A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to attend a workshop where the 2012 National Teacher of the year Rebecca Mieliwocki was the keynote speaker. She said something that really stuck with me; she was talking about assigning class jobs, and she said, “After I’ve given out all the jobs, and all I have to do is teach I feel like I get paid the perfect amount.” Of course this was meant to be funny, but since then I’ve been wanting to make student jobs a part of my classroom. I hear so many ideas that I want to implement, so I have to be strategic to avoid burnout—I can usually try 3-5 new things at the beginning of the year, and 3-5 new things in the middle of the year. When I say “new things” I’m talking about major classroom shifts, and implementing jobs (and making it work) was/is one of those things. Luckily, I already have a classroom reward system, so I knew what type of salary I was going to offer. Please see the blog from May 2014 Classroom Management. I have been doing this for three weeks now, and already it has undergone changes. Also, I’m amazed at the amount of reinforcement that is needed, but I can see that it is starting to work. Here is a picture of the job list that I showed to my classes on Day 1:
I soon realized that I also needed to keep track of students who were actually doing their jobs. I did tell them that the first week would be unpaid training. The second week I paid, but I deducted pay for negligence. For instance, the chair manager left 5-6 chairs down on a Friday, and the host hung up on somebody without getting a name so I could call them back. There have definitely been some glitches, but we are on the road to success! Next week, this is how I will keep track of who is doing the job on a daily basis (see below). Because of our block scheduling we have six days in a unit, and I pay on the last day. I keep this on my clip board, and if students do the job as I outlined it I give them a check mark, but if I have to remind them I'll tally how many times I have to do so, at the end of the week we'll have a discussion about how/if I should pay them. I'll upload this as a document below, so you can edit it as needed. This is still a work in progress. Since we began I've realized that the "Flash drive collector" job is not helpful-- it's easier if everyone puts their own flash drive back. Also, I realized that the host (who answers the telephone and the door) needs a script and some practice, which we've done a couple of times: I think this is going to be beneficial for my classroom because it creates a community, builds student confidence, and teaches job skills. I'm uploading some word documents that I've used please tweak them and make them your own. I might blog about this next month too, and I'd love to hear how you might have adapted this to fit your classroom!
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As promised, here are two more classroom community building activities. The first one is adapted from Kagan’s Silly Sports and Goofy Games it is called “Odds and Evens.” Odds and Evens This works best with anywhere from 10-20 players. The class is divided in half, and they form two parallel lines facing each other. The teacher determines which side is odd and which side is even. Two players step forward with their backs to each other. Rock, paper, scissors style, on the count of three, they hold up 1-5 fingers. They turn to face each other and add up the total. If the total of their fingers is odd, both players go back to the odd side. If the total of the fingers is even, both players go to the even side. The team who ends up with all the players wins! We have played multiple times and sometimes the odd side wins and sometimes the even side wins, so anecdotally there is no obvious mathematical advantage. Also, uploaded here is another “Spinning Story.” Please see last month’s blog post for specific instructions about this activity. Enjoy! Both of these would be great for the first week of school. I know I’ll be using them!
Recently, I attended a workshop and there was a neuroscientist who spoke about the importance of experiencing joy in the classroom. She said that it would give the students a brain "break," help build a classroom community, and increase motivation. She recommended Kagan's Silly Sports and Goofy Games, which has been wonderful! In this blog I want to mention three short games that I've interspersed into my daily instruction with success. After ONLY 10 minutes, the students and I return to work refreshed, relaxed, and invigorated! 1. The Spinning Story- During this game students are assigned roles, and they stay at their desks. When they hear their role called they stand up, spin around, and sit down. This works best with stories that have a lot of repetition. Below I've attached "The Gingerbread Man." I did it with my high school students and we had a lot of fun. Once they get used to the activity switch roles and pick up the pace of the story! There are 9 roles in this story, so it's okay to double and triple up.
2. Class Juggling- In this game everyone stands in a circle (the largest I've played with is 10 people). Throw a ball in a pattern (without saying each others names), and when the group gets the pattern down add another ball and another ball! Our goal is to get up to four balls!
3. Balloon in the Air- This is played in a circle holding hands. You must keep the balloon in the air, but you can't let go of each other's hands. Players end up hitting the balloons with their heads, elbows, joined hands, or feet. Also, if the group moves to chase the balloon they must do so together. Very fun! More than anything I have found that when we come back from these games the students are more productive and engaged! I highly recommend this, and I will post more gems when I find them. Please check out the link below to the see the exciting literacy project we are working on this year:
http://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/csun-special-education-professors-developing-high-school-literacy-intervention-program-for-national-use/ Using our vocabulary words to create memes was a great assignment (student sample to the left). I left this assignment for the students to do while I was at a professional development. Another option, is to have them find a picture of a character in a text they're reading, and put a quote that best illustrates who that character is. Below are the guidelines I gave to my classes: Following are some of my favorite ideas from Bringing Words to Life about the significance of follow-up activities and maintaining word knowledge: We need “…daily analytic activities that engage and support students in thinking about and using the words in a variety of formats and contexts.” (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan) “…the assessment should not be thought of as closing the door on learning a word. Students need to continue their interactions with words across a semester or school year. The more opportunities students have to think about and use the words they are learning, the more elaborate their mental representations of the words will be.” (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan) “Vocabulary research strongly points to the need for frequent encounters with new words if they are to become a permanent part of an individual’s vocabulary repertoire. Those encounters should not be limited to the week in which words are the focus of instruction. Rather, students should have understanding of words by meeting words they have learned in contexts beyond the instructional ones. Keeping students’ attention on words they have learned can be supported in a nearly infinite variety of ways.” (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan) I regularly post some of the ways that I keep my students’ attention on newly acquired vocabulary words. The idea of keeping words alive throughout the year requires incredible organization on the part of the teacher and daily built in review time. When I think about what it means to really know a word, again, I want to know that my students can understand it when they read or hear it. I wand to know they can use it in writing and speech. Ultimately, I want to know that they can think with this new word in a variety of contexts. In order to ensure that my instructional activities are in line with my goals, I created a weekly vocabulary matrix that will assist me with planning my follow up activities. It is used to make sure that my planning is in line with my instructional goals, and it looks like this: For example, if you look back at December’s blog, you will see the vocabulary game “Majority Rules.” In that game the students are required to listen to the teacher ask questions: What do teens usually consume? What consumes gas? Then they are required to write responses: Teens often consume flaming hot Cheetos. Motorcycles consume gas. Because the answers are original they are required to think about the words in multiple contexts. Thus, “Majority Rules” would have the above boxes selected. For the remainder of the week (or several weeks) my goal would be to plan activities that fill the remainder of the boxes, so that all of my instructional targets are met. Specifically, that students use the new vocabulary words in their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking in a variety of contexts.
Remind (www.remind.com) is a free, easy way to communicate with students and parents without providing any identifying information such as phone numbers or emails. After you sign up through the website there is a code that is generated for each of your classes. You can easily create a pdf handout (through the website) for parents/students with the code that explains what Remind is and how they can sign up. Remind is usable through email, phones, or tablets, and there is also an app. Two Ways to Send Messages 1. Announcements- An announcement goes out to the students/parents (whoever has signed up for Remind). They can respond to the announcement, but this response will not be shared with the rest of the class. 2. Chats- A Chat is best for a small group of students because when/if they respond to you they will all see each other's responses. I have found that this is motivating for students, but it can also be overwhelming to get so many responses. How I'm Using Remind I use Remind for vocabulary reinforcement over breaks. So far I have used it over our week long Thanksgiving Break, and our three week long winter break. Not only does it create an opportunity for review, but it creates a stronger classroom community. I highly recommend it! Questions for One Period
Below are the questions that I used for one week with one of my classes: Monday- What prefix do I need to add to “responsible” to mean “not responsible”? Tuesday- What prefix do I need to add to “logical” to mean “not logical”? Wednesday- What suffix do I need to add to “harm” to mean “without harm”? Thursday- Thanksgiving Recently, someone asked me if I would post a Blank DRTA template as a word document, so that she could quickly create teacher guides. Here it is!
This really makes creating Directed Reading and Thinking Activities so easy; it's fill in the blank! For a finished sample and video demonstration click here.
This is an easy vocabulary game that students love! It is based loosely on Family Feud, in that student teams receive points by choosing the most popular answer. I really love this game because there is so little preparation involved, and it is a great way to reinforce vocabulary. You can use it as a 5-minute closing game, and do a couple of questions every day. 1. Divide students into teams. The smaller the teams’ size the better because more students are doing the work. 2. Give each team different color sticky notes. 3. Generate approximately 10 questions/categories. I like to use a combination of "fun" questions and our vocabulary words. If this is the first time you are doing this, I recommend starting with the “fun” categories so students can get the hang of it like I did below. Here are some of my questions. Our vocabulary words are underlined:
4. Give teams one minute to come up with an answer and hand the sticky note to you. I put the answers under the document reader like this: 5. The teams that get the most “popular” answer receive points. I keep track of the points like this: I hope you enjoy this game and feel free to let me know how it goes if you use it! Another variation is to play "minority rules." The team that has an answer that doesn't match anyone else's wins.
This year my blogs have been focused on vocabulary instruction. In this blog I want to mention two great resources. The first one is TextProject. There are so many resources on this website, but the one I use most often is the “WordZones for 4,000 Simple Word Families.” This is a list compiled by Elfrieda (Freddy) Hiebert for TextProject. She says, “These 4,000 Simple word families account for 90% of the words in text, including the texts of high school and college.” For a more in depth explanation watch her video: 77sec on Core Vocabulary. This is amazing! If these words make up 90% of text, before I teach a vocabulary word I’m making sure it’s on the list!
Another great resource is http://www.wordandphrase.info. You can enter your text, and it will highlight words and tell you the frequency with which they occur in different types of text. I do use this, but I cross reference it with the TextProject list. With all of these great resources choosing vocabulary is not as daunting as it used to be! (Daunting is not on the list; I just checked.) |
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November 2023
AuthorMs. Young is a teacher who wants to keep a record of what works! Categories |