Math Rangers

Our school highly prioritizes reading with the Reading Rangers program.  Students graduate through levels, with increasing complexity in texts and increasing ZPD levels, that roughly correspond with grade level equivalencies.

The program isn't perfect, because nothing is, but my students have reading stamina and want to read.  This is a welcome change from past years where getting students to read a few chapters within a week was challenge.

However, one criticism from both teachers and students alike can be that math is not prioritized.  It's a valid point, so the math committee decided to create a similar "Math Rangers" program.

We are focusing on students mastering their basic facts, because so much of later concepts relies heavily on the automatic recall of multiplication and division. Early elementary still needs lots of hands-on time with manipulatives, but they should also be exposed to thinking about number bonds.

One of the things I like about Common Core (and the Engage NY lessons we are using) is how addition and subtraction are taught simultaneously...as they should be.  

We decided that as a school, there needs to be a focus on math as well as reading.  So the math committee, which I'm a part of, is piloting a math fluency program.  We went with an online component because it would take the grading off the teachers' plates.  We already feel overwhelmed, so telling us we have one more weekly probe to grade was not going to be successful.

We decided to go with mathfactspro, which has a free 30 day trial.  The cost was pretty reasonable ($1 per kid per year).  I made a tracking form, but after meeting with the committee, we're tweaking it again.  

I tried to have all my students use the computers today...that didn't work.  We'll be assigning tables and they'll go once a week during independent practice.

The students start with addition facts, then move on to subtraction, multiplication, and division.  The program tests both their computer skills and their math skills, so it's nice to have those skills embedded into math practice time. 

For me, the prep work was about an hour before I could get them onto the program.  I had to manually enter all my students, create passwords (their student ID numbers), set their levels, and set the number of practice questions.  I also had to make copies of their trackers because they are responsible for tracking their own progress.  They keep their trackers in their math data folders. 

The first time on any computer program is always a learning experience.  What should have taken ten minutes took forty.  We learned to hit the "no jokes" button and that it only worked for part of the time.  Hopefully with the purchased version we won't run into that problem. 

For the students, the logging in part is fairly straight forward.  For me, that's important.  I don't want to have to help them every single time.  I want to be able to go over it a few times and then hand over the control to them.  I don't want this to feel like one more thing I have to juggle because as a very overwhelmed teacher, that's important.  I want this program to be useful, but I also want it to be beneficial for my students.

The kids enjoy it and I'm excited to see if it makes a difference.  We'll compare math scores between our kids (only the math committee got licences) and the other classrooms.  

My munchkins are excited to be part of something new.  I told them that it's a learning opportunity for us all.  

When was the last time you tried something new?  How is it working for you?

Literacy Ideas for the real world

I love literacy ideas that actually will be useful.  Sometimes I see beautifully decorated classrooms, but if the teacher is working way harder then the students...something is wrong.  Way way wrong.

I don't know what it is about word walls, but I am awful at keeping them up to date.  Our school does "power words" of the week to improve our students' vocabulary, but around November, I get overwhelmed (shocker) and forget to staple up any new words.  

However, I stumbled upon this idea on Pinterest:

Using paint chips from Home Depot or Walmart, students work with you to create the word wall.  Students can also make their own mini-thesaurus by using the longer, skinny paint chips, a three hole punch and binder rings.  The binder rings are to clip all the paint chips together to a desk so the pages don't go missing :)

Alternative Ideas:

1. Using these paint chips for "shades of meaning" for vocabulary

2. Using these paint chips for synonyms & antonyms, as shown below

3. Using these paint chips for affixes or Greek/Latin roots

4. Using these paint chips for operation strategies (math)

5. Using these paint chips for test-taking strategies

6. Using these paint chips as a monthly book challenge where students must read one book per color (can be modified by using paint strips with less colors), as shown below

7. Using these paint chips for word families (for younger grades), as shown below

8. KWL (what I know, what I want to know, what I learned) charts, as shown below

Second issue: editing and revising

I'm constantly looking for real world examples beyond my students' notebooks.  Then I stumbled upon this gem:

Students here are shown with tweets from NFL stars, but this could be changed to celebrities or other sports depending on students' interests.  I love how it hooks them by using technology references (Twitter, tweets) and by incorporating their interests.  Students can work in groups to be the stars' "publicists" and edit the tweets.  These can also be used as mini-lessons to address specific skills that are seen in students' writing.  Plus, students can see the real world implications of poor grammar :)

Idea #3:

Dollar Store picture frames = instructions for centers, stations or computers.

I would probably use this to display website links, user names and passwords for computer sites because the picture frame can be easily stored on top of the computer.  Obviously I'd use a larger font, but this helps students become self-sufficient at stations.  You can list the do's and don'ts of each station, thus eliminating (or at least reducing) the number of interruptions you receive while with small groups.  Plus, you can easily switch out the pages and the cost is relatively cheap :)

Idea #4: The Class Journal

Now, these composition notebooks aren't cheap and I certainly wouldn't devote an entire notebook to a single prompt, but I like the idea.  You could put in post-its or tabs to differentiate the prompts or have the journals for table teams.  This would be a great back-up plan for when technology chooses not to work (since many of my lessons are on the smart board) or for students who finish standardized tests early :)

Idea #5: Peer Reviews and Book Recommendations

I found this image on pinterest and while it is a bit juvenile for fifth grade, I like the idea of students recommending books to one another.  I mean, we do this all the time as adults, so why not have the students do the same?  (Ok, I may not do it as an adult, but Oprah does and I like her book recommendations!)

This makes me want to have a mini-book fair between the classes and have students do a book share :)