A New Home

After 16 years at Laurelville, I am in a new school.  I am excited about this opportunity as Logan Elm Local School District opens a new school (although still in an old building), Salt Creek Intermediate School.  The realignment of the district should help students' needs be better served by putting all fifth and sixth grade students in one location.  

I am fortunate to be teamed with an excellent group of teachers, Colleen Webb, Susanne Hardin, and Lorrie Huysman.  We will have about 100 students in the 4 classes.  Students will rotate through the classes with one of hour of instruction for each of the subjects, social studies, math, science, and language arts.

Reading Workshop will still operate the same with lots of technology integrated into students' daily learning.  Students will still be writing on their blogs, and use Study Island, the online learning program.  The books from the Laurelville book room have been moved and students will have many choices with a lot of great books.

Admittedly there is a bit of sadness as the end of my time comes at Laurelville.  The students, parents, and staff have made it a great place to be.  But with change there is always the chance for growth and I am anxious to dive into the new school year and all of the fun and adventure in the upcoming year.

You Can Do It!

You have been reading and writing all year.  You have practiced every imaginable type of test passage.  Your vocabulary has improved tremendously.  You have proven your ability on Study Island.  Every sign points to success.  And, as I told you two months ago, YOU WILL PASS!

Now it is on you.  Do you believe?  Will you work your absolute hardest for 2 1/2 hours to show yourself, your parents, and your school that you have grown and learned this year in Reading Workshop?

Thank you for the effort.  You make me proud!

Singing in Class

We sing daily in reading class. The lyrics are shown on the wall with a DLP projector. Students read the words as they sing. This helps students build fluency. They learn to read words in chunks, and look for familiar phrases. We also work on vocabulary. Since we started this several years ago, it has consistently improved students' reading levels, and improved test scores. It also is a great way to learn while having fun.

Currently we are singing Welcome to the 60's. This is from the movie Hairspray.

We are revising the friendly letters. We have been working on writing on topic, and supporting that with details from the book. We are also editing with focus on capitalization, punctuation, and correct letter format.

A student (who I won't name Shayna) followed the rules for capitalization to the T. Our NOTES for the day were:

Capitalize
1.first word in a sentence
2.proper nouns—names of people, places, and things
3.first letter of words in a title
4.I

When this unnamed student (Shayna) brought up her paper, every I on the page was in cap's. The NOTES now say, "I when used as a word." She made my afternoon and I am still smiling about it.


Congrats to our Study Island Students of the Day, Shelby C. and Caleb F.

Read at Home Logs are due tomorrow--Friday, September 7.

Engrade

Grades for the fifth and sixth grade students are available at all times on Engrade. Grades are stored online and can be accessed by any computer on the internet. Each student has his/her own account and must log on with a username and password to see their grades. If students and/or parents have a question their grades, all they have to do is follow the link to the Engrade website.

Students set up their accounts yesterday, so now their grades are available on line 24/7 for science, social studies, reading, and writing. We used Engrade last year, and students really liked being able to access their grades whenever they want. Each day, students can check their grades during language arts class, at home, or in the Laurelville Library.

Students that want extra credit can write an essay to be used in class during Rambunctious Reading. Currently we are using an adaption from Harris and Me, written by Gary Paulsen. Students are enjoying living through the scene where Harris and Me dive bomb the pigs as they pretend they are at war.

Great job to our Study Island Students of the Day--Connor H., Josh P., Kari W., and Justin H.

Finish First and You Will Do the Worst

Most everyone has heard the saying, hard work will pay off in the end.  Yesterday, students took the Study Island Benchmark Test, and it was a perfect example.  This test evaluates students reading on a variety of reading skills.  Students that took their time, went back in the passages, and found answers scored well, and mostly passed.  Students that rushed through their work had the lowest scores.

This one assignment is a message to all students about what they can expect this year in Reading Workshop.  Those with a good work ethic, that do their best, will do well.  Those that don't give their best and don't work hard are going to struggle.  And it's not just here.  No matter what students do with their life, hard work will pay off in the end.

The column on the left is minutes spent taking the test.  The columns on the right shows students' total percent and score.  A score of 400 is passing.

Compare those to students that took more time.

Taking more time does not guarantee a passing score, but it made a huge difference.  There was no time limit on this assignment.  So for students that didn't pass, I wonder why they didn't take more time.

Students' View on Achievement Test Practice

Students took the 2006 edition of the Ohio Achievement Assessment.  This serves several purposed including a practice run-through, data regarding students' ability, projection data, areas of strengths and weaknesses, and specific needs prior to the actual test in April.

Here are a few of the students' thoughts, ideas, and opinions shared from a discussion after the test.

Cody--It is confusing.  Some of the questions are confusing because I wasn't sure what they were asking.
Joanna--I didn't like how a lot of the stories were nonfiction because they were harder to understand.
Karly--I would rather have poetry than nonfiction.  Poetry is easier to understand.
Kater--I wasn't sure how to put my thoughts into words on the extended response questions.
Hannah Hop--The test was frustrating.  I had to keep going back to the passage to find the answers.
Justin G.--The passages and the test were too long.
Joanna--Some of the words were hard and made it hard to understand.
Karly--Yeah, I didn't know some of the words and couldn't figure them out.
Brandon C.--The extended responses were hard and I need more practice so I can do them.
Hannah Hop.--The extended response questions made me mad, because they were so much harder to understand.
Branden M.--The extended response would mention something in the essay, and then say something else, then I would have to read the question again, because I forgot what it was asking.
Andrew--Some of the multiple choice answers didn't go with the passage.
Joanna--It took forever for the question to compare stuff from two passages because I couldn't find it.
Kater--On the multiple choice, if I didn't know the answer right off, I had to go back to the passage and check each answer to find the right one.
Hannah Hop--What are we supposed to do on the extended response if we have no clue what to answer?
Hannah Hop--It is very hard going back and forth.  The passages should be on one page and the questions and where you answer should be together.
Kater--The passages, questions, and answer sheet should all be separate.
Kennedy--It was pretty easy really.
Cierra--I got a headache when I was sitting there trying to take the test.
Alysha--I tried really hard and it took a long time.
Kennedy--Is the real test going to be twice as long? (Basically, except one test passage was omitted)
Tyler S.--It was hard sitting there for two hours.
Justin P.--I kept getting distracted.
Hannah Har--We need more breaks.
Kennedy--There were words I didn't know.
Katie H--They had definitions to a lot of the words at the bottom of the page.
Heather--It seemed like I was being rushed.  I was afraid I wouldn't get done.
Katie H--If there is one more passage, I don't know if I can get it done in time.
Hadley--It made me really tired.
Makayla--Some of the questions were very confusing.  Most of the words were ones I didn't know.
Savannah--There were a lot of extended responses.
Madison--Some of the things were like what I had done before on Study Island.
Hadley--I didn't like having it in the morning.
R.J.--The word bank confused me because they gave more than one meaning for the word.  I would think I knew the answer, but then I looked at the definition and I wasn't sure.
Ian--The two frog jumping passages were confusing because they jumped back and forth and you didn't know which one they meant.
Caleb--Some of the passages were long, and that made them harder.
Hannah C--The cause and effect question was hard because I hadn't done any in a while.
Hadley--Students would do better if the passages were more interesting.  If they are not interesting, kids won't do as well because they just won't care as much.
Madison--Taking the test in the morning made us brain dead the rest of the day.

How the Setting Impacts the Book

Students recently wrote a blog post about how the setting impacts the book they are reading.  We discussed the setting in the current read aloud, Watcher's Rewind written by Peter Lerangis.  In this book the whole story takes place near where a fatal accident happened.  This makes life extremely difficult for the main character, Adam Sarno.

Students also completed a lesson on Study Island, the online learning program that we use in Reading Workshop.

To see student blog posts, you can look HERE

Committees For Writing Workshop

In Writing Workshop, we are improving through the use of committees. Each class has a Revision Committee and an Editing Committee. As students move through the writing process, the committee members help improve writing, peer tutor, and assist with grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The process includes:

Step 1 Thinking, Prewriting, First Draft
Students can either write out the first draft or type it on a computer. If they write it out, they type it before going to step 2.

Step 2 Revision Committee
A member of the Revision Committee reads the first draft and writes down any questions he/she has as they read.

Step 3 Revise Content
Students use the questions to revise and improve the content.

Step 4 Editing Committee
Once students have checked their writing for mistakes, they go over it with a member of the Editing Committee checking for errors in spelling, sentencing, punctuation, and capitalization.
Students clean up mistakes, and print out a clean copy. Students then meet with a different member of the Editing Committee for a final look, checking for any mistakes.

Step 5 Correct Mistakes, Final Draft
Students correct any remaining mistakes, and give their essay a final look.
Students then print a final draft and turn in to be graded.

6-B Revision Committee

6-A Revision Committee

6-B Editing Committee

6-A Editing Committee

Peer Tutoring at Work

Congratulations to our Study Island Students of the Day, Catherine and Scotty!

When the Cat's Away, Web 2.0 Saves the Day

I am attending the eTech Ohio Educational Technology Conference on February 2-4. As anyone who has ever been a classroom teacher can attest, one of the biggest problems of being out for professional development is school still goes on. The teacher must write plans for the substitute teacher, explaining the daily routine in detail, and plan lessons so that the sub can understand them (lucky for me that I have a great sub. Thanks Mr. Fraley), and in such a way that learning will still take place.

This is a tremendous challenge for all teachers, to the extent that many just choose not to be out of the class. However, many of the best ideas I use in my class every day originated at the eTech conference. In fact, I wrote a post previously, discussing many of the contributions the conference has made to my school and my classroom. Consequently, I find myself traveling to the 2009 conference.

So when the cat's away, the mice will play. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for the mice er students, in Reading Workshop, everything they are doing while I am gone can be tracked. Thanks to the Internet, and using Web 2.0 in the classroom, all of their work is "out there."

Students took a Study Island Benchmark Test today. Great job to Lily, Bree, Austin, Makayla, Christian W., Desire', Heather, Rachael, Ryan, Jessika, and Kayla. As I sat at home and looked at your test results, I can tell that you worked hard. In fact, GREAT JOB! If you are one of the students I just named, you will be successful. You obviously do not need a teacher breathing down your neck to make you work. You are succeeding for all of the right reasons.

Students had the option of commenting on the blog when they finished with their benchmark test. Some students had insightful comments that were worth reading and thinking about. Thanks to Heather, Desire', Christian W., Bree, and Sam. However, there were a few comments that students would never have attempted to post, if I had been there. That tells me that these students need to raise their standards, for their own sake, instead of just doing a good job when the teacher is watching.

Tomorrow students are writing a letter about their SSR book. This is an assignment that they have done a few times in the past. They know how to do it. The key will be, how much effort they are willing to put forth to do a good job. If they save their work on LEWriting, our Google Writer website, I can easily check their progress.

Students are also logging on their online journal on wikispaces each day. In just a few seconds, I can check and see how much they read, their response to what they read, and if they are comprehending their SSR book. Plus, if someone (like Rachael) decides to make the extra effort and log on at home, I will be able to check this, and know a student deserves credit for putting forth the work to be successful.

Thankfully, I can spend three days learning, and still know everything that takes place in the classroom. A connected classrooom leaves no doubt in my mind what students accomplish each day while I am gone. When they cat's away .... some mice keep working hard--WOW, do they deserve a good job.

Image from http://flickr.com/photos/swissbones/327559662/

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Letter Writing

Today we focused on writing a friendly letter and the proper format. We discussed setting the tone in the opening, putting facts and details in the body, and wrapping it up in the closing. The topic of this "Dear Mr. McGuire" letter is "Reasons Why I Like the Book I am Reading for SSR." Students must support their reasons with details from the book. This will count as a reading and writing grade.

Students are becoming a little more familiar with Ubuntu, the operating system of the 24 dells in our classroom. We use Open Office 2.2 to word process all of the published pieces of writing. This freeware is similar to Office, but without the cost. The on-line learning with Study Island is done using the Firefox browser.

Why Testing Kills Creativity

No time for blogging. No time for reading. No time for Online Journals. Podcasts would not help test scores. Singing might help fluency, but we need to do more worksheets. If we shot any video, it would just be of students doing worksheets. Drill and practice is the order of the day.

The Reading Workshop is no different than any other class in the United States. As outlined in the previous post, Getting Ready for the Test, daily activities have drastically changed. Other than daily online lessons on Study Island, the computers have been put to rest. Writing activities are limited to responses to passages. The entire focus is on the test. To do otherwise would not be fair to the students, the school, and the district.

Teachers don't have any choice. With the pressure on schools to meet state standards and be rated an "effective" school, the focus is driven to help students score well on the test. Professional development and district meetings all center around testing data, and improving student achievement on tests. This results in drill and practice for students using worksheet after worksheet.

Schools don't have any choice. Beginning with Proficiency Test, and heightened by NCLB, testing is the controlling force in education. A Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll in Ohio reported that 57% of those polled believe tests are not accurate indicators of students' progress and 55% think there is too much emphasis on testing. However, with the School Report Card being used as the main evaluation of a school's success, schools have no choice but to make testing a priority.

An Ohio survey, by the KnowledgeWords Foundation, found that 89% of respondents believe it should be a high priority for Ohio schools to teach "critical thinking and problem solving skills." A one-time, one-shot test does little to foster critical thinking and problem solving, and it stymies creativity. All it does is give a snapshot of students' ability read a passage and correctly answer questions. It also can reflect hour after hour spent on worksheets. Unfortunately this is the only assessment model our government uses to decide if students are getting a good education.

What can you do?

Contact Governor Strickland at the Office of the Governor Contact Page.

Contact members of the Ohio House of Representatives.

Contact members of U.S. House of Representatives.

Contact U.S. Senators.

Students in Reading Workshop have been working hard. They will score well on the Sixth Grade Ohio Achievement Test. Whether or not, teachers agree with the method of assessing students and schools, there is a responsibility for all of us to do our best. Doing so enabled Laurelville to be rated an Excellent School last year. Hopefully students can continue the tradition of excellence and before they know it, they can return to their online journals and blogs, and other engaging reading and writing tasks.

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Journaling Online

I found a combination that is better than peanut butter and chocolate. We took our class wikipage and combined it with journals students write about fictional books. Then we added a table to log daily reading. When you put it together you have online book journals.

Each student has their own page. Each day after Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), they have a few minutes to write in their journal. On some days, they have an assigned topic. This usually relates to the topic of the day and will also be discussed during writing assignments, read aloud, and Study Island.

Recently we focused on making predictions. The assignment for students was to write about what they thought might happen in the future in their SSR book. Here are some examples of their work.

Sarah said

11/7/08 Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
I predict that Harry will have to fight a Chinese fireball dragon for his first task in the torment because a lot of bad things have been happening to Harry. Like a reporter came to the school and said bad things about Harry in a really BIG newspaper. I think Ron and Harry will start talking to each other again because Hermione has tried to persuade them to try to talk to each other. I hope so. The book is really weird without Ron in the book. It's like he's not even there.

Desire' said

11/7/08 - Warriors
I predict that Rusty will get into many fights with the other Clans. I also think that Rusty will not have the Warrior blood to become a warrior in the Thunder Clan. But I am only on page 30. Rusty is just a kittypet who has lived in a Twoleg place his whole life and has never stepped foot off of his garden post. That is why I don't think Rusty would make a very good Warrior.

Makayla said

11/7/08-Something Upstairs is really a good book. What I read today is that Kenny is going to help Caleb find his murderer. Then he told Caleb that he is not real sure if he's going to help. I predict that he is going to help. Then they both can prevent Caleb's death from happening. I think that Kenny should help Caleb. Then I'm not real sure he should go back in time again. I think he should probably stick with the library. I don't think he will though. I would help Caleb just because he was a slave and if he helps he could prevent it all from happening. He could change Caleb's history. I also predict that Kenny won't move for a couple of years. He's probably going to live there for three or four years.

This online journal keeps a running record of what books students read, how long they read, how many pages they read, and their thoughts about books. It is also a great way for me to assess their comprehension of their book, read about their thoughts, ideas and opinions, and comment on them. Although we have just started this process, I am already seeing significant benefits.

Keitha Lane, Super Hero

I saw my hero yesterday. She came over from her new job as the Jr. High principal to see the Halloween parade. I had been thinking about her lately as I read aloud to my classes, A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom written by Louis Sachar. This is the story of Bradley Chalkers, a student who makes a disaster out of everything. He meets Carla, the school counselor and with her support, turns his life around. I feel like Keitha Lane was the Carla of Laurelville and for me as a teacher.

It seems funny to think of this short little woman as a super hero, but her impact on the teachers and students at Laurelville during her eight years as principal was amazing. Now, in all honesty, I had never met a boss that I liked too much, before she took on our school. And our start together was rockier than the Rocky Mountains. However, she pushed, pulled, prodded, encouraged and demanded, all while being a friend, and supporting me in my growth as a teacher.

During her time as principal, whenever I had an idea that I wanted to try in the classroom, she would say, "give it a try and we will see how it works." She found funding to go from four computers in my language arts class to twenty-four. She purchased an LCD projector and Doc camera, to use to show students' work. When I first found out about Study Island, the on-line learning program, she said, "let's give it a try." Now it is used throughout the district. It didn't seem to matter what the situation was, she was always about finding new ways to help the students.

As I look back on our time together, I could never thank her enough for the impact she had on my life. And, as I look at my students each day when we come to the circle to talk at the start of each class, my hope is that in some way, I can make a student feel the way she made me feel. I guess, as far as I am concerned, she is the superest of the super heroes.

Pumpkin Show

The Pumpkin Show,
The Pumpkin Show,
My oh my, I love it so,
So take my hand and off we'll go
Let's all go to the Pumpkin Show

Ted Lewis wrote this song many years ago and we have reached that point in our school year. It is time for our fall break. Many will be headed to Circleville for the Pumpkin Show. Sixth grade students should be commended for a job well done, so far this year. Students have been working hard, and making good progress. Discipline/behavior problems have been minimal. SSSoooooo--enjoy your break sixth graders!

I am not saying I am going to enjoy it but-take a look at me. I am headed to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with my beagles for 5 days.

Congrats to our latest Study Island Students of the Day, Haley, Collin, Dillon, and Cody.

Getting Ready for "The Test"

Copiers are firing off worksheets and pencil sharpers are grinding away. This time of year, The Reading Workshop, like almost every other classroom in the United States is focusing on preparing for the Achievement Test. Last year, Laurelville students received an excellent rating. This sets a high standard for this year, and students are working hard to prepare for testing beginning the week of April 20.

Some of the activities include:

1. Before school intervention classes with small groups of students are held each morning to assist fifth and sixth grade students with specific skill needs.

2. Peer tutoring on Study Island in areas of specific weaknesses help students address each content area.

3. The sixth grade will have a practice run-through of the Achievement test on Monday, March 23 for reading, and Wednesday, March 25 for math.

4. Students will review scored practice tests and rewrite incomplete or wrong short answer and extended response questions.

5. Students are taking past OAT written response questions and learning the proper format to most-likely answer correctly.

6. The 2006 Seventh Grade Reading Achievement Test is being used to practice on typical, although somewhat harder passages.

7. Group work and cooperative learning activities help students share techniques for comprehension and finding information with peers.

8. Daily class discussions focus on addressing students' needs and sharing ideas that make success more likely.

Students are working hard and learning many skills that will make them better test takers. When the time comes, I am sure their results will reflect the effort they are putting forth each day in class.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/302995395
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Rambunctious Reading

Not to say that my students started out slow this morning, but this is a picture of one of the boys. This called for desperate measures. What's a reading teacher to do. Wwwweeeelllllllllll, how about some

RAMBUNCTIOUS READING!

I am always looking for new and exciting ways to make learning fun. One method we use daily is singing in the classroom. Students sing as they read the lyrics. Now, we have another way to actively learn to read. Rambunctious (energetic, boisterous, lively) Reading is a method where students work in pairs to improve their reading. One student acts out the words as he reads. The listener actively listens, affirming thoughts and statements, and commenting to the reader.

We are reading an excerpt from I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew by Dr. Seuss. Students having been ouching from kicking a hard rock and sailing along. This active reading gets everyone involved--even boys that start the morning looking a little rough.


Great job to our Study Island Students of the Day--Jacob T., Dustin C., Emily S., and Trevor G.

Hey Students, Who is in Charge of You?

I am spending the next three days at the Ohio Etech Conference.  This is a chance for me to be the student and learn about using technology in the classroom.  Many of the ideas that we use in Reading Workshop originated from past conference.

This brings me to the topic of this blog post

HEY STUDENTS, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

Whenever I am not at school, I learn a lot about the students.  I find out who is motivated and successful.  Is that you?  Or do you need your mom or dad or teacher telling you what to do every minute of the day, just to be successful?

Do you see a substitute teacher as someone that you can try to take advantage of or do you know that you need to be understanding and responsible?  Will you be the one that gets the sub to write a note about how this was such a great class?  Or will you get a trip down the hall to visit the principal?

Do you know that everything you do during the next three days will be for a grade?  Do you know that I will be reading blog posts about the characters in Watchers Rewind?  Do you know I will be monitoring Study Island scores?  Or are you a motivated student that is going to do your best just because you have pride in your grades and your blog?

Good luck the next three days, Reading Workshop students.  I am anxious to see how you do.  In fact, I can't wait until Thursday when we discuss this post.  In the mean time, please think about what you do and what it says about you!

Secret to Success

Today we had a special visitor in our class. Jennifer Hardwick, an LE grad, and sixth grade student from a few years ago came in and talked with students about how to be successful in the sixth grade. Jennifer discussed ways she managed to do well, and ideas students could use.

Some of her tips included:
1. make doing assignments a habit;
2. constantly work at being organized;
3. always do your best.

Thanks to Jennifer for her contribution to the success of Laurelville students. It is a great day for a teacher when you get to see one of your former students doing well.

Students have begun work on Study Island, the computer on-line learning program. This week we are doing pretests in reading and math.

Congrats to Conner H. for answering a Question of the Day!

Today's journal topic--"Mr. McGuire Admires Hard Workers . . ." due tomorrow.