First Grade Common Core Study of The Main Character!

The Main Character is...The Most Important "who"!

Our Main Character Study Packet was just added to Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook!

Our Comprehension Studies at a Glance

In Grade 1 we use our Reader’s Workshop time to introduce a Common Core comprehension studies. Our first grade progression of story element studies start with the setting in October, the main character in November, the problem and solution in December, and story mapping to put it all together in January. In January after studying story mapping, we move on to taking the story elements a little deeper and work on developing the identification and discussion of beginning, middle, end, and events to get us there. In February, we start to transition students into using a Reading Response Journal. After months of studying the story elements, students know what to write a response about. We also go deeper about discussing the main character and other characters in text. At the beginning of our studies, we have found the students are not really ready to go deep with character traits and deeper inferences. We have found great success with focusing our objectives on identification of the main character and telling how they knew that….to go back to the text and explain why they are the main character. If we jump in too far too fast, we find that most students struggle with the skill later on. We do add the deeper layer for students who are ready in small group when appropriate, but most of the students benefit from practicing identification of the main character, how they knew that, how that character felt at one point during the story and the antecedent that made them feel that way.  The graphic organizers that go with our studies, help students to truly know what they should discuss or write about to show they understand text. It helps them organize their thinking and go back to the text to cite the evidence that helps them identify and discuss the story elements.

We study the Main Character second in our list of story element reading endeavors. When we move onto the Main Character, we read a few books that have prominent main characters and fit our formula for identifying the main character of a story before the study begins. We model, model, and model with mentor texts before we have students interact independently with their own texts. We model thinking about the story element we are going to introduce during our read aloud/think aloud time prior to even introducing the element study. For example, during any read aloud before our Main Character study, I will notice different clues in text and pictures that may tell me who the most important character is. I tell students I am able to show I understand what is going on in the text by being able to talk about who is most important in the story. This also works with any story element study. We do several interactive read alouds with different texts that we have found to be helpful in first discussions with young readers about the Main Character.

In this zipped file you receive everything you need to teach a Common Core Unit on studying the main character in a first grade classroom.

There are seven different lesson plans set up in the Reader’s Workshop Model of minilesson, meeting, connection, teaching point, active engagement, independent reading, conferencing, and share. The lessons can be used from a 2 – 3 week period and done over more than one day.

There are lessons for interactive read alouds to introduce and practice engaging students in the identification of the main character in a story.

There is a list of mentor we have found success when studying the main character. 

Anchor Charts in Smart Board file 

and on hard copy as posters.

There are anchor charts already created for you that are colorful and engaging. The anchor charts are in a Smart Board File that is editable if you have a Smart Board. There are also hard copies of the anchor charts that can be tile printed pdf posters that you can put together and write on as you see fit if you don’t have a Smart Board. These can be posted in your classroom. There are also copies of the anchor charts in an 8 ½ by 11” format if you’d like to reuse them in small group instruction or copy packets for your students to keep with them. There are three different anchor charts for different lessons. The first describes what the main character means and why it is important to tell about it. The second is a chart that tells the criteria students can use to help identify the main character. The third is a discussion chart for using past mentor texts. The next two pages of the Smart Board file are large copies of the graphic organizer to model for the students. One they can use as a model for themselves. You can use the large poster version also to write on and post in your classroom for support. The last chart is the rubric used for the Main Character organizer. There is a lesson on how to use this effectively to teach students to begin looking at and assessing their own work. The rubric can be printed in both 8 ½ by 11” or tile printed as a poster to hang in your classroom.

Also included in this file is a banner to display of student work and a poster that states the chant used to help students remember what the main character is.

What’s great about this pack is it almost a ‘blank’ format for students to learn the content through. We have similar things for the other story elements so once the students learn this type of process, you can filter the content through.

 

chant sign, both large and small

Organizer in both 8 1/2 by 

11" student copy, in the 

Smart Board file, and 

included as a large poster.

The goals for this unit is for students to identify the main character of a story using specific references to text. The Common Core for first grade focuses on students being able to go back to the text to cite specific evidence that helped them draw their conclusions. This unit focuses on and practices that skill. They start whole group, then it filters down to small group and finally independently. Some students may be able to do the more intricate independent work at this point, but the unit differentiates itself so all students are successful. This is the beginning. We are giving students a lesson in how to organize their thinking. We are teaching them how to show they understand text. We tell them to show they understand. This is one way for them to experience success at showing they understand.

rubric large and small

banner to display student work

First Grade Common Core Setting Study

Hi All!
I've had my setting graphic organizer up for some time now and lots of people have loved it. I thought it may be helpful to put all of our Setting study together as a pack for you! It's now up on Teachers Pay Teachers and soon to be up on Teachers Notebook. 

Teachers Pay Teachers Link!

Here's what you get and what it's about!

In this zipped file you receive everything you need to teach a Common Core Unit on studying the setting in a first grade classroom. 

There are seven different lesson plans set up in the Reader’s Workshop Model of minilesson, meeting, connection, teaching point, active engagement, independent reading, conferencing, and share. The lessons can be used from a 2 – 3 week period and done over more than one day.

There are lessons for interactive read alouds to introduce and practice engaging students in the setting of the story.

There is a list of mentor texts related to fall and Halloween we have found success with.

There are anchor charts already created for you that are colorful and engaging. The anchor charts are in a Smart Board File that is editable if you have a Smart Board. There are also hard copies of the anchor charts that can be tile printed pdf posters that you can put together and write on as you see fit if you don’t have a Smart Board. These can be posted in your classroom. There are also copies of the anchor charts in an 8 ½ by 11” format if you’d like to reuse them in small group instruction or copy packets for your students to keep with them. There are three different anchor charts for different lessons. The first describes the setting and how to tell about it. The second is a T chart of where words and when words for you to build with your students. The third is an actual T chart to use with a mentor text or read aloud to chart the where and when. The next pages are blank setting organizers that you can use to fill out as a model or a whole group read aloud. The blank setting organizers come in three different versions. One with no lines for writing, one with one line for writing and one with 2 lines for writing. It’s differentiated for you to choose which fits the needs of your students best. There is also a rubric and a lesson to teach your students how to begin looking at and assessing their own work. The rubric can be printed in both 8 ½ by 11” or tile printed as a poster to hang in your classroom. There is also a copy of it in the Smart Board file.

Also included in this file are two different banners for display of student work. One tells what the setting is and one tells how students tell the setting.

What’s great about this pack is it almost a ‘blank’ format for students to learn the content through. We have similar things for the other story elements so once the students learn this type of process, you can filter the content through.

The goals for this unit is for students to identify the setting of a story using specific references to text. The Common Core for first grade focuses on students being able to go back to the text to cite specific evidence that helped them draw their conclusion. This unit focuses on and practices that skill. They start whole group, then it filters down to small group and finally independently. Some students may be able to do the more intricate independent work at this point, but the unit differentiates itself so all students are successful. This is the beginning. We are giving students a lesson in how to organize their thinking. We are teaching them how to show they understand text. We tell them to show they understand. This is one way for them to experience success at showing they understand.

These are the anchor charts that come in the Smart Board file and are editable. They also come as 8 ½ by 11” pages and tile printed pdf posters that can be used if you don’t have a Smart Board. The hard copies can also be printed to hang in your classroom if you have a Smart Board and want to post your anchor charts.

Just Added our Long Vowel Pack on TPT!

Hi All,
I've gotten a few requests to put the Long Vowel materials up as a bundled packet!

Well, it's up now at a discounted price. Check it out!

In this zipped file you get almost 200 files for all of our long vowel materials. 

• Picture cards, word wheels, writing papers, word sorts, and Smart Board files for most of our long vowel patterns.
• Long a – ate, ape, ake, ace, ay, ain
• Long o – oke, obe, ose, oat, old
• Long i – ine, ime, ide, ike, ice, ight
• Long u – u_e taught in one lesson; there are no word wheels for long u; there are not many u_e words; by now, the students understand the cvce rule and should be able to work with and decode using the pattern.
•  Long e – ee, ea – There are no word wheels for long e either. The long e patterns are a within word pattern most often, so word wheels are not appropriate. 
• Progress Monitoring Tools for each long vowel group. Each set of progress monitoring tools are cumulative as you progress through the vowels. There are fluency grids and dictation for each long vowel. There are also excel files already set up to help you track your data for your dictations. You can add other classrooms to it and begin that data driven dialogue!

Phenomenal First Grade Phonics and Reading: We are having a sale!!!

Phenomenal First Grade Phonics and Reading: We are having a sale!!!: Do conferences have you extremely crazy busy? Celebrate and get some great materials at our Teachers Pay Teachers store! 15% off EVERYTHI...

We are having a sale!!!

Do conferences have you extremely crazy busy?

Celebrate and get some great materials at our Teachers Pay Teachers store!
15% off EVERYTHING!!!!

Thursday October 18 - Sunday October 21!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Phenomenal-First-Grade-Phonics-And-Reading

Let's talk about progress monitoring...

Ok...so many of us are working furiously on teaching first graders how to blend cvc words. I'd love to hear about your methods of instruction...so please FEEL FREE to chime in...

We teach blending through the use of word patterns. We teach sound by sound instruction as well as the recognition of onset and rime. Different readers, read differently ways. Different learners, learn differently...the brain seeks out patterns, but not all brains seek out patterns. One thing we've learned in our experience is the need to be FLEXIBLE in our instruction and to do our best to pinpoint how each student learns and what they have retained and what they may need intervention or reteaching in....

One way we keep track of our students needs is through the common assessments that lots of teacher use; Nonsense Word Fluency, Oral Reading Fluency, and book levels or DRA's...

We were noticing that we needed a little more 'informal' views of our students. We wanted to come up with flexible ways to help us inform our interventions and our instruction; small group AND some whole group minilessons. Research shows that direct systematic explicit instruction in phonics works better for students than responsive phonics or no phonics instruction at all. (check out the National Panel of Reading reports from 2006 - http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/upload/ch2-II.pdf)

We created a series of progress monitoring tools that helped us pinpoint specifics about students' phonetic ability. With each vowel set of Phonics Workshop, there is an additional file that contains a series of progress monitoring tools. There are dictation assessments (quick to use and quick to assess and plan from), there are fluency grids of words that we have used to see how many words the students could read in one minute. (We looked at the median for the group and made decisions based on that...It's not a nationally normed test...it's created by teachers to address and inform instruction in our classrooms.) We are always looking for common measures to look at our students' growth and facilitate data driven dialogue. These measures helped us open up that communication with each other to pinpoint specific phonics weaknesses and strengths. I can look at any student in my class and know who is struggling with what; short vowels, blends, digraphs, etc. I can then target my instruction to meet those needs. 

There is also an excel file that contains a progress monitoring grid for any dictation you decide to use. It tallies the total number wrong horizontally and vertically. At a glance you can see which words gave students trouble. You can see trends and make data driven decisions about instruction. Sometimes it's one specific word, blend, digraph, vowel, etc. that caused an issue. It then becomes a decision of reteaching, refocusing, or just intervening with a handful or group of students. Your decision may even be to do nothing at all. It's your professional decision that you can make from glancing at the data. As a team, my grade partners and I put our data together on the spreadsheet and sort by score to help target common trends; weaknesses and strengths. It helps us as a team to plan intervention groups and extension activities. 

In our vowel packs there are sometimes several different versions of the dictations and the fluency grids. We designed it that way intentionally. We wanted to have the option to use varied tools when needed or for other things in our classroom. Sometimes we use the fluency grids in our stations and the students practice reading the words and graphing how many words they can read in a minute. We also send them home for practice. Do we do every single dictation and fluency grid? No...sometimes we need to with some students, and sometimes we don't...again...we need to be flexible in our instruction and our assessments... Remember...the purpose of assessments of this format are to inform and plan our instruction...it's not needed as an achievement test...I'm sure all of your districts have plenty of those! This is a way to gather more information about your students and their abilities...

Check out the pictures of some of our assessments...They are part of the vowel packs for Phonics Workshop...They are cumulative in nature. Our progression is short vowels: a, o, i, u, e then long vowels a, o, i, u, and e. The dictations and fluency grids reflect this process.

short a & o fluency grid with blends and digraphs

short o only fluency grid with blends and digraphs

     

 

short a & o fluency grid without blends and digraphs

short o dictation - with blends and digraphs

short o dictation - no blends or digraphs

short o excel file for data tracking of dictation with blends and digraphs

short o excel file for data tracking of dictation without blends and digraphs

Remember--these are only the grids for short o! There are files for each vowel!

This is the pack of ALL of our short vowel materials. All progress monitoring for ALL short vowel patterns are included. Our vowel packs, short and long are available as separate units also on

Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.

Yes, We Teach Math Too! -- Part 2

Let's talk about data collection.

Common Core State Standard:

1.MD.4 Measurement and Data

Represent and interpret data

      Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many more or less are in one category than in another.

We needed an easy way to collect, manage, and display data for our first graders. We came up with the following templates. They can be printed and changed to use as student tools for learning. Once they learn the format and process of using these graphs, you can filter new information and content right through them. They can be used for homework, math centers, small group, and independent use. There is also a Smart Board File to model the techniques of collecting, organizing, and interpreting data. It can also be used as a whole group data collection template. These graphs can be used over and over again. Students love them and take ownership over their learning. Check them out!

Hard copies - printable pdf files

Smart Board File - with directions on how to edit

Yes, We Teach Math Too!!!

We are starting to branch out and share some of our other curriculum products!

Perfect for Fall and Halloween...

Our Skittles Graphing Activity!

Data Collection is a push in the CCSS and we have lots of graphing for first grade. Our first one to share is our Halloween Skittles Graphing. In this zipped file you get a sorting page, a bar graph, and a results page. There is also a Smart Board File that has all of the components included for demonstration and/or whole class activity and practice. We have also included a banner to display student work after the activity is completed.

Fun, fun, fun! Learning should always be fun!

Sorting 

Bar Graph

Results 

The Setting is: Where and When!

Let's talk about comprehension instruction in first grade...

If you are like us, you are working on using interactive read alouds to model comprehension and think aloud strategies for your students. We are just about to start our first story element study: the setting! We start with a read aloud that depicts fall weather. Even a chapter in Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon, by Cynthia Rylant can work. It doesn't have to be a long text to start. There are tons of great fall books with beautiful autumn illustrations and descriptive language to help you teach when and where a story takes place. I gather as many books as we can to keep in a bin to help with the investigative piece.

I start by reading one of my fall books aloud to the class. I start to notice the colors of the leaves, maybe there are some pumpkins or apples, or even Halloween costumes in one of our Halloween books. After the book has been read, I follow up the  next day with a Reader's Workshop lesson about the setting. I start an anchor chart on my Smart Board that says "Active Readers are able to tell the Setting of a story." Underneath that I write, The setting is: Where and When! I actually do a sort of chant in a whisper for this. I snap my fingers and say..."The setting is: where and when, where and when, where and when." The students repeat and I do this several times a day while learning about the setting. (They LOVE it! They think it's funny and always enjoy trying to snap their fingers over and over!) We then return to the mentor text I read the day before. I make a t chart on the board that says where and when. I discuss what 'where' and 'when' actually mean. (I've experienced difficulty in the past with first graders discriminating between 'where and when'.) I start going back through the text looking for things that tell where and write/illustrate it on the t chart. I write and illustrate both to connect to all learners. I then begin looking for 'when' clues and do the same thing.

As part of the interactive piece during the minlesson, I have the students look through the fall bin for clues in the pictures of books. They discuss anything they find with their partners.

When they go off to read independently, they are reminded to look for clues about the setting of the story. 

The next day, I repeat the process, but I look for words that tell where and when...this proves to be a bit more difficult, but I am usually able to reach a few of the learners with this activity.

The next day, we again look at our growing chart about the first mentor text. After we review, the students learn to fill out the setting paper. I let them choose whether they'd like to write the words or illustrate the clues in the boxes. I do try to suggest to some of the students to try to make sure they have a word or two that they can use to describe the clues that they found.

As we progress, I read different fall books and the students fill out the response paper. I also use the organizer with my guided reading groups of students who are reading about a level 14 (DRA). Those students higher than 20 are able to use the setting organizer as a personal response form to their independent reading or even for homework. The product differentiates itself and every first grader in my classroom is able to identify the setting of a story...whether it is from a book that has been read to them, or one they have read themselves.

In our setting pack, you get two versions of the setting organizer (one with lines for words and one without for just illustrations) and the banner that can be used to display student work. It's a great start to comprehension studies in first grade. It is also completely Common Core Related.