Second Type of Student Response: Connect

Doesn't it just feel so great when you plan a lesson and it goes smoothly, the kids have a good time and, are enjoying the process of learning?! I love it when that happens! My students did such an amazing job this week! We deepened and extended our ability to listen to and repeat sentences. I felt they were ready for the second type of structured student response: connect.

Connect - That reminds me of ...
Use your pointer fingers and thumbs to make circles. Open one circle and put it around the other circle. Close fingers to make two loops like a chain link.
Connect is all about prior knowledge. I am using the quote, "That reminds me of..." on the poster. Students come to us with so much knowledge already in their brains. Why not use that knowledge and build upon that foundation with new knowledge. It takes me all the way back to Ed Psych, my favorite undergraduate class. The official term for using background knowledge is scaffolding.  It is much harder to teach a concept if we start from scratch without any experience on that topic. Using what students already know to enhance learning makes it relatable and meaningful. For my purposes as a language learning teacher, when students share their previous knowledge it gives me a glimpse of their experiences and where gaps exist in their vocabulary and language development. They may have experience with an idea but are lacking the language skills to convey that idea to the group. Our small group meetings are designed to give students the opportunity to practice their language skills in a low-stress and encouraging environment.

To introduce connect this past week, I had a variety of picture cards. For this introductory activity I wanted students to just share what the picture made them think about. If we had a picture of a pillow, students would say that it made them think about sleeping, their bed, or being comfortable. Those are great connections. The picture did not show a bed or someone sleeping, but the students already had experience with pillows and what they are used for. I plan to extend connect past just recalling previous knowledge or experiences. When we connect to texts we use TTS (text to self), TTT (text to text), and TTW (text to world). I want to use connect as a language development tool and as a structured student response to encourage listening and speaking about our own ideas and the ideas of others. We just touched on this skill this week and will be practicing more in the coming weeks.  Click here for the poster on TpT. Stay tuned for next week's new skill: Question.

First Type of Student Response: Repeat

This week I started my full pull-out schedule. It was great to meet all my kiddos! I definitely have some fun characters in this bunch. What I find to be the most challenging so far is switching gears for each grade level. At one point during each day I am going from Kindergarten then to Fifth Grade. As you may know, those two grade levels are quite different! At least it keeps things interesting and is stretching me to be flexible!

This week I introduced the first of three structured student responses. During group time, we practice listening and speaking A LOT. We then practice writing down our ideas, reading and re-reading our own writing, and reading the writing of others. We talk a lot about what a good speaker sounds like and what a good listener looks like. To encourage students to listen to each other I devised three simple structured student responses. I originally saw these being used by my friend, Katie Evans, when she was teaching Kindergarten. I tweaked them a bit for my own uses and so far they have worked wonderfully! I will also be linking the posters to go with the responses. Here is the first one:

Repeat - Say what I say.

Hold up pointer finger to repeat. 
Students will repeat what they heard. It could be a word, a sentence, or an idea. This helps to practice listening for details and then using language to share what you heard. This is the most basic form of response, just a copy of what was heard. It is a great place to start. When the speaker is finished sharing, they will pick a friend to "REPEAT." The speaker continues to pick friends to "REPEAT." When everyone has had a turn, the speaker's turn is over and they pick a new friend to be the speaker. It was great to hear Kindergarteners repeat details from their friend's writing. The 3rd graders loved to be the one in charge of picking students to "REPEAT." They ran the discussion and you could tell that they were looking for friends who were really paying attention. This is my very first upload to Teachers Pay Teachers! Check it out here or click the title for the Google Doc.

I will be introducing the next structured student response next week: Connect. Stay tuned here and at Teachers Pay Teachers for more!

September begins...

Another great week even though I have been fighting a cold. I need to build up my immunity to a new set of germs at this new school! I met some of my students this week. They are a great group of kids! I get all my kiddos next week. I have a couple observations scheduled for next week, too. Excited, nervous, and looking forward to new things!