Geometry? I got that!

Wow, another week has gone by already.  Eek!

I really enjoyed the activity we did today folding the paper over and over into various shapes before building a paper box.  1) My husband was impressed with the pretty purple paper box I presented him (say that 5 times fast!), and 2) I realized that I know a lot more geometry then I give myself credit for.  Going through and explaining how I knew a shape was a shape was a powerful experience. I feel that we're moving so fast these days that it's easy to say, "Well, it's a square because that's what it is."  It was refreshing to slow down a bit and actually think about the properties of what made it a square.  I also appreciated the piece about immersing yourself in the content you are teaching - the more knowledgeable you are, the more you are able to help your students.

Questions - What format are we using for our lesson plan?  Is there a specific format?  Are we borrowing from several formats? I am confused.

I'd like to take forward my experience of talking through my knowledge.  My ability to talk through my thinking and validate how I knew a square was a square demonstrated my understanding of the properties of a square.  When I allow my students to explain their thinking, I can assess their understanding, and they can reinforcement or clarify their understanding.

I also plan to spend more time learning about the curriculum I am teaching.  I was reminded of a conversation I recently had with my MT.  We've been working through a unit on nonfiction with our first graders.  Other educators believe that the work they've been doing is a bit much for first graders to handle.  I will admit to being one of those people before seeing this unit taught.  I have been continually impressed by both my MT and our students.  One of the key components of nonfiction text is the ability to give our students background knowledge.  Reading nonfiction text helps them as they continue to grow in their personal and academic lives (particularly in social studies and science).  Without background knowledge, much of the learning can be empty.  As teachers, we need background knowledge.

Today, in math class....

As a proud Longhorn, I have heard UT's slogan "What Starts Here Changes the World" many, many times.  Today, I learned that it will be a few more years.  First year teachers don't change the world.  They just try to survive so that one day, they can.

I am still skeptical about group work.  I recognize its benefits, but as someone who grew up loathing group work, I have my reservations.  I was always the person that ended up doing everything because I couldn't trust other people to pull through.  Granted, some of that was my fault for being willing to pull up the slack, but even now, I would probably choose to do an individual assignment over a group assignment if given the choice.

Implications...I need to be brave and try on some group work.  I work with small groups in my placement, but it is not necessarily group work (the students are not working together to solve a task).  Gotta push myself out of that comfort zone and see what can happen.

Literacy Project 1

Analysis

This analysis is based off of two short writing samples provided by E (shortened to protect student identity).  The first sample is half a page of a final draft he wrote about his feelings towards various academic subjects.  The second sample is the first two pages of a rough draft about a mysterious adventure.  I believe that this piece was written in response to a classroom prompt.  The spelling analysis is taken from both the written samples and from the student's spelling inventory.

Ownership and Meaning

When I sat down with E to share his writing, the first piece he shared was his final draft.  It is more of an essay than a story - it details his feelings towards the various academic subjects in school.  Still, he was much more excited to talk about some of the fantasy stories he has written.  He happily shared his piece about a talking fish, as well as the piece I have about the adventure he takes to discover long-lost pirate treasure.  He repeatedly stated that his favorite type of story to write is a "make-believe, fantasy story."  I wonder if he first offered the essay because it was a completed piece, and he believed that it was what I would want to see.

E shared that his mom often tells him that he should be a writer when he grows up.  However, in his essay, he describes his relationship with writing as a "battle."  He feels that he "always take[s] forever just to come up with one idea!"  He also shared that he becomes discouraged when his grades in writing do not reflect the effort that he put into it.

Six Traits

Ideas

E's ideas in his final draft draw upon his own feelings and experiences in school.  He explains that he thinks "math is really important even when you have a job," and goes on to explain the difficulties in his relationship with writing.  In his rough draft, he sets the stage by discussing the circumstances in which he found a message in a bottle.  He then jumps to his "long trip to Mt. Gold and Silver."  As I only have the first two pages of this draft, I assume that the rest of the draft details his trip to find the treasure.

Organization

For the most part, organization in the two writing samples is strong.  E breaks up his stories nicely with clear paragraphing.  There is an attempt made at transitioning; however, this is typically done simply through use of the word "Then, ...".  At one point in his rough draft, there seems to be a large gap in his story.  He details the message he found in a bottle - it essentially gives him coded directions to buried treasure.  He writes that "it made no sense to me."  However, he immediately jumps to, "Then, I found myself packing for the trip."  There is a missed connection between these two statements; additional work here would benefit his story by making it clearer to his reader.

Voice 

Voice varies between the two pieces.  In his essay, his voice is very personal and clear.  He explains that he always tries his best at math, while writing can be a struggle for him.  He shares his discouragement at his writing grades.  In his rough draft, the voice is more mechanical and choppy.  At times he states, "This is what happened next when I found a strange message in a bottle."  From these statements, I infer that he views this piece of writing as one that must be completed step-by-step.  I wonder also if he had a requirement sheet (physical or mental) that he saw himself moving down as he wrote this piece.

Word Choice

E successfully uses colorful language in both of his pieces.  In his final draft, he uses words like "discourage, juicy, and gripe."  Words like "mysterious, unfortunately, and parchment" are found in his rough draft.  Overall, E infuses strong words into his writing to make it more interesting to his reader.  Additional experience and work could help him to add even more juicy words to his writing.

Sentence Fluency

E's sentence fluency is solid, though not necessarily strong.  Some of his sentences are choppy and have a bit of a staccato feel to them.  Additionally, his writing would benefit from stronger use of transitions.

Conventions

E successfully used conventions in his final draft.  I do not know if the piece originally looked as polished as the copy I have because I did not have access to his rough draft.  In the rough draft piece that I do have, there is some errors with punctuation.  He seems to be "using but confusing" where to place commas.  Additionally, he tends to capitalize words that do not need capitalizing - "Pirate."

Spelling

I believe that E's spelling is advanced for his age.  He missed the final four words on the inventory (forutanate, civlize, confindant, and oppossion).  Still, his approximations were close.  He needs work on syllable junctures, consonant doubling, inflected endings, and prefixes and suffixes (Bear et al, 2004).  Additionally, E remained at the independent level on the Examiner spelling lists up through the sixth grade words.  He reached the instructional level for the upper middle school and high school level words.  E misspelled a couple of words in his writing, though they were more challenging words.  He spelled "unfourtlulay" and "mysteryous."  Again, these misspellings represent that he is in the syllable stage of spelling development (Templeton & Morris, 1999).  Though misspelled, I appreciate his effort at including these words in his writing as they enhance his story.

E made an interesting statement during administration of the spelling inventory.  After being given the word "cellar" and hearing it used in a sentence, he said, "I usually just start spelling a word as soon as I hear it.  I started to spell 'seller,' but after I listened to the sentence I knew it was 'cellar.'"  He demonstrated his knowledge that spelling represents both sound and meaning (Templeton & Morris, 1999). 

Lesson Plan

Objectives

Student will be able to "chunk" words into syllables for use as both a reading and a spelling strategy.

Standards

GLE 1.1 Use word recognition skills and strategies to read and comprehend text.

GLE 3.3.2 Spells words appropriate for grade level accurately.

Materials

List of multisyllabic words
Small whiteboard
Dry erase marker
Sock eraser

Instruction


Teacher will show student list of multisyllabic words and explain what it is.  Teacher will explain that student will be writing words on his whiteboard (one at a time), and then he will chunk them into individual syllables.  The act of writing the word on the whiteboard will serve as reinforcement of correct spelling of word.  If necessary, a discussion about syllables will be included.  Teacher explains that this process of breaking words down helps both in figuring out new words when reading, as well as listening for sounds and word parts when spelling longer words.


Teacher models activity by writing the first word on the whiteboard.  Teacher then breaks the word into chunks with marker (ex: steth-o-scope).  Teacher models reading the word by reading each chunk and then blending the word together.


Teacher assists student as he tries on this process with the second word.


Teacher releases student to independent practice with the rest of the words.  Teacher continues to monitor that student is correctly breaking words into syllables and blending word back together.


The lesson is closed with a discussion on how the student can employ this strategy both when reading new words in a text, as well as accurately spelling multisyllabic words for use in his writing.

Assessment


Teacher will assess student's ability to decode multisyllabic words in text by monitoring him as he completes the exercise on the whiteboard.  Teacher will continue to assess student's ability throughout the year as he reads, as well as through administration of running records and other reading assessments.


Teacher will also assess student's ability to accurately spell multisyllabic words by looking for their correct spelling in his writing and on spelling tests.

***Idea for follow-up lesson***


Teacher would verbally give multisyllabic words to student for him to write down on his whiteboard using the chunking strategy to decode the word.

Tech for Kids

The first two weeks back in my placement have been fun.  It was a jump to go from 8th graders to 1st graders, but I am trying to just celebrate the kids and their discovery.  During this time, I've been thinking a lot about the students that would most benefit from additional technology in the classroom.

Student A is severely visually impaired.  I discovered some Braille apps that I think would be beneficial for A.  Because A can see with the aid of glasses, I feel that A would benefit from using Bumps-A Braille Guide.  This application shows the Braille letters on flashcards.  All 26 letters are displayed on the screen.  You can single tap a letter to see only that letter.  Additionally, the user has the power to turn on or turn off the English letter corresponding to the Braille letter (this is just an example of one of many Braille applications).  I believe this program would support some of the work this student is doing with other professionals in the building.

Student B is a Spanish-speaking ELL student.  I believe this student would benefit from utilization of the Voice Memo app.  My master teacher or I could record ourselves reading books aloud and modeling our thinking.  This student would have extra practice listening to us and looking at the words.  B would hear us reading with expression - something he could use to help build his fluency.  Additionally, B might enjoy being recorded reading as well to hear himself reading.

Student C is a student that needs reinforcement in reading and math.  I found many first grade math applications - C would benefit from additional work around place value.  Also, there are many apps related to sight words, which could help bolster C's reading fluency.

Before any of these three students had access to technology, they would need some training on how to appropriately treat and use it.  I also feel that a frank discussion would need to be had with the class to let them know (without any specifics) why certain students get to use the Touches.  I also feel these students would need to have an adult presence nearby to help them as they explore the apps and continue their learning.

(I am still feeling unsure about use of technology with first graders.  I've seen the wonderful tech work of the students in Canada; however, I feel that so much of our learning is done together as a class.  I think it would be difficult to have these students working separately without having an adult right next to them - something that most schools cannot provide.)

Concrete Examples

I learned about the importance of giving students concrete math examples.  It was interesting to think about the fact that math is taught from abstract to concrete, instead of the other way around.  Almost all other subjects are approached in this manner.  What a powerful point.  I plan to do more reflecting on introducing concreteness into my math lessons.

I am still wondering about the comment, "Subtraction is just addition in the opposite direction."  I understand the concept, but I think it might be difficult for kids to grasp.  They may realize they just go the other way on a number line, but I would probably argue that they aren't truly understanding what subtraction is.  I am also wondering about the process for bringing multiple strategies into a classroom. How do you determine which strategies to use?  How many do you introduce?  Which ones?  Why?

I feel that our work with manipulatives today translates directly into use of manipulatives in the classroom.  As I previously mentioned, I'm doing a lot of thinking around integrating concrete examples in my math lessons.  Knowing which manipulatives to use and how to use them to give children concrete experiences is key for an educator.  Guess I'd better start brushing up!

Border Tasks & Sneaky Snakes

First day back and straight into puzzling out complicated math problems.

I re-learned how wonderful it feels to finally make sense of a problem.  I understood the pattern with Sneaky Snakes, but struggled to create a rule.  When I finally saw the 1x3, 2x4, 3x5, etc. grids in the snake, there was an excitement as I saw a pattern that I could use to move forward with creating my rule.  I'm 24 years old, have two Bachelor degrees, have taken advanced calculus, and still got very excited over seeing a pattern!

I am still a bit apprehensive about the whole calling on people with cards idea.  I think it is imperative to mix us up because we do tend to gravitate to our same tables (I personally have a designated space & chair).  However, I feel a sick sense of dread as I wait for a card to be picked.  I am completely capable of sharing my thinking, and often do voluntarily, but the card thing is hard for me right now.  I did appreciate that people called up were willing to share their thinking and did not feel the need to necessarily "have the right answer."

I am reminded of the need to share the moments of accomplishment with my students more.  As they "see a pattern" and feel that sense of "Wow, I did it!," I need to take a second to revel in that with them.  They are making sense of their world and enriching the learning environment in our classroom.  These feelings help drive motivation and are an integral piece to the learning process.