Sarah, Plain and Tall: Reading strategy for those reading strugglers.

Hi Everyone!

I just finished reading the small chapter book, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan last week. I read this every year with my third graders but have also read it with my fourth grade class. I have taught this lesson with just me reading the book to the class and also in groups where everyone has their own book. 

This year, each student had their own book and I was able to integrate the reading strategy of breaking down each chapter of the book.  This is great for grades 2- 4 because when they are just starting chapter books, it helps them understand how to chunk information. We all have natural readers in our classes but this strategy really helps the struggling readers.

After each chapter students needed to think about the main idea/event in that chapter and then draw a picture + write two sentences about it. I was really happy with the results. Everyone passed the final assessments for the book and characters.

Here are some examples of what my students accomplished. 

This reading strategy really helped make my struggling readers more confident in participating and with overall understanding about the book’s development.

If interested in this particular unit just follow the link.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

I hope this strategy works well in your classroom too!

Thanks,

Erin

Multi-Step Word Problems

Hi Everyone,

Last week I wanted to have my students practice addition and subtraction multi-step word problems.  I really wanted them to dissect a problem and analyze it.  So I created some word problems to help them do just that!

The results turned out great. The students learned a lot and kept asking to do more.

Word Problem Example

Word Problem Example Answer

This is how I used the word problems in my classroom:

1.     I placed students into different math groups about 4-5 students.

2.    Each student had to have a different color marker from a person in their group (and no yellow allowed).

3.    I placed a butcher paper down for each group and gave them one word problem per group to solve.

4.    Each member had to work on the problem and had to be able to explain how to do it.

5.    For the final part: I did it two separate ways. One way, I had each group present one of the word problems to the class. The second way we went over each problem using the SMART board. (I used the answer cards given in this unit.

(I used these word problems for three separate math lessons but easily could have made an entire week out of it.)

Students working on one of the word problems.

It was great to be able to walk around the room and be able to observe the students working together and know what each had contributed.  It was really easy to see whose colored marker was not being used to help solve the problem.

Let me know how your word problem lessons turn out!

If you are interested in this one just follow link below.

Multi-Step Word Problems

Thanks,

Erin