Blog – Page 167

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013 Tina.Ginglo Building Inclusion

Building Community with a Student of the Week

When I was teaching pre-service and visiting teacher candidates at their practicums, I had many opportunities to see the different ways teachers create community in their classrooms. One fourth-grade classroom teacher (I am sorry, I don’t remember the classroom teacher’s name) assigned a table in her room for a student to set up a display about his or herself. This display immediately caught my attention because the student, whose turn it was to share, had brought in a variety of Montreal Canadian artifacts. Since I am a Habitant fan, I immediately wanted to meet this student and talk with him about the artifacts he brought to school. The student was so pleased to talk to me about how he and his family came to be Hab fans. The other students in the class were quick to fill in pieces of information the student didn’t share. This told told me that his classmates practiced attentive listening and mutual respect when the artifacts were presented. I left that classroom knowing that when I returned to teaching elementary students I would do something similar.

Well, I finally introduced the idea of a “Student of the Week” when we returned to school in January. I asked my student teacher to launch the project by sharing personal artifacts before we broke for the holidays so that when we returned, the first student would be ready to go.

Basically, each week a student prepares an oral presentation and display about them self to share with the class. I tell the students that by sharing this information we learn more about each other and we will have a greater appreciation of how each member of our class is unique and special.

Below you will find the learning goal and success criteria for this activity.

Learning Goal:

As Student of the Week, I will learn how to:

Organize my ideas and present information in a logical sequence;

Communicate in a clear way using good volume, speed and eye contact.

Success Criteria:

I know I successfully presented myself as the Student of the Week if:

I included information about my past, present and future;
I used visuals such as photographs, magazine or Internet pictures;
I included objects such as favourite toys, lucky charms or other artifacts;
I looked at the audience when I presented;
I spoke in a loud and clear voice.

My students LOVE our Student of the Week presentations. Each week, after a student has done their formal presentation, the presenter pulls a new name from our Name Jar. The name drawn will have one week to prepare their presentation and display. I can’t believe how excited the students get when someone’s name is read from the jar. You would think they one an iPad or somethingJ

I am so pleased with the quality of the presentations each student prepares, but I am equally pleased with the quality of the feedback the students receive from their peers. Not only do they ask thoughtful and caring questions to find out more about the individual, they also point out which success criteria the student has included and which success criteria they can build upon. What is really cool is that I didn’t ask the students to provide the feedback, they did it automatically, which tells me that peer feedback is part of the culture of our classroom (I guess I did something right!).

After the presentation and Q and A time I ask some reflection questions such as:

What did we learn about <student’s name> that we didn’t know before?

What are some of the things you have in common with <student’s name>?

How does this activity help our classroom community?

I am sorry I didn’t start this activity at the beginning of the year. With a never ending list of things to do, I kept skipping over this activity. In hindsight, it didn’t take long to set up. I basically purchased a display board and stick on letters. I narrowed down our learning goal and success criteria and put it on a handout for students to take home. Now Student of the Week is in the students’ hands! So far, I haven’t had a student forget they were the next Student of the Week. Each week the Student of the Week has come ready to set up their display and prepared to give their oral presentation to our class. I think this activity is a keeper!

March 4, 2013March 5, 2013 Sangeeta.McAuley Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Use of Technology

Kings of Writing

Last year, when it was time to sign up for extracurricular activities, I chose to run a junior Boys’ Writing club.

Sometimes I find writing such a challenge for students. They struggle with how to make it “look right” and when I explain that spelling and neatness do not have to be the main foci, they can find it hard to believe. How is it possible that writing can be effective when there are misspelled words or words crossed out on the page?

So, my mission was born. I wanted the Boys’ Writing club to take writing in a different direction and helps students to see that it can be such a powerful tool for communication.

I began with some research. Namely, what were issues at our school that our club could address through writing? How could I use these issues to give writing a purpose?

Here’s what I came up with:

-775 students in our school

-families that are new to Canada

-lunch recess is 55 minutes

-some areas of our playground are closed during winter

-daily problems happen outside that students talk about when they come in after lunch recess

When our club met for the first time, the vision was clear: we could do an advice column to help the students who have problems outside at recess. We made an action plan, the boys committed to attending weekly meetings and I asked them to come up with a name: “Kings of Writing”, they told me.

We discussed how the advice column could work: we would make mailboxes, students from around the school could write letters to the club and we would write responses to these letters. I decided to add one twist. Rather than writing a good copy of these letters, we would record the final responses on an iPad and play these responses over the announcements once a week.

The “Kings” were thrilled. Hearing their responses made them feel like they were doing something worthwhile and I think writing took on a whole other meaning for them.

Here’s a sampling:

kings of writing advice1

kings of writing advice2

kings of writing advice3

This year, I’m doing a version of Kings of Writing that is open to all my students. They collect issues from around the school and we respond to the letters during class time. In some small way, I feel like I’m preparing my class for their generation. Maybe next year, we can do video responses to be played in every classroom!

March 3, 2013March 4, 2013 Roz.Geridis Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning About Your Students, Questioning

Wait time

The other day I was reading through Professional Speaking (our OCT magazine). I came across a little piece on wait time and it reminded me of a situation and comment from a colleague last year. I was a model classroom for a combined grade social studies lesson. While I was teaching my lesson, I utilized my wait time with the students throughout my lesson. Upon completion of the lesson, during our debrief session, the Instructional Leader highlighted my wait time. Which developed a fantastic discussion amongst the teachers. Some of the comments were about how long I waited, thought no one was going to answer, how quiet the room was, how proud and surprised many colleagues were about the rich classroom discussion developed due to enough wait time.

Wait time is something which is very important. The first few students who are ready to answer the questions are the students who may not need wait time and are ready to answer most questions. However, by using wait time we allow many students (if not all) an opportunity to process the question and gather information to answer the question. We also know that most students are ready to move on in the lesson and are not left behind still thinking about the question or answer.

A strategy I use to help keep the students focused is I asked the question a second time, the third time I will rephrase the question. Also, sometimes I may need to help activate the prior learning by using some guided questions. Every year I use wait time. Some years I have to wait longer than others but all my students know they need to be engaged and paying attention to the lesson and classroom discussions.

February 28, 2013March 13, 2013 Katie Pryde Classroom Layouts

Adding More Wall Space

I have often run out of wall space in my classroom. There is always so much I could hang up in my classroom, however, I often run of room. I never really knew what to do about it. But now, I do! Thanks to the teachers at my school, they have helped add more wall or hanging space in my classroom. In my classroom, I have many detachable hooks on my wall with string hanging from them. I used clothes pins to hang my students’ work, which allows me the opportunity to hang more of my students’ artwork. You can get these detachable hooks from many stores, including Walmart or Canadian Tire.

Here are some pictures of how it is set up in my room, and it allows me to hang a class’s worth of papers or artwork:

February 28, 2013March 13, 2013 Katie Pryde Assessment, Literacy

Keeping Track of Writer’s Workshop

In my many experiences of LTO teaching in Kindergarten, all my classes have taken part in Writer’s Workshop. We have all used the Writer’s Rainbow as a form of assessment of students’ writing, as well as students using it as a form of self-assessment. I have struggled with keeping track of student writing growth, and how to assess their writing come report card time.

While working my current LTO, the teacher I am replacing has a wonderful way to easily keep track of student writing and growth. After every piece of writing, the teacher writes a little dot of the colour of the Writer’s Rainbow that the student achieved with that writing piece. I have continued to do this, and found it very easy to assess my students’ writing come SK report card writing. It was very easy to look through their writing journal and see whether the student was all over the board, or whether they were quite consistent with the colour of the Writer’s Rainbow. It was also very easy to see when students grew in their writing, by moving up a level (colour) or two. I have attached some pictures of the Writer’s Rainbow, as well as a students’ writing with the colour of the dot that corresponds to the colour they achieved. I highly reccomend doing this for any teachers, Kindergarten teachers or not, to use this as a tracking system of their student writing.

February 25, 2013February 26, 2013 Erin.Grewar Planning

The Unit Plan: The Timeless Form of the Pyramid

This may seem redundant, but I found that unit planning comes up frequently as a topic of interest during workshops for beginning teachers. This is probably due to the overwhelming nature of the job and all of the simultaneous demands coming at you. Consequently, a weekly (let alone a daily) plan is as forward thinking as one can muster at times. It is tempting to use the plans included with some of the resources or someone else’s. However, designing your own is really helpful because you’re forced to really organize your thoughts and direction. The best format of a unit plan that I have ever come across was given to me by a friend at the Halton Board and was the template used by French teachers there. As someone who is very visual and relies heavily on graphic organizers, I immediately put it to use. Without getting bogged down by detailed descriptions, it is very simplistic and allows you to clearly chart a course of action.

Shaped in the form of a pyramid, the base is the featured language structures. What follows next are the diagnostic assessments and activities leading to the formative assessment. Finally the peak is your summative assessment. I always begin with the base of curriculum requirements and move on to create the summative assessment related to those. I then plan out the individual activities/lessons that students will need in order to be successful in the final task. What I really like about this format is it allows you to plot out everything and to foresee any possible gaps. In the end you’re left with an efficient, simplified yet cohesive vision that relieves the stress of incoherent and random planning. Both you and your students will benefit. I have included a blank template as well as one of my sample units. Strangely enough, unit planning can be as satisfying as cleaning out one of your messiest closets.

pyramid unit plan – sample
pyramid unit plan template

February 22, 2013February 22, 2013 Erin.Grewar Diverse Learning Needs, Learning in a Real Life Context

Crepes- Tradition Meets Delicious in French Class

Last year I wrote a blog about making crepes in French class as an opportunity for cultural enrichment. Although students really seem to enjoy making and (especially) eating them, it can be an even more interesting experience knowing the history and tradition behind them. Many years ago, I came across a thorough history of the crepe (who knew they dated back to 7000 BC??) and condensed it into manageable paragraphs. To make it more accessible to students, I added a “lexique” of the harder words along the side with a few graphics as a visual aid (please see attached text). In addition to a formal reading assessment of decoding and comprehension, you could also have students draw a historical timeline. In terms of making connections, we had many interesting discussions as a class about similar variations of crepes and what other dishes in their own cultures were also traditionally significant. As with other subjects, French becomes interesting when you can relate it to something larger and that is personally relevant. In that sense, you can get a lot of mileage out of a bit of sugar, flour, eggs and milk.
P.S. Ideally, the crepe activity should coincide with the Mardi Gras celebrations occurring in mid-February. I was swamped and although I had it written, I didn’t get to post it in time. However, crepes are good at any time of the year and especially in the lead up to vacations of any kind when students tend to be unfocused and not as interested as perhaps they should be in the superlative form of adjectives…

Les crêpes-vue historique texte

February 17, 2013 Alison.Board Diverse Learning Needs, Equity, General, Literacy

Fairness in Kindergarten

Fairness is a hot topic among children in Kindergarten! It is one of the first judgments that you hear as one child confidently points out that something isn’t fair. After reading Carmen’s informative and thought-provoking post about equity, it encouraged me to consider it in the context of the Kindergarten classroom.

I have found that read-alouds about topics such as fairness are a good starting point. The stories are didactic in that they provide characters and scenarios that the children can relate to and support personal connections for the students. The message is conveyed in a less instructional, more entertaining way.

The book, Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan, is an example of an engaging story that addresses the idea of fairness not always having to be the same for everyone. It is a story about a girl, Rubina, who is invited to a birthday party. Her mother insists that she brings her little sister, Sana, an embarrassment to Rubina. When it comes time for Sana to get invited to a birthday party, their mother wants to send the youngest sister. Rubina interjects and tells her mother that only Sana was invited and she should go alone, knowing that her sister will have a better experience if their experiences are different. Sana appreciates her sister’s understanding and shows her appreciation with a lollipop.

Another book to read aloud for discussion, is Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats. In this story, Peter is upset when he realizes that many of his things are being painted pink for his little sister to use. The highchair is already painted, but he rescues his little chair before it succumbs to pink paint as well. He wants to run away with his special chair, but realizes it is now too small for him to sit in. He returns with the chair and they paint it for his sister. Although, the bigger idea is about acceptance and change, there is also a connection to the idea of fairness. As we grow, expectations change and what was once appropriate may no longer be the case. Things do not remain the same, situations change, and what was considered fair may not remain so.

There are many opportunities to talk about fairness in Kindergarten. Often, the teacher may need to respond to the statement, “Why does he get to do that? It’s not fair.” And the teacher will respond, “Fairness isn’t the same for both of you. It is what he needs right now.”

February 16, 2013February 18, 2013 Carmen.Oliveira Celebrating Success, Differentiated Instruction, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Planning, Resources

Discovering Our Inner Poet

I love teaching writing. Let me be more specific. I loved teaching writing except when it came to poetry. For some reason, I’ve always managed to bring to life the other writing formats and genres with engaging lessons set upon a backdrop of real world contexts. The students, for the most part, ate it all up and asked for more. That is, until I mentioned we would be exploring poetry. The good times would come to a screeching halt as their faces reflected what I had also thought of poetry as an elementary student: boring and challenging to understand (how did I know what so-and-so meant by this-and-that?…and who cares?). So of course, with my determined and stubborn personality, in the past few years I’ve focused on learning how to breathe life into this wonderful writing genre. It hasn’t always been an ocean of roses but, for the most part, the exploration has led us to a whole new level of appreciation and learning.

We have just completed our poetry unit (which will continue informally throughout the year) and I can honestly say that the class thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d like to share with you a few of the activities and resources that made the experience engaging, meaningful, and memorable.

If you haven’t already done so, I strongly encourage you to purchase Classroom Events Through Poetry by Larry Swartz (just purchase any of his books on poetry and drama and you’ll be well on your way to an incredible teaching/learning experience). It’s a practical and concise book that provides easy and meaningful activities to explore poetry in our classroom and our lives. We started by looking at poetry in books, researching it on the internet, and sharing it with each other in daily poetry circles. We created newspaper poems by cutting out words and phrases and ordering them to try and create a themed poem. We took 2-4 sentences from a favourite poem and created a graffiti wall on our classroom door (the students thought this was very cool!). We acted out poetry, sang poetry, and shared the lyrics of our favourite songs after listening to them together. We learned about different structures by having groups of students become “specialists” as they taught the class the structure, gave examples, and had everyone try to create their own.

The culminating task involved creating a poem in the structure of their choice and presenting it at our Poet’s Cocktail Party! This was no ordinary party! Invitations were sent out, the poems were displayed all around the classroom, students dressed up, and food was ordered (grapes, cheese, crackers, cupcakes, and grape juice in place of red wine). As jazz music played, students mingled by reading each others’ poems and discussing their thoughts and opinions. A few students shared their poems and we snapped our fingers in appreciation of their work (yes, we snapped fingers, not clapped because that’s apparently what poets do).

A few students decided that they wanted to enter the Urban Voices poetry contest and their poems have been sent off. How special would it be to have a winner come from our class! Keeping our fingers crossed.

We cut out words and phrases from newspapers and ordered them to create a themed poem.

Students took 2-4 lines from favourite poems and created a graffiti wall on our door.

This poem was presented at our poetry cocktail party.

January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 Carmen.Oliveira Diverse Learning Needs, Equity, Mentorship, Professional Learning and Growth, Social Justice

Equity Work: Difficult and Transformative

I am currently taking a Mentoring AQ course that is really impacting my understanding of equity in education and how I can work with my colleagues to explore this topic in our teaching practice. I truly believe that it is necessary for all of us to take a step back and explore equity as it pertains not only to our classrooms, but to our schools, communities, and personal lives as well. I have decided to share some of my learning and wonderings as I take a closer look at the “Equity Continuum” from OISE’s Centre for Urban Schooling and the TDSB’s Equitable and Inclusive Schools site.

OISE Centre for Urban Schooling: http://cus.oise.utoronto.ca/

TDSB Equitable and Inclusive Schools: http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=15&menuid=570&pageid=452

Just some food for thought…

“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.”-Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid

This very simple and yet profound quote set off a critical unit of inquiry around equity in my Grade 6 classroom last year. Over the span of a few weeks (and subsequently the school year), we explored, discussed, questioned, challenged, and brought to light this important understanding that, in order for everyone to experience success and a strong sense of self, they would not necessarily need to be treated exactly the same. The best part of this experience was my own journey as I grappled with my previously constructed schema around equity and fairness in all aspects of my life.

I vividly remember coming back after a supply teacher had been in the classroom during this period of inquiry and having my students astonished and fuming at her reaction when a student asked for extra time and a quiet space to complete a task. She said she had to be fair and that everyone would need to hand it in at the same time. When the students let her know that fairness is when they have the right to learn the way that is best for them to be successful and in our classroom that means people may need different treatment, she completely disagreed in a manner that undermined what they had come to understand as being “fair.” Our conversation was lively, to say the least, and their questions were ones I have come to ask many times since then: “How can we get people, especially in education, to think about fairness as a way of everyone getting what they need?” and, “How can we create a positive space where teachers, students, and parents question, challenge, voice their own opinions, and feel that they have the right to self-advocate?” (Theirs were in kid-friendly language, of course).

After looking at the “Importance of Equity in Education” from the TDSB’s Equitable and Inclusive Schools page as well as the “Equity Continuum” from OISE’s Centre for Urban Schooling, I came to realize that, for me, the reasons that make equity work personally and professionally difficult are the same as those that make it transformative and fundamental if we are to move forward in education.

Whether it be with friends, colleagues, mentees, students, or parents, I find that when a conversation begins to challenge the status quo, challenge stereotypes, or involves having to critically look at ourselves, our beliefs, our expectations, or our practice, discomfort can quickly build up and the outcome takes the form of people shutting down, becoming outwardly upset, and unfortunately not evolving or learning from the experience. I feel that at the core of this difficulty in equity work is the reality that all of us are complex beings having been influenced on so many levels in so many ways by so many people throughout our lives therefore often making us oblivious to how our own story is projected in what we think, say, and do both personally and professionally. We seem to jump at the opportunity to try and convince others to take our viewpoint and find it easier to criticize those who do not share our beliefs. However, looking at and inside ourselves is a whole other story. Thus, the difficulty lies in welcoming discomfort as we tread the path of looking at equity not only by having others explore it but in also working through it ourselves.

The beauty and transformation in equity work comes about when we all courageously welcome the discomfort that arises in questioning our belief system as it pertains to our own culture and that of our school, classroom, and global community. When we are willing to question the status quo, challenge stereotypes, critically think about how our experiences and schemas influence our pedagogical practice, hold all students (and anyone connected to education, for that matter) to the highest standards and expectations regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, linguistic competence, etc., we begin to pave a path toward open-mindedness, acceptance, respect, and transformation not only within our personal lives but in our professional practice as well. When I began to take a deeper look at the Equity Continuum, I came to the realization that, even though I honestly believed I understood equity and had infused it in my teaching, there were so many other layers to it that I had not yet begun to peel back. In the world we live in today, this may be one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves as educators, parents, leaders and global citizens, “How will we work to ensure that everyone gets what they need to live a dignified life?”

I now know where my focus on equity will take me: unlearning what I have over time come to believe as the truth when it does not support the idea that everyone can be held to the highest standards and expectations regardless of their cultural background, race, gender, socio-economic status, etc. I’m willing to get my hands dirty as I explore the topics, ideas, beliefs, experiences, and realities that continue to shape my understanding and practice of equity within our education system.

As Will Durant commented, “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” I chose this quote because it can provoke discomfort by having us admit that we may be ignorant while also noting that the path to discovery is progressive which to me signifies that learning happens when we entertain that which may make us uncomfortable. Learning is messy business. That’s what makes it transformative.