Here is a website with a bit more info on the Where I am From poem: http://www.swva.net/fred1st/wif.htm IDEA: I would like to share my poem (when I write it) with the parents at Back to School night. The parents could learn a bit about me, and then I can tie this into our Open Court …
Category: Open Court Reading
Teaching Kindergarten Predecodables
submitted by Mayrene: To make teaching the pre-decodables easier, I teach them for 3 days. First Day – I read book, but children practice choral reading from a poster of the story. The poster includes the rebus pictures. You can copy them from book and use black & white pics OR you can get similar …
Heritage Poetry Writing Idea
submitted by Francie Kugelman This is a popular poem template which I found http://www.swva.net/fred1st/wif.htm”>online: The WHERE I’M FROM Template I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______. I am from the _______ (home description… adjective, adjective, sensory detail). I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, …
Comic Life and Open Court: Simple Technology, Higher Level Thinking, 21st Century Skills
see Comic Life examples used with Open Court Reading see general curricular uses of Comic Life At the second session of Closing the Digital Divide, Integrating Technology in the Open Court Curriculum which I taught at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, we continued our work with Digital Video and Clay Animation. …
Writing About Dreams
Here’s a fun activity for teaching creative writing at any grade level. It aligns particularly well with folktale units (folktales, sharing stories, storytelling) but can be adapted to other units as well. Special thanks to Susan Obuchi for submitting this idea. I have students draw a picture of themselves sleeping with their head on a …
Success with Technology
Thanks to Carolyn Daly of Tech4Learning for pointing out this article on the Apple web site about Escondido Unified School District’s success using video production in the classroom which has concrete data to back up claims of technology increasing student achievement.
Teach Units, Not Stories
I’ve been noticing that a lot of teachers get bogged down by individual stories in the Open Court units and miss the big ideas of the units. While you do need to teach the stories in the anthology and will need to scaffold vocabulary just enough to give access to English Language Learners, the individual …
At Long Last, Gumby
Well, almost… I’ve finally uploaded some of the films created by teachers in my class on Integrating Technology in the Open Court curriculum at the Los Angeles County Office of Education. They are filed under the appropriate units. In particular, check out: First grade, Keep Trying Second grade, Fossils and Look Again Second Grade Kindness …
Questions About Independent Work Time/Workshop
After listening to the Independent Work Time CD, Julie, a third grade teacher in Los Angeles County, had these questions… 1. During the first week of setting up the IWT, what do you tell your students when they are done with their work since they do not have any May Dos? Do you just have …
Great OCR Tech Workshop at LACOE
I finished teaching the first session of “Closing the Digital Divide: Integrating Technology in the Open Court Reading Program” at the Los Angeles County Office of Education along with Carolyn Daly of Tech4Learning this week. This was a hands-on workshop to address how to integrate technology into OCR in ways which support curricular goals, promote …