One (Kind) Kindergarten

Differentiating is one of those oft-used terms in modern education that gets thrown around. I remember in college, differentiation would feel essential, and as I began to plan lessons for my internships, student teaching, and first class it would become time-consuming and exhausting. Every child is so unique and special--how can one teacher serve every student in the class?

Turns out, differentiation doesn't always require hours of planning...sometimes it takes your grade-level assignment and just a few tools:

• post-it notes
• yellow highlighter
• pen

It's coming up on testing season in the early grades. Every time I hear the term "non-tested grade" I want to go crazy. We test, and test, and test these littles!

In the span of a few weeks, my kiddos will best tested using Fast, MAP, text-leveled assessments, and WIDA ACCESS. In addition to needing assessed on kindergarten year-long skills at regular intervals PLUS 4-5 assessments in subject areas every week (grades for reading, writing, math, science, social studies!)

As an EL teacher, ACCESS is at the forefront of my mind. I don't want to "test-prep" in the sense that they score higher on the test than their actual proficiency, but I do want to expose them to the types of items they will encounter beforehand so the test accurately measures what they are able to do, and not their test-taking ability.

ACCESS for kindergarten is given one-on-one, and is as developmentally appropriate as a test could be for our little learners. If you have a language support block or other time with your young ELs, here are a few ideas for how to prepare them for success on ACCESS:
Reading--

• Using a pack of picture/word vocabulary flash cards for everyday home/school items, have students tell you the items. Focus on items such as "sofa" or "jacket" that have more than one term associated. How did they know that it was a /s/ofa and not a /c/ouch? 
• Write a list of words on the board, and spread pictures out on the carpet. Have students pick one, and hold it next to the word that it matches. Have students practice explaining their answers to the class!
• Continue to focus on reading short phrases and sentences both in and out of context through shared reading, guided reading, and interactive read alouds.

Writing --

• Practice name writing without nametags available to gauge who needs the most practice.
• Practice writing the beginning and ending sounds next to pictures of words after teacher models.
• Have students look at a picture of an event or one spread from a story and write about everything they see. Students who are at the one-word or short-phrase phase can be invited to write lists of everything they can name.
• Have students listen to a narrative story and write each event in sequence. Expose students who are ready to the words first, next, then, and last.

Listening--

• Have students listen for pre-taught vocabulary in texts, and raise their hand when they hear the word!
• Play "Simon Says" with increasingly more difficult directions as a class. Practice listening for things you did not directly name (i.e. touch the part of your body you use to smell!)
• Play "hide in the room" and have them listen to put an object in a part of the classroom. Use words such as on, below, next to, or above.

Speaking --

• Play "I have, who has" with sets of vocabulary cards such as classroom items, items in a home, or animals.
• Show students two shapes, and have them talk about similarities and differences between them with a partner.
• In morning meeting and share times, call attention to students who are speaking in complete thoughts or sentences. Share a sentence frame with students who need one to speak in a full sentence.
• Praise, praise, praise the speaking efforts of students at every level. Remember that students progress differently through the domains!

At the beginning of this school year, I received some news from the state board of education. My evaluation score had errors, and the state refused to fix it. This led me down a rabbit hole of emailing people, being rerouted to new people, being disrespected, disbelieved, and down trodden. I discovered that the state commissioner of education had called kindergarten through second grade a "dumping ground" for weak teachers. I felt negative, like I had no value.

My score was never fixed, but my attitude was fixed from my own choice. I chose to forget about scores--my students are more than a number, and so am I! I decorated my new classroom with care, I carefully planned for my new students, and I declared that year three would be the #bestyearever.

...Then reality hit. I dealt with situations that were beyond my control that caused me to come home and cry nightly and feel like a failure as a teacher and as person. To be honest, some of those situations are still currently occurring at my school. I won't discuss them here to keep professional and confidential, but know I am still struggling with major issues. 

Either way, I am recommitting to the dream of the #bestyearever for me and my students. This is the year we build the best relationships, make the greatest gains, and have the most FUN together.

Bring it on, 2019!

-Ms.M

Do you use the IBRDS protocol for teaching phonics? It goes like this:
I: Introduce the sound and spelling pattern
B: Blend words
R: Read sentences
D: Decodable texts
S: Spelling



This process is a simple lesson design to teach a new sound or spelling pattern, and can occur in a daily or weekly cycle. To me, it seemed such a simple organization and quickly I adapted it to start teaching my kinders about vowel teams, digraphs, and blends!





The lessons are simple, and supplement the (very little!) phonics instruction provided by my districts curriculum. Interested? Let me walk you through a week of learning.

Every day begins the same way: reviewing the sound and spelling pattern, blending words, and reading sentences with the words in context. From there, the days each focus on different areas of the IBRDS protocol, finishing with a spelling assessment to determine whether or not the kiddos have been able to apply the sound and spelling pattern in their writing!

Lets try it with /oo/ words!

Day 1: Introduce, blend words, read sentences. Focusing on introduce by creating a list or circle map of /oo/ words (students could make one with you, or you could make the writing interactive!)

Day 2: Introduce, blend words, read sentences. Focus on spelling with a whiteboard/eraser activity, where students see a picture and write the word using the new spelling pattern!



Day 3: Introduce, blend words, read sentences. Apply the phonics and spelling patterns in context, focusing more on decoding words. This is also a great day to pull out a decodable text and read it chorally or as an echo read whole-group!



Day 4: Introduce, blend words, read sentences. Play a game that allows students to decode words--either in or out of context, depending on the rest of your instruction. For /oo/, the game is included in the PowerPoint!



Day 5: Introduce, blend words, read sentences. Spelling focus, and assess. There are tons of way to make this day continue to be fun, like a celebration of learning! For oo, give your students Fruit Loops to cover up the o's on their spelling!



The one element not included in the PowerPoint is decodable texts. I am provided decodable text by my curriculum that I am prescribed to use, but am not able to share. Whatever set you decide to use in your instruction, decodable texts will help your students apply the sound and spelling pattern to reading in books. Find decodable readers or short poems that use the target sounds, or have your students search for it in any books you are reading in class!

I hope you find the IBRDS protocol useful to add to your toolbox of phonics instruction!

Find the /oo/ PowerPoint here.

Yours,

Ms. M

Do you make resolutions each year? I look forward to it every December, when I reflect on my old goals and make five new ones to work towards.

I also pick a word for each year. This year my word is venture.

I have 5 goals this year:
1. Finish my master's degree
2. Dedicate 3 hours a week to One Kind Kindergarten (blog, TPT store, Youtube)
3. Find a new professional adventure
4. 100 days of yoga
5. 25 new books

For any goal that is quantifiable, I create a tracker for myself. It is so important to remember what you are working towards in life. When I get back to my students, I can't wait to see what kind of goals they will make for the five months we still have together!


link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/New-Year-New-Goals-4279256


How will I go about creating goals with the little ones? I created the above product to break it down into manageable steps for them.

Day one, we will discuss what a goal is and brainstorm possible goals for the rest of kindergarten: learning 90 sight words, counting to 100 by 1's, 5's, or 10's, adding and subtracting fluently, learning all the decompositions for numbers, improving reading skills, learning all letters and sounds for my newcomers, writing a paragraph, etc.

Day two, we will talk about how people reach goals and brainstorm goal strategies. I envision my students will come up with practicing at home, and pay attention at school, but I will encourage them to think of creative ways, such as counting steps on the way to music class, or practicing sight words with a partner in the bus line.

Day three, we will talk about the steps to reaching our focus goal. While there are many things we all want to learn, we should pick a goal for be primary in our minds to track. For example, if a student picked learning the 90 sight words, we might illustrate them practicing during centers, hitting 30 sight words, using them in their writing, etc. We will also illustrate how they will feel after reaching their goal---reaching a goal is a natural reward and should fill students with pride!



Using the calendar and coloring sheet, my class can revision goals throughout the second semester. Can't wait to see what my goal getters can accomplish!

Hello friends! Week seven is all planned and we have communities, asking and answering questions, research writing, describing different types of jobs, finishing our initial alphabet introduction, and counting in different arrangements within seven all up this week!

Reading:
Text suggestions: Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do, Whose Tools Are These?, Building with Dad, ABC Firefighters, Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood

We will continue to work on asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading. This week, I will be assessing student ability to ask and answer questions using a checklist. However, this week we will use our questions to guide research projects about different jobs in the community. I have selected doctors, firefighters, construction workers, and artists for us to study based on student interest.


Asking and answering questions within texts is a hard skill for kindergartners. Differentiate for your non-verbal students by providing them with cards that represent questions and answers. For example, vocabulary cards that have community helpers on them will be helpful if you want students to infer from the text which helper uses the tools.

Writing:
We will use videos, a class guest speaker, and multiple texts in order to guide our research exploring new jobs. Students will use these experiences and sources to create daily writing pieces. I want them to be reflective about where they got their information, so I've added a place for them to circle where they got their information from. You can download these writing pages here.

Mathematics:



We will be counting in different arrangements 0-7: students should be able to count in a circle, line, array, or scatter. Download the quick assessment pictured above by clicking the link. We will continue to link creating number symbols using quick writes such as this Count and write Powerpoint(click to download).


Our math tasks for the week will revolve around a chef planning for a catered event. I have a launch that includes brainstorming ideas about a catered food picture that you can use to prime student's thinking. What types of math does a chef use? What do they need to count?

Step one is pictured above, and is intended to build on student knowledge of counting in different arrangements. Which arrangement will be easiest to count? Which arrangements would seat all seven people? Step two is planning materials, and step three is a counting and representing problem. Have students discuss and represent their thinking at each step! I kept numbers under seven. These tasks are intended to encourage depth and conversation, and are easily edited to suit your student's needs.

Chef Math Tasks

Happy teaching!

xo

Ms. M