Our wonderful teacher/literacy agent at Moraine Meadows Elementary School has provided an inspiring report on how they are using Spider magazine in their classroom. Special thanks to Pretium Partners, Inc. and the Kettering Noon Optimists Club for making these vital reading resources available to their school.
Here’s what she has to say…
…Spider magazine is a big hit with both the kids and the parents! It has been a very successful year of using the magazine. I feel we have reached our goals and objectives by using the magazine.
Thanks for all the work you’ve done to make this happen!
Wanted to let you know that the printable labels to put on the individual magazines are great!! It really personalizes them and gives the kids a great sense of ownership.
When the magazines arrive, we preview them as a class by looking at the table of contents, story titles and discussing what each story may be about. We also predict from story titles and illustrations which stories would be fiction or nonfiction. (all of these stress strategies that good readers use and also what is expected in Ohio’s state standards in language arts) Students may pick a story to read either independently or with a partner. Students then share with others what they picked as their favorite and give a “story advertisement” to the rest of the class to encourage them to read that story.
Some projects we do as a class. Others we read the directions for and
encourage the students to try them at home. Many issues include a game that students might play at indoor recess. Sometimes the magazines are used in small guided reading groups. As a small group, we discuss the different genres found in the magazine. We use
unknown words to practice decoding skills and vocabulary building. Each student finds a word in a particular selection that may be unknown or difficult for them. They then share the word in it’s original sentence and by using context clues, try to figure out the meaning of the unknown word. The magazine is a wonderful teaching resource.
Once we’ve thoroughly explored the magazine at school, the students take it home to enjoy by re-reading, making recipes, playing games or doing projects. This gets the family involved. One class has an extra copy that gets put in the classroom library.
Students frequently go back to those issures to read their favorite
stories. Luckily, our sponsors were able to sponsor a class set of
magazines so every child receives one and no one feels left out. In the future, if a class set is not possible, I might use the magazine with our students who have business tutors that come to school to work with particular students. All the students enjoy having the sense of ownership of the magazine when it arrives. They frequently ask at the beginning of the month if the latest issue has arrived yet.