Missing Assignments

I've always wondered how others approach missing assignments in intermediate grades. Do you follow up the day they return from vacation/sickness? Do you give them time? Do you sometimes let it go?

In our electronic grade book I have some items where students have missed assignments. You have the option to mark it so it doesn't count, a common occurrence for me. Typically I'll follow up with students when they return. Sometimes, often on longer assignments, these get lost in the shuffle. Why? The missing 1-3+ days makes getting the writing or research done difficult, particularly if we moved on. What is then more important, the assignment or the instruction?

Sometimes people use recess time. I get that. I often choose not to go that route. They weren't sick because they wanted to be, and they are kids. They need fresh air and time to socialize with friends. If it is a multiday assignment and they are dragging, do we want to do the dance of getting it done because it should? Could we instead bag it because it is benefitting no one?! I lean towards the latter.

What they don't teach you

When you are in your education program there are a myriad of things you are taught. Best practices in literacy. How to construct knowledge in math. Ways to engage students in science so they come to deeper conceptual understanding. All of those are part of the education you get (or should get) prior to getting your teaching certificate.

How about the juggling act after year one? It seems like everything has stacked up in these last few weeks. Field trip #1, field trip #2 (all day), promotion, grades, comments, talent show, end of year party, field day, health curriculum, and a large end of year writing project. How do you balance that out? You've still got to teach, so that isn't an option.

The obvious thing is that some items are taken off. This year I didn't get to government. I just simply ran out of time. The larger projects monopolized time, squeezing out a huge part of what I wanted to do in social studies.. But you also take out things like lunch- talent show tryouts and putting together the performance list.

You learn to deal with it. You do. But it isn't something you learn in your education program, and likely not until you are a year or two in. Next year will be different, or at least I say that now!

Memoirs

As we start to wrap up the year, we have begun our end of 5th grade memoirs. In many ways these are a series of vignettes that encompass moments in their elementary lives. We started them on our last field trip- an all day outdoor experience in Carnation. It was a rather auspicious start.

I'm trying to get them away from listing events from all grades. In the past I've seen this done where kids write about most grade levels, including who they had and what they remember. Often it seems like very little, and lacks feeling. Instead I want them to write about 3 (or more) events in detail, starting with a zoomed out lead in and zooming into that moment that was important. This will yoyo between out and in as they transition between moments. The effect should provide a glimpse into the moments that were meaningful, including how kids felt and what they were thinking.

In the little bit that we have worked on this I've seen kids gradually get moving. After listing events they pick one, often remembering far more than you would imagine. They pick out who they were with, how they felt, and the atmosphere before/during/and after. The smiles as kids talk through moments are heartwarming.

For me this is the payoff. It brings the kids back I center as they get set to leave the comfortable confines of their soon-to-be-former academic home. It gives them a chance to think about where they came from before they find out who they will become. I hope the writing itself will be something they will remember.

Being Inspired to Write

Writing was never my greatest interest. In fact, literacy as a whole was never really something I enjoyed. Throughout my career as a student, literacy was my weakest area. I preferred math (and PE!). Somewhere along the line the switch was flipped though- I'd venture it was when I began working at a bookstore (the now defunct Borders). You mean I can take any book I want from the store, using it like my library?! Brilliant!

Quite obviously being a reader can translate into inspiration to write. Many of my students that love reading also enjoy writing, and are often quite skilled. Why? My guess would be that they've been exposed to writing that they enjoy, and are willing to attempt something similar. They've been provided with inspiration to write.

I've struggled to find the time to read over the last two months. Having a two month old has led to a significant decrease in available time. Reading? Perhaps some student work. Books? Not so much. Coincidentally, or not, my own writing has tapered off. Some of that is connected to my decrease in time. But I'd also posit that it can be connected to reading far less. I'm not reading blogs as much as I was. Not reading kid lit as much as I was. That has left me without the inspiration to really get going and blogging.

Going forward what do I do? I need to read more. That starts this weekend with kid writing. 75 student writing prompts should provide significant cause to write. At least that is what I hope.

Give me liberty...

Like last year, we are doing speeches for the loyalist and patriot sides of the American revolution. It was good fun last year, integrating persuasive writing with history content. We taped them and kids loved them.

This year we just kicked it off. Kids were psyched to start. I randomly generate which side they are on- odds/evens for each side and random.org for the number generator. They then read about people on each side, paying special notice to the characteristics of those people and their reasoning behind their point of view. It was interesting to hear kids talk about the points of view, particularly as their perspective changed while reading. "I thought it would be good to be rich and protected, but these guys are mean. They just sound like they are protecting themselves" one said about the loyalists.

The notion of seeing many perspectives was a pipe dream at the start of the year. Now it is realized, or something like it.

Reading Groups and Analysis

I love reading groups. I've professed that love before. Kids enjoy getting together with their peers to talk about virtually anything, books included. At the tail end of last week I had a few great experiences with my kids participating in their novel study groups.

The first instance involved a kid changing his mind about a book. I asked the group, "So what do you think of the book so far?" The reviews were largely mixed, and very tepid. That was until one of the kids said "I really like it now. It is like a mystery where your brain needs to solve the puzzle." This brought on a conversation where he was helping kids clarify some of the puzzle in the book "Chasing Vermeer." Everyone got into it, and was really invested in moving the conversation forward.

Later in the day I had some kids discussing the Phantom Tollbooth. They ran their group, which is difficult for a book where you are attempting to follow the myriad of plays on words. They were going over how Milo was going to get rhyme and reason back together, and escape many of the conundrums he found himself in. "Why didn't the 'Which' push the button to leave the dungeon?" bringing out a larger discussion about the meaning of "which" and the choices in the story.

The most difficult part of groups is trusting peers. You can talk about ideas, but trusting to put them on paper is tough. I had kids working on a problem solving and character analysis sheet, which they were to bring to their groups. It was interesting seeing kids reluctant to really discuss the rationale for why characters acted a particular way, or what actions said about a character. Some really took to it- "Holling standing up to the bullies show that he is maturing. Earlier in the story he would have complained about them, but now he is doing something. I bet it will help him stand up to his father.." Others really struggled in the discussion. It signals a need to keep building trust, as well as ways to converse with each other. It might also signal a need to really peel apart the layers of how characters act. How do character actions speak to who they are (or aren't)? That is what I want us to get at, and it is the hardest work done while reading.

Writer's/Reader's/Social Scientist's notebook

Currently I use one notebook for writing, reading, and social studies. In many ways it is far from ideal. Why do I do it? Largely because of the structure of our rotations where my responsibility is literacy. One hour of literacy as fast as you can! Again, it isn't really enough but it is what we have (we also do an hour of mag and an hour of science). I will add that it has worked for us.

This year my journals have been divided into two parts. The front is for social studies content (and writing about social studies since it is embedded). The back is for reading of fiction, the stuff that really isn't US History- novel study etc. Next year I think I am going to do it differently. I will divide it into three parts: 1) social studies 2) word study and/or warmup work and 3) novel study. We'll use tabs or sticky notes to delineate sections to help keep track of what goes where.

The middle section is still a little fishy. I use Words Their Way to teach Greek and Latin roots. I typically provide 4 roots or prefixes a week, and they will look for words with the root, define them, and look for common patterns. I will continue that. But I also want a section for other vocabulary work, particularly things like misspelled words or adjectives (a big focus of ours). If I make it a section I want to use it... Can I get more out of that space? That is part of what I am thinking about as we start to wind toward the finish.