Accountability Activities for Read-Alouds

Are you looking for ideas for holding students accountable for the information given during read-alouds?  Check out these simple activities and suggested titles for your secondary classroom.

In the first two posts in this series, I talked about titles for Social Studies and Science Read-Alouds.  Be sure to check those posts out for suggested titles.




Accountability activities for books being told from multiple viewpoints:

• Have students keep a t-chart in their notebooks comparing the two (or more) narrator's stories.
• Talk or write about how it would change the story if a certain character had made a different decision earlier in the story.
• Have students complete a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the characters

Accountability activities for books based on historical events/containing historical dates:

• Have students complete journal entries based off an event in the book or a significant quote from the chapters you read that day
• Have students make a timeline of the major events in the story
• Have students interview experts on the time period/subject of the book
• Have students create their own test or essay questions about the text. This allows them to simultaneously think about the story and prepare for the test on it

General Accountability Activities:

• Have students make a list of questions they have about a character or part of the book.  Have a class discussion to come up with possible answers.
• Search for movie trailers or book teasers based on the book
• Have students make their own movie trailers or book teasers
• Have students recommend other books to the class that have similar plots/characters
• Use Sticky Notes to track reading comprehension

What accountability activities do you use?  Which of the activities will you be using from my list?  I'd love to hear from you!

Read-Aloud Books for the Secondary Science Classroom

Are you looking for some high-interest books for your secondary Science classroom?  Would you like to read to your classes?  Read this post about the books teachers recommend the most!

In the first post in this series, I talked about Social Studies Read-Alouds.  Be sure to check that post out for your Social Studies curriculum.

Fever 1793 

This book is set in Philadelphia, where the Yellow Fever is wreaking havoc.  This book could certainly be used as a Social Studies read-aloud, but I felt it had a stronger connection to Science.  I would focus on how the virus is spread (via female mosquitoes) and the fact that unlike other viruses, it cannot be spread from person to person.  This could lead to a discussion about how this particular virus mutated to be transmitted differently than its counterparts.

Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet

This book features multiple mini chapters about real life people (adults and kids).  It's perfect for quick daily read-alouds.

Books by Carl Hiaasen

They all have an environmental conservation theme to them.  

A word of caution:  They each have a handful of bad words scattered throughout, so if you are reading them out loud, you just have to be quick on your feet to replace them with something more appropriate.  

Hoot

Chomp

Flush

Scat

Newsela Science

For nonfiction leveled texts that you can either read aloud or have students read on their own.

Be sure to come back next week for the final part of the series:  Accountability Activities for Read-Alouds!

Read-Aloud Books for the Secondary Social Studies Classroom

Are you looking for some high-interest books for your secondary Social Studies classroom?  Would you like to read to your classes?  Read this post about the books teachers recommend the most!

A Long Walk to Water

This book has very short chapters, sure to keep their interest and great for reading about ten minutes a day.  It's about two children living in Sudan and the long walks they take to get what they need to survive.

Refugee

A newer edition, and another book that has multiple viewpoints telling the story.  This time, it's refugee children from Nazi Germany, Cuba, and Syria.  All are trying to find a safe home.

A Moment Comes 

Based on the Partition of India in 1947,  this book shows covers the event through three teens from very different backgrounds (Muslim, Sikh, and British). 

Number the Stars

A great story about the kindness of families for the refugees of Nazi Germany.

Iqbal 

Iqbal is based on a true story about child labor in Pakistan.

Bamboo People

Bamboo people is longer but it gets their attention because they are kidnapped and made into child soldiers in Burma.

The Bread Winner series by Debra Ellis

This series is about families coming together to take care of each other under Taliban rule.  The heroine of the story is Afghani girl, who must pretend to be a boy so she can work to make money for her family.

Red Scarf Girl

This is set in 1966 Communist China, and how it impacted the life of young Ji-Li and her family as they try to survive under Mao Ze-dong's Cultural Revolution.

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List 

This is a memoir by a child survivor of the Holocaust.  It details how the main character and his family were saved by Schindler's List.

My Brother Sam is Dead  

This is a story about a family divided by the Revolutionary War.

Newsela Social Studies

For nonfiction leveled texts that you can either read aloud or have students read on their own.

Be sure to come back next week for the second part of the series:  Read-Aloud Books for the Secondary Science Classroom!

How to Use Get-to-Know-You Activities Later in the Year

Don't throw away those get-to-know-you surveys you did on the first day of school!  This post gives you ideas for using that valuable information all through the school year. 

In a previous post, I talked about making Get-to-Know-You Nametags. The pictures below are the examples I use to show students how to make their own on the first day of school. 

Here are the ways I continue to use them:

1.  Have students keep them out on their desks for the first couple of weeks of school. It really helps me to memorize faces and names.  I just have the students keep the tags in their binders and put them back out on their desk each day. 

2.  Collect and alphabetize the tags after a couple of weeks. I hope-punch put them and put them in a binder. 

3. Refer to the nametags when you need to make a connection with a child.  If I have a difficult conversation with a student, such as poor grades or behavior, I make sure to look at their information afterwards. I make sure to find something we have in common and strike up a conversation with that information. 

For example, I used the fact that I also like watching The Office to make a connection with one of my students who I've been struggling with lately. 

What are some ways you use get-to-know-you activities later in the year?  I'd love some fresh Ideas!

No-Tech Ways to Teach and Assess Vocabulary in Core Subjects

Are you searching for meaningful ways to teach, review, and assess vocabulary in the core subjects?  Then I have what you're looking for in this post!

4-Square Vocabulary Template
I like to assign the Definition and Graphic part of the 4-square vocabulary for homework prior to the instruction of those concepts.  This front-loads the the information so students are reading to participate in class discussions.

Read more about how I use this technique by clicking here.

Review Games
After all the vocabulary has been thoroughly taught, we play review games from my Vocabulary Review Games Packet.

Other fun games to play with vocabulary:

Pictionary 

Find Someone Who:  

This technique uses a page with squares similar to bingo. In each square is a definition. The students walk around with each other and find someone who knows the right answer. That person writes the correct answer in the box with the definition and signs their name. Spend 5-10 minutes at the end for students to share the correct responses out loud.


Word Splash
Write a vocabulary word on the board and give students 10-60 seconds to write everything they can think of relating to that word.  At the end of the time, have students move to another student's paper and repeat the process with one exception:  They may not repeat write anything already written on the paper.



Vocabulary Assessments:
The template I use to assess vocabulary knowledge includes the following activities:

Fill-in-the-blank
Write the definition in your own words
Give an example/non-example
Use the word in a sentence

Read more about how I use vocabulary assessments in this post.

I made a packet for the templates for the 4-square and vocabulary test. Click here to pick up a copy of my Vocabulary Instruction and Assessment Packet.

What do you use to teach, review, and assess vocabulary?  I'd love to hear your ideas!