Nonfiction in Science

Wow, I cannot believe that it has been two months since I have last blogged.  This school year has been one of the most hectic and stressed that I can remember.  I hope that this feeling of being completely overwhelmed soon disappears!  Anyway, enough of the whining and onward to using nonfiction in science.

I am currently teaching two AIG (gifted) language arts classes, one standard science class, and one inclusion science science.  I am thoroughly loving it all, just hoping that I am doing all four groups justice.

Since my background has mostly been language arts in  middle school, my strengths lie there.  I think that science is the perfect place to teach those nonfiction text features and structures. 

In North Carolina in 7th grade, we teach weather and climate.  My inclusion class was struggling with the concepts associated with the topic. As I was meandering through the picture book section of Barnes and Noble, I stumbled across the book Climate Change by Peter Benoit.  As I sat (yes, in the kiddy section of Barnes and Noble) and read this book to see if it was something I could use, I had many ideas running through my head.  I bought the five copies they had on the shelf and had them order me three more so that my students could work in groups of fours. 

The book is written with several different text structures:  cause/effect, problem/solution, question/answer, and description.  Along with finding these text structures, it had many of the nonfiction text features we have been studying.  Students used their copies of the nonfiction text features cards created by Beth Newingham to identify the parts of the text to make reading it a little easier. 

For one section, students were given enough sticky notes so they would have three per subheading.  While reading each section, students were required to write in their own words three facts/ideas/pieces of information, one per each sticky note. 

Students really enjoyed this activity and seemed to actually learn the information they discovered while reading the book.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did with this activity and how much information they retained after reading. 

As you can see in the pictures below, there are three other adults in the room with this class.  There are an inclusion teacher, a student intern, a one-on-one assistant for two of my autistic students, and myself with 24 students.  Even with that many adults in the room, we feel wiped-out and unsure of any progress after working with that class each day. 



Climate Change by Peter Benoit

Students working on reading and taking notes on their sticky notes in their interactive notebooks.

More note taking...



Intern working with a group of students.

Another groups of students using sticky notes to take notes in their interactive notebooks.

Inclusion teacher working with a group of students reading Climate  Change.

One-on-one assistant working with two of our autistic students.

My group of girls working together to take notes and understand our climate. 



Enjoy and hopefully it won't be another two months until the next post.

Randy

My New to Me Room

Not much to blog about this week other than the overwhelming feeling I have (like many others) about what I am doing and how I am getting it done.  Our state has switched over to Common Core this year, which is great, but I was a trainer for our new Social Studies Essential Standards that roll out this year as well so I missed all of our language arts training sessions.  And to top it off, I am now teaching Science instead of Social Studies - can we say STRESSED?  And another addition...I am also a new (as in recently certified, never done this before) AIG Specialist in 7th grade and am struggling to understand and complete the paperwork for new students placing into the program and meeting with those parents, plus dealing with my own students.  ENOUGH of my whining though!

I was lucky enough to move into one of the newer, more spacious rooms on our campus this year (yeah, add that to all the stress of learning Common Core and Science over the summer).  I teach at a middle school that was an old high school....it does have character with many room having creaky wooden floors, steam radiators for heat, windows that do not open (or close entirely), and very small rooms.  Last year I had 28 - 6th graders in my room.  We had no room for a small group table, well we didn't even have room to sit on the floor.  Any time we needed to do a spread  out, work on the floor, movement type activity - we headed to the hallway!

So, to say the least, I am very lucky to have this new to me room even with its bowling alley shape.  It has a sink, storage, and plenty of room for all 30 of my student desks.  The biggest bonus - no real bulletin boards!  Yay me!  It is a work in progress, since students arrived this past Monday...adjustments will be made to make it more conducive to active learning.  I will be getting a SMARTboard at some point when it arrives - I just hope it doesn't hang out in the room for a couple of months before they get around to hooking it up for our class. 

Without further ado - here are some pictures of  my room!  I tried to make it not quite so prissy, but neat and organized and somewhat color coordinated.  So far, it makes me happy!


Back of room, the only bulletin board type area.  Objectives, assignments, etc on that board.  Also room to work with small groups.

Our dystopian literature circles study - all of our interdisciplinary units are planned around these novels. 

Scientific Method for science (yes, I teach 2 AIG language arts classes and 2 standard science classes).

Nonfiction Text Features reminders - perfect for both language arts and science!  These were found through a pinterest score.  They were created by Beth Newingham and can be found at her Scholastic Blog. Click on her name to go to her site where you can download them for  FREE!

The front of the room.  The board is off center and it drives me crazy (I did not set up this room, I inherited this way).  BUT - there will be a new SMARTboard hanging out on the wall in the near future.  It will be centered on that wall, starting under the flag, so it will work better for all students to be able to see.  Can you tell that I am a huge The Big Bang Theory fan?  One of my students last year gave me that poster for my birthday.

The side wall with the storage and door.  Also...my most fabulous computer stand/teaching desk.  The classroom rules are posted here as well (using an Ikea bar) to create a little artwork on the wall.

Our class/team rules.  At first, this was a great idea I had, but then as I painted and attempted to attach all these frames together I thought this was one of the dumbest ideas I had ever tried.  It looks ok, I know it isn't all straight and such...but I am calling that creativity and character so that my OCD self can deal with it.  If you try this, trust me on this idea - take out the glass and use old school overheard transparencies!  I took out all of the glass before attempting to hang it to make it lighter - so glad I did as it crashed to the ground on the first hanging attempt. 

The wall opposite the door.  It will become my word wall.  Of all the things in my classroom, my word nerd wall poster creation is my absolute favorite!  I put the graphic I purchased with the words and uploaded that to Staples and they had it printed for me before I even arrived at the store. 

 I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek into my classroom.  It will soon not look this neat and clean as these were taken the first day of school before students entered the room.  Thanks for stopping by and feel free to share any ideas you may have to make the room better.

Randy

R & R

Spending a little quality time with friends at Surfside Beach...south of Myrtle Beach, SC for about a week.  After this little get away, I will have two weeks left before starting back to school.  Hard to believe that it is already time to start back to school - must mean that I've had a busy summer. 

I plan to work on interactive notebook ideas for language arts and science when I get back from the beach.  That is, between workshops for school and for the college where I work part-time.  Any ideas or links that anyone would like to share, please feel free - I'm sure that I am not the only one who would love to know about any ISN ideas, activities, or lessons out there for language arts and science.

Enjoy your last few weeks of summer!

Really?  I am so much on vacation that I don't even know where I am...Surfside Beach is in SC...not NC.  But right now, I am too lazy to fix it!

Randy

Semi-Surprise?!?!?!

Well, all good things come to those who wait, right?  My grandfather used to always say "weight is what broke the wagon."  And that is kind of what has happened, waiting for the dust to settle at school has my teaching assignment for the upcoming school year changed yet again - or my joy wagon broken, but only partly. 
When I left school in early June, I would be teaching four science classes.  Then a couple of weeks ago because of my AIG certification, I would now be teaching one language arts class and three science classes.  I can say I wasn't mad about that.

As of yesterday, I will now be teaching two language arts classes and two science classes.  At first, I can honestly say I was slightly disappointed but after some reflecting, realized it was a GREAT plan.

I will be on a four person team with three other AWESOME teachers and because of the certification of two of us, we have worked out a(n) great amazing schedule for our kiddos - kiddos that I love and am very excited to be looping up to 7th grade. The other teacher and I will both teach two language arts classes and two science classes.  We will both be teaching language arts our first two blocks and science our last two blocks - meaning all of our students will be taught language arts before lunch!  This is like a dream to me (us) since they will be fresh in the mornings. 

Yay to the school year starting out on a good note and for a fabulous team that has been assembled.  And the best part, school hasn't even started and we are all working together and in the best interest of our students. 

Explains it all right now!

Surprise!

The end of the school year has finally arrived...it has been quite hectic and stressful.  This has been a great year and I have truly enjoyed my first year in 6th grade AND teaching two subjects.  I was afraid it was going to be an emotional last day of school with these kiddos.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my students and at one point in the year, thought I would be looping up to 7th grade with them, but that plan changed.  And changed, and changed, and well...you get the idea.  A couple of weeks ago I was told I would remain in 6th grade, have a new teammmate and continue to teach language arts and social studies.  I can honestly say I wasn't mad about that idea.

But, things changed this past Thursday.  I found out I WAS indeed moving to 7th grade and I WAS looping with my students.  Great!  That emotional last day didn't happen because I knew we would be together again next year. 

Then the whammy was thrown at me...not only would I need to pack up my old room (I have a lot of stuff, and I had just moved to this room at the beginning of the school year), but would be moving my room next Tuesday.  What? 

On top of that...I would be teaching on a 4 person team...teaching SCIENCE.  Oh my! 

I am excited about the upcoming changes and looping with my students.  The sad part, I will be leaving my SMARTboard behind, which was just installed in February and became operational in March.  I have used that thing almost daily since the day the tech department finally performed that final connection.  As a matter of fact, we started using it before they even left the room.  Maybe they will find the funds to get another one installed in my new room.

So...it looks like I will spend my summer learning all about science (weather, physics, human body, and genetics) in 7th grade.  I will be blog stalking, Pinning, LiveBindering, borrowing, and stealing all that I can this summer.  Any ideas of things any of my followers would like to share, please feel free...I won't be offended!

I know I will continue to use interactive notebooks, found a science interactive notebooking book, and will start out the year with the scientific method, lab safety type stuff.  And we will do several mini labs to get our feet wet. 

Any book titles anyone would like to suggest that may go with my new curriculum would also be greatly appreciated.  I will use the story of Phineas Gage.  I will help the language arts teacher with informational reading this year along with finally learning how to use one of those blue TI numbered something calculators and graphing calculators that I have been afraid of for years. 

I am going to share of couple of pictures of my creation a couple of years ago for my teacher computer/document camera.  Previously, my computer was in the back corner of my room and when I used it, I had my back to the class and couldn't keep an eye on everyone - we ALL know that isn't smart in middle school.  All the classrooms were set up like this!  So I designed this computer stand, had a co-worker's husband build it for me and it has become the buzz of the school.  After using it for a couple of years, there are a couple of tweeks I would make but would NEVER change the idea.  The pictures I am going to include were taken the last day of school this year...after I started packing and moving desks around so they aren't the best.  Hopefully you will be able to see that it was placed in the middle of the back of the classroom.  This way, when I was using the document camera I could see every student.  It may look like it has an odd layout, but I should mention that I am a LEFTY!