Teaching Cause and Effect

Our reading comprehension skill this week was recognizing cause and effect in stories.  Once again, it was Pintrest to the rescue when I went to make my anchor chart!  I got my cause and effect inspiration here.  I really wanted to change it up a bit, however.  Notice the "effect and cause" on the bottom half:

I don't know why we English-speakers do that more often than not!  But I think a lot of kids get confused about cause and effect relationships for that very reason. 

Adding Dialogue to Personal Narratives

One of the kids favorite personal narrative lessons (and therefore, one of my favorites, too, haha) is adding dialog.  This skill used to be difficult for a lot of kids.  It's hard know where to put quotation marks.

That is, it was until I started teaching dialogue using comics!

I give the kids a template with the boxes, and I model the kind of drawing I expect (no coloring in yet, stick figures, just faces are okay).  I also require that every panel must have at least one character talking.

Once the comic is complete and the kids have had some time to share them with each other and enjoy them, that's when they're ready to learn the mechanics.

And it's really very simple.  Instead of the bubble drawn around the character's words, the start and end of their speech just goes instead quotation marks.  There's no "He said" in a comic, and there's no "My mom told me" in a comic.  Kids seem to understand speech bubbles a lot more naturally than quotation marks, so the transfer process is easy once they have the visual. 

This is one of the lessons I have included in my personal narratives unit, but if you'd like to try a FREE revising dialogue homework page, it's a great little preview to what I'll be discussing next week.  I will be teaching about shades of meaning as well as choosing more precise language for the word "said." 

   

P.S., I'm linking up with Jivey for more Writer's Workshop mini-lessons.  Check it out here:

How to Teach Mood: Writing Personal Narratives

Some of you already know that narrative writing is HUGE in fourth grade so it's a good thing it's my favorite writing unit.  Well, it just got even better because I found a great sensory details anchor chart on Pinterest!  Our school accidentally over-ordered huge poster paper, so I've been making the most of it this year.  This one outlined another writing lesson on creating mood in a personal narrative.

Exemplars for Sensory Details

The mood anchor chart on ChartChums has a pig, which I changed to a child, but otherwise it worked for my needs.  I hung the poster as a visual, and played, well, basically charades with my class.  I wrote 5 different emotions on cards from my narratives writing unit.  Then I pulled names "out of a hat."  They got to come up and choose a card with an emotion written on it.  By giving them the detail and allowing them to practice it in a context, they can learn from all the examples they see.

Once everyone had a card, I had one student at a time come up with volunteers from their group to act out their emotion.  We already practiced dialogue as well as shades of meaning with words that indicate speaking.  So I gave them each a simple phrase to say for "voice" and cued one person at a time to say it.  I also sometimes "paused" the kids and cued the rest of the class to look at just facial expression since body language involves movement, like we practiced last time that can distract from the nuances on their faces.

The kids really got into it, and by the end of the activity, kids had many examples of sensory details in mind.  Of course not every detail fits everyone's story, but hopefully they had one or two that were applicable to their stories.  When you do this activity make sure you plan for time for them to revise their writing soon after (immediately after, if possible). 

Teaching Estimates: The Calculator or the Estimator?

My students seemed to forget how to estimate over the summer.  Their morale was really low while taking, and also after receiving their corrected estimation pretests.  I reassured them that the pretest scores won't go on the report card, but they should learn, as I did, that they have a lot to learn so we're going to have to work very hard during this unit. 

Then, to get them invested, I wrote 4 scenarios on the board when estimating would be helpful:

1.  Find out how much money I would get per month if I was making a 6 figure salary.

2.  How much would it cost to buy all my friends, the teachers in the school, a cup of coffee tomorrow morning?

3. If I had 6 figures in the bank and wanted to buy a house and a car, (not on credit) could I afford it?

The kids made up the numbers for each scenario.  Then I challenged them to find the answers faster than me.  The hook: the student competing against me (name pulled at random) got to use a calculator, but I got to estimate. 

Well, we were interrupted due to class photos, so before the competition took place I told them, "When we get back, we'll see who's faster:  The calculator...or The Estimator!"

They were still calling me The Estimator for 2 hours after math!

(And yes, I won, haha).

I tried a new procedure for teaching rounding this year, since it was clear from their pretest that teaching them the old "High 5" trick didn't work last year.  Not only did many kids think "rounding down" meant that that the number in the place they are rounding to goes down by one, but many kids forgot to change any numbers to zero.  I was shocked.  They remembered, "My teacher told us five or higher means to round up," but they did not remember how to apply that knowledge mathematically.

I found a different method on Pinterest that uses the idea of number lines, but in a different, slightly less visual/writing sort of way.  I like it because for some kids, drawing a whole number line is so much work that they forget what they're doing by the time they've drawn it.  And this way really reinforces what it means when you say, "Round down."  I think it will alleviate the issue of some kids thinking 523 rounds to 510 because they think the digit they are rounding to goes down!  Not to mention those kids who forget that a rounded number ends in zero.  My updated version of the rounding anchor chart I found looks like this.

The new chart worked really well!  Of course not every student liked the switch, but it was so worth it for those learners who were not remembering the old way.  Overall my class did much better on the post test, and all the kids remembered the basics during their MCAS review:

• They remembered the numbers need to end in zero.  
• They remembered that "round down" means the number will be smaller but the number you're rounding to does not get smaller.  
• The only thing that a couple kids forgot was the difference between, say, rounding 13,350 to the nearest hundred vs rounding it to the nearest thousand.  

So once they got it, we practiced, practiced, practiced.  I created this estimating dice game, which is now available for you too!

Words Wall for Revising

My Tier 2 Vocabulary board is growing!  Last year I used chart paper and tombstones for those overused "dead" words.  We did a fun activity that got kids up, moving and talking about the shades of meaning for synonyms and antonyms for "good" and "bad."  Then this year I got a great idea on Pinterest to have envelopes for my "dead words."  The boring word is crossed out on the front, and the list of words we create is pinned below.  After a week or so, the words below are removed and placed in the envelope.

Much of the list is student generated, because I wanted to get some of those words in their receptive vocabulary into their productive vocabulary.  But of course, for those kids in my class who already have an impressive vocabulary, I added about 25% new words to the lists.  It was a fun addition to my collection of lessons on improving word choice.

As kids are revising their narratives, they can go up to the board to take better words from the appropriate envelope, then replace them once they've spelling them correctly.  The kids helped come up with the words, and the kids get up to it to revisit "their" words.  It's a truly interactive bulletin board!

The board is pretty cluttered at the moment because we tackled a biggie: "said."  You can see up to 6 distinct sections of words because we classified them into loud, soft, ask, tell, emotional, and "other."  As the year goes on, I look forward to more and more envelopes filling the space!

The lettering for the title, "Words We Change When We Revise" is just a fun, bold font.  I cut up the letters to make them stand out more than if I had just cut the words.  It took a little more time, but I figure if it's a bulletin I keep updating all year it's worth it to make it eye-catching.  And it really is one that can be built on all year.  The current list of green envelopes are more for narrative writing.  Once we start transition words for non-fiction writing, I think I'll switch to a new colored envelope, and another new color for persuasive terminology. 

This was a logical extension to my lesson on adding dialogue to personal narratives.  Next time I'll talk about crafting power sentences and creating mood in our narrative writing.  These lessons will help kids understand the concepts for the reading portion of the state tests on a deeper level because they are using the techniques to strengthen their own stories and become better communicators. 

Edit for Dead Words: Lesson 1

On Friday, we did another Vocabulary Spectrum activity.  I started out by telling my fourth graders that I read the stories in their writer's notebooks, and although they all had different, interesting experiences, most of them described them the same way: they were "good."

So I told the kids to be more clear, we have got to get rid of "good," and for that matter, let's get rid of "good's" opposite, "bad."

For each group (of 4 kids) I picked one person to write "good" words, and another to write "bad" words.  I set 3 minutes on my timer (Kitchen Timer, an Android app for my phone, which crows like a rooster as an alarm).  The kids in each group told the note taker their ideas for "good" words.  When the time was up, they got another 3 minutes to come up with words for "bad." 

At that point, the kids with more limited vocabularies were able to hear words they are not as used to using, so no one was going to be put on the spot if I called on them.  So I "pulled sticks," (like pulling names out of a hat, but instead I use the sticks from the lunch count that they put into cups) and asked every kid to give me a word.  I wrote each word on a (large, 3 by 5) Post It note, had them hold them, and go to the front of the room.  Then I asked the kids to line up according to degree.  "The MOST good on this side, and the MOST bad on that side."

There was some disagreement about where to stand, but as long as it bred discussion and reasoning, not personal attacks, I encouraged the kids to explain their reasoning to each other (and rock, paper scissor as a last resort).  Once most of the kids had decided where to stand, I asked them to read their word with emotion going down the line.

To reinforce the activity, the next day's Morning Work was to choose from the words they worked with and switch for "good" and "bad" within their stories.  It was a quick, simple revision activity that even the most reticent/wants-to-be-done-the-first-time kid can handle!

This activity is part of my Word Choice Activities product.  Next week I'll show you more about revising for word choice by tying our lesson on dialogue to choosing more specific words for "said."  Thinking about precise language will be a stepping stone for later on when we craft power sentences and create mood in our stories.  Some of these activities involve moving around, others involve art, some involve acting.  By switching it up, I consider the learning preferences of all my students because my ultimate goal is to help my students improve their communication skills.

Teachers Who Buy Their Lesson Plans on TPT are Lazy and Criminal

This seems to be the charge.  Teachers are expected to write their own lesson plans and teach their students, everyone knows that.  Oh, and if your teacher catches you buying a report off the internet, you get severely punished for cheating, so it's hypocritical and criminal for teachers to buy lessons on the internet.  Right? 

You decide.  Here are 3 scenarios involving teachers and their lesson plans:

1.  The First Year Teacher

Miss Jones was so excited to get her first teaching job.  She created a fantastic unit for her student teaching practicum, working all month on getting it just right, and when she taught it her cooperating teacher and professor could see she had what it takes to be a creative, compassionate teacher. 

Now it's October.  Instead of getting a month to perfect a unit, and getting feedback at every turn, she is pretty much on her own.  Sure the other teachers are friendly and supportive, but she knows that ultimately, it's her name on the door.  She's planned out her Math, Reading, and Writing very carefully and has lots of creative ideas for math games and writing topics that are engaging to her class.  But since it's not on the state exams, there's not many resources at her school for science.  She knows she's supposed to teach about the life cycle of a butterfly, but the textbook only has one page on the subject.  Since she's just starting out she really can't afford to go buy a "grow your own butterflies" kit from a school supply store.  Should she:

1.  Muddle through with a lecture that bores the kids and leads to misbehavior, setting a lousy tone for the rest of the afternoon?

2.  Download a butterfly activity set for less than $3?

2.  The Veteran Teacher

Mr. Brown has been teaching for 10 years.  He's been lucky enough to stay at the same grade level for the past 4 years, and is feeling comfortable with the developmental level of his fourth graders, as well as the curriculum.  He taught his tried and true lesson on long division, which has always been very engaging for his students in the past.

Except no one told this year's group of kids that.

When he looked over the quizzes on Friday, he found that these kids did not understand that the quotient in division is always going to be SMALLER than the dividend.  Their answers were so far off the mark that it was clear they didn't understand the concept of dividing, never mind the procedure.  Does he:

1.  Move on, because it was just this group of kids that can't get the concept.

2.  Purchase a long division matching game that shows kids visually how to divide items into equal sized groups, with some remaining?

3.  The Not Quite Ready to Retire Teacher:

Mrs. Smith has dedicated the last 30 years to educating the children of your city.   She's been teaching second grade for 20 years, and absolutely loves her students as much as her grandchildren.  The other teachers in the building call her "Mom."  She KNOWS how to teach her students how to read, write, and compute, and she knows how to teach children how to care about doing the right thing.

Last year in math, Chapter 8 was all about telling time.  Mrs. Smith loves this chapter, and the dance she teaches the children for identifying half hours, quarter hours, and "o'clock."  But this year, the state has adopted the new Common Core Curriculum standards.  They assume that children learned all that last year, in first grade.  Of course, since they were just adopted this year, this current group of kids didn't.  She went to the fourth grade teacher in the building for materials on teaching elapsed time, and although she was happy to help her "Mom," the materials were just not "young" enough for second grade.  Although they were great for fourth grade, the font was too small, there weren't clear, big enough boxes to write answers into, and the page had so many problems on it that it would overwhelm a small child.  Should she:

1.  Give it to them anyway?

2.  Purchase more age appropriate elapsed time worksheets?

If your son or daughter had the above 3 teachers, would you prefer they selected the first option?  Or the second?  Because it doesn't matter how new or how seasoned their teachers are.  Even the best teacher, who has created hundreds of lessons, games, mnemonic devices, topics of study, and posters for their class is going to encounter a new challenge this year (or month or week).  When it happens, would you prefer that they use what they have with the attitude of "let's just get this over with?"  Or would you rather see them take the time to research another way to teach, or a more engaging activity to use with the kids?