them like this makes this doable). The students turn to the page where the sticky note is, write down the sentence it is in, or paraphrase what is going on by using the word. They draw a picture in the picture space, and turn it in. We go through the words as a class and decide which words are stronger than scared(and go higher up on the thermometer), and which words are less than scared (worried, concerned, etc.). We discuss how synonyms don't mean the same thing, but that word choice is important to accurately describe the situation. Most of the time authors use the vocabulary words correctly, but one time, we felt that the author could have chosen a better word given the severity of the situation. So we wrote a letter to the author as a class giving him a suggestion using a more appropriate word. So fun. The kids really get into vocabulary at this point, and their writing blooms.

When I get a chance, I will post my list of books I read that contain the words for scared, but it is pretty easy to find books for this, because that is a very common feeling in characters.

Happy February!

Why Repetitive Teaching of Letters Can Be An Inefficient Use of Your Time

2013-01-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

Many reading programs have the letters and sound cards in front of the room, and teachers review them on a daily basis. Parents spend time focusing on their children acquiring letters and knowing what sound each letter makes. Money is spent on gadgets, flashcards, etc.

But what about students who can't seem to learn the letters?

The main reason is that they don't hear those sounds in words. For example, if Matthew doesn't know that the letter R says /r/, then chances are he doesn't hear /r/ in words. We don't talk in sounds. We don't even talk in words. We talk in streams of words. I barely breathe when I am on a roll and words will just keep coming until someone gives me the "okay we know you are passionate but let's move on" look.

So Matthew is hearing "rabbit", "run", "record", etc. He does not hear /r/ by itself. When you tell him that R says /r/, he doesn't know what you are talking about. He does not have that sound isolated in his brain. But with phonemic awareness activities that focus on hearing different sounds in words, as soon as he knows what you are talking about, he will say to himself, "Oh, that letter makes this sound in my head" and connect the two. If he does not hear the sound, it may be difficult for him to memorize the letter and sound.

I had a friend who did her master's thesis on "Does Homework Help With Math Mastery?" Her answer was no. The high kids got it the first time, the low kids had reasons they did not get it that were not going to be addressed during homework, and the medium kids got it the second time when it was reviewed in class. Standing in front of a class reviewing the alphabet and sounds is kind of like that. The high kids already know what you are talking about, and the low kids are not going to get it through that activity. The medium kids may benefit, but could probably benefit much quicker with the phonemic activities that need to be taught anyway.

Have a great 2013!!!!

Anna

How Kids Learn Words

2012-12-08T07:07:00.003-05:00

The order in which children learn to look at words is no secret. It is not a random sequence that depends on the words to which he/she is exposed. Here are the three stages of word learning:

Level 1: Sound

A student understands that sounds are put together to make up words.

Level 2: Pattern

A student is able to look at several letters at a time and memorize a group of letters. Many sight words are gained at this time (If a child is not at this stage, it is bad advice to tell a parent to go and work on a child's sight word knowledge). Trying to memorize sight words would be an inefficient use of time. I will be discussing this in greater depth in the next few posts.

Level 3: Meaning

A student is able to relate a word's spelling to its meaning. In the word "pleasure", you do not hear a long e sound. A student at this level is able to understand that it comes from the word "please" and relate the spelling of the two words.

Reading and Spelling

I often tell teachers, parents, and students, that I do not teach word study so that students will be better spellers, I teach word study so that students will be better readers. Watching a child spell a word can give me a window into their mind.

Looking at the way a child misspells a word, gives me a clue to the patterns in words that they do not know solidly. So I know that when they read, they are not noticing those patterns, or not reading them quickly. This can create readers who rely on context too heavily, or readers who have to slow down and sound out the pattern that has not been mastered.

Improving a student's knowledge of spelling creates more fluent readers. This, in turn, will increase their reading level, because they will be able to focus on the meaning of the text at a higher level. In addition, when students reach the "Derivational Relations" stage of spelling, they are increasing their vocabulary knowledge dramatically because knowing one Greek or Latin root can help them figure out many words, not just one.

Feel free to email me with any questions or leave comments. I love comments :)

Next Post: Why repetitive teaching of letters and sounds to beginning readers is not an efficient use of your time.

Opinion Writing

2012-12-04T06:19:00.001-05:00

Happy Tuesday!

We just got finished working on a piece of opinion writing. I was not able to use my graphic organizer that I made when I taught 3rd grade, so I am sharing it with all of you. This graphic organizer is designed to aid your students in their pre-writing of an opinion piece of writing. It has space for the topic, the writer's opinion, 3 supporting reasons, and examples/elaboration for each reason. Hope you like it. I might use it later in the year, but right now was just a quick introduction and my little ones cannot write as much. So many people have pinned this on Pinterest, so I should have it on my blog. If you use it/have used it, let me know what you think. I love comments :)

To grab this file click here: Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer

Have a great day!

Anna

Spelling--One Layer of Literacy

2012-12-01T07:38:00.002-05:00

Some people think that spelling is an afterthought of reading or that it is not necessary to concentrate on spelling because we now have spell check. This could not be further from the truth. Literacy has 3 layers. Advancement in one leads to advancement in the others. So teachers should not only be good at teaching reading and writing but spelling as well. And there is a lot more to spelling than many teachers think!

Researchers have determined that students learn how to spell in a predictable order. However, there are still teachers who have only one spelling list for their students and all students study the same words! If spelling is learned in a predictable order, then why aren't ALL teachers finding where each student falls on the continuum?

If teachers find where students are on this continuum and give them what they need, students are more successful, more confident, and retain more information.

And, if students are below grade level and teachers are not determining their level of word knowledge and giving them appropriate words and instruction, then those students are not going to progress as fast as they should.

The good news is that more and more teachers are teaching word study than ever before and I know that if you are visiting this site, the chances are that you know what I am talking about. I would love to hear from you and your thoughts.

Anna

Free Elkonin Task Cards

2012-11-26T05:51:00.000-05:00

In honor of Cyber Monday, I am giving away my Elkonin Short A picture task cards. I successfully avoided shopping at the stores that opened on Thanksgiving this weekend, instead I bought a few things from small businesses on TPT (for myself!). I don't think I will be able to avoid going to the big stores, though, when I start to really shop for my boys. Fortunately for me, as I am sure many of you can relate, they are out of the toy phase, so cleaning up is slightly easier. But unfortunately toys are cheaper than what they are asking for. It's always electronics these days. Maybe I will be able to avoid it if I shop online. If anyone knows of any small businesses that sell electronics, drop me a line.

So to those of you trudging to work today like I am after this nice long break for Thanksgiving, here is a small token for all that you do. I love these cards. I use them for seat work during center rotation (or as my principal prefers, "Literacy Stations").

Am I the only teacher who thinks it is hysterical when kids are spelling one of these words and gets to the end of a word, suddenly pauses in confusion, thinking to themselves, "um, there's two more squares left and I only felt/heard one?" I just love to watch them look around wondering what to do and then finally decide they are going to try to sound it out slower and feel for those last two sounds.

It's the little things......

If you are interested in the rest of the short vowel task cards, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Short A Elkonin Task Cards

5 Short Vowel sets of Elkonin Task Cards

Happy Monday!

Anna