MAP TESTING

Wow! It is that time of year for the end of the year testing. My class just took the reading MAP test and I had 17 pass their goal and 6 not meet their goal. 2 of the six missed their goal by one or two points. I am really impressed with the grow of my students. I have been out on leave after having a baby and have been gone for the past 3 months. It is amazing to see the growth in the students after being gone for so long. The students were just starting to build their fluency and comprehension when I left. They have come along way over the year. My sub and I have really focused on mini-lessons with the students. We have used anchor charts with the objectives on them to help guide and focus the students with their learning. I have found this to be a great idea just posting them on your anchor chart. This was something that was taught and talked about this summer at the Lit. Institute. This has made me focus my lessons and not make them long or drawn out. We will be taking the Math MAP test next week. I hope the students do as well on this. I am not really sure how well I have been teaching the vocab. Does anyone have any suggestions about teaching math vocab in the future? Good luck to everyone else with all the testing at the end of the year. It is fun to see the growth!

UPDATE: Letters to Parents about height and weight

Earlier I posted that we were having some concerns from a few parents about measuring their child's height and weight in our physical education class. After further discussion and suggestions from administration, it was decided that we'd send home a letter to the parents allowing them to take their own child's height and weight and submitting it to us at school.

Reading by 3rd grade

I've recently come across another statistic (forgot the name of the source, but I've read/heard this before as well) that if students are not at grade level for reading by the end of third grade, then they are likely to be behind the rest of their life in regards to reading skills.

In your experience, what do you think? Although I haven't studied more statistics, I would be willing to agree with that statement. However, I do think that children and adults always have the potential to progress and improve their reading skills without a doubt.

With my second graders, more than half of my class this year came in below grade level expectations in regards to reading. Although I have a long term sub for the end of the school year, after she DRA tests, I'm willing to guess that at least half of those students (so a 1/4 of my students) will still be below reading expectations. As sad as that is, I have to remember and acknowledge that they all improved SO much, and many made leaps and bounds of progress.

Thoughts?

FitnessGram & Awards ZONE VS. STANDARD

In physical education in Shakopee, we've been in the transition of switching from Presidential Physical Fitness testing to the FitnessGram. One of the disappointments for our students for the FitnessGram is that they do not receive an award for achieving a specific standard as they used to for Presidential Fitness testing. I've contemplated printing certificates, buying some sort of award or creating our own Shakopee patch for the kids. Some students keep the patches and put them on their letter jacket or post them in their room as a keep-sake. It is something that they really look forward to and I believe it increases their over-all motivation and work ethic towards physical fitness testing. The FitnessGram outlines a "healthy fitness zone" for our students whereas the Presidential Physical Fitness testing provides a national standard for a specific age group that allows us to measure their overall physical fitness according to the standard.

I struggle with the concept of a "zone" vs. a "standard" because I think it can lower the expectations we should have for student physical fitness. Students are expected to reach specific standards within the classroom, why can't this be the same within the physical education setting? Every year we have to make A.Y.P and students are given awards to celebrate academic excellence, but the issue becomes much more sensitive when it is applied to the physical education setting because in physical education the term has been coined "everyone is a winner." The reality of life is EVERYONE IS NOT A WINNER. There will be times when you win, times when you lose. Times when you face set-backs or perform poorly when it matters most. Enabling our students to develop the "everyone is a winner" mentality does not make for active citizens in society that are resilient, self-motivating, optimistic, determined or confident. Having that mentality is not realistic or true. We need to teach our students how to handle set-backs and provide them the tools to handle the occasional bumps in the road. We must continue to set our expectations high through all subject levels and provide our students the tools to reach them.

Literacy in PE

I have not been incorporating literacy into PE lately... It wasn't until recently that I came up with a simple idea. At the end of PE, my students sit on class lines to wait for their teacher to pick them up. I instructed my students to clean-up and told them to hustle because I had questions to ask them. I then told them I was going to give them a word that I wanted them to spell and if they got it correct, they would get a sticker and they'd get to go to the front of their class line (this is a HUGE deal to go to the front of the class line : ) ) I asked them to spell simple words that they should all know and I incorporated challenge words as well. I was pleased to see how eager they all were to answer. I will definitely incorporate this into my daily routine and the closure of my lesson.

Chapter Books for High Readers

Currently, I am trying to keep my highest reading group in books. They are flying through Sharon Creech and Kate DiCamillo.
The readers have rich discussions and great writings on what they have been reading and thinking. Each student has a file folder so I can see how the reflecting changes over the course of the book.
This group just finished The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo. Anyone have any suggestions on what else to challenge them with now?
One of the readers came up with the idea to write letters to the author telling her what book of hers is their favorite and requesting that she come visit our school. I love when they want to take it deeper!

Observing other Classes

This afternoon I had the opportunity to go to Red Oak and observe the P.E classes there. I wish we had more chances to do this. I felt like I learned a lot of great ideas and it's fun to see all the different teaching styles. I observed a game that is very similar to one we do at Eagle Creek; however they added a different twist to it that I wouldn't have thought of.

I also want to observe other specialists and classroom teachers. I want to see the students and how they act and behave in a different environment. I also want to see the different teaching styles, management protocols and rules, and learn different attention getting ideas. There is so much we can learn from our colleagues; we just aren't given many opportunities to do so by having quality observations.

Taking your time on the MCAs

Happy Testing Shakopee Teachers!

We are on our 3rd day of testing at Sun Path.  We are testing the Reading MCA.  My kids are doing great and are really trying their best. I am very proud of them.  Of course, I have the occasional students who are speeding through the test and spend the rest of the time sitting there staring at the wall. In fourth grade we have the students sit at their desks rather that work on something or read afterwards. This has helped with kids taking their time as there is nothing to "rush" for.

Any ideas how to motivate my speedy test takers to slow down? Today, I think I may require all books to stay open until a certain time.

Leann

Extension Activites for Literature Circles

 Right now I am working on planning effective ways for my students to demonstrate what they have learned from their book.  Our main focus on our last literature cicle was Story Elements. I plan to suggest a variety of projects to accommodate all learning styles in my classroom.

Here are the projects that I plan to have my students choose from.

1. Flip Book- This flip book has 8 flaps, setting, main idea, main character, title and author, vocabulary word, favorite part, problem and solution.

2. Cereal Box book report- front of box- title and author, back- setting, side- problem and solution, side- main idea or theme

Any other ideas???

I would love to hear about anything else that has worked for other teachers for projects to conclude literature circles.

Teachable Moment

After returning from spring break, I was asking some of my PE classes what they did over spring break that was active or fun. I was scanning my class and noticed one of my students got her hair cut significantly. I made the comment that she did and she was beaming. She said she donated her hair to Locks of Love. Some of my male students reacted by saying "ick" or "yuck." I knew I couldn't let this moment pass without some further explanation. What she had done wasn't the least bit disgusting, but rather a self-less act of kindness. I asked her to come up and stand by me in front of the class. I asked my class if anyone knew what Locks of Love was all about? One of my students explained "It is when you cut your hair and you donate your locks, which is your hair to kids who don't have any." I explained further that often times cancer patient lose their hair. People donate their hair and it is used to make wigs. I told them that there are many people who grow their hair out and donate it for this cause and that it wasn't gross. I told them that instead of wasting your hair and throwing it away, you could actually help out other people by donating it. It was an interesting opportunity to teach my students about helping others. It's neat when these moments happen unexpectedly and your students can learn a valuable life lesson.

TRACK AND FIELD DAY T-SHIRTS

At Sweeney we usually get a packet of information about different t-shirt designs for track and field day. This year my co-worker and I were not totally thrilled with any of the designs, so we challenged our students to creating their own designs and we made a contest out of it. We received probably 50+ designs from students. We allowed them to work as individuals or in groups and encouraged them to turn in multiple designs. We received some high quality work and it was fun to see our students creativity. We then chose the top 5 designs and then had our students vote for their favorite design. Our winning design was: Sweeney Track and Field 2011 (Picture of a saber in the middle) Taking it to the limits! Sweeney 11 (On the back like a jersey) * I'll try to get a picture of designs up soon!

Literature Circles Assessment

Okay so now that my students are all familiar with the Literature Circle packets that I have given to them, I need to find an appropriate way to assess them and give them a letter grade.  In fourth grade, we give letter grades and it is important to provide rubrics to show our resoning for giving the grade. I am struggling because sometimes I feel that the grading for this is so subjective. I have been researching online for rubrics and other ideas to assess literature circles but all I am finding is self-assessment by the individual student. Does anyone have any ideas as far as a teacher assessment/rubric? Here is a student self assessment that I found and liked.

4—always 3—usually 2—sometimes 1—rarely

I am prepared for each session of the literature circle.

I participate in discussions and take turns.

I listen attentively.

I see clarification when needed from group members.

I respond to group members with appropriate input.

I make predictions as I read.

I use information from the text and from my own background knowledge to make

sense of the reading.

I make connections between the text and real world

I understand key information from the selection.

I learn new words when reading and use appropriate strategies to determine their

meaning.

I ask myself questions about the text selections I read.

Asking yourself (or the text) questions

I know the difference between fact and opinion.

I can visualize many parts of what I read.

I support my thoughts and ideas with information from myself, information from

the reading and information from other reading I’ve done.

I add supporting details in both writing and discussion.

I add detail to my writing with descriptive language.

Using sketches and illustrations to spark or extend ideas.

Where can I improve and why?__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Assessment binder

I made my assesment binder for this year by having a tab for each student and keeping their papers after the tab. I am finding the binger is too big and is not useful. Any ideas on how to better keep an assessment binder?

Also, for conferring with students I tried the clipboard and notecards but found that too time consuming when a card needed to be switched out. Any ideas on how to keep notes on students? I switched to a journal, but with the flex groups for reading, I find that digging through the notebook can be just as time consuming.

Let me know if you have something that works well for you!

Literacy in PE Put on the Back Burner

With the addition of all our new assessments and finding new ways to evaluate our students, I feel I have not been able to find much time to incorporate literacy activities into our PE classes. This is something I was very passionate about last year and spent a lot of time developing and creating materials for various literacy warm-ups and activities. Now there just does not seem to be enough time in a 50 minute class and in the school year for everything! How do we find time when our curriculum is already full and we still need to add more assessments and activities?!

Pictures from earlier post. Let me know if you have any ideas how to decrease the clutter ;o) Thank you!