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.
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