A Look Inside: Resource Reading-Interventions

Day 3: Intervention

Assessments are complete, lesson planning for the overall reading strategy and the story of the week has been chosen, but planning is not over yet.  Like I said yesterday, the most important part of resource reading is meeting individual needs and monitoring those IEP goals.  

Meeting individual goals of 8-10 kids at a time is not an easy task.  Everyone of the students needs me just as much as the next kid and they are all struggling with some part of reading.  Here is where interventions and having a very structured schedule come into play.  I'll begin with the interventions:

1.  Reading Fluency:

On Monday of each week my students "cold" read (this means they have never seen or read the passage before Monday) a passage.  The students are timed for one minute and we record their words per minute on their fluency graph.  Each day each student has the opportunity to listen to weekly passage being read aloud to them, timing their reading with a buddy, recording themselves reading into the iPad, and rereading and rereading this passage.  I read the passage daily with them as well, to make sure they can read all of the words and to work on accuracy strategies.  On Friday, each student does a one minute "hot" read of the passage and the words per minute are recorded on the graph next to the "cold" read words per minute.

The students also have a chance to choose books of their own interest to read during a read to self time/silent reading time.  The students keep the same books all week and reread the books to gain familiarity and become more fluent readers.  I do use the Daily 5 strategies in my classroom, but I do not always stick exactly to the plan.  I have modified it to make it work for my resource classroom.  

2.  Accuracy/Basic Reading:

After completing the FRY Informal Assessments, I give my students the words from the sight word list that they did not know.  They have 10 words a week.  The students come to me once a day and practice their sight words by using the time delay strategy.  Students also work on these words during Word Work time.  They become fluent with the pronunciation and spelling of the words during this time while working kinesthetically on the words to learn them.

I also do reading conferences during teacher time.  I read one on one with each student (at least weekly from a book of my choosing or their choosing).  During this time we work on reading strategies such as chunking the sounds in words to sound out a word, employing phonetic principles, and other strategies for learning to read words.

With some of my students I use SRA Corrective Reading.  This program helps the students relearn the phonics that they may have missed or didn't understand the first time around.  The program is very structured.  I do not use it with everyone, as they do not all need the intensiveness of this program.  I do use the program daily with the students that need it.

3.  Comprehension:

Our main comprehension lessons come from the weekly book and guided reading lesson.  We work on one comprehension strategy weekly.  I use an assortment of graphic organizers with the students to help them gain better understanding of the text they read.

These are the main interventions that I use weekly.  Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, but it does give a general idea of what I use.  Something you may be thinking now is, "How does she get this all in in one hour?"

My answer...literacy groups!

Just like in Daily 5 the students are going to cycle through stations.  We may not get to 5 stations daily, but throughout the week the students will do all stations.

Daily each student does:

Whole group comprehension lesson

Teacher Time

Fluency (Listening to Reading or Buddy Read)

Weekly students do:

Word Work

Writing Work

Additional reteach of the comprehension lesson (I determine this if the students are not "testing" correctly on their comprehension exit slip)

iPad or other technology related center

Let me break it down to ya about what each station is about:

The whole group comprehension lesson is a guided reading lesson.  The topic for the lesson comes from the general education curriculum.  After each lesson students turn in an exit slip so that I can keep track of whether or not they are understanding the concept.

Teacher Time is the time that I meet with students individually or possibly in groups of two or three.  The students work on Corrective Reading (if needed), sight word practice, reading conferences, and reading their fluency passage.

Fluency stations include listen to reading.  The students may choose to listen to a recorded version of their passage or read with a buddy.  The buddy times the student that is reading and each time they read the student reading is trying to beat his best time.  

My word work comes from my guided reading lesson plus the sight words that my students are working on.  Sometimes I have students that test through their grade level sight word list.  If this happens we sometimes go to the next list, plus we add on words that they have made errors on during our reading conference time.  

Writing work also coincides with the guided reading lesson.  

I love incorporating technology anyway that I can, so iPad or technology is a center that we use very often.  The students all have Lexia Reading accounts and as a group we go to the computer lab to work on their program.  Lexia is a paid computer program that individualizes learning for each student.  It is a great resource to have!

I have created a Literacy Groups for the Resource Room pack that is available through TpT.  In this pack are visuals for each center, customizable schedules, and directions for each center.

Here are a few pictures of it at work in my classroom:

Read to Self and Buddy Reading

Both of these are in the same area, because students can choose where they sit for both activities.  I needed a space to put the posters so they could refer to the expectations and use the visual schedule cards.  This is right next to my library, so student are able to pick books if they need to do so.

Work with Teacher

Work on Writing Center

Sorry, I tried every which way, but I could not get this picture to stay turned!  :)  Anyway...these are the customizable visual schedules.  The students are given a schedule daily and match their visual cue with the large visual posters seen above.  As the student visits each center, he/she removes that visual and places it on the poster size visual to show that have been there that day.

If you would like a copy of the Literacy Groups Visuals, please visit my TPT store!

Enjoy! :)

Kim

A Look Inside: Resource Reading-Assessment

Day 2:  Assessment 

Now that planning for the Common Core is out of the way, it's time to get down to what really matters to me the most in the resource classroom...meeting individual needs!  I begin my looking at each student's IEP and seeing what strengths and weaknesses each student has, particularly in the area of reading in this instance.  As mentioned in the previous post, my students that I work with for resource reading have difficulty in one or all three areas of reading, comprehension, accuracy (basic reading), and fluency.

After I determine which area the student is having difficulty in and what goals and benchmarks that I will need to monitor, I begin doing reading assessments.   I typically do assessments within the first week of school, so that I begin groups right away.  

Here is a list of assessments that I use to measure each area of reading (and this gives me great baseline data):

In no way have been paid to endorse, sponsor, or review these products.  I am just giving you the facts and letting you know what I personally like to use for assessing my students.

School-wide:

We give the MAP test from NWEA as our school-wide reading screener.  This test gives me an accurate depiction of the student in all areas of reading.  I use these scores and the data that comes from this test to determine groupings and to easily sees areas of weakness and strength.

Comprehension & Basic Reading Skills:

Dr. Fry's Informal Reading Assessment is my go-to book for assessment for reading skills!

This book has a silent reading test that measures comprehension.  Sometimes I read the test to the students that have greater difficulty with basic reading skills, but I do not prompt, cue or eliminate any answers.  Students must answer the questions on their own.  

The book also includes sight word assessment and benchmark passages to help determine instructional and frustration levels of reading.

I use SRA Corrective Reading with my students that are lacking in basic reading skills and accuracy of calling words.  This program is expensive, but I have seen the success of it with my own eyes! This program comes with its own assessment.  It assesses what the student knows and direct your instruction by placing the student in the correct level of book.  In the beginning it mainly focuses on basic reading skills and phonemic awareness, but eventually moves on to comprehension.

Fluency:

I love Jen Jones and her blog and plethora of resources that she makes available.  For fluency this year I have downloaded her RTI: 60 Fluency Passages for Progress Monitoring Reading Skills and Interventions.  

I have used the passages from this document to assess baseline fluency targets.  I use the information from this assessment and find other fluency passages for the students to work on weekly.  My students may need to spend more time in grade level 1 passages than what is available in this resource, so I look for those extra passages at Reading A-Z.  You all know how much I love this website!!

After I have collected all my data, I set up monitoring sheets and for each area of need and then begin the fun work of...teaching!! :)

Until tomorrow...

Kim

PS-Click on the pictures for the links to each resource

A Look Inside: Resource Reading (Part 1-Planning Instruction)

One of my most popular posts is Lesson Planning (Sped Style) & Reading.  I guess there are a lot of special educators out there looking for ways to teach in the resource classroom.  Whether, it is that or just a super interesting post, I felt like it needed to be updated.  Since moving to my new school I have changed up some of the ways that I manage my resource reading group as well as the way I teach.  

I am going to give you a sneak peek into the way I plan and teach my resource reading class. This will be broken down into a series of posts. Today I bring you:

Part 1:  How in the world do I know what to teach?

This takes a lot of planning and organizing for me to decide what to teach and when to teach it.  Common Core Standards, IEPs goals, and staying caught up with what the regular education classes are doing makes teaching resource reading...well, complicated!  I teach special education to three grade levels (3rd, 4th, and 5th) and I have all of these grade levels at one time for resource.  I have always tried to keep up with what the teaches are teaching in the general classroom, but with 3 grade levels that becomes extremely tricky and difficult to manage. This year I am using the plans from our third grade reading teacher and teaching the same big idea (character traits, summarization, prior knowledge, etc) and teaching that concept in my resource class. I know that if I stay with what one grade level teaches that I will hit the content for all of the grade levels for reading. I do this because the students must be exposed to grade level content, yet they are at least 1-2 years below grade level and have to have extra support and research based intervention. I keep my kids for an hour for resource so they will typically miss their general education reading class or most of it, anyway. 

So, with the Common Core component out of the way, I must then look at the individual needs of my students. Each student I have for resource reading has one of three types of reading goals: basic reading, reading fluency, or comprehension, or some combination of the three. I use these goals to plan the groups and interventions I will use (more on that to come).  

Now that I know what aspects of common core I need to teach and what areas of weakness my students have I can take a look at gathering resources to teach the weekly unit. 

Let's take a look at what I use to teach the weekly unit. 

First of all, as mentioned earlier,  I use the general education teacher's lesson plan to decide which strategy for reading I need to teach and check out her resources. Sometimes I will use what she uses to help reinforce what they are doing in class, but other times the resources they use may be too difficult and I will need to modify the lesson delivery and the resources I use. 
Most of the time the general education class is reading a certain story from the basal or they are doing a novel study. I use that story or book during my listen to reading time, so the students are exposed to the story and will be able to take the weekly comprehension check in the classroom.  *side note-if I were only doing one grade level, I would use the same story the regular ed teacher is using, but since I do several grade levels at one time I use a book or story that will meet all of their needs and that we can all read and comprehend together. 

So where do I find my books and resources?  Most weeks, I use Reading A-Z to get my literature for the week. (This is a paid site, but most definitely worth the money)!  On Reading A-Z, you will find books based on guided reading levels, but are also leveled by grade level, Lexile levels, and Fountas & Pinnell.  This site makes my planning so easy by providing guided reading lesson plans, vocabulary, weekly comprehension focus, word work and writing suggestions, and comprehension quizzes. This is perfect for busy teachers. I do not want to recreate the wheel if I don't have to!  

A sample lesson plan for this week looks something like this:
Lesson focus: Character Traits
Book:  Harold the Dummy
Vocabulary: (list of vocabulary words for this book). These are posted at the front of the room, used in activities for word work, and put on the word wall at the end of the week. 
Reading Strategy:  Asking and answering questions 
Writing: During my reading resource I also work on writing. I combined the two times this year for easier schedule flow and ease of teaching the two literacy components at the same time. 

0. Have students use the last page of the book to write why they would or would not like to have ermaline as a friend.  (This is one of the extension activities listed for the book).   
   

Technology:  This will be touched upon when I post about literacy groups...hang on for that!
Word Work:  Use recommended suffix lessons for this book


I also use many, many Teacher Pay Teacher products to help supplement curriculum. Thank goodness for TPT and the wonderful teachers and authors that have such incredible ideas that they are willing to share!
This week I am using this awesome pack for teaching Character Traits 

As, you can see a lot of time and planning comes in teaching the main lesson for the week, but special education is so much more than just adapting the regular curriculum.  Tomorrow I will share with you about assessing and choosing and using interventions.

Stay tuned!
Kim

Made It Monday with the Kiddos

Linking up today for my first Monday Made It of the summer!  

My kids and I are making the most of this summer by giving each day a specific task and it just so happens that Monday is our Make It day! :)

Today we made Jolly Rancher suckers.  You've probably seen them floating around Pinterest.

You will need:

 Jolly Ranchers

Sucker sticks

Parchment Paper

Unwrap the Jolly Ranchers and put them in groups of three on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Leave room between each group of candies so they don't all melt into one gigantic Jolly Rancher.

Here, Bear is organizing his candies before he puts them on the tray.

Candies are ready for the oven.  Heat your oven to 275 degrees and bake in oven for 6 minutes.

When time is up, place a sucker stick into each candy.  Give it a little twist to help stay put.

Our finished product! Yum!

Want to know what else or how we organize our summer fun?  I borrowed the premise for my idea here, but tweaked it to fit our days and our desires.  The kids are asking everyday, "What day is it?  What does that mean we are going to do today?"  They are really staying motivated to follow the schedule, so I thought a little visual would help them remember and help me plan what we are going to do each day.  Feel free to borrow this if you like :)  To download a printable click here!

And finally, calling all special ed. teachers!  Don't forget to go by my TPT store and download my new special education teacher planner!  It is chocked full of organizers to get your new year off on the right foot!  Click the here to be linked to the customizable lesson plan/teacher planner product!  Below you will see the customizable front cover, 1st page of the lesson planner, and a quick reference sheets for IEP goals and benchmarks!

 

Kim

B2S #4---and Word Work Wednesday

I am trying something new...Word Work Wednesdays.  Our school is new to the Daily 5/CAFE this year and I am in love with Working with Words Activities.  This is so perfect for my special education students.  They need so much extra practice with their sight words and this gives them ample opportunity during the day to work on the words that they need the most help with.  I am creating so many Word Work boxes right now...I just can't help myself.  I have scoured the internet (and Pinterest) and found so many wonderful ideas.  I want to use them all, but I won't, I know to only introduce a few at a time...but man, it's gonna be difficult!  It's just so dang fun!!!

So, here is my Work with Words activity for today...

MYSTERY WORDS

Materials:  index cards, glue, crayons, envelopes

How to:  Make cards with your desired words (use glue to write the words)
When glue dries, place cards inside envelopes and use a crayon to make a rubbing

And here is a button for you to grab and link up YOUR favorite Word Work activity below!!

So follow me...and link up!! What are you waiting for? :)

<a href="http://mrshsresourceroom.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-wXh8aqgWwxk/UCHTbmx3l1I/AAAAAAAAAdY/7C79YF7R9HY/s160/2.jpg" /></a>

Show Me Sunday Link Up--Time Fillers!

I am linking up with Show Me Sunday at 3-6 Free Resources today to bring you some fun time filler activities.  Sometimes, it doesn't matter how detailed your lesson plans are or how structured you are with your time, there will come a moment (or two or twenty) when you need fill up some time while you wait for an assembly, or in the lunch line, or waiting for the restrooms.  I think you get the picture.

Here are FIVE of my favorite time filler activities.


1.  This activity will increase your students’ vocabulary as well as fill time. Start by writing a word on the board that contains four letters. You can start with anything. Then, challenge your students to come up and change only one letter of the word to make a new word. If someone has an answer, have him come up and make the change. Then have another student come up and change the word again. See how many different combinations your students can come up with by changing one letter at a time with no word repeats. Also, give them the opportunity to ask for a definition of any of the words that they may not know throughout the activity.


2.  I like to have a read aloud going at all times.  I like for it to be a chapter book that some of my students may not have the ability to read on their own, but could comprehend if it is read to them.  I allow the students to listen to the story and draw a picture of what is going on in the story.  If the students draw each time they listen to the book then they have created their own story board and they can go back through the pictures to retell the story to you at a later time.


3.  Vo-BACK-ulary:  Divide your students into teams.  The first person on the team sits in a chair backward (in a way so their back is not against the back of the chair).  The person behind the student in the chair writes with his/her finger on the back of the person in the chair.  When the student in the chair thinks they know what the word is that was written on their back they jump up out of their seat and race to the board to write the word on the board with a marker.  The team must be able to give the definition of the word to get the point.  The students take turns sitting in the chair and being "it."  


4.  BANG:  A bucket is filled with cards.  Some cards have your spelling words written on them and some cards have the word "BANG" written on them.  Students sit in a circle.  The first person draws a word out of the bucket, reads the word, hides the word, and then spells the word.  If the student spells the word correctly he keeps it, if you not it goes back into the bucket.  If a student draws "BANG" out of the bucket he must return the card to the bucket along with any cards they have accumulated during the game.


5.  1 thing I like/1 thing I would change:  I pass out sticky notes or index cards to each student.  Each student writes down on thing they like or have learned that day or that week and one thing they would have changed about that week.  I think this activity gives your students a time to have their input into your classroom community and gives them a feeling of ownership.


Hope you can use some of these to fill-in some of that extra time! :)

Kim

Spring Break & a FREEBIE

Spring Break officially started today at 3:00 PM!!!  I am so ready for some fun and relaxation.  We will be heading to Atlanta for some fun with some friends of ours and their children!  We have a fun filled four days planned there and then back to Kentucky to my parent's house for Easter.  It is going to be jammed packed and lots of travel, but so worth the time.  I am excited about the memories that are about to be made!  Yay for Spring BREAK!!!

I wanted to give you guys a simple, cute, and effective multiplication game.  It teaches students the basics of multiplication, including making equal groups and placing the correct number of items into equal groups.  Students would then record the multiplication sentence to match the problem they created with the manipulatives.

Click the picture below to go to my TpT store to download the game for FREE!!!!!  Enjoy!!!!

Happy Spring Break!!!

WordPlay Cafe

I wanted to share with you one of the most worthwhile and awesome resources I have found on Pinterest!  (What did teachers do before blogging and Pinterest?  Really?)  This man, Michael Kline, has written a book about word play and linguistics that is chock-full of wonderful ideas to use with your kids.  The activities are fun and engaging (and not just for the kids).  And...want to know the best part?  It is free!!!!!! Go to the website below and download (You can click the picture or the link)!  Also, you can go to Amazon and order the book.

http://dogfoose.com/wordplay-cafe/

I can't wait to try out some of the wonderful ideas in this book! A-MAZ-ING!!!

Mrs. H :)

Angry Birds Anger Management--Part 2

This past week we finished up our beginnings to Angry Birds Anger Management.  We have talked about all of the "angry" birds and have begun to touch on the Coping Strategies and techniques the other birds can provide.

Let me introduce you to the "not-so-angry" birds!  (PS-I just wanted to share again that I am adapting this idea from another blogger/homeschool teacher.  She came up with all of the great visuals.  I am totally giving her the credit for putting this idea into my mind, but modified it to fit the needs of my students.  Please check out her blog here.)

source

#1 The Bird's Nest
I explained to my students the importance of how safe the eggs or baby birds feel when they are at home in the bird's nest.  They are protected my their mommy bird and their brother and sister birds.  We talked about what place in the school that they felt most safe and comfortable in.  All of the students agreed that that place was my classroom.  They know they are allowed to come down for cool down times, to talk to me, or talk to our counselor or our SAM (we all share a room).  We deemed my room "The Bird's Nest."  I (am in the process of) making each of my group participants a card with the bird's nest on it.  They will use this card to give to their homeroom teacher to use as a break card to come to my room.  This card though does have its own set of procedures.

Procedures for Bird's Nest Card:
1.  The card must be handed to your homeroom teacher when the student feels like he/she cannot handle the stressful situation.  (We have done many lessons on what stressors affect each student).
2.  The student will come straight to my room (the teacher has a copy of my schedule and will only allow the student to go at certain times or to come find me in the building if it is an emergency).
3.  I will take the bird's nest card from the student and immediately call the homeroom teacher to let them know that I have the student.  If the teacher does not get a call from me within the estimated time it takes to get to my room, then the teacher will call my room or the office.
4. Student will be allowed to go to specified cool down areas in my room.  A timer will be set and the student will take a cool down time on their own.  At the end of the designated time the student will conference with me or my assistant and will complete a "Thinking Sheet."

#2  The Balloon Bird
When a student begins to become stressed or angry they have been instructed to use the balloon breathing technique.  The student inhales deeply, holds the breath, and then slowly lets out the air as if filling up a balloon.  The student repeats this cycle until his/her body begins to get under control and goes back to a calm state.

#3  The Boomerang Bird
This is the STOP and THINK technique.  In the game, Angry Birds, when you release this bird he flies out of the slingshot, then you click the mouse button, and he boomerangs back (knocking down bricks).  I discussed with the students how they can do this same technique.  Getting angry is like flying out of the slingshot, then we stop, and turn around and make a better choice.  We also incorporated Stop and Talk.  The students came up with this.  They thought that when the bird/themselves STOP then they need someone to talk to about the issue.  We rehearsed this technique with a couple of role play scenarios.

#4 The Mighty Eagle
Sometimes the Momma Bird just needs to swoop in and save the day.   We discussed how mommies and grandmas and aunts or daddies and grandpas can't be at school everyday, but that there are people at school that care about each of them and want to help students deal with anger.  We talked about different people in the school that could swoop down and help deal with the problem.  We mainly talked about how I would be the person in most cases that would be there to help them deal with the issues at hand.

Over the weekend I will post the role plays that I have used with my students.

And just a little update:
My kids are responding to this so well.  I am impressed with their ability to talk about, participate and try to use the strategies that I am giving them throughout this unit.  Now, I must say that they are not the best about generalizing strategies across settings, but bless their hearts, I think they are at least soaking this in and with help they are (starting) to try to use what they have learned outside of my classroom walls.
It's a long journey with some kids with behavior disorders.   In fact, just today I texted my husband during a moment of frustration and he said something so simple, but great and reassuring.  "You are changing lives."   I think we all need to be reminded of that somedays!  Thanks, honey!!
Mostly likely you are a teacher if you are reading this, so just remember those simple words..."You are changing lives!!"

Lesson Planning

Sunday nights are created for teachers.  I spend Sunday nights doing lesson plans.  I do some planning during the week, such as coming up with new ideas, but for the most part the heavy duty, common core studying, nose in the books, lesson planning night is Sunday night!

Here is a link to a Google Doc of my lesson plan template.  It is VERY simple.  No bells or whistles.  I teach five resource classes throughout the day. On this template I have room for those five classes and a column for notes.  PS...this is the first time I have published a Google Doc.  Hope it works out!
Lesson Plan Template

And one last thing!  A big thank you to those of you that are already following this blog!  I am so excited to be part of a teacher/blogger community!  I am looking forward to sharing and exchanging ideas!

Mrs. H