Vocabulary Ladders

Well, I'm not sure if "Vocabulary Ladder" is the correct name for this.  I attended a workshop over the summer, and they mentioned these, but did not go into a lot of detail.  I searched online for something, but I wasn't successful, so I created my own kind of thing.  In the workshop, the presenter briefly explained that a Vocabulary Ladder is a visual vocabulary representation.  So, this is what I came up with for the vocabulary in our Weather Unit.

This follows the South Carolina 4th Grade Science Standards.  We "climbed" the ladder with each lesson and built our knowledge as we added to our ladder.  I have also created some for Math, and will try to post those later. 

Vocabulary...

I just attended an exciting workshop with Cheryl Sigmon.  I have always been a fan of her work!  I find that she is practical and gives me  ideas I can always take directly back to my classroom.  I am sharing two things today, one thing I learned today, and one thing I have done in my own classroom with vocabulary for years. 

Cheryl's tip:  (One of many things I learned!) She shared an activity called "Mystery Word."  The link is http://teachers.net/4blocks/ella_mystery_word_match.pdf.  (credit to Ella Frazier for posting on the site). If you go to this site, and look at #1, you have to take a word part from "mother" and a word part from "pansy" to find a word that fits the blank.  "Standing in the field of corn was a __________ (7)."  The answer is "panther."  I love this idea! 

My tip:  There are many ways to transition from one subject to another.  One day, I heard a teacher counting.  She was counting to 20 to give her class time to get out their book to a certain page.  Later that day, I had a brainstorm (at one of those stressful moments of beginning chaos).  We were studying Electricity, so I said, "I would like you to be seated knee to knee with your partner by the time I finish spelling electricity."  Wow...it worked wonders!  Now, I use it all the time.  I use content words normally, but sometimes I use a short word like recess if it's appropriate for the situation.  I also use Vocabulary Ladders (not sure if that's the correct name, that's just what I call them), so there is a visual that I can often pull words from.  (Posting on Vocabulary Ladders coming soon!).

If you try any of these, let me know how it worked or if you put your own spin on it for others to try. 

3 Things

I have a handful of students with special needs in my classes this year.  It is challenging to meet their needs while also meeting the needs of others at the same time.  You can't let some children take up all of your attention, nor can you let some children take over the attention of the entire class. I recently discovered a new strategy for individual students that has been working for me.  

I decided to target one student at a time to see how well this would work.  I chose a student who has difficulty paying attention and staying at his/her desk. On a sticky note, I have been listing three things I am looking for the student to do. I already allow the student to sit in his/her seat or push the chair in and stand behind the chair.  So, on the sticky note I wrote (1) Stay at your seat. (2) Participate in the lesson. (3) Keep your hands to yourself.  If the student did these 3 things during my lesson, the reward was being able to erase the board for me at the end of the lesson.  Later, during another lesson in a different subject, the 3 requirements were the same, but the reward was being line leader on the way to the computer lab.  I learned this strategy from a specialist who visited my classroom and tried a similar strategy with a different student.  I was able to adapt this strategy to fit my own needs. 

Another adaptation of this strategy that I tried was to do this based on a strategy from Amie Dean called the "yes card."  I divided a sticky note into six sections.   I wrote YES in each one.  I looked for the student to do the 3 things I was looking for during 6 specific pre-determined times during the day (read aloud time, writing time, math, science, social studies, Kite-ll time).  After each part of the day, I put a smiley face over one YES on the card.  If the card was completed by the end of the day, the student earned a reward for the CLASS.  The class chose to have 4 minutes of talking/chatter time.  Now, why would I want to give the entire class time to talk?  Well, I figured that I gained at least 10-15 minutes of teching time by having the one student on task, so giving up 4 minutes for everyone to talk was not as big a deal as it might seem.  In fact, the next day, we did the YES card again, and the reward the class wanted was completely different...more time for math games!  So, I added 5 extra minutes to math game time, which actually allowed me to sit with a small group and guide them through a game (so I got to squeeze in small group time anyway!). That was a win-win for the class and for me. 

I hope you try some of these strategies for your challenging students.  If you know of any others, or have questions, please post! 

Welcome to Totally Terrific Teaching!

My plan with this blog is to provide useful tips and ideas a few times a week.  Since school has already begun, I may backtrack a bit, but hopefully, some of my tips and ideas may help you anyway. 

Today's Totally Terrific Tip: Establish procedures and routines the first day of school.
I attended a professional development workshop today that reinforced this for me.  When I first started teaching, I used to send home a list of all my "Persnickety Procedures."  Now, that idea has evolved into a booklet I send home with students called "4th Grade from A to Z."  I list all of my procedures & expectations in it.  I will work on posting this booklet in the future. 

The secret to establishing procedures and routines is to teach, model, and practice them EVERY DAY!  You may have to do this for many weeks, or even months until it becomes a habit.  With the procedures I notice my students having the hardest time with, we chart it and post it on the wall for easy reference.  I take it down and replace it with a different chart later on, but I can always repost when needed!