Differentiate through Learning Contracts

Wow!  The first two weeks of school have quickly passed by, and we're now getting to know our students more, both socially and academically.  With this new knowledge, we are recognizing the dire need to differentiate activities this year even more than we have in the past, as we have quite the range in abilities!

One way we have always differentiated learning is through the use of learning contracts.  Our learning contracts consist of six activities, which must be completed within a given amount of time.  The students may choose which activity they would like to work on each day, as well as if they would like to work with a partner or small group.  Obviously, if their choices do not support their learning, we intervene and help them!  :-)

We try very hard to make the learning contract cover the same, so it appears the students are all working on the same thing.  We even attempt to keep the activity titles in each box the same; however, the activity in each box may look quite different when the student gets the direction sheet.

For example, we had a math activity in one of our math learning contract boxes last year called Build a What?  The primary mathematical focus in this activity was to help students better understand square and cubic units of measure, as well as what types of measurements are taken with these units.  

We differentiated the activity as follows:

• Level 1:  Students built a square decimeter with paper rolls and tape.  Once their square decimeter was built, they had to think about what measurements they could take with their new measuring tool (i.e. area of the table, area of the cabinets, area of the bulletin board).  They then did some actual measuring with their tools.  They also had to determine how many square decimeters fit in a square meter, which we had taped off in the floor.  

• Level 2:  Students did the same activities in Level 1; however, they then built a cubic decimeter with the paper rolls and tape.  They repeated the same steps in terms of figuring out what measurements they would take with their new tool (i.e. volume of a crate, volume of the sink, volume of our cabinet) and then again did some measuring.  They finished this section up with determining how many cubic decimeters is in one cubic meter (which we had built in groups the week before).  

• Level 3:  Students did the same activities in Level 1 and 2; however, they then had to use their square decimeter to find the surface area of our cubic meter.  

It does take time to differentiate activities on a learning contract, but if you work collaboratively with a colleague, you can divide and conquer!  Not to mention, depending on the depth of the activities (many of which can be actual projects), contract work can last as long as 3 to 4 weeks; therefore, once the initial planning is done, you are set for a while. 

Some benefits of learning contracts are:

• Work can be differentiated while appearing to be very similar
• Students can work collaboratively or independently (unless an activity requires one or the other) based on what best fits their learning style
• Activities can be hands-on and engaging
• The teacher has the flexibility to circulate around the room, interacting with many students on an individual basis, and often times giving them personalized instruction
• Students can learn and grow from one another
• Students have choice, which gives them a sense of control and ownership
• Students learn important life skills, such as time management 
• The teacher has the flexibility to pull small groups for instruction while the other students are working on their learning contracts

We just told our students this week that we are planning on starting our first learning contract next week, which was followed by many "YEEEAAAAHHHS!!" from our returning older students in the room.  The students really do enjoy them!

Speaking of the first learning contract, we typically make this a very simple contract, and we make ourselves available to circulate around the room during this time to help students learn how to monitor themselves for on task behavior and to be aware of how they are managing their time.   Basically, we are helping them learn how to work during our contract time!  

The activities on our first practice learning contract are listed below.  I have given a brief description of each one to give you an idea of how the activities are differentiated.  Remember, this contract is meant to be simpler, as we are more focused on helping them learn how to do contract work productively! 

• Class Names in ABC Order (Remember...we have 50 students!  We will have all the students' names on index cards and will differentiate this activity by how many names we require the students order.)
• Sorting Activity (The sorts will range from sorting rhyming words to sorting parts of speech.)
• Venn Diagram (The students will select two items to compare and contrast in a Venn diagram.  We will have a list of various items from very basic things to more abstract things in the event students need ideas.)
• Graphing Activity (We will do a whole group Quick Survey on their favorite seasons, which will be in the form of a Frequency Table on a poster hanging up in class.  The students will then select a type of graph to graph the data.)
• Place Value Riddles (This activity will consist of a variety of number puzzles that give place value clues to find specific numbers.  Some riddles will have kids use actual base ten blocks and may only go up to the hundreds place, while others may include decimal place values.)
• Mystery Numbers (The students will create their own mystery numbers, along with clues that describe their number.  This activity is already differentiated, as students' mystery numbers will reflect their ability level.)

 We generally make math learning contracts, science learning contracts, and social studies learning contracts.  The practice one above is clearly a mix of language arts and math; however, remember...it's about practicing what contract time should look like, versus the actual content area focus!

Students working on science contract activities.

I love contract time as much as the students do!  It's definitely worth the energy and effort it takes to plan them and to get them organized!   I encourage you to give them a try!  If you'd like me to email you one of our contract covers so you have the format, I'd be happy to!  :-)

First Week Ideas...Part 2!

Well, I'm two days into the school year, and boy has it been busy!  We have continued doing team-building activities to get to know each other as a community and are working on building our anchor charts to establish expectations and procedures in the classroom.  

Some of the anchor charts we created together were:

• Real Reading Vs. Fake Reading:  We talked with the students about what both real reading and fake reading looked like and created a T-chart to show their thoughts.

• Independent Reading:  After establishing the differences between real reading and fake reading, we then came to consensus on what Independent Reading time should look and sound like.   

• Writer's Workshop:  As with Independent Reading, we discussed and recorded on chart paper what our Writer's Workshop time should look and sound like.

• Lunch and Recess:  As I mentioned in another post, we create the expectations of both recess and lunch with the students.  This engages them more in the things we discuss, giving them more ownership over what is expected of them!

• Classroom Expectation:  Again, I mentioned this in another post, but the students help establish the expectations of the classroom, including what we expect of each other, which we call our Classroom Constitution.   The only prompt we give the students is to focus on what they should do, versus what they should NOT do!  

These are the anchor charts we've created so far.  We pretty much create one for every part of our day to ensure the students have a clearer understanding of what to expect of each other!  These anchor charts hang all around our room!

One other community building activity we did this week was create a classroom puzzle.  Our wonderful student teacher cut a piece of tag board into 54 puzzle pieces.  She put a number on the back of each piece in the order they were on the puzzle.  We then gave each student a piece and had them write their name on it and decorate the piece however they wanted.  We then called the students down, one at a time, starting with number one, and glued our puzzle pieces onto another piece of tag board!  It looked so cool, and the kids have loved looking at it throughout the day!

First Week Ideas...Part 1!

Wow!  Is it really time to start back up?  Where did that summer go?  Gosh, it seems every year at this time I start saying that, as we begin thinking about ways to start up the year!

In our classroom, we try very hard to begin right away with encouraging student voice and building community.  Here are some ways we do that:

• Community Meeting:  After we get the fun job of supplies put away, the very first thing we do is have our first community meeting.  We sit in a big circle where we get the chance to see our new community members for the first time!  We then go around the room and at least introduce ourselves by saying our names.  The students, however, are encouraged to share their name AND at least one thing they would like everyone to know about themselves!   We also explain what our Idea Box is at this time in order to start the year with the students having the opportunity to share their ideas or concerns at our weekly Community Meetings.

           I did, however, just find a new activity online called Common Threads that I thought

           sounded so cool!   I found the activity, along with other fun ideas, at A-Z Teacher Stuff.

           Here is the activity:

Common Threads

Materials: ball of twine, kite string, or mason’s line One student (or teacher) has the ball of string and shares one small fact about their life or an interest they have. Any other student in the classroom finds a way to connect, and raises their hand. The student with the twine holds the end of the twine and chooses where to pass it, preference given to students who have not connected yet. Each student who has connected holds the string and passes the ball of twine. The object is to have all students share something, creating a “web” that shows we are all connected through each other. The connections sometimes get very fun and creative, and rewinding the ball of twine shows you a thing or two about how manageable your class is!  (John Markealli)

• Classroom Constitution:  In small groups, the kids will discuss the question, What are the responsibilities of our classroom community members?  We will then get together as a large group, share out our ideas, and agree upon the ideas we want as part of our Classroom Constitution.  We will record these on chart paper while the students are agreeing on their ideas.  (After school, I usually rewrite the constitution so that it fits on one piece of chart paper we can hang up.  Before hanging it up, we all sign it.)

• Constitution Posters:  The students will again get in small groups.  Each group will get one of the ideas from our Classroom Constitution.  They will write it on a piece of 12" x 18" white construction paper, along with an illustration of what it can look like.  We will hang these posters around the room.

• Find Someone Who:  We love including the good ol' activity, Find Someone Who to allow the students to learn a little more about their new community members, as well as hopefully make connections amongst each other!  I found the above link, which gives a detailed version of what the activity is, as well as a sample of the activity page.  

• Recess and Lunch Expectations:  I know in a lot of classrooms, the teacher delivers the students with the cafeteria and playground rules sometime during that first day; however, we do it differently.  We have the students sit down with us and help us to develop the expectations of the students at recess and lunch.  We try to focus on what they SHOULD do, versus what they SHOULD NOT do.  Because they help us develop these expectations, they are more aware of them and take more ownership of them!

These are just a few of the things we start the year with, most of which we get finished during that first day!  More activities to come!  :-) 

Discipline - Be Proactive!!

What's the saying...an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?  Boy, if we all lived by that belief, I bet many of the frustrations in life we face would lessen!  For example, if we didn't eat fast food for the last four days, our scales wouldn't reflect some new, astronomical number!  If we didn't drive 55 mph in a 35 mph zone, we wouldn't be shelling out $100 for a ticket!  If we didn't indulge in an unnecessary shopping spree, our bank account wouldn't be empty!  The list could go on and on.

This same idea can be used when it comes to discipline!  If we know our students well, which we should if we're working on building relationships with them, then we know what gets them angry,
when they tend to be off task the most, when they feel the most frustration, who they butt heads with, what their behavior looks like when they're ready to blow, etc.  So, if we know these things about our students, we need to use that knowledge to try to prevent discipline issues from occurring, or at least from occurring as frequently.

When our former principal came to our school, we had just ended a year where we had 850 discipline referrals sent to the office!  Seriously?  We were an elementary school of around 300 students, grades K - 6.  Unfortunately, we were to the point that when a student "misbehaved," we wrote them up and sent them to the office for the principal to deal with!

Wow....lucky them!  They got to sit down at the office, with an audience (whoever walked in or out of the office) and with probably three or four other students who were in trouble and also waiting on the principal.  What a party!  It was truly, honestly.......ridiculous.  I don't know how else to describe it, nor do I like to think I was part of that practice.

When our new principal came, the first thing she asked us was what we wanted to see changed at our school.  Resoundingly, we said discipline.   Our thinking, however, was that we wanted discipline handled better at the office, versus us making changes to prevent the discipline!  You mean we weren't doing things perfectly??  We held some accountability?  Not us!  We knew what we were doing, by golly!

Uh, yes us!  Our principal talked to us about how limited she was when students got to the office in terms of what she could do.  She could suspend them.  She could expel them.  Then, our students could get in trouble and sit at home all day watching cartoons and playing video games.  Clearly, those two options aren't the answer, as that is not what's best for students.   

That's when the discussion turned to what we could do differently in the classroom.  Being proactive was one of the first things we talked about.  Having our students for two years, we typically got to know them very well.  So, we had to think about how we could use our relationships with the students to focus on preventing discipline issues from occurring, versus only thinking about reacting to the discipline.

What a difference it made!  We did things such as start community meetings where students talked about behaviors they didn't like.  We started mini-tribe meetings, where small groups of students helped to solve problems amongst other students.  We initiated timeouts, where students would spend some time in another classroom to calm down in order to prevent "blowing" or to calm down after "blowing" (versus sitting at the office).  Students who typically had anger issues chose a special teacher they could go see if they felt they were getting upset.  When this would happen, the student would give a slip to his classroom teacher, letting her know he needed to go see his partner teacher to calm down.  We all agreed that if a student came to us (as their special teacher) we would let him stay in our room until we had a chance to talk to him.

There was even one case on our proactive journey where one particular student had so much difficulty getting along with his peers, our principal finally just said, "Scott, you pick the room where you think you can behave the best!"  Sure enough, he went to the other three classrooms, looked at the kids in the room, and picked a room where he thought he could get along with others the best.  And guess what?  He did.

In regards to Scott, the classroom teacher, principal, and gym teacher even worked on building him a personal space in the classroom where he could go when needed.  It was a table, with a table cloth over it, and maybe even a lamp (I can't remember), and he would go under the table when he needed that personal space.  He called it his "retreatment."  :-)   It worked like a charm!

When we stop and think about what safety nets, practices, procedures, "retreatments," etc. we can put in place to help students avoid discipline issues, it truly can make such a huge difference.  Our 850 office discipline referrals went down to MAYBE 10...and they haven't gone back!

Being proactive is one way to help alleviate some of the discipline issues in your room, thus bringing a little more peace to both you and your students!  :-)  It helps to avoid punishments that don't help students grow in their behavior, as well as punishments that actually encourage misbehavior! 

It's Okay to Admit You're Wrong!

You're standing in front of the room or in front of a small group, many eyes watching you in wonderment as you deliver life-changing instruction.  You're on your game!  You're knocking this lesson out of the park!  You are sooooo confident that the students are going to be talking about this lesson for years to come!  Heck, you may get an award for how stellar you are! 

You're teaching your students all about some amazingly interesting science concept, when all of a sudden, after one simple fact comes out of your mouth, Billy opens his mouth and says..."But, Mrs. A, I think you're wrong.  My book says the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, not 10 million degrees Fahrenheit."

The wind has been sucked out of you.  Did you just hear what you thought you heard?  Did a student seriously just tell you that you were....wrong?  You're the teacher!!  You're NEVER wrong!!  You want to get duct tape and put it over Billy's mouth, but you quickly decide that's not the best way to handle the situation.  You're immediate reaction is to tell Billy that you've been teaching for 20 years, clearly you know how hot the sun is; therefore, he better check his oh-so-wonderful resource!

But............what if Billy is right?  If he's right, then you've tainted the minds of all these young people with false information!  What to do?  What to do?

I'll tell you what I think you should do.  Suck it up and tell them you may possibly be wrong!  We are often telling children, "It's okay.  We all make mistakes.  You need to learn and grow from them!"  But, for some reason, it is often so difficult for teachers to admit they're wrong in front of their students.  I don't know if it's because teachers are supposed to be all-knowing.  How many times have you heard people, including other adults, tell you, "You should know that!  You're a teacher!"  I want to hit them!  Sure, I'm an elementary teacher, but I should know the answer to that college physics question!  What in the world?

Modeling for students is one of the absolute best ways to teach students social behaviors.  If we want our students to know it's okay to make mistakes, then we have to let them know we think it's okay for us to make mistakes as well!   This was kind of hard for me to start doing, as I felt that I shouldn't be allowed to make mistakes because I am the teacher...I'm supposed to know what I'm doing!

Well, you can ask any of my students...I've certainly moved beyond that!  I can't tell you the number of times my class and I have cracked up over something ridiculous I said or did...something that was completely wrong!  My students don't make a big deal out of me making mistakes because I don't make a big deal out of it!  We laugh and move on, which allows them to laugh and move on when they do the same thing.

I think there's a misunderstanding out there that students will lose respect for their teacher if they catch their teacher making a mistake; however, the respect is lost when the students can see their teacher trying to cover up the mistake and not take ownership of it.  Students will truly have more respect for you if you admit it, maybe even laugh about it, and move on!   We are all human!

Model for your students that making mistakes is part of life, and mistakes do not need to be considered a negative, awful thing.  Show them that it's okay to admit when you're wrong, learn from it, and move on!   Heck, I think it's a good day when I can go home and say I goofed up and even learned something new from a student!