Product Review - Literary Genres: The Basics of Literary Genres: Poetry and Prose Boom Cards

Have you thought about how you are going to teach Literature and Poetry, especially to Middle School students? It is not easy! The Common Core Standards for Middle School says that students are to analyze a poem’s/literature’s form or structure. They are to do this analysis with evidence from the text. You see this and you think, this is way too hard! That is what I thought when I saw the standards. It gets you thinking more about how to teach these skills. To do this, the students should be able to identify the different literary genres and poetic forms. Okay, this is a good start. Once they can recognize the different types, then you can move them on to the breakdown of style – analysis.

Teacher-author, Matthew Forman, ELA in Middle School, has created a digital resource that will do this. This resource is a deck of Boom Cards. In fact, it is several sets of Boom Cards that he has bundled together, Literary Genres: The Prose and Poetry Bundle of Boom Cards. Thank you, Matthew!

I am going to take each set that is a part of this bundle and give you some insights.

Let us begin with Literary Genres: The Basics of Literary Genres: Poetry and Prose Boom Cards.  

Matthew breaks down this set with sections. Each section has teaching frames, students then show what they have learned by identifying, matching or fill-in-the-blanks.

The students begin with the general level identifying prose and poetry in several ways. Then it takes them to the next level of subgenres. It is followed up with the students identifying text features, text types and descriptions. Then all is tied together (reviewed) and students show what they have learned by identifying, matching, or filling in blanks.

It is thorough, but what is even better is that this is all done with Boom Cards. The students will have fun learning and practicing the forms and structures of poetry and prose!

I'll be reviewing the other sets in Matthew's Bundle. Stayed tuned for more!

Froggy About Teaching - Debbie

Teacher Author: Matthew Forman with ELA in Middle School

 Matthew Forman is a teacher-author that creates teaching resources. His teacher store name is ELA in Middle School. He sells them on several platforms, Amped Up Learning, Teachers Pay Teachers, and The Wheel. He is a great guy and a resourceful teacher-author. 

So, let me tell you a little about him. 

He is a veteran of Desert Shield/Storm. Matthew, thank you for your service. He also did a variety of jobs before he became a middle school teacher.  He was a former investigator for the courts in New York and Pennsylvania. So, be very aware (of his products)! Then he became a truck driver when . . .  he realized his true calling was to go back to College and become a teacher. Smart guy! His wife Suzanne is also a substitute teacher and creates teaching products, as well. Pretty cool! They have 13 grandchildren. What a blessing! One grandchild is in College (yay!), one is in pull-ups, and the others are scattered somewhere in between!

Matthew is on his seventh year of teaching and his wife has completed her second year.

I asked Matthew why he became a teacher. His response was, “To make a difference in the world and in the lives of young people.” He has been teaching English Language Arts to Middle School students. This coming year he will be a Reading Intervention teacher to 8^th graders. Teaching students in Reading Intervention has been a privilege that I have enjoyed. Suzanne will also be a Math Intervention teacher for 7^th and 8^th graders.

Let us get back to talking about ELA in Middle School! I asked Matthew why he became a teacher-author. He told it like it was, “To help pay bills! The fact that it also helps other teachers is a bonus!”

Take the time to check out his teaching resources. His focus is Reading and Writing at the Middle School Level. He also has some Grammar and Novel Studies. This grandpa and his wife homeschool three of their grandchildren in the PreK through 4^th grades. Watch out! Some potential products in the making.

Now we get to the real reason I am writing about Matthew and his teaching resources. He is now making Boom Cards. I have reviewed a bundle of his Literary Boom Cards. I will be sharing the benefits of using this bundle.

There is more to come . . .

Distance Learning Teaching

Distance Learning Teaching Resources

I shared with you some teachers' views of what they were having to do to adjust to the pandemic. Even though states have begun to lift the stay at home orders, we now have a new norm and have precautions that need to be used. This pandemic has changed the way we are educating our students. Virtual rooms are being used to connect with students, digital resources are being used to teach, review, and assess our students. Teacher authors and teacher contributors who create teaching resources for educators have begun to sell Distance Learning resources to meet the needs of teachers and students who continue to teach and learn from home.

I have been on a learning curve to be able to create some of the digital resources teachers are needing. I have learned how to make Google Slides and how to make a resource for digital use. I am now learning how to make Boom Cards-another digital resource.

These resources are available on Froggy About Teaching on both Amped Up Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers.

Amped Up Learning

Distance Learning Beginning Sounds

K-1 Coins Pack 1

Kinder Distance Learning

Teachers Pay Teachers

Beginning Sounds Set 1 Google Slides

Beginning Sounds Power Point

K-1 Coin Pack 1 Power Point

Kinder Distance Learning Bundle

Be safe, stay safe!

Froggy About Teaching

Distance Learning: A Teacher's View

The Corona Virus has affected all of us. Teachers have been presented with a challenge with schools being closed. They have had to adjust to Distance Learning as well as staying at home with their own children. I interviewed a couple of teachers just to get an inside view of what they are having to do to adjust to the closed schools. I gave them a set of questions to answer. Most districts have given parents a choice of paper packets or online lessons.
Susan Crum is an Elementary teacher. She teaches 3rd grade in the Wichita Public Schools district. Susan in her words: I have a schedule set up where I will speak to each individual student on a weekly basis to make sure they understand the content in the packets or if they are able to log on to Lexia (Reading program) and/or Dreambox. I can track their progress better and get accurate data from those programs. I am reaching out to students and parents. I'm checking in with parents to make sure they have needed materials or have questions about the content assigned. I reach out to the students to make sure they know I am still here for them, that I miss them, and that they can reach out to me whenever they need to. I have sent out numerous emails, called each one of them, and sent them postcards. This is the last quarter of the school year and we are not being required to give grades. My concerns with Distance Learning are I have quite a few students working below grade level. It was a struggle when I was there physically every day meeting their needs. Now I am afraid since I don't get to work with them that they are going to fall further behind. Lexi Fenn is a middle school teacher with USD 305. She teaches 8th grade Science and 7th-grade Volleyball. Lexi in her own words: I have an assignment posted Monday through Friday in Google Classroom for them to complete. I teach a total of 5 classes. I meet with each class once a week, a different class each day in a Zoom meeting. This is my time to see each of them "face to face" to check-in. I am available for questions through emails or through scheduled individual meetings. If I decide to "teach" during a Zoom meeting, I record it and post it for those not able to attend. Teachers are assigned the help of para during the Zoom meetings. If necessary, the Zoom meetings can be broken into smaller groups. I keep in contact with the students through email and notify the parents when I have emailed the students. We, teachers are grading as we normally would. If my students are struggling, then I can arrange for the support to be given that might be needed. I thank both of these teachers for sharing their insights into the educational role they now play in their efforts to continue educating their students. Froggy About Teaching

Kindergarten Sentence Fill-In and Models

I have created a video showing what is included in this product. K students will take the sight words they are learning in class and apply them in sentences. Sentence Models have been provided using the sight words in a sentence as a demonstration of how the sentence should look.

Kinder Sentence Fill-In and Models

Froggy About Teaching on Amped Up Learning

1st g. Valentine Math Packet

I created a Valentine-themed math packet. It's for 1st graders. These are skills that hopefully your students can do at this point in the school year. The focus is on 10s: counting on by 10s, adding with 10, counting by 10s, putting in order by tens It is all hands-on. Kids get to recognize number words, count, color and cut. It should be fun!

Froggy About Teaching on Amped Up Learning

Kinder Valentine Math Packet

Kinder Valentine Math Packet

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. You can find this packet filled with fun math activities for your students. Go to my store, Froggy About Learning, on Amped Up Learning and take a look.

K-1 Christmas Math Games

K-1 Christmas Math Games  
Here is the deal, your students need to get better and stronger in their number sense skills. What better way than having them play Christmas themed games! Teachers, this has been made for you! There are cards with the numbers 1-23, number words, and amounts. The kids can sort, match, or compare. They would have mats to help them do this. 

      Amped Up Learning      Teachers Pay Teachers
Just print the pages on cardstock, laminate (to make them last), and then cut.  
My goal is to make your job just a little bit easier!
Froggy About Teaching

Christmas Mystery Pictures

Addition/Subtraction Mystery Pictures 

Have your 2nd or 3rd graders practice their addition and subtraction skills while enjoying coloring and figuring out the Christmas mystery picture!

As a classroom teacher, I liked using holiday-themed activities for my students to enjoy their learning. You can do this too!

Froggy About Teaching

Amped Up Learning

Teacher Pay Teachers

Trouble Writing and Drawing

Dysgraphia 

I had a student that I worked with when he was in Kindergarten and Second grade. He had trouble forming letters, drawing, and staying on the line and inside the lines. 
This is typical of most K cuties. But, as the year goes on they show progress. 
I am going to call this student, Jay. He was a sweet child. But as his Kinder year moved on, he began to show frustration at his attempts to write and draw. When he was in second grade I got to co-teach in his classroom. His classroom teacher very quickly saw that he had trouble with his fine motor skills when it came to writing. She put some modifications in place. We discussed bringing him to our Child Study team and began to gather data. In the meanwhile, he began to refuse to complete his work. We saw a change to his attitude towards school, school work, and homework. We brought in parents, set up a 504, and brought in counseling. We sat down with Jay and created a plan that included what he could do to help himself with this challenge. We worked with him all year long. This was a little boy that was quite smart. It's going to take him longer to overcome his challenges, but with caring teachers, school staff and parents, I think he will get better at it!
I am including a link to a video that Edutopia created addressing this issue of Dysgraphia.
Froggy About Teaching
Graphics: Educlips

2nd grade Vocabulary Word Study

Vocabulary Word Study

Learning the vocabulary words for the text being studied is essential to so many parts of the reading that include comprehension of the text. Some students will be familiar with the word while others will not. So the starting point is for students to look at what they know about the vocabulary word. If there isn't enough information in the students' knowledge, then we teachers help them to create the background knowledge for that word. The vocabulary word may have several meanings but it will take on a particular meaning depending on the context of the passage and how the word is used grammatically.

Expanding the Vocabulary Lesson

My school district adopted the Journeys ELA curriculum. I wanted to make sure my student's vocabulary skills would grow.  Our students seem to come to us with a limited vocabulary, so we need to find ways to help build their knowledge of vocabulary words. 

Vocabulary Study

I made these packets, Vocabulary Study 1-3 to extend the study of the vocabulary words. As I put this together, I kept my ESL students in mind because they struggled the most with the words. So I created a structure students can use to help them break the word into its parts.

Before teaching the lesson, have all the students trace the words from each lesson. 

Then have them mark if they know the word. This action of reflecting on their prior knowledge of each vocabulary word is informative for both the student and the teacher. If most of them are marking they don't know the words, then you know that you need to spend some time building the background of those words.

Teach the lesson, and the students can continue to fill out the word study. They will alternate writing the definition in their own words or writing synonyms. But for each word, they draw either the meaning of the word or something to help them remember the meaning of the word.

They cut out the word study and glue it to their composition notebooks. Then they had to go back and study, especially the words they didn't know well.

What makes the word study ideal for building vocabulary are the following:

• marking unknown words before the lesson
• tracing the words helps with learning the spelling
• after the lesson, fill in the information on each word such as speech part, picture cue, definitions, synonyms
• drawing a picture of the word helps students who are language challenged
• on the inside of the notebook, the student would write sentences with the words
• they cut and paste into their notebooks and keep a track of their work

If you are interested in this teaching resource, you can either purchase each Word Study separately or buy them in a bundle.

2nd g Vocabulary Word Study 1

2nd g Vocabulary Word Study 2

2nd g Vocabulary Word Study 3

2nd g Vocabulary Word Study Bundle    

Froggy About Teaching

HIGH FREQUENCY WORD PACKETS/BUNDLE

If you use the 2nd grade Journeys ELA, this is the packet for you! I have created these packets to give your students more exposure to the h.f. words they are using daily. Notebook 1 uses the words from lessons 1-10. Notebook 2 has the words from lessons 11-20  and Notebook 3 includes words for lessons 21-30.

Each packet contains the following: Student Notebooks; flashcards grouped by colored frames; Fill-In Sentences; Game Boards; Parent Letters (which have provided in English and Spanish) with a word list for them to take home and work with their student; a student assessment and brag tags.

It is a complete set! All 3 Packets have been bundled.

What Beginning Kindergartners Need To Learn