behavior

I'm questioning...

• how stern should I be?
• what do the students need?
• how much ownership can a give a child without losing their respect?
• where should the roles stand?
• is it easier when you start in the beginning of the year and have your own room?
• when do you just "tell" to avoid arguing? is there a better way?
• how do I avoid becoming...remaining a behaviorist
  

in-class thoughts

First, I should have been writing down my ideas earlier, I'll just jot some notes down so I can be sure to remember some ideas for next year:

Math

• Make word wall for math that is added to each unit. Kids have math journals that they write in regularly using the words and the daily objective with notes from class. This should be used for formative assessment.
  
• Find a time for math boxes if using EDM
  

Lit

• interactive journals will be used the whole year.
• We need to have casual reading conferences to make sense out of reading logs or forced reading hw.

Community

• Point system works well now, but the losing teams need to have meaningful consequences.
• We need to work on building teams up before they are expected to just work together.
  

Literacy: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

Sheep in a Jeep is a great book to teach rhyming!

Graphophonics: the way readers translate letters to sounds

Goal of Reading: getting meaning from text. This requires the manipulation of complex processes

Interactive model of reading: Process goes from page > head > ... > page > head

National Reading Panel's 5 big focuses

1. phonemic awareness
2. phonics
3. fluency
4. vocabulary
5. comprehension

A Poem for Fun: When Tillie Ate The Chili
by Jack Prelutsky

When Tillie ate the chili,
She erupted from her seat,
She gulped a quart of water,
And fled screaming down the street,
She coughed, she wheezed, she sputtered,
She ran totally amok,
She set a new world record
As she raced around the block.

Tillie's mouth was full of fire,
Tillie's eyes were red with tears,
She was smoking from her nostrils,
She was steaming from her ears,
She cooled off an hour later,
Showing perfect self-control
As she said, "What tasty chili,
I should like another bowl."

Phonemic Awareness

• understanding how spoken language can be broken down into individual sounds (without seeing the letters)
  
• phoneme: the smallest meaningful unit of sound in spoken language, /h/ means h sounds
• serves as an umbrella concept for different sounds awareness

Phonics

• the oral and visual combination of sound and letter

PA and Phonics helps readers

• see the connection between what is said and read
• maniplate sound and letters
• understand how words work in reading and spelling
• *** They are the starter motors of reading comprehension

song: The sounds in the words are /c/ /a/ /t/, /c/ /a/ /t/, /c/ /a/ /t/, and the word is cat. (wheels on the bus)

Common types of Phonemic Awareness:

• isolating: hear and isolate initial, medial, or final parts of words, hear /b/ at end of cab.
• segmenting: pronounce each phoneme in order, /b/ /a/ /t/ comes from bat.
• blending: combine phonemes to make a word, /b/ /a/ /t/ makes bat
• manipulating: add/delete/replace souns to make new word, add a /t/ to 'an' makes ant

ELL students

• each lang has own phonemic structure
• learn the differences (both the student and teacher needs to learn them)
• differentiate instruction

Activity: Elkonin Box

• Insert: /sh/ /ee/ /p/
  
• good activity for learning sounds and chunks of sounds.
• can use either coins, markers, or actual letter cards/magnets/noodles

Tip: always use real words when teaching, but accept fake ones from kids if they understand the concepts.

literacy: The Writing Cycle

1. Prewriting (collecting/planning): generating ideas
   
2. drafting: 'getting it down'
   
3. revising: 'making it work'
   
4. editing: 'getting it right'
   
5. publishing: taking it public

Collecting Strategies:

• Create Lists: rules to live by, that's not fair, times that I needed courage, the best day ever, if I had three wishes, if I could talk to ... etc.
• Use list to make another list with see, hear, smell, taste, feel from one topic
• Borrowings and jumpoffs: everyone will start from one idea, can use a book, quote, song, art, etc.
• Punctum: take a foudn line and use a found picture, then write a scene. Use magazine cut outs and poems.
• Mindmapping
• Keep a 'thinks I love' heart handout where kids write out topics that they love. Kids can then go back to the topics if they have nothing to write about.
• Buddy journals: students choose a fake role, one person writes about something wanted, then the other writes why they can't have it (in character)
  

Literacy: Spelling

* Students need awareness of spelling based on experiences and explicit teaching
* ideas

• give individualized spelling tests
• use post-it notes to gather what words students need
• make spelling mini lessons bases on students needs (from above)

Notes from Reading Essentials (Regie Routman)

• Matters so the reader can make sense of the written message
• Set up the environment for teaching spelling, see pg 162
• Invented spelling leads to students understanding the spelling system versus becoming rote spellers
• Have high expectations, see spelling strategies chart, pg 163
• Use a word-wall effectively (make it yourself, make it flexible, hold students accountable), see 165-168

Literacy: Writer's Worshop

Why should we use Writer's workshop?

• Our lives are worth writing about (consider, what in your life is worth writing about, model your own material)
• Writing is a craft that can be taught
• Drama or trouble is the writer's friend (and is fun to write about)

3 things writers need

1. time
2. choice
3. response (from readers)

Structure:

1. mini lesson: let writers inside the teacher's head (5-10 min.)
2. independent writing: build stamina first! (20-30 min.)
3. conference during independent writing
4. sharing: can also share parts of pieces (5-10 min.)

Other tips:

• Build an environment where students feel safe to take risks bc this is where the best writing comes out
• Writers learn from each other
• Teach the writers, don't fix the piece of writing (Lucy Cox)
• Instead of "do this" say "look for this"
• call students writers
• kids need scaffolded support / framework
• publish often so kids know it's important
• to sustain momentum, use writing partners and remember that not everything needs to be published

Links:
An amazing link by Katherine, full of resources
writersworkshophelp.blogspot.com

lesson learned

Consider your students:

1. Give clear expectations of how to act and what you want students to do.
2. Be sure students understand content. Answer questions as directly and honestly as you can.
3. Take advantage of teaching opportunities. Depth, not breadth.
4. Visually be aware of who needs questions answered. (aka, look for raised hands)
5. If uncomfortable with content, try to honestly explain why, don't avoid subject matter of students' interest if it is applicable to your lesson plans.
   
6. Apply new concepts to what students already know.
7. Reach for higher bloom's taxonomy.
8. Use visuals reasonably.
9. Have a clear direction for the lesson. Inform students of this plan (especially helpful for global thinkers).
   
10. Always have a reason for what is being taught, discussed, or viewed. Make sure students have a task to apply meaning to what is being done in class.