Sir Ken Robinson, Bring on the Learning Revolution!

Hello, followers (probably just my mom)! I'm not continuing the book study in this post. I will get to that later this week. Today, I am posting a reflection I wrote for a GATE class I am taking through UC Riverside Extension. It is in response to this excellent TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, one of the most popular TED talks ever. A very inspirational talk. So, watch the video, read my response, and let me know what you think!

Sir Ken Robinson, “Bring on the Learning Revolution!” Response

            Though I cannot initiate a revolution from within my classroom walls, well, maybe I can. Every day, as I greet each student with a smile, a handshake, and a “good morning,” I remind my students and myself that today is a new and special day. I look into those children’s eyes, and I see eyes that hold dreams, eyes that are waiting, eyes that are trusting. Those children trust me to protect them, to nourish their minds, to excite their spirits, and to take care with their dreams.

As I listened to the close of Sir Ken Robinson’s inspirational and touching TED talk, I found myself immediately rewinding to listen to his last three lines again. And, then I rewound and listened again. And again. “…every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.”

I immediately thought of my own toddler at home and her daily quests to explore. She is fascinated by a bag of rice. She marvels at the squishy feel of a mandarin orange. She scrutinizes the ridges on a bottle cap. She analyzes my every motion and mimics without delay. She has no fear. She trusts me with her dreams.     

One day, my little girl will take those dreams and walk into a classroom, greet her teacher, and trust her teacher to protect and nourish those dreams. So, I thought about my students and their dreams, about how I can protect or trample their dreams, and how every day counts. Revolution starts with an individual, with a person’s soul expanding outward into the world. It is true that our industrial model of education can tend to alienate a person from their true selves, their true talents. I would like to say that I foresee in the near future a world, or at least an America, in which we can customize each person’s education. However, in all honesty, I can’t see that. I do, in fact, see many obstacles to this ideal- poverty, literacy, buy-in, to name a few. Though many believe home schooling, flipped classrooms, or MOOCs (massive open online courses) to be the answer, I’m not sure I see any solution other than, for now, an individual passion.

My individual passion is teaching gifted and talented students. My students have such amazing potential, and so many passions. So, what I take from this video for my own classroom is this: I need to do some work. I need to do the work of really getting to know my students. What excites them? What are they passionate about? What are their dreams? And then, I need to find ways (within the very rigid structure of all of the exterior pressures I face as a public school teacher) to allow those students’ passions and dreams to, at the very least, stay alive. And, if those dreams stay alive, I need to help my students pursue the skills necessary to go about living out those dreams and passions. It can be as simple as recommending a book for a student to read that may further his knowledge. Or it may be presenting a student with an independent study opportunity. It could also mean seeking out another teacher or person whose expertise may be better able to support that student’s needs. What I’m getting at is that I have power to do something to nurture my students’ dreams.

So, why can’t the revolution start with me? What if I reflect (as I am doing now), realize my own (very powerful) power, and change (even if just a little bit)? That smile, that hand shake, and that “good morning” will remind me that today is a new and special day, because today, after all, is the day that I will nourish dreams.

Book Study: Pathways to the Common Core

Today I will be starting my book study on Pathways to the Common Core by Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman. Here is the link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pathways-Common-Core-Accelerating-Achievement/dp/0325043558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378525857&sr=1-1&keywords=pathways+to+the+common+core.

I have just finished reading the book which took me about two weeks. I could have finished more quickly, but I wanted to take my time on each chapter to reflect. Honestly, it is a little overwhelming, too, because as I read, I was constantly thinking about my own school and how much work will truly be in store for us if we are to fully commit to the changes required in order to build Common Core fluent students. So, before I get into the specifics of each chapter and their major points, I want to dedicate this post to my overall reflections and personal points of interests- the things that I feel were most important for my situation as a teacher in the San Bernardino City Unified School District and as a GATE teacher, which is really a unique situation in and of itself. However, I hope my opinions can reach others still.

We GATE teachers are often referring the "Big Idea." For me, I walked away from the book feeling these were some of the Big Ideas:

1) Students will need 90 or more instructional minutes per day reading at their level with a focus on moving children up levels of text complexity. Not answering questions, not discussing, but just plain reading. The questions, discussions, collaborations, and creations are not to be forgotten though. In fact, they are quite vital, but teachers need to be careful to not think that students spending 90 minutes reading a text and answering text-dependent questions actually accounts for 90 minutes of READING time. You need to subtract the time they spent answering questions.

2) Students will need 60 minutes of instructional time in a writing workshop. Not answering questions, not necessarily daily writing prompts, but structured writing workshop time where teachers can help students develop their writing skills. So, if a daily writing prompt is in place, it better be structured, meaning teachers are teaching and facilitating a purpose and focus for that particular daily writing.

3) The narrative writing Common Core standards are far more complex and difficult than the '97 standards, but we need to prioritize argument and informational writing, while building on our skills of teaching narrative writing that many of us may already feel strong at. This is where my personal situation diverged a bit. Being in a district that uses Step Up to Writing, I personally feel as though I am stronger at teaching informative or explanatory writing already and will need to prioritize the narrative aspect because of how much more complex and difficult it is from the '97 standards.

4) Higher-order comprehension instruction is a biggie. This is where I felt a little like I may be on track already as, teaching a GATE class, I am used to using the Prompts of Depth and Complexity (Kaplan) throughout my daily instruction, as well as structures for helping students to think more critically and creatively (e.g, SCAMPER). Webb's Depth of Knowledge seems to be trending over Bloom's as well.

5) We need to increase cross-curricular, analytical nonfiction reading. Another idea that I know most teachers in our district, GATE or not, have bought into and committed to already! 

6) Teacher-created, informative, instructive, easy-to-deliver, performance, low-stakes (not the high-stakes, multiple choice, pass or die kind of) assessments will be crucial to gauge student progress and teacher success.

So, those are the big ideas I came away with. In my next post, I will dive into the reading standards and flesh out my Big Idea #1- All About Reading!

Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement

That is the title of the book I am zooming through, and I am so glad I picked it up. I thought I had an idea of what Common Core was all about, but this book is really putting me in my place! Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman are showing a true insight into what it will take to turn schools, teachers, and most importantly, students on the path of achievement through the CCSS. What I am glad about is that my background as a GATE teacher will really prove to be helpful as we make this important transition. I highly suggest reading this book if you are a teacher or school leader looking into implementing Common Core into your schools. Over my next few posts, I will break down some of Calkins, Ehrenworth, and Lehman's main points, so we can get a foothold and find a way to set a path down this exciting journey! Stay tuned!

End of Year Summary, part 1

Oops! It has been way too long since I have blogged! I had wanted to blog regularly this school year about the types of activities I do with my students in a GATE classroom, however, I just wasn't able to fit it into my regular schedule. With our district transitioning into Common Core next year, I do hope to fit blogging into my schedule, so here's to next year! In the meantime, our current school year is not quite over, so I am going to summarize this year's many events in my classroom:

1) Firstly, interactive notebooking did not pan out. I found it to be much too time consuming, and it just didn't fit with my style of teaching. I do plan on having my students keep an ongoing writing portfolio/notebook next year, so that is something to look forward to.

2) My Olympics unit did end well. My students loved learning about the history of the Olympics, ancient Greece, and London. They all wrote structured informational paragraphs about what they learned during the unit. They also turned their writing into a word cloud, which looked nice on the writing wall. They really loved the picture books I incorporated into the unit about Wilma Rudolph and Michael Phelps. The actual Olympics took place while we were off track (we are a year-round school), so it was nice for the kids to report back on their viewing of the games once we returned on track.

3) When we returned on track, we did a fun writing project called A Day in My Life. It was a photo narrative which we published using Microsoft PowerPoint. I basically took pictures of the students using my iPhone and uploaded the pictures to ypix.me. I took pictures of them throughout the day (doing Morning Work, working on the Problem of the Day, at recess and lunch, during chess time, during Literature Circles, at the school library, etc.) and they chose six pictures they like to help narrate what a day in their life is like. I also invited parents to send in pictures of the kids doing something they like to do after school. Once the students worked through the steps of the writing process independently, I helped them do a final revise and edit, and they published on PowerPoint by downloading the pictures from the ypix.me website and inputting them into their PowerPoints.

4) Speaking of the kids working through the steps of the writing process, I use a clip chart in my class that is pivotal to my writing instruction. The kids start with their clips on Prewriting, which is a graphic organizer designed to help brainstorm and organize ideas according to the writing prompt. The kids move their clips to First Draft when they finish their Prewriting. Then, they move their clip to Revise, which includes a checklist and activities to help them revise depending on the language skills I want them to focus on (verb tense, pronoun agreement, active verbs, prepositional phrases, etc). Then, they move their clip to Peer Edit. At this step, they put their clip on somebody else's clip to show that they are partnering with another student. Then, they continue moving their clips down as they work to Second Draft, Teacher Conferencing, and Publish. I use this for a monthly writing projects to help move things along smoothly and give me a rough estimate of how the kids are progressing.

5) Next, I have specific 20 minute block every day that I reserve for Teacher Read Aloud. I don't compromise on this time, as I am a firm believer that teacher's reading aloud is a crucial part of reading instruction. It allows for teachers to give access to higher level reading material as students' listening comprehension is usually a grade level or two above their independent reading level. Plus, it is a fun and relaxing way for students to get involved in the reading process as there is no pressure for students to decode difficult words, breakdown unknown vocabulary, or unravel complicated themes. I always go back and discuss these things after I read through the portion for the day. Many students have never completed a novel before they get to my class (which is sad), but the students end up feeling so accomplished by me reading them an entire novel, that they usually clap at the end of the book. I have seen kids cry at the end. I have seen kids want more. I always see kids immediately check out the book and start re-reading it on their own. I see kids finding more books by the same author. As I said, I a firm believer in the power of the teacher read aloud. I always choose books that I know the students can emotionally connect to, and I always choose books by prolific authors, so that students can find more books by the same author. Here are the books I have read aloud this year: Charlotte's Web by E. B. White; Because of Winn-Dixie, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and The Tale of Despereaux all by Kate DiCamillo; The BFG, Matilda, and The Witches all by Roald Dahl; The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan; and numerous titles of Choose Your Own Adventure stories by numerous authors. The reason why I read Choose Your Own Adventure novels is because I love that it teaches what second person perspective is (and it leads into my teaching of all points of views), and I have the kids write their own Choose Your Own Adventure story as an end of the year writing project.

Well, the baby is waking from her nap, so I will continue my summaries at a later time!

Number Forms

One of our first entries in our Interactive Notebook was Number Forms. We made a simple foldable for this review entry. I had already taught number forms, and we were doing this entry as a review before the test. I am glad I did it as a review, because, as the students were working on this entry, I could really see that a number of students had been struggling with word form and expanded form. Doing this activity helped them, and it inspired me to add number words to our spelling list for the next week, as many of students had trouble with spelling for word form.

Inside the Teacher Foldable

These pictures are of the teacher input page. We all did the same number in our foldable. I tried to choose a number that had some difficult words to spell. For example, I chose "forty-two thousand", because many students had been spelling "forty" with a "u," and many students had been spelling "thousand" incorrectly.

Outside the Teacher Foldable

Here are some pictures of the student foldables and reflection page. I really love reading the students' reflections, because that is how I can truly tell if they have internalized the lesson. Every time we add an entry, I help them out by giving them ideas of what I would like to see in their reflections. We are collaboratively making a list of "good reflection ideas." So far on the list are extra examples, real-world word problems, cartoons, poems, summaries, and questions. I am constantly on the look-out for new ideas of ways they can share what they have learned in their reflections.

 

What is an Interactive Notebook?

I have to admit that I have not read any books, nor done any real research into Interactive Notebooks. After joining Pinterest, and finding myself inspired by so many of other teachers' Pins, I started to notice a theme among a number of Pins I had repinned, and that was Interactive Notebooking. I started to follow a few blogs of teachers who do them, and I downloaded a few freebies on TeachersPayTeachers (TpT). That's all the research I have done. Anyway, I have started my own in my classroom, and though I've done no real research, I will attempt to answer the question, "What is an Interactive Notebook?" based on what I have decided to do with my own.

Our Interactive Notebooks are a 3-ring binder with tabs for Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and ELD. About once to three times a week, I will have students add an entry to their notebooks. The format is very specific. All of the right side pages (odd-numbered) are for Teacher Input - this is where I give them notes, draw diagrams, have them glue in handouts, or make a foldable with them. In my class, I will use this for the Input of a brand new big idea/concept or as a review of a big idea/concept. All of the left side pages (even-numbered) are for Students Input - this is where students write in their own words what they think they will learn, what they already know, what they have learned, proof of what they have learned, and a personal and creative reflection on the lesson. This side (the left side) is why I really wanted to start doing the notebooks. It allows for so much metacognition and for students to be writing a lot (especially in the content areas). In addition to the entries, students keep an updated Table of Contents at the front of each tab, and are constantly aware of the notebook rubric, which I will be using to grade their entries and the entire notebook. The whole notebook thus serves as a place for notes to use as a reference in class and for studying. It also serves as a platform for students to reflect on their own learning and interact with it creatively. It also serves as an ongoing portfolio of student work, learning, and thought. It also serves as a journal of student writing. I love that it does so much! That is why I am doing it! I hope this makes sense. Send me a comment or question if you have one!!

The Olympics

One of my goals this year is to incorporate more in depth study into current events. Well, one of the most exciting things coming up this month is the Summer Olympics in London. I figured since we are a year-round school, it would be great to expose my kids to this fun and historical event. Plus, it would provide numerous learning opportunities. I started by introducing a project for my students to work on with a partner. Each group could choose whether they wanted to research Olympic events, Olympic history, or London. Many of the groups chose London, but a few chose the others. So far, they have done some internet research into their topic of choice, taken notes, and crafted a paragraph summarizing their findings. They are currently in the stage of editing and revising their paragraphs. They will then type their summaries and place onto a photo using YouAreYourWords.com, which is a really cool site I found out about on Pinterest. I will definitely upload pictures when it's complete. Ok, so in addition to their Internet research and Web 2.0 published summaries, they will add some sort of visual or kinesthetic application of their findings into to present along with an oral reading of their work. To supplement this project with some daily culturally-relevant literature and comprehension activities, I have been doing different Teacher Read Alouds with class discussions and writing responses to literature. So far, we have read The Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics by Mary Pope Osbourne, Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull, and How to Train with a T-Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals by Michael Phelps. We will be reading the Fact Tracker that goes with the Magic Tree House book as well as some other nonfiction selections about Modern Olympics history. Also, next week, we will be doing daily Time For Kids readings of news articles online in order to follow what is happening in London. My kids are loving this unit, and I really feel they are becoming better readers, writers, and researchers in the process. Oh yeah, and to specifically hit on some of the GATE icons and universal concepts, we have had some great discussions and writing about the structure of ancient Olympic events compared to the modern Olympics, as well as on the ethics and fairness of past rules involving the participation, or lack thereof, of women in the Olympics. We are all having fun! Stay tuned for pictures of how it all turns out.