I've been a reading interventionist for a few years and I stepped back into the classroom during COVID. In Reading I use the THINK- PAIR-SHARE strategy nearly everyday. In Math class I've struggled to make this work. I've been trying to improve my Math teaching skills. I want to try a little twist to the strategy, THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE. During problem-solving, I will present students with a word problem. Students spend a minute or two independently analyzing the problem and drawing a model to represent the problem. They then compare models with a partner and discuss their strategies for a few minutes. To wrap up the activity, choose several partners to share their models with the entire class. It's not much of a change but I think 1st graders need a more concrete activity while discussing Math.
Awesome idea… THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE… this will definitely build leadership skills & self esteem… along with helping struggling scholars learn math strategies from the students presentations. Janine Shafer PLA@103
I love the math strategy you suggested for story problem. I love the independent work combined with the comparing with a partner. It give the scholars a chance to maybe see a different way to solve problem. I'm going to try this strategy this year.
This is a great idea! I found math talks very difficult with my 3rd graders because they often need that concrete activity first also, especially for new concepts. Having them write before discussing would help create deeper discussions.
Amanda Rouse, PLA@103 The strategies (I can't pick just one) I'm most interested in implementing with my reading intervention groups are: Strategy 1: Vocabulary-Building Movement Strategy 2: Inductive Learning Strategy 3: Ten Most Important Words These three strategies struck me as the top ones I'd like to use with my small groups of scholars due to the use of movement and making connections within the learning. These strategies will take modeling and time to practice, but I think the scholars will benefit from these Understand-Level Thinking strategies. The Matrix one was intriguing to me (and new) but I'd need more hands-on learning before I felt comfortable introducing it.
I agree that these strategies will take time modeling and practicing, but will be worth it. It will be beneficial to the scholars and their learning, but also help make our teaching more effective and run smoother. Heather Hill PLA @93
Vocabulary Building is so important! I think it should be a focus for every grade level, considering our scholars may not be exposed to all of the vocabulary they need.
I agree that three strategies that you have chosen to use in intervention groups would be most beneficial. When I was a classroom teacher, I have used each of the strategies during my small group rotations. The Inductive Learning strategy also could be easily scaffolding for your groups, based on the terms, visuals, or data that you choose.
This fall, I would like to include and expand Strategy 1: Vocabulary Movement into my teaching. I have gestures for the following non-verbal termss posted in my classroom: “May I get water, I have an answer, I am in agreement, I have a comment, and I have a question.” We use these gestures and symbols on a daily bases to communicate within the classroom. I believe the Vocabulary-Building Movement strategy would be easily adapted to the reading curriculum having students create their own gestures as they are learning the weekly vocabulary words and mentor sentence. For instance, I see this activity becoming part of reading stations. I would have groups create and model hand gestures and/or use their bodies to demonstrate a vocabulary word and its meaning. Here’s an example: a student would hold his/her hand above their head, slowing moving the fingers back and forth to demonstrate the word, “walking” and moving the fingers faster to demonstrate running. This activity would enrich group communications as all students are required to create their own hand gestures contributing to the group’s interactions and demonstrating their understanding of the weekly vocabulary terms.
After reading this chapter, I have learned some really good strategies that I wish I knew when I was a teacher myself lol.
The strategy that I really loved was Vocabulary-Building Movement. I have a primary mind and knowing how important both movement and vocabulary is to the younger grades, just makes this strategy GOLD! I know this will definitely be a strategy that I coach my teachers to implement this upcoming school year.
Many years ago, I attended a 2 day session on Action-Based Learning, and I was very surprised at the importance of motion to the learning process. From the increased flow of oxygen, to the neural pathways that are created by simply pairing up a concept to a movement, to the increased engagement created by giving the scholars a chance to do something different, this can be a very effective strategy.
I totally agree that movement based learning is gold. I like to incorporate such websites as Go Noodle, Flowcabulary, and Numberock. They introduce vocabulary using music and movement to help introduce scholars to new vocabulary and instructional content.
I love the idea of scholars making up their own movement for vocabulary words. I look forward to enjoyijng watching them do this. Jenelle Miller PLA103
I am a big believer in using movement when learning vocabulary. I love the the ten most important words. I like my students to try and figure out the new words based on context clues. I also like to have the students fold a piece of paper into four squares. They must write the word in one box, the definition in another box, a picture of the word in the third box and last write it in a sentence. It's also fun to use a gesture to remember the word and students have fun acting out the gesture and coming up with the vocabulary word!
Teaching vocabulary daily is so important. Scholars who have a large word bank, perform better in all areas of communication i.e. speaking, writing, etc.
I love the vocabulary-building movement strategy. I have used this with other things in my classroom, but I think it's great to use for learning vocabulary words in younger grades. It's another way of making learning fun and engaging, plus it helps them make a connection to the word to easily remember. I will definitely be implementing this more this next year. Heather Hill PLA @93
I loved learning about this strategy. I agree that this is a fun engaging activity that can really help students retain vocabulary words. I cannot wait to implement this during this upcoming school year!
Heather- I agree for the younger scholars they love to move and having movements for vocabulary will help. If you get any of my kids from last year you will have to ask what they remember for letters and sounds. Karen Prince
For one to understand, they must learn how to express themselves through the meaning of words. Research indicates that 5th grade students pick up between 1,000-5,000 words in a year. Teachers, at all grade levels, should expect their students to be able to read grade level texts. If we can expand the vocabulary of each one of our scholars, then state-wide assessment results will improve over time.
Using their cognitive skills of remembering… to build and learn from the strategies of background knowledge and then comparing the similarities and making associations to create something original is what I hope for all the scholars to attain next year! 💕🎉 Janine Shafer PLA@103
I loved learning about all these strategies and I am eager to try them this school year! The two strategies that stuck out to me were the the ten most important words and vocabulary-building movement. As a reading interventionist it will be important to build scholars vocabulary as they learn. I cannot wait to use these two strategies with my scholars this school year!
The Inductive Learning Strategy, which is basically another name for List/Group/Label is a great tool that can be adapted to any subject matter and any level. All subject areas are embedded with unique and essential vocabularies that can be taught using variations of this method. Also, this strategy is easily adjusted to make it more rigorous, depending on the grade level. I would like to see the teachers at #103 utilize Inductive Learning on a regular basis.
These were all great strategies and I can't wait to incorporate them into my classroom going forward. I would want to use strategy 4: ten most important words to have students find the important content vocabulary words from the unit we are studying. I also loved that we can incorporate math into the lesson by using a bar graph. Then as we talk about those words, we would incorporate movement to remember the definition of the words.
I teach ELA so I am a big fan of knowing our content and domain-specific vocabulary. I love talking about words! I will be using the "Ten Most Important Words" this Fall as a way to drive interaction and discussion in my reading lessons. Journey's provides ten words a week, but I am going to take it a step further and discuss what other words can be used to describe the same thing. I would like to teach my scholars to use a thesaurus and how to use Internet sources to drive instruction and depth of knowledge.
I loved learning about all of these different strategies and have been thinking about how I can implement them in my classroom next year. I already use strategy 1: vocabulary building movement in my classroom during reading, but would love to expand it to other subject areas. I am also really excited to try out strategy 4: ten most important words and love the idea that someone mentioned above tying in a bar graph of our words and the movement.
I would like to use the Vocabulary-Building Movement strategy this upcoming school year. In Media, we already use a few hand gestures during our discussions to show that scholars are engaged. I learned several hand gestures to use with scholars during my time as a SIOP teacher. For example, if a scholar has the same response, they can put down their middle three fingers and point the thumb and pinky between them and the other person. Prior to each read aloud, we do discuss key vocabulary words to help building background knowledge. Creating movements to go with the words will help scholars retain that understanding through the movement association.
I have always enjoyed watching scholars match movement with learning. While it is not a new concept, it often goes by the wayside so they can get to all the other things that have to be done in a day. Movement creates a connection to the brain.
This chapter was filled with a lot of great ideas, some of that which has brought me back to my days of classroom teaching. Connecting movement to learning makes the scholars think they are playing a game. Sometimes they are and sometimes they are not, regardless the information sticks. I hope to see a lot more of this as I observe teachers this year. If not, it will definitely be a recommendation for future lessons.
I completely agree about movement in the classroom. I am a teacher and I know that my students loved it and really helped remembering vocabulary. It really does work! I love that you said its like playing a game even if they aren't but if they think it then its fun for them and increases engagement as well.
I like many of the strategies that were in this chapter but the strategy that I would like to use in my classroom this year is strategy 1: vocabulary building movement. I use this at times but this year I want to really use the physical movement when learning new concepts. You can use this across the curriculum from math vocabulary to sight word connections. The young scholars love being active and moving so it's fun like a game while learning. I can't wait to use this strategy more this year in my classroom.
One strategy from this section that I would like to use more and use differently this year is the movement with vocabulary. We did a bit of movement with vocab this year, but next year I would like to have movement for all new vocab words. I also want to implement the kid developed movement for vocabulary words. Like suggested in the book I would group students into four and have them work together to create a movement that represents new vocabulary words.
A strategy that I would like to incorporate into my math and science classroom is the Ten Most Important Words strategy to introduce vocabulary and mathematical operations. I like how this strategy can be used to present scholars with real-world math and science problems so that they can work together to find the most important words in the problem so they can solve it. Word problems are very difficult for scholars to solve if they don't understand the verbiage to apply the proper functions and operations that the problem requires.
I picked this strategy too. But I'm so glad you mentioned Math Word Problems. It will certainly help them pick out "clue" words to solve the problem easier. Thanks for the idea.
The strategy that I am planning on incorporating into my classroom this next year is Vocabulary-Building Movement. Most of these scholars have had little to no music education prior to late middle school/high school, so even basic music terminology is foreign to them. The idea that came to mind while reading this is using movement to discuss beat and tempo, essentially having scholars march or step to the beat of a random song and then we can discuss the tempo. Different movements can also be integrated as we expand to other music terms, such as the various articulations.
What a great idea. We are fortunate to have a music teacher but I'm going to suggest to her about using vocabulary in her instruction. My scholars love Flocabulary and they use rap to get their attention about the subject and add in vocabulary too. Check it out if you haven't yet. -Sarah Castle A+ Arts Academy - Fair Ave
I want to do more with vocabulary. So the strategy that I want to try is Ten Most Important Words. It helps the struggling find meaning in the words, helps higher levels increase their vocabulary skills and helps the students to see that words do have meaning. Using this stragety would help implement a PD I attended about vocabulary in the classroom. Scholars need to use/see/hear/work with a word up to 40 times before it sticks in their brains and becomes part of their own vocabulary.
I think you will do a really great job using this strategy with your scholars! I might try it more towards Spring with my first graders. They might think it's super cool to be smart like the fourth graders! Your scholars can teach it to my scholars!
I am very excited about having my scholars create their own movement for vocabulary words. They are so creative when we let go and let them create! I am also interested in seeing how a matrix works with them. Jenelle Miller PLA103
I like the vocabulary-building movement strategy. Being that I am only Early Childhood I believe this would be a great strategy for scholars to associate movements with their vocabulary. Another way to get their brains firing away! I would probably do this as their first vocabulary activity when new words are being introduced so that new elements are not added after the fact! Taylor Pritchard PLA 103
The strategy that I would like to incorporate into my classroom next year would be the 10 most important words. Since I teach Science and Social Studies many of the terms are new to them in both subjects. I think using this strategy would help then retain these important terms. I think I could also incorporate the vocabulary building
The post above is part of my answer. I think that I could also incorporate the vocabulary building movement in this too. I have used movement with Social Studies terms but think that this strategy paired with the ten most important words would help in my classroom. Jennifer Janusaitis- Thea Bowman Leadership Academy
The strategy that I would like to try this upcoming school year is Inductive Learning. Often when we begin a new thematic unit in first grade I put up a word wall with content specific vocabulary that I introduce and reference throughout the unit. I never thought of presenting the words to the students having them guess the topic and analyze the words before I present the information. I think this could be powerful as a hook and building critical thinking skills.
Ten Important Words and Movement in classroom are two that stood out that I am going to work on more to my classroom this year. Movement should be included more through out the day. Get up out of the chair and move. I want to include movement with vocabulary. I have touched base on this strategy before, but I want to encourage myself to do more vocabulary and including movement that helps them remember key words. I want to make sure to include the strategy Ten Most Important Words by holding my students accountable to these words so they have that mindset I need to know this and its important for my growth. This will also build their vocabulary bank.
I like the ten important words strategy as well. If they pick out the words to learn this may give them the mindset to learn and know these words are important for their growth.
I think the 10 important words strategy is a great one as well. This helps the students have something they are focusing on as they read a text, and hopefully helps them understand what they are reading better.
As a kindergarten teacher, I already use movement and gestures to go along with letter sounds and sight words. And it helps enormously!! The Vocabulary-Building Movement seems to be the most mentioned strategy on these posts. What I would like to try this year is having the students come up with some of their own gestures and actions. I have never done that before and perhaps student-lead actions would be even more memorable!
The strategy that I would like to implement in my classroom would be the vocabulary-building movement. I think that when you put some sort of motion to the words/vocabulary it helps the scholars remember things. When I would teach OG, we had movements for certain letters/sounds. Not all, but the ones that had sound movement were the ones scholars would learn first. As, vocabulary is so important learning movement/gestures will help them retain what they were/are taught. Karen Prince PLA #93 3rd Grade
Hi Karen! I agree that movement in the classroom helps young scholars with developing their words, vocabulary, and sounds. I use movement with letter sounds and sight words.
The strategy I would like to implement more in m classroom is vocabulary- building movement. In my classroom we do use some movements for our vocabulary words, but this section really made me stop and reflect on the movements we use. I would like to be more intentional with the movements we use and try more whole body bs. just our hands. I would also like to poly movement to our math vocabulary as well. Brittany Connett PLA@93
I like the Vocabulary building movement because it will allow a little more movement in a class where we do not move a lot. I think the younger students would really benefit from this strategy because not only do they get to move a little more but they also get to learn new terms. I would allow each class to choose a term and then come up with a movement for that term. I would share each movement with all the classes until we have movements for all the terms. This also for 1 set of movements for all the terms and each class helped to create the movements for the terms.
The Quote it! Code it! strategy was new to me and interesting to me. Utilizing quotes from a song can enhance the way scholars process language and speech. This strategy is a great way to promote critical thinking, independence in thinking and creativity. It can also help build their confidence with being comfortable with their own thoughts/ ideas, and with sharing it others.
I would like to try the Matrix with my students, when we are in the argumentative unit for Language Arts. I like how you have the students create their own matrix, and record their own opinions about the two topics first, then add those to the class matrix. This helps keep the students from just doing what their friends do, and gives more accurate data to discuss more.
I also would like to try the Matrix out in two ways. One as a whole class activity and second as an individual. As a whole class I would like to see their thoughts on a topic and how engaging the lesson was for them. If the majority were not engaged, I will know to tweak the lesson. If they were, I can figure out how to make it better.
Individually, I think that the Matrix could be used to let me know how the scholar feels about their effort on an assignment or project. They could "check in" on their Matrix each day and reflect when they turn their assignment in on why some days were higher effort and some were lower.
Vocabulary development is an area that our students struggle with every year. They are not exposed to a lot of vocabulary outside of school and struggle with remembering new words. I think combining the strategies of Vocabulary-Building Movement and Ten Most Important Words would be beneficial for our scholars. We've already discussed the fact that movement helps students focus and remember information. Having scholars create their own movements to help them remember words fits in with that and having them be the ones to choose the important words and discussing why will help make those connections.
Brooke Berk - Chapel Hill Academy I am a strong believer in movement in the classroom and used it often while teaching. I would love to see this strategy used more often across our campus. However, a new strategy that I have not experienced and think would be great for our scholars is the Ten Most Important words. I could help teachers implement these strategies through bite sized PD, coaching cycles or challenges to implement strategies from this book study.
I am going to use the 10 most important words. Building a vocabulary in my subject will allow students to have a deeper understanding of their assignment but will also carry over to other subjects.
I look forward in incorporating movement and using Strategy 1: Vocabulary-Building Movement. I use movement a lot to teach, but I have yet to try with vocabulary, so I plan to incorporate this strategy in my LP.
I'm not sure what capacity I'll be working in for the 20-21 school year but I know that the scholars in our school are not equipped with the number of words they should be at their present levels. I want to teach them more in vocabulary so they may reach these levels. Vocabulary needs to be a focus in all subjects and daily conversations to reach these levels of proficiency.
I want to use the Building Background Knowledge strategy this year. I plan on using the student's schema and text evidence to dig deeper into the text. To me building background knowledge is using making inferences (using what they already know to dig deeper in to understanding comprehension or math concepts). I plan on using a sort with phrases about on "theme or subject" to put together to tell what they explain. You could use this strategy with other skills (character traits, main idea, etc) Before reading stories especially non fiction stories building background knowledge is key to understanding of the facts.
As I am not in the classroom myself, one strategy that I would encourage teachers to use in their classroom is the Vocabulary- Building Movement strategy. I think that this would be extremely beneficial for our scholars to be exposed to, because the scholars at the two schools I work at struggle with vocabulary and enjoy moving about the classroom. In order to help teacher implement this within their classroom I would introduce the strategy to them, explaining to them the benefits, and then model it for them in their classroom. I would be sure when modeling to explain to the scholars the expectations when using the strategy in the classroom. After having modeled the strategy I would allow the teachers some time to implement it within their classroom and come bac later to observation the implementation.
I'm very excited to use the Vocabulary Building Movement Strategy. It makes all the sense in the world to connect movement with higher learning and understanding for my first grade scholars. Getting up and moving around at any point during the day paired with learning new concepts/vocabulary/sight words will provide active/fun times. Learning will always be viewed as achievable and hands-on in our room.
I'm really looking forward to incorporating this into my classroom!
I enjoyed reading about many different strategies that I can use in the classroom. The strategy that I am interested in using more of is using movement to enhance vocabulary. Movement can be used across all curriculum contents. I would like to be more consistent in using movement to help with alphabet sounds and movements to help scholars remember sight words. It would be interesting to let scholars make their own movements to take more ownership in their learning.
Angela Posey PLA@103. Chapter 4 The strategies that stood out in my mind the most was: Vocabulary Building Movement Ten Most Important Words Build Background Knowledge These strategies I can implement very effectively with small groups. I have also used these strategies with some variations. It is very important to make sure students understand and remember. Using different strategies to support students understanding and retention of knowledge is very important. I would like to add more Inductive Learning into my lessons. I think the students would benefit from the sharing of ideas.
I really like the Ten most Important words and concretw activity strategies. I think having the scholars predict their meanings before the lessson and then have them finalize at the end to see if their ten words changed and their definitions would show a deepee understanding. The concrete activities strategy would lay a foundational component that would really allow the scholars to own their learn ing.
I totally agree with the vocabulary strategies from this chapter. I hope to implement a section of scholars notebook for them to define, draw, or context the new vocab in their own words. I’d also be interested in the activity where scholars get 10 vocab words at the beginning of a unit. They have to categorize them and defend those categories using prior knowledge. They don’t need to know what every word means, but that would give them a starting point on the relationships this new concept has with prior knowledge. It also gives me an opportunity to see how in depth we need to get in concepts based on how much of the class has a good understanding of those terms.
Chapter 4 - As a coach, I would like to help create some school-wide activities for vocabulary development of top academic words. I think this could be helpful for new and veteran teachers to introduce these key terms in an engaging way.
In PLC's we can create models for these terms and teach it to our scholars. After refining the gestures and practicing them, we can create a school game and uses Kickboard to award points for those that can replicate the gestures on demand. As the book suggests, we could also have students create videos with our school iPads to share acoss grade levels.
I really like how you are utilizing a reward system in this plan, something I can also think about when creating lessons. Thank you for sharing the part of how you could utilize kickboard points.
Making connections - discussions. I would utilize a short story, something to where the scholars would have the ability to make connections between the characters, setting, problem and solution (utilizing a story map). I consistently use short stories to teach lessons in the library, where scholars may connect the lesson to the story, with the beginning of the school year lessons being focused on the story map. Teaching story map elements to younger scholars allows them to start making connections and older scholars reviewing. Discussions definitely need to be guided, but questions allow scholars to discuss and lead to higher thinking.
A strategy for building understanding that I would like to try out in my classroom this upcoming school year is the ten most important words. A lot of the examples involved frontloading the units and I think it would help my students to read about a real world application of what we are about to learn before they learn how to do it themselves. Last year, I polled a few people about how they used what we were learning in class in their jobs/lives and while they found that interesting, I think this can help engage them more.
A way this can be utilized in my classroom is through having scholars read an article about a specific job in a newspaper or on a website, then having them compare it to a job description of that same job. Scholars can create lists of the ten important words from both articles, then compare which are the most similar and why some are outliers. Experiencing the vocabulary before we begin the unit will help them identify what is important when we begin our initial lessons.
Teresa Jones, 1st grade, TLJA, Fort Wayne
ReplyDeleteI've been a reading interventionist for a few years and I stepped back into the classroom during COVID. In Reading I use the THINK- PAIR-SHARE strategy nearly everyday. In Math class I've struggled to make this work. I've been trying to improve my Math teaching skills. I want to try a little twist to the strategy, THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE. During problem-solving, I will present students with a word problem. Students spend a minute or two independently analyzing the problem and drawing a model to represent the problem. They then compare models with a partner and discuss their strategies for a few minutes. To wrap up the activity, choose several partners to share their models with the entire class. It's not much of a change but I think 1st graders need a more concrete activity while discussing Math.
Concrete activity in math is very important.
DeleteAwesome idea… THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE… this will definitely build leadership skills & self esteem… along with helping struggling scholars learn math strategies from the students presentations.
DeleteJanine Shafer PLA@103
Mindi Spychalski PLA@103
DeleteI love the math strategy you suggested for story problem. I love the independent work combined with the comparing with a partner. It give the scholars a chance to maybe see a different way to solve problem. I'm going to try this strategy this year.
This is a great idea! I found math talks very difficult with my 3rd graders because they often need that concrete activity first also, especially for new concepts. Having them write before discussing would help create deeper discussions.
DeleteAmanda Rouse, PLA@103
ReplyDeleteThe strategies (I can't pick just one) I'm most interested in implementing with my reading intervention groups are:
Strategy 1: Vocabulary-Building Movement
Strategy 2: Inductive Learning
Strategy 3: Ten Most Important Words
These three strategies struck me as the top ones I'd like to use with my small groups of scholars due to the use of movement and making connections within the learning.
These strategies will take modeling and time to practice, but I think the scholars will benefit from these Understand-Level Thinking strategies.
The Matrix one was intriguing to me (and new) but I'd need more hands-on learning before I felt comfortable introducing it.
I've seen a lot of success with Ten Most Important Words. Love it!
DeleteI agree that these strategies will take time modeling and practicing, but will be worth it. It will be beneficial to the scholars and their learning, but also help make our teaching more effective and run smoother.
DeleteHeather Hill
PLA @93
Vocabulary Building is so important! I think it should be a focus for every grade level, considering our scholars may not be exposed to all of the vocabulary they need.
Deleteunknown is Sheryll Purdy.
DeleteMegan Denton, PLA @ 48, Media Specialist
DeleteI agree that three strategies that you have chosen to use in intervention groups would be most beneficial. When I was a classroom teacher, I have used each of the strategies during my small group rotations. The Inductive Learning strategy also could be easily scaffolding for your groups, based on the terms, visuals, or data that you choose.
This fall, I would like to include and expand Strategy 1: Vocabulary Movement into my teaching.
ReplyDeleteI have gestures for the following non-verbal termss posted in my classroom: “May I get water, I have an answer, I am in agreement, I have a comment, and I have a question.” We use these gestures and symbols on a daily bases to communicate within the classroom.
I believe the Vocabulary-Building Movement strategy would be easily adapted to the reading curriculum having students create their own gestures as they are learning the weekly vocabulary words and mentor sentence.
For instance, I see this activity becoming part of reading stations. I would have groups create and model hand gestures and/or use their bodies to demonstrate a vocabulary word and its meaning. Here’s an example: a student would hold his/her hand above their head, slowing moving the fingers back and forth to demonstrate the word, “walking” and moving the fingers faster to demonstrate running. This activity would enrich group communications as all students are required to create their own hand gestures contributing to the group’s interactions and demonstrating their understanding of the weekly vocabulary terms.
I especially like the vocabulary building movement strategy! Great idea to have students create their own hand gestures! Janine Shafer Pla103
DeleteAfter reading this chapter, I have learned some really good strategies that I wish I knew when I was a teacher myself lol.
ReplyDeleteThe strategy that I really loved was Vocabulary-Building Movement. I have a primary mind and knowing how important both movement and vocabulary is to the younger grades, just makes this strategy GOLD! I know this will definitely be a strategy that I coach my teachers to implement this upcoming school year.
Many years ago, I attended a 2 day session on Action-Based Learning, and I was very surprised at the importance of motion to the learning process. From the increased flow of oxygen, to the neural pathways that are created by simply pairing up a concept to a movement, to the increased engagement created by giving the scholars a chance to do something different, this can be a very effective strategy.
DeleteI totally agree that movement based learning is gold. I like to incorporate such websites as Go Noodle, Flowcabulary, and Numberock. They introduce vocabulary using music and movement to help introduce scholars to new vocabulary and instructional content.
DeleteFrederick Pittman HIAT
I love the idea of scholars making up their own movement for vocabulary words. I look forward to enjoyijng watching them do this.
DeleteJenelle Miller PLA103
Amylynn Faulstich PLA 48
ReplyDeleteI am a big believer in using movement when learning vocabulary. I love the the ten most important words. I like my students to try and figure out the new words based on context clues. I also like to have the students fold a piece of paper into four squares. They must write the word in one box, the definition in another box, a picture of the word in the third box and last write it in a sentence. It's also fun to use a gesture to remember the word and students have fun acting out the gesture and coming up with the vocabulary word!
Teaching vocabulary daily is so important. Scholars who have a large word bank, perform better in all areas of communication i.e. speaking, writing, etc.
DeleteI love the vocabulary-building movement strategy. I have used this with other things in my classroom, but I think it's great to use for learning vocabulary words in younger grades. It's another way of making learning fun and engaging, plus it helps them make a connection to the word to easily remember. I will definitely be implementing this more this next year.
ReplyDeleteHeather Hill
PLA @93
I loved learning about this strategy. I agree that this is a fun engaging activity that can really help students retain vocabulary words. I cannot wait to implement this during this upcoming school year!
DeleteAllison Kelly PLA103
Heather- I agree for the younger scholars they love to move and having movements for vocabulary will help. If you get any of my kids from last year you will have to ask what they remember for letters and sounds. Karen Prince
DeleteFor one to understand, they must learn how to express themselves through the meaning of words. Research indicates that 5th grade students pick up between 1,000-5,000 words in a year. Teachers, at all grade levels, should expect their students to be able to read grade level texts. If we can expand the vocabulary of each one of our scholars, then state-wide assessment results will improve over time.
ReplyDeleteUsing their cognitive skills of remembering… to build and learn from the strategies of background knowledge and then comparing the similarities and making associations to create something original is what I hope for all the scholars to attain next year! 💕🎉
ReplyDeleteJanine Shafer PLA@103
I loved learning about all these strategies and I am eager to try them this school year! The two strategies that stuck out to me were the the ten most important words and vocabulary-building movement. As a reading interventionist it will be important to build scholars vocabulary as they learn. I cannot wait to use these two strategies with my scholars this school year!
ReplyDeleteAllison Kelly PLA103
The Inductive Learning Strategy, which is basically another name for List/Group/Label is a great tool that can be adapted to any subject matter and any level. All subject areas are embedded with unique and essential vocabularies that can be taught using variations of this method. Also, this strategy is easily adjusted to make it more rigorous, depending on the grade level. I would like to see the teachers at #103 utilize Inductive Learning on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteThese were all great strategies and I can't wait to incorporate them into my classroom going forward. I would want to use strategy 4: ten most important words to have students find the important content vocabulary words from the unit we are studying. I also loved that we can incorporate math into the lesson by using a bar graph. Then as we talk about those words, we would incorporate movement to remember the definition of the words.
ReplyDeleteKaylee Briggs- PLA@103
Zach Brubaker - GVPLA
ReplyDeleteI teach ELA so I am a big fan of knowing our content and domain-specific vocabulary. I love talking about words! I will be using the "Ten Most Important Words" this Fall as a way to drive interaction and discussion in my reading lessons. Journey's provides ten words a week, but I am going to take it a step further and discuss what other words can be used to describe the same thing. I would like to teach my scholars to use a thesaurus and how to use Internet sources to drive instruction and depth of knowledge.
Alyssa Scott - PLA@93
ReplyDeleteI loved learning about all of these different strategies and have been thinking about how I can implement them in my classroom next year. I already use strategy 1: vocabulary building movement in my classroom during reading, but would love to expand it to other subject areas. I am also really excited to try out strategy 4: ten most important words and love the idea that someone mentioned above tying in a bar graph of our words and the movement.
Megan Denton, PLA @ 48, Media Specialist
ReplyDeleteI would like to use the Vocabulary-Building Movement strategy this upcoming school year. In Media, we already use a few hand gestures during our discussions to show that scholars are engaged. I learned several hand gestures to use with scholars during my time as a SIOP teacher. For example, if a scholar has the same response, they can put down their middle three fingers and point the thumb and pinky between them and the other person. Prior to each read aloud, we do discuss key vocabulary words to help building background knowledge. Creating movements to go with the words will help scholars retain that understanding through the movement association.
I have always enjoyed watching scholars match movement with learning. While it is not a new concept, it often goes by the wayside so they can get to all the other things that have to be done in a day. Movement creates a connection to the brain.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was filled with a lot of great ideas, some of that which has brought me back to my days of classroom teaching. Connecting movement to learning makes the scholars think they are playing a game. Sometimes they are and sometimes they are not, regardless the information sticks. I hope to see a lot more of this as I observe teachers this year. If not, it will definitely be a recommendation for future lessons.
Alec Mayer, AP, PLA93, Indianapolis, IN
I completely agree about movement in the classroom. I am a teacher and I know that my students loved it and really helped remembering vocabulary. It really does work! I love that you said its like playing a game even if they aren't but if they think it then its fun for them and increases engagement as well.
DeleteJensen Cacciola- Jones Clark
Mindi Spychalski PLA@103
ReplyDeleteI like many of the strategies that were in this chapter but the strategy that I would like to use in my classroom this year is strategy 1: vocabulary building movement. I use this at times but this year I want to really use the physical movement when learning new concepts. You can use this across the curriculum from math vocabulary to sight word connections. The young scholars love being active and moving so it's fun like a game while learning. I can't wait to use this strategy more this year in my classroom.
Bridgette Farmer @ PLA 103
ReplyDeleteOne strategy from this section that I would like to use more and use differently this year is the movement with vocabulary. We did a bit of movement with vocab this year, but next year I would like to have movement for all new vocab words. I also want to implement the kid developed movement for vocabulary words. Like suggested in the book I would group students into four and have them work together to create a movement that represents new vocabulary words.
A strategy that I would like to incorporate into my math and science classroom is the Ten Most Important Words strategy to introduce vocabulary and mathematical operations. I like how this strategy can be used to present scholars with real-world math and science problems so that they can work together to find the most important words in the problem so they can solve it. Word problems are very difficult for scholars to solve if they don't understand the verbiage to apply the proper functions and operations that the problem requires.
ReplyDeleteFrederick Pittman
The HIAT
I picked this strategy too. But I'm so glad you mentioned Math Word Problems. It will certainly help them pick out "clue" words to solve the problem easier. Thanks for the idea.
Delete-Sarah Castle A+ Arts Academy - Fair Ave
Abbigail Brantch, Music Education at JRPLA
ReplyDeleteThe strategy that I am planning on incorporating into my classroom this next year is Vocabulary-Building Movement. Most of these scholars have had little to no music education prior to late middle school/high school, so even basic music terminology is foreign to them. The idea that came to mind while reading this is using movement to discuss beat and tempo, essentially having scholars march or step to the beat of a random song and then we can discuss the tempo. Different movements can also be integrated as we expand to other music terms, such as the various articulations.
What a great idea. We are fortunate to have a music teacher but I'm going to suggest to her about using vocabulary in her instruction. My scholars love Flocabulary and they use rap to get their attention about the subject and add in vocabulary too. Check it out if you haven't yet.
Delete-Sarah Castle A+ Arts Academy - Fair Ave
I want to do more with vocabulary. So the strategy that I want to try is Ten Most Important Words. It helps the struggling find meaning in the words, helps higher levels increase their vocabulary skills and helps the students to see that words do have meaning.
ReplyDeleteUsing this stragety would help implement a PD I attended about vocabulary in the classroom. Scholars need to use/see/hear/work with a word up to 40 times before it sticks in their brains and becomes part of their own vocabulary.
-Sarah Castle A+ Arts Academy- Fair Ave
I think you will do a really great job using this strategy with your scholars! I might try it more towards Spring with my first graders. They might think it's super cool to be smart like the fourth graders! Your scholars can teach it to my scholars!
DeleteHeidi Hilt
AAA Fair Avenue
Columbus, Ohio
I am very excited about having my scholars create their own movement for vocabulary words. They are so creative when we let go and let them create! I am also interested in seeing how a matrix works with them.
ReplyDeleteJenelle Miller PLA103
I like the vocabulary-building movement strategy. Being that I am only Early Childhood I believe this would be a great strategy for scholars to associate movements with their vocabulary. Another way to get their brains firing away! I would probably do this as their first vocabulary activity when new words are being introduced so that new elements are not added after the fact!
ReplyDeleteTaylor Pritchard PLA 103
The strategy that I would like to incorporate into my classroom next year would be the 10 most important words. Since I teach Science and Social Studies many of the terms are new to them in both subjects. I think using this strategy would help then retain these important terms. I think I could also incorporate the vocabulary building
ReplyDeleteThe post above is part of my answer.
DeleteI think that I could also incorporate the vocabulary building movement in this too. I have used movement with Social Studies terms but think that this strategy paired with the ten most important words would help in my classroom.
Jennifer Janusaitis- Thea Bowman Leadership Academy
The strategy that I would like to try this upcoming school year is Inductive Learning. Often when we begin a new thematic unit in first grade I put up a word wall with content specific vocabulary that I introduce and reference throughout the unit. I never thought of presenting the words to the students having them guess the topic and analyze the words before I present the information. I think this could be powerful as a hook and building critical thinking skills.
ReplyDeleteAlissa Davis
DeletePLA @ 48
I agree that it would be a powerful hook, and help scholars increase and use critical thinking skills, great idea!
DeleteJensen Cacciola- PLA Jones-Clark
ReplyDeleteTen Important Words and Movement in classroom are two that stood out that I am going to work on more to my classroom this year. Movement should be included more through out the day. Get up out of the chair and move. I want to include movement with vocabulary. I have touched base on this strategy before, but I want to encourage myself to do more vocabulary and including movement that helps them remember key words. I want to make sure to include the strategy Ten Most Important Words by holding my students accountable to these words so they have that mindset I need to know this and its important for my growth. This will also build their vocabulary bank.
I like the ten important words strategy as well. If they pick out the words to learn this may give them the mindset to learn and know these words are important for their growth.
DeleteSarah Williams-Chapel Hill Academy
DeleteI think the 10 important words strategy is a great one as well. This helps the students have something they are focusing on as they read a text, and hopefully helps them understand what they are reading better.
As a kindergarten teacher, I already use movement and gestures to go along with letter sounds and sight words. And it helps enormously!! The Vocabulary-Building Movement seems to be the most mentioned strategy on these posts. What I would like to try this year is having the students come up with some of their own gestures and actions. I have never done that before and perhaps student-lead actions would be even more memorable!
ReplyDeleteBrenda Kolkman
TLJA - Kdg.
I love the idea of having the students create their own gestures or coming up with ideas as a class!
DeleteBrittany Connett PLA@93
The strategy that I would like to implement in my classroom would be the vocabulary-building movement. I think that when you put some sort of motion to the words/vocabulary it helps the scholars remember things. When I would teach OG, we had movements for certain letters/sounds. Not all, but the ones that had sound movement were the ones scholars would learn first. As, vocabulary is so important learning movement/gestures will help them retain what they were/are taught.
ReplyDeleteKaren Prince PLA #93 3rd Grade
Hi Karen! I agree that movement in the classroom helps young scholars with developing their words, vocabulary, and sounds. I use movement with letter sounds and sight words.
DeleteThe strategy I would like to implement more in m classroom is vocabulary- building movement. In my classroom we do use some movements for our vocabulary words, but this section really made me stop and reflect on the movements we use. I would like to be more intentional with the movements we use and try more whole body bs. just our hands. I would also like to poly movement to our math vocabulary as well.
ReplyDeleteBrittany Connett PLA@93
I like the Vocabulary building movement because it will allow a little more movement in a class where we do not move a lot. I think the younger students would really benefit from this strategy because not only do they get to move a little more but they also get to learn new terms. I would allow each class to choose a term and then come up with a movement for that term. I would share each movement with all the classes until we have movements for all the terms. This also for 1 set of movements for all the terms and each class helped to create the movements for the terms.
ReplyDeleteHello Ms. Duff,
DeleteI agree with your post! Studies have proven that music enhances focus, mood, and their ability to retain new information.
The Quote it! Code it! strategy was new to me and interesting to me. Utilizing quotes from a song can enhance the way scholars process language and speech. This strategy is a great way to promote critical thinking, independence in thinking and creativity. It can also help build their confidence with being comfortable with their own thoughts/ ideas, and with sharing it others.
ReplyDeleteThis also allows scholars to demonstrate their level understanding and show how they process their own thoughts.
DeleteSarah Williams-Chapel Hill Academy
ReplyDeleteI would like to try the Matrix with my students, when we are in the argumentative unit for Language Arts. I like how you have the students create their own matrix, and record their own opinions about the two topics first, then add those to the class matrix. This helps keep the students from just doing what their friends do, and gives more accurate data to discuss more.
I also would like to try the Matrix out in two ways. One as a whole class activity and second as an individual. As a whole class I would like to see their thoughts on a topic and how engaging the lesson was for them. If the majority were not engaged, I will know to tweak the lesson. If they were, I can figure out how to make it better.
DeleteIndividually, I think that the Matrix could be used to let me know how the scholar feels about their effort on an assignment or project. They could "check in" on their Matrix each day and reflect when they turn their assignment in on why some days were higher effort and some were lower.
Ashley Pierce - 7th Grade @ JRP (Indy)
Vocabulary development is an area that our students struggle with every year. They are not exposed to a lot of vocabulary outside of school and struggle with remembering new words. I think combining the strategies of Vocabulary-Building Movement and Ten Most Important Words would be beneficial for our scholars. We've already discussed the fact that movement helps students focus and remember information. Having scholars create their own movements to help them remember words fits in with that and having them be the ones to choose the important words and discussing why will help make those connections.
ReplyDeleteBrooke Berk - Chapel Hill Academy
ReplyDeleteI am a strong believer in movement in the classroom and used it often while teaching. I would love to see this strategy used more often across our campus. However, a new strategy that I have not experienced and think would be great for our scholars is the Ten Most Important words. I could help teachers implement these strategies through bite sized PD, coaching cycles or challenges to implement strategies from this book study.
I am going to use the 10 most important words. Building a vocabulary in my subject will allow students to have a deeper understanding of their assignment but will also carry over to other subjects.
ReplyDeleteI look forward in incorporating movement and using Strategy 1: Vocabulary-Building Movement. I use movement a lot to teach, but I have yet to try with vocabulary, so I plan to incorporate this strategy in my LP.
ReplyDeletePLA @ 103
I'm not sure what capacity I'll be working in for the 20-21 school year but I know that the scholars in our school are not equipped with the number of words they should be at their present levels. I want to teach them more in vocabulary so they may reach these levels. Vocabulary needs to be a focus in all subjects and daily conversations to reach these levels of proficiency.
ReplyDeleteI want to use the Building Background Knowledge strategy this year. I plan on using the student's schema and text evidence to dig deeper into the text. To me building background knowledge is using making inferences (using what they already know to dig deeper in to understanding comprehension or math concepts). I plan on using a sort with phrases about on "theme or subject" to put together to tell what they explain. You could use this strategy with other skills (character traits, main idea, etc) Before reading stories especially non fiction stories building background knowledge is key to understanding of the facts.
ReplyDeleteAs I am not in the classroom myself, one strategy that I would encourage teachers to use in their classroom is the Vocabulary- Building Movement strategy. I think that this would be extremely beneficial for our scholars to be exposed to, because the scholars at the two schools I work at struggle with vocabulary and enjoy moving about the classroom. In order to help teacher implement this within their classroom I would introduce the strategy to them, explaining to them the benefits, and then model it for them in their classroom. I would be sure when modeling to explain to the scholars the expectations when using the strategy in the classroom. After having modeled the strategy I would allow the teachers some time to implement it within their classroom and come bac later to observation the implementation.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited to use the Vocabulary Building Movement Strategy. It makes all the sense in the world to connect movement with higher learning and understanding for my first grade scholars. Getting up and moving around at any point during the day paired with learning new concepts/vocabulary/sight words will provide active/fun times. Learning will always be viewed as achievable and hands-on in our room.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to incorporating this into my classroom!
Heidi Hilt
AAA Fair Avenue
Columbus, Ohio
I agree that movement is a great way to encourage and support learning in the classroom.
DeleteAngela Posey
I enjoyed reading about many different strategies that I can use in the classroom. The strategy that I am interested in using more of is using movement to enhance vocabulary. Movement can be used across all curriculum contents. I would like to be more consistent in using movement to help with alphabet sounds and movements to help scholars remember sight words. It would be interesting to let scholars make their own movements to take more ownership in their learning.
ReplyDeleteAngela Posey PLA@103. Chapter 4
ReplyDeleteThe strategies that stood out in my mind the most was:
Vocabulary Building Movement
Ten Most Important Words
Build Background Knowledge
These strategies I can implement very effectively with small groups. I have also used these strategies with some variations. It is very important to make sure students understand and remember. Using different strategies to support students understanding and retention of knowledge is very important.
I would like to add more Inductive Learning into my lessons. I think the students would benefit from the sharing of ideas.
I really like the Ten most Important words and concretw activity strategies. I think having the scholars predict their meanings before the lessson and then have them finalize at the end to see if their ten words changed and their definitions would show a deepee understanding. The concrete activities strategy would lay a foundational component that would really allow the scholars to own their learn ing.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the vocabulary strategies from this chapter. I hope to implement a section of scholars notebook for them to define, draw, or context the new vocab in their own words. I’d also be interested in the activity where scholars get 10 vocab words at the beginning of a unit. They have to categorize them and defend those categories using prior knowledge. They don’t need to know what every word means, but that would give them a starting point on the relationships this new concept has with prior knowledge. It also gives me an opportunity to see how in depth we need to get in concepts based on how much of the class has a good understanding of those terms.
DeleteStephanie Bell - PLA @93
Chapter 4 - As a coach, I would like to help create some school-wide activities for vocabulary development of top academic words. I think this could be helpful for new and veteran teachers to introduce these key terms in an engaging way.
ReplyDeleteIn PLC's we can create models for these terms and teach it to our scholars. After refining the gestures and practicing them, we can create a school game and uses Kickboard to award points for those that can replicate the gestures on demand. As the book suggests, we could also have students create videos with our school iPads to share acoss grade levels.
I really like how you are utilizing a reward system in this plan, something I can also think about when creating lessons. Thank you for sharing the part of how you could utilize kickboard points.
DeleteMaking connections - discussions.
ReplyDeleteI would utilize a short story, something to where the scholars would have the ability to make connections between the characters, setting, problem and solution (utilizing a story map). I consistently use short stories to teach lessons in the library, where scholars may connect the lesson to the story, with the beginning of the school year lessons being focused on the story map. Teaching story map elements to younger scholars allows them to start making connections and older scholars reviewing. Discussions definitely need to be guided, but questions allow scholars to discuss and lead to higher thinking.
A strategy for building understanding that I would like to try out in my classroom this upcoming school year is the ten most important words. A lot of the examples involved frontloading the units and I think it would help my students to read about a real world application of what we are about to learn before they learn how to do it themselves. Last year, I polled a few people about how they used what we were learning in class in their jobs/lives and while they found that interesting, I think this can help engage them more.
ReplyDeleteA way this can be utilized in my classroom is through having scholars read an article about a specific job in a newspaper or on a website, then having them compare it to a job description of that same job. Scholars can create lists of the ten important words from both articles, then compare which are the most similar and why some are outliers. Experiencing the vocabulary before we begin the unit will help them identify what is important when we begin our initial lessons.
Ashley Pierce - 7th Grade @ JRP (Indy)