I finally nailed teaching symbolism! Using candy was both engaging and efficient - a major win that students remembered all year long!
Some time back, I noticed posters like this in our school hallways. I found out from learning support that they were to help the children learn self-regulation. The posters were based on a con…
Place Prepositions: Place and Movement Prepositions: Finally, some more MOVEMENT Prepositions: The girl is walking...: ...
20 weeks later and "A Stick Figure Macbeth" has finally come to an end. In case you're just joining me, here's what happened during the past 20 weeks:
Explore examples of co-teaching models for ELLs and non-ELLs alike. There are 6 models that content and English language teachers can use when co-teaching.
Does the following story sound familiar to you? For years, the Social Studies teacher and I banged our heads against a wall with getting our students to fully explain their answers, support their ideas with evidence, and then explain and/or analyze that evidence. We used witty acronyms, taught it consistently across the curriculum, modeled examples... and yet, students still under-performed. My solution... So this year, I decided to make a keepsake/reference tool that our eighth grade students could use all year long (in all content area classes) and even take with them to high school. And voila - the analysis booklets were born. The first (black) booklet is a crash course on what analysis IS and what it LOOKS like in different genres (like on tests, essays, and science lab reports/technical writing). The second (gray) booklet breaks down the 5-step process of fully leading into, stating, analyzing, and transitioning out of a direct quote or fact. After initial instruction, my 8th graders used them to write timed, "open-booklet" literary analysis essays... and, for the first time in five years, a majority of the class could fully embed and analyze direct quotes that logically supported the topic sentences in body paragraphs. (...Imagine my kind-of-freaking-out face inserted here...?!) These worked so well that I just HAD to post them to TpT... My philosophy is, if it works, then other teachers and students could probably use it too, right? ... Enter my friend Nouvelle, another secondary ELA teacher, who bought the booklets and decided to use them in her classroom, too. She made this awesome video to show her kids how to put the booklet together (which we agreed only takes about 20 minutes of total assembly on average), and she gave me permission to share the video with you! She's getting awesome results from her students, and to date, about 20 other teachers seem to feel the same way. Also, in response to a teacher's request, I made an interactive notebook anchor page (so that students can "frame" and keep their booklets safe in their notebooks forever!)... ...and a zoomed-in sample page/poster, ready to print, photocopy, put under a doc camera, or blow up into poster size... I'm really excited to see how these booklets continue to help my students over time, and I hope they make a visible difference in your students' writing, too! Let me know what you think! ;-)
Did you know that the silent E is an extremely busy letter? It has SEVEN jobs! And somehow, the silent E also finds time to make it difficult for struggling readers to learn it. But here’s a handy way to start making things finally click for kids… Teach students that the silent E is a sidekick. Just like...
Even though I believe there's a lot of learning going on when kids are involved in creative play, crafting, games, cooking, and a...
8 Linking Adverbs, Accordingly, Also, Besides, Consequently, Finally, Furthermore, Hence, However finally Meaning / Synonym: at last, eventually. It introduces a final point. Example Sentences: The bus finallyarrived. The news finally reached my father this afternoon. furthermore Meaning / Synonym: It means “also”, “additionally”, “besides”. Example Sentences: He is very clever, furthermore, his father is very rich. I like play football. Furthermore, I like play voleyball. hence Meaning / Synonym: therefore, hereby, on account of this Example Sentences: A good job was offered me, hence I accepted it. There was a problem in the university, hence I went home late. however Meaning
Memory aids are often used to help students remember certain spelling rules. The FLoSS rule is one of the first spelling rules taught to our first and second grade students to help them understand when to double the final “f”, “l” and “s” consonants at the end of certain words. The word “floss” actually follows the FLoSS […]
Last summer I attended a GT training and was introduced to choice boards! I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! I think that students are more engaged and even challenge themselves more when they are given choices. The great thing is....they aren't just for GT students. Choice boards work similar to tic-tac-toe; the student completes 3 activities in a row {up, down, diagonal} They can be adapted for ALL students and actually lend themselves well to differentiated instruction. On Tuesday, I will be attending another GT training specifically on choice boards and differentiated instruction {I'm super pumped about it!} I can't wait to learn more about these learning tools! {I promise to share what I learn!} Choice boards can be set up in many different ways. You can base them off of abilities, learning styles, intelligences, and even levels of questioning. I have found it easier, if I focus on just one of these types. When creating the board, you want to plan out what type of activity each square will focus on. {You don't want to have 2 of the same type of activities in a row} The goal of the CBs are to have equally acceptable activities that you want the students to complete that are similar end products, but have varying ways to accomplish the final product. {For example, you are studying the Alamo. Students could choose activities from writing a diary from the viewpoint of being in the battle, recreating a model of the Alamo, creating a movie, etc.}The wonderful thing about CBs though...students can choose an activity they are willing to complete {taking into consideration their own likes/learning style/intelligence}, but they will have 2 other activities they will need to complete that will focus on other skills that they possibly may need to strengthen {but at the very least they're practicing other skills}! It's a win-win situation! I recently put the choice boards I created for my homework reader's responses in my shop. My students are required to read 20 min nightly, however I found that many of them weren't really reading every night! These choice boards give student's different options to respond to their books, while focusing on varying skills. I've also included 4 blank {editable} choice boards so that you can create your own boards! .....And I used the adorable sneakers clipart to jazz them up from KPM Doodles {love her stuff!} Here is an example template of how to begin creating a choice board based on Multiple Intelligences: Source: Dare to Differentiate Here are some great resources: Dare to Differentiate (AWESOME site for resources!) PVUSD Choices based on intelligence
Six revision exercises (vocabulary, grammar, comprehension) for stronger students. - ESL worksheets
Fun reading about animal senses - ESL worksheets
I have been seeing this linky party for the past few days now and I have finally worked up the motivation to put this post together! I love pinterest and I am so excited to show you my favorite things!! Thanks to Just Reed for the linky! 1. The first pin is a recent one that I found and it is called, Slap & Go! Each week two sight words are written on two hands and before students enter (or leave) the classroom they slap the hands and read the sight words. I am thinking about doing two hands and two feet so students can practice four sight words a week! I think the kids will love this! 2. The next pin that I found a while ago was this ones below. I just want to do this for back to school week! How fun would this be?!! 3. My next pin is ear bud storage. This year each one of my students will be assigned their own I-pad and of course will have their own ear buds. I would like to set up something like this to keep them organized and keep everyone's ear gook in one place. ewww! 4. My next pin is an awesome management idea that I forgot to use this year! Editing student writing is a great one-on-one learning opportunity for them but it is so distracting when a line of 15 other students are standing their waiting for you to edit their paper too. So... SOLUTION! :) Students who are ready to have their papers edited pin a clothes pin on a board beside you instead of waiting in line. 5. Next pin is an anchor chart that I used this year to teach verbs. I attempted to make one that looks the same! I just love it! 6. The next pin is so much fun to do! All you have to do is write numbers on a twister mat! Students throw a bean bag onto the twister mat and come up with an addition/subtraction problem to the sum that is written on the twister mat! So much fun and great math practice! 7. Next, is a way to organize math games. My district does Everyday Math and we are constantly teaching kids games to play to reinforce concepts. I would love to organize the games like this so they are available for the kids to play during free time or math center time. I will be doing this! :) 8. This year I am doing an owl theme and I moved to a new classroom that has a HUGE whiteboard and three big black metal cabinets... So, I saw this pin the other day where the behavior 'clip' chart is actually a 'magnet' chart. I am going to use the clipart I bought to make my own... but I love the idea! 9. I will also have a table for guided reading. It is not a kidney one but I am using my desk as my meeting area as well to meet with my students. I am going to be getting vinyl mats so students and I can write down things that come up during a guided reading lesson. It will be so much easier to pull out the dry erase marker than to pull out paper and pencil to learn to connect sounds or comprehend a story! 10. My last pin and one that I am so happy to have found was this one! A magnetic word wall! Um... genius! I am in the process of making cute word wall cards to match my colors in my room & my word wall will be up on my massive white board! I love this idea because students can simply pull a word off of the word wall if they need to know how to spell it during their writing. It will be so easy to make my word wall useful & interactive! Here is one last final one that just explains us all! :) Thanks for viewing my favorite pins! I hope you got some great ideas for your new up and coming school year!
I hope I’m not the only one who struggled with all the lingo when starting out as a teacher at an IB PYP school (International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme). Units of inquiry? Learne…
Memory aids are often used to help students remember certain spelling rules. The FLoSS rule is one of the first spelling rules taught to our first and second grade students to help them understand when to double the final “f”, “l” and “s” consonants at the end of certain words. The word “floss” actually follows the FLoSS […]
A few years ago, our school implemented "voice levels" as a way to help at assemblies, in hallways, and within our classrooms. This has really helped with consistency across the grade levels and made the first few weeks of school even easier when introducing these concepts. In our school, if a teacher needs to get students' attention, he/she will hold up our hand in the shape of a zero. If kids are working in small groups and are getting a little noisy, I would hold up two fingers to remind them it was "Voice Level 2". When we create presentation rubrics, we always include "Voice Level 3" as an area to focus on. In the beginning of the year, when we are making our Daily 5 Anchor Charts around expectations, Voice Levels 0, 1, and 2 always make an appearance. I have loved thinking of Voice Level 1 (whisper) as "Spy Talk"! In the past, I have used the fingers-on-the-voicebox trick~ if it vibrates, it's not Voice Level 1~ but the idea of talking like a spy is soooooo much more fun! This year, I ask my Teacher's Assistant to help be my Voice Level Monitor. If they feel it is getting too noisy, they will assist me in showing the appropriate voice level with our finger(s). Here is the file for the poster (I recently changed over my font, so it looks slightly different). **UPDATE: If you like this idea, you will love my new Voice Levels Management Pack available on TpT! Be sure to download the Preview to see everything that's included and read my updated post HERE for more info! Enjoy!
Understanding the difference between inference and prediction is one of classic challenges in literacy instruction.
Discover the ultimate guide to scheduling your literacy block! Maximize time with whole group reading and small group instruction. Explore strategies for differentiated learning to meet the needs of all students. Get your free Suggested Literacy Block Organizer now!
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5 MUST-HAVE TEACHING PRACTICES Whether you are a panicking first year teacher or a fifth year teacher hoping to finally gain that 100% confidence and joy in the classroom, these effortless tips wil…
Last week I posted some Common Core English Language Arts ideas. I've come back for more! :) When I get to unit 3, in a few short weeks {according to my district's pacing guide} I should start to teach my kiddos narrative writing. I wanted to see how ready they were so I started it a little bit. I've started to make some things to help them understand the sequence. I also use the who, what, when, where cards I posted about before {here}. We started talking about narrative stories because we were reading them everyday! After we read a book, I would ask what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. When they mastered that, we moved on to first, next, then, last. Then, I told them we are going to write our own narrative! AH! Or perhaps you need these: Oh narrative writing. Why do you hate me? By the end of the year, they should be able to:Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure. *NOTE: I DID A LOT OF MODELING AND SHARED WRITING BEFORE I LET THEM GO OFF AND TRY THEMSELVES!!!! It's all about modeling! For this activity. I just read a book about a haunted house {you can do any topic} and I had my kids pretend they knocked on the door of a haunted house {sorry, I forgot to take pictures}. They drew a picture of what would happen: Then, they took what they drew and wrote one or two sentences {rough draft} to go along with the picture: Finally, they wrote a final draft after I had a mini-conference with them about their rough draft. They will finish up the "writing process" by publishing their work in the classroom! :) My kiddos did ok on this, but we were all exhausted by the end! I get exhausted by narrative writing! What do you do that WORKS for teaching narrative writing? Do you do writers workshop??? Frames by: KPM Doodles Paper Pixels
Complete reviewFive separated exercises (7 pages) +key - ESL worksheets
Place Prepositions: Place and Movement Prepositions: Finally, some more MOVEMENT Prepositions: The girl is walking...: ...
Born in Orsha, a part of the Russian Empire (now known as Belarus) on 17th November 1896, Vygotsky was a pioneer of psychology; he contributed much important research to the field. He graduated from the Moscow State University in 1917, and went on to work in many research facilities and and educational establishments in Moscow, Leningrad and Kharkov. His extensive research into cognitive development has lead his theory to be one of the most important of it’s kind. He believed that children’s thinking is affected by their social knowledge, which are communicated by either psychological (language, number, art) or technical (books, calculator) means. He was – and sometimes still is – often criticised for being an idealist and his overemphasis of the role of language in thinking (more on the criticisms later). He was also a very popular author, with 6 volumes of his work being classed as major. Vygotsky rarely conducted research; he was more focused on constructing the best possible theory on the transfer of knowledge. Unfortunately, Vygotsky died at the very young age of 37 in 1934 from Tuberculosis, but once his main work was translated to English in 1962, it had a major impact on other psychological research in similar fields. Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development As stated above, Vygotsky believed children’s thinking is affected by their knowledge of the social community (which is learnt from either technical or psychological cultural tools). He also suggested that language is the most important tool for gaining this social knowledge; the child can be taught this from other people via language. He defined intelligence as “the capacity to learn from instruction”, which emphasises the fact there is a requirement for a more knowledgable other person or ‘teacher’. He referred to them as just that: the More Knowledgable Other (MKO). MKO’s can be parents, adults, teachers, coaches, experts/professionals – but also things you might not first expect, such as children, friends and computers. He described something known as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is a key feature of his theory. There are two levels of attainment for the ZPD: · Level 1 – the ‘present level of development’. This describes what the child is capable of doing without any help from others. · Level 2 – the ‘potential level of development’. This means what the child could potentially be capable of with help from other people or ‘teachers’. The gap between level 1 and 2 (the present and potential development) is what Vygotsky described as this zone of proximal development. He believed that through help from other, more knowledgable people, the child can potentially gain knowledge already held by them. However, the knowledge must be appropriate for the child’s level of comprehension. Anything that is too complicated for the child to learn that isn’t in their ZPD cannot be learnt at all until there is a shift in the ZPD. When a child does attain their potential, this shift occurs and the child can continue learning more complex, higher level material. Another important feature of this theory is scaffolding. When an adult provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help they give depending on their progress. For example, a child learning to walk might at first have both their hands held and pulled upwards. As they learn to support their own weight, the mother might hold both their hands loosely. Then she might just hold one hand, then eventually nothing. This progression of different levels of help is scaffolding. It draws parallels from real scaffolding for buildings; it is used as a support for construction of new material (the skill/information to be learnt) and then removed once the building is complete (the skill/information has been learnt). Woods and Middleton (1975) studied the influence of instruction with their experiment. They provided 3-4 year olds with a puzzle which was beyond their comprehension on their own. The mother then provided different levels of assistance for the child: · L1 – General verbal instruction (“Very good! Now try that again.”) · L2 – Specific verbal instruction (“Get four big blocks”) · L3 – Mother indicates material (“You need this block here”) · L4 – Mother provides material and prepares it for assembly · L5 – Mother demonstrates the operation After the session, the child was assessed on whether they could construct the pyramid on their own. Results showed that when children were given varied support from mothers (low levels of support when the child was doing well, and high levels when the child struggled) they were able to construct the pyramid on their own. However, when the mother consistently provided the same support, they seemed to make the child conclude the activity was beyond their comprehension and the child soon lost interest in constructing the pyramid. This shows the importance of providing the correct level of scaffolding when teaching a learner. As a final point, Vygotsky looked at the role of egocentric/private speech. This is, for example, when a child will sit on their own and speak their thoughts out loud as they play. He suggested a child is regulating and planning their behaviour at this point: “Where is the block? I can’t find it. Oh well, I’ll use this block.” He called these ‘monologues’. By 7 years, these monologues become internalized and the child becomes a “verbal thinker”, which is what most adults can do with no problem. When we are faced with a problem, and we’re alone, we quite often think through the problem – but in our heads. Children before 7 will do this out loud. This verbal thinking forms the basis for higher level, more abstract thinking (planning, reasoning, memorizing, evaluating). Quick summary · Emphasised the role of a teacher in cognitive development, and the need to have support from a More Knowledgable Other, or MKO. · The zone of proximal development, or ZPD, differentiates between a learner’s current development and their potential development when being taught from a MKO. · Scaffolding provides an effective way to reach potential levels of development, but only when different levels of assistance are given when required. · Social and cultural tools are an important means of gaining intelligence. · There is a close link between the acquisition of language and the development of thinking. · Internalising monologues, and therefore becoming a verbal thinker, is a stepping stone to higher levels of thinking. Vygotsky provided a very influential theory which provided a meaningful social context in the development of learning. The emphasis of cultural knowledge was something unseen in Piaget’s theory. In the next post, I will be evaluating both of the cognitive theories (that of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky) and then comparing and evaluating them against each other.
Six revision exercises (vocabulary, grammar, comprehension) for younger/weaker students. - ESL worksheets
I am pretty excited to share with you something I have been working on all summer! As a first grade teacher, I have had parents tell me t...
So, YAY! We finally sold our house and moved! What a big job...and time zapper! Thankfully we were able to find a great rental (and by great I mean good neighborhood, clean, good size, etc.) close by until we are able to move closer to home (Vermont!) Of course, with all the moving I've had very little time to blog! However, I took a little time today and got a new product up on TeachersPayTeachers - an irregular verb foldable graphic organizer. It's more of a resource, than anything else, but I'm already seeing my students pull it out and use it - so that's what I consider SUCCESS!! Like my other FGOs, there are several choices to pick from to print, so it allows for easy differentiation! To buy this graphic organizer, head on over to my TeachersPayTeachers Store!
How to understand that without thoughts we can not feel and vice versa. To feel good, thoughts become more important then you may know.
