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!
