Blog Posts

"Close Your Eyes and Visualize"

10/14/2018

Attending to the details in a story helps a reader to visualize the setting, characters and plot. If you have students that struggle with this process, try the Director’s Clapboard Visualization strategy.

Obtain a Director’s Clapboard (they are available at all different price points) or make one out of cardboard.
Show it to students and explain how a writer and a director have to clearly describe what they want their set and costume designers and actors to do before they begin.
Teach students the following chant “Close your eyes and visualize.” Explain that you will say that phrase and then clap the board, which means they are to close their eyes and picture an image as your read aloud some text.
Read the following sentence aloud – “The firefighter went down the hall.”
Direct students to open their eyes. Ask the following questions and allow for discussion.

Did you picture a man or a woman?
Was the firefighter wearing a uniform?
Where was the hall that you pictured? School? A home? An office building?
Did you imagine smoke or flames?

Explain that the original sentence didn’t have any of these details, so it could have been a female firefighter in her pajamas walking from her bedroom to her kitchen. It is the details that make the story difference.
Continue by reading each of the following aloud, allowing discussion in between.

Emerging from a cloud of menacing gray smoke, the firefighter quickly scanned right, then left, searching for animals she could carry out of the building.
“Goal!” shouted the fans as the small but powerful forward kicked the ball past the goalie and into the net.
Lee pulled on the thick, scratchy long underwear and a heavy beaver coat before heading out to hook up the horse and buggy.
He awoke to the click-clack of a typewriter, the aroma of coffee and the gentle “ahem” of someone standing at his door.

If desired, you can tie this lesson into a writing activity, asking students to find a sentence in their own writing that could benefit from some extra detail. Provide them with the Director’s Clapboard worksheet and ask them to revise it.

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What Do Crime Scenes and Expository Texts Have in Common?

9/30/2018

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What do crime scenes and expository texts have in common? Students investigated this question today during literacy.

1. We started with setting up a crime scene using crime scene tape, a half-empty bag of snacks, scissors covered in orange dust and my co-teacher with orange dusted fingertips.

2. We discussed how detectives use tools to find evidence, and then distributed “TSI” (Text Scene Investigation) tools.

3. Three leveled groups investigated the same text for different things, based on their learning needs and the lesson target.

Students were highly engaged and even made unprompted requests for the tools the very next day!

If you would like to try something like this, you can download the lesson plan and the TSI tool here.

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Engaging Students with Higher Level Thinking and Rule Breaking

9/17/2018

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Writing on the desk is off limits in most classrooms - which is probably why students try to get away with it! These high school co-teachers decided to let their students break the rules using dry erase markers to capture their thinking.

The economics lesson was on the general principals of supply and demand. After presenting a mini-lecture and review of vocabulary, they asked each student to draw an object of their choosing that could serve as a metaphor or visual analogy for the ideas. Students were highly engaged in drawing and explaining their thinking to peers and the co-teachers.

Think of a concept that you'll be teaching in the next few weeks that would lend itself to a visual analogy. With younger students, you will need to model the process with your own object. Then encourage them to think of alternate objects that could also represent the concept. Hesitant to have students draw on the desks? Use whiteboards, paper plates, napkins or some other unusual surface to make it novel and engaging.

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4 Great Questions to Ask During Math Instruction (and maybe other content areas!)

8/12/2018

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My summer reading list was long and filled with wonderful resources. One reading project included catching up on all the wonderful articles in ASCD’s Educational Leadership journal and their online supplements. One of my favorites was an article called “Questioning and Vocabulary Supports that Inspire Language-Rich Mathematics,” by Sue O’Connell. O’Connell shared several great questions, but I particularly liked the following:

What keeps happening? Why?
What patterns do you see?
What is the rule?
Will it always work? Explain.

Recognizing patterns is considered an essential ability for higher-level thinking. To encourage this, you might try printing out Pattern Searches, laminate a few and have them ready to hand out when you want to challenge students.

What's your favorite question to get students thinking at higher levels?

O’Connell, S. 2018. “Questioning and vocabulary supports that inspire language-rich mathematics” in Educational Leadership, July 26, (13) 22.

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Do Co-Teachers Need an Interior Decorator?

8/6/2018

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With the beginning of a new school year right around the corner, co-teachers across the country are talking to their partners and setting norms for their teamwork. One key discussion item, often overlooked, is the classroom environment. What works for a solo classroom may not work as well for a co-taught class. While you probably don’t need an interior decorator, you will want to talk through the following questions:

Does our room communicate parity to the students? Do both teachers have desks of equal size? If there isn’t space for two desks, do both teachers have equal access to the desk and necessary materials?
Are both teachers’ names listed at the door, on the board and on the syllabus? How are we communicating to our students that this is “our” classroom?
Is the room set up in such a way that two groups can be taught simultaneously with both teachers having access to a whiteboard? Do we need to dedicate a board in the back of the room for small group instruction rather than decorations? Do we need to ask for an additional whiteboard?
Are student desks arranged to allow for both teachers to move easily through the room? Are there multiple ways to quickly pull chairs for small group instruction at stations?
Do we have any dividers that can be used to dampen sound or distractions during small group work?

With a few minutes of intentional discussion, your co-teaching space can help to support student success all year long.

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Manage Your Small Group Instruction with These Teaching Tips

7/13/2018

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Small group instruction can be a highly effective way to help students learn. But when a teacher is working with a small number of students, the rest have to be able to work independently. Here are three clever ideas from a co-taught classroom at Salina Intermediate School.

1. Students have been taught to respect the stop sign and only approach the teacher if it is an emergency.

2. Students have access to an answer sheet, hidden in a “Confidential Envelope.”

3. The co-teachers post very clear directions about what to do if students finish early, including a reflection task.

It was a pleasure to watch these students and teachers go smoothly through their small groups with the help of these organizational structures.

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Power Up Your Co-Teaching

7/2/2018

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Looking for ideas to power up your co-teaching? Here's a podcast to listen to while sitting in the sun or taking a walk this summer. Enjoy!
http://bit.ly/2tD3Ns3

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Practical Idea for Peer-to-Peer Assistance

6/17/2018

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Many teachers attempt small group instruction, only to be interrupted by the "independent" workers with questions. A 5th grade teacher in Dearborn, MI uses an easy idea to promote peers as a source of assistance.

On one of the white boards in the room, there is a two column chart. Any student who gets stuck while working independently can get out of their seat, go up to the board and write their name in the left column and their question or need in the right column. Other students who are working independently can glance at the board to see the questions. If there is a question they feel they can answer, they have permission to go to the student's desk. If the two students are able to solve the problem, the peer helper erases it from the board on the way back to his or her seat.

I was impressed with how smoothly this system worked in the classroom and I love that it elevated students to peer helpers. As an added bonus, the teacher gets to work with her small group without interruptions.

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Simple Summer Project with Big Fall Payoff

6/3/2018

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Many students need to fidget while learning. Rather than fight the need, effective teachers find ways to channel it. Here's an idea I got from a teacher in Michigan - Marble Mazes. Students fiddle with the Marble Maze, moving the marble around quietly.

How to:

Buy ⅓ of a yard of fleece. Cut it in half lengthwise, then cut each piece into 6 inch squares. It should yield 16 pieces.
Obtain 8 marbles or ball bearings.
Put two pieces of cloth together and sew* three edges closed.
Insert the marble.
Sew the fourth side closed.
Sew a maze pattern into the cloth, as in the photo. If you are creative you can try other maze patterns for some variety.

In less than an hour I was able to make 8 mazes. I consider this an investment with big payoffs ahead!

*If you don't sew, I bet you know a parent or friend who does. A one hour project would be a nice way for them to do some volunteer service.

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Keep Their Focus with Tools Like This!

5/21/2018

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Many of our students are challenged by focusing on details in text or their own work. I love to recommend using Focus Tools as a way to provide support, and add some visual and tactile interaction to student work. In my workshops and webinars, I often share the following examples.

This week I received an email from Kirsten, a teacher at Holyoke High School. She had taken my suggestion to heart and created her own twist on the Focus Tool for teaching linear equations. I love that she could apply it to her own work in order to help students. Thanks, Kirsten, for all you do!