What to do when students fail

My current cooperating teacher is amazing! She trusts me completely in the classroom and instead of giving me normal "teacher-in-training" things to do, she challenges me constantly.

For example, a few weeks ago.... I got my first glimpse at the report card nightmare! Who knew so much data was collected, had to be sorted through, compiled, and then lastly turned into a grade?!

I helped with report cards in high school as a teacher assistant. My teacher was not computer-friendly and for the first time grades had to be sent in electronically. I sat in front of a computer screen for hours putting in grades from papers into a program and then hitting "compute grade" and wala... out popped the grades for the quarter.

It is so not that simple anymore!

Anyways, I walked into class one day and was created by this stack of papers.

Uh-oh! Out of 27 students 14 did not pass the unit exam on decimals. They received a D or less. My cooperating teacher said "I taught the lessons, you clean up the mess." Okay so what's a girl to do!

None of my textbooks had anything in them about what to do when half the class fails, its only a few weeks until THE TEST, and these students still need to complete 3 more units before THE TEST! This means there really is no time to reteach to the entire class.

Students were walking in the door and I needed a plan and fast. So I sat down with a blank copy of the test, my handy-dandy iPad, and a pile of tests and got to work!

First I wrote does the name next to the problem of the student who missed it. Then I called groups back by problem number/concept to reteach the topic. For some of my students, it was a reading error that caused them to miss the answer. For others, the just needed more practice.

I use my iPad for small group work. I have an interact whiteboard on it that I can do all kinds of stuff with. So this is what I use to present problems to my students while working with it. It works a lot like a smart board. I take a picture of a problem and then we can write all over it!

Afterwards, I sent me students back to correct the problems and regrade the test! Wa la! Everyone but 2 was able to get it after the intervention. The other 2 we were not expecting success at all but it never hurts to try. Right?

What do you do when a student fails?

Prepping for THE TEST ~ Anchor Chart Raffle

Have you been counting down to testing day?

It is 10 calendar days or 6 school days (including today) until the big test! It is nerve racking for everyone as this is the first year that 35% of the teacher's review is based upon how our little angels do on THE TEST!

In addition to all of the prepping and review we are doing, we are stripping our walls of all of the materials we have covered it in over the course of the year. On the big day (well week) nothing can be there to aid our students.

If you are anything like my cooperating teachers, your walls are covered in anchor charts. Floor to ceiling, every available inch has been utilized. We refer to the things on the walls constantly!

So what does one do with all of those anchor charts? I was wondering the same thing! It seems such a waste to throw away all of our hard work!

Introducing the anchor chart raffle review!

Love LoVe LOVE this idea! Here is how it works... 

Step 1 - Remove Anchor Chart from wall

Step 2 - Every student in the class signs the back of it

Step 3 - Ask review questions about topic of anchor chart

Students raise hands when they know the answer. 

First person to raise their hand and answer correctly.... 

gets to take home the chart. 

Step 4 - Ask 3-4 more questions increasing in difficulty. 

Step 5 - Repeat with a different Anchor Chart. 

My students go batty over this! They love that they autograph the posters and I have received photos of bedrooms covered in anchor posters. My kiddos really do go home and hang up the posters on their walls! They talk to their parents about it and share how they are the expert on this topic. 

Do you see why I love it? 

A few tips... if you are raffling off multiple posters a day, pick a different "winner" each time. There are some students who process slower so if the first hand that went up got it wrong and a slow processor FINALLY raises their hand, call on them next so as they can win too. 

Make sure everyone gets at least one poster. We never raffle off more than 4 a day. This keeps the momentum going. PLUS we do not raffle them off in any order. It is completely random. This means that many of my students go home at night and are practicing on their own so that they can win the next day. 

When you do review, throw in a few questions from the anchor charts previously raffled off. This is a FUN review time for my students. We have even had competitions by table to see who can win the right to autograph the front side. 

Have I told you about how I use experts in the classroom? I need to go and look. One of my personal rules is that my experts on a topic cannot win their own anchor chart poster. This means that they have to become experts in other areas too!

What do you do with Anchor Charts at the end of the year? 

Assessments OF Learning & Assessments FOR Learning

Are assessments and evaluations the same? I have heard this question so many times that I am starting to have dreams about them. While different they work together.

I recently found this Slideshow on assessments and thought it would help some of you out as well.

Formative Assessment vs. Summative Assessment from jcheek2008

I love the quote "When the cook tastes the soup, that is formative assessment; when the customer tastes the soup, that's summative assessment." ~ Paul Black. This helped me really cement the ideas of each one in my mind.

I use many different types of assessments and evaluations in my classroom. I believe we all do as teachers. My favorites are observation and portfolios. What are your favorite methods?

Book Walks & Text Features

A few weeks ago... I met with my latest mentor teacher and she asked me to do a book walk. After a few minutes of internal shaking, I looked at her and said "What's a book walk?"

< insert me turning pink here >

This is the image that popped into my head

Totally not what she meant!

So she explained it to me, told me I would be find, and sent me on my way to plan. I was BEYOND nervous but I returned 2 days later ready to do my first every book walk. (I taught a different lesson in between). 

Guess what!!?? 

It was a huge success! I loved it and so did the kids. 

I learned so much! 

I will do better next time even though my mentor said I was brilliant. 

I am now in a new class and guess what we are learning how to do... BOOK WALKS! Could have used that last class! But anyways... my professor sent this great link on how to do a book walk that I wanted to share with all of you. Just in case you ever find yourself turning three shades of pink when asked to do one. 

Book walks are great for building schemata and informal assessments. 

Check out Guiding Students Through Expository Text with Text Feature Walks. This is a skill/strategy that is recommended and used a lot with the Common Core. So if you aren't using it yet, you soon will have to be. 

If you need help with anything to do with reading... check out the Reading Rockets website. Four out of Five professors will ask if you have searched this site for your answer before knocking on their office door or sending them an email. At least that has been my experience. 

Do you use book walks? What are your tips for success??

Reading & Language Assessments

At the start of every school year, teachers welcome back students and then they begin assessing what they can and cannot due in order to create an instructional plan. For the most part, I have not shared reviews of textbooks with all of you, as well... most textbooks are pretty useless once the class is over.

  

This one is different though. I have A LOT of textbooks for my current class and a TON of homework to go with it. When I met with my new mentor teacher to discuss my practicum requirements, I was surprised that she still has and uses this textbook EVERY year.

This book helps allows you to assess students in grades PK-adult. I love how I can cover all ages in one book. Mine is spiral bound and it comes with a DVD of videos that show how the assessments are completed. My mentor and I tweaked the assessments to meet our needs.

Many of the assessments we gave as a whole-group assignment and then broke down the student into smaller groups to continue assessing them until we got to the point where we HAD to do 1-1 testing in order to find the final answer. It worked great!

There were some assessments that we HAD to do 1-1 such as oral reading but what I really liked about this is that it also had basic "get-to-know" the student forms too. It even has special ELL forms and asks questions I would have never thought to ask but are in deed essential that the student knows.

Each assessment is extremely quick. When we were testing phonics skills, it took us about 10 minutes to give the exam to all students. During planning time, we took the students papers, stapled them to the assessment sheet and recorded how the student did. Easy peasy! Another 10-15 minutes later we knew who needed help and where and who was ready to move onto something harder.

If you are looking for an easy way to assess reading and language abilities - I would recommend this book. My mentor has been using it for the last 4 years as both a beginning and ending assessment for students. She also said it was recommend when she was doing her National Teacher Certification stuff.

What do you use to assess your students with at the beginning of the school year?

TpT GRAND OPENING!

I spent the day working on a project.... I couldn't wait for tomorrow so I am breaking the "one blog per day rule."

I created a TpT store!

First thing I created was some picture prompts - these I designed to be double-sided laminated prompts to take with me when I am a guest teacher. My boys have been playing with them and loving them! They are enjoying them so much that I am planning on making a second set and a holiday set.

I still need to finish up the Brain Book (UPDATE: The name has been changed to Brainy Matters due to copy right law!). 

I also loaded two of my favorite sets of letter clip art that I have created and use on my classroom website. These were so fun to make and it is perfect timing to share some Seuss inspired items!

I hope you all enjoy!