Simple Lesson Design 8-14-12

“Failure to plan is planning to fail”

-Benjamin Franklin

What a great way to put my lesson plans in an easy to use form.

This is like having mini notes as I teach.  I appreciate the idea of boiling down the lesson plan to the main ingredients and reminders for me as I teach.  This is no different that having the rules posted, the scoreboard, or the WBT signs reminding kids of what they are to do in class.    

The emphasis on practice as crucial to our success as teachers is a point well taken.  We always talk about the importance of kids practicing, but we don’t talk enough about the importance of teachers practicing.  Why shouldn’t we practice our routines and lessons  so we make permanent what we teach?  Practicing requires us to critically examine what we do every day in the classroom. We need to ask ourselves if what we are doing is relevant and important.  If not, get rid of it.

Another good idea is the Bridge.  Having students repeat the question I pose is a great way to get kids thinking critically about content and I can quickly check to see who is on task. Using the Because Clapper in conjunction with Bridge will really help me focus my students this year and get them to think deeper and formulate better answers. 

Finally, the point of praise and improvement was well taken.  We must never forget our year long goals of recognizing every student in our classroom.  Improvement rather than achievement is what we should be having our kids strive for.  Consistent use of the SIW is a great way to reinforce improvement.  I found allowing the students put the stars on the SIW really reinforced the idea their hard work earned them the reward.  All in all, the Simple Lesson Plan is a great alternative to traditional lesson plans with all the “administriva” that can get in the way of teaching. 

Red Green Marker Writing

Red Green Marker Writing

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
― Dr. Seuss

Teaching writing skills to my middle school students is one of the toughest tasks I undertake every year.  For me, it is very complicated.  How do I get students to edit and proof-read their writing effectively?  Where do I begin with students whose writing skills range from second to fifth grade?  Do I teach organization or how to write a complete sentence first?  The questions are complicated. 

Before watching Red Green Marker Writing the answers were elusive and complicated as well.

This strategy is quick, efficient, and effective.  The part I really like is the immediate feedback I am able to give kids as they write.  Rather than spending hours after school looking at paper after paper with the same mistakes over and over again, I can quickly let students know if they are practicing the skill correctly or making mistakes that need to be fixed.

Red Green Marker Writing is the simple answer to my complicated questions.  I am able to teach the skill, allow the kids to practice it, and monitor their progress during the timed writing exercise.  If they are doing it correctly, they receive a green mark indicating they are right on track.  If they are practicing the skill incorrectly, they receive a red mark telling them they need to correct the error as they continue to write. As always, WBT principals are embedded with the students required to give verbal affirmation with an “okay, or thanks,” after I give them a red or green mark.

Finally, kids are required to consciously think not only of what they are writing about but how they are writing during the timed exercise.  They must critically analyze their writing focusing on a specific skill or skills as they write.  Critical thinking is now purposely part of the writing process, and for my special education kids this is a big step.

Typical timed writing would be looked at as something to get done as quickly as possible with little thought to the writing other than what they are writing about.  Now, the students get help and guidance as they write and I improve my use of teaching time.  Red Green Marker Writing is the simple answer to my complicated questions.

CP 100
Medallions:  Super Speed Math (1), Webcast (2)
Followers 14
  

Lovely Blog Award

Nancy Stolton and Pinetreelia have both awarded me the prestigious One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you both so much. Make sure you visit these two fantastic teachers'  blog.

Here are the rules for this award:

Once you receive the award you have to pass it on to others! Here are the 3 rules to follow:
1. Follow the person that gave you the award.
2. Link back to the person that gave you the award.
3. Pass the award on to 15 new bloggers.

Here are the blogs I am passing the award on to.

Miss L's Whole Brain Teaching

Think, Wonder, and Teach

Joyful One

Whole Brain Teaching

Edukate with Whole Brain

Fun in 1st Grade

One is Wonderful

WBT with Scrapbunny

Mrs. Norton's Whole Brain Teaching Journey

Whole Brain with Roxi Shayne

Laura's Whole Brain Teaching Journey

Whole Brainiacs

Kellie's Whole Brain Teaching Classroom

Reading & WBT with Susan

Pawsitively Wild for WBT

Super Improvers Wall

6/19/2012

How do you motivate students to want to improve their behavior, academic skills, or social skills without the need for candy, pop, or monetary rewards?  How do you reach tough to teach middle school students?  I found the answer in the Super Improvers Wall.

After looking at fellow wibeteer Staci Glass’ pictures of her Super Improvers Wall for inspiration, I dove right in.  I created pages for each student in all four of my Resource Room classes and posted them on an empty wall.  The kids were immediately intrigued and started asking what this wall was all about.  After explaining how the Super Improvers Wall worked, my students were eager to start earning stars.

One of the most pleasant of surprises was my 8^th grade reading and writing class.  This group consisted of boys and girls with various disabilities ranging from learning disabled to emotionally impaired.  One of my toughest girls bought into the program the minute she earned her first star for cooperating and following the class rules (WBT’s 5 rules, of course).  After that, she was asking and even begging to earn more stars or wanting to know if she earned a star at the end of the hour.

After students had reached the first level, I started giving out small rewards such as stickers, trinkets from my “junk” drawer, and such. After kids starting moving up several levels, the “rewards’ were not the goal.  They were working to improve whatever skills were targeted for that week and merely moving up levels and receiving stars was reward enough.

What a great feeling for the kids to see their own accomplishment through hard work and perseverance.  I too felt a glow of accomplishment at having found something that helped kids improve their skills and was fun for everyone.  Super Improvers Wall really works, even with middle schoolers.




CP 75
Medallions:  Super Speed Math (1), Webcast (1)
Followers 13 

SuperSpeed Math

6/12/2012

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find a strategy to help kids learn basic math facts that was quick, engaging, and kids found interesting?  I believe Super Speed Math is just the ticket.

I have been frustrated over the past 16 years trying to find a way to help middle school special education students learn and retain basic math facts.  I have looked at canned programs, different curriculums, and various methods that others swear will work.  These are some of the toughest kids to motivate and keep engaged in anything I do. 

Lo and behold, I came across SuperSpeed Math.  I started using it last fall with the hope my class would buy into it and actually show growth and improvement in their math skills.  I had to go over how it works several times along with a couple of practice rounds before the students felt comfortable with the format and how it was supposed to work.  By October, they had it down fairly well.

After some experimentation, I settled on using SuperSpeed math three days a week as a warm-up.  Kids really started getting in the groove and looked forward to doing Superspeed math asking me if “today was the day”.  I could see the kids enjoyed playing it and looked forward to setting new personal records every time we played.

At the end of each marking period, I gave the students an assessment to measure their math skills and potential growth.  Improvement in overall math skills started to show up within the last two marking periods.  All but one student raised their math skill level by one full grade and several by almost two full grades!

Now I can’t say for sure student improvement was all due to using SuperSpeed Math, but I am sure it had a direct and positive effect.  The kids enjoyed the practice, and I have found something that is quick and easy to use. There has been positive growth in students who struggled with the rigors of middle school math.  It is a great strategy and I encourage everyone to give it a try.

CP 75
Medallions:  Super Speed Math (1), Webcast (1)

Reflections on WBT in a Middle School Classroom

The weeks preceding Christmas can be full of energy, excitement, and behavior problems in any middle school classroom.  As my class of 8th grade students came closer and closer to the coveted Christmas vacation, disrespect and lack of cooperation escalated.  In years past I might have raised my voice to reestablish control, sent kids to the office at the drop of a hat, or simply given up on certain students and ignored them.  As several students tried to test my mettle, I simply used the 5 classroom rules as my "behavior modification plan".  By holding up fingers to indicate what rule was being broken and hearing them recite the rule, using the scoreboard as a visual reminder of both good and not-so-good behavior, I felt totally in control of my class and confident in my ability to navigate this chaotic time of year with grace and a sense of mission.  No more agonizing over, "did I make the right decision?", in handling a discipline problem.  No more losing sleep or dreading waking up and having to face a group of hormone raging, Jekyll and Hyde personalities fondly known as teenagers.  WBT has brought peace and harmony to my teaching.  Sure, there are bumps in the road and tough days, but when I focus on following WBT,  it makes it much more manageable and I reap many more positives than negatives.  Teacher Nirvana gets closer and closer every day.  Enjoy the new year!

Video of WBT in 2nd Grade Classroom

Here is a video of me showing how to do Class-Yes and Teach-Okay in a 2nd grade classroom.  The teacher asked me to come over and show her how I use WBT in the middle school, particularly Teach-Okay in the classroom.

WBT Experience in Boyne Elementary

I had the wonderful opportunity to demonstrate WTB in a 2nd grade and 4th grade classroom at Boyne City Elementary School.  It was a wonderful experience.  In particularly, the teachers wanted to see how the Scoreboard worked to motivate students and how Teach-Okay engaged students in the learning process.  the kids were marvelous, enthusiastic, and really into it. Even the shy ones were engaged and working hard to tell their partner what I was teaching.  In the 4th grade class, the teacher told me the class had been working on using transition words in their writing assignments.  I was able to give them a definition of transition words with gestures and the kids worked really hard to teach the concept to their partner.  We had two 4th grade classes in the same room (40+ kids, wow!), so the noise of kids teaching and learning was loud and exciting.  The kids really got into the score board and in the spirit of the season, we used "Ho, Ho, Ho" for the 1 second celebration and "Bah, Humbug", for the mighty groan.  The ideas came straight from the kids.  It was a great opportunity to spread the WBT message and work with students and teachers to improve my skills and craft as well.

Super Improvers and Score Board Pics

I set up my Super Improvers wall for my three Resource room classes and it is working great.  I created 10 levels (different colors) and posted a sign at the front of the room stating what the Super Improvers goal is for the week.  This week they are working on completing their homework assignment each night.  They earn a star for each night it is completed.  I also have two emotionally impaired students who work independent of the rest of the class.  They too earn stars, but they must show effort and production during class time.  One of them is thrilled to earn stars for her effort and completing her work during class time.  Who would have thought an eighth grader would work so hard to earn stars and be the first to move to Level Two!  It's what we live for in special ed land.  The score board is working well and I have only had to use the Independents one day in the past 4 weeks.  The particular student involved did not want to continue to be an Independent after one class period.  He got the message loud and clear without raising my voice, showing anger towards me or any of the negative vibes usually associated with discipline.  It was great!

Genuis Ladder and What I learned

I started the Genius Ladder in my resource room reading and writing classes (5th, 7th, and 8th graders) this past week.  I went great.  The kids loved the idea of "bringing nothing but their voices and ideas".  We started with a blah sentence and moved right up to a full paragraph with several adders within twenty minutes of brainstorming.  An unintended consequence of the Genius ladder was as the kids were brainstorming adjectives I realized many of them had limited vocabularies when it came to coming up with interesting or different describing words.  This gave me an opportunity to discuss different words they could use other than obvious ones.  for example, if they were describing a dog, they might come up with "little" dog or "mean" dog.  I would suggest "tiny" or "vicious" dog as alternatives to their suggestions and add to their own vocabulary.  When they had brainstormed a number of adjective, I allowed them to choose the one they wanted to insert in the sentence.  It also gave me an opportunity to work on "adder" sentences.  Typically, any of my students who struggle with writing have a difficult time adding details to their paragraphs.  They seemed to better understand what they were to do when I used the term "adder" versus "detail sentence".    It also gave me a chance to find out how much background knowledge they had regarding the topic or subject of our paragraph.  The exercise went very well and they seemed pleased with the paragraph they ended up with.  All in all, it went well and I cannot wait to continue to teach writing using the Genius Ladder.  My advice is look for unintended opportunities to assist your students in areas of writing they struggle with that you may not have been aware of or may have taken for granted that they knew.

Teaching and Sharing WBT

I have implemented WBT in my resource room classes and have converted my co-teaching partner to use WBT in her ELA class.  For the first time I am implementing the Super Improver Wall and plan to introduce the Genius Ladder in the near future.  The Score Board is going great and kids really get into the mighty groan and the 1 minute celebration.  This year I am more conscious of how I am teaching content by using Teach-Okay and Mirror rather than simply talk, ask if they understand, and move on.  The kids love the fact I don't talk all the time, they get to talk to each other, gesture with their hand,... and it's fun.