Action Research Blog 2

I implemented a way to motivate Jose, (and all the other students in the class), to do his math minute!  For the past two weeks, Jose has done every single math minute – 10 total.  My motivator is a prize drawing that students can enter their name into if they do the math minute every day for a week.  The math minutes are started on Friday and go throught Thursday; students turn in their math minutes on Thrusday, I check them that night, and on Friday we enter all of students who receive 100% into the prize drawing/ “Math Bucket”….. Getting 100% is “easy” because we correct all of the problems together as a class each day, and if they get an answer wrong and correct it – they still get 100%.  The first prize drawing is tomorrow, and all of the students are sooooo excited — me too!

Assessing my assessments

There are exactly 3 students in my 6th grade math
class who “get” long division…. let alone long division
with decimals! I have spent 2 extra days doing long
division, and they arn’t getting it! My lead teacher
says we have to move on, and we can’t teach to a
mastery level. So, do the other 23 students get an
F??? Those same 23 students didn’t “get” multiplication
last week!! I’m stressed out about this… Mrs. Harris
usually gives points for behavior and participation….
HUH! We are starting fractions on Monday, and I have
little hope…..

My experience with IRI

On Wednesday, I pulled 4 students aside to do an IRI with me.  I started out doing the word lists with them, and I was amazed at how far they got, and how good they did!!  On Thursday, I had the same 4 students do the reading/comprehension part of the same IRI, and they did terribly! — I spoke with Mrs. Harris about it and she said that these students can read the words by themselves, but when it comes to fluency and comprehension they struggle… we will use this information in workshop and design activities that build fluency and comprehension.  We have also noticed that these same students struggle with spelling. 

I am glad to have had the oppurtunity to do the IRI testing because I might have assumed that the word lists automatically match students skills in reading/fluency/comprehension and vise versa — clearly, this assumption was wrong, and I could have placed students into workshops that would have been inappropriate for them had I not tested on both areas.

Action Research Blog 1

So, here are some of my rough ideas for my action research.  My focus is mostly on individual students in my math class.  Most of the students in the math class are from other home rooms and the “feel” of the students/classroom is just so odd compared to the rest of the day.  The students in this class seem so immature, and as soon as I let them work independently or with a partner, everyone is off task, talking, getting up, throwing things, and passing notes…. As long as I use direct instruction and go through each problem with the whole class step by step (calling on one student at a time to work through a problem), the classroom is calm, quiet, and engaged.  — I have a lot of fun partner/group activities I want to try, but as soon as I try, everything gets so chaotic….maybe I need to start over with the rules and how we do things in my classroom…???  Anyway, am I even close with any of these ideas????

 

1.  How to get Jose to do the math minute

2.  How to get Zach to stop talking every other 5 seconds

3.  How to get Chris G. to pay attention

4.  How to get the math class as a whole to do a small group/partner activity without all hell breaking loose

5.  How to get students to use math manipulatives as they were intended to be used (not as chew toys or rocket ships)

6.  How to get Jose to take notes

7.  How to help Jose realize that he is capable of doing his own work

 

Word Choice Strategies

During many mini-lessons, bring in an object and let students feel it, smell it, and taste it if it is food, and listen to it, if it’s living. Then ask them to describe its attributes. Write the children’s suggestions on chart paper. Encourage them to describe even more (i.e. how soft is it? As soft as what?) Remind them to think this way when writing. At the end of the mini-lesson, students may return to their seats to write. They can continue what they’ve been writing, using what they learned in that day’s lesson, or they can choose to write a story about the object.

Deb Weissman

Using a thesaurus:: Look up the word blue in a thesaurus and find synonyms. Students create a “Blue Color Chart.” They copy the synonym, color a sample, and then find an item that is that particular color. {One child brought in a bunch of paint sample strips from her father’s paint store with about 30 different blues on it! } Make a list of synonyms for movement and then have students physically act out the movements: waddled, swaggered, inched, lumbered, etc.

Emotions Poetry

Mad doesn’t have to be yelling like a banshee.
Mad doesn’t have to be kicking like an ostrich.
Mad doesn’t have to be smoldering or red-hot like flames in your gut.
Mad doesn’t have to be permanent.
Mad doesn’t have to be forever like a boring old seminar.
By Ben

Sentence Fluency #2

ENG     MR. SAITZ         SENTENCES

EXERCISE 1
Each of the following groups of words consists of a noun and a
verb.
Make each pair of words into a sentence of at least EIGHT words
by adding information to the noun and the verb.  Punctuate each
of your sentences correctly.

1. man      drove

2. children     walked

3. tower       "supply a verb"

4. group          ran

EXERCISE TWO
Each set of sentences below has two or three short sentences.
COMBINE each set of sentences into ONE complete sentence.

1. He bumped me.  The coffee spilled.  It burnt my arm.

2. The dog ran away.  A man found him.  He returned the dog to
us.

3. Jill left in a hurry.  Jill left her money at home.  Jill
could not get into the show.

4. The tire went flat.  We had to change it.  We were late.

EXERCISE THREE
     In this exercise you will be given the beginnings of two or
three short sentences.
Complete each sentence and then
COMBINE each set of sentences into ONE sentence.

1. The boys found__________________________________________.

   It was________________________________________.

                                        TURN OVER>>>>>>>>>>>>

ENG.    MR. SAITZ                     SENTENCES      P.2

2. The car_____________________________________.

   Then it_______________________________________

   We___________________________________________.

3. Every year we ___________________________________________.

   This year we decided___________________________________.

   Because it_____________________________________________.

4. My dog ______________________________________________.

   My cat_______________________________________________.

   The last time_________________________________________.

5. Everyone has a _____________________________________

   Jerry did not______________________________________.

   The teacher ________________________________________.

Sentence Fluency

Lesson #1: Beginning Sentences in Different Way

Materials:

• a copy of Whales Passing
• overhead transparency of “Key Qualities of the Sentence Fluency Trait”
(page 5)
• “Different Beginnings” printable (page 6)
• overhead transparency of “Think About: Beginning Sentences in Different
Ways” (page 7)
• paper, pencils, pens, markers, crayons

What to Do:
1. Display the overhead “Key Qualities of the Sentence Fluency Trait” and discuss how writers often vary the way their sentences begin to make them sound interesting to the reader.2. Read aloud these examples to students  listen to these sentences?”

• I went to the park.
• I played on the swings.
• I jumped on the trampoline.
• I played with other kids.
• I got really dirty.
• I went home to change

Students should answer that the sentences all start with I. Tell them that when a writer uses the same word to start every sentence, it weakens the connection between the reader and the piece’s main idea. The reader winds up focusing on the redundant language rather than the central message

3. Read the following paragraph aloud to students and see if they notice a difference:

When I went to the park, I played on the swings and jumped on the trampoline
with the other kids. In fact, I played so hard I got really dirty, so I
went home to change.

Students should notice that the sentences have been pared down from six to two and that both begin differently.

4. Ask students if the first or second set of sentences was smoother and easier to listen to. Students should answer that the second set of sentences was easier to listen to.

5. Tell students you are going to share a book with them that contains sentences that begin in a variety of ways. Ask them to listen for those sentence beginnings as you read the book to them

.6. Read Whales Passing aloud, pausing to show the pictures as you go.

7. When you’ve finished, display the overhead “Think About: Beginning Sentences in Different Ways” and discuss why writers try to vary their sentence beginnings.

8. Distribute the “Different Beginnings” printable and ask students to examine the beginnings of sentences from Whales Passing in more depth. Reread Whales
Passing, pausing to allow students time to insert the missing words from the paragraph on the printable,as you read it aloud.

9. Ask students to make up two lines that whales might say to one another based on information Bunting provides, and record them on the bottom part of the printable. Remind students to begin each sentence differently

10. Ask students to form pairs and read their sentences of whale dialogue to one another. Once students have read, their partners should tell them the first word of each sentence to make sure they are, in fact, different. Ask for volunteers to share their pieces with the class.

11. Review the overhead “Think About: Beginning Sentences in Different Ways” and ask students what they learned from this lesson.

12. Display the pictures and whale sentences for the class to enjoy.

Responce to Professional Development

On September 22nd and 24th I attended an “AIMSweb” training at Jefferson Middle School in the library after school from 3:30 to 4:30 pm.  The training was given by Stephanie Carpenter, and the purpose of the training was to introduce and familiarize teachers to the computer program used to track RTI.  Jefferson Middle School (JMS) uses RTI upon referral; when a teacher refers a student for RTI, testing of all students occurs at that time, and then data is tracked from then on.  As of yet, there have been few referrals made for RTI implementation.

During this professional development training I identified where to obtain AIMSweb informatino on the CSD website, identified how to log on to AIMSweb, explored reports and downloads, accessed forums, accessed probes and read through some of them, and accessed grade level norm charts to be used in progress monitoring.  There were several “technical difficulties” during the training, but once the kinks and password issues were worked out, I was able to really see what the program was all about.

AIMSweb tracks students progress towards goals/objectives set for meeting proficiency levels.  There are several probes in each area – fluency, math, reading, etc. and the system is actually quite friendly.  AIMSweb has reports that teachers can access using data from all of the schools in the entire district and these data are used to monitor students success towards meeting desired outcomes.  Teachers can use data from the current semester, year, or the past three years to compare to current student progress.  The AIMSweb guides teachers to next steps to take in helping students succeed, and in making decisions about referrals to special education program.

I am glad I attended this professional development training because it helped me understand the RTI process and purpose even more.  I realized that it is up to the teachers discression to initiate an RTI… I realized that once the RTI is initiated that often and regular testing/progress monitoring is crutial to having reliable/valuable data…. I realized what an awsome tool JMS has for identifying, helping, and monitoring students who may otherwise slip through the cracks…. I also realized that maybe there have not been many referrals for RTI because RTI takes a lot of extra work and organization on the teacher’s part to be successful…. I personally look forward to an RTI and using AIMSweb to guide me through the testing and monitoring process.

Smiley Face Classroom Mananagement

At the beginning of the school year, I would constently be worried about how I would instruct 36 6th graders to the back of the room for a glue stick or a ruler….. hell did break loose a few times before Mrs. Harris put different colored smiley face stickers on desks….. YES!! So now when I need all students to get something on the other side of the classroom, I call out one smiley face color at a time and the students with that color of smiley face can get up and go get the supplies they need. There are 6 different colors, so there are only six students getting up at a time…..I also use the smiley face stickert to dismiss the class at the end of the period/day, and to assign student helpers… I love smiley face stickers!!!