Common Core Assessment Workbooks

I am here today to tell you about a fabulous resource that has recently been released. Last year I purchased the Third Grade Common Core Workbook and couldn't believe all that was included with it. I have been pulling things from it all year to work on. Next year I would like to have it a little more organized so that I am using it more.

Today I discovered that they have released their Common Core Assessment Workbook. It includes an assessment for every standard, answer keys, and progress reports. I downloaded the Third Grade Sample and was very impressed with the assessments that I saw. I cannot wait to get my hands on the full download and use it in my classroom. I can see this as being very valuable in assessing the standards to ensure I meet all the standards.

My favorite part about this and the workbook that I purchased last year is that there is something for EVERY Math and ELA standard. Sometimes it is hard to find items that meet some of the standards. Those times are the times when I am grateful to have the workbook and now will be thankful to have an assessment tool as well.

I definitely recommend you head on over and check out these fabulous Common Core Assessment Workbooks. They would be a valuable addition to your classroom.

Whole Brain Teaching- Week 3: 5 Rules

I am here bringing you my post on the 13 Week Master Class for WBT. Week 3 focuses on the 5 rules. I am posting about the 5 rules, but my focus this week won't be too much on the 5 rules because  we have been practicing since the beginning of the year and I have already mastered all three levels of the mastery challenge this week. I want to share with those of you who do not know about the 5 rules yet.

Whole Brain Teaching has five classroom rules that pretty much cover every behavior issue you may have in your classroom.

Rule #1: Follow directions quickly (gesture: make your hand swim like a fish really quick)
Rule #2: Raise your hand for permission to speak (gesture: raise your hand and then make your hand talk)
Rule #3: Raise your hand for permission to speak (gesture: raise your hand and then make two fingers walk across your arm)
Rule #4: Make smart choices (gesture: point to your brain)
Rule #5: Keep your dear teacher happy (gesture: frame your face and bob your head from side to side)

It is important in the early stages to practice, practice, practice these rules.

Rookie Mastery Challenge: Review the rules 5 times a day for a week
Pro Mastery Challenge: Have five students lead the rules at least 5 times a day for a week
All Star: Call out the rule number anytime throughout the day when students need a review of a rule due to it being broken; use this a minimum of 5 times a day for a week

When using the All Star level, you are not rehearsing the rules, you are implementing and reinforcing the rule. This is the direction you must take in order to get to Teacher Heaven!


Rule Strengths:
~Rules 1- 3 cover the most common, specific classroom problems
~Rules 4 - 5 are universal and cover everything else that is left

If you are at a school like mine that is a PBIS school, your PBIS rules are included in Rule 4


If you have students who don't go along, create a leadership team of 5-8 kids (no more than 2 rebels). Stand next to the weakest rebel and review the rules, have the leadership team follow your lead. Praise any improvement by the leaders and rebels. If you do this, there is no place for rebels to hide. It is a LONG year so keep this in your back pocket and don't use until you absolutely need to.

Currently February

I am linking up with Farley again after a few months for Currently February.

Stop on over to Oh' Boy 4th Grade to check out all of the other Currently posts.

Here it is:

Listening:

I enjoy listening to my iTunes Radio when I am blogging/blogstalking. I am a huge country fan so it almost always set to a country station when I listen to it. Even at Christmas it was set to Country Christmas.

Loving:

I am loving the impact that WBT has had on my classroom over the past few weeks. I do not think I will ever go back. I have felt so inspired since having such a successful day yesterday. I had been following Mrs. Shipley's blog for awhile, but hadn't really gone back to read the posts from before I started following her. Oh man, I did that this weekend and it is a wealth of information. Mrs. Shipley inspires me. She is who I want to be! So if you are reading this, thanks Mrs. Shipley!

If you are interested in her blog head on over to Mrs. Shipley's Classroom.

Thinking:

I have spent most of the day researching Whole Brain Teaching; I just can't help it. I have been so inspired lately. It is now after 8:30 and I still haven't had dinner so I probably should get off the computer and go eat. Of course, I am sure I will be right back to the computer after eating. I have some more research to do...lol!

Wanting:

I want my Donor's Choose Project to get funded mostly because I am so excited to try out the stability balls. I have one particular student who I think will benefit tremendously from it. I am hoping this project gets funded soon. I'm about to cave in a donate a big chunk of it since I want it so bad!

Needing:

I have my pre-evaluation meeting with my principal this week. There is some paper work involved and other things that I need to get organized before then. I need to get that done. For the first time since I started teaching I do not feel very nervous about my evaluation. I am actually very excited because I will be showing off some WBT strategies. I am hoping to get the school on the WBT bandwagon and that starts with administration. Plus my students totally rock at WBT!

2 Truths and a Fib:

1) I have found my true passion with WBT: TRUTH

This one should be a no-brainer. I mean look at this post, I have talked so much about WBT! I have absolutely fallen in love and will never ever go back! Thank you for such a wonderful program Coach B. I'm so inspired lately that I might actually attempt to get my WBT certification.

2) I have completed a marathon: FIB

I have completed three half marathons, but never completed a full marathon. One day I would like to though.

3) I have a condition called neuro cardio genic reflex syncope: TRUTH

When I was in third grade I was diagnosed with this condition. In simple terms, there are times when my body thinks I am dehydrated when I am not and it will just shut down and I will pass out. Third grade was a scary year when I first started passing out and no one knew why. Thankfully I had a great third grade teacher who helped make things a little less scary at school. The cool thing about that is that I am now teaching third grade with her! 

I have lived with this condition long enough that I can pretty much control it now and can avoid the passing out. I do have to be careful about my hydration and making sure I am not standing in one place for too long. I have a stool in my classroom that I use on days when I can tell my body is a little off kilter. 

So there you have it! Head on over to read some more Currently posts!

Five for Friday- 1-31-14!!!

Wow my kiddos totally rocked today! Fridays are normally not very good days but it was the BEST day we had all week and definitely the BEST Friday we have had all year! I have one thing that gets all the credit for a fabulous day! By now you are probably wondering what that one thing may be. Well, let me tell you! It is Whole Brain Teaching! I am so glad I did all the research I did over Christmas break because it has completely transformed my students, my teaching, and myself! I'm a true believer!

This past week I decided to put the 13 Week Master Class on a pause due to a VERY rough start to the week (a couple of my kiddos had some rough days that through off everything for the week). I plan to start Week 3 this week so check back for my post on the focus of the week. It will be posted sometime this weekend. Plus, I have more WBT topics to talk about!

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly linky of Five for Friday:

Today we did a super cute craftivity to put up on our bulletin boards. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture of it so I will just share the product with you and then I will post a pic later this week. We made Valentine's Day robots. It is a product from Aimee over at Primarily Speaking.

Love Bot Craftivity

They are super cute and my kiddos had so much fun making them. We will be doing the writing prompt to go along with it next week!

I had a lovely stranger donate $25 to my Donor's Choose project yesterday and I was jumping for joy. We still have quite a bit to go before my project is fully funded, but we are one step closer. We are working on getting some stability balls, floor cushions, and floor pillows to use as options for my students to sit during independent and small group time. I am currently doing my research and looking in to possibly doing alternative seating next year. These items will help with that and will definitely help this years group of students. They do so much better when they can choose where to sit. If you would like to donate to my project it is found HERE!

I would really appreciate it!

Like I mentioned earlier I have some posts coming up on the WBT strategies I have recently used in my classroom. It is a part of my Whole Brain Teaching series of posts.

I hope you will check back to see what these fabulous strategies are doing for my students.

I am so excited for my evaluation in a couple of weeks now that I have these fabulous WBT strategies transforming my classroom. I can't wait to share with my administrator how amazing WBT is.

Sorry, in case you can't tell, I have majorly jumped on the WBT bandwagon!

Power to the Teacher!

For those of you who don't know, I am also a Jr. High Track coach and our season starts in one month! I cannot wait! I am already preparing for our season. Last year, we started having a fabulous fundraiser that is not very common. Actually I don't know of any place that does it around us. We have a track meet that is open for the public to participate in. It is a fun filled day and raises quite a bit of money. We have started preparations for this years event.

The best part is I coach with my hubby and my dad! That means that tonight, the hubby and I are going on a date because we have some shopping to do...lol. We are going out to eat and then going shopping for paper for our flyers so we can start getting them printed. 

If you live in my area and are interested in participating in our event HERE is the Facebook page with all of the details.

I have saved this last one to brag on one of my kiddos. He was one of the ones I was talking about earlier having a rough start to his week. He is autistic and ADHD. They have recently determined that they also think he may be ODD. Anyways he has often has issues and Monday and Tuesday were really bad days for him. Things settled down Wednesday and Thursday, but they were not perfect by any means. Today this little guy came in and was absolutely FABULOUS. He really struggles with not talking out, but today, oh man today, he raised his hand ALL day long when he wanted to talk. It was so fabulous, I just couldn't keep it to myself! I have been bragging to everyone about his day! He paid attention all day, participated, and was so well behaved! I am just so stinking proud of him.

Whole Brain Teaching- Crazy Professor Reading Game

Have you heard of the Whole Brain Teaching strategy the Crazy Professor Reading Game?

I first tried the Crazy Professor Reading Game last week and it completely transformed my students' comprehension of the weekly story. I saw so much progress in their scores on the weekly test. Almost every student passed this week (compared to my normal of only having about three fourths pass).

It is a variation of Buddy Reading the improves reading comprehension. Since we are still learning it we have been doing it as a whole group. We will slowly start transitioning to doing it as Buddy Reading.

There are different ways to play; we have only played the Dramatic Reading way.

Dramatic Reading- reader reads dramatically and the listener makes gestures

Paraphrasing- reader reads in dramatic tone AND makes gestures while the listener silently mirrors; the reader should be paraphrasing what the story was about

Q and A- questioner and answerer BOTH use gestures and a dramatic tone

Connecting- any connection between reading and anything known/imagined is a good connection; students clap hands together every time they make a connection; when first practicing do it as a group with students saying "connection" and clapping hands whenever a connection is made

Silent Skimming- students move one finger down the page as they skim ahead for key information; this one should not be done aloud

Silent Reading- students make gestures as they read silently

Silent Summarizing- students silently or quietly tell story to themselves while making gestures

Crazy Professor- students are loud and energetic; use wild gestures and a dramatic tone; props should be used as well


Last week I read our weekly story selection in a dramatic tone and my students were encouraged to make BIG gestures. I enticed them by telling them I was looking for students with the best gestures to come up and lead the class. That made their gestures even better. This practice helped my students to better understand the story and we had so much fun with it!

Whole Brain Teaching- SuperSpeed Grammar

Today I am sharing another Whole Brain Teaching game that my students absolutely love playing. It is called SuperSpeed Grammar.

Superspeed Grammar covers 10 units: nouns, verbs, sentences, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and prepositional phrases, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and appositives. Each unit builds upon the last. It is important with this SuperSpeed game that you move slowly and carefully. You should stop often and have the students explain the concept to each other. This ensures that they are fully understanding the concept.

In each unit, students learn what the concept is and are given examples. They then are given practice for identifying the concept and giving examples of the concept.

My students have worked through the nouns unit. It first taught them each part of a noun. Starting with a person, giving examples, moving on to place, giving examples, and then moving on to thing and giving examples. They were then given a variety of pictures and challenged to give as many nouns as possible. They started out with the obvious nouns, but after a few slides they started to think about the more detailed nouns such as eye, mouth, hand, etc. It ended with a Big Hairy Test in which they had to identify nouns in pictures.

We started on the verbs unit at the end of the week last week and have continued working on it this week. This unit starts out focusing on verbs being action words. It goes through examples of verbs and then students have to come up with verbs that are taking place in the pictures. After they get the verb concept down it loops back around to nouns by having students identify the noun and verb in sentences and then in pictures. 

I have not gone through any of the other units yet so I will share those as I go through them with my students. I find it is easier to share about the units after I have actually gone through them with my students.

My students beg to play SuperSpeed Grammar every day. They love coming up with nouns and verbs. They can now tell me without hesitation what a noun is and what a verb is.

Whole Brain Teaching- Genius Ladder

Today I want to tell you all about the Genius Ladder.

It is used to develop student speaking and writing skills. We play it for 15 minutes every day after lunch. It involves creatively uses nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions while writing complex topic sentences and tightly focused paragraphs.

It starts out with a blah sentence. A blah sentence consists of an article noun verb. Very simple and very blah. Students take turns replacing the verb in the sentence as many times as they can. Students then take turns replacing the noun in the sentence as many times as they can.

After the blah sentence we move on to the spicy sentence. A spicy sentence consists of an article adjective noun verb. Students take turns replacing the adjective in the sentence as many times as they can.

The next level is the extender sentence. An extender sentence consists of an article adjective noun verb extender. It is important for students to understand that an extender is a phrase that adds important information to the story. Students take turns replacing the extender in the sentence as many times as they can.

Move on to the next level when ready (I have not done this level with my students yet; we are focusing on the previous levels for a while before adding this in. The next levels are the Genius Sentence and the Genius Paragraph. Students take the sentence created by adding the extender and add adders on to it. Adders must be about the target word which is the noun in the sentence. They must support the key noun in the topic sentence. At this point students should transition from speaking to writing. They should practice writing as many genius paragraphs as they can in a time limit (ten minutes is a good time frame). Each paragraph should contain the topic sentence and at least two adder sentences. After the time limit you should show some examples. The students should also have the opportunity to share their examples if they would like to.

Students will improve tremendously in their writing the more they work through the Genius Ladder. On the Whole Brain Teaching website they have free ebooks. One of the ebooks is a Genius Ladder document. It contains over 500 slides with examples of each rung of the genius ladder. It is broken down into three levels (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced) and it gets harder as you go.

My students absolutely love the Genius Ladder. They beg for more and cheer every time I tell them we are going to play.