Rigor and Relevance Framework

Do you guys use this at your school? I'm preparing a training on it for my campus and wondered if others were required to use it with their planning as well. 

At first I thought it was just going to be another thing we'd have to include in our lesson plans (we actually have to denote each objective as to where it falls in the framework). But I actually really like it now. The goal of course is to have the activity fall into the category where it is both relevant (like a real-world problem) and rigorous-involve critical thinking skills. This isn't possible to do with every lesson-especially with the little ones, because there are basics like the alphabet and counting that, especially in the beginning, have to be taught in a basic recall kind of way. But at least for my end of the unit activity-I aim for a level D.

For example, if I was doing a unit on the rainforest:

level  A= would be to name some animals in the rainforest.-low level and not including real world application.

B=watch a discovery education clip of rainforest animals (lower level engagement-wise, but still real-world)

C=write from the perspective of a rainforest animal (rigorous, but not really real-world)

D=How would you solve the problems in the rainforest right now-losing forests, animals losing their homes, etc. (rigorous thinking and real-world application).

It sounds complicated but once you use it, ideas start to come naturally. Just another resource to help us gauge how challenging and meaningful our lessons are. :)

School Year Resolutions

I was going to do a post like this anyway, but then I saw the link-up on Teaching Maddeness: 

I also feel like teachers' New Year's Resolutions come in August instead of January. I have a lot I want to change this year (and haven't finished all the books I was supposed to--oops!).

1) I want to use every minute of the day better. I start out doing this really well, and then we don't always keep up with it. I've been finding more songs, movement activities that we can weave into our day. Have more fun!

2) I'm going to implement facets of Conscious Discipline. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm getting older and therefore less patient, or if the kids are just coming in more mischievous-but every year I seem to be getting more and more gray hair from the stress of kids' behavior. This year I will go in armed with some new strategies. 

3) I'm going to be better at creating and tracking assessments. This is good teaching and will also be required for our evaluations. I've been reading Understanding By Design, which is all about backwards design and creating more effective assessments based on what you are supposed to be teaching.

4) We're going to do yoga! I already bought some ABC yoga books and a posters. I'm going to incorporate it into my workstations. Just FYI-you will NOT be seeing pictures of me trying to demonstrate those moves-luckily it's hard to embarrass yourself with 5-year olds.

5) I'm going to also try to implement facets of a flipped classroom. If you are not familiar, it's using lessons you have recorded or websites with videos assigned to kids for differentiation.

6) I'm really going to try to communicate with parents better. I always thought I was good at this but had several unhappy ones :( this year. I'm going to use Remind 101 and some other new techniques to try to keep communication at it's best.

That sounds like a lot! I'm actually starting to get anxious about going back in a few weeks. I've enjoyed vacation and it's not that I want more lazy days, it's just I don't feel like I've done enough to prepare yet. Oh well-it will be here before we know it! :)

Read-Alouds for Teaching Multiple Perspectives

I find myself making lots of lists this summer. Our curriculum is changing so I can't do a lot of actual planning yet by objectives; but I can sort out the books I'm going to use to teach concepts like Depth and Complexity. One of our icons is Multiple Perspectives-we use this one quite often in Kinder. So often, in fact, it's hard to break them of the habit of beginning a piece of writing with: "if I were a....".  :)

 Here are some that I use:

One of those I found totally by accident. I was already reading the book to the kids one day and realized, it's told from the perspective of a house. Lots of things matter to that little house that wouldn't matter to us, but some of it's worries are the same.

Told from the perspective of the pea--not fun to be stuck under a bazillion mattresses!

I know you've probably already heard of this one, but included it anyway-fairy tale told from the wolf's side.

Perspective you may not think about often-a tractor living on a farm. He has a happy life until he's replaced by a new state-of-the-art version.

One of my favorite chapter read-alouds. Every child wonders what their stuffed animals do when they leave the room. These characters misunderstand things all the time because of their perspective.

Told completely from the point of view of the dog who is trying to find his boy owner. Lots of references to how things/people smell-not exactly how we usually describe people.

A perspective of school from the class pet. Fire alarms, homework--all a mystery to this little hamster. It's a series, so if your kids like the first one....

Yes, I know gross title (which probably means you will get the kids attention right away). Life from the view of 2 cats-from the moment they are born they see the world differently than we do. Humans are very strange to them.The title comes from a "game" they hear the kids in their family playing when they are fighting over a toy. "It's mine", "is not", "is too", "s'not", "s'too". You get the drift.

Any of these titles are a great model for putting yourself in the shoes of someone or something else and thinking about what that perspective would be. Especially with little ones, that's a hard task because you know the world revolves around them-they haven't had to think that way before! :)

Critical Thinking Even in Transitions

One of my goals this year (and I feel like I say this every year) is to use every minute of the day better. I feel like we waste time between activities or waiting for everyone to do what they are supposed to be doing. We only have so many hours each day and I know those wasted minutes add up.

So I've been thinking about things I used to do during transitions to still make it an effective use of instructional time-to make them think as we are moving to the next activity.

* One of my favorites is to give the kids examples of things; they have to not only figure out what the category is, but come up with something else that fits in with that list of things. For example I would say: button, plate, clock and I go around the group asking for more objects that fit with that group. They don't name the category, but if they say "sun"-they can go line up. Eventually, everyone usually figures it out. If I have to tell the last few what the category is, I still expect them to give me an example that fits.  My favorite part of this activity, is sometimes they come up with something I didn't even think of! 

* Another is to have them copy your pattern. You can clap your hands in a pattern and they have to mimic the same pattern but using different gestures-this is a good one when everyone is returning to the carpet after cleaning up, etc. So if I clap fast fast slow-AAB, they would snap or move their shoulders or shake their heads in a way that also shows and AAB pattern and we would continue until everyone was sitting down. This way the ones who are already on the carpet have their hands (and minds) occupied instead of just sitting and waiting.

*Using vocabulary. For example-we may be talking about animal life cycles in science. I will yell out an animal: kangaroo and whoever says "joey" first can line up. We would continue with other baby animal names until everyone was in line.

* When kids enter in the morning I have a large dry erase board and printed their names on magnetic paper. I have a question of they day for them--who was your favorite character in the Wizard of Oz, what is your favorite lunch food, did you read a book last night? And they move their names to their choice. When we begin our math segment of the day we have data to do a very quick little graph or t-chart. They also learn quickly that they have to be able to back their choice with a reason why they chose that one as well, because I will ask.

A Different Kind of Class Exchange....

I love connecting with other classrooms and giving kids an idea that there is a whole world out there beyond their little bubbles. With postcard exchanges, my big 'ole state of Texas is usually the first one taken and I've seen other cute ideas, like the alphabet one with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom but I never seem to get in on it in time.

I want to start a different kind of exchange-one that will even save you the expense of postage. :)  Each class would digitally record a song, poem or story that they love and would upload it (still figuring out the details of how and where) and we could all easily view the recordings. The kids could even give some details about their state/country/school. It could even be a listening station activity. I think it would be really fun and could lead to many lessons of comparing and contrasting classes from other locations.

If your class is interested please e-mail me or leave a comment and let me know. Pass the word on to anyone you think may be interested. I'm not going to limit it to one person per state, etc.--we'll take anyone who wants to participate-any location, any grade. I'll do a master list and give everyone the final info before school starts. I'm so excited-I really wanted to incorporate technology better this year and this seems like one way to do it! I know the kids would love to connect with other classes too. :)

Books To Encourage Creativity

I am a huge proponent of encouraging creativity with students, particularly young students because many of them just don't know how to channel those creative juices. Very quickly they learn my stock answer when they ask "what color should I make the sky?" or "should I draw my hair curly?"--my answer is always "YOU ARE THE ARTIST!". 

My first year teaching, a master teacher observed my class just before Thanksgiving and was horrified that my kiddos were making turkeys of all different colors-purple turkeys, blue turkeys, even rainbow turkeys. She marked down on my evaluation that I had to teach them how to do it realistically. Of course, I took the criticism under advisement :), and I make it very clear during science if we are making observations that the illustration should be realistic. But if we are doing some kind of craft or art project---the sky's the limit, and I will vehemently defend that position. Where are the creative minds of tomorrow going to come from if we prohibit them from using their imaginations? What if someone told Steve Jobs that digital music was not realistic (they probably did, but he obviously didn't listen), or Ray Bradbury that the future worlds he wrote about were not realistic? Or Mondrian that he had to use more colors?

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox and share with you some of my favorite read-alouds to model creativity for the kids:

Have you ever heard of Blue Dog? A New Orleans based artist name George Rodrigue created her many years ago. He drew the likeness of a his beloved dog that had passed away--Tiffany. There are hundreds of versions of his paintings, kind of a pop culture icon. This story is a great one on using various colors to get varied effects. 

Eric Carle of course if one of the most fabulous illustrators out there. I love to have the kids make an illustration like his. If we read the Cat in the Hat for example-draw him the way Eric Carle would....

I love this story because all the descriptions are unexpected. "Pink is the color of crows...when they have just hatched." The colors aren't matching with what we would expect-very creative.

A creative way to use space on a roof-the character turns it into a marvelously sculptured garden.

A true story of a Mexican artist Juan Quezada who used animal hair for brushes and mud/berries to create beautiful pots. It's in the same repeating rhythms as the House That Jack Built.

This is just a wonderfully cute story about kids who cannot stay clean. Again, refers to making different colors (for them it's the bathwater after mom makes them clean up). But you can talk about what the different colors can mean.

Beautiful legend about a painter who just can't capture the color of sunset.

It amazes me that kids come into Kinder not knowing what colors make mixed together (although sometimes they are even trying to paint with the plastic end of the brush the first time we paint!). I love to let them experiment with all the colors themselves to see what they can come up with. They'll say-what if I mix purple and white--try it and see! Of course their favorite is to mix them all together, but that's an exploration too.

Amazing true story of a jazz musician who was nearly blind. Talk about raw talent! The illustrations look like watercolors-just beautiful.

And of course, Duke Ellington. The author talks about the different colors we see when we hear different music. I always have the kids listen to jazz and paint what they see after we read this story.

What books do you use to inspire your creative minds?

Rigor Journals

I know, I know-you're tired of hearing that 5-letter word! :) I am very passionate about writing in my class and have several different kinds of journals that we implement throughout the week-math, poetry, reading response (some years), social studies, science and what I call "Rigor" Journals. We ask for composition books in our supplies, but I have a hard time using them with the kiddos right away. Most are at the stage where they are drawing a picture and dictating their sentence-the lines in the comp books just don't match that skill. Plus having them copy the question takes forever and I really want parents and the students themselves to be able to go back and see what they were writing about; so I just type it out at the top of each page, print it out and make copies. 

For the "Rigor" part--since I use Kaplan's icons for Depth and Complexity regularly in our lessons, I make pages for each that we use in Kinder: perspective, patterns, ethics, over time and rules. Sometimes I ask them to write about one specifically (write about the rules for being a snowflake) or we will use a story/theme concept and write using all of them (over the course of a week).

For example, if we are doing monsters in October, over the course of a week: I would ask them to write about the rules for being a monster, ethics of monsters (how are they right/wrong), pattern in Where the Wild Things Are, their unanswered questions from the story, how monsters change over time (or how the monsters in the story changed) and to write from the perspective of a monster. I like being able to make those connections across a theme or book. Take patterns for example, many students come away from math lessons thinking patterns are just AB or red/blue--I want them to be able to apply that concept to science, social studies, art and reading. 

These are some pics I found of the ones from last year. I didn't take many for some reason, but it can give you an idea:

Plant life cycle as a pattern-applying the pattern concept to science.

Unanswered questions-sometimes coming up with good questions to ask is harder than coming up with answers!

Perspective of a groundhog.