Practical Cursive Practice

 While teaching 4th grade, I discovered that most of my students had little knowledge of cursive. Not only could they not form the letters properly, but they couldn't read anything written in cursive fonts. At first it made it easy to have students deliver "coded" notes back and forth to colleagues, but when I noticed that students were unable to access some books and many written items out in the world (menus, signs, instructions). Cursive is important for the brain and it's been found to be beneficial for students with dyslexia. Studies have found that cursive activates more places in the brain than print or typing.

I systematically began teaching a few letters a day. I showed students how to form the letters on the Smart board while they wrote them on white boards. We compared and contrasted the print form verses the cursive form of each letter. Then we played "you against the teacher" for extra recess points. I'd call out a letter (one we had already learned) and the whole class had to write it on their whiteboards and show it to me. If they were all correct, they earned a point. If I saw one that was incorrect, I simply stated that I earned a point for no recess. (Yes, they always won).

When it came to practice, I could only find boring pages of worksheets full of random words. So I created Cursive with a Twist. It allowed students to practice our current vocabulary words, number words, and sentences or phrases that people actually use. I even added exit tickets and challenges at the end to keep students engaged longer and help them access the rich literary experiences of the world.

Cursive with a Twist

Cursive with a Twist

For more information on cursive, you can find a good article at www.frontiersin.org

Askvik, E. O., Van der Weel, F., & Van der Meer, A. L. (2020, July 28). The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults. Retrieved February 17, 2021, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01810/full

 

Math Games for Elementary Students

 Having taught mostly in younger grades throughout my career, I spent a lot of time making and collecting resources for 1st-4th grades. Here are some math games I created to get you started. Enjoy!

1st Grade Place Value Card Game

 1st Grade Place Value Game

 

 

Comparing Dice Center Game

 

Comparing Dice 

 

 Angle Measurement Matching Game

Angle Measurement Matching Game

 

The Array Gallery Scoot

 

The Array Gallery Scoot 

 

 

Or maybe you're looking for some math fluency practice.

 

In this fluency packet,  I placed each page in sheet protectors so students could turn the pages and replace them in the sleeve and use dry erase markers to complete them. Each student moved at their own pace. It includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Math Fluency Drill Packet

Math Fluency Drill Packet

 

 

Addition Practice

 

Addition Practice

Lots of New!

This year I moved from 1st grade to 6th grade English Language Arts/Social Studies. I expected there to be a bigger divide, but I am amazed to discover that some of the same skills are abundantly necessary and unfortunately, still missing. The most evident holes popping up?

1. missing phonemic awareness/spelling rules

2. lack of word attack skills (decoding)

3. lack of academic vocabulary

3. unclear understanding of text structures

See? The same issues I saw in the foundational years are still affecting learning in the upper grades. the biggest evidence? Students are unable to access text to learn.

In kindergarten to the beginning of 3rd grade, students are learning how to read. Then in 3rd grade, it begins to shift from learning how to read to reading to learn. For students to be successful in middle school and beyond, they have to have a strong base.

So how to solve the problem? I am sure my struggling students had good teachers that worked hard on all these skills. I would also hazard a guess that some negative behavior choices affected learning. And now these students are expected to research and find information... gasp... on their own! And many are unable to do so.

So I started a few easy to do, quick daily and weekly activities to hep repair these gaps.

First, a Word of the Week. Using WordSmythe, students focus on the syllabication, meaning, synonyms, and visual representation of an academic word. Since I was astounded to realize some of 6th graders didn't know what to do when asked to analyze or evaluate, I started with the key verbs from the learning standards. On Monday, students research the word and put their information into a graphic organizer on Seesaw. Then all directions for all assignments for the week include that word. When we were working on analyzing, we analyzed text structures, character motivations, plot, and ancient civilizations. Each week, we change the work and use it as often as possible. I'm thinking about possibly adding a tracker so any time students use the word correctly, they get points towards a fun activity at the end of the week.

Next, any time a student asks how to spell something, I do a think aloud that goes something like this: "Hmm. (repeats word). That has (tapping out sounds) 5 sounds. Let's see. I would spell the (first sound) with the letter(s) XX, the next sound with the letter(s) XX, etc... So how would you spell it?" The conversation is quick and by the time I'm giving the last sound, the student generally has it already spelled correctly. If the word is has an odd spelling (ough), I will simply give them the spelling. I always give one of the rules to one of the sounds in the word. For example: ledge - no English word ends with a j so we use a ge, but since e is a short vowel, we add the d to keep it short.

Not only do students get phonemic awareness skills they might have missed, but they also get small doses of phonics rules they may not know. Again, I make these conversations VERY brief.

This attention to a vocabulary word and use of a think aloud lead to learning about the morphology of words. It's easy to take each small conversation a step farther and talk about how the prefix changes the word or how the suffix changes the use of the word. I'm working on teaching the Greek and Latin origins of words, at which point that will be added into the weekly vocabulary research activity.

Last, text structure matters. When you know what you will be reading and how it is laid out, it is much easier to find and understand the content. I teach text structures using a combination of chants and organizers made by Nancy Fetzer and the allegory of a city street. I draw a road, then about 5 buildings to represent a house, a store, a skyscraper, etc. I talk about how there are 5 main non fiction text structures that can be built. We talk about compare/contrast and label one of the buildings, description, problem/solution, sequencing, and cause and effect. But then I ask how we will access the buildings (there are no doors or windows). That's when we add text features, which help us access the information in the buildings. We add doors, windows, chimneys and other features and label them glossaries, photographs, diagrams, etc. 

Next to the non fiction street is the amusement park at the end of the street. This is where we can find the roller coaster (or mountain depending on which organizer you use for fiction). Here there is an exposition with characters and settings, rising actions, climax, resolution... you get the point.

Then we compare/contrast the structures. We talk about why they are shaped how they are and why it matters. We talk about how to get our brains ready to find information in the text by how the structure is set up.

The last thing we do is split the wall in half. On one side we put our plot map (usually shaped like a mountain) and label the text features. Above it we put the genres associated with fiction. Underneath we put the graphic organizers we use to find character traits, motivations, and theme.

On the other side we put the nonfiction text feature posters. Class Magalong has a nice set. I use the ones from Primary Punch. Above them, we place genres associated with nonfiction. underneath we put text feature posters. Then whenever I introduce a new text, we can figure out what structure it is and how we are going to access it.

Together, these small things are allowing struggling students to successfully read and create text. They are getting better at finding information, giving thoughtful answers to questions, and writing better stories. While some students are already prepared to increase their learning by reading, I am excited to watch as more students learn to read by reading to learn.

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What is the Gradual Release of Responsibility Anyway?

 

I first learned about gradual release of responsibility several years ago and have tried to incorporate it into my classroom, although it is still a process which requires constant improvement. Based on the theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, the student motivation theories of Albert Bandura, and scaffolded instruction, it’s a framework that allows students to systematically take ownership of their own learning (Fisher, & Frey, 2013). To me, this meant that first came the “I do” in which the instructor does the thinking and the work through modeling, think alouds, and clearly defined expectations. The next step was the “we do” in which students are invited to participate in the thinking through questioning and focused instruction. In this stage, students work in groups or partnerships and receive the scaffolding and guidance they needed to be successful. The last step was the “you do” where the students do the thinking on their own and apply their understanding through assessments, projects, or products.



Jennifer Serravallo has written fantastic books on the art of small group reading instruction. In her book Teaching Reading in Small Groups: Differentiated Instruction for Building Strategic, Independent Readers (2010), she says that “balance… is not simply about the diverse structures we use, but the methods of teaching within each structure, the amount of support we give, and how we release that support, always in constant consideration of what [learners] need most” (p. 11). She refers to the I do, we do, you do ideas as “to”, “with”, and “by.” Her powerful statement made me reflect on how much time I actually spend in the to, with, and by areas.

What I thought was more of a “with” is actually a “to.” I had not considered how much whole group instruction I tend to do. My students are spending far too long listening to my thinking and not using their own learning. It’s easy to get into a routine and fall back into bad habits of giving students our thinking in order to meet time constraints instead of allowing them to develop their own ideas.



Whole Brain Teaching Basics

If our purpose is to create critical, independent thinkers, this can’t happen without “moving from teacher knowledge to student understanding and application (Fisher, 2008, p. 2). Students need to to cycle through the process of gradual release so they can successfully apply their learning and utilize their own critical thinking skills.

That is why I love using Whole Brain Teaching Strategies (wholebrainteaching.com). These strategies decrease the length of the “to” instruction and ease quickly and efficiently into the “with.” It also allows students to attach movement to concepts and target specific objectives and skills so that they are able to perform independently.

References

Fisher, D. (2008). Effective use of the gradual release of responsibility model . Retrieved from

https://www.mheonline.com/_treasures/pdf/douglas_fisher.pdf


Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2013). Gradual Release of Responsibility Instructional Framework. IR

Essentials, 1-8. doi:10.1598/essentials.8037


Serravallo, J. (2010). Teaching reading in small groups: Differentiated instruction for building

strategic, independent readers . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishing.

“The Fastest Growing Education Reform Movement in the World!” Whole Brain Teaching, https://wholebrainteaching.com/.

Setting up Collaborative Teams

 

Before:


Create teams of 3-5 students that will remain in place either all year or each semester.


Be cognisant of personalities, academic strengths and weaknesses, and behavioral needs.


Decide what you want your teams to accomplish. Are you focused on effort, process, or product? How do you want your teams to function? Will teammates be assigned specific roles, or will they choose for themselves?


Day 1 (10-20 minutes)


Talk about what it means to be a team member versus a leader. Why do we work in teams? What are some examples of teams you know? Make an anchor chart to guide the discussion.


Introduce or review the roles you want your teams to utilize. Add to the anchor chart.


Day 2 (10-20 minutes)


Review anchor chart and previous learning.


Place students into their pre-created groups. Allow them to choose a place to work in the classroom.


The challenge: Work together to create a team name. Write it on a paper along with their names.


Whole Class Debrief. Students share their name: Random reporter (number team members 1-4, roll dice and that person reports). Also, point out what you saw and heard as teams were working. Ask students what made your team work well/not well? What can your team do next time?


Day 3 (10-20 minutes)


Review anchor chart and previous challenge.


Teach/practice active listening. Active listening skills are essential in good group work. When students are listening well, their eyes are on the speaker and their mouths are closed. Active listeners avoid interrupting but may sometimes summarize what they hear and ask for clarification when needed. (demonstrate by having students practice with partner). Active listening shows respect for the speaker and allow the listener to learn as much as possible from that speaker's words. Ask how they will manage who is speaking and when to change speakers?


The challenge: create speaking norms.


Whole Class Debrief. Students share their system: Random reporter (number team members 1-4, roll dice and that person reports).


Day 4-6 (10-20 minutes each day)


Review anchor chart and previous learning.


Teach/practice explaining ideas and opinions. Team members need this skill to communicate in cooperative interactions. Explaining must go beyond single-word answers; students have to use complete sentences and explain their thinking. They must explain their ideas to others so that peers can understand them too. This demands metacognition, evidentiary thinking, summarizing, paraphrasing, and listening to others thoughtfully. Have students practice with a partner to summarize what they heard you just say during instruction.


In conjunction, students need to encourage teammates. This is a great place to bring in appropriate discourse sentence stems such as “I agree”, “I disagree because”, or “I was thinking…” This helps all members of the team feel valuable and heard. Have students practice using respectful words and tones.


The challenge: do some fairly simple STEM type challenges so students can practice working together. Students can also do team building activities (human knot, etc).


Day 7 (10-20 minutes)


Review anchor chart and previous learning.


The challenge: Create a poster that represents your team.


Whole class debrief.


Your teams are ready to accept an academic challenge. In addition, teams will build mutual respect and trust, making it easier for quieter students to take risks and participate more fully. Every few weeks, challenge the teams with a team building activity to continue to nurture their functionality and respect.

Less Talk and Collaborative Teams Saved My Math Lessons

This year my school district adopted Eureka Math. Along with the adoption is the familiar expectation of fidelity to the program. In my experience, I have found that this typically means use the program exactly as it is scripted and do not deviate.

Eureka is organized into four parts: a fluency component (building automaticity), an application problem (opportunity for inquiry based learning and deep questioning), concept development (teacher based direct instruction), and the student debrief. It became apparent very quickly that this program does not work “as is” and requires the touch of a competent teacher to make it shine. However, there is a clear district expectation to adhere to the program and to “just keep going” even when students are not gaining mastery of the skills. As you might expect, my entire body and soul were screaming out in frustration at being so restricted and limited. I felt as though my hands were tied behind my back as I was forced to watch some of my students fall farther and farther behind.



So instead of accepting defeat and failure, I searched for ways to stay true to the program while making sure my students were learning and mastering the strategies and skills. In reality, I was looking for loopholes.

The first problem seemed to be the amount of noise I created by talking, talking, and talking. Therefore, I first had to make sure my students were having meaningful opportunities to respond through gestures, oral responses, or writing (Cuticelli, Collier-Meek, & Coyne, 2016).

Next, I revisited the Kagan Structures website for ideas and then looked for ways to pare down my instruction during concept development and provide more opportunities to respond. Since the concept development section usually consists of the teacher talking at the student for 20-30 minutes followed by releasing them to independently tackle the problem set, I knew this was where I needed to change things up.



Building on what Eureka presented, I used the gradual release of responsibility approach (I do, We do, You Do). I stood at the Smartboard (I did away with each student having a whiteboard during this part because it was becoming a distraction for my struggling students) and spent about 3-4 minutes where I did a problem alone through a think aloud/model. Then I used a similar problem and we did one together for 3-4 minutes (I am still the only one writing at the Smartboard) while I questioned what we were doing and why. Next in 3-4 minutes, I showed another similar problem and this time, I drew or wrote what the class told me to do, prompting them with questions when needed.

Yes it is fast. However, I talk a lot less and my students talk a great deal more. This is where the collaborative structures from Kagan grew in importance. During the I Do part, students watch and hopefully, absorb. But during the We Do and You Do sections, I find that time-wise, it’s easiest and most effective to use Think, Pair, Share or RallyCoach while solving these problems and explain their thinking with each other. This opportunity to respond individually but safely means that students are explaining what they are doing and why they are doing it before they attempt it on their own ( www.kaganonline.com ). This led to the next big breakthrough.

Collaborative teams. No, not just assigning students to go work with each other, but actual, teams. (at the bottom of this article you can download a sample plan to set up your teams)



I had heard and read about teams and creating them but I admit, I had not utilized them. So I read Making Cooperative Learning Powerful (Slavin, 2014) and painstakingly created four teams that will remain together for the entire year. For the first week, teams worked on team building activities, including creating a team name and designing a poster to represent themselves. These teams have been one of the most powerful changes I have made to my instruction this year.

Once we have done the I Do, We Do, You Do in roughly 10-12 minutes, students are released into their teams to complete the problem set. My students actually cheer as soon as I say they will work with their teams. It’s beautiful!

The challenge (I call them challenges instead of work or assignments) is to work together and complete the assigned problems. They sit where they want and do the problems in whatever order they want. No team can show it to me until every student has theirs complete. All students are trained to help their teammates by verbally explaining that steps they took to solve their problem. It is astounding to me to hear 6-7 years olds having conversations like this:

Student 1: “This is a subtraction problem so we have to start with the whole and take away parts. I drew twelve circles because the total was twelve. It also says that Jane had twelve apples. You draw twelve circles to represent the apples.”

Student 2: “Like this? Now what?”

Student 1: “It says that Jane gave four of her apples away. How can you show that?”

Student 2: “Oh, I need to cross them out! That means she had eight apples left. I did it!”

Yes, that really happened. And it happens every day. And, yes, my students are 6 and 7 years old. And now, when they turn in their problem set and do their independent exit ticket, they are showing mastery of the strategies and skills.

The best part? While students are working in teams, it leaves me free to move through the room, checking in with each group, working one on one with struggling students, and righting misconceptions. It also means that every student is getting the concepts and no one is being left behind. And most exciting, my students LOVE working together. Most days they do extra problems… for fun!

What I learned from this experience? No matter what program and no matter what restrictions are put in place by administration or consultants, there is a way to make sure every child learns if we look at the problem as one that can be solved.

Now I talk less and allow my students work in collaborative teams. It saved my math lessons and the math life of my students.

References

Cuticelli, M., Collier-Meek, M., & Coyne, M. (2016). Increasing the quality of tier 1 reading instruction: Using performance feedback to increase opportunities to respond during implementation of a core reading program. Psychology in the Schools, 53(1), 89-105.

“Kagan Structures: A Miracle of Active Engagement.” Kagan Publishing & Professional Development – KaganOnline.com, https://www.kaganonline.com/.

Slavin, R. E. (2014). Making Cooperative Learning Powerful. Educational Leadership,72(2), 22-26. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct14/vol72/num0…

Below is a document of daily activities to help set up teams in your classroom: