Trying Something New: "Hot Seat"

One of the great things about teaching at Chet's Creek is that we are always involved in a book study. Right now we are reading Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom by Pauline Gibbons with Reading Coach Melanie Holtsman. It is an especially timely book as our second language population continues to rise each year.  Melanie always tries to tie the words we are reading directly back to something that we can do the next day in our classroom, so that the learning sticks!

This week we read Chapter 3, "Collaborative Group Work and Second Language Learning."  This chapter talks about the philosophy behind collaborative work and why it works so well with our EL students and then gives some suggestions for group and paired activities across the curriculum.   Melanie always tries to have us practice something as if we are students so that we can better understand how the students feel, so... we practiced  "Hot seat" where a student pretends to be a character from a shared book  and answers question from the class as if he were that character.  Melanie always asks us to try out one of the strategies that we are taught so we can share for the next time (is she a great teacher, or what?)  So... as we left, my co-teacher and I talked about how we could use "Hot Seat" as a strategy in the author study of Kevin Henkes that we are deep into right now.  We really want to eventually do some close reading using the lens of looking at one of the characters, Lilly, because she appears in several of the Kevin Henkes' books, but we knew her character was "too big" to begin this activity.   So my co-teacher volunteered to do the first round and pretend that she was the character Wembery from Kevin Henkes' Wemberly Worried. Wemberly worries about everything so she was an excellent first choice for us to pick.  I explained the game to the children and then reread the book, telling the students that they should look for parts in the text that led them to questions for Wemberly.  This book is FULL of the things Wemberly worried about so the questions came so easily.  Enjoy the video snippet of Tracy playing the part of Wemberly as the students ask her questions, using the text!

After about five minutes one of the students came up and whispered in my ear that he thought he could be Wemberly, so "going with the flow" (as Grandma suggests in the book) we had him take the "hot seat."  He did a remarkable job!  The students were so engaged.  Our ELL students DID ask questions!  Tomorrow we will try Sheila Rae, a strong Kevin Henkes character, and then next week, our ultimate goal, Lilly!

Working on the work

One of the best things about teaching at Chets Creek is the WOW days.  WOW stands for Working on the Work and four times a year, each grade level gets to spend an entire day just working together.  We don't do lesson plans because our amazing Resource Team takes the children for the entire day.  I'm not sure it's the Resource Team's favorite day - to have first graders for an entire day - but the kids really look forward to it and come back at the end of the day, raving about the experience.

As is the tradition, each day starts off with a demo teach.  A teacher volunteers to have all of her grade level watch her teach and then debrief the lesson.  The idea is to show something that colleagues can go right back the next day and teach in their own classrooms.  This week, my co-teacher, Tracy Ruark, who is the Science Lead for our grade level, got the call.  Science is not graded at first grade and in reality, there is no real accountability, except that you are suppose to teach it!  At our school, however, there is a real emphasis on Science at every grade level.  Tracy is part of a Science Council that meets regularly to look at Science horizontally.  They meet together to find additional Resources and labs, to read and study, and to work together to make Science through-the-grades more aligned.  So today, we got to see a lab and lesson in the larger unit of "The Earth's Surface."  Tracy is such a natural when it comes to Science,  Unlike so many of her primary colleagues, she has a love for Science and has background knowledge that enhances every discussion.  I feel so fortunate to teach with someone with such a gift.

Below are some of the pictures I snapped as our first grade colleagues talked with the students as they made aquifers with their partners during the lab portion of the lesson.  The students came back and discussed the results of the lab and then recorded in their Science notebooks.

 

 

After the lesson first grade teachers met together and debriefed the lesson.  Tracy made sure that each teacher had the background information and the supplies (bought out of her own pocket) to repeat the experience in their own classes.

After lunch we were treated to a debrief from our first grade Reading and Writing lead, Maria Mallon who had just returned from a Lucy Calkins' Workshop.  Our Principal funded teachers at every grade level to attend the one day seminar in Orlando, so that those teachers could come back and teach us the newest information hot off the press!  I guess we are just educational nerds, because we hung on her every word.  Besides just telling us, Maria had taken pages of meticulous notes and obviously had come home and enhanced her notes so that they would be understandable to each of us.  I know it wasn't like being right there, but it was the next best thing!

The day ended with Math lead Cheryl Dillard presenting a rekenreck training that had been designed by our own Assistant Principal Suzanne Shall and tweaked by Cheryl to meet our needs.  Although we have this Math tool in our classrooms, we don't use it as much as we should.  I, for one, shook off the dust, and had it out today using it while I was teaching a new Math game that we worked on yesterday at our WOW, "Close to 20."  Cheryl presented several Resources and new games that match exactly where our students are and what they need.  I couldn't wait to try them out today.  Cheryl made that especially easy because she had been to Office Max and had copies of the charts in larger sizes that we would need and had bought the wooden dice for us to make to play the game.  Therefore, I came in early to laminate my poster and the game was up and running this afternoon.

That's what I LOVE about this day.  It's a time to laugh and enjoy collegial conversation.  It's a time to ask questions.  But most of all, it's a time to learn. So much went into making our WOW day successful: Tracy being willing to find a new lab that met our standards on her own time and to buy supplies that would be needed for the entire grade level; our Principal funding Maria to spend a day with Lucy Calkins and then Maria coming home and spending countless hours on preparing notes that she could present to us;  Our Assistant Principal preparing a rekenrek training for principals in another state and teaching it to Cheryl so she could present the highlights to us and then Cheryl taking the best of Suzanne's work to craft it to meet our first grade needs and then going out and finding all the resources that we would need to come right back to our classes and be able to teach it the next day.  I know I have said it before, but I work with some incredible teachers!! 

Dave the Potter: Book-of-the-Month February 2015

Book of the Month is a long time Chets Creek tradition.  Each month the Principal introduces a new book to the faculty as part of our on-going professional development.  Each year the books are picked specifically with goals in mind.  Some years they have been about school culture.  Other years they have been about vocabulary strategies or good read aloud strategies.  This year the emphasis has been on deepening comprehension to ready our students for the rigor that is expected with the implementation of  the Common Core Standards.

Today we were treated to the new Book of the Month. The mood was set as we walked into a darkened Media Center with a center spotlight on a potter's wheel.

You could hear the steady hum of the wheel as Chet's artist Karen Willet shaped a pot while we watched in total fascination. Soon Principal Susan Phillips began to read with dignity and grace ...  We followed along as she read the beautifully illustrated Caldecott Honor book, Dave the Potter, the story of a prolific South Carolina slave whose talent and strength shown through the great pots that he created.

After the reading we were challenged to use a  close reading lens (illustration, word choice, history, what was not stated...)  with small groups to discuss and come up with the central message of the book. This inspiring story captures the human spirit, overcoming all obstacles and flourishing.  What a treat this professional development was!

Combining Old Learning with New

Today we start our new author study on Kevin Henkes books. Kevin Henkes is a favorite first grade author and one first grade teachers have studied for ten years. Today, however, the learning technique was new. Mrs. Ruark used "stop and jot" which is a new technique for first grade teachers and students to help them keep their minds active and engaged while they are listening to a read aloud. Now that's called "rigor."

Sleepover Standard-based Bulletin Board

During our first grade Sleepover we were in the middle of our opinion writing unit, so it was natural to use this shared event as a writing assignment.  What was your favorite part of Sleepover? So... the papers that resulted were a quick 1-2 day project with very little conferring.  It gave us a quick window into how the students were transferring the skills we were teaching.

We chose four pieces to display on our Spring bulletin board bordered by the Sleepover pajamas that the students had water colored.  We posted the first grade standard for opinion writing: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion and provide some sense of closure.

Below is Sophie's adorable opinion about the fun day!

(Check out all the speech bubbles!) 
Do the Disco!  Have you ever had a P.J. day at school?  Well, I have!  At my school first graders

get to dress in their P.J.'s.  We even get to do the Disco.  We call it Sleepover. 

My favorite part of Sleepover was when we danced in the Media Center and ate popcorn.  We watched a 

 movie and we saw a play.  The play was about a little boy that had a sleepover, but my favorite part is dancing.

My friend said to my other friend, "Put your hands up like you don't even care!"

We were tired after.  It was a lot of fun.  I give the Media Center 5 very good sleeping bags up. 

Sophia’s Commentary

Structure

Overall	Sophia meets the first grade standard for opinion writing.  She writes her opinion about the Media Center being her favorite part of Sleepover. She gives reasons (Reason 1: dancing, Reason 2: eating popcorn, Reason 3: watching a movie, and Reason 4: watching a play).
Lead	Sophia gives the reader a hint as to her topic in her opening sentence, Do the Disco!  She engages the reader as she asks the question, Have you ever had a PJ day at school? and then goes on to put Sleepover in the context of first grade at her school.
Transitions	Sophia uses and to connect two thoughts.
Ending	Sophia closes her piece by telling that she was tired after the Dance Party She rates the Media Center with her top prize of  five stars, or as in this case, five sleeping bags.  The sleeping bags tie in nicely with her last comment of being tired when the Dance Party is over.
Organization	Sophia certainly writes an introduction to grab the reader’s attention and she also has parts where she tells more, such as her dialog about her friend at the Dance Party.

Development

Elaboration

Sophia elaborates in her introduction as she talks about Sleepover including wearing PJs, the first graders at her school, and getting to disco.  She also elaborates about the play that she sees in the Media Center about a little boy that had a sleepover, and, of course, she includes her friend saying, “Put your hands up like you don’t even CARE!” when she describes dancing.  This element actually meets the second grade standard.

Craft

Sophia uses craft when she capitalizes and bolds the word DISCO.  She uses labels and speech bubbles in her illustrations to tie in with her text.  She also bolds the word CARE! And then puts the word fun inside the circle of the exclamation point.

Language Conventions

Spelling	Sophie’s writing is easy to read.  She spells many high frequency words automatically.  Words that she misspells are spelled phonetically, such as pejas for PJs, dres for dress, scooll for school.
Punctuation	Sophie is a fluent writer and uses periods at the end of pages automatically.  She adds capitals and periods in the middle of the page during the editing process to keep from having run on sentences.  She uses question marks appropriately and exclamation points to express excitement.

Sleepover, 2015

One of the things I love the most about our annual First Grade Sleepover is the way that family's get involved in the event.  This year our theme is "...lions and tiger and bears. Oh my!" to go with our Wizard of Oz school theme.  One of the things that families are asked to do with their child is to make a lion, tiger or bear - stuffed animal for Sleepover.  The directions are emphatic that you don't have to sew and that the idea is simply to have fun with your child.  The week before they are due, we make stuffed animals/pillows with the children that come from the large mobile home community.  These children are mostly second language students and so we incorporate making the animals/ pillows during the day that we tutor after school in their community.  Parents are invited in to help stuff and make the creations but we supply all the "stuff."   The picture on the right below with the big bear show the pillows that the students made together after school at the MARC. 

A parent in the classroom volunteered to make four extra pillows, just in case another student showed up without one, and of course, they did, but for the parents that are actually able to work with their children to make something special, this becomes  a wonderful shared experience.  The pillows and animals come in the week before the event to they can be displayed in the lobby on the evening of Parent's Night.

On Parent's Night students come with their family to make a keepsake pillowcase.  Each student sends in a pillowcase (and we ask that parents that are able, to please send in an extra), so that we make sure to have a pillowcase for every student that shows up.  We had over 100 children show up with their families to make pillowcases!   The first grade teachers have plenty of stamps set out with acrylic paint so each child can work with his family to make a pillowcase.  As they leave, the students are given a little bag of Teddy Grahams.

It's just such a nice tradition!  Teachers who now have grown children talk about still having the pillowcase that their child made in first grade.

The actual day of Sleepover began with a parade filled with first graders in pajamas, dark halls, flashlights and glow-in-the-dark bracelets.  The students ended in the Dinning Room watching and meeting the Wizard of OZ characters while they ate breakfast and the Principal (in her red sock puppet pajamas... with footies!) lead a dance party where first grade teachers danced on the stage and students danced to all the popular kid songs.  

Then it's off to Center about literature run by the Resource Team.  The music teacher reads a children book about a party under the moon that includes singing and dancing, of course.

Coach provides an active outside game that included a read aloud!

Art read the popular Paddington Bear that ended with a painting art project.

And Mrs, KK, our Media Specialist ended our day with a shadow puppet show of one of our favorite books, Ira Sleeps Over complete with popcorn and dancing with a disco ball!

What an amazing day!

Speed Dating at School!

I don't know if you've ever done speed dating, but it's not something this married lady of over forty years has ever considered!  However... as the Leadership Team at Chets Creek pondered a fun way to help teachers get to know each other better (we are almost a hundred teachers strong!), Principal Susan Phillips came up with a novel approach to the problem.  She suggested an activity that resembles "speed dating," with more seasoned teachers on one side and newbie teachers on the other.  She gave each side four questions to start the conversations and then rotated every five minutes!  Oh my! Such a joyful hum of conversation sprinkled with bursts of laughter.  Such a fun way to get to know some new staff members!

The Principal even let us ask her questions to close.  She was really honest with her answers so I'm pretty sure lots of teachers learned things they didn't know about her - but... I'll never tell!