This year I have been determined to incorporate ASL into my classroom daily. The first step I took to do this was to use Power Teaching and instead of gestures, I use ASL. I have only done this for my reading instruction so far. I took the second step yesterday. I found a great video of a teacher teaching students how to sign The Pledge of Allegiance. So we are learning that now. The end goal there is to record ourselves for the morning news. WE are studying the words and talking about what they mean. Because ASL is a conceptual language, not a literal one, the kids must understand the meaning of a word within the context of the sentence. They have started to notice this because we will use the same sign for different words. Overall, the kids love learning another language.
But I want this to go deeper. I have to conduct an inquiry during the school year. I have it narrowed down to two right now. The first has to do with giving students choice to construct knowledge. It's very similar to my inquiry from last year and to that of another teacher. The second deals with how student's use of vocabulary broadens in the oral language and writing areas when they are using ASL. I'm still working on the wording of this but it fascinates me, it's relavant to my current practice, and although I'm sure there have been studies on this, I have never studied it first hand.
My mini lessons have been going really well. Even with sign and the turn/teach moments, which take longer than a turn and talk, I have gotten most of my mini lessons down to 10-13 minutes. They were 20 at the very beginning. I have done 11 so far and I have recorded 3 of them. I really should be recording more. I have send my videos to several teachers. They are impressed but I haven't received any critique-type feedback which is what I'm really looking for. It's very difficult to critique yourselve. The only thing I've really noticed so far is that there are 1-3 students that need to sit closer to me so I can keep them focused.
My next step is to start really conferring with them during indepdent reading to research whether or not they are using the lessons. I have noticed them using some more than others. I beleive that after next week, when I do our project celebration week, I will a demonstration of their thinking. Cross your fingers people!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Classroom Pictures
Here are the pictures of my Classroom from the day I got in this year to the day of Meet the Teacher night. Despite some clutter here and there it, has remainded pretty organized. I will take new photos this week. I moved the word wall from the south wall to the west wall. My west wall (along the back of the classroom) is plaster so I'm able to staple into it...a lot cheaper to buy staples than tons of sticky tack that may not keep my words up anyway.
My bulletin boards are still pretty bare. I'm hoping to get some student word up this week and add my science essential questions and vocab. My kids seem to be enjoying the Mystery Theme. I will launch science workshop this week since we've gotten our first technology unit wrapped up. I am going to do a new technology unit every couple of months to work on a skill they will need to have during the upcoming unit. This is time consuming but important.
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h186/mrshparker/2010-2011%20Classroom/
My bulletin boards are still pretty bare. I'm hoping to get some student word up this week and add my science essential questions and vocab. My kids seem to be enjoying the Mystery Theme. I will launch science workshop this week since we've gotten our first technology unit wrapped up. I am going to do a new technology unit every couple of months to work on a skill they will need to have during the upcoming unit. This is time consuming but important.
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h186/mrshparker/2010-2011%20Classroom/
Friday, September 17, 2010
Readers build the world of the story...
by making movies that tell about the character and setting. This was a great learning point. The signs were simple and made sense with the worlds so the kids were a lot more animated. I realized after a few of these reading lessons using PT that I was skipping over the active engagement "try it" section. After having them sign and teach each other the teaching point, I modeled how I make mental movies. Then I read a section of our read aloud and had them tell their partner their mental movie.
There are two ways to that readers build the world of the story. The first is to pay attention to descriptive words and the second is to imagine the moment in your where mind, thinking "where the characters are and what they are doing". This was my teaching point yesterday. Today, I will be conferring with readers to see if they are using this strategy and I to make sure they are in a just right book. I noticed as I looked out over my readers yesterday while I was doing running records, that some of them have switched to books 3 or 4 levels higher.
In fact, today's learning point is going to be about making sure we are in a just right book. I usually teach this the second or third day of the Reader's Workshop but I thought that by fifth grade, most of them would know how to do that work...apparently not.
Time to head to school! I'm coming down with a cold my little darlings have bestowed on me so this will be a long day.
There are two ways to that readers build the world of the story. The first is to pay attention to descriptive words and the second is to imagine the moment in your where mind, thinking "where the characters are and what they are doing". This was my teaching point yesterday. Today, I will be conferring with readers to see if they are using this strategy and I to make sure they are in a just right book. I noticed as I looked out over my readers yesterday while I was doing running records, that some of them have switched to books 3 or 4 levels higher.
In fact, today's learning point is going to be about making sure we are in a just right book. I usually teach this the second or third day of the Reader's Workshop but I thought that by fifth grade, most of them would know how to do that work...apparently not.
Time to head to school! I'm coming down with a cold my little darlings have bestowed on me so this will be a long day.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Social Butterfly
Today felt like a really social day for some reason. I started my school day with a Technology Committee meeting. Seems like it'll be a pretty simple committee to be on and it's a subject that I care about. There aren't a whole lot of responsibilities other than being a Tech Rep to other teachers to free up our Technology staff member who wears more hats that I ever hope to own (she is also the gifted teacher).
Today was the first day of the hallway Open Court. Building 5 is comprised of just four classrooms. Not many of our kids earned Cupid Tickets so we didn't have that many kids standing in the middle doing the Cupid Shuffle. Of course, I felt compelled to join the meager few that get this reward. Cupid tickets are given out by teachers (5 per week) to students who demonstrate our schools committment to character traits: responsibility, safety, self-motivation, respect, and honesty. I am going to make a bigger effort this next week to hand out mine to intermediate students.
My lessons went fairly well. Since Wednesday is early release day, I only have time to teach reading. I was surprised, and slightly pleased, that so many of my students were upset that we weren't going to hold Headquarter Meetings (HQMs) on Wednesday due to our time constrictions. My reading lesson was all about getting ready to talk with a partner by picking out important parts and explaining why they were important. I used the Power Teaching technique to deliver the learning point. Then I modeled the sticky note work, then had the kids try it out. It went pretty well and I heard a lot of kids thinking deep about the spot they picked.
The best part of the day though with the kids, was Independent Reading. They read for 40 minutes sustained silent reading! It's so impressive that they are able to do this in the fourth week of school. I was able to do some more running records...only a couple more left in each class. I know have a pretty good idea where all 44 of my kids are as readers. I'm going to spend this weekend really planning out my small groups and setting up a schedule to follow.
We had Walk to Achievement meetings afterschool to get our small groups set up for our 30 minutes of intervention. I am planning the groups, the skills, and materials, but the implementation has to happen in my teaching partner's room because those 30 minutes is coming out of math. I have to say, while there is a lot of grumbling about the fact that we are losing math instruction time...the people in charge of planning it out and implementing have been extremely available and clear about how it will look and work. It makes it easier to feel like it will be successful for the kids.
I spent a long time after school talking with my old teammates. I miss working with them on a daily bases but I get to work with them in various other ways; newspaper staff, technology committee, vertical PLC, etc. I get such wonderfully honest feedback from these guys. It keeps me motivated and working hard to hear their opinions of lessons I'm trying out or behavior plan issues. They help and support have been crucial to creating the teacher I am. I am excited to see what my career holds. There are so many creative and motivated teachers at my school. It is comforting and exciting to be in a community of like-minded educators.
Today was the first day of the hallway Open Court. Building 5 is comprised of just four classrooms. Not many of our kids earned Cupid Tickets so we didn't have that many kids standing in the middle doing the Cupid Shuffle. Of course, I felt compelled to join the meager few that get this reward. Cupid tickets are given out by teachers (5 per week) to students who demonstrate our schools committment to character traits: responsibility, safety, self-motivation, respect, and honesty. I am going to make a bigger effort this next week to hand out mine to intermediate students.
My lessons went fairly well. Since Wednesday is early release day, I only have time to teach reading. I was surprised, and slightly pleased, that so many of my students were upset that we weren't going to hold Headquarter Meetings (HQMs) on Wednesday due to our time constrictions. My reading lesson was all about getting ready to talk with a partner by picking out important parts and explaining why they were important. I used the Power Teaching technique to deliver the learning point. Then I modeled the sticky note work, then had the kids try it out. It went pretty well and I heard a lot of kids thinking deep about the spot they picked.
The best part of the day though with the kids, was Independent Reading. They read for 40 minutes sustained silent reading! It's so impressive that they are able to do this in the fourth week of school. I was able to do some more running records...only a couple more left in each class. I know have a pretty good idea where all 44 of my kids are as readers. I'm going to spend this weekend really planning out my small groups and setting up a schedule to follow.
We had Walk to Achievement meetings afterschool to get our small groups set up for our 30 minutes of intervention. I am planning the groups, the skills, and materials, but the implementation has to happen in my teaching partner's room because those 30 minutes is coming out of math. I have to say, while there is a lot of grumbling about the fact that we are losing math instruction time...the people in charge of planning it out and implementing have been extremely available and clear about how it will look and work. It makes it easier to feel like it will be successful for the kids.
I spent a long time after school talking with my old teammates. I miss working with them on a daily bases but I get to work with them in various other ways; newspaper staff, technology committee, vertical PLC, etc. I get such wonderfully honest feedback from these guys. It keeps me motivated and working hard to hear their opinions of lessons I'm trying out or behavior plan issues. They help and support have been crucial to creating the teacher I am. I am excited to see what my career holds. There are so many creative and motivated teachers at my school. It is comforting and exciting to be in a community of like-minded educators.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Power Teaching Narrative Elements
I had decided over the summer to try out a new-to-me teaching technique called Power Teaching. It is also known as Whole Brain Instruction (http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/). With this method, the teacher teaches content in short 30 second increments using gestures while the students whisper and gesture, then the students turn to each other and teach what the teacher just taught. Instead of using gestures, I pull out key terms and look up signs using ASL Browser.
Over the course of the past three weeks I have only used the First Steps. This include two attention signals 'class...yes' and 'hands and eyes'. In order to get the kids to buy into this and motivate them we play a Me vs. Them game. As long as they have more tallies than I do by the end of the period, they earn 2minutes of free time for Friday. They can earn up to 10 minutes for the entire week. They chose the reward. Reward options must be fair and reasonable for the kids and for me. They originally wanted 30 minutes of freetime...I asked them to tell me why that's not fair or reasonable. They told me it wasn't reasonable because that's too much time away from academic work. So we all discussed until we agreed on 10 minutes total. Better than nothing they said!
Today was the only the third time I used Power Teaching in a reading MiniLesson. The learnig point was: "Readers identify the narrative elements of a story". I had our reading coach come in to video tape the lesson. I haven't had a chance to review but her words of encouragement and support were enough to make this very tired teacher feel like a million bucks. The kids were highly engaged. It's still new to them so I have some that are struggling with this new way of work. They are so used to sitting and getting their lessons. This is much more interactive. However, those strugglers did much better by the end. Even my two most off task students were doing it!
I asked my students to write one comment about the new teaching method using these prompts..."I like Power Teaching because...", "I dislike Power Teaching because...", and "I think Power Teaching would be better if...because...". Most of the kids like it because they are getting to learn sign language. A few dug deeper and said they feel more focused during the lesson. Some were very honest and said it was too confusing and they couldn't remember the signs. Priceless feedback.
I will try and post the video later when I figure out how to do it. It's kinda long...about 20 minutes.
Over the course of the past three weeks I have only used the First Steps. This include two attention signals 'class...yes' and 'hands and eyes'. In order to get the kids to buy into this and motivate them we play a Me vs. Them game. As long as they have more tallies than I do by the end of the period, they earn 2minutes of free time for Friday. They can earn up to 10 minutes for the entire week. They chose the reward. Reward options must be fair and reasonable for the kids and for me. They originally wanted 30 minutes of freetime...I asked them to tell me why that's not fair or reasonable. They told me it wasn't reasonable because that's too much time away from academic work. So we all discussed until we agreed on 10 minutes total. Better than nothing they said!
Today was the only the third time I used Power Teaching in a reading MiniLesson. The learnig point was: "Readers identify the narrative elements of a story". I had our reading coach come in to video tape the lesson. I haven't had a chance to review but her words of encouragement and support were enough to make this very tired teacher feel like a million bucks. The kids were highly engaged. It's still new to them so I have some that are struggling with this new way of work. They are so used to sitting and getting their lessons. This is much more interactive. However, those strugglers did much better by the end. Even my two most off task students were doing it!
I asked my students to write one comment about the new teaching method using these prompts..."I like Power Teaching because...", "I dislike Power Teaching because...", and "I think Power Teaching would be better if...because...". Most of the kids like it because they are getting to learn sign language. A few dug deeper and said they feel more focused during the lesson. Some were very honest and said it was too confusing and they couldn't remember the signs. Priceless feedback.
I will try and post the video later when I figure out how to do it. It's kinda long...about 20 minutes.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Overextended
I'm starting to think I'm a workaholic. I love my job. It's easy to get caught up in everything about it. The kids, the lessons, the collaboration, the politics, the community. It's very hard to say no to new programs and committees. Here is my current menu of responsibilities (most of which are self inflicted):
I keep reviewing this list and asking myself why I can't give any of it up. The Newspaper and Science Club are both school improvement projects that I can document and put into my portfolio for UF. My involvement with the Lastinger Committee has the same benefit, as does the Recycling Program...you see the issue right? Then there is the voice in my heart that whispers to me when I am feel like quiting it all..."You do this because the kids love it. Becuase it is what is right to do for the students, the families, and your school." and I sigh at myself, with a small measure of guilt, for even considering that I should back out of one of these activities.
- Classroom teacher
- Newspaper Advisor/Editor
- Science Club Advisor
- Technology Committee
- Lastinger Leadership Committee
- Coursework for UF Masters
- Recycling Program
I keep reviewing this list and asking myself why I can't give any of it up. The Newspaper and Science Club are both school improvement projects that I can document and put into my portfolio for UF. My involvement with the Lastinger Committee has the same benefit, as does the Recycling Program...you see the issue right? Then there is the voice in my heart that whispers to me when I am feel like quiting it all..."You do this because the kids love it. Becuase it is what is right to do for the students, the families, and your school." and I sigh at myself, with a small measure of guilt, for even considering that I should back out of one of these activities.
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