Viewing: September, 2013
September 27, 2013
State Riddles for Monday
Kids – Interested in a fun challenge? Answer these two questions. Feel free to get help!
- What food is Maryland known for?
- Connecticut is known for having the nation’s oldest, continuously operating ___________________.
Kids who come with the right answer will earn a CHANCE for each correct response. This is optional, but fun (I hope)!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 25, 2013
The Value of Partnership
As much as I want students to learn from me, I absolutely want them to learn from one another. Throughout the school year, you will see instances of me having students collaborate with one or more classmates for a variety of purposes including reading response, checking work, problem solving, and much more. Kids often have a wonderful ability to explain concepts to one another in ways that are clear and understandable. Partnerships are valuable to all students – in mixed-ability groupings (one of several ways that I form partnerships), strong students better understand material when they need to explain it to their peers, and students who may be struggling may feel more at-ease sitting with a trusted friend, not the teacher. Plus, collaborative work teaches valuable life skills, including how to compromise, how to explain your reasons, and most importantly how to genuinely work together. (This is always a challenge for fourth graders, as they often view “working together” as working side by side to each do the same work, or to divide the work in half. In our class, “working together” should never be silent, and everyone should be equally involved in all parts of the task.) Finally, collaboration has a key role in the “gradual release” model of instruction, in which learning shifts from being teacher led (when new skills are introduced), to small-group based (for practice), to independent application.
This week, students collaborated to identify the main problem in texts. We started off by reading and discussing a story together (Melissa Parkington’s Beautiful, Beautiful Hair), and we wrote a shared response as a whole class. Then, as partners, students read and wrote similar responses to the story The Josefina Story Quilt, which is one of my favorite books to use throughout the year. (See photos, below.) Today, we looked at our new Short Answer Response (SAR) rubric, and partnerships began to share their responses. As a class, we looked at strengths and weaknesses of the responses, and we scored them together (so kids can begin to calibrate their understanding of how they are evaluated). To do this successfully, kids need to have a certain level of respect and tact in their interaction with others, as well as an understanding that suggestions and constructive criticisms are not personal attacks. So far, the kids are doing very well in this area, and I am eager to see them continue to grow in facilitated partnerships as the year progresses.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 24, 2013
Estimating Products
Today, we worked on learning how to estimate products. This was the outcome of two big skills we’ve been focusing on: estimating numbers and multiplying extended facts. The kids did a wonderful job in class. Below, you will see the video we made together. What I forgot to mention in the video was:
When you round the numbers, IN THIS ACTIVITY, always round to the largest possible place value. For example, round 6,386 to 6,000 (nearest thousand) – not to 6,400 (nearest hundred) or 6,390 (nearest ten). Why? Well, suppose we were given the problem 6,386 x 5. I can use my extended multiplication skills to multiply 6,000 x 5. But we haven’t yet learned how to multiply 6,400 x 5. (We will!)
Did you stop by our website this afternoon/evening as I suggested? If so, reward yourself! Skip any three items, other than numbers 13 or 14 on pg. 48 or number 5 on pg. 24.
Here’s the video:
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 23, 2013
Spelling Crossword Homework Reminder
(Sorry, I know this is sideways!) Here are the reminders we discussed in class:
(1) Start your first word somewhere in the middle of the page.
(2) Write either top to down or left to right. Not upward or right to left.
(3) Make sure words only touch intentionally. (Look at “running” and “tire”)
(4) Words that touch should be written in different directions. (Not “elephantire” to fit in “elephant” and “tire” because it looks like one word.)
(5) YES, IT WILL WORK!
(6) Work in pencil so you can make changes, if necessary.
Posted in Homework Assignments|By Jon Moss
September 17, 2013
Reading Numbers as Words (and Vice Versa)
Need help with tonight’s homework? Here are two instructional videos that we watched in class.
Reading and Writing Numbers in Numeric Form
Reading and Writing Numbers in Word Form
Posted in Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 17, 2013
Binders and Dividers Needed
This afternoon, I am sending home a note asking families to send in a 1.5 inch binder to be used as a literacy notebook, and a pack of 8-tab page dividers. Here are some of the choices I found at Staples. (Click to see each image larger, along with the price.) I recommend the $2.99 pack that you can write directly onto. (It’s the top-left picture.)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 16, 2013
Take Two: Naming Numbers
One of the most important responsibilities a teacher has is to informally assess, DURING a lesson, how well students are learning material. It is our job to adjust our instruction during a lesson to meet the needs of all learners, so that we can make sure that, like Goldilocks, we aren’t going too fast or too slowly – we want to teach “just right”. Last Thursday, it was very clear to me that our math lesson was NOT going well and that the majority of students were struggling with the material. I assigned only certain problems for homework (skills with which students seemed more comfortable), and today, we took “take two” with the lesson. We went nice and slowly (which, in this case, was “just right”) and I could see that students felt MUCH more comfortable.
Throughout the school year, you will find that I like to post tutorials on the class website that explain different skills we are working on in class. These are helpful for students as they complete their homework, but also helpful for parents who want to help their students (by teaching the same strategies we use in class). I often record these videos after school or during my prep periods, but sometimes I build them into lessons and record them with the students’ help. That’s what we did today. The video you will find below this paragraph is lengthy, but it explains TWO different strategies that students can use to name numbers when you’re given the value of certain places, such as “386 hundreds”. The first few minutes review place value, but starting at 5:45 into the video, I explain the two different strategies. After we used them a bit, I thought most students would REALLY prefer the second strategy. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that several students favored the first strategy. That’s why I often teach two ways: As you’ll hear me say in the video, different people’s minds think about math differently, and what is a winning strategy for one person could be a complete DUD for another person. I hope this video is helpful to you and your children as they work through tonight’s homework. Finally, here is a downloadable worksheet with place value charts included if your fourth grader finds it helpful to use them. (MOST STUDENTS SHOULD USE THIS!) Enjoy the movie:
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 13, 2013
Last Call for Strings Registrations
If you weren’t able to attend the information session for the strings program and are still interested in having your fourth grader play an instrument, please register on the Avon Strings website:
http://avonstrings.weebly.com/
Mr. Strick and Mrs. Johnston are outstanding strings teachers, and kids always enjoy being in their classes. Please understand that strings lessons take place at different times throughout the day, and students who miss class content are responsible for making up work or instruction that they missed.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 12, 2013
Practicing Renaming Numbers
Today’s math lesson was TRICKY! That’s why you are only doing CERTAIN problems on your worksheet. As part of your homework, please rewatch the video we saw today in class BEFORE completing tonight’s math problems.
http://learnzillion.com/lessons/515-model-numbers-using-base-ten-blocks
Posted in Homework Assignments, Learning Resources|By Jon Moss
September 11, 2013
Starting Academics, Remembering September 11th
Welcome to week 3, families! This week, we are easing into academics as we finish up some of the “getting to know you” activities that we focused on in the previous weeks. Although we started math today (which I will write about in a separate post), we started our writing and reading lessons even earlier. In Readers’ Workshop, we have focused on fundamental reading habits, including how to read independently and how to use the class library. Tomorrow, we will discuss how to choose books for ourselves (making use of the beloved books that the kids brought to school today), and we will quickly shift into reading skills instead of procedural habits.
I wish this is what my summer vacation looked like! Sadly, it’s just a stock photo I found online.
Our first writing project is the “Summer Snapshot” project. Students will choose one moment from the summer that they will describe in a paragraph. (This is where their summer items come in.) My lessons yesterday and today focused on how to choose one specific topic. So often, students pick a broad topic to write about – such as “My vacation to Cape Cod” – that has so many elements to include that it would inevitably be either too lengthy (for a typical fourth grade activity) or (more likely) would lack in detail and would seem more like a list of activities. By choosing a single moment on which students can “laser-focus” (quoting Apple’s Tim Cook), students can dedicate themselves to throughly describing the experience with detail and eloquence.
Today, we recognized the 12th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in our writing lesson. I described my vivid memories of the specific moment when I first learned of the attacks. Please know that our class discussion only generally covered the events of the day: merely that there were sad events that caused many people to lose their friends and loved ones in New York City. I prefer to allow families to choose the depth of conversation they want to have about the events of September 11th. Our conversation instead focused on being THANKFUL for those we have around us and on not “sweating the small stuff” in our daily lives.
Our year continues to a productive and enjoyable one, and I am eager to see what tomorrow will bring. Families, your kids are TERRIFIC! I am really having a great time with this class of kids! 🙂
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss