Now on to new stuff--- I was wondering if any third grade teachers out there use Harcourt Trophies as their reading series???? As I look around on other blogs, on Pinterest, or on ProTeacher, I don't really see anyone using it. Maybe because it's not that good???
Well I made some stuff over this long Columbus Day weekend to help out my students. Right now we are working with Theme 2 which actually has some great stories, like: Turtle Bay, Balto the dog who Saved Nome, Wild Shots They're my Life, and Rosie a Visiting Dog's Story.
But, unfortunately, the series is weak in skills. Here are some of the things I made to help my kiddos out.
My students this year are REALLY struggling with answering questions by restate the question in their response. I made a few of those skill sheets, too. I typed the question on the worksheet and then used a sentence starter for what I expect their response to start with. I am doing this for the 4 stories in this reading theme. After that, I expect them to do it correctly without prompting from me. I will also take points off after this reading theme if they don't restate it. I know I'm mean, but our fourth grade teachers EXPECT them coming in knowing how to do this. And after the first reading theme this year without much success, I'm keeping my fingers crossed about doing it this way!
I don't know if anyone uses the Harcourt Trophies series, but if you do, please leave me a comment. Maybe we could swap ideas???
Tell me what you think about these skill sheets or better yet how you get your students to restate a question in the response...I would love some comments.
