Thrills and Frills in First: April 2014

Monday, April 7, 2014

With the new common core, and all of the new teacher evaluation systems being put in place, I find myself always looking for ways to be “highly effective”. In my district, teachers are evaluated under the Danielson Framework. On this rubric system, under domain 3d “Using Assessments in Instruction”, it states that a clear indicator of a highly effective teacher is one in which the students self-select assessments and have a hand in helping to choose/create those assessments.

To make sure I hit this element during an observation, I allow my students to self-select a graphic organizer to use in order to demonstrate their understanding at the end of a lesson. For my latest observation, my students were sequencing pictures from a story before they were introduced to the text. After the lesson, the students were asked to sequence the pictures into a logical order based on clues they see in the pictures. My students have been introduced to self-selecting their assessment at the beginning of the year, so by this time, they know exactly which graphic organizer will help successfully show me they understand the targeted objective.

To really hit the nail on the head with this domain, I originally create 10 graphic organizers at the beginning of the year and have the students work to choose 4-6 of them that we will use as our classroom assessment pieces for the semester (this is where I hit the criteria for student choice or assistance in the selection of the assessments).

Here are a few samples of the differentiated options:

To grab this FREEBIE , visit our TPT store here.

Letter Writing with Dear Mr. Blueberry

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Do you paint in the classroom?? I always try to find and alternative or an easier way to create a craft instead of taking out the paints.... but, this week I was so happy that I had the courage to wipe the dust off the trusty old watercolors.

Throughout March we focus on letter writing. We begin with friendly letters, move on to persuasive letters to that sneaky leprechaun and finish the month up with information/persuasive letters. To begin the informational letters I always read Dear Mr. Blueberry. It's the perfect book to teach letter writing. The book consists of letters Emily exchanges with her teacher Mr. Blueberry. Emily is convinced there is a whale living in her pond and Mr. Blueberry responds with reasons why it couldn't possibly be a whale.

It is on Amazon if you need the book you can get it here... Dear Mrs Blueberry Book

Following the readings I gave each student a piece of paper and had them draw a whale, then I said the magically word... PAINT. They could hardly believe it... Is she really letting US use PAINT??? They were elated!

For the whole time the paints were out they did not say a peep ...they just painted their masterpieces, they were so engaged an loved every second of it. Not one child asked for help nor said they couldn't do it... they just picked up their paint and the magic began....Their whales came out absolutely amazing....

The following day we read a variety of books about blue whales. Each student had to write a letter to Emily convincing her why it wasn't possible for a whale to live in her pond.