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#Post#: 29--------------------------------------------------
November 12th PD
DIR By: michali
Date: November 12, 2018, 9:10 am
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Answer 1 question from part A and 1 from part B. Posts should
be a paragraph long and include examples.
Respond to a minimum of two colleagues' posts. Responses should
be a paragraph long and meaningful.
All posts should be completed before 5 PM, and responses should
be completed before 10 PM.
Part A ( Reading Groups/ Grab N Go/ Writers Workshop)
1) What reading comprehension strategies will you teach this
week? How do you plan to teach them? Why did you choose these
specific ones?
2) What activities or math talk have you incorporated from the
Grab n Go workshop to date? How can you expand and create a more
center-based approach in your classroom?
3) What noteworthy lesson did you learn from the Fundamentals in
Writing workshop? How has your instruction in writing improved
as a result?
Part B (Responsive Classroom www.responsiveclassroom.org or
HTML https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RC-Approach-Handout.pdf)
1)Choose 2 guiding principles and discuss how beginning
tomorrow, these principles will influence you as a professional.
Include why you chose these two, and give concrete examples of
how to make these guiding principles apparent in your classroom.
2)Choose two shared practices and discuss how you intend to
utilize them beginning tomorrow. Discuss why you chose those
two, and give specific examples of how you will do so.
3)Choose one social competency and one academic competency that
you intend to build in your classroom beginning tomorrow.
Discuss how you plan to do so, and be specific.
#Post#: 30--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: Ariel
Date: November 12, 2018, 1:16 pm
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I am still looking forward to be filled in on the Grab n Go
workshop, it sounds like it can be extremely helpful.
Principle number 2 "How we teach is as important as what we
teach." is so critical. I always try to not only think about the
content, but the most effective way to present the content.
Always trying to give plenty of examples and practice. But being
clear the first time is critical!
Principle 6 "Partnering with families—knowing them and valuing
their contributions— is as important as knowing the children we
teach" was already stressed in today's session. We have to send
home those notifications so that we can be informed of the whole
child. If something is going on at home, it is critical that we
are in the know.
#Post#: 31--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: Netanel Rosenzweig
Date: November 12, 2018, 1:54 pm
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Part B:
Teaching social and emotional skills
is as important as teaching academic
content.
My 8th grade Math students are full of character and have
different unique personalities and needs. Some students want
attention and will do anything for it. Others need to decompress
in class and speak about their stresses about applying to high
school. Others may not appreciate those disrupting in order to
get attention, and will get upset. Last week as students were
doing classwork, a few students were worried if they have the
grades to get into the high school of their choice. At this
juncture, I could have either encouraged them to get back to
work or discuss their concerns. I knew the first option would be
futile based on Maslow’s hierarchy. I decided to speak with
those students about what a good high school cares about such as
a middos and effort. Going forward, there will be times in class
when a students’ needs or there is an important lesson to be
taught other than Math, it is important that I use these
opportunities to develop my students as a whole person.
How we teach is as important as what
we teach.
The contrast between my 7th and 8th graders couldn’t be more
glaring. For my 7th graders, I prepare all sorts of interactive
activities, games, moving around the classroom, and many more
creative ways of learning. They enjoy it, are motivated, and
persevere in their learning. With my 8th graders it is a
different story. They tend to clown around, any activity that
involves moving around the class, there is at least one boy that
will be on the floor laughing or in pain from another student.
Interactive worksheets for don’t always work because students
are tired. For my 8th graders they need to stay in their seats.
It is a long day, they are tired and just want me to to teach.
While it is imperative that there are activities for them to
explore and put effort into their learning, there is a balance.
I will continue to find the right activities that challenge the
8th graders, but also give them some time to let the teacher
teach.
#Post#: 32--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: Netanel Rosenzweig
Date: November 12, 2018, 2:04 pm
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Ariel, I completely agree that it is important to be informed
about the whole child. A few times, some of my students did not
hand in the homework a couple of times, and I reached out to the
parents to discuss their child with them. I got to hear from the
parent about their child their struggles, about life at home and
so much more.
#Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: Eliana Marcus
Date: November 12, 2018, 3:05 pm
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Hi! I am answering the third question of part 1.
What was very helpful to me about Ilene Cohen's visit was a
clarification of the curriculum. She laid out the way that each
section should be taught and really added of information about
the process of writing.
She also told me about a technique to encourage kids to take
chances with their spelling. Actually trying to spell
phonetically rather than asking us to tell them the spelling.
She told me that if I have a student who is afraid to make
mistakes with their spelling or are lazy about try to sound
words out I should tell them about "Kid Spell." Kid Spell is the
way that children spell. It is not exactly like grownups and
that's ok. It is the way that kids learn how to spell even
better.
I tried explaining it to my kids that way and it worked wonders.
It's amazing how simple phrasing can make such a difference.
I also liked her tips about how to avoid watermelon stories. To
limit the kids to a specific topic so that they won't get stuck
in a story that could go on forever.
#Post#: 34--------------------------------------------------
Part B– Classroom Principles
DIR By: Yaakov Bressler
Date: November 12, 2018, 3:15 pm
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In response: two practices I aim to implement in my classroom
starting tomorrow are:
- logical consequences
- interactive learning structures
A challenge I've faced with my class is enforcing repercussions
for improper behavior without disrupting classroom learning all
while discouraging continuation of said behavior. Logical
consequences for improper behavior is a neat solution which can
be leveraged to discourage a student's poor behavior.
Consequences can include: staying a minute or two late for
recess to discuss misbehavior, staying late during recess to
catch up on missed work, or losing the privilege of sharing
content with the class when an open question is raised.
The use of interactive learning structures will enable me to
excite my students about work that may be challenging or
otherwise uninteresting to them. I'll be looking at our coming
material for interactive content and making use of that in our
coming classes.
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-Yaakov Bressler
#Post#: 35--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: BGrunwald
Date: November 12, 2018, 3:16 pm
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Part A: Question 1
We are in middle of a reading comprehension unit called
"Determining Importance in Fiction." This includes genre,
character and setting, problem and solution, author's purpose,
and plot sequencing. Lat week, genre, character, and setting
were taught and practiced. I would like for the girls to
practice some more with these concepts this week. I believe
that all comprehension skills are cumulative and should
constantly be reinforced and practiced, even once new ones are
taught. I will introduce this week the concept of looking out
for the problem and solution in the [fiction] story. Outside of
reading groups, I will read two different stories to them, and
we'll work together to figure out what the main problem was in
the story and how it was solved. I'm going to explain to the
girls that a problem can be something major, such as a fire in a
building, or something as minor as a boy missing his homework.
Every good fiction story has a problem of some sort, and every
good fiction story includes a solution to the problem.
During reading groups, the girls will be reminded of this skill
before they begin reading, and encouraged to look out for the
problem and solution as they read. They will write the
characters, setting, problem, and solution on a worksheet when
they are finished reading, after which there will be a reading
group discussion about the specific problem and solution from
that day's read.
I'd like to teach about the problem and solution this week
because it's the next step in the unit, once the students can
determine the genre, character, and setting, for students to
read as readers and decipher the goings-on in a fiction story.
After this week, I'd like to spend another two weeks teaching,
practicing, and reinforcing "Determining Importance in Fiction,"
including the skills already taught as well as author's purpose
and plot sequencing, after which we will move on to the next
comprehension skill, forming schema connections.
Part B: Question 3
I'm choosing the social competency of responsibility and the
academic competency of perseverance.
One example of teaching responsibility in the second grade
classroom is through shared classroom supplies. In our
classroom, instead of having individual dry erase boards and
magnet tile boards for Fundations, we have collective ones that
belong to the whole class. Each student is learning that it is
her responsibility to keep the classroom supplies in good
condition when she is using them and putting them away, because
if she doesn't, it affects the next girl who uses it. Some of
the girls learned this through example, and they are getting
better at taking care of classroom supplies.
Another example is when it comes to procedures such as writing
down the homework. The girls all write down the homework on
their homework sheets, but it can happen that a girl is out of
the classroom when the homework is written down or leaves early
before the homework is written on the board. Instead of telling
the girl what she can do to make sure she knows what the
homework is, I want to present the student with the situation
and see if she can come up with a good solution on her own. "I
noticed that you were out when we wrote down the homework. What
can you do about it so that you still know what the homework
is?" She might say that she can copy the homework down from
someone else's homework sheet. Later on in the year, students
should be able to automatically take responsibility.
Whenever the class has time for writing, I set a timer and
encourage the students to write for the whole time. I always
tell them how long I set the timer for. This way, they are
encouraged to persevere for the entire time, but at the same
time, they know that the time for the assignment isn't
limitless, so they don't get overwhelmed.
When we do math, if a more challenged student feels very
overwhelmed about starting, I might say, after helping her get
started: "I see that you're getting this. Do you think you can
continue until number six and be finished by the time I come
back to your desk? "
This way, she has a set goal and doesn't feel overwhelmed about
the entire page. At the same time, the extra help in the
beginning gives her the confidence to continue.
Along the lines of differentiation, my goal isn't for every
student to finish the entire thing, but to put in her best
efforts during the time given.
I would love to hear more ideas for teaching responsibility and
perseverance.
#Post#: 36--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: Eliana Marcus
Date: November 12, 2018, 3:22 pm
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Hi,
I think that Baila Grunwald posted some important points about
teaching classroom responsibility. I really like her idea about
communal supplies encouraging the kids to keep them nice. I also
like that the girls are learning how to problem solve and taking
responsibility. I would love to try that with my boys.
[b][b]"Teaching social and emotional skills is as important as
teaching academic content."[/b][/b]
This principle is very important. Especially at the age I'm
working with. The little first graders are still learning a lot
of basic ways to deal with their peers, emotions and behaviors.
I've been focused a lot on teaching them that when we try
something new we are bound to make mistakes. My boys tend to get
scared off of things that they won't get 100% right. I'm
teaching them that making mistakes is so important because it
teaches us what is the right way to do things. This is a skill
that is just as important as the academic skills that I will be
teaching.
What we know and believe about our students—individually,
culturally, developmentally—informs our expectations, reactions,
and attitudes about
those students.
I think this is so true in building relationships with my
students. Although it is important to have a general standard
for the class I try to judge my kids based on their personal
standards for having a good day. Every day I have one star of
the day who gets a reward for trying really hard. I tell the
kids "I'm looking for people that are trying their best,
everyone has a different best." Knowing each students unique
strengths and weaknesses helps me try to have them reach their
personal best.
#Post#: 37--------------------------------------------------
In response...
DIR By: Yaakov Bressler
Date: November 12, 2018, 3:22 pm
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In response to Ariel's post:
--- Quote ---
> Principle 6 "Partnering with families—knowing them and valuing
their contributions— is as important as knowing the children we
teach" was already stressed in today's session. We have to send
home those notifications so that we can be informed of the whole
child. If something is going on at home, it is critical that we
are in the know.
--- End Quote ---
I am in complete agreement with you on this. Events taking place
at home have a large effect on what happens in school. I had two
instances just last week where, after communicating with a
student's parents, that student arrived to class with increased
focus and interest in succeeding. In this regard, I communicate
with parents on a regular basis through email. (Phone calls are
effective but very time consuming.)
---------------------------------------------------------
-Yaakov Bressler
#Post#: 38--------------------------------------------------
Re: November 12th PD
DIR By: Deborah Mark
Date: November 12, 2018, 3:41 pm
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response to Part A. 3rd question about Writing Fundamentals
workshop from November 5: I found the entire workshop to be
extremely helpful and worthwhile. In particular, I appreciated
how Ms. Cohn clarified each stage of teaching the writing
process, beyond what is included in the binder. I particular. I
benefited from the explication of the Generating Ideas stage:
that although it's about idea development and the binders
include graphic organizers for this purpose, those graphic
organizers are not sufficient: the students are required to
write a basic 'no frills' entry into their Writer's Notebooks
based on the ideas laid out in the graphic organizer and the
teacher must model this as well. The key lessons here were 1) I
must model an entry before asking the students to do it and 2)
that this stage of writing is just about getting the ideas down
on paper; the sensory and other details, the appropriate
beginning and ending will be added later, to be taught in the
drafting stage.
The next day, I implemented this in both the 7th and 8th grades.
In 7th grade, the students were generating ideas to write about
an object that had meaning for them. We had read a mentor text
demonstrating how a poet devoted his poem to explain the
significance of an object. Now, I added my own model: I briefly
told them the story and then wrote a basic story on the board
about my object, a lost necklace with sentimental value. In 8th
grade, the students were generating ideas from a selection of
inspirational quotations, emphasizing certain qualities. I chose
'persistence", briefly told them a story and then wrote a model
'entry' on the board, about my own persistence that led me to
accomplish something new (me, a non-athlete, running a 10K race
in Central Park!). The results were immediately apparent: the
students more quickly understood what was expected of them, and
they followed my model with their own efforts to write their
own. I think they enjoyed my sharing my stories as well, as I
was asking them to open up about themselves in their writing.
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