If you have followed the discussion over the past years about "21st Century Skills" or have been on this planet long enough, you know that the ability to work with others is just as important as any "content" knowledge that we, as teachers, can provide. That being said, working "cooperatively" is NOT natural for all people, especially young children, and we have to make sure we are thoughtful about how we help students learn this valuable skill. Today I thought I'd share three key things to keep in mind--and then offer a few suggestions to get your brain thinking about ways to incorporate more learning partnerships in YOUR classroom! Partnerships are the perfect "starting point" for cooperative work! Think about how difficult it is for us, as adults, to get 4 or 5 of us to agree and be productive! Young students simply haven't been around long enough to know how to do that "delicate dance" of sharing, contributing, listening, and more. Learning how to actively listen is easier with just one other person. Sharing with just one person is so much easier for student who are more shy--and it's easier to have a back and forth conversation than try to balance several people. As students become accustomed to working with pairs, then it becomes easier to add people to the group. When forming partnerships, be mindful of your students' feelings. Be careful about the "find a partner" direction--because that is SO difficult for so many students. Whether they be shy, slower thinkers, worried about other students' feelings--asking students to form partners on the fly is often a tricky situation. Think about those who struggle finding partners and make sure everything is safe for them. Ideas? Use a "people picker" like popsicle sticks or index cards. Premake partnerships whenever possible (in addition to avoiding popularity contests, this allows you to encourage students to work with MANY other students, not just best friends). If you DO have students pick partners at times, consider a disclaimer, "If you don't find a partner in 15 seconds, come to me." so you can quickly help pair off those last few students. My students get very used to working with EVERYONE in the class (males, females, tall, small, etc) and they actually REQUEST me to pick popsicle sticks to take the partnering process out of their hands. We need to explicitly TEACH partnering skills Before I ask my students to work in partners, we have a number of discussions where we talk about what partnering LOOKS like, SOUNDS like, and WHY working in partnerships is beneficial. Together we made a list that we continue to refer to as we refine our partnering skills. The students did a pretty good job, I thought! Consider making a similar list with your students to make sure they understand that partnering isn't always easy--but it's worth it! As students start to work in pairs, you may need to stop and review some of these...and your students may come up with different ideas as well. Students need to realize that partnering isn't easy--and they will have to work at it! For some students, understanding that "balanced power" means that BOTH people have to share and both people have to listen is key--they can all relate to times they have had someone try to take over a group...and trying to work with someone who is NOT engaged or on task. So when should I use partnerships? All day long! Think about all the different ways that "Two heads" might be better than one...try some of these! Creating a climate where students work peacefully together will help increase engagement, improve learning, and increase the amount of academic discourse in your classroom. Another added bonus? As students work well TOGETHER, you are free to circulate, coach, and get a better sense of what is happening with your students' learning. Buddy reading Whether your students read with younger students or with others in your class, learning to read so others can hear, taking turns, staying on task, and using an appropriate voice level are all easy to practice with buddy reading. Try making copies of a fun poem for students to experiment with--or have them partner read an article. If you really want to dig in, have students read a novel as partners where they have discussions and buddy reading over an extended period of time. They can even complete a culminating project together! Checking for accuracy One of the first "partner routines" my students learn as we start the school year is "check for accuracy". I start this with basic math problems, math homework, and other tasks--where students work alone, then compare answers with a partner. We then practice how to handle when answers are different...and learn how to re-solve the problem together to see who was wrong and how to "fix up" any mistakes together. This really helps create a climate for collaboration, not competition and is a great way for students to check homework, to check over practice work, or to test the spelling of a tricky word! "Turn and Talk" One of the classic partner activities...and a GREAT way to get all students involved in discussions--turn and talk is a way for students to participate more frequently. This DOES need to be explicitly taught as well. If you simply say, "Turn and talk to a partner", you can sit back and watch certain students immediately turning to a best friend, other students sitting back and waiting to be asked (often ending up sitting silent)--and this doesn't lead to productive talk. Teach students to turn and talk by first checking around them to "include" students (may mean creating a trio!) and to make sure that each partner has a chance to share their ideas. This is a great way to get everyone talking--especially when asking questions ALL students should have access to. Not all students will know the answer to all math problems...but everyone should be able to answer questions related to opinions...to read alouds ("What do you think Ally should do next?")...or other easily accessible ideas. Math games Math games are a fun and easy way to teach the give and take of partnering. When students struggle, you can sit with them and coach the fair play and sportsmanship...but with games, the turn taking part is more automatic and students can work on some of the other factors such as voice level, on task behavior, using supplies wisely and more. This is one of the games in one of my "Partner Play" resources! Partner journals One thing my students enjoy once in a while is what I call "partner journals". You can do a lot of different things with this--but essentially in involves "sharing a notebook" to reflect back and forth on a read aloud, an article, a math problem--anything. Check out THIS POST for more information. It is a great way for students to realize that they write so that others can understand--and if they don't, communication breaks down. Try it and see! Challenge problems Putting students in situations where they need to solve difficult problems can be a great way for partners to learn how to make suggestions, listen to ideas, and politely disagree. When the answer isn't immediately obvious, it becomes clear that "two heads can be better than one"...and students can take their learning to higher levels. What about when students WANT to work alone? This is when coaching might be important...students need to see that other students might have great ideas, might help them find errors in their own thinking--and can make the entire process more fun! My students did a great job partnering on this back to school shopping challenge! These algebra thinking cards were MUCH easier when partners started working together! The math discussions they had were fantastic--and they found lots of misconceptions and mistakes they were making as they worked! My favorite quote? "I knew I could never do math this hard by myself!" And so much more! These are just a few suggestions to get your students working in pairs--but there are so many more! Keep stressing how important collaboration is--and how it takes practice to get good at it...but when we ARE good at it, working together can be so much fun! Follow me on... Facebook Pinterest Instagram @Fourthgradestudio Twitter @FourthGrStudio Periscope @ FourthGrStudio Teachers Pay Teachers Store Blog
What an awesome week we had! Quite a few blog-worthy moments so I'll start with what we did in Science. We have been discussing Forces (push...
Adjectives Anchor Chart/Poster You will receive a tangible 3' x 2' anchor chart. Just laminate and display in your classroom! This serves as a great reference tool.
Truth: I used to spend hours and hours lesson planning at home every night. Finally, I told myself, "No more!" I knew in the near future I wanted to start a
Here's a poster I just finished up that I'll be adding to my classroom this year! Cara at The First Grade Parade made a poster for "Why Writers Write." I've been wanting to make one for "Why Readers Read" and finally made it tonight.
Writing and reading anchor chart ideas for the classroom.
We had a lot of fun this week with our 2D shapes! We really focused on 2D shapes that we see in the real world this week. We could not believe how many shapes we see all around us! We did activities from my 2D Shapes Galore pack. Here are some activities that we did […]
Teaching students about modal auxiliary verbs can be so tricky! Check out this blog post that contains an anchor chart and four free posters!
We know that the more time kids spend reading, the better they will do in school and in life! There’s not much we can do to help kids read at home, except hope that they do. But we can make sure they read during school!! I shared 4 ways I structure my independent reading time on this... Read More
Did you know that vocabulary is one of the biggest predictors of reading success in students? The words we use on a daily basis with our students, in addition to the vocabulary instruction we provide, are CRUCIAL for them! Since it’s so important, it’s only right to get some really great tools and strategies for […]
Do you look on Pinterest for Anchor Chart ideas and give up at the thought that your Anchor Chart could never look that amazing? It actually doesn’t have to be that difficult to make an amazi…
Anchor chart display space can be a challenge in the classroom, especially if your wall space is limited. So much of the learning that takes place in my
Making anchor charts has always been hard work for me. In fact, I never liked making anchor charts for the classroom. I did it because it helps the kids, but I am not a fan of my handwriting, my drawing is even worse, and let’s not even talk about the time it takes to make […]
Here are some other Pinterest ideas that I have made into small anchor charts. I don't know about you, but my classroom is limited on space ...
I finally got the chance to take photos of my classroom to share them with ya'll. Please, if you have any questions about my classroom and where I got my things, just drop me a comment and I will answer as soon as I am able to. My classroom is in a portable and I have wood walls, so it was hard to work around them and the electrical outlets that are right in the middle of the walls rather than in the bottom. Beware, photo galore!
A primer for newbies and a refresher for anchor chart pros!
Last year, I taught how to make inferences for quite some time. With such an emphasis on close reading, I wanted my students to read between the lines, to dig deeper, and to find out the answer to the question, “what is the author really trying to say?!” I spent a lot of time […]
Do you look on Pinterest for Anchor Chart ideas and give up at the thought that your Anchor Chart could never look that amazing? It actually doesn’t have to be that difficult to make an amazi…
Then, we used a little total physical response to give my firsties a better visual on how the size of the places we live are related. They *loved* this
This product is PERFECT for you if you want a quick and easy anchor chart or classroom display. The printing process is simple. Print the template using the poster option in your Adobe PDF Reader. This will make the template print as 9 pages that you can color, tape together, and display around your...
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Is your child ready to read 2-syllable words? Great! Here are teaching tips for the most common early reading problems and fun activity ideas to keep your child engaged!
Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.
I {puffy heart} anchor charts! That is what this blog post is all about….anchor charts and my love for them. When I first started teaching, I went to the teacher stores that sell workbooks, bulletin board paper and sets, and posters. Posters that I remember from when I was a child, like this one: Who ... Read More about Anchoring the Standards: Teaching & Documenting the Common Core Standards with Anchor Charts Part 1
This series on anchor charts previously covered tips for making charts. This post covers the best ways to store and display them.
This post will include several activities and ideas including free printables you might wish to try for teaching prefixes.
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
I'm so excited to be hosting my first Show & Tell Tuesday, a new monthly linky that will happen on the third Tuesday of each month! First I'll share my Show & Tell's and then I'll tell you everything you need to know to join us! What is better than a snow day? How about two snow days that were completely unexpected?! We got last Monday and Tuesday off, which came as a complete surprise. In fact, my friend and I had just been complaining about the fact that there was no hope for a snow day in the ten day forecast. It was so windy on Tuesday that I ended up shoveling the driveway three times due to blowing and drifting! It was well worth the time at home! Last Saturday we attended the wedding of Bonny's college roommate. It was a beautiful occasion but beyond weird that our daughter is old enough to have friends getting married or get married herself! Actually, Timm and I were her age when we got married. She was a beautiful maid of honor. I love this picture of her and Elissa, another of her best friends in the wedding party! Do you run out of places to hang anchor charts? Last year I left a bulletin board empty for the purpose of hanging charts there, but this year I used all my boards for other things. My buddy Melissa gave me a great idea, to use a small curtain rod! The only trouble was figuring out how to hang it on the wall...command hooks to the rescue again! I found really large command hooks and a super small curtain rod. The curtain rod just rests on the command hooks. So easy! Then I used binder rings and just hole punched my anchor charts. I have multiple charts on each set of binder rings and can just flip the paper over the rod and around to the back if I want to display a different chart. When I used to put my anchor charts on bulletin boards with thumbtacks, I would have to remove all the charts, rearrange the order, and then put them back up. This is so much easier! Here's one of the reasons I didn't have room to put my anchor charts on a bulletin board this year. I created a display of all the places around the world that we would talk about in our Social Studies lessons. Each place is mentioned on one of the cards on either side of the map. The places from the cards closest to the map have a black string pointing out the location. The rest of the cards' locations can be found by matching up the sequins. A sequin is on the card and the same color sequin is placed on the map at the correct location. It's like a giant map key! I was so excited when I saw my kids using the map as they were doing their work as historians! If you'd like to make a Where in the World display in your classroom, you can check out my Where in the World Map Labels set at my TPT Store.
This product is PERFECT for you if you want a quick and easy anchor chart or classroom display. The printing process is simple. Print the template using the poster option in your Adobe PDF Reader. This will make the template print as 9 pages that you can color, tape together, and display around your...
Well, the month is over, and I guess I’m SUPER slow in getting up pictures of my October Calendar book. So, here goes! Our October song: We sing this song too: Then our monthly page… it’s difficult to see, but we crossed out one penny for every day of the week and then sang our penny song. And our weather tracker….the children LOVE this page. Before we do this page, we check the temperature and draw it on the thermometer on our IWB (if you are an Everyday Math user, you’ll know about this thermometer!) The kids cheer when we reach another color. Our digital date is always right about our daily schedule. Writing it every day in our calendar binders have really helped the kids notice it and also write it on their daily writing, and some are even writing it on their daily work! We choose a “number of the day” and tally it… Write it in ten frames…. and write about what comes before and after. We use our growing number line for this as well. This has also helped the kiddos be more aware of the resources around them. EVERYDAY we count up to the day of school we are on. The kids never tire of this! (Psst…our 50th day is on MONDAY! yippee!) We also add one dot to our 10 frame for counting days in school. We had ZERO birthdays in October! I do my daily calendar on my Interactive White Board. I pretty much just insert the calendar pages into a flipchart and then add a bit of interactivity to it. One day, I’ll try to take pictures of the flipchart for you! If you have an IWB and don’t know how to make flipcharts, I HIGHLY suggest finding a class you can take! In the meantime, you can check out Promethean Planet for some great tutorials. If you have any questions about my calendar routine, post away and I’ll try to answer them! Good luck today in your crazy classroom!
