Endings and Beginnings

An end to another school year, this time of year always causes me to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what I want to be sure to find time for next year.  When I think back during this time of year, I realize that the list of things I wanted to accomplish is sometimes longer than the list of things I actually accomplished.  This is not a failure.  In fact, I see it as an opportunity.  It is an opportunity to pick up the torch again next year and get ready to accomplish all of those things left on my list and much more.  The thing about teaching is that every day is an opportunity to start fresh.  It is a fresh start for the students and it is a fresh start for us as well.  So, reflect on the accomplishments of this year, plan for next year, and get plenty of rest so you can come back renewed. 

I have enjoyed being a small part of your accomplishments this year and I also look forward to helping you start fresh next year!!  There’s no telling what we can achieve!!

To Do List for the Summer:

• Read many good books (and even some not so good ones).
• Sleep, sleep, sleep (too bad we can’t store it up for next year).
• Reconnect with yourself, your family, your friends, and with your dreams.
• Check your perspective; acquire a new one, make an adjustment to your old one, or just remember what the current one is.
• Work on adding to your list of accomplishments for next year.
• ??? What else is on your list?

Visual Note Taking

Make note taking more meaningful and interactive.  Have students work together to make sense of what they have read and what they discuss.  Visual note taking can take many forms, like the mind map shown below.  There is a great article on the blog The Cool Cat Teacher titled: "Note Taking Skills for 21st Century Students."  It has great ideas and several videos about visual note taking.  Let your students draw their way into deep comprehension and understanding of the content you want them to learn.

This is the link to the blog and search for the article listed above: The Cool Cat Teacher

You can also view the videos at my YouTube channel on the Note Taking playlist: ELA Instructional Coach YouTube Channel

Have Students Begin Their Year with a Goal in Mind: Make Their Goals SMART!

To help make this year great, have students set a specific goal they will continue to build on throughout the year.  Unless goal setting is intentional and students spend some time really thinking about what they want, it can become busy work.  I think that's the real key to student goal setting; students must have the opportunity and encouragement to really think about what they want out of the course, class, subject, etc.  This is the chance for them to put aside what others (teachers, parents, friends, coaches, etc.) want for them and really take some time to discern what it is that they ultimately want for themselves.

Setting SMART goals takes some time and must be well thought out, but is definitely worth the class time to get students thinking and planning for the rest of the year.  What makes a SMART goal?  It must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.  Edutopia presents a great way to teach this to students, allowing them to begin setting SMART goals with a character education slant.  This lesson will get them started setting SMART goals for their learning and will have a positive impact on classroom management.

Follow the link below to read the Edutopia article:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/smart-goal-setting-with-students-maurice-elias

Things to Look Forward to Next Year: Anchor Charts are Important at All Grade Levels

The importance of anchor charts is sometimes overlooked in our hurry to teach concepts to the mastery level.  Anchor charts help students process their thinking while helping ensure buy-in through collectively creating their own understanding. Anchor charts continue to aid in student understanding by being present through the learning process. Students are able to consult anchor charts while adjusting their thinking and processing, adding new information to the chart as they go. Anchor charts allow you to display a variety of necessary information, from specific concepts to classroom policies and procedures. The use of anchor charts by teachers and students alike provides depth and complexity to student knowledge, more than what is possible without them.

Some example and further explanation of anchor charts' value can be found in these two blog posts:

Middle School Teacher to Literacy Coach - 5th Through 8th Grade Anchor Charts http://middleschoolteachertoliteracycoach.blogspot.com/2013/04/take-little-walk-with-me.html#

New Perspective: which talks about anchor charts from an elementary perspective
http://middleschoolteachertoliteracycoach.blogspot.com/2014/06/new-perspective.html

These two blog posts have great ideas regarding anchor charts as well as pictures of well thought out examples of anchor charts from both an elementary and a middle school perspective.

Vickie

Add Variety to Your Students' Writing

According to Amiee Buckner in Nonfiction Notebooks, you can help student writers add some variety to their writing by using Topic Change-Up. When using this strategy, students will be able to add various writing formats to their collection of writing tools. Use this strategy after your students have decided on a topic. First, you choose five or six formats they are familiar with, such as a newspaper article, advice column, annotated top-ten list, picture book (either narrative or informational), poem, journal entry, etc.  This is like a quick write where students start writing and have to keep writing until the time is up. Start them out by giving them a format to use and have them begin writing. As they are writing, you give them a different format and they have to keep writing (not start over), but switch to the new format. This will give them a better idea of how they may want to eventually complete their writing.   You can even add different text structures to the strategy in addition to different formats. If you try this strategy, please let us know how it went and if there is anything you would change for the next time.

Thinking Like a Writer from the Six Trait Gurus Blog

Summer is being almost here!!!  I know I'm ready, but we also need to think about what we can do to keep kids interested in reading and writing during the summer months.  This article has some great ideas of ways to get kids to "sharpen their thinking skills by thinking like a writer."  Here is the link to the blog post.  They have other great articles about reading and writing, as well as some great book reviews.

http://sixtraitgurus.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/thinking-like-a-writer/

What are some other ideas to keep kids reading and writing?

Fun Writing Activities with Bubbles

This looks like a fun summer writing idea to do with you children!

Three Fun Summer Writing Activities with Bubbles from Imagination Soup

Here is the link:

http://imaginationsoup.net/2014/05/use-five-senses-fun-summer-writing/#_a5y_p=1659904&disableMobilify

Have fun with this and stay tuned for more fun ELA activities!