Wonder-ful Writing

When we were first introduced to Wonders I was extremely confused about their writing section. Like, there was Writing Everyday and then Genre Writing and I wondered how they expected me to fit it all in. So, I did what I always do: I tweaked, rearranged and made it my own. I finally came up with something that works for me. For now, at least.

 Mondays 

Writing→ I teach Day 1 from the Writing Everyday section. Then we do a 5-minute quick write to the writing prompt implementing the trait we just discussed. I give them another 5 minutes to get with a partner and share their writing. Sometimes, they use highlighters to highlight where they used the trait we are focusing on. I do not use any of the other Writing Everyday lessons during my week. Revising, editing and incorporating the 6-traits are mini lessons that belong with genre writing, in my opinion. 

Grammar→ I teach Day 1 of the grammar lessons. Then we do some sort of activity, NOT A WORKSHEET because those are in their practice packets. And worksheets kill my soul a little bit. Sometimes I assign them a game from Wonders, or we do the activity under the “Talk About It” section in the teacher’s manual. Other times, I use Kagan Cooperative Learning strategies. It all depends on the topic. 

Spelling→ I follow the Day 1 lesson from the spelling section. I give the pretest. They check their own work and highlight the words they personally need to work on at home. Then we cut out our weekly sort. They have to stand up while they cut and most times, I make it into a race. When they finish, they can finally sit down. The winner could win a gum ball or something like that. It makes them cut faster, because some of them take a million years to cut these darn things out and ain’t nobody got time for that. Then they do an open sort. Once we are done, they put those into their word sort pouch, which goes into their purple word-work folder. 

Vocabulary→ By this time on Mondays, we are ready to end the writing block with vocabulary. We use Turn-and-Talk for the Connect to Words activity and then we briefly go over academic vocabulary, if I haven’t already in small group. 

Mondays are really jammed packed, but this gives us lots and lots of time Tuesday-Friday to have genre writing and conferences, which I believe are the MOST important things!! 

Still with me? If you need to take a cookie break or, if you’re my work wife, a bathroom break, go ahead. I’ll wait here. 

Welcome back! On to TUESDAY activities! 

Grammar→ Like I said before, I do not do anymore of the Writing Everyday lessons. Besides, we do that kind of writing with our weekly readers. I start Tuesdays with a review of the grammar concept. Then we do some kind of hands-on activity. While they work with their partner, I pull a few of my strugglers to my table for some small group time. This process takes about 10-15 minutes. 

Spelling→ I do not do spelling on Tuesdays. Sometimes my morning work is spelling practice, or I have them get on Spelling City.

Vocabulary→ Tuesdays are usually Expand Vocabulary days. This is when I like to use Popplet, one of my very favorite apps. We do one or two vocabulary words together and then they do the rest with a partner. I will pull a few kiddos to my table at this time, for some extra scaffolding. We use the last few minutes to come back as a class and share. Hopefully, our vocabulary time doesn’t take more than 15 minutes.

Genre Writing→ At this point, if everything has gone as planned, we are ready for genre writing. We have three weeks to draft, revise, edit and publish a piece of writing before we move on to the next type of writing. I don’t really like this, because every writer creates at their own pace when crafting a piece of writing. But, what do I know? The people who wrote this curriculum are smart, right? So, I’ve learned to live with this timeframe. The first week, we focus the most on characteristics of the genre we are studying. We also brainstorm and draft. The second week, we finish up our drafts and move on to revising and editing. The final week we publish and share. To make this easier to explain, I’ve made a calendar of sorts to map it all out. 

 Wednesdays 

Grammar→ Like yesterday, we will start off with grammar lesson and then do an activity. 

Spelling→ We do the spelling lesson and then kids will pair up and do a speed sort. Early finishers will get on Spelling City. I will pull small groups during this time, as well.    

Vocabulary→ For our vocabulary lesson on Wednesday, I usually start off with Reinforce the Words, as a quick warm up. Then I like to do the Shades of Meaning activity. Sometimes, the curriculum provides an online game that we will play together. Other times, I will split kids into 4 teams. Each group gets a weekly vocabulary word along with synonyms. They each get a card and they have to arrange the words form strongest to weakest. I make these cards myself using index cards. Finally, we discuss our decisions. 

Genre Writing→ To end our writing block, we work on our genre writing. 

Thursdays 

For us, THURSDAYS used to be an early out day. But we are back to full days so more time to fit everything in! Yeah! This day runs pretty similar to Wednesdays. 

Grammar→ We do the grammar mini lesson and then move on to the activity. 

Spelling→ Students get with a partner and do a blind sort. One person is the “ teacher” and the other student is the “student”. They take turns giving each other the spelling words to write in their purple word work folders. They check each other’s work and switch jobs when completed. We spend 10 minutes on this activity, even if people don’t finish. 

Vocabulary→ For vocabulary, we use the app PicCollage to make word squares. This is an activity my kids love and it usually takes about 20 minutes. I always model one and then they make word squares with 1-3 words. 

Genre Writing→ And of course, we finish up with genre writing. Now, if your version of Wonders had something like “Analyze the Student Model” or “How to Write to Two Sources”, I would be doing that instead of genre writing. I might switch back and forth each week between “Analyze the Student Model” and “How to Write to Two Sources”. I don’t know why our version doesn’t have that, but I’ve seen some samples and they look pretty neat! I would most likely cut out a day of revision and a day of editing to really make this work. 

Friday 

Analytical Writing→Friday used to be a happy time, a time where we could reflect more on our learning or play more games. Now, I have to watch them take their weekly tests. I try not to sulk too much, and I try to make test-taking fun. BUT before we do that, we do some analytical writing. At the beginning of the year, I do a lot of modeling and we use a lot of sentence stems. The lessons I am referring to are on the blue pages with the scientific inquiring and text connections. Below you will see some pictures of my anchor chart as well as a link to a sample of the paragraph frame they paste into their writer’s notebook. We do a shared writing and then I send them off with a partner to work with any of the selections we read that week. More analytical writing occurs during guided reading.

Paragraph Frames

 So there it is, a breakdown of my writing block. It’s a tight fit, but we make it work. If you do decide to try this out, remember that one size does not fit all. This may not work for you or your kids and you may have to do some rearranging of your own. My data drives my instruction every day and that is why I do not always stick to this exactly. If you missed my last post, here is my Wonders ELA schedule. It is a great cliff notes version of this post. ☺ As always, leave a comment if you have questions!

My Journey Through Wonders

My Journey Through Wonders

We adopted McGraw-Hill Wonders program two years ago. And….I actually really like it! I feel like I can still do my reader’s workshop model using this program. Sure, there are some things I’m not fond of (I’m talking to you, weekly tests), but, overall, I appreciate the rigor and I really love how my high readers are finally being forced to use those reading strategies. Vertical alignment is on point and the technology pieces are really fun. I love love love the vocabulary parts, mostly because they use the activities from one of my favorite authors, Isabel Beck.  If you haven’t read Bringing Words to Life, stop what you’re doing and pick up that book!  

But of course, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine….

Like, how the heck do you fit everything in?! How do I not worksheet my kids to death? How do I get them to pass these weekly tests without wanting to cry (me, not the kids)? How do I get parents to understand that growth is more important than a letter grade?  How do I get my kids to fall in love with reading and writing?

Well, to every problem, there is a solution. So, I set out on my Wonders journey. It was a lot of trial and error at first, but I am really getting the hang of it now.

Here’s a breakdown of what I do in my classroom. Before I start, just know that I am a very flexible teacher. I do not always stick to this routine. And it will probably change a little next year, because I will have different kids, with different needs. This is a 5-day schedule, and I am hoping we move to a 6 day schedule so we can do more of the activities on those blue pages. But here is what usually happens:

On Mondays, after morning work is done, we practice with the fluency passage for 5 minutes. They each read for 2 minutes and they keep track of their progress and get ONE skittle if they improve. This skittle is like gold to them. At the end of the week, they answer the questions that go along with the fluency passage. During whole group,

I do the introduction, introduce the vocabulary, and then do my shared read. The shared read includes all of the mini lesson questions. One of our trainers told us that several Wonder's veterans did this, and it absolutely changed my life. Then, I introduce leveled readers to the kids. They all do a first read of their weekly readers (leveled books) that way our small group can go a lot faster. Some of my kids listen to the text and some read on their own. It’s what works for them. Trust me, being read to is just as beneficial as silently reading a complex text. I meet with my lowest group first, so I can do some reteaching and address possible misconceptions I think they might have as they read.  The other kiddos are silently reading either their weekly reader or an independent reading book and responding in their Reader’s notebook.

On Tuesday, I have rotations. One group is listening or reading the selection from the Anthology. They stop and jot any questions or vocabulary words they were stuck on during reading. During the third quarter, they take notes in a graphic organizer, which I modeled during the 1^st and 2^nd quarter. (We are 1:1 ipads, so this is easy to do. If you are not, it might be a bit trickier...although, you could have your kids partner read.) Another group is working on their Practice Packet, which includes all those lovely worksheets we never have time for. I print these as booklets to save paper. I leave an answer key so they can check their work as they complete the packet. They can also collaborate with each other if needed. They have all week to work through this. If they don't get it done, it's no big deal. Another group is pre-reading their leveled readers. Another group is silently reading and responding in their reading notebook. The last group is with me. We close read from the leveled readers. I always look at the upcoming tests and try to structure some of my questions like they appear on the test. I also do a lot of modeling during this time.

On Wednesdays, my kids are ready for a close read of the anthology. Keep in mind that they have already read it once during rotations. During the 3^rd quarter I start giving them note-taking pages, but that gets modeled a lot beforehand!  We sit in a discussion circle, and I pick questions that I think are the most beneficial. I do not ask every single question! I used to, and it literally took up my entire reading block! I try not to go over 20 minutes to discuss. My kids love this day because I keep track of how many times each person contributes to the conversation and whoever participated the most gets to wear the discussion crown and be our discussion king or queen. Then, we do our rotations: practice packet, leveled reader (may include analytical writing that I've sent them off to do as I meet with another group), and silent reading.

On Thursday, I pair the students up and they read the paired selection. I have created response sheets to go with each of the paired reads. Again, I try to structure the questions like they appear on the tests. They work through this with partners while I am pulling groups. During our writing time, we do the analytical writing from the blue pages. I have created sentence stems to go along with this to use at the beginning of the year. I will have those to share soon!

And of course, Fridays are our big TESTS days, which usually takes up the entire reading block :(.

Spelling, grammar, writing, and more vocabulary (those green pages) get taught and practiced during the second half of our reading block.  This part of the day includes mini lessons and small activities to practice. We utilized the games that come with the curriculum a lot.

If you would like to take a look at the Paired Reading Pages I’ve created, you can look below!   

Unit 1            Unit 2        Unit 3        Unit 4           Unit 5 

Week 2        Week 1        Week 1          Week 1        Week 1

Week 3        Week 2        Week 2       Week 2        

Week 5        Week 3        Week 3        Week 3        

                  Week 4        Week 4        Week 4        

                   Week 5        Week 5                 

     

The Anthology Note-taking pages I use during Units 1-5 are below! These are still a work-in-progress....

Unit 1            Unit 2        Unit 3        Unit 4           Unit 5 

Week 1          Week 1        Week 1          Week 1        Week 1

                   Week 2        Week 2       Week 2        Week 2

                   Week 3        Week 3        Week 3        Week 3

                  Week 4        Week 4        Week 4        

                   Week 5        Week 5        Week 5          

I thought about posting these on TPT, but I love sharing and I know it sucks to spend your own money! BUT if you would like to donate to my "Help Me, I'm a Poor Teacher!" fund, please feel free to venmo me some coffee money @Danielle-Jones-77 HEHE! 

Hope some of this helps and if you have any questions, please leave me a comment!

Making a Point to Fail

Failure. To some, this word is big and scary. To a lot of children, it means they aren’t good enough. To me, it means I have another challenge to conquer. How could I change my little darlings from thinking failure is a bad thing to a good thing? Simple. Make it a point to fail in front of them. Yes, my friends. I fail in front of my students. I mess up. I fumble. I stumble.

Why would failing be beneficial to model in front of our impressionable kids, you might ask. To show them how to pick themselves back up and try again. I’ve noticed that many of our kiddos don’t know how to go back to the drawing board and reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of their approach, make necessary changes, and then try again. So, like any good teacher, I make sure to model this process for them.

Let me give you an example. Technology. I may have grown up with technology and know how to use it relatively well, but, boy, do I fail a lot when it comes to technology. But, no bother. I show my students how I troubleshoot the problem. An app isn’t working? No problem. Let’s try swiping up. Still not working? Let’s do a hard reset. Still not working? Let’s ask our tech department for some help. Sound bar going haywire? No problem. Let’s try turning it off and back on. Not a fix? Let’s try restarting the machines. As you can see, we keep trying! If one thing doesn’t work, we move on to the next strategy. They see me handle a problem with calmness and they never see me give up or throw in the towel.

The best thing to come out of this is creating my own little technology-troubleshooting team. If anyone, including myself, has a problem, I have my troubleshooters help fix the problem. I would love to have a building-wide group of technology leaders next year. They could go to other grade levels and help out when there is a problem…#ideasarebrewing. Another great thing that has come about is my kids aren’t afraid to TRY! They feel safe in our classroom and they know that nothing bad will happen if they aren’t successful the first time.

I fail in reading. I fail in math. I fail in STEM activities. I model how to self-reflect and ask questions. Questions like, “What worked?” “What didn’t work?” “Have I considered doing more research?” “What have I missed?” “Did I understand the question?”

These kids are living in a world with information at their figure tips. So what’s going to separate them from others when it comes to getting jobs when they get older? Test scores? Nope. Grades? Nopey nope. It’s going to be their problem-solving skills. It’s going to be how they handle tough situations. It’s going to be how they overcome failures.

So, go ahead. Fail. Do it right in front of the students. Because failing is the only way to succeed. 

The Building Blocks for Writing

It’s summertime (woohoo!) and I finally have time to look through the notes I’ve been keeping throughout the year. One thing that I’ve wanted to write about is writing and how I can help my students become the best writers they can be.

I know the answer isn’t grabbing more Lucy Calkins lessons or stalking my favorite educators on Pinterest for great anchor chart ideas. No. I’ve come to the conclusion that helping my students become fantastic writers has nothing to do with the curriculum. You might be thinking, “WHAT?!” but it’s true.

I started by asking myself a few questions hoping it would lead me to a solution to this on going challenge. First I asked myself, “What makes me a good writer?” and then I thought about what makes the students from surrounding schools good writers? The answer, I feel, was quite obvious. I had well-developed oral language skills before I even entered kindergarten. And guess what! So do most of the students from the more proficient schools around us.

So how can I utilize technology to help my students improve their oral language skills? How can I get them to speak in complete sentences that are grammatically correct?

Yes, I know there are many ways to improve oral language skills in the classroom without using technology like having conversations, think alouds, think-pair-share, and think-talk-write, just to name a few.  But how can I incorporate technology so that speaking properly is relevant and meaningful to them?

I have a few ideas that I think might do the trick. Some of these I’ve done and some I’d like to try for the upcoming year.

Tellagami

Tellagami is an app that allows the students to create a quick animated video. They choose an avatar to represent themselves and a background that goes with their topic. This app is so fun and quick. I’ve experimented with it throughout the year, but this year I want to get serious with the projects.

At the beginning of every year I teach my students to write a book review so they can share their reading adventures with the class and hype up books they’ve read. They are a little rough to read in the beginning and I feel if they practiced more orally, their book reviews would improve greatly!  

Tellagami is a fun way to accomplish this! Eventually, I would like to set QR codes to their book reviews so other kids can watch and listen to what the book is all about. I also want to have a rubric the students can use to self-assess.

Vocabulary iMovies

It’s hard to write when you don’t have the words in your vocabulary to explain your thinking. Developing oral vocabulary is so important to writing. My best writers had a very vast vocabulary they easily incorporated in their writing because they use it in their daily language.

Our Apple representative (LOVE HER) gave me the idea of creating iMovies with vocabulary words. It’s quick and easy! It’s such a great way for the kids to use the vocabulary words in context and then listen and watch their videos for reinforcement.  The students pick three words for their imovie and then choose a picture to go with each word. Once they’ve put their pictures into their movie, they do a voice over either explaining the word or using it in a sentence. Their goal is to use complete sentences that make sense.

I always ask them to make one revision after they are done. To do this, they listen to each other’s and give each other feedback. We practice talking “professionally” to each other. There are no “That was really good!” comments. They have to be specific in their compliment and give one suggestions that could improve their work.  Many of them will use sentence starters I provide them the first few times they do this, but eventually talking “professionally” becomes a lovely habit. 

Interviewing experts

This activity I haven’t done, but I want to soooo bad! During our research units, I think it would be so fun and very relevant for my students to come up with questions to ask an expert on their chosen topic. It would be really cool if they could FaceTime or Skype their experts and have real conversations with them. Not only are we working on oral language here, but they are also improving their listening skills!  I’m also hoping to involve community members and parents in this activity. They would be really wonderful experts!

Incorporating oral responses on tests and projects

Let’s be real. Tests need to change because they way our students learn has changed. Why do all test have to be the same? Why can’t they have verbal responses? Well, guess what! They can! At least in my world they can. I have already experimented with this when I’ve sent a Keynote presentation home with verbal responses embedded. I loved it. The kids loved it. It was a win-win.

Not only can I use verbal responses in testing situations, but I am also hoping to use it during our cross curriculum projects. I’ve created a great Numbers worksheet for our students to use during their cross-curricular project this year. I’ve included a place for them to talk about their project and to reflect on their progress (I will be posting more about this cross-curricular activity later, so don’t fret).

This is real life, folks. We don’t go to work and get a multiple-choice test at the end of the quarter to show how much we’ve accomplished and learned. No, my friends, we give presentations, create things and make positive changes in our work place and community. Why does school need to be any different?

To Sum Up

I’m sure more ideas will pop in my head as the year progresses, but these are just a few that I most definitely will use for the upcoming year.

If you were to walk into my classroom, especially during this upcoming year, you might see kids doing more talking and less sitting quietly in their seats writing, writing, writing. But if you take a closer look and listen in on their “talking”, you will hear grand conversations! They will be discussing things that truly matter to them, taking turns speaking and listening, and ultimately improving their vocabulary and oral language skills.  Which, in turn, will improve their writing skills profoundly. #goalreached in my mind 

Reflection Time

WHOA....IT'S BEEN A WHILE....

Wow....what a year! I got hitched, graduated from grad school, and then we finally got our iPads in January. This girl has been busy! Don't worry, though. I haven't forgotten about the blog world. I have been keeping very detailed notes about my thoughts, feelings, and lessons I've learned about my 1:1 classroom. So here it goes...

1. You have to be FLEXIBLE! Sorry to say, but sometimes your network goes down, airplay doesn't work right or your iPad freezes up. That's the reality. I've decided that a teacher can either wash his or her hands of this whole technology thing or they can breath, relax and have a backup plan until things start working correctly. The great thing about my classroom is that I have 19 other brains to help me solve the problem. Most of the time, it's my kiddos that "fix it"! I also have a great grade level team that I can call up and ask for help if need be. Our classroom mantra this year has been, "When in doubt, power down and then turn it back on". Works every time :) 

2. APP OVERLOAD! I love apps....I mean LOVE them. However, there came a time when I would get a million emails saying, "try this new app!". That can be really overwhelming. I felt like I was going home every night looking through all these apps and then thinking...doesn't Pages do this? Or doesn't iMovie do this? After some PD time with a really awesome Apple representative, I've learned to step back from some of those apps and start using what I already have to their full potential! 

3. Create! Speaking of all those really cool apps...I feel like I was just using them for substitution. Now, don't get me wrong, substitution is perfectly wonderful (I've saved a least 100 trees this year), but our main goal is to CREATE with these iPads. I've learned that it's not something I or my kids can do each and every day right now. However, we can do it a lot more than what we've been doing. Currently, my kids are creating iMovies as a way to respond to their book club books. We have also used Keynote as a review tool. And I have dabbled in ibooks Author, which allows me to create multi touch books for my classroom (more to come on ibooks author soon!). 

4. Collaboration: I wish I could say that my classroom is doing amazing things when it comes to collaborating with other classrooms and other communities. Sadly, this is not the case. My goal this summer is to learn more about Google Hangouts, Kidblog, and other collaboration tools. I would also love to get connected with professionals and experts in and around our community. We could talk to them about how they use math and science in their jobs. Math and science lessons would certainly become more relevant and engaging for my students if they had a true expert teaching them!  Or we could even reach out to a children's book author so we could ask them questions about their purpose in writing. HOW GREAT WOULD THAT BE?!?! The possibilities are endless! 

So much has happened since we received our iPads in January and to say that they have completely changed my classroom is an understatement. Next year, there will be more creating, more collaborating, and more engagement. For now, I will continue discovering new things, reading more blogs, and gaining a better understanding about how we can use our iPads in new and innovated ways! 

Communities Have Rules!

Well, hello there!  Thanks for stopping by! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but the beginning of the year leaves me exhausted and with sore feet. Last night, I may have gone to bed at 8:00 p.m. Don’t judge me.

Like many teachers, I start the year off by creating a classroom community that is respectful and responsible. A positive learning environment is SO important! Our first social studies unit just happens to be about communities and citizenship. We talk about why it is important that communities have rules and laws. Enter Digital Citizenship! It was so easy to merge this topic into this unit. We aren't finished learning about digital citizenship yet, but we are off to a great start!   WOOHOOO!

We haven’t officially received our Ipads, but I wanted the kids to  know about the NORMS and EXPECTATIONS! Now, we won’t have to waste any time getting started with our learning experience once we do get our hands on them!

We talked about how we treat our new devices and what it means to be a good digital citizen (more on that to come later!). We also talked about how to handle our Ipads, what the buttons mean, and how to use some of the really neat features. I do have my Ipad in the classroom, so we were able to share it as we were learning. A lot of “ooooohs” and “awwwwwws” happened as I took them on a tour of the Ipad home screen apps.

Here are some anchor charts we created as we learned about the rules and the basics of the Ipad.

The level of engagement was astounding and even though I do not think Ipads are a replacement for  education, I certainly think it will enhance the learning process! I am so lucky to be a part of this experience and I am very eager to see where technology will take us in education! 

Coding for Kids

Coding as a Foreign Language

Coding was introduced to me by a college professor I had during my undergraduate degree program. It was, in no way, a very in-depth study of how to code. He taught us how to input code to move a character left, right, up, and down. I was always amazed with myself when the character actually did what I told it to do. I'm sure the kids would feel the same!

Coding, in general terms, is language for computers. You basically give commands to your computer and it will perform the task. Once you learn the basics, it’s pretty easy to build from there.

Kids pick up foreign languages quickly and learning the language of coding would be no different. There are a ton of great apps out there that I personally like. I could see myself using these with students in the future, once I become more comfortable with coding. My goal is to promote problem solving skills and logical thinking.

I’ve compiled a Top Five list for the apps I play with the most in my own personal life:

Daisy the Dinosaur. It’s super simple and only uses basic functions. So, this app is a must for those 1st/2^{nd    grade students} 

Hopscotch is another good one for beginners. The kids still use the visual drag and drop tool, but they have a few more functions to tinker with.  I find myself playing with this one the most, mostly because I like to make the different animals wiggle and flip…hehe 

Tynker. This one is super similar to Dairy the Dinosaur and Hopscotch. It uses visual code instead of the text code, which makes it easy to use and navigate. It also includes an AWESOME tutorial video for kids....but you have to pay 50 bucks to have them enrolled. 

Scratch. Anther one similar to Tinker and Hopscotch, but I found it would fit 4^th/5^th graders better than the younger elementary kids. That could just be because of my limited knowledge of coding, however.

Codeacademy is more of an in-depth look at coding because it actually uses coding language (JavaScript, CSS, and HTML) instead of the block tool.  This app has a series of lessons the kids can progress through instead of it being a game-like activity. It’s definitely something to used with your advanced kiddos or older students.

We shall see how well I implement this into the classroom in the future. Perhaps, it will just start out as a free-time game and then progress from there. Again, I’m no expert....like at all! I'm pretty much learning with the kids. But, I love a new learning experience and this is definitely one I see myself getting better with over time.