Combo Boards!

I don't know about you, but I never seem to have enough display space in my classroom.  Never mind that I have five (!) bulletin boards. I want most of my display space to be for student work or instructional materials, but I realize it is important to have other displays like birthdays, job charts, and classroom management items.  That's why this year I came up with the idea of "combination" displays.  A combo board serves multiple functions in a small space.
The first example is my job chart/birthday board.  The pocket chart has has class jobs, which I call "leaders".  This goes with our school focus of the "Leader in Me".  Around the outside of the chart, I have a cupcake for each student with their birthday.  The cupcakes are in chronological order, so when a child has a birthday, I can just pull the cupcake off, pop it on a pencil, and give it as a gift.

 

     Another example of a combo board is my Super Improver Wall.  Using cards clipped to the pockets, I can add my Super Improver stars.  At the same time I can keep track of discipline by using the colored cards behind.  If students break a classroom rule, I move the cards.  The consequences for each color are above the display.





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!

 

TEERs of Teacher Joy!

Last year, in fifth grade, I piloted the TEER strategy for answering short answer questions in response to literature.  TEER is an acronym to help students remember the four parts their answer needs to have.  Those parts are:

• TTQA (Turn the question around)
• Evidence (right from the book, including page number and quotation marks if not paraphrasing)
• Explanation (Why did you choose this as the most compelling evidence?)
• Restatement

With students a year younger in fourth grade, I found they needed a lot more structure.  Specifically they needed the actual words to use to signal both the evidence section and the explanation sections.  So I created a scaffolded form that helps students with language impairments create fantastic open response answers.  The words the students need are right next to the appropriate section, so students can easily access them. Why didn't I have them pre-printed so all they had to do is fill in the blank?  My mother, a sped Teacher of the Year, always taught me:

"Have students write what you want them to most remember." 

 

 

 

There certainly is a time and place for creativity in open response.  But when students are first learning the "nuts and bolts" of this specialized type of writing, they should not be creative.  Once they have learned the structure of open response, they can apply their own brand of creativity.

Writing "Retirement" Board

I have four small bulletin boards in my room.  They are a challenge to plan for.  They are not big enough to display student work, so I struggle sometimes to keep them current and relevant for my students.
This year, in implementing Lucy Calkins' Units of Study, I needed to have an area in the front of the classroom to store visuals related to that program.  I call this bulletin board my "Writer's Block".  By the end of the first quarter it is pretty full with anchor charts, "Take to Your Seat" writing ideas (for  kids that couldn't come up with something to write about), other visuals and graphic organizers.

So what to do with all that stuff at the end of the quarter?  Lucy herself expressed it best.  We need to impress upon our students that they must remember everything they have learned previously when they embark on a new project in Writing.  So, in the back of the room, I created a Writing "Retirement" board.  This is where I put the most important evidence of learning from previous quarters.  Not everything goes on the retirement wall, otherwise it would be too full.  Using the bulletin board at the back of the room makes it easy for me to see and reference for my students. 

Towards the end of the second quarter, I have moved all the six traits describers to the Retirement board.  I have also moved the four levels chart.  I have two posters I made from the first quarter: a quote from Lucy and Show Don't Tell.  I replaced the "Ideas" descriptor from my rubric because the strategy of "show don't tell"  is the best method to add ideas to writing. 
This quarter we have been studying opinion writing, including the strong organizational components of a strong thesis statement, reasons, evidence, and conclusion.  I will probably take down the organizational poster and replace it with the graphic organizer we have been using during this unit.
How do help students remember the important things you have taught without having too much "eye clutter" for your students?

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.