Happy birthday to me! (day 4)

Day 4

I really didn't get much done before school because people kept popping into my room to wish me happy birthday, which I thought was very sweet.  My new grade level brought me balloons and cupcakes, along with decorating my room.  Wasn't expecting that from a team I've worked with for basically a week, but it's great to feel so welcomed.

In math, we talked more about persevering through problems, did our number talk, then I introduced them to one of my favorite math games 20 wins.  Basically they are placing digits (0-9) into boxes and trying to make a square equal 20 with any operations.  For the first day, I modeled with me against them before letting them try with a partner.

 

We came back together and talked about strategies that were used:

While they played, I walked around making observations.  For the most part, my class seemed very comfortable with addition strategies.  A few groups tried multiplication to make 20.  They'll play again tomorrow and their weekend homework will be to play with a family member.  I don't think I'll have much trouble getting them to want to play math games.

What they don't realize is how much math they're doing.  Yes, they're adding for the most part. But they're also thinking strategically and looking for patterns with numbers.  They're having to predict what their partners might do and prevent that from happening.  They're using multiple operations, practicing order of operations, and often times trying several different strategies until they can make 20.  I love tricking them into learning!

After that math fun, we went over phrasing with fluency.  I had them do a sort with their table teams to pre-assess them and for the most part, they know what fluency is so I'm not starting instruction from the beginning.  Of the four components of fluency (rate, expression, accuracy, and phrasing) I decided to model one.  If I modeled all 4 in one day, they'd be bored and probably confuse the components.  I'd rather go a little slower to make sure they've all got it.

I modeled several different times (incorrectly) and had them give me feedback.  They did a really good job with picking out the errors.  We made a chart together in our notebooks before moving to the carpet for today's skill lesson.

I modeled metacognition, which is thinking while reading, using The Lightning Thief.  The first time I read, I modeled great fluency.  Afterward, I asked them how I did to which they responded great!  Then I let them in on a secret: it's not enough to just read the words.  You've got to think about what you're reading.

I modeled again, this time tapping to the book whenever I was "in the text" and tapping to my head, modeling a think-aloud, whenever I was practicing metacognition.  I had two students keep score:

We talked about how we have to think while reading.  Some of them got it, some didn't.  That's okay, it's day 4.  We've got time. 

We also went over what it means to be a good reader, which was part of their homework:

I'm trying to color code my anchor charts (reading being teal) to help my students.  We'll see how long I can keep up this goal!  I had them brainstorm independently, talk as a table team, then add their thoughts on post-its.

In writing, they're continuing to work on their letters to self.  In science, they're having a great time with the mystery bags.  I also had them draw pictures of what a scientist is:

Then we had the conversation that women can be scientists too, since many drew men.  I talked about how I am a scientist whenever I step into the kitchen.  I am a chemist, hoping my ingredients combine the way they're supposed to.  I have to be accurate in my measurements and ensure my oven is preheated to the proper temperatures.  I test my experiments by eating them :)  I also shared that of the real chemists I know, the highest ranking ones are women.  This was very surprising for them but part of my job is to destroy their gender stereotypes about scientists.

All in all, it was a great day.  My biggest concern so far is I've had to move one student's desk twice already, but I think that's just an adjustment back to school and realizing my expectations of listening to instructions the first time they're given.  

Four days down!

Notebooking idea: types of sentences

While this activity does take a large amount of post-its, I do think it's useful for going over types of topic sentences:

I know my fifth graders struggle with openings and having this in their notebooks helped them with peer revising.

Students would write the definition of each type of topic sentence, put my example, then generate their own examples with their table teams or partners.

Declarative Statement:
Introduces the topic, usually with facts or a rhetorical question.

Situation/Stance:
Gives the author's perspective and sets the tone.

Number Statement:
Uses numbers

List:
Creates a list with related topics to generate interest

FANBOYS
Conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

Good luck!

These are my students, round 3

Our awesome counselor started an after school peer support system with our fifth graders.  Her goal is to have some of the higher students help the struggling students with organizational skills and academics.  The program is a few weeks old but our counselor is receiving lots of positive feedback from the students.  Having a peer assist them privately after school is ideal because one, it's not a teacher so they feel they can connect better without feeling frustrated and two, it's a private support system where no one has to know.  As far as the rest of the grade level is concerned, it's a homework club...which is partially true.

One of my students from my small groups was assisting another student with his fluency.  He was giving him productive feedback as we've practiced, but then privately asked our counselor this:

"Should I model first, so he can hear what good fluency is like? I've been working on my phrasing."

I love that it's ingrained in them to model a skill or strategy first so that students know what is expected.  Considering I model different skills daily, I'm glad the importance of this explicit instruction is sinking in with my students.

Another one of my girls not only made her peer mentee a homework folder to keep himself organized, but she also assigned him homework.  Yes, she found her old fluency practice passages and instructed him to read them nightly and keep track of his errors.  Furthermore, she created a survey for him about his strengths and weaknesses so she could better assist him.  She also wouldn't accept "reading" as his answer for what he was struggling with.  Oh no, she flat out told him to "be more specific". I'm not sure he appreciated it, but I sure did!

This must be what mothers feel like.  

My students are verbatim, echoing things I say on a nearly daily basis.  They are internalizing the need, as a teacher/mentor, to provide positive, concise feedback, model strategies, help with organizational structure and be reflective about one's own learning.

I've created little minions.  I couldn't be more proud that not only are they willing to help their peers, but they have productive strategies to do so.  I love that they're willing to help their peers succeed as well.  High fives for team work.

Metacognition

One of the new strategies I tried this year was modeling metacognition for my students.  In layman's terms, metacognition is being aware while reading or thinking while reading.

We've had a lot of talks that reading isn't a passive activity and your brain should be actively processing and thinking about what the words on the text mean.

Our very first reading lesson was using 2 bowls to show what was occurring in the text and in my head as I read aloud.

As a teacher, I'm quite used to modeling my thinking for my students.  Granted, the first times I felt a little strange having a conversation with myself but I got over that very quickly.

I modeled reading the back cover of The Lightning Thief since that was our first grade level read aloud.  I pointed to the back of the book when I was reading the text and to my head when I was thinking about what I read.

I had my students keep track of the number of times I pointed to the text and to my head with different colored markers.  Not only did it keep them on task and engaged in the lesson, but it let my wiggly students have a purpose for moving their hands around.

At the end of the lesson, they had way more green "thinking" markers then red "text" ones.  

We talked about how as readers, it's more than looking at the words on the page.  We have to actively process and think about what the words mean.  This lesson spanned a few days and we refer back to our anchor chart often, but I'm really pleased with my decision to start the year off with this type of lesson (since I'd never tried it before).

I'm way more excited that my students not only understand the definition and purpose of metacognition, but actively practice it as well.  When combined with annotating their thinking with stop and jot strategies, they are reading rock stars!  

Expository Writing

We started using the expository nonfiction writing unit in Being a Writer, but it simply wasn't meeting our needs.

This week is reading week and we are doing a travel theme.  

Our grade level was assigned Europe, so we are having our students research different European countries.  Instead of writing a paper, they're making travel brochures and loving it!

We reviewed text structures:

Then brainstormed research questions for each:

We went over a very simple organizer for note taking:

For this project, my students are required to use one print and one digital source.  My librarian shared Culture Grams with us.  I taught my students how to access this from our school's library site.  I like that we have access to different data bases and they're kid friendly!

We went over the outline of the brochure:

I modeled a thinking map about Ireland:

From my thinking map, I modeled writing research questions and then determining which text structure I'd use for my written response:

From there, I set up our hallway decoration using the map my awesome neighbor drew:

Norway, by the way, has a very difficult coast line!

We split Europe into four parts and I got Northern Europe.

Tomorrow we're finalizing our brochures and then our hallway display will be up to date!  I love how excited they are to research and learn about different places.

Snap shots

So in our performance zone in our district, we have a facebook page (which you can follow here).  Our school is clearly overachievers when it comes to anchor charts since we've got over a hundred pictures in our album.  Of those, about eight are mine which gives me some warm and fuzzy feelings.  

Here are two snap shots that haven't been previously mentioned on my blog:

Our QR code:

I was a little hesitant at first but this was actually super easy to create.  I turned my welcome letter and info packet into a PDF, which I then uploaded into dropbox.  From dropbox, I did "share link" and emailed the link to myself.  Then, I copied the link and went to one of the numerous free QR code creators and pasted in the url.  After triple checking from various devices, I printed on pink cardstock and stapled it outside my door.

I'm not sure how many parents have downloaded the welcome letter but it's a good strategy for those with smart devices!

Phonics instruction:

We were doing a power point presentation on the 6 types of syllables (CLOVER) at the beginning of the year.  My students were still working on getting the main idea into their notebooks, so I was modeling what to write down by using the smart board markers with the power point:

Just an easy way to give explicit instruction on exactly what you want your students to put in their notebooks :)

I love me some...

Sentence Stems and Question Starters

I love sentence stems and question starters.  The number of awkward ah...um....err...uh.... comments I get has drastically decreased after I modeled how to participate in discussions.  I have posted anchor charts like these ones:

for math, science and reading.  Students are expected to answer in complete sentences and listen to one another, providing thoughtful comments and feedback.  Since listening and speaking are part of our standards, I figured teaching how to communicate in whole and small groups was a good idea.  Our classroom can run like a mini Socratic seminar at times and I wanted to make sure my students left for middle school knowing how to appropriately participate in discussions and thoughtfully respond to peers or prompts either orally or in a written format.  Plus, with modeling, their answers got WAY better, which only helps in constructed responses :)  Winning all around!