Standards – Yes, “I can”

At the beginning of a unit, I give my students an “I can” sheet of everything they need to be able to do by the end of that unit. The “I can” statements are grouped under student-friendly questions based on the indicators.

For example:

5-3.5  Summarize the reasons for the United States control of new territories as a result of the Spanish American War and the building of the Panama Canal, including the need for raw materials and new markets and competition with other world powers.

Becomes:

Why did the United States control new territories after the Spanish-American War?

• I can explain how the need for raw materials and new markets lead to imperialism
• I can summarize the causes and effects of the Spanish-American War on the United States
• I can explain the reasons the United States controlled new territories
• I can summarize the reasons for the building of the Panama Canal
• Vocabulary: imperialism, Spanish-American War, yellow journalism, U.S.S. Maine

Notice that the actual Spanish-American War is not mentioned in the indicator, just the result. I think in order to understand the effect of something, you need to understand what the something was – hence the “I can summarize the causes and effects of the Spanish-American War. This idea is based partly on Marzano’s setting goals and objectives. In the workbook, it suggests that you create a guide for each unit with the essential vocabulary and concepts that students will be expected to understand.

Ways to use:

• I use this sheet to plan out my interactive notebook handouts/activities to make sure I don’t “miss anything” – I also use it to review my tests to make sure each indicator is represented.
• I project this at the beginning of each class instead of writing objectives on the board.
• I have the students read over the statements after we have finished our lesson and rate themselves on their understanding.
• It is a goal of mine for this to become their study guide for their tests.

#edcamp + classroom = #classcamp?

I’ve been reading a great deal about #edcamp on Twitter. At an #edcamp, the participants are the conference. The schedule of sessions is created the morning of the conference by the people who are attending. The goal is to create as many different sessions for each time slot as the space will allow. Presenters are more facilitators, collaborative documents are created about the topics, attendees include their social network in the experience by tweeting. If a session isn’t meeting your needs, you are free to walk out and choose another one – this is called the “rule of two feet”. Teachers seem to love this concept because it respects their voice in their own learning, and their ability to choose what will be most beneficial to them.

We wouldn’t be teachers if our own excitement about learning didn’t make us wonder “what if”. What if the rule of two feet applied to our classroom? What would school look like if our students had more choices, more ownership of their learning? What if kids could look forward to learning the way we do?

I’m thinking #classcamp (or # ____camp depending on the topic.

I teach younger students so I know I would need to provide considerable scaffolding, at least at first. I’m largely thinking out loud here, and I would really appreciate thoughts or ideas, especially if you have implemented something similar

My thoughts – give students (even parents or other teachers) a broad topic, such as World War II, Immigration, etc. See how many spaces in the building could be co-opted for sessions then create a schedule within the school’s schedule for sessions and allow students/parents/teachers to sign up to present in a googledoc. This would have to be done ahead of time, which I know is not true to the #edcamp model, but maybe that’s something we could work toward over the course of the year.

Students would initially “sign up” for sessions, also in google docs, but I think it would be important to preserve the two feet rule. If you knew your audience, your peers, were free to leave if your session wasn’t meeting their needs, I can’t help but feel it would make you step up your game. For students, it makes the research/ presentation/involvement more authentic – they choose and know their peers choose to stay or go as well. I know the etiquette would have to be taught/modeled but I still think that could be powerful on both sides.

I also would want to require reflection – #edcamps lead to active participation from its attendees.  Again, I’m just thinking out loud. Comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Cowboys – A History Lab

Children just don’t see a lot of westerns, and when I taught about cowboys last year it was an uphill battle. This year I decided to do a “Cowboy Lab” – a hands-on experiential activity.

There will be three stations, where students will spend 15 -20 minutes.

Station 1: Roping and Vittles

This is a two-in-one. For half of the time, students will be practicing how to use a lasso (with a chair as the target) and for half the time they will be sampling cowboy vittles – chili, beef jerky, and trail mix. I sent home a letter asking for donations and was overwhelmed with my parents’ generosity.
Station 2: Cattle Drive Creation

Students will have play dough and an assortment of plastic figuriness
Station 3: Make a Western

Facts Questions Response (FQR) – a note-taking/connections strategy

 One of the great challenges of nonfiction text for students is the constant barrage of facts.

Names, high end vocabulary, dates or sequences, fast transitions – students have to learn, as we all do, how to take note of what is important. A large part of that is having a purpose for the reading, but an equally large part is having a personal filter – what information causes you to question or reflect.

 Enter the FQR strategy.

 The basic premise is that students take notes in a three column format.

Facts	Question	Response

As students read, they make note of important facts. For each fact that they note they must either write a question and/or a response. Students are shown through a gradual release of responsibility how to use the form. It is modeling intensive, because students have to learn to not only determine important information, but to ask questions that can guide further reading/research and to make connections that help them understand the text.

This was the recommended sequence:

Day 1: Teach background information about the reading. In the example I saw, the reading involved Andersonville, so the the first day was a brief background of the Civil War with a focus on the Andersonville prison camp.

Day 2: Pass out the reading (it focused on the plight of two young men who were incarcerated there), and the teacher models the strategy through the first few paragraphs. What I liked was that the teacher didn’t spend a lot of time explaining the strategy, she launched into using it, thinking out loud and helping the students make sense of it as she was modeling. Students had to write what she wrote so they got a good “feel” for what went where and then had a model on their own paper to follow.

Later in that day she also gave students a chance to make verbal responses with their peers, to get used to the idea of making a thoughtful response.

Day 3: Partner reading/responding to finish the FQR while teacher circulated.

It seems time intensive, and it is, but I feel that this would be an “investment strategy”. Something that you would take the time to teach well once, and then be able to utilize often, re-teaching areas that seem to need it as the year goes by. I loved how it made students reflect on the material they were reading, and how it provided a guide to make sense of their notes.

I’m including links to more information on FQR as well as some forms. I like the columns versus the chart, because I think that a kid might feel they need to “fill in every space” and that isn’t necessary. I also think that for my younger students I would need to be a bit more specific in my modeling. For example, “If you’ve read two paragraphs and haven’t taken a note, you need to write something”. I also believe I would want to stress the purpose of the reason and how that can help determine importance.

I know I’ll be using this strategy this school year, I hope its given you something to consider!

Links:

• FQR using picture books: This is a five page pdf lesson plan for implementing FQR. Nice discussion of modeling types of questions, not crazy about the FQR sheet style.
• FQR Sheet from Amy’s Activities: This is a three column pdf with lines for the students to write on, but is less “chart like”.

Finding your focus

I’ve learned so much this year by teaching a new content, a new age groups developmental needs, wonderful new teammate, and a bunch of professional reading that it reminded me how important it is to have a focus. A focus helps me organize information better and filter what information I receive. My focus is on what I want for the students in my classroom. Ideas must live in practice – if I believe something I should be able to point to structures/strategies in my teaching that support them.

This is what I want for my students:

• I want my students to learn the history I teach them, and to come away with a love of it or at least an appreciation of it.
• I want them to learn how to become better at reading, writing, and thinking about history/nonfiction text.
• I want them to learn how to communicate and collaborate productively and kindly.
• I want them to learn about the tools to accomplish these things – technology, pen/paper strategies, and interpersonal. I want them to be able to choose the best tool for the job.

These are the lenses through which I make my instructional decisions: content, reading/determining importance/critical thinking, cooperative learning, and strategies/tools for making these happen both in Web 2.0 and Pencil.0.

So Far from the Sea – a picture book lesson

So Far from the Sea, by Eve Bunting is a beautiful, informative, and poignant picture book that tells the story of a family going to visit the grave of their grandfather, who died at the Manzanar Relocation Center during World War II. Chris Soentpiet is the illustrator, and just like in Coolies, his drawings convey a wealth of historical information. Historically, the basics of the whys and hows of the Japanese internment are explained in this story.

I used the sketch to stretch strategy with my students, as they love to draw and the pauses allowed me to step out of the story to provide additional historical background or discuss an illustration in more detail.

Other lesson plans for So Far From the Sea:

• from the Manzanar National Historic site
• from the illustrator’s web site
• an article on using this book for guided reading

Response Cards – An Active Learning Strategy

A teacher asks a question, calls on a student, and gets an answer. Students who aren’t called on are disappointed, and students who didn’t raise their hands are relieved.

Response cards are an easy, inexpensive way for all students to answer every question in a low-risk way! Response cards are a piece of paper, or index card with responses written on it. Students hold them in front of them with their fingers on the answer. You can quickly scan the class to check their understanding.

They can be student or teacher made, the one criteria is that answers must be written on the front and back of the card. That way the student is looking at the answer they are showing you.

Types of Response Cards

• Multiple-Choice Response Cards – A B C D – I use these with Brainpop quizes and as test review. I made them using wordart and laminated them as I use these fairly frequently)
• This or That cards – good for comparisons – I’ll use these for groups of people or names (Axis Powers/Allies, Patricians/Plebeians, names) these are usually lesson specific and I’ll have the children make them.
•   – Happy face – Neutral Face – Sad Face – Good for inferencing/mood in fiction.
• Yes/No or True/False cards

Response cards are only limited by your imagination. Individual whiteboards also make great response systems without the limitations of “set” answers. A high tech version of response cards are student response systems that connect to an interactive whiteboard. The important thing is to get as many students involved as much of the time as possible!

Fighting in the Trenches – A History Lab

No fifth graders were actually harmed during this simulation

The goal:

1. Show my students how trench fighting had waged for years without really gaining significant territory for either side
2. Help them understand how the U.S. entry into the war tipped the balance of power.

The Set-Up/Materials

• Two boxes of “ammunition” (50 sheets of balled up black construction paper, 50 sheets of balled up brown construction paper – artillery)
•  2 balled up sheets of  yellow construction paper (mustard gas)
• Desks set up in opposing rows, with a “no man’s land” in the center.
• Trench Warfare Powerpoint
• Trench Warfare Animation
• Teacher Costume (optional)

Procedure:

• Meet students at door in costume. I took on the persona of a trainer giving new troops a primer on trench warfare before being shipped “over there”.
• I divided them into two teams by counting them off, they “stowed their gear” in the back and took up positions in the trenches.
• I showed the first part of the Trench Warfare Powerpoint, then explained the rules of the “training exercise”.

Rules:

• Recruits are to begin firing as soon as they hear battle sounds and stop when the sounds stop. (Roughly a 1 minute to 2 minutes)
• There will be two rounds of fighting so ration your ammunition.
• Artillery only the first round. You may use only your ammunition.
• If you get hit at all, you’re dead, and you must fall where you are.

Firing commences. (I liked using the sounds from the Trench Warfare Animation) After enough time passes, I cut the sound.

• Casualty count from each side. Short debrief – how did it feel to be under fire? To “lose” a fellow soldier?
• Short talk on conditions in the trenches, with or without more slides from the powerpoint. The rat quotes and trenchfoot pictures were a tad intense I felt for my fifth graders – so I just told the edited stories and read a few actual letters from soldiers.
• I move the “casualties” to the back row for the next round.

Round 2

• The only new ammunition is the “mustard gas”. I explain that if that gets into your trench it is “game over”.
• Students play another round when the noise starts.

Debrief:

• What will happen is that with equal ammunition and equal numbers, most of the “soldiers” will die on both sides, with no side “winning”.
• This segues into a “what if” – what if you had twice as many soldiers and ammunition? Would there be a winner then?
• Short talk about how America’s entry into the war gave the Allies superior numbers and led to the Central Powers surrender.

Students then wrote a letter home from the trenches describing their experience while the sound effects blared away in the background. It was a great day in class, and their letters were terrific.

The lesson was based on an idea I had read about in Bring History Alive, and this handout http://teacherlessonplanwarehouse.com/WWI%20Trench%20Warfare.doc

Special thanks to Mr. Berlin, for his Trench Warfare Powerpoint.

Also invaluable is the Trench Warfare Animation from Class Zone.

Find Someone Who – A Preview/Review Activity

A twitter post reminded me of “Find Someone Who” icebreaker – you know the one where you have a list or bingo-style board of characteristics (hair color,  has moved, has a pet, etc) and you circulate around the room looking for “someone who” fits that characteristic.

If you’ve never participated in this, here is a link with a thorough description.

I love motion activities, and so I’ve adapted it to use for content – either as a preview or review activity.

For a preview activity, make a list of things that relate (however tangentially) to your unit. Allow for the Find Someone Who procedure.

Example for the Middle Ages:

• FSW has played chess
• FSW has seen a movie with a knight in it.
• FSW has ever dressed up as a princess.
• FSW has been to Medieval Times.
• FSW thinks sword fighting is cool.
• FSW can tell you about King Arthur and Camelot
• FSW has read one of these books: Crispin and the Cross of Lead, Catherine called Birdy, A Door in the Wall

Review games are even easier, because you are dealing with a common body of content.

• FSW can sketch the Feudal Pyramid
• FSW can show where the Crusades were fought on a map
• FSW can list three types of jobs a serf might perform
• FSW can explain why the Church was so important
• FSW can define the word “cathedral”

When I do content based Find Someone Who activities, I make sure I circulate so that I can monitor conversations. Students must sign off that they have actually explained, showed, or drawn what was required. If I suspect students are randomly signing, I’ll ask that student to explain, show, or draw for me. If they can’t they must sit down, and do a quiet review activity at their seat.

Trench Warfare Animation – an Interactive Whiteboard Resource

There are some really terrific resources available on the internet, and this is one of them.

The site features a great graphic of trench warfare in action, complete with sound effects. The graphic is clickable, allow viewers to learn more about the scene – trench warfare, no man’s land, machine guns, chemical warfare and dogfights. High interest and informative, without a high “gross” factor.

Trench Warefare Animation