Man, I love this little baby.

This SCOOT Pre/Posttest answer document was born out of a desire to document student learning to show students the progress they were making.  Some of them have NO IDEA how much they are learning and improving!  I set out any set of task cards and have students write in their answers on the left had side.  We then grade it together and graph the PRE side of the Pre/Post graph.  At the conclusion of our unit, I fold the left side of the paper back  few times to hide their previous answers, and then students take the SCOOT assessment again.  They record their answers on the right side this time, we grade it, and then graph the new number correct.  It's so exciting to watch students realize how much they've learned and improved their score!

A happy realization after the fact was that it would also work beautifully as evidence of learning and assessment for my teacher evaluation.  (Nothing like the productive feeling of killing two birds with one stone!)

Water Cycle "What Am I" (I love QR codes!)

Just finishing up teaching the water cycle to my fabulous 4th graders, and thought I'd share my little obsession with you all...I'm in love with QR codes!  Combine that with my love of vibrant photographs, and you get my newest QR code inference game: Water Cycle "What Am I" Task Cards and Picture Match!

Students venture around the room and read the clues.  They are so into it!  I literally have never heard my room so SILENT!  After they've finished writing their responses (check out the student response answer key below), they scan the QR codes check their answers.  

A labeled pic pops up to show them an example of the vocabulary word.  I then print the pictures off for a matching game and for my word wall.  Don't have any way to read QR codes?  No worries, I also created this Water Cycle "What Am I" and Picture Match without QR codes!

How do you use QR codes?  I'd love to hear!

Happy teachering!

-Amber

GIVEAWAY!

I'm taking part in my first ever giveaway!  Countless Smart Cookies is hosting a birthday giveaway today through Wednesday.  Sign up to win!  

There's me!  Down in the left hand corner.  Can you tell I'm excited?  :)

Ever have those student that seem to spend mysteriously large amounts of time in the media center or running errands around the school? I have a few of these, and I found a simple (and cheap!) solution–Dollar Store Timers!  The timers shown are from the Dollar Tree, but any digital timer will work!

First, attach the timer to the media center pass. My library pass is on a long necklace, reducing how many times it’s lost while students search for books. I wrap the necklace string around the plastic stand piece on the back of the timer and then make it stay with a piece of masking tape.

Next, with your students, determine how much time is needed to get to the media center, search, and get back to the classroom. You can even have a few students run some time trails during their media center trips that day. You can always tweak this time as you see fit if it’s too much or too little time. My students use 4 minutes.

Then, teach the students how to set the timer for your chosen time and also STOP the timer’s alarm. I did NOT want my students to be causing a ruckus in the media center, so we practiced hitting the stop button as quickly as possible. This way, IF the timer did go off in the media center, they wouldn’t be distracting others.

Finally, teach the students WHEN to start and stop the timer. The beeping isn’t loud, but I asked my students to set the timer as soon as they stepped out of the classroom and just outside the door when they returned. This way, they weren’t distracting anyone with the tiny “beep beep” the buttons make.

This process really improved the efficiency of every media center visit, made students plan what they would search for before ever reaching the media center, and helped with their time estimation skills. ALSO, the Media Specialist LOVED it. She told me that she wished all the teachers would use the timers, because it eliminated the fooling around that she had to deal with in the media center! She said the students would look down at the timer and then pick up the pace in making their selection.

How do YOU encourage your students to use their time wisely? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Paragraph Attack Video

This is a silly (and educational) video I created to assist my fourth grade students in breaking down reading passages on assessments. I call it "Paragraph Attack!" and it includes circling the title, numbering paragraphs, underlining topic sentences, boxing in important words, and eliminating wrong answers. I have found this strategy gives struggling readers confidence in attacking passages at higher reading levels than they generally read. It gives them a place to start and reminds them that they have the necessary skills to gain meaning from any text.  (If YouTube won't play at your school, like it doesn't play at mine, you can also find it here on TeacherTube to play it for your students!)

Text Structure Bookmark Freebie!

It seems to me that text structure questions come up an awful lot on standardized tests.  I prepare my students with these mini bookmarks.  Students use them to identify the text structure in their book (or a stack of books that I dump on their group’s table during whole class activities).

Print, cut apart, and give each student or group their own set.  Laminate for longer life and reuse again and again!

Make it a game!  Students love the challenge of finding one of each type of structure.