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Classroom setup

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Lesson Planning

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Too many university supervisors and administrators criticize the absence of lesson closure, a dubious assessment practice likely caused by the improper use of Madeline Hunter's lesson plan model (PDF) as a de facto checklist of eight mandatory teaching practices -- anticipatory set, objective and purpose, input, modeling, checking for understanding, guided practice, independent practice, and closure -- a custom that Hunter decried in 1985 (PDF). Although it offers multiple benefits, please don't view closure as a professional must-do.

What Is Closure?

Closure is the activity that ends a lesson and creates a lasting impression, a phenomenon that Colorado State University professor Rod Lucero calls the recency effect.

Teachers use closure to:

Check for understanding and inform subsequent instruction

Emphasize key information

Tie up loose ends

Correct misunderstandings

Students find closure helpful for:

Summarizing, reviewing, and demonstrating their understanding of major points

Consolidating and internalizing key information

Linking lesson ideas to a conceptual framework and/or previously-learned knowledge

Transferring ideas to new situations

Like contracting your bicep at the top of a dumbbell curl, closure squeezes an extra oomph into a lesson. See my favorite closure strategies below!

Creative Closure Activities
1. Snowstorm
Students write down what they learned on a piece of scratch paper and wad it up. Given a signal, they throw their paper snowballs in the air. Then each learner picks up a nearby response and reads it aloud.
2. High-Five Hustle
Ask students to stand up, raise their hands and high-five a peer -- their short-term hustle buddy. When there are no hands left, ask a question for them to discuss. Solicit answers. Then play " Do the Hustle" as a signal for them to raise their hands and high-five a different partner for the next question. (Source: Gretchen Bridgers)
3. Parent Hotline
Give students an interesting question about the lesson without further discussion. Email their guardians the answer so that the topic can be discussed over dinner.
4. Two-Dollar Summary
Kids write a two-dollar (or more) summary of the lesson. Each word is worth ten cents. For extra scaffolding, ask students to include specific words in their statement. (Source (PDF): Ann Lewis and Aleta Thompson)
5. Paper Slide
On paper, small groups sketch and write what they learned. Then team representatives line up and, one and a time, slide their work under a video camera while quickly summarizing what was learned. The camera doesn't stop recording until each representative has completed his or her summary.
6. DJ Summary
Learners write what they learned in the form of a favorite song. Offer extra praise if they sing.
7. Gallery Walk
On chart paper, small groups of students write and draw what they learned. After the completed works are attached to the classroom walls, others students affix Stickies to the posters to extend on the ideas, add questions, or offer praise.
8. Sequence It
Students can quickly create timelines with Timetoast to represent the sequence of a plot or historical events.
9. Low-Stakes Quizzes
Give a short quiz using technologies like Socrative, BubbleSheet, GoSoapBox, or Google Forms. Alternatively, have students write down three quiz questions (to ask at the beginning of the next class).

Have kids sketch a book cover. The title is the class topic. The author is the student. A short celebrity endorsement or blurb should summarize and articulate the lesson's benefits.
11. Question Stems
Have students write questions about the lesson on cards, using question stems framed around Bloom's Taxonomy. Have students exchange cards and answer the question they have acquired.

Kids answer the following prompts:

What takeaways from the lesson will be important to know three years from now?

Why?

13. Dramatize It
Have students dramatize a real-life application of a skill.
14. Beat the Clock
Ask a question. Give students ten seconds to confer with peers before you call on a random student to answer. Repeat.
15. Find a First-Grade Student
Have kids orally describe a concept, procedure, or skill in terms so simple that a child in first grade would get it.
16. Review It
Direct kids to raise their hands if they can answer your questions. Classmates agree (thumbs up) or disagree (thumbs down) with the response.
17. CliffsNotes, Jr.
Have kids create a cheat sheet of information that would be useful for a quiz on the day's topic. (Source (PDF): Ann Sipe, " 40 Ways to Leave a Lesson")
18. Students I Learned From the Most
Kids write notes to peers describing what they learned from them during class discussions.
19. Elevator Pitch
Ask students to summarize the main idea in under 60 seconds to another student acting as a well-known personality who works in your discipline. After summarizing, students should identify why the famous person might find the idea significant.
20. Simile Me
Have students complete the following sentence: "The [concept, skill, word] is like _______ because _______."
21. Exit Ticket Folder
Ask students to write their name, what they learned, and any lingering questions on a blank card or "ticket." Before they leave class, direct them to deposit their exit tickets in a folder or bin labeled either "Got It," "More Practice, Please," or "I Need Some Help!" -- whichever label best represents their relationship to the day's content. (Source: Erika Savage)
22. Out-the-Door Activity
After writing down the learning outcome, ask students to take a card, circle one of the following options, and return the card to you before they leave:

Stop (I'm totally confused.)

Go (I'm ready to move on.)

Proceed with caution (I could use some clarification on . . .)

Download the PDF cards for this exercise. (Source: Eduscapes)

These 22 strategies can be effectively altered or blended. And they are great opportunities to correct, clarify, and celebrate.

Do you use a closure activity that's not on this list? Please share it in the comments.

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Too many university supervisors and administrators criticize the absence of lesson closure, the activity that ends a lesson and creates a lasting impression. Like contracting your bicep at the top of a dumbbell curl, closure squeezes an extra oomph into a lesson. Find 22 closure strategies in this article by Todd Finley.

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Classroom setup

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Book Basket Challenge - Getting Started - Google Drive

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"Wah waah wah waah wah wah..." We all know the famous muted trumpet of adults in Charlie Brown's world, especially their teacher, Miss Othmar. After five years teaching elementary school, I'm confident that I'm not boring my kids to sleep but I do wonder if I strike the right balance between "teacher talk" and student work.

Research has long supported the idea that students benefit from "doing." Regular practice with reading and re-reading increases comprehension and fluency ( National Reading Panel, 2000), as well as builds vocabulary and knowledge ( Cunning & Stanovich, 1998). Students also need ample time to connect reading and writing to speaking and listening, integrating their literacy skills (see Appendix A). This is especially important for younger children and English Language Learners, whose oral language far outpaces the ability to read and write ( Fisher, Frey, & Rothenberg, 2008).

As we all do our best to help students meet the high bars we set in our literacy classrooms, could it be that we're missing out on opportunities for kids to do the very work that will help get them there?
What if we did less and let students do more?
Enter the "Who's Doing the Work?" pilot project! This challenge took its name, and many of the great ideas used, from the book Who's Doing the Work by Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris. This book is full of small, but powerful, suggestions for adjustments to practices that fit a balanced literacy framework for instruction. Many of these suggested adjustments were used in our strategy sheet. In the pilot, several teams of teachers across the country set out to give students more ownership by decreasing "teacher talk." Some teams met during PLCs; others were coached 1:1, and a few even videotaped themselves. We selected new strategies to implement and then came back together to reflect on their impact.

Our hope was that by increasing opportunities to engage deeply with literacy, we could create richer opportunities for all students. After six weeks, more than 90% of teachers who engaged in this project reported that they talked less and that students were more engaged. All teachers named this work as a valuable use of their time!

Here are some tips that "Who's doing the Work?" participants found most effective in their classrooms. A full list of strategies can be found in the document attached at the top of this post.
Ask all students to engage in the work
Rather than calling on a few raised hands, use Think-Pair-Share or Everybody Writes after posing a meaty question. This gives all students the time they need to process their thoughts before opening it up to the whole group. During complex text read-alouds, my co-teacher and I used individual whiteboards so our first graders could jot or draw responses. As an added bonus, we were able to see nearly all student thinking (versus only hearing from a few students).
Ideas for access to inexpensive whiteboards Let student voices shine!
Too often, classroom discourse is a "Ping-Pong game" between the teacher and one student at a time: teacher initiates question, student responds, teacher evaluates response (for example: "Good job!"), and the cycle continues. One teacher in this project admitted, "I never even knew I did that until I started recording myself!" Challenge yourself to create more of a "volleyball" discussion by asking students to listen to one another and respond to each other's ideas before tapping the ball back to your side of the court (think Speaking & Listening Anchor Standard 1!). My classroom uses silent hand signals for "I agree," "I disagree," or "I'd like to add on."
Increase time students spend reading
The more our students are doing the reading, the better! To mix things up or provide strategic support, consider using partner reading, echo reading (teacher reads section, students repeat) or choral reading (we all read together). Our teachers found combining re-reading with annotation or searching for evidence to be a particularly great way to get students engaged with text and prepared for discussion!
Build independence
How many times have I told students, "Watch out, this part is going to be tricky!" and modeled or prompted them to use a specific strategy? While this may have helped them get through the challenge of that text or question (and kept the lesson moving smoothly), it probably wasn't very transferable to their independent practice. Asking kids to evaluate what is tough and how they might sort it out flexes the muscle they'll need to do this work on their own!

So ask yourself how much time you spend talking in your classroom. Give your voice a break and let's put students to work!

For more information on observable actions that demonstrate student ownership see Core Action 3 in the Instructional Practice Guide tool on Achieve the Core.

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Limiting "Teacher Talk," Increasing Student Work!

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"Wah waah wah waah wah wah..." We all know the famous muted trumpet of adults in Charlie Brown's world, especially their teacher, Miss Othmar. After five years teaching elementary school, I'm confident that I'm not boring my kids to sleep but I do wonder if I strike the right balance between "teacher talk" and student work.

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MINNEAPOLIS - May 2, 2017 - Flipgrid, a video discussion platform for PreK to PhD classrooms around the world, today announced that Flipgrid is a featured integration for Microsoft Teams in Office 365 for Education at Microsoft's #MicrosoftEDU event in New York City.

Flipgrid is a leading video discussion platform for more than 2.8 million teachers and students in 137 countries, amplifying student voice and encouraging social learning. Teachers create grids for each class, add the topics they want discussed, and students respond with short videos shared with each other. In Flipgrid, interactions feel like social media, encouraging spontaneous, authentic discussion among students. "Flipgrid is Snapchat for the classroom," shared Tyler Nelson, Associate Principal at Westwood Intermediate School, "a perfect blend of engagement and opportunity for our students."

Teams creates a digital hub for teachers and students to create, share and collaborate on content, conversations and apps. Teams in education simplifies a teacher's development of personalized learning experiences for students, and encourages students to engage with each other inside class and out.

Teachers can now add their Flipgrid grids and topics as custom Flipgrid Tabs in their Teams channels, enabling students to engage in video discussions right alongside their classroom's Office 365 apps and documents. Teams users can also install a custom Flipgrid Connector to provide channel-specific notifications when new Flipgrid topics are added and new response videos are shared by teammates.

In addition to transforming the modern classroom, the Flipgrid integration in Teams supercharges how teachers are already building Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) with their peers on Flipgrid. Integrated into Teams, these PLNs have a central location to share and access their community related content - video discussions, documents, apps and services.

"We know that teachers are the most creative people in the world," said Dr. Charlie Miller, founder and Chief Design Officer of Flipgrid. "We have always prioritized making the instructional experience as seamless as possible so that teachers can focus their efforts on what's most important ... their students. Integrating Flipgrid video discussions within Microsoft Teams, in line with classroom channels and documents, is an awesome example of this approach."

"We have loved working with the Microsoft Education team and MIEs for the past year," shared Jim Leslie, founder and CEO of Flipgrid. "We developed the Amplifying Student Voice Microsoft Educator Community course to share our experiences. To date this course has been completed more than 7,000 times in more than 100 countries around the world. We have a series of new Microsoft Educator Community courses featuring Flipgrid integrations with Skype, Microsoft Sway, Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft Teams that we will launch this fall."

Jim Federico, Principal Group Program Manager, Microsoft Education, Microsoft Corp. said, "Microsoft and our Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIEs) have collaborated with Flipgrid in classrooms across the globe. We're excited to be able to offer Flipgrid from within Microsoft Teams as way to ignite topic-based video discussions in their classrooms."

The Flipgrid integration for Microsoft Teams will be available this June.
About Flipgrid
Flipgrid is the leading video platform for social learning in more than 50,000 PreK to PhD classrooms around the world. To learn more, please visit www.flipgrid.com

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Flipgrid Now a Featured Integration for Microsoft Teams

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MINNEAPOLIS - May 2, 2017 - Flipgrid, a video discussion platform for PreK to PhD classrooms around the world, today announced that Flipgrid is a featured integration for Microsoft Teams in Office 365 for Education at Microsoft's #MicrosoftEDU event in New York City. Flipgrid is a leading v

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Classroom setup

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Last September, the day before students returned, I looked around my classroom and panicked. Bulletin boards were bare, and there was no furniture. I said to myself, "Parents are going to think I don't care!" But the opposite was true after I took a risk: instead of me decorating a classroom for my students, we made a learning space together. After all, I work here, but so do they. Design thinking our way through making our own learning space was, hands down, the hardest and best change that I ever made as a classroom teacher.

Why Design Thinking?

Increasing student engagement by taking the leap into a deskless classroom required an introduction to design thinking and the support of my admin. Creating a learning space through design thinking is about fostering student agency from the outset. Students are more engaged in this space. More than an interior design project, rethinking a learning space is about remaking not only the space, but also the learning that happens there. Design thinking is about finding a real-world solution to a real-world problem.

How to Use Design Thinking for a Deskless Classroom

Step 1: Create empathy

Students explored where and how they work best and what might be done in this space if it could be remade in any way that they needed. At first, I had a hard time taking a hands-off approach and letting students own the space. I let go of my ownership by trusting them.

Step 2: Ideate

Brainstorm. To begin, every idea is a good idea. Students brainstormed and shook loose hundreds of ideas on sticky notes and chart paper. A silent gallery walk of all the ideas allowed us pick out the best ones.

Step 3: Prototype

After brainstorming, students sketched. Initial sketches led to the project-based learning where students measured the classroom and created a scale model. They discovered that the limited amount of space meant planning how to make it work best.

Step 4: Test, build, and tell the story

Volunteers helped construct and move furniture, but students were in charge of furniture placement, right down to arrangement of the bulletin boards. Rethinking our space on a limited budget meant that students had to get really creative. They looked around the school for unused furniture, asked for donations, and wrote letters to admin asking for funds. After the build, students reflected in their visual journals about how this space might work for them and what goals they would set for themselves.

Making It Work Day to Day

The deskless classroom looks like a space with no structure, but the opposite is true. In a space where more choice is available, students need to be held more accountable for their behavior and work outcome. This is still a fine balance for children in primary school. Self-regulation is difficult for some (let's be honest -- it's hard for lots of adults, too). So there must be a balance of choice and self-regulation. Remaking the space means putting students at the center of their learning. Giving them the privilege of choosing where and how to work requires them to take responsibility. And they will.

Many Iterations

Looking back at last September, I remember my feelings when the classroom was done! And then . . . it wasn't done. Some elements worked, and others actually made me a little twitchy. In the end, every member of the classroom community needs to be comfortable with how it works. Some elements were taken out. Others were added. This space constantly flexes to meet the needs of students.

When is a good time to start creating a deskless classroom? Now! There will always be reasons not to take the risk in learning with students, and honestly, I expected a lot of pushback from parents and admin that just never happened. Students in my classroom don't have an assigned space, but it's never been a problem. I know that my room can be confusing for some people first walking in, like substitute teachers or other teachers' students when we exchange classes. My solution has been careful routine building with students to help them take responsibility for the space.

Taking a leap into something new with students can be scary but also incredibly rewarding as they take ownership not only of the space, but also of the learning. Part of the reason for the space's success is that it's not mine. It's ours. And now that I've ditched the desks, I'm sure I'll never go back!

Whether you've visited a deskless classroom, taught in one, or have further questions, please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

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Design Thinking and the Deskless Classroom | Edutopia

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Last September, the day before students returned, I looked around my classroom and panicked. Bulletin boards were bare, and there was no furniture. I said to myself, "Parents are going to think I don't care!" But the opposite was true after I took a risk: instead of me decorating a classroom for my students, we made a learning space together.

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Tech Friendly Formative Assessment Tools

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Tech Friendly Formative Assessment Tools