I'm using Everyday Math as my curriculum in this new district, but I'm also using what I'm learning from this book...

Its helping me to push myself and my students to not just talk more in math, but to talk with purpose and really listen to one another.... some photos of our recent "action"

Fluency practice with ipads

Today my second graders and I spent some time practicing reading fluency. I spent quite a bit of time in my mini lesson helping them understand that even teachers have different opinions about fluency and how it should be assessed and practiced. From there we talked about what our classroom definition would be and why it was important. I shared with them a fluency checklist/rubric that is kid friendly and illustrated. I don't have an electronic copy, but you might be able to see some of it if you zoom in to the photos below. 

Then, during Reader's Workshop I met with them in groups of 8 ( I have a 1:3 ratio for ipads in my classroom) and we talked more. In  these small groups I trained them on how to use the camera app to record a video of themselves reading a page from one of their just right books. Then I sent them off, with an ipad, fluency checklist and their book. 

 Just after they recorded, they were instructed to listen to the recording once for each area of fluency and evaluate themselves. They listened to the recording 5 times total. Once they knew what they needed to improve on, they were to re-read the same page and re-record it. Both short videos were sent to me.

 They truly enjoyed the work and had deeper insights than I expected. The immediate feedback and adjustments were anchored in self reflection which brought such value to the learning. I look forward to doing this every other week with them.

Standards-based portfolios = life saver!

As a result of my commitment to standards-based instruction and formative assessment, I went ahead and decided to use google docs to organize evidence of my students mastery of the standards. I started by making a folder for each of them, as pictured below....

In each of their folders I made a folder for each content area, just for my own sanity and organization for when I'm retrieving the documents and images later...

While my students are working throughout the day, after I've graded important papers or as I'm listening to them read, I use the google docs app on my ipad to quickly snap pictures and upload to the individual folders by selecting the "use camera" option from the upload drop-down menu. It might seem a little clunky but I'm getting really fast at it :)

Then within the folders I have evidence of learning within that content area, as pictured below....

Which I later link to another document organized by learning target, like this...

The reason I have this secondary document is because I can more easily see who has mastered the standard and who has not...easier differentiation and grouping when I'm planning intervention and extension. 

As a side note, I want to mention that some of the "I can" statements were provided for me and some of them I designed on my own because my district hasn't gotten to that content area in their learning target development. Everything is work in progress but these folders are setting me up for more success than I could have imagined :)

Pre-assessment in math

One of the things I never felt I did a good job of in  the past was gathering pre-assessment data from my students, particularly in the beginning of the year. I was determined to change that this time around. So here are  few of the things I did....

Number collection pages, sometimes known as number collections boxes. Basically I just asked them to represent the number I wrote on the middle of their page (each child got a different number) We talked briefly about different ways (coins, pictures, equations, etc) and then I sent them off, encouraging creativity. It was a great peek into their number sense and flexible thinking. I saw full calendars drawn with numbers circles, ten sticks, clocks, coins, hands, squares, tallies, number words, and lots of others. 

 The other thing we did was math tool exploration stations. I watched and took notes as they worked , giving very little feedback, just asking questions to find out more about their thinking. They explored with ways to sort and connect dominoes, pattern block creations, counting cubes and flash cards and lastly shape stencils. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised at their work and creations, and felt as though I got some great insights about what they were capable of in terms of number sense, subitizing, addition, subtractions and shape identification. 

Starting out with expectations

So we made it! The first four days are done and I am so pleasantly surprised at how well it went! Transitioning back to the classroom from my year of coaching was a physical challenge and my mindset is still slowly shifting, especially concerning parent relations :) but I'm getting used to balancing it all again. That being said, my students are wonderful, truly a joy. Notice I didn't say perfect, because they are not, but they have already brought so much joy me and they seem to truly be enjoying themselves... in fact, one cried getting on the bus to GO HOME at the end of the day today, she didn't want to leave our classroom :)          

Anyway, I wanted to share a bit of our work so far, mostly on starting routines. I've always enjoyed the process of creating classroom expectations and this year was no different. We started by writing down individual ideas on post-its. Everyone did at least two post-its, but some students made more. 

                                                                                    

We grouped the post-its by similarities, mostly with the students noticing the commonalities. After that we created synthesis statements together. They really only needed my help in the first one, then lots of turn and talk and a few versions later.....we ended up with these :) Good job Second Graders!

Summer Learning Academy

As a way of getting my feet wet back in the classroom, and warming up to teach 2nd grade this fall...I am spending 5 weeks teaching summer school. It's so interesting to me to hear the reactions of non-teacher adults to summer school. They wonder if the kids view it as punishment or if they want to be there...they wonder if its different from regular school instruction and if it makes a difference. Good questions, logical questions mostly. This year, I have the privilege of working with a group of 23 second graders who actually seem to like coming, and are pretty realistic about what they want to work on. The half day schedule works for me and them...and certainly makes us work harder all morning long.
In the past when I've taught, I always felt scattered and overwhelmed with where to start and how to plan, so I took it upon myself to simplify what I would cover as a result of the pre-assessment. We are 3 weeks in and still in schedule so it seems to be working :)

Monday, July 14th	Tuesday, July 15th	Wednesday, July 16th	Thursday, July 17th
*I can ask and answer questions to demonstrate I understand key details in an informational text *I can use strategies to generate addition and subtraction facts	*I can ask and answer questions to demonstrate I understand key details in an informational text *I can use strategies to generate addition and subtraction facts * I can use mental strategies to add and subtract two-digit numbers	*I can ask and answer questions to demonstrate I understand key details in an informational text * I can use mental strategies to add and subtract two-digit numbers * I can solve real-world and mathematical addition and subtraction problems with 2 digit numbers	*I can ask and answer questions to demonstrate I understand key details in an informational text * I can solve real-world and mathematical addition and subtraction problems with 2 digit numbers
Monday, July 21st	Tuesday, July 22nd	Wednesday, July 23rd	Thursday, July 24th
* I can describe the connection between events, ideas, concepts, or steps in an informational text * I can solve real-world and mathematical addition and subtraction problems with 2 digit numbers * I can use addition and subtraction to create and gather information from tables, bar graphs and tally charts	* I can describe the connection between events, ideas, concepts, or steps in an informational text * I can use addition and subtraction to create and gather information from tables, bar graphs and tally charts	* I can describe the connection between events, ideas, concepts, or steps in an informational text * I can use addition and subtraction to create and gather information from tables, bar graphs and tally charts	* I can describe the connection between events, ideas, concepts, or steps in an informational text * I can use addition and subtraction to create and gather information from tables, bar graphs and tally charts
Monday, July 28th	Tuesday, July 29th	Wednesday, July 30th	Thursday, July 31st
* I can retell stories I have read * I can identify the overall structure of a story * I can find the value of a group of coins. *I can tell time to the hour, half hour and quarter-hour.	* I can retell stories I have read * I can identify the central message, lesson or moral of a story * I can find the value of a group of coins. *I can tell time to the hour, half hour and quarter-hour.	* I can retell stories I have read * I can identify the central message, lesson or moral of a story * I can find the value of a group of coins. *I can tell time to the hour, half hour and quarter-hour.	* I can identify the central message, lesson or moral of a story * I can find the value of a group of coins. *I can tell time to the hour, half hour and quarter-hour.
Monday, August 4th	Tuesday, August 5th	Wednesday, August 6th	Thursday, August 7th
* I can identify differences in points of view of characters * I can use a ruler to measure lengths to the nearest centimeter or inch.	* I can identify differences in points of view of characters * I can describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. * I can use a ruler to measure lengths to the nearest centimeter or inch.	* I can describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. * I can ask and answer questions to demonstrate I understand key details in literature. * I can use a ruler to measure lengths to the nearest centimeter or inch.	* I can ask and answer questions to demonstrate I understand key details in literature. * I can use a ruler to measure lengths to the nearest centimeter or inch.

 The learning targets in blue are for literacy and the red are for math. It was so interesting to see how well their needs panned out for the 5 week plan. I post the learning targets weekly and it provides an anchor for the students and myself. You'd be amazed to hear how often they are asking the main idea question from week one "What is this text mostly about?" Its pretty cute :)

If I teach summer school again I will definitely use this method of planning and posting the learning targets we are working on. By the end of our program I believe the kids will have accomplished some very realistic goals and I will be able to measure their progress very specifically.

Here's to summer school! To those that attend and those that teach... Its a very different little world in here, isn't it? :)

My Summer Reading List

               

and then a few for fun..

because I've already started it and she makes me laugh!

...because I can't believe I never have!

Classroom Library Organization Begins....

So, I'm going back to the classroom next year. I'll be teaching 2nd grade for the first time and I'll be on a new team in a new school. Lots of new, I'm really excited! I like change. One of the first things that popped into my mind when I began imagining things I wanted to do differently than I used to was my classroom library. I left a good chunk of my beloved library behind (because it had been purchased with school money) but I own a great deal of books too. As a first grade teacher, I had most of the books organized by Guided Reading level, and then some genre tubs. I don't have pictures, but it was kind of like this.

Anyway, as I have grown in my understanding and read a lot about such things, and I have changed my opinion on how this should be done. There a several factors I want to take into consideration when organizing the library and setting expectations for classroom book selection;

• Instructional reading level as defined by the F&P Benchmark Assessment= 90-95%
• Independent reading level as defined by the F&P Benchmark Assessment= 96% or higher
• Timothy Shanhaan's thoughts on the subject
• Common Core Text Complexity Bands (page 8 of Appendix A)
• My own experiences with students and how they should and do select texts for themselves

In the end, this is where I have landed...

If you check this post, you will see some of the work I did to start wrapping my brain around pulling the guided reading levels and CCSS text complexity bands together. After that work was done I decided that I wanted to reflect those bands in my library organization without over emphasizing the high, medium or "lowness" of them...does that make sense? I basically didn't want to just number them 1, 2, 3. So I settled on colors, specifically colored masking tape, for organization. 

There is my copy of the chart, which I just added the tape colors to. This isn't very profound, I know. Basically its separated by grade level ,but its not cut and dry (especially if you look closely at F&P guided reading levels.) The picture doesn't show this well but the first color is yellow and the 3rd one is lime green! I chose the tape for a few reasons, its bright, I can easily get more, and it allows me to cover the previous circle stickers with letters on them, by wrapping it around the corners like so:

These are new books ( rom the Scholastic Warehouse Sale!) so they didn't have the circle stickers in the top right corner, but the other 200 books I have in storage do :( Once again, I am trying to get away from kids or myself saying "Your'e reading level D books." With this new color coding system I will be able to direct my kiddos to a color  they should be reading within (based on assessment data) but then also work with them to build their capacity to independently choose "just right books."  In other words, I'm trying to honor and understand these words from CCSS Appendix A:

So once I figure out storage of the "ranges" of texts ( I'm thinking maybe these......because then I can put them on the floor around the edge of the room or on top of other shelving?) students will be choosing books for their book boxes from the color they have been assigned, but  growing in their understanding that even within the red bins, some books are going to be hard, some are going to be easy, and some will be just right. 

I'll post pictures once I get in there and get things set up. I'm excited about this new way of thinking and the possibilities for my new 2nd grade readers!

Reading level correlation chart

In my studies of the Common Core ELA appendix C and other supplementary resources I came to a spot where I wanted look closely at the F&P reading levels, lexile ranges suggested by the Common Core, and even DRA scores. I needed to better understand if/how they were connected. And this was the result...

I created this chart to bring some clarity to what text complexity expectations look like alongside one another :)

Content Area Centers...with an elementary twist!

While at Teachers College back in February, I learned about content area centers for middle schoolers and fell in love with the idea. For those of you who have been teaching primary grades, centers are not new for you. But when my learning happened the examples I was provided all had to do with middle school and to be honest, the task cards were a bit overwhelming, so I starting thinking through how I would tweak them for elementary, and here is the resulting post :) 

 What if instead of cracking open social studies textbooks or jumping into science experiments from our FOSS or EIE kits, we had a day or two set aside for centers? K-8 teachers, I want to challenge you to think about some of these compelling reasons to engage in this type of teaching for the purpose of increasing your student's learning. 

Centers are: An opportunity for students to engage with content in a variety of the ways, many "access points", Requires deep thinking about content, rather than "sit and get, Students learn from conversation with one another, defending opinions, justifying thinking  with text evidence, Allows for differentiation in task, support, and thinking, Great chance to generate and answer "big questions", Lends to  thoughtful CCSS connections, Builds independence and ownership of learning, Here are some ideas for centers that could become part of your instruction regardless of the center;

Here is the link to the Teachers Pay Teachers product

Of course students need to know what your expectations are for the centers, and that does take time. Once students know what the expectations are for the photograph center however it doesn't matter if the photos are of the civil rights movement, science content, or even a math diagram, they know what to do. 

Comparing and Contrasting 2 texts (standard 9) in preparation for Social Studies Centers

Whole Class Instruction to Support Comparing and Contrasting Sources of Information Related to Immigration (3-5) from TC Reading and Writing Project on Vimeo.

Informational Text Writing in connection with Science Content

Ever since spending some time with the wonderful educators at TCRWP in NY this February, I find myself visiting their site often and viewing their common Core videos often. What you will find in their teaching videos is the epitome of standards based teaching. I happen to be in a season of studying closely how reading, writing and content areas can and should complement one another. Here is an example of how you might introduce Informational Writing in the context of a Forces & Motion Science Unit:

 

Second Grade Information Writing (Forces and Motion) from

  TC Reading and Writing Project on Vimeo.

There are a few things that stick out to me when watching this video, aside from the "magic ball" toss for sharing, I like how she is so explicit in her example and that the students really know what and how to be talking with partners when that sharing time comes. One of the things the folks at TCRWP really understand is that writing is a very high level activity, it requires synthesis, planning, organization, etc. Often times we jump too quickly into just writing. In order for students to feel the least bit prepared they need to be taught thinking and organizing strategies and they need chances to talk. 

For those of you who are Thinking Maps teachers, I immediately envisioned a brace map with parts of the book or even a tree map for the chapters. 

As the planning continued, students might benefit from seeing you use one of those maps as an organization tool. 

One other thing I would add is that in this lesson and as the students begin their writing, I would have a word bank of forces & motion vocabulary visible for reference. If we truly want our students to understand and use their new knowledge in this type of writing, we need to remind them of the proper vocabulary. It may also help to reference a text features chart so that when she adds the "mopping" heading it can be referenced. Take a look at a couple other primary writing videos in the Reading and Writing Project Vimeo site: http://vimeo.com/tcrwp/videos