Believe You Can Succeed

This year, a new word has become a major part of our vocabulary in my 4th grade classroom.

It's a simple word, really, but it hold so much power.

The word?

One tiny, three letter word has made all the difference.

"I don't get it" becomes "I don't get it...yet."

"I'm not finished...yet."

"I can't figure it out...yet."

"I can't do it...yet."

Adding the word "yet" to the end of these sentences establishes a growth mindset for my young learners.  "Yet" tells the student that with hard work and perseverance, they can succeed. It puts them in control. It encourages them to keep going, that learning something new is within reach, that hard work can pay off.

Before, students would say "I don't get it" (my favorite), giving themselves permission to avoid hard work.  When I began introducing the word "yet", students would need a few reminders to add it on.  Now, it is a natural part of our classroom conversation.

A funny story...Last week, I was helping a student with a long division problem.  I had been working with this student almost every day to help him learn how to divide, but he just wasn't catching on.  He was having much difficulty and was trying to explain to me where he was having trouble.  He explained his thinking as he pointed to the digits in the division problem, but I was becoming more and more confused at what he was trying to do.  I said, "I'm sorry...but I don't understand you."  He responded, "Mrs. Laffin, you don't understand me...yet."  Ahhh...giving me a taste of my own medicine.  :)

Try introducing the word "yet" in your classroom and see what happens.  I'd love to hear how it goes!

Collaboration & Gray Area Kids

We had our data retreat today.  About two or three times a year, we gather together as a grade level team, along with our principal, the reading and math specialists, our ELL teacher, and the school psychologist to look over the interventions we are offering to students and to discuss how everything is going.

These are long meetings -- about 75 minutes per grade level -- however, the time is well spent when the focus is on student achievement.  I love that so many people are invested in the success of our students and are committed to this collaboration.

Source:  www.venspired.com

This time around, we were also encouraged to think about those students who are in that 'gray area.'  These are the students that are proficient enough in class that they are getting by -- not your high fliers or your red-flagged kids. We all have them in our classes. They don't usually get consistently high grades, may be appear to be unmotivated, sometimes can be behavior challenges, and usually will not ask for help when they need it.

In the younger grades, they were probably your higher students.  The students who "got it" quickly, allowing you time to work with those that didn't.  However, as they moved up in the grade levels and the material got harder and harder and the work became more about reading to learn and not learning to read, the gaps in their learning start to surface and they begin to slip. This usually happens around 4th grade.

So today we took a hard look at those students as well as our red-flagged kiddos.  What can we do to help fill in those holes that they have in their learning to help push them higher?  If we don't catch them now, they may slide with every passing year.

We scheduled some classroom interventions that may give them the push they need.  But I am still unsettled a bit...

We want to think outside the box, come up with something that will reach these kids.  Will it be an intervention?  Maybe.  A different instructional approach?  Possibly.  More one-on-one conferencing?  Perhaps.

We are lucky that we have the power of a team behind us in all of us that gathered today to have this important discussion.  If we keep at it, I'm sure we will find the key.

                                                        Source: http://epherielldesigns.com/20-pretty-free-printables 

How about you?  How do you reach your gray area kids?  How has collaboration helped you?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Writing -- Help Wanted?

I am so excited!  Yesterday was the first meeting for the National Writing Project's Summer Institute at UW-M.  I am so lucky to be a part of this program this July.  (You can read my original post about this program here.)  I can't wait to get started!!

Yesterday I found out that I need to start thinking about an area of writing instruction that I would like to research.  I have some thoughts rolling around in the back of my brain, but since part of this program is to learn how to provide professional development in writing to my fellow teachers, I thought I would throw this one out to all of you for your feedback.

So.....I am asking for you to think about your writing instruction. 

• Does it make you click your heels together or cringe in fear? 
•  Is it the best part of your teaching day or the worst part?  Is it a part at all???
•  Are you prepared to incorporate the Common Core Standards into your instruction?
•  Are your students active participants in their growth as writers?
•  Do you feel comfortable conferencing with your writers?
•  Want to learn more about writing across the curriculum?
•  Can you connect a student's life as a writer to their life as a reader?
•  Are you able to find professional development in writing?
•  Is there something else that you want to know more about? 

I would really, really, really appreciate it (is that begging??) if you would leave me a quick comment below to let me know what your response is.  No response is too small or insignificant.  I will consider EVERY comment as I narrow down my topic.  Thanks in advance for your help!!  :)

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Leaving My Comfort Zone

Happy weekend everybody! 

This year I have been trying really hard to help my students develop more responsibility and accountability for their learning.  Early in the year, I began researching problem based learning strategies and tried to incorporate them in some of my projects.  While this required much more planning, and sometimes "thinking" on my part, I felt it was well worth the effort. 

When I think about the classrooms I had when I was growing up, I remember the teacher standing at the front of the room doing 95% of the talking and completing 95% of my daily work on a worksheet or workbook.  When I became a teacher five years ago, I thought that was the only way to teach.  It was a huge shock to me to see that there was a different way -- a better way -- to teach.  I have wrestled with finding this better way and am beginning to feel like I am getting there.

As a teacher, my goal is to inspire my students to become lifelong learners.  I feel that this cannot be accomplished by me being the "sage on the stage" and telling my kids exactly what they need to know.  I want them to learn how to discover, how to wonder, how to ask questions, how to search out answers, how to take their learning farther.  I want to be their supporter, their advisor, their mentor, and their cheerleader.  Perhaps this is why I have embraced math workshop and writers workshop so much -- because it puts the kids in control and makes them more responsible for their learning.

I understand that giving up this control can be very scary.  It's easy to say that it is just too much work or would take too much time.  I get that.  However, I have seen firsthand that when I put my students in charge of their learning, AMAZING things happen.  Behavior issues virtually disappear because every student is engaged.  There is a feeling of electricity in the air when students are working because they see the value in what they are doing.

Today I came across an AMAZING blog that inspired me to write this post.  I hope you will head over to Venspired to get some inspiration of your own.  Here is a little something of hers that should get you thinking...

What are your thoughts?

I'll Be Doing a Little Writing

I am soooo excited!  I found out last week that I have been accepted to participate in the UW-Milwaukee Invitational Summer Writing Institute this July. This program, which is an affiliate of the National Writing Project, is a three week intensive study of the teaching of writing with the goal of helping students become better writers and teachers become better teachers of writing.

One of my frustrations in my teaching career has been how very little preparation there is available to help teachers become better writing teachers.  When I went to school to get my teaching license, I took classes in how to teach reading, math, science, social studies and art...but NO class on how to teach writing.  My experience has shown me that I am not the only teacher who struggles with effective ways to deliver writing instruction.   I even know of teachers who are hesitant to teach writing because they don't know how or don't feel like they are good enough writers themselves....Yikes!  This is very scary stuff! 

I am the kind of teacher who is pretty self-driven in the professional development area.  A few years ago, I began to research better ways to teach writing and came across the writing workshop format.  Thankfully, due to fabulous writing experts like Ralph Fletcher and Regie Routman, I have figured out something that works for me and helps my students grow as writers.  If you would like to learn more about writing workshop, here are two books that I found EXTREMELY helpful:

Writing Workshop by Ralph Fletcher

                 

Writing Essentials by Regie Routman

So....This summer I will be learning more about effective writing instruction and will become a teacher consultant for the National Writing Project.  This means I will be able to help other teachers improve their writing instruction and have the confidence to teach writing every day.  The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) place a renewed emphasis on developing strong writing and communication skills in our youth.  The CCSS encourage writing in all subject areas, regardless of whether or not you consider yourself a teacher of writing.  They recognize that reading and writing go hand in hand to deliver balanced literacy instruction.  This means we will need to provide more professional development and support for teachers in regards to writing instruction as we continue this journey, so that all teachers feel confident in their writing instruction and our students reap the rewards. 

How prepared do you feel? 

                   

Math Workshop -- The Answer to My Math Prayers

Have you tried math workshop or guided math yet?  I'll have to admit, they have been on my very long "to do" list this year.  I have heard so many fabulous things about it from other bloggers, yet I felt I was not quite ready to try it.  That all changed when I read Guided Math by Laney Sammons last month.

Oh. my. gosh!  Did my life as a teacher of math change.  If you haven't read this book, you must put it on your reading list for spring break.  (Does anyone else read professional development books on school vacations besides me???) 

For those of you already doing guided reading, this will be right up your alley!  Laney breaks down the how and the what of guided math and makes it super easy for you to begin working with small groups during math class.  It fits so perfectly into a math workshop that I am kicking myself for not trying this sooner!

My fourth graders just finished up a unit on decimals using the guided math/math workshop approach and I am so amazed with how well my kiddos did on the end of unit assessment!

I have rearranged my schedule to provide for about 90 minutes of math time.  (This was not easy, but it was important to me so I made it work.)  Students would rotate around four stations (Teacher Time, Independent Work, Math Facts and Math Fun) for about 20 minutes each.  During Teacher Time, I was able to work with my students in a small group setting to give semi-individualized instruction. 

For decimals, I used the math manipulatives (flat = one whole, sticks = 0.10 and blocks = 0.01) to have students model solutions to problems.  It was absolutely amazing!   It was so easy to see when my students "got it" and when they were just pretending.  As a teacher, there is nothing better than when I hear a student say, "Ohhhhhh.....now I get it!" as they are working through math concepts.  And I know that my students LOVED it because they begged me not to go back to the "old way" when we finished our decimals unit.  (Yes, that "old way" is the way I was taught back in the day -- "Sage on the Stage," teacher-centered, student-unengaged instruction.)

There are lots of great math workshop sources out there on the web...I will blog more about them later!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of math workshop or Guided Math.  If you have any web resources to share, let me know.   I'd love to hear from you!