Are you looking to improve your student’s reading fluency while providing student choice? The March Choice Board with ELA Activities is here to engage your students while taking their skills to a new level.
March is an exciting time of year, with spring approaching and lots of opportunities to learn and grow. In English Language Arts (ELA), students can improve their skills through daily reading practice and extension activities. This March, try using a choice board to encourage students to engage with ELA in new and exciting ways.
March Reading Fluency Passages
The first step in the March ELA Choice Board is to provide daily reading fluency passages for grades for second and third grades. These passages are designed to improve students’ reading fluency and comprehension. By practicing reading aloud every day, students can build their confidence and improve their ability to understand and analyze texts. The passages can be read individually or in groups, and teachers can provide feedback to help students improve their reading skills.
The Daily Reading Fluency Routine
- .Provide each student with the appropriate reading level fluency passage. The passages are marked with a shape to keep levels private for students. A key of the levels is included in my resource on TPT.
- The teacher front loads with a few vocabulary words. These should be words that will help the student read the passage successfully.
- If working as a whole class, the teacher sets a one-minute timer, and students mark off the last word they read on the text.
- If you choose to have students pair up, the student partner will also circle any words missed or said to the reader.
- If a volunteer is helping out, the adult will record marks on the text and time the student.
- After the timer, the reader calculates the words read correctly per minute on the tracking sheet.
- This same routine is completed each day of the week for all five days.
- By the last day, the tracker should show student growth.
- The classroom should have a copy of the Reading Fluency Goals posted for student self-assessing.
March Choice Board Activities
Once students have completed their daily reading fluency passages, it’s time to move on to the March Choice Board. The goal is for students to complete the activities that they are most interested in doing. But students are also trying to mark off three activities in a row. To keep the game fresh, alternate games are provided, such as Four Corners, Diamond, Picture Frame, and Black Out. The games are outlined within the resource.
The choice board provides a variety of extension activities that allow students to practice and improve various ELA skills. Some examples of activities on the choice board include:
March Choice Board Activities
Reading
Daily Reading Fluency Practice– This activity is done daily for one minute. See the outline of the Fluency Reading Routine above.
Genre Writing Prompts
- Narrative Writing Prompt– Write a narrative that tells how the leprechaun carries the gold home.
- Opinion Writing Prompt-Is a rainbow special? Why or why not?
- Informative Writing Prompt– Write about how you would spend $1,000.
ELA Activities
- Review the Text– After reading the March Fluency Passage, students give a small review of the text, starting with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Students then follow up with a detailed sentence supporting their reasoning.
- Sentence Expansion Practice– Students expand the sentence, He saw a rainbow.
- Grammar– circle punctuation, one underline under nouns, two underlines under verbs in the reading fluency passage. (A key of answers is provided so students may correct their own work.)
- Author’s Purpose-Identify and short response- Students identify the author’s purpose with a follow-up sentence explaining their thinking or justifying their reasoning.
- Quiz– A four-question multiple choice quiz keeps the task simple without overwhelming the student.
- Vocabulary Practice– a simple four-square mapping activity. Students write the vocabulary word, write a clear definition, use the vocabulary word in a sentence, and then illustrate a simple picture to represent the vocabulary word. Read this blog post for more vocabulary games to use in your classroom.
- Constructive Response-Short Answer Response
Creativity
Create a Book Cover– For the creative and artistic-loving students, one activity is to retitle the text and design an image for the text.
By providing a range of activities on the choice board, students can choose the activities that interest them most and work on improving their ELA skills with engaging and meaningful activities. Teachers can also use the choice board as a way to differentiate instruction, providing more challenging activities for advanced learners and extra support for struggling students.
In conclusion, the March Choice Board for ELA provides an excellent opportunity for students to engage with ELA in new and exciting ways. By combining daily reading fluency passages with a variety of extension activities, students can improve their reading, writing, and research skills while having fun and exploring March themes. So why not give it a try and see how it can benefit your students’ ELA skills?
-Melissa
If you’re looking for more ideas on creating a writing routine that works for your elementary-aged students, be sure to check out my Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays: Oh, my! E-book. You’ll love the tips, tricks, and activities to excite your students about writing!
