A question that sometimes comes up in my ongoing teaching-learning cycles with colleagues and beginning teachers is, “What books do you recommend I read for my own learning?” Yikes, this is a tough one! As teachers, the truth is that if we were to pile up the professional learning books we’ve read and/or used throughout our careers we’d easily surpass the height of the CN Tower (I know you it to be true)!
I tend to prefer sharing some of my favourites and those on my shelf at this moment. The following books are ones I’m currently going through (and enjoying!) because of insights, lessons, questions, and reflections they’ve sparked in my professional learning. I’ve added the links to their websites which I find very helpful.
Tuned Out: Engaging the 21st Century Learner- Karen Hume
This book invites readers to both rethink what it means to teach and learn in a digital age and put those ideas into action. The ideas are practical, closely tied to current learning theories, and important to take into consideration within the current reality of how students learn and become engaged. Along with the book an educator can use the website which becomes a virtual classroom for teachers to both gather and share ideas. This resource helps educators realize an energized, student-focused classroom that takes advantage of today’s digital technologies.
What Do They Really Know? Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning- Cris Tovani
This book explores the complex issue of monitoring, assessing, and grading students’ thinking and performance with fairness and consistency. The author admits to struggling to balance her student-centered instruction wit school system mandates. Her recommendations are realistic and practical and understands that what isn’t manageable isn’t sustainable. Cris shows teachers how to use assessments to monitor student growth and provide targeted feedback that enables students to master content goals.
Below are a link to a blog and an interview with the author about the book.
Math is integrated into most of the learning centres in the classroom. Although glancing around the room, it often looks just like play. To ensure that I am continually assessing for math, I keep a clipboard of observations sheets accessible. I prefer observation sheets that have a square with each child’s name that I can fill-in with any pertinent information I want. Then, by glancing at the sheet, I can easily see if there is a blank box and ensure that I seek out that child to observe. Looking around the classroom, I may see children measuring at the water table, sorting in the drama centre, or comparing shapes in the building centre. I approach and listen. Often, I can record their understanding with a phrase or a brief description. Then, I am able to clarify or extend their learning. For example, if a child is counting animal figures and gets stuck at 15, I may direct them to the number line to show them what was missed. Observation and recording them at play allows for assessment of their current understanding as well as an opportunity to support their learning.
At the beginning of the year, some parents may ask about the math program, as they do not see generic math sheets coming home in the backpacks. It is therefore a good idea to take photos of the children engaged in mathematical activities as you are observing them in the classroom. These can be added to a website to communicate to your families what math learning looks like in the classroom. Or you can print them to display in the hallway, add to a student’s portfolio, or keep for a parent interview.
Recording comments during circle time is also another way to demonstrate a child’s understanding of math. Last week, when the children were considering a number line together, one student pointed out that there were kid numbers and teenage numbers. He said, “The 1-10 are like kid numbers and the 11-20 are like teenager numbers!” Another day we did a group activity when reading the book One Monday Morning by Uri Shulevitz. Using connecting cubes we represented the characters, as someone new arrived, each day of the week. When the concrete graph was finished, a student observed, “It looks like stairs going up!” By recording these comments, I am able to add them to their math profile when writing reports or planning for further learning.
The photos show what math looks like in a play-based learning environment:
This child is using 1:1 representation with counters on the light pad to represent each individual in our class photo (her idea!)
This child has sorted the animals into two groups and is then counting them as she places them on the top of the drums (her idea!)
These students are measuring volume by filling a larger container with a smaller one.
The children grouped like objects, sorted them, and displayed them on wood blocks using 1:1 representation.
There are also opportunities for children to write mathematically throughout the classroom with pencils and paper provided, as well as number lines and number displays of quantity. They use magnetic numbers to put in order on white boards and they learn to recognize their phone numbers at the carpet (after learning their first and last names), then write their phone numbers at entry during sign-in. Children enjoy songs with counting and books with sequences. Math is happening all around the classroom and children are intuitive with math. When teaching Kindergarten, it is important to see it, name it, and record it!
I know there are lots of clichés around the start of the New Year and I have to say that I believe in every one of them. As far as teaching is concerned (in my experience), there are guaranteed to be two magical times of the year where everything goes smoothly and you feel on top of the world. The first is the very first week of school in September where your bright-eyed students sit complacently hanging off your every word. The second couldn’t come at a better time and occurs upon the return from the winter holidays. New Year’s coincides with a shift of cosmic, spiritual or divine proportions and seems to permeate the psyche of even hormonal eighth graders. It is a small window where people stop to take stock of the past and visualize the future.
As a teacher, this “pause” is a golden opportunity not to be squandered. In this momentary blip (which might last a few days if you’re lucky), it’s as though students have suffered a mild form of amnesia. Apart from being slightly annoying from a pedagogical perspective, it nonetheless allows you to chart a new direction. Changing up the look of your classroom with new displays, layout and seating plan is refreshing and energizing.
A fresh start has a lot of appeal on many levels not only for you the teacher but for your students as well. Although it’s often said that students thrive on routine, it’s also true that change, spontaneity and an element of surprise go a long way as well. Don’t neglect the fact that your students might also be affected by the psychological hype surrounding New Year’s. I would bet that many of them are thinking about their own ambitions and might have something specific that they would like to achieve. Others might need a blank slate and a chance to start over with you. Any way you look at it, it’s good to capitalize on the energy and momentum surrounding the New Year and move forward with positivity, renewed energy and vigour.
*Some suggested New Year’s Activities:
Have students write down a goal they wish to achieve by the end of the year. At the same time on another sheet of paper, have them envision some of the difficulties they might encounter and write a short encouraging letter to themselves. This teaches them how to set realistic goals, anticipating challenges. At some point, have them read their letters to themselves and compose another to also be opened in the near future. Repeat the process until the final time when they re-read their goal an have them assess their progress.
On a small piece of paper, have students write down something they do not want to carry with them into the New Year. It can be a bad habit, a personal quality or negative situation. In real practice, you would toss your paper into a bonfire symbolizing that you are leaving your burdens behind. This is obviously not an ideal method of disposal for a classroom situation – something equivalent might be the shredding machine…
This year my Grade 6 students have demonstrated a deep interest in looking at a few social justice issues that they feel have a direct impact on their lives. The most important issue has been bullying (at school, the home, and in society as a whole). I have described how we have focused on exploring this issue in a previous blog where I explained how we, as a class, brought to light aspects of bullying including: what it is, why people do it, who it affects, how it affects them, and ways to deal with it in our classrooms, schools, and communities.
It came as no surprise to me that a group of my students (and a few Me to We Club members) decided to create an anti-bullying club in our school. As the club members came together to discuss their purpose, the plan, and how each student would be involved, I sat back in awe at how big their hearts were and how creative their minds became as they began to put together an anti-bullying awareness video to both educate the students at the school and reassure them that the club was there to support them. The whole process came to demonstrate what can be possible when a topic or issue is dissected through inquiry-based learning and students are given the opportunity to dive, head first, into an ocean of experiences that allow them to question, research, share ideas and opinions, look at different perspectives, decide where they stand on an issue, and how they plan to become involved.
After an intense few weeks, the group decided that they would like to first raise awareness through a video they would create. They then decided that students needed to know who they were in order to seek them out for support outside at recess if they needed someone to talk to or play with. They also realized that in most cases, the students involved in bullying behaviour (whether it be the bully, the victim, or the bystander) needed to become educated and so they would spend time with those students reading, talking, role-playing, etc. to help them learn about how their actions (or lack thereof) were impacting those involved.
The project is on-going and I couldn’t be more proud of what the students have accomplished so far. They decided to name the anti-bulling club “We Build Skyscrapers” (the title comes from the Demi Lovato song “Skyscraper”). The reasoning was that although skyscrapers can seem fragile and many are made of glass, they always stand tall and are built to withstand extreme conditions. The analogy is that the Skyscrapers Club is there to help build up students to stand tall and proud of who they are by not being afraid and learning to overcome negative situations. I thought it was brilliant and the school and parent community completely agreed.
If you’d like to see the “Skyscrapers” video, which I strongly recommend you do, follow the link below.
Back in October, I read an article in the Globe and Mail by Anthony Volk entitled “Why Bullies Do What They Do.” In brief, it was a very succinct yet comprehensive synopsis of the causes and (proposed) solutions to bullying. At the time, something about it stuck with me and I came back to it when in need of something to blog about during the crazy month of December. Interestingly, there were distinct echoes of Carmen’s grade 6 Bullying Task Force around the ideas of choosing behaviours and belief systems. In identifying the main reasons for bullying, Volk reduces them to just three.
– to get resources (ex. lunch money)
– to get dating partners
– to get social power to be used in getting resources, dates or favours
As indicated by voluminous research, Volk describes the typical bully as someone who has “average or greater social skills, popularity, leadership, cognitive empathy and physical or mental health.” Upon reflecting about this statement, I vacillated between two contradictory trains of thought. On one hand, I found myself thinking that these were pretty basic goals for someone with a wide range of attributes and that given that, they would have been able to achieve social power through less basic means. On the other, I would have assumed (or rather hoped) that above average social skills and cognitive empathy would have prevented bullying in the first place.
Perhaps what struck me most about the article and the most recent publicised cases of bullying was something I took for granted but hadn’t really consciously considered. It would seem that the classic profiles of bully and victim are blurred and that the anonymity of social media has emboldened and perhaps intensified cases of bullying. The root of it would seem to be the need to exercise power (even in the most basic ways) over someone else. Some people would argue that such a need is innate and an undeniable part of human nature and as such, bullying is much more difficult to tackle in a lasting, meaningful way.
Writer’s Workshop seems to be integrated into many of today’s classrooms during literacy periods. In Kindergarten, we start our mornings off with Writer’s Workshop, each and every day. We are using the Lucy Culkins’ Writer’s Rainbow model to help our young writers. We know, and believe, that all students are writers.
Throughout the year, we will be using Lucy Culkins’s books to help teach our young students about different types of writing, and allowing them the opportunity to write as well. First, we have started off with Non-Fiction Writing, and have been focusing on “small moments”, where students are to write about something that happened to them yesterday, last night, or even this morning. The writers in our room vary from those whom only draw pictures, to those who add much detail in both their pictures and their words.
We are now moving toward Fiction writing, where my students are now authors and are creating their own Gingerbread stories. Because we have been completing a unit on the Gingerbread Man (and how he ran away from our oven here at school), students created their own versions of the Gingerbread Man. Some students chose to write about a Gingerbread Princess, A Gingerbread Alien and even a Gingerbread Superman. The pictures and details they have come up with are just fantastic!
In all of our Kindergarten classrooms, we have Lucy Culkins’s Writer’s Rainbow posted (see picture). Each different colour of the rainbow shows a different stage at which students are at with their writing. It is a great way not only for us as teachers to see where our students fit in, but also for students to self-assess their work.
If you have not heard of or read about Lucy Culkins’s work, you should. She gives simple and practical ways to set up and use Writer’s Workshop in your classroom! Happy Writing!
As my Grade 3 LTO came to an end on a Friday, and my new Kindergarten LTO started the following Monday, I needed to change from Grade 3 mode, to Kindergarten mode in just a weekend’s time. As I have taught Kindergarten before, I knew what to expect. However, I knew it would take some time for myself to become familiar with the new classroom routines, the new students as well as the Kindergarten program that the teacher had already implemented. Because I will only be working this LTO for 3 months, I felt it was really important to make the transition as smooth as possible and to continue with the type of program the teacher had already implemented. I felt this was extremely important to keep some sense of normal for the students, as the adjustment to a new teacher would be more than enough for them.
The Week Before:
I felt extremely lucky that my principal gave me some extra coverage time the week before I started my new Kindergarten position to go into the classroom for 2 half days to meet the students, meet some of the parents and see the program in action. I felt this was so beneficial not only for me, but for the students as well
Students got a chance to meet me, and they knew a head of time that I would be their new teacher, so that hopefully eased the anxiety and helped the transition from one teacher to another
I was able to see exactly how a day in this Kindergarten classroom was run
The Week I Started:
The week I started teaching Kindergarten, the students were very excited since they had already met me. I came to school with students bringing me pictures they created as well, showing/telling me how excited they were I was their new teacher
I hardly changed anything in their room or the program, and just continued teaching what the current teacher had been doing
I started giving some diagnostics to the students so I could really see where each of my students were at
As I have a lot of ESL and ELL students in my class, I also downloaded a translation app on my iPhone, which helped me interact and speak with my Spanish speaking students
We also reviewed our classroom rules and created some carpet rules, to make sure students knew what was expected of them and to show them that I knew/was familiar with the rules they already had in place in the classroom
I wrote an introductory letter home to parents, so they know who I am, what my teaching experiences are, and how they can communicate with me (which I got a lot of positive feedback from).
Overall, I feel the transition was quite seamless, and I think the main reasons are because:
1) My principal gave me time to go into the classroom before I officially started my new position, in which I was able to get to know and start the bonding process with my new students
and
2) I kept the program the same, so the students did not have to adjust to too many things at once. With young students, especially Kindergarten students, I feel it is important not to change everything because it will confuse them and may take away their sense of community/ownership that has already been created in the classroom.
It has been an interesting start to the school year. I have a change in my teaching assignment and for the first time I have ½ day of prep coverage. Getting to know all the names and developing relationships with over 100 students I see 80 minutes a week has been a challenge. Especially since most of my teaching position has me in the gym (no desks and regular seating plans).
To help me get to know the student names – I have the students change into gym clothes. At the beginning of the year, I had the students sit on the floor or bench in the gym and went through the class list calling out the student names and putting a face to the names. As the year has progressed, I have moved to having the students come up to me and showing me their clothes. I have them share their last name which still gave me time to get to know their names. To move things even faster, the students who have brought in their gym clothes regularly go a change right away and say hi to me as they come into the gym.
The student teacher relationship has taken some time to develop. I try to find a way to connect with each student. Some students, I ask about their extra-curricular activities (sports, dance, etc). Once I know what the student participates in, I try to ask the student about their extra-curricular once a month. For my ELL or students who do not have extra-curricular, I ask about their weekend or break plans. Sometimes, the kids go to the movies and I ask about the movie s/he saw.
Developing the relationships have really helped with the classroom management during the prep periods. The students have appreciated my effort to get to know them a little better and are making a larger effort to listen and to do their best during class time. It is great to have the kids walk up to you in the halls asking when we have your class again. I know some of that is because it is gym but also I have some classroom prep which kids are also inquiring about. Making the connection with students is something that helps to make a difference in student education.
Having read Sangeeta’s blog about how ongoing conflicts can sometimes hijack your teaching agenda, I was struck with her concept of the “Talking and Listening Chairs”. From my own experience, I know that students seem to run into MANY misunderstandings and oftentimes lack both the forum and the verbal skills necessary to successfully solve their conflicts. Quite frankly, I think her idea is brilliant and the guidelines surrounding their use are thoughtfully considered. She has clearly established boundaries and parameters that would ensure success. With obviously less disruptions for the teacher, the real beneficiaries are the students themselves. Actually having a chance to air their grievances can help diffuse and prevent an emotional conflict from escalating into something more serious and simultaneously allows students to take ownership for solving their own problems. Finally, the end result would be to forge a stronger, deeper rapport between the children and a positive classroom atmosphere. Wow, all that from two chairs! Personally, I’m going to have to think a little more how I could implement this idea as a rotary teacher with older students and a cart (no permanent classroom)…
I am pleased with how our third grade writing-program is evolving this year. Students are at the point in the term where they are working independently. They know when they need to meet with their writing partner. They know when they need their laptops. They are learning how to publish their personal narratives using Microsoft Word, and use tools such as grammar and spelling to edit their work.
Our writing workshop is a simple process. First, all writing begins in the Writer’s Notebook. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I began the year introducing students to the narrative genre with “small moments.” Small moments are short pieces of writing that use action, dialogue and thought/feeling sentences. I provided writers with a number of strategies for generating ideas for writing, providing time for writers to practice each strategy. After several weeks of practice, I then introduced longer personal narrative writing. Students have a strong understanding of the success criteria for personal narrative writing.
Success Criteria:
You have written an effective personal narrative when:
your story has a beginning, middle and end;
the main character tells the story using the personal pronoun “I”;
you have included action, dialogue and thought/feeling sentences;
your story is a “seed” story, not a “watermelon” story;
you have correct spelling and punctuation.
Those familiar with the Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study resource will recognize the idea of small moments, seed stories and action, dialogue and thought sentences.
When writers feel they have finished a piece of writing, the next stage in our writer’s workshop is for writers to meet with their assigned writing partner. I decided to match writers who are writing at the same stage of development rather than pairing stronger writers with more dependent writers. This way each partner will benefit from the feedback they receive. Writing partners refer to our success criteria when giving feedback to their writing partner. I expect writing partners to provide two “glow” comments and one “grow” comment to their partner when they meet.
Following their meeting with their writing partner, the writer begins their first revision. Most students choose to type their narratives on Microsoft Word. As they begin to publish their narratives, they make revisions to their first draft, keeping in mind the feedback they just received.
In addition to meeting with their writing partner, I call writers for writing conferences each day. I usually wait until writers have completed their first revision on their laptops. I decide on a teaching focus, for example, using correct punctuation when using quotation marks, for our conference. A writer will walk away from our conference with a skill to practice as they continue to revise a piece of writing or when they begin a new piece of writing in their Writer’s Notebook.
For many, the most exciting step in writing workshop comes next. After writers have revised their personal narratives, they log in to Edmodo.com and post their narrative in their assigned writing group. I have created five separate writing groups on Edmodo.com. There are four to five students in each writing group. These groups are more heterogeneous. When writers post their narratives in the writing groups on Edmodo.com, they ask members of their writing group as well as their teachers for descriptive feedback. It is the responsibility of each writer to read their colleagues’ personal narratives and provide them with descriptive feedback in the form of glow and grow comments. Students’ writing partners are not assigned to the same writing group. Therefore, each writer in our class receives descriptive feedback from five to six of their peers as well as their teachers!
We are now at the stage where writers are reading their feedback on line and returning to their posted piece for a second or third revision. They then repost their narrative to share with their group members. Ideally, I would like my third graders to learn how to leave a piece of writing. They can start a new piece in their Writer’s Notebook and perhaps return to earlier published pieces later in the year.
Edmodo screen capture
Integrating Edmodo.com into our writing program revealed additional benefits I didn’t anticipate. Edmodo is basically acting as our class’ private server. Students can access their stories from any computer at school or at home. This eliminates the need for flash drives. If students want to work on a piece of writing at home, they simply log into Edmodo.com. I also have easy access to student writing. I can provide feedback to students at my convenience without having to carry writing folders. Parents can also see what their child is writing at school. When parents log in using their assigned parent access code, they only have access to their child’s posts.
Writing Workshop Flowchart
I promise that not all my posts will be about Edmodo.com, but it is really exciting to see students engaged in the writing process. It is amazing how this technology enriches our writing workshop. However, our writing program is not dependent on technology. If the technology were to disappear, our writing workshop would continue, just less efficiently.
