How much effort are you giving?

I was on Pinterest recently and I found an anchor chart that someone had posted called "How much effort are you giving?"  As soon as I repinned it, I just knew that I had to have this posted in my classroom for the remainder of this year, as well as next year.  I am currently using a character card that my students fill out at the end of each subject period each day.  They score themselves with a positive if they behaved appropriately and a corresponding character trait.  If they made a bad choice, than they write a negative with the corresponding character trait.  This card is signed over the weekend and returned to me every Monday.  Next year, I'm debating whether or not I want to turn the character card into an effort card where they would record a 1-4 based on the anchor chart below and students that earned a 1/2 would be initialed by me so parents could have a better picture of the effort that is being given in class.  I haven't made up my mind about this yet, but was mulling it over as I created the chart last week.

I Spy Geometry: A Book of Lines, Angles & Polygons

As one of our end-of-year projects, my students created pictures where they had to hide all of the geometry terms/symbols that they had learned during our geometry unit.  The pictures will then be turned into a class book where they can locate at least 10 of the following geometry terms in their classmates pictures:

• rays
• line segments
• lines
• parallel lines
• perpendicular lines
• intersecting lines
• straight lines
• acute angles
• obtuse angles
• right angles
• scalene triangles
• isosceles triangles
• equilateral triangles
• quadrilaterals
• pentagons
• hexagons
• octagons
• points
• radius
• diameter
• symmetry
• congruent shapes

Here are some student examples:

Vocabulary: How do we learn new words?

Several years ago, I attended a professional development on the importance of student engagement.  One of the strategies they taught us to teach new vocabulary to our students was to create hand signals.  The video above models what that looks like.  I have been using this strategy for the past six or seven years to teach vocabulary to my students and it is AMAZING to see what a difference it has made.  Not only are my students able to tell me what a word means, but they are able to use academic vocabulary within their verbal and written responses.

I start off by identifying key vocabulary terms that my students should know within the content area.  Then small groups are assigned a word to develop a signal for.  When they present it to the class, they have to tell us the word, its definition, model the signal and explain how it relates to the definition.  One of the things I really like about this is that it gets students up in front of their peers so they can start feeling comfortable with talking in front of a large group.  Once the class is taught the signal, I will repeat the definition and the rest of the class will model the signal and say the correct word.  For example, in reading, we focus on 20 words each week.  On Monday and Tuesday, I introduce 7 of them and the remaining six on Wednesday.  When we learn the new words each day, I make sure to include the previous days words so they are always fresh in their mind.  Then they are quizzed at the end of the week on their understanding of the words.  The following week they are introduced to a new set of words.

Some of the ways we practice the vocabulary words are:

• Around the World: This works exactly like it does when practicing math facts.  I saw a definition and the two students must tell me the word and perform the signal.  Whoever does it correctly first moves on to the next student.
• Stand Up & Close Your Eyes:  Everyone stands up at their desks.  Two-three students monitor whether or not students are doing the correct signals after a definition is read.  If a student hears their name called, they have to sit down because they did the wrong signal.
• Hot Seat:  Two students sit in chairs facing one another.  Another student is standing behind one student and they have written a vocabulary word on their whiteboard.  They hold the board up and the student that can see the word has to give clues to the other student to see if they can guess the word on the whiteboard.
• Vocabulary Bee:  Students line up and the first student is given a definition.  They must say the word and perform the signal correctly.  If they do, they stay in the game and I move on to the next student who is given a new definition.  If they are incorrect, they return to their seat.  If a student gets the word/signal wrong, then the next student has the same definition.  We usually play until a handful of students are left standing.
• Slap It: I usually start out with pairs playing this and then move onto small groups of four students.  They write each vocabulary word on a sticky note and lay them out in front of one another.  I read a definition and the goal is to be the first one to "slap" the correct word/sticky note.

Geometry Town

One of our projects that we recently worked on is a Geometry Town.  Here are the requirements that students were given, as well as the checklist that was used to grade their final product.  I also included several student examples.  If you would like the Word version of the document, comment below with your email address and I will send it to you as an attachment.

Test Prep: Scoot

A couple months ago I attended a PD on a variety of test prep games that could be used as we prepared our students for AIMS, our state mandated test.  One of my favorites that I walked away with and used that very week is a game called Scoot.  I created a game to review Order of Operations, Factoring, Prime & Composite, and Multiplication/Division problems.  I have 25 students, so I had 25 problems written on index cards.  Each index card then had a number, 1-25 written on the opposite side.  I placed one card on each desk.  I started the music (KidzBop are  great albums because they have the popular songs of today sung by kids so they're classroom appropriate) and they had roughly 2-3 minutes to solve the problem on their card.  Once they finished, their answer should've been written in the corresponding box.  So, for example, if a student had card number 16, than their answer would be written in box 16.  When the music shut off, they moved to the next seat and completed a new problem.  Once they had worked their way through all 25 problems, we graded their papers as a class.  The student who earned the highest score had one night of no homework the following week.  It's a fantastic motivator for the class to work super diligently in completing the problems correctly because what kid doesn't want a night of no homework?  This is definitely a test prep activity that I'm going to keep in mind next year!

Book Study: Flip Your Classroom - Chapter 4

I have started to read Flip Your Classroom by Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann.  After each chapter, I will highlight key concepts and any other noteworthy ideas that will enhance my understanding of the idea, as well as how to implement it within my 4th grade classroom.

Chapter 4: How to Implement the Flipped Classroom

• Don't make a video just for the sake of it.  Think about what instructional tool would best teach the content to your students.
• Use other teachers' videos if you do not feel comfortable being on camera.  Check out YouTube for videos or other video sharing sites.
• When making your own videos, you can use Camtasia Studio, which is a screencasting program.  It will capture whatever is on your computer screen, as well as your voice, and any annotations that you make with a digital pen.  You can also videotape all of your lessons for one year and then turn them into videos the following year for your students to view. 
• Four steps to making a video:
• Plan the lesson
• Record the video
• Edit the video
• Publish the video
•  Side Note: I will be using the iPad app, Show Me, to make my videos.  This app allows me to draw, upload pictures and describe what is going on in real time.  The videos can then be easily uploaded to the internet and then embedded into Edmodo, which is a site I use a lot with my students, or any other site.  
• Making videos your students will love:
• Keep it short: remember bite-sized pieces of information ... 10-15 minutes.
• Animate your voice
• Create videos with other teachers (I need to remember this!)
• Add humor
• Don't waste your students' time: keep to the topic
• Add annotations
• Add callouts: a text box that focuses on key content/steps
• Zoom in and out
• You must evaluate and redesign your class time once students begin watching videos as their homework.  

Book Study: Flip Your Classroom - Chapter 3

I have started to read Flip Your Classroom by Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann.  After each chapter, I will highlight key concepts and any other noteworthy ideas that will enhance my understanding of the idea, as well as how to implement it within my 4th grade classroom.

Chapter 3: Why You Should Flip Your Classroom

• BYOD - bring your own device allows students to use updated technology rather than the out-of-date computers that may be sitting in some of our classrooms to complete a variety of tasks/projects.
• Students can process material at their own pace.  Students who learn more quickly no longer have to wait to move on and students who need more time can pause/rewind the videos.
• Teachers can build better relationships with their students due to increased teacher-student interactions.
• This model also increases student-student interactions as they help one another learn.
• Parents have responded positively to the flipped classroom model because they are able to help their child more but there has been some concern of parents thinking that the teacher was no longer teaching.

Book Study: Flip Your Classroom - Chapter 2

I have started to read Flip Your Classroom by Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann.  After each chapter, I will highlight key concepts and any other noteworthy ideas that will enhance my understanding of the idea, as well as how to implement it within my 4th grade classroom.

Chapter 2: The Flipped Classroom

• "Basically the concept of a flipped class is this: that which is traditionally done in class is now done at home, and that which is traditionally done as homework is now completed in class." (p.13)
• A typically day:
• Warm-Up Activity
• Discuss the video from the night before 
• Students are given their assignment, which may include a multitude of activities within one class period.
• Spend time training students on how to effectively view your videos by turning off any distractions, rewinding and pausing the content, etc.
• Use the method of Cornell note-taking by having students take notes, write down questions they have, and summarize their learning.
• Student questions can inform you of how effective the material was presented to them so that, if necessary, content can be added to the presentation at a later date.
• Teachers become a tutor and can focus on students that are struggling the most with a concept.
• The class becomes centered around the students and not the teacher.  Students are required to watch the videos and ask appropriate questions.  The teacher provides feedback.

Book Study: Flip Your Classroom - Chapter 1

In my quest to learn more about "the flipped classroom", I have started to read Flip Your Classroom by Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann.  After each chapter, I will highlight key concepts and any other noteworthy ideas that will enhance my understanding of the idea, as well as how to implement it within my 4th grade classroom.

Chapter 1: Our Story: Creating The Flipped Classroom

• A flipped classroom allows students to have a more personalized education experience by watching content multiple times for clarity, staying caught up to curriculum due to absences, etc.
• The video students view is homework so that teachers can spend time the following day extending the learning and filling in any gaps that students may have.
• Initially, Jonathan and Aaron required their students to watch their videos every other night, as well as take notes during the viewing.
• The flipped-mastery model was incorporated into the flipped classroom where students worked at their own pace to master the material before moving on to the next concept/skill.

CAFE: Check for Understanding

This year I decided to embark on the journey that is known as the Daily 5/CAFE.  I had heard about it years ago but this was the year I was going to finally jump right in and try it out.  No one on my campus was using it, so I really had no one to turn to for support.  Fortunately, several teachers are going to be using this model in their classrooms next year so I'm glad to know that I can be a resource for them if they get to the point where they just want to pull their hair out!  It's an absolutely awesome model to allow for small group instruction but it takes a lot of time up front to train your students to be able to work independently while you work with small groups.  If you don't put in the time for the first 6 weeks of school, than Daily 5 is never going to work for the remainder of the school year.  I look forward to refining certain aspects of the Daily 5/CAFE and continuing with it next year.  I'll post more about it over the summer as I start to create my posters and various handouts to use with my class.  My flashdrive crashed earlier this year and I lost EVERYTHING!  So, it'll be back to the drawing board this summer to re-create certain documents. :-(

One of the first components of CAFE that I introduced with my class is Check for Understanding, which fits under the C (comprehension) in CAFE.  The expectations of this strategy are to read a section of text, stop and retell to a partner or yourself what just happened.  When we start out using this strategy, I stop every 1/2 page when we read our weekly story so students can practice check for understanding with one aother.  I noticed pretty early in the year that some students can naturally retell what they just read, while others aren't sure of where to even start.  Above is the anchor chart that I posted for my class to use.  When a partner is struggling with their retell, their peer can ask them "coaching or time?" and if they say coaching, then they can  use the questions on our anchor chart to help guide the retell.  If their partner can't tell them anything, than they would have to back up and reread that section of the text and then check for understanding again.

During our early days of using the Daily 5, many students started with a CAFE goal of reading 1/2 a page and then checking for understanding.  Students that couldn't retell 1/2 of a page, went down to doing it every paragraph.  On the other hand, students who could easily retell 1/2 of a page moved up to reading an entire page and then checking for understanding.  I would say that with three weeks left to go before the school year ends, 90% of my class can read at least an entire page and retell all of the key points.   At the start of the year, I only had 3 out of 25 students that were able to do that.

5 Student Engagement Strategies

Every so often, I will post my top five student engagement strategies that I use with my class.

1. Mix N' Match:  This strategy is designed to pair up students with similar answers so you can quickly see who gets it, who is making common errors, and who needs additional small group support.  I don't use this strategy when I feel as though the class has had enough practice where they can successfully solve the problem and find a match.  I tend to use this engagement strategy most often in math, but it can be used in any content area.  I post a problem for everyone to complete on their individual whiteboards.  When I say, "mix and find your match", they turn their whiteboards so everyone can see their answer and they pair up, back-to-back and remain silent, with the first person that matches their answer.  
2. Get the Gist:  This strategy asks students to take what you have taught them and condense it into a 10 words or less sentence.  I really like to use this strategy when I'm introducing reading strategies because it makes them take what they've just learned about it and write a statement that encompasses only the most important information in 10 words or less.  This is also a perfect exit ticket strategy.
3. Write It Up:  This strategy asks groups of four students to write down their response to a topic, question or prompt.  They are given a large piece of construction paper with the topic, question or prompt written in the middle.  Then each student gets a section of the paper to write their response in.  I usually have them fold the paper into fourths so they know exactly how much space they have to write in.  I love using this strategy when it comes to an end-of-unit review because students are asked to recall everything they know about a given topic.  When we were prepping for our state tests a few weeks ago, we did several of these in math and all I did was write Fractions or Geometry in the center and they had to tell me everything they knew about the topic.  Then I had them draw a line underneath their writing and after a few minutes of reviewing their notes, they had time to add to their notes.  Then the groups shared their information with one another, checking off anything from their section that was said by a group member.
4. Response Cards: This strategy asks students to hold up a card with their response to a question or statement.  I give them 1" strips of construction paper that have been laminated with red on one side and green on the other.  They will hold up green if they agree with a statement/answer to a problem and red if they disagree. I usually have them close their eyes before they show their card because certain students tend to look right at a classmate who they know is correct and just copy their color.  Plus, there is less fear of being wrong when I'm the only person that sees their answer.  After all cards are held up, I always ask several students to prove their thinking so no one gets away with not having a reason why they chose red/green.
5. Give One, Get One:  This strategy asks students to give information to a partner and to get information from their partner.  For example, we were doing a study on Arizona's state symbols.  Once every group had completed their research, they were able to Mix/Pair/Share.  When they shared, they would give one fact about a state symbol that their partner was missing so they could add it to their notes and vice versa.  I like this strategy, especially in social studies, because there are times where we just can't spend days on a topic and they're able to learn from their peers and have additional information to use on their assignment.

More on The Flipped Classroom

I'm still looking into this model of teaching and came across some additional tidbits to add to my previous post.

• When a student does 10 problems in a row correctly, they can move on.  Posting these problems on Edmodo would be a great way to assess students because their assessment can be graded immediately.
• Utilize peer tutors by allowing the students who "get it" to work one-on-one with the students that are still struggling.  We all know that sometimes a student can explain a concept in just the right way and it clicks for their peer, even if we said the exact same thing!
• Ten Marks has videos and assignments that your class can complete to show mastery.
• LearnZillion also has videos that your class can view to preview and learn a new concept before class the next day.