Guided Reading and The Common Core State Standards

    

 



      Many teachers have asked if guided reading still has a place with the Common Core State Standards.  Guided reading is an instructional technique in which teachers load much of their instruction up front. They often preview challenging words to decode and vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar.  Often teachers also give students background about a topic covered by the text that may be unfamiliar to the age and background of our students.
     The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in general de-emphasizes pre-reading strategies in favor of students digging deeply into texts and figuring out challenging words and ideas by "wrestling" with the text itself.  This instructional technique is called close reading.



     So, back to my original question.  Does traditional guided reading still have a place in our classrooms today?  It is my belief that overusing a guided reading approach does not encourage students to use any strategies when they are reading for pleasure or during an assessment.  However, there is still a need in our classrooms to use some guided reading techniques.
     This year I have a small group of students that really struggle with comprehension and fluency.  They don't like reading and are not able to find or stick with good fit books.  Their Daily 5 reading is totally deviod of thinking or strategizing.  Despite my repeated attempts and teaching, they view reading as a passive process, often called "word calling" in the research on literacy instruction.  We're now in the second quarter. This just can't continue.  So... time to dust off guided reading, which is towards the bottom of my "bag o' tricks". 
     In my version of guided reading, I will still preview a few individual words, but I will also heavily use context clues to help the students discover for themselves what the words mean.  Then students will read the text once through, looking for the "main idea".  I am using a biography of Vasco da Gama which links in to our Social Studies unit on Explorers.  This picture book has some pretty hefty vocabulary.  The first time the students read the books, the task they will have to accomplish is to figure out where would be a good place to end the chapter, if the book was a chapter book.  Then they have to give the title a chapter and justify their choice.  They'll be marking the book with post-its, so if they need to revise their ideas they can.

Exploring the Role of Rounding and Estimating in Subtraction

All Things upper Elementary, a blog that I follow regularly recently had a post about teaching students to really develop problem-solving skills, rather than just learn rote algorithms.  See her fantastic post here.  This post really resonated with me as we are in the final days of our unit on subtraction.  Most of the kids can use the algorithm successfully to subtract multi-digit numbers.  Some cannot.  But even those that can use the algorithm don't really understand what they are doing.  To quote the ATUE:

"A written algorithm is meant to SHOW you have to think, NOT teach you how to think."

 

I realized that I needed to teach more thinking and less algorithm.  So today's freebie lesson plan is designed to focus students on using rounding and estimation to help them with subtraction.

 

Materials:  personal whiteboards, marker, and eraser for each child, the same for the teacher. 

Duration:  About 30 minutes (can be made longer or shorter)          Grade Level:     3-5

 

1.  Warm-Up:  Pose some subtraction problems using multiples of ten.  Start with problems like 90-70 = ? and end with problems like 8,000 - 5,000.

2.  Write your final problem in the warm up on the board (let's say it's 8,000 - 5,000).  Pose a related problem, leaving the first number the same, such as 8,000 - 4,875.  Have the students estimate a solution and show their answer.  If more than a few students get the answer wrong (it should still be 5,000), demonstrate how 4,875 rounds up to 5,000.  So the answer will be about the same as the original problem.  You can't just use the front of the number to estimate the answer.  You need to look at the whole number.

Do several more examples, coaching after each one as needed.  Once most of the class can successfully estimate the difference for each problem you pose, ask them to not end their estimates in zero. Pose problems in a sequence like this:

12,000 - 8,000 = (4,000)          12,000 - 7, 679 = (4,000)          12,000 - 7, 679 = (4,335)

Ask students to tell how they decided if the difference was more or less than their estimate.  If students do not come up with a method, show them how when the subtrahend is less than the estimate, the difference will be larger.  Pose several problems using this method. 

 

By using a lesson progression like this, you can help students think beyond the algorithm.  Enjoy!

 

 

Adventures in Lucy Calkins' Units of Study

This summer my major purchase for personal professional development was Lucy Calkins' Units of Study in Writing.  I spent a delightful summer with Lucy.  Reading her book was like having a conversation with a great mentor teacher.  Many people comment that her ten-plus page lesson plans are a nightmare to get through.  I would agree with that, but just because the lesson plans are this long doesn't mean you have to do all of it.  I would much rather have much more than I need than have to make up my own stuff.  Most of my lessons to my students end up being "distilled essence of Lucy" rather than a verbatim recitation of her lessons. 
Today's lesson was definitely one of those essence ones.  The lesson was about making characters come alive by describing both their internal and external traits.  To liven things up a bit, I introduced my students to one of my favorite music videos on You Tube:  Julian Smith's Reading a Book.  In it, the singer acts all tough and mean when people interrupt him while reading.  His tough exterior is totally at odds with his zest for reading.   The kids got the juxtaposition between internal and external traits immediately. It was a fun introduction to the lesson and I saw several students who tried the technique, including one of my most reluctant writers.

One of the biggest frustrations I have teaching Writing is that students seem to so very rarely take the advice we given them in our lessons.  It's absolutely unheard of in a Math class for students not to follow the algorithm the teacher provides, yet in Writing "doing your own thing" is rampant.  Today I tried to combat that by, at the end of Writing, having each child get out a highlighter.  They traded daybooks with a partner and highlighted evidence of today's lesson on character traits (if they could find it).  Overall the class was very honest in their highlighting and this gave me a quick way to judge what students could still use some help in this area.

Rounding Strategies: 3NBT1, 4NBT3, 5NBT4

     After a rough start, my leveled Math class is going smoothly at last.  My students have gotten into a routine of a whole-class lesson on Monday (with pre-test), differentiated instruction based on the pre-test on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, finishing with another whole-class lesson on Friday with a final, standards-based quiz on that day.  Most students are seeing growth as they graph their pre- and post-assessments.  With this leveled group, I have often found that the class doesn't usually fall into three groups, like I have seen with heterogeneous groups in the past.  Quite often, they only fall into two groups.  This has lead to some changes in my I Love Math groups.  Most of the time, I divide the class into two groups.  One works with me while the other works on their Ten Marks or Manga High assignments on the computer.  Then the switch.  When there is a preponderance of students who have mastered the pre-test, I will often include Wednesday as an additional whole-class lesson. 
     This past week we worked on rounding.  Rounding was one of those skills that no one in the class was even close to mastering, even after the first whole-class lesson.  I had to dig deeper in order to meet my students' needs.
     The first resources I used was Learn Zillion.  Using the Quick Code LZ525 you can see a great lesson that uses a number line to show how to round.  We used the following template:

original number:_____________________

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

__________                                                   __________                                                    __________

low benchmark                                                 midpoint                                                 high benchmark

 

     For each  number, they created an individual number line and place the original number as a dot on that number line.  This was a time consuming process, but after doing several together, the light bulb went on for many struggling students who could finally SEE what it means to round.

     After a differentiation day where I reinforced this method, I taught method number 2.  This I introduced as a "game" I called "Slap! Trap!".  I passed out a place value chart and a highlighter.  (Kids always get excited when the highlighters come out!)  Students used a pencil and the chart to write the number to round. 

  I announced: "Round to the nearest thousands!".  Students repeated: "Thousands, thousands, thousands, slap, TRAP!"  When they say slap, they use their left pointer finger to cover the digit in the given place.

 

 When they say trap, they color the digit in the next place to the right with the highlighter.  If the digit they "trapped" is 5 or more, the digit they "slapped" will go up by one.  If not, it will stay the same. 

 

All the digits to the right of the slapped/rounded digit turn into zeroes.  Any digits to the left of the slapped/rounded digit stay the same.  After the number line method, this seemed like a shortcut to many students.

     After instruction, some students gravitated to one method; some to the other.  In the end, all students benefitted from learning both methods.

Paragraphing...BACKWARDS: A Five Day Lesson Plan

     I am very proud of my students and the volume of writing they are now able to produce in a single setting. Most of them can routinely write more than one full page.  But with this dramatic increase in volume often comes a lack of punctuation.  In addition as the length of students' stories increases, the skill of paragraphing becomes even more important.
     Most resources about paragraphing are instruction before students begin writing.  There are all sorts of graphic organizers and hamburger diagrams.  I decided to tackle paragraphing after students have written.  By teaching about paragraphing after writing, I can also tackle issues like elaboration and end punctuation, which are still important skills that students lack.
     For the first paragraphing lesson, I copied some pages from the book we are currently reading.  I tell the students the main reasons for paragraphing:  changes in speaker, time, and place.  I used Whole Brain Teaching techniques with pair teaching and gestures to help students remember the reasons for paragraphing.  Using the text selection and highlighters (kids love those), I had my students highlight the three reasons for paragraphing in three different colors.  They did this in pairs. 
     The next day, I gave students a piece of writing I wrote without paragraphs.  Again in pairs, students discussed where the paragraphs should be.  As a class we shared our ideas, making sure to justify our conclusions. 
     On Day #3 it was time for students to begin revising their own writing.  I used Lucy Calkins "box" technique.  In this technique, students draw a box with colored markers around their paragraphs.  Students worked with pairs.  Once students make boxes around their paragraphs, I asked them to count the number of sentences in each box.  For their assignment during Writing Workshop, students need to add some detail sentences to any paragraph that has less than four sentences.  Since students write on every other line in their daybooks, it is relatively easy to add detail sentences.  I collected the daybooks and sorted students by those who were struggling with paragraphing and elaboration and those that were not. 
     The following day, I met with the students who were struggling the most for extra assistance.
     On the final day of the week, I had students choose a section of text and rewrite it for evaluation.  They had to take at least two consecutive paragraphs and rewrite them.  I went over the assessment rubric prior to the assessment.  Students had to be able to show at least two paragraphs of a minimum of four sentences each, correctly punctuated. 

Adventures in Literacy

We are nearing the end of the first month of school.  I have to rank this class as one of the most challenging of my career.  We are moving forward, but at a slower pace than I am accustomed to. 
     During Daily Five we are still working on building stamina.  Many students still just get up to get more books in the middle of it or talk to each other.  Most of that talking is innocent and impulsive, but the fact that they are still doing it shows that they are still working on stamina.  Normally I would be starting reading groups next week.  I still will, but many students will also begin the week with assigned seats that put them where I can see them and more than a single arms length from others (which is what we typically do).  This is the first step I take with students who are not building stamina.  After a week, they can have their choice back.  Make poor choices again and there are no more choices of where to sit.  This is how the CAFE Menu looked half way through individual reading inventories.  The "thumbs up" on the black paper represent the goals of each student.

      After a rough start (again-building stamina), Writing is going well.  I have seen some real improvement already using Lucy Calkins Units of Study.  Her techniques are simple enough that they are easy for students to implement.  They are very concrete as well.  This is how our Writer's Block looks as we are transitioning to from stamina lessons to craft lesssons-

There are lots of resources for students who need ideas to write about, including laminated pages from a costume catalog.

I also saw these descriptors for the four levels I used for Writing.  I thought I would add them to the display: Keep "TRI"- ing, Coming A-"ROUND", "SQUARE" Deal, and Love It!

     In the front of the room I added the class rules (below the board) and a cursive alphabet (above the board.

Week 2 Update: I Love Math

     Those of you that know me well know my passion for differentiated groupings that I call "I Love Math" groups.  I Love Math is a structure  that divides the class into a high, average, and low group and cycles those groups through three different stations.  Once the students get the rotations (which are always in the same order no matter what group the child starts with), things run like clockwork.  In the past I have always had an aide, Title One teacher, or special education teacher in my room to help ensure things go smoothly.  That way two of the groups have adult supervision.
     This year, for the first time, our grade has been required to level for Math.  Since I was in the fifth grade at the time, I could not attend the meetings where they assigned teachers to the different levels.  I have one of the average groups.  Two of our classes (mine and the high group) do not have a support person in the classroom for Math.  The other six specialist are divided among the bottom three classes.  This is my first year trying I Love Math groups by myself.  I knew it would be a real test of the structure that I love so much.  If I can do it alone, then there is hope for other teachers who are solo practitioners.  And yes, even a leveled Math group has enough differences in it to warrant differentiated instruction.
     First of I decided that I needed to have I Love Math groups a lot more often.  In the past I have done them regularly (once or twice a week), but only as needed. I know that the more I do them, the better the students get at it.  I decided that this year I would have a whole class lesson on Monday which would end with an ungraded pre-test.  This would be used to create differentiated groups Tuesday through Thursday.  Friday will be another whole class lesson and post-test.
     I also knew that I needed to use technology to help me keep track of the progress of my students in the same way that another person used to  do.  Luckily I found Ten Marks, a free site where I can assign specific skill lessons for my students. 
     After one week of following this plan the results have been fairly good.  Technology has been the biggest challenge.  Our wireless internet is not always reliable and the students are not used to logging in to the computers and finding websites in a timely manner.  I hope that time and experience will help the students complete this part of the task more quickly and easily.  If not, I may have to alter the activities or the order.  I wish I had enough computers for all of the students to start on them and then move to other activities, but the most I can get are 8.
     Great ideas are worth the time it takes to make them successful.  I'm up for the challenge!

First Week of School Over!

     I just finished my first week (three days) of school.  I can tell this year will be one of professional growth already. 
     I noticed a big difference in the students as I moved down to fourth grade from fifth grade.  The students organizational abilities need a lot of development. They don't clean off their desktops at the end of each academic period.  They don't push in their chairs when they leave their seat.  They have never used Agendas before and they write very slowly. 
     I have a special education aide in my room most of the day whom I have never worked with before.  This means I have one more person that I have to introduce to my classroom routines.  I also have a high percentage of special needs students in my room, including one student with a behavior disorder.  This student started having difficulties the first day of school.  By day 2 I had to have him take an extended time-out in our behavior room.  I am already networking with our resource people for behavior.  Day #3 was better, but I had to stay glued to his side.  I know other students are suffering because they can't work independently for more than five minutes yet and don't know classroom routines.  I will definitely learn some patience this year!
     When I reflect on this first week, I am also thinking about the tremendous growth I experienced as a looping teacher for the past two years.  Although I do not know whether my new principal will allow looping next year, I do know that these students will improve by leaps and bounds this year.  Whether I get to stay with them for one year or two, I know they will make progress like my students do every year.

Displays 2013-2014: Everything Else

Whew,  I'm finally done setting up my classroom.  It always seems like I need more time than I get.  In the middle of this set-up week, a team-mate had her baby early (so we had to visit her, of course and help her long-term sub adjust) and our new Spelling/Vocabulary series arrived (time out to stamp it and deliver it to all the team).  But, all-in-all, I'm ready enough.

This bulletin board idea came from Teachers Pay Teachers.  Right now the pictures are just "place holders".  I'm going to have the kids design their own iPads with a "playlist" of books they have read or want to read.



 "How Much Signal Strength is Your Brain Using Today?" is from literacy specialist Jenn Jones of Hello Literacy. It's a kid-friendly version of Bloom's taxonomy.   This is on our big "team" bulletin board across from the bathrooms/Library.

 These balloons are from Really Good Stuff.  My students decorated them on Step Up Day in the spring.  I think it will be great for them to see something they created on the first day of school.

 These are a couple views of my classroom library.  As a mother of four and the daughter and daughter-in-law of teachers, I am lucky to have an extensive classroom library of about 3,000 titles.  I am also lucky to have a crafty husband to build all these shelves. 



Displays 2013-2014: Reading

I'm nearly done with the displays for my classroom.  Today I laminated a lot of instructional materials.  Hopefully the printers will be hooked up to the wireless internet by tomorrow so I can print all the stuff I bought at the TpT Back to School sale.
I have some new displays for Reading and some old favorites.  Of course, I had to start with the CAFE Menu with new polka dot border and matching header.  I love the magnetic paw prints that hold the border in place.

Opposite the CAFE Menu is my primary teaching area.  I have the easel to work with the whole class on the carpet.  I can easily transition to small groups with the table right next to me.

Last year I moved away from a Math CAFE Menu and found that I really missed it.  So this year it is back.  The hardest part was dealing with the big bulletin board in the middle of the wall.  I'm still not 100% sure that I like the way it is now with fact fluency being the center of attention.  I'll have to see how it works as the year goes on.
 

This new bulletin board will support my new school year resolution to emphasize vocabulary instruction more.  Right now it's just blank with the heading "Word Nerds".  Next to the bulletin board is a list of the CCSS vocabulary standards.

The Theme Board is not new to my classroom.  The idea comes from master teacher Beth Newingham.  I use the stories that we read as a class that are part of my basal series.  After we finish a story, we debate and then vote on the theme. We put a picture of the cover of the story under the theme we decide.   The first few times it is very challenging for students to do this.  As the year progresses they get better and better.

 

This year I added "Got Character?".  The plan is to start by labeling the emotions with different synonyms to expand the students vocabulary for describing characteristics.  Then I'm going to do something very similar to the Theme Board where we will post the name of the character beside the characteristic. 

The last change was the Super Improvers Wall (see www.wholebrainteaching.com).  Previously the colored card system for misbehavior and the reward system of drawing stars in index cards were in two separate locations.  To make room for other interactive displays, I needed to combine the two systems.  For more information on each system, please download Chris Biffle's free ebook or watch his inspiring videos.  

 

One last tip/trick:  I don't know about you, but I just can't seem to get stickers to stick on my cubbies.  They have so much sticker residue built up over the years it's just not working.  My cheap trick is to cover the sticker with clear packing tape.

 

I turn down one top corner to make the tape easier to remove at the end of the year.  Voila!













Displays for 2013-2014: Part 1 Writing

This week we had two days of teacher workshops, so I was able to get back into my room and do a little setting up.  I have been focusing on setting up for Writing instruction.  Here are the latest pics:

My "Writer's Block" starts out very simply.  I have the six traits and the title "Writer's Block".  Over the first weeks of instruction the traits will be moved to the side of the bulletin board as the actual board is filled with posters that we co-create as part of the lessons.

This is the example of one smaller poster.  The words on the poster match the assessment rubric exactly, so that students can get used to the language of the rubric.  On the first day students decorate the cover of their notebook on the inside front cover write their three goals for the year.

Above the Writer's Block is a graphic with the levels of proficiency I use in my classroom:  substantially below proficient, partially proficient, proficient, and distinctive.  These are the same designations used by my state.

These are my completed editor name badges (see this post) with my shape-coded levels.  There are a couple of students without shapes because they are new to our district.  I will do a writing benchmark on them in the first week to get their current level of functioning and complete their name badge.

This is an expanded view to show how the name badges double as an attendance board.

Testing: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade

As teachers in the US are returning to school, many are beginning to moan and groan about the overwhelming tide of testing that has engulfed the US educational system.  Assessments seem incapable of surviving alone.  Within a year, they reproduce like rabbits. Because, of course, you need a test to see if your kids are ready for the BIG TEST.  And if one of those tests a year is good, then one per term is even better for progress monitoring.  And that test doesn't test everything, so you need to sprinkle in a few others for good measure.  Then, of course, the next grade level wants a different assessment from the ones you use, so...  You get the idea.
     Like it or not, I don't think this frequency of assessment is going away any time soon.  It is too convenient a measuring stick for districts, principals, and teachers.  And that, my friends is the real wave of the future.  In some states, the bottom performing 10% of the teachers in a school must be fired.  In my school, assessment data is used to create yearly goals that count as a percentage of our annual performance review.  Right now that percentage is small.  But it is bound to rise in the coming years.
     So, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!  That's right!  When your students are required to take yet another test, make it worth it... for both them and you.
Making tests worthwhile to you:
1.  Learn as much as you can from the assessment data.  If you don't know how to read the assessment data (few of us learned to do this in college), ask your school "data guru".  Every school has at least one.
2.  Use what you know about your students and how you taught them to interpret the results.  Many people rely on others to "read" their data for them, but even the wisest data guru is limited because they don't know your kids and how you taught them.  Leave the data gurus to look at the big picture- trends across the grade and grade levels. Only you know whether a weakness the test reveals is because you haven't taught it yet or you did teach it, but your students didn't master it.   For example, last year my principal remarked that my Math class was the weakest in the grade level on data, statistics, and probability.  Since I had already looked at my own data, I agreed.  Then I showed her the results for my class at the beginning of the year.  Every child's weakest area was number sense and operations.  Since number sense and operations are the foundation of Math, I decided to focus my teaching in this area throughout the year.  Yes, because of this focus, something had to give.  But, by the end of the year, not a single child had number sense and operations as their lowest area.  And the class overall had the third highest level of overall growth in test scores.
3.  Know your test data well.  Like it or not, your tests scores will be used to assess your teaching ability and compare you to others. Suck it up and be proactive.  Be honest about what your data says.  Even it's not complemenary, be prepared to say how you will use the data.  And find the nugget of wonderfulness in your data, even if it is just one child.
3.  Use your assessment data and, when you do, tell your students that you are doing it.  Something along the lines of:  "Your recent ______________ test showed that ______________.  So today we are going to _________ ."
Making test worthwhile to them:
1.  Given them information about how they performed last time on the same assessment and what their goal is for this one.  A bit of specific advice never hurts.
2.  Give students feedback on their performance as soon as possible.  Next generation assessments can do this immediately, but don't just be content with a score.  Again, here is where your interpretation will be vital.  Put it in kid-friendly language.  Try to come up with at least one positive comment, such as how hard they worked or how long their written answers were.
     I  assure you that when you follow these words of advice, your students will do their best on the test.  They will become hungry for your feedback.

Whole Brain Teaching: Oral Writing FREEBIE

     This summer I have been re-watching the classroom management videos that are available on Whole Brain Teaching.  If you have never heard of WBT, you have got to try Chris Biffle's methods!  Everything whole brain teaching is totally revolutionary and free!  He started out with great classroom managment tools.  Recently he has added more academic content.  I want to start some of his methods on day one. 
     One of my favorites is Oral Writing.  Chris maintains that students cannot improve in writing without first having good oral communication.  This is especially important for English Language Learners, students of poverty, and students with poor receptive and expressive language skills.  I assessed my class on the skill of oral writing on Step-Up Day when students had to use 7-Up sentences (sentences with a minimum of 7 words) to describe themselves and their hobbies (see my blogpost).  I found that many students had difficulties doing this.
     When I reviewed the video on Oral Writing, I noticed how Chris taught specific "adders" to help students extend their sentence length and improve their critical thinking.  I felt that I wanted to post these "adders" at the beginning of the year, so I made these adder strips.

          Each adder has a picture and a gesture.  That way, if a child gets stuck, their peers can non-verbally suggest an adder by doing its gesture.
In the spirit of Chris Biffle, this is a FREEBIE.  Just click the picture to get your own adders!

Multiple Uses of Name Badge Holders

This summer one of my professional reading books was Word Nerds by Overturf, Montgomery, and Holmes-Smith.  In the book they suggested the use of inexpensive badge holders to assign each student a vocabulary word to practice activities throughout the day.  As I purchased the badge holders, I got to thinking how I could make this tool work in other areas.  Here's my plans for next year:

1.  Attendance and Lunch Count
     I glued a magnet to the back of the holder.  Students will move their badge from the absent section to their lunch choice each day as an easy way to take attendance and take lunch count.

2.  Peer Editing Based on Writing Goals and Levels of Proficiency
     Writing is right after recess in my classroom.  When they come in, they will take their badge holder off the attendance board and clip it on with their name showing.  Below their name, each child has the Six Traits of writing.  Their personal goals are boxed in red. Nick's goals are in Ideas, Organization, and Sentence Fluency. Their present level of proficiency is represented by a shape:  triangle for level 1, circle for level 2, square for level 3, and heart for level 4.  Seeing these shapes will give students daily reminders of their goal areas.  If students move up a proficiency level during the year, I will change the foam sticker. 
     In my classroom, students can only be a peer editor in an area where they are at a higher profiency level than the peer they are editing with. So, for example, Nick has a level 2 in Sentence Fluency.  He can be a peer editor for a student with level 1 in Sentence Fluency. The badge will let all students know where they stand visually.
     But, you might say, Nick has a goal to improve in that area.  All the better.  As Nick helps other students, he will become stronger and practice that skill.  As teachers, we all know how much we learn when we have to teach others.
       Below is the start of a poster that explains the four levels.  This will go on my "Writer's Block" bulletin board and goes with my classroom colors of chalkboard green, black, and ladybug red.

3.  Vocabulary Practice
     Right after Writing is ELA, which consists of English grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.  Students will turn their names around to become vocabulary words for this instruction.  In the picture you can see the magnets I attached to the back for attendance.  I think I will make a nice and quick, but meaningful, transition from Writing to ELA, which occurs back-to-back in the same literacy block.
     Students will use the vocabulary words in many hands-on and creative ways.  They can line up by definition, in alphabetical order, group themselves by parts of speech, roots, or affixes.  Throughout the week, students will be adding synonyms and antonyms to the 5 core words for the week.  Students can pair with their synonym or antonym and decide which is "stronger" and why.  They can us the vocabulary cards for charades and creating oral sentences, which the authors of Word Nerds call 7-Up sentences because they need to have seven words or more. Students can create or find on the Web images to illustrate their word.  For an even greater challenge, students can find a single color that represents the word.

Assessment Data Binder

This week I have been very busy creating products for teachers.  I have to confess that the hot and humid weather here in the Northeast has been behind it.  The only comfortable spot is in front of the computers with two fans running!  And the last place I want to go is the beach or lake because they are so crowded.
My latest product is a Youtube video titled: Assessment Data Binder.



Many people have asked about how I set up my binder.  It certainly is a "hot topic" (no pun intended!). I am very lucky that us fourth grade teachers get a portfolio that includes both numeric assessment data, and samples of student work.  I pour over these portfolios in early July to set up my Assessment Data Binder.  Having plenty of time to look at the portfolios helps me "hit the ground running" when the school year begins. I definitely make tweaks once I get to know each child individually, but surprisingly I don't need to do that very often.  The video has links to my former blogposts where I offer some of the forms for free.  If you are interested in the assessment web, please leave a comment below.  The writing rubric is part of one of my paid products on Teachers Pay Teachers.
What do you do to keep track of assessments?

Grade Four Dolch Activities

Looking at my students IEPs for the coming year, I noticed that several students had goals that they would be fluent on the grade 4 Dolch list.  Since I have never had students with goals like that, I decided to find the list and create some activities.  As I was researching activity ideas, I came across this youtube video from teacherstipster.com:




I loved the idea! Since the students who need this skill are boys, thought it was right up their alley.  So I created the same thing only for the grade 4 Dolch list.  While I was at it, I thought flashcards of all 279 words would come in handy for sorting and categorizing.  As I was making those, I noticed that there were several homophones in the list, so I created some cloze sentences for these words.  Voila!  My next TpT product was born!  The picture only show a few sample pages that you get in this 27 page resource.  Click on the picture or here to check it out!

A Common Core Pacing Guide

This summer I have embarked on a number of curriculum projects, mostly around the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  For Math I wanted to increase the amount of differentiation and technology as well as firmly ground my teaching in the Common Core.  The first thing I noticed when I counted up the standards was that there was the same number of standards as full weeks in the school year.  That means that my students will have to master one standard a week!  At first that thought was quite daunting.  My next thought was this is an opportunity to have a very organized curriculum based on a single standard each week.  This is how I decided to organize and pace each week: 

   At the top of each week/page is the unit title, which part of the unit. vocabulary, skills, and the Common Core standard.

Monday will be a whole class, non-differentiated lesson straight from my Math program (Everyday Math).  At the end of the Math lesson, I will give a short assessment on the standard of the week.  For this part of the weekly plan I didn't reinvent the wheel.  Teachers Pay Teachers has several short, one page per standard bundles that are specific to my grade level. I will use these to pre-test my students and put them in differentiated groups for the next three days of the week.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays are differentiated instruction days.  Students will participate in rotational groups I call "I Love Math" groups.  For more information on I Love Math Groups, listen to this podcast or watch this video (the first of 5 parts) on Youtube.  Technology will help make differentiation easier.  I will use the Ten Marks website on Tuesdays and the Manga High website on Thursday.  Both websites allow me to assign lessons/activities and also have fun games and activities for students who finish early.  Scoot Pad is a similar website (click the names for links).

  Friday we are back to another whole class lesson from Everyday Math.  One Friday I will give the post-test (a different "one-pager" from TpT) and this will be graded. 

So that's my curriculum pacing guide for next year.  I haven't offered this as a product on TpT because it is personal to my situation- a labor of love, if you will.  However, if you would like a free digital copy to tweak for you own use, email me at cjones@sau61.org.

Additional EDM/CCSS Alignment Resources:

First, the "official" CCSS alignment from EDM, then the more realistic version from New York. 

http://www.everydaymath.com/downloads/Brochures/EMandtheCCSS_Brochure.pdf

http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/CommonCoreLibrary/CommonCoreClassroom/Mathematics/default.htmligning



A Thing or Two I've Learned

This week I've been thinking and planning the next school year.  These are the five things I've learned as I think about starting the new year:

1.  Hit the Ground Running
     You only have 180 days to make a difference.  You don't have time to get to know your kids starting on Day 1.  Get to know your students as much as possible through their assessment data, if you have access to it over the summer.   If you don't, have a discussion with your administrator.  What policies could your district have  in order to give teachers the data they need before the start of school?  In my school, we get administrative passwords for online assessments.  This way we have access to all of the data, rather than just the kids we had last year.  We also have portfolios that pass from grade level to grade level.  If you don't have these, I strongly suggest they you try to start them.
    Start forming plans before you meet your students so you can start addressing their needs as soon as possible.  I allow seven days to teach routines and establish rules.  By Day 8, we are up and running with a full curriculum.
2.  Don't Wait To Try Something New
     If a child is not making progress by the end of the first month, they are not going to make progress unless you change something.  Monitor students weekly and document, document, document.  Notice I did not say test or assess.  Monitoring can be as simple as doing an individual running record or a weekly random math facts check.
3.  Use a Team Approach
    If your best efforts are not working, reach out.  Share your documentation with others.  Ideally, you should have some time as a grade-level team each week to do this.  One of my favorite videos that illustrates the importance documentation and teamwork is from my digital mentor Jenn Jones of Hello Literacy.  A link to the video and my blogpost in response, with modifications for intermediate level students, can be found here.
4.  A Little for a Long Time is Better Than a Lot for a Short Time
     Programs where students do a short skill every day, or every day for an entire term, yield much better results then spending an entire lesson on a given skill for several days.  Examples of programs that do this effectively are the Math Boxes in Everyday Math, Shurley Language, and Saxon Math.  If you use these programs, never skip the review part of the lesson.  If you don't have programs like this, then make some.  Teachers Pay Teachers is a great source of supplemental programs.
5.  Small Increases in Student Accountability Yield Great Results
     Students can't improve if they don't know the expectations and how they measure up. And don't expect them to pay a lot of attention to rubrics or your written comments.  You will need to model this behavior and show students how these tools benefit them.  Have students reflect on their growth at least once per term.  Keeping a portfolio is great for this.  Data Walls are also a nice way to encourage students.  This is my video on data walls from Youtube.

Working On Writing

My "Triple Threat"

A rubric that shows the child's baseline level (black circle), and their goal (green box).

When I score a piece of writing, I copy this rubric and circle the level that they obtained 

in the assignment with a colored marker.

So when any assignment is scored, the child can see where they were (black circle),

where they should be (gray box), and where they are now (colored circle).

I just got back from a wonderful workshop sponsored by my school.  The training was a continuation on our work with professional learning groups (PLGs).  We had complained that we had too little time to really delve into the PLG process that was new to us during the school year.  Although we have a common planning time of 45 minutes, most of the protocols we were given were designed for 60 minutes or more.  There was a little bit of extra money in our Race to the Top grant, so we used it to work out some unresolved dilemmas using the PLG format.
Our grade level team discussed Writing.  Both this year and next, budget cuts have forced us to make do with less paraprofessional support.  Paraprofessionals are assigned, not to classrooms or teachers, but to individuals or groups of students.  So if none of your students had a goal in a certain subject area, such as Science or Social Studies, you would not have a paraprofessional support during that time.  We felt this most impacted our instruction in the area of Writing.  It is very rare for any fourth grader in our school to have an IEP goal in Writing because very little writing is done in grades K-3, due to Reading First.   Yet many of our learning disabled, language disabled, and ADHD students struggle with the writing demands of fourth grade.  In our PLG we discussed methods to refine our instruction in the Writing Workshop to meet the needs of these students, who often need a lot of our time, and yet be fair to other students.  To boil down the essence of our discussion, we came up with ways to target our instruction based on goals, increase the amount of differentiation, and empower our writers with a growth mind-set.
And thus my latest TpT product was born!  I have worked long and hard the part week on this massive 25-page resource for writing.  It is designed for grades 3-8 and draws on the work of Gail Boushey and Joan Moser ("The Sisters", authors of The Daily Five and The CAFE Book) and the work of Lucy Calkins (known for her Units of Study) but it is my own "take" on the work of these fine master teachers.  Just some of the things it contains are:
- a detailed, 12-page Launching Guide for the Writing Workshop.  All of your instruction for the first seven days is included.  You don't have to plan anything.  The first seven days are the most important so that you set the tone and standards for the year.
- creative activities like Writing collages, and editing necklaces

- my favorite forms (with instructions) for assessment and data tracking in Writing, including:
          - a kid-friendly, baseball-themed Writing rubric

          - my best selling 6 Traits Goal Tracker and Individual Conferring Form
          - 6 Trait Super Grouper Form (for creating small groups based on assessment data
          -  a letter to parents on how to read their child's assessment rubric
The best part is that this product is ON SALE right now for HALF OFF!  That's right, followers!  If you purchase this product before July 11th you get the sale price.  Buy it on July 11th and it goes back to the regular (but still a bargain) price.  So why not treat yourself today?
By the way, I'm not done creating new products this summer. by a long shot.  Right now I'm working on a daily multi-digit numbers and operations review called "4 in 5".  There will eventually be a third, fourth, and fifth grade version.  Right now I'm working on the fourth grade version.  Click here for a sneak peek!

Triangulating Data FREEBIE

I recently finished one of my professional books for the summer:  Assessment in Perspective: Focusing on the Reader Behind the Numbers by Claire Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan.

In this book the authors talked about triangulating data. This means taking data from different sources and compare them side-by-side to build a complete profile of a student's strengths and weaknesses.  I thought a nice way to do that would be in graph form.  So I created a data triangulation form for my Math class.  My form is specific to the grade level I teach and the assessments we use.  For you, dear reader, I have created a generic form that you can use with any grade level and whatever assessments you use.   

Let me know how it works out. 

Steppin' Up Step Up Day

     In my school we have a tradition called Step Up Day.  Students get to spend an hour with their new teacher.  This year the fourth grade team lobbied for an extended time frame with our third graders.  They come from a different school and they are all a bit nervous. They are coming from being the oldest to being the youngest in a school.  Their test scores take a serious hit because our high-stakes testing is at the beginning of October, before they have fully acclimated to the new school.  This year we got to spend an hour and fifteen minutes with our new kids.  I wanted to take this extended time to get to know my students both personally and academically.  So I choose activities where I could do both.  Although I did this for Step Up Day, you could just as easily do these on the first day of school.  This is what we did:
Activity:  Me, Too!
Time:  15-30 minutes, depending on class size and student interest
Goals:  1.  to learn about students interests
           2.  to assess oral language fluency
Start by seating students in a circle.  The teacher starts off first.  Stand up and say a short, general sentence about yourself- your favorite food, subject, hobbies, places you have been, pets, etc.  I started with:  "I have a dog." Anyone who matches that sentence (In my case, they also have a dog) stand up.  Next,  choose a person to walk up to and elaborate on the sentence.  The trick is, I have to use at least 7 words in my sentence.  I call this a 7-up sentence.  My follow-up sentence was:  "I have an adorable Shih Tzu named Louisiana Belle that we rescued from a shelter."  The person you go up too also has to say a 7-up sentence about your topic.  Once I am done, I sit down, and the person I picked has to say a short sentence on another topic.  
     Continue playing, encouraging students to choose people that haven't been picked yet.  If it happens that you have a student who says a sentence that no one in the classroom has a connection with (I had one student who was taking flying lessons), celebrate that person's uniqueness by giving them a round of applause.  And don't forget that 7-up sentence!  Eventually you will find that there are a few students who have not stood up or not been called on.  Have them stand up and give a 7-up sentence about themselves and give them a round of applause.
     As the students play, note which students have a hard time coming up with such a long sentence.  Does their oral language lack describing words (particularly adjectives and adverbs)?  Do they use specific nouns and verbs?  Can they support their statements with phrases, clauses, and linking words like because?  Weakness in oral language can indicate difficulties with writing and reading.  If you have several students who found this task challenging, you might want to see the Whole Brain Teaching website.  There are many videos about creating a classroom with rich oral language.
Activity:  Filling Book Baskets
Time:  15-30 minutes
Goals:  1.  to learn about students interests
           2.  to learn which students can pick good-fit books
     My own students actually came up with this idea.  They really wanted to be a part of showing them around my extensive classroom library and checking to see if the books were good fit.  But, alas, they had to be in their sixth grade classrooms at the same time. I learned that most of my class are typical end-of-third grade readers, in that they pick a book based on the cover, not by checking the level as well.  Oh well, they will learn!
Activity:  Art and Writing
Time:  15-30 minutes, depending on the task
Goals:  1.  to learn about students interests
           2.  to assess their ability to draw with details, handwriting, and task persistence
     I wanted an art project that I could display in my classroom to make the students feel welcomed when they arrived in August.  I choose Ready-to-Decorate All About Me 3-D Balloons from Really Good Stuff.  This had a little drawing and a little writing.  Students could make it as simple or as complicated as they wished.  It was very open-ended.  I learned which students breeze through assignments with shoddy workmanship.  I learned which students had trouble with written/multi-step directions.  I learned who the artistic students were.
     Do you have Step Up Day at your school?  What do you do?  I'd love your comments below.

CAFE Menu for Intermediate Students FREEBIE

I have been using The Daily Five and CAFE as my reading workshop structure for the past five years.  I read both books very early on and got to meet The Sisters just as they were gaining national attention.  I just love these ladies!  They have taken me from a good teacher to a great one.  Because of them, I have met so many like-minded people who have functioned as my digital mentors.  I just hope that I can given back to other teachers out there.
As one of the few pioneers with extensive experience using The Daily Five and CAFE with intermediate level students, I get lots of emails about how to adapt Daily 5 and CAFE.  So today I am sharing two adapted CAFE Menus.  One is for students transitioning from "learning to read" to "reading to learn".  It has less accuracy and fluency standards and more comprehension standards.  I use it with fourth graders.  The second menu is one I created to use with fifth graders or advanced fourth graders.  This menu is completely comprehension.  I recently recalibrated both menus to reflect the Common Core standards.   
I'd love some feedback on them.  Please leave a comment below.

Growth Mindset FREEBIE

     This year, the school that feeds into mine has been experimenting with developing a growth mindset in their students.  This is based on the work of Carol Dweck (Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, 2006, Random House) and Steven R. Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  Students come to school with one of two different mindsets:  dynamic-learning beliefs and fixed-performance beliefs. 
     With a dynamic-learning belief, students understand that the more they learn the smarter they get.  These students realize the connection between their effort and learning.  Their parents probably value effort as well.  This mindset helps students to set and achieve goals.  The student with a fixed-performance belief thinks that intelligence is a fixed trait that they can do nothing about.  They usually lack motivation and don't participate unless they are sure of the right answer, because saying the wrong answer makes you look dumb.
     Students develop their mindset before they enter school.  Their mindset is often shared by their families and culture.  Teachers can also have one of these mindsets.  It is important to know what mindset our students have.  Students with a fixed-performance belief will need more support to set and achieve goals.
     I developed a survey to give my students next year so I could identify the students who were most at risk for a fixed-performance belief mindset and I'm sharing it with you today!  If you are interested in more information about school programs that teach the growth mindset, go to www.theleaderinme.com.  

Common Core is Coming... and I'm Ready!

     Never fear, the Common Core is here!  The internet is fairly exploding with resources for the Common Core State Standards or CCSS.  Here are a few of my favorite resources:
Number One:  A FREEBIE!   
     If you are required to teach from a basal, then you need to check out the Basal Alignment Project on Edmodo.  The group is free to join.  This dedicated group from New York has taken most of the basal series in grades 3-5 and rewritten the lessons to alignment them with the goals of the Common Core.  There are also videos to watch about the shift in expectations, and scaffolded writing assignments that go with the basal text.  The best part is that it's free, but joining the group also gives you a chance to expand your personal learning network to include other like-minded teachers.  There is also an Anthology Alignment Project (AAP) for grades 6-10 on Edmodo.  The "secret" password to join is:  pkx4sp
Number Two:  Teacher-created materials   
     Teachers are already creating materials for the Common Core.  Teacher's Pay Teachers is a great site to get some of the best.  My favorites are one page sheets that cover a single standard (typically in Math).  I have purchased several of these and they are in a binder waiting to be used for review, homework, centers, or to combine several and make a CCSS-alinged unit assessment.  Easy peasy!  Some of my favorites are:

• Grade Four Data Tracking Notebook
• Common Core Math Assessments
• Standards-Based Assessment

Number Three: This summers BIG purchase (but SOOO worth it)!
     For months I have been debating with myself about making this purchase.  I totally blew the budget out of the water.  Because of this I will (reluctantly) have to have my students buy their own school supplies this year.  I hate to do this because of the burden it places on many families in my school that can't afford to do that.  But for a long time I have felt like my Writing instruction wasn't up to snuff.  In fact, Writing is usually the last subject I plan... because I don't look forward to teaching it.  With the changeover to the Common Core, I felt I had an opportunity to really revive my Writing program.  After a year of research, which included polling some of my virtual "teacher heroes", I decided to purchase Lucy Calkins' Units of Study.  Although expensive (I purchased through the publisher which was the cheapest option) the kit that I got was impressive for the price.  There is a book about how to set up a writing workshop, a book about troubleshooting common problems, a book of writing samples from various grade levels, a cd of forms and rubrics, and four entire units.  Everything is done for you, down to exactly what to say during your mini-lessons. I can't tell you how excited I am to try this next year.  I'm thrilled that everything is all planned out for me.

What are YOUR major finds and purchases to teach the Common Core?  Have you created anything you want to share? Leave me a comment below!