Words, words, words

Our discussion about vocabulary really got me thinking about how much intentional vocabulary instruction I have in my classroom.  It’s pretty infrequent.  Before a guided reading lesson we will preview the book together and I will point out unfamiliar words.  Most of the words in our guided reading books are sight words so I rarely provide context when we learn a new word before reading… it is usually just me pointing it out.  I am going to try to be more aware of that and use the word in a sentence and have the kids use the word in a sentence before they try to read the book.

I am also starting a vocabulary center next week.  I got the idea for another teacher at my school.  He created a center using the list of 100 words kids should know by 1^st grade.  There is a worksheet like this for each week, spanning 22 weeks:

week 1 vocab center

The words included in this center are not our kindergarten sight words that we teach in our curriculum.  The teacher who gave me the idea does no instruction on the words; the kids teach themselves the words at the center.  I think that might be a little too hard for some of my class, so I created word cards to go with each week’s worksheet.  This is the word cards that go with the worksheet above:

week 1 word cards

I think this will make the center a little easier, especially for my ESOL kids.  Most of the words included are words that they will see in the guided reading books.  I am really excited to see what kind of an impact this center has on reading performance in my room.  I think I am going to send home a half a page information sheet about the center to parents.  Then I will include the week’s vocabulary words in my weekly newsletter so that parents can practice having the students write and use the words at home as well.  Hopefully this will be a good first step at introducing vocabulary instruction into my classroom.

Guided Reading

I realize I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit by blogging about guided reading before we have gotten there in class but I went a little guided reading crazy in the past few weeks.  I think that guided reading was definitely my biggest downfall in my first year of teaching.  People kept telling me that I was doing it right, but I just did not feel comfortable doing it.  It never felt natural…. So this year I decided to combat that.

 I posted on the kindergarten curriculum outlook folder to ask for guided reading lesson plan templates that people use.  I was amazed at how many people responded (people in MCPS really are amazing).  Naturally, I looked at what everyone had, I looked at the outline my reading specialist had given me last year (posted on Erin’s blog under comments if you want to see that….) and I looked at the Jan Richardson template that I had been given the previous year a well.  Well, true to my nature… none of what I had was exactly what I wanted…. so I created my own.  I used the Jan Richardson template mostly, but split my plans into three days not two.  I hate that now I can’t complete two books in one week with my groups, but I think part of the problem for me last year was that I never felt like I had enough time in my small groups.  I’ve been using the templates for two weeks now and they do seem to be helping me a lot.  I hate that blogger won’t let me add an attachment… I’m linking them on Google docs… let me know if you have trouble opening them.

 guided reading lesson plan Print Concepts

guided reading lesson plan level 1-4

guided reading lesson plan 5-16

While I am on the subject of guided reading… I have 6 groups this year… YIKES!  Luckily I have been able to switch a few kids with the teacher next to me and across the hall so that I am down to four groups in my room (at least for now… the amazing thing about Kindergarten is how fast some of them pick up on things and move through the levels).  If I really buckle down and make sure I end my shared reading lesson on time I can meet with all four groups during my literacy center time (we are supposed to have “mandated” guided reading time from 9:45 to 10:45 but a lot of the time my whole group lesson creeps past 9:45).  I would like to pull my lowest group (working on print concepts… there is only two in that group) in the afternoon during writing because writing is a challenge for them anyway, and it is quiter in the room so they are able to focus better.  Unfortunately, one of the kids in that group gets pulled for ESOL during that time so for now I am pulling them in the morning with my other groups.

24 hours in a day is not enough!

I did an observation today of another teacher on my kindergarten team.  I observed his phonics lesson from 9:30-9:40 am.  He teaches phonics directly following his morning meeting and handwriting.  It is taught whole class (21 students) on the carpet.  The students have assigned seats on the carpet.  When I walked in the class was already on the carpet and was just finishing up their handwriting.  My notes and analysis of the observation are below.

Observation Field Notes	Analysis
Class is sitting on the outside edge of the carpet in a square.  The two students sitting on each side of Mr. Ferlisi are ESOL students.	The class is situated so that everyone can see Mr. Ferlisi (who is also in the square, but in his rocking chair).  He has put thought into the seating arrangement so that the ESOL students can receive more support.
Mr. Ferlisi says “Put your slate behind you and your marker on the line, that’s how I know you’re ready for phonics.”	This is a well-practiced routine.  His students know what the expectation is.  Even so, he gave verbal reminders of what the directions are to get ready.
Written on Mr. Ferlisi’s board: ____ in He fills in the blank line with t. “What word did I just make?”	Model!  Mr. Ferlisi is doing exactly what the students will do in a minute.  He is modeling how to set up the board to be successful.  Then he models how to fill in a letter on the line.
Several students are called on with raised hands.  Then he says “Class, what word did I just make?”  The whole class reads the word.	Mr. Ferlisi also models how to read the words.  This should help students to be more successful later in the lesson when they have to read the words they’ve written independently.
Mr. Ferlisi repeats the process with ____ in written on his board.  This time he fills in “n.”  He asks Camilla what word he has written.  She does not answer.  He repeats.  Then he says what sound does n make?  No response.  He makes the n sound.  Then he repeats the question.  She answers “nin”	One example was a real word and one was a pretend word.  I like the mixture so that students aren’t worried about whether their idea is a real word or not. He does not give up on Camilla.  She is not allowed to opt out of answering, instead she is given support so that she feels comfortable answering.
“Alright now it’s your turn” Students write two words on their board.  Mr. Ferlisi supports the ESOL students on each side of him by giving them letter sounds for the letters they’ve written.  He has them practice saying their words.	Mr. Ferlisi is scaffolding the lesson to give more support where it is needed.  Because his seating arrangements were planned out, he can give support without having to move from his spot on the square.
Mr. Ferlis picked an equity stick.  He started with that student and went around the carpet.  Each student read their two words.	This shows that everyone’s thoughts are valid.  Each student has a turn to share the words they have written.

The observation got me thinking about phonics and how to teach it in my own classroom.  We talked last night about phonics instruction being authentic and not taught in isolation.  It seems to me that the teacher I observed has a great handle on phonics and taught an engaging lesson where everyone was able to participate.  However, how useful is that lesson if it has no context?

So far phonics in my room as been taught in isolation as well (although anytime we read a book we identify beginning or ending sounds of a picture or a title or other activities like that).  I was thinking about how I would adapt the lesson I observed if it was my classroom.  I would have liked to do an intro to the lesson where we read a book that has a lot of “__in” words in it.  Then I would probably have the book at a center the following week and have students draw and label “__in” words from the book.  The problem with this scenario being that there is never enough time in the day.  Which is really sad because it’s Kindergarten and there should be more time for read aloud stories.  I could maybe move my phonics instruction from the morning to the afternoon directly following the read aloud book that I do when we get back from recess.  Then I could pick books that focus on the phonics lesson for the day.  Hmmmm.  Too much to do in one day and not enough time! 

But I don't want to! It's boring!

Our discussion about readability got me thinking a lot about the library in my classroom.  Very few of the books in the class library are written at a level that allows my kindergarten students to read them.  For the most part they look at the pictures and sometimes make up what the text says.  I have books that are leveled that I use for guided reading.  I also have bins for DEAR time (drop everything and read) that are easy to read books that most of the students in my class can read.  

During DEAR time I can tell that my students are more bored with reading than they are at the library center, when they get to look at any books in the class library not just the readable ones.  It’s difficult to find leveled books in our school that are also high interest, especially for the boys.  We have very few non fiction, low level books.  It makes sense, non fiction books tend to have more technical language that is not appropriate for emergent readers.  I want my students to actually be reading during DEAR time, not just looking at pictures.  I’m not sure how to combat the issue.  Maybe I could split the time... half with the readable books then half of the time at the class library.

Someone could make a fortune writing leveled texts that are about dinosaurs that are low leveled.  I have one student in particular that I know is going to be a challenge next week when I start guided reading groups.  During the MClass assessment he refused to read the books for the assessment because he didn’t want to.  He told me the book looked boring and he was not going to read it.  I still don’t have a good sense of what level he is reading on because he refuses to read anything except books he brings from home (which he’s not actually reading... just reciting memorized text).  Does anyone have ideas on how to captivate his interest using books that might not be very exciting?    

Collaboration in Centers

I’ve been thinking a lot about centers since my article discussion.  The article that I used (http://cte.jhu.edu/ELC3/Uploads/ELC_78/centers_and_differentiation.pdf) and the article Nicole presented on (http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=RT-61-1-Fisher.pdf&mode=retrieve&D=10.1598/RT.61.1.4&F=RT-61-1-Fisher.pdf&key=E425A2BF-F244-4E36-8F19-B982D91E44EF) both talk about how important collaboration and communication are in literacy centers.  This prompted me to think about my centers and the level of collaboration that takes place during center time in my classroom.



For the most part my structured centers, or my “must dos,” don’t require collaboration.  They are usually things like writing about your favorite part of the story, or draw and label the problem and solution of the story.  I am planning to add “theatre” as one of my structured centers so then at least one of the four would be an interactive center.  I can try to make the other structured centers more collaborative by modeling how to talk about what you write with a partner before you start to write.  



Most of my unstructured centers are more interactive.  I have things like ABC games and puzzles, reading (independently or with a partner), spelling word wall words on the Promethean board, making play dough letters, writing around the room.  Even for the unstructured centers that are independent activities, like writing around the room, my students know that they are allowed to help each other and talk while working.



My math centers are a different story.  My structured math centers are usually worksheet based and related to the previous weeks lessons.  Some of the worksheets are created by me or another member of the kindergarten team at my school and some are from workbooks.  For example, this week one of my centers was to cut out letters and numbers from a sheet and paste them onto another page, with the letters above a line on the page and the numbers below.  We taught positional words the week before so this was a review of above and below, and was also an introduction to sorting which we were learning that week.



The unstructured centers are more fun, math games and puzzles, manipulative's, math literature, and Promethean board games.  I’m sure I could come up with creative activities for the other centers... but I like having the review work because it is a built in formative assessment for me.  Each week I get to see how my class internalized the information from the previous week and if they are able to apply it individually.  I’m hoping this does not make me a horrible teacher for liking my few centers that are worksheets.  Thoughts?

Parents as Partners

Our discussion about teaching and professionalism really struck a chord with me.  It seems that part of the problem is teachers taking themselves seriously.  But a much bigger problem is how the rest of the world views teachers.  A large subset of “the rest of the world” is parents.  How can we expect to be treated as professionals when the people who are entrusting us with their children don’t even view us that way?  I came across an article on cnn that touches on this topic (http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-parents/index.html ). 

If you don’t have time to read the article, (although it’s good… I would recommend it), it talks about how teachers are citing parents as a reason for leaving the profession.  I love the example it gives of having a conference with a parent and telling them something their child has done in the classroom and the parent turns to the student and says “Is that true?”  The author of the article points out that what you really want to say to the parent is “of course it’s true… I just told you that!” 

The discussion we had along with this article made me start to think about how we can make parents our partner rather than our enemies.  If we really want parents to support our work in the classroom then we first have to make sure that they understand what it is that we do in the classroom.  Back to school night theoretically gives you time to talk with parents but it seems to me that all you ever have time to share is logistical information, not really content or how to help at home.  If I had an abundant amount of free time I would love to have a parent training workshop to teach the parents of my students how to help at home.

Lucky for me my school is hosting a kindergarten literacy night next week.  The parents and students will be rotating through three stations.  At one station parents will learn how to read aloud at home and what kinds of comprehension questions to ask when reading at home.  Then the kids get to pick out a book and the parents can practice reading out loud.  At another station there will be six different ABC and word wall word games set up (mix and fix with cut up words, sorting upper and lower case magnetic letters, concentration with ABC cards, ect.).  Parents will learn how to play these games and then have a few minutes to play each one.  At the last station parents and students will explore literacy web based games that they can access at home (I highly recommend www.starfall.com ).

In addition to having an evening set aside to educate parents, I think communicating with parents about what’s going on in the classroom is really important.  I send home a weekly newsletter ( https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6KbKa8ILJIUYzcwYTA2MjAtMmFlYi00NDQ2LTlmY2YtYTRhZmJhMDBmYWNl&hl=en_US ) to tell parents about our lessons for the week.  Included in the peek at the week is a “tips for home” section that changes every week or two to give parents ideas for ways to reinforce the classroom concepts at home. 

I really believe that teachers and parents both want the same thing; they want what is best for the child.  If we can communicate with parents about our goals in school, most parents will want to help reach these goals at home as well.

Prior Knowledge

It makes sense that one of the essential components for being a “good reader” is to have access to background knowledge.  What troubles me is that in my classroom I have about 30% of my students who are ESOL, most of whom were born in another country.  I have always known that not all of my students will have the same background knowledge but have never really stopped to consider what I can do about it.

This was bothering me so I started looking around online.  I found an article, http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9219/prior.htm that sites teaching vocabulary and providing experiences as ways to increase background knowledge.  I know that ESOL teachers do a lot of work with flash cards and words in their classes.  For some reason it never occurred to me that I could bring those strategies into my classroom as well.  I’ve done picture splashes a few times but not with any consistency.  It would be nice to have a wall in the room where I could post pictures related to our big book for the week.  For example, next week’s book is Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I could put up pictures of bears, cabins, woods, porridge.  We could use these pictures as a phonics activity each week as well and label them with the beginning sound that they make!    

Ok so teaching vocabulary seems doable, what about providing experiences?  There are probably several students in my class whose parents don’t have the means or the interest in taking them to places like the zoo or the beach.  Ideally I’d love to pack up my kids everyday and go experience different places but I know that is not realistic.  However, I could easily bring in a bag of sand and let my students touch it and play with it to introduce a book about a beach.

Last week we read Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom in my class.  Now that I am thinking about strategies for prior knowledge, it’s making me think that it would have been AWESOME to bring in a coconut to pass around.  Then we could have looked at pictures of coconut trees online.  I know the story has nothing to do with coconuts, but some of the kids may have no idea what I even mean when I read the words “coconut tree” in the story.  Next week in science we will be talking about the 5 senses, so I think I will bring in a coconut and relate it back to Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!    

Behaviorism

I was really interested in the reaction that most people in class had to the philosophy discussion, in particular the information presented on behaviorism. Whenever someone with a background in education hears the term "behaviorist" they immediately think of Pavlov and his dogs (kinda ironic that we're been classically conditioned to think of him when we hear the phrase...). We usually assume that behaviorism is a bad thing. We see this as some creepy, robotic type of system that does not allow for people to be individuals. However, Pavlov may be onto something. We can in fact "train" students to behave in a certain manner through the use a system of rewards and punishments (if I could train my dogs half as well as my students, I'd be thrilled!).

Before I entered the classroom last year I was adamant that I was opposed to positive behavior systems of classroom management.  I didn’t want my class to behave well because they will get a prize or a ticket; I wanted them to behave well because that is the expectation in my classroom and their job is to meet my expectations.  As it turns out, 5 year olds don’t care very much what I expect them to do; they care much more about extrinsic motivation.  It also turns out that I don’t really care what their motivation is; I just want them to behave well for any reason at all!  My school used the stoplight system for behavior management so I put one up in my classroom but was hit or miss about actually using it to enforce behavior.  It was two months into my teaching last year before I broke down and started a class marble jar.  When the whole class was doing what they were supposed to do we earned a handful of marbles.  When the jar was filled they got a class prize (lunch in the classroom, extra recess, etc.).  I could not believe the difference.  Just saying “Looks like we won’t be earning marbles during math today” would quiet down my entire class in an instant.  Marbles became better than stickers (which is a big deal because to Kindergarten students stickers are like a drug).

This year my school did away with the stoplight system due to the embarrassment and anxiety it caused students because of the fear of having to move their clip from green to yellow.  Teachers at my school are now only allowed to use positive behavior systems in their classroom.  While I think negative punishments do have their place in the classroom, I was secretly excited to break out the marble jar this year.   I introduced the marble jar in the first week of school and at the end of week two we have filled it up and received our first reward!  I start out very heavy handed with the marbles so the students learn what it feels like to earn the reward.  As we get further into the year they earn less and less marbles at a time so that it takes longer to fill up. 

My school has opted not to become part of the PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) system just yet, this year we are all implementing positive behavior systems in our classroom independent from a school system.  The PBIS program website, http://www.pbis.org/ has a lot of information about how to implement positive behavior.  They even provide templates of “good behavior tickets” to pass out and a list of free or inexpensive rewards, http://www.pbis.org/training/student.aspx (for the list of rewards click on “free rewards for students” under the Gotcha resources).

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Welcome to my blog. My blog title is borrowed from Dr. Suess... I'm not clever enough to come up with something like that :) I hope you enjoy my posts.