Welcome!

Thank you for chosing to particpate in our blog, "It's all about the I". This forum provides an opportunity for collaboration around the topic of high quality instruction.


Each month please read the chapter that correlates with the monthly topic, respond to the "Read and Reflect" and the "Discuss" section and post your responses on the blog. Also, please use ideas from the "Do" section to apply the monthly topic in your classroom and post your experience. I encourage you to comment on other blog member's posts. The more interactive we make our blog the more we will gain from the experience!


All posts should be complete by the last day of the month. Then we will be on to another topic!!


Thursday, December 29, 2011

Nonlinguistic representations

Nonlinguistic representations

Coming from a Special Educator's perspective, we often write in IEP's "the use of graphic organizers" as modifications or accommodations for students. However, getting students to use them, is sometimes a different story. I have a bulletin of graphic organizers in my classroom for students to peruse and grab for any topic or subject. Very rarely are they used. After reading this month's chapter on using graphic representations, I think explicit teaching on creating and using graphic organizers or picture representations would be useful for my students. When working with dyslexic students, they often need reminders to form "mental pictures" in their heads of what is being read to them or discussed in class. This does not appear to come "naturally" to them. However, once they can form pictures it strengthens their comprehension.

I liked the "Generalization/Principle Pattern Organizer. It is very similar to basic, good note-taking. I liked the example they used for mathematics function and then follow that with examples in one, organized place. It is clean, and easy to follow. This could be used with more complicated mathematical concepts as well.

The idea of using kinesthetic activity at the high school level is interesting and I think I would like to try to use it more often. In the past, any time I have asked students to get up and move around (before completing a task that required them to focus) has been met with lethargic responses such as "I am too tired" or " do I have to?" I could see trying this with some of the physical science concepts that students often times struggle with.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Nonlinguistic Representation

Like Amy, most of my experience with nonlinguistic representation was also in college in my education courses. My college education professors focused a lot on learning styles and ways to enhance student learning. Why then, do so many teachers not use this mode more often? I think it has a lot to do with our early learning experiences. We tend to teach topics in a way similar to the way we were taught. This is why it is so important for us to remember to use this mode in our teaching even when it may not seem natural for us.

I do tend to use a lot of graphic organizers with my students and it definitely improves their attention to and retention of information. We use them mostly in writing, but also when studying social and science topics. Another way I incorporate nonliguistic modes is with vocabulary words. I often have the students write a sentence and show a picture to show the meaning of the word. This way they remember it more and I can also clear up word confusions by having them explain their pictures.

In math, we use a lot of manipulatives to learn addition, subtraction and a variety of other topics. I always tell students that they should picture the manipulatives in their mind when they are solving math problems.

I would like to do more with this mode because I feel it really can help my students retain information in a new way. That will be my goal for January and beyond.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Nonlinguistic Representation

Believe it or not...it's almost December!!  This means we are moving on to Nonlinguistic Representations soon!  A very interesting topic to me because I have had so many negative learning experiences with teachers who teach only from a linguistic modality.  It wasn't until college that I learned that I need to take any new knowledge and manipulate it in a nonlinguistic fashion to retain it deeply.  Once I figured that out learning new content was so much easier and more fun!  What are your experiences as a learner or a teacher with nonlinguistic representations??

Friday, November 18, 2011

Oops!

I left comments on another blog rather than posting! Check them out on the blog with the brainstorming map!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Free online webbing software

 Here is my example of one way to summarize or take notes.
This free online software is similar to Kidspiration or Inspiration.
It is called bubbl.us "brainstorm and mind maps online"
It is fun, easy and another way that students can visually take notes.


Online Webbing software

Saturday, November 5, 2011

November = Note Taking

Many of you have linked the topics of summarizing and note taking since they share a chapter in our text and are so naturally connected.  Carry on with your great comments and discussions and we'll move on to Nonlinuistic Representations in December!  Thanks  and Happy Thanksgiving!! :)

Monday, October 31, 2011

Summarizing

Summarizing is how we take large selections of text and reduce it to “the gist”, or key points or main point or by putting it into your own words. I think it is so important to teach the skills of removal of extraneous details, underlining selective important parts, and identifying only the “who, what, where, why and how” details. This skill is so important to the success of our students and sometimes it is lacking at the High School level. As special education teachers, we sometimes have to place special IEP goals and benchmarks in their IEPs to encourage the learning of this skill.

One idea that I found important was the fact that summarizing is a skill that needs to be explicitly taught. At the high school level, I think we assume students know how to summarize and when they don’t do it, we label them as lazy. Summarizing really does involve higher-order thinking skills that are also sometimes not fully developed.

In the upcoming month, I hope to teach my students to: 1) delete unimportant information, 2) delete information that was already given 3) reduce words and 4) underline/highlight the topic sentence (if it is a photocopy). I think I am going to make up a poster of these steps and place it in my room for the visual learner as well as a daily reminder. Another idea that I enjoyed learning about was the Reciprocal teaching. This teaching strategy involves four higher-order thinking skills: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. This sometimes happens naturally in my Instructional Support class where a student will come in with a variety of work from a variety of teachers, from a variety of different grade levels and expect me to know what they have to work on and know the material. For example, I teach freshman through seniors and the High School offers many different history classes at each grade level as well as “half-year exploratory” history classes. A student will walk in and say that they need help with their history assignment. In my mind, that history assignment could be on anything. The first thing I do is get them to summarize what they think they should be learning about, and then, naturally, questions come up because I don’t often have the background information that they have. Usually, this works out well. They feel smarter because they know something that I don’t know. I am happy because they just verbalize what they didn’t think they already knew. I don’t leave it at that level. I always need for them to clarify some important fact or piece of information for me. We usually predict or “think aloud” possible solutions to their academic assignment. This all happens within a very short period of time (less than an hour) and usually we both learn something.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Summarizing and Notetaking

If I had to pick a skill that my first graders always seem to have a hard time with, it would be summarizing. They really need a lot of support and guidance while learning about summarizing even the simplest stories. They are not sure usually what facts are most important and those that are not important to the main idea of the story. Usually, they try to retell the whole story. We spend a lot of time distinguishing between retelling and summarizing what they have read. I always try to have them summarize as though they were telling their parents what they read about in school. This helps them focus more on the important facts that they would tell someone. This isn't always the most effective method though and I really like some of the frames for summarizing. I think they would really clarify things for the students. I always orally review the items on the Narrative Frame, but I think that maybe having a poster with the questions to use for each story would be helpful. I don't ever remember being taught this skill directly myself, so I want to try even harder to give my students the tools to be able to summarize effectively.

Notetaking is something I try to introduce the students to early on. This year, we started by researching foxes. We selected several books and broke up into two groups to read them. During and after reading, the teachers were the scribes and we wrote down facts that were important about foxes. I discussed with students my thought process as well when I write notes and that I choose to write phrases and note complete sentences. The groups then compared their notes to see what was the same and different. Each group noticed the books focused on slightly different things, but that most of the info was the same. I then showed the students during a shared writing how to turn their notes into a written non-fiction piece. Gradually, I will do less and less of the directing and they will do most of the notetaking themselves or in groups. I like that the chapter mentioned the different methods of notetaking too. I think in school kids are often shown one basic way to take notes and that might not work for them. I plan on trying to show them more of a variety of notetaking types throughout the year.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Summarizing and Note Taking

This chapter really struck me. As a younger student I really struggled with summarizing, it's a skill that I continue to struggle with now as a teacher. When trying to explain summarizing to students I really struggle with getting them to take a step back from all the details and focus on the frame. I think the idea of summarizing frames would be really helpful in teaching our students to summarize. One thing I've tried is to write out the frames and/or their questions for my first graders. When reading our story for the week or a read aloud to my class, I reference the appropriate story frame. This has helped both me and my students to orally summarize.

Summarizing develops into the later skill of taking notes. While I have tried both forms of note taking mentioned in the text, I agree with Ashley in that people need to develop their own methods to best help themselves learn the material. This awareness of what works for yourself and your learning style takes a long time to develop. I wonder, if we as teachers encourage students to become more aware of their learning style that they will develop better note taking and summarizing skills earlier.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Two of the Most Useful Skills a Student Can Have

It's funny that summarizing and note-taking is this month's topic. I've recently been working with students on mini-lessons about summarizing. They were asked to read a short passage and summarize what they had read in a paragraph. When I was reading their "summaries" I was amazed at how little they knew about a proper summary! Most of my students just copied the passage substituting a few words here and there and maybe throwing in an original sentence or two. Not one of them knew how to write a proper summary!



When I was reading this month's chapter about summarizing and note-taking, it really struck me that "hey, a lot of students can't do either!" Thinking back to my own school days, I don't think I was ever explicitly taught how to take notes or write a proper summary. Sure we always had to write summaries in English class, but mine was never an "A".

Summarizing and note-taking are skills that will benefit someone in whatever they do. While reading, I was really struck by the idea of the "Summary Frames". This is such a unique idea, and I think it would work great for all students especially because there is a different frame for every type of text. The Frames specifically tell you what you are looking for and ask questions to guide you along the way. They also help students to delete trivial, or redundant material and create a topic sentence.

I feel that note-taking can be taught to an extent, however, it is something that the student needs to modify to his/her way of thinking and how best to visually do so. I really liked the idea of the split page notes- one side of page is the actual "notes" and the opposite side of the page is pictures, flow charts, graphs...etc.

I am going to attempt to explicitly teach students how to write a proper summary. It will be interesting to see their response to the Summary Frames.

Follow Up
Although I haven't gotten around to making effort/achievement charts for each student, I have been talking a lot more about how the two are so closely related. With one student in particular, I feel that he is really starting to understand that zero effort=very little achievement. After each test/quiz/graded assignment I make it a point to ask the student "How much did you study at home?", "How long have you known about this?" "Do you feel that you tried your hardest?"...and so on. This student is usually pretty honest with me and himself. I'm starting to see a little more effort on his part! Slow and steady I guess!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Planner Resources

YAY!  I was able to secure directions to access all kinds of GREAT resources that go along with our monthly topics.  Follow

http://www.fairhavenps.org/Get_Started_PPTW_Final.PDF

I posted October's theme and assignment below!  Have fun!!

Monday, October 10, 2011

October ~ Summarizing

What a great start to the school year bringing a new focus to effort and recognition.  We had some great discussion and sharing of ideas! 
This month please shift your attention to the very important instructional practice of SUMMARIZING.  You'll find your reading in Classroom Instruction That Works pgs. 29-43.   This month please:
  • post two ideas from the reading that struck you
  • share one summarizing technique you used in your classroom this year
  • and comment on at least one other blog members post! 
I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts and ideas!
 

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

E is for Effort awards

I made awards (similar to praise notes) for effort I see in the classroom. I am hanging them up as students earn them. If you would like a copy to edit for your use, email me and I will send you the document.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Effort and "The Smart Kids"

Hi everyone! Sorry for my tardiness in posting ... technical difficulties!

What truly resonated with me when reading this chapter was the emphasis on explicitly teaching effort to all students. I have always had an effort chart in my classroom that I would draw attention to and talk about with my class but I have not explicitly taught what effort means before this year. As a first grade teacher I think it's really important to teach kids what this means. At this point in the year, I've noticed that all my students consider ALL their work a #4 effort if it's finished. My goal for the next couple weeks is to do more teaching and modeling on what a #4 effort truly is. By doing this I hope that my studentswill have a better understanding of what is such a vague concept to them. They have begun rating their work with an "effort" box that they put at the top of the page once they's completed the assignment. My plan for next week is to show them their effort box and compare it to their achievement on the assignment during a graphing activity. I'm hoping this will further emphasize that effort isn't just getting the work done, it's how hard to try when it's difficult for you. Which brings me to my next point...

In the chapter the authors talked about effort and achievement. They mentioned how the stress of "being smart" can sometimes be setting students up for failure. When kids are considered "the smart one" in class we often assume they will succeed on any given task. We, as well as the student, come to expect their achievement on many [if not all] assignments. But what happens when the smart ones come across a concept or assignment that is difficult or challenging for them? So often I've noticed that my most advacned students give me the least amount of effort in their work. Since it is easy for them, why should they go above and beyond the expectation? These students aren't used to taking the academic risk of being wrong or making a mistake. If we shift our focus on effort rather than just results, I'm hoping that we will begin to see even greater work from those students who are capable of truly exceptional academic success.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Effort

This chapter was very interesting and reinforced the fact that kids need to be taught about effort. My first graders are just getting used to the rigor that school requires and they sometimes find it easier to give up or act out. As I mentioned under a previous post, I have them set goals related to things they need to improve upon. They need a lot of guidance on this task as well so that they pick goals that are not only attainable through effort but those goals that the students will be able to track or see growth.

I really like the idea of "E for effort" certificates that were mentioned in the book. I agree that students should receive "systematic praise" and that it should not always be a toy or candy. I see how well students respond to our praise notes for the PeaceBuilders program and I can only imagine how much students would love to get effort certificates. My next goal is to create some sort of graph showing students' effort toward their goals. I think students need a visual reminder to keep them motivated and excited. Another thing I use in my room is a marble jar. I use it for whole class behavior and I find it motivates the students to help others make good choices instead of me having to always monitor them. This could be adapted for use with effort as well.

Another interesting section for me was the Pause, Praise and Prompt strategy. I think this is so key and I have a student that is definitely in need of this approach. On Friday we were working through a writing assignment that was particularly tough for her. She was getting so frustrated and I had to stop her and explain that although it was tough she was becoming a better writer and that it was so important for her to write complete sentences that make sense. She worked through it and I was able to praise her in the end when she finished the writing piece.

I think I will revisit effort again this week with my students and do a more direct teaching of the word and examples.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Ability, Effort, Other people and Luck

This was a very interesting chapter considering I spend most of my day trying to motivate students. Many of my students have not had much experience with success, at least not on the first few tries. They view themselves as stupid and don't want anyone to know that they don't learn in the same way as everyone else. It is much easier to be the class clown, or "lazy" student, rather than the "special education student." Most of my students believe that "smart" students do not apply effort in their academic studies. Most of my students believe that the "smart" students do very little work, it just comes "naturally" to those students.

An idea that really struck me in the readings was that people attribute success at any given task to 1 of 4 causes: ability, effort, other people and luck. Three out of four of those ideas actually hurt success. At some point in your life, you may not have the required skills to be "naturally" good at something, and other people and luck are not constants. Effort is the most useful trait out of the four. Effort can provide the motivation that can be applied throughout a person's lifetime.

One thing I have been trying at school is to privately catch my students when they are applying effort in their academic subjects all on their own. I try to whisper to them that I am proud of their effort. I have even called home to let the parent know the positive things that their son or daughter has done so that they don't always just hear the negative from the school district. At the end of last school year, I made a certificate for the most "improved student" and gave it privately to a female student who gave a 110% of herself to her academic studies. She said it was the first time that she was ever acknowledged for something positive in school. She was beaming with pride.

The Special Education teachers at the High School plan on explicitly teaching more lessons about effort and showing examples between effort and success. We hope the the students will learn to change their beliefs and start to put forth the effort required to be successful in their academic subjects and beyond.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

An idea that really struck me in the reading this month, was the practice and implementation of teaching effort. Many of us, myself included, are guilty from time to time of presuming that all of our students know how to put forth effort. We may make comments such as "I would like to see your best effort," however, we sometimes fail to wonder if the student knows what their best effort is. Do they know how to push themselves to do their best?


I absolutely love the idea of implementing effort rubrics as a way to create a distinct relationship between effort and achievement. I believe that it is essential for students to understand this relationship so that they become more equipped learners, ready to take on any task put in front of them. I truly believe that too many of our students feel that they are simply not smart enough to understand the material and even if they put forth effort it just doesn't seem to be good enough to make the grade. The question then becomes, how do we as educators help students develop the skills and confidence they need to attain success......

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

"To get what we've never had we must do what we've never done."

Read and Reflect

An idea that really struck me while reading the subsection "Teaching about Effort" was the idea of having each student complete an effort rubric after a test/quiz/project. I really liked this idea because I think that when students are able to see the relationship between effort and achievement (provided that they are honest with themselves while filling out the rubric) they will realize how important putting forth 100% effort is, as well as how effort affects achievement. I think this would serve as a tremendous motivator for most students.

I have not had the opportunity to implement this in my classroom as of yet because most of my classroom settings are Co-teach or Instructional support. I plan to experiment with this rubric with my Instructional Support class in the near future. I'm excited to see how it turns out! I will be using the effort rubric from the book (pg. 52) to start my experiment with. I may change bits and pieces as time progresses. I'll keep everyone updated as to how this is working out for us!

Sorry I don't have any fun pictures :-P


When reading the text, another idea that struck me was the "Guidelines for Effective Praise" (pg. 56). The table really outlines effective/ineffective praise quite well. I think most of us (or at least myself) are guilty of only praising particular students, or students who are over-achievers anyway! This will also be something that I plan to work on- praise everyone on their good work or achievements.

I don't typically believe in giving physical awards/rewards because I feel that children are going to grow to expect something physical every time they meet some expectation. Rather, I feel that they will benefit more with a "self-esteem boost".

Monday, September 26, 2011

Prize bins and Treasure chest!

      While walking around HMS I realized that a lot of teachers have various prize incentives for their students. Each one has different criteria for winning a prize.  Students learn that they will be rewarded for various tasks and goals achieve from effort given to homework, classwork, routines and daily chores. As the authors of Classroom Instruction that Works states "Reinforcing effort can help teach students one of the most valuable lessons they can learn- the harder you try, the more successful you are." (Marzano, 59).

Goals and Achievement!

This is the start of our intervention bulletin board at HMS.  Students names are added when they have completed an IXL Math section.  We will continue to increase the number of stars throughout the year!
This is a bulletin board for sixth grade blue team students.  They all wrote their goals for the year and have signed the goal pledge to achieve their personal best for the year! This kit can be ordered from www.reallygoodstuff.com.

Effort in classroom routines.

After the first two classes of my sixth grade research seminar in the library, students should begin to know the class routines.  When they arrive at the library, they get their folders, read the agenda on the white board and begin their warm up exercise. Most students need reminders after the first class so I reinforce what they have done by complimenting students who have followed the routines correctly.  I give small token prizes to students who have done this accomplishment. They can pick either erasers, bookmarks or pencils out out my "Prize Batman Bucket".  I think that this is a great way to start the year and help students model for each other.  I find that they do make an extra effort to learn and follow the routines much easier when they are recognized and soon everyone is achieving this small goal. 

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Email Address Please!

Hello Bloggers!

Currently all members only have access to add comments.  I'd like everyone to be able to POST as I have.  Posting allows you to add info with formatting, pics. links, etc.!  In order to give you permission to add a post I need to make you a 'Blog Author'.  I need the email address you used to set up your membership to the blog.  Send me your email address either as a comment on the blog or to my Fairhaven email (ahartley-matteson@fairhavenps.org).  Once I receive your email I will add you as an author and you will have access to POST on the blog! 

Thanks,
Amy

Monday, September 19, 2011

Posts and comments!!!

Who's going to be the first to blog a post/comment/question/picture/thought???
Blogging by myself is getting boring!!   

Friday, September 16, 2011

Classroom Instruction That Works

Our blog group is reading Classroom Instruction That Works.  If you want to be part of our study group please be sure to email me so I can get the text to you asap.  Those who have already emailed me you should receive your copy on Monday! 


Effort, effort, everywhere!!!

A morning message with student's descriptions of what "effort" means.

Cooperative groups work together to create classroom rules.  Notice rule # 4!!



Has anyone tried a new technique to promote students to put forth extra effort?  Please share!!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

September: Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

This month please complete the following before the last day of the month:
  • Read Classroom Instruction that Works, Chapter 4 (page 49-59)
  • Blog your responses to the prompts on page 21 in your planner
  • Blog at least one example of something you tried in your classroom related to the topic.
Remember to respond to each other's blog entries and have fun!!

212 Degrees!

This is an awesome video all about effort! 
http://www.212movie.com/