Financial Friday: A Pack of Construction Paper

My local Big Lots always has nice pads of construction paper for $1. This one dollar always provides endless projects and hours of learning. Ty and Za create art and presents, and even decorate for the holidays.

Last year we made a Christmas paper chain and practiced sorting, counting, and sharing.

This year's paper chain for the playroom.

We are taking our Christmas decorations down, which includes cleaning up the kids' playroom. Za wanted to cut the strips of paper and while I knew this would be messy, I knew I should let her because it is great practice with the scissors.

Za's cutting project.

Sure enough, she started cutting and playing with the little pieces. Then she added them to bowls in her pretend kitchen.

Her homemade salad. Next time, we'll add "mushrooms" and "onions" too.

Viola! A "salad." I never thought to turn used construction paper into pretend food, but it is an idea we'll have to use again. Stretching the pad of construction paper even farther? - an easy Financial Friday project, almost free.

Teaching the Writing Process By Writing With Your Students

Teaching writing is a complex process because so many ways exist to write - and every student needs a different one. For instance, I am a freestyler: I like to brainstorm a few ideas and then write a rough draft. I often then circle back to prewriting/brainstorming to better my ideas and in the process, write another rough draft.

I know mine is not the process that works best for all my students, however. So when I start writing with a class, I encourage them to stick with the basic writing process:

1. Prewriting
2. Drafting
3. Revising
4. Proofreading
5. Publishing

As a class and individuals grow, they start to stray from the process and loop back and forth until they get the desired outcome. I think allowing students this freedom as an English class continues throughout the year shows my trust in students' developments. 

What I strive to do for every writing assignment is write a paper with the students, following the writing process with them. I've had great success with that method.

1. Prewriting methods:


To begin, I provide an assortment of ways for students to prewrite. (I may be forgetting some that I use, and also feel free to add more ideas in the comments!)

• Outline
• List
• Comparison/Contrast chart
• Web graphic organizer
• Problem/Solution chart
• Sandwich/Hamburger chart (often used with my junior high students - high school kids don't seem to care for this)
• Multiple other graphic organizers

What I have found helps students the most is that I complete this activity with them. They see me struggle for ideas and come up with ideas that don't connect well with my topic. They see me get frustrated when I have to mark out concepts and rearrange them. They watch me arrange my prewriting into different categories, which will become my different paragraphs. They learn that prewriting is messy, unorganized, and frustrating at points. I'm a big "bulleted list" person:

This is my prewriting for a Thanksgiving writing project my students did (8th grade). Here I am brainstorming ideas for what I am thankful for.

Students have even seen me change my mind about a topic and start over. Students have seen my excitement when I am onto a great idea. Students have seen my thought process as I prewrite.

2. Drafting methods:

I continue demonstrating my writing process with drafting. I show students how I long-hand, write out my rough draft. Some of my students prefer to type their rough drafts, and that is fine. (I assign students to complete every part of the writing process, but to personalize each section to fit their needs and personalities). I allow students to read mine while I read their drafts. (We trade). We discuss paragraph organization and transitions. We discuss what works and what doesn't.

This shows them that no rough draft is perfect, it is a working draft. Mine has mistakes and I am open for discussing spots to improve. This also provides students an opportunity for practicing giving and receiving constructive feedback.

3. Revising methods:

When I begin to revise, I often head back to my prewriting to be sure that I can't better organize the paper. Sometimes I missed a point that I now see the perfect spot to insert. It also gives me an opportunity to reflect on what I want the overall message of the paper to be, and to see if I am hitting that mark. Then I type my paper, and yep, I sit right beside my students and type with them.

4.  Proofreading methods:

Dependent upon the age group, time limits, and class attitude, I have students proofread in a variety of ways:

• As a class, students develop criteria for proofreading. The large umbrella for criteria can focus on focus, support, organization, or conventions - all or some. This manner works well for struggling writers because then everyone can focus on one aspect. Classes who write well can focus on all of them. Students can check each other's work and their own.
• I provide a checklist for students. Students then check their own, a partner's, or a group's work.
• We proofread as a class. This works well with a close-knit class, one that is willing to participate and share writing samples. Students volunteer sentences they need help reworking, or read a section of their papers that need reformed. 

Again, I share with students ways that I proofread and model how I apply grammatical rules to situations.


5. Publication methods: 

For high school students, this typically includes printing and submitting. It can also include presenting part of the paper to practice speaking skills or turning some of the information into a power-point.

With my junior high students, I've found they really enjoy turning their writing into artistic endeavors. For instance, they can add pictures or graphics to a poster that help emphasize and explain their writing.


That is how I use the writing process in my English - language arts classroom. Do you have any other tips to offer? Other ideas to incorporate with the writing process?

Sub Plans

My children were both sick the other day, so I had to call into work at my new job for the first time. Luckily, I live close enough to this job that I am able to run up to my classroom and set up plans. They look so tidy:

I think it is also a nice summary of what I am teaching, from left to right:
(my red grade-book)
American Literature
British Literature
That Was Then, This Is Now
Killing Mr. Griffin 
Anne Frank

I also did my sub plans differently than in previous years. At this school (it is tiny - we have 5 teachers total) the teachers take turn covering the classes. I wrote directions on a piece of paper - one  piece of paper per class. It worked well and I hope it was less confusing than a long set of directions would be.

The Chocolate War: Review Day

I recently finished teaching The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. (This was my first time teaching it. I found it to be fabulous young adult literature, with strong anti-bullying themes. My students also liked it).

For fun on review day, this is what greeted my students:

Chocolates in "Trinity" boxes as well as homemade brownies. A sweet treat, for my sweet seniors.

Learning Is Everywhere, Especially With Mom's Stuff

Learning Is Everywhere!

Just ask my Ty. While I painstakingly decorated our banister for Christmas, Ty took several cable ties (more than pictured) and began turning them into numbers. He proudly exclaimed, "mom! numbers!" He made 1's, and several 6's and 9's. I think the ties are really difficult to bend, so he didn't make many other numbers, aside from a few really large 4's.

The number 1's and 4's really caused no problem, but I had many cable ties ruined from the 6's and the 9's (pictured).

I ran out of ties and had to substitute with tape (which will probably fall) but it is darn hard to get mad at a kid for ruining your supplies in the name of learning. I always try to show him that learning is everywhere, and if this is the result, I'll take it. 

Happy Holiday Season everyone! Sorry for the spotty posting. I have been very busy teaching full-time. I shall get back to blogging once I catch my breath, even if that means June.

Brain-Based Learning: Guideline Nine

This is it! The final guideline under Dr. Sousa's "daily planning, general guidelines." When I started this series, I wondered if each guideline differed enough to warrant nine separate posts. I think they do.

The final guideline:

Each brain is unique.

Ahh, clearly the obvious. Obviously the simple truth all teachers and parents know. Each child and his/her brain is unique.

Everyone brings unique perspectives and different experiences to each lesson, making each response unique. The other day I posted on Facebook a cartoon about fairy tales. Everyone chimed in, but it turns out that the way everyone interpreted the cartoon largely depended on each experience of growing up with these cartoons - old Halloween costumes, their parents' reactions, etc. (Even adults forget this fact that tons of experiences form an outlook). It is overwhelming to think that students and children have so many different experiences.

Each brain is unique, and every building will be unique as well.

That is the "nurture" part that contributes to each brain being unique. I feel like science is now impressing facts in education, that leads to the idea - what about the physical part of each brain? How is each brain unique, physically - perhaps "nature"?

It could begin in-utero, when brains begin to form. The research is strong on what happens to early brains. Zero to Three covers everything from abuse to general experiences form the physical aspects of the brain. What food the parents feed the child contributes to brain development as well.

How do we separate the nurture and nature aspects of the brain? I think this is what brain-based learning is telling parents and teachers - they cannot be separated. Everything influences children's brains.

Which leads us to a challenging, scary, and important fact: if each brain is unique, each learning pattern is unique. As a parent, as a teacher, that makes my eyebrows go up. Rarely do I teach a lesson and feel I reached every student. I keep trying, being patient, explaining different ways - am I alone here?

I fear that I leave this brain-based learning series with more questions than answers. Each brain is unique, which is wonderful and what makes each student special. It also makes teaching and reaching each student that much more important. That is a tough order.

So, does brain-based learning impress you, or does it overwhelm you? What do you think now that we have covered it all?








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Brain-Based Learning: Guideline Eight

This week's educational theory is the sixth brain-based learning guideline according to Dr. Sousa: 

Practice does not make perfect.

That might sound odd, especially since the previous week's post was rehearsal is essential for retention. Before I started applying this guideline to my children and students, I wanted to read more because it sounds misleading.

On page 99 in How the Brain Learns, Dr. Sousa states that practice does make permanent, not perfect. Students should practice learning correctly from the beginning, and not have to relearn, which is difficult. With this, Sousa suggests that educators give guided practice, and then independent practice. 


This immediately jump to shoe-tying and buttoning skills that my four-year old works on. I wonder what happens when you cannot give the guided practice first. For example, he has seen me tie shoes thousands of times. He tries to cram the shoe lace together and wave his hands; I know he thinks this is what I do. It is probably what it looks like to him. 

Now that I am trying to teach him, I wonder if I am teaching someone who is practicing incorrectly and must relearn. In situations like that, is is even possible to change? Will children automatically have to relearn some things in life because they have preconceived notions of completion?

This also made me wonder about the noun-pronoun-adjective differentiation assignments some of my students struggle to learn. Those words can be used interchangeably which makes them confusing. Originally, I did guided practice before I let them practice independently. We are still going to practice more this week, because the grades could be better.

So here is my question: even if teachers/parents follow this brain-based learning suggestion, how do we ensure that students are practicing correctly? If it is troublesome to have them relearn, how do we ensure they practice right?  

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