Kristen Dembroski, Ph.D.

I have this giant STOP sign that I put in the hallway when we have important announcements or schedule changes to communicate with the students. I found my sign slightly…. altered this morning. Goofballs! Gotta love 8th grade! Bonus points for spelling.

This whole week, my 8th grade students are working on a PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports) Video project. In small groups of 4, they are making short videos about the behavioral expectations at each of the locations within our school. This is the project description they received:

Here is our schedule:

Monday: Introduce project, select groups and stations
Tuesday: Watch model videos on Youtube (Discuss and analyze), learn about iMovie, begin writing scripts
Wednesday: Complete scripts, practice, rehearse for teacher
Thursday: Videotape, begin editing
Friday: Complete editing, submit
Monday: Watch videos as a class

While viewing the videos, we were sure to analyze them for content and cinematic technique. We discussed how they conveyed their message(s), the use of audio, text, and other modes of expression. We discussed DOs (have music in the background, use transition screens with text, insert still photographs, etc.) and DONTs (use too much text, tiny text, long clips, repeat ideas).

It’s probably an overly ambitious schedule, and I actually think we will still be working on this next week. At any rate, they are very motivated and excited, and many students have been emailing staff around the building asking them to stop by and make a cameo in their video. It’s been a great opportunity for connections and relationships. I love how excited everyone is!

The students are taking all of the video and photographs on their iPads, then editing it together in iMovie. iMovie actually has some really easy-to-use options for creating videos, such as the Trailer feature. The transition screens and music are already formatted – the students just have to drag-and-drop their own video and photographs and change the text. Easy Peasy, right?! Who knew!

All I can say is thank goodness for our Technology Coordinator, because she has been just fantastic. She came into the classrooms to give short presentations on how to use iMovie, and she has been helping support our students through the process. She found out that we can use up to 30 seconds of music without violating copyright, and that there is a lot of great, free music (organized by genre) for students to use at http://freemusicarchive.org/

There are 6 classes each creating 9 videos, so the first step will be that the teachers will vote on the best video for each station. These 9 semi-finalist groups will be invited to a pizza party. Then, the whole school (students grades 6 – 8) will vote on the ONE BEST video, and that group will also receive iTunes Gift Cards and have their video featured on the school website. Plus, you know, bragging rights!

This project actually meets many of our Common Core State Standards in addition to being a strong part of our PBIS initiative at our school.

Finally, this is the rubric we created to give students feedback on their final products:

I’ll be sure to add updates and photographs of our progress throughout the week. I can’t wait to get to school today and continue working on this!

It was 30 degrees today, which is a wonderful break from the bitter temperatures of the last few weeks. I took a long walk in the afternoon sunlight – the first in a long, long time. It felt glorious!

We are beginning our new fiction unit this week, which will take us through 3rd quarter. I always like to kick-start the unit by first watching WALL*E to identify elements of fiction and figurative language, then reading a favorite short story “Love” by William Maxwell.

The story is not a happy one, but rather bittersweet. The narrator reminisces about his 5th grade teacher who died at an early age of tuberculosis. He learns hard lessons about love and the ephemeral nature of life.

This is a perfect short story for introducing your students to figurative language and foreshadowing. First, we read the story as a class. Then, there are 8 comprehension questions that require some inferencing and evidence from the text, as well as analyzing quotes for imagery and mood. Finally, I have my students go back to the story and look for figurative language and foreshadowing of Miss Brown’s early departure from this world.

Oh to see the looks on their faces when they start finding all of the hidden clues. Honestly, they were having FUN. Yes, it was like a giant game of iSpy with words instead of pictures. It became a challenge of who could find the most clues.

Then, I project the story on the SMARTBoard and invite students up to the board to underline the examples of figurative language and foreshadowing, as well as explain the 2 layers of meaning for each phrase. All of my students can do this, and some even surprise themselves. Even though the story is a sad one, they are laughing and smiling with confidence as they realize that they can find complexity and meaning in a seemingly simple story.

If you’d like to purchase your own copy of this 2-day activity, click here!

Happy end to week 19! The highlights this week are: The Science of Tubing, Endless Grading, War Horse, WALL*E, and Wordless News. Have a great Friday!

1. The Science of Tubing – If you didn’t catch my post last week, we had a great field trip last Friday. The students completed and turned in their packets this week in Science. They said it was the BEST field trip they’ve ever had. Even though it was educational? Yup, even then.

2. Grading – Uhhhhhggggg – it’s the end of Quarter 2, and I have SO MUCH grading to do! I  know the students worked so hard on their Argument papers, and I am so very proud of them, but I secretly wish Dembrobot could just blow up that pile of papers with his little red laser… The students handed in their Argument papers on Monday, and I have until next Monday to finish grading all 90 of them. The good news is that I only have 3 left – yessss!!!!

3. War Horse – I went to see the Broadway Theatrical production of War Horse this week. I was completely blown away. The puppeteering is mesmerizing! I was particularly amazed at how ‘cinematic’ this production was, replete with slow-motion and lighting effects that rival the silver screen. Particularly captivating was the portrayal of action and movement, even while the ‘horses’ and actors stayed in place.

4. WALL*E – To introduce our new fiction unit, my students are watching WALL*E this week. Oh you should have seen those ecstatic smiles turn right upside down when I announced that we would be watching WALL*E (YAY!)……and ALSO completing a film analysis (boo, hiss, grumble). They were not happy with me. However, we are enjoying watching the film. It’s great to see 13-year-olds completely hypnotized by a Disney film. While watching, they are identifying elements of fiction (setting/mood, character/traits, perspective, plot, and theme) as well as keeping an eye out for symbolism, foreshadowing, and allusion.

5. Wordless News – This week I learned about Wordless News, “a weekday creative ritual starting at 4:45am. Maria gets up, reads the news, sketches, digitizes, and posts an editorial illustration for a selected headline.” This seems like an excellent opportunity for incorporating current events into the Language Arts classroom, as well as an opportunity to discuss and analyze images as multimedia texts. This picture, for example, relates to the NPR article “More Than 300 Sharks in Australia Are Now on Twitter.” In a nutshell, “Government researchers have tagged 338 sharks with acoustic transmitters that monitor where the animals are. When a tagged shark is about half a mile away from a beach, it triggers a computer alert, which tweets out a message on the Surf Life Saving Western Australia Twitter feed. The tweet notes the shark’s size, breed and approximate location.”

Students could view the image and discuss how it relates to a main idea in the news story. They could identify elements in the image that connect to evidence from the story, and use close-reading techniques to provide supporting evidence. Additionally, they can discuss the use of color, size, perspective, and other multimodal elements that are used to convey meaning without the use of text. I think this is such a neat project!

Can you believe it’s almost February? I’ve seen Valentine’s Day items popping up at stores around town, and I suddenly realized it’s only one month away! I have 2 great Valentine’s Day reading activities to share with you.

First, I will share with you a close-reading activity on The History of Saint Valentine’s Day. This 10-page activity includes a 3-page handout about the mysterious history of St. Valentine the martyr, and the evolution of today’s Valentine’s Day holiday. It gives 2 different historical accounts of the Christian martyr’s life and death, plus an explanation of Pagan influence on this celebrated holiday. There is also an explanation of Valentine’s Day as it is celebrated today, and the symbols and traditions around this special day.

This is a close-reading or text-based reading activity because the text is divided into smaller, manageable chunks with follow-up questions after each section. The student must find evidence within the text to answer the questions (following Common Core Standards and language) by highlighting or underlining.

This would be an excellent activity to do with your entire class, or with an intervention group of struggling readers. It would easily align to your Language Arts / English, Social Studies / History, or Religious Studies curriculum as a cross-curricular lesson. You can use this text any time, not just for Valentine’s Day! If you would like to purchase this activity, you can click here.

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The next activity I will share with you is Author’s Purpose Guided Practice for Grades 6-10 a FREE activity. In this activity, students will learn about PIE: Persuade, Inform, and Entertain. Then, they will read 3 sample texts and discuss how each is an example of persuasive, informative, or entertaining writing.

If you enjoy this FREE mini activity and want to purchase a full lesson plan on Author’s Purpose, I also have the Identifying Author’s Purpose full lesson plan.

The Identifying Author’s Purpose activity includes 15 writing samples that students will first identify as either persuasive, informative, or entertaining. Then, they will decide what the author is trying to convince them of (persuasion), inform them of (informative), or entertain them with (entertain). It includes a handout explaining the key features and genres of persuasive, informative, and entertaining (PIE) texts, model/sample writing for each category (3 total). Read and discuss as a class, and guided practice sample writing for each category (3 total). Students can read, discuss, and identify the sample texts in small groups, while they also engage in close reading to determine the type of writing (PIE) and the author’s specific goal.

I hope these activities can help you and your students to engage in some close reading strategies and techniques throughout February!

We had a blast on our annual Science of Tubing field trip. Every year, we go to Sunburst Winter Sports Park and the students engage in a day of science and fun! They are given a packet to complete and 2 hours to calculate data about the hill, mass, friction, average speed, acceleration, work, and power for snow tubing on the hill. They work in small groups, and they are given a spring scale, angle finder, and stop watch. We also used the iPads and downloaded apps like Speed Box, which has a speedometer function. It was the perfect balance of education and fun!

Field trips are wonderful opportunities to teach the ‘Hidden Curriculum.’ We learn how to behave on a bus, behave in public, be responsible for tools and equipment, clean up after ourselves, thank staff for their assistance, and how to have fun in a safe and respectful way. I love having a chance to bond with my students outside of the classroom. Believe it or not, they ask the teachers to join their group, ‘link up,’ and do a tube run with them – just for fun.

The teachers have a lot of fun, too! In fact, I don’t know who has more fun – the students or the teachers! We race kids. We joke and have a great time. We lend students our extra hats and scarves to let them know we care about them. We sing songs on the bus. These are the lasting memories that make school fun and learning possible. These are the memories that make it so hard to say goodbye to them in June! 

Fellow teachers, I am participating in a HUGE Teachers Pay Teachers Resource Giveaway hosted by Teaching High School Math. The giveaway is divided into two parts, and you have the opportunity to win either a Middle School Giveaway Bundle or a High School Giveaway Bundle. These bundles are filled with the highest-quality resources from all subject areas, donated by TOP Teachers Pay Teachers sellers.

For the Middle School Bundle, I have donated my best-selling unit, Finding the Main Idea: GIST Summarizing for 6-12 graders.

You could win a FREE copy of this item!

Summarizing is such a difficult skill for students.
This is a 2-week mini-unit on summarizing and finding the main idea (called finding the GIST) with expository text. I have used this in my classroom for the past 5 years, and students find this worksheet exceedingly helpful in scaffolding their acquisition of this difficult skill. The best part about this unit plan is that you get to choose your own texts, individualized for your own students’ interests and reading levels. I suggest using news articles (especially student news publications), but you can also use content-area texts, websites, textbooks, nonfiction books, etc. The sky is the limit!

This unit includes *TWO* sample articles and summaries to review and discuss with students. One article shows a shorter, 20 word summary, and the other shows a more detailed 30 word summary. Choose which is best for your students!

This meets the Common Core Standards for grades 6-12, and it is a cross-curricular activity.

Includes:
* Common Core Standards Addressed
* Learning Targets
* Lesson Plans
* Worksheets
* 2 Sample Articles
* 2 Sample Summaries
* Student Handout: A Shorter Way To Say…
* Feedback Oreo Poster (How to give constructive criticism)

Read more about this product or purchase it here.

You have from January 10 – 17 to participate and win this HUGE bundle of amazing resources. Go sign up now!

Happy Returns from Winter Break! Week 18 was a short one due to 2 Cold Days, but I will share the highlights nonetheless!

1. Annual Mother-Daughter Chicago Weekend – For the past 19 years, we have had an annual Mother-Daughter Shopping Trip to Chicago. By we I mean my mother, my sister, my mom’s best friend, her daughter, and myself. We get a suite near the Magnificent Mile and spend the weekend shopping, dining, and laughing. We always go right after Christmas to hit up the best sales. I so look forward to this (and save up for this!) every year! Pictured above: The snowy, freezing Magnificent Mile (a little weather never stopped us!), the inside of the Bloomingdale’s Building, Garrett’s Popcorn (a MUST if you’re visiting Chicago), The 5 of us dining at Tavernita, and my favorite purchase of the weekend (on sale at Banana Republic for only $12!).

2. Cold Days – How can this NOT be a highlight? We got TWO Cold Days this week! I stayed warm inside in my jammies, playing with the dogs, baking treats, and working on my dissertation. What a wonderful gift!

3. Best Feedback Ever – I was on Cloud 9 when I received this feedback on my Argumentative Writing Instructional Workbook. What an incredibly kind thing to say!

4. Frog Hunt – Look closely at the pictures above. Do you see the hidden frogs (Hint: There are 3!)? Every year, as part of the 7th grade Science curriculum, our students learn about animal adaptations. One of their projects is to try and hide a frog in plain sight throughout the school by camouflaging the frog’s color. Some are very obvious, and some are very tricky and well-hidden! To incorporate technology this year, the brilliant Science teachers first had the students scout the school and take a photograph of the ‘environment’ where they wanted to place their frog. Back in the classroom, they could color match to their photograph. Isn’t this a great project? I look forward to it every year, as it really adds excitement in the hallways!

5. This Awesome Poster – Doesn’t this just say it all? I love it!

So how was your week? Did you get a Cold/Snow day?

Yeah! I am the Featured Teacher this week over on Lindsay Perro’s Blog! I feel so lucky and blessed! Please go check out her blog – she is a Top Seller on Teachers Pay Teachers, and she has so many fun and exciting math resources to help your class go ‘Beyond the Worksheet!’