Summer Learning

8/4/2017

Summer Learning Doesn't Have to be boring

If you know me, you'd know how much I LOVE my job. Teaching, is to me, more than a job, or a profession...teaching to me is a calling...my passion! That's why every summer for the past four years, I've signed up to work in my county's Summer Reading Camp.
This camp is only 3-4 weeks long and it's right in between summer break so it's just perfect. I get a break right after the end of the school year and a break before the beginning of the next school year.
Families receive an invitation to register for Summer Reading Camp after EOG. Not all students are invited and/or admitted to camp. Our camp is mainly to support students who are not far below grade level in reading. Also for 3rd-grade students who did not pass the End of Grade Testing and did not meet the targeted reading level. Transportation and meals are provided to all students. Here's an idea of what their day looks like:

So basically students have rotation centers: Art integration, Science, Reading Rotation, and Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI). Each rotation is about 45 minutes. We take our group to lunch and recess. We also have a block for read-aloud, iReady (computer time), and brain breaks/bathroom breaks. It sounds confusing, but I promise it works out perfectly!

My Assignment:

My assignment has always been LLI. Leveled Literacy Intervention system is an intensive, small-group, supplementary literacy intervention for students who find reading and writing difficult.
I find this system fascinating because it provides a teachers guide and teaching ideas to make reading and writing very interactive promoting student engagement. Not to mention it also provides strong support for English language learning students.
Small group instruction for reading and writing is by far my strength! So, even though I appreciate having a guided lesson plan for each book we read, I always end up adding my own twist.

Lessons:

Learning about each other: In order to establish a safe and comfortable environment for all my students, we started with an activity where students learned about each other's likes. I placed a poster board sheet in the middle of the table and explained how we are different and similar in many ways. I wrote our group number in the middle and our names branching out from the center. I modeled writing around my name things I like doing or anything I like about me. I modeled sounding out words how it was ok if words were misspelled. Students immediately started brainstorming ideas and adding them to their name. The ending results were amazing!

Why do this activity?!?
Of course, first things first, I wanted to get to know my new students! But this activity turned out to be a great formative assessment. My intentions were to grasp an idea of their writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills. This was a very low anxiety activity where students felt comfortable making mistakes and taking risks in using English.
Without my students knowing I was proving them with a scaffolding approach to write complete sentences about themselves. The Writing Process: A Scaffolding Approach is a process to organize writing to meet the needs of your struggling readers and writers.

Bubble mapping/brainstorming: Students wrote on the chart paper the first word that came to mind about things they like (sports, songs, food, pets, subjects, people, etc.)
Sharing: As students share each word their thought process allows them to start forming oral sentences about each word. Students also get to hear other students share and hear modeled oral sentences.
Editing: Each student reads each others' words and identifies any misspelled words to fix as they transfer their bubble thoughts onto their notebook. I targeted specific pattern mistakes I noticed as a group and used as a short and quick mini-lesson. Some tips provided to students consisted of word vowel teams, blends, or -r controlled words.
Students chose 3-5 favorite words to make sentences and shared them with peers. Students who couldn't make sentences received support from me or their peers.
Writing sentences: Students wrote their sentences and shared them aloud. This allowed students to hear their own sentences and perhaps catch own written errors or allowed peers to give feedback.

Vowel Sounds, Word Patterns, and Word-List:
For students who are struggling with vowel sound discrimination, reading grade level text is a torture. Being able to recognize the sound a vowel or a team vowel makes is foundational for readers. Kindergarten through 2nd grade are the grades where students need to master recognizing team vowels sounds and their patterns for written purposes. A student in 3rd grade on should be reading to learn and not having to struggle with phonic foundations.
Now for ELL students to achieve high levels of fluency in English, they need to receive sufficient amounts of oral and written input as well as opportunities to express themselves orally and/or in writing.

Process:

An easy way to engage your students in learning these patterns is by creating a quick chart with columns and rows for students to sort words. You could use your dry erase board, your table, or chart paper if you want to keep it posted. I recommend teaching two-four patterns a day.
Write the patterns as a heading for each column and explicitly explain each pattern with an example. Have them repeat it and model the one word for each pattern. Students should be telling you where the word should go. To make it fun...have them write it instead of you!
Have students make their own personal chart (notebook sheets, or a note book). Dictate their words and have students write them where they identify the sound. If you see a student making an error, DON'T single him/her out. Just say, "don't forget the patterns, the word is _______, listen for the sounds." If the student doesn't fix it then so can directly to making a different choice.
Have students take turns adding their words to the chart.
Students could provide each other feedback or you could use this time to help one-on-one!

Always have students say out loud what they are writing!

Students as teachers:

Let students guide the lesson and the review!

Using different colors to write makes it fun! :)

After reading a story, students get a list of random words taken from the story read and they are to use all of the words to make sentences. The sentences are about what happened in the text so they are familiar with the vocabulary. They are also allowed to look in the text to make sentences. These students here made 5 different sentences! They take turns circling the words needed for each sentence. The final product looks very colorful and they feel very accomplished!

No need for worksheets! ❌

Watch my Ss rearrange words to build sentences based on previously read story! #summerLearning pic.twitter.com/dfCEPHXBYF
— Emily Francis (@emilyfranESL) July 26, 2017

Writing about text:
Here is a great link for tips for using prewriting strategies.
Here is another document with great ideas for prewriting strategies.

One of my favorite strategies is to have students draw a story re-tell before they have to write. Drawing their ideas as a pre-write strategy helps students produce words, more sentences, and their writing performance is much higher.
Always provide transitional words for students to use as needed.
Allow students to use the book to find words and information needed.
Allow students to collaborate with each other to form sentences.
If students are having trouble forming sentences, provide the scaffolding support needed and/or allow them to use sentences provided by peers.

Drawing as a pre-write strategy:
They produce more words, more sentences; Their overall writing performance is much higher! #summerLearning pic.twitter.com/5spIk6UAWt
— Emily Francis (@emilyfranESL) July 19, 2017