Last month I said I would provide an update on my Robust Vocabulary Instruction. So far, it is going really well. The students seem to be retaining more information about the words than previous years, but time will tell, so expect more updates (especially when I have some concrete data)! This is one more element I've added: Vocabulary VIP. Students get the opportunity to listen and use the words we're working on outside of class. They bring back a word deposit slip, and we graph it. The first one to get to 24 words becomes a VIP, and they get to sit in the teacher's chair all week, and they get an ice cold water bottle when they walk in the door. Above this student found the word "summary" in his GTA (Grand Theft Auto?) video game. I'm including the graph and word deposit slips below for your use. Hope your school year is going wonderfully!
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In this blog I’m going to outline how to introduce new words. This is how I’m going to use “Robust Vocabulary Instruction” in my classroom. The September blog will provide an update on this method including follow up activities and assessment information. Since my classes meet every other day with 90-minute block scheduling periods I’m going to introduce 3-4 words at a time over two days and then spend two weeks on instruction with an assessment the final day. If we met every day I would shorten this to a Monday-Friday routine. One final note, the selected vocabulary are Tier 2 words based on my class readings and words that students need to know to complete assignments. Bringing Words to Life devotes an entire chapter to word selection if that is an area of need. Introducing New Words Day 1 Words: summary, evidence, influence Step 1. Create a student friendly definition. Use COBUILD (learner’s dictionary), Longman (learner’s dictionary), and onelook.com (consensus dictionary) as starting points for your definition and to make sure you capture the essence of the word. A longer definition using words that students are already familiar with is best. Be sure to include “something, someone, or describes” so students know how the word is used. Finally, It is okay to fold in an example. “Today we’re going to look at the word summary (project on PowerPoint). Let’s all say it together: SUMMARY. Please raise your hand if you have heard this word. Please raise your hand if you can give me a definition of the word. Please raise your hand if you could teach the word to the class. Okay, so we have a range of familiarity with the word, but it’s the beginning of the school year, and a review won’t hurt us, so I’m going to give you a definition, and I want you to write it down in the vocabulary section of your folder. Please copy the underlined portion (project on PowerPoint): A summary is something that gives you the most important information without all the details and usually answers the questions what, who, when, where, and why. For example, if a teacher asks you what you did this summer and you tell them you went on a two week vacation to Las Vegas to visit your grandma, but you don’t tell them that you got a bug bite. You are giving the important information (what, who, when, where, why) without all of the unimportant details (bug bite). Step 2. After you provide the meaning begin to elicit examples in different contexts. Your goal is to build many different connections at this point and have students use the word. The activity I’m planning is a vocabulary interview, but I highly recommend that you research “Robust Vocabulary Instruction” for a list of activities. “Okay we are going to ask our partners some questions about this vocabulary word. The question stems and sentence frames are on the board:” Partner B: Will you give me a summary of what you did yesterday? Partner A: A summary of what I did yesterday is _____________________. Partner A: Will you give me a summary of your favorite movie? Partner B: A summary of my favorite movie _______________________ is _______________________. Partner B: Will you summarize what we spent the last 10 minutes of class doing? Partner A: To summarize the last 10 minutes of class we __________________________. Partner A: If I told you that I got up to throw something away should I include that in my summary of class? Why or why not? Partner B: You should/should not include that in your summary of class because ________________________________. Note to teachers: When I do this I will model with a partner and then I will set a timer for one minute for each exchange only projecting one at a time. If students are early finishers then they can reverse roles. If they are really early finishers they can practice it repeatedly so they can do the exchange for the class without looking at the frames. This concludes the introduction of one vocabulary word. My goal is to introduce three in one day, (for the sake of this blog let’s say that I have introduced all three words: summary, evidence, and influence). Then the final step is to close with concluding activities that deal with these words. Evidence · Say the word · Rate your familiarity · Copy down student friendly definition · Activity: Students Vote Convincing vs. Weak Evidence Influence · Say the word · Rate your familiarity · Copy down student friendly definition · Activity: Applaud for what influences you most Step 3. Concluding Activities- in concluding activities your goal is to use all of the vocabulary words together. This might be as simple as asking students to respond to a question. “Okay, today for our concluding activity first, I’m going to ask you to vote. Please raise your hand if you think that school hours should be from 9:30-4:30. Please raise your hand if you think school hours should stay the same: 8:00-3:00. Okay without saying anything take 1 minute of think time to come up with your reason (set the timer). I would like to hear from four people two from each side. (Let students share). Vote again. “Now, please answer this question in writing in the vocabulary section of your folder: “Provide a summary of the evidence that influenced you to vote for school hours from 9:30-4:30.” OR “Provide a summary of the evidence that influenced you to vote for school hours to stay the same 8-3:00.” Homework (provided to student on a slip of paper) 1. Create a word web for each word: summary, influence, evidence (Teachers here are some links about word webs/semantic mapping: YouTube & Word Webs) 2. Answer the following questions about each word in complete sentences, and use the new vocabulary word in each answer. · Who is the person in your life that influences you the most? Why? · Provide a summary of that person’s personality. · What evidence can you find to prove that person is a good person? Reminder to Teachers: Have a class copy of vocabulary so if students leave their vocabulary at home they can make a copy.
I’m enjoying my summer vacation, but I’m also planning for next year! I can’t help it; I love my job. One thing I do when I have new students is to give them an interest inventory. The purpose of this is to find out their likes/strengths so I can incorporate them into the lesson whenever possible. Here is a word document of the interest inventory I use, so that you can tweak it for your class:
One thing I do recommend is reading the questions aloud to the class. I use this with new students the first couple of days of school, and I don’t know what their reading levels are yet, and I definitely don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable! Read the questions aloud offering your own answers as examples (you should fill one out too, so you can play the following game with your students.) Last year, I realized that I was finding out information about the students, but that they weren’t necessarily getting to know each other, so I created “Find Somebody Who....” I have attached a word document of the game below, so you can edit (if needed) and adapt it for your class. Enjoy! We played it last year, and it was a lot of fun. Be sure to put on short music clips in addition to, or as opposed to, a timer. Students need that background noise to feel comfortable talking. Be sure you get in there too; I won third place last year, and this year I’m going for the gold!
Has this every happened to you? You ask: “Does anyone have any questions?” They respond: SILENCE. Moreover, once the activity begins it is very clear that there were many unasked questions! I have found one very effective solution to this issue: I began offering extra credit or tickets (my classroom reward) for students who ask questions.
Since I have been using the English 3D program by Dr. Kate Kinsella, I have truly realized the value of having students use and practice academic language as much as possible. I have reminders up in the classroom for formal ways to make a request: However, I’m still trying to come up with new activities to generate student speech, and this is where the idea for Academic Speech Bingo came from. Students prepared responses the previous day for the following unit question: “What are some ways adolescents can prepare for their future careers in high school?” Each student had two ideas to share, and we formed a circle. They were then given a bingo card and stickers to mark with: Just to clarify how this was scaffolded: the previous day we practiced responding in all the ways that were on the bingo card in groups of 4. Students drew a response card (see picture below) before they had to listen to a 1-minute student presentation (this presentation was on a political cartoon project they had just finished). After the presentation, they responded per the instructions on their card. This was incredibly effective because the students had a purpose for listening/responding before they began to listen. Thus, their responses were stronger than I had ever heard! Of course we set a purpose as a pre-reading activity all the time, and I usually set a purpose for them before we listen, but giving them a response prompt honed the purpose of listening even further, which led to more specific responses. Finally, during bingo, after each individual student shared an idea the other students were instructed to raise their hands to respond. Students called on each other and as many students could respond to one person as they wanted to. In order to get bingo they had to form an “L” shape with 4 squares in any direction. I had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, place prizes for bingo winners, but in addition to that I had established how I was going to grade them: 4 or more squares marked= A; 3 squares marked= B; 2 squares marked =C; 2 squares marked=D. Here are some finished cards: Ultimately, I will do this again. The highlight of the activity was when one student shared his idea and 4 or 5 students raised their hands. He was able to call on all of them, and they all did something different! Someone agreed with his idea, someone paraphrased it, someone added to it, and someone asked a question! If a stranger had walked into the classroom it would have looked as if the students were independently conducting a Socratic seminar, and I think this might be the first step towards that goal! The document uploaded below is the bingo cards. The tasks are the same on each card, but they are in a different order.
I am 99% sure this will be the last time I write about my revision checklist, but who knows. I want to mention a couple of things: First of all, this might seem simplistic to some teachers, BUT what is the point of having a complicated revision checklist if students fail to follow it?! Secondly, this is teen tested and approved-- I had a student take a picture of it and remark, "This will help me in other classes." Finally, when I introduce this to my students I tell them this is a checklist of the bare minimum that they need to do before turning in a paper. The version I'm going to embed is only slightly different from last month's in that the order has been changed to catch more errors. I hope you and your students enjoy!
My students strongly dislike revising their writing. I get it; I felt the same way in high school and my first couple years of college. I remember crying to my mom (the English teacher) as she tried to hand me back a paper with corrections: “I looked at it once when I was writing it, and I don’t want to look at it again!” Because of my own experience, I am sensitive to that of my students, so I have given them a revision checklist that covers the bare minimum. My rationale behind this is that the checklist is short enough that they will at least complete it, which is important for building the idea that writing is a process, yet it covers enough to eliminate embarrassing, basic mistakes, such as capitalizing letters. Here was the first draft: The problem with my first draft is that some students would complete it, but some students would just check it off, and I would still find very careless errors. Here is my revised revision checklist: This one works well because it holds students accountable for checking their errors. If they have to highlight the first letter of each sentence, I am almost 100% sure that they will capitalize that letter since it is already highlighted. If they have to record themselves reading the paper and listen to the recording, then I can guarantee that they have heard it at least twice. By interspersing concrete actions (circle the titles) with more subjective tasks (at least to them). I can ensure more accuracy in their revising. This is a work in progress, and I’m sure that I will blog about more revisions to my revision checklist. (Wow, if my high school self knew that I’d grow up to be blogging about revision checklists...)
Recently, I have had the opportunity to go into many different classrooms, and I have seen many different types of learners. This has been eye opening for me because it has made me realize that so many of the accommodations I put into the students’ IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) are not as useful as I once thought. For instance, accommodations such as “preferential seating” and “repeat instructions” are often already second nature for teachers, but here are some accommodations that are incredibly useful for most students that I never thought of including in the IEP:
Assessments Alter the time limits for tests: o Break the testing into segments o Test over multiple days o Offer untimed testing Collaborate with special educators to rewrite the tests for students: o Provide limited choices for multiple choice and matching tests o Provide the student with a word bank for fill in the blank questions o Allow student to take test orally instead of written Classwork, Projects, Homework 1. Give the student and/or parent a checklist about what is due and when it is due. 2. Allow student to have a second set of books at home. 3. Allow students with excellent note-taking skills to use carbon paper or a copier machine to provide extra copies for those having difficulties. 4. Use an assignment sheet/calendar to help a student monitor upcoming due dates and what needs to be done as homework, with listed materials. 5. Allow the student to tape record the discussion/lecture. Surprisingly, many of the tools that students need for success in the general education setting seem to be organizational as listed under “classwork, projects, and homework.” The other area of need is accommodations provided during assessment. The ones recommended here bypass memory difficulties, productive language difficulties, and mental fatigue. If you get a chance before writing an IEP, observe your student in a general education setting to see what he/she would need to be successful—it is eye opening! I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break! As we get ready to go back to school I'm trying to think of ways to spice up my lessons. Here are some things I tried last semester and wrote about for The Teaching Channel in the blog "Three Ways to Engage Visual Learners." Check it out! I'm always looking to try new things, so feel free comment and let me know what new strategies you're trying!
(Read about the pictures below in the blog.)
The Teaching Channel Videos are here! I mentioned the filming in my June Blog. Please visit the Teaching Channel for more videos and the complete lesson plan. These students are amazing!
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November 2023
AuthorMs. Young is a teacher who wants to keep a record of what works! Categories |