Pronouns and Antecedents Freebie

I have just posted a freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers! This product includes a lesson plan that includes a short YouTube video clip about pronouns and antecedents. It also includes activities that you can use within your classroom. I hope you like it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREEBIE-Pronouns-and-Antecedents-Lesson-Plan-and-Practice-2141721

So Tell Me More About Kagan... Part One

If you have read my past blog posts, I am sure you have read about how I use Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures within my classroom. I found out about Kagan through an email sent to me by my principal. He offered to send a few of his staff to professional development in Kagan- during our summer break. After some consideration and weighing the pros of going to professional development to the cons of giving up some of my summer, I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did!

Not Another Curriculum, Please!

Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures isn't a new curriculum and you don't plan your lessons around cooperative learning- you just implement the structures in logical places where it makes sense to have students to process new information or demonstrate and apply their knowledge. It is based on scientific evidence to provide a brain friendly environment to learn. In other words, we all know kids love to move and they love to talk. Having a student sit silently for an hour long lesson goes against what kids want. Instead, with Kagan Cooperative Learning, students are provided the chance to share their ideas with each other and they are provided opportunities to get up and get moving. In other words, Kagan works with what the kids want! We get them learning and they get to talk and move. I don't know what you call that, but I call it a win-win situation!

Breaking the Group Work Misconception

Now I know what you are thinking, I do group work all of the time. I let my students talk. Wrong! I was shocked to discover this too, but group work is not cooperative learning. Let me repeat that once more so it can truly sink in, GROUP WORK IS NOT COOPERATIVE LEARNING. Now let me explain why. In cooperative learning all students must work together to share what they know for the common good of the team/partnership. Now lets think about group work for a moment. Do all students have to work together? Can they just sit there and listen as a chatty person at their group leads the discussion? Could they completely zone out? So, since group work doesn't depend on everyone working together, it falls flat.

Kagan is based on 4 basic principles: PIES. 

P- The P stands for Positive Interdependence. Kagan Structures promote students helping and encouraging each other and they NEED each other to do their jobs for task completion.

I- The I stands for Individual Accountability. With Kagan everyone is accountable to show what they know. In other words, we don't have people that can zone out. They can no longer hide.

E- The E stands for Equal Participation. This means that the Chatty Kathys and the Quiet Suzys are all participating at the same amount.

S- The S stands for Simultaneous Interaction. Kagan Structures simply make sure that there is a large percentage of the class actively engaged.

Every structure is based on these principals to guide the activity. When I look at the bones of Kagan compared to the bones of group work, the biggest ingredient that I see Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures has that group work doesn't is STRUCTURE! The activities are structured so carefully based on these principals to get ALL students engaged.

Kagan Isn't Time Consuming

Dr. Kagan and his team has already created many structures that could easily be incorporated into your classroom today and change the way you engage your students. So incorporating these strategies isn't going to require tons of money or work for you. I know your time is valuable and we already spend enough time as it is working in our classrooms. All you have to do is research the structures, learn about them, and incorporate them into your classroom. 

Now Let's Learn a Structure

One structure that I use and implement frequently in my classroom is called Round Robin. It is called round because you work around the table which is usually a group of 4 (sometimes 3 or 5) and the robin part of the structure name comes from where you have to share orally. So you simply present an open ended question and announce that you are going to do a round robin discussion. Then students will take turns each sharing a response. Once finished the students will always give each other feedback and praise each other. 

There is much more to Kagan Cooperative Learning than I can possibly share- so if you have an opportunity to go to a Kagan professional development conference- DO IT! I promise it is worth the investment of your time and energy. 

Structuring My Literacy Block

When I first started teaching there were so many ways to structure a literacy block and so many different ideas out there. Was I supposed to use a reading workshop approach? Balanced literacy? Literacy centers? Direct Instruction? I only had my students for 80 minutes. Not to mention I was required to teach my fifth graders reading, writing, and grammar. I was confused and I didn't know what to do. The perfectionist in me wanted to cry!

I finally settled on my version of something that works for me, my class, and my students. So here is an idea of my literacy block structure- and as I said before this isn't a rigid schedule- it is fluid and ever changing based on the needs of my students. 

• Bell work- Language Standards Review 5 minutes
• Model Reading Skill/ Strategy 5-10 minutes
• Guided Practice 10 -15 minutes
• Independent Practice 10-15 minutes
• Introduce and Model Writing Skills 10 minutes
• Independent Writing 15 minutes
• Share Writing and Reflect on Lesson 5 minutes

Bell Work: Usually during this part of the class the students review the targeted grammar language standard by completing an activity that could be done quickly and without my assistance so I am free to greet students, take attendance, and make sure my materials are ready to go. Once the students complete the bell question, we usually share using a Kagan Structure such as timed-pair-share, round robin, or rally robin. 

Model Reading Skill/ Strategy: During this component of the lesson I introduce the learning targets and try to capture the students attention and get them interested in learning. I may use a short video clip, song, or a Kagan Structure to get them thinking about what we will be learning about that day. Once I have them hooked, I always model the strategy first. Some days I will be reading aloud and explaining my thought process. Some days I am working with them on responding to a text by writing. Depending on what I am working on my methods change. I do my best to keep my talking time short in order to keep the students' attention. Now, I'm also realistic and some days I take over the ten minutes. I try to stop once I notice the kids are having trouble focus and provide them a chance to process their new knowledge and get them up and moving by using a Kagan structure. A structure I commonly use for this is standup-handup-pairup. Then we quickly review and I try to wrap up the mini-lesson (that turned out not to be so mini) shortly. 

Guided Practice- This is the part where students are working cooperatively using their new skills. Some days the guided practice is reading a class book and discussing the targeted skill or practice. Other times the students work using task cards or another test prep resource. I try to always use a Kagan strucure during this time too. I love the quiz-quiz-trade Kagan Structure for this part of my lesson. 

Independent Practice- Students will spend this section of class working independently on the targeted skill or standard. This may look like the students reading a self-selected text and respond by writing in their reading response books, or it may look like the students reading a short passage and answering a few questions similar to what I will expect them to be able to do on the end of unit mastery test. 

Introduce and Model Writing Skills- During this portion of the class we switch our brains to start "reading as a writer" we reflect back on the text we were analyzing earlier and discuss elements the author used to craft it. I then model using these skills to my class. 

Independent Writing Time- During this time I ask that all students be quiet and let their pencils do the talking. I let my students select their topic to write about, but they must write the entire time. If they finish writing- they have to start on a new piece or revise and edit a piece of writing. Now I'm not going to lie, towards the beginning of the year my fifth graders ALWAYS try to raise their hand and ask, "Well can I write about this..?" It always takes a couple of days, maybe even weeks, but this turns out to be a favorite time of the day for my students. When they are finally able to write without needing my assistance, I am able to pull students over to the side to conference with them on their writing. 

Share Writing and Reflect on Lesson- The students share their writing with a partner using a cooperative learning structure. Then I transition the students back to thinking about the class as a whole and the grammar, reading, and writing skills we addressed and we do something to help the students process that information. Some days it is just writing about what they have learned and pair up to share. Other days, I ask the students to come up with Kinesthetic movements to help them remember the skills and strategies. 

So there you have it, my structure that isn't really all that structured, but that's ok!  In the end, the biggest part that I want to get across is there is no one size fits all approach to structures for a literacy block. If you are the confused new teacher, like I once was,  the first step is to reflect and decide what components are important to you and your students. Then arrange them in a way that makes your class flow smoothly. Lastly, don't stress when you have to deviate from your literacy structure. 

Chasity

Fall Writing Prompts

Hey guys,

I just posted a great new product on my TPT store for ya'll. It is a fall writing prompt package. There are many ways that I have used this within my classroom. I personally love to use these prompts at my literacy centers. All you have to do is print the prompts, cut them out, laminate the bad boys and store them until you are ready to use them. This is a great center that you can utilize throughout fall!

However, if you aren't someone that just loves centers, you can use the prompts for bell work, whole group activities, independent practice, or homework. There are so many options.  If you want this product just click the following link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Writing-Prompts-2140120

I hope you enjoy!

Chasity