Terrific Teacher Ideas for Helping Struggling Students

Teacher Ideas for working with Struggling Students July, 2015

Terrific teacher ideas for helping struggling students:

Teaching your children how to use context clues to comprehend vocabulary is a huge piece of Common Core, and the test!

Wonderful work on getting urban children to do the class reading and home.

Kindergarten children doing multi-modal, kinesthetic learning is also helpful for older children!

Modeling the T-Chart is a great help for students!

How terrific that all your second grade teachers got together to work out common learning approaches!!

The Reader's Notebook is a wonderful strategy!

~ All wonderful ideas! ~ Kay

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Where students reported they had to accompany family for translation purposes, I'm thinking the teacher ideally working with parent(s) and ideally with the whole school we need to get families to understand what the high demographic and private school families just know, which is home time on school work is So important! Second, We must keep in mind that High low income families have other priorities, such as how to get food on the table, which causes stress, also "noise" with many people in a small space.

How do we get families and/or the student to realize home school work is important??? Doing the home reading and preparing students for the context of the reading is nice for students to have for reading context.Bottom of Form

Flipped Classroom

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One active learning activity that I tried this past year was the Flipped Classroom. My students were reading the novelWonder, and as I began sketching out my plans for the novel,I began to realize that we'd never finish the novel by the end of the year if I stuck to my current plan of reading ten pages silently in class, followed by group discussions. I sent a note home to parents explaining that students would be expected to read each night to be prepared for discussion the next day. I was pretty worried as my students did not have a good track record of completing homework. I explained the new routine to my classes as well, reminding them that to be able to participate in the class discussion, they would need to complete the reading at home each night.

Each night the classes were assigned several chapters to read, I would give them an idea of what we'd be talking about the next day to help frame their thinking as they read. Each day in class, the Do Nowor Bell Ringer, activity was a quick multiplechoice quiz based on the previous night's reading. This not only helped to hold students accountable, but it also gave me a snapshot of who did their reading and areas of general confusion as I walked around while students completed their quiz. I also included a question that asked students to explain why they had or had not completed their reading. Over 85% of my students are designated as Low Income and ELL status is probably close to that as well. Many students that did not complete the reading would write that they had to accompany parents and or younger siblings to appointments in which they were needed as translators for their family.

If there was an area of general confusion, we would discuss this together after the quiz. I would also ask for several volunteers to summarize the reading - as a benefit for the students that were not able to complete it as well as for the practice of public speaking and summarizing. At this point, I would have students go back and perform a close read of a small section of the assigned reading. We spent a lot of time on character analysis with this novel, so it was helpful to have a portion of the text that students had already read for them to delve deeper into looking for particular ideas/thoughts.

In general I like the flipped classroom idea, I think it is one that can translate fairly easily to any subject in any grade level. I feel like it was a better use of my classroom time with students to have them prepared for what we'd be discussing, rather than to have to wait for them to reach a particular point in the reading, which would ordinarily take up almost half of my class time. I identified with the 90/90/90 study referenced in the OREO and HAMBURGER reading. This study dealt with a school who's make up is similar to mine -- 90% minority, 90% low income. They were able to achieve 90% proficiency in writing due to frequent writing and timely feedback. I feel like the Flipped Classroom can help me achieve that last aspect of incorporating more frequent writing and more timely feedback.

I will say that the extended reading at home is a bit of a culture shift for the families in my school and the reality is that there are some students that just don't have a quiet place to complete this reading, as well as the fact that there are some students that don't have the ability to read grade level text independently, these are issues that I am sorting out, hopefully, for this coming school year.

Active Learning Strategy for Kindergarten:

I teach Kindergarten English Language Development (ELD) and a few active learning strategies that I use frequently to engage students are:

• TPR: Total Physical Response in which students move their bodies to remember vocabulary and key concepts.
• Content-based songs
• Academic Conversations: students engage in content-based conversations with a partner. In kindergarten students are explicitly taught the skills of: active listening, elaborating and paraphrasing.

For the plant unit, one lesson that I teach to help understand the parts of the plant and their jobs is:

1. Display a large visual of a labeled diagram of a plant. Go over the parts and vocabulary before singing the song.

SONG (displayed on chart paper to read along) with TPR (sung to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”:

2. TPR: Students plant their feet on the floor as the ROOTS, their legs are the STEM, students bend arms and place hands on hips for the LEAVES and the head is the FLOWER.

The ROOTS hold the plant in place, plant in place.

The ROOTS hold the plant in place, plant in place.

The ROOTS store food and water too.

The ROOTS hold the plant in place, plant in place.

The STEM moves the water up the plant, up the plant.

The STEM moves the water up the plant, up the plant.

The STEM brings water to the leaves.

The STEM moves the water up the plant, up the plant.

The LEAVES soak up the sun, soak up the sun.

The LEAVES soak up the sun, soak up the sun.

The sun helps the plant to grow and grow and grow.

The LEAVES soak up the sun, soak up the sun.

The FLOWER grows into a fruit, into a fruit.

The FLOWER grows into a fruit, into a fruit.

Inside the fruit are little tiny seeds.

The FLOWER grows into a fruit, into a fruit.

3. After singing the song and reading a text about the parts of a plant their responsibilities, students engage in an academic conversation with a partner. (I will attach a photo of anchor charts for elaborating and paraphrasing)

AC prompt: What are the parts of the plant and how do they help the plant to grow?

MA Standards for ELA and Literacy:

K, SL.K.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. a. Follow agreed-on rules for discussions--such as listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion.

K, RL.K.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. K, RI.1

Standards: MA Science and Technology/Engineering Standards:

Kindergarten Life Science:KLS1-1: Observe and communicate that animals (including humans) and plants need food, water and air to survive. Plants make their own food and need light to live and grow.

K-LS1-2 (MA): Recognize that all plants and animals have a life cycle: a. most plants begin as seeds, develop and grow, make more seeds, and die.

Reading Notebooks

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A strategy that I began to use this year that seems to have worked well for all levels of students was implementing a Reader's Notebook while students were reading an independent reading book. I think this worked for all students because it engaged all readers as they were permitted to choose their own book, they could choose the prompt that best responded to what they were reading, and it was a form of low stakes reading. Students were asked to break their book into sections, creating their own reading schedule, and write1-2 responses for each section. Then, they could choose from a list of questions to respond to using two pieces of evidence. After students had gotten the hang of this journal, I would have them mark their best entry with a sticky note and explain why it was their best. I would grade this entry. This gave them a lot of practice before being graded, provided me with less grading, and allowed me to get their writing back much faster!

This could work for any teacher trying to implementing non-fiction reading in their class by going over an example in class, and then giving students a set of guiding questions that relate to their subject level. This couldbe done with individual articles, novels, or use it as a journal like I did by having featured articles or have students find their own articles relating to the subject matter. This puts students in charge of their own learning and seemed to produce some great results!

Here are some of the sample questions I used:

Consider the author’s writing style and how this relates to the themes of the test/genre.
o Respond to how a particular line shows the author’s tone or the author’s purpose.
o Raise questions about what motivates a character to make a certain decision.
o Relate what you’re reading to current events, a moment in history, or another text.
o What are the characteristics of a given character and how do those traits affect the character's decisions?
o How does the setting affect the plot or characters?
o Why does the author structure the story/plot the way he/she does? (First person, third person, flashbacks, diary format, descriptive, etc.). How does the structure of the story affect the plot or yourenjoyment of the story?
o How does the main character develop or change?
o How does the author draw you in when you first start reading? How does author create suspense?

The “T Chart” graphic organizer is a versatile graphic organizer. I have used the “T Chart” with success for small-group reading instruction in the elementary grades. The graphic organizer was used for comparing and discussing two points of views in a text. Page numbers and quoted phrases were noted on the chart so students developed the habit of citing evidence from the text. Although this chart was used with struggling readers to enhance comprehension and depth of discussion, its use can be expanded to different grade levels, formats, and content areas.

My best example of instructional application with the “T Chart” was with a guided-reading group. We read a short informational text about the pros and cons of zoos. As we read each chapter, we discussed the main points and decided if the idea was a pro or a con. I scribed students’ ideas (and included the page number), and we continued to discuss the main ideas and the author’s point of view as we read the text. When we finished the book, we used the chart to orally summarize and synthesize the information presented.

Although this example was for the elementary grades, I could envision the “T Chart” being used in the middle and upper grades for ELA and the content areas. In addition to using the graphic organizer to chart pros and cons, the chart could be used to compare books and media, text and visuals (in informational books), fact from fiction (op-ed pieces, Internet sources), text points and reader reaction or inference, and word choice and connotations (as in the example of word choice in the “Killings” piece referenced in Pathways). There are numerous ways the “T Chart” can be used to strengthen the anchor standards in reading, and to aide in writing.

Although I have not used the “T Chart” to assist in writing (due to the nature of daily writing in Reading Recovery lessons and the recent reading groups I’ve led), I could imagine the graphic organizer helping struggling and proficient writers. The chart could help writers organize ideas and use evidence from the text when comparing literary and media sources, analyzing an author’s point of view, or reflecting on the information presented in a text. The “T Chart” could also be used as part of the Gradual Release of Responsibility model of instruction when teaching students how to respond to reading through writing.

The “T Chart” is a versatile graphic organizer that can be used for a variety of purposes, grade levels, and disciplines as well as incorporated in best practices for literacy instruction. My experience with the “T Chart” has been with the primary grades and primarily as an aide to comprehending and discussing a text. Next school year, I would like to use the “T Chart” as steppingstone to writing responses to reading. I imagine the graphic organizer would be just as adaptable for extending and strengthening the anchor standards in writing as it is for reading

Attached you will find an introductory writing unit that I originally created to help support my struggling writers at the beginningof the school year. I used to use this Facilitated Writing format to teach writing to small groups during my RTI time, but I found that with CCSS this instruction now helps to guide all students' early writing. After these six lessons are taught, I can more easily move on to teach more difficult opinion writing pieces, personal narratives, and informative/explanatory pieces. Once students have the basic tools that they need to write a paragraph, they seem to get jazzed about writing and they want to do more.

I wrote this unit because we, as second grade teachers in my district, wanted a specific format to follow at the start of the school year. We wanted to explicitly teach a pattern/set of rules that would work for our more rigid thinkers, while also allowing for a gradual release of responsibility to the students. We wanted to be able to raise students' confidence as writers, and we wanted them to become more comfortable taking risks.

Besides the Facilitated Writing unit, you will also find the Houghton Mifflin graphic organizer I/we use to conduct these six lessons. Other graphic organizers are used for writing throughout the year, but I/we typically do not introduce those until after these lessons are taught in full. (See Below)

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The VocabMark strategy is one I use with nonfiction reading when I want to work on context clues with the students. As a third grade teacher, I find students often skip over words they can't read or understand. So I spend a great deal of time getting them to learn to stop and identify challenging words. With the VocabMark, students have a graphic organizer that allows them to record unfamiliar words. I often use the VocabMark with Scholastic News. In groups or independently, the students read an article and write on a laminated VocabMark any words they don't understand. After reading, the group or class will come together and talk about the words. A definition for the word will then be determined based on context clues and student's prior knowledge. This strategy can be differentiated for higher level students who may know all the words. In this case they can identify important words. The discussion at the end would then include why this word is important to the main idea of the text. See Graphic below

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I would like to share an active learning strategy in the form of a progression of 3 very simple graphic organizers that I use for expository writing. Often times it is a fine balance between fostering independent development of ideas and helping these struggling readers with formulas for structuring their thinking & writing. My first step is to work with the students to create a writing topic or prompt. The first graphic organizer is simply a series of “detail” bubbles stemming from the topic/prompt in the middle. This graphic organizer is used as a format for their brainstorming. Having several “detail” bubbles encourages them to come up with multiple details. This organizer is used to conference with the students. At that time the focus is on the idea development and no feedback is given about spelling or grammar so as to not shift the focus to from idea development to structure.