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Saturday, January 27, 2018

Are you Grading Your Nerf Darts?








More about Word Walls and Vocabulary!

Or

Are you Grading Your Nerf Darts? 


Back in the Day
(Don’t you love that phrase!?! - NOT!!)

 Back in the day, we would have students sit in desks alphabetically, facing the front, both feet on the floor, be quite and do your work!!  When papers and tests were retrieved from the students, they were trained to pass them up in a certain order so that the teacher would be gifted with papers already in alphabetical order, ready to be graded and recorded! 

Now we live in the days of flexible seating where a student with the last name ending in “B” is lounging in a beach chair beside a student with the last name ending in “W” who is seated in a gaming chair covered in leopard print as they both answer their test on a Nerf dart which will be fired into or near a trash can for the teacher to retrieve and grade said dart. 

So what can be done to ensure that a teacher doesn’t lose her mind when recording grades from the Nerf darts?  It’s too simple to even mention, but SOMEBODY SHOWED ME AND MADE MY WORLD A LITTLE BETTER - So I’m showing you



Just make a spreadsheet with columns of names, a column for the grade, and a place for the date and assignment name.  Grade your Nerf darts in the order in which they are fired upon you, record the grade on the handy-dandy spreadsheet as you go, and voila!  You have an alphabetical listing of grades to enter into your gradebook! 

Now, let’s discuss how to be successful with Word Walls and Vocabulary.  As I wrote about in a previous blog, I have a wall for AcademicVocabulary, the 88 most important words for students to memorize, apply, use, understand, interpret, analyze, etc.  I also stole the idea from B’s Book Love to have a vocabulary word-wall in which words are color-coded based on parts-of-speech.  Students are given 5 words every Monday on Lexicon Monday along with two Greek or Latin roots.  They copy the words/roots, definitions, part-of-speech, synonym, and sample sentence into their dictionary found in their Interactive Notebook.  I also provide a list of ALL words in their Google drive for the times we are able to use computers.  I teach Academic Words as I teach based on what we are learning that week. 

But how easy it is to just let those words sit and stew and never be revisited or used or committed to memory.  I decided to make the usage of these words - both Weekly Vocabulary and Academic Vocabulary words - part of their homework.



Students are required to use “X” number of words per nine weeks in their writing in ANY CLASS - not just ELA.  I change the requirement of words per nine weeks based on what we are doing.  If they are in my classroom and use a word, they simply raise their hand and show me.  If they don’t have me nearby, I’ve asked them to highlight words - yellow for vocabulary and green for academic vocabulary.  If they use a word on a poster or paper or assignment in another classroom, they either bring it to me, share it with me, take a photo of it, or whatever it takes to show me they have attempted to improve their vocabulary. 




Another piece of our Lexicon puzzle is finding words containing the roots we are studying.  They are required to watch out for words containing roots that we are trying to commit to memory.  Therefore, I have a column for “Find A Root” as well.  



Again, I make a spreadsheet with student names and the number of times they are expected to use words.  As they use one, I circle the number, tally them at the end of the nine-weeks, and give a grade accordingly. 




And that’s how we improve our vocabulary!  




Sunday, January 21, 2018

Stairway of Heaven







Look at these steps!  Aren’t they just sumpin?!?!  The first time I saw an example on Pinterest, I developed that
PINTEREST OBSESSION!!!!!

Do not EVEN act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.  You see something.  You walk away from it.  You click off of it.  You go back for a 2nd look.  Then a 3rd.  You “save” it somewhere.  You go to the kitchen for a drink thinking about IT the entire time.  You can’t stand it.  You can’t live without it.  You have…

PINTEREST OBSESSION

Fast forward a few months.  We were finally going to replace the white carpet


(Who puts in white carpet - please tell me!?!?!?!?!)


with new wood floors which meant the STAIRS NEEDED TO BE REPLACED!!  Here’s my chance!



I detoxed myself from the PINTEREST pages and moved on to my next addiction…

Etsy
I looked at almost every store that offered these stair decals and began price comparisons and reading of reviews.  I settled with this store on Etsy:


She turned out to be the sweetest, most helpful person.  After 2,467,832 emails, I finally decided on what book spines I wanted for my stairs.  Choosing the titles was HARD
but putting them in a certain order was difficult as well!!!



You will need the following when you embark upon this journey:

  1. The patience of Job
  2. Two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon minimum
  3. A credit card (to apply the decal)
  4. A really good thumbnail NOT recently manicured (to apply the decal)

Your knees will scream.
 Your credit card will lose all its edges.
 Your thumbnail will never recover.  

But you will have some really cool steps of your favorite titles.  
Your very own
Stairway of Heaven
  1. The Bible - 1st step because it’s my BASE
  2. The Shack - oh my - what a book!
  3. Edgar Allan Poe - Duh!  It’s Poe!!!
  4. Catch 22 - My husband’s favorite book.  
  5. Nancy Drew - The reason I fell in love with reading!!
  6. 1984 - LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
  7. Big Stone Gap - Because Adriana Trigiani is a homegirl, I’m from Big Stone Gap, and because that book rocks!!
  8. Oh, The Places You’ll Go - In honor of my students as they travel to high school, college, and career
  9. Jane Eyre - Duh!  It’s Jane Eyre
  10. Tara Road - It’s my go-to book.  I can read Maeve any day!
  11. To Kill a Mockingbird - Duh!!!!!!!!!
  12. Old Yeller - in honor of my dad
  13. The Road - LOVE LOVE LOVE
  14. Love You Forever - for my two boys.  I will love you forever and then some


Saturday, January 20, 2018

Academic Vocabulary




Academic Vocabulary

I’ve been teaching long enough to realize that today’s latest and greatest ideas will eventually go away and be replaced with the BETTER idea which adds more rigor and differentiation and collaboration and any other buzz-word you can come up with.  Some experts will say the WORD WALL is a waste of precious time.  Some experts will show off their successful word walls on their blog (B’s Book Love - an expert) and explain how it has worked for them.  I can remember hosting a PD in my classroom several years ago in which the “Professional” who was there to “Develop Us" took one look at my word wall and stated it was a completely wrong strategy.  Well, it wasn’t the first time someone didn’t agree with a strategy of mine, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.  But here’s what I know.



I know about this student who sat in my room reading on a 3rd grade level in my 8th grade classroom.  I know about this student who was experiencing the regular ed classroom for the first time in their life.  I know about this student who seemed to have a thirst for knowledge that could never be quenched.  I know about this student who took the words from my word wall and made her own flashcards to use at home without me assigning it to her.  I know about this student who would work her tail off to better herself.  I know about this student that when it came time for assessments in my room during which I would cover my word wall, she would stare at the wall where she REMEMBERED the word to be, and it would “appear” to her.  I know about a student whom I will never forget, who is a success in life, and who used my word wall for its intent - from which to learn. 
Here’s my list of the 88 most important Academic Words for my 8th grade students to know.  It is my belief that they must know the definition FIRST and then the application, usage, analysis, summarization, argumentation, explanation, etc., etc., etc., of the words.  Yes, I spend weeks diving into the ethos, pathos, and logos of texts.  Yes, I spend weeks teaching how to write an explanatory essay.  Yes, I spend weeks teaching about the symbolism found in poetry.  But we also spend weeks simply memorizing the definitions. 


The words and definitions are printed on a green background because I tell my students, “Green words are good!”  I’ve also provided them on a blank background for you to choose your own color.
P.S.  The very best way to have students memorize words and definitions is through Quizlet Live.  It’s free.  It’s fun.  It WORKS!!!