Webinar Receipt for Building Schoolwide Excellence in Reading and Writing

Making Fairy Tale Thinking Visible

When I do visible thinking routines in my class, I usually do them as a group to help guide the process and model my own thinking for them. 

This has gone pretty well, but recently I have noticed some students not thinking to their potential. The time had come to push them a little more.

I had planned on doing this as a group, but in an attempt to make it a little different, I gave each student the sheet below.

When I was thinking of this post, I at first reflecting on this lesson, I thought giving the students a worksheet like this was the wrong idea. But now that I reflect on this a little more, I think this was a good step for the students.

In the beginning of the lesson, I went through each question as a class and wrote ideas down on the board so they would be able to copy some words. For whatever reason, hopefully it was because of the holidays, the students were not focusing.

Then I gave them their own sheet and allowed them to work with partners or in groups. I think these routines best serve [young] students when they are able to gain insight by listening to others' ideas. I believe that this "idea sharing" helps push thinking further.

I think the issue here was that the students were overconfident. They thought they knew what to do. They did not need to discuss the story because they knew it.

Maybe I need to sell this better next time.

Or maybe I should do this in the morning instead of the afternoon.

**Follow up note: While working their way thorough this, one of my first graders said, "Hey. I can read this!" Maybe that alone made this lesson worth doing.

Group Reading for Engagement

Living in Japan is great most of the time. However, since we are so far to the right of the map (depending on what map you are looking at) Japan is really far time-wise from many webinars I want to attend. All the IB webinars are Amsterdam time. This translates to midnight Japan time.

On a school night, that can't happen if I am going to keep up with the bouncing students in my room.

I recently watched a webinar in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Curiousity Series called Using Cliff-Hanging Texts to Ignite Students’ Comprehension. On this day I happened to wake up at 4:00 (how does that happen?) and was able to watch it.

There was one thing that resonated with me about previewing the text. This is something I do often with my lower ESL students; I preview the pictures in the text asking them what is happening, and what they think will happen next. The problem is that doing a picture walk through a story can disengage students in the story preventing them from thinking while reading.

The presenter, May Ellen Voght, walked through a lesson she does with her students, and today I tried it with mine.

I found a version of Jack and the Beanstalk on the BBC and broke it up into chunks, and put each chunk on a slide. We then read each slide together.

At the end of each slide, I asked the students if there were any words they did not know, which I highlighted in blue. I asked them if there were any words on the slide that would help them understand the word, but I did not feed it to them as they were expecting (although some students couldn't resist but to share their knowledge!)

I then asked if there were any interesting words on the slide. I highlighted those in red.

Then I asked if they had a prediction of what would happen next, followed by having them think for about 30 seconds of what the scene might look like.

After reading through the story, we watched the short video that accompanied the story and I asked them if their pictures matched the video. This is something I need to be more clear about next time; I think they thought I meant if their pictures "looked" just like the video rather than what I meant by them thinking of the same general idea.

Finding Patterns Using Circles

Looking for multiplication lessons for my Grade 2's, I came across an interesting way to show multiplication shapes within circles. Since I have a combined class, I thought this could work with both multiplication and skip counting (not saying that multiplication is skip counting though).

I had the following shape ready on the whiteboard when the students came in. 

Many students guessed it was a clock. Then one observant student said it wasn't, and another justified it by saying that clocks don't have 0's on them.

I asked them what they thought the shape they could get by counting by ones and connecting the dots.

They had no idea what I was talking about, so I modeled.

Then they got it. 

We went around the circle together on the white board.

I gave them a sheet with six circles prepared on it and asked them to go through the numbers as I did with the ones. That was a little hard to understand, so I modeled a few lines counting by twos for them.

The second graders were able to continue by themselves, and I worked with the first graders for a little bit allowing the ones with more confidence to leave the smaller group I was working with.

This was one of those lessons where all the students were engaged, working at their own pace, and the task was in everyone's zone of proximal development. 

A few second graders finished early so I gave them this extension problem. 

Tell me what shape you will get if you count by 8's. What is the relationship with the patterns?

Note: I have been writing drafts of blog posts, but never getting back to them. This post was to get me back into reflecting.

This Is Disgusting ... But It's Fun

I walked into the PTA room the other day and saw a garbage can overfilled with all kinds of garbage in mixed together. On top of it all were a few plastic bottles and I thought, we need to get in this garbage. I took the garbage out of their room, and brought it into my classroom one afternoon.

The next morning when the students came in, they saw the bag of smelliness in the front of the classroom.

Why is that in here?
What is that?
Who forgot their garbage in our classroom?

I was asked a flurry of questions, but before answering them, I asked them what they saw.

Garbage!
Trash!
Junk!

Then I asked them again to look closer, and to find a partner and do a Think, Pair, Share.

From this, I started getting observations about the plastic bottles, recycling, and someone may have seen a piece of paper in there somewhere.

Then I asked what we could do about it. Someone said we should recycle the bottles. So I asked about the paper. They agreed we should recycle that too. I told them that we still can recycle some of this "junk" and I passed out some plastic gloves. (Ironic, I know.)

We went into the school's entryway where all the hallways come together. It is a large area with ceramic tile floors that can be easily cleaned if need be. 

I passed out some clipboards so they could write t-charts onto some (already used on one sided) paper. Their charts were separated into a G for garbage, Pl for plastic, and Pa for paper. The students took turns coming up and digging into the garbage and deciding which bin to put it in.

There were plenty of "EEWWs" and "OHs" during this process. I am sure that most classes heard some of this.

Soon we had the garbage separated and a pile of data. Then it was off to lunch.

When they came back from lunch, we set out using the data to make bar graphs so we could get a picture of what kind of trash we separated.

The next step in this inquiry is to write letters to the PTA to ask them to be careful about what they throw away. I am also going to stress to my students that we need to also help them, so we may ask the headmaster to give the PTA two more bins so it is easier for them to recycle.

I just thought of this, but we could also make some posters of the kinds of things they can recycle to hang in the PTA room.


*The title is a quote from one of my students during the garbage sort.

Tracking Understanding

Since this was the second time I was teaching these units as a Grade 1-2 teacher [on a two year cycle], I wanted to change the order in which I taught them. Two school years ago, I taught our current unit, Sharing the planet: An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things, at the end of the year. This time, it is in the beginning.

In my classroom I have a large basket filled with scraps of paper to be used in future projects. This was a great chance to ask my students why I would have a box of paper scraps in my room. After our discussion, I put them to work making their own self portraits using the scraps of paper.

After we were done I had all these self portraits that I was planning on simply displaying. But when I put them up in a row, I noticed I could have them talk to each other. 

This evolved into a way to track student understanding through our unit. I created speech bubbles that are big enough for post-its, and periodically, I ask the question, "What do you know about our unit?"

Each time we talk about it, I put their answers into a unit page in their portfolios so we can see how they grow in their understanding and knowledge.

This might be a good opportunity next unit to develop a rubric about conceptual understanding.

Dealing With Challenging Students

I came across this article on Teach Thought entitled, "Growing Closer To Your Most Challenging Students" and it inspired me. Of course, that was last week.

When I encounter a challenging student, I try to win them over. I do this by trying to get to know them better and building a bond with him or her.

By creating this relationship, more times than not the student will settle down. I usually learn something about him or her. By understanding where the behavior issues are coming from, I have more empathy and am able to handle issues that arise with more compassion.

This is not to say that issues disappear when a relationship is built, but rather that issues are able to be met with more understanding.

Time for recess duty.

Photography in the Classroom

I first bought a digital camera when I came to Japan in 2003. Since that time I have gotten more serious and have spent a fair amount of money on it.

I have also changed the way I use the pictures I take in the classroom.

I started out taking pictures of the students in action and putting them up around the room or outside of the classroom. I still do that, but I have extended it to taking pictures for other teachers in the school as well as in my own classroom.

I also decided that the one page my students get in the yearbook did not come close to accurately

Continental Draft

A while back at one of our school's PD days I was introduced to a video call Austin's Butterfly Drafts.

This video shows the power feedback and how students can improve through the feedback cycle.

We are in how we organize ourselves unit we are studying communities and I found an opportunity for the students to use each others critiques to make their original map better.

The students are reading a book called Me on the Map. We are making a flip book based on Me on the Map that starts as continent and moves to country, city, street, house and down through the layers to the students own bedroom.

Yesterday I had students draw a picture of Asia. I did project an image of it and passed out some iPads so that they could have the image to look at while they drew.

Some students surprisingly could do a really good job, and others were rather lazy with their drawings and could clearly improve.

Today I showed the kids the video about Austin and we talked about how they could improve their own work. Students were very interested to try it out.

Since it was their first time doing this activity, and we did this as a whole class instead of breaking into smaller groups it took a long time. They were all very interested in helping others, however they were not so interested in hearing critiques from other students. I had to keep reminding them that this was for their own benefit.

However when it came time for the students to do their second draft of Asia, they were much, much better.

This lesson took more than an hour, however it was well worth the time. I'm hoping that this lesson will help them think about how they draw their subsequent drafts, and maybe it will seep into how they think about all their work. We will have to do this more often though so it becomes engrained into their thinking.

There was one boy who I actually think did not do as well the second time. That might be because his first draft was so good.

Understanding by Design - Chapter 3

Standards and Big Ideas
Standards provide teachers with a "focus" for which they teach.

Big Ideas from Lynn Erickson (2001)

• Broad and abstract
• Represented by one or two words
• Universal in application
• Timeless--carry through the ages
• Represented by different examples that share common attributes (Erickson 2001 p. 35)

Wiggins and McTigue go on talking about how Ercikson's list of big ideas can be generalized (p. 69)

• Providing a focusing conceptual lens for any study
• Providing breadth of meaning by connecting and organizing many facts, skills, and experiences; serving as the linchpin of understanding
• Pointing to ideas at the heart of expert understanding of a subject
• Requiring "uncoverage" because its meaning or value is rarely obvious to the learner, is counterintuitive or prone to misunderstanding
• Having great transfer value; applying to many other inquiries and issues over time--"horizontally" (across subjects) and "vertically" (through the years in later courses) in the curriculum and out of school

SECRUOSER - A Natural Resources Adventure Role Play

Our Planet Earth

The decisions we make can affect the planet.

1. The extraction and use of natural resources.
2. Current environmental issues in Japan and the world.
3. Responsible decision making: exploring the difference that we can make.

---

When I saw natural resources, my thoughts drifted back to my first year working at TIS. At that time I was teaching PE, and I would drift in and out of classrooms when I could, and I remember very clearly seeing a bulletin board with trees on it, then a few weeks later the trees were cut in half. When I asked about it, the Grade 3-4 teacher told me they were learning about resources and he used that as a kind of role play.

Fast forward to this year and I was faced with a natural resources unit, so I decided to give it a shot.

The yellow boxes show where the students wanted to build houses.

I first set the landscape. I created an area modeled after Miyagi, Japan (where we are). I first talked with the students about the different features of the landscape. We talked about the trees, the water, the animals, and the mountains and the possibility of minerals in them (thanks to Minecraft). I told them that the name of the land was SECRUOSER. I intentionally wrote it next to the word resources to see if anyone would get it, and one astute student did. Now I wish I had left that nugget for later.

Next I had the students scout out their homestead. They each came up to the board and pointed to where they wanted their house. Several students placed their homes close to each other in the upper part of the board.

Surprisingly only one student chose a place on the lake shore. They don't know what they are missing.

An explanation about the placement of a house.

Many students chose to build away from the coast of the ocean and away from water as well citing tsunamis. Other students talked about floods and introduced words like "avalanche" and "landslide". Natural disasters were a huge influence on their decisions.

I wonder if this is because of Japan, the March 11, 2011 earthquake, or if it is just their age.

SECRUOSER after the purge.

I then found some house cutouts. I showed the students each one and assigned them a tree value. There was a grass house that cost one tree, a stone house that cost one tree, a few that cost two, and one that cost three.

The students were so excited to get their houses and color them. Little did they know what was in store for them.

All trees and houses for this board were made using scrap paper.

Each time I put up a house, I cut that many trees from the board, but I left stumps so they could see what was happening. This is what caught their attention. When I cut the first tree there was a silence in the room that told me the shock helped them realize that the decisions they had made had consequences that they could not get out of.

I went to all the students collecting houses, and when I did, I asked the class how much the house cost. I then told them that if you were to build a house, and had no vehicle, you would cut the trees closest to where you lived.

The boys who moved next to each other found that when humans get together there will be a large hole in the forest. In our land area the whole forest north of the river was ravaged. The students who chose stone houses saw parts of mountains taken out.

One student was so excited he brought his mom into the room and told her all about what happened.

Next chapter: What happens to the animals? OR When beavers strike.

Rainy Day Activity - Make Three Equal Groups

Most of Japan is in the midst in the rainy season. Rainy season is sandwiched in between spring and summer.

Today was a rainy day. I dread rainy days; especially when I am on recess duty. The students seem especially energetic on rainy days, and not having a chance to run around outside can cause some problems.

Right in the middle of an outdoor recess today it started raining enough so that we had to come inside. When all the students were in, I began sorting them into three lines. The students were being slow and two of the lines were much longer than the third.

Having seen this before, and knowing that it would take the rest of the recess period to get them lined up, I made a snap decision and called out, "Stop!"

"Divide yourselves into three equal groups."

From there the students spent the next five minutes trying to figure it out. It was interesting to see which students did not follow directions correctly and started making groups of three. There were some students who were not engaged, and some who were confused (I think confusion is a good thing for a little while), but it was a good problem for a rainy day.

It was interesting to see some of the older students who knew how to solve the problem try to line up the students to make the groups.

Life After High School - A Student Council Event

I knew it was a good idea when I heard it. This was the kind of event I had hoped we would have more of when I became involved in the Student Council. 

Back in January a former student emailed the current Student Council President with an idea to have former students come to the school and share their experiences. I knew it would be a great experience for the current students since they will be moving onto college from a school with less than 100 students and regular contact with only three high school teachers.

2014 Life After Tis STUDENT COUNCIL EVENTGraduates around the world | Create Infographics

It was not easy to get it set up as there were several obstacles to overcome. There was a time when I did not think that it would ever happen.

After we had a date, it was time to gather attendees. The President reached out to the alumni through Facebook. To those who were interested in attending, the Student Council sent them a short survey to gather information about their current city, their university, majors, and the years they attended TIS.




The event itself was awesome. The alumni spoke with maturity and the current students listened because they were talking with young adults. Peer mentoring at its best.

There was a nervousness among some of the adults in the building as to how it would go. It was heightened by us being visited by two professors from a university in Fukushima.

I kept thinking about my philosophy regarding Student Council through all this: when you give students responsibility over something they truly care about, they will come through.

iPad Book Creator App and Dropbox Part 2

Until today, we were playing "pass the iPad" with project to make a book about our school.

What I mean is that with Book Creator, you cannot simultaneously edit a book (that I know of), so I had the kids do something while one student was making their page.

The problem [only in the sense of time] was that the students kept tweaking their pages and after two days I had two pages of the book. That was not going to work.

Last night at home I remembered seeing a way to combine books. So today I set out to do that. Here is how it is done.

Warning: When combining books, you need to have the book you want the pages merged in to selected. (By selected I mean have the main book be the one in the center of the screen.)

Step 1 - Start at the "Home Screen"

I do not know the official name for this screen, but it is the one where you can see all of your books.

Step 2 - Click the "+" [plus]

Step 3 - Click Combine Books

iPad Book Creator App and Dropbox Part 1

Embarking on my COETAIL final project, I found myself collaborating with two other classes to make a book about each of our schools which will lead to another project about communities. 

The app of choice is called Book Creator. I really like the app so far since it is easy for the students to get the hang of it. One of my more tech-savvy second graders tried it for the first time today after being out last week when we started with it, and it was amazing to see him find his way around so quickly - not even the hidden buttons could hold back this digital native.

Since we will be sharing our books using Dropbox, I spent some time trying to figure out how this thing would work.

I tried Googling how to save to Dropbox and came across this blog post about how to do it with iOS 6, but it is slightly different with iOS 7.

Step 1

Click the "send" link.

Step 2

Click "Open with another App".

Step 3

From here you can save to Dropbox.

This is my first attempt at this so I am sure there will be more learning along the way.

Community Support

I believe in parental support to help my students be successful. I have relied on parents often in the past and I have experienced great success when they were in the room.

When I had the support in the past, I had a few parents I relied on. They were great. They were self-reliant. 

They moved away.

Today marked a new chapter in what I hope will will be a long successful partnership. Today I had a few mothers come in and help out in the morning. 

With my class this year, I have several students who need a lot of assistance. It was great to have everyone covered. 

Thank you moms!

Unit Vocabulary: Finding What You Don't Know

Confucius — 'True wisdom is knowing what you don't know'

Something that is hard for me, and probably for most people, is knowing what I don't know. After all, it takes knowledge ans self-awareness to get that far.

I feel that I am slowly moving in the right direction in my career at least, and that comes with experiences, as well as reading, PD, and connecting with other people.

As we were starting our unit in Weather, I wanted to try something different with the unit vocabulary. I not only wanted to assess where they were, but I also wanted to see if there would be any effect on the students if they knew what they did not know.

I started by writing the word "weather" in the middle of the board and having them do the same in their notebooks. I then had them grab their favorite color from the colored pencils I had set on their tables.

I then had the students write all the words they could think of related to weather in their favorite color. When they were all done, I took their ideas and wrote them on the board in my favorite color (or the closest marker).

I then had the students pick a different color they liked, and had them write any new words down.

The last component was for me to add the new unit vocabulary for them. I asked my class to choose a third color for these words.

I did think that my students were using the unit vocabulary much more than they had before, but I cannot say this was the reason. Still, it is something I will try again but will try to emphasize more. Maybe it would be good to do the same thing at the end of the unit and compare the two.

Modeling Technology Procedures For Students

Today I gathered my students around the whiteboard and I prepared the computer to do our grammar exercise. But I soon found that I had not yet scanned in the sheet I wanted to use.

I decided to make mini lesson out of it. 

So as I scanned in the grammar sheet, I walked the students through it and vocalized my thinking. I asked the students questions about what I should do next. I asked them where I should click. Before I knew it, they (or a few of them) were practically walking me through the procedure.

One important part of the lesson was having them look for icons and buttons. Very often I will be with a group of students and half the students will be paralyzed because they don't know what to push or click. I liked having the time to let them scan the monitor for something that might help them.

I was able to do this mini lesson again the following week and I was impressed at how much of the procedure they remembered.

On a side note ...
For the Winter Session of our After School Activities, I am thinking of doing a course inspired by +Vicki Davis about a different iPad and/or PC program each week.