Writer's Workshop

I have a love/hate dislike relationship with Writer's Workshop.  I love getting students excited about writing and watching them grow and develop throughout the year.  I dislike that I never seem to have enough time to "get it all in."  Writing is such a complex task that there just seems to be SO much I want my students to know and use.  I get frustrated that I can't do it all.

I wanted to share a couple of tips that I have learned to use during Writer's Workshop.  One is "the star on the board".  Sometimes I want students to have a silent, uninterrupted time to write.  When I draw a star on the board, the students know that it is a signal that everyone in the room will be writing and there is NO talking.  This includes me and any paraprofessionals or student teachers in the room.  Everybody writes.  I like to do this from time to time because it gives the students a chance to think and write.  I know that writers need to talk too, but every once in awhile it's good to have some silence.

Also, I get to do some writing.  I love to write!  I keep a writer's notebook in my classroom as well as a writing folder with works in progress.  I also have some "published" pieces that the kids can see.  I think it is important that the students see me as a writer too.  I can share my thoughts and struggles.  I model the process as well as the product.

We don't put the star on the board everyday.  I do this maybe once every couple of weeks.  It may last for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the engagement that I see.  I don't want to overuse this because I think it would lose it's effectiveness.  As it is now, the kids actually love to see the star on the board.

Another little strategy that I use is "the pencil on the board."  Just like the star, I draw a pencil on the board to signal drawing time. This is a strategy that my student teacher and I came up with last year.  When the pencil is on the board, students are allowed to draw.

I know that drawing is a really important part of the writing process too.  I want my students to know the importance of illustrations in their writing.  The problem I was noticing is that some students would draw the whole time.  They spent so much time on the illustrations that they never quite got to the writing part.  I want to give them the time to draw but also hold them accountable for writing. 

Now I tell the students that we focus on the writing part unless the pencil is on the board.  Sometimes I put the pencil up at the beginning of writing time.  Sometimes I put it up at the end.  Most days we have some time devoted to drawing during our Writer's Workshop time.  I always tell the students that they may draw during that time but they don't have to.  I don't want them to think that they have to stop writing and just focus on drawing.  I want to give them the opportunity.

I have so much more to talk about when it comes to writing.  I would love to hear your ideas and tips too!

Alternative Seating

We have all experienced students who seem to never sit down or have their booties in the air instead of their chairs.  I totally understand their need for movement.  I remember as a child being in church with my family.  I had 2 older sisters who were able to sit or stand like a statue throughout the whole service.  I struggled to stay still.  My mother was constantly telling me to turn around or sit down or sit still.  YUCK!

As an adult, I have attended countless meetings or presentations where I was expected to sit for an extended period of time.  I purposefully look for a seat in the back of a room because I know I am going to need to move.  I just can't sit down for that long.  My body physically hurts!

These experiences have made me empathetic to our wiggly friends in school.  I understand that everyone has different needs when it comes to physical comfort.  Some students need to stand.  Others need to sit with pretzel legs on the floor.  Some kids need to move their bum on a wiggle seat or stability ball.

Our goal is always to get the most from our students.  We don't want them wasting precious learning time.  It just makes sense that we meet their physical needs as much as possible.  This is why alternative seating has become so prevalent.  Teachers are offering a choice so that students can pick how and where they learn best.

A few of my colleagues have already taken the plunge whole heartedly.  They have converted their classrooms from the traditional "everyone sit at a desk" setting to a kid friendly "chair optional" plan.
These pictures are from my colleague Nikki's first grade classroom.  I love her classroom because it's very inviting!  I want to be a student in her room!


She has provided options for standing, sitting on the floor, sitting on a ball or wiggle seat, and even rocking.

I like the way she has used the small Ikea rugs for sitting spots at the low tables.  The ends are tucked under the table legs to keep them more secure.


 There's a table for standing.  If I were a student, this is one place I would utilize for sure.  I like standing  when I have a project spread out on a table.  I get a bird's eye view of my work.  You can see that she still has some traditional spots at tables too.  Sometimes these work best for students.

I have not made the leap as Nikki has in her classroom, but I am planning to make some different seating options this year.  I will still have mostly traditional desks, but I will provide more choice.  I plan to have at least 2 desks that are raised so that students may stand if they choose.  I also plan to have a low table with rugs much like Nikki has.

I know that I will need to establish some guidelines for use.  I can see that the novelty of choice may be a bit distracting at first.  But like all new things, the fascination wears off.

I know I have the expertise of teachers like Nikki to help me with working out the kinks.  In the end, I think it is worth it.  My goal is always for my students to be INDEPENDENT!   I think offering seating choices is a way to allow them to make choices that will ultimately enrich the learning in the classroom.  If students are physically uncomfortable the learning shuts down.  I certainly want to maximize our instructional time.

I think it would be a great research project to gather data on how many times students are out of seats, going to the bathroom, or just off task when no seating alternatives are offered.  Then take some data again when students have choice.  I don't know the correct way to conduct such a research project, but I can certainly do it informally for my own information.

Do you offer alternative seating in your classroom?  If so, how's it going?  What tips can you share for making it work?

Moving Toward Independence

I just finished reading a book by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris called  Who's Doing the Work?  It very much validated what I have been trying to do but also helped me stretch my thinking.  I love it when that happens!  I feel very motivated and inspired.  I would highly recommend reading this book.

The book is causing me to really reflect on my teaching practices.  The gist of the book is that students are being conditioned to wait for teacher prompts, introductions, and/or confirmations before moving on and really reading.  I get it.  I definitely have seen students who seem so helpless without the teacher really prompting.  It makes me think about when teachers say, "Sally knows the strategies, she is just not using them."  In fact, I have said that many times!

The book helps teachers to plan instruction that will support readers but also help them become more independent.  It provides questions to ask yourself as the teacher.  It helps you think about how to use read alouds, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading.  It focuses on using the gradual release of instruction so that students learn to solve problems on their own.

When I fist started reading the book, I thought about the Common Core and how one of the shifts is that students need to learn to read a text closely.  We want them to be able to read a grade level text independently.  That is not a big deal for many students, but for others…WOW!  Am I really going to expect ALL students to do this.  Yes!  I do have the same standard or goal that I want them to be able to achieve. I just need to give them the tools or the "map" to get there.  I need to move them toward independence.

I am reminded of an incident that happened in my classroom a few years ago.  I was teaching a social studies lesson on the topic of transportation.  I usually use lots of trade books and magazines to teach concepts.  I decided that I wanted to utilize our social studies text book.  My thought was that my students were going to encounter these type of texts, and I wanted to see what they could do with it.  We had read and discussed a little of the passage together, but then I told them to read a certain part independently and be ready to share an important fact or idea.  I knew that I was asking something really difficult for a few of my students.

After a few minutes, I asked the students to share something that they read or thought was important in that part.  I purposefully called on "Danny" to see what he would say.  Danny was reading around a kindergarten or beginning first grade level.  This incident was late in the year in a second grade classroom.  (I was prepared to offer supports so that he would be successful in sharing).  Anyway, I fully expected Danny to say something off the mark or at best really superficial.  Instead, he explained how transportation had changed over the years due to advances in technology.  He didn't use those exact words, but he blew me away!

I realized that Danny had many strategies for tackling a complex text.  He didn't read every word, but he  was able to get the gist of the passage by zeroing in on key words.  He also knew how to use other text features like pictures, captions, sub headings.  He used a balance of print strategies and meaning strategies that really helped him comprehend.  And he did it by himself!

I felt bad that my expectations for Danny were too low.  I thought because he was only reading a level D or E that he would never be able to understand this grade level passage.  I was too focused on the level and not on what strategies Danny had learned to use.  He was much better equipped to read and understand that text than several other students who were reading "on grade level."

I am not advocating giving a student a steady diet of text that I think is too hard for them.  I certainly don't think that is helpful.  But I do think it is OK to let them try something outside of their Zone of Proximal Development.

I learned that I should not get too hung up on what level a child is reading.  I should, instead, be more concerned with what they do when reading.  I need to be a better observer.  I know that often I do DRA's or running records on students, but I don't take the time to really analyze what they are doing.  If I know that a student is relying too heavily on print strategies, I can teach them to use meaning strategies.  I want the student to be able to see what is going well and what he or she needs to work on. I want the student to know what strategy to try without me telling them.

In the end, I ask myself, "What am I doing to move my students toward independence?  Do my students know what to try and when to try it?  Are they comfortable making mistakes?"

I love thinking about this stuff!  What are your thought on teaching reading?  How do you help students become independent?

The Learning Calendar

Several years ago I started The Learning Calendar with my students.  I was teaching first grade at the time.  I wanted to find a way to help my students reflect on the day's events as well as what they had learned.  Originally, my thought was that if we talked about what we learned at the end of the day, maybe they could remember it for at least a few hours.  When Mom or Dad asked, "What did you learn today?" the response MIGHT not be, "Nothin'."

We started by meeting at the end of the day to talk about these things.  We would sit on the carpet while I modeled for the students what I wanted them to do.  I would say things like, "Today we learned about visualizing when we read.  Visualizing is when you make a movie in your head.  It was Joey's birthday today.  We earned 2 character rocks today.  In math, we learned to skip count by 5's."  Then I would write these things on a calendar that was posted in our meeting area.

The calendar had a small writing space which made it really hard for students to do the writing.  I ended up always writing our day's entry.  I really wanted this to be a student led activity in the end, so I designed a much larger "calendar."  (I had the idea, but I didn't build it)

It is attached to the wall at a height for students to write on.  We have one student each week who is in charge of writing on The Learning Calendar.















Our calendar really is a large roll of paper.  It scrolls behind two small plastic pieces that hold it in place.  I made a template from poster-board that goes over top of the paper.  It has a place for the number of days we have been in school, the temperature and sometimes we have a drawing of the weather (like a sun), the date, who is recording the information, and what we learned.  It's a simple way to collect some data that we review later in the year.

The big white space is for writing what we have learned.  I have tried to teach the students to begin their entries with "Today we learned..."  or "We learned that..." because I really want the focus to be on the learning.  They usually include some other little notes too, but that 's fine with me.  It makes it more original and memorable when it comes from them.



We continue to write an entry a day for the entire year.  At the end of the year, we have a Celebration of Learning.  This is when we display the learning calendar.  It is really cool to see it all rolled out for the entire year.  I usually do this in our school's gym because it takes up so much space.

Students enjoy looking for things on the learning calendar that they remember throughout the year.  Sometimes they look for special days like field day or when an author came to visit.  Other times they look for their birthday or when a new student joined the class.  But it also reminds them that we have really learned a lot throughout the year.  They remember when we just started multiplication in math.  Now the students are great multipliers and can do this independently!  The students have such a sense of accomplishment when they review The Learning Calendar.

It's also great for parents to see.  They are often amazed at how much we accomplish in the year.  The Learning Calendar really helps document our growth and accomplishments.

Do you have an end of the day reflection piece?  What do you do?  I would love to hear some other ideas!

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Math Lesson Plan Pages

Yesterday I talked about how I set up my math instruction time.  I thought I would share the lesson plan pages that I use.  These are for second grade, so those are the standards that are written at the top of the pages.  I hope someone finds them useful!  

Lesson Plan Pages

Math Instruction

I've been thinking about my math instructional time.  For the most part, I think I have it set up in the most efficient way.  We have math for about an hour each day.

The first 30 minutes are devoted to a whole group lesson. We start out with some calendar math for a few minutes.  It's kind of a way to warm up and get our brains thinking about math.  It's also a way we integrate several skills in an ongoing way.  For example, we track the number of days we are in school and make that number in dollars and cents with magnetic money on our whiteboard.



After calendar math, we have a core lesson from our math program.  We currently use Math in Focus.  I use the Smartboard for this instruction.  Although there are student books, we just have the student book displayed on the Smartboard.  We also use interactive resources from the math program or ones we have found on our own.  This lesson usually lasts about 25-30 minutes.

Next, we work in small groups.  We only do one "rotation" each day.  In the picture below, you see four rotations.  Typically, I  meet with each group once during the week.  However, I have it arranged so that my group that needs the most support comes to the table twice during the week.  In the past, I have tried rotating groups during the hour but have found that I really don't have enough instructional time with each group.  As it is now, small group time lasts for about 30 minutes.  This is working well for me.

The groups are flexible and are based on observation, MAP test data,  and pre-test scores.  After I complete the pre-test for our math chapter, I decide how to arrange the groups.  There are usually 4-6 students in a group.  I typically have 4 groups. One group works with me at the table.  This is usually where I really target and differentiate my instruction.  I use lots of manipulatives during this part.  I can deliver instruction on the same topic to all students but really meet the needs of each group.  For example, I always have a group that already knows the standard for our grade level.  Our math program provides some great enrichment pieces that I like to use with this group.  I know they are being challenged and we have some great math conversations together!

Math Group Rotations

On the other end of the spectrum I have students who really struggle with the concept we are learning.  It's much easier to see where they are challenged when you only have a few students in front of you.  I can give them a math problem, observe, and intervene at the point of error.  I love hearing, "OOHH!  Now I get it!"

Besides a group of students working with me, I also have a groups of students working on their iPads.  (I used to have a computer group before we had iPads.)  These students have a few choices.  We use a program called ESpark that differentiates student instruction based on MAP test results.  In my class last year I had students working on kindergarten math skills and students working on fifth grade level math.
Students have the option to work on their ESpark assignments or use IXL or Tenmarks.  I'm pretty sure our district pays for the IXL, but Tenmarks is free.  I really like using both of these programs because it's so easy to differentiate with these as well.  For IXL, I have a small whiteboard in the room.  I can post what skills I want certain groups to work on.  In Tenmarks, students can work on a variety of assignments and there are great supports provided with this website.  They can click on a button to have the problem read aloud and also click to get extra help.

There are many other free options available for math. I know about Sumdog for one. Many teachers at my building utilize this as well.  I have used it on a limited basis.  I think it's good, I just already am used to using IXL and Tenmarks.

Cart of Games and Manipulatives

In addition to table time and iPads, another group is playing games.  I have a ton of math games that I have collected and organized.  I have a large file cabinet that is full of file folder games.  I organized them by concept and numbered them so that I can find them easily.  I have a master list in the front of the file cabinet.  If I want to find some games for time or money, I can look on the sheet and find which games cover those concepts.  It makes it much easier to see what I have and locate the games quickly.  I can also differentiate the games.  If I know that a certain group of students needs more practice on basic addition and subtraction facts, I provide this practice through games. I have tubs for each of my groups.  In the tubs, I place the games that I want them to play along with any manipulatives they may need to be successful.  This way I know they are getting practice on skills that they need.

You can find so many great math games on Teachers Pay Teachers.  It's amazing what is offered for free!  This is where I have gotten many of the games my students play.

The last group is completing paper/pencil activities.  I usually use the workbook pages from our math series.  These pages are easy to differentiate too because our math series provides extra practice, remediation, and enrichment pages. Because I need for these students to be able to work independently, I use the practice pages from the previous chapter.  Let's say that our current chapter is on multiplication of 3's and 4's.  The chapter that we completed before that was addition with regrouping.  I do not give the paper/pencil group practice pages from the multiplication chapter.  Instead I give them practice pages from the addition chapter.  The reason for this is that the previous chapter is one that they have already learned.  They should be able to complete these practice pages independently.  I don't want students to be interrupting the table because they need help with the paper.  The important thing to me is that I am providing some practice of math skills at a level on which they can be successful.  There can still be challenges within the activity, but they are ones that the students can work through independently.

The only group that I have to worry about being finished before our 30 minutes are up is the paper/pencil group.  The other groups can continue to play games, work on iPads, and work at the table  with me for the entire 30 minutes.  In order to make good use of our math time and not be interrupted, I have trained the paper/pencil group to read math books if they happen to finish the paper before the end of math time.  I have a bin of trade books on math concepts.  I have collected lots of great books that the students love to read.  Jerry Palotta and Marilyn Burns are 2 authors I can think of that write some great math related stories.  When students finish papers, they are allowed to get a math book and read it alone or with a partner.  This is another way I can tie in language arts skills during math instruction.

One of the things that I have been thinking about for this paper/pencil group is making it more collaborative.  I already allow students the choice of working independently on the paper/pencil or with others.  When they work with others, they can help each other in different ways.  Some students need help reading certain problems, but they are fine with the math part.  Other students need a "coach" to remind them of the resources they may use.

I am thinking about trying to give this group one or two problems on a topic that they work together to solve.  I want to give my students more opportunities to collaborate, talk, and learn from each other.  I would have to find or make problems that were challenging but not outside the group's ZPD.  Knowing that the group is comprised of students with a similar understanding of the concept, I would need to consider the strengths and challenges of each group carefully.  I know that within a group, I usually have someone who is stronger with computation.  Another student may be stronger with problem solving strategies.  Yet another student is great at locating and using resources to help them.  My hope is that the groups could work together to solve a problem.  One of the benefits of this collaborative group would be that the students would have the chance to hear more "math talk."  By talking and trying different approaches, the students could learn from each other.  Students would have an opportunity to explain their thinking about using a certain approach or about how they arrived at a certain answer.

"I Charts" for Math Stations

I know that getting students to work successfully in a collaborative group can be challenging.  The key is in the training.  With all of the other groups that I mentioned move, I have spent much time in training students.  Collaborative groups is not something I would introduce and have going in the first week of school.  I know that I will have to lay some foundation before trying this approach.  When I am ready to implement collaborative math groups, I will want to be extremely explicit in my expectations.  I will create "I charts" much like I do when introducing components of Daily 5.  I will model and practice with the class.  This is really something I would like to try.  I think I will put this on my "professional goals" list of things to do.

How do you provide differentiated math instruction?  What is going well?  What challenges do you face?

End of the Year...

Another year has ended.  It always amazes me how quickly the time went.  I love the end of the school year for the obvious reasons, but I also love it because it is a time of renewal and growth for me.  I  have some personal goals ( which always include exercising more and losing weight!) and some professional goals.

This year, one of my professional goals is to learn to become a great storyteller.   My brother in law is a one of these people.  It's common knowledge that Mike can tell a great story, so what is it that makes it so great?  Here's what I think…

First of all, when I say a "story" I am really just talking about his everyday life.  He can make something mundane and ordinary sound hilarious and exciting.

He includes great details that make you think you were there.  When he describes something he uses his whole body to do it.  His voice changes to convey mood or thoughts.  He has different voices for characters.  He uses hand motions and facial expressions.  He includes his inner thoughts when he tells about an event.  He knows how to include the good stuff and leave out the boring stuff.  Or maybe it's that he makes the boring stuff sound like the good stuff.  Whatever it is, people are captivated by his retelling of events.

I see storytelling as the foundation for great writing.  Anything that is written was once spoken or at least thought about in words.  For my students, I know if they can't tell it, they can't write it.  This is why I want them to learn to TELL a great story first.

I usually start the year with some storytelling, but I feel that this is an area where improvement is needed.  I need to be a better model.  I need to use the gradual release of responsibility with storytelling.  I also need to give my students more opportunities to do it.

These are the questions I am asking myself:
Am I giving students enough time to talk and share thoughts and stories?
Am I modeling this process and including them in it?
Am I sustaining this practice throughout the year?

What are your thoughts and reflections about your year?  What goals do you have for the summer?