Let me begin by saying, I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of this lesson! It was so much fun and a very engaging way to start our writing! We have been focusing on sequencing in writing. We have read multiple texts on life cycles, directional texts, and how things are built. The writing crafts we were highlighting this week were vivid verbs and specific details. So I we had the students sequence the steps to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while focusing on specific details and vivid verbs! We began by reading a text called, How to Make a Kite. This text used text features such as text boxes for a material list and numbers to sequence. We used this text as our inspiration! We then made a text box to highlight the supplies we needed for our PB&J! We focused on specific details so instead of just saying peanut butter we said Jif Creamy Peanut Butter. We made sure we were as specific as possible when listing our materials (Welch's grape jelly, butterbread, plastic knife, and paper plate.) Then started the sequencing! The first thing the students said was get out the bread. Since they were not specific with the amount of bread I took out about 8 pieces of bread. They all began to scream, "NOOOO!!!", they soon saw how it was important to include the specific amount of bread (2). Then I called on students individually to give me the next steps. They said get the peanut butter and put t on the bread. So I took the whole jar and placed it on the bread. Again, they freaked! So now I told them they needed to give me vivid verbs that would help me put the peanut butter on the bread. We could slather, spread, slap, etc. the peanut butter on the bread. I also made sure they were specific on where on the bread (one side, to the edges, evenly). We went through all the steps to make the sandwich with MANY funny missteps along the way! They all laughed at how literal I took the steps they were telling me. One of my favorite parts was when they were almost finished with the steps and we had to put the peanut butter side and the jelly side of the bread together. They told me okay now put the pieces of bread together.... I made the edge of the crust touch and walked away. They went crazy once more! They eventually said put the peanut butter side and the jelly side together so the breads evenly match. But watching them laugh and enjoy the writing was so rewarding for me! This was one of my favorite lessons! They then had the opportunity to create their own sequence writing and they had to use specific details and vivid verbs to describe how to make an ice cream sundae. They could use any ingredients and steps to build their sundae, they just had to make sure anyone could make the sundae after reading their directions. I loved seeing their creativity come through in their writing!
In math we have been focusing on data! The content within this unit consist of collecting data and representing it in tally charts, pictographs, and bar graphs. We have been taking surveys almost everyday in class. The students love it! They get to ask their classmate survey questions (favorite color, favorite food, pets, etc.) and then use the data they collect to create a chart or graph. This is great opportunity for students to engage in mathematical practices but also socialize and interact with classmates. After we discussed and created the three different types of data charts I found a great resource online that used Skittles as data for students to create. I started the lesson by giving each table group a cup with an assortment of Skittles. They first had to sort the Skittles by color. Then they used the different amount of colors as their data. We completed the worksheet together, first we recorded in our tally chart. I had students come up to share and we found some areas were we could improve. Some students did not use the slash mark to group their tallies into 5s and some students just wrote the number of Skittles instead of using tallies. We discussed as a class what we could do to make the tally chart more efficient with the groupings. Then we used the data from our tally chart to fill in out pictograph. Again, after the students had time to complete their pictograph I called up students to share their thinking. Most students grasped this concept well, the only misconception we ran across was students using any picture rather than the picture provided in the key. This led to a great discussion about why a key is so important! Finally, we moved to the bar graph! They used the same information from both the tally and pictograph to complete the bar graph. We had time to complete the graph then I had different students share their work. I took this time to use the students data for different questions. Questions ranged from Which color did they have the most of to, how many purple Skittles did they have than yellow Skittles? and many more in between! The students had a great time sorting and graphing! Of course we enjoyed a few Skittles after the activity! Overall, it was a great review that was engaging and educational!
We recently moved into our last content coaching session! The final stretch of my internship is flying by! I am happy to be focusing on literacy for our last coaching cycle. I taught shared reading last week, we were covering the fable The Lion and the Mouse. The lesson focused on comparing and contrasting two versions of the same fable. The first day we watched a video on The Lion and The Mouse, we watched for the purpose of identifying character actions. The actions were jotted down onto a t-chart. On one side of the t-chart it was titled, Video, on the other side, Text. The next day we read the fable from our Journey’s textbook. We jotted down the character actions from the text. Then we coded our notes based on similarities and differences between the two versions of the text.
After my lesson, I was given a list of questions to reflect on based on the lesson. This helped me realize I areas that where I need to improve. I first needed to identify my evidence for gradual release. That was completed through the two days by first modeling how to identify the character actions. We first watched the video to grasp the main idea, then we rewatched the video and paused periodically to jot down character actions. I modeled how to identify the actions and where and how to jot it in the chart. Then I asked the students to tell me what they would jot for the video. The next day is when students were fully released. The text was only three pages so we read and jotted the first paragraph together then the students were paired in their groups to find the actions from text. This allowed the students to show me they could read and identify the actions.
In my lesson, I did not have many highlights of higher order questions. I could have asked questions such as “What can I infer about the character actions” or “How do the character actions affect the texts differently?” Instead, I was too focused on getting through the text and jotting. I wish I would have spent more time diving deeper into the text and inferring more about the characters.
There were three things I liked about the lesson, which included the rubric I made for the writing portion after the reading. This displayed what I expected from each student and gave them an outline of what to include. I liked seeing students check off the components they included and have a sense of understanding of what was needed. Also, my Ct suggested that I have the students code our notes before writing. This was such a great idea. This allowed students to work together and discuss what was the same/different within the chart. The coding lead directly to their writing and they could use the text evidence they coded in their writing piece. This provided a great starting point for the students and they had their plan to finish writing. Last, I liked that students were working together to read and jot down their ideas. I think being able to bounce off ideas and hear their classmates talk increases their understanding and engagement to the reading. I am glad the classroom is set up to promote group work and discussions.
The things that would have changed about the lesson include an additional modeling piece. Although students have been familiar with comparing and contrasting from the previous week, I should have modeled how to write a comparison or a contrasting sentence from the video/text. I think students would have benefitted from seeing the sentence modeled and using the compare/contrats words such as, alike, unlike, different, similar, etc. Also, I would have better planned my questions and included higher level questions. My focus this year has been questioning, but I still struggle. Last, I realize I repeat the students response WAY TOO MUCH! (ah!) I knew I did this but after seeing a video of my teaching then hearing it from my content coach realize that is something I need to get under control! An additional goal I have this year is to not repeat student answers. I need to make students responsible for listening to their classmates and even having students repeat themselves if they have answer that needs to be heard. I think I worry that students did not hear so I repeat or rephrase exactly what the student just said. I do not want students to feel like I am devaluing their ideas by saying them myself. Overall, I find the content coaching beneficial and eye-opening for future changes in the classroom.
More Science! For the last 5 weeks we have been working on our science coaching cycle. This is where we receive additional support through science lessons, pre-observations, and post-conferences. I created a lesson on weather tools and I had my science content coach come and record my teaching. This allowed me to be able to watch back my teaching and reflect on the lesson.
I began the lesson by having students tell my about one pf the weather tools they already knew. Students have been using thermometers with a previous lesson so they talked about the use of a thermometer. They were able to tell me it was used to tell how hot or cold something is and that it was considered temperature. They could not think of any other weather tools so I transitioned the all to the carpet. This is when we played a weather tool game. Although, I did not take score making it seem like a game increased their participation. I printed out pictures of 6 different weather tools that we would be reading about in our weather textbook. I would show the picture, describe what it looked like, and did then the students would have to tell me what part of weather that was measuring.
For example: I held up a picture of rain gauge. I told the students, “This is a tool we put in the ground. It stays outside and collects precipitation from the clouds. What is this measuring?” The students responded by saying water… then I said what time of water and they were able to say rain. I then told them the name of the tool and more details of how it is used.
I did this for each tool and had them complete a worksheet I designed. This gave them the opportunity to tell me the different types of tools, how they were used, draw a picture of one, and explain why we have weather tools.
After reviewing my lesson, I took notes on my questioning. This is in support of my inquiry and how my questioning affects student discourse. I realized I do not ask enough or sometimes any higher order thinking questions. I tend to repeat the same question multiple times. I think having the opportunity to go back and really look at my questioning allowed me to see that I need to still really work on planning out my questions. I have been including specific questions in my lesson plans but still I do not consider those questions higher order, more like guiding questions. This is an area I am still working on and my goal is to include more higher order questions and require more higher order thinking throughout my lessons.
Having different breaks throughout the school year are not only enjoyed by the students but the educators as well. This is a time for teachers to relax and recharge. I saw the recent Spring Break as a time to get myself in order! I attended a resume/intern training during the first week of my break. This was an opportunity for me to get important dates about applying to my county, dates about future trainings, and tip about how to write my resume and cover letter to send to principals. This really made me realize… THIS IS HAPPENING! In just a few short months I will be graduating and I will need to find a job within the near future. The stress is piling up! I took one of my days of the break to sit down and write my resume and later a cover letter. I made the necessary calls to attempt to make my application active. I am still waiting on a few more things for everything to be complete but having the break allowed me to focus on things that needed to be started and also get a chance to catch up on some much needed rest! I am appreciative for the time off but I also missed each and every one of my students happy to head back!
Where to even begin! I planned a science lesson that was based on finding the effect of the sun on the Earth’s land, air, and water. We used this lesson as an inquiry for the students. They were asked to brainstorm ways to test and collect data to show how the sun heats Earth. They were grouped by tables and they shared out their group’s inquiry plan. We received multiple suggestions and ideas. By sharing our ideas all together the students were able to question one another and narrow the investigation to one overall plan. The students decided that to test the Sun’s heat on Earth’s land they would get two of the same measuring cups, fill the cup with same type and amount of soil, put a thermometer in each cup, and then place one in direct sunlight and one in the shade. They decided to test the Sun’s heat on Earth’s water using the same process, two measuring cups with the same amount of water in each cup, and a thermometer to collect the temperature. Then they placed one measuring cup in the sun and one in the shade. Lastly, they decided to test the Sun’s effect on Earth’s air by hanging a thermometer in a tree that was placed in the sun and one hanging in a tree underneath the shade of the tree.
The lesson began by placing the students in groups. I grouped students prior to the lesson and wanted to create groups of mixed abilities. I read the groups off and divided them by water, land, and air. Luckily, we have 18 students so there was an equal number of students in each group (6). I did feel I could have been more explicit in my directions to set a stronger tone for the lesson. I originally planned for the students to set up their experiment in class, but during the lesson I switched that to setting up outside. So this kind of made me lose my train of thought and then the kids were way too excited to lesson and pay attention once we reached the outdoor area. Students were asked to remain in their groups then place their measuring cups in the shade/sunlight. This is where things started to get quite crazy (through my classroom management lens). Although kids were fully engaged in Science and their investigation, I found it difficult to regain control of their attention after giving them time to investigate. This is when I realized the importance meaning what you say and staying consistent with class rules/directions. I had to repeat myself multiple times and still students were still focusing on the investigation. Reflecting on the lesson, I think I should have stuck to my original plan of setting up in the classroom so students would have been more manageable through that process. Also, I would have been extremely explicit with expectations for the way our behavior should be outside. I think we with repeated practice of teaching it opens your eyes to ideas and situations that you would have not thought of before. I am grateful for this experience and hope to continue to grow in my teaching.
Being able to take part in my CT’s classroom gives me ideas for my future classroom. My CT started using talking chips in the classroom to elicit discussions and keep all students accountable for participating in the conversation. I really like this strategy and have seen the growth of the student’s discussions the more we use the talking chips in the classroom. In our classroom this strategy is based on table group discussions. The students are grouped into four different groups there are 4 – 5 students in each group. Depending on which seat each student sits at they are assigned a certain color talking chip. The talking chips are colored snap cubes. The students are asked to rest the snap cubes on their desk and when they want to participate in the discussion they slide their chip to the center of the table. Each student starts out with 2 talking chips. Once they slide both chips in students cannot jump back in the conversation until all students have used their chips. This helps eliminate the students that tend to dominate a conversation.
My Ct uses the talking chips during shared reading and this allows students to discuss the text and questions with one another. The talking chips also keep all students accountable for LISTENING to classmates as the speak. In the front of the class, there is a basket filled with each color snap cube. After discussions have been completed you can draw a colored snap cube from the basket and all students with that color cube must share what their group talked about during the discussion. This not only keeps students talking but it gives them a reason to listen to their classmates input.
Another activity with the talking chips is when we are reading on the carpet. Students bring their talking chips to the carpet and they sit in a large circle. When asked to share students can toss their snap cube into a basket in the middle of the carpet. This gives them an incentive to share because the have an opportunity to make it in the basket. If the student shares and tosses it in the basket they get a sticker. As small as that seems, it really motivates my students to share and discuss their thinking.
I am doing my inquiry on my questioning and how it affects students discourse. I think this strategy helps the discourse among the students and gives them an opportunity to practice sharing and discussing within a group. This is definitely something I want to incorporate into my own classroom.
Last week I got the opportunity to be a judge at the 2014-2015 STEM Fair! I found this to be great opportunity and realized how important it is to put emphasis on Stem in the classroom. I was a judge for individual fifth grade behavioral science. The students were so intelligent and excited to share! I loved talking to each student and hearing them explain their investigations in detail. As a judge I was partnered with another education major from USF. We were in charge of judging six projects from the behavioral science category. The projects we judged were all diverse and interesting. A project I liked in particularly was a study to see if students in first graders could open child-safety caps and if the caps were truly reliable in keeping young students from opening them. The student tested multiple students from a first grade classroom. She had 6 different types of child-safety caps (3 different medicine caps, eye-make up remover, vitamins, and Drano). She gave each student the same caps and one minute to see if they could open it within that amount of time. She found that many of the caps were unable to be opened by the students but one cap was able to be opened by all the students well under the minute time frame, Drano. The chemical used to unclog drains was able to be opened in as little as six seconds and is can be fatal if ingested. The student not only found out this information but she took it a step further and wrote the company to state her findings. I loved seeing how she related her investigation to the real-world and continued to pursue change from the company. She had suggestions prepared that she offered the company such as using a medicine bottle safety-cap design and not including the directions to open directly on the lid. I thought this was a great way to show how an investigation can make improvements to things we already have and that there is room for improvement in many things we use. I like how she thought of this on her own and included a story that sparked her interest. Overall, I really enjoyed spending my day observing numerous experiments/investigations.
The last month was quite crazy for me, which is why I lacked in the blogging department! My CT added a bundle of joy to their family so he took some much needed time off. So in return I was able to gain more experience in the classroom! I took on the responsibility of teaching math and science for both departmentalized classes during the month of December! This task was scary but also just what I needed. I was able to see how much goes into planning each day and having full responsibility of the classroom. I am forever gaining more and more respect for teachers and all that they do each day.
I was teaching the unit of states of matter in science and adding/subtracting two-digit numbers in math. I was able to use the online resources provided by the distract to help me plan and organize what I would be teaching each day. I used the same classroom structure my CT had established throughout the school year. Typically, I led the class in the mathematics instruction but the students were teaching one another. I was unsure of the balance between how much I should be talking/explaining and how much the students should be taking the lead. I started each lesson with the day's essential question. We then had a quick discussion about the different strategies, operations, and methods we would be using. I would pose a word problem on the Elmo and have students work together to solve it. for the first problem I would have students share as a whole each step to solving the problem. we would read the problem, address what operation we were using and why, and then set-up the problem. I would call on individuals to share the next step to solving and then they would demonstrate it on the Elmo/whiteboard. I would then pose another question and have students work it out in their math journals. They could continue to work with partners. Then I would call individual students to bring their journal underneath the Elmo to share. They had to explain what they did and why and see if their classmates agreed or disagreed. If everyone agreed I would ask another person to share and show their method of thinking. If someone disagreed they were asked to share their thinking as well. I ended each lesson with an exit ticket. This would be completed individually in their math journals and I would circulate the room providing feedback when they completed. I graded the exit ticket on 1,2,3 rubric that the students were familiar with (1=the answer is incorrect and no work is shown 2= the answer is correct but no work is shown OR the answer is incorrect with work shown 3= answer is correct and work is shown). I used this information to get an idea of who understood the content and who still needed help. I then tried to focus on those students the next day during their work time. If I could go back and change anything it would be to use the exit tickets more effectively. I would have created small group instruction based on their individual needs. I think this would have benefitted the students and allowed me to differentiate based on their understanding. I mainly taught whole group my time teaching besides individual conferences throughout their work time. I know see that forming groups that would have been aligned with their needs would have allowed for a better understanding of the content.
Looking back, there are many things I would have done differently, but that is the beauty of learning. I know now the struggles and the successes of teaching and I hope to continue to learn and get better as an educator.
This week we were honored to have many guests visit our classroom for the Great American Teach-In! We began the day with a motivational speaker. She was previously a teacher, currently working as a writer and also on her way to reaching a goal of losing one hundred pounds. She worked really well with the students by showing them you can grow up and be multiple different, not just one. She showed them that if you work hard and put your focus on a goal it is reachable. The students were engaged and she used her previous years of teaching to hook the students and keep their attention. I could tell a big difference in the way students responded to her upbeat and kid-friendly personality, rather than other speakers that did not have the engaging language and management of the classroom. This connected to my own goal to better my management skills and proved to me that I need to be exertive and engaging.
Our next speakers were husband and wife construction workers. They showed students that you can find something you like to do, like fixing things, and make a career out of it. They also showed students that if you do not go to college, that is okay, you just need to continue to learn and practice a trade. They discussed different trades and how to learn from people around them. They even demonstrated how to fix things around their house! They described all the different tools on their tools belts and what they are used for. They brought in a sample of dry wall, a volunteer came up and put a hole in the dry wall with a hammer. (Students were amazed!) The construction worker then used his tools to patch the hole. This was a great demonstration and it gave students background knowledge on tools and fixing things.
Our next speakers came in at the same time, we had a police officer and two firefighters. The students were REALLY excited. Over half of the boys and girls in the classroom wanted to be either a police officer or firefighter so they were a tad bit crazy! The one thing I found really cool about our guests is that one of the firefighters was a girl! I think this opened many young girls’ eyes to being a police or firefighter because they could relate to the woman speaker. The speakers addressed different scenarios and taught the students how to react them. We worked with safety and rules with calling 911. Students were able to ask questions that they have always wanted to ask one of the uniformed guests. This showed kids that you need to stay focused and not get in trouble so you have the possibility to become a firefighter or police officer in the future.
Our last speaker was a baker! This was a great way to end the day. The woman baker came in and shared multiple different cakes she created (they were gorgeous!). She described the different ingredients that are used in baking. Then she described the different tools and demonstrated some of them. She also baked cupcakes for the students to decorate. They were so so excited. The speaker brought in seven different toppings such as sprinkles, cookies, chocolate chips, and frosting. The students were able to use a piping bag (all for the first time!). This was a fun way to have students express their creativity and enjoy an end of the day treat. I think she persuaded the whole class of second graders to become one day become a baker!