Teaching Ideas
3 rules for the classroom:
1. Take care of yourself.
2. Take care of others.
3. Take care of materials.
Document every time you call or leave a message for the parent/guardian. Note the date, time, person spoken to, and a summary. You may want to also put any quotes from the conversation. Have each student fills out a form with contacts, etc. and put that in a three ring binder. When a parent is called turn to the back of that student's sheet, and make the notations. Any communication, even if the parent drops in for a visit, is noted. If more room is needed, add another sheet. Put copies of every note sent to a parent with that child's contact form. Any notes received from a parent are also put in the notebook. Copies of disciplinary referrals and trips for time outs in other rooms are also kept with the contact form. Use the notebook at parent conferences.
During the discussion portion of a class, distribute two pennies to every student. Each student must have a comment or question in order to turn in his/her pennies, and they have to turn them in by the end of the discussion. It really worked well, forcing the quiet ones to participate, and limits the eager ones to contemplate their thoughts before spending their pennies.
Every Friday, email the next week's assignment and test schedule, as well as any major due dates coming up, to parents and students. Include any notes on upcoming guest speakers or field trips, or notes on what will be studied in class, done in the lab, etc. It gives parents a way to contact the teacher that is much more convenient than phone tag. The students like having the information available, in case they forget the assignment or miss a school day.
FormSwift - Common Core Lesson Plans: http://formswift.com/common-core-lesson-plans
"FormSwift is a project dedicated to creating personal and legal templates that are customizable, easy to use, and highly professional."*All three lesson plan templates are free to customize and download - no account sign-up is necessary.
Have your class do a photo montage of their faces to cover their classroom doors. It could be a class-by-class competition. Take up-close pictures of each child's face and have the class design an arts and craft mural with the pictures.
How to Handle the Hard-to-Handle Student
Information taken from the Appelbaum Training Institute, 2003
Post-it tabs: place post-it tabs next to what the student has to do and then when they are done they place the post-it tab in a can
“Sign here”: place a “sign here” tab next to where you want the student to write their name so they don’t forget (prompt and fade technique)
Signature Fun: make writing the student’s name on their paper fun and easy to remember; have students put a star, smiley face, or circle their name
Highlighting: have students highlight their answers when they are done (buy erasable highlighters); highlight the odds or the evens and have the student do only those or fold paper in half
“5 dots”: give students the option of picking five questions they do not want to do and have them put five dot stickers next to them
Stress ball: give kids a stress ball to have at their desk for movement
“Standing Room Only”: give kids the option of standing and doing their work (have a space in the back of the room with a table if possible)
Use colorful clipboards: give kids the option of doing their work on a clipboard
“Two Desk Rule”: give student two desks and they can choose which desk they use; gives them the option of moving around
Private Office: use file folders and give kids a “private office”; can decorate the outside to make it personal
Errands: send kids on errands to get them moving and out of the room
Framing: use a picture frame as a computer screen to help kids focus on their work
Tab Folder (Alias Secret CIA file folder): cut a folder in thirds and allow students to use this to complete their work in sections
Tactile hints: place a piece of fabric, ribbon, carpet on the side of students desk for tactile purposes; cut a piece of mouse pad and put on student’s desk to stop tapping noise
Launching Pad: create a launching pad for kids at home and at school where they get their things ready to go to and from school
Losing lists: if students lose lists, make their lists on a luggage tag and put it on their book bag
Paper clip trick: place 5 paper clips in one pocket and then every time you compliment/reinforce child move one paper clip to other pocket
Portfolio Assessment
Talk to the kids about what skills the class is going to be covering in a given 9-weeks. (there are often times when this changes or additions/ deletions are made... the kids understand this from the beginning.) The class makes a list together of the types of assignments we're likely to do during this "grading" period. This list may also be modified during the 9-weeks.
Generally students file *everything* in their portfolios (each class has a filing cabinet drawer). At the end of the 9 weeks, the students and teacher decide how MANY items should be in the portfolio. They decide if there are certain things EVERY kid must have or if it should ALL be students' choice. There is usually have one major project every 9 weeks and this automatically goes into the portfolio. Also required is one piece be writing that they have drafted at least three times.
The kids then choose which items will remain in the portfolio. This is up to them and up to the guidelines the teacher and the students have established.
Twice a year there are student-led portfolio conferences. The teacher doesn't sit in these but is in the room. There may be 4 conferences going on at once. The class roles play this and practice it a lot before the conferences.
The other two grading periods are a narrative evaluation, looking at both the portfolio work and the child's behavior and progress.
Each piece that goes into the portfolio has its own rubric. Additionally, the kids write reflections on at least 50% of the items in the portfolio. These discuss the process by which the student created the item, problems s/he encountered along the way, further areas to explore/improve, and any other comments the student has on their work.
"Provide a folder for each student with a graphic of a mustard, ketchup, and relish bottle on the folder. This is the 'Must-do, Catch-up, and Relish' or Ketchup, Mustard, and Relish folder. Place all materials that the student needs in the folder - anchor activities, homework, worksheets and notices when the student is absent, and activities or articles that the student might 'relish.' The student then has the responsibility to check the folder on a daily basis. At the secondary level, have a folder for each section or class."
from Dr. Jerry Goldberg, a consultant Teachers 21 in Newton, Massachusetts
Raise Your Grades Club
"I started a Raise Your Grades Club for the third through fifth graders at our school. After each report card, students chart their grades and set goals for their next report card. The students that wish to participate write me a letter telling me which grades they will raise and how. After the next report card, the students who have met their specific goal(s) are invited to a celebration. This club not only recognizes what students are doing right but teaches achievable goal setting."
Barbara Teetor (bteetor@prodigy.net), an achievement specialist at Tyrone Elementary in St. Petersburg, Florida
rubric [n. ROO-brik]
A rubric is an established set of procedures, rules, or customs. An authoritative set of instructions, a rubric can also be used as a guideline for grading. "The professor gave her teaching assistants a rubric to help them grade the students' papers." Rubric can also refer to a heading or any part of a book printed in red to differentiate it from the rest. This is the current usage closest to the original meaning. Rubric is traced back to the Romans who had a system of highlighting important messages in red. The Greeks also printed feast days in red in their calendars (this is where we get red-letter day to describe a special day). The word rubric developed from the Middle English rubrike (a heading in red letters). This was from the French rubrique, which is derived from the Latin rubrica from ruber (red).
Seating plans for group work, video viewing, quiet tests and discussions
from Linda Bryan
Maplewood Middle School, Maplewood, MN
Mode 1: The Center Aisle -- for discussion or book work
As I look at the class, I see a large aisle from front to back of room (in fact, there are two "fronts" to the room, and I stalk between them) with kids seated facing the aisle in five short rows of 3 seats each on my right and my left. I can easily minister to any kid in the room by walking only 3 seats back in the row, tops. I walk back and forth, tapping on any desk of an inattentive kid or helping anyone who's lost. No one hides! In the center aisle seating plan, I set it up so that buddies can't see one another across the aisle. Put one in back corner, the other in front row on the aisle, both on same side. To correct papers in class, just swap paper with "someone you trust" in your 3-person row. Works well. Kids get used to one another, become accepting. Overhead projector stand can be quickly whipped into the aisle without asking anyone to move a desk. Kids have to look to right or left to see screen.
Mode 2: Five groups, quick!
The three-desk groups quickly pull together into two sets of six desks on each side of the aisle, with the two leftover 3-desk sets from the two sides forming the fifth group in center back (this group requires more towing of desk than the others). I assign my seating so that no group has a singleton scholar--I put at least two top achievers in any group that has one top achiever in it. This keeps kids from feeling ill-used when group work occurs, and sometimes I get fabulous work because the group reaches critical mass. Desks can be arranged so the kids face a center, or just informally make
a six-desks-face-same-way quickie pod. Depends on activity. When I take attendance in group, I just ask any group that doesn't have 6 kids, "Who's absent in this group?" The kids tell me. It's faster
than messing with seating charts.
Mode 3: Facing Front for tests, lectures, etc.
All desks are turned 90 degrees left or right so they face front. Voila! Six rows of 5 desks are facing front. Now all the kids who were on the aisle are in the center two rows. Most of the kids who were forced to be in "front seats" are now redefined. It's a break for them and for me.
Mode 4: Facing Sorta Front for video tapes
The desks on the left side of the room face the center aisle, those on right face front of room. Looks odd, but it's easier on kids' necks and we don't have to move as many desks back afterwards.
Student Led Conferences Using Portfolios
1. Students set goals for the semester (personal and academic).
2. Each assignment completed requires a standards based reflection which is placed in a folder of some sort in each content area and kept in that class.
3. A notice is sent home to parents explaining in detail what student-led conferences are.
4. About two weeks before the conference another notice with a shorter definition of SLC and a preferred time is sent home for parents to complete and return.
5. The week before scheduled appointments, a notice is sent home with a description of "what to do" during the conference (i.e. Give your child 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to share his/her portfolio...then 5 minutes of questions...then a team teacher will join you.)
6. When the teacher joins have specific sheets that are completed that include guiding questions about the student's work (strengths and weaknesses...meet goals...why do you think...) and based upon these answers a plan is set up for the next academic semester....Goals...What student needs to do....What the teacher can do to help....What the parent can do to help....
7.All parties sign.
Student-Made Study Guides
Put one piece of butcher paper on the walls for each topic you want to discuss (individual characters, themes, etc). Then divide the class into groups and give each group 1 minute to write as much as they can on each piece of paper. Next go over each piece of paper one at a time, adding things as needed.
by Jamie Dickson
To help students know what to study when preparing for tests, write specific words that will be included in the next quiz on the board. Instruct students to highlight the words or phrases every time they see them in their notes. This procedure helps both students and parents study for what will be on the quiz.
"Whenever I give a major test, the kids have a chance to improve their scores by doing a test autopsy: * Corrections are worth 1/2 point
* Only grades of C or lower can do an autopsy (too many kids wanting to make the A into an A+)
* Students have about a week from the date they get the test back to do the autopsy. (This way they still remember the unit and it can reinforce learning) This date is flexible - usually they're due on a Friday. I post this date on both the calendar and the assignment board.
* Yes, they can take them home, use their books or internet - anything to fix the answers. I never give open book tests (I call those worksheets!) so research may very well be required to fix mistakes. Most kids also refer back to the study sheets I distribute the first day of a unit.
* I request that they make their corrections in a different color than the original (pen vs pencil or blue vs black ink, for example) This makes it easier to recorrect papers. They make their fixes on the original test, too, which makes it handy at conferences.
+ I added a self-reflection piece since I really believe in self-reliance. The requirements are that it be about 1/2 page and focus on behavior. ("I got an F because I didn't study" vs a laundry list of which questions they missed) They also must include a plan to avoid this type of score in the future.
* Kids are not expected to do a test autopsy. For example, I do not assign detention if they don't do one - they just have to keep the grade they earned. In life, if we don't fix our mistakes we can choose to just deal with the consequences instead, like getting fired!"
from Debbie Barber, a sixth grade teacher at Ackerman Middle School in Canby, Oregon
Write each student's name on a large craft stick. Put the sticks into a container labeled "Buddy Sticks". Draw out sticks for student selection. Use Buddy Sticks to group students for cooperative learning activities, classroom helpers, give aways, questioning/answering sessions, and just about anything so students are chosen fairly.
1. Take care of yourself.
2. Take care of others.
3. Take care of materials.
Document every time you call or leave a message for the parent/guardian. Note the date, time, person spoken to, and a summary. You may want to also put any quotes from the conversation. Have each student fills out a form with contacts, etc. and put that in a three ring binder. When a parent is called turn to the back of that student's sheet, and make the notations. Any communication, even if the parent drops in for a visit, is noted. If more room is needed, add another sheet. Put copies of every note sent to a parent with that child's contact form. Any notes received from a parent are also put in the notebook. Copies of disciplinary referrals and trips for time outs in other rooms are also kept with the contact form. Use the notebook at parent conferences.
During the discussion portion of a class, distribute two pennies to every student. Each student must have a comment or question in order to turn in his/her pennies, and they have to turn them in by the end of the discussion. It really worked well, forcing the quiet ones to participate, and limits the eager ones to contemplate their thoughts before spending their pennies.
Every Friday, email the next week's assignment and test schedule, as well as any major due dates coming up, to parents and students. Include any notes on upcoming guest speakers or field trips, or notes on what will be studied in class, done in the lab, etc. It gives parents a way to contact the teacher that is much more convenient than phone tag. The students like having the information available, in case they forget the assignment or miss a school day.
FormSwift - Common Core Lesson Plans: http://formswift.com/common-core-lesson-plans
"FormSwift is a project dedicated to creating personal and legal templates that are customizable, easy to use, and highly professional."*All three lesson plan templates are free to customize and download - no account sign-up is necessary.
Have your class do a photo montage of their faces to cover their classroom doors. It could be a class-by-class competition. Take up-close pictures of each child's face and have the class design an arts and craft mural with the pictures.
How to Handle the Hard-to-Handle Student
Information taken from the Appelbaum Training Institute, 2003
Post-it tabs: place post-it tabs next to what the student has to do and then when they are done they place the post-it tab in a can
“Sign here”: place a “sign here” tab next to where you want the student to write their name so they don’t forget (prompt and fade technique)
Signature Fun: make writing the student’s name on their paper fun and easy to remember; have students put a star, smiley face, or circle their name
Highlighting: have students highlight their answers when they are done (buy erasable highlighters); highlight the odds or the evens and have the student do only those or fold paper in half
“5 dots”: give students the option of picking five questions they do not want to do and have them put five dot stickers next to them
Stress ball: give kids a stress ball to have at their desk for movement
“Standing Room Only”: give kids the option of standing and doing their work (have a space in the back of the room with a table if possible)
Use colorful clipboards: give kids the option of doing their work on a clipboard
“Two Desk Rule”: give student two desks and they can choose which desk they use; gives them the option of moving around
Private Office: use file folders and give kids a “private office”; can decorate the outside to make it personal
Errands: send kids on errands to get them moving and out of the room
Framing: use a picture frame as a computer screen to help kids focus on their work
Tab Folder (Alias Secret CIA file folder): cut a folder in thirds and allow students to use this to complete their work in sections
Tactile hints: place a piece of fabric, ribbon, carpet on the side of students desk for tactile purposes; cut a piece of mouse pad and put on student’s desk to stop tapping noise
Launching Pad: create a launching pad for kids at home and at school where they get their things ready to go to and from school
Losing lists: if students lose lists, make their lists on a luggage tag and put it on their book bag
Paper clip trick: place 5 paper clips in one pocket and then every time you compliment/reinforce child move one paper clip to other pocket
Portfolio Assessment
Talk to the kids about what skills the class is going to be covering in a given 9-weeks. (there are often times when this changes or additions/ deletions are made... the kids understand this from the beginning.) The class makes a list together of the types of assignments we're likely to do during this "grading" period. This list may also be modified during the 9-weeks.
Generally students file *everything* in their portfolios (each class has a filing cabinet drawer). At the end of the 9 weeks, the students and teacher decide how MANY items should be in the portfolio. They decide if there are certain things EVERY kid must have or if it should ALL be students' choice. There is usually have one major project every 9 weeks and this automatically goes into the portfolio. Also required is one piece be writing that they have drafted at least three times.
The kids then choose which items will remain in the portfolio. This is up to them and up to the guidelines the teacher and the students have established.
Twice a year there are student-led portfolio conferences. The teacher doesn't sit in these but is in the room. There may be 4 conferences going on at once. The class roles play this and practice it a lot before the conferences.
The other two grading periods are a narrative evaluation, looking at both the portfolio work and the child's behavior and progress.
Each piece that goes into the portfolio has its own rubric. Additionally, the kids write reflections on at least 50% of the items in the portfolio. These discuss the process by which the student created the item, problems s/he encountered along the way, further areas to explore/improve, and any other comments the student has on their work.
"Provide a folder for each student with a graphic of a mustard, ketchup, and relish bottle on the folder. This is the 'Must-do, Catch-up, and Relish' or Ketchup, Mustard, and Relish folder. Place all materials that the student needs in the folder - anchor activities, homework, worksheets and notices when the student is absent, and activities or articles that the student might 'relish.' The student then has the responsibility to check the folder on a daily basis. At the secondary level, have a folder for each section or class."
from Dr. Jerry Goldberg, a consultant Teachers 21 in Newton, Massachusetts
Raise Your Grades Club
"I started a Raise Your Grades Club for the third through fifth graders at our school. After each report card, students chart their grades and set goals for their next report card. The students that wish to participate write me a letter telling me which grades they will raise and how. After the next report card, the students who have met their specific goal(s) are invited to a celebration. This club not only recognizes what students are doing right but teaches achievable goal setting."
Barbara Teetor (bteetor@prodigy.net), an achievement specialist at Tyrone Elementary in St. Petersburg, Florida
rubric [n. ROO-brik]
A rubric is an established set of procedures, rules, or customs. An authoritative set of instructions, a rubric can also be used as a guideline for grading. "The professor gave her teaching assistants a rubric to help them grade the students' papers." Rubric can also refer to a heading or any part of a book printed in red to differentiate it from the rest. This is the current usage closest to the original meaning. Rubric is traced back to the Romans who had a system of highlighting important messages in red. The Greeks also printed feast days in red in their calendars (this is where we get red-letter day to describe a special day). The word rubric developed from the Middle English rubrike (a heading in red letters). This was from the French rubrique, which is derived from the Latin rubrica from ruber (red).
Seating plans for group work, video viewing, quiet tests and discussions
from Linda Bryan
Maplewood Middle School, Maplewood, MN
Mode 1: The Center Aisle -- for discussion or book work
As I look at the class, I see a large aisle from front to back of room (in fact, there are two "fronts" to the room, and I stalk between them) with kids seated facing the aisle in five short rows of 3 seats each on my right and my left. I can easily minister to any kid in the room by walking only 3 seats back in the row, tops. I walk back and forth, tapping on any desk of an inattentive kid or helping anyone who's lost. No one hides! In the center aisle seating plan, I set it up so that buddies can't see one another across the aisle. Put one in back corner, the other in front row on the aisle, both on same side. To correct papers in class, just swap paper with "someone you trust" in your 3-person row. Works well. Kids get used to one another, become accepting. Overhead projector stand can be quickly whipped into the aisle without asking anyone to move a desk. Kids have to look to right or left to see screen.
Mode 2: Five groups, quick!
The three-desk groups quickly pull together into two sets of six desks on each side of the aisle, with the two leftover 3-desk sets from the two sides forming the fifth group in center back (this group requires more towing of desk than the others). I assign my seating so that no group has a singleton scholar--I put at least two top achievers in any group that has one top achiever in it. This keeps kids from feeling ill-used when group work occurs, and sometimes I get fabulous work because the group reaches critical mass. Desks can be arranged so the kids face a center, or just informally make
a six-desks-face-same-way quickie pod. Depends on activity. When I take attendance in group, I just ask any group that doesn't have 6 kids, "Who's absent in this group?" The kids tell me. It's faster
than messing with seating charts.
Mode 3: Facing Front for tests, lectures, etc.
All desks are turned 90 degrees left or right so they face front. Voila! Six rows of 5 desks are facing front. Now all the kids who were on the aisle are in the center two rows. Most of the kids who were forced to be in "front seats" are now redefined. It's a break for them and for me.
Mode 4: Facing Sorta Front for video tapes
The desks on the left side of the room face the center aisle, those on right face front of room. Looks odd, but it's easier on kids' necks and we don't have to move as many desks back afterwards.
Student Led Conferences Using Portfolios
1. Students set goals for the semester (personal and academic).
2. Each assignment completed requires a standards based reflection which is placed in a folder of some sort in each content area and kept in that class.
3. A notice is sent home to parents explaining in detail what student-led conferences are.
4. About two weeks before the conference another notice with a shorter definition of SLC and a preferred time is sent home for parents to complete and return.
5. The week before scheduled appointments, a notice is sent home with a description of "what to do" during the conference (i.e. Give your child 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to share his/her portfolio...then 5 minutes of questions...then a team teacher will join you.)
6. When the teacher joins have specific sheets that are completed that include guiding questions about the student's work (strengths and weaknesses...meet goals...why do you think...) and based upon these answers a plan is set up for the next academic semester....Goals...What student needs to do....What the teacher can do to help....What the parent can do to help....
7.All parties sign.
Student-Made Study Guides
Put one piece of butcher paper on the walls for each topic you want to discuss (individual characters, themes, etc). Then divide the class into groups and give each group 1 minute to write as much as they can on each piece of paper. Next go over each piece of paper one at a time, adding things as needed.
by Jamie Dickson
To help students know what to study when preparing for tests, write specific words that will be included in the next quiz on the board. Instruct students to highlight the words or phrases every time they see them in their notes. This procedure helps both students and parents study for what will be on the quiz.
"Whenever I give a major test, the kids have a chance to improve their scores by doing a test autopsy: * Corrections are worth 1/2 point
* Only grades of C or lower can do an autopsy (too many kids wanting to make the A into an A+)
* Students have about a week from the date they get the test back to do the autopsy. (This way they still remember the unit and it can reinforce learning) This date is flexible - usually they're due on a Friday. I post this date on both the calendar and the assignment board.
* Yes, they can take them home, use their books or internet - anything to fix the answers. I never give open book tests (I call those worksheets!) so research may very well be required to fix mistakes. Most kids also refer back to the study sheets I distribute the first day of a unit.
* I request that they make their corrections in a different color than the original (pen vs pencil or blue vs black ink, for example) This makes it easier to recorrect papers. They make their fixes on the original test, too, which makes it handy at conferences.
+ I added a self-reflection piece since I really believe in self-reliance. The requirements are that it be about 1/2 page and focus on behavior. ("I got an F because I didn't study" vs a laundry list of which questions they missed) They also must include a plan to avoid this type of score in the future.
* Kids are not expected to do a test autopsy. For example, I do not assign detention if they don't do one - they just have to keep the grade they earned. In life, if we don't fix our mistakes we can choose to just deal with the consequences instead, like getting fired!"
from Debbie Barber, a sixth grade teacher at Ackerman Middle School in Canby, Oregon
Write each student's name on a large craft stick. Put the sticks into a container labeled "Buddy Sticks". Draw out sticks for student selection. Use Buddy Sticks to group students for cooperative learning activities, classroom helpers, give aways, questioning/answering sessions, and just about anything so students are chosen fairly.