Our Auction Project

With the auction creeping up on us, we were fortunate enough to have two phenomenal artists come in and help us with our project. We are now in the final stages of wrapping up our classroom's contribution (paintings of 14 different owl species! All of which are acrylic on canvas).  In the end we will have a total of thirty 6''x6'' owl portraits.

With only two or three owls waiting to be completed, we are almost ready for the auction. Next stop is scanning all of the paintings individually. 

Online Math Supplements

Below is a collection of online math games and resources.  They are a fun way to engage your child while still supporting them as mathematical learners.  For more on the mathematical learning targets for second grade [link].  These links can also be found under the pages tab, in the right column of this blog.  Just click the Online Math Supplements [link].

Sumdog [link]

An online resource where students can play interactive games to help build Math and Language Arts Skills. Sumdog's learning engine adapts its questions to each student's ability helping teachers deliver Common Core State Standards. Aimed at grades 1-8 [Covers number operations through to simple algebra].

Math Playground [link]

This is a collection of math games, sorted by topic and content. They were designed to correlate with Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.

Free Math Worksheets for Grade 2 [link]
A collection of online, randomly generated worksheets that provide additional calculation practice for many second grade math topics (aligned with the Common Core standards). Use them as you need!

Additional Math Resource List
Online math resource lists, divided by math topic and level

Online Reading Supplements

Below is a collection of different online resources to help young readers flourish.  These supplements are for any level of reader and are divided into different focuses to target different skills and strategies: Fluency; Comprehension; Phonics and Word Recognition.  These links can also be found under the pages tab, in the right column of this blog.  Just click the Online Reading Supplements [link].

Fluency:

      

Monroe County Public Library (link) 

This comprehensive list of predictable books is divided into eight categories such as circular stories, chain stories, and pattern stories.  A great resource for developing fluency in young children.







Speakaboos (link)

Speakaboos brings classic children’s entertainment into the digital world.  Treasured stories are given new life through celebrity performances,

 beautiful illustrations, and original music.

StoryPlace: The Children’s Digital Library (link)

This award-wining bilingual (Spanish and English) site includes a collection of online materials for elementary students including texts for reading along.

Comprehension:

Reading Rockets: Comprehension (link)

The National Education Association is a sponsored partner of this website, which includes articles for parents and teachers, lesson strategies, videos, and much more.

Phonics and Word Recognition

The Dolch Kit (link)

The Dolch Kit contains high-frequency word and phrase cards, as well as games and activities for practicing sight words.

Learn to Read (link)

Learn to Read includes stories that focus on onsets and rimes for primary grades.

ReadWriteThink (link)

This site provides a wide variety of phonics activities that involve word building as well as strategies for teaching onsets and rimes, high-frequency words, and context.

Links adapted from:

      Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th. 8th. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Below is a list of strategies that you can do with your child to help them develop and strengthen their reading comprehension.  For your benefit there is also a definition of reading comprehension and the Common Core State Standards that pertain to reading comprehension.  These strategies are just part of a comprehensive list of different reading strategies, found here [link].

Definition: “Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message.”

Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Strategies to build Comprehension: These strategies are meant to eventually be internalized by the student and used independently of adult prompting.  In the beginning, adult guidance and support are important to helping students feel successful in their endeavors:

• Asking Questions:  This common strategy is to have children answer questions about what is read.  Questions have traditionally been organized into three categories:
1. Literal Questions: Students answer by using information explicitly stated in the text.
2. Inferential Questions: Students answer by using their background knowledge along with information from the text.
3. Evaluative Questions: Students answer by making judgments about what they read.
• 
  
• Reciprocal Questioning (ReQuest): ReQuest encourages students to ask their own questions about the material being read.  Some Question Prompts for ReQuest are:
• What does __________ remind you of?
• Do you know someone like the character _________?
• Do you agree with what _________ did in the story?
• What do you think will happen next in the story?
• Why do you think the author chose ___________ as the setting?
• Can you think of a different way to describe the action in this part of the story?
• What do you picture in your mind when you read this part of the story?

Strategies adapted from:

      Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th. 8th. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.

Reading Fluency Strategies

These strategies are just part of a comprehensive list of different reading strategies, found here [link].

Definition:The ability to read easily and well.  Fluency has three dimensions:

• Accuracy in word decoding: reader must be able to sound out words (using phonics and other word decoding strategies) in text with few errors.
• Automatic processing: This is when the reader uses as little mental effort as possible in the decoding of text, saving mental energy for comprehension.
•  Prosody or Prosodic reading: Prosody is a linguistic concept that refers to such features in oral language as intonation, pitch, stress, pauses, and the duration placed on specific syllables.

Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.2.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Strategies to build fluency (taken and adapted from Reading and Learning to Read [2012]):

• Repeated Readings: “Oral repeated readings provide additional sensory reinforcement for the reader, allowing him or her to focus on the prosodic elements of reading that are essential to phrasing.  Oral readings also ensure that the student is actually reading, not skimming or scanning the text” (Rasinski, 2003).

• Automated Reading: Listening while reading a text (simultaneous listening and reading [SLR]).  Procedure as follows:
• Student listen individually to recorded stories, simultaneously following along with the written text.  They read and listen repeatedly to the same story until they can read the story fluently.
• When students first begin this method, it may take as long as a month before they are able to read a fairly long story aloud fluently.  As they become more proficient with SLR, the time can be reduced by as much as half (Chomsky [1976]).
• 
  

Tips for parents:

• Exposure to Texts: Expose students to as much reading as possible, whether it be their independent reading, or Parent-Child reading time. 
• Reread familiar texts.  Read reading favorite books helps children become fluent. 
• Echo-Read:  Echo reading is a rereading strategy designed to help students develop expressive, fluent reading.  The parent reads a short segment of text (sentence or phrase), and the student echoes back the same sentence or phrase while following along in the text. 
• Use predictable books: To build fluency, parents should read books with children that have predictable, rhythmic patterns so the child can “hear” the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.

Strategies adapted from:

      Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th. 8th. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.

Homework Supplements

       The internet has an amazing plethora of resources to help students learn and practice their academic skills.  Realizing that it is hard to find the right tool among so many options, I have decided to compile a list of online resources, and strategies that parents and students can use at home to supplement the learning done in the classroom.

       As the year progresses, there will be less and less homework being sent home.  It is my goal that the focus of work done in the home be the reading log and the daily writing response journal.  While these will be the only required pieces of homework, I felt it would be pertinent for me to provide avenues for independent study and academic support.

       Below are links to the various pages I have created to house different strategies and online resources.  The goal of these is to support and foster student's as learners.  These pages are also have tabs linking to them at the top of blog for easy access when this post is buried under the myriad of new and exciting posts yet to come.

1. Online math supplements (i.e. interactive games and worksheets) [link]
2. Online reading supplements and resources for: Fluency; Comprehension; Phonics and Word Recognition [link]
3. Reading Strategies [link]

Many of the strategies and online resources were adapted from:

        Vacca, J. A. L., R. T. Vacca, M. K. Gove, L. C. Burkey, L. A. Lenhart, and C. A. McKeon. Reading and learning to read. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn , 2012. Print.

Up and running.

...

to the first post!

Hello y'all,

       It took six months (and a few iterations) but the website is finally up and running.  My goal for this blog is to both chronicle the day to day activities in my 2nd Grade classroom, but also to provide useful resources in one easy to find place.  For many parents, digital updates (through email, RSS feeds, or just online) is a much more convenient way to stay connected, and the classroom should be no different.
       With my solo teaching coming up (April 1st), it is important to me to establish and maintain a strong connection with families.  It is my hope, and belief, that establishing and maintaining a clear line of communication with families is key to best supporting my students.
       With that said, I am excited to use this place as a resource in opening up the classroom and strengthening our community of learners and makers.

-Nicholas Erickson

Academic articles that contributed to the formation of this exciting technological experiment in connecting with families:

     "Working With Parents: Advice from Teachers." Education Oasis. (2005): 1-3. <www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/working_with_parents.htm>.

     American Federation of Teachers. “Building Parent-Teacher Relationships.” (2008): 1-3.

     Danielson, C. Enhancing professional practice. 2nd. Alexandria, Virginia USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop, 2007. Print.

     Berk, L. E. Infants, Children, and Adolescents. 7th. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

     Shockley, B., B. Michalove, and J. Allen. Engaging families: Connecting home and school literacy communities. Heinemann, 1995. Print.

     Rothstein-Fisch, C., and E. Trumbull. "Managing diverse classrooms, how to build on students' cultural strengths". ASCD, 2008. Print.