Center for the Collaborative Classroom: Our New ELA Program

Let me first start by saying that I am not a program person. I have always used a balanced literacy approach to teaching reading and writing - and my students have always been very successful. The problem was that I was an island. What kids were doing in my class, they were guaranteed to continue in their next class. Our school was all over the place and there was no consistency. There may have been pockets of great teaching happening, but there was no cohesion, and so our students could not sustain any great learning that was taking place from year to year. We basically had a patchwork quilt of teaching going on.

Enter Collaborative Classroom. This year, we adopted this program k-6. When I say that our elementary school teachers are obsessed, I mean it. Finally, we are all on the same page! And our teaching is connected - reading, word work, writing, interventions, small group reading, spelling, grammar, SEL, EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE!

By the way, I am definitely not cool enough to be paid to say any of this. I am just sharing my thoughts on a "program" that is sooooo not a basal, but is structured enough that any teacher should be able to follow it and find success.

PS the program is only 30 weeks. So there is plenty of time to integrate other types of learning into your year, take a break for a Social Studies/Science unit, or do some test prep.

Here are the big programs:

- Caring Classrooms - We don't use this component because we follow Responsive Classroom, but SAME THING. It is basically morning meetings and basic SEL practices that make sense. FYI, the entire program integrates these practices throughout and builds a strong foundation of SEL for kids starting from day one.

- Making Meaning - Our reading comprehension program. It is based on the BEST read alouds ever. I seriously love every single one. It is rooted in discussion, partner talks, sharing, quick writes, etc. So, of course some testing grade levels freaked a little. They love the program but the big bad test is always looming, so we chose one read aloud text for each unit to buy class sets of, and I created test prep questions for that text. Now, the teachers feel better!

- Being a Writer - Again, based on mentor texts and a Writer's Workshop mentality. LOVE IT. Our teachers always struggled with teaching writing. Everybody did it differently. Some people didn't do it at all. Yes, that is real. 

- Being a Reader - This is mostly K-2, based on teaching kids to be independent during small group work. It also comes with "sets" of books for small group reading. Now, these text levels go through third grade, so our k-3 teachers use them for small group reading. Our fourth grade teachers use them for their lower readers, in addition to continuing to use Literacy Footprints, which we love. *Also, second grade has a word work component here and there is a letter learning piece to K-1.

- SIPPS - The interventions! OMG, the interventions align with the tier 1 instruction, can you believe it? I love it. As a classroom teacher, I hated not knowing what my kids were doing when they received a reading intervention. I am very controlling. But now, the program is fairly scripted, research-based, and I know exactly what every kids is doing - and it aligns with the Being a Reader program. In fact, kids getting a reading intervention are also receiving small group instruction in their classroom and literally see the overlap of the program. They say, "Hey, I learned this word with my reading teacher!" Yes, yes, you did. Not a fluke.

- Guided Spelling - Only for 3-6, but awesome. We were kind of using Words Their Way for a while. I love Words Their Way, but some teachers taught it really thoroughly and others...didn't. So this program is better. It is setting up a strong foundation of understanding patterns within words. There is some differentiation, but definitely not like Words Their Way. So some of our teachers ARE still using Words Their Way for their lowest spellers during their Academic Intervention Support time, but those are only the very motivated and dedicated teachers who previously used Words Their Way and understand it at its core.

And that is Collaborative Classroom! In the nuttiest nutshell ever. If you have more specific questions about it, ask! I love talking about Collaborative Classroom. Also, go make a free login in their Learning Portal or Hub. They are nonprofit, so all of their resources are right there for you to check out and try - I'm talking teacher manuals, student workbooks, printables, professional development videos/blogs/articles - you name it. I literally taught SIPPS for a year before we bought the program. It is way easier now that we have all of the materials and I'm not making everything from scratch, but I was definitely able to do it! And you can too!

Making Inferences

We did one of my favorite inference lessons recently! I bring in my new neighbor's garbage. Of course I play it up, explaining how mysterious they are and how I haven't seen them since they moved in a few weeks ago. Then, I tell my sweet little third graders that I took some of their garbage to try to get to know them better. The kids always come up with the best inferences as I show them the garbage. I usually have a lot of food wrappers, receipts, toiletries, etc. The receipt from grocery shopping at Wal-Mart was highly analyzed this year! It was really great that the kids were so focused and excited. After this, we relate our inferences with the garbage to actual trade books!

Five for Friday

I'm so excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday!  

Time for WRITING!!!

I've been teaching my second graders all about note taking skills,using passages about penguins. Next, we're working on writing informative paragraphs, using those notes!

I have a checklist for the groups. We are currently writing these paragraphs together, and practicing this format during guided reading writing as well. I like using the Post Its with checks to check off when we have finished a sentence. After writing the paragraph, we use highlighters in the colors on the checklist to be sure that we got everything in there that we needed to!

I'm proud of their progress, so far!

I've been using this sweet download from Mel D at Seusstastic for a few weeks now, and I still like it! It's a great early finisher activity during writing and a popular Work on Writing activity for during Daily 5. My kiddos were struggling with getting right to writing and then writing the entire time. Now, with these handy dandy templates and organizers, the kiddos are hard at work and having fun building their writing stamina! Plus, the bulletin board looks cute and I don't have to change it all the time!

I just started reading The One and Only Ivan with my class as our read aloud and they are loving it! Me too! I've read it aloud to my class every year since it came out!

Check out my novel study to go along with this text on TPT!

When we get close to the end of the text, we hang huge chart papers around the room with the character names on each one. Kids go around and brainstorm character traits for each. THEN we go to Tagxedo and create super cool word clouds with the character traits in the shape of the animals!

We had a snow day this week! :)

Lucy is the BEST way to end Five for Friday!

I just love her to pieces.

Tech Thursday

I'm linking up with the Teaching Trio for Tech Thursday!

I really love the iPad app EPIC!!! I use it during my Daily Five for Read to Self/Listen to Reading. Basically, it's a $4.99 Netflix-type app for reading books BUT it's FREE for educators!!! So cool. I got my free subscription (free for life, FYI.), added my student names, and started using the app right away. Kids log in, find their name, and start choosing books based on their reading level and interests. Some are books that will read aloud to the kids, and others the kids read on their own. As the teacher, I can track how long it took kids to read a book (if they are just flipping through or really reading, and if they give up on a book after 20 seconds). Plus, there are tons of recognizable books, and different books for kids to experience. Anyway, for a free app, it's definitely worth checking out!

Try Epic, ASAP! :)

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for Five For Friday! 

Today is Galentine's Day!!!

Any Parks and Rec fans get me right now...

Look at this cutie pie!

Guess what she's staring at?

The Dunkin Donuts man who is offering her a plain munchkin!

She can be so good when there's food involved.

I use fun spelling activities during Daily 5 to practice our challenging spelling words, which is good. BUT recently we've also been playing spelling tic tac toe! The kids love it. They buddy up with a whiteboard, and each child chooses a spelling word. They play tic tac toe using their words instead of X and O. It's a blast!

I thought the novelty of brownie points would eventually wear off, but here we are in February and the kiddos are still into it! They still work their butts off for a brownie point! It's really motivating!

Use my referral link to try Stitchfix for yourself!

It's a lot of fun! I'm not a fashionista, but I love having a box of goodies filled with styles and colors I might not be brave enough to try on my own!

StitchFix.com

A Peek At My Week Linky Party

Today I'm linking up with Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughingsfor "A Peek at my Week."

So, this week, we're looking at three days of NYS Math testing. At least our school is testing in the morning this year. Last year we tested in the afternoons, and it was horrid!

When we aren't testing, we will be continuing our Social Studies online experience on Mission US, focusing on the American Revolution. This is a free site, and all kiddos need to do is register. We registered last week, and just login to play.

Our class is also participating in novel studies. I allowed kiddos to select the novel they would like to read, from a variety of appropriate texts that I wrote novel studies for. Basically, I've been modeling this all year through our read alouds. With a read aloud, we have a storyboard set up on the easel in the meeting area outlining all important story elements. This is the center of discussions. After reading and discussing a chapter, students answer short response questions either with myself or with a partner in their novel study journal. Now, our class read alouds will continue as they always have, but during Daily Five, students will work on their novel study when they are not meeting with myself. Check out some of the novel studies I created recently that my kiddos adore. These are AMAZING read alouds or independent reading texts! Click the covers below.