Goals for the New Year

    

Ready for laminating!

     One of the things I love about teaching is that each year we get to reinvent ourselves.  This is not like making a New Year's Resolution where everybody knows the old you.  We literally get to reinvent ourselves with a group of people who know nothing about the way we were before.  It's a remarkably exciting feeling, to say the least. 
     This year my personal/professional goals are linked closely to my class make-up.  Last year 40% of my class had documented special needs (IEPs or 504s).  This year it's 0%.  This means I will not be eligible for any support in my classroom.  Because I teach in a district with high needs, this has never happened to me before.  What an opportunity!
     However, it's not going to be a year I can just coast.  No one in my class may have documented special needs, but there are still students who are struggling.  Also, meeting with the third grade teachers, I kept hearing, "Bright, but no motivation."  over and over.
     So these are my classroom goals that I'm going to be blogging about for the coming school year:
1.  Pump Up the Learning Center
When I hear about kids that lack motivation, I instantly think learning games.  I have tons of learning games and have used a learning center with various degrees of effectiveness for many years.  Now it's time to really invest in making it work.  A full blog post on this is coming soon!
2.  Making Daily Five Even More Motivational
I love Daily Five, but every year I have a few kids who are not motivated by it.  In fact, sometimes the very fact that I don't assign work makes them think I've given them a license not to carefully read grade level material for comprehension.  I'm still keeping Daily Five, but I'm going to have students write a short summary after each book they read (instead of a weekly journal) and earn Book Bucks.  Each quarter I will have an auction where they can use their  Book Bucks to purchase items.
3.  WBT 2.0
Have you heard about Whole Brain Teaching?  Well, Coach B has reinvented it with his newest version that emphasizes critical thinking and writing.  I am pumped!
4.  Tweaking Differentiated/Common Core Aligned Everyday Math
Last year I had the high average group for Math and also did not have any support.  So I created a differentiated weekly plan that aligned the outdated EDM version we have with the Common Core.  (see this blog post)  It worked out very well and my students made excellent progress.  I need to use that plan again, because I have about five students coming in with NWEA scores at the end of fifth grade range.  I'm going to have to use some fifth grade materials and I'm not sure how well that will go over with the fifth grade team, but I'm still gonna try.

Adventures in Writing Part II: Step Up to Writing



     This spring my school piloted the SBAC assessment.  As fourth grade teachers, we were shocked at how much writing there was.  It's all computer based, and our students had very little experience writing long pieces totally on the computer in a single setting.  I'm really glad I started looking around for a great writing program the year before.
     About a year ago I wrote a post about my first adventures trying out Lucy Calkin's Units of Study. On the whole, my year went pretty well.  I certainly felt like my professional development needs were met.  It was nice to have such a highly detailed program and not have to worry as much about planning.   As I read through the lessons, it was like I was observing Lucy as a teacher.  This really fed my soul.
     However, as the year progressed, it was clear that my students did not have the prerequisites for the type of work the program expected of them.  The students that feed into my school as fourth graders come from a Reading First school.  This means that in K-3 they are required to have a minimum of 90 minutes of reading instruction that is not allowed to include writing.  Students who are struggling with reading have an additional 30-60 minutes of instruction outside the classroom, which also cannot include writing.  The students who are still in the classroom cannot do anything above and beyond, like writing, that these struggling students might miss, so even typical students cannot be writing during this 60 minutes.  After 90 minutes of Math, this leaves 30-45 minutes a day divided among Writing, Science, and Social Studies.  So you can imagine how little writing instruction students get before fourth grade. 
     Because of this lack of writing instruction (not just lack of following the entire Units of Study program), I felt that this program became too challenging for the students.  They did alright with the narrative and persuasive units, but things started to unravel with the report unit and by the time we reached the literary essay unit, I knew Lucy and I had to part ways.  It is a reluctant parting, but caused me to think about what I liked about the program and what its drawbacks were.  I certainly loved the high standard that the program aspired to. I love how it encouraged creativity.   I will definitely continue to use the "launching", narrative and persuasive units (the narrative with little alteration and the persuasive with considerable alteration).
     What I felt the program was lacking was concrete strategies for reluctant writers, particularly in the area of text organization.  Yes, there were a few and they were outstanding.  The students and I clung to those, like a droowning man clutches a life jacket.  I love her "boxes and bullets" ideas with persuasive writing.  The program also has some great "thinking starters".  These few were very impressive (I could actually SEE the light bulb go on for several students when I taught these strategies), but they were not enough to compensate for the many lessons where there were no such concrete strategies given and students were just expected to be able to come up with volumes of written words.   
     That's why this year I went looking for a program I could pair with Calkins' to give the students more structure and strategies.  Sometimes I think creativity in elementary student writing is over-rated.  I know Units of Study can elevate student writing in the direction of creativity. But the push for creativity is a waste of time for students with little or no writing experience or desire.  I'd rather their writing starts out as a bit formulaic at first.  They can add their own creativity after that, if they are motivated to do so.  So Units of Study will have to become my supplemental writing program. 
     The program I decided to be my primary writing instruction is Step Up to Writing, a program often used to complement Units of Study.  I wish I could say that I could afford the newest Common Core-aligned version, but after breaking the bank last summer buying Calkins with my own money, I knew I couldn't pull that again.  I was lucky enough to find the second edition on eBay for under $100.  It was just what I was looking for.





     Step Up to Writing is a high visual and organized program for teaching writing.  The emphasis is on organization, particularly paragraph structure.  The paragraph is the "building block" of both short response writing and multi-paragraph writing.    Color-coded formulas and acronyms are used extensively in the program to emphasize paragraph organization.  I have the feeling I will be making a lot of anchor charts next year.  I also love that the program comes in a 3-ring binder.  This allowed me to rearrange units as I felt the need.     

     Stay tuned to see how things go next year.  It begins in about a month.

Cooperation VS Competition: Which Is Best?

 

 

 

     Great teachers know how and when to use games in their classroom.  Games motivate students and are a great way to review material.  But which is better, cooperation of competition?

     Cooperative games build teamwork.  They are also a better way to eencourage striving students who often need a more nurturing and less stressful environment in order to perform well. The flip side is cooperative games are often not as motivating to bright students.  They can feel dragged down if other members of their team do not "pull their weight".  Struggling students can suffer, too, if more aggressive students act as bullies. 

     Competitive games are usually more rewarding for students, even if the winners of the game don't receive an actual prize.  When I do competitive games, usually the only prize is respect.  Bright students often thrive with competitive games, however struggling students can get very frustrated and shut down. 

     My solution is cooperative competitive games.  These are the types of games that students work cooperatively within a team, but that team competes with other teams.  Here are some of my favorite cooperative competitive games.

Show Me (A Kagan Structure)

     Materials:  1 whiteboard, marker, and eraser per group of 3, and any review materials

     Procedure: 

1.  Divide the class into groups of 3 and pass out materials.  If your class cannot be evenly divided into three, it's OK to have a group of 2.

2.  Have the students in each group decide who will be the Reader, Writer, and Shower.  Tell them that these jobs will rotate each round, so every person in the group will have a chance to be every job.  In the group of 2 the Reader and Shower will be the same person.

3.  Using your review materials, have the Reader read the problem or question.  The group then decides on the answer and the Writer writes it on the whiteboard.  The Shower goes up to the front of the room and holds up the whiteooard so the class cannot see it.

4.  When all of the groups have a Shower in front of the room, the teacher says, "One, two, three, show me!" and all the Showers turn their whiteboards around.  The teacher gives one point for each group with the correct answer. 

CC Toss (pictured above)

     Materials:  6-12 numbered buckets/containers, a tennis ball or beanbag, review materials

     Procedure:

1.  CC Toss stands for Cooperative Competitive Toss.  Divide the class into two groups and line them up facing the buckets you have previously set up. 

2.  Pose a question/problem to the first two people in line.  Kids yell out the answer as soon as they have it.  The trick is to not tell if the person is right or wrong.  The second student has as long as they like to decide if they are right or wrong.  It is up to you if you want kids to be able to consult their teammates on this one.  If the first person is right and the second person correctly says they were, both kids get to toss the ball and you record the points.  If the first student is wrong and the second student knows this, the second team gets to toss the ball but not the first.  If the first team is right, but the second team thinks they are wrong, only the first team gets to toss the ball. 

Auctions and Non-Auctions

     Materials:  objects to auction off, a way to keep track of points (coupons, play money, charts, etc.), a chart

     Procedure:

1.  Traditional auctions are a competitive way to reward students.  The teacher gives play money or points and the children use these to purchase items at auction. 

2.  I also have non-auctions.  Before a non-auction, I will give kids a list of reinforcers and have them rank them from high to low.  Usually the reinforcers have a theme, like inside activities, outside activities, candy, or ice cream and toppings.  Using this information, I make up a chart that assigns values to these items.  The items or activities that the students ranked the highest will be the most expensive.  In a non-auction, anyone with the required number of points/tickets/coupons gets what they want.  So if everyone has enough money for a banana split, they all get a banana split.

 

     What are your favorite competitive and cooperative games?  Please share!

 

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.

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.

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. 



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



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. 

Hollywood Squares Review Game

I was looking through my teacher files this week to try to come up with a fun games for my kids.  It is still cold with lots of snow on the ground here in northern New England.  Although Easter is around the corner, spring hasn't sprung yet.  The kids are pretty anxious for that to happen.  When it gets above freezing they try to ditch their winter coats.  I know many of you are starting "test prep" season.  Our high stakes test is in October, so I don't have to worry about that until the start of school.  So maybe a fun game is good for all of us. :)
One of my favorites is Hollywood Squares.  It combines two things kids love:  competition and whiteboards.  You can use this game to review anything, but it is particularly good for vocabulary,spelling and math computation because the answers will be short enough to write quickly on a whiteboard.  Set up the front of your room with three student desks in a row and three chairs in front of them.  Lay one whiteboard, marker and eraser on each desk, chair, and one in front of each chair.  Having one child sit on each desk, one in each chair, and one on the floor in front of each chair gives you a three by three tic-tac-toe board.
Divide the rest of the class into two teams:  X and O.  Usually I do boys verses girls, just like Hollywood Squares.  The teams take turns picking a person holding a whiteboard.  I ask the question and the person with the whiteboard writes their answer and shows it.  Now, here's the great part.  The person with the whiteboard doesn't have to get the answer correct.  The person who picked them has to decide if the answer is right or wrong.  If they choose correctly, they "take" the square.  If not, the other team gets it.  Just like tic-tac-toe, the object is to get three in a row. 
My students love this game, and I hope yours will, too.

Teaching with Technology: Build Your Wild Self!

I'm always looking for ways to integrate technology into my teaching.  I recently came across a great website run by New York Zoos and Aquarium.  Children can create their own "wild self" using all sorts of animal parts.  They can then print or email the picture.  We are using the pictures for descriptive writing and to talk about animal adaptations during our Science unit.  Here is my sample picture I used to get the kids excited about the project:

 

Then I had my students write about their picture using the following prompts:

What are you?  ____________________________________________________________________

1.      What’s "wild" about you?  Describe each “wild” part, including the part, the animal it comes from, and how it is used.

2.     What habitat are you ideally suited for?  Why?

3.     Look at the other pictures created by students in the class.  What other animal might be a predator to your animal?  Why?

4.     Look at the other picture created by students in the class. What other animal might be prey for your animal.  Why? 

5.     Email your picture to your teacher.

Notice and Note

     Jenn Jones over at Hello Literacy recently wrote about a new book Notice and Note:  Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend that you add it to your professional reading.  It gives a very clear picture of what close reading of fiction texts should look like in an intermediate/middle/high school setting.  I found ideas that I can implement in my classroom immediately. 
     The book explains six "signposts".  These are common literary devices that authors use to get the reader to stop and think.  When students see one of these devices, it is time to take notice and jot a few notes.  I knew this is just what my struggling readers need.  They know how to use reading strategies.  They can predict and infer when I ask but, left on their own, they don't use these strategies because they don't know when and where to use these them.
     I love the idea of signposts.  Poor readers often speed through texts, never slowing down and savoring the moment.  They are "plot junkies"- always rushing through text to find out what happens next.  By showing them where authors have intentionally put  stop signs, yield signs, and Rest Areas, I hope I can improve their overall comprehension.
     And so on to today's freebie!  I have made graphics of the six signposts to use in my classroom and I want you to have them, too!  They are medium size (2-4 per page) for use on anchor charts or with teaching small groups of students.  Enjoy!

Our War on Pronouns and the Disappearing Main Idea

     I am a looping teacher.  This is my second year with this group of students.  In fourth grade I used the term "TTQA" ("turn the question around") to help students construct better answers.  As fifth graders, they started to get a bit sloppy about TTQA, so it was time for a new angle.  During a grammar unit on pronouns I introduced the term antecedent.  An antecedent is a noun that occurs before a pronoun.  Pronouns should never be used in front of nouns.  So I declared a war on pronouns without antecedents.  The student made the posters which are displayed in the front of the room which show pronouns are not welcomed here!

     Task cards are one of my favorite teaching tools.  They are flexible and great for small groups and centers.  Recently I purchased these summary task cards on Teachers Pay Teachers. Although the directions for them said "Summarize this paragraph in twelve words are less.", I wanted to do something a little more fun and challenging with my student who has difficulty in this area.  I had him roll the dice to determine how many words his summary had to be.  This made him work a bit harder.  He found that the less words he could use the harder it was to summarize and the more he had to use his own words, but that lead to some great conversation that helped him gain some insight in this valuable skill.

1, 2, 3: Gradually Releasing Responsibility

     The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model has been around for quite some time as a model of best practices.  I use it on a regular basis with my students.  But lately I have been thinking about how I have them be a part of this method.  I feel it's important to let students in on the "secrets" that make good teaching and learning.  For example, I already let students know when I am doing a formative assessment ("I can't help you with this assignment because right now I need to see what you can do by yourself.  This will tell me what and how I need to teach in the future.") and why I am using the results of that formative assessment to guide my instruction. (Today, friends, I am putting you into groups based on your score on that formative assessment you took last week...") . 

     The new Common Core standards ask us to increase the text complexity in our classrooms.  It is not enough just to have complex text for high stakes assessment.  Our students need to "wrestle" with highly complex text routinely in their classrooms.  We need to model how we attack a text that students have absolutely no background knowledge about.  We need to hold them accountable for the strategies we have taught them no matter what type of text they encounter.

     I decided the gradual release of responsibility model needed a catchy name and make-over.  GRR has become 1-2-3 in my classroom.  When I say:  "Today you have a 1-2-3 assignment."  or "Today's work in class is getting you ready to do a 1-2-3 assignment tomorrow.".  For a 1-2-3 assignment, students attack the text in three ways:

1-  Activate Thinking (gesture:  point to head with pointer finger).  At this point in the year my students know all the pre-reading strategies.  Instead of choosing one for them, I ask them to choose and share with a buddy.  Along with sharing the strategy, they also must share why they picked that particular one.  I also have them write this down.  It is important for students to remember that they must engage their brains before reading and that engagement can take many forms depending on their purpose as a reader.

2-  Read through the entire selection (gesture:  point to your eyes with two fingers).  Students need to read the assignment all the way through in order to get the "big picture".  Reading all the way through includes titles, captions, and headings.  

3-  Selective Reading (gesture:  left hand- hold up three fingers with one hand, "pick" them with the other)  Students should answer as many questions as they can.  Then they should look at the choices (if questions are multiple choice) and reread the selection selectively just to find the answer to these questions.  If you are asking the students to do short answer questions, have them start the answer (even if they don't know it) by turning the question around (also called TTQA).  Simply by writing down the words of the question, students will be able to know what key words they will need to focus on during the test. 

Masterful Mini-Lessons

So when life gives you lemons...
This was a particularly tough week for me professionally.  I had a big term paper due in my Master's class.  At the same time I realized I had to make a major "course correction" in Math.  The students were just not getting the material and I knew that they wouldn't be ready for the test I scheduled on Friday.  So I spent several days scrambling to get more (and different) material to teach the topic in a new way and to fill an additional week of instruction.
At the same time I realized that I am unhappy with the quality of my reading and writing mini-lessons.  I am way too task-oriented.  I do too much telling them what to do and not nearly enough time showing them how to do it.
Squeezed in between all the professional reading I have do to for my Master's, I am also reading Lucy Culkins' A Guide to the Writing Workshop Grades 3-5.  This book is a breath of fresh air.  Her words really resonate with me.  It is not about doing more, it is about setting up our instruction and instructional time purposefully, and choosing our instructional language carefully.  I find myself actually quoting from the book when I conference with my students! Her book really gets you into the heads of intermediate grade students.  I realized, reading her book, how I could "beef up" my mini-lessons in both Reading and Writing.  So I created some scaffolding to get me started: a template to help me develop my lessons with care and thought.  I hope it is useful to you.  Please leave a comment if it is.

What Students Think of Questions

     A few days ago I had an interesting experience while questioning my students.  It started in Math class.  I had the following problem on the board:
Jack says 2/5 + 2/5 = 4/10.                                                                Jill says 2/5 + 2/5 is 4/5.
     I had the students sign their names under what they thought was the correct answer.  The first to sign up was one of my brightest students in Math.  She (correctly) chose Jill's answer. Other students rapidly signed up under Jill's answer.  Lastly, my behavior-disordered student signed his name under Jack's answer.  Suddenly, like a leak in a dike, one child after another moved their name to Jack's side, until about half the class had chosen the correct answer and half the incorrect answer.  I gave each child a personal whiteboard and asked them to find two ways to prove their answer was correct.  If this changed their mind, they were welcome to move their name.  More shuffling of names ensued.  Finally, I paired up the students that answered "Jack" with the students that favored "Jill" and had them explain their reasoning to their partner.  They could change their answer if they wish.  After one last shuffle, only three students remained on the wrong side.
     I asked the students, particularly the ones that changed answers several time, to examine why they changed their ideas.  What convinced them?  What failed to convince them?
     Later that same day (with a different group of students), I asked the class to evaluate the activities we had done over the past four days.  The students have participated in a "Mission to Mars" simulation in order to help them understand the journey of Lewis and Clark.  However, I have never mentioned Lewis and Clark to the students, nor told them why we were simulating a Mission to Mars.  I asked the class:  The past few days, have we been doing a Science or a Social Studies unit?  I used this question in order to determine if they understand that Social Studies is the study of human experience.  At first vote, everyone agreed it was a Social Studies unit.  As I questioned students about the reason for their choices, they began to doubt their choice.  More and more students became convinced that they were beginning a Science unit.
     Before the class became thoroughly confused, I told them about the similar experience I had had that day in Math.  That how asking students to clarify and explain their work caused them to question their answer, until many had gone back and forth several times and were very confused.  I felt on the verge of understanding something about critical about using questioning itself.  I asked my students:  Why do teachers ask you questions in school?  Why do we ask you the reasons for your choices?  Many students said that, when the teacher did that, they began to doubt their answer.  They assumed, if questioned, that the answer was wrong.  When they couldn't explain how or why they knew, that confirmed for them that their original "gut answer" was incorrect.  I emphasized to them that, when a teacher asks you to "prove it", he or she is trying to tap into your memory and logic skills that led to that (often correct)  "gut answer".  In fact, more often than not, if a teacher asks you to prove it, he or she means you are right!
     It is so interesting to me how teachers and students perceive things differently.  Is this the result of a lack of questioning?  Should I add more questioning into my teaching?  Or is this indicative of the age of the pupils or the impact of their home environment?  I would love to hear comments from you!