Trying something new- individualized learning

Last year my teammate and I combined our classes together to get ready for writing STAAR. Our librarian, ESL support teacher, and reading interventionist, we pulled small groups based on our student data. Students rotated in groups to different stations when they weren't meeting with us. It worked out great. Students were meeting in small groups 3 times in 1 day...way more than I could ever do on my own. There were some issues--students weren't all that engaged in the activities we planned when they weren't with us. If I wanted them to play a grammar game, they ended up clicking onto something else & didn't get the extra practice like I hoped. The time was well-spent and I think students definitely benefitted from it.

Fast forward to this year. Last week we decided to try this again, but we made it more individualized. After our PSTAAR Writing, my teammate and I gave them goal setting sheet so they would know what types of questions they missed. The results of the PSTAAR weren't stellar, so many students were upset. I explained they needed to know what they knew and didn't know. This wasn't information for just me. I felt like they needed to take ownership of their own learning.

 We once again combined our classes into our "Pathways Room"...which was just a larger learning space with some flexible seating options. Students would be given an "Independent Choice Board" that had a variety of activities for them to complete.  They would be tracking their mastery of each writing TEK. They would take mastery connect checkpoints so they would know what they mastered. I used itslearning to create a review/refresher for them. The planning on the back end is and thinking through the logistics of how the students would keep track of the Mastery Connect codes was tedious and at times overwhelming. Our thought process was when they didn't reach mastery the first time, they would practice the skill again then take check point #2. 

My reflections after our first session:

• Students were definitely much more engaged than last year.
• We met with every single 4th grader twice during our LA block. 
• Students loved working with others outside our class.
• I need to go back and tweak my Independent Choice Board 
• I need to make using the Mastery Connect easier for students. They were confused over when they should take check point 2.
• Creating direct links in itslearning to the Mastery Connect didn't work. Fortunately, I discovered this the night before. I quickly made my Mastery Connect code sheet.
• Some students were asked by my principal.Questions students were asked by my principal: What are you working on? Why are you working on it? How you know to work on this? How you know you understand it? What do you do next? Do you go to all the stations or some? 8 out of 10 students were able to answer all these questions. I'll take that as progress!

Grammar TEKS tracking sheet

Students working in a small group

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I like to move it, move it!

I can't believe that it's already almost Thanksgiving break!  This school year has been flying by. 

 As we approach the holiday break, the kids are getting more excited and teachers are getting more creative!  I have been helping teachers implement all sorts of new things, including flexible seating, flexible grouping, and it's learning (this is taking the longest), but the thing that I am most excited about is the progress some teachers have made with Action Based Learning (ABL) stations. 😊

Below are a few students having fun in their spelling workstations.

Other classes have incorporated ABL into their brain breaks, math stations, and other language arts centers.  The kids are enjoying the break from sitting & the teachers a loving the progress kids are making so close to the holiday.  It is amazing how excited and focused students are when you incorporate a little movement into their assignments!

students in control of their learning

After attending iNACOL blended conference in October, I got an idea for my food science class. Students have learned the concepts needed for the Fall semester. Instead of me deciding how we would apply that knowledge in a project, I would let students decide. Students are working in groups to produce an online recipe book. The only constraints they have are time (it must be completed in a class period including clean up), cost (they can't choose things with too expensive ingredients or hard to find), and they had to be able to explain the science behind the recipe.

Once students decide on a recipe, they need to come up with the list of ingredients, cut the recipe down to a smaller scale and rewrite it, check comments to find the best version of the recipe. Students then make the recipe and take pictures of each step. They also put all the information on a blog to show publish it to the world.

Students enjoy being able to learn about the foods THEY like and learning about new foods. They like making something that others can use and enjoy. They dislike having to think about the science behind their food. It's much easier to just think about what they want to make.

My students blogs are a work in progress but are at
6foodscience.blogspot.com
7foodscience.blogspot.com

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'...

Yes, yes, yes!!! I am so excited to be rolling along now with teacher collaborations and student projects. The past two weeks have been so crazy, but extremely fun and full of collaboration in the library.

Our 6th grade CSI project began on Monday with my friend, a crime scene investigator for HPD, coming out and spending the day talking to the kids about how to look at evidence, find the facts, make inferences, and look for bias in people's stories.

We also had 4 different stations -

• A re-created a car accident  
• Research stations (using infographics) on 3 types of drivers 
• distracted drivers
• teenage drivers 
• drowsy drivers

Day 2, they read and analyzed statements from the 3 drivers and a police report to see if they could decipher facts, bias, and filter the evidence to find the cause of the accident. It's been interactive, full of energy, and more fun and authentic for the kids! They will be completing authentic writing pieces based off of the accident scene as well - newspaper article, diary entry, or a letter to their lawyer (we even have a lawyer who will respond to their letters!)

I've also been working with our U.S. History teachers to help them locate and utilize primary source documents in online activities. They've discovered docsteach,org, the New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian Learning Lab. What has been fun is creating and working through activities on docsteach.org - a fabulous resource from the National Archives! We had kids work through documents about Valley Forge in one activity a couple weeks ago, then we created our own activity we started today about the Articles of Confederation - weighing evidence and deciding on the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles.

Student #1 scale

Student #2 scale

Again, it's amazing to see how much more engaged kids are when they are investigating and doing authentic activities rather than simply taking notes during class...more to come at a later date!