UPDATE: The winner of Punctuation Power is Andrea L.!! Congratulations, I didn't see your e-mail in the comment so if you could send me one at deana.kahlenberg@gmail.com I'd be happy to send it to you! Thanks everyone for commenting! : )
I have learned this week that my class cannot handle too much deviation from our normal routine. We have had some things happening this week (EOG testing mainly) that have thrown off our schedule and they have just been all over the place. This may be also due to the fact that we only have 7 days left but I'm going with routine changes. : ) Well, yesterday I noticed that the majority of my classroom library chapter books were missing. So we cleaned out our chair pockets and desks to find about 25 chapter books jammed into desks, chair pockets, cubbies....you name it, there was a book there. I had to re-think our whole chapter book situation.
I don't know about your 2nd graders but mine think that chapter books makes them grown-up, practically 3rd graders so they want to read them all the time. The problem with this is that they tend to flip through the pages for about 5 minutes and then go put it away. Even though we have clearly stated and practiced the expectations for independent reading time. So, how can I make them keep the same book for more than 5 minutes and really try to read it? I have tried reader response sheets and of course we do AR testing but AR testing is over for the school year and I found with reader response sheets I had to read the book to know if they were right or wrong which I don't usually have time for. Most of them are very capable of reading chapter books, they just lose their attention. So...a new class job was born...librarian!
I chose the first librarian (and possibly the last since we only have 7 more days) and we set up shop! The librarian will "open" the chapter book library everyday during our independent reading time. She checks out books to students and writes down the student's names, the book title and the check-out/check-in date. I used a free classroom library check-out sheet from TPT (I can't find exactly where it came from but there are a ton if you search for it) and it was perfect. The only rule (so far) is that they can only check-out ONE chapter book a day. I explained that most chapter books take 2-3 days to read, so we'll see tomorrow who's running to the "library" to take their book back. I don't have a check-out system with the picture books, those are still fair game. The librarian also gets to sit and read at the horseshoe table during the whole independent reading time, which she thought was pretty cool. I was asked about 2323897235 times who the next librarian would be and when would we switch. Here's a picture of her in action!
So far, it has been great! They were quiet and engaged in their chapter books during independent reading time, I didn't notice any incessant page flipping. It's one of those ideas that I'm like "why didn't I think of this sooner??" I just hope the novelty doesn't wear off in the next 7 days!!
I also finished up my
Punctuation Power pack last night. I had really planned on getting this done sooner and using it to review the last few weeks but I just haven't had a chance to finish it until now. It has a super hero theme and some cute character posters (those are my favorite part) to practice the different punctuation marks. You can click on either picture below to check it out on TPT!
As usual you can leave a comment below and I'll pick a winner to receive a FREE copy of
Punctuation Power by tomorrow night!!
