1. The students made noticings (observations) about fables and recorded them on a chart.
Mrs. Simmons's 5th Graders dug deeply into fables this week and I was lucky enough to see the lesson in progress. Thanks, Mary Ann, for inviting me in! 1. The students made noticings (observations) about fables and recorded them on a chart. 2. Student groups of 2 or 3 were given a fable to read and a story map to fill out on that fable. They were familiar with the story map because it was one that they have used all year. This was the deconstruction phase of the lesson. 3. The next phase was the construction phase. Students were asked to create a fable of their own using the iPad app, Puppet Pals, which had the same moral has the one that they had read.
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This is the second Socratic Seminar that I have had the privilege of observing in Mr. Matus's class. If you are not familiar with Socratic Seminars, click here for some background information. It is evident that Mr. Matus spends a lot of time working out the details of this event and they are therefore huge successes.They offer students the perfect opportunity to not only learn more about current events, but to express their opinions on what they are learning about in a safe environment. The topic for this Seminar was whether or not Muslims should be allowed to immigrate into the United States and this is how the lesson was laid out. 1. Mr. Matus used Nearpod to share 3 articles on the topic. After reading each article, the students were either polled on their opinions or were asked to answer a question on the article. 2. The first article was on immigration and why it was important to this country. The subject has come up in their Social Studies curriculum recently, so it was fresh on the minds of the students. The question that was asked after the article was, "Why is immigration important?" One student responded, "Immigrants made the United States." 3. After students completed their readings, Mr. Matus polled them on whether or not their readings had changed their minds. 4. Next, the students set aside their iPads and made a T-chart on which they listed reasons for and against the issue. 6. The discussion began and it was an amazing thing to watch. Students were polite and respectful of their peers's opinions. The moderators in both groups did an excellent job of guiding the conversations with their questions and encouraging all students to participate. Students were completely engaged and focused and the adult observers in the classroom were more than impressed. Mrs. Corbett summed it up nicely in this note that she left for the students.
About a month ago, Margie Brown, the Ed Tech at VVE, shared a post that she had written on a project that Nancy Abell had done in her GT Classes at VVE. In an effort to help her students understand the concept of Memes, Nancy helped students create Memes which encouraged positive behaviors across the campus. I shared that post with the faculty and staff at EE and soon after, Amy Ashorn, one of our counselors, contacted me and suggested that we collaborate on similar lessons to be used with our 5th Graders. It was such a great opportunity for me as I seldom get the chance to partner with the counselors on the campuses that I am assigned to. We spent time together over a period of a couple of weeks organizing the details of our lesson and were able to deliver it to all 5 Fifth Grade Classes last Friday. Ms. Ashorn began each lesson by reading the students a book about Expected and Unexpected behaviors titled "You are a Social Detective! Explaining Social Thinking to Kids". She stopped frequently to ask questions and to let students respond to those questions. We explained to students that they were the keepers of the majority of information about Expected Behaviors on our campus because they had been here the longest. Therefore, we needed to find a way for them to share that knowledge with our younger students. We shared that we had decided to use Memes for this purpose and I spent a few minutes explaining what Memes were. We showed them some sample Memes made by students in Nancy Abell's class. The 5th Graders used a QR code to get to the Google Folder that contained the background images that they could choose from and they were off! The students used Keynote to create their Meme and once they had completed it, they took a screenshot and emailed it to me. The last step in the process is that the Leadership Team will spend some time looking through the submissions and deciding which ones to display across the campus as reminders of Expected Behaviors. Each year in EISD, the 5th Graders on each elementary campus are lucky enough to experience 3 days at Live Oak with their teachers and their Westlake High School Teen Teachers. It is an experience that i am sure these students will never forget. Friendships are forged, teams are built, fish are caught and released and good food is eaten. All of this takes a great deal of dedication and hard work from the 5th Grade teachers (Elizabeth Hudgins, Amy Reichle, Lance Matus, Elizabeth Dodge, and Mary Ann Simmons) and I can't say enough about the 5 of them. Their perpetual smiles and their constant attention to the needs of their students was a beautiful thing to watch. They exemplified the best qualities of our profession and I am in awe of all of them. Here are a few pictures of my 24 hours with them. I was able to be in the library these last two days to witness a most amazing Social Studies lesson on Christopher Columbus by our Third Grade Teachers: Maci Shannon, Drew Watson, Natalie Higby, Helene Smith, and Kaley Coffield. Here is a brief summary of how this lesson unfolded. All five of the teachers covered the ground rules for the activities of the next 2 days. Mr. Watson began by reading a book on the subject. The students made note of their "thick" questions for the debrief. Ms. Coffield recorded the students's questions. The next day, the students participated in a Socratic Seminar in which yesterday's student generated questions were answered by their peers. Students in the audience showed their agreement or disagreement with silent signals. This is the first full week of October so it is amazing to think of where these teachers will lead their students by May. Well done, Third Grade, well done.
4. Think about the resources that you already have that you could use next year. Comprehension Tool kit Ideas for good nonfiction text: Seymour Simon, Gail Gibbons. 5. Scholastic: The Next step in Guided Reading. This text was given to all participants. They were asked to read and reflect. Reflection" 1. 3 new learnings 2. 2 ideas and questions 1. 1 item you will tweak 6. Instructional vs. Independent
Instructional Student Accuracy 90-94% Independent Student Accuracy is greater than 94% 7. What and Why about F an P Benchmark Assessment a. Serves all students in their instructional level b. IP's wil train campuses the first two weeks of school c. Benchmark schedule will include for this assessment for 2015-16 I had the privilege of presenting with Kelly Van Meter and Lesley Ryan at the NSTA STEM Forum in Minneapolis this last week.The session was well attended and well received and we ran into multiple people afterwards who let us know how much they had enjoyed it. We spent a lot of time during the days that we spent in Minneapolis discussing our next steps now that we have a firm foundation for a STEM initiative on our campus. Please take the time to read Lesley's blog post linked below for a great commentary on some of the things that we discussed. Below are our both session description and links to our resources. Enjoy! Resources:Click here to see our presentation. Click here to see our intro video. Click here to see our Thinglink of resources for our sessin. Click here to see Lesley Ryan's Blog Post on the event. We were fortunate enough to once again have visiting educators from around the state on our campus this May. Folks who attend the iLeap Academy are here because they have just launched an iPad initiative or are considering doing so. They spend 3 days in Austin, most of which are in a classroom setting led by Carl Hooker, Tim Yenca and Lisa Johnson. For 2 hours each day, attendees visit campuses across the district where they get a chance to see iPad integration in action. Here is the schedule we followed: Our visitors saw a wide variety of activities. In Elisse Newey's room, we observed the 4th Graders making Stop Motion Videos. In Maci Shannon's room we saw a variety of apps being used for Formative Assessment: including Plickers, Nearpod, and Notability. We spent awhile Monday in Carin Champion's Kinder class visiting with students about projects that they had created with their iPads this year. On Tuesday, we talked to Mary Ann Simmons's students about the work they were doing in Google Classroom. Wednesday Second Graders let us observe and ask questions about a Mother's Day project they were doing using one of the following apps: Pages, Popplet, or Book Creator. As I told Tim afterwards, the highlight of these visits for me is that the amazing teachers on our campus have a chance to shine and shine they do! I couldn't have been prouder of and more grateful to the 5 teachers that opened up their classrooms to us. Caitlin Maher's 5th grade students wrote artist statements about their sculptures after they completed them. Once they finished their statements, they sent them to Mrs. Maher, their LA teacher and their parent/guardian. Time to reflect is something that we could all use more of. I was impressed with Mrs. Maher's recognition of that fact and of the students's thoughtful responses. Here are some examples. Lance Matus planned an engaging and timely lesson for his 5th Graders this week. The subject was: Should the Texas legislature pass the Open Carry Law that they are getting ready to vote on in the near future? He started with a Nearpod that contained the following: After the Nearpod was completed, students were asked to write on a T chart whether they were for or against the law and then justify their answer. Once that was completed, they broke into two teams. One team was in the inner circle and one in the outer circle. The inner circle discussed the issue first. Each inner circle member had an outer circle member assigned to take notes on what they heard their partner say. The notes looked like this: Once the inner circle completed their conversation, they traded places with the outer circle and the process was repeated. The conversations were fascinating and because Lance had done such a great job of prepping them for this event, the students were all passionate and knowledgeable about their own points of view.
What a great way to engage students in local current events, Lance! Thanks so much for inviting me to your classroom! |
Debbie Smith
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