This is a great infographic on the importance of Social Studies Education. Social Studies is making a come back with through the Common Core Standards.

Consider signing up to take one of my social studies courses from Fresno Pacific University. Click here to find out more.

What great ideas to incorporate Instagram into our classrooms. I thought other teachers might be able to use some of these ideas, so I thought I would share.

Consider signing up to take ELA 925 Reading and the Common Core from Fresno Pacific University. Click here to find out more.

In my effort to try something new I have flipped my classroom to give students more power over their learning. In my first grade class I have no homework, no desks, and short teacher led lessons. I do have many opportunities for group work, small group instruction at tables, and provide instruction at differentiated learning levels. When walking into my classroom it is not quiet. You can find student are sitting around tables, on the floor, in our small library, and I am usually with a small group. 

Using this method of learning, I have noticed a huge increase in student understanding of math concepts. During our math time students work together in pairs. They use manipulatives and help each other. I provide assistance as a facilitator. 

During ELA time I provided small group instruction as explained in this previous blog: http://www.teacherslearningconnection.com/ccss-blog/center-rotation-schedule

Some resources I found helpful are:

• Role Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom  by Mark Barnes
• The Gazette: Flipped classrooms put students in charge of learning
  
• We Are Teachers: The Flipped Classroom: Infographic

Consider signing up to take ELA 925 Reading and the Common Core from Fresno Pacific University. Click here to find out more.

Because I think it is so important this is my second post about summer reading. My daughter and I popped into the Laguna Beach Public Library during our vacation. In their colorful children's area we found arts and crafts, read to a dog program, information about their summer reading program, comfy couches with huge teddy bears for lounging and reading, and of course many children's books. What a great place for children to combat the summer reading slide. Visit your local library with your kids today!

Here is a great resource, from Reading is Fundamental, for parents to help combat the summer reading slide: http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/summer-reading-slide.htm.

Consider signing up to take ELA 925 Reading and the Common Core from Fresno Pacific University. Click here to find out more.

Watch this short Animoto about how my first grade class researched frogs to produce a 4 paragraph research paper.

Some examples of their writings.

Consider signing up to take ELA 925 Reading and the Common Core from Fresno Pacific University. Click here to find out more.

Some examples of the Tagxedo’s they created from their writings.

Consider signing up to take ELA 925 Reading and the Common Core from Fresno Pacific University. Click here to find out more.

One of the first math lessons I did was teaching the students counting, writing, and spelling numbers from 1 - 10. I am trying to get away from using traditional worksheets to provide this type of practice. This year I am having the students write in Math Journals to record vocabulary words and computations. As you can see in the first picture all of the students are writing in their journals. They have 10 math unifix cubes to practice showing each number's value.

Students wrote the information from a chart paper we worked on together. I wrote the number, asked the students how many dots to draw, and asked them to tell me what the beginning sound of each number word started with. This not only provided number sense, but some phonics as well. We did each number one at a time. I did not move on to the next number until the students finished writing the information for the one we were working on. Those who finished quickly could write the next number and draw the dots for that number. 

Having these number words in their journal will allow for easy access when they are writing and need to use a number word. As with all chart paper created by the students and myself, I will post it for the year on the wall. 

To find out more about using vocabulary and teaching to the common core visit my site here. You can sign up for my course ELA 925 Reading: Common Core and Curriculum mapping here.

My 1st grade student spent a couple of weeks listening to Pete the Cat stories, viewing videos, and discussing and comparing the stories. They wrote their own version to Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. I recorded their readings of the page they wrote for their version of the book. To make this an authentic activity we invited our Superintendent, Principal, Program Manager, Librarian, a Board Member, and other school support staff to the debut of the video. It was an exciting and productive way to show off their work.

As each summer approaches I begin to worry about that ever increasing issue of the “summer reading slide”. I am sure this is a big concern for many teachers, especially with the Common Core Standard’s increased rigor in the area of reading. I researched some summer reading programs that teachers might be interested in introducing to their students. Also, I have included some articles about the issue of summer reading loss. I will add to this list as I come across more ideas and articles.  Feel free to respond to add to this list.

Summer Reading Program Links:

I have recently been asked by several people how I set up my center rotation schedule. This rotation schedule is set up with 20 students. If you have more than 20 you can add more students to each group. The only thing that moves on this chart are the top cards. Listening center will go to the next spot and Poetry will take the first spot on the next day and so on.

Color meaning:
Red: Low Achieving Readers
Orange: Medium Low Achieving Readers
Blue: Medium High Achieving Readers
Green: High Achieving Readers
I match Low Achieving Readers with Medium High Achieving Readers and Medium Low Achieving Readers with High Achieving Readers. This grouping is done this way as to not have too much of a gap between the readers. Students are partnered to give each other help during independent centers: Listening, Computers, Word Building, Spelling, and Poetry.

9:00 - 9:30
Teacher - All Red Students
Book Making - All Blue Students
Independent Centers - Listening Center Orange 1 and Green 1, Computers Orange 2 and Green 2, Word Building Orange 3 and Green 3 (Notice, on this particular day no one goes to Spelling or Poetry.)
Seat Work - Orange 4 and Green 4, Orange 5 and Green 5

9:30 - 10:00
Teacher - All Blue Students
Book Making - All Red Students
Independent Centers - Listening Center Orange 4 and Green 4, Computers Orange 5 and Green 5 (Notice, on this particular day no one goes to Word Building or Spelling or Poetry.)
Seat Work - Orange 1 and Green 1, Orange 2 and Green 2, Orange 3 and Green 3

10:00 - 10:30
Teacher - All Orange Students
Book Making - All Green Students
Independent Centers - Listening Center Blue 1 and Red 1, Computers Blue 2 and Red 2, Word Building Blue 3 and Red 3 (Notice, on this particular day no one goes to Spelling or Poetry.)
Seat Work - Blue 4 and Red 4, Blue 5 and Red 5

10:30 - 11:00
Teacher - All Green Students
Book Making - All Orange Students
Independent Centers - Listening Center Blue 4 and Red 4  Computers Blue 5 and Red 5 (Notice, on this particular day no one goes to Word Building or Spelling or Poetry.)
Seat Work - Blue 1 and Red 1, Blue 2 and Red 2, Blue 3 and Red 3

My goal for this year is to drastically reduce the number of copies I make. Not for environmental purposes, although important to me, but simply because copies are not necessary. Under the Common Core State Standards students will be expected to be in charge of their own learning with the teacher acting as the facilitator. This listening center book report idea is one way teachers can slowly teach students to become responsible for creating their own response to reading; another big CCSS standard. 

Imagine doing a listening center without copying class sets of book report pages each week; a practice I have done for years. What if instead we used journals for the students to write their responses? I plan on giving students a sample of what is expected during the first month of school. Through this activity, I will train students to become more independent at writing their own responses to literature. I decided to simply use a chart paper to write directions for responding to the book they hear. I will change the responses out with each new book. As the year progresses I will provide less support. 

For the "picture" area I can use sentence strips to ask the students to draw things like: Draw the front cover/back cover/title page of the book. Draw your favorite part of the book. Draw the characters in the book. 

For the "write" area I can ask the students question like: What did you like best about the book? Who are the characters of the book? What is the setting of the book? What was the problem? How did the problem get solved? 

I will save the money from not making copies for other important things, like purchasing more journals.

I hope to post more center ideas and copy saving ideas in the future. 

Today I tried this lesson out. It was difficult for some students to follow along. I am maybe being over zealous thinking that 1st graders could do this on the first day of school. I am sure with practice they will be able to produce quality literature responses. 

If your interested in teaching reading using the Common Core go to my website course page here. or my Fresno Pacific University website here.