Fluency Update

One of the fluency passages I used this week for my students.

We finished our first round of fluency exercises.  After a bit of a rocky start, the last two days they came in from lunch, grabbed their iPads, went to their recording spots and did their fluency read.

We were in the hall walking back to the room and I said, "Fluency then read to self."  Another second grader standing there said, "What is fluency?"  I nodded to one of my students and said, "Tell him."  She said, "Well fluency is when we read the same story again and again so we can get better."

I found a long article online and broke it up into bite size pieces.

Listening to the first read to the last is amazing.  The difference is crazy clear.  One of my struggling students came to me with bright eyes and said, "I got better from the beginning!"  I listened to it with him, and sure enough, he did.

I was looking at their time to see if they got better (shorter time) each read.  I saw that one student took more time than at the beginning.  Curious, I went in and found out that the first time she read it she plowed through it quickly (thinking fluency is speed and I can see how she gets that idea).  By the end she was pausing and expressing and reading with an appropriate cadence.  The numbers do not tell the whole story.

Then I assigned according to each student's ability (as close as I could).

Huge lesson learned:  I have to make sure every student understands all the words in their text.  Because the texts were a stretch for most of them (I didn't want them to be fluent on the first read.  What fun is that?) there were words they did not know how to read and/or comprehend.   A lot of students did not fully understand the text because of that.  I told them to ask me if there were any words they didn't know, but, uh, well, that didn't happen.  I am sure they were thinking, "I just gotta get through this quickly.  No time to stop and ask questions."

Next time I will post a picture of the passage AND a video of me reading it.  No, wait.  During Guided reading on Monday, I will introduce the passage to each group.  Then we will read every day for 4 days and be done on Friday.  That's the plan now.  I may think of something better by then.

I am open to ideas!

Joy in the room
Joy in our hearts

Joy in the learning

Videotaping Yourself (Yikes)

Blogging may help me as a teacher, but here's what I think can REALLY help me as a teacher:

VIDEOTAPING MYSELF

(Yikes!)

I thought I had an awesome lesson I wanted to videotape and so I did.  Spoiler alert: it fizzled and flopped.  

I was bummed and thought why the world did I tape that?  But then I watched it.

Wowzers bajowzers!  From watching that 10 minute video I learned SO much.  I say, "ok" too much.  I sent them out to fly too soon.  I gave (and this is not an exaggeration) lousy directions.  

Very educational.  

Now I have decided that if I see some of the bad, I need to see some of the good (or else it would be a total bummer).  I was very enthusiastic.  I had a great visual.  My kiddos were engaged and with me....until I sent them off (with aforementioned terrible directions).

Note to self: Do that again.

Ironically, one of my students (on her own initiative) decided to videotape on of my lessons later in the day.  THAT was super interesting to watch, because I didn't know I was being taped. 

I've heard it again and again and again and again: Videotape yourself and you will learn so much about yourself as a teacher.  But I just never got around to it.  

It does not take but 1 minute effort to do so.  Just have to remember!  Well, it will take some minutes after school, too, cause you will want to watch it.  

My aha moment for the day.  

PS The thing about having a blog is that I am more aware of what I am seeing, learning, doing, and thinking.  All things that help REFLECTING. 

Joy in the room

Joy in our faces

Joy in learning 

The Fluency Adventure Continues

I am trying round 2 with fluency on Seesaw.  I found a long article about snow.  I took screen shots of the parts of the article.  Then I put them on Seesaw (from the camera roll).  I assigned sections to match with reading abilities.  Then they will record right in Seesaw.  That should work better.  One never knows.  Wish us luck.  

The reason I am not letting them choose their own text is because I want to double dip.  Learn about snow and work on fluency at the same time.  

Reading Fluency in Seesaw

Here is the link to more task cards for Seesaw:

https://ideas.seesaw.me/hc/en-us/articles/115004555103-Seesaw-Task-Cards

Oh Boy --- Today's Yays and Nays

Time for reflection...so, here's the thing.  I need to ask myself why I went to all the trouble to put books into Seesaw and then have the kiddos screencast.  Too many steps for the purpose at hand?

Pros to putting a book in Seesaw for fluency practice as opposed to one page of text

1.  I can pick text that is on their level and they can practice it during the week (uh, you can do that with one page of text...next?)
2. I can make the text thematic. (valid point)
3. If text is too hard, students can just read one or two pages. (yep, also valid)
4. Pictures make it more interesting. (nice but not necessary) 
5. Kids learn how to screencast on an iPad.  :)

Pros to putting one page of text in Seesaw for fluency practice and recording IN Seesaw

1. WAY easier to set up!
2. Not as cumbersome.
3.  If students choose text, it gives them more ownership and autonomy (yikes...my control freak might have been part of the above set up)
4.  More sustainable
5.  Timing more accurate

I guess I should venture into Seesaw to see what they actually did.  Ya think, Jill?  Here goes.  Wish me luck.

------------------------------------------------------------

Why did this happen?  Add that to the list of cons...

And in writing...

...students were matched up to publish their topic (tree ID, photosynthesis, life cycles, or trunks and roots) in any way they choose to do so.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I shouldn't be to discouraged yet.  Here is what I am thinking as I process.

1.  We all need to begin with the end in mind.  They didn't know they would be doing this when they got started learning about trees.  So they were not working towards the end product.

2.  I kinda threw them into the deep water and said "Swim!".  When I asked the students at the end of the day if they liked the choices, 2/3 said yes, 1/3 said no.  

3.  Many were working independently, so the proof will be in the pudding.  BUT I will want the choice to be more structured next time and I want to show more exemplar options.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

via GIPHY

Seesaw Task Cards Rock!

Here are some Seesaw Task Cards! One on fluency!

Fluency

Okay, so here is what I ended up doing to set my students up in Seesaw for fluency practice. 

I set up a picture taking station with a piping thingy that used to be a laundry basket and a table extension from my dining room table.  It also works to use two milk crates and place the book between them and the board over them.  The camera peeks out over the top so you can take a picture of the book without all the wobbling.

High tech photography station

Then I chose 4 books that were in my students' reading ranges.  For each book, I took pictures of the first several pictures (100 words or so).

Then, I put them into Seesaw (You can put several pictures in one post by selecting "Add more pictures" when you are choosing from your camera roll.  Shout out to Dillyn for helping me figure this out.).

I assigned the right books to the right students. Here is what I am going to have the students do:

Here are my directions for my students:

1. Go into Seesaw and click on the Fluency Folder.
2. Open the post you see there for you.
3. Go to your control panel and hold the circle button down 

Hold the double circle down for a few seconds (it is under the camera icon).

This will pop up:

4.  Turn microphone audio ON.
5.  Start recording and go back to Seesaw.
6.  Read the story and record.
7.  Save into Photo Library.
8.  Go to Photo Library and post your video to Seesaw.
9.  We will do this every day for a week.  I am so excited to see how you will grow!

Here is a copy of the directions I will give the students:
Instructions for Seesaw Fluency activity

Let me know if  you try this or have other ideas!
Happy reading!

Fluency

After talking with my curriculum director, I am inspired to crank up fluency practice in my classroom.  My task for now is to create activities on Seesaw with texts from my students' reading levels so my students can practice a text each week every day to increase fluency.  I will have them read it into Seesaw and see how they increase their fluency from Monday to Friday.  

We are starting a unit on snow, ice, and winter.  So my challenge will be to have all the texts connected to that theme.  

Not sure exactly how this will pan out, but I'm gonna go give it a try.  Stay tuned...