Teaching structure of nonfiction.

We have the PASS Grant for tutoring on Saturdays. For the grant my one job is teaching the different structures of Nonfiction.

Thanks to Pinterest I found a great resource to use as an anchor chart. I made the chart with Thinking Maps instead of the graphic organizers given. Also, I added Velcro for durability. I have to teach the lesson 6 times so I wanted to be able to put them up and take them down.

The pretest was 6 passages the students had to organize into the appropriate map. I have all levels so I'm waiting to see where I need to start for each group. My lowest group already began Chronology. They had a hard time putting information into a flow map.

More pics and resources to come. I have plenty!!

KRYPTO!

I have been hearing about Krypto for a couple of years now. Our Asst. Principal, now Principal, was all about it. At first I felt she was just being pushy because she was a math person. Now, I get it! Krypto is a game of mental math. You deal 5 cards and the 6th card it what you are trying to equal up to. You can add, subtract, multiply and/or divide. After learning about it, of course I ran back to my class and taught them immediately. To make it grade level appropriate I took out all the cards except 1 - 10. In hind sight, I should have done 1 - 10(which I can still do). We have been very basic with it begin, but now I think they are ready to get into teams and compete a little more. That's one of the best parts of Krypto, there is a team competition in May!

Our after-school program is going to start a Krypto club to get ready hoping that I can hand pick students will be competitive and good at it!

About me...

After stalking many teaching blogs and using their ideas in my classroom, I've decided I want a place to keep my ideas and strategies for teaching. We as teachers live the 9 month life and then start the WHOLE thing all over! I want a place to keep the ideas that worked and ideas that didn't work, and my filing cabinet isn't working for me!