Sparking Student Motivation: Using NEWSELA

Late last week I introduced my students to a new website:  NEWSELA.  It allows my students to read newsworthy informational articles on a variety of Lexile levels.  Friends,  THEY LOVE IT!

We went down to our LLC (Library Learning Commons) on Friday and signed up for a free account.  My smarties are grouped under a classroom that I set up.  This allows me to assign them specific articles to read.  Some of the articles also have online quizzes, so they can work as practice for CCSS and state assessments.  One of the things I love about the site is that each article is written on four different Lexile levels.  They range from 540 up to about 1100 depending on the article.  My students can adjust the Lexile level themselves for each article.  I loved the idea that I can assign a specific story to my class and also assign them the Lexile.  But, they also have the option of going to the site and changing the Lexile level depending on the article they read.  I found many of them adjusting the War and Peace  and Science articles down, and the Kids and Arts articles up.  Just a little piece of data for me to file away in my brain.

Primarily I am going to use this site as a center/task rotation.  For a few weeks I'm going to just have my students choose what they would like to read on the site, and then I will start to assign articles based on the concepts I'm teaching as well as increasing rigor before our assessment.  One of the other things I liked about the site was the ability to print the article and quiz as needed.  So if I have a student who can't get to this particular center for whatever reason I have the ability to print the article.  I am going to use this print option a little more when I'm working with my lower reading groups so we can focus in on some close reading strategies.  This print options allows them the ability to  mark up the page.  Many need more practice with this.  It's also great if you don't have a ton of computers or iPads in your room. You can still get high quality informational texts for your students written on their level.

After our first run through on Friday I was AMAZED at how much they loved this site.  How else could I have EVER gotten them talking about North Korea without an article like this:

It was so cool to see my students talk to each other on the way to lunch about the articles they chose to read.  Many of my students actually connected to students they don't spend time with because they realized they had read the same article.  I am hoping this will foster new friendships in  my classroom as we head into the second half of the school year.

Have you found a fun way to keep students motivated in their learning?  Go check out Joanne at Head over Heels for Teaching and find other ways to Spark Student Motivation.  Also, have you used Newsela?  If you have, and you have any tricks of the trade, I'd love to hear them.!

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Tried it Tuesday: Using Dropbox from Your Ipad or Iphone

Today I'm linking up with Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper to talk about something I learned this week.  Honestly, this one has nothing to do with actually teaching my smarties.  It's 100% about what I learned from my awesome BBB's Erin and Jessica.  

We were talking about seeing a ton of great freebies out there on TpT and I was whining...because I always see an awesome flash freebie while I'm out and not near my computer.  Erin was totally kind and pointed me to a post Jivey had written about using Dropbox.  You can go {HERE} and check out all of the details, I won't steal her great post by rewriting it.  But I will tell you to go out and download that app!  I have used Dropbox frequently since the summer to send things to school as I have needed them, but duh!  I never realized it would work via my phone.  It makes me so thankful for blogging buddies like Erin and Jess who point me in the right direction when my head is spinning. <hee-- hee> 

And, speaking of being thankful for great BBBS, stop by and visit Holly.  She and I bonded over being Buffalo Bills fans, and even with their loss on Sunday, we BILLIEVE!

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I'm Thankful for our Amazing Technology Department!

We have been so busy this past week with the end of the marking period.  My smarties just finished their first 10 weeks of middle school.  It always amazes me the things they accomplish in 10 weeks:  mastering lockers, the hallways, schedules, inequalities <hee hee.. we might still be working on that one> and specials.  Many of my students had technology which I love to see because they get to make rockets.  Our technology department is amazing!  I know I blogged about them in the spring, but I have to give them a shout out again, because they are truly amazing.  We have an entire aqua-ponics lab which has an awesome selection of veggies growing.

They also have a hydroponics wheel which is a pretty amazing sight.   A group of students in our technology club harvest the lettuce and veggie mix and sell it for $1.00.  The money pays for scholarships for students to attend Oswegatchie Camp in the summer.

One of the other things that I think is really amazing is the rocket launch.  Our 1st and 4th quarter students get to create rockets and launch them on the softball field.  They are always so excited about this.  I get invited to come out and be amazed.  This year I remembered my phone and I took a video.  Check this out.

Pretty cool huh!  Have a great week!

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August Throwdown Thursday: Interacting with your Students

It is the first part of the month, and today I am linking up with Erin at I'm Lovin Lit to share ways that I interact with my students.

Last month, I shared using my interactive notebooks in math.  You can read that post {HERE} if you would like.  Today I'm going to share something I am going to try in the Fall.  I go back to school in September.  Over the summer, I learned about KidBlog from Brandee over at Creating Life Long Learners.  Kidblog.org is a place for you to create a student blogsite that is safe and secure for students to blog about classroom activities.  Students are given a code for access, so you do not need individual email addresses for your student.
Here is what my class blog will look like:

I've been checking out the blog since early July.  A great video that shows you how to set up a class is below.

Here is what I liked:  1)  IT is EASY to use.. I need this!  As many of my BBB's can attest, it takes me a little while to learn technology.  2) It is safe!  I can give my student's and their families a pass code for our Kidblog account, and I can create settings so I can approve all of the comments before they are published.  I can do this from my iPhone as well because there is an app that allows you access.  Plus, most of my students spend so much time on technology, I thought this would be a great way for them to interact with classmates not only in a safe environment, but as a way to learn digital citizenship.. which is OFTEN lacking in students and leads to cyber-bullying.

Use in my classroom:
All of my students are assigned a class number 1-30, for the usual stuff we use numbers for.  I am also going to use their number to make them Bloggers for the day.  So one student will be responsible for writing a blog post about our classroom or school activities every day during the school week.  Student number 10 is responsible for the blog post on September 10th etc.  Eventually, I'm hoping we can learn together to take interesting pictures, and video that we can add to our blog.  I am also going to have students be responsible for including our Agenda/HW information within the post.  If a student's number falls on the weekend, I will make them responsible for a day that is not covered later in the month (At least I am expecting at this point NOT to have 31 students..fingers crossed)  I am also going to have students responsible for making comments, and as our literature circles develop, the groups that the blogger of the day is working with will be responsible for posting comments as well.

These feel a little like BIG PLANS for me.  But I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Do you use KidBlog in your classroom?  Do you have any helpful tips for me?
If want to learn more ways of interacting with your students, head over and visit Erin at I'm Lovin Lit and check out her linky!

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