I got published!

A few years ago, I sent off a vocabulary idea to The Mailbox Magazine.  I was thrilled when I got the letter stating that they were accepting my idea!  It took almost two years, but it was published this Winter in the Intermediate version.

Here is a picture of the writeup.

That's me, Andrea Halterman

I have done this with my students for years.  As an ESL teacher, the 4 language domains are Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing.  In addition, students need many exposures to words to have complete understanding of the word.  This year, students are charting all the vocabulary words that they have learned (academic areas and reading vocabulary) this year.   In the past I have done individual incentive charts.  That turned out to be very time consuming and hard to manage, especially when they filled up a chart.  This year, I have a class sticker chart that I have hanging on my door.  Next year, it will be a much prettier chart.  Students get stickers for:  finding vocabulary words in anything that they read, hearing another person saying the word (and yes, I count), using the word in their writing, and speaking with the word in a complete sentence.  This is most useful in the academic area.  I'm finding the most success with this in math.  

Our class vocabulary sticker chart.  Each student has their own square.

Have a great evening!  It's finally starting to look like Spring!

Encouraging students to read.

I started a reading incentive program with my students a few years ago.  I noticed that they were not completing many of the books that they were reading.  They were reading.  They were reading everyday in fact.  But, once library day came, they returned their books, half finished.  So I started using goal setting and bookmarks for reading.  
1.  Students set a monthly goal for the number of books they are planning on finishing.

A copy of  our goal setting sheets.  We keep them in our data notebooks.

2.  Students fill out bookmarks.  On these bookmarks, they write a summary of the book that they have written.  Next year, they will also be writing a recommendation for the book.

A copy of this years bookmark.

What I'm going to use next year, front and back.

3.  Students get to add a sticker to our data wall chart.  To hold all students accountable, students who read over their goal, get to add a colored sticker to the top of the chart.  All other students add silver stickers to the chart.   When everyone reaches their goal, they receive a classroom award.

Our reading data wall.

4.  I have students keep their bookmarks on a ring in our classroom library.  They are very proud of their bookmarks and always count their bookmarks.  I challenged the students to try to read 40 books this year.  The picture above shows the bookmarks that 1 student has done so far this year.

5.  Next year, I'm going to have my students also keep a yearly chart on the number of books they read.

Here's a link to this product at my store.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Independent-ReadingData-folder

Have a great night!