Expectations Slideshow |
In our expectations slideshow, you'll see the outline of my classroom expectations. The goal is for the level of crystal clarity described above. This slideshow is used as the directions for how all the materials linked below are used in the first weeks of the school year. Feel free to click around and see what success looks like in my classroom.
|
Advice from Former Eighth Graders |
Teachers always prattle on about what they expect, but they are an inherently biased source about themselves. To eliminate this bias, on the last school day each year, I ask students to write down advice to next year's class of incoming 8th-grade students. This helps my new students know how to succeed. It also helps me self reflect based on what students think they need to do to succeed in my classroom.
|
Opening Year Prose |
Our opening year prose are two micro-fiction stories about incredibly realistic events that could occur during students 8th-grade school year. We read these examples of student decision making, and do some highlighting and discussion about what information they share about success.
|
Opening Year Poems |
Our opening poems share the important of growth mindset to our school year. Students who come in expecting a great year with awesome teachers usually still have huge smiles on their faces in March. Students who come in expecting to hate their teachers and fail the year tend to find their expectations correct as well.
|
Classroom Management Reboot |
Sometimes during the year, a class, or team, or one of my colleague's classes need a little reminder about how to successfully function in a classroom. When that special time comes, I utilize this classroom management reboot protocol to set things straight again.
|
Restorative Justice Form |
The form to the left is used when students get sent out of class. Removal from class doesn't do much good on its own. Sometimes, students prefer sleeping in ISS instead of working in class. To turn time outs into something productive, students engage with this form during their time out periods, and "earn" their way back into class with the successful completion of the form.
|
|
Learning Targets
|
Materials and Activities
We start our class out using this opening day Google Slides presentation. Built into that slideshow, students will read testimonials from last year's students to share expectations from a student perspective. Then we do our first, modified close-read protocol using our opening year prose and opening year poems. Engagement Protocols:
|
|
Differentiation
|
Translated slideshow for Spanish-speaking students.
Engagement protocols intended to build in wait time and collaboration opportunities for nervous students to gain cognitive footing before sharing out on a class level. |
|
Assessment & Data
|
Today, assessment and data collection are both anecdotal. I learned that seventh period will need more work making evidence-based claims, because during our student testimonials activity, the expectations they shared were fabricated, and not based on the student-created texts they read.
|
|
Learning Targets
|
Materials and Activities
Welcome to day two of 8th-grade ELA. Today, we'll watch a TED Talk by the brilliant researcher Angela Lee Duckworth. She shares some interesting thoughts about "grit:" the ability to push through difficulty to succeed no matter what. While watching we'll have frequent chances to turn and talk, and we'll model how to succeed on one of our most common graphic organizers, the notice and wonder chart. If there's time, we'll also participate in our first, formal engagement strategy and get everyone up and walking and talking about this unit's important vocabulary with a mix and mingle.
Engagement Protocols
Students use the “turn and talk” protocol to discuss the learning targets. We will use the notice and wonder charts with a catch-and-release structure to encourage completion, and explain expectations. Students will use a mix and mingle structure to link grit to other academic vocabulary. |
|
Differentiation
|
|
|
Assessment & Data
|
As part of building an efficient classroom, today we'll track:
|
|
Learning Targets
|
Materials and Activities
Today, we'll start by examining some data about our first assignment. We'll use that data to propel our observations and questioning of the next two videos in our Zen repertoire. Then, students will log into our shiny, new Google Classrooms for the very first time and engage with a non-traditional use of Google Slides technology. They'll identify whether a statement reflects a fixed, or a growth mindset, by dragging it to one side of the screen or the other, and then demonstrate their knowledge by "translating" a final, fixed mindset statement into a more appropriate growth mindset through a Google question.
Engagement Protocols
|
|
Differentiation
|
Bilingual categorizing materials
Spanish video subtitles |
|
Assessment & Data
|
Completion and proficiency rate will be kept for both the close read and the discussion for comparison to future close reads. Adjustments and interventions are made accordingly based on increased and decreased proficiency.
|
|
Learning Targets
|
Materials and Activities
For our first, formal discussion, we'll have students connect Duckworth's speech with our two mindset videos and their own lives. Students will walk to one of four corners of our classroom, and receive full credit for the day by explaining their reasoning in three, clear, spoken sentences. Shy students will be offered sentence stems to ease their engagement, and we'll all learn a lot about each other while becoming comfortable with the kinds of mindsets that are proven to help students succeed. Responses are welcome in both English and Español. Engagement Protocols
Four Corner's Discussion Protocol for engagement and establishing schema. |
|
Differentiation
|
Response Differentiation:
|
|
Assessment and Data
|
To track the effectiveness of this discussion, we will track both participation rates (the percent of students who responded) and the quality and number of those responses (three responses equal 100% score for the day.)
|