No Copies, No Prep Reading Instruction!

This year my big area to work on has been reading instruction.  We are reading a lot more novels and I am always looking for ways to make it better.  One day when were low on paper and I didn't have time to make copies I decided to throw all of the questions I was going to ask about the chapter we were reading onto Powerpoint.  It worked so well that I came up with a new idea....  no copies reading instruction.

I started off small and then added borders and clipart.  Soon my little idea had become the only way I teach novels these days.  Everything is projectable!  No Prep for the teacher! It requires text evidence! Best of all no paper!  Most important.... My kids love it!

When the kids come in each morning, on my screen is the chapter they need to read and a question/thought for them to think about while they read.  After we have had a chance to read on our own, we work through the next slide that has questions for that chapter.  Sometimes we do them as a group, we might work on them at tables in small groups, or sometimes we even write our own answers out on notebook paper.  Whichever we do it, the kids love it!

It has also been really easy for kids to use if they are absent.  They still get all of the questions the other kids had and I can just print out the slides they missed.  So it was almost like they didn't miss the instruction at all!

We have been out of school for two days with ice covered roads.  So I used my time and made up a new packet for us to use this week.  It goes with the Magic Tree House, Abe Lincoln at Last!  If you haven't read it with your kids, I highly recommend it.  You can teach so many common core skills within this book.  It has a great twist in it that really uses text evidence well.  Here are a few pages from the packet.  Click on them to see the packet in my TPT store.

This is one of the "While You Read" pages.  Each chapter has one to give the kids something to focus on while they are reading.  

Each chapter has a list of questions to help you discuss the chapter with the kids. 

At the end of the book, this packet has 3 different activities for the kids to do.  This one focuses on sequencing.

I hope everyone has a great day!  I'm off to work on finishing our science fair project.  Yes, it is due tomorrow!  Nothing like waiting till the last minute!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy