Open Ended Questioning Article Summaries

The summary presentation posters from each group's reading of "Open-Ended Questions: Stretching Children's Academic and Social Learning" are below, in order. Refer to the article for more specific charts and visuals to support implementation in your classroom. 

Graffiti Art and Graffiti Boards

Written by: Chrystal Williams-Alberty, 3rd-5th Grade Reading Teacher

Growing up in a clean cut neighborhood, with nicely painted houses, the term “graffiti” seemed out of place to me.  The thought of messy drawings on public walls was not only a menace to the visual peace of a neighborhood but also something I couldn’t find myself identifying with.

It wasn’t until I became a teacher I heard of the term “graffiti art.”  I discovered it was more than just messy drawings on a wall.  Graffiti art, in my opinion, is a great way to express yourself.

In my classroom I have used graffiti art as a tool to grasp the gist of a story for emerging readers or upper elementary students who read at an emerging reader level.  During a read aloud students make a graffiti board.  I give students time to draw pictures or words that stick out to them during the story on a graffiti board.  After reading we review our drawings and words then explain why these words and pictures stuck out to us.

Students who lack in reading and writing ability have an opportunity to respond to reading without the pressure of having to read by themselves or write.  Also, you need very few supplies to get the job done.

The picture below shows a group of 4th grade students who perform on Kindergarten and 1st grade levels in reading.  They are making a graffiti board using chart paper and markers.  They listened to the story Of Thee I Sing A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama.

What's Happening Around Lyon Academy? December 9th, 2016

Take a look at several highlights from around our school this week. If you see an anchor chart, student work, or something else in the building you would like showcased for the staff, please send it to Tyler.Archer@slps.org.

Ms. Cychowski has her students complete a variety of diagrams in order to demonstrate higher levels of understanding. 

Ms. Richardson had her students complete a short writing project about friendship last month. 

Ms. Salmo used cut-outs of people to teach her students the parts of speech. 

Prior to the election, Ms. Wolfenden asked her students to write about what they would do if they were President and showcased the work with pictures of her students. 

Ms. Walker and Ms. Stuckel showcased multicultural holidays in their classroom. 

Ms. Connell used a Christmas light theme to identify the title and author of books that students read during IDR.

Ms. Richardson's students created self-portraits as a way of learning about characterization. 

Ms. Trapp works with students to practice then publish their writing as part of the LLI program implementation in grades 1-2. 

Ms. Wolfenden's students composed Gingerbread Stories to celebrate the holiday season. 

Ms. McCord's "What's Going On?" board greets students when they enter the classroom. 

Ms. Cisar's data wall showcases the students making growth according to STAR Math. 

Ms. Archer tracks students' progress towards weekly Kickboard goals and rewards students who achieve their goal with an incentive. 

Ms. Smith acknowledges the students making growth each STAR cycle on her hallway bulletin board. 

Ms. Smith's anchor charts help students clearly distinguish between figurative and literal language. 

Ms. Davison uses STAR graphs to show her students' progress anonymously. 

Ms. Cychowski's students demonstrate their understanding of the What it Says/What it Means (WIS/WIM) strategy for Science writing. 

Using Focused Questioning to Increase Student Engagement

Written by Anna Cychowski, 7th & 8th Grade Science Teacher

Student Engagement: Centering your lesson around a focused question & varied methods of investigation.

I use two-day cycles in the classroom in order to both establish a routine students are comfortable working in and to make sure content is being covered fully through exploration, redirection of misconceptions and practice. Each of my two-day cycles starts with a question. Questions are basically just SWBAT objectives written in a student-friendly, question format.  Some questions are more interesting or enticing than others, but they get the students excited for the lesson. More often than not. I have students itching to share what they think the answer is and arguing with one another about scientific concepts before class even starts (aka my dream come true).

Example:  Does water ever disappear?

Class opens with the question after the Do Now. While I circulate to check Do Now’s, students write their question in their notebook, then skip some space underneath. This skipped space is for students to add thoughts they have or evidence that helps them answer the question at the end of day one and two of the cycle.

Day one begins our exploration and individual reflection in the cycle.  For our exploration of the example question, students looked at a series of pictures of steps in the water cycle without knowing what they were, I asked the students to put them in order and write what happened to make each step transition into the next in their groups. Afterwards students answered a series of scaffolded reflection questions and I circulated to check for misconceptions as well as guide student thinking. Day one closes out with students going back to the question of the day section in their notebook and jotting down what they think the answer is based on the knowledge they acquired or what they observed that day.

Day two is our clearing up misconceptions and practice day. For our “Does water ever disappear?” lesson, students read a short article about the water cycle. In the article they underlined what they already knew from yesterday, and circled any information new to them.  Afterwards, they constructed a water cycle model for their notes. At the end of class, students completed an exit ticket, then went back to their notebook to write their final answer for the question of the day.

In order to push engagement even more, I plan to share the best QOTD responses for each class at the end of the week. Not only will this allow students to see each other’s final answers, it will better identify for them what their written responses should look like.

Classroom Data Walls

Classroom data walls are an excellent strategy for recognizing student growth and promoting learning for students. All students should have goals for their learning, and classroom data walls provide a way for teachers to showcase their students' progress prominently. It is an expectation that every Lyon Academy classroom have a functioning, updated data wall.

Some criteria/suggestions to consider when creating your data wall include:

• The data wall presents a snapshot of how students are doing as a class or individually 
• The data wall is regularly updated
• The data wall may be created/maintained by the students as data as added
• The data wall should be geared towards students and be student-friendly
• The data wall should encourage action and responsibility by the student, without publicly embarrassing students

The following blog post is a great website that provides more information about using data walls in the classroom: https://www.whatihavelearnedteaching.com/6-ways-to-use-data-walls-effectively/ 

Take a look at several outstanding examples of data walls from around Lyon classrooms across a variety of grade levels. As you update your classroom data wall, send a picture of the wall to Tyler.Archer@slps.org and it will be included!

Ms. Wolfenden adds stripes to bumble bees each time a student makes a month of STAR Reading growth. 

Ms. Archer posts a star for every student showing growth on the STAR Math assessment. 

Ms. Smith posts the names and growth of her students after each STAR Reading assessment cycle. 

Ms. Pocost displays the students in her classes, by homeroom, that demonstrated 80% mastery on objectives. 

Ms. Archer uses a sticker chart to track student mastery of multiplication tables. 

Ms. Salmo's students move their individual markers along the reading level tracker board in her classroom. 

Ms. Connell adds a flower petal to each student as they grow according to Fountas and Pinnell assessments. 

Ms. Andrews tracks students' STAR Reading & Math growth, along with their point tracker progress. 

Ms. Walker and Ms. Stuckel keep track of the skills that students are able to do using an easy to read sticker chart. 

Mr. Craig tracks students' progress on the PACER assessment in P.E. 

Ms. Richardson keeps track of her students' STAR Reading growth by using fish and adding stickers when students show growth. 

Ms. Trapp gives students a sticker on their chart when they show growth from one STAR Reading assessment to the next. 

Both Mrs. Williams-Alberty and Ms. Benjamin maintain a tracker that indicates when students show growth according to STAR Reading. 

The K-2 Team posts their STAR Reading and STAR Math data in their hallway as a way of showing the students' performance across each grade level. 

Promoting Literacy With Classroom Libraries

Written by Cori Latta, 3rd-5th Grade ELA Teacher

In my classroom students love the variety of books there are to choose from. From fiction books about princesses, scary stories, and a child named Rodrick, to non-fiction texts comparing the sizes of animal teeth and biographies about famous authors, athletes, and celebrities. The levels in my library range from A-Z to fit the needs of any student. My classroom library is the favorite part of my room, and if I asked my students I think they might agree. Seeing a student pick out a book and read it for fun, because of interest, or to gather information is definitely one of the most rewarding learning moments a teacher can witness.

            However, a resourceful classroom library does not get this way over night, or honestly even in a first year of teaching. A classroom library is an ongoing project that is constantly being updated, leveled, and organized.  It has taken over seven years of volunteering, donations, going to garage sales, and browsing through used books at thrift stores to build the library I have. The best app I have found most useful for leveling my books is called Lit. Leveler. It will scan your book and give you a Lexile level, DRA, and GRL (F&P). It only costs a few dollars and is worth the price.

            Checking out books in a classroom library is a routine just like management that must be established within the first few weeks of school. In the past I allowed students who were divided by reading groups to check out books each day of the week. Students were allowed to keep up to four books at a time, two fiction and two non-fiction on their independent reading level, in their desks that they could read for IDR assignments or when they finished other assignments. During the following week on their check-out day they would be allowed to exchange the books out for new ones or keep the books they have been reading, but if they choose to keep the books they would have to wait another week to check out new books. In the past when I taught fifth grade I used a notecard system where students would keep track of the titles they checked out on a wall in individual small envelopes that had each student’s names stapled to a bulletin board.

            This year I am allowing my RTI reading groups to check out two books at a time. Just like I have allowed reading groups check out books on certain days of the week, I am doing the same for my RTI groups, except by their leveled color folder which is what holds any accountability pieces they will do in class or small groups. My third and fourth grade homerooms keep their books in their designated mailboxes and my RTI students keep their books in a designated RTI box. As the year progresses I will allow students to check out up to four books at a time.

            Building a classroom library is essential no matter what subject or grade you are teaching. Students love gaining the gift of reading and being able to choose what they want to read. Collage book covers on a bulletin board or wall to allow students to see a small preview of what interests and prizes your library holds.

If you are interested in volunteering to earn “free” books Scholastic holds a warehouse sale every December and May. For each hour you work you earn $10 worth of books from the sale to spend. 

Building Ratio Through Writing- Everybody Writes and Art of the Sentence

This blog post is a synthesis of information about two Teach Like a Champion 2.0 strategies- Everybody Writes and Art of the Sentence. Learn more about these two strategies on page 281 of Teach Like a Champion 2.0.

Building Ratio Through Writing
The amount and quality of writing students do in your classroom are two of the most important determinants of their academic success. Quite possibly, they are together the single most important thing, so one of the simplest and most powerful shifts you can make is to increase the amount of writing- especially high quality writing- your students do. By having students write more, we cause them to push their ideas from vague notions to complete thoughts, and to practice developing complete thoughts is to practice perhaps the core task of thinking.

Everybody Writes
Prepare your students to engage rigorously by giving them the chance to reflect in writing before you ask them to discuss. 

One way to make writing effective in your classroom is to use it before discussions to give students the benefit of more writing, to foster a more rigorous discussion, and to help them answer questions that stretch them to their limits. One benefit of Everybody Writes is that ideas get better when students are allowed a few moments of reflection, and this is the case even (or especially) for those students whose hands tend to shoot up first. Allowing students time to write before you ask them to discuss builds participation and think ratio, enabling all students- slow, reflective types included- to participate, and pushing students toward more rigorous thinking.

Here are some other benefits of Everybody Writes:

• Because you can review student ideas in advance by reading over shoulders, you're able to select effective responses to begin your discussion.
• Every idea that gets shared in discussion is in effect a second draft, a 2.0 thought of higher quality than what would otherwise be shared off the top of a student's mind.
• It allows you to cold call students simply and naturally because you know that everyone is prepared with thoughts.
• It enables you to give every student, not just those who can get their hands up fast, the chance to be part of the conversation.
• Processing thoughts in writing refines them, challenging students intellectually, engaging them, and improving the quality of their ideas and their writing.
• You set standards or steer students in a direction you think especially fruitful.
• Students remember significantly more of what they are learning if they write it down. 

More and more writing, especially writing with a distinct and immediate purpose- using writing to engage your peers just a minute or two afterwards, and being successful at doing that- is a great positive reinforcement for students who may not understand the "why" behind writing. 

See the strategy in action with this video: https://vimeo.com/107081200

Art of the Sentence
Ask students to synthesize a complex idea in a single, well-crafted sentence. The discipline of having to make one sentence do all the work pushes students to use new syntactical forms. 

Learning to write complex sentences is learning not only to write effectively but also to develop and refine ideas by expressing their relationships through the structures of language. It is the key to great paragraphs and great essays, and is arguably far more central to rigorous writing (and thinking) than the admonition to have three sentences with supporting details from the text. To use the Art of the Sentence, then you ask your students to synthesize a complex idea, summarize a reading, or distill a discussion in a single, well-crafted sentence. 

One way to engage students in developing well-crafted sentences is to utilize sentence starters and sentence parameters.  The Sentence Starter provides students with specific words or phrases to, well, start their sentences.

Sample Sentence Starters

You can arm your students with an arsenal of rigorous writing tools by introducing multiple syntactical structures over time. For example:

·       Describe the settings of the first two pages of Chapter 2. Start your sentence with “Babbitt juxtaposes…”

·       In one sentence, explain how Ramona's actions affected her sister. Start with, “After Ramona…”

·       Explain Fern's and Mr. Arable's differing viewpoints on how to treat the runt of the litter. Start your sentence with, “While Fern believes…”

·       Describe the opening to Kurt Vonnegut's “Harrison Bergeron.” Start your sentence with “In Vonnegut's satiric portrayal…”

Be Strategic

Here are some habits of thinking that you may want to encourage students to do more of in your literacy class:

Referring to evidence Synthesizing evidence

Summarizing ideas Revising initial thinking Supporting or refuting an argument

Sample Sentence Starters

Here are a few ideas to get you started with sentence starters for your students:

• In light of all the evidence...
• After considering the options...
• Upon further reflection...
• In contrast to...
• Whereas...
• Similarly...
• To illustrate...

Sentence Parameters are specific words, phrases, or structures you give to students to use anywhere in the sentence. Your choice of parameter depends on your goals for students' reading and/or discussion and what you'd like them to practice as writers.

Using sentence parameters, you might ask students to include a specific word or phrase. (“Use the phrase ‘internal conflict’ in your sentence.”) This is particularly effective for providing opportunities to reinforce vocabulary words, especially technical vocabulary words important in reading (irony, conflict, characterization, and so on). Although the benefits of sentence parameters overlap with those of sentence starters, they also allow more student autonomy in how the sentence takes shape.

Sample Sentence Parameters

Here are a few ideas to get you started setting sentence parameters for your students:

• Explain how and why Templeton supported Charlotte in her plan to save Wilbur. Use the word “motivated” in your response.
• Explain the conflict Steinbeck develops in the opening to The Grapes of Wrath. Use the phrase “antagonistic relationship” in your response.
• Describe the introduction to Kurt Vonnegut's “Harrison Bergeron.” Include this phrase: “Vonnegut juxtaposes ________ and ________ to show ________.”
• Summarize the data from this graph in one complete, well-written sentence. Use the word “exponentially” in your sentence.

What's Happening Around Lyon Academy? October 7th, 2016

Take a look at several highlights from around our school this week. If you see an anchor chart, student work, or something else in the building you would like showcased for the staff, please send it to Tyler.Archer@slps.org.

Ms. Latta has an anchor chart posted for her students that details the expectations of a great quality paragraph. 

Ms. Walker and Ms. Stuckel have created anchor charts for the letters they introduce as part of their daily letter identification lessons. 

Ms. Davison's resource students utilize the QAR strategy and review the types of questions by consulting an anchor chart. 

Ms. Cychowski gives students a structure for earning a higher grade by completing test corrections. 

Mr. Clark introduced his music students to the "Star Spangled Banner" and asked the students to demonstrate their learning about the song in a foldable. 

Ms. Pocost's students created a visual to demonstrate their understanding of temperature. 

Publicly tracking student mastery is an excellent way to motivate students. 

Ms. Smith's posted "Partner Talk Expectations" helps to facilitate conversation between students during the lesson. 

Ms. Archer posts a seating chart at the front of the classroom as a visual reminder for where students should be seated. 

Ms. Jones has given students an outline of what class meetings should look like. 

Ms. Welch uses typed Word Wall cards to make the Word Wall more accessible and readable for students. 

Ms. Welch uses the acronym "GROUPS" to promote the behaviors and values students must demonstrate during group work. 

Ms. Richardson has a board posted that is print-rich and helps organize her students during their balanced literacy block. 

Ms. Richardson's annotations chart clearly outlines the text annotation symbols students should know in the Kindergarten through second grades. 

Ms. Salmo has worked with her students to think about our school values and what they mean for them. 

Ms. McCord's Word Wall is divided into domain-specific terminology for individual units. 

Ms. Benjamin's anchor charts are prominently posted to reiterate PBIS expectations for students. 

Ms. Cisar used the frayer model as a strategy for teaching about Math vocabulary.