Determining Importance

In a previous post, I raved about Tanny MacGregor's book Comprehension Connections. It is just full of great ideas. Even though our Smashing Strategies for Guided Reading series is finished in the spring, I am still going to continue with a few more helpful tips that may aide in making your guided reading a little easier!

One strategy that I find very difficult for my primaries to grasp is Determining Importance. I am sure you have been there... you ask for a quick summary and then get a five minute, play-by-play retelling of an ENTIRE BOOK! So cute, but not exactly what you asked for!

Because primary aged students are concrete thinkers, I love how Tanny demonstrates what determining importance looks like in a practical and tangible way. The first thing that I did, was pull our my personal handbag (aka purse), which is shamefully messy. Having a two year old, I always just end up throwing things that I need and wait, what seems like months, before cleaning it out again. So, to kick off our lesson, I became a bit vulnerable and showed my students the reality of my deep, dark purse! I pulled out many of the objects in the purse and asked them to help me figure out which items I needed to come to school that day. They had to DETERMINE what was IMPORTANT for me to bring to school.

Of course, they thought it was hilarious when I pulled out a bottle of nail polish, coupons for a box of Popsicles (yum!) and essentially, other useless junk. They were quickly able to deduct that I only really needed my keys, to drive to school. My wallet, which contained my driver's license and the colored pens that I use for correcting. Aside from that, there wasn't much else that I needed. It was all just extra fluff. (Don't mind my bare feet... preggo problems...)

The next demonstration was hands-on and the kids flipped when they got to participate! We talked about how sometimes when we read, there is extra stuff, that is just not important. Kind of like when parents cook pasta on the stove. I asked them to walk me through the steps...

First, their parents have to put water into a pot and let it boil on the stove.

Then, they had the pasta to the boiling water to let it cook.

STOP. I asked them, when the pasta was finished cooking in the water, if they just ate it right out of the pot? Like soup, pasta in hot water. NOOOO! They all shouted! After that, water had to be strained right out of the pasta.

WOW! I stopped them here. "So you mean, that the water strains out of the pot, and all the important stuff (aka pasta) stays in the pot. Just like when we read... we want to get rid of all the extra information and only remember the MOST IMPORTANT information. Determining Importance."

Ahhh... light bulbs went off in their little brains, like the 4th of July! So fun!

At this point, I introduced our FOUR THINKING STEMS that they would be using to complete their sticky note assignment during guided reading that day.

* What's important here...
* One thing that we should notice...
* I want to remember...
* It's interesting that...

The kids then went on to do their quiet reading at the guided reading table. I listened to each one, checking for fluency and comprehension. All the while, they were using the thinking stems to complete sticky notes for information in the book that they determined important. I tell you, if you haven't used sticky notes for your guided reading yet, I would highly recommend it. They absolutely love it and it's a great quick check for you, the teacher, to assess their understanding of the strategy at hand.

At the end of the guided reading session, which flies by in what seems like two minutes, I asked them to each choose the sticky note that they were most proud of for the day. They would then share it with the group. With some groups, if time ran short, I had them share their sticky note with the friend sitting next to them, and I listened in to each conversation.

The following week, I gave the students half sheets of paper with these Determining Importance thinking stems listed to use during their Daily 5 stations, This way I could see the progress, if they were able to Determine Importance at their independent reading level without my support at the guided reading table! Happy Teaching!

The Best School Year Ever GIVEAWAY

As many of you may already know, the Teachers Pay Teachers website is running a HUGE SITE WIDE PROMOTION  August 1st & 2nd! Everything in my store will be 28% off and the sale will continue in my store for the rest of the week, too!

And to piggy back off the sale... I am going to have a $50 TpT Gift Card Giveaway AND be running new promotions every day Monday - Friday including:

- $1 Daily Deals
- Daily Freebies 
- Daily 50% Off New Releases

Here's a little sneak peak for what is coming on Monday >>>

Don't forget to enter the giveaway to win the $50 gift card... Refer a friend and double your chances to win as well! Just send them this link so they can follow along and enter in the drawing too!

Send this link to a friend >>> http://bit.ly/2apkAUq

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Here's to planning the BEST SCHOOL YEAR EVER!

Food Critics

While I am LOVING being on maternity leave for another year... I do miss the classroom! I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to do some tutoring on the side this year to keep me, "in the loop," so to speak! I am tutoring one kindergartner, a few second graders and a third grader PLUS a doing writing group... which is AWESOME because it's basically a guided writing group for AN HOUR a week! AMAZING! I never had that much time for direct instruction with one group of kids at a time in the classroom!

This week during my writing group, I decided to modify a lesson I used to do in the classroom for descriptive writing. Each child became a food critic in order to emphasize the importance of using JUICY DETAILS in writing. To begin, each child was given a plate of food. (I had previously checked to make sure there were no allergens for students in the group).

Each plate included a few kidney beans, cucumber slices, butterscotch morsels, a frosted animal cookie, shredded cabbage and a few golden graham cereal squares. When I handed them the plates, the kiddos had the most excited and bewildered looks on their faces!

I explained how we were going to be "Food Critics" for the day and our job was to give an opinion , along with three words they would use to describe each food. We reviewed how we can use each of our senses to come up with descriptions of each including what the food looked like, smelled like, tasted like, felt like or sounded like when they bit into it!

Each child did a GREAT JOB coming up with their opinions and then using descriptive language to paint of picture of each food. Words like green, GROSS, slimy, crunchy, sugary and more were used with great expression!

After we finished tasting, I read aloud The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. We looked for ways the author used descriptive language to paint a picture of what the characters were doing and feeling in the story. We also noticed how the pictures supported the descriptive language. The children made many discoveries as we read. It was also a teach-able moment for visualizing and how reading and writing really have many connections!

Finally, to wrap up each child was given a piece of paper with a box to make a sketch. They were given the opportunity to write a personal narrative (something we've been working on) using JUICY DETAILS and descriptive language, just like we used while we were critiquing the food! The kids got really into their writing, and we verbally discussing how they were using "juicy details" to paint a picture in the reader's mind! I was *SO PROUD* of them! :)

Click on the picture below to download the freebie documents I used for my kiddos!

I am also attaching some pictures showing how I implemented this activity in small group stations in my classroom last year. Our foods were mangoes, dill pickles, garbanzo beans, artichokes, lentil chips, and gelato!

I had parent volunteers, including my wonderful mother-in-law come to help facilitate a few of the groups so I could circulate and check-in with each kiddo! You will notice that with a whole group, I had plates and forks for kids to bring with them from station to station. Each food was clearly labeled for the kids to record on their recording sheets, which I did not need to do during my small group tutoring session!

Either way, large group or small group, this activity was a HIT and I HIGHLY recommend it for bringing writing to life for your kiddos!

Punctuation Takes a Vacation?!?

How many times a day do you remind your students to check for punctuation?

"Is that the end of your sentence?"

"What goes at the end of a sentence?"

"Do you need a punctuation mark?"

"Have you used your writing checklist?"

And so it goes. I often like to teach a mini-lesson where I read aloud a piece of writing that does not contain any punctuation marks. I read the entire piece without taking a breath and then fall over when I run out of air. This is a visual reminder to children, the importance of punctuation! And they think it's really silly!

However... the punctuation reminders never seem to end in my classroom!!!

Enter Robin Pulver and the Punctuation Takes a Vacation book.

The wonderfully talented children's author that focuses many of her books on grammar and the writing process! Punctuation Takes a Vacation is a fun, silly book that teaches children the importance of using punctuation in the writing process. The kids quickly catch on to the point that life without punctuation is a MESS! Check out how we used this book to remedy our problem!


To begin, I read the book Punctuation Takes a Vacation as our read-aloud for our mini lesson. I read the letter from Mr. Wright's class very dramatically, emphasizing each punctuation mark that was in the incorrect place. The kids loved it... and it really hit the point home of the importance of proper punctuation use!

Next, I did a demonstration on the SMARTboard of how to make edits and revisions to a writing piece, including punctuation with pages from the book.

After we completed the mini-lesson, the kids were put into groups to work collaboratively to solve each post-card from the book. They needed to figure out which punctuation mark wrote the letter and replace the missing marks! 

 The kids loved the challenge! They used a different color for each punctuation mark!

We were able to explicitly review the concept of the period, the comma, the question mark and the exclamation point!

Finally, the kiddos were sent off to write their own stories using the punctuation marks reviewed today! The writing paper had a checklist at the bottom to remind each child to, you guessed it, USE PUNCTUATION!

If you'd like this freebie, click on the picture above! Hope it can be helpful for you!

Meet the Guided Reading Crew and their Strategies, Too!

Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE routines. But sometimes, it’s important to switch things up… be a little more creative! In guided reading, there are so many different strategies that I want to cover and I was having a hard time getting the kids to tell the difference between certain strategies like retelling vs. summarizing or background knowledge vs. schema! I decided to come up with a group of characters that I could use while I modeled the strategies in our mini lesson that would transfer over to our guided reading groups!

Meet the Guided Reading Crew and their Strategies, too! Let me introduce you to my friends…

Questioning Quinton: His job is to teach kids to ask questions while they read. Did you know that the best readers are ALWAYS asking questions? Some great words to get you started are WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW? It is so much fun to wonder while you read!

In this guided reading group, my students were reading at a Level G so we read Lola at the Library. Students took a picture walk through the story and asked questions before they read (and continued to ask more questions as they read). Their questions were recorded on their graphic organizers and then checked to see if their questions had been answered within the story!

Cause & Effect Chloe: Her job is to help kids figure out the cause & effect while they read! If Chloe kicks a soccer ball in the net and scores a goal… why did she score a goal?

Cause: I kicked the soccer ball

Effect: I scored a goal

Cause and effect is fun because you get to figure out the reasons why different things happen!

Schema Sophie: Her job is to teach kids to build off their schema while they read. You may be wondering what schema is? Your schema is similar to your background knowledge, things that you already know! When you are reading and using your schema you may say things like…

*That reminds me of…

* I’m remembering…

* I can relate to…

In this guided reading group, my students were reading at a Level M so we read Strega Nona. Students activated their schema with the thinking stems listed above…

I’m remembering….

I can relate to…

That reminds me of…

Visualizing Violet: Her job is to teach kids to visualize while they read. Visualizing is like making a picture in your mind while you read! Do you like watching movies? Violet does too! Today while you read your book, try to make a movie in your head of what you’re reading! Sometimes it helps to close you eyes while you make a picture of what is happening in the story!

Connections Carter:  His job is to teach kids to make connections while they read. Do you know what traits, feelings or actions are? Traits are ways to describe people, like Carter is kind. Feelings are how a person is feeling, like Carter is happy! Actions are things people do, like Carter play basketball. When you make connections to characters in a book, you can connect to traits, feelings or actions!

In this guided reading group, my students were reading at a Level K so we read If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Students drew a picture of themselves and the main character (a pig) and made a connection to a feeling, trait or an action from the book!

Inferring Izzie: Her job is to teach kids to make inferences while they read. Did you notice she is am dressed as a detective? That’s because to make inferences, you must look for clues! Inferring is when you find clues or evidence in the story to figure something out! For example, if she is carrying a magnifying glass around (clue or evidence), you would think she's  probably a detective (inference)!

Retelling Reagan:  His job is to teach kids to do a retelling after they read! Retelling a story is lots of fun! You have to remember different elements of the book such as the characters, setting, problem and solution to RE-TELL what happened! Sometimes it helps to write some of the main ideas and story elements down while you read to help you remember!

In this guided reading group, my students were reading at a Level N so we read My Great Aunt Arizona. Students did a sketch of the main events after they finished reading while we verbally reviewed what happened. Next they wrote out their retelling using the transition words: first, next, after that and finally.  

Author’s Purpose Ada:  Her job is to help kids figure out the Author’s Purpose while they read! I have to tell you something else, Ada loves pie! That’s how you can remember what an author’s purpose may be:

P: Persuade

I: Inform

E: Entertain

In this guided reading group, my students were reading at a Level L so we read Sharks! Before we read, we discussed the three purposes an author would have to write a book: persuade, inform and entertain (PIE). Then students read the book and drew the conclusion that the author’s purpose for this book was the inform!  

Summarizing Sebastian: His job is to help kids make a summary after they read! I have to tell you, his job is one of the hardest! When you write a summary, it can only be a few sentences… and a lot of stuff can happen in a book! It’s important to only find the main ideas and important details when you write a summary!

Predicting Paige: Her job is to help kids make predictions while they read! Do you like science experiments? Paige loves science experiments AND reading because you can make predictions during BOTH! A prediction is a guess (using clues or evidence) about what is going to happen next!

In this guided reading group, my students were reading at a Level H so we read Elephants on Board. Students took a picture walk through the story and made predictions before they read (and continued to make more predictions as they read). Their predictions were recorded on their graphic organizers and then we reviewed if the predictions were correct or incorrect at the end!

Background Knowledge Brayden: His job is to teach kids to use their background knowledge when they read! Does anyone have any idea what background knowledge might be? It’s things that you already know! For example, if you are reading a Henry & Mudge book and you have a dog at home, you have some background knowledge about what it’s like to have a dog for a pet!

If you are interested in adding these kids to your classroom roster, click on the image below! Hope these ideas can be helpful to you and your reading instruction!