A Fall Poem and Celebrating Reading Success

I can't believe we are into the next nine weeks of school...this year is flying by! We're running an RTI program this year and it forces us to stop and constantly look at the progress our kids are making. I know this third grade year is critical and if we are going to see any substantial growth is reading development it needs to happen by grade three. With such limited time left I know I have to pinpoint the most effective research based reading interventions that I can. This was a great read and helped me to identify what is really important. From all that I have learned I know that I must have my struggling readers engaged in lots and lots of reading.
I love poetry to teach grammar, vocabulary and reading strategies. I use it often during mini lesson time. After shared reading of the piece, I will have that poem become part of my Poetry Station during Literacy Station time. My students gain fluency practice by reading it three ways: with a partner, with the earphones and then by themselves. Here are students engaged in multiple readings of the poem:

Another activity they do is drawing meaningful illustrations of the poem in their Poetry Journal. Students must demonstrate comprehension of the poem through the illustration. I love to see them label words or write captions by their pictures.
Here is one we did this last week. It was a great one and we collected many words from it to put in our Words To Know section of our reading journal. Great for vocabulary development. They cut this paper and glue the poem in the Poetry journal and complete the follow up too. I tend not to use many worksheets for grammar review...look at all that can be reviewed here in the context of real reading!! The search and find part of the review forces them to go back and reread multiple times!

Poetry

We celebrated their reading success for the first grading period on Friday. I had most make their AR goal and was so thrilled and proud of them. This little girl received her AR prize and a note home from the principal all on the same day. She left saying, "This is the BEST DAY EVER!" Teachers, does it get any better than seeing your kids leave after a long week with a smile like that on their face??? It was a great way to end the week!

Their prize this grading period was a baggie of gummy worms with this certificate stapled to it:

Read in Gar Prize Worms
HAPPY READING!