Reading Buddies, Take Three!
When I first started working at Wiley, I teamed up with one of the other new teachers, who was with a second grade class, for buddy reading. This involved my fourth graders going down to the second grade classroom and paired up to listen to their young buddies read aloud. There is a large amount of research that shows that buddy reading is incredibly beneficial to students as it helps them improve their oral reading fluency.
Last year the other teacher moved to first grade and we continued to partner with her class. Because she had a rather small class, we actually partnered with two of the three first grade classes. It was quite successful. Unfortunately, due to enrollment changes, our building lost one of the first grade classrooms, so the second teacher got a building transfer, but the other teacher and I decided to partner up again this year.
Today was the first day we met as reading buddies. I had initially expected to do some community building with our first grade buddies, but they were all set to read right away, and so we paired them up and they got started!
I’m looking forward to another year of buddy reading!
Group Work
We did something new in my class this afternoon. After reviewing strategies for checking answers in addition and subtraction for reasonableness, I allowed the students to work either independently or in small groups.
This was our first time with group work for math and I was very pleased with how well everyone was working and keeping focused on the assigned task. A few students chose to work on their own, but most took advantage of the opportunity to work with partners. As students worked, I walked around the roommate, monitoring progress and taking a few pictures. I did have to remind some students that they shouldn’t look at my camera when I am capturing their work.
The students also got to get to know our new student teacher better. She will be with us every Tuesday and Wednesday. I will be turning over a lot of the teaching responsibilities to her as the semester progresses, under my guidance and direction, of course! It will be exciting to watch her improve in her teaching practice!
Getting Started with Curriculum Materials
Today was a getting-started kind of day. After spending a week of community building, expectation setting, rule making, and procedure practicing, it was time to get started with our material. We will continue to do all of the things listed above throughout the year, of course, but while doing so we also need to move on to the next major challenge, which is establishing routines of academic success.
After our time in the gym for P.E. where we played four-corner dodgeball, we returned to our classroom where the students took a brief “brain break” while I passed out our Houghton-Mifflin Reading books. The first story from the basal reader for the year is Akiak, which is a story about a lead-dog for an Iditarod race team. As the students read on their own, I played a recording of the story (and confirmed that I am able to control my iTunes library on my computer via my iPad, which I thought was pretty cool). After reading, we talked about making inferences and then the students had their first written response assignment. I reminded the students to restate the question as a sentence, provide supporting evidence, and give a conclusion. Everyone was working, which was rather wonderful!
Later in the day, we broke out our Houghton-Mifflin Math books for the first time. I am taking this second week of school to review some fundamentals, such as addition and subtraction of greater numbers. I have a weekly meeting each Monday afternoon, so the sub who will also be one of my regular “go-to” subs introduced the afternoon’s assignment and got my class started. After returning from my meeting, I monitored the students as they finished. As soon as everyone was done and had handed in their work, we did two more benchmark assessments for math, known as the M-COMP (math computation) and M-CAP (math concepts and applications). And then the day was done!
First Assembly Of The Year
Today we had our first assembly, or what we call a Coyote College (the coyote being the mascot of Wiley Elementary School), of the year. My class did a great job coming in quietly and taking their seats and staying quiet throughout the assembly. We watched a video about our school-wide expectations, met our school robot, Big Red, and then had our Duct Tape Divas introduce the theme for our school this year.
The theme is taken from a new song by Sara Bareilles.
Our theme is “I want to see you be brave!” This theme fits in very, very well with the theme I have for my classroom, which is to Choose Kind. Kindness is a sign of bravery, especially when you are being kind to someone who isn’t being shown kindness by others. We are going to be reading several books that tie into the joint themes of braveness and kindness.
Oh, and in case you want to know, here are the lyrics to our theme song:
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug
You can be the outcast
Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love
Or you can start speaking up
Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do
When they settle ‘neath your skin
Kept on the inside and no sunlight
Sometimes a shadow wins
But I wonder what would happen if youSay what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be braveWith what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
Everybody’s been there,
Everybody’s been stared down by the enemy
Fallen for the fear
And done some disappearing,
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
And since your history of silence
Won’t do you any good,
Did you think it would?
Let your words be anything but empty
Why don’t you tell them the truth?
Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
See you be brave
And lastly, welcome to all of the new parents who have found my blog! I will be using this to post daily updates, usually before 3:30 pm. (Today I had a cub scout pack meeting I had to prepare for so I didn’t get a chance to get my post done earlier.) I hope that each of the parents in my room will encourage their children to be brave and to choose kind!
Baseline Assessments
The baselines on a baseball diamond or a softball field or a kickball area all serve similar purposes: they let us know where the expectations lie and whether or not something quite literally crosses a line. Baseline assessments in classrooms serve a similar purpose. If I am going to teach my twenty-three students this year in a way that is both relevant and meaningful, I have to know what they already know. It would be silly to teach a lesson on place value to a class that already knows place value.
So I decided this afternoon to administer a baseline assessment for mathematics. I found one that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and is a review of the concepts that my students should know before coming into my class. Now, of course, the reality of the situation is that my students come in with their own unique experiences, individual understandings, and separate abilities. So the baseline assessment tells me both what they already know and what they may need some extra practice on.
We use several different diagnostic tools in our school and in our district. There is no one test I give that is a make-it-or-break-it kind of test. Even the state testing at the end of the year, which is currently a one-time test, is not used as a diagnostic tool for my instruction. I rely on quizzes and examinations that have been written by our curriculum publisher, by the teachers within the district, and by national organizations that provide what are called “nationally normed” assessments. (Test scores are compared across the nation so that we can see how students do across a broad spectrum of settings.
I find such assessments wonderfully useful and the data terribly interesting. But I am data geek, so maybe I am a minority in my profession. I know some teachers who complain having to “teach to the test.” To them I say, “To what else could you possibly be testing?!”
I make a point of telling all of my students that these assessments are strictly for the purpose of letting me know what I need to teach them. I use artifacts and other evidences of learning for progress reports. Framing the work in this way seems to help alleviate a lot of test anxiety, which in turn means that many students will perform better, giving me a clearer picture of where we are at this year.
Day Two – Routines, Routines, Routines
Today was just the second day of school. As a result, I decided to spend more time working on routines with my class. As mentioned yesterday, my students identified six fundamental routines for our classroom: lining up, making lunch choices, getting chairs, reading the Morning Message, sharpening pencils, and going to lunch. I want my class to know these routines so that the rest of the day can run smoothly.
To help facilitate this, I allowed them to select their own groups of three or four and then each of the six groups selected one of the routines to make a poster for our walls. We worked on them most of the morning, and I think the students did a wonderful job. But, more importantly, it is their work on the walls, not mine!
The other big event for today was our school-wide Expectations Boot Camp. Just as Boot Camp in the military involves intensive training and review of practices and procedures, our Wiley Boot Camp is all about making sure that every student has been taught the expectations for our school and can help keep everyone accountable for meeting (and exceeding) expectations. We did three of the four stations today: Office, Lunchroom & Assemblies, and Playground. Everyone did a fantastic job of listening to the directions and learning the expectations for these areas. Tomorrow afternoon we will do our last area, which is Hallways & Restrooms.
The one other thing we did today was some baseline testing. I wanted to know how well my students know the multiplication facts 0-9, so I gave them a 100-question test that covers all the facts and allowed them to work on it for as long as they needed. In a few weeks we will do this again as a timed test. Our Title I reading teacher also came in to administer a quick assessment for DIBELS called the DAZE. This is a three-minute test that measures how well students can select the right word from a list of three so that a sentence makes sense.
And then our day was done! Another awesome day in room 31!
Summer Reading VIII: Neverwhere
I finally finished reading Neverwhere! I have to say, first off, that the only other books by Neil Gaiman that I had read were Coraline and The Graveyard Book. I have been following Mr. Gaiman online via Twitter for years, and have grown to greatly admire him both as a writer and as an individual. He seems to be a truly classy gentleman and a man who is passionately passionate about life.
So, Neverwhere. It is a bizarre tale of a man from London Above (the city of London in England that we all know) who finds himself caught up in the world of London Below (an entire city that exists among the abandoned tube stations and sewers of old London). Richard Mayhew is a guy who just lives his life, plodding along, letting things happen to him. And one day he finally decides to actively do something. This something happened to be saving the life of a girl from London Below. As a result, he found himself entering her world.
What follows is a tale of friendship and love, courage and fear, betrayal and intrigue. It is a dark tale, as many of Mr. Gaiman’s tales seem to be, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel that leaves you feeling like all the struggles along the way were worth it for the change that came across the character. Definitely worth reading by older students and adults, although I would probably shy away from reading it to my students (or encouraging them to read it on their own). For younger readers, I wholeheartedly recommend Coraline and The Graveyard Book.
Now that I’ve finished book eight, I still have nine and ten to get through, but since I don’t have a copy of either at my immediate disposal, I am going to start another book by Neil Gaiman, entitled American Gods.
Summer Reading VIII, IX, and X
On my way home from my workshop on Lake Ontario, I started reading the eBook version of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel Neverwhere. It was the first adult novel that Gaiman wrote that I had loved and I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, there is a two-week limit to eBook downloads through the library and I had had to download the book about a week before I could finally start reading it. So I am not done with it, although I have put another hold request on it.
The next eBook I started reading was The Pact by Jodi Picoult. She is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors for adults. I’ve learned that she and her daughter also wrote a YA novel that I am waiting to come in through a library request. As with the Neil Gaiman book, I ran out of time before I had to “return” the eBook (delete it from my device), and so I moved on to the next book I had waiting.
The book I am currently reading is The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. I have heard so many good things about this story all year long. It won the 2013 Newbery Medal. This book is as wonderful as everyone has told me. It is well-written, engaging, and enjoyable. I am not done with it yet, but I am hoping to finish before it, also, expires.
All in all, I read seven complete books this summer and started three more. I may get one more book started before school starts, but I definitely want to finish Neverwhere, The Pact, and The One and Only Ivan. So what have you been reading this summer? Feel free to let me know in the comments and make suggestions!
INTC STEM Conference
I have done quite a few things with and through the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative. Among them are the New Teacher Mentoring program that I have recently completed, the INTC Induction and Mentoring Conference (a two-day conference), and the two-day INTC Beginning Teacher Conference. Sometime back in April or May, I received an email from the INTC announcing a new conference: the INTC STEM Conference for Beginning Teachers. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are increasingly important content areas as we move forward in the 21st Century, and so the Collaborative decided to provide a two-day conference for new teachers interested in improving their STEM teaching practices.
I, of course, signed up as soon as registration opened and was quickly approved for participation. I had been looking forward to this conference all summer long, even as I had been going through my whirlwind of conferences and workshops. The conference was held this past Tuesday and Wednesday. It was fantastic!
I was able to attend five “hot topic” breakout sessions where I learned about using video technology in the classroom, literacy resources available on ReadWriteThink.org, guiding students in the C-E-R process (claims, evidence, reasoning), improving math conversations, and taking advantage of local resources for teaching STEM topics. There was also a key-note address by Dr. Lawrence Angrave, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois.
This conference was a wonderful way to wrap up an amazing summer of professional development. I have learned so much throughout the summer and cannot wait for school to start so I can share what I’ve learned with my colleagues and, more importantly, my students!
Oh, and I learned how to make my very own bouncy ball!
