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We love to enjoy barbecues, vacations, and swimming pools in the Summer. But for teachers and students around the country, summer is also time for something else: more school.
Whether the students are struggling readers or just seeking enrichment, summer school can be a challenge for the best teachers. How can you keep your students engaged and excited during summer school? We’ve got three new activities to help the hours fly by.
Beach Ball Vocab Toss
What you need: List of vocabulary words, permanent marker, inflatable beach ball.
How to do it: Practice vocabulary while you’re tossing around a beach ball. To prepare, inflate the beach ball and write vocabulary words all over it with the permanent marker. Then in class, have your struggling readers sit in their desks or form a circle on the ground. Toss the beach ball around the class. Whoever catches the ball finds the word closest to their right thumb, for instance, and has to define it or use it in a sentence.
For example: Do you need a list of words? Try using the Imagine Learning sight words from the Level 2 Supplemental Guide. If you’re not familiar with the Supplemental Guide, click here to learn more about Imagine Learning.
Summer Reading Show-and-Tell
Materials: books for students to read and objects students bring in from home
Instructions: Summer reading can be such an important and fun part of class. To encourage your students to read and share what they read in a fun way, have them choose any book from the library and read it at home. Then, to share with the class, assign students to bring in a creative show-and-tell object that relates to the book.
Example: Tell students to bring in an object that might be found in the main character’s trash can, something that represents the main character well, or something the main character would like to find.
Scavenger Hunts with Letters
Materials: small objects to find around the classroom or outside and printouts of each letter in the alphabet (such as the Imagine Learning letter printouts from the Level 1 Resource Guide)
How to do it: Set up a letter scavenger hunt to help practice letters in a fun way. Print off each letter and hang the printouts up around the classroom. Then divide the class into teams or let them go individually to search for things that begin with each letter. You can work on a letter a day together as a class or assign a letter to each team. You could even make it a month-long activity and set up baskets to collect items that start with each letter.
Example: Students could collect small items after school and bring them in. Or if students need a break during the day, strategically place some small items around the room for them to find – safety pins for S, pennies for P, buttons for B.
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Tags: struggling readers
Posted in Primary Education · June 13th, 2010 · Comments (0)
Imagine going to work every day feeling that you were not capable of doing your job. Imagine If you struggled with the basic tasks you were asked to complete, if you couldn’t meet the goals and expectations of your boss, and if you felt less adequate than your coworkers, would you want to keep going?
It is common for struggling readers to feel that they are failing at their “job” as students. Learning to read is key to being successful at that job, so when students struggle in this area, they can easily become discouraged, overwhelmed, and frustrated. Such feelings not only affect their peer relationships and academic success, but their image of self-worth as well. How can one know of a student is struggling with low self-esteem?
Students who have low self-esteem may have little desire to learn to read. They might start acting out in class or responding with negative feedback. They often use self-defeating phrases such as “I’m just not smart enough” or “I’ll never learn how to do this.” They need your help in turning their negative thoughts into positive ones.
Here are a ten ways to increase your struggling reader’s self-esteem:
1. Explain that how well she reads has nothing to do with her intelligence. Every person is unique and has to learn in the way that is best for them.
2. Encourage him by setting realistic goals that allow for many small successes.
3. Chart her progress so that she can see improvement.
4. Help him find reading materials at his reading level that are interesting to him.
5. Help her break up assignments into smaller, more manageable parts.
6. Provide goal-based praise rather than person-oriented praise, such as, “You did a great job sounding out those words” rather than, “I’m proud of you.” This will help him focus on the task he accomplished well.
7. Show patience. How you react to her reading difficulties will set the tone of the experience. Your patience will help her learn patience with herself and will help her feel safe as she practices reading.
8. Give frequent praise. Learning to read is difficult and can easily turn into a stressful experience. Your praise will help create a positive reading experience.
9. Help her focus on the positive. Have her list 10 things she likes about herself, including things she can do well.
10. Tailor instruction to his learning style. Some students are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and some are hands-on learners. By teaching with a variety of learning styles, you provide opportunities for him to succeed in his area of learning.
Above all, children need to know that you believe in them. They can learn to do anything with practice, and your confidence in them will help them build confidence in themselves.
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Tags: struggling readers
Posted in Primary Education · June 2nd, 2010 · Comments (0)