Wow, I have really fallen behind on my blogging!
Alright, let's take this back to 2 weeks ago... short week, Valentine's Day, in-service.
Because of the short week, the vocabulary lessons were quite a bit different than usual. The Thursday prior, I told the 5th grade collaboration crew that I wanted to lead again. I had this great idea for getting the students to master the vocab in 1 lesson, since they weren't going to have as much exposure (homework and assessment) with the short week. Here was my idea: 12 words, students get the words and definitions and have 5 minutes to skim through them. Then, they break into 3 groups and go to different stations. Station 1: pictionary-- students pick a word to illustrate and then take turns guessing each other's words in their group. Station 2: sentences. Students work together in their group to come up with sentences using the words correctly (part of speech and definition). Station 3: charades. Students take turns acting out the vocab words. At first, I could tell my peers were hesitant of the idea. Many questions were asked and I began to question my plan. However, my cooperating teacher encouraged me to press on and deliver the lesson. So, Monday rolled around, and that's exactly what I did.
The groups were split up to be somewhat homogeneous. Long story, short version: the first group struggled with coming up with ways to act out the words, but were usually able to guess the words. With each group, I saw more and more mastery in the words, creating gestures helpful for their peers, and quicker responses to the acting from peers. By the 3rd group, very little support was needed from me. The 2 other teachers in charge of the other stations said they saw the exact same thing in their groups. Success. The best part of the lesson: the students' responses afterwards. Maybe it was because I announced we weren't going to have homework or a test that week, but a few students who usually struggle with vocab came up to me and said, "Miss, I really liked class today. It was so fun... and I even learned something."
Third grade that week was also a bit different. We continued the story from the previous week, but because it was a short week, I only gave the kids 5 vocab words. I split the classes into their guided reading groups (very homogeneous groups), gave each student a handout that had the word, a picture, and 2 empty columns to write 1) their group's definition and 2) corrections to that definition. Here's the task the students had: work with their group to come up with a definition. The students spent several minutes talking about the words and the picture associated with it, then sent a representative to talk to the teacher (2 teachers were in the center of the room and had the words taped to them) about what their group thought the word meant. The teacher would do one of two things: give some prompts and things to consider about the definition and send them back to discuss with their group, or tell them they had a good idea of the word and to move onto the next word.
If you are familiar with cooperative learning strategies, this is commonly known as "Circle the Sage..." in essence anyways. Turns out the concept is the same, but the task I gave the students is quite a bit different than the original version of the activity. Regardless, the students did well with it. As I watched the groups work together to discuss their ideas of the words, I quickly realized how quickly the higher reading groups were finishing the task in comparison to the lower groups. At first, I thought this was a poor idea, but then I came up with the brilliant idea to have those higher students apply their new-found knowledge of the words into sentences (the typical task for this activity). Once the lower students had been exposed to and discussed all of the words, I called the class back together and had students share their ideas and examples for each word prior to exposing them to the correct definitions. I absolutely love hearing the students play with the language as they attempt to grasp a firm understanding of the words. Plus, their examples are hilarious.
On Tuesday, I read with my pull-out 3rd graders and wrapped up any questions/clarifying questions the students may have had on the story, vocab words, etc.
Thursday was a day of chaos. 1) Free jean day. 2) Valentine's Day. 3) Half-day. 4) 3rd grade picnic field trip. Not a whole lot of teaching was done, but at the end of the half-day, the teachers all met in the computer lab to begin the ESL in-service the ESL department had been working on the past few weeks. Thursday afternoon was spent re-capping ideas and misconceptions of ELLs and giving the teachers a better understanding of what our task as teachers for all of our students are. Friday was dedicated to helping students adapt a unit plan/several lessons they would soon be teacher to a variety of teaching strategies (project-based learning, cooperative learning strategies, SST accommodations, technology, language targets, content targets). The teachers were divided into grade level/content area and worked their way through several stations in their small groups to plan their units. At the end of the day, teachers met with their principal to set-up a day when they would deliver one of the lessons planned, so that the principal could see the teachers applying these strategies and techniques. I am so glad I got to experience that!
After the chaos of a short week and in-service, the other student teacher, Alex, and I headed up to a little mountain village where his mom's family is from for a weekend of simple living and relaxation with his family. All in all, one of my favorite weeks here, for sure.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Better late than never
Sorry for the delay. Last week was incredibly busy. I had both 3rd grade sections, 5th grade, and spent a lot of time planning for this week (a short, but busy week) and started wrapping up a few things for student teaching, since my time is rapidly coming to an end here.
Monday started with vocabulary with the 5th graders. Every Thursday, the ESL teacher meets with the SST (special services teacher) and mainstream 5th grade teacher to plan for the reading classes the following week. I obviously attend these meetings and have been pitching ideas and intro activities. For this past week, I suggested giving the kids an activity where they have to draw out the word. After many questions and a lot of collaboration (top 3 favorite parts of the ESL/SST program here), this is the final activity planned:
The students get exposure to the words with images and definitions (they always get introduced in this sense at some point in the intro lesson). Then, the students are read a short story, written by the ESL teacher, that includes the vocab words in a different context than the class book (Mr. Popper's Penguins). The students are then paired off and assigned a single word/portion of the story to draw. They are given the rest of the class to do so. The following class period, we read the story again, and the students held up their picture that depicted a portion of the story/their word. The pictures were creative, hilarious, and pretty accurate. It was so fun to tap into the drawing skills of some of the students and the creativity in all of them. Their personalities were definitely evident through their drawings... I loved it, and the students seemed to as well-- or at least they were great sports.
In 3rd grade, we introduced the first half of a story called "Ribsy and the Roast." With this, we only introduced half of the vocab words. I started by reading a short summary that included all of the vocab words, flipping through a powerpoint with a picture depicting the vocab word as I read it. After 2 read-throughs of the summary, the students were each given a card with a vocab word on it. We then proceeded to do a Mix/Freeze/Group activity, where the students walk around, looking at each others' words, get into groups, talk about their words, switch words, and repeat several times. I have seen this activity a few times in my experience here, and I love how the students interact with each other and play with definitions/descriptions of words. After the students finished the activity, they sat back down, and I asked them to share their definitions/ideas before showing them the correct one. The students did great!
On Tuesday, I worked with the ESL students to read the first half of the story. I had the students take turns reading (I read some to model and to save us some time for the comprehension activity/questions I had planned). As we read, I stopped to clarify some words/phrases and to do comprehension checks. I created a 4-corner book for the students to write down the 4 main ideas from the reading. They could use this later to study for their assessment on Friday. The students did really well with talking out the details/important parts of the story, and they loved that I was filling out one of the 4-corner books with them.
Wednesday/Thursday are center days-- students split into guided reading groups and complete a variety of stations for spelling/bible/vocab/reading. I had this brilliant activity plan, where the students would work in partners to read the summary, then without referring to the text, sequence the words and re-tell the story. They would be able to refer to the pictures (already in order) and the text in rare circumstances, but I really wanted them to challenge themselves. Unfortunately 20 seconds into the first class (the one that I barely observe and don't know the names of more than 5 students), one of the boys informed me he didn't like his partner. I asked him to please work with his partner, and very soon realized that these two boys definitely could not work together. Without missing a beat, I accommodated as I saw the other pair of boys struggling with the activity as well. The second group came to my station and I was well-prepared to make proper adjustments, resulting in a much more smoothly ran activity.
Thursday I did the same lesson (with proper accommodations) with the 3rd grade class I have been with since day 1 and felt so much more confident in my execution and my students' preparation for the test. However, because I knew the students in the first section didn't receive the full practice I wanted for them on Wednesday, I created a study sheet for them to help them practice even more for the test.
All in all, the week was great. I am falling so in love with these students and can hardly imagine leaving them in 2 weeks. I'd like to think that the thought of it breaking my heart is a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't think it is. Who would have imagined me falling in love with teaching elementary/junior high kids? I know I sure didn't.
Monday started with vocabulary with the 5th graders. Every Thursday, the ESL teacher meets with the SST (special services teacher) and mainstream 5th grade teacher to plan for the reading classes the following week. I obviously attend these meetings and have been pitching ideas and intro activities. For this past week, I suggested giving the kids an activity where they have to draw out the word. After many questions and a lot of collaboration (top 3 favorite parts of the ESL/SST program here), this is the final activity planned:
The students get exposure to the words with images and definitions (they always get introduced in this sense at some point in the intro lesson). Then, the students are read a short story, written by the ESL teacher, that includes the vocab words in a different context than the class book (Mr. Popper's Penguins). The students are then paired off and assigned a single word/portion of the story to draw. They are given the rest of the class to do so. The following class period, we read the story again, and the students held up their picture that depicted a portion of the story/their word. The pictures were creative, hilarious, and pretty accurate. It was so fun to tap into the drawing skills of some of the students and the creativity in all of them. Their personalities were definitely evident through their drawings... I loved it, and the students seemed to as well-- or at least they were great sports.
In 3rd grade, we introduced the first half of a story called "Ribsy and the Roast." With this, we only introduced half of the vocab words. I started by reading a short summary that included all of the vocab words, flipping through a powerpoint with a picture depicting the vocab word as I read it. After 2 read-throughs of the summary, the students were each given a card with a vocab word on it. We then proceeded to do a Mix/Freeze/Group activity, where the students walk around, looking at each others' words, get into groups, talk about their words, switch words, and repeat several times. I have seen this activity a few times in my experience here, and I love how the students interact with each other and play with definitions/descriptions of words. After the students finished the activity, they sat back down, and I asked them to share their definitions/ideas before showing them the correct one. The students did great!
On Tuesday, I worked with the ESL students to read the first half of the story. I had the students take turns reading (I read some to model and to save us some time for the comprehension activity/questions I had planned). As we read, I stopped to clarify some words/phrases and to do comprehension checks. I created a 4-corner book for the students to write down the 4 main ideas from the reading. They could use this later to study for their assessment on Friday. The students did really well with talking out the details/important parts of the story, and they loved that I was filling out one of the 4-corner books with them.
Wednesday/Thursday are center days-- students split into guided reading groups and complete a variety of stations for spelling/bible/vocab/reading. I had this brilliant activity plan, where the students would work in partners to read the summary, then without referring to the text, sequence the words and re-tell the story. They would be able to refer to the pictures (already in order) and the text in rare circumstances, but I really wanted them to challenge themselves. Unfortunately 20 seconds into the first class (the one that I barely observe and don't know the names of more than 5 students), one of the boys informed me he didn't like his partner. I asked him to please work with his partner, and very soon realized that these two boys definitely could not work together. Without missing a beat, I accommodated as I saw the other pair of boys struggling with the activity as well. The second group came to my station and I was well-prepared to make proper adjustments, resulting in a much more smoothly ran activity.
Thursday I did the same lesson (with proper accommodations) with the 3rd grade class I have been with since day 1 and felt so much more confident in my execution and my students' preparation for the test. However, because I knew the students in the first section didn't receive the full practice I wanted for them on Wednesday, I created a study sheet for them to help them practice even more for the test.
All in all, the week was great. I am falling so in love with these students and can hardly imagine leaving them in 2 weeks. I'd like to think that the thought of it breaking my heart is a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't think it is. Who would have imagined me falling in love with teaching elementary/junior high kids? I know I sure didn't.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Final Thoughts for the Week
Alright, after several blogs about the good, the bad, and the ugly for the week, I'm sure you're ready to hear how it all panned out.
Let's start with the first graders. On Friday we had a mini-review of the vocabulary words and a basic plot breakdown. I then gave them their test: 4 multiple choice questions, 4 matching sentences to the pictures, and 2 short answer questions. There was a variety of vocabulary words and comprehension questions. This may not seem like it would take 35 minutes to take, but with struggling readers, it does. At the end of the class, I quickly skimmed their tests, curious to see how they did. Overall, pretty well. Even the student who struggles the most was able to answer many of the questions. Not bad, for the first time I've given a test I have written.
On to the 5th graders. On Monday I assigned a vocabulary homework assignment. The students had to write a short story about a car accident that included 4 vocabulary words (1 from each category-- noun, verb, adjective, adverb). On Friday, they had a similar form of assessment: same criteria, same length, different topics (plane crash, a war they've read about, or a shark attack). During the test, students kept raising their hands asking 2 things: can we use more than 4 words and can we write on the back if we need to? My answer to both questions: yes. However, if they chose more than 4 words, they had to circle the 4 they thought they used best, so that I could assess those. At the end of the classes (I gave the assessment in both 5th grade classes), I gathered the tests and quickly skimmed them. Not only did the students meet the criteria, many tests had 5-8 vocabulary words and 2 (or more) pages filled out. While this is impressive in and of itself, the grades were even better-- no student scored lower than a 70%... and even those were scarce.
The upper grades weren't given any assessment, but on Friday afternoon I had several 8th graders come up to me and say, "Miss, can you read what I wrote? I tried to do some of the things on the hand-out you gave us" outside of the class.
The week came to an end that I couldn't have been more pleased with. Yeah, there were some rocky parts, but when 3pm rolled around on Friday afternoon and my cooperating teacher asked, "So, how was the week?" I couldn't think of any response more fitting than "Teaching is so crazy. I love it."
Let's start with the first graders. On Friday we had a mini-review of the vocabulary words and a basic plot breakdown. I then gave them their test: 4 multiple choice questions, 4 matching sentences to the pictures, and 2 short answer questions. There was a variety of vocabulary words and comprehension questions. This may not seem like it would take 35 minutes to take, but with struggling readers, it does. At the end of the class, I quickly skimmed their tests, curious to see how they did. Overall, pretty well. Even the student who struggles the most was able to answer many of the questions. Not bad, for the first time I've given a test I have written.
On to the 5th graders. On Monday I assigned a vocabulary homework assignment. The students had to write a short story about a car accident that included 4 vocabulary words (1 from each category-- noun, verb, adjective, adverb). On Friday, they had a similar form of assessment: same criteria, same length, different topics (plane crash, a war they've read about, or a shark attack). During the test, students kept raising their hands asking 2 things: can we use more than 4 words and can we write on the back if we need to? My answer to both questions: yes. However, if they chose more than 4 words, they had to circle the 4 they thought they used best, so that I could assess those. At the end of the classes (I gave the assessment in both 5th grade classes), I gathered the tests and quickly skimmed them. Not only did the students meet the criteria, many tests had 5-8 vocabulary words and 2 (or more) pages filled out. While this is impressive in and of itself, the grades were even better-- no student scored lower than a 70%... and even those were scarce.
The upper grades weren't given any assessment, but on Friday afternoon I had several 8th graders come up to me and say, "Miss, can you read what I wrote? I tried to do some of the things on the hand-out you gave us" outside of the class.
The week came to an end that I couldn't have been more pleased with. Yeah, there were some rocky parts, but when 3pm rolled around on Friday afternoon and my cooperating teacher asked, "So, how was the week?" I couldn't think of any response more fitting than "Teaching is so crazy. I love it."
Another lesson for the week: Never under OR over-estimate your kids.
Overestimating my students is something I have realized I have a bad habit of. Example 1) The attention span of the average 1st grader. Example 2) The ability of a sophomore to cooperate with the expectations of a student teacher. Example 3) The knowledge of writing an essay of an 8th grader.
Thursday was another eventful day. In the morning, I helped with a vocabulary activity with the 3rd graders and finished up some last minute details for my 1st graders. I ate lunch and then waited patiently for 4 to 10 little hands to wave through the window to let me know they were waiting "patiently" outside of the classroom. I rounded the corner and greeted 4 of the first graders, and to my surprise, the greeting was returned by all 4 of them with a variety of hugs, smiles, and very excited voices. I ushered them into the classroom, as I had at least 2 activities I needed to complete with them.
If you can recall, Monday afternoon I overestimated their attention span, so for today, I had 2 activities planned, and 2 extra just in case. I knew their wouldn't be time to do all 4, but I know now that being over-prepared is never, ever a bad thing. The first activity was a story map. I gave each student a blue piece of paper that had 6 large empty boxes (2 columns across, 3 rows down) and 2 smaller boxes inside each of those. I had printed out 5 sets of 6 pictures that the students either associated with a vocabulary word or a sentence from the story and cut them out for each of the students. I had a master copy of the story map that had questions about the story (character, "setting," additional details, problem, solution) in "1st grade friendly words." For example, the students know "main character" as "the new friend." The students then held up the picture they thought answered the question and I called on a student to share their answer; then they glued the picture into the larger box and wrote one vocab word in the smaller box.
After this activity, we moved on to the fun activity I had promised to the students at the beginning of the week. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you saw the blob cookies I baked earlier in the week. Well, I brought those in, along with white frosting and food coloring. We then made our "own" class color, because the story was about a chameleon trying to find his own color. The students obviously loved that.
As I walked my students to the door and wished them a good rest of their afternoon, I ran into my supervisor, on her way to observe my next lesson: 8th grade writing workshop. This was the lesson I was most excited for all week. I adore the 8th graders-- as chaotic, distracted, and unmotivated as they are 70% of the time. There is so much potential in that class, so many students that warm my heart, and yet cracking them just doesn't seem to be happening in that classroom, or in any other class from what I hear. I walked in the door, and to my fear, the students were all talking. To my delight, it was about their novel, but still they were talking. When I arrived, the students were supposed to be writing their thesis statements so that I could help them workshop their examples from the novel into solid, detailed, supporting body paragraphs! One of the other teachers asked if this would be a problem for my mini-lesson. In my head: "doesn't matter if it's a problem or not, there's nothing I can do about how prepared they are for what I have prepared. I'm getting observed, so I've just gotta go with it." Verbally: "No, I can do it."
20 seconds into the mini-lesson on adding details and using descriptive words, I realize how very little the students know or care about essay writing in general, let alone writing descriptively. Plan B: let them write. We had some fun adding details to a few sentences about my beloved home state of Idaho and how much I love potatoes, but then we focused on the basics: what's the point of your essay and what are examples to support you? Introductory paragraphs at their most basic level. I walked around the room, helped the students that wanted help, and redirected students who needed redirection. As you can probably tell, this was also not my smoothest lesson, but it happens. When you overestimate an entire's class ability or knowledge of one thing, you risk the chance of students being completely lost. It happens, but what do you do? You take a step back, evaluate what the students know, and re-engage by adjusting to their current needs. They didn't need detailed writing. They needed to know how to make their main idea into a simple sentence. So that's what we did.
After talking with my supervisor, she was very supportive in my struggles for the week. She said I handled myself, the reluctant students, and the curve balls well. Her biggest concern wasn't the fact that I overestimated my students; it was that she feared the classroom wasn't set up in the most student-friendly way... and she's right. There students are not all on the same reading, writing, or critical thinking level. And with 3 trained adults in the classroom 80% of the time, there is a lot more that could be done. Next step: do something about it.
Thursday was another eventful day. In the morning, I helped with a vocabulary activity with the 3rd graders and finished up some last minute details for my 1st graders. I ate lunch and then waited patiently for 4 to 10 little hands to wave through the window to let me know they were waiting "patiently" outside of the classroom. I rounded the corner and greeted 4 of the first graders, and to my surprise, the greeting was returned by all 4 of them with a variety of hugs, smiles, and very excited voices. I ushered them into the classroom, as I had at least 2 activities I needed to complete with them.
If you can recall, Monday afternoon I overestimated their attention span, so for today, I had 2 activities planned, and 2 extra just in case. I knew their wouldn't be time to do all 4, but I know now that being over-prepared is never, ever a bad thing. The first activity was a story map. I gave each student a blue piece of paper that had 6 large empty boxes (2 columns across, 3 rows down) and 2 smaller boxes inside each of those. I had printed out 5 sets of 6 pictures that the students either associated with a vocabulary word or a sentence from the story and cut them out for each of the students. I had a master copy of the story map that had questions about the story (character, "setting," additional details, problem, solution) in "1st grade friendly words." For example, the students know "main character" as "the new friend." The students then held up the picture they thought answered the question and I called on a student to share their answer; then they glued the picture into the larger box and wrote one vocab word in the smaller box.
After this activity, we moved on to the fun activity I had promised to the students at the beginning of the week. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you saw the blob cookies I baked earlier in the week. Well, I brought those in, along with white frosting and food coloring. We then made our "own" class color, because the story was about a chameleon trying to find his own color. The students obviously loved that.
As I walked my students to the door and wished them a good rest of their afternoon, I ran into my supervisor, on her way to observe my next lesson: 8th grade writing workshop. This was the lesson I was most excited for all week. I adore the 8th graders-- as chaotic, distracted, and unmotivated as they are 70% of the time. There is so much potential in that class, so many students that warm my heart, and yet cracking them just doesn't seem to be happening in that classroom, or in any other class from what I hear. I walked in the door, and to my fear, the students were all talking. To my delight, it was about their novel, but still they were talking. When I arrived, the students were supposed to be writing their thesis statements so that I could help them workshop their examples from the novel into solid, detailed, supporting body paragraphs! One of the other teachers asked if this would be a problem for my mini-lesson. In my head: "doesn't matter if it's a problem or not, there's nothing I can do about how prepared they are for what I have prepared. I'm getting observed, so I've just gotta go with it." Verbally: "No, I can do it."
20 seconds into the mini-lesson on adding details and using descriptive words, I realize how very little the students know or care about essay writing in general, let alone writing descriptively. Plan B: let them write. We had some fun adding details to a few sentences about my beloved home state of Idaho and how much I love potatoes, but then we focused on the basics: what's the point of your essay and what are examples to support you? Introductory paragraphs at their most basic level. I walked around the room, helped the students that wanted help, and redirected students who needed redirection. As you can probably tell, this was also not my smoothest lesson, but it happens. When you overestimate an entire's class ability or knowledge of one thing, you risk the chance of students being completely lost. It happens, but what do you do? You take a step back, evaluate what the students know, and re-engage by adjusting to their current needs. They didn't need detailed writing. They needed to know how to make their main idea into a simple sentence. So that's what we did.
After talking with my supervisor, she was very supportive in my struggles for the week. She said I handled myself, the reluctant students, and the curve balls well. Her biggest concern wasn't the fact that I overestimated my students; it was that she feared the classroom wasn't set up in the most student-friendly way... and she's right. There students are not all on the same reading, writing, or critical thinking level. And with 3 trained adults in the classroom 80% of the time, there is a lot more that could be done. Next step: do something about it.
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