Wonders Unit 1, Week 5

These slides accompany Wonders Grade 5 Vocabulary and Skills for the 2017 edition. Feel free to download, edit, and use in your classrooms. If you haven't enabled the free Pear Deck extension in Google Slides, you are missing out! This extension makes the slides interactive. Every student can answer every question, share individual or group responses, and save/review student responses later. With the premium version, Take-aways can be published and sent to every student through Google Classroom with the touch of a button. It is worth the money!

Digital Components in My 1:1 Chromebook Classroom

Here is a recap of the digital components that in my 1:1 Chromebook classroom. Click on the links to go to learn more:

• Google Apps for Education We are a Google school using Chromebooks, Classroom, Docs, Forms, Sheets, Gmail, Drawings, etc. Each student has a google login to connect to the school district wifi network. 
• Hapara  Through Hapara, teachers are able to monitor student screens, access documents, message students, and create collaborative workspaces for projects.
• Spelling City  Spelling City replaced our printed spelling workbooks several years ago. It also integrates with our newly-adopted nders Reading program and GoMath series.
• McGraw-Hill Wonders Reading  The Wonders 2017 program provides digital access to all components, tests, and student responses.
• Accelerated Reader and Accelerated Math For our 5th grade classes, the completion of 20 AR points and 20 AM objectives per quarter is required.
• GoMath  Think Central provides the digital link to our math component. Students can complete tutorials, watch video explanations, and gain immediate feedback using the Personal Math Trainer assignments. 
• XtraMath My students complete XtraMath each day as part of their morning routine. This 5 minuted fact review builds fluency and allows me to track and report progress easily.
• Read Theory After a placement test, Read Theory provides leveled reading passages and high-quality questioning for students. Not only do the topics increase background knowledge, but the reporting features clearly show student growth in reading levels and lexiles. Writing components are optional.
• EdPuzzle  Flipping the instruction and providing remediation is easy when questions can be added to instructional videos. EdPuzzle integrates seamlessly with Google Classroom, too.
• Planbook Digital lesson planning puts sub plans, yearly lesson units, and the ability to share assignments into one place. Planbook makes it easy to print, alter, and save lesson materials for easy access.
• BookWidgets This site provides tools for adding alternate digital lesson options to any lesson. Make digital breakout experiences, crosswords, word searches, drag and drop, fill-in-the-blank, timelines, and sequencing options to Google Classroom.
• Bloomz After using Class Dojo and Remind in previous years, I have settled on using the free version of Bloomz for communication. Parents do not have to respond to the sign up link to get your digital communications by email! Create a class photostream, add reference documents, make alerts, sign-up for conferences, request materials, and message privately through this one app. The read receipts are such a time-saver, too!
• Pear Deck I like this app and extension so much that I paid for the premium version to get even more features. The Pear Deck extension with Google slides turns any device into a digital responder. Collect brainstorming ideas, multiple choice responses, drawings, etc. and save them into student take-aways to review later. This one supercharged my student engagement. Don't forget to try the Pear Deck Flashcard Factory, too. Awesome!
• Quizlet All of my test review materials are housed in folders on Quizlet. No more waiting for review materials for an upcoming test. Students know they can find practice sets here and use games to make learning fun. Quizlet also exports easily to flashcards and to Gimkit.
• Gimkit If you have played online quiz games like Kahoot and Quizizz, you will love Gimkit. I finally broke down and paid a subscription fee. It is a little pricey for my taste. This quiz game beats all of the rest by adding power-ups, insurance, multipliers, themes, and gifting to the individual, homework, and team modes. After playing this one, the students didn't want to go back to the other game formats.
• Flippity This website turns a Google Spreadsheet into fun review games. Check out the options.
• Jeopardy Labs Use this site for students to create and play their own Jeopardy-style games.
• Flipgrid Post a question for your class and compile all of the responses in one place. This is a great way to facilitate classroom discussions and give every student a voice.
• Khan Academy Khan Academy allows you to set up classes and assign content to your class through Google Classroom. This is the perfect way to add remediation for any subject. I like to attach it as an assignment to a Google Forms Quiz based on the students' scores. Use some forms add ons to make this happen automatically.
• NoRedInk For most grammar units of study, students complete a pretest, remediation practice, and a growth assessment through NoRedInk. This is mastery-based program so the length of student practice is based on their success. Once they prove mastery, using sentences created based on their own interests, they are finished. 
• Brainpop After having a school account for years, I finally discovered how to create a My Brainpop account for my class this year! Now I can assign videos, games, and quizzes to students, track their completion, view digital work, and view a digital gradebook easily. Brainpop also integrates with Google Classroom so it is very user-friendly.
• Kidblog Kidblog is a secure classroom blog with options for sharing privacy that made this my classroom choice. I did opt for the paid version, since I liked the format and features.
• Epic! Find digital texts, quizzes, and reading content for your class. There are over 35,000 texts in the library that you can access and share with your class. The students love this site.
• DOGO News  Find current events, high-interest news for kids here. Most stories include video clips, vocabulary lists, and word searches, too. Teachers can create classes and assign content seamlessly. Through the DOGO News classroom or Google Classroom you can share content that is curated just for students and the content if free!
• Padlet I use Padlet for sharing introductions, posting questions and responses, and for Revolutionary War projects. Students can record audio/video, share images, add links, embed slide shows, write, and personalize their Padlet walls. I especially like the privacy features that allow me to monitor and approve posts before they are visible for my class. There are so many options here.
• EduTyping Our keyboarding class uses this and students like returning to practice touch-typing skills in their choice time.
• Mystery Science Our school will have access to Mystery Science next year for all classes! Woohoo! These open-ended science tasks require critical thinking and collaboration to complete. Check out the 

Wonders Unit 1, Week 2 Slides for Grade 5

After piloting Wonders last year, I found that I disliked the lack of student engagement on the first two days of instruction. On Monday and Tuesday the teacher introduces vocabulary words and skills from the Reading/Writing Workshop book or display presentations from the online program. Most of the time students are expected to watch, listen, and wait to be called upon. This is just unacceptable. I want every student to be engaged and learning.  Pear Deck and Google Slides solved this dilemma for me. I still introduce skills and vocabulary, but now every student responds, classroom responses are immediately shared, and responses are sent directly to every student through the premium Takeaways option. If you haven't tried the free Pear Deck add-on for Google Slides, you should!

Now for Unit 1, Week 2 Pear Deck Slides

More Wonders Lessons

Since school is starting soon, I am working to finish all of Unit 1 Pear Deck Slides before school starts. Here is Unit 1, Week 1. Look through the archives to find the spreadsheet of all of my other free resources for Wonders 2017 version. If you are using the new 2020, the stories and most of the skills are the same, so feel free to download, edit, and use these in your classrooms.

https://sharepeardeck.com/xuf5a3

Wonders Resources for Grade 5

As I am creating resources to accompany the Wonders Fifth Grade Reading program, I will post them here. I hope to create one or two resources per week as I use the series this year. Check back for the links to Google Slide Pear Decks for introducing skills and vocabulary and Book Widget resources review. Subscribe to my blog so that you don't miss out!

Wonders Pilot

As a pilot teacher of the McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders series, I am just starting to feel like I am figuring out a workable routine for this series. Here are my initial thoughts to anyone who is just beginning to use the Wonders Reading Program.

The website is not teacher friendly!

After completing Unit 1, I can finally locate resources that seem to be hidden away in the depths of the digital program. In fact, I bought binders to organize the weekly resources including pocket dividers for vocabulary cards and extra binders to hold copies of the annotated teacher's edition of the Your Turn workbook and Grammar Workbook. It is tiresome searching online each time that I want to grade an assignment.

Take Your Time Setting Up the Calendar

I also finally figured out how to adjust the calendar feature and redistribute lessons as needed. The digital tutorials were not as helpful as they could have been. A hint to remember: setting up the calendar is an essential part of utilizing this program. Take your time to do it right.

Take the Tests and Complete the Worksheets Yourself

The Weekly Assessments are very difficult, so try them yourself before using any of them with your classes. I have heard repeatedly from teachers that the approaching level test is the one to use during the first year of implementation. I agree! You will also want to teach strategies for completing these tests that are fresh reads for the students. Pay attention to any vocabulary included in the questions that could be difficult. My students knew the meanings of the vocabulary words for the week, but they did not know some of the words that were included as synonym choices on the tests. Vocabulary and finding text support for answers are heavily weighted in this program. You won't find the pitfalls until you do the work yourself.

Watch for Errors 

After Unit 1, I have reported 5 content errors in the digital program, including typos and mislabeled spelling sounds, to content support. Be persistent and make sure that you follow up if you get an email saying that there is no error. Eventually, you will get to talk to someone who will want to fix the problem.

 Create Your Own Resources as Supplements

With the difficulty of the program, my students have needed additional resources and practice that are not provided in the program. I have been making my own. Some of the hidden gems that I found useful are the Weekly Writing Frames that help students to summarize and use the vocabulary from the Reading/Writing Workshop selection. I also found this website to be helpful: http://theteachersguide.com. Here you can find a weekly informational letter, printable vocabulary cards, and vocabulary lists. 

Sample of a Weekly Writing Frame

I have begun to make Google Slides with embedded Pear Deck questions to go along with each lesson. With the free Pear Deck add-on and 1:1 Chromebooks, I can present on the Smartboard and push multiple choice and short-response questions to students during the presentation to increase engagement. Without these, I struggled with the lengthy, large group instructional sequences built into the first 2 days of the recommended plan. I will be posting those Pear Deck slides in another post. Be sure to subscribe to get updates if you want copies of all of them. Here is the Unit 2, Week 3 (Gr. 5)Pear Deck Google Slides slide set as a sample:

Book Widgets and Spelling City have also provided easy ways to increase student engagement with Wonders. It is very easy to create sequencing activities, vocabulary crossword puzzles, timelines, word webs, and story maps with Book Widget tools. Spelling City integrates nicely and includes pre-made spelling lists at 3 levels and vocabulary practice for every Unit and Grade level. This is a handy addition.

Don't Give Up!

It gets easier to wade through the resources. I finally feel like I know the differences between the Reading Writing Workshop, Literature Anthology, Your Turn workbook, and Close Reading Companion books! There are so many resources, I have to choose which ones to use each week, but it is getting easier. Check back here or subscribe so that you don't miss the other tools that I am creating for 5th grade!