It's that time of year...
11/21/2020
Despite sounding cliched, every single day I wake up feeling thankful to work with our PNA 5th and 6th grade students. Here are eight of the reasons why: Transformative developmental time. Ages 10-12 are pivotal years for physical, mental, and emotional development. These students need an atmosphere to feel comfortable being uncomfortable. It has been my goal to create a safe space for my students to ask questions as they experience so many life changes. I am thankful to have students who are open and honest about their thoughts. Hands-on teaching and learning. While this isn’t as literal as is used to be, PNA has been able to maintain our “hands-on” teaching and learning methods to the best of our ability. Students are able to “do”, instead of just watching and listening. Every day I am thankful for the privilege to physically go to school and be with my students. Awareness and Advocacy. Now, more than ever, I am thankful to teach about things that matter. Learning about global issues, human body health, diversity and inclusion, and positive relationships—students are becoming more knowledgable about real-life topics. My students are honing their empathy and determination to make positive impacts on the world around them. Nurturing environment. Our classroom management program, Responsive Classroom, is a student-centered social and emotional approach to teaching and discipline. I am thankful to work at a school that supports engaging, collaborative intervention techniques instead of punitive methods. We strive to create a safe, joyful, and inclusive classroom climate, where all students have a sense of belonging and value. Kids being kids. While my students are learning about serious topics, there are still plenty of opportunities for them to just be kids. Communicating through banana phones at snack time, building snow-forts during PE, or teaming up and playing our weekly review game of Jeopardy, our classroom is full of laughter. I am thankful for our inside jokes, our Swahili code words, and the social, joyful buzz of our classroom. Family. Students spend more waking hours in school than out of school. Our class is becoming a family. Each student has a role and a purpose; kids are continually learning new traits about their classmates. I feel uniquely connected to my students’ families this year. I couldn’t be more grateful to have such an understanding network of parents supporting my role in their child’s education. Understanding and flexibility. During a time of instability and stress, I am thankful to be surrounded with understanding allies. Administrators, colleagues, and parents all have become increasingly patient, providing extra appreciation and grace. While every day is different and we are simultaneously building the bridge as we walk across it, the kindness being given and received has not gone unnoticed. Love of learning. PNA prides itself on having a student body full of kids who love learning. My 16 students are the epitome of this. Even through the most complicated, gross, emotional content, my students have persisted with their curious nature and hunger for learning. Our class discussions are always vibrant and insightful—something I am grateful for, each and every day. The Power of Read-Alouds
11/7/2020
“A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.” By 5th and 6th grade, many students have made up their minds about reading. Either they see it as a fun, leisure activity OR they see it as a chore, something adults make them do. There are many reasons as to why students make their choice one way or the other. Do students have access to books? Are they reading the "right" books? Have their parents been reading to them since infancy or never at all? Is reading more difficult for them? Reading is challenging for many kids, whether related to processing or comprehension issues, or a diagnosable learning disorder or something unknown. It’s up to teachers and parents to help support kids with reading as they form their opinions at such a young age. My educational specialization is in English; I love teaching ELA. However, even I didn’t like reading when I was a kid. My parents read aloud to me from ages 0-8. It wasn’t a coincidence that once they stopped reading to me, my interest in reading took a nose dive. As I got older I used the classic, “…but there are so many other things to do…” excuse as to why I wasn’t reading during my free time. I didn’t see them reading in their free time, so why should I? In Middle and High school, we were assigned to read on our own but teachers rarely read to us in class. “The Transforming Power of Reading Aloud”, is an interesting article from the International Literacy Association. My favorite quotation from that article reads, “The most effective way to cultivate a love of reading in children is to read to them.” It seems so simple. Many studies have shown academic benefits to daily read-aloud. In our 5/6 classroom at PNA, we do read-alouds every single day. Our most recent novel was Front Desk by Kelly Yang. It’s a relevant, relatable, powerful book based on true events. The kids rave about it. Here’s how our ELA class is structured: we have ELA after snack time. The kids settle in and a few students summarize the previous chapters to refresh our memories, or in case someone was absent. I turn off the lights and project a set of vocabulary words that are about to be read in today’s chapters. Students volunteer to pronounce, define, and give an example of the context of the word. The wiggling, hand stretching, passion that some students exhibit—wanting to be called on so badly--is incredible. Words are selected based on their definition unfamiliarly but also due to their spelling. Some verbal learners know what words are based on conversational use, but cannot recognize them from their spelling alone. Often kids don’t think they know a word just by looking at it, but they understand the word once we pronounce and define it. Our words are posted on our word wall, in hopes that students will retain the vocabulary they learn throughout the year. Once everyone is comfortable with the daily word list, I read. Some kids doodle, others have their eyes glued to me. They all, however, are listening intently. Sometimes we take breaks during the reading to discuss events or make predictions. I could not have asked for better engagement with this book. Every single day the kids contend with me when I put the bookmark back in the book as we finish. Front Desk is full of cliff-hangers that kept the kids eager for more. After the read-aloud, students get out their writing journals. They write for about 10 minutes about a given prompt inspired from the reading that day. Sometimes it’s an analysis of the text; other times they make personal connections, relating to the characters in the book. Often they apply the “fictional” scenarios in the book to real-life issues they observe in our world. Most prompts are multi-faceted and kids choose which aspect they want to write about. These journal entries are kept between the student and me. I read and assess them at the end of each week, writing personal notes to each student and sometimes we have a conversation back and forth within the confides of their journal. This technique allows for differentiation and helps builds my personal relationship with each student. Our daily read-aloud has been an integral part of our classroom. Front Desk has connected to our social studies and science curriculums. It’s provided us discussion points about current human rights issues as well. As we finished this book, several students' comments made my eyes water. “This book has made me actually want to read.” or “When you read to me, I understand books so much better.” Even though we finished this book, I just informed the kids that I obtained a copy of its sequel! We’ll be switching gears with our ELA period next week, but we’ll find a chunk of the day for a simple read aloud, just for enjoyment. In our next ELA unit, we’ll be using a small-group book club approach. Students will be analyzing themes in realistic fiction novels, with special focuses on social and personal issues, and reading for empathy and advocacy. Students ranked their book choices on Friday and we’ll dive into that next week. A new opportunity for us to continue reading aloud, together.
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Elizabeth FerryMs. Ferry's experiences include teaching with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, teaching high school English in Maine, and this is her second year at PNA. She loves moose, outdoor activities, and being with her students. Archives
April 2021
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