Speaking of Blooms...

Have you thought about your questioning strategies lately?

As teachers, we have no problem asking questions.

Sometimes we rapid-fire questions at an amazing rate!

Stop and think, though...

How much time are we spending crafting these questions?

Are they designed to encourage critical thinking?

Are they planned in advance or fired off the top of our heads?

Do we give the students time to form thoughtful responses?

How's your "wait-time?"

As a reflective teacher, this is certainly worth pondering.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy was first published in 1956, and guess what?  It hasn't gone out of style yet!
Must be something to it, huh?  Following are some visuals you might like:

Now I'm going to create something!  Have a wonderful day.

Love Your Students

In Lucy Calkins' book,  Building A Reading Life,  she remembers the author Avi's words to teachers: "If you are going to teach me to read and to write, first you need to love me."

"So," she reminds us, "Our first job, as teachers, is to fall in love with each and every child - right away.  that is not always easy at the very start of the year, when we are still mourning the loss of last year's kids, but the truth is that youngsters know when they are surrounded by positive regard.  They know when they are in a place in which they can take risks, reveal their vulnerabilities, aspire toward big goals."

Go, spread the love...

Question Stems

If we want to take our students to deeper levels of

comprehension, it is important for us to plan in 

advance to ask higher level questions, and to 

encourage conversations that utilize critical thinking skills.

I sat with a group of dedicated 3rd grade teachers
today who created question stems to encourage
their students during interactive read-alouds.
Here are some of them:

What are some possible events from the past that
would influence the characters' decisions?

Would you have made the same decision?  Why/Why Not?

If _______ happened, what might the ending have been?

The information in this section suggests what?

Based on what the characters have done so far, what might happen next?

In what ways is _______ important to the text?

Go ahead.
Help yourself.
You KNOW you want to use at least one of them!
Then again, why stop at just one?

     

     

Sir Ken Robinson

If you haven't heard about Sir Ken Robinson, and you have an interest in the future of education,
you need to get to know him.  Do you have 12 minutes? Take a listen to this.  You'll thank me!

Word Chunks

There are many roads to good word study.  Most include great visuals.  These can be quite inexpensive!  See my dollar store paper plates and puzzle pieces?

Don't forget your Greek and Latin roots when working with your older (4th grade and up) students' vocabulary.  Knowing one good root can give students the ability to determine meaning for a whole list of additional words.

Off to look for my dictionary!

Hands-On Learning

As a child, remember how much you wanted to touch everything in the store while you were shopping and your parents always told you not to touch?  Well, your students are no different!  Bring artifacts and concrete examples of items that are discussed or read about in the classroom.

While reading, "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane," I realized that as the author talked about the china rabbit, that my students probably had no point of reference at all for what a china doll was.  So I brought this one in, let the kids touch it and get a good look up close.  I've brought in record players, brooches, and other objects that are much better to show than simply tell about.

As you plan your lessons, think about what you have that might make a good teacher show and tell!

Off to the attic...