Looking Back: Classroom Libraries and COVID

 

This year has been tough! My school was face-to-face with the entire class for almost the entire year. Last year, I wrote about plans for a classroom library in the face of a pandemic. Now, I'm at the happy point of looking back on the year and thinking about lessons learned.

Taking Books from Room to Room

   Because I moved about this year, I couldn't have a typical classroom library. Instead, I had to take a bin of books with me from room to room. (By the end of the year, I was carting a tall table and an overhead cart with handouts and books!) 

    I expected this to be harder than it was. My start of year book survey helped me to do first day book assignments. Then, I could pick out follow-up books to put into my book bin to cart from place to place. I did make many trips back and forth to my classroom to get books that I'd forgotten; luckily I had a co-teacher for two classes and a lunch break in the middle of the other.

   I had some tried and true books that went with me and were in almost constant circulation! Because of this year's overall atmosphere, I found that kids gravitated toward quick and fun graphic novels. These were the all-time favorites from the year.

Teacher Sign-Out Book

    In the past, students have been responsible for signing out books. This year, I needed to keep the sign-out book myself. Returned books went into a quarantine bin, while I checked books in and out with a sign in book.

   And this worked out wonderfully! In fact, I think that I will clear the first 10 minutes of every class this year to do this again. I kept better track of books than ever before. Previously I had thought that I absolutely could not handle writing down student book checkouts, but I learned otherwise. It worked out well and helped me to have short conversations with readers every day. 

No Browsing

   At the start of the year, I worried about the lack of browsing in my classroom library. However, this turned out to be less of an issue than I thought. Between the book survey and my traveling book bin, I managed to get kids set up with the next book they'd like pretty easily. Each morning, I would sort the quarantined books that were ready to be returned, check my notes for what to take the next day, and get my book bin set up.

   In fact, I noticed that no browsing meant that more time was spent reading. Students became more skilled at asking me for the kinds of books they'd like ("Mrs. Kissner, I want something that's sad and long") and I got better at making recommendations. I did sometimes give students three books that I'd selected for them to look through. They could choose one and return the rest to the quarantine bin.

   I don't think that I will disallow browsing for the future, but I think that I will limit it. I always have a core group of students who like to avoid reading, and too much freedom to browse gives them time to do this. Finding a balance between browsing and teacher recommendation is my task for next year!

Outdoor Reading Time

   This isn't something new for the pandemic...but wow, does some outdoor reading time brighten everyone's mood! In the first few weeks of school, I had students bring along a beach towel to sit on outdoors. Our bright and sunny courtyard was the perfect place for fresh air, reading time, and much-needed social distancing.

   In my end-of-year survey for students, independent reading time rated highly as one of the favorite activities for students. In fact, several students suggested that I give more time next year! This just goes to show that independent reading is important no matter what. 

Lessons for Next Year

   What will next year bring? I can't even begin to guess. But I have learned some new tricks for my classroom library and figured out how to make daily reading time work in a wide range of situations.

Take your class to read outdoors

     Did anyone else have such a beautiful Friday as we did in Pennsylvania? By March standards, it was the perfect day: windswept blue skies, bright sun, and warm temperatures.
     After lunch, a student said, "Maybe we can go read outside after we finish our spelling test." I glanced at the clock and made a doubtful face. I hadn't planned reading outside, mostly because it had been five months since our last session and I didn't think we'd have time to run down the expectations again.
     Still, we finished our assessment quickly and the students looked at me with such hope in their eyes that I gave in. "We'll try some outdoor reading," I said. It was Friday, and I didn't really expect much reading to happen. However, with colder weather on the way, I thought giving kids more time outside was the nice thing to do.
     To my surprise, students remembered every detail of our September reading sessions. They pulled Popsicle sticks to assign the cushions, found my bag of blankets, and grabbed their books. When we got outside they chose spots without delay. Five minutes after making the decision to go outside, suddenly everyone was reading in the March sunshine. They had remembered everything!

Getting ready to read outdoors

     I admit that I have an exceptional location for outdoor reading. I mean, this view is amazing, right? (Don't be too jealous; we don't have air conditioning and I'm a good half hour from the nearest Target, so there are trade-offs.)
     I'm sad to admit that for the first ten years of teaching here, I didn't really think of reading as an outdoor activity. I took students outside for science walks, and perhaps we read once or twice a season as a special activity, but it wasn't part of my consistent instruction.
     Then I moved to the end of the hall. I had an entrance twenty feet from my door. Could we read outside more often? I started to dismiss the idea. Students wouldn't want to sit on the hard ground, they wouldn't stay focused, there would be too many complications. But the pull of the outdoors was strong enough to overcome these issues. So I did some prep work to get everything ready. Here's what to do!

Collect blankets and sheets: I pulled together a collection of old blankets and sheets from my house. You know, the character twin sheets that the kids don't want to use anymore, the blankets that just feel weird, the beach towels that are frayed on the edges. I was able to pretty quickly get about 12 together, enough for my entire class. Alternatively, you could ask students to bring in beach towels or see if any parents have some to donate.
Get some old patio cushions: I didn't plan for these, but someone was upgrading their patio furniture and offered me the old and faded cushions. They are perfect for outdoor reading!
Check school procedures: When I take students outside, I always email the school secretary first and take the walkie talkie from my hallway. Be sure to find out what your school's procedures are.
Check schedules and locations: The last thing you want is to have a PE class walking through your reading session. Think about the school sessions and find a location where you won't be disturbed. You'll also want to think about how big of an area you want to control. Spreading out the students can be great, but can also make it harder to see what students are doing.
Consider the sun: Depending on the time of day, bright sunlight can make reading uncomfortable. It helps to find a location that is part sun/part shade so that students can choose what is best for them.
Grass will be wet in the morning: If you want to read first thing in the morning, the grass will be wet and will soak through your blankets and sheets. Trust me. We know. You will want some flannel-backed vinyl tablecloths instead of blankets if you are reading first thing, OR you will want to be sure to read on blacktop. As you can tell from the pictures, my reading locations vary slightly depending on the time of day and outdoor conditions.

Setting up expectations

     I like to create a looks like/sounds like chart with students before our first outdoor reading session. We talk about how reading outdoors can be a fun and relaxing activity for us. But what would a class of engaged readers look like? What would it sound like? We talked about how there would be things outdoors that we may want to look at--an overhead vulture, for example--and how we could switch our attention back and forth between what interests us and our books.
     For the first few sessions, I had my co-teacher watch the class for a few minutes while I slipped outside to arrange the blankets. I set them a good distance apart so that students can spread out. After I do this a few times, students pick up on the expectations and can arrange everything on their own. (Funny story: When we went outside on Friday for the first time in months, students fished their favorite blankets and sheets out of my bag as if they were long lost friends!) The cushions are given out by picking Popsicle sticks.
     I also made sure to take some high-interest picture books outside for the first few sessions. In August and September, students are still settling into the reading routine, and one or two will inevitably finish their books during an outdoor reading session. Having some books on hand makes it easy to get those kids right back into a book.

Managing behavior

     I never have any behavior issues outdoors! It always goes perfectly!
     Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Working with sixth graders is never dull, that's for sure. Some issues are bound to occur! For this reason, I don't generally get a chance to read myself when we are outside. Instead, I circulate to check in on what students are doing.

Kids talking instead of reading: This is by far the most common issue. Sometimes the talking is related to the novelty of being outside. I've found that talking peaks around our third outdoor reading session. After I strategically separate certain groups for a session or two, students get the message that this is important reading time.
Bug freak-outs: Some students are more concerned about this than others. We talk about how to handle bugs and have a few volunteers who will handle spider removal if necessary. If there's a student who really really doesn't want to sit on the ground, talk with them to brainstorm a solution. One year I had a student who would carry a stool out with him. It worked!
Daydreaming: I'm not sure of how big of an issue this is. Sometimes students will be outside and will just look into the mountains or sky instead of reading. I keep an eye on this and alternate indoor with outdoor reading to make sure that some reading gets done. But then...with a view like ours, who can begrudge some moments to enjoy? 

Delighting in the teachable moment

     Spending time outside always brings unexpected delights, like the bald eagle flying overhead or the robber fly stopping by. In October, when the insects are sluggish and easy to catch, we usually bring a collection container with us when we read outside to catch our six-legged friends.
     I usually take two minutes before we go inside to share what's new and interesting that day.  If students don't know what's there, they won't miss it when it's gone. On Friday, the killdeers had returned, so we spent a few moments listening for them.


   Outdoor reading time is a way to combine two wonderful activities for students. It's surprisingly easy to manage, and students find it enjoyable. Give it a try!

Sixth Grade Classroom Management: Grouping Tips

   Sometimes the trouble with teaching for 20+ years is the curse of knowledge. I have tried so many different techniques and noticed so many different results that I get to feeling paralyzed by choices!  I've also learned that some strategies are great for winning the battle, but losing the war--they work really well in the short term, but leave me with greater challenges in the long term.

    But last month, I learned that sometimes techniques that I discarded a decade ago are worth a closer look.

Table Competitions

    Enter Star Table. In the research compilation library of my mind, assigning points to different tables as a competition has as many entries in the "Con" column as it does in the "Pro" column. In the short-term, it is highly effective, as groups will quickly learn how to manage their behaviors to earn points. In the long-term, well, are the students really shaping up to improve as learners, or are they just performing to win points? Because of these issues, I really had abandoned table incentive schemes ten years ago.

Star Table for Cleaning

    In October, I added a "Star Table" incentive, but it was only for cleaning up under the tables and putting up chairs at the end of the day. For these small chores, I feel that a tangible incentive is both helpful and necessary. Each day I'd assign points to table based on what their desks looked like at the end of the day, and at the end of the week the Star Table got to "spin for dollars" with my wheel of fortune and the classroom economy. It was pretty simple, actually, and got the classroom cleaned up with a minimum of fuss.

Group Norms

    But Star Tables were on my mind when I rearranged tables for the month of November. To build a better climate, I started the new groups by having students create group norms for their table. (I picked up this idea from a NASA STEM workshop, and as a teaching tip, is the one of the BEST little tricks I've ever learned.) The idea is that students have a dialogue with each other to dream up what they want for themselves. When issues arise, it's easy for a leader to refer students back to the group norms to address problems.

    Group norms are also great for finding out what you value as a teacher, because to a degree the norms that students create tend to echo what they hear a lot of in the classroom. (I know this from working with group norms in after school clubs, in which we have a mix of students from different classes.) If the group norms come out anemic or weak, that can be hard to face, because it means that somehow my messaging as a teacher is not coming through.

 November's norms were an interesting assortment! Notice in this one the students in the group took turns writing the norms, which I hadn't expressly suggested. They also used a nice numbered list format--again, not something that I had directed them to do!

What do these norms say about our classroom? I was really happy to see #1, but I can see the impact of Star Table right there in #3: "Stay clean." I especially love #4: "Have a sense of humor but not to much."

    In this next set, I really liked that they started with kindness and respect. Once again, though, I could see the influence of Star Table.

    As I'm writing this, I wonder if maybe I should have backed off from Star Table. However, in the first week of November, I made a different choice. I looked at these norms and realized that my casually implemented Star Table was a powerful force in the classroom. What if I could harness that force to achieve more good? What if I kept points throughout the day, for things beyond cleaning?

Star Table Throughout the Day

    For the rest of November, I created a chart on the dry erase board each day, and put up points for tables throughout various classes. As I recreated the chart every day I could never help but reflect on how this method of management has gone wrong for me in the past. As I wrote the table names each day I berated myself for employing such a meaningless technique.

    Once I defeated my anxiety each day, I added or subtracted points as issues arose. Because I prefer to be the Generous Benefactor instead of the Evil Deductress, I was often quite generous in the giving of points. Each table could earn 3 points for every session, and I would add an X or a star in the box as needed. I have to admit, sometimes adding that X felt satisfying, like when it was five minutes into independent reading time and AN ENTIRE TABLE had digressed to a conversation about Fortnite.

    Of course I never gave or took away points for academic work, like getting answers right or wrong. Instead, I looked for things like having out assigned tasks, being ready for the next part of class, showing kindness to one another, and walking through the hallway quietly. (Ugh, like 50% of my classroom management stress comes from trying to keep my class quiet in the hallways!)

    When there were issues that involved only one student, I addressed them with that one student instead of marking down the whole table. I know from experience that taking points off a table for the behavior of one student is the pathway to ruin!

    What was different with this year's implementation of Star Tables? First of all, this was the first time that I explicitly linked them to the group norms that students created. Another innovation was to give minutes to our entire class's Preferred Activity Time if all four tables earned all of the points for a class. This helped to provide an incentive to benefit everyone instead of focusing on the competitive aspect.
   
    I just finished Week 3, and it was still working harmoniously in the background. Working to the point at which I can just pick up my dry erase marker and frown at the board for a moment to encourage a class to get started! Instead of taking too much time to implement, this method has really allowed me to spend more time working with students and less time giving directions.

Lessons Learned

    The curse of knowledge can be a huge obstacle for those of us in our third and fourth decades of teaching. However, by pairing new tricks with old techniques, we can dust off some strategies and make them work again.

Warnings, Side Effects, and Contraindications

Thinking about Star Tables for your classroom? Consider these warnings:

• De-emphasize the competitive aspect to build cooperation in your room.
• Start with a robust set of group norms to guide how tables will behave.
• If one table is significantly behind the others, make adjustments to the seating chart.
• Do not punish the entire group for the misdeeds of one. Instead, let that one student earn points or minutes for the whole class.
• You will be much happier if you are generous with points.
• This works best for short periods of time, especially the period of November-January. Eventually every management scheme gets stale!
• Encourage group members to help each other: "In one minute I'll be checking to see how tables are doing. Does everyone have their ____ and ____ ready to go?"
• Try random point awards: "I'll be pulling popsicle sticks at random times through that work session. If I pull your name and you're on task, your table will get a point."
• Pair up Star Tables with Preferred Activity Time: http://www.fredjones.com/pat

 

Station Rotations in Sixth Grade Math

    My math classroom is quite the collection of students this year! I have 24 sixth graders of all ability levels. We have a demanding curriculum (Math in Focus). The bumpy rollout of our curriculum when these students were in fourth grade has left them with a few holes in their math knowledge, holes that I didn't even know to look for at the start of the year.

    But most importantly they are a collection of delightful individuals who need the most math that I can teach them. This year, I've been trying to figure out the best way that I can do this. One thing that I know from my years of teaching ELA is that there often is no single best way--that I must be constantly changing up my strategy, working on my plans, and altering routines to fit my students at that moment.

    In October I attended a workshop about hybrid station rotation, and I decided to implement it right away. My class does break pretty evenly into three groups. I'm really lucky this year in that the gifted teacher can take a group for enrichment during two days of the cycle, and an instructional assistant comes in during all of math.

    With these advantages, hybrid rotations should have worked out perfectly, right? Well, it was bumpy.

    My first problem was in my arrangement of teacher lessons. In the first week, I saw the middle group first, the struggling group second, and the enrichment group last. (With students, of course, I called them by content-based names instead of these terms.) This arrangement

crashed and burned. My enrichment group consisted of the largest personalities in my class, and leaving them to their own devices for the first 40 minutes of math was not successful.
   
     Technology use was another issue. I needed at least 5 computers per class, and these was not always easy to secure. While students said that they liked watching the videos, they struggled with learning from them. Another issue was that the method required 100% of my focus and attention. There were at least 12 discrete tasks that I needed to complete for each math lesson!
It took a great deal of Saturday time to plan each lesson, and most of my lunch to get ready for it each day.

Workshop Station Rotation
    We took December, January, and part of February off from station rotation, moving to a more traditional model. Special events in December made this essential, and we kept the routine in January as students were enjoying it.
    In the middle of February, though, we were all ready to try stations again. But I had some changes in mind! First of all, I changed my rotation. The hybrid model works wonderfully in

some situations, but I wanted something different.

Whole Group Lessons
    I've limited my stations to 15 minutes each instead of 20, which means that I have 20 minutes for a whole group lesson in each class as well. This helps us all to stay on track.

Homework/Review Station
    I've been having great results with a homework packet due Friday mornings. I use great materials put together by Maneuvering the Middle. When students have questions or problems, I have used time in the morning before school, at the start of recess, or at the end of math to help them.
   Why not use class time for this? The homework and review station is time each day for students to work on their homework packets, reviewing key skills from the entire school year. Even better, students could help each other by explaining their work and showing their steps.
    In the middle of the week, as students are finishing their homework, I add some Reteach or Extra Practice pages from my math curriculum to this station.

Teacher Station
    Now, instead of planning a lesson to fill my entire 20-minute block, I prepared a single problem or technique to show students. The remainder of the time I kept open for emerging issues. What problems did you encounter at the other stations? What would you like me to show you?
    This method works perfectly with our current unit, Area of Polygons. After I started with some basic whole group lessons, students moved on to finding area of more complex shapes. They would bring their questions to me and we would work on those tougher problems together.

Lab Station
    This station is especially useful for manipulatives-heavy topics like geometry. Here, students extended our learning in projects or activities. I use a combination of prepared activities, like these, and homemade projects here. An example of a homemade project is pattern blocks--we worked in the teacher small group to calculate the area of pattern blocks, and then students made composite shapes and showed the area of them.

Entropy
    The Workshop Station Rotation model is prone to a beautiful entropy. In the last few days I've found that the structure is not as necessary. Students are moving into a workshop model in which they are trying things out, doing the math, and working with each other. And that is amazing!

Is it the model or the content? Are students doing well because the routine works well for them, or because they enjoy working with area? I'm not sure if the answer is necessary.

Every classroom routine has its ups and downs, its pluses and minuses. Have you tried station rotations? How have they worked for you?

Flipping Lessons with Frolyc

In the early weeks of the school year, I admit to loving the computer lab. Not only is it equipped with great Macbooks for student use, but it is also air-conditioned! The cool air is a welcome respite from the heat and humidity of August and September.

Last week, I experimented with flipping a lesson. Instead of me standing up and teaching all students at once, I wanted to give them the flexibility to move through a lesson at their own pace. While they worked in the cool comfort of the computer lab, I could work one-on-one with students to complete our beginning of the year assessments.

Frolyc is the perfect tool for creating a flipped lesson. I can put all of the text, videos, and activities that I want students to use in one easy place. Even though my students don't all have computers at home, they still need to learn how to work through online content and learn from these kinds of lessons.

I started out by creating my classrooms. No need for student e-mail addresses or lengthy forms--I just had to type in student first names. Each student receives an individual code that they use to access their activities.

Next, I created my lesson through the authoring tool on Frolyc. We are working on story elements with a focus on protagonist, antagonist, and parts of a plot. I used a "Multimedia Text" activity to combine an image, a video from YouTube, and text. This is what it looked like on student computers:

I couldn't find a great video for parts of the plot diagram, so I adapted a few slides from a PowerPoint that I have already made (Story Elements) and did a screencast using QuickTime. Then I posted it to YouTube so that I could embed it in the next page of the Frolyc activity. (link to video)

The kids found it very amusing to listen to me! Even better, though, they had full control of stopping and starting the video. "Can we watch it again? I don't really remember all of the words," one student said. "Of course!" I replied. This is one advantage of a video!

After the video, students read a story, and then answered sequencing and multiple choice questions. These questions required students to apply the vocabulary that they had learned in previous pages. Some kids realized that they had to go back and reread, which was a great lesson for them.

 The lesson ended with a drawing activity. Kids enjoyed interacting with the drawing tool, and I loved watching the collaboration bloom--"How do you add a text box?"--and "How do I draw instead of erasing?"

I'm planning to continue creating flipped lessons for students in the weeks to come. These lessons are great for introducing vocabulary and helping students to experience content.

You can find the full activity here if you would like to try it out with your students.

If you would like to try to create your own flipped lesson, here is a story that you can use--for free! This retelling of "Stone Soup", told from multiple points of view, can be used for teaching about theme and point of view.

Behind the Scenes: A Classroom Economy

I write a lot about individual lessons and activities, but sometimes I forget to talk about the deep routines in the classroom. One thing that I love is a classroom economy! It runs totally in the background of the classroom (well, usually) and solves many daily problems. Basically, kids earn tickets in various ways and then can use those tickets for different purposes.

How do kids get tickets?

The basic way to get tickets is to do a classroom job. For other ways, the answer differs as the year goes on. Early in the year I would give kids tickets if I accidentally called them by a sibling's name--much to the delight of my younger son! Sometimes I also give tickets for random tasks, like stapling book orders or cleaning up from a science experiment.

As the year has gone on,  students also get tickets when they remove 5 vocabulary cards (you can read about the vocabulary system here).  But most students earn tickets through contracts. How do they get the contract? Students see a problem in the classroom and write a contract to fix it. Right now students are passing out reading binders, doing the lunch count, taking care of the bird observations and bird feeder, erasing the whiteboard, and, yes, keeping track of all of the contracts!

Kids write the contracts themselves, which makes for interesting conversations and an authentic reason for writing. What do you intend to do? How often will you do it? Once their contract work is complete, they fill out an "invoice" that I sign.

How do kids use tickets?

So here are the things on our class poster:
-Switch seats for the day: 2
-Special chair: 3 (I have an old teacher's chair that they can borrow for the day)
-Stool: 2
-Stuffed animal for the day: 2
-Extra copy of a paper: 1
-Returning to class to get a forgotten item: 1
-First choice of recess equipment: 1
-Laptop use (kids have assigned days, so this is for extra): 3
-Popcorn Party for the class: 50 (kids can donate into an envelope)

I also auction things off once or twice a cycle. These things include donated little toys, books and bookmarks, school supplies, and other randomness. Such a great way to get those odds and ends into good hands!

What else happens?

A student wrote a contract for making the
morning message.

Well--it's different every year. It's always interesting to see how kids make the system theirs. I don't allow students to bring things from home to sell for tickets, although kids do try to do this every year. Sometimes kids start businesses. Right now, some students are making friendship bracelets and "selling" them during indoor recess. Another student is selling drawings. One student purchased the rights to a fancy set of fine line markers, and rents them during recess.

When students kept forgetting to move their lunch cards in the mornings, the student in charge of the closets proposed a win-win solution: If you don't move your lunch card by announcements, you have to donate to ticket to the Popcorn Party envelope.

During indoor recess, we found that we were going through construction paper at an alarming rate. A student came up with a tiered payment system. Now, using recycled classroom paper is free, while construction paper has a ticket cost.

The area by the door to my classroom is covered with student-created posters, advertising their various goods and services. Students are even considering marketing and how to connect with customers. After the Hour of Code, one student even offered computer programming lessons!

Potential problems

...are not actually a big deal. I say to students early on--this is supposed to be fun. And students really treat it as such. We talk about safe places to keep tickets and the need to be responsible. There are minor problems with dropping tickets here and there, but nothing major so far. And I've done versions of this for four years.

Some fun

All in all, our classroom economy is a great routine to have going on in the background. Lots of fun and room for discussion and growth!

News and notes
-I finally finished Exploring Point of View! This includes two original stories--one written in a shifting point of view, and the other written in first person point of view.