beyond the text

A group of third graders I tutor is going to be reading What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? I flipped through the book and think they'll enjoy it. There aren't a lot of words on the pages but I feel like we can do a lot with it. I'm thinking we'll do a writing piece afterwards where they have to tell what their defense would be if they were an animal. But then I thought about taking this a bit deeper. I went to the library and stumbled upon this great series of books, Animal Attack and Defense. I grabbed all the ones I could find! I was getting a little discouraged because I found random books on different animals but I really wanted...a series...and this is perfect! I'm adding it to my Amazon wish list for my classroom so I can buy them later :) So I think I'll give each kiddo a book and let them pick one animal to focus on. I found a cute graphic organizer on Teachers Pay Teachers they can fill out as they go, telling us about the animal's habitat, what it eats and its defense. If we have time, I may get some butcher paper and let them all share some of their findings with the others!

the beat

I've been racking my brain about ways to help my kiddos build fluency. And the other day I had an "ah ha" moment! For fifth graders, they should be reading around 120 words a minute. I thought if they could hear how fast they should be reading, it might help them increase fluency. And it's not just about reading fast. I think there's a balance between speed and comprehension - I don't want them to lose their understanding of the passage while striving to read x number of words. But I found a free app called Tempo Lite. I set it for 120 and my kiddos were able to hear what that would sound like. It's a different approach to fluency but I plan on maybe playing it while we're reading aloud so they can practice keeping pace.