Ditch the Holiday Packet! Give the Gift of Authentic Literacy!

Last November, I put together a collection of 25 Christmas books accumulated from my own bookshelves as well as the local libraries.  Before December 1st, I wrapped all 25 books with special wrapping paper (so as not to be confused with the actual Christmas gifts we were giving away!) and placed the "presents" around the tree.

Beginning on December 1st, I let my preschool daughters take turns selecting one present a day to unwrap and read.  Sometimes we opened and read the book first thing in the morning, sometimes before naptime, and sometimes it was the last thing we did before bedtime.  Most of the days, we loved the books.  Some of the days, we decided that a particular book didn't need to make a return appearance in coming years.  All in all, this book present tradition was definitely in the top five of favorite things we did to celebrate the Christmas holiday AND it didn't cost me a thing!  

I should add that it ALMOST cost me quite a bit of money when we accidentally over-watered our tree and discovered several wet packages!  Thankfully, I was able to carefully dry the pages of the books and there was no visible water damage!  WHEW!!!

I have been thinking of what this tradition might look like in the elementary classroom and I have an idea I am excited to try.  We all know that the final week or two before the holidays can be very stressful as teachers conduct assessments, wrap up semester grades, plan for holiday presentations and celebrations, and TRY to squeeze in some productive learning.  This stress has historically led to the use of the infamous holiday-themed worksheet packet.  Because nothing says "Christmas" like doing a word search, right?  

I am always crusading for more independent, self-selected reading time in the school day so I am thinking that these pre-holiday weeks might provide the perfect time to recoup those minutes that have been previously undiscovered so far this semester.  So here's my idea:

1. Collect enough holiday gift bags so that you have one for each student in your class.  DON'T BUY ANY!  If you don't already have 25 more than you need in your guest closet, I am sure that your neighbor or grandmother does!
2. Have a conversation with your students about gift giving.  Share some examples of how you go about selecting the gifts that you will be giving to friends and family.  What are some of the things that you consider about that person such as their interests, dislikes, abilities, etc.?  
3. Place the name of every student in a jar.  Have each student draw one name.  Remind them beforehand that there will be no visible demonstrations of disgust or disappointment with the name they have drawn!  ¡No se van a casar! :)  And, they can't tell whose name they have drawn yet!  Now, tell them that they are going to pick out a gift for this person based on his/her interests, dislikes, and abilities and they will pick out this gift from the classroom library or the school library.  
4. Now...here is where the magic of authentic reading and writing overrides whatever minutes of peace you may think you are gaining by passing out that gigantic worksheet packet.  Have your students select 3-5 books that they think are good options for the name they drew.  They will need to read (even picture-reading counts!) through all of the books and carefully consider which is THE BEST choice.  All of this must be done in utter silence because gift selection must be secretive and a surprise (Shhhhh....)!  
5. Give each student a gift bag and a blank label.  They should place the book in the bag and label To/Para: _________ From/De: ____________.
6. At your designated time of the day, the big reveal can commence.  Simply have students deliver the gifts to the appropriate desks.  Everyone opens their presents and enjoys a little reading time and reflecting on why that particular book was specifically selected for him/her.  
7. Don't forget!  Every good gift deserves a Thank You Note!!!  Share a thank-you note you have written for a gift and remind students of the important qualities of a note such as naming the specific gift (title of book) and explaining why you are grateful for that gift (an opportunity to infer why the giver selected this gift for you).  
8. And, finally, every good thing deserves repeating!  This same process can easily be repeated another two or three times up until the holiday break.  Just put the names back in the jar and regift the bags.  The reward?  Authentic opportunities for readers and writers to celebrate the spirit of giving!

I would love to know if you think this would work with your own students!  Also, I would love to know your ideas for avoiding the dreaded 1" packet this holiday season!

That's so RANDOM! Why it's important to call on different students...

Step #3 in John Seidlitz's "Seven Steps to Building a Language Rich Interactive Classroom" is:

Randomize and rotate who is called on so students of all language levels can participate.

Why is this so hard for teachers to do?  I have coached teachers who think they do this but my observations of their classroom do not support that belief with evidence.  And, yes, my name is POT and I am calling the kettle black!  
When I conduct trainings with teachers, I spend hours ahead of time planning ways to ensure that all participants actually participate and are engaged.  Yet, when the training is actually happening, I can easily succumb to the constraints of time, the pressure of the serial-hand raisers, and the stares from the reluctant participators daring me to invade their personal space.
So, yes, it's hard!  But, I don't think that means we shouldn't keep trying to refine this important area that falls into the science and craft of excellent teachers.
Here are some of my favorite ways:

• Random Name Generator - Upload your class list to this website and use your computer or iPad to ask it to generate the next student to call on.  Really easy!

• Popsicle Sticks - It's an oldie but a goody!  It may seem old school but it is better than not doing anything at all.  Write each of your students' names on a popsicle stick and place them all in a can.  After asking a question, allow at least 10 seconds of wait time (you want everyone forming their answer) and then draw a stick or two to ask those students to share their answers with the class.  My theory is that you should put the sticks back in the can and just shake it well.  If you take the sticks out until they are all out, your students whose sticks are out of the can might begin to tune out.

• Note Cards - This is similar to the popsicle sticks but it adds another component.  Each student has a card with his/her name on it.  When you draw the student's card, you can also mark a code to indicate his response.  This can be helpful documentation for TELPAS rating (did they answer with one word, a short phrase or complete sentence), participation grades, and parent conferences.

I haven't tried this one yet but it looks interesting:

• Teacher Tools - Who's Next? app - Do the same one or two hands always pop up when you ask a question in your classroom? The Teacher Tools - Who's Next? app will shake things up for your class by allowing you to call on students randomly and even create randomized work groups! (description from iTunes)

Want to read more?  Here are some more articles about this topic:

• Are You Being Fair?

• Extending ELLs' Classroom Interactions Using the Response Protocol

According to the "Extending ELLs'..." article by Mohr and Mohr linked above, "many students new to U.S. culture and its educational system, and students who are timid or reluctant for any reason, often do not participate readily in class discussions and thereby assume a more passive role in classroom interactions."
We know that engagement promotes growth and we want our learners to grow.  As a result, we really need to hone our abilities to engage.  I would love to hear your tips for how you do this in your classroom!

Unzipping Their Lips

While in my car the other day with my daughters, my oldest said she wanted to tell me a story.  “You have to be really quiet and listen, Mama.  Are you listening?  Close your mouth.  Zip your lips?  Did you lock them?  Okay, now throw away the key!  Once upon a time….”

Hearing my daughter tell me to “zip my lips” reminded me of that phrase I used to hear frequently in my childhood.  I am not exactly sure where she first heard that phrase (she’s not in school yet) but I am pretty sure it was uttered by a well-meaning older teacher at church who was just trying to get her restless young students to be quiet for a few brief moments so she could teach the lesson.

I don’t hear this phrase very often as I coach in different schools.  Even though it has a bit of rhyme and sounds like a cute analogy, I think most of today’s educators know that telling students to “lock [their] lips and throw away the key” is probably not best teaching practice, especially with bilingual learners. 

However, while we don’t explicitly tell them to be silent, we often communicate that desire in more subtle ways:

• ·     We tell them that we only have a few minutes to get our lesson in (because that’s true!) and there’s no time for talking or questions.  We barrel through the lesson to get it “done”.  We know that teaching does not necessarily equate to learning but we have a scope and sequence to stick to and there are just too many other constraints on our day.  Taking time to allow a child to slowly process their thinking in verbal form seems like a luxury rather than a necessity.
• ·     We just plain get carried away with our own fabulous explanations and demonstrations.  I mean, seriously, WE are the ones with a college degree, right?  Of all people in the room, shouldn't we be the ones receiving the most air time?  We are the ones that spent the weekend planning the lesson and search Pinterest for the best anchor chart.  The students will inevitably talk once we send them back to their seats.  Is there really a need to interrupt our lessons to allow them to talk?
• ·     We allow time for talk but fail to provide the appropriate scaffolds to make it productive.  Perhaps we have been trained and converted from the two bullet points above.  We are believers in the importance of talk but making it happen feels clumsy and unsuccessful.  We post prepackaged language frames on our walls but we forget to incorporate them and they quickly become wallpaper to the students.  While students are talking during the lesson, their talk is not necessarily focused, academic, and productive.

Talking helps us process our thinking and internalize our understanding.  Allowing time for students to talk is an investment.  Sometimes, we don’t see an immediate return on our investments.  And, as with anything we are invested in, we know we should plan carefully ahead of time. 

So, here's my question, how do you make space for your students' academic conversations in your classroom?  How do you remind yourself mid-lesson to make it happen?  Please share your ideas!

Teamwork/Trabajo en equipo

At this point of the year, you are probably doing more and more work in cooperative groups.  If you haven't identified specific roles and responsibilities for the students in each group, they will determine them for you.  Some will take on the roles that you would have created and intended while others will find more passive or aggressive roles that you would probably prefer to avoid.

One way of making group work more productive is by assigning roles that will change with time.  In my classroom, I tended to change the table groups every month.  Based on the location of the desks within each table, the students took on a specific role for one week.  For example, the person at each table that was sitting in the Northwest corner (I always posted North, South, East, and West on my classroom walls) of their table would be the Leader/Speaker for his/her group for an entire week.  The following week, all of the roles would shift in a clockwise manner.  The Leader/Speaker would now become the Facilitator.  Clear as mud?

If you are thinking about introducing this idea of roles and responsibilities for group work to your students, I would highly recommend reading this book:

It is the precious story of three animals that know their roles and responsibilities until one day one of them becomes jealous of the other's job.  Feelings are hurt and no more delicious soup is made until the three friends discover once again how to work together and share the load.

Todos tienen su tarea.

Todos son felices.

The illustrations are beautiful and the language is brilliant.  You could do an in-depth study of vivid verbs with this book!  It's a great one for any elementary grade!  Let me know if you and your class decide to try it out!

Ask the Readers: Transitions & Attention-Getters in Spanish

Last week, I received a question from one of the "I Teach Dual Language" Facebook readers.  In case you aren't on Facebook, I thought I would share it with you!

I'm teaching Kindergarten Spanish for the first time and I need transition songs in Spanish.  Does anyone know some good and easy ones?  Also, I'm used to attention-getters such as 1, 2, 3, eyes on me..."  What can I use for an all Spanish class?  

I reposted this question on my Facebook page and here are the ideas that were shared by all of the AWESOME readers!  Thanks so much to everyone who contributed.  

Attention-Getters

• Sung to the tune of the Addams Family:  Ojos aquí (snap snap), ojos aquí (snap snap) ojos aquí, ojos aquí (snap snap).  Escucha a tu maestra y pon atención.  Cierra bien la boca y pon los ojos aquí.  Ojos aquí (snap snap)…and repeat to finish the song.  
• Teacher:  “Respeto.”  Students:  “Tratar a los demás como quieres que te traten.”  While they say the words, their arms go out in front and then across their body (kind of like the Macarena) so that when they finish speaking their arms are crossed and now they aren’t playing with anything, waiting for further instructions.  Like this:  “Tratar (right arm straight out) a los demás (left arm straight out) como quieres (right arm to left shoulder) que te traten (left arm to right shoulder).”
• Teacher:  Dáme cinco.  Students:  Boca cerrada, miro y escucho (holding up one finger for each word until they were showing 5).
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres, ojos aquí
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres, ojos a mí.  Students:  Uno, dos, tres, ojos a tí
• Teacher:  ¿Qué te pasa, Calabaza?  Students: Nada, nada, limonada.
• Teacher:  Hola, hola.  Students:  Coca cola.
• Teacher:  Si escuchas mi voz, aplaude dos veces.  Si escuchas mi voz, aplaude tres veces.
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres, mírame otra vez.
• Teacher:  Uno, dos, tres.  Students:  A la vez.
• Teacher:  ¡Clase!  ¡Clase!  Students:  ¡Sí!  ¡Sí!
• Teacher:  Atención.  Pon atención.  Abre los ojos mirando hacia acá.

Transitions

• Dr. Jean has a Spanish version to her songs.  The CD is Olé,Olé, Olé Dr.Jean en español
• Teacher:  A guardar, a guardar.  Students:  Vamos todos a limpiar.  

I LOVE all of these suggestions!  If you have more, please share in the comments below.  Thanks again to everyone that shared their ideas!

ELPS: Resource or Really Annoying?

If you are a Texas teacher, you know about the ELPS (English Language Proficiency Standards).  Well, at the very least, you have heard the acronym and you have probably attended a training or two with ELPS in the title.  

The question is, "What can the ELPS do for you and your students?"  Believe it or not, I really don't think the ELPS were created to add one more thing to the already long list that teachers have to do!  

Here is a little analogy that I like to use for explaining how the ELPS help me teach my bilingual students:

Think of your TEKS (content standards) as a mountain that you must hike with your students.  Your goal is to get all of your students to the top of that mountain.  The problem is that your hikers all show up with varying degrees of gear and equipment.  Some are new to hiking while others have many experiences on this type of terrain.  Some show up completely decked out in REI or Patagonia gear while others arrive in flip flops.

In the context of a classroom with English language learners, the ELPS represent the equipment that native language speakers "should" already possess as they being their hike towards the content.  With those students, a teacher might not need to spend as much time accessing prior knowledge, building background, and developing vocabulary.  She can set her sights on the summit and move forward, pausing occasionally to help her hikers adjust to the uniqueness of this particular climb.

The English learners, however, may not bring all of the equipment that those native speakers bring to the trailhead.  Remember, it is highly likely that THEY DO HAVE hiking equipment.  It might not be from REI.  It might look different.  They may not even realize that some of the items in their home could be used for hiking (hello? biliteracy transfer? :)).  It is the role the guide/teacher to ready her hikers before beginning the hike so that the hike goes as smoothly as possible and all of the hikers make it to the top.

The ELPS really can help us ready our students for our content lessons (reading, math, science, P.E., etc.).  As you plan your lessons, think about what "equipment" a native speaker would bring to that lesson (background knowledge about a topic, a variety of descriptive words, ability to speak in the past tense, etc.).  Then, consider how you might provide a scaffold to your English learners so that they too could access the same content.

Graphic organizer?  Sharing in cooperative groups?  Using prior experiences to build meaning?  Language frames?  The ELPS are like an equipment catalog for teachers.  When you know your students' language proficiency levels, you can identify which of the standards you will need to use for supporting your students.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), you cannot plan a scope and sequence for using the ELPS like you can with your content standards.  Which ELPS (equipment) you use on a given day for a lesson will depend upon the specific objective (mountain) and your students' current language levels (how much equipment they currently have or lack).

So that is my little analogy.  At this point, you may be telling me to "go take a hike"!  My hope is that you would find the ELPS to be a resource for you rather than one more annoyance of being an educator.  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Where there's a need, there's a will...PART 1

Don't worry!  I know this is my teaching blog and not my family blog BUT sometimes I just can't separate the two.  There are just too many parallels between the learning going on with a two-year-old and a four-year-old and the learning that I see in the classrooms of bilingual learners.

Today, I want to talk about the four-year-old pictured above.  While she can have her silly moments (as shown above), telling her she is "silly" is not really a compliment to her.  She prefers to be "right"!

From a VERY young age, we have known that this girl deeply wants to be independent, figure out things on her own, and not make mistakes.  Some would say she takes after her mother! :)

All of these desires combine to cause the same little girl (and possibly her mother) to be very cautious when trying new things.  If she (we) are not going to do it well, is it even worth trying?

For example, as a bilingual teacher, I had always envisioned raising bilingual children.  When my oldest was a baby, my Motherese was rooted in my native English.  As she got older, I began to try working with her in Spanish.  Even at her young age, she was quick to resist.  Why was her mom purposefully speaking to her in a way that she could not understand when there was clearly an easier way to communicate?

So...fast-forward several years and I have one very monolingual four-year-old who has shown no interest in learning a second language...

until the past few weeks...

when she began spending one day a week at a friend's house who has a Spanish-speaking babysitter.  Her little friend, also a native English speaker, has been with this babysitter since she was one-year-old.  My daughter has been observing her friend and caregiver interact with one another in Spanish.

Guess who asked me to teach her Spanish last night at dinner?  Yep!  My sweet little Miss I-don't-want-to-try-it-if-I-can't-do-it-right-the-first-time has found a reason to make an exception to her personality!

Okay, so how does this apply to your classroom?  I am guessing that you have at least one student with a similar personality to my daughter's (and mine).  Some possible indicators:

• Does he score Advanced on a reading proficiency test but is still rated as a Beginning English speaker?
• Does she only use the minimum social language required to communicate for fear of making mistakes with the academic language?
• Does he comfortably speak in his second language in one-to-one conversations with other students but won't speak in L2 in front of the entire class?
• Will she only check out library books in her first language?
• Does he only want to create Writing Workshop pieces in his first language?

If the child doesn't seem to have the WILL to take the next step, we must create an authentic NEED that will give them a reason to make some exceptions.  One of the best ways to create a need is to provide an environment the student will want to be a part of and where the L2 must be used.  

I have found a few ways to do this in my own classroom.  Pairing up with a monolingual classroom at another grade level gave my students a reason to select library books in their L2 to share with those students.  Writing a thank-you letter to our monolingual PE teacher to thank her for a fun field day gave my students a reason to write in English.  Asking students to think, pair, and share during English lessons gave students the opportunity to practice their L2 with just one person before being asked to speak in front of the class.

I would love to know ways that you create authentic needs for your students to want to communicate in a second language!  And, I will keep you posted on our slow process of becoming a more bilingual family!

Making grading about more than grades

Now that school is back in session for most of you, I am guessing that you are preparing to begin hauling bags of papers home in order to spend your weeknights and weekends grading.  Keeping with idea of my post earlier this week, I thought I would let you in on a secret I learned during my sixth year of teaching that has changed my teaching life ever since!

When I was in the middle of completing my Masters degree in Reading, I read the fantastic resource Words Their Way.  In this book, it recommends using a rubric similar to the one below to assess students' work in their Word Study Notebooks.  As I tried implementing this idea, I found that these three simple categories were just what I needed to put a grade on student work when it was difficult to calculate a percentage.  

After becoming such a fan of using these 3 symbols for grading spelling, I decided to try using the same method for grading work in other subjects.  For example, that math assignment with 20 double-digit addition problems?  Did I really have to grade every single one?  NO!!!  What I really want to know is whether the child has a basic grasp of the concept.  By randomly picking 6-8 of the problems to grade, I could get a good idea.  If they got almost all of them right, they got a star.  If they got some of them, they got a check.  If they got none or just a couple, I wrote a N at the top of the paper.

What I loved most about using this system was that I could do it so fast.  You see, historically, my M.O. for grading was to carry papers back and forth every night but never actually grade them.  Planning lessons was so much more fun than grading their results.  Weeks would go by without me getting any grades until progress reports or report cards were due and then I would stay up all night frantically grading papers.  Grading for me was just about having a number to give to parents.

Using my new system, grading become more than a number for reporting, it became a tool for my teaching and planning.  Instead of hauling papers back and forth for days, I started sitting down every afternoon to grade all of the day's work.  In 15 minutes, I could quickly get perspective on how well each students had grasped all the objectives for the day and could make plans for how to reteach or move forward the next day.  I stapled a "Super Grover" raffle ticket to every paper receiving a star.  The next morning, as students arrived, I had their papers already laid out on their desks.  Raffle tickets were celebrated and put in the Super Grover box. Students that received a N were asked to put their papers on my kidney table so that I could call them up throughout the day for reteaching.

Now, you are probably wondering how I eventually got a number grade from 3 symbols!  I really wish we could somehow overhaul this old number percentage method but I don't have the power to do that.  So, I just chose to work within the rules.  You will have to figure out what the rules are for your school and district.  My district gave very little specifications about grading so I took the liberty to make a star equal to 100, a check equal to 80, and an N equal to 60.  I found that the symbols made  much more sense to my students and their parents than a random 76, 82 or 99.  The averages of these grades worked out to give a fairly accurate representation of the depth of the students' understanding for the objectives we had addressed during the grading term.

I also made a practice of writing out the student expectation from our TEKS standards on every worksheet or blackline master.  This helped me make sure that the assignment was actually aligned to the standards AND it showed the parent what concept I was specifically grading for.

I just finished reading this book with my girls and it reminded me of the importance of grades.  When our students put their work in our basket, it deserves our immediate attention and not weeks of sitting in a bag in our car!  I hope my grading system may add hours to your personal lives and make the minutes spent with your students that much more productive!