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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Pronoun Polka

First Person Pronoun- Right hand up
Second Person Pronoun- Drop to the floor
Third Person Pronoun- Left hand up...

Mix it up with the common and proper nouns
Proper Noun- Right leg out
Common Noun- Left leg out

It's the Pronoun Polka and today was fun!

Monday, July 12, 2010

It's Personal!

My students are still buzzing from yesterday's World Cup Final.

Today we chanted "I, me, my, mine" with all the gusto of "GOOOLLLLLL." 

Personal pronouns are coming along well so far.  We kicked off the lesson with First Person and Second Person.  A First Person "It's Personal" worksheet followed with special bonus activities for the Fourth Graders and other students (inclding two star Second Graders) who finished early.

Much of today was an old fashioned lesson with students copying information from the board into their notebooks.  We spiced it up by chanting and clapping to store those pronouns in our brains.

We'll see how it turns out this Friday when we have our first unit test, "Nouns and Company."

Friday, July 9, 2010

Gaming It

From Tic-Tac-Toe to Jeopardy, students love games.  They are a great way to break up the monotony (and let's face it, sometimes drilling phonics can be monotonous), build teamwork skills and demonstrate what they have learned in a fun way that provides an instant reward.

In my summer school classroom, with First through Fourth Grade students, games are posing more of a challenge than I expected.  During the school year, my Second Graders beg to play Jeopardy and love working together for the win.  Their teammates become their cliques.  They burst into "We Will Rock You" as soon as they see the categories on the board, and they huddle up each time they hear a question.

Here, it's a bit different.  Summer school students struggle with confidence.  They fear failure because many have failed, time and again, during the year.  They are afraid to lose, to compete, to take a chance. 

Older students who answer questions correctly when younger students don't start to feel guilty.  One Fourth Grader offered to give his points to a First Grader who missed a 100 point Spelling Word.  A Second Grader refused to play when he realized he was losing ground to First Grader.

As a summer school teacher I want everyone to succeed.  I tell students that learning is winning and when they return to their classrooms with their peers in September they will be the leaders of the pack because they are well prepared.  One tough year does not mean they will have another.

Today we learned that winning feels great but losing is just as important.  When we lose we learn that we need to study a little harder, be confident enough to take a chance.  We also learn that our friends don't abandon us when we don't win and that we will always have the opportunity to try again. 

When we lose we become better winners- respectful, gracious, kind.

By the first day of school, no one will remember the score of today's game.  They will remember that they had fun and their teacher let them play.  hopefully they will remember to shoot their hands up when they know an answer and speak in clear, strong voices. 

If we all do our jobs this summer, my students will also remember to give all of their classmates a round of applause on game day and a pat on the back on report card day.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ouch! Time for Phonics

Today in my tiny schoolhouse, my First through Fourth Graders took a look at a good old friend, phonics.

Like all old friends, phonics has a past.  And not all of it is friendly.

When I first started student teaching, whole language was all the rage.  Students were encouraged to look at the whole word, to move beyond memorization and rote and to embrace literature in its fullness, as a way of not only learning to read but learning to love reading.  Phonics was outmoded and not useful.

Whole language sounds great on paper.  Who doesn't want to teach children to love reading?  Who wouldn't love to dive right into a book instead of standing in front of the classroom making parrot sounds and drawing lists of letter pairs? 

But can a child really love reading before he or she can break it down enough to be able to replicate it idenpendently- when a page is full of words never learned?

Can students communicate the great ideas that books give them (books they are read and books they read on their own) if they can't write clearly, spell well and understand how words work?

And, as the education research group, Halcyon House recognizes, isn't memorizing whole words just as much rote memorization as drilling vowel and consonant pairs?

Phonics is staging a comeback and it's nice to see our old friend again.  It's important that we teachers understand, and explain to our students, that phonics facts are tools.  The parrot sounds we make, the hangman lines we draw, all of these images, sounds and ideas empower students to go on their own to discover, to read, to learn. 

Today we learned "ou" and "ow."  We saw comic book "Pows" and sat on the couch. 

Then they wrote in their writing journals about their weekends.  One of our Fourth Graders noticed that journal doesn't follow the "ou" sounds like "ouch" rule. 

There is an exception to every rule in our language.  There are many starts and stops on the road to a lifelong love of and facility with reading. 

My students are home working on "power pairs" and spelling words.  Tomorrow they will give speeches about their favorite books.

Together, our class will look at the whole of language- the sounds and symbols that make language work, and the ways we use language to capture the sounds and symbols in our minds and hearts.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

My Tiny Schoolhouse

When I was offered a job teaching Language Arts summer school to First through Fourth Graders I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. 

When I found out they would all be in the same room, I had to give it a try.

Teaching three levels in one classroom makes me feel a bit like Miss Stacy, the teacher in Anne of Green Gables.  Only my kids won't have slates.  They will want to watch You Tube clips.

They will also need to learn how to communicate in a world where information is constantly coming at them and events and ideas can change lives in an instant.  They will have to learn this faster than my generation ever did (and I'm not that old!).

They will also need to learn how to spell...

Where to begin?