I recently posted an article called How You Can Help.  In this post I shared that followers who enjoy using the ideas provided at www.Teacher2TeacherHelp.com can help me continue to provide FREE resources for teachers simply by making their Amazon purchases by first going through my first.  One Canadian follower asked if this also works with Amazon Canada.  I am pleased to say that, thanks to this follower, I am now an affiliate with Amazon.ca.   What this means is that you may enter the Amazon.ca site by clicking on the widget indicated by the red arrow below.  Any purchases you make will not cost you any extra, but will give me a small commission which is used to maintain this site and continue to provide FREE resources.  All other book links on the site still go directly to Amazon.com.  If you wish to make a purchase from Amazon Canada, you must go through the widget on the right sidebar.  Thank you in advance for your support!

The author Avi once told a group of teachers, “If you are going to teach me to read and to write, first you need to love me.” I love that thought!  Our students are human beings first and one of their most basic needs is to feel loved.  Lucy Calkins says that our first job as teachers is to fall in love with each and every child—right away.  One of the best ways for me to do that is to use a few tools that help my students and their parents teach me about themselves.  One of my favorites is this parent survey:

Download Parent Survey

I have found that this simple survey, with just a few open-ended questions, gives my students’ parents the opportunity to tell me anything they feel I should know.  I have filled out many of these types of surveys over the years for my own three children, but I like this one the best.  It is not overwhelming, parents can tell me as little or as much as they want, and it gives me exactly the kind of information I need as I begin to fall in love with each child in my room.

If you don’t already have a parent survey, consider using this one.  You can send it home before school starts with your welcome letter or distribute it at Open House.  I think you will appreciate the information you receive about your students, and I think your students’ parents will appreciate the opportunity to tell you about their children.

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I recently had a teacher tell me that she liked the material on my website so much that she would even be willing to pay for it. That was a really nice compliment! At this point my plan is to continue to provide resources for FREE. But…did you know that you and your friends could help with the maintenance of this website without it costing you a cent? If you see a book on my website and decide to purchase it from Amazon, all you need to do is follow the link from that book to Amazon and put it in your shopping cart. The book doesn’t cost you any extra, but I receive a small commission which I use to pay for the website. Do you shop at Amazon for other merchandise besides books? I can get credit for those, too! Simply click on the Amazon icon below the menu bar to the right and proceed with the rest of your shopping experience as normal. It’s as easy as that!

If you enjoy and use materials on this website, please consider supporting it by making your future Amazon purchases through Teacher2TeacherHelp.com. With your help, I can continue to provide FREE resources for teachers!

I recently presented at a First and Second Grade Conference in Kansas City and Dallas.  One of my colleagues, Diane Murphy, gave the keynote at the beginning of each conference.  Throughout the presentation she shared various poems—some funny, some inspiring, some touching.  There was one I liked so much (from a collection called Rainbows, Head Lice, and Pea-Green Tile:  Poems in the Voice of the Classroom Teacher that I immediately ordered the book.  When this book arrived today, I was really surprised to see that the poems were written by Brod Bagert.  Before this, I only knew Bagert as the kind of poet who wrote poems like “Stinky Boys” and “Booger Love” from his book Giant Children.  But this poem is different.  This one reminds us why we became teachers.  I was able to find a copy online that I would like to share with you.  I hope you will find it as touching and as inspiring as I did.  Click here to read "The Answer Machine".

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Have you found a website that has been invaluable to you as a literacy teacher (or as the teacher of any other subject area for that matter)?  A colleague recently turned me on to the website www.ChoiceLiteracy.com.  I have finally had some time this summer to start exploring it.  Wow!  This site has so much to offer!  Maybe you haven’t been in the dark like me and already knew about Choice Literacy, but if you haven’t visited yet, I encourage you to do so.  You can subscribe to the site for a quarterly or annual fee, but there are MANY resources that are free without a membership.  One free resource is a weekly e-newsletter called “The Big Fresh” which delivers to your inbox weekly tools, tips, and strategies for literacy leaders.  The contributing authors include the following literacy experts: Jennifer Allen, Aimee Buckner, Jan Miller Burkins, Andie Cunningham, Shari Frost, Landrigan & Mulligan, Shirley McPhillips, Debbie Miller, Brenda Power, Heather Rader, Ruth Shagoury, Franki Sibberson, and The Two Sisters.   Click here to see last week’s newsletter and let me know what you think!

I also invite you to post comments recommending your favorite websites.

Yesterday I was working with some grades 3-5 teachers and a 5th grade teacher asked if it is necessary for her to have a word wall.  That led us into a discussion about using personal word walls with those students who still need this support.  Click here to read about one way to use a personal word wall and to download a reproducible for your students’ writer’s notebooks or journals.

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In my last blogpost I shared some word family cards that you can use to help students learn the 37 most common phonograms (rimes, chunks).  Today I am providing some more downloadable word cards.  This is a set of the 150 Most Frequent Words.  These are words that account for a large percentage of words in print but often have irregular spelling patterns.  Click here for more information and to download these cards.

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On another note, I wanted to let you know that I have posted my schedule for upcoming BER seminars that are open to the public.  Click here for a list of cities where I will present during the 2011-2012 school year.  In addition to these public seminars, I also present workshops and lead professional development for schools and districts across the country.  Feel free to contact me for more information.

I recently presented a workshop on spelling strategies to some 1st and 2nd grade teachers in Dallas and Kansas City. Part of the discussion focused on the importance of using onset and rimes in our word study instruction. A few teachers asked for a copy of my word family cards, so I decided they might be helpful to all of you, too.  Click here to read more about onsets and rimes and to download a set of FREE word family cards for the 37 most common rimes.

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Well, it has been five months since I lasted posted anything on my website.  I’ve had a few of you ask if everything is okay.  Yes, everything is fine—just busy.  I have spent the past few months in many schools working with children, observing teachers, or presenting workshops.  (In my spare time I taxi three busy children to their various activities).  This has left little time for working on my website.  As more time has passed, the harder it has been to get started on it again.  Last week I was feeling so overwhelmed that I decided maybe I should shut down the website so that it wasn’t always this unfinished task on my “to-do” list.  This week, however, I changed my mind thanks to a certain 2nd/3rd grade teacher (you know who you are!) whom I met while presenting a 1st/2nd grade conference in Kansas City.  She approached me on Day 2 of the  conference to tell me how much she appreciated what I shared at the conference and on my website and how much it is going to help her this year.  Basically, she told me that my work is going to make a difference for her and her students this school year.  TOTALLY MADE MY DAY!

Isn’t that why most of us became teachers—so that we could make a difference for children?  When was the last time someone told you that YOU make a difference?  Has it been awhile?  Are you feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead of you this upcoming school year?  Well, allow me to remind you that you DO make a difference in children’s lives.

I invite you to follow the links below for some inspirational reminders about how much power teachers have to influence children’s lives:

August Dreams

The Power to Teach

On my plane ride home from Kansas City last night, I wrote almost the entire time.  I now have several entries ready to post on my site, so check back frequently for new content or subscribe to my newsletter or RSS feed to have it delivered to your inbox.  I have LOTS of ideas I can’t wait to share with you!

I work with many teachers who have a strong desire to improve their literacy instruction.  They have committed to teaching reading and writing through a workshop approach and have set aside time for their students to spend extended periods of time reading and writing.  But then they get stuck because they don’t have the resources for teaching the minilessons they know they should be teaching.  Many of them are in districts that have no formal program or are using strictly basals or scripted materials that don’t offer much depth or richness.  This leaves them to fend for themselves and either create materials or pull together units of study from a variety of sources.  For many years, that’s what I did.  I have loads of professional books from which to pull ideas. (You can see my personal professional library here). Currently, many of the schools I am working with are using the Calkins Units of Study for Teaching Writing, so we are generally following the sequence of minilessons prescribed in the units with some of our own lessons thrown in. 

But what if your school hasn’t purchased a resource like this?  How do you know which order to teach your minilessons?  I found a free resource that I would like to share with you.  It is the Wachusett Regional School District website. 

If you click on the Elementary Curriculum tab, a flyout menu will appear:

On this menu you will find resources for both reading and writing workshop, including a suggested sequence of lessons and lesson plans for oodles of minilessons.  Continue to follow the flyout menus until you find your grade level and the resource you would like to download.

This site provides a WEALTH of information, especially for teachers who are struggling with the “where to start?” and “what lesson next?” questions.  I’m grateful for all of the hard work this school district put into making this such a valuable resource.  I hope you will find it helpful, too!

I just read an article entitled “When Should Kids Be Able to Read?” at The Washington Post Answer Sheet.  It discusses our country’s obsession with getting kids reading earlier and earlier and how this trend contradicts research that shows some kids just need more time to learn how to read.  It also points out that we are doing a disservice to boys who, as a population, are at a disadvantage by the push to get kids reading earlier.  I encourage you to read the article by clicking on the above link. 

Many people weighed in with their responses, so you may also want to read the comments.  One comment was posted by Stephen Krashen, the author of The Power of Reading. In his book Krashen cites overwhelming evidence for the effectiveness of FVR—free voluntary reading.  It is a must-read!  In his posted comment he offers to send readers a copy of an article that provides strong evidence that reading can be improved at any age.  I e-mailed him for a copy and within an hour he had sent it.  I encourage you to get a copy for yourself.  You can e-mail him at skrashen@yahoo.com and request this article:  Krashen, S. and McQuillan, J. 2007. Late intervention. Educational Leadership 65 (2): 68-73.

I thought it was encouraging to read how effective late intervention can be for our struggling readers.