January 12, 2013

Five for Friday

fiveforfriday

Joining the party for Five for Friday!!! You should go join too :)

This week was a WEIRD week. I'm not sure why, but it was odd.

My Random Five
1- We (six teachers and two administrators) drove four hours (one way) to get some YPP training.



I was NOT excited to leave at 5:00 am, but within the first twenty minutes of the training I knew the drive had been worth it. Don't you love trainings like that?? I will definitely post more about YPP. Does anyone else out there use this assessment tool??


2- After going to the aforementioned training I looked at my YPP data and realized my students are lacking on passage comprehension. We do comprehension frequently but I need to step it up. So starting Monday I am going to dedicate the entire class period to working on comprehending different kind of passages using this book.

Hi-Lo Nonfiction Passages for Struggling Readers: Grades 6-8: 80 High-Interest/Low-Readability Passages With Comprehension Questions and Mini-Lessons for Teaching Key Reading Strategies

This will take place every Monday and I will incorporate annotating and fluency along with comprehension.


3- Google Drive Baby! I am finally diving into this wonderful tool and loving it! I teach a computer literacy class and created a simple document where a group of 4 students had to collaborate via a Google Doc.

My students were absolutely silent, but having conversations with their peers while doing their work. Seriously awesome! Now all I need are laptops in my room so I can utilize it with my ELA class more. HA!


4- I LOVE cold weather. I also love warm weather. Fall is my FAVORITE and so is Spring. I am very thankful to live in a place that has four distinct seasons. On Thursday night, my 3 year old woke up because the blizzard outside was amazing fierce! The wind was blowing so hard. I walked in to the front room at midnight to see my husband cuddling my little girl. Such a precious moment. I took a picture, but it was just white.


5- Puzzles are the best indoor winter activity at our house. We have one on the counter right now and my three year old and I are having some serious bonding time. Anyone wanna come over and join??



3 comments:

  1. I've been looking for more nonfiction passages. There are a ton of them on our state test! So just added the book you mentioned to my amazon cart. Thanks for the tip! Lattes and Laughter

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  2. Hi! What is YPP? I have never heard of that. I teach in Miami and we have the infamous FCAT which I'm guessing its the equivalent to that? Thanks for the book recommendation; I am definitely looking into it. I am in need of some non-fiction passages as well.
    I am your newest follower, hope you can join me through this teaching journey.
    Happy teaching,
    Vanessa @ kinderloves.blogspot.com

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  3. Thanks for the book tip! I'm looking into the one for grades 6-8. I think I need more/harder hitting explicit instruction with reading comp, too.

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