Personal Memoir Project

As last school year was drawing to a close, I was wrapping up not only the school year, but also a chapter of my life. I was moving away, stepping out of my job as a middle school special education teacher at the school I'd worked at for 8 years. I had a special year. My students and I had journeyed together from the fear of failure to the triumph of success. A talented aide and friend walked that journey with us. It was wonderful. So I knew I wanted to conclude that chapter in a special way. 

This was our final project. 

Personal memoir projects are commonplace. Kids write about a memory, tell a story about themselves, or write an autobiography. This project, though, extends beyond that to guide students through exploring their unique identities and sharing themselves with their peers. This project utilizes many learning styles and interests and assesses students' abilities in interesting ways.

This was a profound journey. For all of us. 

Here are some pictures of the Museum of Us conclusion:

This project would fit many standards and can be adapted from late elementary through high school. 

Activities for the Book Holes

Check out more similar ideas on my website! http://www.teachbeyondthedesk.com/

Holes, by Louis Sachar, is one of my favorite young adult novels to read with my students.  Although it's challenging for my classes (reading level 5.2), it's funny, engaging, and smart.  This book doesn't talk down to my students.  It's proud of its complexity, but not too proud to be silly in all the right ways.  I mean, a book about pre-teen boys sweating away in a desert work camp is BOUND to include lots of stink-humor.  And my kids LOVE it.

We've been reading aloud in small groups of 5-6 students.  The kids take turns reading a page aloud, under the supervision and guidance of my amazing cohort, Chris, while I run grammar and writing skills groups.  We use rotations, so small groups of students are all doing different things around the room at any given time, and I am fortunate to have Chris with me this year to help supervise these groups.  I mean, after all, we KNOW 6th graders will always do what they're supposed to do without direct supervision, right?? Ha!

Anyway, the students have worked very hard through this book and have participated fully.  They've asked thoughtful questions along the way to improve their understanding, they've made connections with their own experiences, and they've made smart predictions about what may happen next.  Because they've knocked my socks off, I felt it was only fitting to celebrate the conclusion of the book with some fun activities.  Feel free to use any of them with your own classes and modify things as you see fit (thought it's always nice to give credit to your source...ahem...me!).  If you're on MyBigCampus, look me up (Katie Powell); I have quizzes and other resources in a bundle I'd happily share with you.

Trivia Challenge

I selected 30 or so questions from the quizzes we've done along the way, focusing on themes and plot elements that run throughout the story (such as why Kate Barlow became an outlaw, how Zero and Stanley are connected back in their ancestry, what The Warden is really looking for, the importance of Stanley and Zero's journey on the mountain, etc).  I printed a clip art of a shovel in a hole and pasted one question onto the back of each.  I also printed a picture of treasure and one of a lizard (colored to have yellow spots).  Then I asked our secretary to laminate them all.

For the game, I laid the "holes" out on the floor.  Since my students are already divided into three groups, they played in their rotation groups, but you can group your students into any number of teams.  The objective is to "dig" the most "holes" by answering questions correctly.  The first player from the first team tosses a bean bag and has to answer the question the bean bag lands on.  I did not allow team-mates to help so that each individual student was accountable for full participation.  If the player cannot answer the question correctly, the card is returned to the floor.  Similar to memory games, other players should make note of the card's location, especially if they know the answer, so they can get an easy "hole" on their turn.  If the card has treasure on the back, everyone on the team gets a piece of candy (but I did not count this card as a "hole").  If the bean bag lands on a yellow-spotted lizard, the team must surrender a "hole."  The team with the most "holes" when all cards are collected is the winner.  Total game play for 3 teams of 5-6 students, 30+ cards, took us approximately 40-45 minutes.

My students were VERY engaged.  They cheered and jumped around for the treasure and groaned and yelled about the lizards.  And they KNEW the information!!  I was so impressed by how well they did!

Typically I make games that can be applied to multiple areas of content, so I was hesitant to spend this much time setting up a game that would just be used once a year.  But this book is such a hit year after year that I felt it was worth it. 

Extension Idea:

This game could be used as an assessment.  You could call students back one at a time to toss the bean bag to answer a set number of questions, however many you want for your assessment.  You could tally how many they get right or wrong.  You could even number the cards to keep question statistics, such as which questions were most often missed, etc.  You could take a quiz or assessment score right from the game!  I'd probably remove the lizard cards but keep the treasure in for random candy/sticker incentives along the way :)

Celebration Stations

To celebrate the end of the book, I set up centers around the room for the following activities:

1) Holes-inspired treats: donut holes, samples of various kinds of onions, dirt pudding, and sploosh (for us, I used peach-flavored applesauce, but peach preserves, sliced peaches, etc would also work).

2) What's Your Nickname prompt: I printed this page.  The students wrote their Holes nickname on the name tag picture and then wrote a sentence explanation on the page.  I had name tag stickers for them to wear too :)  We then hung the prompts in the hallway.

3) Yellow-Spotted Lizard pencil pals: The students traced my example lizard twice onto craft foam, cut them out, and then I helped hot-glue them together along the sides, leaving the space down the middle open.  I allowed the students to use any color spots they wanted.  Once dry, you can slide a pencil down inside.  This "pencil pal" keeps pencils from rolling off the desk :)

4) Moon Sand: On a teacher message board, a teacher said they go outside to dig holes every year to celebrate the end of the book.  She said it's the student's favorite activity every year.  I found this surprising and funny, so I told my class about it.  And guess what--they all wanted to go dig holes.  I don't know if you're familiar with February in Indiana, but our ground's pretty frozen.  That's a no-go.  But I found a recipe on Pinterest (yay!) for moon sand that called for 8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil.  I had about 3/4 cup baby oil, so I supplemented with cooking oil, and it seemed to work just fine :)  I dumped the whole concoction in a large bucket, tossed in some sand box toys, and laid down a plastic table cloth to protect the floor.  I tried it out at home with my own kiddos first, and I have a couple observations: my 3 year old was less messy than my 6th graders, and my 6th graders enjoyed the moon sand as much as my 3 year old.  What a hit!

5) Of course, the movie was part of our celebration too!  And since my projector burned out recently, we got to watch with our BRAND NEW projector!  Woot!

Writing Prompt

We have ISTEP coming up in a week.  But even if you don't have statewide testing (lucky!) or aren't in testing season, writing prompts are great assessments.  This is the prompt I'm using this year:

I print several on a page and then cut them apart to affix to photocopied ISTEP prompt paper to keep the experience as authentic to our assessment as possible.

This is the rubric I'm using.  The students do peer assessing first which helps deepen their own understanding of the writing process while also helping them catch their weaknesses.  After revising, I grade.  I use the rubric as a basic checklist (the element is present or isn't), but you could use a point scale too.

 So there ya have it!  That's our Holes celebration, at a glance.  Again, if you're on MyBigCampus, look me up.  I have more resources on there I'd be happy to share.  What are your favorite Holes activities?

Giant Floor Graph City

*Check out more similar ideas on my website! TeachBeyondtheDesk.com

For coordinate graphing, I made a giant floor graph using a sheet of plastic drop cloth and masking tape.  I taped the underside of the plastic and numbered each axis.

For several years now, I've used this graph as a way to get kids up and moving during our graphing unit.  However, this year I noticed some of my students having trouble following the grid lines up to each axis to find the numbers for the ordered pairs (coordinates).  Many of my students have visual/perceptual disabilities, so following a line can be difficult.  To meet that need, we came up with the following activities:

Driving on the Floor Graph

I printed basic clip art images that say "Crash!".  I laminated them and then placed them around the graph.  I brought in some Hot Wheels-style cars (Shh! Don't tell my kids!).  The students placed 2 cars at the crash site and then "drove" out along the "roads" (grid lines) until they reached each axis. 

Have you ever seen 6th grade boys with toy cars? Ha!  They had a blast!  And we solved the problem of students not being able to follow the grid lines.

This idea then morphed or grew into the Floor Graph City Challenge.

Floor Graph City Challenge

This activity has 2 parts.  I printed clip art of basic city locations like a hospital, school, park, church, house, and store.  I laminated these, then affixed a loop of tape on the back of each.  

For the first part of the challenge, I placed the buildings around the graph.  Students used their toy cars to "drive" out from each location to the axis lines.  

For the second part, I listed ordered pairs (coordinates) for each building, and the students had to place them correctly on the graph.  They could use the toy cars to check their work.

You could easily use a floor graph like this for many more activities.  What would you use if for?

UPDATE: here are the Google Docs I use with this activity. Feel free to download and edit!

Challenging version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByGR2YbHvPZdSFA2RW9jUllhc1U/view?usp=docslist_api

Regular version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByGR2YbHvPZdX0NEYlViUG9zZDg/view?usp=docslist_api

Teaching Persuasion

Check out more similar ideas on my website! TeachBeyondtheDesk.com
I LOVE teaching persuasive writing.  Here are some of the activities I've used:

I opened our unit on persuasion with a clip from the movie The Lorax, found on wingclips.com.  In this clip, the characters are pitching their idea of bottled air to their boss.  This clip is familiar to the students but is also a great example of persuasion, so it serves as an effective hook for the unit.

Teaching Target Audience Through Common Products

For this activity, you'll need to gather several examples of one category of product marketed to specific audiences.  For example, you could gather body sprays, shampoos, and soaps for women, men, and kids.  Or you could use cereals: kids' cereal, cereal for extra fiber, cereal for those on a diet.  Regardless of what kind of product you pick, make sure a clear, specific audience is being targeted.  I used health and beauty products.

Label each product with a number.  Use one product as an example and talk about how companies use colors, shapes, characters, fonts, word choices, etc to reach the very specific audience they are trying to reach.  Women's products often use curvy lines, soft or feminine colors, and far more adjectives than you would think a shampoo would warrant.  Men's products often use bold colors, solid shapes, and even use picture directions instead of words (seriously!).  Kids' products are marketed not only at kids (typically using bright colors and familiar characters), but also at their parents (using terms that denote their product as safe, healthy, etc).  

I arranged students into groups of 2-4 and gave each group a product.  I also created an "assignment" with the same number as the product on our MyBigCampus page (similar to edmodo or other virtual classroom platforms).  You could have students hand-write their answers on paper or even just discuss aloud.  Students sought to answer these questions by examining the products together:

1) What is the target audience for this product?

2) What elements of the physical packaging attract that audience?

3) What word choices reach that audience?

When the students realized the men's body spray I brought actually used picture directions, they burst into laughter.  They also thought the overly-dramatic and descriptive language on the women's products was excessive.

This is a great, easy way to teach target audience!

Using Emotion to Persuade

For this lesson, I pulled some favorite commercials off Youtube.  One was an example of using comedy, one was an example of getting the audience to feel a need to help, and one was an infomercial (masters of persuasion!).  Here are the videos I used:

Old Spice http://youtu.be/z-m6Ua9Iqkg
ASPCA http://youtu.be/IO9d2PpP7tQ
Pocket Hose http://youtu.be/87sRVk1f7ik 

After watching all three videos, we discussed how they were different yet equally effective and memorable and what lessons from each we could apply to our own writing.  This tends to be a springboard for helping students understand that it's harder to keep someone's attention or make them feel an emotion in WRITING than it is in person or via video. This gets them to start expanding their writing beyond the basics.

Students are naturally good persuaders.  They try to talk Mom and Dad into letting them do things all the time!  These simple, engaging lessons are a way to tap into that natural ability and guide them to a more academic use for their powers of persuasion.  Consider following these activities with a real-world persuasive assignment like having them persuade you how to spend your classroom funds, to persuade the principal or school board to make a change, to write letters to the editor of the local newspaper, or to write to a government official about an issue they care about.

Preposition Lego Challenge

Check out more similar ideas on my website! http://www.teachbeyondthedesk.com/

I've spent the better part of the last six weeks recovering from the flu (apparently something as mundane as the flu does a real number on someone with chronic illness...), so I'm going to publish a couple posts back-to-back today to update you all on some recent classroom activities I've really enjoyed.

This first one originated out of an attempt to keep my students PHYSICALLY participating in their learning.  Back at my Johnson University days, I was taught that physical activity should be part of every lesson.  Although I don't hit that goal 100% of the time these days, I do try to work multiple active learning opportunities into every unit.

Shortly after Christmas break, I was teaching prepositions.  I was looking for ways to teach prepositions actively without too much prep work since I was still something akin to a zombie thanks to my New Year's Day flu diagnosis.  Here were my ideas:

Preposition Scavenger Hunt

This idea was simple.  I had one student volunteer stand in the hallway outside my room while another hid a designated object somewhere in the room.  I reminded the rest of the class to not give clues with their eyes or body language.  Then I called the volunteer back in.  The rest of the class took turns giving verbal clues using prepositions until the volunteer located the item.  Then we rotated roles.

Preposition Drawings

This is an idea I've used for a few years, and it actually led to the Preposition Lego Challenge idea.  For this activity, students will need to be grouped in partners or small groups.  Each student needs a piece of paper and a pencil.  Students are seated facing away from each other.  One student in each group is designated the original drawer.  Then they draw a simple picture using basic shapes and lines--nothing too complicated.   After completing the drawing, this student uses clear step-by-step directions, with a focus on prepositions, to instruct his or her group members how to recreate their drawing.  When finished, everyone compares their drawings (usually with lots of giggles).

Preposition Lego Challenge

This idea was a new extension of the Preposition Drawing activity.  I have a tub of Legos in my room, and my students LOVE to build with them.  Looking for a way to engage and interest my most reluctant learners, I decided to include Legos in our preposition lessons.  Students were grouped similarly to the preposition drawing activity (groups of 3 or partners, seated back-to-back).  I divided my Legos into plastic cups, one for each student, with identical Lego blocks in each.  One student in each group or partnership was designated the builder.  This student constructed anything they wanted with their Legos, without having to use all the blocks I gave them.  When they were finished, they gave step-by-step directions, using prepositions, so their partner could recreate their design.  When finished, students compared (and giggled).  

I allowed the partners to ask for clarification ("When you said to put the small red block in the middle, did you mean the middle of the short side or the long side?"), and I was delighted to witness the careful, specific communication skills they used.  I have students with a wide range of abilities and disabilities, and even my most reluctant communicators were carefully selecting their words and thinking critically to seek more information.  We know students tend to remember information better when learning is connected to movement, and we also know that building with blocks engages the same areas of the brain needed for mathematical thinking, so by adding these communication and language skills, this was a well-rounded learning activity that could easily be adapted for other skill sets.  

Students were engaged and had a blast.  How many other teachers use Legos for grammar?  Yet another reason why Mrs. Powell's class is one of the best ;)

If you are a teacher, you know how much better your class runs when your students are ACTIVELY learning.  These activities are just a few examples of how easily physical activity and creativity can be added to everyday learning.  What are your favorite preposition activities?

Some Classroom Freebies

Thanks to my slightly off-the-wall, kooky, active teaching style, I've generated a sizable repertoire of unexpected learning activities.  I've found that if I can hide the learning inside absurdity, humor, and fun, my students learn more and actually enjoy doing it.  So here are some activities we've done lately.

Verbs with AFV!
To build anticipation for and gather some quick formative assessment data on what my students already know about verbs, I used the hit show AFV.  I streamed clips of America's Funniest Home Videos (but you could use any clean, funny videos) and had the students write a sentence describing what they saw happen in each clip and then identify the verb(s) in each sentence.  The kids LOVED it, I got the data I needed, and we all had a good time.  MUCH better than a worksheet!

Checkers for Worksheets or Review

For this one, you'll need a checker board (and checkers).  I labeled each square used in play with numbers (there are 32 squares played in checkers, but my worksheet had only 27 questions, so I labeled 5 spaces as free spaces, similar to those used in BINGO).  Because I wanted to use these checker boards for other activities, I used Post-it strips to number the spaces, but you could easily write directly on the board.  I wanted students to turn this worksheet in, so I made copies for each student.  However, you could laminate your worksheet or use page protectors and rotate kids through the activity, reusing the same sheet with dry or wet erase markers to save paper.  My kids have iPads, so they could even snap a picture of the page and email it to me (though most of my kids have iPad 1's, which don't have cameras...).
OK, here are the rules of play:

Checkers Review Game o  Set your checkers up as you would to play a normal game of checkers.
o  Move your checkers as you would in a normal game.
o  When you JUMP your opponent, look at the number you LAND on.  You must answer that question correctly to take your opponent’s checker.  If you answer incorrectly, your opponent’s checker stays.
o  When you move your checker in to be KINGED, you must answer the corresponding question correctly.  If you answer incorrectly, your checker is NOT kinged.
o  The player with the most opponent’s checkers at the end is the winner.

You get the same information a worksheet would provide, but you're also breaking up the monotony and allowing learning to happen in an unexpected way :)

4 Corners
You've probably already heard of this one.  Label 4 areas of your room, one for each term or concept you're covering (we did the 4 types of sentences).  Then you give an example and have kids WALK to that area.  You can also use this activity as an ice-breaker or time-killer ("Your favorite zoo animal: tigers, lions, chimpanzees, or alligators--go!").  Cheap, quick, and easy!  And the kids LOVE it and tend to remember the concepts because their BODY was there.  When we did the types of sentences, kids connected the type of sentence to where they had stood in the room and used that to help them on the final assessment.

Voting Paddles
These are great for yes/no questions or any question that can be answered with one of two answer choices (think math--positive or negative or opinions--agree or disagree).  I made mine very simply: laminated paper and craft sticks.  That's it.  Then I have the students use wet-erase marker to write our answer choices for the day so we can reuse the same paddles for other activities.  I ask questions and have the students quick vote with their paddles.  Students can also poll each other that way.  Again, quick, fun, easy formative assessment!

Give me a ., !, ?
I'm using this one currently for our reading log.  I have the students give me a brief statement summary (.), one thing that surprised them (!), and one thing they're still wondering about (?).

Adverb Charades
You'll need strips of paper or index cards, two different colors.  One one color, have the kids write one verb that could be easily demonstrated.  Then have them write one adverb on the other.  Gather the cards in separate stacks.  When a person is "it," they draw a combo and act it out.  Students then guess the combo.  I usually quickly write a word bank on the board as I gather the cards.

And one last instructional freebie: If you haven't yet checked out the site classdojo.com, you need to! It's a free, online classroom management site that lets you award or deduct points for any issue (you can input your own, positive or negative) and keep running totals and even email reports to parents!  I LOVE this site, and it's motivated my students like never before WITHOUT creating more work for me!  Woot!

Finally, I try to do things on open house or conference night to make my room as welcoming as possible.  Sometimes parents and/or kids are nervous, younger siblings are squirmy, and everyone is tired and frazzled.  I appreciate that parents take the time to come in, so here's what I do to make the whole experience a little more enjoyable:

And since our conferences are student-led, students often sit there uncomfortably unsure of what to say while parents impatiently flip through page after page of old homework assignments.  This year I developed a conversation guide to focus the time.

Name__________________________________________Student-Led ConferencesDiscussion Guide1) Thank your parents for taking the time to come in. 2) Show your parents your 1^st Quarter grades on PowerSchool.  Go through each class and take the time to answer any questions they have. 3) Show your parents your agenda.
Do you fill it out each day? _____________________Do you take it to every class?_______________________
Do you look at it at home to see what you need to do for homework? __________________Do you show your parents your agenda each night? ______________________________________ 4) Go through your accordion folder.
Have you kept your folder organized? ____________________Have you shown Mom and Dad your graded work, notes home, etc? ___________________Are you keeping ALL your important papers in your folder? ____________________________Are you as organized as you need to be? _____________________________________ 5) Homework:Have you turned in ALL your assignments on time? _____________________________________Are you doing homework at home? _______________________________________Are you taking the time to do it well? _________________________________________Does any of your homework feel too difficult? _______________________________________Do you have a specific time and place at home to work on homework? ________________Look back through your grades on PowerSchool.  Are there any marked as missing, late, or zeros? _________________________ 6) Studying:Do you tell Mom or Dad when you have a test coming up? ______________________________Be honest.  Do you REALLY study? ___________________________________How much time do you typically spend studying at home for a test? ___________________Look back through your grades on PowerSchool.  Are your test grades above 70%? ________________________What could you do to better prepare for tests 2^nd Quarter? _____________________________ 7) Attitude:How do you feel about school? __________________________________Do you like coming to school? __________________________________What do you like best about school? _____________________________________________________Do you get along with your classmates? ____________________________________________What do you need to do to improve your attitude or behavior? ______________________________________________
  8) Goals:Did you give your very best 1^st Quarter? _____________________________________________________What do you want to improve most for 2^nd Quarter? ___________________________________________What will it take to accomplish that goal? ___________________________________________________ 9) Read180:Show your parents your rBook and talk to them about each of the workshops we’ve done so far (1, 2, and 6).  What was your favorite? _________________________________________Look back at your Read180 and English class grades.  What were some assignments you think you really gave your best on? ______________________________________________Explain bell work, daily trivia, journals, reading rotation, etc.Go over your Reading Fluency rubric.  What did you do well? ______________________________________What did you need to improve? ________________________________________________Go over the rubric for your Halloween poem.  What did you do well? _____________________________________What did you need to improve? ________________________________________________Explain Class Dojo and how you’re doing.Make sure you SHOW them your poem too!You can show your parents the software, the different areas of our room, etc. 10) Math (if you have Mrs. Powell for math)Go over your math grades.  We covered whole numbers, story problems, integers, and decimals this quarter.  Which of those skills was your best? ___________________________________Which did you struggle most with? ______________________________________________Do you typically take the time to check your work? ______________________________________Do you SHOW all your work? _______________________________________________Did you take advantage of the chance to re-take or redo tests and quizzes? ________________________________Did you do all your homework assignments? _____________________________________________How do you feel about math? ____________________________________________________ 11) Social Studies:Review the things Mr. Weimer told you to review.  Use your data notebook app. 12) Science:Review the things Mrs. Kreienbrink told you to review.  Use your data notebook app. 13) What is one thing you wish your parents knew about you or school? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________14) What is one thing you really should thank them for? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________If you or your parents have questions to address with other teachers or you’d like to stop in to see them, you can go visit other classrooms.LOCKER:Show your parents your locker.Is it organized? ____________________________Take a moment to tidy it up.

So there ya go!  Feel free to add your own activities and resources in the comments!