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Tapnstitch
The Primary Learning Lab

The Primary Learning Lab concept developed as I taught multiage primary classes using reading workshop, writing workshop and math workshop. As I added each of these to my teaching I began to envision making a cohesive model that would work across grade levels.

 
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I just have to say...
by: Tapnstitch, 10-16-2009

I love my job! I love teaching little kids ( I have 1st and 2nd grade). I love being a teacher and I am not ashamed of what I do! I think that being a teacher is one of the most important and rewarding and necessary jobs around.

I am having an absolutely fabulous year with my class! We have been in school for 6 weeks now and I am really enjoying it.
We are having fun, learning and working hard. ( yes, those are compatible !!!)

If you are stayng late, taking work home, working on the weekends and thinking about your class all of the time, well I am right there with you!! But i still love it!

Here's the thing: Teaching is a calling, it is a lifestyle, it is missionary-type work..it is hard and demanding and exhausting but OH so rewarding!! I still love it !!

I spend so much money on Amazon and the bookstore and the Dollar Store and the teacher store on my classroom! But I still love it!!!

I stay for 3 or 4 hours past dismissal and I miss getting to go for walks or enjoy an afternnoon on my hobbies. But I still love it!!

Here 's the thing: This is all of what I would like to say at school to all of the Negative Nellies that complain, complain and complain about the work. A person I consider a friend went on and on about how much she hates her job and how she is ashamed to say she is a teacher and etc, on Friday. This blog is what I wish I had said to her. I did not because she wouldn't listen anyway..she interuupts me and talks louder if I disagree with her. Did I say she is a friend? She used to love her job like I do... I let her talk and I do not contradict her but I will not let her influence me.

I Love my job, I am good at what I do and it is important!!! I wish I was brave enough to say this aloud to my fellow teachers at school!

I believe that what we do is more imprtant and crucial NOW more than ever. In years past every facet of society was focused on the same goals and values: Family, church, school, media ( TV and movies) and society all had the same values. Now the values espoused by the media are enough to make a sailor blush, people do not go to church ( and churches seem to be one more entertainment venue), familes are so stressed and busy they just try to make the children happy at any cost, so the only place left that holds children accountable and teaches repsonsibilty and values are the schools. That is why we are now the ones responsible for teaching about character ed, drug awareness, stranger awareness..and so on.No one else is doing it and you know why??

Because it is not always fun..it is hard work....

Hey folks! Our jobs are more important than ever!!!

If you are tired and discouraged, take heart, you are doing the most important work there is.
So say it with me:


I love my job. It is hard work, but it is work worth doing. I am doing the most important work there is... I AM A TEACHER!!!!

5 Comments

A Bit of a Rant
by: Tapnstitch, 08-27-2009

I was on vacation last week and on a rainy afternoon my husband and I found ourselves in a bookstore( surprise, surprise!) This particular Barnes and Noble had just opened, was huge and had an aweseome teacher's section...talk about bliss ! Anyway I gathered up a lot of new titles in that section and the children's section and settled down in a cozy chair....

As I was settling in I noticed a young woman and a guy talking..my ears perked up when I heard her say she was a 3rd grade teacher and that she was taking a class on teaching reading and that she had to read some material for that. He asked what that was like and she said, " It is OK I guess but I don't read, I don't read like to read!"

WHAT!!!!! I wanted to leap from my chair...instead I clenched my fists and kept listening...The guy who had just met her said, "Well, it must be hard to get kids to like reading when you don't. He then went on to tell her that he was from a family of readers and he loved to read... Good for him!

She told him you just used some "tricks" to get them to read and just follow the plans in the book. ARGGGGGGHHHHH!

So my rant is this.....attention all teachers who are repsonsible for teaching children to read....if you do not read and do not like to read :

FIND ANOTHER LINE OF WORK because you are doing more harm than good! You cannot fake a love of reading and love of books with children..it does not work.
You might be able to teach the "skills" of reading and the "how-to", but you are not creating life-long readers and learners...
I don't remember who said this but I have seen the quote that the person who can read and chooses not to is no better off than the person who cannot read.

You have to help children see the "WHY" of reading and writing and math and science and learning, not just the how.
Only one who loves the subject they are teaching can teach the "Why" and without the "Why" the "how" hardly matters.

OK Rant over...

12 Comments

Science and The Big idea Part One
by: Tapnstitch, 07-22-2009

I have decided to organize my science curriculum around the Big Idea of Constancy/Change/Measurement. I want to coordinate this with the use of Science Notebooks to introduce more rigor into my science teaching. I have wanted to do this for several years since going through National Board certificiation, but I had other more pressing things on my plate.
Now that I have a good handle on RW, WW, MW and spelling, I hope I am ready for science. My plan is to begin the by introducing the Science process skills along with the keeping of a science notebook and learning to use the science tools that will be available all year.

Unit one will be called We are Scientists. I will introduce each process skill through a mini-lesson and activity that will result in recording in the Science Notebook. I plan on having an enlarged class Science Notebook that I will post in to show them how to get started during this first unit. I will probably use a large chart tablet for this. I am thinking that I will use the marble composition books for the Notebooks and divide them up so that there are sections for ongoing investigations and observations ( weather, classroom animals) and sections for more self-contained units.

Here is a run-down on the "brainstorming" stage of my mini-lessons for the process skills. I will post some detailed plans as I get them going.

Scientists use their senses to observe and record what they find out.

Scientists use observations to infer or make good guesses about how something works. Scientists record their inferences to share with other scientists.

Scientists use their observations to predict what may happen next. Scientists record their predictions.

Scientists communicate by sharing their observations, inferences and predictions with others. Scientists communicate by talking and writing.

Scientists use tools safely and correctly for the task.

Scientists measure and record their findings.

Scientists put things in order and record their data.

Scientists compare things to see how they are alike and different. They record what they notice.

Scientists classify by putting things that are alike into groups. Scientists record how they classified.

Scientists ask questions. Scientists record their questions.


Scientists investigate by making a plan. Scientists record their plan.

Scientists make models and draw conclusions. Scientists record by drawing and writing about what they learned.


Scientists read and use pictures to find information. Scientists write to remember where they got their information.

So those are my mini-lesson ideas so far. I am still tweaking my thinking on the actities for this first unit, but I will post as soon as it is more organized.

So...have I left anything out..or do I need a different order? Any and all ideas are welcome.

1 Comments

Thinking about Science
by: Tapnstitch, 07-18-2009

I have been thinking some more about the idea of a Science Workshop and using Science Notebooks rather than Science journals this coming year.The difference to me in the two terms is that a Notebook seems to imply more rigor and organization than a journal.
I also want to have my science teaching centered around the Big Ideas of science. If you are not familiar with the Big Ideas, they are :
systems, order and organization
form/function
evolution/equilibrium
constancy/ change/measurement
evidence/models/ explanations

The Big Ideas are not themes or units, they are an organizing framework or a way of teaching science content. Any topic or unit can be taught using any of the Big ideas. To me, some of the Big ideas are easier and more concrete to teach to primary students than others, especially Constancy/change/measurement. I have decided to use the Big idea of Constancy/ Change and Measurement as my framework for my whole year's science lessons. Since I still do not know what grade I am teaching yet, I can at least think about how to introduce my students to the notion that some things stay constant, some things change and changes can be measured. Then we can use our notebooks to record observations about things that remain constant, things that change and measure and record the changes. I will be posting more specifics later, including examples of how CCM could be used to teach different units.

2 Comments

Best Fiction Books Ever!
by: Tapnstitch, 08-03-2009

So, my last post was about the Best Children's Books Ever. Now I want to ask, what do you think are the best fiction books for adults?

For me, hands down, To Kill a Mockingbird, is number one. I do not know how many times I have read it. I actually went out and bought a new copy today. I wanted to read it again while on vacation and I guess I must have loaned it out and never got it back.

Some of my other top favorites are :

The Time Traveler's Wife

The Secret Life of Bees

Beloved

Lonesome Dove

The Girls

Absalom! Absalom!


Jane Eyre


Pride and Prejudice

Peace Like a River

Stranger In the Kingdom

So what would you put on the list?

9 Comments

Best Children's Books Ever
by: Tapnstitch, 07-12-2009

In the Sunday New York Times, there was an op-ed piece by Nicholas Kristof, talking about the summer IQ slide in children. Now, to all of us, this is not big news. He, however, was "aghast" at the research about what happens to children when they do not read over the summer. He gives a call to parents to "pry your kids away from the keyboard and the televsion and get them reading."

He then presents his list of "The Best Children's Books- Ever". You can check out his list and post your own at his blog:
www.nytimes.com/ontheground.


So what do you think of his list? I was not familiar with some of the books and thought he left out some that should be included.

Here's my list:
Charlotte's Web is right at the top. I cannot tell you how many times I have read it. I cry every time Charlotte dies.

The Velveteen Rabbit is another that I have read countless times. Again, I always cry at the end.

Other favorites:
The Trumpet of the Swan, The Story of Holly and Ivy, All-of-a kind Family, The Little House Series, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Chronicles of Narnia,
Little Women, The Harry Potter Series, Anne of Green Gables, The Ramona Books by Beverly Cleary.

There are many more I could name, but what do you think should be on the list?

5 Comments

Summer Reading and Science Journals
by: Tapnstitch, 07-10-2009

So I promised my family I would not spend the whole summer on school related matters and I truly meant it. And I have kept my end of the bargain...mostly!

I am taking a fiction writing class and walking an hour every morning and working in my garden and reading.

But... I am also spending wayyyyy too much time on PT which gets me thinking about next school year. The one thing that keeps me from really plunging in is I do not know what I will be teaching next year yet.
I had gone so far as to not ordering any of the teacher books in my cart at amazon until the last day of school. That way I knew I would have at least a week before they arrived to do other things. But after I ordered them I kept checking my porch several times a day to see if they were there. So when they arrived I decided I would just leave them in the box for a while. That lasted about 2 hours. Then I reasoned that I needed to make sure I got the correct books so I opened the package. After that I put them under my desk, vowing not to look at them until some of my summer to-do list was accomplished. Somehow they have now migrated to the top of my desk and they are taunting me with their titles and promises of new learning. I ordered:

Of Primary Importance By Ann Marie Corgill
Comprehension Strategies by Tanny McGregor

The CAFE Book by The Sisters

The Corgill book has really been calling to me! I am spending time with my mom at the hospital tomorrow while she has tests done so I think I will take that to read. Well, I made it a whole 2 weeks!

Then, when I was at Barnes and Noble Tuesday I saw a book on Science Notebooks published by Heinemann. I do not remember the authors. It was a short little book so I read most of it in about an hour. It had some great ideas in it. I always have the children keep a science journal but I have never been very systematic about teaching them how to write in it or in using it. I start well but then.... other things take precedence. I have been thinking a lot about my science instruction and I am wanting to "beef" that up a lot rather than relegating it to the time left after RW and WW and MW. The keeping of a science notebook, rather than a journal is intriguing. There seems to be more rigor to it.

So now I am thinking about how to weave Science lab or Workshop into the Primary Learning Lab as an intregal part part of every day. I do not yet know how. I will be thinking about it. Any ideas and thoughts are welcome.

7 Comments

Writing Workshop, continued..
by: Tapnstitch, 07-01-2009

I posted in April about my experience this year with a Poetry unit. It was the best so far! Every year it gets better and better.

After seeing our poetry on display at the school's arts festival in May, one of the parents wanted to have an anthology printed. She contacted a friend who has a printing business and he printed the children's poems in color ( they had gorgeous art work illustrating them) and made the anthologies. They were delivered 3 days before school was out.
So that day we had an author signing party! The children all went around signing one another's anthologies on the page where their poem appeared.


For our last unit we tackled Author's as Mentors/fiction/fantasy. One reason I chose to do this has to do with how writing is taught above 2nd grade at my school. In K-2 we base our instruction on UofS by Lucy Calkins. In third they use Calkin's program some and then move into using Empowering Writers which is what 4th and 5th use.

Since UofS does not completely meet the needs of 2nd grade writers, were trained in EW and encouraged to at least introduce children to the narrative writing diamond and some of the other story elements:


* start the story at the point of the action
* using description
* strong verbs
* showing not telling
* story critical settings, characters and objects
* using conflict/problems to advance the story
* using dialogue sparingly to advance the story.

I believe that most 2nd graders are not ready for some of these skills until late in the year ( if then!) so I decided it would make a great study for May and June. We spent time studying how the author did these things through the chapter books I read and compared it to what they were reading. As it happened many of them were reading the Harry Potter series and the Molly Moon series, both of which had many examples of those elements.


I decided, too, that we would begin with an examination of fairy tales/folktales in RW and then start by writing their own folk/fairy tales. I had purchased Making Believe on Paper: Fiction Writing with young Children by Ted DeMille, so I took some of his ideas and meshed them with EW and Authors as Mentors. The DeMille book has some great ideas about using folk tales as mentor texts. Once we had read some stories together and independently in RW and talked about story elements, the children began by writing their own folk tales. Many of them did their own version of The Little Red Hen, or The Three Bears or an Anansi story. After that, we went back to EW and worked on the narrative writing diamond frame. They were then able to choose their own kind of fiction to write.
I had to set some parpameters, especially for the boys. They were not allowed to use weapon violence or car crashes.... this stymied some of them for a while, but they all managed to overcome this.

Overall I was pleased with their work. They really enjoyed working on their stories and they were introduced to concepts that will be refined in the next few years. It was a good study for the end of the year.

7 Comments

The end and The Beginning
by: Tapnstitch, 06-21-2009

I first posted this in response to Bookumncher's blog, but I think it is more appropriate here. I did not mean to side-track her blog entry, which was lovely.

I had been trying to write this since I got out of school over a week ago. I kept trying to blog about my feelings of loss over the end of the year but when I wrote it felt inadequate. I kept deleting it. I think I had buried my feelings for a while because at my school it is not "cool" to be sad about school being out. All of my colleagues were so giddy as the buses left. I was so sad but I had no one to share with so I just bottled it up. Last year I had experienced much the same thing and when I tried to talk about it at school it was evident no one cared. So when I read Bookmuncher's Blog, I was finally able to write.

Last Wednesday I said goodbye to my 12 2nd graders that I had taught for 3 years. They wandered in as tiny kinders ( 3 of them only 4 years old) and marched out as much taller almost 3rd graders. It was a glorious journey and one I am afraid I won't get to repeat. I taught a multiage k-1 class and then looped twice with that group, up to a 1-2. We were like a family, with all of the attendant joys and annoyances. We had laughed and cried and celebrated and cheered with one another for 540 days! We have gone through serious illnesses of parents, deaths of grandparents and beloved pets, broken bones, stitches, countless missing teeth, sorrows, struggles and triumphs of all sizes. We have supported one another, cared for one another and, yes, nagged and challenged one another and struggled for understanding.
Last week we went through their portfolios of 3 years work. We marveled at how far they had come...from shaky crayon drawings and indecipherable writing to the awesome poems in our class anthology and their fairy tales that went on for pages.
We hugged and held hands and remenisced. And then it was over.
I felt a huge piece of my heart go with them when they hugged me one last time and skipped off to the buses.

Right now I am not thinking about school....much. I need time to process all of the last three years before I am ready to think about a new one. I am working in my yard and reading and cleaning out closets and going for walks. But, wait...here are some books on reading and writing I ordered from amazon ....new things to learn and try ...here is an e-mail from one of my students telling me how much she misses me and oh, my..here is a tree for my yard sent as a gift from another student....It is not really the end...just a new beginning.

2 Comments

Thoughts on Writing Workshop in the Lab
by: Tapnstitch, 04-26-2009

Writing Workshop was my first step in creating a workshop style classroom, and it is still my favorite part of the day. Nothing else comes close at being multi-level and differentiated just by the nature of the process and the structure. Once you get your framework in place ( procedures and rituals) and plan your units, then the structure allows you and your students to take flight. Unlike math or even reading, teaching in WW really is more about facilitating, rather than instructing. Because so much of WW depends on what the children bring to it, it is never the same.
For a teacher who abhors sameness and "doing" the same lessons or activties year after year (ME!), Writing Workshop is heaven!
I have to admit that this time of year, when patience can be frayed and attention wanders and everyone is restless, WW seems to extend longer and longer into our morning. Actually, by this time of year RW and WW are seamless.
My best experinces with WW this year have been our "Non-fiction" Unit and Poetry( which we are working on now).
My students were so purposeful during our Non-fiction unit. The writing was amazing. This year I was able to make really good use of the sticky notes for Non-fiction in both RW and WW. We began by reading lots of non-fiction with sticky notes in hand. The children were on the look-out for interesting fun facts to share with their reading partners and with the group. As we comtinued with that focus in reading, we began to use sticky notes in WW to sequence the steps in "How-To" books. This year I had the students write each step on a separate sticky note and then work on laying them out on their desks to sequence. Then they wrote from their notes. Our school has been working hard to make fewer copies, so instead of using the Calkin's UOS "How-to" paper with the picture boxes, we used handwriting paper. The children drew illustrated each step on a fresh sticky note and then glued then onto the paper. Thye turned out great! I think I will do that from now on. By the time we moved on to research for our "All-About" books, the children were very good at using the sticky notes. The sticky notes gave them such a sense of purpose with their note-taking. The finished products were quite sophisticated. We also spent a lot of extra time this year focusing on the label pages, maps and other illustrations for their books. It actually took a couple of extra weeks to complete the "All-About" books, but the results were worth it.
Now we are working on poetry. In previous years I followed the Calkin's UOS book and then just added in a few poetic structures like cinquains and acrostics. I have always been pleasantly surprised with the poems my students create. Children are naturally poetic. They are much more comfortable with it than adults. Many of my colleagues who teach UOS shy away from the poetry unit out of fear, but it really is more rewarding than you might think.
This year I have really expanded my poetry unit. I have been using Georgia Heard's books Awakening The Heart and for the Good of the Earth and Sun. I highly recommend them to anyone at any level who is teaching poetry. It has caused me to stretch my thinking and teaching, which is great! We spent a lot of time just reading all kinds of poems and talking about what makes a poem. I used my new SMARTBOARD to post poems each day. We talked about them and noticed the language , the beat, the patterns, the repetition and the rhymes. I also used the Big Book and accompanying resource books by Georgia Heard and Lester Laminack called Clinb Inside a Poem. We read a lot of the poems from all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth. I love these because they really show that poems can be about anything. I was so ecstatic that my children really loved them too. Those poems helped them really see that poetry does not have to rhyme.
The children are loving the poetry unit. They are reading poetry collections and sharing and they are writing some incredibly beautiful and inventive poems about all kinds of things; dead birds, waffles, flowers, mud, soccer, cats, planets, wind, ice cream, and so on. We are using a 3 ring binder with a divider. In the front they are collecting poems they love. In the back they are collecting their own poems. I waited until Wednesday to teach acrostics and today to introduce cinquains. Previously I thought the children needed a structure like that to sustain their writing. This time, I have been using the "doors" to poetry that Georgia Heard talks about The "heart door", the "concerns for the world: door, the "I wonder" door, the "observation door", the "memory door". We have used the doors to find things that to write about. Rather than forms, the doors are a way of thinking and gathering ideas. I also spent a lot more time this year emphasizing line breaks and rhythm and flow. The poems my students have written have been much richer in sensory images and poetic, moving language. Today they each chose a poem to type up and illustrate for publishing on our board in the hall. Most of them chose poems that did not rhyme. They were choosing poems that had meaning or that had language they thought painted a good word picture.
One of the best aspects of teaching poetry is that it gives children who may struggle with more formal and traditional forms of writing a chance to shine. Two of my students who have a difficult time with writing created the most delightful poems. The other students were quite supportive and complimentary of their products when they shared today. It has been exciting to see!
Next week, for my final week of poetry, I am going to try teaching some other poetic forms from a book called A Kick in the Head by Paul Janeczko. We are going to try couplets, quatrains and riddle poems. Some of the forms in the book are a bit daunting for 1st and 2nd grade, but they would be great to try with older students. It lists 29 different forms from those I mentioned to sonnets, haiku, clerihews, and many others.

9 Comments

Harvesting:Why I Teach
by: Tapnstitch, 11-10-2008

Last week, the reasons why I teach were brought back to me in several simple, but meaningful ways. I have always said that teaching is not a job for those who require instant gratification or visible results. We often toil many days/weeks with a struggling student before we see any progress. However, once in a while we get a glimpse of why we do what we do.
I had parent conferences last week and several parents commented on how much the children talk about school at home. They told about how the children related our vigorous, but respectful discussions regarding the election. The parents talked about how after I have posted articles from the paper and emphasized the importance of being informed about the world that the children are wanting to read the newspaper at breakfast. Other parents mentioned that their children are so excited about the current chapter book (no matter which one)that I read before lunch every day and how they cannot wait to read that book themselves as soon as I finish. Those were all very gratifying, but the best comment came from a child on Friday afternnoon.

We had spent October working on writing "Small Moment" stories in WW. I had worked and worked on getting them to see how to focus on one small part of a larger narrative. They have done well with that but I was not sure if they had grasped the idea or if I had pushed them along the road. We had also worked on making connections in RW and they were noticing many connections in their reading.
So on Friday afternoon I was introducing a science activity to take place outside. We had already spent time using binoculars to look at the trees outside our classroom and we had taken hand lenses out to look at many different things..bark, rocks, leaves, rotting logs, etc. on our school's nature trail. So on Friday I put the children in groups of 3 and gave them hand lenses and a loop of yarn. They had to take their yarn loop and place it in the ground and then observe, draw and write about what they saw within the loop. Within the first minute, of course, they all said they couldn't see anything in their loop...this despite the fact that there were leaves, rocks, grass, small plants etc. They were eager to move their loop to a better spot. I insisted they keep looking and really notice what they saw. After about 5 minutes of moaning and groaning and realizing I expected an entry in their science journals, they began to discover things...cocoons on leaves, pill bugs, beetles, seed pods, leaves that had been nibbled or that had really interesting colors. Everyone was so intent, I had a hard time getting them to come in. Once back inside we talked about how much they had found in that one spot. One of my little fellows spoke up, "It's like focusing in on a Small Moments story, you don't realize how much there is to see in the small space until you slow down and really notice things." One of the others said, "We are making a connection between our world and nature and our writing. You had us look at the trees far away with binoculars and then at the trees close-up and then at a small circle. Now we know how to look at things and write about them." Another child said, "It is like a text-to world connection only it is a self-to world connection. There is a lot to see when you pay attention."

My teacher's heart and harvest basket could not have been more full than it was at that moment at 5 minutes before dismissal on a Friday afternoon. It had been a tough week until then. I walked out to the buses on a cloud. The thing is, they made more connections than I really had conciously thought about! I had just really wanted them to pay more attention to the world around them.
Yippee, they are! and they are even taking in all that we have talked about in class. These are 1st and 2nd graders... they can really do a lot more than we think sometimes!

2 Comments

Reworking Continued
by: Tapnstitch, 11-05-2008

Yesterday I wrote about how all of the "literacy" parts of the Learning Lab were working. Today I need to think about math and content areas.

Math Workshop- Well, we are piloting Math Investigations this year. This has been a mixed blessing. First of all, I really do like the Investigations program. I think it does an excellent job of teaching algebraic thinking even in younger grades and the 'hands-on" nature of the program is highly motivating to the students. This is the new Investigations which is highly improved over the old one. The teacher's editions are easy to navigate and very well organized. the children are learning a lot of concepts in math and enjoying it. However, I do have a few small complaints.... First of all, the amount of time to plan and gather/make materials for an hour lesson is overwhelming. Some days I have taken 2 hours or more to get ready to teach 1 lesson! There are lots of things to run off, cut out, laminate and so on. Now if this program is adopted next year a lot of those materials will be usable again, but it is still time consuming. Secondly, since our old math text was so poor, I had developed my own Math Workshop format with the needed materials from many different sources and I liked the way my MW ran. It was more individually based like RW. I had a short mini-lesson and then worked with small groups while children worled on task cards, math tubs, games, the computer or in math folders. Investigations has a workshop component on some lessons, but often the entire math time is teacher directed... that is exhausting to me. Plus, I think the children lose focus after a while. Sometimes they need to work alone rather than with a partner or small group. There is not much time for that. I guess this is the learning curve for me. I feel rushed to complete everything in the lessons and I am expected to keep pace with the other teachers since it is a pilot. Before I did not have to worry about that. My class moved at a pace that was comfortable for us.

Content areas... Well, this is always the area that gets short-changed, isn't it? I am doing some better since I am doing lots of shared reading of science or social studies/ non-fiction texts as part or RW with shared reading or interactive read alouds. I have done much better with social studies than science. We have spent a lot of time reading about the election. We also have read a lot of Big Book selections on animals to cover life science this quarter. Still, I run out of time since my science/social studies time is sandwiched beween math and lunch. It is supposed to be a minimum of 30 minutes. We tend to run over in math trying to finish the Investigations lessons and have only 20 minutes until lunch. By that time the children are getting anxious for lunch since it has been a long morning. We have lunch at 12:15 ( school begins at 7:30) and recess is not until after lunch. It is hard to wind up math and start a new lesson with so few minutes left over. I may try to schedule content areas before math, but then we would run out of time for math, I am afraid. So...I am not sure what to do there.

So the "to do " list includes making better use of my time for content areas and perhaps tightening up my time with math.I also want to find a way to incorporate some of the things I used to do with math into our day. I have thought about having one morning a week to be math lab type activities when the children first come in rather than independent reading choices...I will think more about that.

1 Comments

Reflecting and Reworking
by: Tapnstitch, 11-01-2008

We just completed our first grading period yesterday. The students have Monday and Tuesday as Fall Break. We have Parent-Teacher conferences and workdays. I have conferences scheduled for Monday. Tuesday will be a much needed day to "bulldozer" the piles of stuff on my teaching table and to reflect, rework and retool the Learning Lab. I have so much that I want to do, I know that one day is not going to be enough. So I am blogging to help me think through what is going well and what I need to change. Hopefully that will help me make better use of my day on Tuesday.

I am quite pleased with how my new approach to spelling and word study is going. I decided this year, after several years of dabbling with Words Their Way, that I would try to implement it completely in my classroom. At the beginning of the year I gave the spelling inventory from WTW to all of my 1st and 2nd graders. After analyzing the results, I had 4 distinct spelling groups. Interestingly enough, there are both 1st and 2nd graders in each group. The groups are : a group learning CVC short vowel words, a group learning beginning and ending blends with short vowels, a group learning long vowel spellings and a group learning multisyllable words with prefixes and suffixes. The range is from beginnning first grade level to 5th grade level. I wondered how I would be able to manage this many groups but it has been less complicated than I thought. The groups are color coded purple, green, blue and red. Each groups' words are written in their color on index cards cut in half. On Monday they are introduced to each group during Writer's Workshop. I place them in a pocket chart and discuss the meanings of words as the children write them in their spelling notebooks. Then I have the children notice and name the spelling patterns and we sort them together. On Tuesday the children do an independent sort of their words that have been run off for them. They take their words home in an envelope to re-sort for homework and then they copy the sort and underline the patterns with markers or crayons. On Thursday they practice their words on white boards and practice with a spelling partner. So far this year every child has made 100% on their spelling test every week!! This has never happened in my class before. I attribute this to the children having "just-right" spelling words and the systematic nature of the WTW program and the sorts.
Now the second part of my program, using word wall type words ( sight words)as "No excuses" words has not been as succesful. The reason for that is a time crunch. I have introduced the 5 "No excuses" words each week, but we have not practiced them on a daily basis. We seem to run out of time for that in our literacy time each day. So I need to figure out a way to make this more systematic, because the children need those words too. I can see the lack of daily practice with the words showing up in their writing. I am thinking of incorporating a quick practice as part of Morning Meeting, but not sure of that yet.


Reading Workshop has been going fairly well. I incorporated the Beanie Baby strategies for the first time this year. They have been a big hit. We call them our "Reading Buddies". So far we have worked on Making Connections ( Spinner the Spider), Visualizing ( Rocky Raccoon), Asking Questions ( Questioning Owl) and Digging for Facts/details ( Digger the Dog). The children have built up a lot of stamina for reading. They can read for up to 40 minutes ( 30 independently and 10 with their reading partner). They love to read and all have made lots of progress. My difficulty is having time to conference with everyone regularly. I have 3 second graders who began the year struggling with reading. All three were reading at Reading Recovery level 12, which is mid -first grade. They have been my priority and I have spent most of my time this first quarter with them... working on decoding skills, fluency and choosing appropriate books. I have met with each of them individually and in their small group every day. Two of the three have made great gains and seem poised to truly " break the code". The third has made progress, but still needs a lot of work. I am pleased with their gains, but I feel guilty that the other children have not gotten as much attention. My conferences with them have not been systematic at all. Fortunately the rest of my second graders and all of my first graders are reading at or above grade level. My at grade level 2nd graders (3) have met in small group twice a week. My one at level first grader has met with me at least twice per week. I have not had small groups or book clubs with my above level students yet.. I really want to do that next quarter, plus be much more systematic with my conferencing with everyone. I do have shared reading with the whole class or one of the grades several times a week using Scholastic News, Big Books, poems, news articles or the basal ( I am required to at least have them read the stories..we do not use workbooks at all). It sometimes feels a bit haphazard and awkward and there is never enough time. I guess that is the teacher's eternal cry, isn't it? The best thing about RW is my choice to not use AR in our class this year. I have never liked it and I think the children have not missed it. The parents are happy that we are not using it as well. I just told my students that we are reading for fun instead and they have accepted it. They love to read!!! We had our Reading Celebration yesterday as we dressed up as our favorite book characters and shared our stories/books. The one thing that is still something of a problem is the children choosing just right books. They do well for a while, but as soon as I think that we are OK with it and stop talking about it, the issue pops back up. I think part of the problem is my lack of systematic conferencing again. Also the fact that with 2 grades the reading abilties are so wide that I have to have books on so many levels. There are just so many tanatlizing "chapter books" available for my high 2nd graders and the others want to choose them. I do have a good portion of my books leveled and I do have FYOE reading time in the morning, but the issue of "sneaking" books into their reading bags continues. I am going to address this again next week.


Writer's Workshop is going well. I am working on integrating it with RW and it has gone well. Right now we are working on Small Moments. We have been working on visualizing and trying to put ourselves in the most interesting part of our story. We use Calkin's UOS at our school as well as Empowering Writers. I have been using EW lessons as my mini lessons recently as a way of helping my students craft more interesting beginnings that "grab" the reader. We have also used EW to help use with word choice and showing not telling. We have come up with more vivid verbs and adjectives to help readers visualize as they read our stories. The results have been good. Their volume of stories has gone down, but they are really working on craft and the quality of the work has gone way up. We will hopefully have our third round of publishing and celebrating in about 2 weeks. Again, my guilt comes in with my lack of systematic conferencing. I find myself spending way too much time with the "needy" writers and not enough with the others. How do I let the "needy" ones go since I know ( or think I know) that they will not produce much if left on their own. They are, of course, the same students who struggle with reading. It just feels like I am spending a too large percentage of my time with the same 3 children. I know why: they are second graders and third grade at our school is very tough and demanding even for really good students. The work load goes way up and the teachers are no- nonsense about everything. I want for those three to be adequately prepared and they have a long way to go. Even so, I need to figure out how to begin to "wean" them from constant, daily help. It will be better for them and for me and the other students. But how??? What ideas does anyone have for setting up a conferncing schedule for both RW and WW? Any ideas are welcome!


All of that is enough to think about for now. I will think through math and content areas tomorrow.

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Quick Idea for WW publishing
by: Tapnstitch, 10-19-2008

We finished our second round of publishing last week in Writer's Workshop. I have 2 bulletin boards in the hall that I devote to showcasing my students' writing. They each have a space large enough to display a published writing piece. I took pictures of each one sitting in one of the adirondack chairs in our Reading Treehouse holding their "Forever" books. Their published books go under their pictures. Yesterday as I was taking down the old books and replacing them with the new pieces, I decided to advertise by taking a cue from the bookstores. I took sticky notes wrote

New!!!

Just published!!!

and then decorated around the sticky with stars. I placed a sticky note on each book cover. The children noticed right away and were so pleased. I also saw a couple of parents notice and stop to take a look at our new books.

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Quick days, Slow Weeks
by: Tapnstitch, 10-13-2008

We have completed 7 weeks of school in the Primary Learning Lab. To sum it up: the days go by quickly but the weeks go by slowly. I am sure ( or at least hope)that you know what I mean by that! Each individual day seems like a race to get everything in and done before dismissal. It feels like I scarcely turn around and get going and it is lunch time and we have a late lunch! But as fast as the days go by Wednesday the week feels like it has lasted for nine days! I wish I could reverse the feeling... long days and a short week! I know that I feel this way because I am trying to "front load" so much into my workshops. There are so many things I want to teach first. It is hard to know what to choose especially when my priorities differ from what the "higher ups" think is important. But mostly it is a problem with me, not the children. I am getting anxious to really break out into small groups. The needs are pretty varied in this group. I have three 2nd graders who need to consolidate their decoding skills so that they are automatic. They can decode but it is slow and therefore affecting both fluency and comprehension. I have another group that needs to be moving into book clubs or novel studies. I have a wonderful group this year: 13 2nd graders and 8 1st graders. The only glitch so far was getting a handful of them to really accept the notion of reading "just-right' books. I wrote about that in the Debbie Miller room on PT. ( Book Selection Woes) I stayed firm with that and they finally came around last week. That was a concern because I felt like I could not go on with small groups until I was sure that everyone was using their independent reading time to best advantage. So I think the quick days are a reflection of my trying to cover everything and the long weeks are coming from being exhausted by Wednesday in trying to do too much. I know that I do this same thing every year and somehow I forget what the beginning of the year is like. My teaching buddy and I talked about it this week. We want to quickly get routines going and get down to business when we know, or should know, that you cannot rush the 'training process" Why do teachers have this beginning of the year amnesia?

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Spelling Workshop update
by: Tapnstitch, 09-29-2008

We had our first round of spelling this week. It has gone really well! When I gave the pretest yesterday only four students did not make 100%. Each of them had only missed one word and today on retakes they all made 100%! The emphasis on noticing word patterns is the key I think! Doing the word sorts really makes them look at the words. They did the word sorts in their group on the pocket chart on Monday, independently on Tuesday, for homework on Tuesday night and then they copied the sort into their spelling notebooks on Tuesday night. One of my second graders (that I did not teach in first grade)was so thrilled to make 100%. He said he had never made 100 before. His mom said that last year he usually made 40 or 50. To me that is confirmation that this is the way to go.

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Spelling workshop so far so good
by: Tapnstitch, 10-01-2008

I wrote in an earlier blog that I was going to attempt to use Words Their Way for spelling this year. I had given the WTW spelling assessment to see what spelling patterns each of my students knew. When I analyzed the assessments I had 4 groups of spellers, hence 4 spelling lists, from beginning first grade level to 5th grade level. We started this week. My assistant and I introduced the spelling words to one group at a time while the others were in Writer's Workshop. She did 2 groups and I did 2 groups. We used pocket charts to put up the words while the children wrote them in their spelling notebooks. Once the words were up we asked them to look at the words and notice any patterns. Then we sorted the words on the pocket charts together. In all it took about 20 minutes. I chose to do at the beginning of WW because my assistant is in the room at that time. For Tuesday morning on the desks each child had their words on a word sort sheet from the WTW book. They cut them out and sorted them on their desks. I checked their sorts and then they put them in an envelope to take home and sort for homework. So far it seems to be working OK. Tomorrow they will practice their words on white boards and then take a practice test. If they score 100% on the practice test then they do not have spelling homework on Thursday and do not take the test on Friday.
Their spelling words are written in their spelling notebooks ( black marbled composition books) on Monday. They do their spelling homework in the journals as well. Spelling homework is as follows:

Monday Write words 5 times each
Tuesday Do word sort and write words in groups by their spelling patterns
Wednesday Choice Day. On the front of the spelling notebooks I have a list of about 20 choices of things they can do:
Write sentences
Put in ABC order
Write in rainbow colors
Make a word search
Cheer the words
Paint their words
Write words with glitter glue

and so on. If it is an activity that cannot "fit" in the spelling notebook, their parents just make note of what they did. I try to find activties that meet a lot of different learning styles and abilities. Thursday their homework is take a practice test at home. Thursday and Friday, of course will be the tests. We will do that right before lunch.

I hope this works because I believe that it is a much better way to do spelling rather than just giving grade level lists. Each child is working on words in their zone of proximal development rather than words that are too hard or too easy. And the parents are happier ( or at least not complaining) because I informed them that spelling lists would be based on how their child did on the assessment. Plus the WTW books give a nice progression of spelling patterns to use.
We are still using the word wall as our "No excuses" words. They are sight words that I observe that they need based on their writing. We add 5 a week and practice them on white boards or with cheering or chanting really quickly every day. A few of those words will find their way on to spelling tests each week as bonus words.

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Celebrating our First 4 weeks
by: Tapnstitch, 09-21-2008

We had our first Reading/Writing celebration on Thursday. My first unit was "We Are Readers, We are Writers". We celebrated by having each child choose a writing piece to publish and share and by signing our Bookworm's Reading Club pledge. We posted our writing and our pledge in the hallway for parents to read at our Curriculum Night. The children also made bookworm bookmarks ( I happened to find the perfect foam bookworm kits at Oriental Trading) and then we had goldfish crackers and juice boxes. Our next unit is going to be "We are Meaning Makers" in which we work on Small Moment Stories and Comprehension Strategies. Some of my students still need to work on choosing just right books; there is so much pressure on them to choose harder books ( from parents and their peers) than they are ready for. I think I cleared up some of that ( with parents, anyway) on Curriculum Night and with a couple of parent conferences last week. For a couple of students I have had to be rather "heavy handed" in book selection. I wish this were not the case, but they are wanting to read A to Z Mysteries when Frog and Toad is still a challenge. I am going to move on, however, and keep working on just right books with those that need it. We have not set up Book Nooks yet. That is going to be part of the introduction to the next unit. They have done so well with their reading at their desks that I hated to disturb that until we had some stamina built up.
We are getting close to the end of our first unit in Investigations Math. I want to have a celebration for that was well. I am thinking of letting the children choose their favorite games/activties in the unit to revisit. I will also have an estimation jar activity with a treat in the jar as part of the celebrating.

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Rebooting the lab part 2
by: Tapnstitch, 10-13-2008

As I mentioned in my last blog, I attended a weeklong training on the new Investigations Math. The training was really good and I learned a lot! My school was one of those in our district chosen to pilot the new Investigations this year with an eye on the whole district adopting it next year. So far, I love it and so do my students! If you are familiar with the "old" Investigations, it is much more user friendly. It really fits well with my personal approach to math which is a heavy emphasis on problem solving strategies and "hands- on" activities rather than worksheets. I have been using a workshop model for math for the past 4 years. When I began teaching multiage classes I realized that I needed to develop a structure and approach that would account for many levels of skill in math. I have worked really hard on my math workshop and the Investigations is an almost seamless fit with what I was already doing. I am pilotting the 2nd grade level program so I have had to make some adjustments for first graders, although they have done quite well with the 2nd grade workshop activties so far. I use a lot of different programs to supplement the Investigations including Touch Math, Read- It! Draw it! Solve It!, Otter Creek, Marcy Cook Math tiles, Box- It and Bag-It, Math Their Way and my own task cards and many, many math manips. Math Workshop is one of my favorite times of the day!!

Using a workshop/lab approach to teaching requires ongoing change and evaluation of all areas of the curriuculum. Over several years my Writing Workshop, Reading Workshop and Math Workshop have all developed as I learned more and tried new things.

My new area to focus on for this year is spelling. Until last year I simply used the first grade level list that our grade level developed for my students. Last year when I moved to a 1st-2nd grade, I knew ihad to make some adjustments. I had three different spelling lists going ( 2nd grade, High first grade and average First grade). I searched the internet for word lists and attempted to make sense of all of the theories about spelling. Pat Cunningham of 4 Blocks fame says to use sight words/Word wall to teach spelling. This way taught basic sight word spelling, but did nothing to teach spelling patterns. Richard Gentry, on the other hand , advocates teaching spelling through word families and phonics. Both methods have their pros and cons. One teaches mostly irregular sight words while ignoring word patterns. The other teaches only spelling/phonics patterns and ignores all of the sight words one must learn to spell.Last year I labored over trying to find a balance between the two as I planned spelling lists. It was way to much work and was very stressful trying to figure out my own lists. So this year I am taking a 2 pronged approach but in a systematic way. I began the school year by adminstering a spelling inventory to each child. The inventory is taken from Words Their Way. It determines which spelling patterns a child has mastered and which require more work. After analyzing the inventories, I determined that I had 4 spelling groups. I will be using the spelling pattern/sort lessons from the Words Their Way companions. I will be using 3 of the books for word sorts/spelling lists. This will ensure that each child will have spelling words that reflect their zone of proximal development in spelling and phonics. It really does not make sense for students to try to learn to spell words that they cannot read. So there will be both first and second graders that are in each spelling group since it is based on need rather than grade level. That takes care of learning spelling patterns which will also help with reading. Now, for irregularly spelled 'sight words" I have decided to have a"No Excuses" word wall for thsose words. The words will go up 5 per week as I see which words my students are often using, but not spelling correctly in their writing. Last week we put up our first words: favorite, went, like, saw, very. We have worked on the "No excuses" words. Next week I will introduce the differentiated spelling lists to the parents at our Open House. Then we will begin with spelling homework and tests.

The Lab keeps developing and changing as I become more comfortable with a teaching style that attmpts to reconcile the needs of the children with the demands of the curricular standards.

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Rebooting the Lab...Starting Again Part 1
by: Tapnstitch, 09-16-2008

I do not know where the last six weeks went! I returned from vacation August 4, went to Investigations Math training the entire week following and then got swallowed into the "back-to school" vortex. So we just completed our first three weeks of school and I can finally come up for air long enough to do some processing. The Primary Learning Lab is open and beginning to resemble my vision of what a classroom can be.
I am teaching a 1st-2nd multiage class again this year. My 2nd graders ( except for one new child) have been with me since kindergarten. My first graders are new to me this year. So, while the overall frame work of Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop and Math workshop are unchanged, some of the details and outer trappings had to change so my "old friends" would not feel that everything was a repeat of their other years with me. That is always a concern for parents and to a lesser degree with me as well. I rearranged my room a good bit which helped me get a more workable environment. I am a bit organizationally challenged when it comes to keeping a tidy room. My planning for instruction is highly organized, but the room tends to get really messy. So I ordered and read Debbi Diller's Spaces and Places book and it really helped! I created a new reading area I call Bookworm's Treehouse. My room is in a building built on the side of a hill with a large natural area outside the classroom. When you look out the windows we are almost even with the treetops and it feels like we are in a treehouse. I purchased a 6 foot artificial tree from Michael's. I also bought an unfinished wooden double cube and a bookshelf that looks like a dollhouse. I put polyurethane on both and stacked the dollhouse shelf on top of the double cube ( which I turned sideways). The shelf stands about 4 feet tall with the tree behind it. This is in one corner of my reading area...that is the treehouse prop. Then I have 6 bookshelves around the tree and dolhouse shelves. 2 of the shelves go under the window that looks out over the trees. I found a small stufffed inchworm and a Fun Foam treehouse kit from Michaels. They sit atop the bookshelf that is kind of the entrance to the reading treehouse. Then I painted 2 small chalkboards that said "Bookworms Treehouse" and "Readers Welcome". I put all of my Strategy Beanie Babies ( which are new additions to my class ) either in the top shelves of the dollhouse shelf or hanging in the tree. I have some pillows I made and two small Adirondack chairs in there. It is very cozy and the children and I love to sit together in there for read alouds and for RW mini-lessons. It has helped focus RW since it is a different part of the room from the large meeting area where we sit for Morning Meeting and for Math Workshop and Writers' Workshop.
The RW got off to what felt like a ragged start but it has evened out now. I had to start reading bags ( our version of personal book shelves) early since I had so many children from the previous year who were ready for that. I wanted to wait on that for the first graders since they were new to RW, but once 2nd graders had reading bags then it was hard to keep them waiting. It has worked out since all of my first graders are already readers to some degree. The reading range for my room is from Reading Recovery level 6 up through 8th grade level and everything in between which makes planning minilessons for RW a bit interesting. Mainly we have spent a lot of time on Book Choices and how to preview books. This week everyone got a chance to shop for books the first time after the initial setting up of the reading bags. Most of the children are good at selecting books...some of the 1st graders still need a lot of guidance. In our Kgs. the teacher always selects books for the children so the notion of choice is a new concept...which is also true of WW. The 1st graders are not familiar with choices in writing since in Kg they always wrote to a prompt. What really helps me is the fact that over half of my class has been in a Workshop/Lab setting for 2 years. To them it is natural. They lead the way by example and the first graders watch and model what they see. It is like having 12 teaching assistants. That is the beauty of multiage...so much of the training is done by thier peers. More tomorrow!

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Thinking more about Discovery boxes
by: Tapnstitch, 08-12-2008

In my last post, I put forth the idea of using Discovery boxes in science and social studies. This is something that I started thinking about last school year and I continued over the summer to kick it around. In response to my last blog, some of you posted some of the same questions and concerns that I have been thinking about. I appreciate you thinking this through along with me:

Some of the ideas such as a box about Mexico or dinosaurs or mummies, might not fit into the science/social units we must teach, so when would these boxes be used? Where or where in the schedule would we find time to add in one more thing?

In reading Bookmuncher's blog about melding reading and writing workshops, I thought that perhaps those types of Discovery boxes would lend themselves for use during our RW/WW units on non-fiction. The children could explore Discovery boxes to research a topic through multiple sources: books, posters, postcards, charts, cards. It would lend itself to teaching the children how to obtain information from a variety of sources and also how to share what they learn in a variety of ways; by making their own poster or postcard or set of cards. The Discovery boxes could be used for Reading Club Partnerships ( as in Reading For Real by Kathy Collins). For instance: during a social studies unit on different countries, each partnership could explore a different Discovery box on a specific country. Then they could share information with the group through their writing. Does this sound doable?


Another concern that I had thought about and that was raised was that some units in science need to be more directed in instruction and I agree.

What if there were a way to create Discovery boxes that could lend themselves to guided discovery in a science workshop? For instance, creating magnet discovery boxes for each table or group of students. The students would have opportunities to explore on their own prior to instruction to form questions. The teacher could balance direct instruction with discovery by posing questions or using task cards that would guide the students in their experimentation. Some science topics, especially those in physical science would lend themselves to this kind of exploration quite well. Magnets, force and motion, sink and float are ones that quickly come to mind. With a topic like weather, you might have some direct instruction along with time for students to work in teams/partnerships to research different aspects of the topic, again with Discovery boxes containing books, weather maps, thermometers and so on.


As I mentioned, a lot of this is just in the brainstorming stage. Does this sound like it could work? Do you have any ideas comments, additions? I would love to hear what you are thinking!

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Science Workshop?
by: Tapnstitch, 08-10-2008

I have been in Math Investigations training all week and I want to and will post about that soon, but I have been thinking about math every day from 8:30-3:30 so I need a bit of a break from it tonight. I love math, but my head is too full so I want to start a discussion about using a workshop approach in science...

How can we use the features of Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop and now Math Workshop to move toward that same idea in science?

I have one idea I have been kicking around since reading about it a few years ago. I want to try having "Discovery Boxes" for science They would be kind of like Math Tubs, I think. The idea came from Nurturing Inquiry by Charles Pearce ( a great book, by the way). He suggests using the boxes to "continue the spiral of inquiry", so that even after completing a unit of study on a particular topic, the children can continue to explore or investigate those ideas. So after your unit on sink and float, for example, you would place the objects used in a box ( plastic shoe boxes come to mind) and have them accesible for further work. Or, you could put materials in the box before the unit to see what children did with them. This might help you to direct the instruction by seeing what they know about and what they want to learn about magnets, for instance.

I also thought about having topic boxes like a dinosaur box in which you could place different materials such as books, cards, puzzles, games, plastic dinosaurs for them to explore.

This lead me to thinking about doing discovery boxes for social studies as well.... You could have a presidents box or a states box or a Mexico box and so on. You could put in state flashcards, books, maps, postcards....

Does anyone do anything like this? Is it too crazy? In thinking about my class continuing to move more toward a lab approach, I think this is the next step. In a lab, scientists spend much time exploring their own questions and directing their study within certain parameters. That is the direction I want to move with my students if possible.

So... what do you think?

What do you do for Science? Do you use a workshop approach? Do you do that for Social Studies too?

5 Comments

More about Math Journals in Math Workshop
by: Tapnstitch, 08-08-2008

For me, math journals are the heart of MW. The math journals are where you can really see what children are thinking, what they know, what they are beginning to understand, what they may be ready for and where they may need a "nudge" to move on.
I use math journals every day in some way, sometimes several ways.

I use plain newsprint to make new math journals for every month. I use about 20 sheets of paper for each math journal and then staple them between a piece of colored constructiom paper. My next-door teaching partner uses the the bound black-and-white marble covered notebooks. Spirals will work but the pages tend to come out after a while. It really doesn't matter what you use, I just prefer to have paper that does not have lines on it.

When I start MW everyday we do a problem solving activity. I read or tell a problem to them ( later in the year in 1st and 2nd I start writing it on the board), then they draw and write in their math journals to solve the problem and explain what they did. This is the really important part of MW: getting the children to visualize and record. Visualizing takes many form in MW; drawing, using numbers, using words or using manipulatives. Visualizing is about thinking, planning and recording and reflecting. This is a constructivist view of math. The children create their own way to solve the problem. It is not about formulas and procedures, it's about thinking!
....And... because the children are using the thinking processes that they "bring to the table", then recording in the math journals is automatically differentiated! Each child records in the manner that they understand. So, after hearing the problem, the children work on their own using pictures, numbers and/or words to solve. As they do this, I am walking around observing, noticing, conferring and questioning. At the beginning of the year, I use the math journals as assessment to see where each child is in their ability to represent, solve and record. After the first day or two, we begin to talk about how children went about solving the problem. Since I have circulated a they worked, I may ask certain children to share what they did. They tell what they did and we record it on a chart or the overhead. I ask who else did it that way and then ask if someone solved a different way. We begin to make strategy charts to demonstrate and honor the various ways to solve a problem. At the beginning of the year we do this all together many times.

So let's look at an example of a problem from 1st grade near the beginning of the year:

" I see 5 cats. Some are white and some are brown. 3 cats are brown. How many are white?"

Some children will draw each cat and color. Some will draw cats and label them with "b" for brown and "w" for white. Some will draw circles to represent the cats and color the circles. Some children may just know the answer. If they say they know ask them to write with numbers or words how they know or tell you how they know.

Then you will have children share their work by telling you what they did and you record on a chart. Do this until you have recorded several ways. Keep your chart and the next day refer to it to remind them the many ways there are to show their thinking. The next day, make another chart and compare the two charts; how the stategies on the charts are alike/different.

At first, problem solving/math journals will come first in MW, then your mini-lesson, then tubs/games/activties, beacuse your mini-lessons will relate to what children are doing in tubs/games.

Later, switch your mini-lesson to the beginning, then problem-solving then independent work. Here's why:

Once you have routines for independent work in tubs or games going, then you use the work in math journals to confer with individuals or pull small groups. So the routine then becomes presenting a problem, circulating, as children finish you note what they did and begin to dismiss them to tubs/ activties. For those children that you plan to confer with, you can tell them to leave their math journals open on their desks when they go to tubs. Once everyone is working, call children back to confer, or to bring their math journals to the teaching table for small group depending on what you have planned or noticed. The math journals make a great place to record small group work as well.

And... children also often use them at the end of MW to record what they did in tubs. Then they can bring their math journals to sharing time at the end and show what they did. this is another opportunity to share strategies.
Math journals are a large portion of our "paper/pencil" work rather than worksheets.

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Math Workshop Let's Talk!
by: Tapnstitch, 08-11-2008

So, let's get a discussion going about Math Workshop! I love teaching math and have lots of ideas and strategies gleaned from different programs I have used. I posted previously about how I organize my MW. The over-arching structure looks something like RW or WW:
* You have a predictable daily schedule that occurs.
* There are mini-lessons for concepts and strategies.
* I create anchor charts.
* There is time for small group, independent practice and choices.
* Children are responsible for their work during independent time.
* There is time to record learning and to share.
* There are many materials available to use for MW that children have access to as needed: manipulatives, calculators, number lines, hundreds boards, white boards, and so on.
* The teacher spends time after the mini-lesson working with small groups or individuals.
* Worksheets are used sparingly. Instead children do their own recording and creating of their work during MW.
* Students' efforts, thinking and approximations are honored.

Math Workshop does for math what RW and WW have done for reading and writing. It moves the children beyond just "doing the work" into thinking like a mathematician. It does take some planning, preparation and plenty of manipulative materials. By plenty I don't necessarily mean a wide variety, although that is nice to have. What I mean is plenty in the sense of enough for all of the children to use so that they can adequately explore whatever concept you are working on. Just as in RW you need enough books to read, in MW you need enough materials to experience fully the concept.

To me the basic materials for K-5 would be: pattern blocks, snap cubes or unifix cubes, calculators, number lines, dice, playing cards, hundreds boards, geoboards and two-colored counting chips. Many of these things may already be in your school and others can be obtained fairly cheaply if need be. Dice, cards, calculators can all be found at Dollar Tree. I make number lines by getting the number line tapes at Dollar Tree, putting them on a sentence strip and laminating them. Last year I bought plastic pattern blocks from Oriental Trading. They were great because they are all differnt colors, so the kids don't get "hung up " on the hexagons always being yellow and trapezoids always being red, etc. They can also be used on the overhead. I have spray painted dry lima beans to make 2 color counters. As for snap cubes or unifix cubes and geoboards, they are usually lurking around in storage or in closets in every school I have been in. Many teachers do not want to use them so they are usually willing to let you have them.

Oriental Trading is also a great source for cheap toys that can be used for sorting, counting, graphing, patterning and using for number operations.

I also have "junk boxes" that I use:

Jar lids/bottle caps. The caps from markers are great for patterning!

Seashells

Buttons

Colored paperclips

Colorful glass blobs from Dollar Tree or Michael's.

I am sure there are more! What do you use? And what materials do you think are essential?

20 Comments

The Importance of High Expectations
by: Tapnstitch, 07-30-2008

While on vacation in Chicago I read a great article in the Tribune about girls and math that should go a long way in refuting the stereotype that girls are not as good in math as boys. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkley did a 2 year study on 7 million students from 10 states. They found that girls do equally well on math tests taken from 2nd to 11th grades. This is great news , but the article also went on to say that many teachers still assume that girls either cannot do as well in math or that they don't need to because they will not need math as much later in life. Teachers tend to call on girls much less frequently in math and science classes than they do boys. Several young girls voiced their concerns that teachers treated them differently in math classes. The article said that math and science, even in the very early grades, tend to be more "boy-friendly".

This is important to remember as we prepare for the beginning of a new school year. We need to take a look at our assumptions and our expectations for all children. We need to be mindful of our comments, how we call on students and how we give feedback . This is true for boys and girls. There are no subjects that should be more "girl-friendly" or "boy-friendly". We need to have high expectations for all students and allow and demand equal access to knowldege.

0 Comments

My Vacation
by: Tapnstitch, 07-20-2008

I am leaving in the morning for 10 days of vacation with my DH. I will be back August 1st. So excited to be going away! I will not be taking my laptop, so I will miss PT for a while!

0 Comments

Math Workshop
by: Tapnstitch, 07-20-2008

I decided to address Math Workshop since several people have expressed interest in that.

Math Workshop in my class developed out of necessity for two reasons:

1.Our math text was did not really match up with state standards that well and did not address problem solving strategies, which is our biggest focus.

2. I started teaching a multiage class and needed a way to address a very wide range of needs without resorting to lots of dittos and seatwork.

Math Workshop in my class looks somewhat similar to RW and WW. The children have a MW partner, we have mini-lessons, we have differentiated math folders ( kind of like book boxes), and we have a share time. All of this took about 3 years to develop into its current form and like RW and WW, it is a "living concept" in that it changes as needed.

Here is how MW went last year in my class.

Children began MW working with their math partner on practicing math facts. Partners were 2 children working on the same ( or close to the same) math facts. The partnerships changed from time-to-time to keep the partnerships even. Some children made progress more quickly on the facts than others. I had children working on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. This was a 1-2 class. They practiced for 5 minutes and then we had a 1 minute timed test with each child tested on their own level. I used Otter Creek math for this. The children loved it! They all moved at their own pace and went as far as they could. I had first graders who were working on the division facts at the end of the year. I believe that there is no cap on learning, so they go as far as their interest and skill takes them, regardless of grade level.
I did not start timed tests until November, however.

After times tests the children got out their math journals and updated the calendar activties. We fill in the date and the pattern on the calendar, graph the day of the week, graph the weather, graph odd and even numbers, record the date with tally marks and later Roman Numerals, record birthdays and lost teeth. At the beginning of the year we do these pages together to teach the process. Later they work on their own and we talk about it.
Then they turn to a blank page in their journals and we do problem solving activties. I use Read It! Draw It! Solve It! for 2nd grade for this. I also often make up my own problems in the same style. At the beginning of the year I read the problem and we talk about how to draw a picture to go with the problem to help us solve it. We work together on ways to represent the problem in pictures and in number sentences. Some children can only draw a picture, others can think up several ways to show the answer with number sentences. All ways of solving the problem are honored.They work on their own for a few minutes and then we share different ways to solve the problem. They share at their tables and then I or the students will demonstrate some of the ways on the board. Later in the year I write the problem on the board and they work on it independently for a few minutes.


From there I go into teaching my mini-lesson. Often the children will stay at their seats and record in their math journals for the mini-lesson. Other times they come to the rug and work on white boards.


After the mini-lesson, the children work in math tubs, on math games, on the computer, or in their math folders all of which are individualized with assignments for independent practice. At this time I am either working with a small guided math group or conferring with students as they work.

At the end of MW we often share. I may share something I have seen someone do in conferences or have students who have worked with math manipulatives in the math tub to show what they have done before cleaning up.

I really love MW and the children do to! You do need a lot of activities and manipulatives to make the Independent Math portion work.

7 Comments

From Workshop to Lab Part 1
by: Tapnstitch, 10-03-2008

For the past 10 years or so I have been transforming my teaching practices from "program" based to workshop style. It has been an interesting journey so far. I have read widely, taken classes and tried many ideas...some I have kept, some I have discarded. For a while I taught in a 4 blocks school, which was the first step in stepping away from reliance on basals, teacher's manuals and worksheets. Then, one summer I read On Solid Ground by Sharon Taberski and I started trying some of her ideas. I went to a 2 day workshop with her and I was hooked! The next summer I read Mosiac of Thought which was such a revelation to me. I had never thought of having primary students think about their reading like that! I loved the ideas but I wasn't sure what to do with them. Then along came Debbie Miller and her Reading With Meaning which was just what I needed to see how to apply the ideas from Mosaic. Kathy Collins and Growing Readers rounded out the picture for me there.

In the meantime I had tried for several years to get Writer's Workshop going in my class, but I needed a framework. I found Lucy Calkins' Units of Study and I knew I had the missing piece. I bought the program for myself . After working with it for a year I showed my principal the kind of writing my students were doing and convinced her to pay for me to go to a workshop with Lucy Calkins. So now I had a major portion of my literacy block functioning as workshop.
I wanted to work on math next, but then I ran into what at first looked like a detour. Three years ago, after 7 years of first grade, I was assigned a K-1 class. As it happened it was also the same year that I had decided to seek National Board certification. I decided to teach the class as a multiage class rather than a split class. The difference between the 2 is that in a multiage class you really pay very little attention to which grade the child is in and instead focus on what each indiviual child needs. The class became what I call a "continuous progress classroom" in which each child works at his or her own pace. That is not to say that I did not pay attention to grade level standards for each grade. Of course I had to. More about that in part 2.

4 Comments

The Primary Learning lab
by: Tapnstitch, 07-17-2008

I am excited about starting my Blog! I will be writing about what I have learned, what I am learning and what I am still trying to figure out about setting my primary classroom up to function like a learning lab. It is definitely a process!

In the next few days I will be posting in more detail how I came to the idea of a lab-type setting. For now, I will say that I think it is a continuation and extention of the workshop concept that many of us have been trying over the last few years in teaching writing, reading and math.

8 Comments

  

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