Summarize This! (Pre-Lesson)

We are wrapping up the first part of our first unit. We've been working on Geography, as it will help us moving forward in learning about American history and settlement. Later this week, and next, we'll start some work in the basal reader on Earthquakes and volcanoes (reading comprehension- sequence of events, main ideas). With each day I'm gaining a greater sense of how the puzzle fits together.

Tomorrow we will be creating some chapter summaries. Summaries are difficult to explain, let alone teach. But I am going to give it a whirl with some help from ReadWriteThink. We've done so much reading with tons of vocabulary that I worry it can all start to look like googly-glop (official terminology). What is most important? Well I am going to model creating a summary using a first person account of their western journey, which we read today. I'll then start to guide them into the chapter, talking about the biggest idea and moving from there (like a fishbone essentially- a core with spines coming off).

All of this will be a good review for an assessment we'll have on Thursday (content, not summary). From the summaries I'll be able to tell where folks are at with their writing, and where some are struggling as far as main idea identification.

Chunky Chunky Chunky

Everything feels chunky right now. My instruction doesn't seem to have much flow to it, and the content seems to be blocked out instead of fluid and integrated. Compounding the issue is having two different curricular materials to utilize from two different curricular areas. I am using a social studies text as well as a reading text (basal reader), not to mention my plan to integrate some realistic fiction and primary sources. As a whole, that leaves me with a big mess to make sense of.

Where am I at? Well I am finishing an initial social studies unit on geography (maps, landforms, nonfiction features). After this I will use the reading text for some reading comprehension strategies, with the first "theme" (re: story and accompanying supplements) is Nature's Fury. The story is earthquakes, and we'll be able to look at where these events happen (I think later themes, stories involve volcanoes and tornadoes). They don't flow effortlessly, and I have been unable to really use both texts simultaneously (perhaps a social studies center as well as running reading centers, that sort of thing).

I need to figure it out, and soon. We have curriculum night on Thursday. I'm excited to talk about what we are doing, and what we will be doing. In the broader context, we'll be learning about early American settlements, the American Revolution, and American Government. What the sequence is, and how the reading comprehension is integrated (and when) is a little up in the air right now.... but at least my projector and Activeboard are now wall/ceiling mounted!

Teaching non-fiction

I think the most difficult part about social studies is the content. Textbooks, like most non-fiction, are dense in information. Where students find difficulty is in deciphering what is "interesting" and what is "important." Non-fiction is just one of those things that most students don't have tons of exposure to, and they aren't as familiar with the structure (as it is far different from fiction).

I'm approaching social studies as a content area, and reading as the tool to comprehend it. What that means is that I need to teach specific reading skills, and use those skills to gather important information. How is that going you ask? Well, it has just begun. Being a first year teacher I struggle a bit with pacing, which makes me feel like things bog down. But as a whole things move quick. As we just finished our second day of swapping kids (an hour per rotation of math, science, and social studies- middle school-esque), and I am starting to look less at the clock (pacing) and worry more about engagement.

Kids are engaged for sure. I am working to circulate, checking in with kids throughout the room. I feel a bit like I am a cattle prodder though, which has me thinking about how I can be more intentional. Perhaps it is a matter of setting things up more clearly so that I can work in depth with small groups. Perhaps it is a matter of establishing centers where kids rotate through a center with me... a center where they are working on something, another center working on something, and another where they are reading with me (or working on something with me).

The bottom line is that non-fiction takes time to teach. Kids need to be familiar with the structure. They also need to know what is important, and they need to know how to record that information so that they can more efficiently synthesize it. Eventually I want to move more towards having kids recording questions, and working them towards searching for answers and information. It is a work in progress.

Meet Gort

Before school started I had all sorts of trouble trying to get my room setup. Each "classroom" has an activeboard, a projector, and a whiteboard. Mine, being a shared space, was not technically a classroom. We had converted a space that was mutually used by the 4th and 5th grades into a classroom in order to lower class size in the 5th grade. Since it was a conversion room, it didn't have all of those amenities.

After searching around, we moved the activeboard from another shared space into mine. We then located the computer that hooks into it, as well as the projector. Being the techno-geek that I am, and having a father that was in IT, I figured "no problem," I'll have this setup in no time.

One minor issue... I couldn't get power to the board. So I searched around, I had power to everything BUT the activeboard. No juice. So I called the helpdesk on my newly setup phone (setup in that it was attached to the outlet, not that I had voicemail etc). They give me direction, and tell me I need to get it hooked into the network, as well as attach a power cable to my I/O port where the activeboard and the computer meet....

I did that, I was moving right along... until I met Gort. Who is Gort? I'm still not sure. But I called the helpdesk, I was cursing inside as well, and I say "well... I've met Gort, and I feel like I should.." and I hear a giggle. If you've met Gort you aren't on the network, and you need a IT support person to come out... At the time it was funny in the most frustrating of ways. Now it is just funny. My computer's name is Gort, a techie person's inside joke. Apparently I'm not techie enough.

The more you write, the more it grows

I thoroughly enjoy teaching writing. I don't consider myself to be much of a writer, but I do enjoy putting my own thoughts down, and I try my best to pass that enthusiasm along. Last year I felt like my teaching was fairly successful for the first and second graders I had. I certainly had some that I hoped to push further, but I felt like most of the kids got excited about Writer's Workshop.

Looking at my practice this year, I feel like I am coming back around. My first day or two of the workshop weren't what I had hoped for, but the kids persisted anyway. As I have started to model more clearly, and ask clearer questions for shoulder partner discussion, our writing sessions have gotten crisper. We've started the journey from "watermelon" stories, those stories that are "and then, and then, and then," to seed stories. Case in point was one who wrote about when she got her cat.

"The cat reached through the cage, almost as if to say 'Take me! I've been here for years.' "

Before the writing included some detail about the color of the cat, and her being excited to get the cat, but little about how that experience was. She was really focusing in, and getting to the essence of that moment, which was the purpose. Additionally the kids are able to identify if their own stories are watermelon or seeds, and working towards re-drafting (one of the stories we've written, not all).

Lastly, all my kids have technology skills of some sort. Each can use their personal login (to the network), each can type fairly proficiently, they can do most of the basic Word functions, etc. This gives me hope for my desire to start a class blog. I'd use the 10 computer/21 kids to do a weekly rotation. One set would blog and the other would comment, and continue to rotate. This would work for about a month before changing up groups and/or having them all responsible for a weekly/bi-weekly post and comment. I just need to find out what I need to do in order to get clearance/permission. Big plans are in store.

A mixture of old and new

I've been trying to construct meaning out of all sorts of stuff that I've been given for the first week or two. What types of stuff? Reading comprehension copies, old test sample questions, math diagnostics, etc. Some of the items I have taken, and been explicit in teaching the concepts embedded in them (finding the main idea for example). Others I have used as diagnostics, preliminary assessment data about what kids know and don't know.

I struggle initially trying to create meaning from the papers that I have. Why? Well because it wasn't really in my operating procedure to use a ton of blackline masters (teacher book stuff), and consider that good teaching. I maintained a level of disdain, thinking it lacked creativity and thoughtfulness. But is that really the case? Perhaps to some degree, but the meaning of a worksheet is derived from how it is used and the teaching before/during/after.

Case in point for me has been some maps/geography handouts I have. Now it could have simply been an interesting activity- read it, answer some questions, color in a map. But what I elected to do was focus on some of the non-fiction features, in particular the bolded vocabulary (Latitude, longitude, equator, etc). "Why are those words bolded? How might those words help us understand what we are reading? Where might we find the meaning from the text we are reading?" I've had them working with shoulder partners (although some have used table groups of 4) and they've worked reading together, answering questions, and searching for definitions. For me, this has been useful in getting a handle on their knowledge of some nonfiction. This has been an assessment of following directions, working in groups, and their reading ability with lower level nonfiction.

Tally Ho!

Week one is in the books. The first week of school is odd because of the amount of community building and assessment you need to do. Instead of diving into content, you are teaching procedures and trying to foster a sense of community. How well did I succeed in meet those ends? Fairly well.

I have a group of 21 kiddos, but 19 were there this week. It is a great number, allowing us to really talk to each other. The number of kids gave me a good chance to know each one's name, and know a little bit about each one. I was successful in cycling through, checking in with each one, and monitoring students. I'm not sure how successful I would have been on the first day of my first year with a much larger group. Could I have do so? Probably, but this was great.

I've already started the Writer's Workshop. We started with a letter to Mr. Hanson, allowing them to tell me things about themselves. We also started in on the small moments section, which is a starter for personal narrative. I realized early on that I did a poor job of modeling on the first day of small moments, but the following days were better. I was clearer in teaching what a small moment was, and how to zoom in to make those moments clearer from our minds eye.

The community building went well also. I had a kiddo say that the best part of the first week was that they got to learn the things they had in common with their peers. Yet another talked about meeting new friends, talking to old friends. No arguments, lots of kids on task, fairly good modelling.

This week we are doing some reading comprehension with non-fiction. We'll be looking at how texts bold words, and why those words are important (and how they help us understand the text). We'll also take our reading and apply it to labelling a blank world map. It is something that one of my partner teachers has done, at least the labelling, but I am going to use the map info and the reading comprehension on my own- thinking it provides context and solid teaching points. Oh non-fiction how I love thee.