Spooky Strategy Story Problems

We have been studying these strategies for solving word problems:

They have been working on problems like these:

Today's assignment:

First drafting:

Then creating!

This was a solid study follow-up and assessment disguised as a relaxing Halloween related activity.  Mwah-haha. 

Paper Blog Preview

To launch our digital portfolio blogs we are starting with paper blog posts, an idea I borrowed from http://www.notesfrommcteach.com/2010/09/learning-to-blog-using-paper.html?m=1.  

The overarching goal of our blogs is to create a digital portfolio where students will document, curate, and reflect on their work.  Paper blogs allow us to practice the roles of blog writers, readers, and commenters offline before we go online.  

The paper blog assignment was for students to share 3 goals they have for 4th grade.  I am shocked by how vulnerable they allowed themselves to be.  We talked all about audience and who we were writing for.  Instead of inhibiting their thoughts, I see many of them reaching out to their classmates, parents, and teachers to tell us how they really feel.  It was really touching what they wanted to share with us and that they felt our classroom was a safe space.  If we can keep it that way, I sense there are many great empathetic moments ahead.  

Next I wrote a comment back to each of my writing advisees. My coteacher did the same.  Then they responded back to our comments. Next week students will read each other's blogs and offer a comment to each one they read, using the post-its. 

I am excited to apply the ladder of feedback to teaching blog commenting.  The four rungs of clarifying, valuing, offering concerns, and offering suggestions seem to capture the range of meaningful responses one can have after reading a blog post. 

I feel these lessons are especially important given how many tacky and down right offensive comments appear online. I want our kids to grow up owning their online self as a reflection of their real life self. I want them to be respectful digital citizens who can participate in intelligent dialogue over the internet. This is feeling like a good first step. 

I Gotta Stick in My Craw...

so I just wrote this:

The Social Studies working group recommends a school-wide transition from the terms “Western” and “Non-Western” to the terms “United States” and “Global”.  In our own discipline, this would mean cessation of language referring to “Western” and “Non-Western” history/social studies and the incorporation of “Unites States” and “Global” history/social studies in course descriptions and other curriculum materials.  At the very least we recommend a critical cross-divisional discussion to examine the problematic nature of these terms and their place in our institution.  

The terms “Western” and “Non-Western” have come under our scrutiny because they are:

• antiquated

• euphemisms for “white” and “non-white”
• unrepresentative of the dichotomies presented in actual curriculum; “US” and “global” are more accurate
• an impediment to goals for diversity and inclusiveness as they create an undesirable Eurocentric concept of “the other”
• geographically incorrect i.e. placement of Latin American works/topics within the dichotomy

The committee understands that these terms are widely used in academia. However, as a cultivator of tomorrow’s thinkers Sidwell Friends School has an obligation to ensure our program is semantically representative of what we hope our students will contribute in the future.  We hope in the field of social studies and history our students will be thinking beyond “Western” and “Non-Western”, and as such, should name our programs accordingly.  

We'll see what happens.

Ladder of Feedback Part Deux

So here is my write-up of what happened with the ladder of feedback homework:

4th grade students are writing geography stories: personal narratives about a specific moment in a special geographical location or a description of the location's special qualities.

Many students have finished a first draft and revised it themselves for a checklist we created. Some students have showed their work to peers informally, but today we used the ladder of feedback to step up towards providing each other with a deeper level of feedback during the revising process.  This is a skill we practice over and over again with many different types of writing and different partners.  Students are still getting to know and trust one another as a writing community, and a formal feedback structure at this point can be helpful.

Students with complete first drafts met in pairs after hearing briefly about the 4 stages: clarify, value, concerns, suggestions. I was interested in how this age group would interpret these words.  They were familiar with the types of comments that might go in each category.

Students then reported back on the feedback they gave and received.  In these early days students said they find it hard to critique each other's work.  Many are afraid of offending one another and found the "concerns" section the hardest to offer.  However they felt the ladder overall made giving feedback easier.   Their conversations felt more directed (knowing what to say) and less awkward.  One student said he would not have thought to say what he liked, which helped him formulate ideas about and communicate what he did not like.

This framework worked well in our initial steps to organize critical peer conversations. We can continue modeling the types of conversations that might take place at each rung, deepening student understanding of how they look at and respond to each other's work and how they can offer meaningful advice for revising and editing.

Here is what I would do differently with more thought and better preparation:

• Create a ladder of feedback visual 
• Possibly change the language of the categories (clarify, value, concerns, suggestions worked)
• Put the categories into the form of questions
• Actually have them write down their feedback.  (The sharing could actually be done simultaneously if the stories and handwriting are in better shape. At this point it still made sense for them to read it aloud to each other since that is how they are catching their own mistakes and revisions)
• Model a conversation (I definitely should have done this - it was a clear missing piece)

I actually think the ladder of feedback is a good tool and I would like to incorporate it more formally.  It reminds me of the compliment sandwich, but feels like a step up.  I am always game for a step up.

P.S. I just had a brainflash.  We are creating paper blogs and will begin the process of learning how to become good blog readers and commenters.  I have been wondering how to discuss the different types of comments a blog reader can make and now realize that the Ladder of Feedback is perfect for structuring the way they read and respond to each other on their blogs!  Yay! 

Homework - Argh!

I am taking an online class called Teaching For Understanding 1: Focus on Student Understanding offered by Harvard Graduate School of Education through their WIDE program (still wondering what WIDE stands for; can't find it):

WIDE courses are developed using the Teaching for Understanding (TfU) Framework. The TfU Framework was developed by researchers and educators at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1989-1996) as a tool to design, revise, and review curriculum and instruction that helps students develop understanding. 

The content is really interesting, but the format is driving me nuts.  Moreover, I don't really have time to process the information they are offering.  I am totally winging it.

Luckily I am on a team and we are saving each other.  But I have homework.  Due tomorrow.

Assignment: Apply the Ladder of Feedback in a NEW way. You have already used the Ladder of Feedback to provide feedback to each other here online. Now, we want you to use the Ladder of Feedback right in your own classroom or work setting or with a colleague. Teach the rungs of the ladder to your students--young children may only use the clarify and value rungs 

1. Select an important assignment your students will do, one for which you or you and learners can develop a list of criteria. The criteria should describe "high quality" work on that assignment. 
2. Teach the Ladder of Feedback to your students.  Help your students or colleague to see the Ladder of Feedback as a tool for offering support and constructive, supportive feedback to others so that the feedback can be used to improve a major assignment or work project. 
3. Ask your students to work in pairs (using the Ladder of Feedback and the criteria you developed for "high quality" work to help improve the assignment/work project before it is to be formally assessed by the teacher or a supervisor.

Need a visual of the ladder?

So...

This must be how my students feel some of the time.  When their parents' describe evenings where they did whatever they could to "just get it done". 

I forgive them as I am going to forgive myself.

Luckily our students are in the middle of writing geography stories.  And some of them are "done".  But I love telling them they are never really "done" because even our good writing can get better.   This ladder of feedback will be a nice step back, another opportunity to review their work with peers as we more thoughtfully set up a classroom culture that is safe for critical peer feedback.  

My question is should I do this exercise with a small of focus group of students who are in pretty good shape or subject students who really need more time to just write to all of my shenanigans?  Because lets be honest.  I just learned about this ladder of feedback and I am just using it to complete my homework. 

I should probably leave those kids out of it for now.  I can always share this model with them when they have more of their story written.  I only need a few kids to produce a write-up.  This course is trying to prove to us that this format works, and I will go ahead and just believe them.  

Phew okay.  I have a plan.  Thanks. Reflection on how it went and whether or not I finished my homework on time to come.  

Cooling It Down

My students would like me to:

For eight weeks we have been having a grand time exploring ancient civilizations, E.B. White, Geography, paragraph writing, sensory details, Chinese language and characters, factors, multiples, variables, and equations.  Specials classes in science, Spanish, art, PE, music, and chorus have been incredibly exciting and wonderful. We just had conferences and many parents talked about how their students are feeling engaged, challenged and resilient.

Which is exactly where we want them.   

But now that they are there, we need to slow down a bit.  

There are a few signs indicating this.  The first is an unfinished project that several children need more time on to finish.  Many children were finished two weeks ago, but a few want to do their most careful and thoughtful work, and we have not had time for them to be as deliberate as they would like.  School should have time for careful work.  

Another sign is a geography writing project that now needs a consistent amount of time allowing for individual conferences and writing instruction.   The part where we teach them all together is ending and the most important part, where students receive assistance and feedback designed just for them, is beginning.  School should have time for differentiation and individual instruction and feedback.  

School should have time and sometimes it feel like there just isn't time.  But we teachers sometimes make the beds we lie in.  When the signs start appearing, it is time to pull back, stop planning for the "next" thing, and support the thing that is happening right now.  It's too easy to get caught up in all that is to come, all that we have to do before the end of the year or the start of the break or the date of the test.  The children would like to live in the moment a little to enjoy and remember their work.  It will be nice for us to do that too.  

Throwback Thursday: iBlog about iPads

Here are a few posts I wrote for our school iPad Blog at sfsipads.blogspot.com.  It's kind of fun to see them collected here.  There are both more and less than I thought.  Our school blog is an amazing professional development opportunity that has allowed me to become more reflective, more responsive, and more creative in my practice.  It also led me to start this blog.  It's kind of like the Bible: AND BLOG BEGAT BLOG BEGAT BLOG BEGAT BLOG.

The iPrep for iPads series about starting a new year of our 1:1 program focusing on:

• Professional Development - http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2013/09/iprep-for-ipads-mobile-learning.html
• Planning - http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2013/09/iprep-for-ipads-game-plan-and-blogging.html
• Apps - http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2013/09/iprep-for-ipads-apps-to-invite-back.html

On digital balance in the classroom:

• http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2013/05/striking-right-balance.html

On math problem solving projects like screencasts:

• http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-few-problems-many-solutions.html

On creation as an educational priority:

• http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2013/02/learning-is-creation.html

On Goal setting:

• http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2012/11/goal-settingand-thanks.html

On Geography and using Google Earth:

• http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2012/11/flying-to-china.html

And my first public blog post on launching a 1:1 iPad program:

• http://sfsipads.blogspot.com/2012/11/ipad-what-have-you-done-for-me-lately.html