Thankful for a Clean Google Drive

Typically we set aside time for our students to clean and organize their folders, binders, desks, lockers, or general work spaces.  We all know how great it feels to be at a clean and organized work space.  It helps us maintain a clear head and we are more efficient when we can find what we need.  Remember as we begin to use more technology with our students and they begin to use their Google Drives, to set aside time to help them learn to clean and organize their Google Drives.  They can name unnamed documents, put loose documents in folders, color code folders, learn how to use the Google Drive search bar to search for documents easily, and delete documents they no longer need.  As we approach the busy holiday season a clean work space may be something to be thankful for.

Teaching for Biliteracy. New site!!!!

Dual Language experts, Karen Beeman and Cheryl Urow have launched Center for Teaching for Biliteracy
This new site offers different resources as videos, articles, strategies and samples&tips to design BuFs (biliterate unit Framework). Sign up at http://www.teachingforbiliteracy.com/register/basic/ and receive the latest news!!!

The Connection between Objectives and Closing the Lesson

We know that in our teaching, it is important for students to understand the objectives of the lesson. By establishing the purpose, students can connect the activities they are doing to the reason why they are learning it (the objective or purpose).  However, all lessons also require a closure.  This is the time when you wrap up a lesson and help students organize the information into a meaningful context in their minds. Lesson closure is so important for learning and is a cognitive process that each student must “go through” for learning to occur.  By using closure activities, we have another opportunity to take anecdotal notes and have formative assessments that give us a snapshot of the students' learning, as we check for understanding. This ultimately helps us decide if the objective was met and guides the next steps of learning.  

Looking for ways to close the lesson?  Check out the link below.  This website has many ideas; some short, some long, some better than others, but certainly some activities to try.

Lesson Closure Strategies | K12EdResources.com

Thanksgiving Resources for next week

Readworks.org has many non-fiction articles and related questions for Thanksgiving.  Click here for a blog post from my favorite technology integration blog, Free Tech for Teachers to learn more.  I hope this helps as you prepare your plans for next week!

More on anecdotal notes

Anecdotal notes, as I mentioned last week, provide an opportunity to document the students' learning and understanding. This helps us make decisions in our teaching and guides our next steps. So how do we check for understanding, resulting in quality anecdotal notes and more informed teaching? Fisher and Frey suggests that teachers use a variety of ways to check for understanding.

• Oral language- In reading, this may be through retelling, summarizing, or sharing their thinking that results from reading. 
• Questioning-teachers ask questions.  However, the art of teaching, according to Fisher and Frey is in asking deep, diverse, and engaging questions. When questioning, Fisher and Frey, tell us that we need to say the right thing for the child to do the right thing.  In questioning, we need to scaffold our questioning based on the needs of the student. 
• Student questioning-Keep in mind, questioning can be from the students. Observing the questions that students ask can provide deep insight to their understanding. 
• Writing
• Projects and tests

Anecdotal notes can be very helpful in documenting oral language, as well as questions that come from the students and teachers.  While writing, projects and tests provide more concrete evidence, observations of their behaviors during those tasks can be extremely beneficial, as well as anecdotal notes on the strengths and weakness of the tasks completed.  

Continue to incorporate anecdotal note taking as part of your everyday instruction.  We know and we tell our students that practicing something makes us better.  Your anecdotal notes will improve and will provide you more information the more you practice.  

Assessment: Anecdotal Notes

Assessments. We do them. We all do them. Sometimes, we may feel that we do so much assessing but are we really capturing all of what our students can do? Classroom observations are another form of ongoing assessment and it can guide our teaching and help our students. 

Most teachers can "read" their students; observing when they are bored, frustrated, excited, motivated, etc. As a teacher, we pick up these cues, and can adjust the instruction accordingly. It is also beneficial to take observational notes (referred to as anecdotal notes). These notes serve to document and describe student learning relative to concept development, reading, social interaction, communication skills, etc. These notes will guide future instruction, as well as help in reporting progress or conferencing with parents or other teachers.

When using anecdotal notes, consider the following suggestions....

• Choose a time when these observations can be made most naturally, easily, and efficiently.
• Consider focusing on a few children each day and write notes on them and/or take notes during small group instruction, such as guided reading. ,
• Focus in on one category or standard and observe children in relation to that.
• Set up some systematic way to collect and organize the notes you have made on each child (e.g., individual folders or pages in a notebook can be set up for each child).
• Devise your own system, but don't let it interfere with your primary role of interacting with the children.

Consider using more anecdotal notes. They can be one of the best forms of assessments to help guide our instruction for better student learning.  

Want more information? The link below is one of many sources available on anecdotal notes that can be created by the teacher and students!.

http://fcit.usf.edu/assessment/classroom/ST0032November97.pdf

Songs and riddles for your classroom

Traditional songs and riddles are a very important piece in every culture. Songs are authentic oral texts that provide opportunities to work on vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Music helps to stimulate emotions, senses and imagination.
Here you have a wonderful resource where you  can find traditional songs in different countries of the world. Great oral texts to use during the study of culture and traditions in Social Studies.
http://www.mamalisa.com/

It's a Candy Crime Scene!

A cold and windy Halloween night = Bowls full of leftover candy = An instant teachable moment.  

Use that candy and this digital lesson plan which can be found on the Museum of Science and Industry's on-line science web page, to create a Candy Crime Scene in your classroom.  I hope it's as much fun for you as it's bound to be for your students.  ;)