#TeachingHack No. 3 Keeping your interactive journal from overflowing

Here's a hack for all the interactive journal lovers and stuffers out there. You know... the teachers who make tons of foldables, glue in handouts, notes, samples, interactive graphic organizers. Sound familiar? I know I'm guilty! By December our journals are stuffed with so much (and hopefully students' brains are too) that they barely fit in our magazine files!!!!


Here's a hack that you may find helpful.

You'll need: a journal, single hole puncher, large rubber band.

Ok..... so here's what you can do on the first day of school to ensure that your journals are ready to be stuffed with tons and tons of learning activities.

It really is that simple. Hole punch the upper right hand corner of the back cover, insert and loop a large rubber band and you're done!!


Hope you found this #Teachinghack helpful. :)

#TeachingHack No. 2 Math Study Guide Folder

I'm hard at work putting together some Math Study Guide Folders that my students can use this fall. We used them last year, but they were used to much that some need to be replaced. I will say that laminating them was a great idea because they really lasted well into the end of the year.


Ok... so here's how the Study Guide Folder works.

My students use these folders in a variety of ways. They use them when doing independent work, during centers and as a reference tool for assessments. Some parents have even asked me to make them a folder to take and have at home to refer back to. They really come in handy for many things, including as privacy folders during assessments. I have seen students refer to their study guide when they are unsure about some concepts and I've seen them grow more confident as they begin to master math concepts.

I have also used Science Study Guides during science time.


If you are interested, here's what you'll need:  

2 manilla folders, study sheets, and tape

I am already thinking of how I can create a language arts study guide.

Hope you find this #Teachinghack useful. 

Increase the rigor of student thinking using question stems

From many years of working with ELLs I have learned that one key ingredient in their success is exposing them to the language of assessments- those sentence structures that often stump them. I have had many students tell me they don't know what a question is asking them and once I reword the question they are able to answer it. Finally I had a light bulb moment and decided kids need practice having discussions and writing pieces while using rigorous language.

Description, sequence, cause and effect, comparisons, predictions and inferences- kids can do all these, but can they show what they know using content specific language and more complex sentence structure?

To meet the language needs of  students and to better prepare them with content knowledge, for the past year I have implemented the following question stems to increase the rigor in my teaching and in their thinking. Since my job now entitles modeling lessons K-6, I have seen these work in all grade levels.

I prep the sentence stems by having them cut, laminated, and held together using a small binder ring and I carry a set of 6-7 of them every time I go in and model a lesson in any grade level.

In all content areas, when I want students to show their thinking as they describe, sequence, cause and effect, compare, predict and infer I ask them to use one of the stems from the appropriate color. The kids get so used to using them that the skill eventually transfers to their writing! This is a nonnegotiable in the classroom- they HAVE to refer back to the stems so that they acquire practice and eventually fluency in complex sentence structures.

Below you will find an example of how I used the stems with  4/5 year old, PreK students during an activity for comparing 2 animals. (This is part of training I am providing for all teachers in my school who have ELLs so that we can learn some strategies to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of TELPAS).

We used a thinking map to show we are comparing animals. (These cool animal cards are from Target $1.00).

After adding some ideas, I wrote 2 sentence stems and we discussed what we could write using the graphic organizer. It is important to first start to compare orally, and once our ideas are cemented, we move on to showing what we know in writing.

Even at this age, students can demonstrate their thinking using more and more complex sentence structures.

I hope that you found this post helpful. I know that the use of stems has helped our ELLs tremendously, but they can be used with ALL students. It's about thinking, therefore it's about increasing the rigor in our teaching!

#TeachingHack No. 1

Teaching is such a difficult, but rewarding calling. I am fresh into summer vacation and I'm thinking of some new posts I want to make on a weekly basis.


The first series I will be starting is the #TeachingHack
I'll be posting a simple "hack" each week in hopes that it will be helpful to at least one person :)


This week's #TeachingHack is a folder I LOVE LOVE LOVE to make with my students. I saw my mentor teacher make it in her classroom and I have used it in my classroom every year since. Here's how you can make a simple 4-pocket folder.

*2 sheets of large construction paper and a stapler

 

 Steps: 

1. Fold the 1st sheet in half horizontally

2. Fold the 2nd sheet in half vertically. 

3. Fold the 2nd sheet in half horizontally. 

4. Tuck the 1st sheet inside the 2nd sheet. 

5. Staple the edges. Staple as close to the edge as possible so that you'll leave plenty of room for handouts.

I have used this folder for so many things, including: 

*STAAR Review (we assign each reporting category to a pocket)

*Homework folder, notes for home, unfinished work

*Tutoring and Saturday school

*Keeping track of handouts

Hope you find this #Teachinghack helpful. Stay tuned for more hacks that will be posted each week.