My favorite instructional strategy - Middle School

One of my favorite instructional strategies to use in the classroom is summarizing. Summarizing enables to student to reflect on the most important aspects of the lesson or concept. When summarizing, students are forced to look back over the information and make judgments about what is essential to their understanding.

Here are a few ways I implement summarization in the classroom:

• Exit Tickets-Each student is given a note card. Depending on the lesson, there are several things they can do with the notecard.

                    a.     Write 3 important ideas from the lesson
                    b.     Answer a question
                    c.      Write their own question they might have from the lesson

• Write a News Headline about the lesson
• Write a letter to a friend who was absent describing what they missed in class today.
• Write 2 “Ahas!” and 1 “Huh?”
• Sequence or Timeline the concept
• Write a summary of the lesson in a Text or Tweet #LOL
• Definition Summary

                    a.     What is being defined?
                    b.     What category does it belong in?
                    c.      What makes this different from other things in the category?
                    d.     What are some different types or classes of the item being defined?

• 3-2-1…3 main points, 2 details, and 1 question
• $2 Summaries…Give each vocabulary word a 10¢ value, the more expensive the sentence the better. Sometimes I use that as an extra credit opportunity. For, example…$1 sentence =10 points on a daily assignment.
• Alphabet game…Divide the alphabet among the class. Each student must think of one word that would describe the lesson, topic, or concept, using that letter.

If you say the word “Summary,” student will moan and groan…especially in a science classroom. Varying the activity still gives me the upperhand on the strategy and the learning!!

Kim Smith

This is Kim’s 16^th year teaching Middle School science and her 2^nd year in Sunnyvale. She received her undergrad degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in 2000, and her Master’s Degree from The University of Texas A&M–Commerce in 2007.

My favorite instructional strategy - Elementary School

My favorite teaching strategy is making anything I can change into a hands-on experience.  

At least once a week, I come up with an activity or station to introduce a lesson or new topic.  When I teach math, this is usually a station that involves manipulative, a real-world example of the skill we are learning, or anything that does NOT include pencil and paper.   

In science, the hands-on experiences involve anything that gets their brains working!  We have watched Gobstoppers and water in a petri dish (to learn the steps of the scientific method), grown our own seeds (to learn the plant life cycle), and experienced each of the forms of energy through stations that involved actually observing the forms of energy with everyday items.   

The students absolutely love these activities and it gives them a chance to learn through meaningful play.  I especially love incorporating hands-on activities because it makes learning fun and students are more likely to remember a topic or skill that is taught if it involves all parts of their brain!

Ashlee Rinestine

This is my thirteenth year as a teacher, and my first year to teach in Sunnyvale.  My husband, son and I live in Sunnyvale and absolutely love the sense of community we feel living here.  It is amazing that every neighbor, community member, and family support SISD and what it stands for.  I am blessed to be part of this amazing place!

Moving & Learning in the High School

In my classroom students never sit down the entire class time and neither do I!  Moving is a must in my classroom, not just because it's theatre but because it serves both kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learning.  We do movements to remember vocabulary, to get warmed up, to transition between topics, to get into groups, and so much more. I tell the students at the beginning of the year they cannot and will not sit down or stay silent the entire class time. Some are excited about this and others are worried. Once we get up and moving there are no complaints.

A simple way I get them up and moving is stations. Stations or corners they have to do certain activities at, write down answers or observations, and/or contemplate certain questions. Another way is a movement made up to remember a certain vocabulary word or even our vocal diction exercises. When the opportunity presents itself I let students pace, walk around, sit on the floor, lay under tables, etc. to work individually on their writing, brainstorming or whatever. It requires more monitoring on my part but gives them a change of scenery and control over their learning environment.  

In the case of checking for understanding informally, they may have to act something out, use their bodies, stand up quickly or do a gesture in order to be called on for a question. I use movements to get classrooms attention, to celebrate student achievement, and give focus to someone talking. These are simple gestures, claps, and poses but get students communicating non verbally.

For a short video of examples: Click Here

Bio:

My name is Candace Clarke and I am thrilled to be in my fourth year teaching theatre at Sunnyvale. So grateful to be apart of the Sunnyvale family. Since being at Sunnyvale the theatre department has grown and we have a theatre teacher at both the HS & MS campuses, our International Thespian Society has over 20 members, and our One Act Play last year was a Regional qualifier, and the year before received alternate to State UIL OAP.  I  work very closely with our Middle School theatre teacher, Rae Harvill, who is my curly red-headed sister!  

My favorite color is purple and I wear it everyday - don't doubt it.  My husband, Paul, is a Dallas Firefighter and we live in Dallas.  My hobbies include traveling, road trips, spending time with my husband and family, dancing, sewing, designing, and embracing awkward moments. I am a lifelong learner who strives to be involved in theatre in order to be an effective educator of theatre.  Outside the classroom I can be found serving at Life in Deep Ellum on the production team, attending musicals, teaching movement at GPAC, and reading plays!

Moving & Learning in the Middle School

Active learning is something I fully embraced 3 years ago.  At times it seems like chaos, but in my experience, the more the kids are moving around, the more aware they are of what they’re doing.  So many times if I give an assignment that they do at their desk then I have a class full of students zoning out, tapping pencils, and not putting forth any effort.  When they’re walking around the room the percentage of students spacing out and not working drastically decreases.  

There are tons of activities you can do that will get students up and moving.  I’ve tried so many different options and as with most things some will work better for you than others.  It’s important to find the activities that work best for you.  The ones I use most often are scavenger hunts, math libs, and stations.  For a scavenger hunt I place papers around the room with problems for the students to solve.  Sometimes they have QR codes with answers, but more often than not, each problem will share a page with an answer to a different problem.  This allows the student to work the problem and then search the room for the answer they just came up with.  If their answer is not on another page in the room then they know they did something wrong and they try again.  If the find their answer then they work the new problem and continue until they have completed a giant loop through all of the questions.  This activity is one of my favorites because it allows students to either work in small groups or individually and they are checking their own work as they go.  Math Libs are just a nerdier, more mathematical take on Mad Libs.  Students answer multiple choice questions that have parts of a paragraph attached to the different answers.  When we’re finished with all questions, I read the correct paragraph and they can easily check which problems they missed based on the accuracy of their paragraph.  I position the questions around the room so students are moving in a giant circle answering questions.  This activity tends to be a student favorite because the paragraphs are ridiculous and they like to guess what’s coming next as they’re answering questions.  These are just a couple of example activities that work best for me in my math classroom.  I find tons of ideas for new things to try by reading through blogs and, of course, Pinterest, where all the good things are.

Sarah Wilson

This is Sarah's 7th year teaching and my 4th year at SMS.  I got my B.S. in mathematics from Dallas Baptist University.   

Moving & Learning in the Elementary School

My classroom.

My classroom is the magic hat that magicians wear on top of their heads.  It contains a limitless supply of wonder and amazement.  I invite my students into a world unlike any they have ever experienced, where even mundane learning expectations are transformed into magnificent spectacles of intriguing information. I truly believe I am transforming students from passive learners to engaged lifelong learners. 

I was thinking about all the things I do in my class that makes learning active for my students and thought of telling you about how I incorporate movement into my lessons to get my students out of their seats and engaged in the lesson I am teaching.  Where my lesson on using the standard algorithm to solve multiplication problems starts with a dance to make a lesson that some students fear, be about how easy and no threatening math can be.  Also learning how states of matter change through their different forms after heat is added and subtracted becomes a game on the basketball court where my students and I form a solid by huddling together we add heat and move farther away while moving around each other and more heat is added and we are all running around excited like the gas molecule we are pretending to be.

Instead of talking about any of that I decided to speak to you today about what active learning means to me.  I feel that in order to get my kids to want to learn from me it is I who has to be active.  I have noticed that if your students trust and invest in you as their teacher they are more motivated to work and learn for and from you.  I try to be as engaging as I can when I walk into my school, and not only to my students but all students that I come in contact with because I want to build that bond before they ever get to fourth grade, because it makes my task easier.  I have met some truly amazing teachers in our district and others that are active teachers and I learned that Active Learning starts with me and flows through my students.  As educators we are charged with sculpting the future and I for one want to be actively engaged in what future I will one day see.

Mack

My name is Eric McMahan I am a fourth grade Math and Science teacher at Sunnyvale Elementary.  This is my 6th year teaching and I am blessed to be apart of such an amazing community and district.

February's Topic

When was the last time you sat still for most of a 7 hour day?  Was it fun? Sounds rough to me but it's what our students do most days.

This month 3 SISD teachers will share strategies with you to get kids up and moving and learning!

Wednesday, February 10th  we'll learn from Eric McMahan at the elementary school

Wednesday, February 17th we'll learn from Sarah Wilson at the middle school

Wednesday, February 24th we'll learn from Candance Clarke at the high school

via GIPHY

Authentic Audience in the Middle School

Just a quick short note about me then I will get to the point. This is my 7th year teaching at Sunnyvale and my 2nd year as a 5th grade teacher. My husband is Reagan and we have a rowdy 7 year old named Jake.

When the students realize they have an authentic audience and it is not just going to be their teachers or peers seeing their projects, it seems to instill a sense of pride into them, both as a group and as an individual. They want to impress whomever they are creating for and I think most students always want their products to be the best. When they finish with a project, it is not only authentic, but also they are genuinely proud of their work and want to show it off.

Recently my husband had the chance to be the audience for a 5th grade science ELU and he came to school to give the students feedback. They loved when he directly recognized items from their products and asked them specific questions as to how they came up with the ideas. So, not only is it important to launch and ELU with your audience, but also to invite that audience back to review and give feedback on the finished project product.