this is why I teach!!

We've been reading culturally responsive texts this summer...digging deep into real life issues and struggles that people face. This past week we read Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting, a story about a  boy and his father who are homeless, live in the airport, and try to go unnoticed by other patrons and security.  We also read two articles on homelessness, one about homeless students in Las Vegas and another about homelessness in Nashville.  I was timid about navigating the conversations with my students, wanting to be careful about what I said.  But we seriously had some amazing discussions.

It is BEAUTIFUL to see the compassion and empathy my students have.  And it was great also being real...looking at the issue from multiple sides.  As a culminating experience, my students had to write their opinion answering "Is homelessness an individual problem or a community problem?"  They also had to come up with solutions.

Check out some things they wrote!  AMAZING!

This student on his own decided that homelessness is BOTH an individual problem and a community problem.  I didn't even think of giving them the option to write about both!

This one is my FAVORITE! One of the articles said that homelessness is a "black eye to our community." We talked about what that meant, and how homelessness makes it look like we don't care for our community and may make people feel like our city is unsafe and dirty.  ON HER OWN, this child wrote "So as you can see homelessness is a black eye for our community and homes and supplies are the ice packs."  THE ICE PACKS! What an AMAZING metaphor! :)  This child has learned that we can be part of the solution to bring healing to our broken world. What more can I ask for.  She also definitely needs to grow up and be a writer. :)

Another student had the idea to collect donations of food.  So at the end of the day, we did a quick shared writing activity where we wrote a letter to our parents telling them what we learned and what we wanted to do about it! I typed, and they told me what to write.  We asked students and families to bring in donations...and it's only day 1, check out how much we already have!! :)

The coolest thing about this is that many of my students' families are just making ends meet. One of the students that brought in the most gets donations from our school during the holidays.  But when she brought in the food, in her broken English she said "My dad took me to The One Dollar Tree, because I felt sad for the people. They have no homes." 

These kids inspire me and make my job worth it!

Math Fluency

Math fluency is a super important part of teaching math.  We of course want students to also explain HOW and WHY during math time.  BUT fluently adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing is also very important! It helps take away extra thinking while you model too!  If you're modeling how to solve a 3-digit regrouping problem, and you have students that struggle with fluency...they will get caught up in the computation and miss the HOW and WHY.

So... here are some fluency routines, games, and activities that I have used in my classroom and that my students love! :)

1. Mad Minute - This is a 1 minute timed fluency worksheet that my students complete EVERY DAY.  They LOVE it!  Each student gets a page protector and inside they place the fluency facts that they are working on.    Monday-Thursday, they practice with a dry-erase marker. And on Fridays, they take it out of the page protector and complete the fluency sheet with pencils.  In my class, students have 1 minute to get 20 correct.  If they mastered the facts, they move on to the next one.  I organize the worksheets in files (see picture), so that I can quickly check students and hand them a new worksheet (eventually I train a few students to pass them out).
FYI: to set this up in the beginning of the year, they complete one at a time with pencil until they don't pass.  Once they get "stuck" on one, I hand them a page protector, and that's when they start practice.  This allows me to quickly differentiate and meet students where they are at!  Some students may be working on multiplying by 4, while others are multiplying by 9.

2. Speed Fun - For this game, I usually do boys vs. girls or  have table groups challenge each other.  Each team lines up. The person in the front solves one problem (we use post-its and they just stick them on), then hands the marker to the person behind them and goes to the back of the line. The first
line that finishes first with 100% accuracy wins and congratulates the other team.  You can also make this a center and have "mini speed fun" games where students compete against each other.
My example is from when I taught 1st grade, just change to multiplication and division for upper elem! :)

3. Addition or Multiplication War - Students work in partners with a deck of cards. They split the deck in half, and at the same time they each throw down 1 card.  The first one to find the sum (for lower elem) or product (for upper elem) of the 2 cards gets to keep them both.  I practice this in the beginning of the year a lot, and then add it to math stations/centers. It's one of the easiest stations EVER, because students can use the cards as pictures to help them solve the problem. For example if they have 3 x 7, they can count the diamonds (or whatever symbol that is on the card) on the 7 card three times if they need help to solve. I also model and set the expectation that they need to check each other. The person with the most cards wins.  :)
*you can do this with dice and cards...both of which you might as well stock up on! :)

4. Flash Cards -  You can play memory games, matching games, racing games, quiz-quiz-trade and so much more with flash cards! Make the investment and buy some! :)
*Students can also make flash cards that go with their mad minute during math stations!! :)  Just give them index cards and an example so they have the right answers! It's an easy station and they can take them home to practice!

Shared Reading Time

This summer, the objectives for shared reading have centered around VOCABULARY and READING FLUENCY.   

Remember, there are 5 components of teaching reading:
1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Vocabulary
4. Fluency
5. Comprehension

All of these components are integrated.  If you can't sound out a word, you won't read fluently. If you're not reading fluently, you won't comprehend the text well.

We spend 10 minutes on vocab, and 10 minutes on reading.  All of my vocabulary is on a PPT...it just helps me stay organized! :)  And I also put the poems on the PPT.

I've also been focusing on vocabulary development during Shared Reading.  So for each vocab word from the poems, my students make a vocab flash card.

• Monday - they write the words and parts of speech on separate index cards, and then they look for the vocab words in the poem and highlight them (this ties in to being fluent readers...they must be accurate to be fluent!)
• Tuesday - they draw a picture to show the meaning
• Wednesday - they add the definition
• Thursday - they write a sentence on the back
• Friday - we play games with the words   

*for my favorite vocab game, students hold the word (without looking) to their head and others have to describe it to them (kind of like Taboo)...an awesome co-worker taught me this one! :)
I've used this shared reading time to FOCUS on explicitly teaching students what it means to be a FLUENT reader.  I've used these rubrics to help them rate themselves and each other.  On Monday, I don't use a rubric, because I model, give them time to practice, and front-load vocabulary.  But Tuesday-Friday, I just focus on one rubric a day.  I found these rubrics on http://www.fcrr.org/ which has an AMAZING number of resources!

Student-Friendly Fluency Rubrics (from http://www.fcrr.org/)

 I hope this gives you insight into my sequencing, planning, and pacing during shared reading!

Text Analysis - When do I ask questions?

Some of you have asked why I do the text analysis portion of my read-alouds during reading instead of after.  Well, I actually do a little bit of both. HOWEVER, I do definitely incorporate deeper thinking during reading.  Why? Because that's what good readers do.  We think before, during, and after.  So my questioning depends on multiple things:

1.  When is the best time to stop and analyze based on the reading strategy and objective?  For example, if I'm teaching how to make a prediction and using predictions to analyze a character, then I need to stop during reading.  You can't make many predictions after a book is over (though you can make few).  So my modeling and questioning will be during the text.  BUT I will still often go deeper with the text at the end.
2.  What is the best way to keep my students engaged and comprehending the text? This is a hard one, and I'm still learning. Sometimes, stopping and modeling chops up the text too much and distracts students.  (I still do this! It's hard for me!)  They need to hear a flow of a text without it being interrupted, but if I'm modeling strategies it can be difficult to do that.  On the other hand stopping and analyzing during reading can actually help them to process the text and comprehend what is going on and allows you to check for understanding and incorporate turn-and-talk and other engagement strategies.
3. What do I have time for? Sometimes, you just don't have time to go deep during reading. Sometimes you do.

So...what do you do with all that??? First, you've just got to know that there are always different opinions and perspectives.  So, you've go to believe in yourself as a professional and do what works best for your kids!  It's about them.  What's going to help them learn most?  What's going to help them love reading most?  What's going to help them master the objective most?

I know this is a slightly vague post...but the point of text analysis isn't when you do it.  The purpose of text analysis is analyzing the text. The end.  As adults, we analyze text before, during, and after. SO what is important as a teacher is thinking through those three segments of reading.  Post-it your read-alouds and plan out questions that will engage students before, during, and after reading...and plan out questions where it seems most purposeful in mastering the objective.  You can ALWAYS go deeper after reading, and it's important to.  But you don't want to miss out on engaging conversations during reading if it will help students learn. :)

Hope this helps!!

Reading Strategies

Hi Fellow Teachers!

I hear you've been learning about reading strategies this week and have begun incorporating them into your lessons! I LOVE READING STRATEGIES.  We use these strategies ALL the time as adults (in fact, we use multiple strategies at a time), but sometimes they are hard to break down for our kiddos.  If we keep the end in mind...we want our students to use all these strategies in one text, just like we would do. So to get them there...YOU'VE GOT TO BREAK IT DOWN ONE AT A TIME.  So...start with one. Practice it. Then, add on.  As students begin to practice these reading strategies and become familiar with the academic vocabulary, you can model using multiple strategies in your read-alouds and think-alouds. :)

For my students, I made this reading wall (see picture) that is in my classroom library.  I actually cover it up in the beginning of the year and make it a big deal when I "reveal" it.  (It's actually blank with the thought bubbles and the words "Good readers STOP and THINK to..."  The point of the mystery is to get them invested in wanting to be good readers by talking about why we read, what we can read, and what not.  Then, I incorporate a reading strategy with the majority of my read-alouds and objectives.  I start with making text-self connections because this is what invests us in reading more than anything.  (Plug for lower elementary: it's okay to not even start with a strategy, you can start with "good readers stop and think to notice things..." and get your kids to just start noticing details, pictures, etc. since they are all new readers!) Okay moving on.. After teaching T-S connections, I usually move on to questioning because students are naturally curious (and it connects with tons of standards).  I add to the thinking clouds through out the year one-by-one so that students aren't overwhelmed, and so that they learn to reference it. 

With each strategy, I also teach a hand motion so that as students listen to my read-alouds, they can just use the hand signals to show me that they are thinking about what we are reading.  Eventually students will use multiple hand signals (which is the goal!)   Just like Ashley C. said about objectives during our lesson planning clinic...we don't want to make it a mystery what kids are supposed to learn.  I've found that these posters help me to explicitly teach the strategies so that my students truly know what good readers do.   AND they help give my EL students (and all students, really) sentence frames to communicate their thinking as they read and use the strategies.


I hope this gets you pumped about teaching your students READING STRATEGIES! :)  It's the BEST when your kids tell you that they made connections or made an inference during independent reading! :)

Read-Aloud Engagement Strategies

Monday I read-aloud an article titled "The Upside of Dyslexia." For my amazing EL babies, it was a little hard to fully comprehend, and it didn't use the most kid-friendly language. (Though, it was an awesome article and I think 100% worth using!)

Side note: It's okay for read-alouds to be above students' heads (to a degree).  During read-alouds, teachers do most of the work with modeling, scaffolding, anchor charts, think-alouds, and what not. This is their chance to engage in above-level texts with teacher support. Levels of support for reading from most teacher support, to least teacher support:

• Read-alouds (can be above their grade level, involves most teacher support)
• Shared Reading (should hit middle range of students, on grade level)
• Guided Reading (leveled grouping, students are grouped according to reading level)
• Independent Reading (students read on their levels, with little to no teacher support)

Okay back to the point...As I taught on Monday, I front-loaded some vocabulary, discussed the celebrities that would be in the article, and gave them insight into what we would be reading about.  I think overall my students were actually very interested in learning about dyslexia (specifically because it connected with Trisha from Thank You, Mr. Falker and because we read about celebrities. HOWEVER, I still felt like engagement could have been better.  So, I reflected:

Here's what I think I did well (feel free to agree/disagree if you observed me):

• Reading with expression: I think I mostly made the non-fiction text seem exciting 
• Students actually exhibit a lot of curiosity when it comes to non-fiction, because they are so curious. I try to model curiosity and how learning from non-fiction is an adventure so that I can affirm/encourage the curiosity that seems to come more natural to children!  Sometimes, schools and our education system teach children to unlearn curiosity...UGH! That's awful!
• Building background knowledge
• Scaffolding with questions and through the use of an anchor chart/table (organized information in a student-friendly way)

Here's what I want to improve:

• Consistent student engagement
• Checks for understanding (I think I should have done a few more comprehension checks throughout the read-aloud and at the end)

So to make my reflecting more meaningful, here are some ideas/strategies I brainstormed that I may use during future read-alouds to increase engagement and accountability:

1. post-it notes: give my students more responsibility by having them listen for an answer, record feelings, or something similar while I read.  So for this particular text, one example: I could have had students write down all of the struggles that the celebrities had during their childhood OR one interesting thing they learned
2. give students a graphic organizer (GO) while I read aloud for them to fill out; for this article I could have given students a "t-chart" GO, on one side they could write "struggles that people with dyslexia have" and on the other side "strengths"
3. more partner share (implementing more comprehension questions/opportunities for students to make connections and share)

Hope that some of my reflections and these ideas are helpful!

Here are some more generic but SUPER HELPFUL ideas on engagement in the classroom by an actual research-based expert:

Marzano's 5 Ways to Get and Keep Your Students Attention

Reflection = Growth

Alright, I'll be honest.  If you observed me my first week of teaching, you probably would have never come back (at least not to learn from me...maybe to help me out!)  I definitely did not start off as an all-star teacher.  And I'm still not there yet, but I have definitely grown since my first days in the classroom!!  I have attended many professional developments, observed other teachers, read articles,  etc. etc. but I attribute my growth to two major things:

1. reflection
2. a teachable attitude/being willing to learn from anyone (not that I'm perfect at this)

I'll post more about the second point another time (because I think this is crucial to growth not only in teaching, but in life).  My point for tonight is reflecting = growth. Reflecting on your day is where rubber meets the road.

Whether your lesson is successful or miserable, if you don't reflect, you aren't growing as much as you can.  Reflection is where you recognize your strengths and areas for growth. Reflection is where you face your failures and decide they will be learning experiences and opportunities to overcome. Reflection is where you decide that what you do matters and how you respond matters (and you realize that your actions are in your locus of control, even if your students' actions aren't). Reflection is where you go from bad to good, good to great, and great to greater. 

So, let's say your lesson was awesome.  Don't leave it there, instead ask yourself:
1. What steps did I take in planning/implementing this lesson?
2. What worked? Questioning? Scaffolding? My anchor chart? Grouping of students?
3. Why did those things work? How did I set my students up for success?
4. How can I take what I did today and use the strengths in my next lesson?
5. Why were my students engaged? What did I do? Did they connect with the content? Did they enjoy the materials?

On the flip-side, let's say your lesson didn't go so well.  Ask yourself:
1. Was it my plans or my management?
2. Why did my students struggle? Was it the content? The lack of scaffolding/support? Were they not engaged?
3. What did go well and how can I build on that strength?

So...take mental notes, take physical notes (I have a "next year journal" by my desk for most things I won't get a chance to re-do during the year...other things, I try to make changes the next day), talk to people... make some ACTION STEPS so that you use your reflections in a purposeful way that leads to growth, not just dreaming.  Then, go from great to greater to AWESOMEST (so awesome, you can make up your own word). :)

Side note, the reason I decided to write this post tonight, is because today I had the opportunity to reflect constructively and think of ways to increase engagement during my read-aloud non-fiction texts.  So, be looking out for a post (COMING SOON) titled "Read-Aloud Engagement Strategies."

And a little free advice...whenever possible, leave your reflections at the school door. Try to not take them home with you. This is where journals, post-its, and to-do lists come in handy. Because my friends, teaching likes to take over your brain...but don't you're more than a teacher. Obviously exceptions to this would be if you have a blog about teaching (YIKES!)


:) Sweet dreams, teacher friends.

the little things make all the difference

Sometimes the best ideas come from other people...there are millions of good teachers, you really don't have to make it all up.  So here's a few things I learned from others that have changed my classroom for the better. :)

1. "The Mystery Walker" - Instead of nagging your children down the hall every day all day (you'll be annoyed more than them come March), make a "Mystery Walker" cup with a popsicle stick for each student inside (either numbers or names...the great thing about assigning numbers is you never have
to change it every year).  Then, at the start of the day or on your way out the door as you line up...pick a "mystery walker."  Last year, I put the stick in my pocket...but then I had a quite a few end up in the library. This year, I'm just putting the stick in an envelope hanging by the door.   If the "mystery walker" does a great job in line and follows hallway procedures, at the end of the day their name is announced and they can win a prize (mine pick from the treasure box).

   *shout out to my co-worker, Anna, for this one!  #nomorenagging  
      #thelittlethings

2. "The Star Student" - This one is great for culture building, helping kids feel special, and gives you time to not have everything together right away!  On day 1, the teacher is the Start Student so that he/she can model what that means.  The Star Student gets to of course wear a star all day that says "star student." But they also get to share pictures, toys, or whatever they want with the class during morning meeting, and then the class gets to ask him/her questions to get to know the student.  The Start Student also gets to be the line leader for the day and help with special jobs.  At the end of the day he/she picks someone that followed directions and did their best to be the star student the next day.  The point of this is to give yourself a good 4 weeks to decide on class jobs...you've got the line leader covered and the catch-all helper.  It just gives you time to set up structures and figure out who would be good at what.  Some teachers switch jobs each week, I like to have them apply and then keep their job for 9 weeks.  It just makes life easier because they can become experts and actually do their jobs well.  The only 2 I rotate each week are line leader (almost all want this one) and calendar helper (so they all practice). Even in you don't use this for jobs...KIDS LOVE IT, and it makes them feel special....and it helps them connect with each other.

   *shout out to my co-worker, Sonya, for this one!

3. The "me too" hand signal/ connections hand signal - "Me too" is a sign language sign (stick out your thumb and pinky, then move your hand back and forth -pointing to yourself and the other person).  This is great to start day 1.  The first week of school, students do a lot of sharing about themselves. To help build classroom culture, you want them to realize that they have similarities to each other...it helps build joy and team!  So my kids do the "me too" hand signal...this way they will be heard, with out taking time to talk over and over.  So for example, the Star Student may share that they like soccer, and another student may show "me too."

      *Thanks Jody! :)

The connection signal goes a little deeper/has wiggle room for interpretation.  For this signal, just link your 2 pointer fingers together. Students do this when they have a connection with a character in a story (this could be a feeling, experience, etc.) or with each other.  The difference between the "me too" signal and the "connection" signal is that a connection doesn't have to be the exact same, it can just be a similar experience or feeling.  For younger kids, I would just start off with "me too." But the older kids can definitely use both right away.  In my class, we use the connection signal all year long during reading, and it's a great way to keep kids involved!

Day 1 is OVER! :)

If you can make it through the first day of school, you can make it through the whole school year.  But seriously, day 1 is usually so fast paced, it just flies by. You do so much to prepare, then realize you can't finish half of the activities you planned. So you've got to be flexible! I think the kids are typically more calm than you (which is usually NOT what you want a normal basis...but if we are being real, internally you may feel totally overwhelmed and over-stimulated on the first day of school as you try to navigate new everything). The good thing is, the longer you teach, the more day 1 actually feels like a routine!  You learn to stay calm and embrace the newness like it's not even new.

So as you think about your class in the fall, here are so goals for Day 1:
1. No bleeding, barfing, or broken bones.
2. All students get to the right place for dismissal.
3. All students want to come back the next day, because they at least know their teacher cares.

There's some perspective for you as a new teacher.

As for day 2, let the rigor begin!

ALSO, word to the wise:
Go to bed early after Day 1 and do 1 thing that makes you happy (I ate ice cream and went on a walk). Really though...because you will feel tired and your to-do list will be longer than you've ever seen...but I promise, IT WILL GET DONE.  So to follow my own words of advice, I'm going to bed. Yep.  Just call me grandma.

Look out for more practical teaching posts soon... :)

Day 1 Lesson Plan

Hi CM's!  If you want an idea for what to do the first day or to of school, check out this Day 1 Lesson Plan.  We will be reading a book titled More Than Anything Else that is about a black boy post-slavery that wants to learn how to read.  The idea of this lesson plan is three-fold...
    1. to get started with hitting some standards and textual analysis (analyzing character actions,  
        thoughts, words, and feelings)
    2. to connect with their summer reading goal, and
    3. to hit on some class values that will be foundational for our class culture (perseverance and
        curiosity)

Typically, Day 1 I would do 90% procedures, rules, and culture building...but because of the time constraint for the summer...we will be diving right in, so I chose this read aloud for multiple purposes.  Even if you don't use the lesson plan...check out the ANCHOR CHART (charts that anchor content in a visual way for students) at the bottom of the plan.  This type of chart is relevant and useful for multiple lessons throughout the summer AND will be a visual support specifically for our English Language Learners at Cole.

Enjoy!

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to Nashville Pre-Service Training with Teach For America! I'm Ashley, and I will be your Model Classroom Teacher this summer for upper elementary. It's going to be a wild adventure as you step into the classroom this summer, and I'm excited to join the ride with you! I received a Bachelors and Masters from the University of Florida in Elementary Ed, and then joined the Nashville's 2011 Corps after graduating.  I taught third grade in the Delta during my Institute experience, and then got hired on at Cole Elementary as a first grade EL teacher during my first year teaching.  I got moved to second grade my second year teaching, and that's what I have taught for the last two years.  This summer I will be teaching rising fourth graders at Cole with all you elementary folks. Get ready to meet some amazing students and families! :) Follow me for more blog posts about classroom organization, teaching tips, and daily reflections as we all continue to learn and improve.