LevelUp!

Kids love video games, in part because they are able to observe, make determinations and advance based on their own actions.  Video games (the right ones, in moderation) can provide children the opportunity to use reasoning skills and gain confidence.

LevelUp is my classroom intervention that brings the best of a video game's energy and confidence building potential to classroom and homework assignments.

It works well in my Tiny Schoolhouse, where students range from First through Fourth Grade in the same classroom.  Students who finish assignments early and well, both in class and at home, are offered the chance to grab a LevelUp assignment and earn an extra 5 points on their next test.

I was surprised when a Second Grader- and my shyest student by far- asked for a LevelUp assignment after hearing me explain it to a Fourth Grader who finished the classroom exercise early.

She embraced the day's LevelUp assignment (see below) and, as it turns out, our Fourth Grade speed finisher shied away from the challenge.

LevelUp: Writing Celebration

Write 1 paragraph about your favorite holiday.
Use at least 3 Proper Nouns
Use at least 6 Common Nouns
Circle the Proper Nouns
Draw a square around the Common Nouns
Underline the Subject of each sentence

Family Stress Saver, School Success Maker

De-Stress Your Morning Routine - Parenting.com (Page 4)

You can tell this tip came from Ann Dolin who wrote the book on homework- literally!

Dolin, via Parenting.com, explains to parents that creating a space in the house dedicated to homework, school supplies, and daily necessities, helps to "De-Stress" mornings for families during the school year.

This suggestion does more than that. It gives parents and children the opportunity to double check that everything is complete and ready the night before school, and gives students enough time to finish forgotten tasks like homework assignments, school paperwork or gathering Show and Tell items.

Arriving to class well prepared is one of the single most important ways to get and stay ahead. Preparation inspires confidence.

Preparation sets the tone for a great day- for student and teacher!

Thanks, Parenting.com, for insight on this connection between parent involvement and student success.

Sentence Scramble

Since it's summer, we've played quite a few Grammar Games- from Pronoun Polka to weekly review Jeopardy, with mixed results.

The class is starting to embrace game play, with some of the youngest students rising to the challenge in unexpected ways.  Our First Grader who struggled with spelling during the academic year is sweeping the Spelling Words category.  All of the students are learning how to take risks, win, and lose with respect and confidence.

Our newest game is the Sentence Scramble, like a living grammar version of Mad Libs.  There is no winner (perhaps their Language Arts teachers in September!) but it's physical, fun and educational.

How to Play Sentence Scramble

Supplies:
12+ large cards (or 8.5X11 sheets of paper)*
Thick Marker

Directions:

Lay the Foundation

On the first card, write SUBJECT
On the second card, write VERB
On the third card, write OBJECT

Hand out the cards to three students (they can be winners of a previous challenge, first volunteers to raise their hands, students who turned in homework on time, etc).

Students with cards scramble to form the structure of a simple sentence:

SUBJECT        VERB       OBJECT

Shout it Out

Students call out sample Subjects, Verbs, and Objects

Write each word on a card

Scramble!

With the first 3 students in place, place word cards on table/desks

Create teams of 3 from remaining students 

Shout "Scramble!"

3 Member Groups form sentences:

Stand behind the SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT students and hold cards high above heads

Each student shouts his/her word to share the sentence with the class

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!

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."

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.

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.