I am in the midst of one of those super busy weeks at work: parent conference week. If you are already finished with parent conferences, lucky you. Tuck these tips away for the next season of super busy weeks. But if you’re in the midst of what can be “hell week”, read on — you need these tips to survive the week!
To clarify “hell week” for parents who are reading this: teachers do find it extremely valuable to meet with parents to discuss children’s progress, strengths, and needs. And we are grateful for any teacher workdays that might be designated for parent conferences. But generally, parent conference week simply means: keep doing all the usual stuff you’re always doing for good teaching but add on meeting with 20+ sets of parents. So it is a super busy week and the first thing to be cut from the to-do list is anything related to self-care.
Big mistake. You have to take care of yourself first and pace yourself to get through the week. If you don’t, you are almost guaranteed to get sick soon afterward and that will cause even more stress.
Here are 10 self-care tips that take 5 minutes or less:
1 – DEEP BREATHING
Step into your office, a closet, the restroom, the hall — anywhere you can be alone for a minute or so. Take a moment for 4 (or more) belly breaths. Here’s how: Place one hand on your stomach (below your ribcage) and one hand on your chest. Breathe in through your nose and allow your belly to expand (the hand on your chest should not move). Breathe out through your mouth, releasing all the air.
Another breathing technique that helps: the 4-7-8 breathing technique. Here’s how to do it: Place your hands on your stomach and your chest, similar to belly breathing. Breathe in slowly for 4 seconds. Now hold your breath for 7 seconds. Then breathe out for 8 seconds, completely releasing the air. Do this for 4 (or more) breaths.
2 – HYDRATE
Drink some water or make a cup of tea. Here are some of my favorite teas: vanilla chai,
3 – MEDITATE OR PRAY OR BOTH!
The apps Headspace and Calm both have short meditations you can do in three minutes or less. Saying a prayer of gratitude and asking for strength, energy, guidance, whatever you feel you need right now will help calm you and remind you that you are not alone.
4 – DO A QUICK YOGA POSE OR STRETCH
Try tree pose, warrior pose, standing forward bend, downward dog or crescent pose. Or all of the above! You don’t have to be in fitness clothes to do them.
5 – GO OUTSIDE
Get a few minutes of fresh air, sunlight, and views of anything outside that cheers you and makes you feel calm. Bonus points for doing some deep breathing outside!
6 – WRITE THINGS DOWN
Make lists of what you need to do or what you want to do this weekend. Write whatever comes into your head. Write what you are worried about. Just write. You don’t have to keep what you wrote. The value is in just getting it out of your head and onto the paper.
8 – LISTEN TO MUSIC
It might be a pump-up playlist, a calming/focus playlist, or any type of music that you enjoy.
9 – PLAN SOMETHING
Some ideas: what you want to do this weekend, dinner menus for next week, some fun things you want to do in your classroom soon, some books you want to read. Planning gives you something to focus on and look forward to while also helping you to feel more control.
10 – LOOK AT PICTURES OF SCENERY OR PEOPLE YOU LOVE
Scroll through photos on your phone or computer, scroll through your own Instagram feed or another Instagram feed that you enjoy. Search for images of whatever kind of nature or scenery that makes you feel happy and calm.
There you have it! Ten tips that take less than five minutes. Try one and let me know if it helps!
This is a super busy time for teachers. You might wonder, “when is it NOT a super busy time?”. But somehow the demands of the end of a grading period, with all the last-minute papers and tests to grade, report cards to create, prepping for parent conferences, plus the usual planning and teaching and just plain living your life and — you are ready to drop.
So what do you do? And what should you NOT do? I offer the following suggestions as a way to preach to myself, since I need these tips now more than ever after the week I have had! I hope they will help you too.
*DO use little bits of time throughout the week for prep work and grading papers. Even if you only have five minutes, get started on some school tasks you need to do. I used to be the worst about this. Instead of getting started on something, I would think that I needed some giant block of time to get it all done. The problem is that those giant blocks of time never seem to happen. Somehow, getting started on a big task, even if you have to stop after a few minutes, makes it much less daunting to come back to later on.
*DON’T spend all weekend on school stuff. The only time to make an exception to this rule is at the beginning of the year when you have lots of room prep, planning and meetings. I’ve also been guilty of this at report card time (uh, like now). But, in general, I take at least one full day “off” from doing any school work whatsoever. If you have your school email on your phone, turn it off for the weekend. If you want to use some weekend time to do some work, try to set a start and stop time so that you won’t ever feel as if you spent all your precious weekend time working on school tasks.
*DO stay hydrated. Drink half your body weight in ounces of water every single day. Consider filling a large water bottle like a Swell bottle or Hydroflask and try to drink all of it during a school day. Benefits of staying hydrated include: enhanced energy levels and brain function, prevention and treatment of headaches, relieves or prevents constipation, helps you lose or maintain your weight because it makes you feel full and it boosts your metabolism, keeps your skin healthy and supple, and it cleans your body from the inside out.
*DON’T forget to use the bathroom. While you are staying hydrated, you’ll need to use the bathroom more frequently, but that is a good thing! If you’re worried about that during the school day, think of who could watch your class while you take a break and enlist their help. Make sure you use the bathroom before school, at the beginning and/or end of your prep or planning period, at the beginning and/or end of your lunch/recess period, and at the end of the day.
*DO make a to-do list. But make it smart. Divide your list into times of day (before school, during prep/planning period, during lunch/recess, after school). Then list your tasks during the time when it’s best to complete that task. This is a great re-usable to-do list tool from Kristen at Easy Teaching Tools on TPT.
*DON’T check email before you get down to the business on your to-do list. Yes, email is important and yes, you do need to check it. But YOU get to choose the best time of day for you to check and respond to email. If you check it right at the beginning of every one of your work time blocks, you will then spend all your time just responding to email and never getting to the tasks that you planned to get done during that time.
*DO keep a running list of projects or things you would like to do in your classroom. You will hear about different ideas from other teachers, see something you would like to try on someone’s social media feed, and hear tips from teachers. Write it all down! Even if you don’t get to it any time soon, the idea is safely stored on your list for when you might want to try it out.
*DON’T be afraid to drop some tasks off that to-do list or off that running project list. Sometimes what seemed like a good idea at the time might not actually be the best idea for you or for your class. So just drop it. You really do not have to do everything!
*DO spend some amount of time exercising every single day. It doesn’t have to be an hour at the gym. It might be 15 minutes of yoga poses, a 30-minute walk, a streaming workout in the early morning or after school. Just spend time on your own physical health every single day.
*DON’T stay late at school every single day. You might plan to do that on one or even two afternoons a week. But that’s it. You deserve to have a life outside of school, even if all you do is go home and crash on the couch and watch Netflix. That is your time and you get to relax and enjoy it.
*DO consider trying intermittent fasting. It’s amazing to me how much time this eating plan saves me every single day. For one thing, I don’t have to prep all the food I used to bring to school for lunch and a few snacks. For another thing, I am much more energized when I am not digesting food. I know it can sound scary at first, but intermittent fasting is a healthy lifestyle choice. You can read more about how I got started HERE.
*DON’T wait to schedule all of your medical and dental appointments for summer. Schedule them around your school schedule or take a day off and fit in several appointments on one day.
*DO listen to music that inspires you or pumps you up. Do this on the way to and from school and during the school day, at appropriate times.
*DON’T forget to take deep breaths throughout the day. Set a reminder on your computer or your phone. Leave a sticky note on your laptop screen or your clipboard. Take ten long, slow, deep breaths. Make your exhale longer than your inhale.
*DO eat more protein and complex carbs (vegetables & fruit) than simple carbs. Keep a stash of protein bars, almonds, baby carrots and apples at school. And remember the all-important teacher snack: popcorn!
*DON’T forget to focus on all the good you DID do today, even if it was not your best day. List three good things you did or three positive moments from your day, every day. You can actually write these down or just reflect on them as you are driving home.
*DO smile more! It relieves stress, improves your mood, boosts your immune system, lowers blood pressure, and releases positive endorphins in your body.
*Don’t forget to be grateful. Similar to finding the good you do every day, think of three to five things for which you can be grateful. Use a gratitude journal to jot these down, find a cute notebook, use Rachel Hollis’s START TODAY JOURNAL, or use an app like the 5-Minute Journal.
*DO have a short, positive interaction with someone you do not usually interact with during your day. It might be a student in another class, a teacher you do not ordinarily see, or another staff member. Building a positive community makes you feel good.
*DON’T stay connected to technology all day long. Disconnect for some period of time every day. No email, texting, social media, or phone.
*DO take a mental health day from time to time. Mental health is just as valuable as physical health and counts as taking a “sick day.” Plan for it in advance. Find quality lesson plans on Teachers Pay Teachers or plan for engaging activities your students can do that will be a productive use of learning time.
*DON’T grade everything your students produce. Some things are valuable just for the practice and don’t need you to even look at it. Other things are worthy of a checkmark system (check plus if they went over and above, check if they completed it and it is mostly correct, check minus if they did not complete the work or they need more instruction). Walk around with a checklist on a clipboard during student work/practice time and record those checkmarks. Make a note of who you will pull for further instruction. Use one or two math practice problems as your “exit ticket” to see who understands and who needs help.
*DO say no. You can’t do everything and be everything other people want you to be. Turn down volunteer opportunities or anything that does not make you happy. Try saying, “Thank you for thinking of me, but I can’t add one more commitment at this time” or try saying, “My family needs me right now and I can’t add one more outside commitment.” Who can argue with either one of these statements?
*DON’T stay up too late. Just go to bed. The work will be there in the morning and everything will look more manageable and do-able after a good night’s sleep.
*DO stretch and stand up and walk around as much as possible during the school day. Don’t just save physical exercise for something you do outside of school.
*DON’T forget your hobbies and other things you just plain enjoy doing. Even if you can’t devote the time you would like to devote to your hobby, spend a few minutes every day or a longer block of time every week doing what you enjoy.
*DO leave work at work as often as you can. Aim for one day a week and build up from there. This may mean that you try to use your time as effectively as possible while you are at school, but it also might mean that you think seriously about what really needs to get done and what can wait. When you do take work home, try to only take tasks that you truly enjoy doing. For me, that means reading an education book or article that gives me ideas, doing some planning, researching something online. It does NOT mean grading papers.
*DON’T forget to get sunshine and fresh air. Get outside as often as possible. This might mean recess duty or just walking outside for a few minutes. It also might mean leaving school early enough to enjoy some time outside. With the change from daylight savings time, it’s more important than ever to get some sunshine every day.
*DO listen to podcasts or books on Audible. Sometimes it’s good to just take in someone else’s words and thoughts by listening to other voices.
*DON’T forget to show love and appreciation and gratitude. This might mean prayer, writing in a gratitude journal, writing letters or notes to people you love, sending a text, making a phone call, leaving a note for someone. Sharing your love and appreciation and gratitude with others makes you feel good and brings all that positivity back to you.
I hope you can try some of these ideas today! Let me know what you try and what works for you!
This is the time of year where the honeymoon is over (see my post about that HERE), but many routines are underway. If you’re a teacher, you get to take a breath before the busy season of completing report cards and holding conferences with families.
How can you take care of yourself while ensuring you have energy for the next wave of busy tasks? Here are 25 tips.
1 – Keep eating those fruits and vegetables. I read somewhere that if you eat 8-10 servings of fruit and vegetables every day, it’s almost impossible to get sick. I don’t know if that’s true, but I think it’s worth a try! Try to have vegetables at every single meal.
2 – Stay hydrated. Drink 8 – 10 cups of water every single day. Flush all the bad stuff out of your body!
3 – Work on getting seven hours of sleep. This one is the hardest for me because I tend to stay up to finish “one more task.” I’m trying to tell myself to just put it away and go to bed. See tip #13 below.
4 – In addition to all the “teacher reading” you may need to do, find a good book that either entertains or inspires you.
5 – Pay attention to what you watch on TV. Shows with depressing or “heavy” plot lines, true crime shows or movies, and cable news can all just add to your stress. Find some other, more “feel good” shows or movies to watch instead.
6 – Add flowers or a plant to your classroom. I started out the year with a plant, but it didn’t last long since I don’t get enough sun in my classroom. Now I’m sticking to inexpensive bouquets of flowers from Trader Joe’s or my local grocery store.
7 – Speaking of light, can you add some inexpensive lamps to areas around your classroom? Here are some great options on Amazon: tabletop lamp or a floor lamp.
8 – Change up your workout. Try something new that you have been wanting to try. Consider adding some yoga poses and more walking throughout the day.
9 – Make some plans that you can look forward to. This might be something for the holidays or something a little closer to the current date. It might be something big or just a short errand to a place you enjoy but don’t always go.
10 – Get your hair cut or colored or get a manicure or pedicure. Or all of the above!
11 – Can you add a new cardigan or scarf or piece of jewelry to your wardrobe?
12 – Clean something out. It might be your car, your purse, your pantry, a cabinet at school. Get rid of as much as you can. Enjoy looking at one orderly area. It gives you motivation and momentum to do more!
13 – Do a brain dump of all the things you are doing well right now. As an Enneagram 3, I am always thinking about what I need to do better or how I need to do more. But I am trying to be more mindful about what I am doing right!
14 – Speaking of being mindful, set up a daily quiet time/prayer time/meditation practice. Start with just three minutes and build up to 15 minutes.
15 – Watch out for negativity. It affects you and drags you down more than you probably realize. Pay attention when you feel down or discouraged. Then look back at what or who you were paying attention to before you started feeling down. If it’s watching the news, stop watching it for a period of time. If it’s scrolling Instagram and feeling inadequate, stop scrolling Instagram for a few days. (Or unfollow the accounts that make you feel insecure.) If it’s hearing other people complain in the mailroom or break room, avoid going in that room at busy times or get out as quickly as you can!
16 – Go shopping in your closet. Clean it out, reorganize, see if you can find new outfit combinations!
17 – Shop for a new planner for the next year. My favorite is the Erin Condren Life Planner, but there are lots of other good ones out there.
18 – Think about your morning routine and evening routine how you might make those times of day more of a calm, orderly, self-care part of your day See my posts HERE and HERE.
19 – Change something, but take the smallest of baby steps. If you want to go to bed earlier, try going to bed just five minutes earlier. When you have that down, go to bed ten minutes earlier. If you want to cut down on coffee or soda, cut back by just one cup or glass. If you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, add just one more serving today. Those small changes add up and lead to big change. If you want to read more about making these small changes for big results, see my posts about The Five Second Rule HERE, Atomic Habits HERE, and The Slight Edge HERE.
20 – Try something new. It might be a new workout or a new hobby. Start small, but start doing something that makes you happy.
22 – What can you cut from your schedule? What makes you feel overwhelmed? Could someone else help with that task or can you delegate it or give it up altogether?
23 – Change up your home decor for fall. Take a look at how you might rearrange objects (or furniture!). Buy some scented candles like this one or this one. Add a dried flower arrangement for fall like this or this. Buy some different throw pillow covers for your couch or a chair. Some cute options are HERE, HERE and HERE. Add touches of orange and yellow or black around your house. Here are some favorite fall items on Amazon: table runner, decorative pumpkin, plush throw blanket, wall sign, and buffalo check napkins.
24 – Write with colored pens! Flair pens are my favorite.
25 – Keep a gratitude journal. This is similar to my suggestion about making a list of what is going well. Just list five things daily for which you are grateful. While there are always things we can do to improve and ways we want to do better, we can also be grateful for where we are and what we already have.
I hope you found an idea or two that will help you take care of yourself during a busy fall season. Please share your own ideas!
What do you do when your students (or your own children) are reading below grade level?
First, check on what you might need to do to get a further evaluation for a possible learning disability. Early intervention is key.
But what about the students who either did not qualify for exceptional children’s services or who are not making progress in reading?
Two things that I think are critical for children who are reading below grade level:
1 – check for underlying phonological awareness needs
2 – build background and content knowledge.
I’ll write about building background and content knowledge in a later post.
But what about phonological awareness? This book has influenced my thinking: Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick. I will be using the interventions from this book with some of my readers this year.
HOW TO ASSESS PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
The first step is to administer the PAST (Phonological Awareness Skills Test) assessment with each student. This test is intended to be an informal, individual assessment. The skills tested are skills that most students should have mastered in earlier grades (such as phoneme deletion and substitution). We all know, however, that there is a big difference between “should have mastered” and “actually mastered.”
To administer the test, you will need chips for the segmentation part. The entire test is given orally, and each section should take no longer than 3-4 minutes.
Since I teach fifth grade, I use this guide to give me the suggested starting points. I use the grade three guidelines for where to begin assessment of my lower-level readers.
THREE MOST IMPORTANT READING ASSESSMENTS
Dr. Marnie Ginsberg of Reading Simplfied has a great blog post HERE about why we need to collect information from these brief assessments.
She says:
“In the U.S., for instance, nearly 65% of 4th grade readers are NOT proficient in reading. Teachers of these struggling readers are likely aware that these students aren’t “on grade level.”
However, they are rarely well-informed as to WHY their students aren’t on grade level. We give yearly, and sometimes quarterly, comprehension tests, but these assessments do not explain where the students’ reading weaknesses lie.
Comprehension tests merely give an indication of a child’s overall reading ability or performance.
But these reading tests give almost no information to inform instruction.
Is the child behind because of:
*limited reading practice?
*poor decoding?
*lack of comprehension strategies?
*weak vocabulary knowledge, or
*poor word recognition?
These and other sub-processes are all possible causes of students’ reading achievement struggle. But a comprehension test alone will not determine which problem, or problems, are the root trouble.
Again, this is a problem. It’s like we’re sending teachers out on the ocean near a rocky coast with no lighthouse for miles.”
Marnie says that the three most important tests to give are these:
1 – a nonsense word reading test (to check the reader’s sound-based decoding ability)
2 – a word identification test (to check how many words a reader can recognize by sight)
3 – a fluency test (to check reading rate, reading with expression, and phrasing).
For those three important tests, here are some links to assessments you could use:
1 – a nonsense word reading test from Dyslexia International
3 – a link to ReadWorks for getting passages to check a student’s fluency. How to select a passage? Once you know the grade level of the student’s sight word recognition (from the San Diego Quick Assessment), choose a passage from ReadWorks that is one grade level below. (For example: if the student recognizes words at the third-grade level, select a second-grade level passage to assess fluency.) You want the student to recognize most of the words quickly so that you can accurately measure how many words correct they can read in one minute to test their fluency.
Here is a good fluency reading scale to help determine if a child’s fluency is the reading issue.
Marnie goes on to explain that you might not have to administer all three assessments. Since sound-based decoding is the foundation for other reading skills, we should check that first (with the nonsense word reading test). If the student has trouble with that test, then most of our intensive instruction will start there.
If the student is a good decoder, then the brain can do the work of remembering how words look by automatic recognition. We can test that with the word identification test. If the student has trouble with that test, then most of our intensive instruction will start there.
Marnie says:
“Thus, if a child has poor sound-based decoding and poor word identification, I’m not really concerned about his fluency for now. If I’m pressed for time, I won’t even measure his reading rate. Instead, I would focus relentlessly on his sound-based decoding skills using activities like Switch It, Read It, and Sort It, and lots of guided reading.
As decoding is shored up, word identification gradually improves. Once a student has sufficient knowledge of the code and strong decoding skills, she just needs reading practice to learn to recognize more and more words by sight automatically.
Similarly, fluency will follow along later after word identification, with wide reading and re-reading of short selections.
Thus, most students with a reading difficulty should at least be given a nonsense word reading test to examine their sound-based decoding. In K-3, I would give all my students a nonsense word reading test, actually.”
I am learning more about Marnie’s work by participating in her Reading Simplified Academy.
Another great resource person that I highly recommend is Jen Jones of Hello Literacy. Here is a link to her page on Facebook and a link to her Teachers Pay Teachers store.
MY GAME PLAN
For the students in my below grade level reading groups, I am administering the PAST to check their phonological awareness skills. I will use the interventions in Equipped for Reading Success to address those needs. After the PAST (which takes about five to ten minutes per student), I will administer the nonsense word reading test. If my students do well with that, I will administer the San Diego Quick Assessment. We may not even need the fluency assessment yet.
What will I do once I have all this assessment data? Stay tuned for a future post about how I am structuring those guided reading sessions!
There are many kids who CAN read but do not necessarily CHOOSE to read. For both parents and teachers, that can be more frustrating than any other reading issue. Here are nine ideas for how to help unmotivated readers.
Disclaimer: nothing works for everyone. This is a big collection of ideas. Pick and choose an idea to try and if it doesn’t work (or if it stops working after a period of time), try something else! But keep giving your readers the clear message that reading matters, that they will get better at it and learn to love it, and that you are here to help them do that.
1 – Take note of what they do during reading. This goes for both parents and teachers. When it’s time for independent reading, pretend to be doing something else (reading yourself, working on something) and just watch the student. You don’t have to watch them the whole time but check on them every few minutes. What are they doing? Are they staring into space, mindlessly turning the pages, looking around or looking back at you? Or do they appear to be engaged with their book?
2 – If they are engaged with their book, have a chat with them when the reading time has ended. This is not an interrogation, just an opportunity to find out what they are thinking about as they read.
Here are some starter questions for fiction:
~why did you choose this book?
~are you enjoying the book? Why or why not?
~what’s happening so far?
~what do you think might happen next?
~tell me about the characters. Who is your favorite? Who is a character that you don’t like?
~what is the problem or challenge in the story? What is a character doing to solve the problem?
~does this book remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen?
Here are some starter questions for nonfiction:
~why did you choose this book?
~what did you already know about this topic before you started reading this book?
~what have you learned so far?
~what is something interesting you’ve found so far?
~what are some things you are wondering about as you read?
~what are some things you want to know more about as you read this book?
~have any parts been confusing to you?
3 – If they are not engaged with their book, find out why. Here are some questions to ask:
~how are you feeling about your book?
~why did you choose it?
~is it what you thought it would be?
~are there too many big words to break down?
~do you understand the meanings of all the words?
~do you understand what is going on in the story?
These questions help the student identify exactly what is not “working” for them with this book. Then you can offer to help them find something they want to read and that they are able to read independently. The next tip will help with that.
4 – If students tell you that they can’t find anything they want to read, try asking some questions to help identify what they might enjoy reading.
Here are some questions to try asking:
~what is the best book you’ve ever read?
~what makes a book perfect for you?
~is there a genre that you enjoy?
~what is your favorite movie or TV show?
~how do you usually get ideas for what to read next?
Melissa at Imagination Soup has great suggestions for books for kids. She creates lists by age and interest. This is my go-to list whenever I am looking for book suggestions for my students.
Amazon is another great resource. If kids tell you that they like a certain book or certain series, try typing “books like _______” in the search bar to get some suggestions!
5 – One of the very best ways to help your students or children become readers is to model being a reader yourself. For parents — read when you’re children are reading. Read whenever you can and make it clear to your child that you do all kinds of reading, in different formats, all day long. Tell them how you read for a purpose (to get information, to learn how to do something) and that you read for pleasure. For teachers — tell students about what you are reading. Use the same suggestions for parents above. Make it clear that reading is not only necessary but pleasurable. Most important for both parents and teachers: read aloud to your child, even after they can read themselves.
6 – If you’re wondering about reading levels and which leveling system correlates with other leveling systems, here is a handy chart from Jennifer Serravallo:
7 – Help students notice when they are “fake reading” and how to get back on track. The first step is to de-mystify it by admitting that all readers fake read sometimes. What the best readers do is to notice when it is happening and to use strategies to get back on track with their reading.
Some strategies for getting back on track when you catch yourself fake reading:
~stop and think about what you’ve been reading (see more about this strategy below);
~take a stretch break;
~change position or get comfortable;
~go back and reread (a few paragraphs or a few pages — until you find the last part you actually remember reading).
8 – Encourage students to “stop and think” frequently while they are reading. This helps them be more reflective about their own understanding of what they read and helps them notice if they need to go back and re-read a section. “Stop and think” is my favorite reading strategy because it works with all kinds of reading, with any genre, and with both text-based and online reading.
What to “stop and think” about?
Here are some suggestions for fiction:
~what is happening in this part?
~which characters are in this part and what are they doing and saying?
~what is the challenge or issue they are trying to work on?
~how are the characters changing or adjusting?
Here are some suggestions for nonfiction:
~what was this section about?
~how did this information fit with what I already know or what I have already learned?
~what are my questions or wonderings?
~what are some new words I read and what do I think they mean?
9 – Encourage students to set goals for their reading. Here are some ideas.
~Decide how many pages they want to read each day. Place a sticky note on their “stopping point”. They can choose to read past that point, of course, but reading at least that many pages would be the goal.
~Increase the amount of time spent reading by a certain amount each day. Adding on just five more minutes tends to be an achievable goal.
~Stop and break down words that are tricky to read (instead of skipping them).
~Reread a part or read it out loud to work on fluency (both reading rate and reading with expression).
~Visualize what you are reading. Some teachers call this “making a movie in your mind.” Picture the characters and the events as they are happening.
~Notice when that “movie in your mind” stops. Go back and reread until you can start picturing the events again.
~Keep track of the characters in a book by keeping a sticky note in the front of the book. List character names and how they are related to the main character (brother, aunt, friend, etc.).
~Think about how the characters interact with each other. What is going on between them that the author might not be telling you? (“Reading between the lines” or making an inference.)
~Think about what the big life lessons might be in the book.
~Think about the social issues that characters might be facing (discrimination, sexism, prejudice, etc.).
~Summarize a section you read in a nonfiction text.
~Think about several sections you read in a nonfiction text. What are the big ideas about the topic.
~Stop and think about what words might mean (instead of just skipping over them).
~Stop and break down big words (instead of just skipping over them).
~Talk to someone about what you read today.
~Write about something you read today.
These strategies are good for students who CAN read but may not always CHOOSE to read. If you suspect a bigger problem with reading, you might need to do a more in-depth assessment. In my next posts, I’ll give you some ideas for what to do.
Student behavior is typically pretty good at the beginning of the year. Students are settling into a new classroom with a new teacher and possibly with different students in their class. Most things go fairly smoothly for the first few days. Some veteran teachers refer to this as the “honeymoon” period.
So what happens when the honeymoon is over?!
Any number of things. You might see more off-task behaviors, more “chattiness”, more neglectful or sloppy work, more defiance, more bullying or harassing behaviors.
What to do? Here are 13 tips.
1 – Review your expectations and your routines. You might even break it down to parts of your day, such as morning work, transitioning to literacy block, changing classes, transitioning to lunch, etc.
For each part of the day, list what you expect students to do. Make a checklist of these expectations and review with your students. You might get students to make a chart of these routines/expectations.
Another idea is to make Google slides of each of these parts of your day and display the slide during the appropriate part of the day. I’m working on doing that right now.
2 – Monitor during transitions to be sure that your expectations and routines are being followed. Redirect and remind those who are not following the expectation (by referring to the written list) and reinforce those who are doing it “right.”
3 – Put your discipline plan into action with as little emotion as possible. De-escalate situations by refusing to engage with the student when they are emotional. Simply state the expectation that the student is not meeting and remind them of what you expect them to be doing. If they fix it, fine. If not, they need to be removed from the source of the “fun” (go to “time out”, even if you don’t actually call it that). If it continues after those two chances to reset, they need to write a reflection of some sort. You might make a form for this and call it a “think sheet” or a “reflection.”
This written reflection should go home with the student to be signed by a parent or guardian. If the behavior continues, it’s time for you and the student to make a phone call to the parent/guardian. Have the student do most of the talking on the phone, explaining what the expectation is and what they are doing that is causing the problem.
After trying all of these steps, and if the behavior continues, it’s time for an office discipline referral.
Please note that all of these steps are for routine classroom discipline issues. If students are fighting, using profane or racist language, or if a student is so emotionally charged that they or others are in danger — that is an automatic call to the office for help.
4 – Have a private conversation with students who are having issues with behavior. Meet with them at a quiet moment, when other students are not around. Ask them questions about how things are going for them and ask if they are having any problems that you can help with. They may or may not open to you. After giving them a chance to talk, start a conversation about their problematic behaviors by telling them what you notice. Try not to sound accusatory — just an objective observer. Ask them what they notice. Many times, they will agree with you and say that they know they are doing these things as well. Then calmly explain to them why this behavior is a problem and how it is hurting them (not you). Ask if they have any ideas for how to solve the problem.
5 – Use dialogue journals to touch base with your students on a regular basis. In my classroom, students are allowed to write to me in their journal any time they want. I do set aside time on Fridays for them to write, just to ensure that everyone truly had a chance to tell me whatever they want me to know. I then write back to students, usually writing in about five journals a day. Here is a link to my post with more about these journals.
6 – Implement morning meeting or restorative practices circles. While nothing works overnight, this practice will ultimately be a game-changer in your classroom. It is a proactive way to help all students feel “seen” and feel a sense of belonging to a classroom community. When anyone feels connected to a community, they tend to want to act in ways that protect that community.
7 – Change their seats. Especially if they have been in the same spots since the beginning of the year. I typically change seats about once a month. For students who have been following expectations, I try to seat them with at least one of their friends. (Although sometimes the reason they have been following expectations is that they are NOT sitting with their friends — use your best judgment!)
8 – Continue to look for ways to connect with every student. Use restorative practices circles. Find a moment or two in the day to speak to a child about something you know about them (how their sport participation is going, how their pet is doing, how a family member is doing, etc.). Pull them aside to tell them something you appreciate about them or something positive you noticed that they are doing.
9 – Greet students at the door daily. This makes such a huge difference in making every student feel “seen” and cared for. It also helps you to gauge the student’s mood and feelings before the day begins.
10 – Say goodbye at the door daily, for the same reasons! Even if the day was not a positive one for the child, touching base as you say goodbye helps remind them that you care about them and that tomorrow is another day and with another chance for a fresh start.
11 – Make a kid notebook — use a binder or a simple notebook with a page for every child in your class. Just list bullet points of what you notice about individual students. If you have your students share things about themselves early in the year as a way of getting to know each other, jot down notes about what they share. This gives you a lot of information about your students’ interests and great ideas for how to incorporate their interests into your planning.
If you want to take this a step further, you could “kid watch” four or five of your students every day. I jot down their names on a sticky note and attach it to the clipboard that holds my daily plans. Throughout the day, I watch those particular students more closely and jot down some noticings, also on sticky notes. (I think that I personally keep the sticky note manufacturers in business.) I can then transfer those sticky notes to my kid notebook. Every two or three weeks, I scan through my kid notebook and reread notes I’ve made and add more notes if needed. This really helps me stay on top of what is going on with all of my students, not just the ones who “ask” for attention.
12 – Daily Check-ins — If you have “morning work” time in your schedule, consider creating a daily check-in. Some teachers make paper copies of this (you can print two of these on each page), but I prefer using a Google form. This sends data to a spreadsheet and allows me to see students’ feedback at a glance. Here is a link to a sample form.
13 – Monthly or Quarterly Check-ins — At least once a quarter (or maybe once a month), try giving your students a survey to check in on how everything is going for them. This gives them a chance to give you feedback and allows you to make changes that will benefit all of your students. I always get a lot of information from these surveys that I might not otherwise have known. I use this survey from Jennifer Gonzalez at Cult of Pedagogy.
Nothing works all the time or with every student. But I hope that at least one of these tips will be helpful to you. I’d love to hear your ideas!
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
