The Next Step in Guided Reading and Genius Scan+

Hey everyone!  I haven't been blogging very much because I've been planning my wedding reception on Saturday. 

I wanted to stop by briefly and talk about a professional development opportunity I attended yesterday. 

Have you read this AMAZING book, yet?  Our school has had access to these for about a year but our school district is really focusing our PD on this book this year.  While Jan Richardson will be at some of the trainings, our training yesterday was with Debbie Rosenow.  Debbie Rosenow teaches in Chattanooga, TN and her district had the privilege of working directly with Jan Richardson.  There are some resources in the text such as some of the rubrics that were developed by Debbie's class!  Anyway,  I got a lot of great ideas for reading workshop that I want to try this year. 

My Personal Goals

1. Stay true to the First 20 days and developing routines before really pulling reading groups. - see page 2 of my notes for a brief breakdown of First 20 days (link below).
2. Reading notebooks - students writing often and being accountable for their reading (page 2 of my notes talks about different sections of reading notebook). 
3. Independent Reading Letters - Weekly letters that are turned in based on reading response questions. 
4. Research for Higher Readers - do not become comfortable with letting them read what they want to read.  Really push and challenge them to get into informational and nonfiction texts. 

Enter Genius Scan+ (app for Ipad!)  I first found out about this app from the lovely Ladybugsteacherfiles  Please go and check out her phenomenal  blog! (Her review of this app is more in depth).  So I thought that I would use it to scan my notes.  The idea is that I will start scanning my notes and sending the PDF to my dropbox so I don't have all of this paper in my teacher binder.  I am keeping all of my notes and corresponding CPDUS in the filing cabinet.  However, the two things I always have with me are my IPAD and my planner.  If my planner can be as clean and organized as possible, that is awesome!  Then I have my IPAD to quickly reference notes or agendas if I need instead of going back to the filing cabinet. 

Check out my notes from my PD. (click below)

7/16 Next Steps in GR Training with Debbie Rosenow

I know that the light is awful (it's night time and my lamps stink).  It's also my first time taking them so I know the agenda picture is kinda funky - but not bad right?  I will probably retake them when I am at school and it better lighting. 

I definitely plan on using this app a lot in the classroom.  I think it would be great for students to scan their work in reading or writing notebooks - I could take them home to read/grade and not have to carry all of those notebooks.  Or even serving as an electronic portfolio of their work to share with parents. 

Have a great night!