Graphing with kids!

Colorin Colorado has a wonderful new article on creating bar graphs that is free to reproduce and share with parents.  Head on over to http://www.colorincolorado.org/pdfs/edextras/43814-en.pdf and take a look at this wonderful resource.  It also includes recommended picture books that go along with this topic.  This article is also available in Spanish if needed.  Just drop us an email and we can direct you to that link.  Thanks!

Recognizing the Signs When ELLs Struggle

With the rise of ELL/ESL students enrolling in our schools, teachers often look for resources in a variety of places.  Colorin Colorado is a fantastic place to find such resources.  It has many wonderful ideas for parents and teachers to use with students.  Linked to this entry is a chart of how to recognize the signs when ELLs struggle.  Have you seen these characteristics in your students?  Do you have any to add?  Just click here:  http://www.colorincolorado.org/pdfs/behaviors.pdf.

Fluency information

Facilitating Writing Fluency

The ability to write automatically is commonly called writing fluency. This online excerpt from Writing Instruction and Assessment for ELLs explains the reasons why teachers need to focus on writing fluency, the challenges ELLs face when learning to write, and instructional strategies for facilitating writing fluency. Educators may be particularly interested in descriptions of alphabetic features for a number of languages.  Please click on the blue link of "Facilitating Writing Fluency" and take a look at the information.

A fun site to use in class

A fun site to use in class is http://wordsift.com.  You enter a word or phrase and the program will pull up not only photos to go along with your word or phrase but also map out the phrase with synonyms.  This is great to use when teaching vocabulary to students, especially ELL (English Language Learners) students.  Have fun with it!

Critical Thinking Skills

Mission Critical: Reading Together to Build Critical Thinking Skills

As parents, we hope to develop many positive skills and traits in our children. Critical thinking, the ability to think deeply about a topic or a book, is an essential skill for children to develop.  Critical thinking doesn't develop overnight. It's something that develops and builds through conversations and experiences. It's also something parents can nurture by sharing quality books with their children.

Even though your elementary-aged child may now be able to read on their own, reading together remains just as important as it was when your child was younger. Family read-alouds provide great opportunities to tackle more challenging books together. These longer chapter books may have plots that are more complex and more demanding vocabulary. Working through these books chapter by chapter helps teach persistence. And by reading together, you are there as an important source of support and information.

Reading critically involves slowing down, and taking the time to help your child reflect on what you've just read. Depending on the book, discussions may involve talking about what a character's actions tell us about his personality, or how the book's setting is important to the overall message. It might mean helping your child recognize something about the plot and the conflict that exists. It also means asking more open-ended questions to which there can be

multiple correct answers.

Quality books enable you and your child to talk about the book in depth and with substance. All of this will help your reader develop critical thinking skills that will last a lifetime. Below are a

few recommended titles, by grade level, that you and your growing reader may enjoy reading together and talking about.

Books for second and third grades

• Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Florence and Richard Atwater

• Babe: The Gallant Pig, by Dick King-Smith

• Half Magic, by Edward Eager

• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

• Recommended titles from Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids and the Bond of Reading, by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone (HarperCollins, 2005)

For more information, read How to Increase Higher Order Thinking:  www.ReadingRockets.org/article/34655

Helpful information about learning brought to you by Reading Rockets, Colorin Colorado, and LD OnLine

Reading Rockets, Colorín Colorado, and LD OnLine are services of public television station WETA, Washington, D.C. Reading Rockets is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Offi ce of Special Education Programs. Colorín Colorado, a web service to help English language learners become better readers, receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers. Additional funding is provided by the National Institute for Literacy and the U.S. Department of Education, Offi ce of Special Education Programs. LD OnLine is the world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD, with major funding from Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes. 

School Leadership Teams and English Language Learners

A topic that is being discussed in many trainings this summer is how to help the English Language Learner (ELL) students.  The National Center on Response to Intervention has an information brief titled "Using School Leadership Teams to Meet the Needs of English Language Learners".  You can find this article at http://www.rti4success.org or by clicking on the title of this article.  Then look at the right hand column for the article title. 

What difficulties is your district having in serving the needs of ELL students?