The Application Strategy

New Strategy!

Application Cards = A constructivist approach centered on activities which involve learning which proceeds from more basic ideas to more complex. The expected products generated by the students are determined by the teacher.

Today in math we talked about application. Why do we need to know how to subtract? Why do you need to know what a cup, pint, and quart are? At first the kids answered that they needed to know these things to get good grades and to get an E on their tests. I was so disappointed to hear these responses. We then had a deep discussion about WHY we go to school and WHY we need to grow and learn. We talked about the importance of reading and math skills. The kids brainstormed how they will use these skills outside of our school building. To get all kids involved with this strategy, I had each student get a white board to explain their reasons through drawing or writing. This is a great strategy! My students had to apply their knowledge to the real world.  I need to use this strategy frequently. It is a MUST that our kids know WHY they being taught certain concepts.

Here are a couple short videos of my students using the application strategy.

 

On my way to a Constructivist Classroom!

Students are truly involved in a constructivist classroom. They have choices, both academically and socially. I would like to start giving my kids more choices that lead to a feeling of ownership. Students will feel proud of what they are learning through lessons and activities that include choice with student direction. Tomorrow, I am hosting spring conferences in my classroom. The conferences will be student led. My students will show their parents what they have been learning in each academic and social area. If you would like to see what the students are doing at each center, please go to an earlier post titled, Student Led Conferences.

We practiced for our conferences today! I matched up the kids so that they could pretend that they were leading their parents around the classroom. They enjoyed being on their own! I set the perimeter for the lesson, but I did not tell them what to do each step of the way. They completed their conference form with their partner at their own speed, with an individual touch.

Other Constructivist activities/lessons this week…… (Focus Area – Choice)

· Ruth Law Newspaper

o They needed to include an article on Ruth Law…I opened up the rest of the newspaper to be student choice. They included sports news, advertisements, For Sale items, and comics. They got very creative!

· Seating Arrangement

o I don’t think I would do this any other time of year, but for the last two weeks, they made their own seating arrangements.

· Inch Scavenger Hunt

o Using Ipads, the kids found items around the room to measure. They had to take a picture of each item. They needed to find one item that measured one inch another that measured two inches all the way up to twelve inches. They had a lot of freedom with this activity.

· Voting

o Stories

o Games

o Rewards

Best Practices in Reading

Best Practices in Reading

Six Key Ideas

·        More Freedom

o   During reading circles, allow them to have discussions. Do not organize all conversations and roles/activities.

§  When I do reading circles in class, I assign each student a role. I tell them what their “job” is during this time. I provide questions and usually guide the conversation. I would like to give them the freedom to discuss their story with less formality. I will model how a reading circle looks and the possible discussions before we leap into it. I think that I will let them pick their roles more frequently. I would like them to experience each role, so I need to find a way to do this without being in control at all times. I want reading circles to feel inviting and fun.

·        Effective teachers set aside a time for individual silent reading each day.

o   I have always thought that I was being lazy when I assigned independent reading time. I very rarely get this in during a regular school week. After reading this chapter, I discovered that students need time to read independently. Most of my students come from homes that value education. I would say that 90% of my kids are very loyal readers. In second grade we require the kids to read at least 20 minutes each night. To receive the top score on their reading minute’s sheets, they must read 40 minutes each school night. About half of the kids in my class reach the 40 minute goal.

o   Next year I plan on finding more time for independent reading during school. I also liked that the chapter suggested that some kids will share books and discuss what they are reading. When we have independent reading time, I always tell them they need their own books and that the room must remain silent. I need to allow the kids to share and enjoy their book discussions. I will monitor this closely, so I know that they are discussing books. J

·        Kids need easy, “beach books.”

o   I level my kids during guided reading or reading circle time. I usually provide books that are a little bit higher than their level. I thought that I was pushing them towards higher level vocabulary. I would like to try reading circles with “beach books.” I might discover that the discussions are much richer, because they fully comprehend what they are reading.

·        Choice Books  

o   Next year, I want to provide more opportunities for the students to pick their selections. I usually have three different books at one time. They are usually leveled for each group. I would like to continue to level books, but allow some student choice as well.

·        Scavenger Hunt the Stories

o   I love this strategy! This would be a great way to address the grammar skills for each week. We could have a scavenger hunt to identify our spelling skills each week. We could also search for similes, metaphors, verbs and so on. I think that I will try this tomorrow with contractions. This is another strategy that is beneficial for all levels of learners.

·        Teacher Modeling and discussing the reading process

o   I want to try this! This would be a great way for kids to see how someone else thinks while they read. When next year starts, I will model the reading process with almost everything I read. This will be a great way to introduce my students to literature circles. They will then know what to think about and what to discuss. Hopefully my kids will catch on to what goes through a person’s head when they read.

Backwards Design Reflection

If I were to describe how the backwards design approach helped my reading unit using one word, it would be RICHNESS. I have taught this same theme in reading for eight years. This year was by far the most organized with depth. Throughout the entire unit, I was thinking about my essential questions. My questioning style became thicker with many discussions. I linked the stories together to explain the entire theme. In the past, I wouldn’t link the theme together; I just separated each concept into weekly stories. My students enjoyed new strategies that allowed them to be pushed. I feel like I used step three (the calendar) the most. I know that in order to create a meaningful calendar, steps 1 and 2 had to be thought out carefully too. The activities that I put on the calendar helped answer the essential questions. I feel that having everything laid out so specifically, actually saved time in the end. I have not planned for four weeks! Since things are so crazy at school in May, it is very nice to be organized early. I definitely saw several benefits after using the BD model. One example of deeper thinking is when I asked my students to explain the advantages of living in the 1920s, like Ruth Law. One student said that he would have liked to live back then, so he could meet Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and Louis Beloit. I loved this response, because he was able to recite the heroes/heroines of aeronautics! Another student responded that she would not like to live in the 1920s, because they did not have TV or video games. This was another success, because I wanted them to understand that technology has changed over time. The picture web was also very engaging. The kids explained the advantages of several types of travel. The webs showed their knowledge of travel with explanations to back it up. They were very creative and different. If they could explain the advantage, then it worked! There were no specific answers. We have six themes in our reading curriculum. I would love use the BD design to make improvements to the five additional themes. I felt that this unit was very RICH!

Instructional Strategy - Devil's Advocate

The new instructional strategy that I used this week was called Devil’s Advocate.  This is the strategy that our group tried out in class a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t really think that it was a strategy for second graders until I tried it. The kids loved it! Right now our reading theme is travel time. We cover the different types of traveling, famous Americans who have changed how we travel, and fictional stories that include travel. As an introduction to our reading lesson, we tried out Devil’s Advocate. I split the kids into two groups. I told them who was on my side (the devil’s) and which group was against my statement. These are the two statements that I used: Going on an airplane is the best way to travel, and Living in the 1920s was the best time period to be alive. They went back and forth, and it was great! I did call on them for management purposes, but I don’t think that I would have to do this every time. This strategy told me who knew the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of travel, and who understood how much has been developed since the 1920s. I will use this strategy again.

I included a small clip of our debate. They are debating life in the 1920s.

Hitting a Homerun!

A CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOM IS…….

 … “knowing how to navigate the rules; …inferring why it makes sense to hit the ball lightly; …figuring out why the rules allow you to run past first base but not second.”

I love this baseball analogy of a constructivist classroom. I am going to stick with the baseball theme to explain how I think a classroom should operate.

Classroom Improvements	Constructivist Classroom	Backwards Design	Learning Strategies
Pitcher	The Teacher – The teacher pitches the concept or the ideas.	The essential question is the pitcher. This is how the game gets started. The pull is put into action from this position.	The Learning Strategy is the Pitcher. These strategies must be thought out and engaging. They must include evidence of learning.
Batter	The students put the idea into play! They call the shots. They discover how they would like to learn these new concepts.	All students are the batters. They hit the information into the field. They all swing differently and get to different bases. Teachers provide lessons that are engaging to all students and their interests.	The presentation – The way that we swing and hit the strategy to our students. We must be prepared to successfully hit the strategy into the field.
Fielders	Teacher and Support Staff – We help each other find ways to get to each student. We use different strategies and ways of thinking to improve overall thinking. Students – Throwing ideas to each other to push the conversations farther. Getting the “out,” the “understanding” of each topic.	Lessons and activities. We provide many lessons and activities that help answer the essential question. We give the students many opportunities to dig deeper and to explain what they know and more importantly HOW to apply their knowledge.	The students are the fielders. They are the ones who are learning from these strategies. They throw thoughts and insights to each other through each strategy. We are using strategies to work together as a team. We are building on our knowledge through each strategy.
Umpire	Teacher- Setting up a classroom climate that works together. Making sure kids feel comfortable with their environment. Giving them opportunities to participate and take a stand in their learning.	The BD layout/plan. The BD plan must be organized at the beginning, so that each player gets fair treatment and is engaged. The plan works towards developing the essential question.	The assessments formal and informal. We will be able to evaluate learning through these assessments.

Reading the Room!

Reading the Room – New Concept

Today we used the strategy, Reading the Room! I used this strategy in reading and in science. In reading, we are working suffixes. The kids looked around the room for words with the ly, ness, and ful suffixes. It was a great way to get them moving. They were reading posters and even some reminders that I had around my desk. They used whiteboards to capture the words today. I would like them to use the camera on the ipad when we do this strategy again. I hope that they continue to search for words around their house or at the store that have suffixes too.

We read the room in science too! We are working on properties of solids. Today the kids had a little scavenger hunt. They had to identify items that had certain properties. Once again, they enjoyed the movement and application. I will use this strategy in the future!

Instructional Strategies

High Quality Instructional Strategies

·         Act It Out

o   Description – Kids use their bodies to explain the lesson that they are learning.

o   I used Act It Out to teach vocabulary words this week.

§  The kids enjoyed using their bodies to explain the meanings to their friends. I even had one child pull others together to explain the meaning of flock. This strategy paired with visual and audio strategies works well. I can definitely see if the students understand the meaning through their actions.

o   Math

§  We also used this strategy during math to demonstrate the understanding of symmetry and 3D/2D shapes. The kids enjoy this strategy. They must make connections with prior knowledge to be able to form representations with their bodies.

·         Readers Theatre

o   We use this strategy regularly in class. I feel that it is a great way for the kids to express themselves or the characters through reading. This strategy helps with fluency and voice. I don’t think it directly teaches comprehension, but through using different voices, the students might get to know each character a little better.

o   I found that when I have them write their own readers theatre skits, I expose them to so much more. They have to think about each character and how they will react. They usually write skits during social studies or health. It helps them dig deeper into the themes that we are learning about.

·         Word Wall

o   I don’t find word walls to be very impacting. I might not be using my correctly. I do believe that kids should be surrounded with print, but I don’t think that the format matters. Once vocabulary words are introduced, they go on the word wall. I always wonder if the kids actually take the time to read the words and remember their meanings. I might need to find some additional tools to make my word wall more meaningful. I do have a word wall in my 4-year olds room. He reads the words as he is trying to fall asleep. I feel like I do not give my 2^nd graders anytime to relax (maybe this is a problem) we are constantly working on something. They are very busy!