Personal Focus Wall

Ya'll, I've been keeping myself busy the first few days out of school.  Why do we feel the need to jump back into the game without a days break?  Several years ago, my county adopted Houghton Mifflin Reading.  When I started Mrs. Saoud's Blog in 2009, I featured many resources to use on bulletin board focus wall.  The only problem is the lack of space made available after all other requirements are posted, so I reworked my system.  I decided to create a set of posters that allows the focus wall to be private and personal.

At times the kids become a little distracting when getting in and out of their seat.  To create independence, I encourage an open classroom allowing kids to use any resource or supply they need without asking.  Okay, this is given within reason.  There are a few, people I know we all have them, that will try to evade their work.  For testing purposes, I have an office in each desk.  After thinking it out, I decided to incorporate a personal focus wall in their office.  This partition is commonly used for testing.  I do LOVE collaborative groups but there are times when reading is private to allow personal reflection.  Other times, the kids are moving about in pairs on the floor and need a system that will allow travel without lots of tools.

To make this work for me, I cut off the edge of a pocket protector since the whole punched side for notebooks will not be needed.  I stapled the sheet protector to the inside of the office.

Each week the kids will rotate out a new focus wall.  The old wall will go in their resource binder (link embedded) as a reference.  I love having the binder available with familiar stories that align with the strategies.  When the strategy cycles through a second time, the kids can check their reference sheets and pull this familiar story to draw on their schema.

This will become a collection of words and strategies for the kids to use as reference at workstations, independent reading, or writing.  Here is a preview of the first focus sheet created. 

Theme 1 Dragon Gets By

I've just completed a set of Comprehension Skills and Strategies Posters (link embedded) for my classroom walls.  The poster images are the same as the images in our personal focus walls to ensure consistency and allow students to make connections to our mini lessons.