kbuizer

Activity description: Phonics road maps are a board game for students to play in pairs or groups of 3. Students take turns rolling a dice, whatever number the dice rolls is how many spots they can move on the board. Each spot on the board has a word in it, when the students lands on it they must read that word. Then it is the next students turn. The teacher had different versions of the board with different levels of difficulty to continue challenging the students in their learning.  

Curriculum connections 

Big idea: Playing with language helps us discover how language works. 

Curricular competency: Read fluently at grade level 

Content: reading strategies – students are using phonic knowledge as a reading strategy to complete the word search 

Core competency: Critical and reflective thinking. I chose this core competency as students must reflect upon their knowledge of phonics and sound blending when sounding out a word.  

FPPL: Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story. 

Reflection linking to the pro standards for B.C. educators: The roadmaps received a high-level of engagement from the students, with one student even claiming they were his all time favorite! It is super easy to customize these boards to tailor to students learning needs and then to make them more difficult as a student grows. These are also great as they require minimal direct instruction, so as a teacher you would have some free time to meet with students one on one or in small groups. This aligns with the fifth pro standard for B.C. educators, which includes effective planning, as implementing these kind of self operating games can be a great way for teachers to plan for one-one or small group learning. 

Junie B. Jones” was a significantly important book series for me growing up; it was a transformative journey that began in grade one alongside my mom. Those early moments of reading together is what began my love of literature. Junie B.’s spunky personality and humorous adventures captivated me from the start, drawing me into a world where anything was possible. As I dove deeper into the series, the books began easier to read until i was reading them all on my own. Immersing myself in Junie B.’s crazy life and loving every laugh-out-loud moment. 

By incorporating these fun and interactive assessment methods into my teaching practice, I can effectively assess students’ literacy understanding while fostering enthusiasm for learning and reading. 

Activity description: Phonics search is very similar to a word search except it uses pictures and words. The sheet is full of pictures and there is word bank that has a list of words for students to find. Students must read the word then color in the picture that matches it when they find it. There was a variety of phonic searches of varied difficulty levels for students at different stages in their learning.  

Curriculum connections 

Big idea: Playing with language helps us discover how language works. 

Curricular competency: Read fluently at grade level 

Content: reading strategies – students are using phonic knowledge as a reading strategy to complete the word search 

Core competency: Critical and reflective thinking. I chose this core competency as students must reflect upon their knowledge of phonics and sound blending when sounding out a word.  

FPPL:  Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.

Reflection linking to the pro standards for B.C. educators: I really liked this variation of a word search as i found it created more engagement amongst the students as they enjoyed coloring. The first standard in the pro standards for B.C. educators is “Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interest.” It can be difficult to reach every student where they are at sometimes but UDL (universal desin for learning) is a great strategy to do so. The different difficulty levels of the phonics search served as UDL to meet each student where they are at in their learning and challenge each student. 

Retelling a story can be a difficult skill and story vines can be a fun and helpful way for students to practice summarizing. Students must plan their story vine, pulling out main events from the story. When explaining their story vines it allows students to practice retelling their story orally.  

A story vine is a long braid or rope decorated to tell a story. They summarize a story by showing/representing key events in a story in sequential order. As someone who loves arts and crafts I find story vines extremely engaging. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story-vines-winnipeg-1.5040107

I found on article on cbc news of a teacher in winnipeg who used story vines to help bring indigenous culture into her classroom. Although story vines are not a traditional indigenous way of passing down knowledge, they align with oral traditions. In the article they Renee McGurry mentions that story vines “actually come from Africa, where they’ve used vines to create stories. She led the recent workshop for about 15 Winnipeg teachers, who got crafty at the community arts space and learned how to create story vines.” 

I think story vines are a super fun and creative way for students to summarize stories. It can be hard for students to learn how to summarize the key points of a story and this is fun and crafty way to practice, other than writing a summary. Story vines would be a great addition at the end of a novel study, especially for younger students, although I believe students of all ages would enjoy this, as I had a blast making mine. 

I made a story vine on the paper bag princess story, by Robert Munsch and this is what it looks like. 

Like I said I had so much fun making this and getting creative with the different materials to summarize a classic story.  

Zotero and other citation generators 

Zotero saved me in my first year of college! It is a super-efficient way of keeping track of sources when researching. Best of all at the end it will put them all into a bibliography for you. Before I used Zotero I used “easy bib” or “citation generator,” we were taught to use these in middle school to cite our work. I think it was a very valuable tool to learn how to use at a young age as citing my work became very important in my later years. Through learning about citation generators, I have learned other skills to help me in my research endeavors such as using bibliographies of articles to find more sources on a given topic.  

I would use it in a classroom as citing your work is a very important skill to have especially in older grades and post-secondary. however, in todays day and age it is unrealistic to have students cite by hand as there are so many tools out there.

Cube Creator

Cube creator is a cool AI tool that could be used for many activities. When I was in grade 6 we made “all about me” cubes, where we decorated each side of a cube with our different characteristics, traits, likes and dislikes. Then the teacher hung them on the roof around the classroom. I enjoyed this activity and felt proud to have it hanging in my classroom. Cube creator provides a umber of templates already set up for mysteries or stories to be used for novel studies. However, this cube generator could be used for an activity like I did, or for many other activities. Some ideas I came up with were…

• – Class cubes (cubes with students names, either an entire class or by desk group etc) 
• – Story summarizer (1 side = characters, 1 side = setting, 1 side = conflict, etc) 
• – Literary elements (1 side = metaphor, 1 side = simile, 1 side = personification, 1 side = onomatopoeia, etc.) students would roll the dice and come up with an example of the given literary element 

Activity description: Reading AI is an app by “Project read” to help students practice phonics. It asks students to read words or sentences and listens for the prononciation. If a student doesnt pronounce the word correctly and clearly then it will ask them to repeat that word until they get it. 

Curriculum connections 

Big idea: Using language in creative and playful ways helps 
us understand how language works 

Curricular competency: Use a variety of comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading, listening, or viewing to guide inquiry and deepen understanding of text 

Content: Reading strategies – using phonics 

Core competency: Critcal and reflective thinking  

FPPL: Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story. 

Reflection

This app uses really cool technology to hear the students in real time and give immediate feedback which i think is really valuable. Discussing with students and the teacher of the classroom we concluded that as awesome as this technology is it still has further improvements to be made. It sometimes miss hears the students and makes them repeat it several times, which annoys the students. It is a great tool to be used in short intervals as it is repetitive but valuable, especially considering that students can recieve one on one feedback without working with an adult. 

Activity description: the chair strike was a fun and engaging activity for the students to walk into in the morning. All the chairs were stacked in the corner and wrapped in caution tape. The chairs had a letter attached to them explaining there strike and why they chose to do it. The students first block of the day was PE, so the chairs being on strike did not disrupt their learning. When they returned the students had to write a persuasive paragraph on why they did or did not want their chair back. Some students argued that they needed their chair while others argued they would learn best without it.   

Curriculum connections 

Big idea: Using language in creative and playful ways helps 
us understand how language works. 

Curricular competency: Communicate in writing using paragraphs and applying conventions of Canadian spelling, grammar, and punctuation 

Content: Literary devices: persuasive writing  

Cross curricular connections: although it may not be cross-curricular, as it all falls under language arts, all of the kids read and wrote in this activity. Each of the students came in and read the note on the chairs out of curiosity without being asked.  

Core competency: Communication 

FPPL: Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one‘s actions. 

Reflection

I loved this activity and so did the students! As soon as the students entered the classroom they were engaged in the note on the chairs. Each student came in and read the note, most without even realizing they were partaking in a literacy activity. I imagine when students go home this will be what they tell their family about tonight. 

Mirrors and windows are the most straightforward to me. Students should be able to see themselves (mirrors) in literature and explore other perspectives (windows.) However, sliding glass doors always makes me think a little bit harder. I like to think of it as a slight shift in perspective as if you were to slide a glass door only halfway. Rather than exposing students to completely different lifestyles or topics than they are used to, it shows scenarios students are familiar with, but forces them to look at it from an unfamiliar perspective than they may be used to. This is extremely important in my opinion because as you go through life there will always be people with different perspectives on the same scenario and it builds empathy in these situations. 

When I think of literature as a window into another life, a glimpse at a different reality, I like to imagine students going through that door and immersing themselves in learning. Really putting themselves in another situation and feeling the emotions of the character creates empathy like none other.

Here is a wide range of books I have found to teach students about diverse topics.

 

My ideal classroom reading nook would be a cozy and inviting space, designed for comfort and relaxation. It would have a huge bean bag chair that multiple people could sit on, covered with soft pillows and blankets for added comfort. Ideally it could be near a window so that the natural light can create a relaxing ambiance. Surrounded by shelves filled with books of all different genres, topics and difficulty levels. I would also want to incorporate elements of nature, such as potted plants or a small indoor garden. Finally, I’d add personal touches like some of the students artwork or inspiring quotes to make the space uniquely ours as a class.

1. How do you feel about reading? Tell me about it. 

Reading has always been a middle of the road activity for me. It never overly excited me nor disapointned me. It was very much a mediocre middle ground for me. As much as I struggle to start books my biggest struggle is picking it uo for the second or third time. Starting a book is easy because I have no clue whats going to come. However once ive started the book unless it dives right into the action or something juicy then i find it really dificult to keep reading. You know when people say “oh this book is so so amazing you just have to get through the first few chapters,” those are not the books for me. Ive never understood how people just read several chapters there not interested in “waiting” for it to get good. I do not have this ability. 

2. What types of books do you like to read? 

Like I said earlier I need a book thats going to grab my attention right away. I typically enjoy books with a good story line with complex plots or characters that pull me in. As for genre, I am a little all over the map. Growing up in primary and secondary school I often leaned towards action adventure stories. I also love a book with a sense of humour that can make me chuckle. I always find it impressive when a book can make me laugh out loud. I also find myself reading a lot of self help books (which I used to think my mom was crazy for as a child, but look at me now haha.) I find it really intriguing to here other peoples points of views on such important and profound topics.  

3. List some hobbies and things you like to do outside of school. 

Outside of school one of my favorite things to do is any type of arts and crafts. I enjoy crocheting, making clay figurines and drawing. I’m not amazing at any of them but I really enjoy the relaxing nature of it. I also tutor in Math and French for 3 kids, 2 in grade 10 and one in grade 5. I also work as a server at a restaurant and a sports bar (they’re right beside each other.)  i recently joined an intramural volleyball team with my roommates. Another activity I am far from good at, but I have a great time doing it .   

4. Who are your favorite authors? 

Robert munsch – Robert Munschs ability to captivate young readers with his huge imagination and humorous storytelling is unmatched in my opinion. His books vary greatly in content however they always teach valuable life lessons. I love that Munsch’s writing style includes lively dialogue and relatable characters. As a child I had a blast doing the voices differently for each character and animating the stories. The way he writes as the narrator is so inviting and familiar that it fosters a deep connection between the reader and the narrative. His stories will forever be timeless classics that continue to resonate with upcoming generations. Some of my favorite books by him are “Love you forever” and “The paper bag princess.”   

5. Tell me a bit about the last book you read that you really enjoyed. 

The last book I read was “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck,” which is a self help book about letting things go and making life more peaceful. I found it offered alot of different view points and different ways to look at scenarios, ways that are less stressful. I found it calming and helped me not sweat the little things.  

6. Tell me a bit about what you have been doing since last semester during your winter break. How have you been spending your time? 

I was excited and grateful to go back home to Mission BC for the winter holidays. My little sister and I flew back home to be with friends and family for the holiday season. Over the break i set a goal of practicing my typing skills. I am not a very fast typer and want to get better to help me in all the things I do on my computer. I made quite a large improvement over the break but can definitely get faster. Best of all I got to see my dog, Bosco. He is the absolute best!  

7. What subjects or topics do you like learning about? 

I’ve always had an interest in animals and how they all live and interact with one another. Since moving to Cranbrook I have had a blast learning about the different local animals around here.   

I also enjoy learning about human nature and how it contributes to my life and those around me. Especially about the human brain and all the intricate factors of it.  

8. If you could read a book about one thing, what would that be? 

This is a difficult one. I think I would like to read a self-help book tailored to my life. Like if someone secretly followed me around and wrote down all the answers to guide me, reassure me, and just ease my mind to make my life more peaceful.