That Tall Teacher : September 2017

Happy Fall Everyone!

So I'm here today to share with you a product I am SO excited about! Last November, my district invited big important curriculum people into our school and they evaluated our teaching to the common core standards. Long story short- it resulted in a new curriculum. Yep- in November 2016 we completely dropped Readers and Writers workshop (yes, I cried- a lot) and adopted Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum for better alignment to the common core. This was a HUGE change. These units are now topic based, content heavy, and all read aloud with a focus on comprehension and vocabulary development. The research and data is there to support our districts feelings. Instead of resisting and being upset, I made the decision to find a way to make this mainly scripted curriculum into my own! One way to do that is by creating resources (my favorite thing to do!).

The curriculum has SO many great vocabulary development lessons, but I needed the resources for them.... So here I am with Core Knowledge Vocabulary!

CKLA identifies many words for each read aloud for each domain. However, they focus on one essential vocabulary word for each story. They suggest you do a variety of actives. When I start a new story, I like to make sure I have the key vocabulary word hanging up on an anchor chart of on the board.

These word cards have the word, the definition directly from CKLA and the part of speech. In the top corner you will notice that I included the domain and story. This is to make your teacher life a little easier!

When it comes time for the practice of the key vocabulary word, CKLA identifies many different activities for you to do. Some of them suggest drawing and writing, while others are just a discussion about the word. I found this was the time I wanted my kids to be writing because there isn't a great deal of writing in CKLA Listening & Learning (it is in the Skills portion). Also, after beginning the implementation of CKLA last year, I found that when my kids were writing and drawing, they were able to own the word a little more.

Some activities are examples and non examples- a research based technique on teaching vocabulary!

Others are writing about the word!

The prep for this product is designed to be a little as possible! I like to make things easy for teachers. The Bundle is in my store as a GROWING bundle. As of right now there are 5 domains up and only 6 domains need to be added. By purchasing the growing bundle, you save 20%. Click on any of the images to head right to the product and check it out.