Super Sentences Centre

A few months ago I had the need to expand my reading centres to be more literacy centres. So I needed reading, write and word work activities. I wanted the writing activities to be skill development as well as skill application centres. When doing some internet searches I came across "super sentences" activities. In general, most of the super sentence lessons I came across provided students with a simple sentence. Then they needed to make it more interesting by adding adjectives and adverbs. 

I took this idea an tried it while my educational assistance was away. As I did not have an EA, I made the activity a Google Document so that students could use Read and Write for Google for support (this is an extension that will read the text on a Google Document, among other things).

This centre worked really well, and I have kept it in high rotation for reading centres. 

Skills Students Need

Students do need some skills before this centre should be used. Students should:

1. Know how to navigate their Google Drive and find documents in Shared With Me.
2. Know how to highlight text.
3. Know how to use Read and Write for Google.*
4. Know how to resolve a comment.
5. How to use the Spell Check function.

* This is why this activity works so well with technology rather than pencil and paper. By using Read and Write for Google (RW4G), students who struggle with reading and writing are supported. As this is a revision and editing task, even students who are strong readers are supported with RW4G as typically they read what they meant to write and not always what is actually there. When it is read aloud for them, they hear the errors. 

Skills Teachers Need

1. An understanding of how Read and Write for Google works.
2. A way to share Documents with students (using the Share function, Doctopus or Classroom, whatever works for you).
3. How to leave a comment and how to find resolved comments.
4. How to use and model highlighting and the spell check functions in Document.

How I Taught These Centres

Typically I follow the format below: 

1. On Monday introduce the centre and demonstrate it on the Smartboard. 
2. Have chart paper "reminders" for the centre for the rest of the week.
3. At the end of centres each day, read one or all of the super sentences created.
• I did not do this for the voice activity as these were longer pieces of writing and each student got a star and a wish. As such, I usually picked one student to share their work at the end of centre time.
• I did not do this for the editing activity as it would have given away all the edits.

One of the reasons I would read student work at the end is to keep students accountable. It also was a quick way to check for understanding. It also is a good review of the expectations throughout the week for students who might have the centre on Thursday or Friday.

Super Sentence Centre Ideas

Here are a few of the Super Sentence Centres I have tried. Initially I had students work on the skill of revising.

To make this multi-level you could take away the highlighted nouns for a challenge. I did not require one of my groups to write an ending sentence.

This is an example of what I modelled for the students. I usually do the first two sentences. We talk about how there might be more than one choice that makes sense and review how to highlight. The words were current or recent spelling words. 

We had a spring concert. So I chose that theme to have students edit for both adjectives and adverbs. 

For the fourth centre, I had students focus on revising for voice. I made two versions to differentiate the activity. As they had practised the super sentences centre three times, I did a formative assessment piece with the fourth centre. At the end of the week I gave each student two stars and a wish. The next week, they had the same activity for a centre. But this time they had to "grant" my wish. 

For students with more skill and confidence in writing.

----------------

For students who have less skill or confidence with writing.

I decided students needed practice with editing as well. So for my next centre I had them become editors. Again this became a two week centre. After the first week they were given two stars and a wish. The activity for the second week was to find the corrections they missed in week one.

To support students, I used the highlighting function to help them locate the edits they missed. For both weeks I included an early finisher link(s) in the Documents themselves. For previous activities I often had an early finisher activity on my website. 

Sharing Ideas

Most of these activities can be found on the website Division One Collaboration Site For Educational Technology. Just open and make a copy. If you have an super sentence idea, please share it in the comments!

A Spring Blogging Activity With KidBlog

I wanted my students to do more meaningful writing during literacy centres, so I added a blogging centre.

Needed:

• students who already know how to blog (I wouldn't recommend this as a first blogging activity)
• another class/people who will comment
• three to four lessons/centres

Activity One: Blog About Spring

Students were assigned to blog about spring for one of their literacy centres. Each week I review any new centres at the beginning of the week. So I reviewed what was needed for a blog post and then modeled it by composing one myself. We reviewed:

• titles have capitals
• you start with an introduction
• you should aim for at least three middle sentences
• end with a conclusion (I encouraged students to ask a question to encourage comments)

I usually chose one student's post to read at the end of centres each day to check for understanding and reinforce expectations (as well it holds them accountable to finish their task as they never know who I will pick). Students then blogged throughout the week and I grabbed students for quick edits during quiet reading time, if needed, each day before I approved posts. Doing this in chunks made it easy to manage and keep on top of the edits. 

I also found it helpful to have the task written on chart paper that I could put up during centres so students could be reminded of the expectations.

Activity Two: Commenting

The following week I changed the blogging centre. This time they had to comment on another person's blog. By this time, each student had one or two comments from people who I occasionally ask to help provide an audience to my students. So the task this week was to:

1. Re-read your own blog.
2. Read the comments others have left you.
3. Select the name under yours on the blog list and read their blog. Then comment.
4. Continue down the list until time is up (We reviewed when you get to the bottom, you start at the top of the list next).

Again, I reviewed and modeled the task at the beginning of the week. I chose a student's blog and read it aloud. I reminded students how to access the comment box and modeled making a comment. I explained that commenting needed fewer sentences. My expectation was they had one sentence that showed they had read the blog post. Then they needed a question.

Like the week before, I usually chose one student's comments to read at the end of centres. Also like before, I grabbed students for quick edits if needed each day before I approved comments. 

Just as before, I had the task written on chart paper so students could be reminded of the expectations and format.

Activity Two: Replying

I put out over social media a suggestion that people could reply to our blog posts as a writing activity. And as luck would have it, someone did! We had another KidBlog class read our blogs and comment. The teacher said that, " They're hoping that the kids will comment back."

As we never had gone over replying to a comment in class, I decided NOT to do this as a centre. Instead I did it as a whole class activity.

First I explained and then modeled the task:

1. Find your spring blog post.
2. Read the comments people made.
3. Reply to the comments (most had at least three, many had more).
4. Finished early? Read comments on other classmates' posts.

The expectation for the reply was much the same as the commenting task. I wanted students to write two sentences. This time the first one should be a personalized thank you. The second sentence needed to reflect they had read the comment.

Reflections

I loved this task. It was authentic and motivating. By making it a centre, it was easy to monitor. The biggest challenge is finding  people to comment on the blogs, but a work around for that is having the students become the audience for their classmates. By having students comment in a structured way (comment on the person's blog who is below you), you ensure that all students get at least one comment. I write a few comments on blog posts that only initially had one or two comments.

Students enjoyed the task as well. They really were excited during the last activity when they saw how many comments they had.

The first time I had tried having students comment on blog posts I made it way too complicated for grade twos. I like the simple format I used this time: a sentence that shows you have read the post and a question to the author.

Next Steps

I'd like to do something similar before the end of the year as an assessment task.

Concrete Graphs, Photos and A Blog Post

Concrete Graphs

In grade two, in Alberta, students need to "construct and interpret concrete graphs to solve problems." I typically have had students do this outcome as a centre. Students create a concrete graph and then ask others at the centre questions about their graph. I typically do this centre with students twice. What I have had difficulty with this outcome is having time to properly assess it. So I decided to look at how technology could support assessment of this outcome.

Photos

My first idea was to have students take photos of their graphs. This would allow me to capture their graphs quickly and assess them later. That way I could still move around the centre to assist students with their graphs or assist students in asking questions about their graphs. 

However, that did not address or capture the second part of the outcome: interpret concrete graphs to solve problems. 

A Blog Post

So, I decided that students could write a blog post (we already had a class blog) about their graphs and ask people questions. The second step of the activity would be for students then to answer their peers' questions. 

Steps

Step One: Construct Graphs and Take Photos

I still had this as a centre (there were two other centres and students were at each centre for about 18 minutes). As well, I still had students do a concrete graph centre twice. The first time was just practice. The second day was when I had students take their photos. This meant that I only had eight students needing to take photos at a time. This is a manageable number! I have access to tablets in my school. So I took four tablets for this activity. On the back of each tablet I taped on some paper. As students took their photos, they wrote their names on the paper on the back of the tablets they used and how many photos they took. This helped me keep track of which photo went with which student. 

Step Two: Uploading Photos

I uploaded all the photos from each tablet to a file on my computer I called "graphs" and I named each photo the name of the student. I then uploaded them all to the media library on Kidblog. This takes a little bit of time, but not a lot.

Step Three: Students Blog

Once the photos were in the media library, students could blog. I demonstrated to students how to access the media library. Then all students had to do was look for their name! Once they inserted their photo, they had to write a minimum of two questions about it. 

Step Four: Approve and Edit Posts

Before students could comment on each others' posts, I went through and approved each blog post. Some needed some editing before they could be published. I simply logged into Kidblog and had students do edits with me instead of having them log in, find their unapproved comment, edit, press update, etc. 

Step Five: Commenting

When all the blog posts were published, they were ready for the final step... commenting. I paired students up. Each student had to comment on their partner's blog post.  Students who finished early could comment on other graphs.

Step Six: Approve and Edit Comments

Just like step four, I went through and approved each comment. Some needed some editing before they could be published. And just like step four, I did that by logging onto Kidblog myself and had students work with me one-on-one in a quick conference to make necessary changes.

Step Seven: Assessment

With my rubric in front of me, I logged onto Kidblog and assessed both parts of the outcome that started this adventure: construct and interpret concrete graphs to solve problems. 

Problems Along They Way

The biggest problem that I ran into was during the photo stage. Students sometimes bumped their graphs and so their objects moved and no longer lined up on the graph paper properly. Some students did not do quality work and I did not notice until the photo was taken. So many students had to fix or redo their work and retake the photos. If I were to do this again, I would address this issue with students prior to starting the project and be more diligent in checking the graphs before students took the photographs. 

I had actually hoped to also get other people to interact with each student's blog post but I couldn't find any takers. 

Glare was also a problem as their graphs were on laminated paper. We ended up turning off some of the lights to help mitigate this problem. 

Reflections

I liked this assignment. It definitely required more work from me than my previous centre activity. However I think it increased the amount students were engaged in thinking about what the graphs show and not just constructing them. I would definitely do something similar again. The photos did use up about 40% of my storage space on Kidblog (free account). 

I would like to have the activity have more real life relevance (a real problem for them to solve) or purpose but I have not come up with what they could do a concrete graph for to address that. . . yet.

Get your students thinking with Into the Book!

Into the Book is a fabulous interactive reading comprehension website to teach reading strategies to students. Without exception, my students have found this site to be engaging and one that builds their confidence and success in understanding how to use reading strategies. Do they all become master readers? Not quite, but most students will start deliberately using at least two or three strategies in their reading and are quite proud of themselves that they can articulate why and how they are using it!

The strategies covered are; Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing.

Each strategy has an introductory overview that is read to the student, a short video of a teacher and students in a classroom discussing the strategy...and the best part, interactive activities that students can complete on their own to practice using the strategy. Students can save and print their work or email it to their teacher to print for them. Each activity asks students to use higher level thinking skills and to respond in different ways.

There is a not only a teaching guide for each activity, but a wealth of teaching resources for the strategies, including watching videos of other teachers teaching, a song, a list of read aloud books to support teaching the strategy, downloadable posters and lesson plans for other activities to do with your class.

When students go to Into the Book, they click on ‘Students’ to enter the student area. There they will be asked for their ‘Key’, which is their password. Initially, they simply enter their name in the ‘Get a Key’ box and Into the Book generates a password which will be their name with a series of numbers behind it. Once this is recorded, they will use this to enter the site, thereby saving all their work should they not complete an activity in a session.

You can skip the log in process, however, students’ work will not be saved. Teachers do not require a log in to enter the teacher area.

Each section of the interactive activities has an ‘Audio’ button, so low readers can have the information and text read to them. They can go back at any time  and revise their work, or simply start again.

I have used this site with grades two and three. I start with a read aloud from the recommended resources and discuss the strategy with my students. I then introduce the song and the poster, and we do another read aloud and work with the strategy together. Then we go to Into the Book. I have done this both as a whole class and as a centre during our Daily Five time. I have used most of the lesson plan resources and have found them engaging for students. The one drawback is that for some activities, students need to enter text on the site, and that can become an issue for low spellers. I always tell them that I am not marking spelling, but I need to know what they are saying, so to spell the word the way it sounds.

Mapping Centres

Second of week of school and it was time to introduce social studies centres. I have a small enough class that I was able to do this early. Despite a smaller class (22), the class make up made me decide to keep the groups small, especially as it is September.  When I do centres I almost always have one if not two technology centres.

Planning

I wanted to address a variety of different learning styles/multiple intelligences. 

1. Video - On Discovery Education there is a 15 minute video called Maps: Keys to Everywhere. (logic smarts)
2. Books - I have a number of books on mapping at the grade 1-3 level. As well, I raided the balanced literacy leveled book supply for six copies of Where Do We Live, Really. (word smarts)
3. Puzzles - I have a floor puzzle that is a map of Canada and a few 100 piece map of Canada puzzles. (people smarts)
4. I created a worksheet where students had to follow instructions and draw a map. (picture smarts)
5. I had a worksheet on file called Another Close Call - where students have to follow directions and answer questions about a map based on the story the Three Little Pigs. (word smarts)
6. Internet games - I have a collection of online activities that support the topics for mapping in grade two. I put these on my class website along with embedding a video/song about the provinces/territories of Canada we have be watching in class. (music smarts and logic smarts)
7. I broke students up into six groups, making sure there was someone who was a stronger reader in each group to support their peers if I was not nearby. I put these on the Smartboard so students could see which centre they were to be in. 

Reflection

It worked really well. We did four rotations, so will do the last two rotations this week. The small groups minimized problems and those that came up I was able to problem solve. Most of the work was at a level where students were challenged but did not need a great deal of assistance, so I was able to circulate and support as necessary. Students in the book and worksheet groups had the option of working on their own (self smarts) or with their peers (people smarts). 

The task that students were the least on task for was the book centre. I have a large number of students not yet reading at a grade one level. Originally I had planned on making it partner reading however many of my groups had only three students. 

I realized that I had titled one of the worksheets "Make a Map" on the Smartboard but the actual sheet was Draw a Map. That caused a bit of confusion. A few students finished the worksheets about 4 - 5 min. before we switched centres. So I gave them the option of adding details and colouring to their work or they could work on a mapping vocabulary word search in their booklets. All the other centres had built in extensions. The book centre had enough books that students just kept choosing new books. The puzzle centre had the big puzzle and a small puzzle. Once students were done the big puzzle, they could then try the small one (only one group actually made it to the small puzzle). On my class website I put a number of mapping links that students could work on and revisit if they completed them all. The video centre was my timer. I kept an eye on how much time the students had left in that centre and when there was only 5 minutes left, I put a timer up on the Smartboard. 

Internet Resources

Canada Map Puzzle
CG Kids Map of Canada Puzzle
Map Skills – Compass Skills
Interactive Map: Use a Compass Rose

Writing For A Purpose: Email

21st Century Writers

How do we make writing authentic for 21st Century learners? The new Learning and Technology Policy Framework reminds us that students need work that is not only authentic but also personalized. So what does that look like for our students? Text messaging, blog posts and email instead of letters, reflections that stay in a journal at school and stories for the bulletin board outside the classroom.  

RAFT/RAFTs

I have begun using RAFT with my grade two students this term. RAFT is a writing strategy. Some people use RAFTs. I usually use that with older students. In fact, I thought both were really tools for older writers. However, I have found using RAFT with my grade twos helps me make the activities more personalized for them. 

• R= role of the Writer: Who are you as the writer? 
• A=audience: To whom are you writing?  
• F=format: In what format are you writing?  
• T=topic: What topic are you writing about?
• S=strong verb: What strong verbs help define this writing?

With my students, I have been choosing three parts and letting them choose the fourth. So, I might tell them their role, audience and topic but they get to select the format. This allows for students to personalize the experience themselves.

Email Format

My students did a science experiment with cornstarch and water. It was an exciting experiment, so I wanted to channel that energy into a writing assignment. I used RAFT to set the assignment:

• Role: To tell 
• Audience: You pick (mom, dad, aunt, grandfather...)
• Format: Email
• Topic: the science experiment using cornstarch and water 

Students did a first draft in their journals and then did some revisions. In their agendas, I sent home a note asking for email addresses. Those students who did not return one, sent the email to a staff member at the school. 

Reflection

In general, I was really pleased with the project. I'd like to do it earlier in the year next year. Perhaps even collect a number of email address throughout the year that students can have in their writing journals. That way, when they choose to do an email, they already have the resources necessary. 

The one downside was those families who did not return the email addresses. Some students were disappointed not to be able to send it to a family member. 

Keep Your Skills Sharp, Use Google Apps When Making Unit Plans

This year I have decided to try to integrate more multiple intelligences activities into my units. One of my first road blocks was trying to keep all my ideas, resources and planning in one place. I decided to try using Google Document to meet this goal and so far I like the result.

More Time?

Like anything new, there it can be more time consuming initially. However, I think in the long run, having everything in one place will be time saving in the future.

Useful Skills

There are a few basic skills that you will need to make this effective.

1. Scanning

2. Uploading and converting

3. Bookmarking and linking

4. Make A Folder

Why?

The biggest reason I did this change is to have everything in one place that is accessible at one time. When I started working on my magnet unit (after not having taught science for a number of years), I always seemed to be missing something. Either I was working at home and forgot something in a binder at school or I was working at school and had left something at home. By having everything online, I could access everything I needed anywhere.

A secondary benefit is the fact I am keeping up on my Google Apps skills by using them regularly.

The third reason maybe wishful thinking. My thinking is that I could share my unit plans with other grade two teachers and that could lead to some collaborative planning.

Example and Steps

Here is a unit I have in progress. It is a math unit on equalities and inequalities. Here are the steps I used.

1. Create a Folder for the unit
2. Scan Materials to PDF
3. Upload Word Documents and scanned PDFs to Google Drive  * If you have your unit folder open in your Google Drive when you upload your documents, it will automatically add them to that folder. If you do not, you will have to move the relevant items to the folder.
4. Create a Document that will be the core of your unit plan.
5. Create a table of contents.
6. Create headings in your document (such as curriculum outcomes or scope of lessons).
7. Highlight these headings and make them a bookmark. Then go back to the table of contents and link the contents to the related headings you just bookmarked.
8. Begin to plan/write. As I get to a lesson that requires one of the items I've uploaded, link it to your plan.
9. Share your folder (it will therefore share everything that folder) with those you wish to collaborate with.

So No Paper or Word Documents?

I still have paper copies of things I want to photocopy and I still have my Word documents for now...

Technology As A Part of A Tic Tac Toe Menu

What Is A Tic Tac Toe Choice Board?

Basically a Tic Tac Toe Choice Board is a variation of centres and it is a great way to differentiate learning. You can use it in pretty much any subject. Choice Boards Tic-Tac-Toe Menu Boards outlines what they are in more detail and gives some examples. I have created my own template to use for my Tic-Tac-Toe activities. I usually have three things I want students to do so I strategically place each option.

I try to have accountability built into each activity. Sometimes that is as simple as having a peer check their work and other times it requires them recording a simple answer.

Technology Choices

I like to add technology as three choices. I instruct students verbally and on the template that they can only have one technology activity in their "line". I usually have a Smartboard centre (the rule is only two people at this one at a time and no line ups), a netbook/laptop centre (no line ups) a listening centre or video centre. If students finish their initial three activities before Tic Tac Toe time is over, they can choose additional activities from any square.

An Example: Measurement Tic Tac Toe

Planning

I recently wrapped up my grade two measurement unit. I wanted to give students an opportunity to review before I assessed them. So I created a Tic Tac Toe that lasted about an hour. My three topics were:

• Topic One: measuring with non-standard units
• Topic Two: drawing something to a measurement (non-standard units)
• Topic Three: technology and measurement

The three technology activities were:

1. Laptop Centre: The Fearless Flying Fleas (choose BOLD) 
2. Video Centre: * Video segment was from Math Monsters: Standard and Non-Standard Measurement  
3. Smartboard Centre: Simple Scales from Crickweb

How I Did the Video Centre

I used a laptop and connected it to a device that came with my listening centre. Then I set up three headphones. I used a video segment from Discovery Education.* I monitored when the video was over and told the class when the centre was available again for those who had it selected as a choice. 

Lesson

First I quickly reviewed all 9 activities and where they were set out in the class. As my students
had done a Tic Tac Toe before, I quickly reviewed how they work. Then I gave them about 45 minutes of centre time. During this time I checked in with student I knew needed guided review of certain topics. I kept track of on task behaviour as well and intervened if necessary. However, because students were so engaged and in charge of the speed at which they work, this was only necessary once.  Most students completed their "line" and went on two 1 - 2 other activities.

At the end of the activity, I review what was achieved for each square. For example, for the video, I had students who watched it reveal to the rest of the class that feet can be used as non-standard units.  For the Smartboard centre and two pan balance centre we review what were the heaviest and lightest objects.

Final Thoughts

Using a TIC TAC TOE is a great way to give students choice and create engagement. However they can be time consuming to set up. I also would not recommend them to teach a concept but rather for students to practice, extend or refine their understanding of concepts. More non-standard units online activities can be found in my post Non-Standard Measurement Activities.