Depth of Knowledge

Hello Friends.

New Year. New Goals. Now that the school year is well on its way, we all have new things that we want to try for our classroom this New Year.

If you have not incorporated Depth of Knowledge questions/prompts, then now is a great time to start! I can help you (more on that in a bit).

Did you know practicing Depth of Knowledge (DOK) questions/prompts can help improve critical thinking skills? If you're unfamiliar with DOKs, I would highly encourage you to Google it.  I'm not going to go in depth with it's meanings but here they are in a nutshell.

DOK in a Nutshell
There are 4 DOK levels.  Each level reflects a different level of cognitive expectation, or depth of knowledge, required to complete the task.

DOK 1 - Recall and Reproduction
DOK 2 - Skills and Concepts
DOK 3 - Short Term Strategic Thinking
DOK 4 - Extended Thinking


DOK tasks are great to work through with your students. I have found with my own kids that doing a think aloud of my thought process allows them to see the cognitive pathways that I'm taking.

Some teachers don't know where to begin or don't even have the time to pull resources and DOK questions/prompts/tasks together. Don't worry. Remember? I got your back.


I created a DOK kit just for YOU.

 Isn't she purdy?

This comes complete with class posters:

DOK leveled tasks:

Labels for jars/containers:

and editable labels so that you can add your own tasks:

If you're anything like me, time is PRECIOUS! So is money, cause it ain't growing on trees. Because of that,  I created this resource to be an ink saver. It's in black and white. Just choose the color paper/cardstock you want and print onto that!

I don't have time to be cutting out 101 circles (plus, I'm a horrible cutter), so the BEST and FASTEST way to do this is with a circle cutter.

I created this with BUSY teachers in mind, so the circles are spaced around the edges perfectly so that you can just punch them out easily.  I flip the cutter upside down so that I can see what I'm cutting out. This is a 2.5" circle cutter and can be purchased at any craft store or click on my Amazon affiliate link below.


I glued the circle to craft sticks, put the DOK labels on mason jars, and then put them in a tin utensil carrying case that I found at some random store. I love it because it has a handle on it. You can carry it around to your reading table for small groups, then to the front of the room for class discussions, or even to a literacy center. I just LOVE that it's easy to transport because I don't always stay in one area!

So if you haven't really gotten started on DOKs or want to get better at them, I think this resource could really help you out.

**AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS**

I used this circle punch:




I can't find the exact utensil carrier, but here is one that will work well. It even has extra space for some teacher supplies. The comments say that mason jars do fit in the compartments.




Thanks for reading friends! Have a great day!


Blessings,

Angela

Text Dependent Questioning Skills for My Firstie

The Christmas season brings so many FUN teaching activities.  My little Karis loves polar bears so I quick looked up some polar bear reading units on Teachers Pay Teachers and found this one.

I love it because I'm really into great pictures and this one has amazing pictures! I printed up the pages and put them into sheet protectors, then connected them with a ring so that we could work with them. If you're using them in class, I would forgo the sheet protectors and just print and staple.

Citing evidence is a HUGE deal in classrooms right now. Even though we homeschool and are not in a "classroom", I feel that this skill is such an important part of learning so I try and incorporate it into our readings anytime I can.

So when my little first grader began answering questions about the polar bear "book" that she just read, it was a perfect time for me to teach her how to cite evidence from the text.

I had her read the questions and told her that she was not allowed to just circle the answers (even if she knew it) without showing me where in the text it came from .

We sing, " Prove it, show me, underline the answer."

In this case, we used sticky notes because I wanted to display the book and not have writing in it.

I had my sweet Karis "underline" the sentence with her sticky note and write the number of the problem that the sentence answered. I showed her how to do it with the first 2 problems, and then she was off on her own

Also, colorful glittery gel pens always adds more fun!

My, they grow up way too fast!

We also got to watch a live cam on  polar bears on the polar cam from the San Diego Zoo.

She loved learning about polar bears and was ecstatic to get 100% on her reading comprehension assessment of her polar bear book. Plus, it was such a fun activity (she loves to use sticky notes!) that taught her a very important skill that we will build upon as the years go on.

Now, I would say THAT is a win-win!

Have a great day!

Blessings,

Angela

Christmas Deliveries

Hello Friends.

It's that time of year again when we are hustling and bustling to get the decorating done, presents purchased and wrapped, going to holiday parties, cooking dinners, visiting families...whew!

I sure am tired.

One thing that I have enjoyed more and more over the years is shopping online. Yes, Amazon Prime is my best friend. I can shop in the comfort of my own home and get it delivered in just a short couple of days.

Which got me thinking of all the people who deliver my packages.

I can't even imagine how hard the UPS, USPS, and FedEx workers are working this season! I know that they work long hours and I am SO thankful for them because they make my holiday shopping so much easier.

To show my gratitude, I created a little treat basket at my door for my sweet delivery friends. I got this idea from some Instagram friends and so I decided to spread the love.

I also have something for my postal carrier. I hear if you just put something in the mailbox labeled "For the Postal Carrier" that they will get it.

We taped the side and bottom to make a little pocket to put our sweet treats in.

I've added these signs as a FREEBIE so that you can spread the love, too. Our USPS, FedEx, and UPS workers work looong hours to make sure that we get what we ordered in a timely manner and seriously, they make ME look good (since I'm such a procrastinator). I am forever grateful to them.

Christmas Delivery Thank You FREEBIE

Enjoy the holidays and make sure that you thank those working overtime to make your Christmas come together.

Blessings,
Angela

Happily NEVER After

Hello Friends.

Another summer is slipping away and the new school year is quickly approaching. As I see tons of Facebook posts of teachers getting their resources ready for the new year, I wanted to share something with you that worked out extremely well in my classroom.

Once upon a time when no one really heard about task cards (at least me), one of my friends decided to create some task cards of standard based skills for her classroom. She used it during her literacy center time and it was beautiful. Kids were working on and reviewing skills that we as teachers don't always have time to go back and review.  It caught on and soon, a lot of the teachers at my school began creating their own and using them... me being one of them.

Fast Forward 15 years....

I now see task cards EVERYWHERE. There is a reason. They work really well in practicing skills and make learning fun! I've seen them with QR codes, cute graphics, in scoot activities, etc.

Then one day as I was catching up in one of my teacher Facebook groups, I came across a thread where a teacher was frustrated with her literacy center. Her kids would finish their centers early while she was still working in her reading group. They would then disrupt other kids or aimlessly walk around with "nothing to do".  Other teachers began to voice the same frustration. To be honest, I've never had that problem. It's NOT because I'm great or anything (trust me, I'm not), but it was those task cards that I used in my classroom that saved me from experiencing this frustration. So I felt like I needed to  share the "secret" to my stress free literacy time.

I ended up revamping the task cards that I had and now I bring to you (bum, bum, bummmmm....)

Here's how it works.

Kids have a choice of centers that they will complete listed on their checklist.

This does many things:
-gives student free choice of where to start. Kids like choice and will take ownership of their work.
-avoids overcrowding of certain centers. Centers are in envelopes so students just grab and go.

This August resource includes 3 weeks of centers. There are MORE than enough centers for the week. Trust me, they won't get through them all..unless they scribble on every page and move on, which in that case, you pull their clip down for wasting your precious paper. Ha!

Every week, the same skill is taught which means that they are constantly reviewing the standards. This spiral review eventually creates mastery. Here is the AMAZING thing. My kids always were so proficient at their language conventions and skills because they were practicing them EVERY WEEK! The best thing? It was ALL independent!

I LOVE the centers' labels because:
a) the students know what standards they're working on
b) the number of cards are listed so that students count the cards when putting them back into the envelope. I despise incomplete centers!

Some of the centers requires worksheets. I just put them in file folders

Students work through the centers alone or with a friend...

They keep all their papers in a folder for the WHOLE week.

**OPTIONAL**
I have students turn in their centers folder at the end of every centers' time for a quick spot check. For those who need to "fix" certain pages, I put a little "x" on the top of their page. When centers' time rolls around the next day, they need to fix the page FIRST before they can grab another center. For those whose papers looks great, I just sign it off on their checklist.


This system has worked really well for me. My students never finish all the centers because there are just so many to choose from, and I get to meet with my reading groups uninterrupted/undistracted.

Plus, I get to be the one who decides when literacy centers are done! 

It truly is a Happily NEVER After!


If you are interested in this resource, it comes in color AND black/white (to save on ink).

Here is a sneak peak.....

I know that this resource will help you take back your literacy time again so that YOU are the one who says when centers are done.

Welcome back, Friend. We've missed you.  :)

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Angela  


Other Months:
Happily Never After - SEPTEMBER
Happily Never After - OCTOBER
Happily Never After - NOVEMBER