Providing Feedback

Worthwhile feedback is essential for improved achievement. However, it's much harder than it sounds. As educators, all too often we say, good for you, well done, add some more detail, I liked the way you..........  You get my point.

Instead of this, ask yourself, what will push the student forward to improve in a specific area?  Look at the student work and ask yourself some of these questions:

1. What is missing?
2. What one thing would improve this work?
3. Is there something incomplete?
4. Do you note any carelessness?
5. What is disappointing about it?

When you ask these questions, your answers will give you some areas to provide feedback on. Let's try an example.

A kindergarten child provides you with a picture of a boat.

You say to the child, how does your boat move? How does your boat stop? I don't think I would want to have a ride on your boat until I know what makes it go and what makes it stop.

The child then takes this 'feedback' to add perhaps a motor or sails and an anchor. You have made the child 'think' or stretch his/her 'thinking'.

Let's say a child brings you a story. Each name in the story is missing a capital letter. Your feedback is, when do we use capital letters? Can you look over your work now and see if you can improve it?

I like to use the up, down, up approach. Find something good, find something that needs improvement, say something positive.

This is a very quick glympse about providing effective feedback. As time moves on, you'll want to track the feedback you have provided the learner with to ensure they are responding to the feedback.

Spring is in the Air and with it Some New Spring Worksheets

Images of Spring

There are so many exciting things you can do with your students in spring. Spring is a wonderful time of year and with it comes a re-birth and a surge of energy. Is that what they call spring fever?  If you never hatched chicks with your class, this is a great time to do so. Check with a local farmer, they'll often let you borrow or rent the incubator and it's pretty straight forward. The kindergarten students are amazed at what happens. Spring is a time to plant seeds and measure growth and it's also fun to go on a spring walk to hear, see and feel the signs of spring.

For those need something quick times, here are some spring worksheets for young learners.

Educators learn from educators, if you have a great idea or are in need of a worksheet you can't find, please let me know.

Helping children learn is my passion and sharing with you is up there too. Happy teaching!
Dar

Using Input Output Tables

Printable Worksheets

Input output function tables can be very useful with early learners for the basic multiplication, division, subtraction and addition facts. Students need to look at the pattern, determine what the rules is (divide by 3, add 6, multiply by 2....) then they complete the answers and state the rules. These input ouput tables differ from basic operation worksheets because they require the child to look at the answers and determine the pattern before completing the tables. They are then required to state the rule.

Math is all about making connections, worksheets like this require the student to think critically, analyze what is happening, determine the answer and state the rule.  Best of all, these worksheets are all free.

If you like these worksheets, please share with a friend or colleague.

What worksheet needs do you have? Submit your requests and within no time, our teachers will create them. Best of all, they are always free. Have a great week in education.
Dar

It's or its?

It's or Its Worksheets

Using its or it's correctly is one of those common mistakes I see everywhere. There is a relatively simple rule of thumb for understanding when to use it's and when to use its.

Everytime you see it's, ask yourself if it can be replaced with it is or it has. If it can, you will always use it's. The version of it's with an apostrophe is really a short form (contraction) for it is or it has.

Example sentences for it's:

1. It's raining outside.  (It is raining outside.)
2. This cough is really bothering me, it's been hanging on for weeks. (it has been hanging on....)
3. If it's alright with you, I think I'll just stay home. (If it is alright...)
4. I think it's going to be a sunny day. (I think it is going to be a .....)

Example sentences for its without the apostrophe:

1.  The dog is wagging its tail. (You can't say the dog is waggin it is tail.)
2.  Joe's Pizza is known for its great sauce! (You can't say known for it is great sauce)
3.  The team was on time but its captain wasn't. (You can't say but it is captain wasn't.

When using its without the apostrophe, you'll notice that there is a sense of belonging and that the its can't be replaced easily with it is or it has.

If you can remember this, you'll never have another problem understanding the difference between it's or its.

Are you ready for a few it's or its worksheets? You'll find 15 exercises on each page with the answers on the second page.

Learning to Print Numbers

Learn to Print Numbers

When introducing young learners to printing numbers, be sure to associate the printed word and the symbol with the acutal amount it represents. Knowing how to print the words and numbers is only helpful when the child undertands the amount it represents.When teaching the printing of numbers, it's helpful to always start at the top of each number for ease and for consistency.

This week I have posted some number worksheets. You'll find coloring worksheets for the numbers one to ten, a great number booklet along with pale tracers for beginner learners.

If you don't find the worksheets you're looking for, let me know and we'll be sure to create them for you.
Have a great week and stay tuned, more worksheets are being created weekly.

Yours in education, Dar

Teacher's Role In Literacy

What is the Teacher's Role in Literacy?

There is no question that improving literacy outcomes for K-6 students involves hard work. To help students read more and think more deeply about what they are reading, teachers must add new skills and evidencedbased strategies to their teaching repertoire. Teachers need to use strategies that support student engagement and motivation.  Teachers need to model reading, writing and speaking in authentic ways. Teachers will plan strategies that build on student’s existing knowledge and extend their learning to become independent readers and critical thinkers.

The following are key components for K-6 teachers to improve student literacy:
-motivating and engaging all students (thinking critically)
-using large uninterrupted blocks of time (100 minutes daily)
-parental involvement
-rich resources and reading materials
-early intervention for at risk readers
-balanced literacy program (Shared, Guided, Modeled, Independent, Phonics, Word Knowledge)
-effective questioning
-ongoing observation and assessment

For each activity you do, ask yourself "What are my students learning?"

If there is a lot of cut and paste or copying, I might add that the learning is then reduced.  Think critically about the learning that is actually taking place with each activity your students are doing.

It Matters!

http://worksheetplace.com

This holiday season, I was busy getting changes of state, properties of matter worksheets done. Although, they're not completely finished, I've made great headway. If you are a teacher or homeschooler of children aged 5 to 8 years old, you'll appreciate the new worksheets.States of Matter Worksheets.

Matter is everywhere, children need to understand that everything everywhere is matter. They should be able to classify all matter and discuss the properties of matter.

Have a great week educators,
Dar

A Letter to Santa - Persuasive Writing

What if you happen to find a list of all the naughty girls and boys on the internet? What a dilemma that would be! Santa now thinks that you've been naughty. It's time to wrtie a very persuasive letter to Santa to convince him that your name doesn't belong there. Here is the template to get you started.

Christmas is a great time to link learning to something that young learners are already excited about.

Another activity I used to love doing with the students at Christmas is to get them to research how much each of the items cost for the 12 Days of Christmas (song). Then determine the cost that year. Surprisingly enough, this year the cost remained the same.

Be sure to check out the Christmas Shape Books and of course the many Christmas Math Worksheets too.

You always have the options to suggest worksheets that you like to see created. We are always looking for ideas to support teachers, homeschoolers and educators to give our students great experiences in learning.

Have a great week and may great health be with you,
Dar

Christmas Worksheets and Printables

Christmas Actiity Cards

It's hard to believe that Christmas is just a short time away. I find that students are motivated to write when it involves something theme based and Christmas provides a great opportunity for engaging those reluctant writers. There are many ideas in the Christmas Worksheets, however, one of my favorite Christmas printables are the Christmas Task Cards.

One of the reasons I like the Christmas Task Cards is because the tasks lead to differentiated teaching and the activities give students a choice.

There are 8 tasks per card and the cards address creative writing, math and art. Print the cards on card stock or give students a copy of the cards and let them initial what they've done. The card to the left is merely a sample of one.

Be sure to share with your fellow educators, after all, if we are in the business of helping all students learn.

There are also worksheets for Christmas Math, Christmas Shape Books and Christmas Writing. Christmas provides many opportunities to integrate the writing genres into a theme. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Narrative Writing: The Best Christmas Ever, The Night Santa Forgot his Toy Sack, The Alien That Helped Santa, Santa's Secret Elf...
Expository Writing: Why I Loved Last Christmas, My Happiest Christmas, My Favorite Holiday, My Favorite Christmas Movie Character
Persuasive Writing: Why I Need ______ For Christmas, Why We Should Go To _____ For Christmas, Why Santa Should Come To My House First This Christmas
Procedural Writing: How to Decorate a Christmas Tree, How to Make Gingerbread, How Shop For Relatives, Convince Your Teacher to Have a School Dance or Party.

Make it a great week educators, if there is something you'd like to learn about or see a strategy for, don't hesitate to ask.
Dar

How to Teach the Times Tables

Tips to Teach the Times Tables


According to the Common Core Standards, by the end of grade three, students will know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers. I’m not sure I had to memorize the times tables until the 5th grade! In my many years as a teacher, I only had a handful of students each year that would have committed the multiplication facts to memory by the end of grade three. A lofty goal for eight year olds indeed!

Before students are able to commit the multiplication tables to memory, they need to understand what multiplication is. Students need to develop a foundation for understanding multiplication which will need to begin prior to grade three. Students need to be exposed to skip counting, which means they need to count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s as they develop fluency with counting by two, five and ten, the other numbers (3, 4, 7, 8, 9) should be added. They need to understand that multiplication is groups of the same number of things. For instance, 4 x 7 means 4 groups of 7 things or 7 groups of 4 things. Then they can begin to commit the multiplication facts to memory.

Committing the facts to memory should not be a random process. Students need to learn the times tables in a sequential pattern, when one table has been mastered, move to the next. For instance, if a child doesn't know the 10, 2 or 5 times tables, keep working on those before doing random worksheets or any of the other tables. Random multiplication facts worksheet should not  be used until children have a reasonable recall or memory of most of the tables.

Follow this sequence to help students learn their multiplication facts. Each link provides you with 6 worksheets with answers in PDF format.

-Start with the 2 times tables (for each table, there are 6 worksheets with answers).

- 10 times tables

-5 times tables

-then doubles (3x3, 4x4, 6x6, 7x7, 8x8, 9x9)  also called multiplication squares

-the 3 times tables

-the 4 times tables

-the 6 times tables

-the 7 times tables

-the 8 times tables

-the 9 times tables

Do not move from one level until mastery (or almost mastery) is achieved at each level.

For third grade students to master the times tables for all of the products of two 1-digit numbers, a solid foundation of skills will be needed starting when students begin school. These skills include being able to identify numbers and number quantity, count, skip count, and add numbers up to 100 and represent numbers and the four operations symbolically.

Sample Lesson Plan for Comprehension

I am often asked for sample lesson plans, here is a typical K-2 lesson plan for comprehension.

The ability to tell a story is associated with reading comprehension and early literacy skills.

Grade: K-2

Duration: 3 lessons approximately 40-50 minutes each

Lesson Overview: Reading Responses based on a story read to the class each day for three days.

Learning Goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the beginning, middle and ending of a story by re-telling or restating important information from the story.

Resources: Age appropriate story books. Graphic organizer story timeline (Beginning Middle Ending), writing materials. Check out my store for some great books.  One of my favorite books for this activity is The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Day 1: Put a timeline on the board or chart paper with the words: Beginning, Middle and End. Read the story to the class. Show the students the timeline and review the words beginning, middle and ending. To review the meaning of beginning, middle and ending, use questions that refer to authentic situations. (What happens at the beginning of our school day? What happens during the middle of our school day? What happens at the end of our school day? )
Begin a discussion about the story. Probe the students with specific questions that will elicit the main events that happened in the story. Ask them when the events occurred by pointing to the correct word on the chart paper.

Sample questions to help probe students: What was the problem in this story? How do you know it was a problem? How did the problem start? How did the problem end? Who are the main characters in the story? How did the characters contribute to the problem? How did the characters solve the problem?

Day 2: Prior to reading the story, ask the students what they remember about the story from the previous day. Ask the children to listen carefully for the events that happen at the beginning, middle and end of the story as they will be required to illustrate a timeline of the beginning, middle and ending.
Day 3: Divide the students into 3 groups. Let each group know that they will be responsible for acting out one of the parts (beginning, middle or ending) of the story. Let the students know that they will have a few minutes to organize themselves and that each student will be responsible for a sentence. Read the story the third time. Provide 10 minutes for the students to prepare to retell the story orally. Call each group to the front to re-tell their part of the story.
See also - Reading Response Graphic Organizers and Worksheets

White or SMART Boards and Worksheets

This week I was watching a teacher show a class of students how to use a specific graphic organizer with the whiteboard. Worksheets work well with white boards and SMART boards as the students have a chance to brainstorm a few together before venturing off to do one on their own. If we think about our lessons along the lines of  before, during and after, working with new graphic organizers as a group can be quite beneficial. Not only that, when you use graphic organizers, you are using an evidenced based practice because all students can benefit from organizing their thoughts.

This week, I've been looking at some research about using graphic organizers in math, stay tuned as there is some exciting evidence pointing to greater achievement with problem solving.

Be sure to check out all 4 categories of graphic organizers.
Have a great week, Dar

A Small Tidbit of Advice

A teacher asked me what one piece of advice could I give him that he could implement this year to support confidence and self esteem. I thought for a moment and came up with one of my pet peeves.  A pet peeve you say? Yes, because it leads to a better way of doing business.

When educators are selecting teams or groups of students, it is often convenient to let the students select their teams or groups. At this point, I cringe. Somebody will always be the last one picked. Enough said.

This year, make a comittment to always pick the students yourself, whether it be by a draw (I love the popsicle stick idea) or just number the students off with a 1,2 or a 1,2,3,4. Do not allow the students to pick their own groups or teams.

If you have a SMART board, you'll find the random group selector quite handy. Simply put your student names in and select the number of groups, the randomizer does the rest. (To access, go to the SMART exchange site and type in random group generator.

What To Do With the Rest of Your Students During Guided Reading

When you are working with your guided reading group, the greater challenge is not what your are doing with your group, but what the rest of the class is doing. This is the tricky part. Here are a few tips to get you started. When you don't want the children to interrupt you, wear something flashy like a feather scarf or a brightly colored bandana, this indicates that you must not be interrupted.

Establish a very clear rule that guided reading is done every day and it is a quiet time for the rest of the groups. For the rest of the groups, they need very clearly defined objectives of what they are to do. Here are some ideas to help.

• Set up centers and let the groups rotate through one a day (3-4 students per centre). A centre could be a listening centre, a worksheet centre, a quiet reading centre and a word study centre.
• Set up word study centres. One group uses letter stamps to make their words, another group prints their words, another group uses scrabble like pieces to build words, another group uses flash cards - quietly.
• Pair students up for quiet games, word concentration, math facts whereby the students print the facts instead of saying the answers, story writing time.
• Word wall Bingo. For this game, each student writes down 12 to 16 words from the word wall. Another student points to random words, the other students cross out the words. When the first student has all of their words crossed out, they put both hands in the air. They become the next caller. The game repeats.

Guided reading takes a lot of routine practicing. Establish clear routines and don't waiver from your behavioral expectations. Practice how guided reading works, give it time for the students to realize they are to be quietly busy as you work with your guided reading groups. Initially, you may find yourself stopping everything to re-focus the students for both work and quiet times. Over time, with your clear expectations, you will soon find that guided reading works for all students.

See more about guided reading and see some great worksheets about elements of a story, comprhension worksheets and literature response tasks.

What Will You Do Differently This Year?

Change is inevitible and is also a part of the teaching and learning process. Research propels us forward regularly with new evidence of how children learn. And, as educators, it is our role to use evidenced based strategies to ensure we maximize learning for all students.

What goals will you set to be the best you can be for you and your learners? If you haven't thought about what will help you to become a 21st century educator, here are a few suggestions:

• embed reasoning into each math activity
• make critical thinking a regular happening
• get between the lines, help students read the hidden message

Most of all, remember why you got into education in the first place. The job is more challenging with each year, but our kids deserve our best. Teach every child as though each was your own.

Have a great week!
Dar