Storytelling

I LOVE Storytelling! I have been trying to think of something clever to begin this post, but honestly, I can't come up with anything more true- I LOVE Storytelling!

When most people think of storytelling, they think folktales. Storytelling is a method in which the reader embellishes or places emphasis on the story to make it more appealing to the reader- which I think means it can be done with any genre! During a course at UCF, the professor made each and every one of us do this in front of the entire class. We had to have one prop and it had to be something easily made. 

I decided to read Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein. If you haven't read this yet, you really, really need to. It is hilarious! It also teaches kids the importance of NOT interrupting (ugh, a huge pet peeve!) I think I may need to read this next week... 

Here is my finger puppet I made. So incredibly easy! I used construction paper and goggly eyes, but I could have easily drawn the eyes on. Every time the little chicken interrupted, I took the finger puppet out from behind my back and loudly read his interruption. Of course I was more dramatic in front of a class of children than a class of my peers.
I can't believe I forgot about this quirky little book and puppet... I can't wait to read it to my second graders next week.

"Get Back to Your Seat!"

How many times a day do you hear yourself say (or shout), "Get back to your seat!" or "Raise your hand"?

Probably more than a hundred times, and more than likely, you're saying it to the same student, over and over and over and over.... What do you do?

I am a HUGE fan of self-monitoring. If you don't know about this strategy:

 "The ability of a student to self-monitor his or her performance is a natural step toward becoming independent, which can only happen when students take responsibility for their own behavior and essentially become “agents of change” (Hanson, 1996; Porter, 2002; Rutherford, Quinn, & Mathur, 1996). Self-monitoring is defined as the practice of observing and recording one’s own academic and social behaviors (Hallahan & Kauffman, 2000; Rutherford, Quinn, & Mathur, 1996; Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2000). Being able to self-monitor reflects a shift from reinforcement by others to self-reinforcement of appropriate behavior (Hanson, 1996). " 

Click here for the full article

By fifth grade, students should know the basic rule to not leave their seats without permission. We have many students who are up from their seats several times a day, as well as students who constantly ask to get up for the bathroom, water, sharpen their pencil, etc. during the middle of a lesson. The disruptions are just totally outta' control!

Tomorrow we are going to start using tally cards. These can be used for any reoccurring behavior at any grade. Whenever the student is doing the behavior, you just say, "tally", and they will tally on their index card. For some students who have multiple behaviors, they may need more than one tally card or a tally sheet. Every day, they get a tally card and tape it to their desk. They write the behavior they are working on and set a goal (i.e: less than 5 tallies). Implement a reward system for making their goals. We did this in second grade and it really, truly worked. Made our lives so much easier too.

Example of a student's tally card (she needs practice with the > sign ;)

Now where do you put all of these tally cards? I have seen teachers file them for the week or month to use at parent conferences, but we wanted the students to be responsible for them. I made this box for students to drop the cards in every day. Each day there isn't a card from the student, they miss 5 minutes of recess. 

All I did was take an old tissue box and cover it with card stock. I traced the box onto the card stock and cut then glued it onto the box. Added two index cards and boom! Done within twenty minutes. Again, our goal is to make the students completely responsible! They must get a tally card in the morning and turn it in by the end of the day. In 2nd grade, students had to take their tally sheets home each day and have a parent sign/write comments. 

SUPER easy!