Monday, January 14, 2013

Guest Blogger and a Freebie!!




 I am so EXCITED!!

I have a GUEST BLOGGER tonight!!

It is my good friend and colleague---WAIT FOR IT!---Cynthia Vautrot!

She always has such great ideas and products to use in the classroom and

she even has a FREEBIE to share with YOU!



Hello Everyone!
I'm Cynthia from 2nd Grade Pad.

 I'm so excited to be guest blogging at my dear, dear friend Teresa's 2nd Grade Pig Pen blog today.  As you probably remember, Teresa has had some mighty serious and scary health issues the last few months.  She is truly a miracle given back to us by God. 
She will tell you all about it, I'm sure, once she is feeling up to it.  In the meantime, several of her friends in the bloggy world have gotten together to help her out by doing some guest posts for her.
Today, I'm guest blogging about my favorite part of the day...READING!

  I LOVE teaching reading.  Call me crazy, but the group that I request to teach each year is the lowest group.  I have such a desire to instill that love of reading in each student, helping fill in their gaps, identify those that need to be in the RTI process and see their reading abilities take off and SOAR!!! 

3-weeks needs based groups are so effective in helping students.  There can be any combination of a groups' needs taught during the 15 minutes each group rotates through.    For my particular level of students, we are working on sight words using the Instant Word List and phonics.

I use needs-based groups to help my struggling students in reading.  It is very precise and also very streamlined.

Everything I need is in this bin.

This year I am keeping the current 3-week plans in this 3-prong pocket folder.  I have 3 pages.  One for each group along with three baggies labeled group 1, group 2, and group 3 which are stored in the front pocket. These baggies contain the Instant Words each group is practicing.  

I use  this write-wipe board for the phonics work.

The spelling book which accompanies our reading series is used for the phonics portion.  Sometimes I also call out nonsense words.  After all, it IS the lowest group and they still struggle with those short vowel sounds.  I do 5 words each day.  The students write them on a dry/erase board.  If they get all 5 correct they get a little treat, such as candy or stickers.  (It's A.MAZ.ING what they'll do for a shiny or smelly sticker!) HA!

In the past, I have also used a folder for each group with the current 3-weeks plans and Instant Words.

The front of the the 3-week lesson plans.  The bottom X-Knows should be highlighted.  I assess each student at the end of the 3 weeks.  If the student  has learned the word, the X will be highlighted.


The back of my lesson plan has the explicit teacher talk so that anyone (including a sub) can walk into my room and teach the lesson in the same manner I teach.

Do you use 3-week plans in your classroom?  How do you utilize Needs-Based Groups?

If you want to learn more, feel free to contact me.  You can also purchase a comprehensive 180 page unit with explicit instructions in my TPT Store

I'm sharing a freebie I use for this group.  Short vowel mini-anchor charts.




Thanks to my good friend Cynthia for being my GUEST BLOGGER!! She is AWESOME!!


 I am also linking up to Classroom Freebies For MANIC MONDAY!!

You can find lots of freebies!
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Is it a Letter, A Word, Or A Sentence?

Students must decide and cut and paste under the correct category.

 Thanks! Have a great evening!


Teresa

6 comments:

  1. WOW...you are organized! Yes, reaching the lowest readers is a great heart filler. Do you have a sample of your 3 week blank plan on your Blog? Thanks for the informing post!
    rwenzel@netnet.net
    Rose

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing! You are very organized and I agree they'll do just about anything for a smelly sticker :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing job! This is very helpful! I will definitely hope over and check out your product. Thank you for sharing.

    Teresa, continued get well wishes!! <3

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your blog is too cute! You have such awesome ideas that will be of great assistance in my classroom. I'm excited to be a new follower! Stop by my blog when you get a chance and say "hi"!

    Kristi
    Lucky In Learning

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing, Cynthia. I hadn't heard of 3 week plans. I've added your product to my wishlist. Great post!
    ~Melissa
    www.teachertreasurehunter.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello There,

    this is really very nice blog and looking very nice. this blog is very helpfull for shopping .. we want come back on this blog...

    ReplyDelete