All About Perspective

Posted on August 23, 2017 by thiskelly

As I watched the news recently, I pondered my earlier question in a previous post: How can two people see, hear or experience the same event or conversation and walk away with a completely different perspective.

Denis Waitley said, “You must look within for value, but must look beyond for perspective.” To me this is powerful because it reminds us that we must look beyond ourselves and how we think to find perspective beyond our own. Looking within ourselves shapes how we value the event or situation we are experiencing or watching.

Our views are shaped by our experiences, preferences, values and relationships. We do not realize how these factors affect our view but they do because they often veil the outcome in some way.

It is important that we, as adults, step back and think through events to truly see where the truth or facts lie. It is tough because we know how we feel and what we BELIEVE should have happened and therefore the events are often exaggerated when they do not meet our value system or we down play if they do.

Whether it is a political, moral or other passionate event, situation or idea—we are so invested in our own value—we struggle to step back to see ways others might be approaching or thinking of the situation.

As educators, we must remember, when we interact with others we are teaching it to our students. Discussing ideas in a civil manner helps us to become a more tolerant and open minded person. This does not mean you have to believe as someone else does. You must be able to look past your own beliefs to see others may have a different perspective.

Aristotle shared this idea, “It is a mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Is it not this type of thinking we want our students to possess? A person who can listen, consider and think about an idea but look within themselves to determine the value they want to equate with the idea. This is a sign of not only an educated mind but an open one that can think beyond their own perspective.

As a history teacher, I loved having my students’ role play different people in history to see a situation from their eyes. One of my favorite activities, when studying the American Revolution, was to assign them a person in history. For some, it was someone famous like Patrick Henry or Thomas Jefferson. For other students, it may be a farmer, slave, merchant, ship captain, etc. They would be asked to think from that person’s perspective to decide whether they would have sided with the Patriots or stayed loyal to the King. Of course, everyone at first thought they would be a Patriot. After stepping back and thinking about a wealthy merchant, with family in England, dependent on the goods from England to sell—would you really side with the Patriots? Powerful to think through the eyes of another–such as the soldiers during the Boston Massacre–were they guilty, victims or just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Students’ thinking as someone else helps them develop the understanding that there is more than one side to every story.

Take time this school year to emphasize the need to look at an event or idea from more than one perspective. How?

Role Play social situations or historical events
Diary entries from various perspectives of an event. Ex. Write a diary entry from a first class passenger on the Titanic. How would that diary entry be different if you were a third class passenger? Another example, write a diary entry as Rosa Parks. How would the bus driver’s perspective of the event be similar or different? What feelings might be different?
Write poetry from an alternate speaker. For example, write a poem about autumn from a squirrel’s point of view. How would a maple tree’s perspective be different?
Using a story you are reading, have students define the problem and how it was solved. Discuss how would a different character solve it? Why? Was everyone happy with the solution? Did everyone think the problem was negative?

The world we live in is full of ideas, history, values, experiences and opinions—my hope is that we expose our students to many ideas and MOST OF ALL the ability to step back and think about why someone else might see or think something different. Push students through activities and questioning to think differently—not to change their opinions but to acknowledge that others do think differently. It is important for us to emphasize that listening and considering someone’s idea does not mean you agree with it BUT you understand that someone else feels or sees something different.

Grit Matters

Posted on May 25, 2017 by thiskelly

Walking through the halls of my school, as testing season is in full swing, I hear words and phrases such as your best effort, stamina, and perseverance. It is not the skills that we are remediating and reviewing as much as becoming coaches to help students dig deep to find their strengths. How do these traits fit into testing?

Pure and simple–STAMINA. Students must have stamina to be successful on testing. Stamina is often referred to as GRIT. which is a “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”

In my opinion there are three main reasons that our standardized testing require stamina training.

The length of text students are required to read.
To create synapse a person must engage in a task and create connections with other material.
Self-monitoring while reading and application of skills while reading requires active engagement.

The first obstacle requiring stamina is the length of text students are required to read. Passages for third through fifth grade are two to three pages in length. Each passage has 6-8 multiple choice questions. To make this obstacle more difficult it is on varying levels of difficulty which range from grade level to above to test the student’s ability to read and comprehend complex text. Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, varying text structures and text features continue to deepen the complexity and challenges of our readers for four hours.

Synapse and self-monitoring are ways that the brain can utilize GRIT to engage during testing. A brain must take knowledge and utilize this information into one of the 100 billion neurons or brain cells in the body. The brain cells have the primary job of receiving information and signally other neurons using electricity or chemicals to stimulate messages within the body.. Learning happens when neurons are activated and a message is sent along the axon and when repeatedly stimulated a process called synapse is created. Synapse is created when two neurons are connected from the end of the dendrite. Remember dendrites? When this action happens in the brain, it is relating to the brain the information, action or event is important to remember or retain. If students do NOT stay engaged during the receiving of information and the signaling of neurons–learning stops!

Self-monitoring helps students stay aware if they are gaining information. Sometimes our students begin to daydream or allow their thoughts to wander which stops the self-monitoring and in turn–stops synapse and comprehending. Grit is the characteristic which keeps students engaged and applying strategies when their comprehension breaks down.

Taking time to have students reflect on their stamina and self-monitoring allows students to begin noticing when learning stops. How often do you get to the end of a task and not remember anything? Have you ever driven somewhere and not remembered the drive? Have you ever rotely completed a task and at the end think–I don’t remember doing it? This is what happens when students read for long periods of time without a “recheck or reflection.”

Teach students to stop periodically and think about what they are reading. Can they retell or recall basic information? If not, they are not engaged–if so, they are ready to begin looking at comprehension questions. Perseverance and reflection keep learning happening and creating synapse.
Most of all we must teach students reflection To encourage GRIT and the ability to persevere when things are tough. These are the qualities that determine success. A mediocre reader with GRIT can perform as well as a stronger reader who is reading on automatic pilot. It is not always the ability that predicts the success but the effort that is put into the task. Grit Matters.

What Standardized Tests Do Not Measure

Posted on May 22, 2017 by thiskelly

Posted by thiskelly

With four hours (times two) to ponder this week, I have thought about many of life’s questions including: What do standardized tests measure? We know that these tests give a “precise number or score” that allows us to sort and label (creating data points), providing a way to compare students, classes, schools and districts. They provide reliable, fair and valid results of mastery of information or curriculum. This data helps us decide if our instruction has been effective and the next steps for students’ learning. The need for “Accountability” for our schools and teachers has deepened the level and need for our standardized testing. However, is that what they really measure?

Watching my test taker, I thought, “What is this test going to tell me about this child that our school does not already know? I watched his determination and the stamina he showed as he progressed hour after hour. He worked meticulously, repeating the procedure he must have spent daily learning with his teacher. My mind began to drift to other students that I worried about—would they be able to give the same effort for this duration? Would students with anxiety shut down? Would students who lacked confidence begin to feel sick and worried? Was this test showing their capabilities?

My thoughts then turned to a memory of a young boy with clear dancing blue eyes. This fifth grader’s standardized tests told me that he was above proficient and had the knowledge base for the next school year and on track to being career and college ready. What the standardized test score did not measure but that I knew was that his family life was unstable, he had an extreme need for peer acceptance and a long history of absences and tardiness. The test score could not predict that I would again look at that child, ten years later. His blue eyes, which had become cloudy as he sat inside of a correctional center with his head hung low. He shared his story with me of stealing from cars to keep up his meth habit and I remembered his need for acceptance and belonging, even in fifth grade. How did the standardized test miss that?

Another child’s face that flashed in front of my eyes was Carissa. She worked so hard and gave all she had during her fifth grade test. In fact, she had showed up for tutoring three times a week all year but had not passed one single test, she took in elementary school. She had continued to struggle with basic reading even with intensive interventions. What her test score did not show was the determination she possessed and that she would exceed far beyond her abilities. Twelve years after her 5th grade standardized test scores, her sweet voice and calming spirit held the hand of my frightened grandmother in the hospital. Despite the data of her testing, she was making the world a better place and succeeding as a nursing assistant.

Dozens of faces and stories flood to my mind when I think that standardized tests do not always measure what good teachers already know. Teachers see the compassion that will make them nurses, teachers, and social workers. They see the character traits that will help students aspire to greatness or the traits that will cause them to struggle with life and their peers. It takes teachers knowing and understanding the whole child, including their personality, likes and dislikes and helping them to build on weaknesses and gain strength from their success. Success of a child requires teachers knowing and helping them to mold their character, which ultimately affects their performance, relationships and outcomes.

As we move through this testing season, keep in mind that numbers are real but only tell part of the story. What traits do you see that will make this child make the world a better place? What traits do we need to work on to ensure their success? At some point, as they continue through life, it is not the test score that will hold them back and keep them from attaining—it will be themselves. Somehow, in this age of testing, we as educators must find a way to use this data but keep in mind the “rest of the child.” Keeping a focus on the traits, they are developing to become a strong, vibrant citizen that will make our world a better place.

Think about these traits. Not one is measured by a standardized test.

Each child has a story that is being written daily by the experiences they have, knowledge that they gain, the people they know and interact with and most of all the events in their lives. I challenge you to look at your data over the weekend and begin to think of the untold story behind that data. We, as a school, will continue to help write each child’s story. What do we want it to say? What can we control? What do we, as individual educators need to do to help ensure success of this child? How can our school build the traits and pieces of the story that are worn, broken or missing? As a school, let us focus on the WHOLE STORY and build students who have the traits that will make them successful. The reading, math and writing are certainly part of the story and a focus we need to have. However, don’t you think there is SO MUCH MORE?

De-Stress Yourself!

Posted on May 12, 2017 by thiskelly

With the testing season in full swing, we are reminded about the term STRESS! Stress is a growing part of our everyday lives for teachers and students. According to Stanford School of Medicine, the number of children, ages of 7-17, treated for depression has more than doubled between the years of 1995 and 2001. Based on a report from the National Institute of Mental Health in 2014, “11.4% of population or 2.8 million adolescents, ages 12-17, have reported a major depressive episode.” Shifts in the home lives and finances of our students’ families, increase in testing, issues with peers and other factors have increased our need, as teachers, to be aware of this growing concern and how it affects our children. Even a small amount of stress produces a shot of adrenaline that can increase alertness and increase engagement such as a competition or struggling with a tough task. As educators, we must keep a good balance of productive stress while teaching our students to successfully manage stress to keep learning conditions optimal.

Your brain contains 100 billion neurons or brain cells. These cells have the primary job of receiving information and signally other neurons using electricity or chemicals to stimulate messages within the body. The hypothalamus is the regulation center of the brain which keeps your body at a constant; including temperature, heart rate, etc. Learning happens when neurons are activated and a message is sent along the axon and when repeatedly stimulated a process called synapse is created. Synapse is created when two neurons are connected from the end of the dendrite. Remember dendrites? When this action happens in the brain, it is relating to the brain the information, action or event is important to remember or retain.

See Image of a Neuron Below:

Many of our students are in a constant state of stress from instability at home, lack of confidence in a subject, poor self-esteem, and relationships with their peers, etc. This constant state of stress causes inability to stay on task, inattention, and lack of self control.

The AHA Moment—students in a constant state of stress not only struggle with attention but their brain is actually inhibited from learning due too much or little cortisol.

Symptoms of Chronic Stress:

Symptom	Examples
Physical	fatigue, headaches, muscle and joint pain, grinding teeth, stomach problems
Cognitive	inattention, lack of concentration, blaming others, poor problem solving
Behavioral	loss of appetite, withdrawal, acting out, tantrums
Emotional	anxiety, guilt, irritability, uncertainty
Physiological	Increase in blood pressure, breathing, heart rate and muscle tension

Looking at the chart above, do you recognize any of your students?

Here are Five Ideas. Try to implement one this week!

Get Active: Integrated movement where you cross the midline of the brain hemispheres will promote a better emotional state. 2-5 minutes before a test or activity where students need to have a clear mind try this site called Go Noodle (https://www.gonoodle.com/). It is free and provides active online videos to help your students get moving AND de-stress. By crossing the lateral line of your brain with movement helps to remove the survival reaction of your brain to a more focused state.

Example of a video found on Go Noodle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvgYsbDDZW8

Breathing: Remember when someone is under stress, they produce cortisol which is impeding the brain’s ability to learn. By adjusting a person’s breathing while under stress, signals reaction and stops or shifts the production of cortisol. You can pair deep breathing activities with a calming visual which deepens the body’s ability to calm the mind and emotions. The benefits of deep breathing includes more oxygen circulating to the body, cleanses the body of toxic stress chemicals such as cortisol, and begins to refocus attention and clear thinking.

You can access this handout (calm_breathing) for ways to teach deep breathing with your students. Here are basic guidelines:

Take a slow breath in through the nose (for about 4 seconds)
Hold your breath for 1 or 2 seconds
Exhale slowly through the mouth (over about 4 seconds)
Wait 2-3 seconds before taking another breath (5-7 seconds for teenagers)
Repeat for at least 5 to 10 breaths

*You can access a calming visual through www.calm.com

3. Model and practice the “Take 5 Technique.”

When students are filled with frustration due to anxiety the “Take 5” strategy is a easy visual to say—STOP and Think. This strategy allows you to help the child begin an inner dialogue about how to calm down while de-escalating the situation. Breathing or counting is a way to help regulate the brain and stop the focus on the anxiety or emotion that is stopping the dendrites to fire. Students truly do “stop thinking” when in a state of stress or reaction. Helping them to learn ways to handle this stress will help them learn how to regulate the body. Click here for a printable version of this technique from: www.childhood101.com.

4. Ball Toss or Silent Ball: Tossing the ball or even the movement of watching someone else, will lower cortisol levels. This movement increases a student’s ability to focus and concentrate. As a teacher you can use the ball as part of your instruction during the question and answer part of your lesson. The movement of the ball helps to refocus all students and the unknown of where it will be thrown increases concentration and engagement. You can also play a ball toss game or Silent Ball for a few minutes (recommendation no more than 6 minutes) before a difficult task to heighten “good stress” by increasing the adrenaline of your students but not overwhelming them.

Click here for directions on Silent Ball: silent ball

5. Lazy Eight: A figure eight pattern will increase thinking and eye movement across the midline of your brain and create coordinated movements. These movements activate the entire brain and the repetition resets neural connections.You can have students take a scrap piece of paper and draw a figure 8 (see diagram below) for 30 seconds continue to retrace. Have students switch to the other hand and continue to draw and trace the pattern for 30 seconds. Continue to switch hands and draw for a total of 2 minutes. Another version of the Lazy Eight is for students to physically stand and use their arms extended to move in a figure 8 pattern and move from side to side as you would if you were drawing the pattern.

Demonstration here at Youtube

In days ahead, we are faced with the challenge to keep students as free from stress while learning. Remember, for the brain to function, the hypothalamus must be regulated in a stable or regular state. Deep breathing, active moving, and using calming visuals will help the brain stop making cortisol which impedes learning and thinking. Learning how to manage feelings of stress is a life long lesson and if we model and practice these skills for our students—they will become healthier AND more engaged in our classrooms. Who knows—maybe we will learn a thing or two along the way!

Resources accessed for this article:

Article by Marian Wilde accessed on March 15, 2016: http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/stressed-out-kids/

Statistics accessed on March 15, 2016: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/prevalence/major-depression-among-adolescents.shtml

Make “IT” Stick

Posted on May 2, 2017 by thiskelly

This time of year, we are engaging students in many activities; trying to review information, create new connections and most of all MAKE “IT” STICK. Helping students to find wonder, graphics, student interaction, and movement all help increase student engagement and increase the ability to process information. Using what we know about the brain helps us plan lessons to optimally produce student learning.

Two Facts about the Brain

Learning engages the entire body and physiology. Increasing active movement will increase engagement and neural activity. Increase student to student interaction to increase listening and speaking while reading and writing which will boost sensory input. Engaging students in movement, gestures, games, etc. will increase their neural input and increase the brain’s ability to put the information in long term memory.
Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. We must challenge our students with complex text and content but remember that scaffolding them and supporting them will keep the threats limited and engagement guaranteed. (Keep the carrot dangling in front of them)

Explicit instructions and modeling help to lay the foundation of learning. Providing students a chance to interact and talk helps to make the concepts make sense. The use of graphics, movement and games will increase the brain’s ability to remember and retrieve the information. Increasing the challenge or layering new ideas upon patterns of learning helps students develop connections and deepen learning so that it is processed to long term memory and becomes automatic.

10 review games to MAKE “IT” STICK.

10. Attack

9. Stinky Feet

Stinky foot page template for you to use.

8. Use Board Games or Task Cards

7. Swat It!

Here is a template: 4 x 4 Grid

6. Review with a BALL!

5. Showdown!

These next two games use the 4 answer multiple choice format. They are a bit structured but do not take any preparation to play. The first game is not competitive but does give the opportunity for students to move and talk which help engagement. In addition, the teacher can formatively assess the class and individuals. The second version has a competitive spirit.

4. Travel Time

3. Stand Up!

2. Chair Race

1. Trashketball

Happy Reviewing and remember—movement = engagement which will ultimately lead to “making “it” stick.”

**These activities were taken from Blogs I wrote last year and ideas from colleagues. Thanks to each of you for sharing!

Brain Breaks

Posted on April 27, 2017 by thiskelly

Review—EOG—Performance—Data—OH MY!

So much stress begins to swirl around the air as the sunshine begins to peek out in the spring. Educators are feeling the PUSH to make sure scores and performance are on par and students end up feeling it vicariously. In our frenzy to cram in the last remaining material and review the entire year in two weeks—we forget that students are dealing with their own set of worries and battles in their own lives.

Food for thought:

Judy Willis M.D., Edutopia Article, stated the following, “For students to learn at their highest potential, their brains need to send signals efficiently from the sensory receptors (what they hear, see, touch, read, imagine, and experience) to memory storage regions of the brain. The most detrimental disruptions to traffic along these information pathways are stress and overload.” Providing our students with “Brain Breaks” often throughout a lesson can help students obtain optimal retention of information and attention.

Your brain contains 100 billion neurons or brain cells. These cells have the primary job of receiving information and signaling other neurons using electricity or chemicals to stimulate messages within the body. The hypothalamus is the regulation center of the brain. It keeps your body at a constant; including temperature, heart rate, etc. Learning happens when neurons are activated and a message is sent along the axon. When repeatedly stimulated a process called synapse is created. Synapse is created when two neurons are connected from the end of the dendrite. The creation of dendrites is when the brain is relating information that is important within the brain and “filing it” for retention or when the brain makes a learning connection which puts it in our memory.

When the brain is exposed to stress the body begins to release cortisol which is the primary stress hormone. This chemical affects your heart, lungs, skin, immune system and circulation. In addition, it stimulates the hypothalamus and when it reaches the neuron, it shuts off the impulses of the dendrites which halt learning. This is a temporary response and the dendrites will grow back UNLESS there is a long term period of stress. When stress is repetitive the brain will respond by short circuiting that pathway which will stop impulses and result in the lack of input and messaging. Many of our students are in a constant state of stress from instability at home, lack of confidence in a subject, poor self-esteem, and relationships with their peers, etc. This constant state of stress causes inability to stay on task, inattention, and lack of self-control.

Implementing a “Brain Break” is essential to keeping learning happening and can be a natural way for students to “sum up learning” or thinking. No more than 20 minutes of any activity should be taking place in the elementary school without a change in thought or activity. A person’s attention limit is approximately their age plus one –a second grader only has an attention span of about 8 to 9 minutes! By rebooting the brain, you restart the learning process by restoring to a calm state and producing dopamine.
Three Ways to Implement a Brain Break!
1. Have students summarize content material throughout the lesson.
How?
• During teaching stop frequently and ask students to talk to a partner and summarize learning or their ideas. To change things up you can have students draw, write or act out their learning as well.

2. Read Aloud for a few minutes after an activity or lesson to calm and relax students while provoking thought.
How?
• Read aloud and stop often to discuss or have students act out scenes, visualize through drawing or writing or to chat with a partner about an event or character.

3. MOVE. Have students move such as jumping jacks, walking in place, sing a song with movements or throw/catch a ball. All of these activities help to produce dopamine and increase blood flow to the brain.

How?
• Just free movement for 3-5 minutes can get blood flowing and stop the production of cortisol in students. Don’t forget https://www.gonoodle.com/is a great site with videos to get them moving.

Make review time FUN and PRODUCTIVE. A brain break as students learn helps to alleviate stress and the production of cortisol. Happy Reviewing and End of the Year!

Article which helped to inspire this Blog:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/brain-breaks-restore-student-focus-judy-willis

The Forgotten Skill: Silent Fluency

Posted on March 31, 2017 by thiskelly

Reading is comprised of many processes and components in the brain that must be mastered to be proficient for a MASTER reader. Rosenblatt (2004), states, “It is a process of constructing meaning from a written text as a result of thinking with the guidance of the existing text.” Reading components include phonemic awareness, phonics, oral fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Reading 3D helps us to pinpoint these skills to intervene and “fix” instruction for our students. As a student gets older, it is harder for us to determine where our students need help because they are reading for longer periods of time silently and independently.

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) is one integral part of the reading process. When a person is a fluent reader, they decode and recognize words quickly and efficiently which allows the brain to focus on the meaning rather than deciphering words. Think of the acronym PA.R.E., which stands for punctuation, accuracy, rate and expression. The rate is the speed in which the child decodes words and the accuracy measures the correctness. Punctuation and expression (prosody) make up the final component, which is the child’s ability to understand the syntax (the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language), phrasing and intonation of a text.

In my experience, there is one missing skill to ensure proficiency in a reader–Silent Fluency. Students do silent reading even in Kindergarten. Beginning in second grade, students begin to transition to reading silently the majority of the time and are expected to be proficient at it by third grade for standardized testing. (FOR FOUR HOURS) However, how much ACTUAL instruction do we do to ensure students can transition from fluent oral readers to fluent silent readers?

When reading silently, students learn to accommodate for their weaknesses and apply strategies in different ways than when reading aloud. When you read silently, you no longer have to pronounce everything correctly; you can skip unknown words, skim descriptions and simply make individual changes in your reading patterns. In a study by Dr. Kasim Yildirim, the findings were that silent reading fluency was a stronger predictor of comprehension than oral fluency especially in older students. This makes sense because when our students are not proficient and reading silently, they often become “Fake Readers” who skim text rather than read. Others are able to get the “gist” out of the text but are missing the subtle inferences, clues and hints of mood changes, tone and character personalities that the author hides in figurative descriptions.

As an upper grade teacher, I was all about the comprehension and spent the majority of my time teaching students how to dive deep into text. However, I also knew that many of my students were not able to apply skills from class into independent reading. What I did not fully understand was the reason for their struggle. Reading in the upper grades takes a MAJOR TURN because the students are in control of their reading and the teachers know very little about what strategies they are using or how they are learning to compensate for missing skills. Teachers no longer see patterns of missed words or hear mispronunciations. They are unaware of the breakdown in decoding or comprehension. Students are not applying the strategies and monitoring comprehension independently due to a lack of accountability or practice.

When I taught AIG, I realized how effective my students were at reading the “gist” of a selection but not reading deeply enough. I experimented with my instruction, by giving students a text that I knew they would not be familiar with the vocabulary. One I enjoyed using was “The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. Here is an excerpt:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

I would ask them to read this silently and share with their neighbors their findings. As I watched, I noticed that some students were looking around to see what others were doing; some were drawing or writing on their papers (strategies?), and some were intently reading but most likely FAKE READING. I pointed the word OUTGRABE and asked someone to read the word. They struggled to decode it and I asked—did anyone circle the word to show they did not know it? Did anyone chunk this word and try to sound it out? We discussed strategies and how to properly decode an unknown word. What I found was students were not remembering rules of phonics such as the magic e or sounds of blends or a diphthong. Some were able to give me the “gist” of the excerpt because they were able to apply context clues to their thinking but for the most part—they skipped most of it. If our students are reading in this manner—they will not pick up on the subtleties of an author’s craft or deeper meaning of figurative language that may be nestled within the words.

I encourage you to begin investigating your students’ silent fluency. The following steps can be completed in whole group to get a more in depth picture you will need to do one on one.

Time students for a minute, as they read silently, and have them box the last word when you call time.
Repeat this process three times. Have students record these numbers on a chart to get an average WPM.
After the third reading, have student write a short summary on the back without looking at the text.
Finally, have students finish reading the text silently and answer basic comprehension questions without looking back.

* Some people like to have student underline the word as they read to ensure that they actually read it but if you let students know this is to help them—you will find for the most part—it will be accurate.

The timing of students will help you calculate the rate your students are reading and the automaticity of their decoding. You will be unable to determine how accurate it is without questioning. You will find some students who have a high WPM but have no understanding of the text and some students who are reading slowly that have a deeper understanding. The summary and questions will help you to figure out if your students have basic understanding of what they read. Conferencing with a student is a gold mine of information.

Ask them about specific words—Can they decode?
Ask them questions that require inferences or interpreting figurative language—Did they read deeply enough?
Are they making sense of what they read?
Are they making connections?
Do they understand text structure and use it to navigate as they read?
Do they know how to chunk a word into syllables and apply understanding of phonetic knowledge?

Explicitly teach students how to think when they read. Have them read short excerpts and discuss—have them reread and dig for information. Have them reflect as they read. Where did you stop understanding? Encourage your students to annotate their thinking but most importantly question them about what they wrote. Students will write anything if they think it is what you want. You must show them that the annotation is for THEM to understand.

TREASURE is a simple way to encourage students to begin thinking about their reading. Nevertheless, do not forget that to get to the comprehension—we must ensure our students are really reading silently and able to decode fluently the text that we are giving them. As upper grade teachers, we often think that only comprehension matters but if a child does not have silent fluency—they are not able to fully read and apply the strategies you have taught to be able to comprehend the text in the depth and manner in which standardized tests will require.

Note:

PLEASE ASK ME FOR MORE IDEAS AND STRATEGIES FOR THIS! THIS IS A K-5 ISSUE NOT JUST AN UPPER GRADE PROBLEM. WE HAVE TO TEACH THINKING WHEN READING EVEN IN K-1–ORAL FLUENCY DOES NOT DO THIS!

Resources:

Optimal Reading Rates

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2010/07/19/optimal-silent-and-oral-reading-rates.aspx

Multi-Syllabic Instruction

Posted on March 10, 2017 by thiskelly

Fluency is the ability to read with prosody. It is this rhythmic reading that grabs our attention to a read aloud. Automaticity of word recognition, blending and decoding takes place to ensure fluent reading. A basic guideline is that K-1 students read one syllable words easily and efficiently. Second grade students should be able to read two syllable words, third graders moving to three syllables and fourth to four syllables.

The problem with this basic rule is that our students do not encounter these types of words often enough for them to apply their knowledge and to become “fluent” or proficient at these multisyllabic words.

Because these words are more difficult, less recognizable and take more steps to decode—our readers often skip over these words when reading silently or wait for support when reading aloud. For these two reasons, our students are NOT applying knowledge of word parts to decode these words and then skills to decode become “rusty” over time.

How to Explicitly Teach Multisyllabic Word Decoding

Chunk the word by syllable. The student must be taught that each syllable has at least one vowel with or without consonant sounds. It is important to understand words are made of several combinations of chunks or syllables.
Circle word parts (prefixes and suffixes). Underline vowel sounds in the rest of the word.
Think about the meaning of these word parts.
Say the parts of the word.
Say the parts fast.
Can you make it into a real word? OR Can you figure out what it might mean?

Sounds easy right? No!

We must teach several prerequisites to ensure that we are providing the skills necessary for our students to be able to accomplish this task.

What do Students NEED to Know to Decode and Understand Multisyllabic Words?

Vowel Conversions:
- Students need to know when a vowel is short or long.
- Ex. lock and locate
Vowel Combinations:
- digraphs, diphthongs, trigraphs, and triphthongs
Syllables or being able to chunk a word
Prefix and Suffix Knowledge and Meanings
Ability to use Context Clues

The ability to decode multi-syllabic words takes many steps and processes. It is important that at every grade level—we model and practice this process so students understand how to “attack” these words when reading independently. Even students who we deem “proficient readers” in the lower grades begin to struggle when the text becomes more complex and the number of multi-syllabic words increase. Our students who are less proficient pronounce fewer affixes and vowels correctly and omit or skip larger portions of letter chunks or syllables. It is crucial we continue to ensure that all students are applying strategies to decode unknown words without just skipping them during silent reading or waiting to be rescued during oral reading.

Resources used for this Blog:

http://righttrackreading.com/rtr2skillsforproficientreading.pdf

Teacher Reference Chart for Prefixes/Suffix and Vowel Instruction

http://www.voyagersopris.com/rewardsintermediateresources/assets/teacherreferencechart.pdf

Push = Stress

Posted on February 17, 2017 by thiskelly

As we end February, the word “PUSH” comes to my mind often in SO many different connotations. Frustration is permeating through the school with testing, data, students who are not responding to intervention, sickness, etc. With the stress swirling around, I think we as a school are feeling “the push.”

The push of…

A math curriculum that does not allow for a day off
A principal who needs a volunteer for…
A coach who needs you to…
Parents who want to ask …
Our families who need…

Remember that each person we come in contact with is under stress and trying to complete the tasks on their list which often cause our list to grow. I was told last week, “You are so intense. Don’t you understand what I have to do?” My job was causing a “push” to this teacher and it caused anxiety. If we as adults experience this—what do you think we are doing to our students?

How in the world do we manage and do all that we do?

Stress is a growing part of our everyday lives for teachers and students. According to Stanford School of Medicine, the number of children, ages of 7-17, treated for depression has more than doubled between the years of 1995 and 2001. Based on a report, from the National Institute of Mental Health in 2014, “11.4% of population or 2.8 million adolescents, ages 12-17, have reported a major depressive episode.” Shifts in the home lives and finances of our students’ families, increase in testing, issues with peers and other factors have increased our need, as teachers, to be aware of this growing concern and how it affects our children. Even a small amount of stress produces a shot of adrenaline that can increase alertness and increase engagement such as a competition or struggling with a tough task. As educators, we must keep a good balance of productive stress while teaching our students to successfully manage stress to keep learning conditions optimal.

See Image of a Neuron Below:

The AHA Moment—students in a constant state of stress not only struggle with attention but their brain is actually inhibited from learning due too much or little cortisol.

Symptoms of Chronic Stress:

Symptom	Examples
Physical	fatigue, headaches, muscle and joint pain, grinding teeth, stomach problems
Cognitive	inattention, lack of concentration, blaming others, poor problem solving
Behavioral	loss of appetite, withdrawal, acting out, tantrums
Emotional	anxiety, guilt, irritability, uncertainty
Physiological	Increase in blood pressure, breathing, heart rate and muscle tension

Looking at the chart above, do you recognize any of your students?

Remember two easy ways to deal with stress—

Deep Breathing!

Take a slow breath in through the nose (for about 4 seconds)
Hold your breath for 1 or 2 seconds
Exhale slowly through the mouth (over about 4 seconds)
Wait 2-3 seconds before taking another breath (5-7 seconds for teenagers)
Repeat for at least 5 to 10 breaths

Movement!

Movement increases production of dopamine which is a chemical produced which combats stress and helps you feel happier and think more clearly. The movement only has to be for 2-3 minutes and can be simple tasks.

Go Noodle
Silent Ball
jog in place or do 10 jumping jacks
get up find a partner to share information

Remember stress is inevitable. How we deal with it and teach our students to respond—is up to us!

The following older Blogs were used to create this Blog.

https://thiskelly.edublogs.org/tag/stress/

What Do You See? Perspective!!

Posted on February 3, 2017 by thiskelly

Have you ever wondered how two people can see, hear or experience the same event or conversation and walk away with a completely different perspective?

This week I have reflected on this thought:

If an event happens—two people are involved and have two different versions of what happened—where does the truth lie within? How do we find it? How do we see it? Most of all—how do we accept and understand that it is blended between the two perspectives?

Our views are shaped by our experiences, preferences, values and relationships. We do not realize how these factors affect our view but they do because they often veil the outcome in some way.

It is important that we as adults step back and think through events to truly see where the truth or facts lie. It is tough because we know how we feel and what we BELIEVE should have happened and therefore the events are often exaggerated when they do not meet our value system or down played if they do.

My example, yelling. I am not a person who speaks loudly (most of the time) and it causes me anxiety when I am immersed in a situation with noise and what I consider loud voices. When I am in a situation, it is very important for me to remember that a loud voice does not necessarily mean anger or frustration and that should not provide a negative connotation to the event.

Since, this is difficult because we have strong belief systems, we must really think about activities that can help our students develop the understanding that each person sees situations differently. We must remember that as adults when we interact with others we are teaching it to our students.

Here are 3 simple ideas to begin discussions of perspective.

Perspective from a Window

Have students look out a window for 2 minutes. Give them time to write one sentence. Share sentences.

Discuss:

What was focused on?
What was important to write about?
Were statements general or specific about one thing? Why?

Folding Paper Activity

Have students follow these directions:

Fold the paper in half
Fold the paper in half again.
Tear off the bottom right hand corner.
Turn the paper upside down.
Tear off the bottom right corner.

Discuss:

How did you feel when you showed your paper?
Did you feel you did yours correctly? Someone else was wrong?
Why were there so many different versions?
Was there one answer or correct way?

*Tell students to imagine that the paper is their perspective or the way they see things. What can we learn about perspective from this activity? How can we learn from others about seeing things differently?

Perspecs: http://www.perspecsnews.com/

This is a great website with news articles that are presented in two perspectives and one factual article. Not all the articles are appropriate so you must preview what you are assigning but it is definitely worth checking out.

The world we live in is full of ideas, values, experiences and opinions—my hope is that we expose our students to many ideas and MOST of all the ability to step back and think about why someone else might see or think something different. It is important for us to emphasize that listening and considering someone’s idea does not mean you agree with it but you understand that someone else feels or sees something different.

Resources used to create this Blog:

Perspecs

http://www.perspecsnews.com/

Lesson Ideas from NC Learn

From THIS Instructional Facilitator

Capturing Knowledge Like a Pirate