Tisha Nelson Building Inclusion, Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, General, Inquiry, Planning, Resilience

Yikes! I’m Teaching A “Split” Grade Class

Meet Linda. The start of the school year has come and gone and she has finally been successful at landing her first Long Term Occasional teaching assignment in October. It’s an FDK/Grade 1 class, and given the dynamics of the FDK program, she struggles to even make sense of what that might actually look like.

Meet Lester. After finally feeling settled with his Grade 5 class, he learns that as a result of a school wide reorganization, his neatly packaged single-grade class has now become a “split-grade” class.

Do either of these situations sound familiar? Do these narratives hold true for your current experience? Before you pull out your hair or scream, here are some practical strategies that will help you navigate this new experience. Consider the following 3Cs, Context, Community and Curriculum, for teaching in a multigrade classroom.

Context: Although a multigrade classroom is not the ideal setting for an optimum teaching and learning experience, it is worth re-imagining the situation as a combined class rather than a “split grade.” The idea of a “split” gives the impression of a type of separateness that does not accurately describe the context of learning in a class of students who generally are within the same developmental stages. The great news is that combined grade class have of two consecutive grades in one class as opposed to grades that are years apart. In this way, a combined grade class maintains a similar diversity of students, range of learning styles, social skills and academic needs as in a single grade classroom.

Community: Rethinking the notion of a “split” grade can do wonders for the type of classroom environment you nurture. As in any class dynamic, students learn best in an environment that is inclusive and fosters a of sense community and belonging. As such, the ways in which the class environment is setup should work to unite students rather than separate them based on grade. Students should have opportunities to work in flexible groupings using a range of collaborative learning structures as often as possible to invite positive peer interactions through both collaborative and independent learning situations. A combined grades should never be thought of as housing two classes in one room. Rather, students should know that they are one class engaging in similar learning opportunities. Students should be taught how to navigate their unique learning situation by explicitly teaching the importance of cooperation, and how to engage in learning that takes on a variety of groupings; such as whole class, small group, partners or even independent learning. Inviting leadership opportunities and encourage students to view their peers as resources will help to establish a community based on cooperative interdependence.

Curriculum: The idea of covering a combination of two curricula is one of the primary concerns for teachers who have been assigned combined grades. In Ontario, thankfully, many of the content areas align in ways that make tackling both grades more manageable. These content areas include Mathematics, Language, Health and Physical Education and The Arts. In these curricular areas, differentiating instruction is an essential tool for ensuring that the overall expectations of each grade is addressed and assessed. Differentiating content, process and product will allow for a seamless flow between the different grade expectations. At the same time, using the gradual release of responsibility will set the tone for independence that is often essential in a combined grade classroom. For content areas that are less similar such as Social Studies and Science, teaching through an inquiry framework allows teachers to focus on essential skills and invite students to apply those skills in different contexts. By focusing whole-class instruction on big ideas, thinking processes and strategies, teachers are able to engage students in parallel learning experiences while differentiating content.

Teaching a combined grade is never easy. But with the heart for learning and the art of teaching with finesse, even the least of ideal situations can be one that is done successfully.

For more information about teaching in a combined grade class, check out the resource Learning Together: A Teacher’s Guide to Combined Grades at Shop ETFO.

Beverly Papove Inquiry

A Spark of Inquiry

An unexpected experience of Inquiry-Based Learning in kindergarten happened in our classroom last week when a little boy came to school with a treasure map he had drawn at home. The map consisted of a few meandering lines, some loop-de-loops and, of course, a mysterious X. The map itself was a kind of treasure because it drew a crowd and the student found himself answering a lot of questions and leading search teams through the school yard.
Our kinder team noticed the interest the map had produced, and so we began to think of ways to facilitate further inquiry.  While the students were outside with my colleagues, I returned to the classroom and put a large X on the floor with electrical tape. A few minutes later, when the students came in, they instantly noticed it and, with their backpacks and jackets still on, formed a crowd around the X, wondering why it was there and who had put it there. A buzz was created and curiousity piqued. Suddenly, so many students wanted to make maps! And so, while the students were having a snack, my colleague and I quickly taped up about 12 feet of mural paper on the wall under the windows and put out containers of markers and rulers. On a science table, we spread out several old National Geographic maps and placed magnifying glasses on them, and at the art table, there were maps to cut up, scraps of brown mural paper, tape, and markers.
For the rest of the day, many of the students were fully engaged interpreting maps and making maps. There were, however, some students who were completely content to play in the kitchen, or at the sand table, while a flurry of map-making went on around them. Interestingly, the little boy who had brought in the original treasure map which had sparked the inquiry spent his afternoon engaged in dramatic play in the kitchen. And that is what is helpful to remember with an inquiry – it may not be of interest to everyone, the whole class may not be drawn to embark on the same project and the spark may not last. And so it was, that the next day, when my English colleague came in to teach my class for the day (we alternate French and English days between 2 classrooms), the students were on to something else, following a different thread of inquiry. Never the less, I consider the day as an exciting, spontaneous, hands-on introduction to maps that will be beneficial whenever we talk about directions, measuring distance, and labeling diagrams, throughout the year. Such is the way with Inquiry-Based Learning.
Photo of Lisa Taylor
Lisa.Taylor Classroom Management, Differentiated Instruction, General, Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy, Math, Year End Activities

Keeping Lessons Engaging to the End of June

It can sometimes be difficult to stick with the curriculum until the end of June. The sun is shining, you hear kids outside your window playing soccer-baseball during gym class, the room is sweaty, it is just time to be done! Resist the urge to abandon the curriculum for recreation, unless you can combine the two!

There are lots of fun ways to keep kids engaged until the very end of the school year. In my experience, the last month of school is the best time to do a big, whole class project.

One year, when studying Ancient Civilizations, we wrote a poem about some of the major battles in Ancient Greece. Then we drew on the Arts curriculum and made a set, props, and developed acting cues for the poem. We worked with the Media Literacy curriculum and marketed our production to the rest of the school and families. We did some math around how many showings of the play we would need to do if we had room for 35 seats in the classroom. We talked about what it would be like if we charged money for the show, what would we use the money for, how much would we get if we charged $0.25 per seat, $1.50 per seat, etc. What if your ticket included popcorn, how much would it cost? We purchased popcorn, popped it and measured how many servings we could get out of it. Then we did the math on how many bags we would need and how much we would need to charge for it. They worked out the math on how long the show was, how much time would be required between showings to get organized again, and then looked at the school schedule to see how many showings they could fit in during the day. They wrote reviews of the play for the newspaper, they wrote ads to go on the announcements, they even filmed commercials! They made a program to hand out, worked out how many copies they would need, they did it all.

The learning in this project was incredibly rich, and it was all culminating in the final 3 days of school when they presented their play multiple times throughout the day. This kept them busy, engaged, and connected to the curriculum for the last month of school. The last few days which can be chaotic, were a breeze. They ran the whole day, bringing classes to and from their play, presenting, and keeping the set organized and ready to go.

There are so many different ways you can plan for this last month to ensure the learning is rich, the students are engaged, and the days fly by! Inquiry Based learning is the perfect way to finish out the year. I had a grade 2 class that was very interested in restaurants. So we incorporated the social studies of food from around the world, and we turned out whole class into a restaurant that served dishes from different places around the world. Again, we did advertising, signage, lots of math around how much we would need of different supplies, etc.

Pick a topic that you know will hook your class. Then turn it into something big and run with it. You will be surprised at how much learning they get out of it and how quickly it takes over!

Alison.Board Assessment, Differentiated Instruction, Inquiry

Assessment for Inquiry Projects

Alison_BoardTeachers are encouraged to use inquiry in all subject areas. Using inquiry is not necessarily a set of steps to follow or instruct, but an approach to guide student learning. It usually results in greater engagement and can easily be differentiated to individuals and groups. What is often the biggest challenge for teachers is the assessment piece.

Here are a few ways to support your assessment:

  • determine check-ins with students as they complete specific stages of the process, such as planning, research/recording observations, interpreting and communicating (use rubrics for these stages as provided in curriculum document – Continuum for Scientific Inquiry)
  • use mini-lessons to teach skills and content to the whole class that support the Inquiry subject area
  • use whole-class discussions or small group discussions to make observations about student knowledge and understanding (this also builds knowledge among the larger group)
  • provide access to a computer for each group or a notebook to record their questions and plans and stay accountable. Communicate with them to further their thinking and provide next steps (Google Docs works well for this)
  • Keep observations sheets handy to make notes and take photos
  • Inquiry work provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the learning skills
  • Provide students with a checklist to ensure specific learning, such as “Show impact on environment” or “Determine best solution for power generation at our school” – when assessing effectiveness of final task/project that students may present in a variety of ways (poster, video, website, etc.)

There are some great project based learning guidelines and assessment tips/strategies on the website http://www.edutopia.org/ or follow edutopia on Twitter.

Kelly.McLaughlin Assessment, Inquiry, Students as Teachers

Inquiry and science

When talking about inquiry, teachers are always challenged with what to do to guide students in the right direction or to even give them any type of direction. I thought back to my university courses this time last year and thought about the way my peers and I presented a topic. We were allowed to choose a topic,choose our groups and then choose how to present it. This way we planned our own route to success and found topics that interested us.

I decided to present this approach to my class with our current flight unit. I gave them the choice of curriculum expectations and then they chose how to teach a lesson to the class with any methods they desired to use. My students just need to involve the audience and create a handout for students to refer to after the presentations. So far I have seen students creating paper airplanes, making websites, making pontoon, making videos, interviewing different people and creating exciting and engaging lessons for their class.

I did use the rubric from the growing success document but I feel that assessing my student’s projects are more than that rubric. So for me, the challenge is finding out how to assess these authentic student tasks. I wish that it was simple but I am finding that I do not know how to figure out the best way to “mark” my grade sixes.

Alison.Board Classroom Management, Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context, Year End Activities

Keeping them Engaged…

These last two months of school can be trying for both teachers and students. The students are ready to get outdoors and classroom management is necessary as their social volume seems to increase with each warmer day. People that are not working in education often suggest that I must enjoy these last weeks of school as I anticipate the summer. It is hard to explain how challenging the last two months can be. Teachers feel overwhelmed to complete marking, prepare themselves for the looming task of report writing, as well as make plans for their teaching placement in September! In addition to that, teachers want to feel that they are keeping their students engaged with learning into June, not just keeping them busy.

Here are some suggestions to try out in the last month of school that will actively engage your students, if you haven’t already:

  • Have students design an original book cover for a book they have read, with a new artistic representation (art, media) and a new summary (language) on the back. When completed, create a gallery walk or a contest for best original design. If completed with another class, you can swap covers to judge.
  • Allow students to work individually or in small groups to create a dance based on a specific theme, element, or cultural influence. Provide them time each day to work on it (they love this!), then use days in June for each group to present to the rest of the class (or even invite parents in for an Open House event).
  • Provide students with about 3 poems of different styles to read and reflect on. Allow time for group discussions and sharing of ideas. Create a poetry workshop for a few periods each week. Students can peer review or you can provide feedback. Students select their favourite original poem to read to the class. Or create a Poetry Cafe for parents or other students in the school to attend. Students will enjoy advertising, writing invitations, and preparing beverages for the Cafe!
  • Take your learning outside! Go on weekly walks in the community and look for connections to your current lessons/activities in Science, Social Studies, or Math. If students ask particular questions, use it a starting point for a mini-inquiry that you can support for the last month in the classroom. Document your walks with photos, written reflections, or drawings.
  • Find a purpose. Use the last two months to pursue something meaningful in the community that there may not have been time to do over the winter months. Adopt a school garden to care for, clean up in the community, or buddy up with younger/older students and work together.
Enjoy!
Photo of Alison Board
Alison.Board General, Inquiry, Integration, Planning

Big Idea of Balancing Needs

Back in October, I wrote about the 4 big questions we would use as a lens to consider our curriculum. I had noted that the first question, How do we balance our needs with the needs of others? was presented in September, but students were cautious. It was as though they weren’t sure what the right answer was, or how to form their own opinions based on their own experiences and the information they were learning in class. A bulletin board in the classroom was set-up dedicated for items we may collect that would contribute to our understanding as we worked to answer this question. When I taught grade 1/2s, they enjoyed adding information or images to our research board and watching the accumulation of ideas as the board filled.

In the grade 5/6 class this year, the concept of collecting representations of related ideas was difficult for them to either grasp or see as worthwhile. So as we discussed new books or issues, I would add something to our Inquiry Research board. Needless to say, it was more sparse than the research boards I was used to seeing in the younger grades. One of the first additions to the board was to add their initial responses to the question. This provides a good starting point. So, when asked How do we balance our needs with others?, the students responded with:

  • “Be kind and friendly.”
  • “Cooperate with others.”
  • “Eat healthy.”
  • “Some people in some countries don’t have food to eat, so don’t let your food go to waste.”
  • “Treat others the way you want to be treated, for example, if you’re mean to your brother he will be too.”
When I reviewed the responses I had to ask myself if the students understood what needs were and if they were providing answers they thought were “right.” The answers seemed like stock answers for a variety of questions, but not the question that I had asked of them. I realized we needed to backtrack and look at needs and understand them by definition. We considered what needs are (physical, emotional, and group needs).
Then, to understand the meaning of the balance between individuals or groups, we used books such as “The Encounter” and “Sees Behind Trees” to deepen through read-alouds and discussions. I was surprised that a visual of a scale was what really worked to help them grasp the concept. We then used that image to look at the curriculum to consider:
  • needs of First Nations vs. European explorers
  • needs of Space Explorers
  • needs of residents in areas of development (Fracking for gas extraction) – a topic that emerged from our look at matter.
At the end of our inquiry, students provided responses that showed a better understanding of needs and some were able to use specific examples from their learning:
“The Europeans wanted to change First Nations’ culture but what they didn’t know was that First Nations already had a culture – Nature was their god but the Europeans didn’t know that.”
 
“Balancing your needs is how you manage things in your life. The needs of the First Nations didn’t matter (to the Europeans). Nobody cared about their religion. They felt useless.”
 
“Some people need more than others.”
 
“I don’t think that they balanced their needs with First Nations when they took their children to schools far away so they can forget their culture and their language.”
 
Now in class, students continue to make connections about needs. They also consider their own needs as something that requires balance with those around them like their family, and especially other students. Going through the first Big Idea required more scaffolding than I planned, however it was necessary for the students to understand how to consider their knowledge in the context of bigger idea or question. We are now moving on to another question/lens, “How do people overcome challenges?” I am predicting richer responses from the initial question and the culminating task.
Alison.Board Building Inclusion, Equity, General, Inquiry, Integration, Learning About Your Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Literacy

“I Know Here”

At one of our first staff meetings this year, we had a discussion about building community in our school. What is our community? How do we see ourselves? Many of the teachers had a difficult time describing our school community. We are in a building with additions that have been attached on various levels, resulting in doors and stairs that physically separate the classrooms into small groupings of three or four to a floor. The community outside of the school is also diverse. There are few apartment buildings as well as a neighbourhood of homes, a park, and a plaza of stores.

To discover our community through student inquiry, all the classes read the book I Know Here by Laurel Croza.

 

We then asked the students to take a similar approach and define their community with words and representations. The results were outstanding. Every age from Kindergarten to grade 8 was able to identify what made the community unique and they presented their own perspective. To extend that sense of our community defined by student voice, we set up a literacy night at the school to showcase the student work. It included descriptive writing, drawings, 3D representations, photos and videos.

The experience was rewarding for the teachers, students, and parents of our school community. The work was meaningful and the children were engaged. It was a topic that was accessible to all and promoted equity throughout our school. The children were also able to share new insight and point of view with us, the educators.

Alison.Board Challenging Topics, Equity, Inquiry, Integration, Literacy, Social Justice

Literacy and Big Ideas

We started the first of our 4 big questions for the year. How do we balance our needs with the needs of others? The question has been on the wall since the second week of school, but only now are the students starting to find ways to answer that question. One of the ways the grade 5/6 students have started to approach the question is through their learning in Social Studies. As they learn about initial contact between Europeans and First Nations, they are also considering the needs of the explorers and settlers compared to the needs of the First Nations in Canada.

The other way that the students have broadened their understanding of the question is through read-alouds. One book in particular, Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris, was a favourite read-aloud to the class. It connected with our Social Studies learning as well as the model it provided for the descriptive writing we were experimenting with. At the end of the book, the students were eager to identify various relationships in the book and how the characters’ needs balanced with one another’s. Reading this book together seemed to click for everyone as a means of examining the big over-arching question.

This was a celebrated moment of understanding in our classroom and a confirmation of my own that students need to be immersed in a literature-rich curriculum. One of the most useful resources I have found to support discussion and understanding is ETFO’s Social Justice Begins With Me. This resource provides a robust list of books that connect to themes/ideas of community, empathy, rights of the child, as well as big ideas of cycles or beauty! It summarizes the text and highlights themes that connect the students to the learning. I also like that there are sections of the resource specific to Primary, Junior, and Intermediate grades with curriculum connections and activity ideas.

You can also view parts of the resource in pdf at http://www.etfo.ca/resources/socialjustice/pages/default.aspx or look at specific booklists that have also been added to the site.

Photo of Carmen Oliveira
Carmen.Oliveira Challenging Topics, Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Questioning, Social Justice

Tackling Challenging Topics: The Dolphin Dilemma

Recently, our Grade 4 class began exploring habitats and communities in our Science unit.  The children were very excited to share what they thought we would be learning about and which habitats and animals they were looking forward to researching.  One student was eager to tell the class that she saw dolphins at a marine park during the summer and would like to learn more about them because they were beautiful.  Now, I have to preface my story by saying that every student I’ve ever had in my classroom knows how much I love dolphins.  In fact, anyone visiting my classroom immediately notices the countless dolphin figurines lovingly given by many of my former students.  However, what students may not know is how strongly I believe that these mammals do not belong in marine parks but rather, should be left to swim in the wild.

During our classroom discussion one of the boys surprised me by asking the student who had visited the marine park why she liked to see dolphins in pools when they were supposed to be in the ocean.  Many students looked at him confused and admitted to having seen dolphins in marine parks and they also thought they were “cool.”  He seemed outnumbered by the blank and puzzled stares coming from his classmates and looked at me for support.  I have to admit that my natural reaction would be to defend him, prove why he’s right and try to educate students by raising awareness about the issue.  Of course, after so many years of tackling challenging issues related to social justice, the environment and students’ personal lives I know that the best way to engage in meaningful conversation is to keep an open mind, look at all perspectives, raise relevant questions that will provoke critical thinking and provide factual (hopefully biased-free) material that can be used to analyze the issue at hand.

This always takes me back to Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk  “The Danger of a Single Story.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
In the past I’ve broken down this video with my students for us to realize how biased we all are to some degree and how those biases can greatly affect how we see and interact with the world.  When we have the tools we need to deal with challenging topics, we end up not only learning more, but growing from our experience, even if we continue to disagree.  It’s a powerful lesson to learn in life: before deciding where we stand on an issue,  step back and look at it from all sides before venturing toward a conclusion.

I do have to confess that despite all my attempts to stay neutral I did wear my Dolphin Project – Swim Wild t-shirt to school that same week.  Needless to say the students have decided (without my coaxing) that they’d like to learn more about a dolphin’s natural habitat and study the impact that keeping them in marine parks has on them.  This inquiry will definitely present some challenges for me but I hope to guide my students to their own well thought-out conclusion.  I’ll post our findings in the near future 🙂