It's time to talk math organization! I am a firm believer that students must be able to access manipulatives--whether they be counters, rulers, dice, or whatever--without an adult passing them out and saying "Today you will use these!". As mentioned in the Common Core, students need to be able to successfully "Use appropriate tools strategically", and helping them know how and when to select them ... Read the Post
New on the Blog
Five on Friday! 5 great things to say to kids!
It's been a busy week...birthday excitement, finishing reading assessments, meetings. In honor of Friday, I am simply going to reflect on 5 great things to say to kids! I'd love to hear some of your favorite things...what makes a difference to your students? 1. "WOW! I am so amazed by your thinking! I never would have thought to do it that way..." 2. "I can see how ... Read the Post
Self Assess 4, 3, 2, 1! Assessment strategies to use any time, any place
Today in math we started to step up our problem solving and, especially, our EXPLAINING about our thinking...something I know I have not been modeling enough. I want to make sure we keep the climate open and honest, so today I introduced the self-assessment system we are going to use from this point forward. It is an easy system...kids can "flash" the correct number of fingers if you want to do a ... Read the Post
“Just Right Books” and other independent reading tips
Some things just need repeating, and I am starting to see a few of my fourth graders slipping in their ability to make "just right" books choices. You know the students...reading Magic Tree House one day and then trying to pick up a copy of Percy Jackson the next? To start the year, we spent a great deal of time building a reading community, talking about how to select a book, what a "just ... Read the Post
Grading Writing…food for thought–and a freebie to help!
If you are like me, you are constantly stressing out about making sure your students are learning and growing. If you are like me, you never feel like you have enough of the right DATA to know for sure! After all, how do you REALLY measure reading comprehension? Writing skills? I think we are in a constant battle with ourselves to balance wanting to assign a "number" to things that aren't numeric ... Read the Post
5 Tips for Teaching Information Text and Text Structures
We are finishing our "Feature Article" unit today, and I thought I'd share FIVE things we learned while writing them. This was my first time teaching this unit, and it was as much a learning experience for ME as it was for my fourth graders! One of our key focus areas is "text structures", so that was the lens I used while planning and teaching. So...what did we learn? Five Strategies ... Read the Post
Historical Fiction, Here We Come! Sarah, Plain and Tall
Well, my fourth graders and I are NEARLY finished with our feature articles unit...and, boy, have we had a blast! They have learned so much about different text structures, how to take a topic and "spin" it to make it more appealing--not to mention all the new tech skills they learned like inserting photos with citations, and so on. So...next on the list? Historical fiction! I LOVE historical ... Read the Post