Alison.Board Building Inclusion, Integration, Learning About Your Students, Planning

Building Community

 

September has been all about building community in our 5/6 classroom. It is difficult not to move full-steam ahead into the curriculum and feel pressured by time. However, by slowing things down and making time for community circles, Tribes activities, and more discussions, the students feel valued as contributors to their classroom and also their learning.

To build community we:

  • Start each morning with a community gathering  – I say a gathering rather than a circle as we are challenged with space and don’t have a carpet to sit on. So we gather near the reading corner where there is a small carpet and some bean bag chairs. Students are welcome to sit on the cushions, the small rug, or pull up their chairs in a semi-circle. It has an informal feel to it and the options allow students a choice in their seating, which they appreciate. We initially started our meetings with prompts that everyone responded to, such as favourite hobbies, number of siblings, etc. Now we open the discussion to anyone who wants to share. Last week, a student shared that she had just got a puppy the night before. This led to an engaging talk about dogs as pets and the fears that others had experienced with dogs.
  • Writer’s workshop – To launch our writing workshop, we used Tribes activities that created discussions about our interests and selves. We then spent the first week writing lists that reflected those discussions, which will later be used to generate ideas during independent writing times. We all took a survey home to find out the origin of our names and why were given our particular names. After sharing our information in small groups, it provided a good starting topic for writing. We also wrote about our birth order after a fun Tribes activity that involved separating the class into four corners of the room for discussion, grouped as: oldest, only, middle, and youngest child.
  • Reading workshop – We are also going slow with our development of reading workshop routines. To do this, we are following the 20 day plan that is simply laid out by Fountas and Pinnell in their book, Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6). On the Heinemann website it describes the book as presenting, “the basic structure of the language/literacy program within a breakthrough framework that encompasses the building of community through language, word study, reading, writing, and the visual arts.”
  • Math – Starting with data management, the students have had the opportunity to survey each other about their interests and make graphs. We also took an online Multiple Intelligence survey and are graphing the strengths of the class on a large graph to be displayed and referred to in the classroom.
  • Social Studies and Art – Our first art activity followed a read-aloud about totem poles created by the Haida. We used a chart that described the meaning about each crest and the significance of colour. After selecting crests that reflected each individual, the students drew their crest using pastels with bold black outlines, then used brown paint around the crest to resemble the totem pole. We have attached the rectangular drawings into groups of 5 or 6 crests and formed 3D cylinder shapes to resemble poles. We are preparing to hang them in the hallway outside our classroom.
In addition to slowing down to build community in September, it is something to consider incorporating into subjects and activities throughout the year to maintain an ideal environment that continues to be inclusive and engaging for all students. Check out suggestions for inclusive activities and lessons in the Matrix of Ideas at the back of The Heart and Art of Teaching and Learning!
Photo of Mike Beetham
Mike Beetham Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Classroom Management, First Week Reflections, Learning About Your Students, Making a Difference Through Education

The Power of Believing

It is not found in a curriculum, at an educational supply store or in a university course outline. But yet it is one of the most powerful tools that a teacher has. It is the belief in yourself to handle the varying demands of the teaching role, to have confidence in your professional expertise to help students and to instill that belief in each and every one of your students. As my students arrive in my classroom in September the one common element they have (besides a multitude of at risk behaviours) is the belief that they are not smart and that school is not a setting where they will do well. My target priority becomes the mission of helping my students be successful and to believe that school is a place where they will thrive and be triumphant.  This is easy said,  but experience has taught me that it does not occur in a few lessons or a unit of study but rather exists in my teaching philosophy and must be embedded in my talk, my instructional practices and my way of life in the school. I have developed a set of teaching eyes that focus on what students can do rather than what they can’t do. That is a contagious approach that will spread quickly from adults to children.

I would like to introduce you to J who arrived in my classroom with a very closed attitude toward school despite not knowing me, the school or the classroom he has been forced to attend. Before I could begin to help him I had to get to know him as a person and not a student. What are his interests, his talents and his challenges? Our journey of learning is now underway and it will have its ups and downs, joyous moments and sad times but we are coming together with the understanding that he will be successful, he is smart and that school is a not so bad place to be. I will keep you updated on our progress.

Children must be taught how to think
Carmen.Oliveira Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Equity, First Week Reflections, Learning About Your Students, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources

Let’s Get This Learning Started

This year I begin a new journey as I welcome the opportunity to teach Grade 4.  For the record, I must admit that I was a bit nervous simply because I’ve been teaching Grade 6 and above for the past five years.  However, the first week has proven that if we enjoy getting to know our students and work to create engaging opportunities for them to learn about each other, the classroom environment becomes a comfortable place to be, no matter which grade we’re teaching.

Although I’ve had to be more mindful of the way I communicate by constantly keeping in mind that the students in front of me just left Grade 3, I continue to be amazed at how capable children can be when they’re given guidelines for learning and are then left to explore and build on their understanding of the world around them.

This year, my goal is to be very intentional about the feedback I provide, the conversations I have, and how I approach character education.  This goal stems out of the learning I experienced (and continue to do so) with some very powerful books I decided to read this summer.  “How Children Succeed,” by Paul Tough and “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” by Carol S. Dweck, really got me thinking about the way I approach conversations, feedback, and teaching in my classroom.  The books focus on the power of building a strong character based on resilience in children and how to help them understand that more than our talents or abilities, it is our mindset that influences our learning.

If you want to start off your year by exploring how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great success in every area of a child’s life, I recommend you take some time this year to read the books I’ve mentioned.

For a quick overview, I’ve provided an article by Carol S. Dweck below where she explains the growth mindset and how it can positively affect and change the way students learn, think, and perform.

Dweck: MiindSets and Equitable Education

we made it
Carmen.Oliveira Celebrating Success, Literacy, Students as Teachers, Year End Activities

Celebrating Learning as the Year Winds Down

As our school year winds down, I thought I’d share a few ideas I’ve used in the past along with some I’ve recently come across that can create fun and meaningful opportunities to reflect on the learning and  overall experience in our classrooms this year.

END OF YEAR BOOKLET: This booklet is geared toward junior students but can easily be modified for primary grades.  This booklet is a way for students to think back on the various aspects of their year and includes tasks that involve creativity by adding artwork.  Students enjoy reading each others’ booklets and sharing them with the class at a year-end party.

END OF YEAR AWARD: Students create their own award to present to anyone they wish.  They decide what the award is celebrating and the recipient can be someone in the class, the school, their family, or community.  You can make it fun by having students draw each others’ names and create an award for their classmate which they present at an end-of-year award ceremony.  This often becomes very humourous with some silly awards being created.

TEACHER REPORT CARD: I can understand why some teachers would be wary of having their students do this but I actually find it very helpful and the students love giving me feedback.  I spend so much of the year assessing them and sharing descriptive feedback about their learning so why shouldn’t they do the same with respect to my teaching?  Students are quite insightful and honest.  Some of the reports I’ve received have been eye-openers and got me thinking about how to better my program the following year.

LETTER TO NEXT YEAR’S STUDENTS: This gives the current students the opportunity to reflect on their year and think of advice to give to the students for the upcoming school year.  Both the students writing the letter and those reading it the following year really enjoy this opportunity to get a sense of what can be expected.

LET STUDENTS TEACH A CLASS: You can split the class into groups and assign each a specific topic you studied this year. Give them time to go over their topic and invent a good review activity, which they have to grade (or not, if it’s too much for the end of the year). You assess them on whether they were able to re-teach the concept or skill and how effective their review activity is.

STUDENT CREATED QUIZ SHOW: Have students come up with questions for a quiz show about concepts, skills, facts, or anything they learned throughout the year.  Create categories (ie. like Jeopardy) for each subject area and have students organize their questions.  Enjoy the quiz show as a class competing against the teacher or form teams of students to compete against each other.  Prizes can include a longer recess, extra gym time, or some frozen treats at the end of hot June day.

end of year booklet part 1

end of year booklet part 2

end of year award

Teacher Report Card

letter to next year students

Photo of Tina Ginglo
Tina.Ginglo Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Student Ownership

Differentiating the Learning Environment

Differentiated instruction can be challenging for a teacher, new or ‘not so’ new.  There are so many ways we can differentiate our instruction that it can be overwhelming trying to get the “differentiated” ball (or should I say cube?:)) rolling.  Where do we start?    I suggest that if you are just beginning to explore ways to differentiate your program that you take it one step at a time.  For me, I feel that the self directed and open-ended nature of my writing program helps me to differentiate student learning in many ways.  Guided reading is another example of how we differentiate content to meet the different interests and readiness of our students.  What I need to explore further are ways I can differentiate the learning environment.  This has been one of my professional learning goals for this year.

I believe that all students need experiences to work independently and collaboratively regardless of their learning preference.  However, in order for students to be successful, we must provide for their learning needs by giving them the structure and opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in ways that best suit them.

Over the winter break I purchased a dozen privacy panels for my third grade classroom.  They were not too expensive… about twenty dollars. When we returned from the holidays I introduced the panels to the students.  Everyone liked the idea of the panels and wanted to use them ALL the time.  At first, it was a distraction.  My students sit in groups of 4 and every student in a group wanted to use a panel.  I had to explain on more than one occasion that if one or two used a panel in each group then the other students in the group wouldn’t need the panels.  There were times when I had to say, “No panels! Get to work!”

By the time we returned from March Break the novelty of the panels finally wore off.   Now, whenever the need arises, some students will get up from their groups to get a privacy panel and it doesn’t start a “stampede” for the remaining panels!  Students go on with there work indifferent to the colourful cardboard that pops up at different groups throughout the classroom.  I am glad that I didn’t give up on the panels.   I had patience, well… most of the time, and trusted my intuition and the process.  Whenever we introduce something new to the classroom there is usually some excitement and then it just becomes part of the routine.

I have managed to find another way to address the different learning needs in the class.  It is interesting to observe which students decide to use the panels and when.  Jamie, for example, tends to set up a privacy panel when she is writing a reading response in her journal.  Jennifer, on the other hand, needs the panel when we are working on problem solving in math.

It is important for me to create a learning environment where students have as much choice and control of their learning as they can handle at such a young age.  When students are working on an independent activity, I encourage students to support each other in their groups.  As long as they are using small voices and staying on task, I encourage the collaboration.  However, not all students can learn this way.  Some students need to limit the distractions in the environment in order to learn.   These students may choose to work at a desk away from their group, on the carpet or simply put up a privacy panel.   The goal is to teach students to independently decide what learning environment they need in order to be successful in the classroom.    Privacy panels are one way we can offer students choice and control of their learning environment.

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.
Carmen.Oliveira Celebrating Success, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship, Students as Teachers

My Little Guru

Ever since I can remember, I have always strived to surround myself with people and experiences that inspire and motivate me to question, learn, and celebrate the art of living.  My teachers, or gurus, have manifested themselves in different forms.  A parent, a sister, my son, a friend, poets and writers in my favourite books, social activists, great teachers, or simply people who demonstrate an innate ability to rise above obstacles in their quest to live a life of purpose.

I have the privilege of coming across little gurus each and every day of my life.  They happen to share a classroom with me.  I owe much of my learning and growth, both professional and personal, to my students.  One in particular has left me humbled and deeply grateful for allowing me to be a part of his journey.  Daniel* has been the reason behind quite a few sleepless nights.  His life has been one I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.  At the start of year, his personality reflected the confusion, fear, anger, and instinct for survival that is expected within his reality.  He’s the one  I would come home and talk to my family about non-stop because I was determined to understand him and somehow be a guide or figure that would help him see how amazing he truly was.  After a few weeks of racking my brain and over-thinking the situation, I decided to let it go and just work on three things: building trust, getting him to believe that I liked him no matter what he did or said, and playing to his strengths at all times so he felt the power that comes from knowing that he matters.  I learned to really listen, so much so that he would need to feel that he was the most important person at that moment.

What unfolded in the following months was a teacher-student relationship where I learned far more than I could teach him.  When his social worker came to visit 3 weeks ago, he asked me to be at the meeting with him.  What I heard during that time, was nothing short of astonishing.  His wisdom, strength, compassion, and resiliency left the social worker and I in complete awe.  I was in the presence of a little guru, a teacher who knows how to use obstacles to create possibilities and hold himself accountable for the decisions he makes in life.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from the speech he recently wrote for our Speech Arts unit.  When I conferenced with him to look it over, I had to make an excuse to leave the classroom so I could have a cry in private.  He gave me permission to share it with you:

“Have you ever had a moment in your life when you didn’t believe you could do something or you thought you weren’t good enough?  I remember having low self-esteem.  There was a time I didn’t care about myself and I felt I couldn’t be me.  But that time is long gone and now when I come to school I’m proud to be Daniel*.  I feel free from judgement.  I walk down the hall and feel joyful.  Every child needs to have someone who inspires them to stay true to themselves.  They must be inspired.  The change can happen in your life and it’s amazing.  

My teacher inspires me because every day I’m with her she gets me to really think about life and how I can become better and better at what I do.  When I’m having a bad day and so something I didn’t mean to, she sits down with me and talks to me.  We talk about how I can use what I know to make decisions to avoid negative situations.  I have learned to just be me without changing for anyone else.  

…Imagine what society would be like if everyone who needed help had someone to inspire them?  Thinking back to when I felt so low and not like the Daniel* I am today I realize that having someone that came into my life and helped me change made all the difference.  There’s a quote in my classroom I really like.  It goes like this, “I may not be perfect, but parts of me are pretty awesome.”  I’m not perfect, but I am a very unique and awesome kid.”

I let him know that he inspired me to share our story with teachers world-wide.  He smiled with the smirk of self-confidence.

Photo of Tina Ginglo
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!

 

Newspaper Poetry
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.

 

An example of a newspaper poem.

 

An example of a newspaper 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.
Photo of Tina Ginglo
Tina.Ginglo Assessment, Differentiated Instruction, Diverse Learning Needs, Literacy, Planning, Questioning, Use of Technology

Using Audio for Self-Assessment

I have added a new layer to the writing process in my third-grade writing workshop.  As I wrote in a past post, our writing workshop process begins with students writing in their Writer’s Notebooks.  When a writer completes a piece of writing, they then meet with their assigned writing partner and/or me for a writing conference.  At this conference, writers review the success criteria for their writing assignment and then identify two ways in which they have successfully met the criteria.  Writers then identify one criterion that needs to be developed further. They then transfer their writing to their laptop keeping in mind the feedback they received and making their revisions as they type their second draft.  Ultimately, writers post their narratives in their writing group on Edmodo.com where they receive more feedback from their group members.

Using Audacity software and a set of headphones with microphone, my third graders have learned how to read and record their personal narratives.  Once recorded, students listen back.  They then ask themselves two questions:  “In what ways does my story sound like a real story?”  And “In what ways can I make my story sound more like a real story?”  Students enthusiastically record their stories.  This component of the writing process engages those auditory learners who could benefit from this new component of the writing process.

I have changed the way I phrase these reflection questions.  At first I instructed students to ask themselves, “Does my story sound like a real story? Yes or no?”  If yes, why does it sound like a real story? If no, why not?”  I found that this self-assessment exercise wasn’t making a significant difference in their writing.   I concluded that it wasn’t the process that was ineffective, but the questions I was asking writers to consider.   These yes/no questions left writers basically rating their narratives as “good” or “bad.”  Their narratives either sounded “real” or didn’t.  These questions didn’t allow students to identify the strengths in their narratives and where it could sound better.  Realistically, all of my writers’ stories sounded a tad real, some more so than others. The goal here is to make everyone’s writing sound better. Using these new questions should ultimately improve the writers’ craft.

I am also thinking of adding audio to the writing conferences with writing partners and teacher.  Some students struggle to give feedback on other students’ writing for a number of reasons.  Perhaps a student’s penmanship is difficult to read or spelling or punctuation is interfering with comprehension.  Listening to a story as it is intended to sound eliminates those barriers to comprehension.

I am proud of my third graders.  Each day they are becoming more independent writers.  I believe the secret to their success is that the students understand the flow of our writing workshop and, thanks to clear success criteria, they can identify their strengths as writers.   They see themselves as writers!   I am fortunate to have access to audio technology.  In reality, you don’t need computers or even headphones to make this happen in your classroom.   You can go “old school” with a mini cassette recorder.   Some old cell phones have recording devices.  One of our goals is to teach our writers to write like readers and read like writers.  Using audio is one way to get there!

List of 2013 Goals
Katie Pryde Building Inclusion, Diverse Learning Needs

Goal Setting…Even in Kindergarten

Upon the return to school after the Holiday Break, I thought it would be interesting to see how goal setting might look in Kindergarten. We had a little discussion as a whole class about goals, and how at this time of year many people create goals for themselves. We brainstormed some common goals some people may want to make for themselves. Then, I made it specific to school, and my students brainstormed some ideas of Classroom Goals we should have for the 2013 school year.  I have attached our goals for each Track that I teach. Some were very similar, but some were very creative and inclusive to that Track only. I was very proud of my students for coming up with such amazing goals.

 

I also got each student to write about what they would like to learn about for this upcoming year. Again, I was shocked and and so proud of the goals many of my students came up with!

See these goals at: https://mobile.twitter.com/class_pryde/status/289774661540147200/photo/1

https://mobile.twitter.com/class_pryde/status/289774263022534656/photo/1

Goal-setting can happen…. even in Kindergarten!