STAR students

Each week students write academic goals that

are measurable or observable.  At first students

are given several goals to choose from.  Next, as a
class we brainstorm some possible goals. 
When students understood the concept of 
'academic' goals and that they need to be 
observable and measurable, they 

write their independent goals.  All goals were
written in their journals.  

Some goals that students have set are:

* Use a capital letter at the beginning of every
 sentence

* Use punctuation at the end of every sentence

* Read with a pencil

* Complete all of my homework

* Practice my reading every day for 15 minutes

* Increase my words per minute to ______

* Raise my hand and answer in complete sentences

* And many more depending on their particular needs

At the end of the week, students reflect on

their goals and write a short paragraph on

whether they have reached their goal.  In 
their writing they must explain how  they

reached their goal, or  why they did not

achieve their goal and what changes they

must make to achieve it.  Students then
discuss their successes.

If they have made their goal, they receive a gold star 

(sticker) on their achievement award.  The goal is

to acquire as many gold stars as possible.  
The students felt so good when they achieved their
goal and really looked forward to setting
a new one each week!!!

Become a.....

Student

Taking

Academic

Responsibility

Energy and Windmills

Students create windmills and make predictions on how many
 marbles can be lifted according to the number of
windmill blades.

Before students began they wrote their hypothesis and drew out a scientific diagram.
Then student's started with one blade and recorded how many marbles could be lifted. (0)  Next, the added a second blade and repeated the experiment.  In the end students were able to lift 10 or more marbles with six blades.

"How To" Poems

Lots of fun creating these "How To" Poems.  After our unit of study on the American Revolution, instead of doing biographies, student's each selected a famous American of the American Revolution and went to town on learning about that person.  They took notes on what they would, or  would not do, if they were that person.  As you can see if you want to become, Deborah Sampson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, etc,...just read the poems and they will tell you how to act and what not to do.  Great wrap up to a motivated unit!

             

                

Literacy Centers...

 "Practice with Purpose" is a wonderful book on how to implement literacy stations.  This book is full of practical and adaptable ideas for various centers.

Here is a sample of the cards I created for our stations.  They are placed in the literacy baskets.  We do lots of modeling before we release them into stations on their own.  All activities in the centers are strategies we've worked on in whole group.  These centers are an opportunity to practice and apply skills previously taught in class.  Our class motto is: "Practice makes Permanent"

Debbie Diller has many published books on Small Group Instruction and Literacy Work Stations.  Be sure to check them out as well as her website!

Questioning

Good readers ask questions.  Before each lesson, I go around the class and ask students what good readers do.  As  learning progresses throughout the year, they are able to give more and more strategies of what good readers do.  Here is an example of a chart we created in science class.  The question "How do I ask and answer questions based explicitly from the text  is based on common core standard I.3.1.  This anchor chart shows what we can look at and 'how' to answer the question.

Here are some questions that were formulated using the headings in a nonfiction text.  The questions highlighted ways to determine importance and to use only the essential information required to answer the questions explicitly.  Asking third grade students to highlight only the essential information is like putting an ice cream sundae on the table and being asked only to eat the cherry.  They love to highlight EVERYTHING.  So, lots of modeling and think alouds needs to go on here for quite some time.  However,  students will get the idea!!!  I was very impressed with their progress.

Folktales

Our unit on Folk tales was a lot of fun!  However, explaining that while all folk tales have similar characteristics, there are elements that define them into different categories.  To make this visual, I developed this wall display in our classroom.  At the top of the pyramid is listed what all folk tales have in common.  Below are the specific types of folk tales that have more identifiable elements.  The students were able to use this pyramid as they read various types of folk tales to determine the specific type.  Great visual...glad I made it.

Additionally, I printed each of these on small labels, which students then adhered into their reading journals.  As we read various stories, they had to determine which type of folk tale it was and write the title of the story next to the sticker.   This gave us a great way to chronicle all of the stories we had read.

Based on the Common Core Standards this is the guiding question we read every day.  At the end of each lesson students are asked to write an answer to the question on their 'ticket to leave'.  As the days progress, so do the responses to the same question.  This method allows for students to add to their learning and allow multiple opportunities to answer the same question.  It is also a great way to do some quick formative assessing.

Additionally, our Essential Question  guided our thinking throughout the unit: "What life lessons can we learn through folk tales?"

Here are some of the folk tales we studied: porquos, tall tales, and fables.

Persuasive Writing

Here is a class chart we created together discussing the pros and cons of homework.  Once we brainstormed them, we filled in our OREO to guide our shared writing.  The discussions around whether there should be homework or not was enlightening!