"From Chaos to Confidence" webinar

I did an online webinar called "From Chaos to Confidence" on a site I subscribe to - it was about effective classroom organisation.  It was run by Cassie Tabrizi, a former teacher in the US.

The main idea of the webinar was: "How the classroom environment is organised influences the behaviour in it." (Stronge, Tucker and Hindman, 2004).

It had great ideas about organising a classroom library (breaking books down into genres and having a simple coding system so children could shelve their own books), having a folder on the wall for each child for assessments and a turn in box for handing in work.

A great idea I got about behaviour management was to make a 10x10 grid and whenever a child does something outstanding, get them to write their name on one of the squares.  When the grid is full, draw out chips labelled with the coordinates of those squares and they will win prizes.  This has the feature of teaching graphing skills, too.

Another was to use whole-brain teaching.  I have been reading the whole-brain teaching book and would like to implement some of the strategies from this such as the 'Class?  Yes?' call and response.

Cassie pointed out that it is useful to have a scoreboard for smooth transitions etc but that it is important to keep the difference  in the positive and negative points within 3.

She had good advice for rewards that don't cost money - these were brain breaks, the chance to sit in the front of the class all day, a desk swap, a lunch date with the teacher and getting to use scented marker pens.

Takeaway:  I thought this seminar gave me some good ideas for positive rewards and I liked the central idea that the environment influences behaviour.  

Observing maths in Room 9

I watched Karen S. teaching a maths lesson in her Year 3 class.  I found it valuable to see practical aspects of how she set up the lesson.

Karen had the problem set up in modelling books for the groups to use.  The problem was: "Mrs Schwenke bought 3 groups 15 currant buns from the market.  How many currant buns did Mrs Schwenke buy altogether?

Karen put the children into 3 groups of 4 and got them to explain what was happening in the story.  She used the 'talk moves' language, saying "Can I revoice it for you?"

When the children understood what the problem was about they worked with their groups - Karen chose who was going to be the writer for each group (everyone wanted to write).

When it came to presenting the answers Karen put the children into lines.  When a group was presenting and drawing circles on the modelling book she asked "What do the circles represent?"  I thought this was a good idea, making the connection that the circles represent something from the problem.  Karen was encouraging, saying "Well done for being brave and attempting this," reinforcing positive attitudes towards maths.

After the children had presented their answers Karen made the connection that the problem could be represented as 3 x 15, which was the same as 15+15+15.

Lilianne reminded the children about splitting numbers, that it could be worked out as 3x10 + 3x5, so 30 + 15 = 45.  She reminded them that this is called the distributive law.

Takeaway:  I liked the way that Karen glued the maths problems into modelling books to keep track of them and so that the children could read the problem close up (one of the maths mentors mentioned that this affects their processing of what they read).  I liked the way she set up her groups with everyone sitting in lines and a specific job in the group for each person.  It was good to see the way she used the language from the talk moves and that she encouraged the children for being brave and standing in front of the class, acknowledging that it could be difficult to do this.  

Leytia modelling writing

 Leytia came and modelled writing in my classroom on Wednesday.  She brought in a lift-the-flaps book about insects in the garden.  Before she read it she did a quick brainstorm to check prior knowledge.  She drew a flower and pointed to the stem.  "Who knows what this part of the plant is called?"  The children suggested "the stick?"  She asked them what lived in the garden.  She wrote the things that they supplied in the petals on the flower.  As she went through the story she added more information about the characters.  I liked the way she explicitly referred to their prior knowledge, introducing the children to this term.

The children had to write a description of one of the characters.  Leytia modelled this.

Takeaway: I liked the way Leytia used the brainstorm to check prior knowledge about the topic - I have usually been doing brainstorms after we have read a story to check understanding.  I liked the way she added to it as the story progressed.  This is something I would like to do in future.  

Pasifika Dual Language Texts seminar

I went to a talk held by Dr Rae Si'ilata at the Universtity of Auckland on Wednesday night - it was about 'translanguaging and storying with Pasifika dual language texts.'
Translanguaging, I learnt, is having input in one language and output in another.

Dr Si'ilata's main message was to value the languages children bring to school.  She said people used to believe that if children were strong in their first language then there was less space in their minds for learning English.  The understanding now though is that if children are strong in their first language this will support them to have a strong understanding of English, too.

She showed some practical examples of children using the Pasifika dual language texts.  At Holy Cross School the children were reading 'Let's Go' and making their own version of the book online with photos and audio files of them reading it in different languages.

She showed the blog of a colleague who was using Pasifika stories to engage her learners: http://kylahansell.blogspot.co.nz/

She mentioned that the audio files of some of the stories online had the words read too fast, so the school had used children's older siblings to record slower versions.

Takeaway: This seminar gave me some ideas about how to use the dual language texts in my class.  I will look into good apps for making an online book and use this with a simple bilingual text like 'Let's Go.'

Observation - writing in Year 1

Yesterday I observed Jas teaching writing in her Year 1 class.

First she went over the 'letters with long sticks' - d, f, h, k, l, t.  She had these on a handwritten chart.

She talked about what good writers do - saying that it's important to use finger spaces so our words are not mashed together like mashed potato.  I think this explanation would appeal to my class.

Then she set up the two groups who were going to be writing independently.  One had a box of sentences like "I like to shop." printed out big and with a photo.  That group had to write a story from the card and illustrate it.  The other group had a box with sentence starters like "My brother is nice to me because..." on one side and options like "he reads with me" or "he looks after me" on the back.  I thought these would be really effective for independent writing activities for my low group and that the everyday topics would appeal to them.

When the two independent groups were settled Jas sat down with the group she was writing with.  She had a picture of a pig glued into the modelling book.  They briefly discussed the pig, how it had four legs like a dog etc.  Then she said she'd like them to write "Look at my pig."  They counted the words in the sentence.  Jas had some big word magnets on the board and she got children to go and find the words on the board. She then got them to compare the words from the board with the words on the alphabet card. She got one child to be the 'spacer' - making the finger spaces in the modelling book.  When they got to the word 'pig' in the sentence, a word that wasn't on the alphabet card, Jas gave them different options for hearing the letter sounds.  "Is it 'i-apple' or 'i-insect?'  Is it 'g-goat' or 'g-orange?'"

Then she got them to read the completed sentence from the beginning and to record it in their books.

Takeaway: I would like to make some sentence starter cards for my low writing group as an independent writing activity when they are not writing with me.  I really liked the way that using the magnets got the children to physically go and find the words.  I would like to get a set of these to use with my class too.  

PTC 4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills

Spelling lesson observation

I watched Shabnam teaching spelling with Leytia.

She was revising consonant blends and had written them on a chart like they were equations.

b+l=bl

c+l=cl

d+r=dr

s+t+r=str

s+c+r=scr

She defined blends as "2 or more consonants put together to make a new sound."

Shabnam then wrote up some letter combinations and asked the children "Is that a blend or not?"

The first one she put up was 'st.'
One child said it was and Shabnam restated "So you can hear the sound of the s and the sound of the t...is that what you're saying?"

She then put up "ch."  "Is that a blend?" she asked.  "Why or why not?"

Monisha said "You can't hear the c and the h."

She then put up "sh."  She got them to imagine putting the letters together.

She gave them "wh" and asked if the letters could be separated.  She gave Irma the word "whale" and asked if the w and the h could be separated in that word.  She then introduced the idea of digraphs.  "So if it's not a blend it's a digraph."
She shared the purpose of this new learning: "We are learning this so you'll be  able to use them in your writing.  Sometimes we have to sound things out but we can't.  So we just have to know them."

Observing Leytia modelling a writing lesson

Yesterday I observed Leytia teaching a writing lesson with my class.  Her focus was on vocabulary.

Leytia started with some quick formative assessment.  She asked "Where do sounds belong?"  "In a word" was the answer she was looking for.  "Where do words belong?" "In a sentence" the children replied.  

She wrote up a sentence "My hair is black."  "What's the noun?" she asked.  "What's the adjective?"

She got the children to describe their hair and eyes and supply her with some sentences.  She got them to identify the noun and adjective in each one and reinforced the idea that an adjective describes a noun, you can't have an adjective without a noun. 

Leytia then brought out a "feely box." The children had to reach in one by one to feel what was inside without looking in the box.  They then had to come up with words to describe what they felt.  She wrote them up classified into "Feel" and "Touch."

She then got the children to guess what the object was.  They guessed glue, slime and paint.  It turned out to be a small shoe covered in slime.  She asked what the noun was..."shoe!"  

She then gave the lowest group a writing frame, which she wrote in the modelling book.  This was "The slime felt_____ and ____.  She got them to write a new sentence with the same structure.  Prinze, for example, wrote "The slime felt cold and sticky."  

Takeaway:  I liked the way Leytia scaffolded the lowest group by giving them a frame to use and giving them the freedom to choose the adjectives they wanted.  This would work with lots of different topics.  I also liked the way she did  a quick formative assessment at the start of the lesson to check the children's understanding of a noun and an adjective.

PTC 4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills