now-ish

I'd like to be more reflective. I have a lot of thoughts about my teaching and forgot that I could use this blog as an outlet and some online PD. Blogging started off so strong and I think I stopped mainly because I didn't have a shiny new product to put at the end of a post.  I thought I'd take the pressure off of myself and just do some blogging for the art of it.

Reading. Writing. Words. Math. My goodness. To attempt to be masterful in each of these areas is a LOT. The things on my mind when I'm thinking about planning in the four areas...
What is the best practice?
What does the research say?
What is the most effective method?
Is there an ideal scope and sequence?
Is it rigorous? (has anyone else come to loathe the word rigorous lately?)
What if my team has a different set of beliefs? Planning gets tough...
How many books could I possibly read on each of those subjects?
What are the best books to start with?
Will this instruction equip them to pass the test become lifelong learners?

The battle. TESTING vs what we know is best for them.

{sigh.}

Currently, I am teaching:

Reading: My first round of real book clubs using Kathy Collins' book, Reading For Real. We're doing baskets of books that are in a series. They also happen to be chapter books- this is the first time my whole class is going to be navigating through a chapter book. It has sort of revitalized my workshop. I allow snacks and we are all reading different chapter books while I am able to teach the same lessons and strategies for all readers. It's been fun so far!

Words: I am still trying to figure out when I want to do here (Yes, I am aware that is is March) but I've never been happy with it. I started out doing a very close version to the famous Beth Newingham blog post on word study. I quickly found that I couldn't manage it. She had a smaller class AND another teacher to help her. It's just me and 25 babies so I had to adjust.  Words are hard because I go back and forth fundamentally. I know spelling tests aren't the best but then part of me wants the accountability that you can send home to parents. So, imagine the frustration I feel after grading a test where all of the spelling list words are spelled correctly but not a SINGLE transfer word is. Back to square one...never should haven gone with tests. But- for now, I'm using them. I need to read more on that...

Writing: I'm excited about writing! I am a total Katie Wood Ray fan and believe in her method wholeheartedly. If you're not familiar, she just believes that you can give children a stack of texts that are like the ones you want them to write. You study them and notice what it takes to make that sort of writing. Then, you make them! So simple but the work gets SUPER complex. Right now, we are studying persuasion books, reviews, letters, speeches, etc... This is the first unit that I've been able to make a packet of texts and pass them out for my kids to highlight and mark up with notes. Then, we notice the things that they all tend to have in common and we make sure we add that in our writing. They are having so much fun with this.

Math: I think I have a math block that I can live with, finally. It has taken me all year to get here but I feel good about it. I was fortunate enough to have an expert from a local college observe and give me some excellent feedback on my math workshop.  There is still so much to consider! We had a conversation today about the math version of a running record and what you can do with the data. I'll get into that a little later, though. For now, I am going to work on giving children the same problem with multiple access points so that all levels of children are being reached. I think that will save me and the children a lot of frustration!

Ok. I feel better! Thanks for listening to me do a little reflecting and clarifying.

We Do Math in PEN!

Yup, sure do. No pencils allowed. You see, neglected blog readers, I've been on a little mathematical journey this year. The challenge? To get awesome at teaching math. We'll get back to the pens later.

I will admit that this is the first time in my entire career that I feel pretty good about teaching math. It's always been my weakest area of instruction and I'm over it.  I would teach whatever the lesson from the manual was for the day and watch my "high" performers sit and either goof-off or not pay attention and finish their work in 2 minutes OR watch my struggling learners sit there and try to copy someone else.

i know. shame.

I've been introduced to the way the Madison Metropolitan School District does math instruction and I'm in the process of implementing this in my room.

I like it because the math hour is divided into four parts. I can totally wrap my mind around things that start like that. They even give time allocations! I was in love. The four parts are:

*Number Work (15-20 mins)
*Inspecting Equations (5 mins)
*Fluency and Maintenance (15-20)
*Problem Solving. (15-20)

Today I'm thinking I'll share out on just number work...then the others later.

I've been reading up on each of these sections but the gist is that:

*Number work is attending numbers to WITHOUT a story context. This is where you do function machines, patterns, etc... as long as it focuses on number concepts. This is where you also teach things like multiple names for numbers, number relationships, place value, computation strategies, etc...
I've actually moved this section into my morning meeting so that I have time to focus on the other three in the actual math hour in the afternoon.

Number work looks a little like this in my class:
side note: this is just ONE number work activity from ONE day- the activities vary!! 
1. Teacher draws three cards from the deck and writes the numbers on the board. Teacher then asks the students to add these numbers in the most efficient way possible. (side note, I totally have a need for a math word wall this year! "Efficient" was the first word to be added!

2. Students offer up their strategies and the teacher helps them notate their mathematical thinking on the board.

3. We discuss the various strategies...which ones were the most efficient?

As you can see, Mrs. Tabb DID offer a strategy. This wouldn't normally happen but we were getting into our number work routines and they needed a nudge. 

Here are some scripts from this lesson: 

Pierre: "I know that 14 is 10 and 4 and 9 is almost 10. I can easily add 10 to 14 to get twenty four. But then I have to take one away since I added 1 to the 9. Then it's easy to just add two more." 

Safiyah: "Another name for 2 is 1 and 1. I can give one of the ones to the 9 to make a friendly number 10. then I can break down the 14 to 10 and 4 and I'll give the other one to the 4 to make a friendly 5. Then it's easy to add 10 and 10 and 5."
We DID have kiddos offer up the traditional algorithm too and that was great. I just don't want to teach that algorithm as the "be-all end-all" for adding numbers because there are tons of ways to add numbers. 

Another strategy that was offered was the beloved dot-drawing.  There are kiddos who always want to draw a picture- which is fine, but what happens when the numbers get too big? I, on purpose, select bigger numbers the next time and drawing a bunch of dots isn't so appealing! We learn to become efficient very quickly.

The hardest part is not giving them answers or affirming them. Everything else we teach is the polar opposite. We want to scaffold, direct, model our thinking- but I'm learning that in math, it's important for them to go through the process of mathematical thinking...and not always worry about the problem being RIGHT.

It's hard for the kids, too! 

It makes me chuckle because we all have this desire to know if our answer is right immediately but when we think about it, we take tests not only in school, but to get into college, and even some jobs ask you math questions before your hired...and you DON'T get to know if you were right! It's much more important to be able to think mathematically and to be able to explain your thoughts and the process for how you arrived at the answer...right or wrong. But we hope it's right!

So- this brings us back to the pen. I ask my kids to use pen during math because I want to see the tracks of their mathematical thinking. I am used to seeing homework turned in with tons or eraser marks and just a nice clean answer on the line, and I make a HUGE deal about not EVER erasing your notations! (The kids think they are awesome because they are making "notations," by the way. Soon they'll making CONJECTURES....now that'll be sure to please!)
SO anyway, during math, we come to guided math groups with our math notebook and a PEN. Because I want to see what's going on in those brilliant minds of theirs.

Hoping you had the happiest of Labor Days.