Teacher Appreciation Freebies Roundup

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all my blogging buddies and teaching friends.  I hope your week has been warmed by many "gifts."  Whether they be a smile, a homemade card, or an extra hug, I know your students appreciate each and every one of you.  You have made a mark, sparked a memory and have forever helped shape the future!  Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Teacher Appreciation Week may be coming to an end, but the celebration isn't over yet!  Teaching Blog Roundup is teaming up with 20 of the best blogs to host this Teacher Appreciation FREEBIES Roundup blog hop.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  I would like to show my appreciation with this great freebie for you.

First, I'd like to give a special thank you to Teresa from Fun in K/1 for inviting me to join this inspirational group of bloggers.  Now, on to my Freebie.  I'm actually pretty excited to share with you my "Read It to ME Fluency Cards."  You know when you have a project (or two, or three) hanging over your head?  A project you can't wait to complete so that you can use it with your students?  Well, my newly created set of fluency cards is exactly this type of project.

These cards are hot off the press!  I'm laminating them right as I am typing this post.  You use these to jazz up your guided reading. When it's the part of your guided reading lesson when your students need to read, pick a card to give them a way to sound while reading.  For example, they may read like a robot, like they have a cold, like they are a rapper, like they are a karaoke star, etc.  I am pleased to have put together 28 fluency cards to try out.  I already know my first graders will love these!

In addition, I plan to use these cards for buddy reading.  Each pair of reading buddies can select a card and read to their partner following the card's description.  Check out some examples.

Click HERE to download your fluency cards.  

I have ideas ready to go to make a part II of this item.  Let me know how they work with your readers.  I love your feedback.  Do you have an idea for a card you'd like to share?  Leave me a comment.

I'm glad you hopped by!  If you are new to my blog and liked what you see, don't forget to follow me!  I'm on Facebook, Teachers Pay Teacers and Pinterest.  

Now head over to Preschool Wonders to roundup the next FREEBIE!

We Appreciate you!

                                          

Mr. Giso's Room to Read's Bright Idea #8

Make a Class Set of Literacy Frames

Linda Hoyt is a personal favorite of mine.  She is the well known author of such books including Revisit, Reflect, Retell, Exploring Informational Texts and Make It Real.  You will find each of these three titles in my professional library.  This tip comes from Hoyt's Revisit, Reflect, Retell book-- both the older and the most recent addition should have it.  

She suggests using these "Literacy Frames" to serve as a visual for children to really look at a word that happens to give them trouble.  We often tell children to "sound it out" (as long as it's not a sight word with irregular spellings).  Many times we instruct readers to look for patterns in words such as "chunks" and "word families."  We may even see if the children can find what I call a "baby alert."  This is a smaller, "baby" word found in a larger word. such as seeing the word "cat-" in the larger word "catcher." Also, it's always a great idea to encourage children to use what they know about phonics.  Can they find a blend (cl-), digraph (-th), ending (-ing), etc.?

The "Literacy Frames" let readers interact with unknown words by first framing the word in its entirety and then honing in on the parts of the word that the children can decode.  It works because it's concrete!  As they sound out, they maneuver the frame.  Let's look at an example.

Say a student comes to the word "away" in the above text and is unfamiliar with the word.  To be successful, we must show the student how to dissect this word.  The "Literacy Frame" works by framing perhaps the "-ay."  The student may say "I know this says /ay/ because I know the word 'day.'"  "-ay" would be framed.  A child may also frame the first letter "a" and note that it either has a long or short sound.  In addition, the child may frame the word part "way" and read that first [see below], thus verbalizng that placing an "a" in front of "way" results in "away."  By maneuvering the frame, the child fully understands word attack strategies in a much more hands on manner.

I call these valuable tools our "Word Framers."  I have a box of dozens of them in my guided reading supply shelf.  Each time we read in guided reading, student take one.  Also, students know they can get up and get a "Word Framer" whenever they wish throughout the day.  I have sent these home with parents to use with at-home reading, have used them in reading clinics, tutoring, teacher training and in interventions.  They work really well!  I have a large size "Word Framer" [see top photograph] for me to model how to use the "Word Framers" by reading a big book or a chart.  Click here for a pdf file with the directions.