K-2 Editing Training

With the upcoming changes to the ELAR STAAR test, I began thinking about what I could do to help my school be better prepared. I spent a great deal of time looking at the revising and editing question examples provided by TEA. By the time I finished, I felt like any teacher who had prepared students for the former writing STAAR test would have a head start. I also felt like they would probably tell the other grade levels that the task would be so much more manageable if all grade levels spent some time really getting students ready ahead of time. This means that K-2 are going to really need to step up their game in this area since revising and editing will begin in third grade. 

I thought about my K-2 friends and how I could help them prepare their students. Ultimately, I felt like it could be really overwhelming to throw revising and editing at them together. So, I chose to begin with editing. My hope is to follow this up with revision training next year.  

My next thought was that a lot of problems could be headed off if everyone sat down and really talked about what the standards mean, how the district wanted to define things, how the district wanted to address some of the less specific TEKS, and to find a way that everyone could agree on to really teach and review the concepts in a way that was realistic and sustainable. 

I did not want these trainings to be whole group because that just means someone ends up wasting time listening to things that do not apply to them. I also feel like a large group can make everyone feel less open to say what they actually think. So, I designed one training for each grade level. Another plus would be that if someone left the district in the future, one could easily pull up this short training for a replacement. 

Materials Needed:

Notebook Paper–at least one piece per person

A variety of colored pens/pencils

The District Editing Alignment Agreement–Admin or the person presenting the training needs to record decisions made by the group onto this master document. Clicking the link will give you a copy you can edit on your own. All I ask is that you leave credit for the original document to my blog. It would be a good idea to revisit this document as a whole group perhaps at the end of the semester and certainly at the end of the year to make any updates that your district needs. 

Training slides for each grade level—I am happy for you to modify these to make them pretty (I am not capable) or adapt them to fit your needs. I only ask that you give credit for the original document to my blog. 

Kindergarten Training–Make your own editable copy

Preview, including presenter notes

editing-across-grade-levels-kindergarten-4Download

First Grade Training–Make your own editable copy

Preview, including presenter notes

editing-across-grade-levels-first-grade-1Download

Second Grade Training–Make your own editable copy

Preview, including presenter notes

editing-across-grade-levels-second-grade-1Download

*Optional*

I made some guides to help teachers if they want to create their own model sentences to edit. This cuts down on some of the thinking involved because it lines out the order to teach things, when and what to review, and even whether the model sentence should be correct or incorrect.

I am in the process of writing model sentences that I will upload for free on the blog when they are completed, but I really feel like it is better if teachers write their own.  Teachers know what their students are interested in, and I think it helps if the sentences are geared towards a specific audience. 

Kinder Guide

First Grade Guide

Second Grade Guide

Let me know if you find any of this helpful. I am planning on a 3-5 series, but I am afraid the end of summer is sneaking up on me!

Singular and Plural Nouns

If you read my post on common and proper nouns, you know I do not spend days having students identify common versus proper nouns. I do not personally find it super necessary. Do I want them to remember how to capitalize names? Yes. Do I think they should be able to identify a NOUN? Yes. Common versus proper? Eh.

Now, I have a totally different opinion on singular versus plural. I DO spend some time on this. Identifying singular versus plural is important for subject/verb agreement as well as apostrophe rules. I talk about this one. A LOT. However, I do not find it helpful to spend a week or two with worksheets where students mark if a noun is singular or plural. Instead, I find it is much more useful to simply, once or twice a week, look at a sentence in bell work and focus on the types of nouns in the sentence. Teach once, review FOREVER!

Writing Objective: We can identify singular and plural  nouns.

Proof: We can prove we met our objective by completing the invitation centers. 

Materials:

Lesson video if desired

Task Cards (just pages 51-71)

Vocabulary:

noHun

Singular  noun

Plural  noun

Questions:

Lesson:

Review noun, common and proper. Have you ever heard a little kid say something that just sounded funny? Maybe something like, ¨The mens run.¨ This is because they are still learning about singular and plural forms. Introduce singular/plural nouns using the anchor chart (which you can see on the lesson videos). Talk about the difference between the regular singular/plural pattern and irregular plurals. Explain that it is important to distinguish between singular and plural for sentence agreement and for apostrophes, which we will learn about soon. You can play a lot of games with the task cards, but I usually just show them on the board and ask the kids to stand up if there is a plural.

If I have time, I ask students to call out some different nouns and we all stand up if the form is plural. We also can go back through and talk about irregular and regular.

VCE Syllables

TEKS:

4.2Bi spelling multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams, including digraphs and diphthongs; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables;

Time: The first six weeks, I have a 45 minute WIN time. I have each of my three rotations for two weeks. I use this time to train my students to do spelling centers. This way, my kids know how to do them on their own by the second six weeks. All of the centers combined usually take a full week. I give them cursive review pages as well during this time.

Lesson objective: We can identify and spell words with the VCE syllable type.

Proof: (Evaluation)  We can prove we met our objective by explaining how to identify and spell words with VCE syllables to a partner.

Vocabulary:

Syllables, VCE syllables

Materials:

VCE syllable lesson video— You can show the video in a center or teach a mini-lesson yourself.  

Quizlet Test

Discussion Questions:

How do you tell if a syllable is using the VCE pattern? How does this help you with reading? How can it help you with spelling?

Centers:

Review the definition of syllables before students begin. Review closed and open syllables. Students watch the video in centers and explain what they learned to at least one other person.

Since I have some extra time this week, I love to ask students if they have heard of the magic E rule from the video before. I love to then use the info graphic from the All About Learning blog to lead a discussion abut this ¨rule.¨ I explain that often teachers (including myself) use the term rule when we should say pattern, mostly because it was the term we learned growing up. I challenge the students to catch me saying rule instead of pattern. If they do, I give the class a small reward.

Then, students use what they learned to pass a test on Quizlet. I let my kids play the games during the week in centers and let them test when ready. They test online and show me the results. I don’t give grades on these tests. I just give a reward when they pass it. I also let them try as much as they like.

Tricky Proper Nouns–Professions

Have you ever accidentally made up a great lesson on the way to work because you forgot to run off some papers? That is how this lesson came about, and I have used it in a pinch for a lot of different language skills.

TEKS: singular, plural, common, and proper nouns; [11 D, iii]

Lesson Objective: We know when to capitalize professions.

Proof: We can prove we met our objective by at least four points for our team.

Materials:

Lesson Video (if desired)

Dry eraser markers and mini-white boards or notebook paper/pencils

Vocabulary:

common noun

proper noun

professions

Lesson:

You can either do a similar lesson to the video with the whole group, or you can have the students watch the video and give you a summary before beginning the game. Then, divide the class into groups to play the game. I personally try to avoid groups of more than three because I have found larger groups just mean more people sit and do not participate. I prefer partners above all. Give the groups dry erase markers and white boards.

Next ask students to call out professions they heard in the video. Brainstorm other professions that may also sometimes need a capital. List each one on a note card or small piece of paper. Explain the rules to the game. I will draw one profession name out of the pile. I will then flip a coin. Heads means capitalize. Tails means lower case. Groups must then write a sentence using the profession and either capitalize the profession or not. Groups who write correct sentences get a point.

Teaching Quotation Marks

For the brief years I taught math, the day I dreaded most each year was the introduction of long division. I have to say that teaching quotation marks is my writing equivalent. After years and years of quotation mark fails, I found what usually works best for my students. The summary of that is: start early and practice every single week. The skill is simply too complex to pick up quickly, no matter how old or young you are.

I usually introduce this skill as early as week three. I do a quick mini-lesson using the anchor chart below. If you have a student working from home or want to send a lesson home to parents, here is the best one I have found on Youtube.

I try not to make this super long. I read number one on the list and show them the difference with a short example I write on the board:

He told her he needed to find his pencil.

He said, ¨I need to find my pencil.¨

I read number two on the list and explain that the quotation marks indicate to the reader that the narrator is no longer speaking. This can be a little tricky with first person because there are times when a first person narrator´s words show up in quotation marks, but that is usually when the narrator speaks to another character, not to the reader. I do not bring this up on day one, but when we encounter it in a passage, I point it out. I almost always have a student who, once introduced to quotation marks, begins to use them all over the place when they write in first person. I have this discussion with them right away and find examples in classroom library books to show them.

I read number three and show them what this looks like using classroom library books. Some kids pick this up immediately in their own writing from that point on. Others are just not ready. I tend to leave this alone until they master using quotations at the sentence level. Then, I bring it up again.

Lastly, I introduce pattern one and pattern two. I model writing one of each on the board. I explain there are other quotation mark patterns and even other uses besides dialogue for quotation marks, but we are going to master pattern one and two before we learn anything else. I often have advanced students seek out other patterns in their library books just because I refuse to show them in advance. They are so excited when they find them on their own, and so am I!

After the lesson, I use my weekly bell work to model to students how to use pattern one and two to identify correct or incorrect usage of quotation marks. I have found that I need to do the first two boxes together this first day. I call up a partner for myself and model talking/arguing through each part of the pattern to see if it is correct. The kids really love learning how to have a discussion like this. Then, we do partners for the last two boxes. I like to do partner bell work each Friday, and the kids look forward to these conversations. I have found the kids learn more quickly about quotation marks through this weekly partner method than any other way I have tried.

Once I have taught quotation marks to the group, I can start having discussions about quotation marks in their workshop writing. However, if a student has not mastered basic end punctuation, they are not ready for quotation marks. I only have conversations about quotation marks in workshop if they are ready for them. If you try to push them in advance of end punctuation, you will end up with an even bigger mess on your hands.

I hope this helps, and I would love to hear what has worked for you.

Texas Independence Day

One of my favorite days of the year is the birthday of Texas, March 2nd. First of all, who doesn’t love a party? Secondly, it is a yearly reminder to me that our sweet little students are lovely little people.

We begin getting ready for our celebration by participating in our county art and essay contest. The students get to choose any event or person from Texas history (local or statewide) to write an essay about. They also attach an art submission on the same topic. This serves as a great review of what we have learned so far and also serves as decoration for our party. I hang all submissions (essays and artwork) in the hallway and around the room.

A day or so before the celebration, I talk to the students about what it means to give a toast. Often the students have seen people give toasts, but they actually associate the toast directly with alcohol and drinking. I make sure the students know that the purpose of making a toast isn’t to drink alcohol, it is to celebrate and honor others.

We then talk about the tradition in Texas of making a toast to Texas on Texas Independence Day. Many cities and clubs, especially the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, host a celebration and give a toast on that day. Although I personally am a Red Raider fan, the University of Texas has an Independence Day tradition/story that I love. I shorten and paraphrase the story linked here and tell it to my students. I explain that it is my hope that wherever they are as they grow up, they will celebrate this day and remember our time together learning about Texas.

After this conversation, I model making a toast. I do this by actually making toasts to the students in the classroom. For example, ¨To Areli, your smile and willingness to help others makes our classroom a better place.¨ Then, I teach the students to respond with, ¨To Areli!¨ I really like to prepare this beforehand and have one for each student. The kids just GLOW. This was not my idea however, the idea for making a toast to your students and having them toast each other comes from Dave Stuart Jr. Read his blog about this here. I just modified his idea for our Texas Independence Celebration.

I then show the students how I wrote the toasts on paper the day before so I could make them more thoughtful. It is really hard for most people to come up with a really good toast without giving it some thought. I tell them I practiced them that morning before school and kept the notes near me in case I got nervous or forgot.

Next, the students begin writing their own toasts. I tell them they can make a toast to one of their fellow students or teachers, but they MUST toast someone or something from Texas history first. We will only make toasts to each other after we have toasted Texas on its birthday. The students usually choose to toast someone from the Texas Revolution, but I do not require this. I let the students write their toasts while I monitor and assist. If we have time, we practice giving the toasts with a partner or small group.

On the day of our celebration, I have parents bring in snacks, decorate minimally with Texas things I already have in my room, and give everyone a water bottle. We take turns giving our toasts to Texas and each other, taking small sips in between each toast. You would think they would lose interest after awhile, but they could literally do this for an hour or more. They LOVE it.

I end with my standard toast, ¨To the class of (insert graduating year), your love for Texas and each other fills my heart with pride and love. I am excited about the future of Texas because of children like you.¨ Then I cry a little. Every. Single. Time.

Wherever you are this Texas Independence Day, dear reader, I am proud of you as well. To the history teachers! May the seeds you sow today have a healthy harvest that blesses the future of Texas.

Open Syllables

TEKS:

4.2Bi spelling multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open syllables; VCe syllables; vowel teams, including digraphs and diphthongs; r-controlled syllables; and final stable syllables;

Time: The first six weeks, I have a 45 minute WIN time. I have each of my three rotations for two weeks. I use this time to train my students to do spelling centers. This way, my kids know how to do them on their own by the second six weeks. All of the centers combined usually take a full week. I give them cursive review pages as well during this time.

Lesson objective: We can identify and spell words with open syllables.

Proof: (Evaluation)  We can prove we met our objective by explaining how to identify and spell words with open syllables to a partner.

Vocabulary:

Syllables, open syllables

Materials:

Open Syllable Video— You can show the video in a center or teach a mini-lesson yourself.  

Quizlet Test

Discussion Questions:

How do you tell if a syllable is open? How does this help you with reading? How can it help you with spelling?

Centers:

Review the definition of syllables before students begin. Review closed syllables. Students watch the video in centers and explain what they learned to at least one other person. Then, students use what they learned to pass a test on Quizlet. I let my kids play the games during the week and let them test when ready. I don’t give grades on these tests. I just give a reward when they pass it.



If you are looking for something extra, here is a great, free game on TPT.





Teaching Revision

Once students have learned the steps to pre-writing, i begin asking them almost daily to tell me the steps to prewriting using our anchor chart. I do the same with steps to editing and revision. We say them when we are lining up and often when they enter as well. By the end of the year, I am pretty sure the at the very least know the parts of the writing cycle!

TEKS: revise drafts to improve sentence structure and word choice by adding, deleting, combining, and rearranging ideas for coherence and clarity;[11C]

Lesson Objective:

We can name the four parts of revision.

Proof:

We can prove we met our objective by saying the parts as a ticket out.

Materials:

Anchor chart

Optional Video Lesson

Optional checklist for future use if you want. You can download it for free.

copy-of-revision-checklist-texas-teks-4th-grade-2020-1Download

Vocabulary:

Revision

Add

Remove

Move

Substitute

Questions:

What is revision?  How is it different from editing?  Why would it be important? When should you revise?  What might happen if you don’t?

Lesson:

Use questions above to discuss and explain the parts of the revision anchor chart.  Chant the parts and make the motions to each part. Students must say the parts before leaving today.  Tell them that this week we will work on revising some essays together. Have students say the parts of revision as part of our clean up routine. 

Capitalizing Family Names

This topic is one of those topics that so many adults have difficulty grasping. While there is not a specific TEKS that describes this lesson in fourth grade, it is one that I have seen come up often in student writing and in STAAR material.

Students are required to know when to capitalize names, but there is nowhere that I’ve seen at any grade level that specifically addresses this issue (or earth/sun for that matter). I am sure the reasoning behind this is that students will learn to use critical thinking skills to analyze proper nouns and figure out what to do with them. The problem with that, in my opinion, is there are some proper noun instances that everyone struggles with, which is why I teach them specifically.

Writing Objective:  We known when to capitalize family nicknames. 

Proof:  We can prove we met our objective by making a 70 or higher on a practice. 

Vocabulary:

common and proper nouns

family nicknames

Materials:

Lesson Video

Quizziz Practice–either printed out or online

Lesson—

Students watch the lesson video on their own and tell me a summary of the rule. After that, they can do the Quizizz practice on their own. My kids love using Quizizz. I usually let them do the practice a few times on their own until everyone finishes. Then, we play team games if we have time. If you haven’t tried a Quizziz team game with your class, it is similar to Kahoot but without the speed requirement. Again, I don’t spend a lot of time making students master this today because I know it will be reinforced time and again with the bell work.

Tricky Proper Nouns–Earth/Sun/Seasons

Students probably have a basic knowledge of when to capitalize names (proper nouns), but some proper nouns are confusing for all of us. After talking about proper nouns in general, I begin teaching them some that are more difficult and require more discussion. I start with when to capitalize earth and sun and what to do about seasons.

TEKS: singular, plural, common, and proper nouns; [11 D, iii]

Lesson objective(s):

We know when to capitalize earth/sun and the seasons. 

Proof:  We can prove we met our objective by making a 70 or above on a practice. 

Materials:

Sun/Earth Video Lesson

Seasons Video Lesson

capitalize-earth_sun-seasons-practiceDownload

Vocabulary:

earth

sun

seasons

common noun

proper noun

Mini-Lesson:

I use the videos linked above and ask students to watch the lesson videos and then explain the rules to me once they finish. If they need to watch them again, they may. Once they finish, they can work on the short practices over each one. I really like them to work with a partner if someone is finished in time because the conversations really are what helps them grasp these rules. There is something about having conversations about our thinking that really make these rules stick. We review these skills with our bell work weekly all year long, so if a student doesn’t master this right away, I don’t stress about it. I either go over the correct answers with groups as they finish or as an entire class. We talk about which ones were easy and which were difficult to decide.