New Strategies
The responsive classroom model of morning meeting has been life-changing! I may not be able to do all 4 pieces in one block of time, but I am able to get them all in early in the morning and the students are LOVING it! I am going to try rotating between a morning message letter and our song/ poem of the week as both are important I believe and can achieve the goals I have in mind. The Morning Meeting book is a must-have for every teacher!! There are SO many great resources out there to keep it evolving as the school year goes on too!
While my mind was focusing on the meaning of a responsive classroom, I decided to invent an end of day wrap up also. The student of the week posts on facebook or twitter, gives us our social contract rating and evaluates the secret student. Then I start an end of day cadence and we make a big circle. At the end of the cadence I have 2-3 students use this thinking stem. . . "I'm glad I came to school today because. . . "
We had the best week possible last week, my behavior problems were nearly 0. I'm going to contribute that to the students feeling more like they are a part of our classroom community.
The responsive classroom model of morning meeting has been life-changing! I may not be able to do all 4 pieces in one block of time, but I am able to get them all in early in the morning and the students are LOVING it! I am going to try rotating between a morning message letter and our song/ poem of the week as both are important I believe and can achieve the goals I have in mind. The Morning Meeting book is a must-have for every teacher!! There are SO many great resources out there to keep it evolving as the school year goes on too!
While my mind was focusing on the meaning of a responsive classroom, I decided to invent an end of day wrap up also. The student of the week posts on facebook or twitter, gives us our social contract rating and evaluates the secret student. Then I start an end of day cadence and we make a big circle. At the end of the cadence I have 2-3 students use this thinking stem. . . "I'm glad I came to school today because. . . "
We had the best week possible last week, my behavior problems were nearly 0. I'm going to contribute that to the students feeling more like they are a part of our classroom community.
I also tried putting a writing and creative art project on the literacy menu as a task to do on the students' own and in their own time. I modeled how to create and the writing topic on Monday and then left my model up on the board all week. It was due on Friday before Fabulous Friday. This strategy informed me SO much about my students' ability to follow directions, be responsible, and problem solve. I will definitely continue using this format in weeks to come! This week I will do one about MLK Jr. and I'm also going to try having the students' listen to books about him on Bookflix as a Literacy Menu task, before they do the project. I want to make sure I bring out what to do if you have forgotten what to do or how to do it, how to ask others for help and look back at the model.
Another idea I had was to do this kind of format for writing, specifically for the Opinion Writing we are learning to write currently. Do a whole group mini-lesson using Shared Writing, practice in Guided Reading/ Writing groups near the beginning of the week, and then expect students to complete it on their own during the rest of the week and turn one into be assessed. This week I'm going to add; have an introduction along with the other pieces of opinion writing that we've been working on.
I also want to create WITH the students, an editing checklist, that students could use, about the size of a bookmark and laminate them. Even when I quick whipped one up for guided writing time, each group did really well using it and checking for errors.
Another idea I had was to do this kind of format for writing, specifically for the Opinion Writing we are learning to write currently. Do a whole group mini-lesson using Shared Writing, practice in Guided Reading/ Writing groups near the beginning of the week, and then expect students to complete it on their own during the rest of the week and turn one into be assessed. This week I'm going to add; have an introduction along with the other pieces of opinion writing that we've been working on.
I also want to create WITH the students, an editing checklist, that students could use, about the size of a bookmark and laminate them. Even when I quick whipped one up for guided writing time, each group did really well using it and checking for errors.