Engaged Partners + Active Readers... The Activities

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How to be an ACTIVE and ENGAGED partner...

We do SO much group work in my class and I think it is SO important to really focus on this during the first weeks of school. I don't want students simply yelling answers at their partners, I want conversation that leads to thoughtful discussions. In order to get that - you have to teach it! I teach this using games! 

-Sticky Note Game explained via video
-Mystery Drawing Game explained via video
-Mystery Drawing Game TPT Product

How to be an ACTIVE reader...

We also spend a lot of time talking about how being actively engaged in our reading makes us better readers because it deepens our understanding and allows us to acknowledge when we might need to go back and re-read! SO FAR we have talked about THREE ways to be an active reader: 1) talking with a partner, 2) using a graphic organizer, and 3) annotating the text

Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - For this activity we practice being active readers by conversing with partners and through the use of a graphic organizers.
*Snag the book HERE!

-We begin by reading the book (only by looking at the pictures) and students have discussions about what they think is happening, what that infer, etc. Throughout this we are also really talking about those traits of being a good partner.

-After reading the book (via the pictures) we watch the short film. During this film students complete a "Wacky H" graphic organizer in order to be an active reader (watcher in this case).
*Short film on YouTube
*Freebie Graphic Organizer

Storm Drain Stem Challenge - We use this activity to start talking about annotating. We do very basic annotating since this is our first time! During read one, students "stop and jot" after each paragraph and jot down the GIST of what they read. They also circle unknown words. They talk with partners to find context clues to determine the meanings of those words. For read two - students highlight the most important things in each paragraph. They like to highlight sooooo much, so we start by highlighting ONE important thing for each paragraph. After we finish this, we complete the storm drain stem challenge for FUN!

*Storm Drain Passage + Slides for annotating

*Stem challenge idea came from Stem with Mr. E.

Reading can be FUN!

Book Tasting - I have used Joanne Miller's book tasting product for years and I LOVE it so much. I highly recommend it. I also haven't purchased any items for this supplies in years either! I reuse EVERYTHING and throw it into a bucket each year. I do ask parents for a few snacks to make the tasting even more realistic. I use books from my classroom library so students can easily access books they found interesting after the tasting. 
*Items I have from Amazon