Brainy, Brain, Brain

I had always been intrigued by the way our brains work. It probably has to do with the fact that my entire family is in the science/ medical field and also the fact that I struggled for a long time academically while growing up in Asia.  

 In the old days, we sat and listened to direct instructions while taking notes aimlessly and you are completely judged by your grades. With the constant struggle, the stress of not bringing shame, I stressed, I cried, and I completely shut down every time I had to do anything academic, especially math.

 Now that I am on the other side and seeing the same struggles that I had in many of our scholars, I am so thankful that there are so many strategies that we can incorporate into our classrooms. Since I am all about music, movement, and how it all connects to our magnificent brain, when I saw the first video of a Whole Brain Teaching teacher, I was intrigued!  

The less teachers talk, the more kids learn. 

The brain is made of many regions. We have the prefrontal cortex, which is the brain’s reasoning center, activated during decision making. The motor cortex directs the body’s physical movement. Visual cortex processes input from the eyes and stores visual memories. 

The limbic system is the brain’s emotional core. Wernicke’s area, Broca’s area is in charge of spoken language (Wernicke’s area) and producing spoken language (Broca’s area). Last but not least, the nucleus accumbens, where the magical area that secretes the “ happy” feeling. When we engage in a pleasurable activity like listening to music, exercising, eating delicious food, playing a game, the nucleus acumbens secretes dopamine, the brain’s pleasure chemical. 

The Whole Brain Teaching Model is to use strategies to activate many parts of the brain while teaching your lesson so that the scholars will not only physically make motions but also produce spoken academic language to teach each other.  

Tailor the Strategies to You

I was overwhelmed when I first came across the idea of Whole Brain Teaching because the goal is to make classroom instruction as exciting, as brain involving, as a video game. Yeah, REALLY? I cannot be as impressive and exciting as a VIDEO GAME! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 

I was about to abandon the idea of trying it out, but I was supported by my excellent induction mentor to give it a try. There are many parts to WBT, and I crashed and burned hard when I decided to do it all! As educators, we always reflect on our selves and pick our selves back up again with a different game plan, so that’s what I did. With baby steps. I worked on two strategies, and it is working wonders, especially for my UA scholars. 

The first strategy was, “Mirrors!” 

 While planning out my lessons, I looked for key concepts or even the objectives I would like to see from my scholars by the end of the lesson. I come up with arm motions and voice inflections that captures the concept and attention of my scholars. I definitely practice that in my bathroom many times. When I introduce it to my class, I say “ Mirrors!” while holding my hands in front of me. This is when the class will say “ Mirrors!” with the same motion. From that point, everything I say and do, they will repeat. I break it down in small chunks, so it is memorable and easy to recall. Once I see that the majority of the class can repeat it confidently, I will say “ Mirrors Off!” with my hands down by my side, they will repeat, and that’s their cue to stop repeating. 

Here is a quick clip of myself using "Mirrors!" with my UA scholars while teaching about inferences. 

Being able to come up with motions for concepts can be tricky at the beginning, but boy, make it YOU and make it FUN for the scholars! Trust me when I say that they will feed off of your silliness, and they will REMEMBER and RECALL!  

The second strategy you ask? Stay tuned for my next blog post or come for a spotlight visit! :)
Eileen Wunderlich 

Read Draw Write

When I think of the number one struggle a majority of my students have when it comes to math each year, it would be word problems. The entire process of reading through the problem, figuring out how to solve it, and explaining their thinking afterward is so challenging for first graders. We work on this skill daily over the course of the school year because it is such an important skill. We focus on not only solving word problems, but on explaining our thinking when answering them.  

When I was young, word problems were my nemesis! I understood that the steps below were what was expected of me to solve a word problem, but I had no clue how to get past step 1!

1. Understand the Problem
2. Come up with a Plan for Solving 
3. Carry out the Plan
4. Reflect or Check Your Work

As much as these steps always seemed like a logical idea and did get me thinking through the math problem I was facing, they didn't get the job done.  What do you do when you can't get past step 1?  You stare at and then read the question over and over and still can't figure it out. You recognize the known information, you underline the key terms and circle the numbers, but you can't figure out what to do. Under this problem-solving method, you are expecting students to understand the problem before making any diagrams, drawings, patterns, tables, etc. which can leave many students stumbling to succeed. This is why I love the  "Read, Draw, Write" (RDW) approach!      

What is so great about the Read, Draw, Write approach?

This approach works because students can draw a model of what they are reading to help them understand the problem. In other methods, the drawing usually came after understanding. When faced with story problems, children will often add whatever numbers they see. In the RDW approach, the drawing helps lead to knowledge; it gives students the tools to think about and model the relationships in the problem. Drawing a model helps students see what patterns might arise, which operations are needed, and which models work and don't work. Students must go deeper into the problem by drawing representations and determining which representations are relevant to solve the problem. While students are utilizing the RDW process, they are using the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Some of these would include: model with mathematics, make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, use appropriate tools strategically, and look for and make use of structures.  

Read

Read the problem. Read it over and over again. And then reread it. Answer- What am I trying to solve/answer? Identify-What information is given to me in this problem? Deconstruct- Can I box the question? Can I circle the parts? Can I find a total? Can I find missing parts? Can I underline important information? I always ask students to read the problem and think about what information is given. My goal is to get students to tell me what they believe or wonder before they model. Students can tell me, for example: I see the total and one part, which means we can count on or subtract to find the missing part. This is a great time to practice academic language and use collaboration with your students.   

Draw

Draw a picture that represents the information given. During this step, students ask themselves: Can I draw something from this information? What can I draw? What's the best model to show the information? What conclusions can I make from the drawing? My students know they can use multiple strategies to solve problems. They chose different, yet similar ways to model and label their work. Each student's work shows detailed, specific choices rather than arbitrary combinations of numbers. It also helps me know if they are confused and helps me to find common errors that can direct my instruction. 

Write

Write your conclusions based on your drawings. This can be done as an equation, a number sentence, or a statement--or all three. It's an essential skill to have your students write a statement. It ensures they are answering the exact question being asked. The ability to turn a question into a statement is an important skill. Writing is the time to check your answer for reasonableness. I choose students who used different strategies to share their responses with the class using the document camera.  The class can see multiple strategies and understand why certain students chose certain strategies. 

Do you use the Eureka Math "Read Draw Write" strategy? Has it changed the way your students go about solving word problems?

Positively Teaching,  

Randi Muehlen

What Might GATE Look Like for Our Students? Andrea Thune

What Might Gifted and Talented Education Look Like?

Photo by Noah Näf on Unsplash

While classrooms with gifted students share many best practices and powerful learning environments that should be in every school, there are some characteristics specific to Ontario-Montclair GATE classrooms.

"There's no time in teaching when "just telling" is enough. The key to quality teaching is explaining." ~Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey

As a teacher with gifted students in my classroom, one of my main concerns was providing them with an environment challenging enough to keep all of us focused and engaged in our learning. Through experience, I quickly learned if I was engaged and challenged in our learning, then so were my students. I really had to let go of being the one in the classroom with all the answers. Amazing things happened when I did not have the answers. If we were going to get to the learning we all wanted to occur; then students had to take ownership. I later learned about Stiggins' evidenced-based strategy and the value of Gradual Release. We shared responsibility.

"Our job is to create rooms filled with students' voices. Not be the main voice." ~Pernille Ripp

There are strategies in theory and strategies in practice.

The balance we must maintain as practitioners is between theory and strategy. Merely copying a strategy I saw used in my friends' classroom isn't going to honestly give me the impact I hope to have on the learning in my class, and neither is only reading about it. An excellent place to start is with Dr. Sandra Kaplan's Thinking Prompts. I would encourage you to watch this brief video to understand the theory behind this strategy.  Click here for additional videos.

A second area to focus upon is Universal Themes and Generalizations. To hear about this theory and see the strategy in action, watch this 10-minute video.

Click here for a pdf with Universal Themes and Generalizations.

Want to learn more? We've created a one-page document of strategies to look for in our GATE classrooms. To connect theory to practice, how about joining our team on a Spotlight visit to explore what instruction looks like for our OMSD GATE students?

I would encourage you to connect with other educators and continue learning about best practices for differentiation for our GATE students.

Happy Learning,

Andrea Thune

Forever in the Middle: The Quest for Literature

Wiltsey Middle School functions off a PLC model and, given our IB status and expectations, curriculum choices are made by these teams. We work so hard in preparing units and planning for lessons that will meet all requirements by the state and the IB organization. Because of this, it is difficult to consider changes to established units that we have worked for years to create and perfect. However, sometimes change is necessary.

For the past few years, we have used a narrative unit based around the book The Phantom Tollbooth. The book  is a great piece of literature, rich in meaning and depth. However, it is a difficult text and a challenge to use with all learners. I know: All students can be successful with reading difficult literature. I completely understand that and I am not thinking pessimistically, but this book is written at a 1000 lexile, where many of our students are reading below 700. With my Honors group of students, this book is perfect and we thoroughly enjoy it every year. I can push them to explore the metaphors for life throughout the novel and they enjoy that. The mainstream students, however, feel overwhelmed and frustrated with a text like this that is so difficult.

With this in mind, we have been on a quest for new literature to replace this novel in our mainstream classes. This is what we are looking for in a new piece of literature:

1. Fantasy genre but not dystopian (we use The Giver in February)
2. Rich in narrative techniques (the students will be studying these techniques and their effects on the readers then emulating them in their own writing)
3. Depth of meaning with layers to explore (what's a book without great discussion?)
4. Appealing to many types of students, especially middle school age appropriate
5. Short enough to read during class time within a 6-8 week time period (the students would not be taking the books home)

In the beginning I thought, "There are so many books to choose from. This will be easy!" How wrong I was! Here are some of the books I've explored and what I found.

A Monster Calls

I had heard this book's title multiple times so I took a look. I read through it and it met many of the criteria. It was of the fantasy genre (a talking yew tree monster), was rich in narrative techniques, had depth of meaning, was appealing to many students (a dark mood that would grab my boys' attention especially), and was short enough to read within the time period. I thought I had a winner, but it was so incredibly sad and heavy that I bawled my eyes out in the last chapter, even though I had known what was to come. My five year old daughter was very worried for my well-being as I was reading it. The book weighed so heavily on my heart that I can't ask all my students to process that. Some of these kids aren't prepared for something that heavy, so onto my next choice it was!

Inkheart

I downloaded a sample of this from Kindle and immediately it met criteria 1-4. It was AMAZING! The sample was so long though that I thought I had accidentally purchased the book. I did not. The book is 560 pages long. That is way too long to read during class time. It broke my heart that this one wouldn't work. It was a story that literally brought stories to life and showed main characters who loved books. It will now be a part of my class library and will be one I always recommended anyone who wants a book suggestion because this book touched my heart. It had action, adventure, mystery....and BOOKS!! What more could I ask for? It wouldn't work for what I needed though, so onto more options.

The Wild Robot

This was another one I kept hearing about and yes, it did meet all the criterion BUT it wouldn't hold the interest of all my middle school students. Unfortunately for me, it is more suited towards upper elementary students. It will be a recommendation for some of my students who ask for books because it was a good book with great lessons, but it wasn't THE book.

Now I was feeling overwhelmed and like I was running out of options then I went on a date with my husband to the bookstore (the best place for a date) and found...

Ink

Isn't this the most beautiful book you've ever seen? Your life's choices are made permanent on your skin as a way of freeing your soul. Intriguing, right? I eagerly started reading it and it would definitely hold the interest of my middle schoolers, it was rich in meaning, narrative techniques were present, and the length was perfect. Number one is where it failed though: it is a dystopian piece and we wanted to stay away from that to leave it for The Giver. Since The Giver is my favorite book of all time to teach and Ink was good, but not The-Giver-level-good, I need to find more options.


The quest now continues. I have received recommendations from friends and have The Book of the King, The Secret Zoo, and Circus Mirandus up next to preview. Though frustrating because it has taken much longer than I anticipated, it has been a fun experience and I have read pieces of literature I probably wouldn't have ever tried since fantasy isn't really my "thing."

Stay tuned for part 2, where I will reveal the winning book and please leave any recommendations below that I can add to my list to consider!

Keep the magic alive,

Kandyce Valverde

What's Going On in This Picture?

What's Going On in This Picture? November 2019

 Ever find those million-dollar resources and think to yourself, “Where have you been my whole teaching career”? About a month ago, I was scrolling/doing some research/professional development on social media when I came across this teacher discussing how excited she was for the “New York’s Time’s” newest “What’s Going On in This Picture?” I was intrigued right off the bat, so I clicked on the link to learn more. What I found made me so excited that I put it into practice the very next day in my classroom.

“Look closely at this image, stripped of its caption, and join the moderated conversation about what you and other students see.”

-What’s Going On in This Picture?

“What’s Going On in This Picture?” can be found in The Learning Network section of the “New York Times.” Every Monday, a collaborator from Visual Thinking Strategies posts a fascinating picture without a caption attached. Along with the picture, there are three questions posed to the students: 1) What is going on in this picture? 2)What do you see that makes you say that? 3)What more can you find? Students are asked to think about the questions and then answer them on a digital platform while conserving with students around the country. (note from the site: Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.) On Thursday afternoons, the site reveals more information about the photo and gives students the chance to reflect on how reading the caption and learning its back story helps them to see the image differently.

Comment posted on picture above

The two aspects I most love about this activity is that students work using a digital platform. This way, students from anywhere can communicate and discuss open-ended topics with each other. With this activity, students can learn multiple perspectives in such an authentic way. The first time I used them in class, we had a chalk talk with archived pictures. I posted the three questions from the site on the whiteboard, and each student walked around and commented on as many images as they could in six minutes. Then I choose the one that had the most comments on it, and as a class, we discussed the different perspectives people had in just our classroom. Next, I found the image on the site, and we read over a couple of other students’ thoughts on the same picture. My students noticed that many of the comments were similar to other students around the nation, but that the comments that stood out the most to them were the comments that pointed out things my class hadn’t brought up during our discussion. Finally, I revealed the original caption and information that went along with the picture, and we discussed how different our thinking was from the real story.

Here is how to get the most out of this free, authentic resource: 

1. Create a free account and subscribe, so you don't miss a picture.
2. Read the introductory post and how other teachers are using this resource in their classroom.
3. Look over the archived images and some of the prior discussion threads to see how you can use the different images in your classroom. Maybe a specific picture can kick start a new article/novel your class will begin soon? Or a picture can introduce concept discussed in social studies or science?
4. Pick your favorite image and introduce it to your class!

Let me know how you use this resource in with your students, 

Jenni Merry

Kickoff with Kindness

Kickoff with Kindness

   

Happy 2020 Terrific Teachers! Here we go ready to embark on this journey of a new decade. As you begin to plan for this trip called life, I hope you keep in mind that a kind heart will lead to positive outcomes. 

As Teachers, we come back from the Winter Break rested and excited to tackle the rest of the school year. Then work quickly adds up and there is not enough time in the day to catch up. The stress begins to build, and all of a sudden the rested and happy mind we once had is overloaded, leaving us worried and wondering if we can finish all that needs to get done. STOP right now, look in the mirror and tell yourself, "I am an amazing Teacher and I am doing the best I can!" Take it one day at a time as you continue to teach your students to read with a purpose, work out mathematical problems, and prepare them to be great test takers. 

A kind and strong character will encourage amazing life-long learners.

This modern world we live in focuses on less emotional connection, making anger and distrust greater than love and care for others. Adults can be guilty of this.  Therefore, we can understand the impact it has on our lives. Why don't we make this positive change for our students? We expect kids to collaborate and work towards common goals, but we don't understand why they can be socially awkward and dialogue becomes minimal in the classroom. Let's make a change and begin to teach regular acts of kindness and generosity. Students might begin to feel more confident and encouraged to share their thoughts. Students will be happy and encouraging with one another, demonstrating empathy as everyone learns form each other.  All of this will continue to foster strong relationships in the classroom.

"Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education." ~Martin Luther King Jr.

For this month (and hopefully for many more) dedicate some daily time to teach kindness: 

1. Begin each day/week with positive quotes, having students analyze and discuss how the food for thought can apply to our lives.

2. Be a "Bucket Filler." Read the book "How Full is your Bucket" by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer and let your students know that everyone in the class (including the Teacher) will be a "bucket filler," because as you fill someone else's bucket you will also fill your own. 

3. Assign Random Acts of Kindness (January 27-February 1, 2020 is a week designated for World Kindness Challenge), invite the whole school to participate in a spirit week where homework focuses on being kind to others. 

These are just a few examples of what we can do to kickoff 2020 with kindness and hopefully you will come up with more that you will share with others. Studies show that people can't get enough of feel-good emotions because there are many physical and mental health benefits associated with kindness: happy, caring children, greater sense of belonging, improved self-esteem, improved health, having a heart of gratitude, better concentration/improved results, etc. Maurice Elias, Professor at Rutgers University Psychology Department, states, "...without (kindness), communities, families, schools, and classrooms become places of incivility where lasting learning is unlikely to take place. We need to be prepared to teach kindness, because it can be smothered under the weight of poverty, and can be derailed by victimization later in life...Kindness can be taught and it is a defining aspect of civilized human life..." 

Live, Love, Teach.

Hilda Sanchez

Changing Our Perspective

Last weekend I attended the California Kindergarten Conference in Santa Clara with some of my colleagues.  The keynote speaker was an educational consultant (and current social skills teacher to young students in a public school) by the name of Dan St. Romain. I had never heard of him before, and it's too bad because he put into concise words the behavior crisis many of us in education have been feeling in our classrooms.  I had an Ah-Ha moment...

Raise your hand if you've ever said, "the kids are different these days!"  Guilty as charged. It's a true statement, but many of us shrug it off as if there are limited things we can do to affect positive change or better yet, blame the parents and roll our eyes while still feeling stuck in a rut.  Most of us are stuck in that rut-the rut of the compliance-based discipline approach of yesteryear.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.  

Times have changed.

Most people will discipline their children/students as they were disciplined, and for many that is using a compliance-based system ("do it because I told you to do it"). Mr. St. Romain (you have to say his name in a gentlemanly southern drawl) simply and effectively explained that kids have changed because times have changed. He had us list some our childhood role models, such as the Cleavers, the Waltons, the Bradys, the Cosbys. Then we discussed who our children see in the 24-hour daily news cycle and the over-exposed pop culture media.  These examples made me cringe: the Real Housewives, the Kardashians, Teen Mom, Jersey Shore, Honey Boo Boo.  I cringed because I, too, have fallen into trap of being entertained (although often disgusted) at some of the outrageous behavior for which these reality stars get lots of attention (and money).  The difference is is that I am an adult with my morals and principals grounded.  I can observe this behavior but distance myself from it in my real life. Our children are desensitized to this behavior because it is normalized and often idolized in our society and for them it becomes internalized.

You see, my ah-ha moment wasn't that times have changed. I knew that. My ah-ha moment was seeing how times have changed-all written down: social media, instant gratification, screen time, access to health care, nutrition, participation trophies, numbness to violence, family dynamics, domestic violence, academic expectations,  and packed schedules...just to name a few.  These are the changed concepts we are up against. Compliance-based discipline still works...for the kids who rarely misbehave. But each year, we are graced with more and more of those children who come to us adversely affected by these changes, and they can turn our classroom into chaos.

Mr. St. Romain does not believe understanding the misbehavior is excusing it. But if we Gen X-ers, Boomers, and Millennials can shift our perspective and accept that times are different (not just acknowledge it), we can better develop and implement strategies for long-term behavioral change. If you would like to learn more about this dynamic speaker, check out his website at danstromain.com

Happy Teaching!

Erin Grebel

Building Background knowledge with Kagan

Building background knowledge is something we often skip over or forget about due to pacing and time constraints.  Often we want to just dive right into that days learning.  However, in an effort to both provide engagement on the new topic being learned, while also providing support for your English learners, it really is an important, yet simple step that we should take.

If you're looking for a cooperative learning structure to help you support building background knowledge when introducing a new topic, there are several Kagan structures you can use.  I am going to talk about just a couple of them here.  Like with all Kagan cooperative learning structures, these support learners at all academic levels, while also providing engagement, which research shows is key to student learning and success.

Three Step Interview
This structure is super easy and fun to use during Day 1 of the ELA Wonders curriculum when you introduce the new Essential Question for that week. In our Wonders curriculum, on Day 1 of each week it has us "Introduce the concept."  This is  where you could easily take the essential question/concept and turn it into a question the students can relate to, and then implement this Three-Step Interview process.

 For instance, in Wonders 5th Grade Unit 3 Week 4 the Essential Question is, "What benefits come from people working as a group?"  You might then pose the question to the students, "Tell about a time where you succeeded at something when working together in a group."  You would pose the question, and either give students time to think, or have them quickly write their thoughts down.  Then proceed with the Three-Step interview process.  To summarize, Partner A would ask partner B the question and then visa versa.  They would then pair up with the other A/B pair at their table and go around the table sharing not their own thoughts, but rather their partners thoughts.  A very quick and easy way to get students engaged, talking, and sharing in groups!

Jot Thoughts

Jot Thoughts is another fun Kagan structure than can be implemented in the beginning stages of building background knowledge of a topic or concept. Jot thoughts is a fun and  engaging way to have students brainstorm ideas about a topic.  For instance, in Wonders on Day 1 where you would introduce the topic, you always see the word web with a word (based on the essential question) in the middle.  It asks students to brainstorm words they know about that topic.  So in place of this, I will often use this Jot thoughts structure.  If we take the above mentioned essential question, the word provided in the word web for that week is "teamwork." So I will set a couple of decks of sticky notes on each table group and then ask them write down as many words, phrases, or ideas that come to mind when they think of "teamwork."  They are supposed to announce the word they're writing as they write it to prevent duplicate words.  You can then extend this Jot Thoughts activity into many other things.  For instance, once time is up, I will often times have the students work in their teams to categorize their words and develop names for the categories.  I then might ask them to do a free write about teamwork using as many of the word they can, etc.  It's fun, engaging, and gets students ready to learn more about the new concept that week.  Its also another opportunity to provide students with collaborative talk time, which supports ALL learners at ALL levels.

Additionally, this structure could also be used as a culminating activity at the end of the learning, to summarize what was learned about the topic!

Collaboratively Learning,

Megan Brown

megan.brown@omsd.net

Mystery Door Writing

Have you ever sensed frustration when you ask your students to write a narrative fiction story?  Yes, they understand that their stories will need a beginning, middle, end, AND there should be some characters.  However, once they start, their stories start sounding a bit "flat."  How could you spice up their writing?

When we returned from the winter break, our first staff meeting dealt with ideas to encourage creativity in writing while meeting the Common Core standards.  In these collaborative talks, I walked away with a quick and easy strategy to encourage creativity.  I have to give credit to one of our fabulous long-term subs, Ms. Sawyer, who provided the ideas...thank you Ms. Sawyer!

One of the main takeaways from our staff meeting was the need for students to "rehearse" their stories before they even start writing.  This rehearsal involves language opportunities with peers in order to have interactions of ideas.  As I left our meeting, I began to think how I could structure my next writing lessons with this in mind.

The next day, as a class, we spoke about how a door can tell you a lot about the owners of the door or what could possibly happen inside a house or building with that door.  I showed the class a variety of pictures of different doors. 

If you click on this file you will have access to an array of door pictures:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S_vuno5Gnlg-2jqqsXvtrzMMnDumPjuu/view

I paired students to begin "rehearsing" possible story structures.  I randomly scrolled the file and stopped at a door.  Using Kagan structures, partner A would talk about who might live in the dwelling and what might you see inside if you walked through the doorway.  Partner B could add a few more details about the story.  Scroll through a few more doors using this activity to encourage creativity ORALLY.

I printed the doors on lined paper as you can see in the picture.  If you resize the pictures to about 50%, you should be able to print it the way I did in the picture.  Randomly hand out pages to students.  They partner up again with different students and begin "rehearsing" their narratives with a partner.  I encouraged them to use the backside of their pages as a note-taking space where they can bullet interesting ideas in order not to lose those precious details!  You can have them partner them again with someone else if you wish.

At this point, students have had at least four different rehearsals with a variety of partners even before they start writing.  Depending on what you want to do with this activity, the following days you can tailor it to fit your needs.  You can complete the activity using your normal writing routine!  Have fun!!

Happy Writing!
Gus Macuil

Deconstructing Text Structures: Part I

At the risk of sounding "nerdy," I've been spending an exorbitant amount of time pondering the following statement that I stumbled upon by chance online: Regardless of the genre or the content, authors use one or more of the following five structures as they develop their writing. (Which to the best of my knowledge was borrowed from the work of Stephanie Harvey 1998.) The article went on to list Compare & Contrast, Problem & Solution, Cause & Effect, Description, and Chronology.

It's not that the idea of explicitly teaching text structures is new to me; it's that I've never considered 1) how significant they are to students' deep comprehension of a text and 2) the possibility that a single text could contain one or more of those structures. Therefore, teaching text structures not only impacts the students' understanding of the overall meaning of a text but also its individual parts.

Last year, I decided to put a bigger emphasis on determining text structure, but once that was determined, I moved on. I never considered looking for examples of "mini" text structures within the body of the text. Like a detective with a magnifying glass searching for clues such as keywords and phrases that indicated text structure, my students and I were on the hunt. At the end of our close reading excursion, my students were all tuckered out. Along the way, they collected souvenirs in the form of signal words.

Yes. It's hard work, but the understanding they gained was definitely worth the investment of time and energy! In Part 2, I will venture even deeper down this rabbit hole. I hope you'll join me.

Still Learning,


Lola Jollie

   

Moving Forward

Welcome back to a new calendar year and the second half of the school year.




Most of us come back from the winter break and have new goals (as well as old goals) for the rest of the year.  This month I just want to articulate what my goals are for the rest of the year in an effort to be held accountable to them in some fashion.







At the end of the semester, I gave my students a Google Survey so that students could reflect on their learning journey and to offer me suggestions on how I can improve during the second semester.

Click here for the actual Google Form.

Can you guess my students top three favorite classes of the day and how my students feel about math?

Click here for the results.



While there were a couple questions like these, I focused on the question, "What is something Mr. Stott can improve on next semester?"

I try hard to demonstrate to my students that the focus is on a Growth Mindset in the class - moving forward from where you are today - by willing to try and learn from your mistakes.

This survey allows students to express to me what I did well during the first semester and what I could improve on during the second semester.  My favorite student quote, from Patrick Johnson, "u can be a little edgy sometimes but ur very mannerable" -  I have to love the honesty, the spelling, and verbiage - his quote makes me smile every time.

Here are a couple of my takeaways from the results and where I want to improve for this semester:

1.  Slow down and give more time.  This was a common comment by many students.  I can do this by allowing more time while taking notes - allowing more time to complete problems in class - and allowing more time in class to work on a specific skill.

2.  More individual attention.  I always want to do this and yet I come up with one reason or another as to why this is not happening.  This semester I want to work on this area - by identifying those students who are struggling with a specific skill and give them some individual attention so that they can move forward.


There are two other goals I have for this semester that were not created from this survey but I wish to state them here so that I can be held accountable to them as the semester progresses.

3.  Being aware of the words I use in the classroom.  Words have impact - as we all know.  I recently read a research article on not using the word 'just' in the classroom.  It was interesting to reflect on how that word could have a negative impact on my students - 'just follow these steps' - 'just try your best' - and so on.  While this is only one word, it got me thinking about what other words or phrases I may use in the classroom that do not convey my ultimate goal of having students move forward.

4.  Making better connections with my students.  For me, a student does not need to like math and I do not want them to not try because they do not like math.  I find that a lot of students who do not like math will try better if I treat them with respect and have some type of connection with them.  It is my goal every day to have one conversation throughout the day that is not math or academic related - but rather a conversation that is personal.  (Note:  Five days into the new year and making it so far.)



How will I know if I reached these goals?  These four goals will be incorporated into my final year reflection Google Survey for students to answer.  This will give me the data I need to determine if I moved forward.






As you start this new year and semester, what goals do you have for yourself?  Push yourself to move forward this semester.

Teaching and still loving it,

                                                                                                                            Kevin Stott

De Anza Middle School