My 4th grade ELL students were a little nervous about taking the NeSA writing testing test so I showed them NeSA rap that I had done several years ago. By the first 15 seconds their stress level had gone down and they were smiling and happy and relaxed.
Here is my Brownell version of the NeSA rap.
Here are the words The NeSA Rap-Brownell
Oh my! I have fallen way behind on typing my thoughts for the Book Study, fortunately with having a great staff we met as a school in December to share great ideas from the 3 different books that we were reading. in January we met about Part 3, we met again in February we met about part 4 and finally we met at the end of March as a whole school to share even more strategies. As a team studying the 40 Engaging Brain Based Tools for the Classroom by Michael Scadden we did keep a google doc with comments about many of the strategies we discussed.
Part 3 of the book is titled Promoting Understanding. This part of book acknowledges that students need to be aware of their own learning and their learning strengths. Students as young as Kindergarten should be aware that they need sleep, exercise, water and healthy food and they learn by using their senses. First graders can start learning simple facts about the brain. Second and Thirds graders can start to learn about learning styles and conditions. Upper elementary students can learn about the concept of multiple intellegences.
Ch. 21 Input Through Learning Styles The 4 major learning styles include visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile;two other minor ones include smell and taste.
Chapter 22 – Learning Preferences – looking at light in the classroom, noise level, playing different types of music (jazz, strings, etc.) Students give a rating and reflect on how they learn during a certain strategy.
Chapter 23 – Multiple Intelligences – It’s not interest, it’s the understanding that we have SOME talent across all areas or multiple areas. Developing skills in one area will increase abilities in other areas.Kids are missing “naturalistic” intelligence – teachers continue to share stories about how we play outside and what activities they can do outside.
Chapter 24 – Motivators – different types of connections to motivators. Students may not know the difference between good pain/bad pain, good attention/bad attention. Students who are surrounded by conflict may not know what a loving relationship/connection feels like. Some of the Trama Training we had touches upon this and we need to model good attention and how to get it.
Chapter 25 – Four Great Questions – What do you want? What are YOU doing to get what you want? Is it working? What is your plan? Make the students accountable. I have found that when students make their own goals they are more willing to work towards them.
Chapter 26 – WIIFM- What’s in it for me? We need to teach the students to be intrinsically motivated. They want stuff and if they want to be successful in life they need to learn what we are teaching them now.
Chapter 27 – Pulling Your Own Strings– No one can control your life unless you let them.
Chapter 28 – Goal Setting- Remind students a goal is a target. Sometimes missing a goal can be destructive, but remember to use the power of yet. Short term goals that are simple can reduce the risk of failure. We use SMART goals in PLC, in this book they added SMART(Y) the Y for making the goals personal. We all have our own Gaudy goals for teaching, mine is that all of my ELL students will increase at least 1 ELL level this year.
Chapter 29 – Myffirmations” Self talk is so important for us, we need to be positive and not negative. Our own thought are our biggest source of negative input. BE positive in our expectations. How easy is it for us to say I can’t do this? We need to be be positive.
Chapter 30 – Overviews- Overviews can be given orally or reinforces with visual forms. That is why we post our learning targets for the day. 4 questions to ask to help with overviews are 1. What am I expected to learn? 2. How will I be able to learn it? How will I know when I have been successful? How will I be able to use it.
Part 4 –
Chapter 31 – Framing- “Don’t think of a banana.” Or “Don’t panic!” You just thought of a banana or thought of panic, in Framing this type of language will sow negative thoughts. Emotional words literally slow the brain, we need to thoughtful in the words we use to introduce or teach a topic, it takes time Eliminate the word “don’t and try” Aim for what you what you want rather than what you want to avoid.
Chapter 32 – Prewiring This cannot be used all the time but when you give a learner some expectation of what is going to happen, it can create excitement, but also help with the probability of success.
Chapter 33 – Loops The brain loves to make connections with patterns, looping can be short term like finishing a statement, midterm like a finishing a paper mache puppet. Long term such as the work that is done in a theme over a period of time or future- focused that can used in prewiring. In teaching K-5 language arts I totally get to see how the curriculum is looping from grade level to grade level.
Chapter 34 – Feedback– Accurate feedback if vital for learners so they can understand the next step in their learning. When we can add emotion in the form of fun, movement and the unexpected it will make memories more meaningful.
Chapter 35 – Mind Maps and Mindscapes not only helpful in Art, but in any subject. Mind mapping can be sequential and random.
Chapter 36 – Reflection-We need to make time to reflect, at first it is hard, but will get easier, it is a very important part of the learning loop.
Chapter 37 – Lo, Mo, and Ho Questions LO- Lower order recall questions, MO- middle order questions involve understanding and HO- higher order questions are inventing and evaluating. We just need to remember to use all 3 types of questions.
Chapter 38 – Inclusive Responses– make sure we include everyone in expecting them to respond to questions. We have done lots of this
Chapter 39 – Response time Silence can be awkward, but make sure we ask good questions, avoid giving clues, don’t just pick the first student to raise their hands.
Chapter 40 Hands- Free- Don’t have kids raise their hands, use sticks, random picker.
April not only brings rain and wind in Nebraska, it also brings State Testing! Last year I made a NeSA rap to help settle the nerves of my 4th graders before they took the writing test. I brought it out this year before they took the reading test this year.
Here is my Brownell version of the NeSA rap.
You will rock the NeSA Brownell Buffaloes, click here to see the rap
Here are the words to the Brownell NeSA rap. The NeSA Rap-Brownell
One of my great joys of teaching is working with wonderful teachers who are very talented and creative. A 5th grade teacher, Miss Baker, went above and beyond in creating amazing NeSA videos to help inspire and motivate our students.
The first video is test taking tips from Very Important People in the city of Lincoln and the state of Nebraska. What famous people do you recognize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZH7KwKNaM
This next video includes test taking tips from people in Lincoln Public Schools and some of our favorite people at Brownell!!! Who do you know?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ado7gXf84nY
Finally, the fun video where some of our talented staff members rock out to a Parody of “Watch Me!” Do you have what it takes to test and dance and rock the NeSA? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXR8V1BuLo
Aren’t these amazing, Thanks to Miss Baker for sharing your talents with us!
ELPA 21 is here in LPS. The ELPA 21 is the new state test for our ELL students to show their English Proficiency in the 4 domains of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing. This test is all on the computer. There are 4 subtests of the ELPA. All students K-12 (yes even Kindergarten) take the test on the computer. The students in grades 2-12 also have the opportunity to type their answers on the computer and the Speaking part of the test has the students orally record their answers.
Here is the link to ELPA21 information given to ELL teachers and Test coordinators. There is lots of information on this page and lots of links. This first year has been and will be a learning year.
If you are curious to see what the practice test looks like and sounds like, here is a link for you to see what our ELL students have to do from K- 12 grade. I would recommend you take a quick peak so you can see what is expected of our ELL students from K-12.
I have heard of the power of yet at several meetings in last 2 years, I finally was able to hear Carol Dweck’s TED talk. This growth mind set is so important for the students that I work with. It is so important to reward effort, strategies, progress and persistence.
We have been working -ar words. We have read 2 passages, Barb the Shark and The Harmless Farm Stand. . Click here to read and listen as Mrs. Mantonya reads the passages.
Part 2 Developing Patterns and Choherence
Chapter 11 is called Contamination. I will always remember the corner of 14th and Superior as the place where I got the news from my dad that I should come home to see my mom for one last time. I was on a run and she was in poor health. Whenever I am at that place, my heart rate changes and I feel a sense of dread. This was over 2 and a half years ago. Now think about school, can you think of a time or place where you got in trouble or were disciplined? That corner has been contaminated with a negative experience for me. As time goes by, it is less and less stressful to go through that intersection, but I go through at least 2 times a day. If you or your students or even parents had a bad experience in school, then we must help change how they automatically respond in that situation to a certain location or place.
“Education is not about punishment or control. It is about helping the person to move forward in his or her own personal journey.” We need to help students to manage their classroom state and stress so they can learn to be successful.
Chapter 12 Cycles of Concentration.
Personally I can totally relate to this chapter about Energy cycles and Memory cycles. As an adult we generally move to ful energy between 30-60 minutes after waking up in the morning and that is why I love to get my morning workout or if I really need to get some serious work done in a short amount of time, I choose to work at this time. Plan days are difficult if I find myself sitting for an hour or two.
Ch 13 State- Changes
This has been working really well for my 2 struggling 1st graders, we work at the table, then they will move and work at the white board. I also have a student that struggles to sit for longer than a few minutes so when he has been sitting for a while, I tell him “to go take a lap,” he goes and walks around the room. My other students enjoy the movement as well.
Ch 14 Crossovers
For my struggling students this is actually really hard so I am trying to incorporate more of this into the day because they try, it is hard so they want to give up, but movement is fun and it will help them in the long run.
Ch. 15 Improving Memory Links
According to Gazzaniga, 2001: Jensen 2005 and Sousa, 2005 over ninety- eight percent of learning is non-conscious!!! We have 5 memory pathways 1. semantic 2. episodic,3. conditioned response, 4 procedural and 5. emotional. The emotional pathway is the strongest and semantic is the weakest. Young learners learn best by doing and listening is the least effective way for young learners to learn.
Ch 16 Memory Techniques
Ch 17 Rough Draft
We have 2 memory stages, immediate memory which holds information for 15 to 20 seconds or working memory- like when you are cramming for a test.
Ch 18 Elaboration
Ch 19 Repetition
I was introduced to a new game by another ELL teacher. It is called Kahoot. Here is the link to their blog http://blog.getkahoot.com/
One of the great benefits of working at Brownell is that I am able to continue my learning with fellow teachers. This year we have divided into groups to study different books so we can continue to grow as teachers to help our students. We meet monthly for collaborative conversations and food!
Our first assignment- was to read the first section about Enhancing Relationships. In this section The 10 chapters include Emotional Links, Metaphors, Rules, Guidelines and Agreements, Choice, Stress Reduction, Put- Ups, Breathing Techniques, Relaxation, Eliminating Extrinsic Rewards and Punishment and Consequences. Since this is a teacher led Book Study, we decided how much to read and so it was ‘easy” to fit in the time to read the assignment- as a result the chapter on Choice reinforced the importance of choice for both our work and for the students to feel successful and to take ownership for their learning. We read 10 very interesting chapters to help with enhancing our relationships but I know from my own experience that I can only focus on a few at a time.
Personally, one of my most important goals in teaching is the importance of having a working relationship with my students. As an ELL teacher who has the opportunity to work with students for multiple years and often with siblings with in a family, the benefits of knowing a student over the years has been so helpful in helping students. When I taught 5th graders a few years ago, they were so excited to be able to look at their Kindergarten pictures in the ABC book I had made. When work got hard, I was able to remind a few of them of how much they had learned from when I had them in Kindergarten and I could often say, did you you act like this in Kindergarten, why would you want to do that now.
As both a teacher and parent, I was thankful for the chapter on Eliminating Extrinsic Rewards. As a young swimmer I thought I needed to be bribed with candy and money to get faster at swimming, however I found that when I “given a carrot” I really did not perform as well compared to when I swam to improve myself. In school I prefered to learn so that I can could figure out solutions to problems or questions not just to earn a sticker. I teach for the intrinsic value of teaching, yes the paycheck helps and I wish I had a larger paycheck, but I love teaching for the value of teaching the next generation of students.
Another chapter that really resonated with me is the chapter on Stress Reduction. The brain’s main purpose is survival, with having a new baby I totally understand the importance of reducing stress so that I can learn. This is very true with the students that I work with. Many students come from stressfull situations at home, as a result they are not necessarily at school to learn but to have basic needs met. If those basic needs are met, including their emotional needs, then they can start to learn. It takes time to build trust and emotional support, once that occurs then learning can begin.
A new term that I learned with Put- up, I am very familiar with Put downs. Put ups are the exact opposite of Put downs. I am often very hard on myself for what I can do in a lesson, or for a student or in a day. However, when I celebrate the successes that do occur during lessons, then I am more positive and am able to get even more accomplished. This is true for our students,
Two years ago at an ELL professional development I heard this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie and I found myself guilty of lumping people together by only knowing a “single story.” This week as we welcomed back to school, I had the opportunity to hear this talk again and once again I was reminded of the dangers of lumping people together with single story. It also reminded me that when I had stayed with a host family in London, England in the summer of 1992 after about a week, the host mom said to me, “You are nothing like Roseanne! Thank goodness!” I was shocked to compared with the comedian. I was a pretty shy, quiet American and Roseanne was anything but shy and quiet. My host mom had clumped all Americans into the Roseanne Category. I was glad that she was willing to be a host mom even though her opinion of Americans was pretty low before she met me and my friend who also stayed with us.
Take some time and enjoy!
