Tubular Teaching Volume 2
SHOWCASING GREAT TEACHING THROUGHOUT SPRING HILL
We have so much amazing teaching going on here at Spring Hill! In the spirit of celebration, inspiration, and learning, here is a visual gallery of student work and teaching ideas for everyone to see.
With gratitude, Karen
April 2015
With gratitude, Karen
April 2015
GRAND GESTURES
In his 4th grade math class, Freddy Diaz uses his hand to model the rounding rule, "4 or less let it rest, 5 or more, let it score." When rounding 24, 660 to the nearest thousand, he shows 4 fingers and explains that 4, 3, 2, and 1 (going down his fingers) round down. His thumb pointing up represents the "5 or more, let it score" part of this helpful rhyme.
ANALYZING TEXTS IN PRE-K
Our librarian, Pam Shellenberger, reads to Mrs. Cervantes's pre-kindergarten class. The text is non-fiction and is chock full of text features, which Pam calls attention to and helps kids interpret.
INDEPENDENCE IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
In Dr. Kim Borchers' 4th grade writing class, students move their numbered magnets to show the part of the writing process in which they are currently working.
KEEPING KIDS ENGAGED
Dr. B.'s students shift to different parts of the classroom every 10-15 minutes to keep their energy up as they transition from one activity to the next. Here you see kids analyzing choices for revising and editing portions of a text. Dr. B. expects her students to explain why answer choices are reasonable or unreasonable.
WRIITNG IN SCIENCE
Students in Judy Lau's 3rd grade class use a non-fiction text and their notes to create brochures in science. Their writing and illustrations will explain facts and opinions of specific landforms.
LITERAMATHACY
Elia Cervantes's Pre-K class (above 3 pictures) learns about some new centers before venturing off to work time. This center involves math and literacy (get it... Literamathacy??) by combining one-to-one correspondence with reading and writing high frequency words. While modeling, Elia shared the pencil with many students to keep everyone involved and learning.
SING ALONG NOW
Betty Bustamante's kindergartners learn about Social Studies and reading in English in one song-tastic lesson. Betty's students build reading fluency by doing choral reading and repeated reading as they sing "Texas, Our Texas." Betty makes sure that each student has his or her own text and is taught how to follow along with their finger.
WORKING THE WHOLE TIME
"Work the whole time" is a Daily 5 rule, and students in Ely Flores's 1st grade class do just that. During guided reading, Ely has each student read in a whisper at their own pace. Each student is engaged in reading 100% of the time.
PROBLEM SOLVING AT MATH CENTERS
In Shannon Shaw's 1st grade class, students work on problem solving at their daily math centers. From left to right: 1) One child pulls a stick with an addition equation written on it and the other student solves; then they switch roles. 2) and 3) Students spill out the contents of a cup that has 12 two-color counters in it. Students write an addition sentence that shows combining the number of yellow counters with the number of red counters. Pro tip: use a quantity of counters that is just right for your students. This is a great opportunity to differentiate.
WORKING ON FLUENCY
Elisa Dickerson's 2nd grade students work to improve their reading fluency by working on a Read Naturally passage.
LEARNING THROUGH MOVEMENT
In Eneida Diaz's PPCD class, students learn new vocabulary by singing and moving! Here you see students learning the names of body parts. Eneida also posted the important vocabulary that her students are learning and each word has a picture to show its meaning. Eneida review the vocabulary before and after the song.
Print to support oral language
Betty Bustamante's students use sentence stems and vocabulary charts to support their thinking, speaking, and writing.
coding is the name of the game
In Michele Patterson's specials class for computer coding, students use iPads daily to create computer code. Their codes are written to complete specific tasks, such as moving their Angry Bird from the beginning of a maze to the slingshot at the end. Here you see Michele helping two students work their way through a difficult problem. They have to assign a series of directions so that the Angry Bird moves the way the students want it to move.
Daily 5 at work
In Jennifer Casey's 1st grade class, Ethan shows off a book he has written during Daily 5. As you can see, Ethan is writing a non-fiction text about our government. He read the 6 page text aloud with pride!
collaborative pairs
In Kathy Noel's 2nd grade class, students collaborate with a partner to explain their thinking on fractions problems. Kathy has taught her students to justify their thinking and listen to their partners during this valuable work time. Collaborative pairs is SUCH a valuable strategy to increase engagement and accountability - try it today!
Keep 'em moving
Lauren Boudreaux and Debbie Reyes remind us the value of getting kids up and walking. Students work with their teachers to identify living and non-living objects around our school. Their teachers also require their students to explain and justify why or how they know an object is living or non-living.