Using Back to School Reading Tools in Your Classroom

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We all understand how important reading is in the classroom. But how can we ensure we make reading important from the very first day of school?  Here’s some tools you can use to create a reading friendly environment in your classroom as part of your back to school preparations!

 
Using Back to School Reading Tools in Your Classroom. A beginning of the school year post about prioritising reading in your classroom as a teacher. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

1. Tools to assess where students are

  • Unless you’re teaching first year of school students or students who are new to the school, it’s likely that your students have participated in reading testing - they might even have a reading level recorded. Don’t ignore this! Use this as a launch pad for your own reading testing.

  • Your school probably has a system of reading testing. If you’re new to the school (or to teaching) ask around to find out what it is and jump into it as soon as you can (it can be a HUGE job). If your school doesn’t have a testing system, grab a couple of texts (easier, at grade level and harder) and ask students to read them to you individually. This gives you a starting place to work from.

  • As well as assessing reading level, consider assessing how your students feel about reading. Do they like reading? What do they like reading? Where do they like reading? When do they like reading? What are their past experiences with reading? By asking these questions, you’re showing students that their experiences and feelings about reading are real and valid, and getting a better introduction into the reading life of your students.

2. Tools for setting goals.

  • Before you set reading goals with students, you might like to spend some time exploring what reading goals might look like. Students might focus on reading levels or skill attainment, and that’s great, but student reading goals can also look like the reading goals of adults. Students might like to engage in a reading challenge to try different books, work towards reading a certain number of books, aim to write book reviews for some of the books they’re reading or participate in book discussions with their classmates.

  • Students should reflect on what their goal would look like and how they’d know that they achieved it. This might mean creating a recording chart for their goal or they might write a journal reflecting on the work they’re doing to achieve their goal.

  • Don’t forget to ask students what they’ll need to achieve their goal. For some students it will be access to a wide range of books. Others will need time to read or materials to draw up their recording chart. Some might need to learn how to write a book review, or how to use a dictionary effectively. This is a great discussion to have in individual reading conferences allowing students to make choices and take responsibility, while also showing them that you care about their reading goal

 
Using Back to School Reading Tools in Your Classroom. A beginning of the school year post about prioritising reading in your classroom as a teacher. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

3. Tools for creating the environment

  • What does your classroom tell your students about reading? Stand in the doorway and look in. Have you got any books on display? Have you got a classroom library or a reading corner? Are there posters about reading or books? Think about what message you want students to get about reading as they walk into the classroom and see if there’s anyway to make those messages obvious.

  • Establishing a whole classroom library can be expensive, but choosing a few books to display can still prioritise reading without breaking the budget. Your school library or local public library may have a selection of books, and you can coordinate these with subjects you’re going to cover in history or science. 

  • There are so many posters related to reading which you can display in your classroom. You might include posters of book covers, posters recommending different books, posters with book genres. You might have posters with sayings or quotes about reading. Printable posters (like these ones) can be found easily at TeachersPayTeachers, then printed and laminated to use year after year. 

  • Creating a reading corner is another way to show students that you prioritise reading. A reading corner might be themed and decorated, but it might just include somewhere to sit, some posters and a collection of books.

  • Don’t forget to include written recommendations in your classroom! You might start with recommendations from yourself, or you could include recommendations from other teachers in the school, your own family members - even your family pet! (Our chickens are fond of  The Fabulous Friend Machine by Nick Bland). Recommendations don’t have to be long - a line or two could be enough to grab the attention of a curious reader.

4. Tools to make reading fun

  • Is reading fun in your classroom? Before the school year starts, think of some activities to bring reading alive for your students.

  • Students might like to incorporate STEM with reading and design a book holding machine (so you can eat and read at the same time) or design a way of keeping books safe in the rain.

  • You might like to have some funny and engaging books ready for the first day of school. Take a little time to read the first few pages - or a particularly funny bit - aloud, then offer the book for students to read (or create a list for read alouds throughout the year)

  • Allow students the chance to explore some of the books they might like to read that year. Work with your school librarian to explore the library or hold a book tasting in your classroom. 

How do you embrace reading at the beginning of the school year? Share your tips and ideas in the comments!

 
 
 
 

5 Reasons to Explore The House that Cleaned Itself in the Classroom

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Frances Gabe was tired of cleaning her house. So she experimented with cleaning tools and designed and invented and adjusted her designs until she had a house that cleaned herself.

This real-life story is brought to life in the amazing picture book The House that Cleaned Itself by Laura Dershewitz and Susan Romberg. It’s a lovely and engaging book, perfect for the classroom. Here’s some reasons you should be exploring it in your classroom.

 
The House that Cleaned Itself - 5 Reasons to explore this biographical picture book by Laura Dershewitz and Susan Romberg in the classroom. Teaching ideas and tips from Galarious Goods.
 

1. It’s a great biographical picture book

I adore biographical picture books. I love the way they highlight the lives of interesting people - both well known people and those who should be better known. I love the way authors manage to use limited space and words to explore complex lives. 

In the classroom biographical picture books show students how you can tell real stories through a familiar medium. They’re an accessible way of learning about the subject - using words and illustrations to allow students to gain a better understanding or inspiring students to undertake further research and reading about the subject. They allow students to get a good understanding of why the subject is important, why they are being written about, before they get into the details of how they got there. 

The House that Cleaned Itself is one of the best biographical picture books I’ve read. It’s incredibly clear - we meet our subject, see her problem, see how she works on that problem. She can see why she is remarkable and what challenges she faced. We can also read between the lines to see why she undertook these projects and what kind of person she was. We can wonder who else is similar to Frances Gabe and what qualities we would like to emulate ourselves.

We can also use this book as a template for biographical picture books of our own. This would be especially useful if you were researching inventors or scientists who have worked to solve problems.

2. There are so many opportunities for science exploration

The House that Cleaned Itself shows us that Frances Gabe didn’t just jump in and start inventing. Instead she did a whole lot of research, experimenting to see how different chemicals worked and hypothesising how she might use them.

There are so many science questions raised in the book which we can explore in the classroom. We can look at how water works and how it can be guided and moved in different ways. We can explore how we can effectively drain water from a space and even how we could collect and reuse water.

 
 

Frances Gabe also explored how she could protect belongings in her house. This is a great exploration we can continue in the classroom. We can experiment with the impacts of water on different surfaces - what it does when it touches or rests on paper or cloth or wood. We can experiment with different forms of waterproofing and make recommendations to use in a self-cleaning house.

Cleaning products is another area students can experiment with. During the 20th century cleaning became more scientifically influenced, especially as new machines and new cleaning products were invented. Students can experiment with different dishwashing methods or products, different ways of getting stains out of cloth even different methods of cleaning marks off a ‘wall’ surface. This is particularly good for exploring cleaning ‘old wives tales’ and whether natural kitchen products can clean as well as commercial cleaning products (and there’s an environmental angle students can also explore).

3. The book is all about design

Design is such an exciting subject to explore in the classroom. The House that Cleaned Itself is a perfect introduction to design thinking. Frances Gabe identified a clear big problem (she hated cleaning her house) but also lots of smaller problems (how would she clean her dishes? How could she protect her books? How would she drain the floor?). She experimented and brainstormed solutions and built prototypes. She engaged in troubleshooting when something didn’t work and went back and tried again. 

Students can reflect on the design process as they tackle their own design challenges. They can talk about big design problems - in their homes or classrooms, in their local community, in the world - and identify smaller problems which they can design solutions for. They can experiment, brainstorm and design. They might troubleshoot and fix issues, not being discouraged when something goes wrong.

4. The illustrations are perfect for further exploration

Meghann Rader’s beautiful illustrations are well worth exploring. Inspired by technical drawings, they tell us so much about Frances Gabe and the activities she was undertaking. Students can compare the drawings of Frances Gabe and the differences between the beginning of the book and later in the book. They can look at how the illustrator has used line to show movement - of water, of plants and of ideas. They can examine technical drawings and compare them to the illustrations - and use this style to create their own illustrations.

 
 

5. The additional material inspires more exploration

As with so many books from The Innovation Press, The House that Cleaned Itself includes additional material in the form of an authors’ note and bibliography. These easily prompt more questions for exploration - who are the other inventors who have worked out of their homes? How would Frances Gabe’s inventions be useful for NASA? Why was Frances Gabe’s invention mostly forgotten?

This additional material allows a deeper exploration and better understanding of the book and the subjects around it. It encourages students to take more time, to research issues raised in the book and additional material and to draw conclusions from this. It’s perfect for a classroom where students really think about books and the subjects they cover and it’s ideal for a classroom which values STEM education.

The House that Cleaned Itself is available from book retailers including Amazon and Book Depository. You can find more amazing books from The Innovation Press here.

If you’re exploring The House that Cleaned Itself in the classroom you can find a comprehensive book study here. You can also find a free activity from that book study here.

 
 
 
 
 
 

5 Ideas for Teaching Community and Helpers After Disasters

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As I sit to write this blog post, three states of Australia are dealing with deadly bushfires. The television and social media is filled with pictures and stories of devastation, and there’s very real fears for our native fauna and flora.

But amongst that, people keep finding moments which lift us. A volunteer firefighter mum who writes brilliant, raw and funny pieces. A pharmacist who lost his home, but continues to work - without electricity - to make sure his community has medication. So many different groups travelling hours to make sure evacuees and volunteers are well fed and looked after. We see how strong community can be in the worst of times and how people can come together to make the best of horrific situations.

I’m not a counsellor or trained in counselling in schools, but I know students will be starting the new school year in January and February, filled with big emotions and big questions connected to these fires. There will be a huge need for professional assistance, but we know that classroom teachers will also have to respond to the events of this summer - even in communities which haven’t been impacted.

At times like this, I am often reminded of the Mister Roger’s quote: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

There have been no shortage of helpers during these fires - helpers who remind us of all the best parts of community. Here’s a few ways you might like to explore community and helpers in the classroom.

 
5 Ideas for Teaching Community and Helpers After Disasters. Helping to guide students to examining community and helpers after disasters. A Galarious Goods Blog Post
 

1. Define the Idea of Community

What is a community? What does it look like? What does it feel like to be part of a community?

These might be easier questions to answer in some small towns - community can be partially defined by the borders of the town - but it can be more difficult when you’re talking about cities or suburbs. Students might look beyond the physical boundaries of a community and instead reflect on their school communities, different faith communities or the interest communities for both adults and children (sports, after school activities, service groups etc)

When looking at school community, students might write about what makes their community special. They might reflect on a school motto or school song, look at behaviour values that all students learn about or talk about special events which happen every year.

2. Who are the Helpers in our Community?

Who are the helpers in our community? Can we identify all of them?

This is a great challenge for students to create an ongoing list of all the people who help others in their community - from police, doctors and firefighters to teachers, road crossing guards and tuckshop helpers.

My making the list ongoing, rather than a one time activity, students can add new helpers as they learn about them. They also have a visual reminder of all the helpers who work in their community. Additionally, you can also use the list for other classroom activities.

3. Learn about what helpers do in the community

What exactly does a police officer do? What about a native wildlife carer? 

Investigating the roles of helpers in the community is the kind of activity you can do with students of all ages. You can choose one type of helper to explore or students can undertake individual investigations. Students can interview helpers or you can invite guest speakers to talk with the class. Students can create profiles, write news stories, write job descriptions - there are so many possibilities.

4. Learn about volunteering in your country

What is a volunteer? What do they do? What are some of the different types of volunteering you can do?

From surf lifesavers to service clubs like Lions to parents helping with reading in the classroom, there are so many different ways people volunteer. Students can examine the different ways people volunteer, why people volunteer and the benefits of volunteering. They can see what kind of volunteering kids and young people do. They can even create a campaign to encourage more volunteers.

5. Become helpers themselves

It can be easy to think that only adults are helpers. After all, children can’t be firefighters and they aren’t usually allowed to skip school to help koalas. But there are still ways they can be the helpers in their community.

Encourage them to think of small things they can do to create a better community. It might be looking at ways to make sure all students are included at play time, picking up litter without being told to or planting trees with their parents. It could be writing to local politicians about a local park or making sure a grocery story has a soft plastic collection bin. 

When big disasters happen, they might like to raise money to help certain causes. They might like to explore the different charities collecting money and learn which charities would be most effective. They could talk about different ways of fundraising and choose one which would be most effective for their community. They can learn about promoting their fundraising and how they can best communicate what they are trying to do.

They can also take on the important role of thanking the helpers in their community. Drawings, letters and cards can mean an awful lot - a reminder of why helpers are doing such an important job. It’s an easy way to make a big difference.