Student-centered – Page 15

A Reading Survey – Why Not?

September 8, 2013September 8, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I love that my students know that I am passionate about reading already. Even though we have only been in each others’ learning lives for 4 days they can tell you how much I love books. They also know about my never-ending reading stack, my penchant for anything sci fi or fantasy, how I sneak reading in when I sit at stop lights, and how buying books is my most guilty pleasure. I am thrilled that they know me as a reader, but the problem is with 27 students I don’t know them yet. Sure, I can start to see which books they gravitate too, some have started telling me about the best book they ever read, and others have even asked to take books home. Yet, I have only conferenced with 2 and have had little time for those amazing reading conversations that I love. So why not do a reading survey? While in no means a replacement for the reading conversations I want to have, it gives me a glimpse into them as readers and will provide me with background information that I can use.

I ask for their honesty here because I want to know how they label themselves. I think it is important for me, vital even to know if a child considers themselves a poor reader, I need to know what their labels are so that I can help them break out of those or strengthen them. So as always as I created this survey with a little bit of inspiration from many other reading surveys, I knew I would share, I may even make it a Google form. Please feel free to make a copy and make it your own.

How Are You As a Reader Survey

And here it is as a Google Form courtesy of Michelle Krzmarzick

project, Social studies, Student-centered

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse – A Lesson in Land Regions for Social Studies

September 7, 2013October 8, 2013 Pernille Ripp

This art from Jordan Crane hangs in my living room

I have been obsessed with zombies for a long time, not that I can watch many movies with them in it because I am wimp who gets nightmares, but books, art, and the whole concept has fascinated me for many years. This year as I try to get my students invested in social studies and the study of the United States history we always start with land regions, so what better way than to get them researching these with the help of a zombie apocalypse?

While this is meant to be a hook, it is not meant to be a study of zombies, but rather a new way to get to know a certain land region. Students must prepare a presentation to the citizens of their land region suggesting two possible safe places for them to go. Before they can present they therefore have to research major cities, climate, elevations, major transportation routes, main bodies of water and anything else that can aid them in defending their citizens and riding out the attack. I will also ask the students what else they should be researching and adding to their presentation. Because this is our first presentation of the year I want to see which tools they have and also how they research. Students will pick partners and then I will pair up the partnerships, this way I can also study the group dynamics.

I made sure to mention this project at back to school night to hopefully ensure parents understand the educational value behind it. I am looking forward to seeing how the students react and will start of by showing David Hunt’s video as an introduction. To see the student hand out (that will probably change before I am happy with it) please click here. As always, feel free to borrow this idea, I did not invent it , I just tweaked it to fit my needs.

Update: I cannot tell you how wonderful this project has been in my classroom. The students have been motivated, engaged, and driven by their curiosity. In fact, to see one student’s take on it, read her blog post. I also created two rubrics with the help of Rubistar for the project, here is the self evaluation one and here is the presentation rubric.

Here is a video of an actual presentation by the Southeast Region group.

being a teacher, new year, reflection, Student-centered

I’m Not Ready Yet

August 31, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I wipe the last table off, position the pencil cup, shut off the lights and close the door. Supposedly my room is ready for the 26 brand new students that will bounce in Tuesday morning. Supposedly I am ready to meet their needs once discovered. Supposedly I don’t have to go in these next few days, I will keep my door closed, and my room ready.

But I am not ready yet. A hole exists. A need that has not been met so my room feels unfinished. As I drive home it finally dawns on me what it is: my students. My room will always be unfinished without them. My room will never feel ready without them.

I can set up, prepare, write plans, make copies, create welcome back bulletin boards, but in the end, my room will never be quite done. My room will never look ready. My room will always seem empty until they come. And what a wonderful feeling that is. My students are what make us a classroom. Not the tables, the books, the bulletin boards or all of the supplies. The kids. They are the ones that matter. I cannot wait to finish my room.

building community, new year, Student-centered, students

Building Community Activities Just for You

August 30, 2013 Pernille Ripp

Every year I try to have various community building activities for the kids to do on those first few days of school. And while I detest ice breakers, in 5th grade, we do like the occasional get to know me activity. Though the years I have used various scavenger hunts, time capsules, and bingo games to get to know them a bit better, to get them to know each other, and also for me to keep until the end of the year. Then when summer beckons and we cannot believe that the year is over, I pull out the forgotten letters, the time capsules, the about me’s, and we reminisce and we laugh and we shake our heads at the answers we gave so long ago.

As I shared some of this with my teammates yesterday, I realized I should share it here as well. Some of this is me created, some of it is adapted from others a long time ago. Either way, I hope you have a phenomenal back to school and that some of these may be useful to you.

Around the Room Scavenger Hunt – customize to fit your room, helps the kids notice the things they need to find or know.
Human Treasure Hunt – great for when you have a lot of new kids so they can discover things about each other
A Letter to Me – I use this to peek into the kids’ thoughts and then save it until the end of the year to see how they have changed
Me Collage – a secret collage where the kids have to guess who made it
3 minute time test – there are so many variations of this one but it is used to discuss the importance of following directions
Group Bingo – Instead of numbers they have to find kids that match the description
Time Capsule – Students fill in the blanks (this one always cracks me up)
How We Started – All of their favorites are listed here

Other Ideas for Community Building:

The Bloxes Challenge
– a favorite of mine the past few years and this year the whole grade level will do it.
Create a flag pennant: Cut a white piece of 12”X18” construction paper diagonally to create two pennants. Students write their name in large letters with color and then fill in the pennant with things about them. Laminate and display above their lockers.
Writing sample to see how they grow, a great prompt is; “What color is (blank) grade?”
Every year I have the outgoing class write “Dear Future Student” letters so we read these in the first couple of days.
Using Animoto.com the students create a classroom vision video. Educators can get a free account and then use that for student work. We use the stock pictures and add out own sentences to show what we want to get out of the year.
Random pictures of you slideshow. Create a slideshow with pictures that are meaningful to you and have students guess what they mean – this can be a lot of fun as students guess their meaning.
The firs test of the year! Surprise them with a pop quiz that is all about their teacher, true/false questions work best.
Connect the students – this is a great activity that only requires a large sheet of paper and sharpies. Students all write their name on the border of the paper and then one person makes a statement about something they like or do such as, “I play soccer.“ Anyone else that plays soccer gets to draw a line from his or her name to the name of the person who made the statement. Then the next person states something and so on until everyone has had a turn. Great way to visualize all the things we have in common.
Name your table and create a banner for it.
Toilet paper introduction. Pass a roll of toilet paper around and instruct students to take as many squares as they want. Once everyone has taken their squares, tell them they need to share as many things about themselves as they haven taken squares.
Guess the like. Every student writes down something they do or like on a piece of paper (no name on it!) then crumble it up. Have a paper toss battle for a few minutes and then everyone grabs one “ball. Try to guess whose paper it is.”

Some of these I use, some I don’t but either way, feel free to use.

I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, inspiration, new year, Student-centered

A Kinder, Slower, More Receptive Approach to the Start of School

August 29, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I was fortunate enough to have my very first article published by EdWeek this week in anticipation of my book release this fall. I have been so excited to move into the editing stages of my book, titled “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom back to Our Students Starting Today.” This book is meant to be a how-to book for new teachers and veterans that want to change a little or a lot of how they have been teaching. It is a practical book filled with ideas and examples to hopefully inspire you to give the classroom back and give students a voice in their education.

So here is an excerpt from my article, please click the link to see the rest

No teacher begins a teaching career with ill intentions. Yet most of us make our biggest mistake on our very first day. I was no different, nine years ago. I chose to do everything the way I had been taught in college—the way the popular new-teacher advice books said I should.

Sure, I laughed with the students and made noises about our “class community.” But as the all-important first week of school progressed, I went about dictating rules, establishing who was in control, and setting tight boundaries for the year.

As a result, I lost the opportunity to create the kind of relationship with my students that leads not only to motivation and engagement but to real ownership of learning and ultimately greater achievement. At the time I didn’t recognize the loss—it took several years, in fact. If you’re a new teacher about to begin your journey, maybe my lessons learned can help you avoid the pitfalls of a pretend partnership with your students.

To see the rest and my ideas for a better way to start, go here

conferences, new teacher, new year, Student-centered

How To Do Student-Led Conferences

August 3, 2013November 26, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I seem to have written a lot about the why of student-led conferences but then have never given a step by step approach on how to do it. Fresh in my mind from my webinar for SimpleK12 – here are the steps. Use them as you wish.

First to the Why:

Let Them Speak – Why Student-Led Conferences Are the Right Choice

Now the How

Before you start:

Think about your reasoning; what are you trying to accomplish with them?
Determine if you want full or hybrid. Full meaning all student-led with only a few minutes of teacher talk or hybrid meaning half and half between teacher ad student. I do a mixture depending on the child and the time of year.
The age of the child, the make up of your district, and how crazy of an idea this is can all help you make your decision.

First Week of School:

Inform the students that they will be leading their own conferences and why so that this does not come as a surprise to them later in the year.
This is an overall philosophy so make sure you have ways to gather their learning whether in journals, portfolios or some place for them to gather evidence.
Student-ownership of learning should be from day one. A constant question in your classroom should be, “How are you doing and what do you need work on next?”
Plant the seeds for student goal setting and help them set goals starting now. I start this on my beginning of the year student questionnaire.

Two Weeks Prior:

Have a classroom discussion to discuss the learning. What have you explored since we started, what are major themes, where have we been heading?
Then discuss assessment. How do you get assessed? How do you assess yourself? What are district assessment tools? How do you know how you have been doing?
Discuss performance – how will the students assess themselves? This can be daunting for some kids and so a class discussion or small group discussion is often a great way to get started.
Student self-reflection time – Students should have plenty of time to continue their reflection of themselves as learners. This should be a continuation of what you have been doing since the first day.
Student preparation sheet – this sheet can be tweaked to fit your needs and I often have students bring this to the conference as a support. I have a general one and a specific 5th grade spring preparation sheet. I often project these and ask students for feedback and we tweak the form to fit their needs before I give them copies of this. And this fall I actually updated my sheet – I like this one a lot better!
Start reminding parents that students are leading this and therefore must be present at their conference – I put it in newsletters and in general emails.

One Week Prior:

Check in with whole class – are there major questions or confusion that needs to be addressed?
Individual check-in with students. “Walk me through your evidence and what you want to show your parents.”
Give them time to gather the evidence that they want to show their parents, make copies, find work etc. I hand them a folder to keep it all in.
Think of ways you can showcase the classroom. Last year we had QR codes parents could scan that would show off different videos from our classroom.
Continue to remind parents that students must be present.

Day Off:

Role-play a conference with a student in front of the whole class. Often students are anxious about the experience, so doing a fishbowl demonstration really helps settle nerves and answer any last minute questions.
Have each child check their folders for everything they need.
At the end of the day, my students leave their folders and what they may need right on their table. That way when they come in they can grab it and not waste any time.
Have students remind their parents that they must be present. (It seems like overkill, but every year without fail a parent shows up without their child).

During:

Welcome and introduce the concept of student-led conference.
Showcase the parent list of questions (I laminate a copy and leave it on the table) and encourage parents to jump in.
Let the student do their thing.

Final minutes:

Take the last few minutes to wrap up and address any parent concerns. Ask if another meeting needs to be scheduled.
Hand over student questionnaire and parent questionnaire and ask them to bring it back the next day.
Repeat the students goals and make a note of them (I use one of my teacher sheets and always tell parents I will give them a copy of the sheet).
Make sure students leave behind their preparation sheets, these are great to pull out for the next round of conferences as they prepare for them and reflect back on the year.

That’s really it for me. I have all of the forms I use on this page, please feel free to use and adapt to fit your needs. If you have any questions, just reach out, my email is p (at) globalreadaloud (dot) com