They sometimes have a hard time with metaphors, and an even harder time explaining them in written and verbal expression.

I do some sort of spin on Mali's Metaphor Dice with the kids every year.

This year we did it a couple of times in class, but in December I offered it as extra credit. It was also a bridge to our narrative module to get them writing!

https://reach.padlet.org/lidavis/extra-credit-write-your-own-metaphor-poem-gupvj8u2e69kob3i

In my own intervention groups, I use nearpod more than classkick. Elementary teachers seemed to like nearpod more, so the kids are comfortable with that and tend to be more engaged. I also try to end each small group with progress monitoring through a game (wordwall, quizizz, or blooket.)

Also, my big DDI goal is comma usage. I used an IXL quiz and the average score was 9/20. Tomorrow I give them another one after explicitly teaching comma rules. I'm excited to see the average increase.

I also like using Pixar short type videos to teach theme and to activate prior knowledge on a subject to break up reading in class as well. This grabs their attention right from the beginning of the lesson.

Most classes, I have STs "be the teacher" and have them present what they are noticing in a text. There is no wrong answer here. They can share anything from stylistic choices from an author to the overall theme. We recently had the students grade TDA writing in small groups in BORs which was a success! They looked at the rubric and gave rationale for their grading choice (thank you for this activity, Sam!)

One of the strategies that I think works best is having a conversation with students. I spend less time lecturing and more time encouraging them to share their ideas. When we are working on analyzing a text (i.e., identifying the topic and supporting details), students will annotate each part to demonstrate their understanding of the content. I very rarely give them the answer. I use this as a moment for them to also realize that they are bringing in more prior knowledge than they think.

In some of my own ISGs, I've been promoting 'because, but so' from The Writing Revolution to help students expand their sentences and think about the text details to complete the sentence frame. I can work on comprehension and writing at once but vary the text difficulty for each group. I encourage them to use that skill in their ELA coursework.

Although I haven't used it in the past, Classkick is something that I'm going to be using year after year. I've found this to be particularly helpful with our writing assignments. Adding each writing lesson and assignment to the Classkick allows students to begin drafting their writing in one place and save it. Plus I can add comments and suggestions to their writing before they submit. Classkick also offers the ability to have students complete activities like they would in Nearpod. Classkick can also offer students a place to take notes or practice with worksheets.

Another way that we've helped students stay engaged is by changing activities often during class. From direct instruction to practice or brain breaks to gamification, switching it up throughout a class is a helpful tool that we use year after year.

In my own groups, I try to provide choice within my lesson. Yes, we are accomplishing my goals but I let them help decide when we do what activity. This helps them have some ownership in their lesson with me.

I had been noticing that most students were submitting identical, or at least extremely similar, work for their final drafts as they were for their finished first draft. By taking the time to go over rubrics in class and give students time to go back and check their grades and feedback for prior submissions, I've been able to get some students to have a more productive, focused approach to making meaningful revisions.

As a next step, I would love to have students actually grade their own work. It would be interesting to see how closely their self-assessments aligned with the grades I gave them.

We are also beginning to write "All About Me" books through Storyjumper, recommended by one of the gifted teachers, to practice writing and proofreading skills.