Responsibility

At the beginning of my 4th grade recorder unit a month or so ago, the students and I brainstormed strategies they could use to be sure they always had their recorders at school on music days:
- Keep their recorders in their backpacks anytime they aren't practicing, so they know it's at school every day.
- Put a sticker or other mark on their lunch calendar on every cycle day they have music.
- Make a note in their planners of every music day.

Many of my students have embraced these strategies and been very responsible about having their materials at school for every music class, but I have two gentlemen who haven't had a recorder at school in weeks and another student who still hasn't even given the order form to her family!  I helped them brainstorm ways to remember, we discussed the logical consequences of not being able to practice their recorders to prepare for playing assessments, and I contacted home to clarify my expectations to their families and offer my assistance in helping these families support their children.  Nothing seems to be working.

In past years, I have had a very specific procedure for how to handle forgotten recorders:
1st offense: Borrow a recorder from Mrs. Lindner
2nd offense: Contact home
3rd offense: Lowered recorder grade (you can't "meet expectations" if you aren't able to participate in class)

This year, insipired by the Eagle Creek "Love & Logic" push and my colleagues' approach to handling the same issue, I decided to allow students to experience the logical consequences of being irresponsible rather than trying to keep track of when and if 75 students have had their recorders at school.  I no longer track whether a student has forgotten his or her recorder on a given date, but I also no longer loan out school recorders to students who are unprepared.  The students and I have discussed that it will be awfully hard to learn the 1 or 2 songs per quarter they need to learn in order to "meet expectations" if they don't have their materials and school, and I only really address the issue with the "serial forgetters" who seem to need some support in learning responsbility.  Many of my students have responded very well to this approach, and I have had fewer students forgetting recorders this year than in the past.

As we are nearing the end of the quarter, I am really struggling with allowing my plan to see itself out.  These 3 students who never have a recorder at school have already missed out on an opportunity to play the 1 song I am assessing this quarter, and are quickly coming up on another opportunity to test after break.  I'm having a hard time deciding how I'm going to handle the situation if any of these students come without an instrument on that day - will I loan them an instrument and allow them to attempt to play?  What will I do if they attempt to perform and can't do it because they haven't prepared?

Any advice would be much appreciated.  I'm really struggling with the balance between teaching responsibility and my instinct to help these kids out by "holding their hands" while they learn this song.

Word Study Meeting (Hartman and Borgen)

On December 16 Sarah Hartman and I met to discuss word study and take a deeper look at the Fountas and Pinnell Word Study book that the district has provided for us. Sarah has been using it in her classroom and she is helping me understand it better. At our meeting we took a deeper look at what word study looks like in the classroom every day, for example tasks, management, process, and routines. We looked at lessons to see if we thought they were first grade appropriate based on when we are supposed to teach them. We found that not all the lessons have enough rigor for where the students are at at this point in the year. Has anyone else found this to be true? Sarah and I decided to map out lessons to be taught for the next month until we meet again to discuss how the lessons went, how we can improve our instruction, and student achievement. Our next meeting will be at the end of January and we will be looking more into word study and starting to discuss Responsive Classroom as well.

-Sarah and Heather

Causing a Problem for Others

One of the tougher concepts I try to teach across my case load is the idea of perspective taking and how an individual's behavior affects others. I want to try a game in my social groups called the good behavior game, in which a "team" of students have points and keep their points if all of the members in the group follow the classroom rules (practice "good" behavior). If one student does not follow the rules, the team loses a point. Research on this game has shown me good results; however, I am wondering if anyone has experience with implementing this in their classroom or with small groups? Thanks :).

January Bulletin Board

I am in charge of putting together our grade's bulletin board for the month of January. Does anyone have any ideas for a stellar bulletin board for a winter theme for 4th graders? It can be just art, and if possible always educationally related.

Area and Perimeter

One of the fourth grade standards in math is that students be able to find the area and perimeter of rectangles/squares and simple polygons. For the third year in a row students have a difficult time grasping this concept and being able to differentiate between the two. Does anyone have a really good saying or some type of device to help students remember the difference between area and perimeter? Thanks in advance!

Exciting Day

I work with a student who has been struggling with writing. He has a hard time thinking of ideas and is not able to write a complete sentence or use appropriate punctuation. Yesterday, we had a break through! I gave him a subject to write about and he had to write a complete sentence about that subject. Not only did he write a sentence but it made sense and he used periods at the end. I was so excited!

SPARK

I was in search of a book to read to fulfill my professional development hours and I had heard about the book "Spark" and that it is a good read. This book is about the science of exercise and the brain. I hope I'll gain some new insight on teaching Physical Education. Stay tuned...

"I don't want to do my work"

I just wanted to share a teaching moment I had yesterday. I have a student that is still struggling with the fact that he has to do work at school. He insists that we are in first grade just to play. I have been using logical consequences, choices and positive reinforcement. Things have greatly improved and he has made huge academic and social improvements. He was sick a few days and came back telling me again that he didn't want to do work and started to cry. I used choices and he replied no. I used a logical consequence and his sobs got louder. Finally, I sat down and said "I have something important to tell you." He quieted down. "Did you know that you will be doing homework until you are 18 years old and some people do homework until they are 25." His eyes got big and he was at a loss for words. I said, "We can make this work fun together by working hard together and working with partners or we can do it your way, which would work for you?"
He smiled and went right to work ;o) Sometimes a little truth about life can really help ;o)

Math Centers

I am trying something new this year with math. I noticed due to the fact that it is my second year with the curriculum that math was going a lot faster, so I started math centers. Once we go through whole group together and students finish their work they move to their center. They get a new center each day for the 5 day week and I have been keeping the centers for 2-3 weeks. One station is me where I work with kids at their level (they are in level based groups), another station is shapes, another is the games on think central on the smart board that match the lesson, a dominoe adding game station and a card station. I am having difficulty finding new fun games for math. Any ideas or resources out there that you enjoy?

Writing Curriculum

I am not sure what grades everyone teaches, but in the middle elementary level (3-5) a lot of teachers in our school are frustrated with the writing curriculum. We have been given a framework for lessons for each of our large units (narrative, informational, opinion, and writers launch). We then are expected to take one of the large projects and create lesson plans for all the teachers in the district. In essence, the district is asking us to write the curriculum for ourselves. I am a big believer in 6 traits writing, yet we have few resources for this "curriculum". However, 6 traits is not a curriculum, but more of a scoring guide. I have used the scoring guide and 6 traits framework to build my own curriculum focusing on each trait. My question is does anyone have any 6 traits lesson that they think are amazing or "must have" lessons that focus on one of the traits for middle elementary students? Furthermore, how are your schools and teams dealing with the writing curriculum conundrum?

Try teaching 90 5th graders at a time!

At my school we have a lot of students in band. We have so many students in band that it has impacted our cycle schedule this year. One day out of a ten day cycle we have 3 sections of 5th graders in our gym. We are currently on our bowling unit in Phy. Ed. It always seems that when cycle day 9 approaches we're forced to modify the lesson completely, or do something totally different all together. It is so difficult to attempt to stay in the same unit and have enough equipment and space that is appropriate for this group. We were supposed to bowl today and originally students were in groups of about 5 kids. I assigned each student to a task so they're not just sitting around waiting for their turn. With 90 kids I could not justify having 11 lanes to bowl in with one bowler at a time. Their bowling team would be larger than the usual 5-6, which means more kids sitting around and waiting. I'm thankful we have a good group of 5th graders, so we haven't had a whole lot of behavior issues. I am concerned that these students are missing out on a quality experience on cycle day 9 when in Phy. Ed. It will be interesting to see how we'll figure things out as we progress through the units for the remainder of the year.