Welcome back to another volume in the story of my life entitled “I’m not sure if this is how you are supposed to do it, but this is how I do it.”
I have taught 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grade. When I taught 5th grade, student writing on the SBAC was an area of growth and when I taught 2nd, I taught at an AVID school where notetaking was a huge focus. This has led me to my current approach which I have found successful. Note taking, summarizing, and synthesizing are all strategies that have been shown to boost student comprehension. My approach integrates all three and has helped students develop comprehension and writing skills.
So let’s get to it!
At the beginning of the week, students set up their notebooks with the Wonders Essential Question in a box at the top. As the week progresses, they add the title of each story and underline it to show it’s the title. They then take notes as we read, usually using the comprehension strategy of the week (cause and effect, problem and solution, etc) to identify key details in the text. At the end of the week, we synthesize the notes into writing as a way to cite text evidence and answer the Essential Question.
By the third trimester, students are comfortable with this protocol and I leverage it for them to write informational research reports.
All still a little vague to you? Take a look at the work samples below for a better idea of what I mean.
So maybe in your next Wonders Week, try this out and see if it's a good ay for YOU to integrate writing into YOUR class :)
As I close, I invite you to join me in these affirmations.
Vocabulary is one of my favorite things to teach. It is also so very important. Vocabulary is an essential aspect of reading comprehension. If students do not know what the words mean, they cannot understand what they are reading. Unfortunately, many of our students struggle with oral language skills. This is due to many reasons, but all in all, most kiddos tend to be lacking in oral language development and vocabulary.
So, what can we do?
As teachers, we need to be intentional about teaching vocabulary. We have to take the time to teach vocabulary to our students. We cannot just rely on discussing words that we may come across in our read-aloud. While it is essential to discuss unknown words while reading, we also need to explicitly teach vocabulary words to our students daily. Primary students learning academic vocabulary show more significant benefits than starting later when they can already recognize and read the words. It gives me the impression that there is urgent importance to learning words orally to then read and understand them later. To teach big words correctly, it’s vital that we teach them in developmentally appropriate ways to build schema.
I've developed a well-balanced system that quickly builds my primary students' oral vocabulary. I'm excited to share all of this with you in this post so that hopefully, you can use ideas that work best for you and your classroom.
Introducing the word
When I teach vocabulary, I often have the kids engage by providing several different versions of a word.
1. Dictionary definition 2. Comparison (it is like____, but different because______. 3. Real-life examples 4. Graphic version (drawings, pictures, representations) 5. Acting it out
Students need “kid-friendly” definitions of vocabulary words. Did you ever have to look up words in a dictionary and write the definition? I know I remember doing that (not in 1st grade, of course). While I know that learning dictionary skills are fundamental, this is not an effective way of teaching new vocabulary to primary students. An example, if I look up the definition of the word physical, it says, “relating to the body as opposed to the mind.” For a first-grader, this definition would only lead to looking up the words relating and opposed. Students need us to provide them with definitions that they are going to understand.
My students sit on the rug next to their Kagan shoulder partner.
1. The word is presented on the Smartboard (Wonders Vocabulary words) with visuals and student-friendly definitions.
2. Students repeat me as I read the definition and example. A relatable gesture that I make up that makes sense to kinesthetic learners is added most of the time.
3. A question for students to answer using the word in context- An example, I would ask my students some questions for the word "distinguish": What's one way to distinguish your left hand from your right hand? I give them think time and then have them A/B partners talk about their ideas. As I bring them back- students volunteer their thoughts. I'll then give them my answer/example: I show them to make an L-shape with their pointer fingers and thumbs. The left hand always makes an L, while the right hand makes a backward L. How can we distinguish whether someone is happy? Sad? (facial expressions are essential for the image) What distinguishes Mama Bear's chair from Papa Bear's chair? (one is soft and one is hard) How do you distinguish between yourself and a friend? (personalities, physical characteristics, etc.) Students are given think time for each question and partnered to discuss their responses and then share with the whole class.
4. Students must have texts read to them to discuss and play with the words. I love to use the Interactive Read-Aloud Cards that are included in Wonders. All of the vocabulary words are included with examples in the text and relatable real-life examples and questions. These stories are fun and easy to understand. Also, they align with your Essential Question and Genre for the week.
Please see video below of me teaching a vocabulary word.
The vocabulary words I am teaching are for oral comprehension. I want students to listen for the words in context that support where they are developmentally. I also want students to understand the new vocabulary and use it while communicating in class and at home. Nothing makes me happier than when a parent expresses how much their child's vocabulary has grown by the end of first grade. To make this happen, students need multiple exposures to learn new words. It can take a student numerous exposures to learn a new word depending on their previous vocabulary knowledge. We cannot mention a word once and expect students to understand and use the word. It is not enough that kids learn the meaning of the word, but they have to learn to use the vocabulary while speaking. Our daily instruction should create opportunities for kids to use words in all of these ways. For instance, the quick vocabulary conversation described earlier can be done with kids working together to come up with those multiple examples using definitions. This kind of cooperation requires that kids talk with each other about the words. An activity I use is to assign a different word to each group to discuss, illustrate or act out and then have them come together as a whole class to teach each other the word and what they discussed. This emphasizes collaboration while speaking and listening and is a great way to review more than one word at a time. I also reward kids for using the studied vocabulary words while they are speaking.
Don't Forget to Review. It can be challenging to retain vocabulary if you are not given opportunities to use it. We may teach vocabulary because certain words will be included in the texts we were reading that week, but then students might not see them again for a long time. There are many ways to continuously review vocabulary, such as having one day a week when you only work with words that have been taught in the past or making a visible list of vocabulary words and using them as necessary.
Teach Vocabulary All Day Long To help develop word mindfulness with our students it is important to stop and identify unknown words from all subjects. When students become comfortable expressing their lack of knowledge of particular words, they will be more likely to resolve those gaps when reading and comprehending. Students become motivated and confident if they know they can stop me at anytime and ask what a word means. One of our class mottos is to “Always ask Questions!” In with that being said- What questions do you have? Feel free to email me with any questions !
I hope you found this helpful and gets you thinking about how to include academic vocabulary into your everyday teaching.
Many of us who teach the McGraw Hill Wonders curriculum have probably all been in the same boat throughout this online learning journey. How do I keep the students accountable for their own learning? How do I know they are actually thinking about the questions I ask? How do I get them to disuss and share with a partner? These are all the things we do in the classroom to keep the kids engaged and accountable for their learning. The struggle became very difficult when we went to online learning. When you pose a question and ask the kids to type their answer into the chat, it often becomes the same 10 kids right? Even if you're using equity sticks or a random selector tool for names, it's difficult when they have not been able to discuss the ideas with their peers first. Putting kids on the spot like that isn't the best teaching method, but at the same time we want to make sure we are reaching all kids. So what is the solution?
There are just a few things I have done with Wonders to try to bring back in that collaboration piece and student accountability. It's nothing magical that I do, but it has helped to get the kids talking and working more efficiently. They know I am going to call on them randomly after I have given them time to discuss in beakout rooms with peers, so most of them are engaged and working as they know my expectations.
Wonders Platform
The Your Turn Book pages, CRC pages, and digital stories are all available on the Wonders digital platform. You can assign the YourTurn Book Page digitally. Then what I do, is I will share my screen and show them how to type on them and save/submit. For instance, on Day 1 of Wonders instruction for the week, after I teach the vocab lesson, I will assign the vocab practice page. I will then put the kids in breakout rooms with a partner to work together in creating their vocab sentences, while I'm popping in and out to assist and prod them along. When we come back whole group then I use the Kagan random selector tool to have the kids share out what they wrote for each vocab sentence. This is a much better way to go becaause I'm supporting my lower kiddos, EL kiddos, sped kids etc as they have now had the time to work together and talk together, with a partner to create their sentences.
Another option is to retype, or cut and paste, the Your Turn Book questions into a google doc and then assign it on google classroom. I do this often with the reading comprehensions passage questions. This way you can keep track of the assignment in google classroom. In the video here, you can see the kids working to discuss and answer the comp passage questions in the Your Turn Book. Here I assigned the page digitally.
Its also nice to assign the story you're reading so that struggling readers can play the story when they need to reread it to answer questions.
Anthology Discussion questions
Throughout the Teacher's Manual where you have the discussion questions throughout the story, this is where it becomes a struggle. In the classroom, you'd stop, pose the question, have students discuss in table groups then randomly call on students to anwer (also incorporating various kagan strategies for discussion during this time). So in the virtual setting, I type the question into the chat and read it aloud several times. I tell them they all must respond their thoughts into the chat-they can send to everyone or to me privately. This way they're not put on the spot answering outloud without having time to talk to a partner, but it also keeps them accountable for participating. Once we are finished reading the story. I then type up those questions from the TM into a google doc and put the students in breakout rooms with a partner to again discuss and answer the questions. Then once back together whole group I would use the random selector to have them share out, because they've now had the opportunity to think and discuss and type with a partner. Then they can turn in the assignment for credit. Doing this really helps me see which students are with me and paying attention.
Nearpod
I also use the collaborate board in Nearpod to facilitate discussion of the "Making Connections" questions that you see generally at the mid and end of the stories in Wonders. The Making Connections questions at the end of the paired text ties in all 3 stories from the week and brings focus to the essential question. Doing this one on Nearpod can help prepare them for doing a RACES writing on the essential question. It can serve as a prewrite/brainstorm type of discussion.
I hope this gives you a few ideas of how you can incorporate the Wonders workbooks and discussion questions into your virtual lessons, while ensuring that all students are participating and accountable.
I am sure you have heard about Nearpod and seen it on the district website of online learning resources, alongside many others. I know that there are sooo many resources our district has graciously purchased or shared with us to support us in our online learning. So I am going to spend some time just talking about ONE aspect of Nearpod here today.
First off, what is Nearpod? Nearpod helps educators make any lesson interactive whether in the classroom or virtual. The concept is simple. A teacher can create interactive presentations that can contain Quiz's, Polls, Videos, Collaborate Boards, and more.
In this blog, I am only going to be talking about how to use the Nearpod Collaborate Board as a collaborative learning tool. I think the biggest part of online learning that's killng me (and the kids) is that they're missing the student interaction and collaborative learning structures that we use so routinely in the classroom. If you've been through Kagan training and implemented those collaborative learning structures in you classroom before, you know the power behind them and how positively they effect student learning, growth, and confidence.
"Collaborate! is a Nearpod feature that allows you to set up an interactive board for brainstorming, sharing text and images. You add the boards, students simply add their ideas. You can moderate these boards from your Teacher Dashboard, reordering them and sharing them." CLICK HERE to learn more about his feature.
Ways I use the Nearpod Collaborate Board in my 5th Grade Classroom:
1) ELA Wonders Curriculum: I use this feature in many ways throughout the Wonders curriculum. I use it with the Day 1 introduce the concept question that is in the Reading Writing Workshop book. I also use it at the end of the week with the essential question to help them brainstorm ideas before they start their RACES writing. I also use it with the Making Connections questions that are throughout the student stories in their text books (you can see this below).
2) Community Circle Discussion Questions:I also setup Nearpod with our community circle question. We start our day with a community circle question each morning, and most days we do it on Nearpod. I read their posts aloud as they post them. I then ask if anyone wants to share their thoughts outloud. This way, every child is held accountable to responding, but for those super shy introverrted kiddos they're not forced to share out loud if they feel uncomfortable
3)Eureka Math Student Debrief: Often times I pick one of the student debrief questions and have them do it on the Nearpod collaborative board as you can see here. This is from the 5th Grade Eureka Math Module 1 Lesson 14 student debrief. It's really amazing to see all the connections they're making in math. If I didn't provide them this opportunity to share with each other, they'd be missing out on this really powerful component of a Eureka Math lesson.
So if you've been searching for a way to bring that collaboration piece back into your virtual online classroom, I hope this helps!!
Involving your students in a Socratic Seminar is one of the best ways to encourage a higher level of thinking and a deeper understanding of important texts and topics. Socratic Seminars also teach kids to establish how to discuss and build ideas off of one another. "This type of student-led discussion (based on Socrates’ method of student inquiry rather than teacher lecture) elicits student ownership, deep thinking, critical questioning,academic vocabulary usage, and a rooted sense of community. Although the teacher is seemingly offstage, a meaningful and effective Socratic seminar only occurs through intentional planning." -Edutopia
Teaching your students to conduct a Socratic Seminar is one of the most powerful teaching tools you can implement as a teacher!
"Socratic Seminar focuses on deep discussion around a central text, so it is important that complex, rich texts are chosen that invite multiple interpretations and negotiation to arrive at meaning." -AVID
For this Socratic Seminar the students are focusing on “positive change” and “taking action.” This was based on the 5th grade ELA Wonders Curriculum Unit 4, Week, 3 Essential Question “What can people do to bring about a positive change?” This was a big topic and we spent several weeks even after this one reading articles in addition to the Wonders curriculum texts that connected to this theme/idea. Texts/topics we covered included: Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Abbigail Addams, as well as some current event articles such as the Athletes taking a kneel, a boy with cancer who started a foundation, a girl in Florida who created an invention to help those in need, etc. It’s extremely heart-melting to hear the passion in the kids’ voices as they share and develop their own opinions about the world. Throughout the length of this unit you could see their little light bulbs going off as they read stories about people in our history who have made positive changes by standing up for what’s right, and also about the power that even children can have in making a positive change, such as raising money, building awareness, and developing inventions to help those in need. It was a really powerful topic and one that was time well spent! We do A LOT of collaborative discussions in here, and we've done TONS of small circle Socratic Seminars so they have had practice with this type of discussion, but this was our first whole group Inside/Outside Circle Socratic Seminar this year and they did an AWESOME JOB!!
Effectively conducting a Socratic Seminar unit will enhance your students’ learning across all areas. It will strengthen their reading comprehension skills, writing skills, higher level thinking skills, and their ability to communicate and develop ideas with their peers.
Here’s how to get started!:
1) You first want to introduce the topic, or question that students will be focusing on (I often times use the weekly Essential Question in our ELA Wonders curriculum as our discussion point).
2) You want to make sure you provide students with a variety of complex texts and resources to thoroughly gather information on the topic. If using the weekly Essential Question in Wonders, you already have 3 different texts built in. I then often times further enhance their knowledge on the topic by finding a couple of current event news articles that align with the topic in their reading curriculum. I use the Newsela.com site (This site is AMAZING if you don’t know about it, go there IMMEDIATELY! You can create a teacher/class account for free). This site creates current news articles for children. You can choose them by grade level, content, topic, and also Lexile level. It’s a great resource!
The students need to read closely and interact with each text/resource provided. I generally have the students annotate the texts as we read/discuss them. I walk them through note-taking (either 2 or 3 column notes) on each text as we read, annotate, and discuss. This process ensures they are reading, understanding the text, and have notes with important details laid out in an organized manner.
3) After all sources have been read and discussed, the students need to prepare for the discussion. To do this I have students write Costa's Leveled Questions (Level 1, 2, and 3) for one or two texts of their choosing (I did not have them write questions for ALL texts/sources we have read as we read about 7 sources for this particular unit). These questions are meant to guide their discussion and facilitate a deeper level of thinking.
4) Last, you decide which method(setup) of Socratic Seminar you would like you use: One Large Circle, Inside/Outside Circle (or Fishbowl), Simultaneous Seminars (multiple small circles), or Triad Circle (“pilots” and “co-pilots). For the lesson you see above in my video, I chose to do the Inside/Outside "Fishbowl" Circle. The inside circle are the speakers- these students will engage in the discussion for the first round. In the outer circle the students are observing, listening, and writing down notes. Once done, the outside circle students give their feedback to the inside circle student they were focusing on, and then they switch places- the inner circle becomes the outer circle and visa versa. In order for a Socratic Seminar to flow successfully, it's important to assign a student “facilitator” who can help guide the discussion/group if they get off track. You can see this in my video above where this student guides the group by posing a new question, and calling out students who may not be participating.
5)After the seminar is over, the students then complete a constructed response writing prompt (which is generally the initial question posed as we started the unit and the Socratic seminar). I always have the focus question/writing prompt posted on the board so they can see it throughout their discussion- helps keep them on track. In doing all this, by the time the Socratic Seminar is finished, they have not only their own ideas, but now new ideas generated from their peers through the power of discussion, in addition to their notes and text evidence. For the this lesson, the constructed response prompt was developed into the format of a 5 paragraph essay via Google Docs- following the RACES format/process (just in essay form rather than a single paragraph).
As the year has gone by and I have had wonderful
visitors come into my room to observe Universal Access, a question that keeps
coming up is, “How do your students access their appropriate leveled reader
online?” This post is to show just how to do it!
Not enough leveled readers in your library? Well, why not assign it digitally and then ALL of your students can have access.
We all know how important, critical, and crucial reading is at all grade levels and ages. It is also vital that students are reading texts that are most appropriate to help build their skills. Wonders Online provides four different leveled readers for students to access. The Lexile range is based on, “Approaching Grade Level, On Grade Level, Beyond Grade Level, and English Language Learner.” You can find exact Lexile levels for each book on the back or by clicking “details” next to the book online in your “Resource Library.” It is these levels that some teachers may not realize you can specifically assign to your students so that they can individually get what they need. Click this link (directions) to follow the steps on how.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” --Dr. Seuss
What can you do with leveled readers in the classroom?
Once you have assigned the leveled reader to your students, they can then hear a complete audio version of it (great for intervention). Students can type in and answer all the comprehension questions directly into the book, and the great thing is, you can see their answers on your end under the “Binder” drop-down. Click here to see directions on how to do that. I use my leveled readers during my Universal Access time the most. Allowing my students to access these online has been a game changer! You can also use them as supplemental text during your week, literature circles, text for students to take home and read, or just extra text for your fast readers. The possibilities are endless. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, please let me know below! Happy reading!
