Conversation Task Cards

I have ten days left before I meet my new group of kids.  I'm soaking in every last minute of summer while keeping a part of my mind on planning out those first few days of school.  In years past I've done various ice breaker activities but this year I thought I would do something a little different and get the kids talking to each other.  I want them to have meaningful getting to know you conversations. I plan on using these Conversation Task Cards to get the conversations flowing.

My students are seated in groups of 4 so I will put a stack in the center of their group.  After modeling a few times, they can take turns (such an important concept for them) speaking, listening, and asking each other questions.   These conversation cards can then be used at a later time as a writing center activity.  I will put them on a binder ring and students who visit the writing center can choose a question and respond. 

Reading Response Journal for Non-Fiction Books

Many of our guided reading texts are exposing children to non-fiction texts.  Luckily our reading program provides us with all of the nonfiction books we need to expose the students because my classroom library is in need of a little nonfiction boost. I put together a collection of Journal Prompts to be used with non-fiction stories to compliment my fiction prompts.

Here is a freebie you can download for use in your classroom.

Reading Response Journals for Fiction Books

There are definitely some areas of my classroom and teaching that I need to "revamp" this year. One of them is to make the most of my guided reading lessons.  In the past I've always used a Reading Response Journal. Which I love because it is a place they can write in no matter what time of the day it is.  They can use it for homework to respond to an assigned read, center or independent reading time, and guided reading group. However, the problem I've always had is that the students spend much of the short time we have together preparing their page to write an answer.  This involves copying the question off of the white board, erasing, rewriting, erasing, rewriting...

So, I thought of a more organized solution.  I created these Reading Response Journal Prompts that the students can glue right into their journals.  The other great thing is that I can have these copied ahead of time and pull from them as I need.

My guided reading groups are typically divided into 4 different reading levels.  Therefore, the journal prompts I came up with are differentiated into 4 different levels to meet the needs of all of my students.

I also fit 3 to a page because I don't know anyone who doesn't want the opportunity to cut back on time spent at the copier.

Here is a little preview...

The prompts are broken down into 7 different categories or narrative elements. For example, characters, setting, plot, text connections, problem/solution, genre, and author's purpose.  I can assign the questions depending on what narrative element I'd like to focus on. 

For fun, I included an extra page with prompts inviting the students to go on a noun hunt/verb hunt/adjective hunt in their books.  This would be a great homework or center assignment.

I can't wait to get reading! How about you?