I am so excited about my new ANZAC Day resource based on "ANZAC Biscuits" by Phil Cummings.
The resource is 40 pages and includes:
Word Work – vocabulary development: thinking maps, definitions, inferring and synonyms
Sensory language – Y charts
Making connections
Character traits – using text evidence
Student-generated questioning
Story mapping
Summarising parallel storylines
Analysing figurative language in the story
Matching adjectives and nouns from the story
Interactive notebook activity - summarising
Exploring verbs and nouns in cooking
Close reading activities – Investigating the history of ANZAC biscuits
ANZAC writing papers
ANZAC bookmarks
This new resource is so "hot off the press" that I haven't even had time to do a preview overview of it. I wanted to post about it because ANZAC Day is on 25 April here in Australia (next Monday). You can check it out by clicking here or on the image below.
I made this resource as I just love this picture book and I couldn't find any other teaching resources that use this fabulous picture book. "ANZAC Biscuits" is suitable for the early years for a read aloud. It was only when I was making up the resource, which I intended to initially be for the early years, that I realised the potential this picture book has, with what appears to be such a simple story, for exploring some higher order literary devices, such as parallel storylines and figurative language.
I have created two other resources for ANZAC Day based on picture books. One is a bundle for three picture books that feature dogs during the First World War. You can read about this bundle and view previews of the resources that accompany the three picture books in my blog post here. See the YouTube video preview of this resource here. View the resource on TPT here.
The other resource is a mega big resource of 70 pages based on "ANZAC Ted". You can read about my ANZAC Ted resource here and here. See the YouTube video preview of this resource here. View the resource on TPT here.
Check out my TPT store to download two freebies for ANZAC Day, including ANZAC bookmarks and an outline of ANZAC Ted that can be used for a class display.
I would love to hear what other Aussies or kiwis do in their classrooms for ANZAC Day. Did you know that the origin of the ANZAC biscuit is contested? Read more in my "ANZAC biscuits" resource in the close reading activities.
Have a terrific week everyone !
Last week I posted about a new project I was working on, linking the U.S. research on close reading with the Australian research around the Four Resources Model (Freebody & Luke, 1990).
I created three resources to use with a school I was working with this week. The first one is based on the picture book, "Blossom Possum - The Sky is Falling Down-Under" (see below):
This resource was designed for students in the early years (up to Year 3).
The second resource is based on two original poems by Angela Yardy - Seaside Senses and The Shell.
Each resource includes purposeful reasons for the students to re-read the text and engage with it in different ways to deepen their comprehension.
Please click on the images above to find out more.
My third resource is based on figurative language, using a poem called "The Snake" from the NAPLAN (Australian National Testing) Year 5 magazine. I am just waiting for copyright clearance on that one before I post it to TPT.
Both of the resources based on poetry are quite challenging for students in Year 5 and above.
By linking close reading to the Four Resource Model prompts, students engage multiple times with the text for different purposes. To me, this is much more rigorous NAPLAN preparation than practising past tests.
If you would like to win a free copy of one of these resources, please make sure you are following my blog. You can do this for free by clicking on the "follow me by bloglovin' " button, or via email. Please leave a comment below with your email address and which resource interests you the most. I will choose 3 winners randomly over the next week.
A very big shout out to all the Australian teachers who follow my blog - enjoy your first week of the new school year, next week :)
I am so excited about my latest project. I have been dabbling at linking the U.S. research on close reading with the Australian research by Freebody and Luke (1990) on the Four Resources Model. Find out more about the Four Resources Model here.
After reading, "Falling in Love with Close Reading" (Lehman
& Roberts, 2014) these are the links I have made:
I am flying up north to work with a school this week around the teaching of reading. I will be focusing on reciprocal teaching and you can read about my innovations on that in English and Mathematics here.
My colleagues and I are also working with another couple of schools around improving their student data in reading, so I am very blessed that the poet Angela Yardy (click on her name to see her great website) has allowed me to use two of her works to develop a resource that focuses on close reading and figurative language.
In Australia, our national assessment program is NAPLAN and I wanted to be able to show the teachers that if, for example, figurative language was an area wanting in the data analysis, that close reading could be used, using the Four Resource Model as a lens, so that rather than drilling kids with past tests and practice tests, we can actually teach them explicitly in the areas where gaps have been identified for a cohort.
I will be sharing both resources I have created via TPT, so please make sure you are following me on TPT (Ripper Reading Resources) to be updated as new resources are posted.
