51. Student Publishing to Increase Writing Motivation
Release Date: 12/09/2022
66. REAL Lesson Planning Outline for Student Engagement
Apple Blossom Teachers
We’ve all sat through PD sessions that were less than engaging. It doesn’t feel great to be sitting through a session covering content we already know, or that has us sitting and listening for the bulk, rather than actively putting the new content into practice. The same goes for our students. Today I’m sharing a quick acronym to help you self-check lessons to get the most bang for your instructional buck. When we are planning content that we know might be a little lengthy or dry for our students, we can make it REAL and hook them in. How...
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65. Ditch the reading logs! Try this instead...
Apple Blossom Teachers
(TLDR - reading logs don't work, but this FREE printable bookshelf can!) Traditional reading logs - we've all seen them, used them, most likely fibbed on them...GASP! It's the truth though - in every post I see about reading logs, so many teachers and parents share anecdotes about how they have encouraged fibbing, even from voracious readers, because it's just something extra to fill out. We do know that keeping track of what we read can be helpful - it allows us to see patterns in our preferences of authors, genres, styles; it helps us remember what we might recommend to others; it...
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64. Student-centered Curriculum Design
Apple Blossom Teachers
Student centered norms and classroom design are important to establishing the ownership and engagement we desire. But what about when we get into the day-to-day, actual content area instruction? Many of our teacher manuals aren't particularly designed to be student-centered, primarily because the big publishers don't know our actual students! There are somethings we can do, though, to adapt our content delivery and activities to be more student-centered: 1. Overlapping our content areas 2. Intentionally using formative assessments and flexibility of pacing 3. Providing...
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63. Classroom Routines & Procedures in a Student-Centered Classroom
Apple Blossom Teachers
Today I’m sharing a quick run down of tips to keep in mind as you plan your class procedures and how you will introduce them during that very busy first week of school. The short version: Pre-teach things that are essential to starting a task Mention that you may pause their work mid-activity to briefly introduce the next system they need to know Layer the teaching into activities that use it - don’t separate a full time block to teach a million systems, introduce them as you need them and review next time they come up Keep things short and sweet - our brains will all be a...
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62. First Week of School Activities to Prevent Student-centered Learning Challenges
Apple Blossom Teachers
With student ownership over their learning comes a need for shared responibility over the space and systems. Today I'm sharing 3 activities you can do within the first few days of school to support positive classroom management and gain student buy-in. Anchor charts to open dialogue about our shared vision for a succesful learning environment. Class commitments that will bring that shared vision to life. Family connections - sharing our vision and asking for support from our families. These 3 things can be circled back to all year as you and your students reflect on what is and is not...
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61 Back to School Tips for Student Centered Classroom Design
Apple Blossom Teachers
Let's look at a few easy swaps and considerations for setting up a student-centered classroom. Today we'll talk: math manipulatives classroom library student supplies writing station and more! Links and resources: - hear a bit about the math journey I mentioned in today's episode, plus Mona's tips that have been game changers for my teaching! episode of the Modern Math Teacher Podcast with Kristen Moore of Moore Than Just X.
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60. What Is Student-Centered Learning and Why Is It Important in Upper Elementary?
Apple Blossom Teachers
Today we are kicking off a mini series all about student-centered learning environments. What is student centered learning and why is it important in upper elementary? Today’s episode will be a little more philosophical…overall what does this mean to us and other educators? How has this looked in upper grade classrooms? What are the outcomes - pros and cons- of creating a student- centered learning environment? All of these can hopefully help you reflect on where your classroom is, and what we want our classrooms to be like...
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59. Elementary Earth Day Activities...with a dose of SEL?!
Apple Blossom Teachers
In honor of Earth Day, I’m RECYCLING and REPURPOSING an incredible interview with Amy Louise Davis, of Alou Artist, all about how we can reduce “throw away culture” in our classrooms while also supporting mindfulness and creativity in our students. Amy is a textile artist and embroiderer who is fascinated by pattern and sculpture. Influenced by environmental and social issues, she created alou in 2013 to tackle throw away culture. With a particular interest in repurposing often overlooked, pre-loved materials, she uses her skills in sculpting and embroidery to...
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58. Teacher Inspiration Stories and Strategies
Apple Blossom Teachers
What was the BEST class you've ever been in? What made it so? Great teachers have a knack for seamlessly weaving inspiration, passion, and content together in a way that creates a community of curiosity & excitement. We no doubt always start the year with the mindset of creating this type of learning environment for our students, but come May? No amount of sparkly motivational teacher quotes or giant travel mugs of coffee are getting us through the days right now! So take today's episode as a little power boost to get you through the final stretch of this year, to celebreate all...
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57. Differentiated Novel Studies: Helping all readers access complex texts
Apple Blossom Teachers
We’ve been chatting a ton about higher order thinking skills and getting our students really digging deep with our grade level content. 🤷♀️But what do we do when students are struggling to simply meet that grade level content? How can we simultaneously scaffold our instruction while also supporting all learners in applying HOTS and complex application of grade level content? It’s absolutely possible, and it is absolutely necessary! Today I'm sharing simple strategies for supporting all learners in accessing opportunities for creative application of learning and complex...
info_outlineOver the last few weeks, we’ve been chatting all about how we can bridge high quality reading instruction to strengthen our students’ writing. Today I want to share this throwback episode to give you some project ideas your students can actually apply all these lessons to.
I hope this juicy past episode gives you some ideas on how to motivate and engage your young writers, and provides a frame of reference as we start to get into some higher order thinking strategies over the next few weeks.
Episode 31 Links and Resources:
💻 Looking for more ways to take learning from ROTE to REAL? Grab the free video training here, plus a print-and-go planning template you can use tomorrow!
📍 The Navigator: Use this to find what you need most!
- (3:00) How I layered 4 disciplines in one skatepark project to maximize our class time
- (7:50) What are authentic audiences, and why are they helpful?
- (9:12) Engagement and motivation…are those the same?
- (12:30) Why this strategy is ideal for natural differentiation and instructional support for every learner
- (14:10) Gifted teacher pet peeve soapbox: our gifted and advanced learners need and deserve to have true opportunities to stretch their learning muscles as their peers, and more of the same work AIN’T IT!!
- (15:28) Higher order thinking skills are not often accessed in our teacher manuals, but here’s how to fix it
- (21:05) Critical thinking vs. creative thinking
- (22:11) Let’s jump into over a dozen actual PROJECT IDEAS FROM REAL UPPER ELEMENTARY CLASSROOMS! These are based on the 5 levels of authentic audiences in this Edutopia article.
- (37:07) My friend Mandy’s epic 6th grade kindness crew that’s been running for over 5 years!
- (38:40) Amy @theuniqueclassroom’s 3rd grade persuasive paragraph activity for their local animal shelter
- (40:00) My friend Kayla’s awesome marketing pitch project - Shark Tank style
- (41:45) Why this is also a great approach for embedded SEL lessons & life skills
- (43:50) Rachel’s 5th grade March Madness letters to university teams that actually got replies!!
🔗 Links and resources from this episode:
- Free sample pages from Wendy Conklin’s Strategies for Developing Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Grades 3-5
- The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander engages students in Writing Workshop, and you can too!
- Open House Reel 2022 - interdisciplinary project ideas (plus a 5th grade throwback in my highlights)
- Caption cards: an easy way to add in regular informational writing
- Padilla Periodical Student-created newsletter
- Shark News upper grade news crew
- Getting started with a school news crew on Edutopia
- We Are Teachers & USPS Pen Pal Project
- @Kellys_Classroom “SEAKers” Program
- @theuniqueclassroom Animal Shelter persuasive paragraphs
- Reedsy list of children’s writing contests
- Get on the waitlist for the FREE virtual training on how to take your upper elementary lessons from rote to “REAL” - leave with 5 “purposeful project” planning templates and the tools you need to increase student engagement, boost motivation, and create lasting learning!
- Read my Edutopia article about the 5 authentic audiences that will motivate your upper grade writers.
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