Student ePortfolios

Rather than paper/pencil reading response books and/or journals, students have created their own ePortfolios this year.  ePortfolios will house students' weekly reading response letters, self portrait poetry anthology, free writes, personal narratives, multi media compositions, mini research reports and more.

There are many benefits to ePortfolios:

• Students are essentially creating their own book of stories, poems, reading response letters, and eventually multi-media compositions.
• Students are motivated--they eagerly add text and images to their ePortfolio.
• The ePortfolios are easy to update anywhere there is a computer since they're on the Internet.
• The ePortfolio system facilitates regular teacher commenting and updates.
• It's easy to differentiate as there are many entry points with this exercise and room for unlimited reading, writing, research and presentation growth and creativity.
• Unlike paper/pencil, it's much easier to edit and write with skill and depth in real time.
• Family members and friends far and near can easily access students' work with permission.

I must say, I was a bit nervous about the task of facilitating the creation of 22 student ePortfolios with my class.  As I always do, I created one for myself first.  Doing the project myself always gives me an inside view of what it takes for project creation. 

Then I transfered my process into a number of steps for student creation.

Students created their ePortfolios similar to the ePortfolio I developed this summer. 

• Students logged into their student Google account, opened a site, picked a template, chose privacy settings, uploaded a photo (taken just minutes before on PhotoBooth) and saved the site.

• Next, they added text to their home page: All About the Author.  Students also added the following pages: Free Write, Self Portrait Poetry Anthology, and Reading Response Letters (I like the announcement template best as it allows a new post for each entry). Later in the year students will add more pages and images.

• Then students shared their site with me.  We updated page settings to include comments and updates so that each time a student updates his/her site, I receive an email about it.  I respond to students' writing regularly.

Originally, I was going to add writer's craft to the ePortfolios, but I decided to use a blog for that so that students could read each others' craft practice.  Students will be able to access each others' ePortfolios at a later date to read and view longer compositions (written and multimedia).

This is a new project for my class and me.  The students' enthusiasm, creativity, sharing and writing has been amazing.  To date, this is an empowering and engaging project. One that requires plenty of time upfront to practice using the site as it takes time to remember how to log in, edit pages, write and add new pages.

Let me know if you have further suggestions or ideas related to ePortfolios.  I've added a few technical notes, teaching tips and templates to guide your work should you decide to embark on this endeavor. 

Google ePortfolio Technical Notes: Creating and Editing Pages

1. Log into computer, Log into student Google docs.
2. Open Google Sites.
3. Open your ePortfolio. 
4. Click create Page.  Use an announcement page.  Name it. Save page.
5. Go to Other Options. Click Share...  Add teacher email. Save.

ePortfolio Teaching Tips

• Adding images to entries enhances students' comprehension and inspires better writing.
• Allowing students to share exemplars prior to tech workshop and ePortfolio work inspires enthusiasm and high quality work.
• Adding comments that include descriptive praise and writing tips effects better writing and responses.
• Make the time to teach spellcheck techniques as well as word definition and thesauri tools.  Snappy Words is a fun and useful thesaurus/dictionary to use.
• Create a table or chart to monitor students' ePortfolio work.  On the chart you can list names, notes and teaching targets.
• Get into the habit of monitoring the ePortfolios daily.  Add comments to students' pages and note students' needs and progress on the monitoring chart for classroom conferences and teaching.

ePortfolio Guiding Templates and Instructions

• Weekly Reading Letter
• All About the Author
• Self Portrait Poetry Anthology

Math Talk

"Mathematics is a Language" - Josiah Willard Gibbs

Today I introduced the idea of "Math Talk" to my students.  I've read, discussed and heard about many initiatives related to giving students the opportunity to talk about and share math concepts.  Like every teaching venue, it's important to personalize the approach for your students and your overall classroom goals and style.

We started by transitioning to math by listening to a YouTube math song.  Then, using the strategies I'm employing with the daily 5, I started by engaging students in a discussion about the purpose of Math Talk.  Together we came up with many ideas including the following:

• to understand.
• to learn.
• to "know how to do it."
• to come up with strategies.
• to feel more comfortable
• to teach others
• to practice math language.

Then we discussed "Math Talk" protocols:

• Time: we agreed on 18 minutes and had a time keeper.
• Sharing Ideas:
• respect all ideas - no "making fun" of ideas.
• don't think anyone's idea is "stupid."
• be open minded to ideas.
• raise hand when you have an idea as we can't all talk at once.
• Pay Attention
• no side talk--write it down if you think you're going to forget.
• look at speaker (now and then, sometimes you may need to look elsewhere).
• try to stay focused; don't do other things.

After that, we tried our first "Math Talk."  Ms. Phipps, the student teacher was our time keeper.  I sat in the front of the room and scribed the notes related to our "Patterns for Counting to 1,000" discussion on a Google doc which students could view on the big screen.  At the end of the discussion, I published the notes and put the link on our closed NING network for students and parents to revisit at home.  

I'm excited to think about the journey ahead related to "Math Talk."  I'm also open to your thoughts, suggestions and ideas as we travel this road to deeper math understanding.  Thanks for listening.

Starting the Year with a New Perspective

Sometimes new learning is painful because it awakens you to past practices that you no longer believe in or support. At times like these, you have to give yourself the opportunity to change without too much despair.  After all, that's what life is about--growing and changing.

So, after a summer of lots of reading and PLN idea exchange, I find myself returning the classroom with a new perspective.  It's like traveling to a foreign land; I have to keep reminding myself of my new priorities and lens so I don't lapse back into the old ways--ways I've now deemed less desirable.

First, by nature, I like to get the job done--create the list, check off the boxes and move forward.  Now, rather than quickly moving down the list, I want to take the time to stop each day and discuss the list with my students asking, "What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How can I help you?  Do you have new ideas?  Putting students at the center is my goal; the standards take second place to that.

Also, I'm deskless this year.  You wouldn't think that such a small change would make such a big difference, but it does. In a sense, it levels the playing field.  I'm not longer the "monarch with the big desk," now I'm one of the team sharing spaces for learning and interaction around the classroom. Going deskless has changed the feel of  my room--it's much more of a workshop than a traditional classroom.

And, I'm letting children talk more. Yesterday, rather than hushing or changing the lesson, I let the exuberance happen.  I listened to the noisy, emotional voices and realized they were sharing their ideas with excitement and enthusiasm.  Adults wouldn't react any differently.  I want to make more time for student voices.

Then, when a few somewhat sarcastic remarks were shared, I surprised them by saying, "Hey, that's a great idea! Would you like to take charge of that."  Students were surprised as they expected to rattle me a bit.  They didn't think I'd take their thoughts seriously.

I delegated much more.  Rather than putting up the self portrait gallery in a perfectly uniform, organized way, I let the students lead the creation.  It's not exactly how I would do it, but it has a lot more spunk and child-like spirit to it.  It makes one smile to look at it.

We'll still meet the standards, but I'm letting students take a lot more responsibility in the process.  I'm slowing down and listening to their ideas.  I'm putting them in the "driver's seat" of their education and I'm playing the role of coach, mentor and guide.   I'm writing this today as I don't want to revert back to the ways of old--I like this new way of teaching, one supported by my PLN and research.  I wonder what challenges, triumphs and new learning this journey will bring as the year progresses.

Have you shifted your perspective?  How has that changed your daily teaching repertoire, classroom set-up and student-teacher-parent collaboration?  It's a revolutionary time in education, and I'm happy to be part of it.  I'm also looking forward to reading about your new perspectives too.

The Daily 5 Personalized

the daily 5 by the "sisters," Gail Boushey and Joan Moser is a teacher-friendly book.  As noted in an earlier post, I prepped the room for the launch. Tomorrow, I'll embark on their "First Five Weeks Launch" in a way that fits my classroom schedule, goals and routines.  I'll post my steps here so interested colleagues can follow, and to create a list I can revisit next year when I employ the launch again.  My rationale for this detailed launch is to build a more engaging and empowering readers' workshop format in my class that will develop flexible, versatile readers who read with fluency and deep comprehension.

Day One (First Day of School)

• Introduce students to classroom library areas, and briefly review choosing "just right books" and library protocols.   Also introduce students to gathering signal, YouTube Classical Music.
• Give students time to choose a couple books they'd like to read.
• Use signal and gather on big green rug.
• Discuss how we sit on the rug.
• Set Purpose:  Reading with Purpose, Understanding and Fluency.
• Discuss there are "three ways to read a book" and I'm going to model two of them.  One is to read the images, diagrams and charts, and the other is to read the text.  I'll model both ways for you.  Read The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaolo (which relates to later social studies lesson).
• Tell students, next you'll read to self.  First let's brainstorm behaviors for read-to-self.  Teacher brainstorms behaviors on T-chart, then students brainstorm.
• Ask a student to model appropriate read-to-self behaviors, then ask a student to model inappropriate behavior.
• Build stamina by giving students 10 minutes to practice in a place of choice.
• Signal, meet on big green rug.  Discuss how it went.  Model again.
• Students read for another 10 minutes.
• Meet, review T-chart, and discuss what we learned.

Day One Notes:  Super start, modified process a bit. Noted who was engaged and who will need greater support with finding just right books and places to read.


Day Two
Teacher Prep: Create a log to keep track of daily 5 events, students needs.

• Gather on rug, review the two ways to read a story we discussed yesterday.  Introduce third way - retelling.  Retell the The Art Lesson using pictures and word.  Talk a bit about it.
• Review and add to read-to-self t-chart.
• Independent read-to-self, return w/classical music signal (above), discuss how it went.  Observe during independent reading, help out the few who noted that they needed specific help yesterday.
• Review muscle memory steps related to read-to-self.  Create an anchor chart.  

Day Two Notes:  Slowing down makes a difference.  The lesson went well--students sustained independent reading for about 40 minutes.  I was able to confer with several children.  I like the structure daily 5 is giving me for introducing an engaging reading workshop model.


Day Three
Teacher Prep: Collect Animal Adaptation Books #1

• Gather on rug with classical music.
• Pass out Animal Adaptation Books #1.  Review 3 ways to read a book.  Practice the 3 ways with these short books altogether.
• Make a T-chart about where to sit in the room when reading.
• Children are invited to read-to-self animal adaptation books and/or their own books
• Observe, confer if there's time.
• Gather again with classical music.  Follow up on reading place choices and ways children read their books today.  Also inquire about what students need to make reading workshop successful.

Day Three Note:  We ran out of time for the last three steps, so day four will be the remainder of day 3.

Day Four

• Gather with classical music.
• Reread anchor charts about reading workshop protocols and three ways to read a book.
• Retell "Blue Whales and Buttercups" by Megan Goss, Jonathan Curley, and Ashley Chase.
• Independent reading.  Teacher conferring and observation if there's time.
• Gather again to share thoughts about how reading workshop went during the first week of school.  Discuss what went well; what they need; and plans for next week.

Day Four Note:  Observation demonstrates that this class needs to think more broadly about choosing books--they don't have an open mind to the many wonderful genres and reading possibilities available. Some sit with a book that's obviously dull, and don't think to find what they really want.  Some are trapped in thinking that they have to read a long book, rather than many short books about a topic they like.  That will be next week's reading workshop focus as well as Daily Five.


Week Two

• Mainly filled with reading assessment and a focus on finding just right books.

Week Three

We're a bit stalled on making the routines work for all. Almost everyone is reading for a steady 30-40 minutes independently. A few still need help with finding just right books or reading venues. Ell students will "independently" read using an interactive online reading program and I'm working with a few challenged readers to find a collection of just right books.  Hopefully, next week I'll get back to the Daily 5 book.

What's Your Culture? The History of Skin Shade

"We can take a topic that has caused so much disagreement, so much suffering, and so much misunderstanding, and completely disarm it." - Nina Jablonski, author of Skin: A Natural History

I begin the fourth grade social studies year with the the unit, What's Your Culture? The unit gives students the opportunity to examine their differences and similarities with respect to the history of humankind and culture. I start the unit with the premise that our differences make us unique and special, and the world would be a dull place if we were all the same. The unit also serves to build knowledge and class community.

Our first activity is creating self portraits. Prior to drawing our self portraits, I tell students the latest scientific information about the history of mankind. As part of this discussion, I remind children that scientific knowledge is always changing. When cultural and religious stories are shared, I confirm that religions and cultures throughout the world have stories about the origin of humans, and that's a great topic to discuss with family members or to examine more carefully through reading. I then tell them that the study of human origin is an exciting area of work that will continually evolve and change as new evidence is discovered and tools created. I encourage those who are intrigued to think about entering this scientific field in the future.

While sharing the concept of human origin, I introduce the idea of adaptation--that all species adapt for one reason: survival, and the same is true for humans. Over time, humans have adapted for survival, and that's why our skin shades vary. Our skin shades and other physical features give us clues about the history of our family going back many, many, many generations and millions of years. I remind them that each of us needs to be proud of our unique features and appearance.

Then we look at our skin. I question the notion of "black" or "white" or "yellow" as we study our hands. I remark that no one in the class is any of those colors--instead we're a mix of shades from very light to very dark. I tell them how my husband's coloring is much darker than mine, and that's because his most recent relatives came from the Mediterranean area, and that my ancestors all came from the north, and that's why I'm lighter. I happily poke fun at my freckles, and call myself spotted. Then tell them that freckles are actually pigment cells that contain color, and the reason people have freckles is a mixture of their genes and sun exposure.

I talk about the fact that our skin shades adapted over time for survival. I tell them that dark skin has more melanin which protects the folate levels in their body, a chemical that's important for healthy babies, and that light skin has less melanin, therefore allowing more vitamin D into the body which was necessary as people migrated to colder climates and had to wear more clothes, stay indoors more often and expose less skin to the sun. I also remind them that when we look at our overall genetic make-up, our biology--the gene that determines skin is only a very tiny fraction of our overall genetic make-up.

I further share the notion that many scientists believe that between 4.5 million and 2 million years ago humans moved from the rain forest to the East African savanna creating a need for greater foraging hence greater exposure to the sun, and since the human brain is vulnerable to overheating, humans also had to develop more sweat glands and a better cooling system. Now we have about two million sweat glands spread out all over our body protecting us since our human skin with little hair dries out so quickly. Again, I remind them that this is some of what we know now, and the science of evolution is always changing with new and frequent discoveries.

After that, I draw my own self portrait modeling my thinking about my face shape, eye color, hair color, and skin color. I examine the crayons to choose and blend in order to get just right colors. I don't worry about being a perfect artist and remind them of Tomie DePaolo's story, The Art Lesson, which supports the idea that there's not one way to create art.

Then children happily begin drawing. As I walk around the room, I listen to their conversations as they share specific details about their amazing looks, shades and shapes. I marvel at their art and reassure those reluctant illustrators to just do their best--it's a chance to try out drawing; there's no grade or "have-to's" with this assignment.

Finally, at the end of the lesson, I marvel again at their work. I remark at the wonder and beauty of our class diversity. I also acknowledge that over time people have been judged about their skin shade, body size or other aspects of their appearance, and that's not right as we're all unique and special and have a right to be proud of who we are. I wonder aloud about the possibility of meeting a group of people from another planet or place in space--the green people. I ask students what their reaction would be, and how would they treat those people. That question puts race into a whole new light.

As we move forward to our future cultural topics: Native America culture, Immigration and United States Regions, we will talk more deeply about culture and race using related stories and nonfiction to support our study. We'll look at the relationship of culture and geography as well as the effects of important historical events. During these units, I'll also keep in mind the quote posed by Gina Kirchweger, "The evolution of race was as simple as the politics of race is complex."

The study of human evolution, race and culture are controversial subjects met with a diversity of opinions and actions. Giving students an early start to learn about human history, culture and race gives them a chance to develop a strong self concept, an awareness of the impact of history, geography, culture and race, and an opportunity to move forward in their diverse world with respect and knowledge.