A Happy Little Lesson

Lately, we have been reading Night by Elie Wiesel in our class. It is a great, high-interest read for the students! However, it is all about the Holocaust and reading it for weeks can bring down the mood of the classroom. This lesson is a happy little break from the very serious book, but it still has its own academic merit. 

Before the Lesson

There is very little prep-work for this lesson, and in fact, it's not really mandatory that you do these things ahead of time. 

Last week, we used our "My Writing" time one day to build a thesis statement. To do this I gave students a STAAR style persuasive prompt. (My prompt came from The Curly Classroom Persuasive Prompt Pack.) Ultimately the question we are answering is: Is Happiness a Choice? 

[This is a super serious question in some class periods, and others find it really silly... just be ready for the wide variety.] Then, another day for our "My Writing" time, students spent 10 minutes answering that same question in a free-writing. 

The Lesson

1. I began the lesson showing two short video clips to get students in the mood of our theme day. I show Hakuna Matata and a clip of Mumble tap dancing from Happy Feet. We have a mini-class-discussion on the tone and mood of these clips. 

2. In small groups, I have students generate a list of 10 songs that are "happy" songs. (Yes, they all ask if they can write down the song "Happy"!) 

- After they generate their list, they have to hashtag it: two hashtags per song. They are not allowed to use the #happy. (I encourage them to think more globally about the song, and I don't let them use the artist name or a line from the song as their hashtag.) [Stolen Idea: Hashtag Lists come from The Curly Classroom Mayday Menus. Seriously, I loooove their ideas!]

- I gave them the example of "Tim McGraw" by Taylor Swift. We would say #younglove. 

3. Groups pick the best songs/hashtags on their list and write them on a sticky note. (This is their exit ticket for the day.) 

4. Then, we address the counterargument to this idea that happiness is a choice. I show them this video.  She is very human, and I think my students listened to her side of the argument more than they would have from me. (It also offers safety for the kids who don't feel happy in general.)

- We again have a small discussion about this video.

5. The last thing students do is a 10 minute timed write in their My Writing section. Their prompt: "Write about a character who chose to be happy despite their circumstances."

After the Lesson 

All this is prep-work for a class period long timed write. Students will write the full STAAR style essay another day. 

I love this little upbeat lesson. While students are working I play my "Happiness" Spotify playlist.

What's the Score?

As we draw closer and closer to the infamous test the acronyms EOC and STAAR are in my life a LOT! I am not afraid to talk to my kids about the test. I do not think this means I teach to the test. In fact, I often use it as a great example of how every job (no matter what) has some form of performance measure. For my non-college bound kiddos, I talk about welding exams, cosmetology exams, and the plethora of other tests that exist in the world. Taking the EOC is about so much more than the knowledge they are testing you on. It's about knowing the information AND how they want it because let's be honest here: pick the better answer is seriously one of the most frustrating things for all of us in the world.

One of my favorite strategies is to play a "game" of What's the Score?

This can be done with short answers or the essay. I have done this cold before (meaning my kids hadn't written the same essay or read the short answer story before), but I find it works best with a bit of ground work.

The Background Work: 

At Region 10 training this summer, we learned a strategy called "unpacking" the rubric. You provide students with a copy of the state scoring rubric (all materials for this entire activity are found here). I put them into groups and have them create a "student voice" version of the rubric. I mean VERY student voice. I have them create a table with the same number of bullet points in each box.  I give them example from the Development of Ideas in Score Point 2. The state rubric says something about the argument being superficial and inappropriate to the task: "Mini-Skirt Barbie argument" is how I tell them to write it down.

This year, I learned that GOAT means Greatest of All Time. (That's what one group wrote for their explanation of the necessary sentences in Score Point 4.

I take the best pieces from allllll the groups to create one giant Student Voice Rubric, and I end up with something like this. It's not perfect: That isn't the point!

Then, they have to represent a score point 4 visually... Some of them get a little bit crazy! (See Unicorn Pooping a rainbow below) They explain their poster to the class, and we hung them in the hallway.

I do this activity in small pieces over a week's time:

Monday: Score Point One (10 minutes)
Tuesday: Score Points Two & Three (10-12 minutes)
Wednesday: Score Point Four & Begin work on Visual (10-12 minutes)
Thursday: Work on Visual (10 minutes)
Friday: Finish Visual (10 minutes)

The Background Work Continued: 
I, also, make sure that my students have already written the essay/short answer themselves BEFORE we play. I think it gives them a better understanding of the essay or the short answer piece, so that when you are playing the game, it is about those answers not about comprehension.

I had my students pick between the Big City vs Small Towns essay and the Learning is Positive essay from the Released Tests (again found here) from 2014 and 2013 for their fall semester exam. (I know I'm not the most careful and thoughtful grader the day before Christmas Break, so I save these essays to use when we return for second semester (that way it's not a waste for the kids).

For the short answer, I used the excerpt from "The Custom of the Country" from the 2013 state release. I have them read the piece and do the short answer question for homework in advance. I send no other questions home with the piece, just the one short answer question... because I really want them to do it and pay attention.

Side Note: I told my kids to quit focusing on "the strategy" that we have been drilling into their brains to answer the SAQ. (We use ROQC. It's super similar to APE.) Instead, I said write a paragraph answer. For SO MANY kids, this explanation clicked like NEVER before!!! 

Okay, so that is the background work.

What's the Score?
On the day of the game (these are two separate days worth of games, and they probably take about 20 minutes a piece), I give each group a packet of essays or short answers. They must work together to determine the score of each piece. [I make them enter their answers independently into the clickers, so I have a daily grade. Plus, I can see where each group is at. AND if someone disagrees with their group, they can enter their own choice.] I project the student rubric we created together.

Then, I use my Google Slides presentation to go through the answers with them. I make them tell me out loud why each essay is score what it is. We have quality discussion about why each essay or short answer received it's given score. It is awesome when they argue for what they believe, and with all the background work they feel like they have a firm foundation to argue from.

Here are my presentations - again all this material is taken from the state scoring guides. I have just formatted it in a way that works for classroom use.





Here are links to each show, if you want to use them in your classroom.

Short Answer
Persuasive

I would love to hear how you work with the EOC rubric in your class! Let me know in the comments below.

Sketch Notes Round 2

Last year, I toyed with Sketch Notes as a technique for note taking. Some of my kids really latched on and loved it! It is super visual and keeps busy hands moving during note-taking time. Those that are easily distracted can channel their doodling tendencies into something productive.  I loved the concept, but I couldn't fully figure out how to support my students in the technique. I put it to the side for a while...

Then... I FIGURED it out!

We are a Schlechty district, here, so I have the design quality words etched in my brain (not to get into the whole lesson design thing because that its whole own topic). I am constantly trying to think of ways to give students content in an organized way that compels them to focus on the end product, while protecting them from initial failure, providing them with choice, novelty, and variety, and giving them an authentic task.

We read Night by Elie Wiesel, and I have transformed my question packets into reading note boxes over the years because I felt like this was more authentic to the task. However, this year, I decided to GO for it. I presented students 3 options for note-taking:

Traditional Notes

Digital Notes

Sketch Notes

I provided boxes with chapters and page numbers for the traditional and digital kiddos. (The digital option is the same as traditional, but they have to share it with me through Google Drive and are able to type in class.) I explained that I would be supporting the folks that choose sketch notes.

It's not the easiest thing for ME, but it's working great for THEM.

Each day, in every single class, I take the notes while we read on my document camera. I model for them in REAL time - I think that part is important. Sometimes, I think we don't want to look dumb in front of our students and are therefore afraid to create in front of them. They need to see you work. They need to see the process, so right now, I take these notes 5 times each day. (They get much better by fifth period.)

This seems to have unlocked something magical in my kids. I have modeled the first two chapters entirely, and I plan to continue through about chapter 4-5. Then slowly, I will begin to do less with them and less and less. Until, they are ultimately taking their own notes in the end.  My kids (who were initially reluctant to try this because they said they aren't artists) are LOVING it.... They tell me they understand the book. They remember the book.

Here are some pictures of my Notebook for Chapters 1 & 2: (Note how much they change and get better each class)

Chapter 1 Page 1 (5 times)

Chapter 1 Page 2 (5 times)

Chapter 2 Page 1 (5 times)