Tech Tip Thursday - Sumdog! Best Math Site!

I just realized it is Thursday (already!) Where are my days going?!?! I apologize for having 2 posts in one day, but I've missed a few tips and I need to catch up

Today's tech tip is the website Sumdog! I heard about it from a fellow blogger and I swear by it! Hands down the best math website! It's a math website that allows students to practice math concepts in fun game formats! To sign up and play the games is absolutely FREE....however they do have a reporting section that will give you details {reports} about how your students are doing {and what they are struggling with}. I'll be honest, I have only used the free features.

Teachers can sign up and then setup their class with individual logins for each student. I am always weary about entering my students' names into online programs. I only entered their first name and last initial. It generated passwords for each student. It's a very simple process and it's super easy to go back and add new students.  Students can play as guest, however I don't recommend this because they miss out on some of the features.

 The students are able to choose which concept they want to work on. The choices are place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, or algebra type equations. Then they can even choose which skill they want to focus on and level. I have tried to figure out how to set these particular skills so that students could only work on skills that I have set, however I haven't been able to figure it out. I can set up competitions and set the skill level there.  I'm hoping that this will be a feature they add in the future. I don't want my students to choose easy concepts, nor ones that they would struggle with.

Students then choose how they are going to play: against the computer, a random person, or a classmate. This is the best part of the site! The students get such a kick out of playing against each other and they can be playing the same game but working on different skills and levels. I even jump on a computer from time to time and challenge the kids...they really get a kick out of it.

Finally the students choose which game they want to play. There are some really fun ones! My favorite is junk pile. You have to answer questions and then pile up junk in the junkyard, but be careful or your pile could fall over.  There are about 20 games in all that keeps a variety of interest in mind.

As the kids play they not only compete against one another, but they are racking up points {coins}. The coins allow you to purchase different clothes and accessories to dress your character. They also have different animal levels. My kids really got into these rewards. My kids were so into this site that they would call each other so they could challenge one another from home. It was such a great way to get kids to memorize their facts {but in a fun way!} This website is one of the sites my kids during our Guided Math rotations.

More MATH - CGI

I'm currently attending a 3 day CGI {Cognitively Guided Instruction} training (with 2 additional days later in the year). I signed up for the training so that I had a better understanding of what my students were coming to me with... I had always thought that CGI was ONLY for the lower grades (our 1st/2nd grade use CGI) - After today, I'm realizing that I can easily apply this philosophy to my math instruction. The basis of CGI is that students are allowed to investigate and discover their own methods to solve problems. They extend their strategy database though the modeling of other students {not the teachers}. I'm not going to lie....as a 3rd grade teacher - this FREAKS me out! Problem solving is so crucial in 3rd grade and this is a HUGE adjustment to how I currently teach problem solving. This book will definitely take me out of my comfort zone. I am going to try it and see how it works in my classroom. On another note....our instructor is very knowledgeable and has so many wonderful math resources. You can see her teacher store and wonderful math activities! She has great center activities and they are very inexpensive - go check her out! Here is her website with more freebies and resources.

Along with the training, we're also doing a book study with the above book. I would love to bounce ideas off of anyone who has read or who implements CGI in their classroom - especially in the upper grades! Here are my thoughts & questions so far with the first few chapters of this book:

Chapter 1:

• Students don't naturally solve problems the way that we do. They follow the action of the problems, similar to a recipe to solve the problem. For example Alyssa has 5 erasers. How many more erasers does she need to have 11? We would solve this problem by subtracting 5 from 11. However kids would take the 5 and count up till they got to 11. 
• Kids already have a knowledge base for mathematics, we need to tap into this background knowledge.
• Students should be allowed to discover their own strategies to solve problems. They will learn different ways to solve by sharing with their peers. Teachers should not model and impose our thinking on the students.
• Children don't have to be taught specific strategies to solve particular problems.

My questions:

• Where should we start with upper students? The instruction videos show that you allow students to use manipulatives and it seems they start very small. Should we revert to the basics with older students as well?

Chapter 2: Here is a organizer that explains the different types of problems.

• Problems are classified based on the way children think about the problem.
• Addition/Subtraction are separated into result unknown (most common), change unknown, and start unknown (hardest type of problem). The problems all have an action that happens in the problem (something is added or taken away)
• Part-Part-Whole & Compare problems have no actions, and instead are based on relationships.
• Problems can be more challenging or rigorous by changing the wording to past tense or numbers within the problem that don't represent a set number of objects (such as weight)

My questions:

Should the structures of the different types of problems be explicitly taught to students? How would this be accomplished if the teacher shouldn't be modeling problems?

Differentiated Instruction - Choice Boards

Last summer I attended a GT training and was introduced to choice boards! I LOVE THIS IDEA!!! I think that students are more engaged and even challenge themselves more when they are given choices.  The great thing is....they aren't just for GT students. Choice boards work similar to tic-tac-toe; the student completes 3 activities in a row {up, down, diagonal} They can be adapted for ALL students and actually lend themselves well to differentiated instruction. On Tuesday, I will be attending another GT training specifically on choice boards and differentiated instruction {I'm super pumped about it!} I can't wait to learn more about these learning tools! {I promise to share what I learn!}

Choice boards can be set up in many different ways. You can base them off of abilities, learning styles, intelligences, and even levels of questioning. I have found it easier, if I focus on just one of these types. When creating the board, you want to plan out what type of activity each square will focus on. {You don't want to have 2 of the same type of activities in a row} The goal of the CBs are to have equally acceptable activities that you want the students to complete that are similar end products, but have varying ways to accomplish the final product. {For example, you are studying the Alamo. Students could choose activities from writing a diary from the viewpoint of being in the battle, recreating a model of the Alamo, creating a movie, etc.}The wonderful thing about CBs though...students can choose an activity they are willing to complete {taking into consideration their own likes/learning style/intelligence}, but they will have 2 other activities they will need to complete that will focus on other skills that they possibly may need to strengthen {but at the very least they're practicing other skills}! It's a win-win situation!

I recently put the choice boards I created for my homework reader's responses in my shop. My students are required to read 20 min nightly, however I found that many of them weren't really reading every night! These choice boards give student's different options to respond to their books, while focusing on varying skills. I've also included 4 blank {editable} choice boards so that you can create your own boards! .....And I used the adorable sneakers clipart to jazz them up from KPM Doodles {love her stuff!}

Here is an example template of how to begin creating a choice board based on Multiple Intelligences:

                                                       Source: Dare to Differentiate 

Here are some great resources:

• Dare to Differentiate (AWESOME site for resources!)
• PVUSD
• Choices based on intelligence

Words Their Way & Spelling Test

I decided to start re-reading Words Their Way to kick off my summer reading list. As I read this I'm hoping to find a way to incorporate the word patterns we are working on (from WTW), with spelling test. Last year, I used a new spelling program our state has adopted - Zaner-Bloser Spelling Connections. I actually really liked this spelling program. The list were broken down by spelling patterns and were differentiated. This is the only way I'll do spelling tests. I don't see the point is spelling test that are just a group of words that may have a common theme (farm, seasons, science, etc), but not have a common spelling pattern. I'll be honest, I focus on spelling because I think that if students learn spelling patterns, it  will help them with their decoding!

 How I did spelling last year: Every Monday morning, I would give my students a 15 word spelling pre-test. This would determine which list they would be on basic 1, basic 2, or challenge. The program called the levels below level, on level, and above level, however, my team teacher and I decided that it we liked the other titles better. The lists overlap, so some words were shared with another list. The students list weren't static; they could move up or down levels depending on their pretests. As much work as it sounds like it was, it was actually pretty simple. The kids would have weekly homework. After attending a great GT training, I decided to make choice boards (tic-tac-toe) for their weekly homework. The kids loved it! They liked having a choice of which activities they wanted to complete. During centers, the kids would also have activities in word work. They had to complete word sorts and I also had their words on spelling city. On Friday, I would give everyone a test for ALL spelling words from each list. They would just note which list they belonged to by circling that number. They were only accountable for the words from their list, the others were used as bonus words (up to +5pt) but this also let me see who really learned the spelling pattern for that week. 

I'm not sure how I'll be able to incorporate my spelling program with WTW. I really, really like that my spelling program (ZB) was differentiated! I saw first hand how this helped my students. However, I would like to somehow keep my kids on the same spelling pattern (otherwise it seems like it would get out of control!). Our reading adoption, Texas Treasures, also has a spelling component that was created by none other than one of the authors from WTW (however I haven't been able to verity that!). I'm thinking that I may stick with my current spelling program from ZB, but use WTW during guided reading. I also want to somehow incorporate vocabulary as well! How am I going to merge all of these?!?! How do you manage your spelling/vocabulary? 

A tale of a struggling learner

I just saw the most inspiring movie and it inspired me in a way that wasn't the focus of the movie. During the summer, several of our theaters show older movies. I took the kids expecting to see a heartwarming story about a dolphin who gets a new tail. Of course I'm talking about the movie Dolphin Tale. However, I left the theater with my mind spinning and the movie challenging (and confirming) my philosophy of teaching. It's a sweet story about a little boy who helps a dolphin that had to have his tail amputated. While it's a very sweet story - what drew me in was the little boy. He struggles with many things in his life, especially with school. He is brilliant with building things with his hands, but he fails at every academic subject. He has to attend summer school to make up for his failed classes. His mom finds out he's been skipping school to work with this dolphin. At first she's outraged, until she sees first hand what her son is doing (and learning!). The conversation that she had with her son's teacher was amazing (I wish I could put the clip in here!) It seriously brought tears to my eyes. How many students do we know like this? They basically struggle with everything we teach! I had an amazing professor once tell me, "If  kids don't learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn!" To see this little boy's progress once he became engaged with hands on, real life experiences, was mind blowing! In grad school, I was challenged with this concept. What do we really need to teach our students? What do they really need to know? Now I know this is some pretty deep thinking for summer, but I challenge you to start thinking about how we can capture and engage these learners that struggle with everything. We need to find their niche and split it wide open with rich experiences for them. I know....but what about the "TEST". The test is there...whether we like it or not, but I think that we can provide these experiences for kids that will eventually lead them down the path of learning those "required skills". Now if you haven't seen this movie, please go watch it! Watch this little boy go from a struggling learner to taking ownership of his learning!

If you have seen the movie here some more info about Winter the dolphin! As for the little boy, it appears he wasn't part of the real story, just Hollywood. (I'm still researching it though!) Never the less, his character inspired me!

Daily 5 (or rather Daily 7) goodies to share....

I seriously can't believe it has been almost 2 months since my last post! This school year is C~R~A~Z~Y!!!! Or maybe it's just me that is crazy! Along with teaching...I'm taking 9 hours of grad school (which is kicking my butt!!), I will be teaching 2 technology classes a week to students after school, and I will begin tutoring 1 day a week after school....not to mention my poor family who is suffering without me most nights! So this is why I haven't posted in awhile (and I'm up at 3:30 in the morning) But I wanted to share good news about my daily 5 centers!

My daily 5 centers are working! Yea!!! Last year I could not get them to run smoothly for the life of me and ended up taking away the choice for students. This year it is running so smoothly...that it's kind of scary! I have to admit though - I don't have Daily 5, I have Daily 7. I love the original Daily 5, but my students needed a little bit more than those skills. (Yes I know the upper grades are only supposed to do 3 - but some of my kids come in so low that we really need all 5!) So let me explain how it all works! Along with the originals, I also have skill builders (cause/effect, sequence, main idea, summary, etc) and technology! My skill builders center is differentiated and has activities for students who are on level, below level and above level. Most of the activities that I have are from the Florida Reading Center (love it!!). I store all of the activities in that nifty cart I found over the summer! There is one weekly activity that everyone must complete, then they can choose a drawer that is labeled with their level (1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars). It is working out quite nicely and it really is giving students that extra practice they need. For technology, I have several things going on here. I use our textbook adoptions (Treasures) website to assign the skills that we are using that week in centers. Once the students complete this skill they have many different options including spellingcity, learning.com, tumblebooks, and more. I eventually want to get to where the students use programs such as inspiration to create graphic organizers for the skills we are learning - we're getting there it just takes baby steps. All of my centers have a must do/can do poster. At the beginning of the week, I just write down what activity must be done, along with directions, and the activities they can do if they finish that task.

The reason I think centers is so successful this year is because I only allow 3 people at each center, except buddy reading (only 2) and technology (4). Since the students are so separated, I don't have as many off task and they are able to be very productive!! I have 3 small pocket charts (ones from Targets 1$ spot). Each pocket is a new rotation. Inside each pocket is a card with the centers name. The students each have 3 name cards. In the morning I post which groups I will be meeting with during each rotation. Throughout the morning/day, I call on students who are being productive to go choose their centers for the day. They just put their name next to the center they want , if they will be working with me they don't choose a center for that rotation. I couldn't let go of not holding the students accountable for the work that needed to be accomplished during centers. So I created a checklist. I based the checklist off the group I see the most. So the checklist would be attainable for even them, meaning the other groups should definitely be able to complete the requirements. I also assigned points to each activity so the students would have to make good choices when picking centers so that they could get everything they needed done. At the bottom i have the total points earned for that week, but I added a field for subtracting points and bonus points. I didn't want my students to finish the checklist in 2-3 days and be off task for the rest of the time!

So far it is working out nicely! I will try and post pics soon....but don't wait around for them ;) I hope your year is off to a great start! On another note...thank you to everyone who has given my blog an award!! You are too kind! I will go and post the awards soon!! Thank you again!