Picture Day (a blurb)

How, oh how, is yearbook picture day so exhausting? All I had to do was walk kids up and down the stairs all day, but it never seems to go as planned. 

"I need my lip gloss."

"Can I get my eyeliner?"

"Do you have a brush?"

And that was just the boys! Ok, not really, but I have some who came close. 

Plot Analysis - Student Samples

Oh, note taking, how I dislike you sometimes. I look at some of these notes and wonder what goes on in the heads of my students during class. BUT, they all got it. I just wish every paper could look like the last sample I posted. Is this a consequence for too much focus on standardized testing, or are they truly apathetic about their educations? 

With our plot lesson for "The Tell-Tale Heart," we worked on two strategies: Cornell notes for notes and BME for writing fiction summaries. We talk a lot about strategies because I want them to have a brain full of tools that can carry over to other lessons. When we isolate a strategy to a particular lesson, kids do not always realize that there are skills that can be used in other lessons. They need to understand how to transfer information. These strategies can be. 

Overall, the lesson actually worked out much better than I anticipated. The kids were hooked from the second they saw the dancing H&R guy. 

Format Matters: Day one reflection

Wow! Another strategy that works. Initially, the kids were a bit frustrated, but I explained that this was also going to be an issue for me, too. I was going to have to pay attention and work with them to help build this structure. I did have to provide sentence starters about half of the time. Otherwise, the kids were working really hard to get the words right. They were correcting themselves along the way. That's always a bonus. I'm interested to see how this progresses. 

The best reaction of the day: "I don't know how to speak in complete sentences!"

Did you give it a shot? How did it work for you?

I finally finished a book!

As an overachieving teacher, I read a lot of young adult literature. I like to be able to share books with my students. Today I have been talking to them about Aprilynne Pike's Earthbound. 

I am already a fan of Pike's Wings series (I still have one left. Shhhh!), so I was excited to see a new book by her. The Wings series is fast-paced and engaging - and makes me want to be a fairy. Total adult escapism into a teenage make-believe world. 

Like Wings, Earthbound is fast-paced and engaging. The best thing about this book is that it never gives away too much too soon. This was a dream book for making inferences. I was making predictions galore, only a few of which I was even close to being on target with. Having read so much YA literature at this point, finding a book that surprises me is like finding buried treasure. I was quite pleased with the direction that was taken. I could have done without so much of the lovey-dovey stuff, but in the end, it showed that there was a purpose to it. 

Other YA lit. readers out there, I recommend this one. Read it, and pass it along to your students. 

Student Samples: Contrasts & Contradictions and Again & Again in "The Tell-Tale Heart"

The close reading section of my lesson on TTH is coming to an end. I am sharing some student samples of the work we have been doing. 

This student is an immigrant. She worked her butt off on this assignment, asking lots of questions, determined to identify her CCs and AAs - and explain them correctly. Although her writing might not make the most sense to an outside viewer, she really did a fantastic job explaining her thinking (which she still does in Spanish). 

We had to work repeatedly on clarification of thoughts for the assignment. Most of the kids would explain about half their thinking, expecting me to guess the rest. This is one of the better papers for explanation. 

This paper is from one of my special education students. He worked incredibly hard, but there was a great deal of frustration when he didn't get things quite right. I took his first answer because I understood that he was connecting the mid 1800s to his own life as being different (contrast). 

This student does not speak much in class, so I am never quite sure if he is understanding. He was one of the first to finish his individual work. 

This is my favorite assignment. The student recently came to my class from resource English. Since being in my class, she has been absorbing information like a sponge. 

This student is another who doesn't speak much. This is some of the best work I have seen from him all year. 

"The Tell-Tale Heart" - Analyzing Plot (Updated 11/3)

As much as I love to entertain my students, I always struggle with a way to make plot analysis interesting (although I can never be too serious no matter how hard I try). This is a tested skill that my students generally struggle with, but I know that I have to capture their attention in some way. My solution: lots and lots of graphics! 

I ran across a plot analysis handout  online that I used as a model for taking Cornell notes. As an AVID school and AVID classroom/site team member/mentor, this is a requirement for my AVID students (and the rest just have to suffer). We have not worked on this skill in some time, and the kids are due for a refresher. 

For the presentation, I began by adding animated gifs. Until this summer, I did not realize I could even place these in a presentation, but they save and insert like any old picture. You can search for just about anything and add "+ gif". They make relatively dry material a bit more light-hearted. 

I also added a teacher character to my presentations as I often do. This time, I used DoppelMe to create my mini-me. DoppelMe is also good for students to use to create Edmodo avatars. Rather than setting up an account, I created my character and then used the Windows Snipping Tool to copy and save the image.

I have also used a lot of graphics to guide the note-taking. I could have typed up all the notes for the kids to copy. Instead, I am using the pictures to help them identify the pieces. This way, they are still working. They will add those thoughts to their notes as we discuss them. 

We will see how everything goes Monday. If I get a couple of laughs and quite a few groans, I know that I have done well. 

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Update: Stop the presses! Another blogging teacher posted an entry about an app called Tellagami. It's cute, it's fun, and I'm playing! My apologies to my mini-me, but my DoppelMe had to go. My Gami is now posted on slide 3. The more of these I can make, the more I won't have to speak. 

Strategy of the Week: Teach Like a Champion - Format Matters (updated 11/3)

This week's strategy is another that I have on my to do list but haven't gotten around to. 

First, I teach English. Everything we do should be about complete sentences. In ten years of teaching, I have had very few students who actually write in correct complete sentences. Is it possible that this is a consequence of not speaking in complete sentences?

Second, my ESL and SPED students could greatly benefit from this. They need the exposure to correct grammatical formats in speaking in order to transfer that to the page. 

My students speak heavily in slang, and I never make a big deal out of it. TLAC states that we should keep in mind that some parents may not even realize how their students are speaking when not with them. I always consider that with behavior, but I had not really thought about it in regard to speaking (except when I catch them cursing). We all code switch based on our setting, but it does make sense that they shouldn't be pulling out the lowest forms of language in an educational setting.

The book suggests that teachers provide sentence starters when the students do not respond with a complete sentence. I already do that with writing assignments, so this should not be too difficult to incorporate into our speaking. The hard part is me remembering! 

In the video below, the teacher even provides reasons for speaking properly. I think I will follow her model and see how it works. Now it's time to make a mini-poster for me to use in class!

You can also find more information from the field guide here. 

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Update: This is the Tellagami video I made to introduce Format Matters to my class.