Maintaing the spark during the Two-Week Takeover: Spark!
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Putting it All Together-
Week 1
The two-week takeover was the perfect time to create engagement from the start of the day at 8:28am to the end of the day at 3:05pm. While planning my lessons, I kept in mind how to make sure to connect students' interests to the lessons. I also thought about what their responses were in the web and made sure to provide them with fun activities! I was cognizant in making sure that I created a space for students!
Artifact: "How am I feeling" class check- in line plot
This Morning Meeting activity was a way for all students to feel seen and heard. All students were provided with the space to share how they were feeling and have their feelings be acknowledged. In addition to sharing how they were feeling, students were also able to work on making line plots and making sense of data that was relevant to them. This created connections and engagement.
"How are you feeling?":
Each day we started with a: How are you feeling today? Check in class line plot. I believe it is important to check in with the students before they start their work. I want them to know that I care about them, but also keep in mind what the students need based on how they are feeling. In the afternoon, I check in to gauge how the day went and ask for feedback, so I know what worked well or what I can do to improve. In addition to focusing on creating the space to check in, it is a fun way to continue working on line plots as the data and information is relevant to the students. After the students indicated how they were feeling, we were able to ask questions such as, "What do you notice, What do you wonder?" which are low based inference questions. Finally, the students asked and answered questions about the mean, mode and range. This space was also opened to discussing emotions and feelings.
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I feel that these small check ins are important as a way to continue that spark. It is also a way for students to feel a sense of community in the classroom, which brings me back to the idea that a classroom is not just a room full of students, it is a room full of children with needs.
Overtime, the students were able to fill out the line plot and work collaboratively. They made sure to keep each other accountable and follow the directions. Every day we noticed improvements. Through using a : "How am I feeling" line plot helped with students’ social emotional learning needs and promote their personal well-being. Having this time and space every morning and afternoon, was a way to, “bolster students’ social-emotional competencies in tandem with their academic knowledge…”(Schonert- Reichl, 2015). Students were given the chance to focus on their thoughts and feelings as they reflect on empathy.
Morning Fun:
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Each morning we participated in a different activity, that were created based on answers to student engagement forms and conversations.
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The students love dancing and music so I thought it would be fun to start our Mondays with some movement known as "Movement Monday". I received the names of the favorite songs and created our own playlist. The students were engaged and excited to listen to the playlist and were happy when their favorite songs played.
The students love telling jokes and everyday one of the students ask if they could tell a joke. Therefore, I opened up the space in a fun way for students to share these jokes on "Tell a Joke Tuesday".
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"Would you rather Wednesday" was a game I played with the students during lunch bunch. They enjoy asking it and hearing others' responses. We played it during morning meeting, and it provided the students the chance to talk to their friends and have fun.
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"Teach Us Thursday" is also based on the engagement form if a student had he space to teach the class one thing, what would it be. I wanted to provide them with the space for their autonomy and voice.
Friday was "Free Talk Friday" which is definitely the students favorite activity. They love to choose what breakout room they wanted to attend, so they can talk to their friends. I also enjoyed spending my time in those breakout rooms to listen to the students talk to one another or show each other their toys. They always ask for more free talk. Starting the mornings with a fun activity is good way to continue and support student relationships, but also provide the students with what they want and need.
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Morning Meeting according to Kriete and Davis (2014), “ Helps to create and extend connections among all members of the classroom community. Each component helps children to know others and be known.” It also helps build the cultural knowledge and appreciation...and offers many ways to take take advantage of the diversity in the group…”(pg. 14). In this way, all these different activities during morning meeting allowed the students to learn more about each other creating connections in a safe learning environment.
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“All the different ways to observe and interact with students give opportunities can help them differentiate instruction and respond to the needs and strengths of students…” (Kriete and Davis, 2014, pg.15). Overall, learning about students and their interests are ways to match their interests and standards.
" I love free talk. When can we have more? "
"Can I share another joke with the class"
"Morgan, you made me very cool today"
Student
Student
2nd Grade Teacher
These artifacts of the morning slides created different activities for the students to engage in. Instead of the same games and activites, I included games that the students included on their engagement form. With this, the activities were new, but also related to what they enjoyed.
Pancakes or Waffles?:​
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Pancakes vs. Waffles, a lively debate for the students to discuss. My question about the pancakes vs. waffles was a way to engage the students and draw them into the conversation for them to think about the topic and their reasoning behind it. I asked the students what breakfast they liked better and they were ready to provide me with their reasonings. The students were invested in what happened in the end, making it a reference point and connection to all students as we continue working on adding examples and evidence. The story was a way, as Smith et. al (2015) describes for students to draw on examples on their own helping to solidify the new knowledge and background knowledge. In this way, I was able to draw on this example over two days as this was an engaging and relevant example (pg. 33). Therefore, throughout the lesson students are able to notice the connection between the hook and the material they are working with creating some comfort among the students.
Therefore, engagement is represented through positive feelings and student thinking.
Artifact: Video Hook Pancakes vs. Waffles
I realized through using a hook, the students were immediately involved and included in the conversation. They were ready to answer the question and were interested in what happened in my story. Not only did this increase their attention, but reminded them that they have to include reasons and examples in their own pieces.
"What a great hook- I know the students loved listening to your story!"
C.M.
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Artfact: Student Work "Best Pet"
The students' work emphasizes how having the chance to write about something that is interesting to them is a way to increase their attention and effort in the work. This is a meaningful topic for the students and I noticied increased effort during the writing project and in their final pieces.
Students as animal lovers:​
I have heard all about the students' favorite pets and how much they love animals. This is why I thought it would be a fun and engaging for the students to write an opinion paragraph piece about what animal they would choose. This writing piece provides the students a chance to share details and convince their readers why it is their favorite animal, as well as focus on the skill of including reasons and evidence.
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"How did the students feel when writing this?" They enjoyed writing this piece because they love animals. I also noticed how the students worked on it each day since their work was posted online. I was impressed with all the reasons and examples they included. When I asked the students if they liked this topic, they told me that they liked writing about an animal. This demonstrates how important it is to have students write about topics that matter to them as Ray (2014) highlights that, “Interest and curiosity breed engagement." I opened up the space each Writer’s Workshop by having a few students share their work. Through sharing their work, students were given the space for their voice to be heard. In addition, their friends also gave them shine creating a supportive learning environment. The students enjoyed this writing piece and one that meant something to them as it is important that, “They must care deeply about what they are writing…” (Ray, 2004, pg. 101). Many students told me how much they loved their animals in the engagment form and this was their way to share it.
The students were able to share out everyday and at the end of the week when they finished the writing piece. This led to an informal writing celebration. Overall, it was a way to celebrate students’ work and allow their voices to be heard and shine helping to create engagement and enjoyment described in Ruth and Overman (2013).
Phonics Energy:
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The students love kahoot! and they ask to play it everyday. It is definitely something that gets their attention. We played a game with long u and long I sounds with a new game called Blooket. The students had to race to choose the correct words with the vowel sounds. They were having so much fun playing this game that even when we finished, they asked to play it again.
Bingo:
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Once the students learned all the different vowel teams, we played BINGO. It was a fun way to practice and review the different sounds. During this game, I would call out a word and the students looked at their virtual bingo board to see if they had it. They were excited to play this with even many students saying BINGO after the second word. By playing BINGO, they had to identify the word after hearing it, connecting their visual and auditory learning.
" I have never seen this type of energy before!"
"Can we play again".
C.M.
C.M.
"Yeah Bingo is awesome too."
2nd Grade Teacher
Artifact: Long O Bingo
These are both new activities that I introduced to the class. These activites provided the students with a sense of surprise and this novelty was a way to grab their attention. They enjoyed these new games and could not wait to play again.
Artifact: Reading Inference Videos
"Where am I going?" was a way to hook students in to the new Reading unit. As a new unit, this was a way for the students to find connections to making inferences to their own lives as well as guess and have fun while doing so. They were able to feel the joy by trying to guess where I was going as well as realize that they are capable of this new skill empowering the students.
Week 2
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Where am I going?:​
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The new Readers Workshop topic was Inferences (C.C.1.2.2.G). Since it was a new topic, I thought it would be fun to involve a little guessing game for the students. During the game, the students were trying to guess where I was going based on the items I was showing them. I spent time showing them the items and they had to make one guess in the chat. They were ready to write answers in the chat and I was happy with how they were participating and following directions. After they made some guesses, we spent some time discussing the answers and I was focusing on how the students knew and what evidence they knew to make their inferences. They did a great job using what they know to make an inference. During this game, I heard many, “I know….I know….I know what it is….” In this activity, I did not have to say, “all eyes should be on the screens because that is where is learning is happening…” The students were ready to go and I am sure if I had more, they would continue to make guesses.
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This connection of making an inference of where I was going was a way for students to better notice how they make inferences in their own lives. Anchoring the lesson in this way as Calkins (2015) describes is a way for students to be active in the conversation. As highlighted throughout the student web, students who have space feel that they are having fun in the classroom!
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Which Oreos are Better?:
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We have been working on adding reasons and examples to our writing piece, so I related to the topic to Oreos and the different types of Oreos. I asked the students, "Which Oreos they like best: thin, regular and double stuff." Many hands raised as they were ready to share. I listened to the students and their responses asking them to continue to explain. By doing so, they were able to provide reasons and examples that is needed in their writing piece. Students were excited to share their different Oreo preferences and their reasons, I told them this is what we need to make sure to include in their writing pieces. Also, we want our writing pieces to be like Oreos with the different parts.
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This was a fun visual allowing the students to better understand the information as well as making it more relevant to their own lives (Smith et al., 2015 pg. 37).
Artifact: Video
This artifact exemplifies how a little surprise in thinking about favorite Ores are ways to increase excitment in the classroom. Oreos were something all students were able to relate to and were ready to share their favorite Oreo. Not only was this a way to engage the students, but was a reference point as they were writing their pieces focusing on adding reasons.
"I started with a video of ice melting, and asked the students low based question of what do you notice, what do you wonder. It was nice hearing different voices and havng students participate...I added some challenge questions which allowed me to explain the three states of matter more in-depth, it is so nice when students have these challenging questions...I love the curiosity and sharing this new information."
Journal Artifact: 3/8
The journal entry includes how seeing a visual of ice melting and using low based inference questions allowed more students to enter the conversation. Students were active as they were able to describe what they saw as well as created a space for students to ask questions and remain curious about this topic.
"It looks like this is the perfect topic/subject to keep the students energized at the end of the day!"
"This is so cool...I love ice cream.” “I did not know this is how ice cream is made.”
C.L.
Students
"What a fun and interesting way to end the day."
C.M.
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What happens when you melt crayons?:
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In Science, we moved to a new unit focusing on Matter and the Phases. We talked about a solid changing into a liquid. I showed the students a video where crayons were melted with a hair dryer. They were excited about this. One student told me that he tried doing this after school. He showed the class the next day. It was nice the student found an activity interesting in class where he wanted to do it on his own. I was excited to see how excited and curious the students were and I would like to see that again later in week.
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How to make ice cream?:
The students have been learning about what happens as changes occur, and focusing on the phases with heating and cooling. One phase change that the students learned about is freezing, where we focused on how a liquid changes into a solid. During this activity the students learned about how the molecules become closer together, move slower and the temperature cools. One way we discussed freezing was with the process of ice cream which they found interesting. This lesson allowed the students to see how Science is found in their everyday lives. I started the lesson by asking the students about their favorite ice cream flavor. They we reviewed what the molecules look like in different states. We spent some time learning about how ice cream is made with the students describing the process and what happens to the state of matters. It was nice to see the students so engaged and asking questions when learning about Science, especially when it is the time of day where the students are tired.
Students were able to, “Explore, interpret, apply, shift perspectives, emphathize and self assess…” (Tomlinson, McTighe, & McTighe, 2013, pg. 8). The lesson engaged the students with some true/false trivia about ice cream. The students all smiled and participated by sharing their comments. The students enjoyed learning about the process of ice cream and how it relates to their lives.
While planning for the two week takeover, I kept in mind how to create a joyful learning environment. For example, as I was planning for Phonics, I thought about how to give the students the time to be creative while working on a new skill. They were able to fill out the tic tac toe board as they came up with strategies to help with spelling (Artifact #1)
In addition, in the Science lesson plan (Artifact #2) , I included that the question: "Who likes ice cream?" as a way to invite the students into the conversation through a hook. This created the space for the students to share. Similarly, while planning for another Science lesson (Artifact #3), I noted that watching a melting crayon video would be a fun way to end the day. I included this video as the students would be able to see melting in their own lives, helping to create a connection. Even one student became inspired to try the crayon melting on his own.
Artifact #1
Artifact #3
Artifact #2
Examples of Lesson Plans from
two-week takeover
With this, during the two-week takeover I was able to match standards and curriculum to students' needs and interests. It felt good at the end of the day to see so many smiling faces and students asking to play some of the games again! Therefore, taking the time to learn about students allowed me to create a fun learning environment where all students could participate!