Interactive Review: IXL

We are absolutely loving the IXL 30 day free trial!

Click to sign up for your free trial!

The free trial gives teachers (or parents) and students full access to all of IXL's tools, including real-time progress and student scores by state standard or objective.

IXL is fully aligned to Virginia and other state standards.

IXL is fun and engaging. Students complete questions that reflect TEI (technology-enhanced items), such as multiple answers, open-ended questions, or manipulating answer choices; it's not the typical passage-reading and answering multiple choice questions.

IXL is more of an instructional tool than an assessment tool. It is definitely a mode of formative assessment. Students are able to track their progress, and if they get an item incorrect they get immediate feedback explaining why their answer was wrong and why another answer choice was correct.

Student view: Connotation interactive

This is great to project and do guided questions with a group of students. It also serves as a wonderful computer station for a blended classroom!

Give it a try, and let us know how you use IXL!

Online Interactive Reading: Curriculet

My new favorite instructional tool!

I've toyed with websites like Actively Learn, ReadTheory, and Newsela, but none compare to the free tools Curriculet has to offer!

Curriculet is a state and Common Core-standards-aligned interactive website that enhances learning and student engagement. It allows teachers to access e-books, many of which are FREE! The student can read the text online, read and write annotations, answer embedded questions, and learning can be assessed with embedded quizzes! 

I am all about metacognitive strategies, and if you've seen my recent post about text coding and annotations, you'll see I'm constantly encouraging students to annotate with specific purposes to monitor their comprehension. Curriculet allows teachers to upload rosters - students can login with their Google accounts, which is HUGE for me since Goolge Classroom is our current platform - and student progress is automatically documented and scored! There is an option for open-ended questions as well.

Teachers can create a new "Curriculet" (reading activity) or adapt one that another teacher has shared. Annotations can embed videos from YouTube or other public domains. 

It is extremely engaging. Students also have a tool to "define" words, which helps with understanding reading reference materials and word analysis like connotations and affixes. 

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Main Idea Cards

Have you tried our Main Idea Cards?

This strategy is a great way to improve reading comprehension with metacognition and close reading. It also helps students gain skills that align with Common Core and state standards.

Click do download PDF

Students struggle differentiating between topics, main ideas, and summaries. This strategy scaffolds understanding of components of a text and instructs students on how to differentiate between a supporting detail, "trash" (a statement that contradicts the text or is not found in the text), and the main idea. It also shows students how a topic, main idea, and supporting details compose a paragraph.
Click on the image to view the presentation in Google Slides. To access an editable copy, click File then Make a Copy, and Rename the presentation and Add it to your Drive. You will then have a copy that you can adapt for the needs of your students. Please share! We welcome your feedback :)

Click to view Slide. Make a Copy to Edit.

Literacy Station Inspiration to Present in June

Once again, we will be sharing strategies and collaborative activities at a K-12 Literacy Conference! Come join us! 
(Hurry! The registration deadline for school groups is April 8th!)

We will be presenting a blended (partially online) writing unit that incorporates student-generated writing lessons, process writing instrution, formative assessment, and collaborative learning at the 2016 Center for Workforce and Community Education Literacy Conference for K-12 Teachers. The program is sponsored by the Germanna Education Consortium in conjunction with the Spotsylvania County School's regional Leadership Learning Exchange Conference. 

The literacy conference will take place on Thursday, June 23 2016 at Chancellor Middle School in Spotsylvania, Virginia with featured and keynote speakers, local educators, and VDOE staff members presenting on current best practices, innovations in 21st century teaching, and new changes or announcements related to the Virginia SOLs.

For registration and session information, see the Conference Flyer or contact Kim Rodenberg at (540) 834-1925.

We hope to see you there!

Teaching Students to Interpret Author's Clues

The skills making inferences and drawing conclusions are umbrella terms that include an array of literacy skills. 

The following presentation focuses on introducing students to an overview of how to analyze clues provided by writers that imply the author's purpose, perspective, viewpoint, subject, theme, tone, and mood. 

To access an editable copy, click on File, then Make a Copy.

There are cloze notes that students can fill in as they follow along with the presentation below.

To access an editable copy, click on File, then Make a Copy after opening link.

The follow-up stations that accompany this will be posted shortly. The last several slides in the presentation guide students through the analysis of print advertisements, comics, political cartoons, and public service announcements. This serves as guided practice for the upcoming stations!

Making Connections

While the KWL Chart can be a great teaching and learning tool, it doesn't always suffice for individual learning. I created this tool for making connections before, during, and after reading. I like the idea of students generating questions once they have gathered new information.


Try it out with your students!

Share My Lesson

This teacher sharing website is so easy to use. It has everything from in-depth lesson plans to simple handouts, activities, and games. The best part is that it is made for teachers by teachers. The activities are all organized by grade level and content area. The search aspect is so simple to use!

End-of-the-Year Stations

So, the school year is coming to a close. Testing is over, but you still have instructional time. How can you conduct class while still maintaining structure?
Try stations!
Literacy stations that incorporate group collaboration, hands-on activities, and challenging games make for great end-of-the-year review.
There are plenty of board games that involve making inferences, math, and literacy skills.
Check out the games and interactives link on our site for ideas and printable handouts!

Literacy Stations In English 9

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to guest teach in a Chesterfield County High School classroom. I worked with the content teacher and special education teacher to prepare and implement literacy stations in two small collaborative English 9 classes.

The stations in these classrooms were slightly different than how we typically use them. In this case, the teachers were using stations to introduce unfamiliar vocabulary words before reading selections from The Odyssey, so all of the stations used the same set of words but focused on a different skill.

Station 1: Sentence Writing Station
We printed 12 color pictures on 11x17 paper. Each image was labeled with a vocabulary word. Students were given a handout (chart) with boxes labeled for each word. They were directed to analyze the image and write original sentences using the vocabulary word and the image.

Station 2: Context Clues
At this station, students were given handouts with printed sentences. Here they were directed to fill in the blanks with the appropriate vocabulary words using context clues including synonyms, antonyms, examples, and inferences.

Station 3: Root and Affix Sort
The last station involved sorting the same vocabulary words by root, prefix, and affix. The students were given a chart of various words. They were directed to identify the given word part and write it on the handout chart beneath the word with which it shared the word part. (For example, they were given the word "titanic" and had to write in all of the words that shared the suffix.)

The stations were a great success! The activities were the appropriate level of difficulty for the struggling readers. Because we had three teachers in the room (myself, the content teacher, and the collaborative teacher),  we were able have one teacher leading at each station to guide students who struggled with understanding the activity or the words. The students worked cooperatively and stayed on task. The class began with the regular warm-up (journal writing), followed by station introductions and expectations. With fifteen minutes for each station, both classes were able to begin a shared reading of the first Odyssey story after completing the station rotations.

I followed up with the teacher after the lesson, and she had already created her own stations for implementing the next set of vocabulary words!

If you would like any assistance with customized stations to accommodate your students, please contact me through email (emma.zayas@gmail.com).