6th Grade Egg Fractions!

Walnut 6th Grade Math Co-teacher, Holly Love and Mikayla Kostbahn recently used plastic eggs and egg carton to demonstrate simplification of fractions.  The students then had their own "eggs" and "carton" to draw and demonstrate fractions, as well as to visualize the simplification.  After using Duet Teaching to provide the instruction, the teachers split the room in half and monitored/provided instruction to table groups on whichever side of the room they had identified as their own.

Great visuals for students to "see" the math!!!

6th Grade Language Arts Flip-Flop (Organizational Patterns)

Walnut 6th Grade Co-teachers Ms. Farlee and Ms. Mlinar were teaching Organizational Patterns for Nonfiction this week.  Ms. Farlee taught Sequential to half of the students while Ms. Mlinar taught Compare/Contract to the other half.  Then the students "flip-flopped" and the group that began with Ms. Farlee moved to work with Ms. Mlinar....and the students that began with Ms. Mlinar moved to work with Ms. Farlee.

This was a nice example of engaged students participating in conversation and small group instruction.  Additionally, this type of structure can be done by splitting students heterogeneously or homogeneously.  Ms. Farlee and Ms. Mlinar chose to split students by ability and the content was presented differently based on the students and their needs.

For the lower group, some of the strategies that Ms. Mlinar used included use of a lower lexile passage, as well as color coding text information to help students compare and contrast.  Ms. Farlee used repetition of information, checks for understanding, and using questions to facilitate students' understanding of the content.

Cooperative Learning Activity

Ms. Gilmore and Mrs. Correll (8th grade Math Co-teachers) had students participate in a tactile activator related to proportions and it was done in partnerships.  The students were very engaged in the task.  Also, it was a good use of both teachers as they split the room and each observed half of the students.  Additonally, after one teacher provided instructions, the other teacher followed up with reinforcement which was a good use of both teachers.  Enjoy. 

9th Grade English Review Stations

Engagement at it's finest!  Katy Kurz and Erin Milton (GISH 9th grade Co-taught English) have been reviewing for their upcoming Final, as well as helping students prepare for a unit assessment over Anchor Books.  To set the stage for the crucial next few weeks where students need to push a little harder to succeed, the students were shown a video as an activator.  The video explained the importance of 1 degree of effort and the students and teachers discussed how today's lesson and station work would allow them the opportunity to push themselves just a bit more and find success in the final stretch of the semester here....good conversation!  Enjoy!

This next video shows students working in one of the teacher-led stations and using a scale to self-assess their learning related to the target at that station.  Two stations were teacher led and two stations were independent stations.  A different learning target was written and posted for each station and students were asked to give themselves a scale score at the beginning of the station with regards to the target, and then again at the completion of the station.

This final video shows the students hard at work in each station.

*One teacher-led station had students reviewing writing process and different modes of writing.  They read descriptions of activities one would take when writing an essay (these descriptions were written on ornaments) and then they had to place the description on the correct stage of the writing process (each stage was represented by a Christmas tree with the name of the stage....so ornament descriptors were hung on a Christmas tree).  Then students placed strips of paper with descriptions of the various modes of writing in a stocking that was marked with a different type of essay or mode of writing.

*One teacher-led station had students working on Vocabulary terms by matching them with a definition or description in a game of Go Fish.

*The other two stations were independent stations were students were working on review for anchor books and for the upcoming final.

Middle School Co-taught Stations

Geri Pagel and Tami Williams (Barr Co-taught 8th grade Language Arts) consistently utilize the Station Teaching approach.  It works well for them and their students understand the process because of their consistency.

Yesterday, students were put into 3 stations.  One station dealt with Author's Purpose and the students had activities to do related to that concept.  Another station dealt with identifying nouns and coming up with adjectives to create more descriptive language (as that is the mode of writing they are working on).  The final station included students working on essays and then doing individual conferencing with one of the teachers, referencing the Descriptive Writing rubric and looking at strengths and weaknesses.

The first video shows Geri Pagel giving instructions on each station and then Tami following it up with repetition and visuals reinforcing the directions.  A great example of Duet Teaching.

The next video shows students working in the various stations and conferencing with the teachers about writing.

High School Science Classes Using Scales

GISH has really started using Marzano scales in it's classes.  Two particular co-taught partnerships that I have met with are using them, in particular - Jeff Ehlers and John LeCompte, as well as Bruce Kier and Taylor Montgomery.

Below is a picture of a scale being used in Ehlers/LeCompte's ESP class.  The students color in a bar graph at the bottom periodically with their current self-assessmet and scale score.  The bar graph allows the students to see their growth.

Below is a picture of a tree that Kier/Montgomery are using for students to self-assess on concepts....they have "leaves" with their names on them for each class and students move themselves up on the tree as they give themselves higher scale scores.  

Also, as preparation for the Biology final in Kier/Montgomery's class, students will be going through review stations covering the various chunks of content that they will assessed over.  Prior to the station review, they are going to self-assess themselves with a general scale over each chunk of concept and then will re-assess using the same scale at the end of their review time and prior to the Biology final.  

See the scale and document being used:  

Biology Final Scale

High School Co-taught American History

Flip-Flop WORKS!!!  Montie Fyfe and Sarah Luther did a Flip-Flop co-teaching approach in American History at Grand Island Senior High today.  The concept was "The Progressive Era" and "Theodore Roosevelt."  Even though Mrs. Luther is not a History Teacher, she is able, as the specialist, to take the content and chunk it into more digestible pieces.  She starts with the students that need it broken down a little more, while Mr. Fyfe provides a bigger picture of the content.  Then they "flip-flop."  The students that started with the big picture and Mr. Fyfe, now get to have some good conversation with Mrs. Luther about smaller chunks of the content, while Mrs. Luther's first group is more prepared to go hear the big picture of The Progressive Era with Mr. Fyfe.

As you watch the video, you will observe that it is feasible to do this structure within the same classroom and with a group of social high school students.  The first video shows the students getting into the 2 small groups for instruction (at the prompting of Mrs. Luther).  And the second video shows that in spite of being in the same classroom, students were attentive and on target, paying attention to only the teacher that they were grouped with.

Small Group Instruction works!!!

Thanks Mr. Fyfe and Mrs. Luther!!!

Video 1

Video 2