In our Photo Gallery we highlight a number of excellent examples found in Cobb County classrooms. Please visit that entry and take a virtual tour of some great learning areas. And don't miss lots of new lesson planning supports posted by our District Literacy Coaches.
April 14, 2008
CCSD Author - Ann Lovvorn
Welcome to a new feature on our BLOG - The Cobb County Authors' chair.
Ann R. Lovvorn, former principal in Cobb County, is our first Cobb County Author in the spotlight with her book, shown above. The illustrator, Jan Ingram, is a Cobb County teacher serving at Belmont Hills. One novel characteristic of this book of poetry is that it suggests ways to use the pieces in the classroom. For additional information on the book you can visit here.
February 25, 2008
Wacky Tales and Grammar Review
Do you long for an enjoyable way to give your students review in identifying and using the parts of speech? Students can apply their grammar knowledge as they write Wacky Tales on http://www.eduplace.com/tales/. This website would be a great addition to a computer literacy station.
February 13, 2008
Strategy Bookmark
Lori Larson, from Lewis Elementary, shared her kid friendly strategy bookmark with us during our last 1st grade QT training. She gives one bookmark to each student after introducing the lessons. One side is comprehension strategies and the other is the decoding strategies.
Download book_mark_comprehension_side.doc Download book_mark_decoding_side.doc
We thought you might like it also. Thank you, Lori.
February 12, 2008
RUPR - Writing to a Prompt
Want a sure fire way to prepare your students for the Fifth Grade Georgia Writing Assessment? Then the RUPR lessons are for you! Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi have developed a writing strategy to teach students how to read and understand what a prompt is asking them to do, which enhances their success on the Georgia Writing Assessment. Click below to see the two lessons, several extension ideas, and information on how to embed prompt writing in your writing block.
February 08, 2008
A Dozen Reading Response Ideas
If you need some fresh ideas for your students to respond to what they have read, here is the list for you! You can instruct them to answer specific choices or in the upper grades, you may want to open it up to them to choose an idea. This can be used as a formative assessment to drive instruction.Download reading_response_ideas.doc
Savory Sensory Questions
Here is a tasty lesson adapted from Tanny McGregor's book Comprehension Connections; Bridges to Strategic Reading. Use it when introducing questioning as a good reader strategy.
Writing Resources
Here is a list of resources for teaching writing.Download resources_for_teaching_writing.doc
A Five Day Mini-Lesson Plan for The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
Have you been wondering how to plan standards based mini-lessons for Reading Workshop by using a read aloud? Are you concerned about modeling lessons for metacognitive strategies, comprehension, vocabulary and fluency?
Here's a starting point. Find the book, The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco, and facilitate your mini-lessons by using this five day plan.
Download the_butterfly_5th_grade.doc,
Download butterfly_page_13.doc
Download story_string_graphic_organizerthe_butterfly_patricia_polacco.doc
Download theme_diagram.doc
Now that you've experienced this format, pull another read aloud book, sit down with your literacy standards and write one of your own!
Resources and Texts to Use When Teaching Questioning
This list has two great websites and a long list of books that can be used when introducing or working on the questioning stratagy with your class. These texts can be utilized with grade levels K-5.
Questioning Rocks!
This is a lesson to use when introducing the comprehension strategy of questioning. It was adapted from Comprehension Connections; Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor.
