Vocabulary Cards

I tried something new yesterday and I am glad to say it worked well and I will certainly use this strategy again!  I had my students create vocabulary cards.  I gave each student a piece of white copy paper and assigned them a vocabulary word.  The student folded the paper in half "hot dog style" and on the outside wrote the vocabulary word and drew an illustration that would help them remember the meaning of the word. I explained to the the students that in order for the pictures to help them, that the picture needed to be creative and colorful.  The more creative and colorful the pictures are, the more likely the students will be to remember the words and their meanings.

 
 

After the students created their picture they switched papers with a partner.  The next step was for the students to write a definition of the word in their own words.  I stressed to the students that writing the definition in their own words was vital, again this was to aid them in learning and remembering the words.  The students then wrote a sentence using the word in the correct context.

Today,  the students participated in a gallery walk, in which they used three column notes to create a study guide for their vocabulary quiz and to better understand the vocabulary as we study it in our current text.  For the three column notes the students had to list the word in the first column, a definition in their own words in the second column, and then a picture to help them remember and connect with the word in the third column.

Using analogies to promote critical thinking

Over the summer I had the opportunity to attend the AVID Summer Institute.  It was by far the best and most beneficial professional development workshop I have ever attended.  With that being said, I have tried to implement some of the strategies that I learned at the Summer Institute.  One of the strategies that I really liked and knew that I could use immediately is called "Synectic Analogous".  The basic premise of this idea is to have students create analogies.  I tried this activity in class yesterday.  It was amazing how quickly I could distinguish my literal thinkers from my "outside of the box" thinkers.  Anyway here's the basic gist of how to use this activity.

1. Give your students four random categories.  (I used type of food, type of clothing, type of electronic, and type of furniture.)  
2. Have the students list one answer for each of the four categories.  (I had the students work in groups of 3-4 and gave them less than five minutes to complete this portion of the assignment.)
3. Explain to the students that they must compare the items they listed to the main character in the text.  (We were reading "My Favorite Chaperone" by Jean Davies Okimoto.)
4. My students used the RACE strategy (R-restate the question, A- answer the question, C- cite textual evidence, E- explain the evidence) to complete step three.  

Sample Answer:

Maya, from "My Favorite Chaperone", is like a dining room table because everyone depends on her to support them.  Maya not only has to help her family by watching out for her brother she also has to translate for her father when Nurzhan, her brother, gets in a fight and when her mom's employers call.  Maya also must give up her love of gymnastics when her mother hurts her ankle.  During this time she has to go to school, do her mother's cleaning jobs, and cook dinner for the family.  These examples prove the extent to which Maya's family places things on her shoulders and depends on her to help carry the families burdens, just as each day we depend on a dining room table to hold whatever we may place upon it.

 

                     

                                                                       

Gallery walks and musical partners

Some of my students are still struggling with writing level two and level three questions on their Cornell Notes.  I knew I had to help them get a better grasp of this skill and what better way to do this, but to show them the great examples their peers were writing.  I selected twelve examples and placed them around the hallways outside of my room.  By placing them in the hallway, I have more space for my students to move about.  I then numbered the students off one to twelve and sent them on their way.  At each stop along the gallery walk the students wrote the question and then answered it.  Not only did this activity provide them with models that they could use later, by answering the questions, they were applying and studying the content that they would have a quiz on.  Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!!  I was able to skill two birds with one very small, simple stone.

After the students completed the gallery walk we went back to the classroom and the students shared their answers through a strategy I like to call musical partners.  With this strategy I play a song and the students have to find a partner before the music stops.  Once the music stops and they have a partner, they discussed the answers they recorded during the gallery walk.  When the music starts again, they find a new partner and we begin the process again.  The students love the music and the opportunity to move and talk.  This strategy is simple to plan and takes very little class time.

Graffiti, Characterization, and Best Practices

If I have learned anything about middle school students in my time in the classroom I have learned this, middle schoolers are social and need to talk, they are active and need to move and they need variety in manageable chunks.  Today, the mini-lesson I taught centered around the four types of characters (round, flat, static, and dynamic).  After explaining what a round character is, I had the students turn and talk to their table group about a character from their favorite book, movie, or TV show.  The students had to give the character's name and explain to their peers how they knew this character was a round character.  After everyone had discussed their selections, they went to the board and simply wrote the character's name.  Next, I explained what a flat character is and showed the students a cartoon clip as an example.  I chose to use the teacher from Charlie Brown.  I then moved on to dynamic characters.  After the explanation, I repeated the strategy previously used.  The students discussed dynamic characters and recorded their thoughts.  To complete the lesson I explained the characteristics of a static character and showed them a clip from The Lion King as an example.   By having the students discuss, go to the board to record their answers, and by switching from the creation of their own examples to the sharing of my examples I broke the lesson into chunks that offered the students variety.

Below is a link to the Google presentation that I used.

https://docs.google.com/a/richland2.org/presentation/d/10Lawv91Kut5xXigfVoBmgIJvuNo15KBsHFbtqJz2pMw/edit?usp=sharing

The best part of my job!

Today, I took my students to the media center for orientation and to check out books.  I know this sounds boring and routine to most, but to me these are my favorite days.  Why you might ask?  On these days I get to have conversations with my students and help them develop a love of reading.  As I was trying to help my students select books today, one of my students wanted to know how I knew so much about where books were in our media center, who wrote the books, and what the books were about.  My simple reply, "It's my job!"  I believe that in order to be an effective middle level language arts teachers that I must be an avid reader of young adult literature.  When I am able to put a book in a student's hands I make a personal connection with that student and I move that student one step closer to developing a lifelong love of reading.

In case you need a starting point on your own journey of being a lifelong reader and developing lifelong readers, I would suggest the following young adult novels.

Gated by Amy Christine Parker
The Ghost of Graylock by Dan Poblocki
Girl Stolen by April Henry
Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz
The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Variant by Robison Wells
Imperfect Spiral by Debbie Levy
Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

Snowball fights

Over the weekend my students had homework.  Yeah, I know I am the "mean teacher" that gave homework on the weekend and worst of all it was after the first week of school.  For homework my students had to write one level three question based on their notes.  As the students came in today each student wrote their level three question on a sheet of paper and balled the paper up to make a "snowball".  I then gave the students the guidelines for the "Snowball fight".  The guidelines were as follows:

1. Do not aim for anyone's head.
2. You do not need to see how hard you can throw.
3. You do not throw until the music starts.
4. As soon as the music stops you need to stop throwing, find a "snowball" and quietly report to your seat.

Watching the sheer delight on my student's faces was the highlight of my day.  They were amazed that I was allowing them to throw things in class!  At the conclusion of the "Snowball fight" the students then took turns reading the question written on their paper aloud.  As the each student read the question the other students had to decide if the question was a level three question (Based on Costa's Levels of Thinking) or not.  I had the students indicate their thoughts about the question by giving it a thumbs up if it were a level three question and a thumbs down if it were not.  

If I were to do this activity again, I would have my students respond in a different way.  I would have them hold up one finger (Because I teach middle schoolers, I would direct them on which finger is appropriate to use.) if they felt the question was a level one question, two fingers if they thought the question was a level two question and three fingers if the question was a level three question.  

We survived week one!

Boy am I tired and this was a three day work week!  Getting back into the swing of things is always tiring, but I have loved getting to meet my new students this week.  I spent a lot of time this week on getting my students used to routines and procedures that we would use all year.  I didn't spend time with the minor details, such as when to sharpen your pencil or how to label your papers.  To me these things are not very significant.  I know many teachers are particular about these minute details, but I am more concerned with procedures that will have a lasting effect on their learning.  Cornell notes and Costa's levels of questioning filled our class time this week because I know in the long run that these things will benefit them more!

So here's to a good weekend of relaxing, reading, spending time with my family, and oh, yeah planning for next week.  

Deep thinking leads to deeper learning

Over the summer I attended the AVID summer institute.  It was by far the best professional development training I have ever attended.  One of the main focuses of AVID is using Cornell notes.  I am proud to say I used Cornell notes on day 1!!!  My direction instruction was a mini-lesson on voice and point of view.  The students completed the notes section in class and the questions section at home.  I gave the students a list of possible level one, level two, and level three questions, based on Costa's levels of questioning.  I purposely gave them very little instruction on how to write these leveled questions.  I wanted to know what they could do on their own.  Today, I had the students copy their questions onto sticky notes and place them according to the level of the question.  Next, I read the questions out to the class and we analyzed the questions for two aspects:  1.  Was the question placed within the correct level? 2.  Did the question make sense and correlate to the notes?

This activity allowed me an opportunity to see where my students were successful and where they might need some help.  The general consensus is we have level one down, but we still need to work more with writing level three questions.  This activity also gave the students a chance to hear examples from each level.

Kicking off the new school year

Today marks the beginning of my fourteenth year as a middle school teacher.  When I think about the fact that I have taught approximately 1300 students and that I have new batch of a hundred or so students this year, the enormity of my position and the responsibilities that come with it makes it even more important that I focus on remembering the successes from previous years  This year I hope to continue to focus on knowing my students and on growing a love of reading within my students.

In order to  accomplish my goal of getting to know my students today I had them create a list of adjectives to describe themselves.  The students then selected one of their adjectives and wrote it on an index card that they then decorated.  This activity took 15 minutes and as the students were working I was able to go around the room and visit with each student in order to begin to build a relationship with each of them.

Last year, I kept a record of what my students were reading and charted for others to see as well.  My students LOVED this and always wanted to know how close we were to meeting our goal.  I am doing the same thing this year.  My goal is for my students to read a total of 1200 books this year.  I can't wait to chart their progress.

Career day

Today we had career day at my school.  It was a great opportunity for my students to explore various careers.  They were able to hear about the mounted patrol unit, the fire department, a drama group from the local high school, a business rep from a local manufacture, an emergency room doctor, and a marketing director for a local credit union.  The students were well behaved, had great questions, and learned a lot.

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Words, Words, Words: How are we using vocabulary strategies?

In both my honors and my general classes we are currently reading a novel.  With my honors classes we are reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and in my general classes we are reading Max the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick.  Both novels are rich in vocabulary and figures of speech.  Each week as we approach new vocabulary terms, we use a new strategy to help us understand the words.  So far we have created vocabulary maps, used context clues, created linear arrays, and played "I know it!".  Many of these ideas came from the following site:  http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/PDF/G4-5/45VPartThree.pdf  .

Our most recent vocabulary activity required the use of dictionary/vocabulary cubes.  This activity did take some prep time.  I copied the cubes onto card stock, in order to make them more durable. I then used clear tape to hold them together.  To make it easy to distribute the materials I placed the cube and the word cards into a small Zip-lock bag.

The students worked with a partner, taking turns rolling the cube.  As the students rolled the cube they had to do the activity they rolled.  The possibilities were to determine the meaning, etymology, part of speech, pronunciation, synonyms and antonyms,  and to use the word in a sentence.    Overall, this activity went well, but next time, I would require the students to complete the meaning for every word.

Moving on up

I guess the name of my blog is no longer appropriate.  After a discussion with my principal last year I was moved to the eighth grade.  I am so excited about this change!  I loved my students last year and I am thrilled to be able to teach some of the same "little darlings" again this year.  I will say that I am spending a lot of time planning, since this is a new grade level.  Stay tuned for more adventures from my eighth grade ELA classroom.

100 Things I Love

Having a sense of community and truly knowing my students are very important aspects of my teaching philosophy.  My students are more than just students, they are my kids.  I love each of them and want the best for them.  With these thoughts in mind, I spend a great deal of time at the beginning of the school year learning about each of my students.  This year, I had my students make a list of 100 things they love. First, the students made a list of 100 things they loved.  They did this in their interactive notebook.  I plan to refer to these lists throughout the year for writing topics.  After the students completed their list they made a poster of their 100 things that they love.  Students were encouraged to be creative!  Some students wanted to use a website like taxgedo or wordle to create their poster.  I allowed them to do so, if they printed it at home.

  

I love the way the students' posters turned out! This is just a small sample of the great work the students created.  One thing I would do different next time is have the students make a list of 100 "favorite things"  instead of 100 things they "love".  Some of my students got stuck on the word "love", which made this assignment more difficult for them.  Once I explained that it could be favorite things, such as a favorite person, movie, song, food, etc.  They seemed to find this task much easier.

A new year a new group!

I am loving my new group of seventh graders.  We have had an exciting two days so far.  Yesterday, my team and I started our year off by having our students create an "I wonder" bulletin board.  Learning is more fun when the students are truly interested in the topic.  With this in mind, we asked our students to create an "I wonder" statement in class and place them on the bulletin board.  As the school year progresses we are going to use the students' "I wonder" statements to select topics of study.  

 

Today my students wrote about a time they had faced a difficult or challenging situation.  This lead into our team building activity, the "Cup Challenge".  Setting up for the cup challenge was very simple.  Before class, I tied four pieces of yarn to a rubber band, purchased plastic cups, and made index cards with the roles for each group member.  The roles that I used were as follows:  materials collector 1, starter, reporter, and materials collector 2.    Materials collector 1 got the materials for the group, the starter put the cups in the starting position, the recorder shared with the class the difficulties and successes that the group experienced, and the materials 2 collector put the materials away.  As the students entered the room, I gave each person a card, listing their role then I divided the students into groups of four making sure each role was represented.  Then the students got to work!  After getting the materials, the starter placed three cups upside down with one cup right side up on top of the previously placed cups.  Then the students used their "tool" to rearrange the cups to make a pyramid with three cups on the bottom, two cups in the middle and one on top.  

 

Most of the groups accomplished this task pretty quickly.  As the groups finished I added cups to make the challenge more difficult.  The next challenge I gave the students was to use the same concept to build a pyramid with four cups on the bottom, then three on the next level, then two, and finally one.  If the group finished this task, I had them remove the cups from the pyramid, using only the "tool" and arrange them in the starting position.  

As I walked around in one class, I overheard one student ask, "What does this have to do with language arts?'  I used this as a "teachable moment" when we discussed the successes and challenges.  I lead the students in a discussion about how this didn't tie to our standards or our curriculum, but that it did prepare them for future group work assignments, helped them get to know their classmates, and helped them learn ways to communicate with their classmates.  

As the day progressed, some of the cups broke and some of the rubber bands popped.  I was glad that I had extra cups and extra "tools".  I also noticed that the larger rubber bands were extremely stretched as the day progressed.  In the future, I will use smaller rubber bands in order to create the "tools."

The students were actively engaged and had a blast today!  Days like today make my job the best ever!

Project Based Learning (PBL)

I have always loved having my students work in cooperative groups.  Middle school students, by there very nature, are social beings.  Having them work in groups naturally lends itself to their learning preferences.  Last school year I visited a school that used a lot of project based (sometimes called problem based) learning.  I loved the way the students were so engaged.  They were working on real life problems that tied to their core curriculum.  I want my classroom to be more like the classes I visited.

I tried a few PBL ideas last year, but I want to try even more this year.  One of the major components of PBL is expectations.  The students must have clear expectations for working in a group as well as for the assigned task.  I used one of the bulletin boards in my room to post my year long group expectations.

Looking forward to the 2013-2014 school year!

I am so excited and ready for my twelfth group of seventh graders on Wednesday.  I have been preparing my classroom and getting my lessons together.  We will spend the first few days together getting to know each other and discovering our course for the next 180 days.

 I have some great ideas in mind and few things I want to change this year.  I have to admit that I am a little nervous about implementing the Common Core standards, but I am accepting the challenge with a renewed passion for teaching.

I have enjoyed decorating my classroom, especially my new "read" pictures.  These were really easy to create.  An added bonus was spending time with my sixteen year old daughter as she helped me paint the pictures and letters.  First, I took an 8x10 in. canvas and painted it with acrylic paint.

As the canvases were drying I painted the letters, also with acrylic paint.  Once the canvases were dry, I hot glued a piece of ribbon horizontally across the canvas and another vertically down the canvas.

Next, I cut a self-adhesive glitter foam sheet and placed it in the center of the canvas.  Then I hot glued the letters to the canvases.

 Lastly, I hot glued a piece of ribbon to the back of the canvas to use as a hanger for the canvas.


I hung them on the wall using Command hooks.

Now I just need to complete the bulletin board.