Does vocabulary support comprehension? Sure it does and it is so important for our developing readers to have multiple interactions with vocabulary words! The Key Classroom has a good chart to walk you through what teachers should know about teaching vocabulary!
This is video explains the different tiers of vocabulary and why explicit vocabulary instruction is essential to a balanced reading program.
Check out these 10 games from The Not So Wimpy Teacher to help your students get that "practice" in with vocabulary words. Many of these would work great in centers or partner groups!
I also LOVE the "Parrot Strategy from The Candy Class on TPT. Check out this freebie and be sure to visit her store for other great products!
We are Teachers has a spot on post about how to support ELL learners with vocabulary that would also be very beneficial to add to your daily lessons! The strategies and activities hit lots of different learning styles!
Be sure to stop by The Reading and Writing Haven! These strategies are awesome! So many simple ways to get your students to dig deep into vocabulary! Myth #3 is my favorite to bust!
Do you have a word wall????? If the answer is no, please consider adding one to your classroom! It is a simple way to bring vocabulary into your lessons! Grab this FREE one from Especially Education to get you started!
Hi All! Today I wanted to spend some time talking about one of my favorite things! How our brains learn! I am totally not an expert but the idea of how learning takes place is so interesting. Have you ever asked your students to keep their eyes up front? Have you ever explicitly taught them why you want them to do this? It is a total game changer! Teach your students that when you are presenting a lesson you are attempting to place new learning in their brains through their eyes and other senses! Seriously-You will have their attention!
Check out this video & share it with your class! It tells all about the brain and how it works. I found that when students understand how learning takes place they are more focused on how they learn best. Which is so empowering!
I always asked my class this question: How do you get information into your brain? The answers are always comical! I explained it to them in a very simple way: Learning gets into your brain through your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. I told my students all about how I created lessons for them with this in mind. Such as... Eyes: video, anchor charts, illustrations & presentations Ears: music, chants & call and response Nose: smells & meditation Mouth: call and response, turn and talk, teaching with food! Skin: hands-on lessons like playdough, shaving cream, & STEM These are just some examples of ways we can teach to the senses & the brain!
I also made sure to share that when you first learn something it is placed in your prefrontal cortex. Then the work begins! In order to get new learning to your Hippocampus (Your Brain's Filing Cabinet), you must PRACTICE it! When we practice we create connections within our brain. Each time we practice the connection becomes stronger. Practicing new learning in a variety of ways can help make that connection even stronger!
This "practice" is why spiraling within our lessons is so important. Each week we have a focus skill/standard. This skill/standard is what we build our lesson around and what we use to choose text or activities to support the lesson. In order to support those neurological connections made in previous lessons, we must spiral old learning in too! Helping students make connections to past learning and our focus standard is essential!
Welcome to the blog this week! I wanted to share an experiment that I did with Good Morning!
I have bus duty every morning and then hall duty after that. I spend much of my morning wishing students a good morning and to have a good day. I am sad to report that many times I don't even get eye contact back from them.
My Experiment:
So, I took the opportunity this week, along with Mrs. Blaney, to model how to respond to someone saying "Good Morning" with the first and 2nd graders in the gym before school. It only took a few minutes. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it.
After, I headed back out to the hall to monitor.
When the bell rang something AMAZING happened!!!!!! As the students exited the gym, they walked by with smiles and even said good morning to me! There were hugs and an instant change in their moods. Mrs. Melton was down the hall and I could hear them greeting her too!
Then, it happened again the next day!
So what did I learn? Taking just a small amount of time to reinforce manners can make a HUGE difference in how our students start the day and how they respond to the world around them.
The time I took wasn't even instructional time!
I know on top of all of the curriculum we have to teach it is hard to think about adding one more thing to our plates but I really do believe that taking a small part of our morning meeting and modeling how our students respond when someone says "good morning" or "have a good day" can have a huge impact on our school culture.
The New York Post has a good article about The Magic Words Every Parent Needs to Teach. I really liked the paragraph about how teaching children to say hello or to respond to a hello is not for the adult but to teach the children that other people have feelings and needs too.
Children need to learn that there is a big world out there with lots of people. That adults are not here to do ONLY for them. That they can do for themselves and for others too!
I encourage you to take just a moment and point out this simple idea and do some modeling with your students.
Here is a video to get you started!
I am sure you all have seen this one! I LOVE it and I know several of you have added in some ways to greet each other during morning meeting:)
Changing how our students respond to ALL the adults at PVES can change how they respond to the world around them!
