Popsicle stick math station

I can't even get over how jealous I am of everyone who is done with school for the year! We had a ridiculous amount of snow this year, so we missed a ton of school, and are not getting out until the end of June. 17 more days. Seriously! The kiddos are having trouble focusing, so I have had to get creative with the activities we have been doing. We are in the process of reviewing out content for the end of year tests, so I have been trying to put some mixed review in my math workshop stations. Enter the popsicle stick review station! I didn't snap too many pics, but managed to get a few.

The concept of the review sticks is easy- there is a problem on the right, and an answer on the left. The kiddos solve the problem and then look for the stick with the correct answer. These work out really well for review because the sticks are self correcting! If a kiddo doesn't answer a question correctly, they won't be able to find the answer. They know that they then have to go back and find their error.  

I teach math in a workshop format, and break my students up into four differentiated groups. The groups change often based upon the unit I am working on, so the kids know they are pretty fluid. I decided to try to focus on the needs of the groups, and made four different sets of review sticks. I did fractions, decimals, whole numbers, and algebra. Each set was color coded on the side so the sticks didn't get mixed in together.

The kiddos worked in groups to solve the problems and put the sticks in the correct order. They loved it! They even used them during a rainy indoor recess a few days later. So, there you have it- how I am "tricking" my kiddos into reviewing for our end of year tests. :)

The Order of Operations & a freebie!

When I was a middle schooler (a few years ago now!) I learned the order of operations with the acronym PEMDAS. We remembered it with the pneumonic phrase "please excuse my dear aunt Sally." I definitely remember the phrase, and I always remembered what they stood for... but I didn't really conceptually understand what I was expected to do. I followed the order strictly as it was written- parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. I remember struggling through algebra and wondering why sometimes division came before multiplication. My mind as further blown when a student moved in from another state and knew the order of operations as BEDMAS. How could that be the same?? The problem is pervasive- check out some of the popular meme pages for math problem postings. Grown adults solve problems incorrectly regularly, and argue about their strategy. Even those that solve it correctly generally back their answer up by sayings "I followed PEMDAS." That's troubling- because that is an acronym, not a mathematical procedure. 

I have been introducing the order of operations in a new way to my kiddos to try to prevent these types of misconceptions.

The two triangles above are what I give my kiddos now. They paste both into their math journals to refer back to. Why two different organizers? Well, I think it illustrates the fact that division and multiplication (or addition and subtraction) are to be completed in the order they appear, from left to right. If students constantly hear the operations in a specific order, many of them will memorize that and inadvertently solve problems in that order. The use of two graphic organizers with the operations reversed in each section helps reinforce that equal weight is given to "MD" and "AS" in each step. I also usually have my kiddos draw an arrow from left to right in the three lower sections of the triangle just to make it a bit more clear.

In fifth grade, we do not have to learn about square roots, but I give my kiddos the graphic organizer with square root on it anyway. I read an interesting article a few years back about "rules that expire" which inspired me to create it this way. The basic idea of the article was that throughout a child's life, they learn things in math that continually "expire" as they go on. For instance, when you multiply by 10, just add a zero! Well, that "expires" in fifth grade when they begin multiplying decimals. 42.5 x 10 is not 42.50! Conceptual understanding clears this up, of course, but trying to avoid the rules that "expire" is very helpful, too. In this case, the order of operations "expires" when square roots come into play if the students have not heard about them before. 

I love that the triangle shape takes the form of the problems as they are being solved, too! Each step along the way makes it smaller and smaller, until the work is eventually in the shape of a triangle. 

If you are interested in using this graphic organizer in your classroom, check the freebie here. I have posted several versions of the organizer, including as pictured above, with and without square roots, and a blank triangle to be filled in.  Enjoy!

Teacher Appreciation

Teacher Appreciation week is a great time to check out the Teacher Discount Directory!

Most places that have teacher discounts are giving even deeper teacher discounts this week.

CiCi’s Pizza: Teachers receive a free Buffet on May 5th From 4 PM until close. The fine print says you must have a valid teacher ID. Find your location HERE and call ahead and confirm your location is participating.

Chick-Fil-A: Most store are offering something to teachers, but it varies by location. Call your location restaurant for details! 

Staples: Teacher Rewards members received a coupon in the mail for 40% back in Staples rewards on any purchase. Woo! This is a great one. If you didn't get your coupon, check with your local store. Sometimes they are able to offer it in store. 

Teachers Pay Teachers: TpT is having another great sale- up to 28% off of items with promo code ThankYou. Check it out!

I am super sad to say that Chipotle will not be participating in teacher appreciation this year. No reason why, other than they "chose not to offer this promotion" per their facebook page. :(

Did I miss one? Let me know in the comments!

7 Step Vocabulary

Teaching vocabulary to students is an incredibly important part of content area knowledge. Academic knowledge, specifically, can be hard for students to retain if they are low achieving, special education, or if English is their second language. For years, research has shown that increased vocabulary knowledge means improved reading comprehension. Last year, I learned about a pretty powerful and effective strategy for teaching vocabulary to ELE and Special Education students through a state sponsored training. It was created by the incredible and talented ELE teaching guru, Margarita Calderon. It's so good, I have to pass it on!

The seven step vocabulary process can be used in any subject, at any time. You can do all seven steps, or you can choose to do just some of them. In my classroom, I do the entire process at the start of a unit with the critical academic words. It has really increased scores for my students!

The first step is to say the word and show it to the students. The students then repeat the word back to me. We repeat this step three times. I like to have the kids repeat it in unison so students that have a hard time with pronunciation aren't nervous. This step helps to link the pronunciation and print version of the word for students.

The next step is to show the word in a sentence and read it aloud to the students. In this step, the students do not have to repeat or use it themselves. They just observe the sentence in print and the teacher using it orally. This step gives context to the word so students can begin to understand how to use it. 

In this step, the teacher shows and reads the textbook definition of the word. Although it is tempting, you should resist the urge to make it "kid friendly." It comes later!  In this step, you want the definition to have academic rigor even if it is above the student's heads. The purpose of this step is to expose students to academic and formal English, and prepare for or reinforce dictionary usage.

This step is where the definition starts to make sense. Here, the teacher explains the meaning of the word in a kid friendly way. You can use simple language, props, hand movements, or pictures to fully convey the meaning of the word. I also generally use it in a sentence with day-to-day context for the kiddos to really start to get the meaning.

This step is where the "tricky" parts of the word are pointed out. This could be multiple meanings, words with non-standard spelling, homonyms, grammatical variations, or false cognates. In this step, you can also point out the language cognate if you know it or are able to find it. A great source for looking up cognates is The Cognatarium.

This is the step where the kiddos start to "own" the words. They participate in a think-pair-share to use the word in context 10 - 12 times each. The teacher provides an example and a sentence stem first. If the word was environment she may say "One part of the environment I care about is _____." The students would then repeat this sentence frame with a partner, filling in the blank differently each time. The sentence frame is posted on the board. 

This is the word in use! The students receive a reading, which is usually completed in partners or groups. The reading uses all of the vocabulary that has been taught using the 7 step process. The teacher also assigns a short writing to be completed after the reading has been completed. The students should be required to use a vocabulary word (or more, depending on their levels) in their writing. This provides accountability for the students and also lets them apply their knowledge to deepen their understanding.

It sounds like SO MUCH but once it has been done a few times, the kiddos really get into a routine. You should only spend about 2 minutes on each word, and complete 3 - 5 words per lesson. It is worth it- I swear! Since it's hard to visualize without an example, I've made one for you below.

Step one: Have the kids repeat it after you three times.

Step two:

 Step three:

Step four:

Step five:

Step six: Just a note on this step- with higher level ELE students I may give a two part sentence frame, such as "Sometimes I analyze ___________ because ___________."

Step seven:

So, there it is. I know it seems like a lot, but give it a shot! I have noticed a big difference in my student's learning since I started using this process in my teaching. 

Currently April

I can't believe it is April! I wasn't able to play any April fool's jokes on my kiddos this year. We had PARCC testing and it would just be mean to play a joke on them after they finished that. Linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Third Grade for this month's Currently!

Two more weeks until Spring Break... I think I can, I think I can.... 

:) 

Perspective and Point of View

Ok, I admit it- until I really took the time to do some research this year, I really didn't understand the importance of teaching perspective. I was teaching a specific standard that my kiddos were struggling with, RL.5.6 - Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.

I did a lesson on point of view, and my kiddos seemed to understand the basics of it. We did a few activities over the course of a week, and then we dove into our assessment: rewriting a story from another character's point of view. We had recently finished Shiloh, so I had my students rewrite the ending from Judd's point of view. If you aren't familiar with the book- he is the villain. I was expecting to see the kids produce writing that really showed how different the story would be from his point of view, with lots of character thoughts and feelings included. Shockingly, most of my kiddos wrote the same scene, but changed it to first person point of view. Every time it said Judd in the text, they changed it to either "I" or "me" and called it a day. I was shocked! I re-evaluated my lesson, and decided to start fresh the next week.

After researching over the weekend and looking for new ideas, I realized something important. I hadn't taught my kiddos about perspective! Understanding the difference is difficult, and requires some really explicit teaching, but I am glad I did it. 

Perspective is rooted deeply in a person's schema, or experiences and background knowledge. Everyone's unique schema causes them to see a situation in their own distinctive way. For example, someone who has never seen the ocean before will react differently to it than someone who spent their summers at a beach house. Similarly, someone with a lot of experience with children will react differently to a school at dismissal time than someone who has limited experience. In the same way, positive or negative experiences with something will influence your future interactions with that thing or something like it. In order to truly understand point of view, it's important to understand how the character's schema will affect how the story is told. 

After talking about this anchor chart, we read Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg.  If you haven't read this book, it's adorable, and a classic for teaching point of view. 

The story is about two ants that go into a house on a mission to find sugar crystals for their queen, and decide to stay behind to live in the sugar bowl. They go through several misadventures, including landing in a cup of coffee and almost being swallowed by a human. Eveything is told from ants perspective- the coffee is described as a lake of "bitter, brown, boiling liquid," and man drinking the coffee is described as the "the lake tilted and began to empty into a cave. The ants could hear the rushing water and felt themselves pulled toward the pitch black hole." We then worked together and made a T chart comparing the descriptions from the ant's perspective with descriptions from the person's perspective. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of it and threw it while preparing my room for PARCC testing. :(

A couple days later, we read Bad Road for Cats  by Cynthia Rylant (available in PDF if you google it!) and talked about Magda's perspective in the story. We picked out text evidence in our discussion that showed how her perspective was influencing the way the story was told. Then, talked about how the story would be different if the boy told it. We worked together to make a graphic organizer showing his perspective. I did this on my laptop and projected it to the class. Here is what we came up with.

Finally, we rewrote the story from the boy's point of view. What a difference in their writing! Just about everyone showed the character's feelings and thoughts in their writing. Most of them even gave insight into the character's motivations. We really hit on the standard, the kids told me that considering another point of view or perspective just "made sense" now. It was a seriously fantastic unit that the kiddos really enjoyed.

Currently... March!

Thank goodness February is over. It has been a brutal month of winter weather here in Boston! We have over 107 inches of snow, most of which was received in February. Our seasonal average is only 43 inches... and we are getting 3 - 6 more tonight! The weather has been seriously cold, too. Below zero many days without wind chill. Needless to say, I am so ready for this new month and for spring to arrive. Linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for Currently!

Listening - The sound of a sleeping baby.. is there anything sweeter? My little guy is not a great sleeper, so this is extra special. I'm soaking up every minute of it!

Loving - My new guided reading groups. I'm really in groove lately! I have 7 groups, all in chapter books, so it can be difficult to keep track of. I am staying hyper organized, which has kept us all on track. Fingers crossed we can stick with it!

Thinking - About state testing. Is anyone else taking the PARCC this year? My district piloted it last year, and has adopted it this year. It's a big change from our previous state test! We are still working out the kinks. It's been a challenge, to say the least, because there is so much information that we do not have yet. I've been using the PARCC model content frameworks and the published practice tests to prep my kiddos, but I wish I had more to work with.

Wanting- A magic housework fairy. Do they make those? :) There just aren't enough hours in the day!

Needing- To catch up on correcting. I seem to get in a slump this time of year and the papers pile up. I hate holding on to things! I much prefer to give immediate feedback and let the kiddos see my comments right away. I definitely have to get back on track.

Spring break plans- none for me! I'm in Massachusetts, and most schools here have two "spring vacations"- one in February and one in April. I'm not sure why, but it's been this way for as long as anyone (including my grandparents, who are in their seventies) can remember.


My district is currently out of contract and in negotiations. One of the items that our city would like to add to the contract is breaking up our paychecks over the course of the calendar year. Currently, we are paid only during the school year. This would be a mandatory change. It got me wondering, how is everyone else paid? Help me out- participate in my anonymous poll!