Tired Words

I'm so excited about my new creation!  It took me way longer to do this than I anticipated, but it's FINALLY done!  With some inspiration from my Daily 6 Traits book and Pinterest, I give you....TIRED WORDS!  I loved the idea of Dead Words, but I felt that was more "halloweenish" and wanted something that fit in a little better throughout the whole year.  So I put together a little boy in his bed (I'm not very artsy, so I apologize it's not very cute :P) and then I typed up overused words into "dream clouds".  I put the title on paper and cut it into pillows.  Then I hot glued everything to the wall!

Now, I know the first thing my students will ask is, "Mrs. Kirby, what can I use instead?"  I got the idea from Pinterest (quite the obsession) and put other options on popsicle sticks.  I ordered the pockets from Oriental Trading.  :)

Click HERE to download the "Dream Clouds."

Writing Rubric

I despise grading writing.  I feel like it's so hard to grade sometimes!  I couldn't take it anymore.  I HAD to come up with a rubric for extended response questions.  One of our grade-level goals is to achieve 3 points on a 4-point rubric for extended response questions in preparation for the Ohio Achievement Assessment.  Even though my 2nd graders don't take the OAA, we start preparing them in KINDERGARTEN for this goal!  Every grade level has an extended response goal and a math goal.  SO....all that to say, I needed a quick, concrete, black-and-white (as black and white as you can get with writing) way to grade extended response questions.  I had been using a general writing rubric that could be used with ANY writing, but I felt it didn't measure the information I needed.  Here is the rubric in case you'd like to use it!  I graded some papers with it today and so far it has made the grading process MUCH less painful and a whole lot more valid, in my opinion.  :)

Click HERE to download the file.