Thursday 10/12/23

  

Reminders	CHARGE IPAD Move-a-thon fundraiser
Reading	-Read 20-30 minutes
Writing	-chipmunk introduction -long a word sort
Math	-X facts
Topics

Wednesday 10/12/23

  

Reminders	CHARGE IPAD Move-a-thon fundraiser
Reading	-Read 20-30 minutes -Unit 1 Week 2 assessment
Writing
Math	-X facts -p. 163-164 1, 2, 4, 5
Topics

Tuesday 10/10/23

  

Reminders	CHARGE IPAD Move-a-thon fundraiser Field trip permission slip Field trip tomorrow
Reading	-Read 20-30 minutes
Writing	Use planning guide to write paragraphs about appearance and behavior or chipmunks
Math	-X facts P. 157-158 1-5
Topics

Room 6 is ready!!! I can't wait to meet my new Super-stars!!!

Today we had a fun visit to the library! Here is a picture of the kids watching their mystery animal grow. Thanks to Mrs. Czaicki for a great lesson on fiction versus non-fiction.

Continued Use of the Clickers in the Art Room

Again, I have to say that the clickers are an awesome tool that has changed the way that I teach.  I have attached two short videos both are very low quality, the flip cameras were checked out today so I tried to shoot video with a digital camera.  Sorry but the images are very grainy, but the sound on the second one is nice.  Anyway the students in grade levels 1-5 enter the art room everyday and the first thing they get are the clickers.  On the clickers they find a few short questions to review the previous weeks work.  The first video is of the students working on the clickers, all of the grades are usually silent and very focused on answering the questions.  The second video is a quick class meeting to review the answers from the clickers.  The students showed mastery of the questions that day with no problem. I, on the other hand, am having a difficult time with video, and scrolling through the questions on my computer, and asking the questions all at the same time. 

Testing Strategy Share

We have been learning about ways to successfully take the MAP test.  We use Tungsten every month to practice these test taking strategies.  Before the Tungsten this month, I asked students to text in their favorite test taking strategy. It was a quick and easy way to review strategies.  While reading their responses, I was able to clarify any misunderstandings, and focus on the best strategies.  The students have grown bored with testing discussions, so using the clickers were a fun way to motivate their sharing.  My students LOVE using the clickers, even when talking about tests!

Clickers in P.E.

Our last lesson involving the clickers dealt with our "Food of the Week", which was potatoes. It was 5 questions and self-paced, primarily determining students' prior knowledge of the health benefits of potatoes. Students always must be in partnerships because of a lower number of clickers. They must agree on how to cooperate, whether it be passing the clicker back and forth for each question or just one person texting in answers, as long as both are reading the question and having a discussion about the answer they think is correct. Unfortunately, if they disagree then they have to come up with a compromising solution for which answer to select.

Assessment

For third quarter I used the clickers as part of our third quarter testing. I made self paced quizzes for the beginning sounds. I put pictures on the screen and the students had to type in the beginning sound for each of the pictures that was on the screen. We did one group of pictures each day so that they wouldn't be overwhelmed. I was surprised as to the difficulty of the task. I thought it would be easy since we had been using the clickers in math. However, it was not the easy transition I had envisioned. The students started yelling out, "What is that picture?" and we had to start over with new rules for testing. The second and third days have gone much smoother. It is so nice to have the information in a spreadsheet so I know exactly who needs to work on what letter sound. When I work in small groups with my students, I pull out the spreadsheet and work on letter sounds with games or flashcards.

We have been using the clickers the first 15 minutes of each day to do an informational scavenger hunt designed to sharpen the students' internet research skills. Each morning the students turn on their clickers to receive a 5-6 question self-paced quiz. The questions come from a variety of subject areas and are determined by current units of study. The students use their wireless laptops or their own devices to navigate the internet and search for the answers to the questions. Over the past three weeks they have become noticably faster and more accurate in their researching abilities. When we had Donuts with Dad Day, the students and their fathers participated in a trivia contest where the questions were delivered via the clickers and answers were allowed to be found via the internet. It gave the dads the opportunity to see and use some of our new technology. They experienced the frustration of wireless laptops not connecting or taking forever to load, just like their kids do. Many of them used their i phones and could also see the advantage of their learner having his/her own device to use at school.

We haven't really experienced many problems other than students being overly competitive and becoming frustrated by computer malfunctions. It is a great way to get them thinking and engaged in the morning while such mundane tasks as lunch count and attendance are taken.

Formative assessment

1. I have been conferencing more with students to discuss strengths and weaknesses with their content knowledge and their process of learning and sharing. The anonymous voting and sharing provides a chance for me to revisit topics or lead discussions without singling out students. I also like the kids give each other feedback. We had a debate and students voted on the winner, citing why they chose the winning team. This gave the debate teams feedback like which arguments were most effective or who cited key facts.

2. The clickers engage students. I used the self-paced questions which naturally differentiated as some students sought out more in-depth answers and other students generated answers more quickly. Challenge - some answers do not always show up on the results from using the clickers.

Formative Assessment

I use formative assessment almost every day in my classroom.  In the morning, as part of my first grader's morning work, I have "clicker questions" ready for them when they arrive.  Usually these questions cover the math skills we learned on the previous day or from the chapter we are currently working on.  When they are finished, I save and print the results and quickly scan them to see who needs more individual attention with those skills.  I then determine my small groups based on the clicker question results and work with those students during my math lesson later that day.  The success I've experienced is how this type of assessment lends itself to setting up my small groups during our math center time, and it gives me the opportunity to easily and quickly see which students "get it" and which ones do not.  The main challenge I've had is using the teacher created flip charts for formative assessment.  I don't find this as helpful as creating the self-paced assessments with the clickers.  I guess I need to force myself to use the flip charts more often. 



One of the formative assessments I use that helps me review for MAP is the Current Science Sci-Triv (like Jeopardy with Life Science, Earth Science, Health Science, Physical Science and Math for categories). Now that we have the clickers, all students can play at once and keep score. For Donuts with Dads, we had the dads help them with the questions! They loved it! Of course, I forgot to take pictures. Here is the link to a Sci-Triv game:
http://www.weeklyreader.com/SubscriberOnly/subscriberpages/digital-editions/cs_feb_022112/cs_feb/cs_feb.html

I also have my 4th graders making a flipchart about the different classes of worms. We are studying invertebrates and we could not find anything on Brainpop or Promethean Planet, so we decided to make one of our own and see if we could get it published.

Assessment

We have been reviewing heavily for the upcoming MAP test.  The picture above is of a review we were working on practicing main idea.  Using formative assessments has helped greatly to quickly spot which students are needing more help with a particular skill and they can either get the one-on-one help they need or work with a small group to solidify the skill in question. 

The major challenge with this is like always time.  It can be tough to find enough time to get through all of the material that they need to review.   The students have shown positive growth ising this form of assessment.