A Look Back at Personal Narratives

We are finally coming to the end of our first writing unit of the year.  The students have been working hard on writing personal narratives, which are true (or mostly true) stories that feature themselves as the main character.  The first part of the unit involved the students collecting ideas and moments from their lives that could be written like a story.  They learned several strategies for developing their personal narrative writing, including:

• Narrowing a topic from a "big watermelon," a broad, general topic such as "my trip to California" or "My dog" into a "small seed," which is a more specific moment in time - for example, instead of "my trip to California," the topic could be "my first time surfing" or "meeting Mickey Mouse at Disneyland." 
• Generating lists of ideas and then writing entries off of those lists.  The students thought of people, places, or objects that mattered to them, made lists of times spent with those people, places or objects, and then selected items off their lists to write entries in their Writers' Notebooks.  
• Generating ideas from the first times and last times they experienced things.  
• Understanding that their narratives didn't have to be about something huge that happened in their lives; just something that had some significance to them.  

Next, it was time for the students to choose a topic that they would expand into a published piece.  Students were encouraged to look back over their entries and look for repeated ideas; things they wrote about more than once.  The choice of a topic was not one to be taken lightly.  After they settled on a topic to write on, the students began the process of drafting.  During this bend in the road, the students learned ways to:

• Study published writing to get ideas for how to create the lead, or opening sentences, of their stories.  
• Tell the difference between summarizing the events of a story and actually telling the story. 
• Creating a "heart" to their story by thinking about what they really wanted to get across in the story and determining what would be the most important part.  
• Slow down the action by adding thoughts, action, dialogue, and description (or TADD) to critical scenes
• Use the closing of their stories to really drive home the central ideas of their stories.  
• Tell the story from their perspective and staying within that perspective throughout the piece.
• Adding even more detail to critical moments by bringing in memories of the past (flashbacks) and thinking into the future (flash forwards).

Now the students are beginning to see the final shape of their finished writing projects.  They have written several drafts, and are close to creating a final draft that will eventually be published in several formats.  Students are now putting the "finishing touches" on their writing by:

• Making sure they are breaking their texts up into paragraphs, with each paragraph signaling a new speaker speaking, a change in place or time, or a new key idea. 
• Varying the length of their sentences so their writing can give a sense of flow. 
• Checking their spelling, word choice, and verb tense.  
• Using commas correctly 

Soon the students will have completed their first writing projects of the year!  I'm very excited to see how they turn out!

-Mr. Ullman

Flipping Out in Room 211!

Lately, the students in Room 211 have been flipping out...but in a good way!  We have been working with "flipping the classroom." In the traditional classroom, the teacher gives the lesson to the class and then the students practice that skill for homework that night.  With a flipped classroom, the teacher presents the lesson as a recorded video that demonstrates the skill or concept that the students can view on their own.  When they return to class the next day, they will practice that skill or concept with the teacher in the classroom. 

Flipping the classroom has several important benefits.  First, when watching the lesson at home, students can pause, rewind, and watch it several times to make sure that they understand what it is they need to do.  Also, it provides more time in the classroom for students to actually practice what they have learned, with the teacher able to provide support and individual coaching. 

In my classroom, I have been using Educreations to record and upload lessons in math.  Each student has an account on educreations.com where they can download and comment on them!  With our schedule this year, with science and social studies split across recess and lunch, I'm also planning to flip a lot of science and social studies lessons as well! 

You can check out this infographic for more information on the flipped classroom! 

-Mr. Ullman

First Indoor Recess!

Yesterday was our first indoor recess this year.  In years past, I wouldn't really give a whole lot of instruction about how to "do" indoor recess beyond discussing the rules and introducing the games in my classroom.  This would lead many times to students clustering around the same games over and over again, or students simply sitting and drawing or reading.  Often, the kids wouldn't be able to finish their game of Monopoly or Scrabble in the 25 minutes we have for recess.

While I don't have anything against reading or drawing as a recess activity, I see this time as a great opportunity for students to practice social skills as well as a time to foster a sense of community in the classroom.  So, this past summer, I set out in search of games that could be played by groups of kids, needed little or no setup time, were easy to learn, and could be started and finished in 20 minutes.  I found quite a few, including Scrabble Slam, Pass the Pigs, Phase 10, and Ruckus...all of them are card-based, so there's no board to set up or pieces to lose, include up to four players, and can be learned and played quickly. 

I introduced the games during Morning Meeting and right before recess, allowed groups to choose one of the games to play.  Surprisingly, this was met with no resistance.  The students played the games and had a great time...several of them even told me as we lined up for lunch hire much fun they had!

I plan to give students more freedom in future indoor recesses, but I think it was great to expose them to these games and give them a chance to play with each other.  I'm looking forward to the next rainy day!

-Mr. Ullman

About the Writers Notebook...

Writing instruction in my class began on the second day of school. Students were introduced to the Writer's Notebook with several lessons that got them used to writing in it. Recently, it became a standing homework assignment to write 20 minutes in the notebook, working on the strategies that we learned in class. Here is a partial list of some "do's and don'ts" for the Writer's Notebook.

•  DO personalize your notebook...students had a lot of fun with it! Add photos, drawings, whatever you want. These actually may help you get some ideas as well! 
• DON'T think of the writer's notebook as a journal where you write what happened that day or where you write book reports or whatever. This is a place to explore your observations of the world, or your memories of important people in your life, or anything else you can think of. 
• DO try to write in your notebook every day...20 minutes of writing at home is a standing assignment in my class. 
• DON'T worry about spelling, punctuation, or things like that...just get your ideas out on paper! 
• DO try to have a space without distractions that you can sit down and write 
• DON'T let obstacles get in your way...to get your mind in gear, you can generate lists: of important people to you, places you've been, things that matter to you. Once you've generated that list, pick one item and see if you can write more about it. 
• DO try to linger on one topic at a time. Try to "zoom in" on one particular moment...don't write all about your vacation to Disney World in one entry; write about the frantic dash from Epcot to the monorail in the pouring rain one night you were there!

 Happy writing!
 -Mr. Ullman

Edward shows off his customized Writers Notebook!

Back-to-School Night

Thanks to all the parents who came to Back-to-School Night!  I'm looking forward to working with you all as the year progresses.  If you were unable to make it (or if I just talked too fast), here is the presentation that I showed last night.  It gives an overview of our daily schedule as well as my classroom policies.

-Mr. Ullman

A Happy Coincidence...

Today, September 17, is the birthday of the United States Constitution.  It just so happened that today we wrapped up our discussion about what our classroom rules should be.  We spent some time last week and this week talking about the Code of Conduct in our school, and what those ideas mean and how we could utilize them in our classroom.  There was some discussion as to whether or not those four statements; "Be Kind," "Be Cooperative," "Be Responsible" and "Be in Control of Your Words and Actions" would cover all of the possible situations among the students.  We came to the understanding that we would keep our rules as they were, but also have the right to change them if the need arose.  Great thinking by the class today!

-Mr. Ullman

Week One Thoughts

 

The first week of school is in the books!  In my class, the first few days of school are largely devoted to establishing routines and building a community in the classroom.  Here are some of my Week One highlights:

Note: Many of these activities are found in The First Six Weeks of School, a publication from the Northeast Foundation for Children, one of the prime movers of the Responsive Classroom approach.  

The Colored Dot Game
We start the very first moments of the year off with a game!  As the students enter the classroom, I place one of four different colored dot stickers on each of the students' heads (I have 16 students, so four colors works perfectly.  In other years, I've had to use different amounts of colors).  Then, I challenge them to find the other people in the class with the same color dot they have...without talking.  The students are able to do this fairly quickly, and it's great to see how they help each other find their specific groups.  This activity is also one of many that requires the students to form and re-form groups that I do throughout the week, which gets them used to sitting with a wide variety of classmates.


Practicing Recess
Over the first few days, the entire fifth grade goes outside several times to "practice" recess.  This serves several purposes.  First, it enables the kids to see that our Code of Conduct is in effect even in places where they are not being directly supervised.  We ask the students how they can be kind, cooperative, responsible, and in control of their words and actions at recess.  Second, the games we play focus on teamwork and cooperation, which enhance the sense of community and trust that we are striving to build in our classrooms.  Third, it's a way to expose students to new games that they would then be able to play on their own when they are out at recess "for real." 

Playing "Octopus Tag" on the basketball courts

Playing "Smaug's Jewels" on the field

Guided Discovery
Guided Discovery is a method for introducing materials that will be used in the classroom.  A Guided Discovery is meant to generate interest and excitement about the resources in classroom and help

children explore their possible uses. Guided Discovery also provides opportunities to introduce vocabulary, assess children’s prior knowledge, and teach responsible use and care
of materials.  On Wednesday, we worked with multilink cubes and pattern blocks, which are two tools we will be using in math this year.  The students enjoyed practicing working with these tools and even came up with some novel uses!





Hopes and Dreams
Students will have input as we create the rules for our classroom together.  We began the first steps this week.  The students created maps of their classrooms from last year, including symbols that represented something they enjoyed, something that was hard or unpleasant, and something that they would like to get better at.  

Students creating their classroom maps

Students pair share their completed maps

After the maps were completed, students sat in pairs and shared their maps with each other.  There was a lot of discussion, especially about the things they wanted to get better at!  This conversation led to a whole-class meeting about our hopes and goals for the year.  Finally, students wrote and illustrated a paragraph about an important hope or goal they have for this year, including how they think they will accomplish it, and also how other people can help them acccomplish it.  These hopes and goals form the basis for when we create our rules. 

Next week, we will begin phasing in some more academics, including math instruction as well as getting up and running with Reading and Writing Workshop.  I can't wait!

-Mr. Ullman

10 Things Teachers Want Parents to Know

As we start the school year, I'm not just excited about meeting a new group of students, but also establishing warm working relationships with parents and caregivers.  While Oprah was never quite my style, this list gives some really helpful ideas of how to get that relationship on the right foot. 

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/relationships/10-Things-Teachers-Want-Parents-to-Know-Back-to-School#ixzz2eYCdKvXu

Wait, He's Got a Blog, Too?

      Greetings!  My name is Jordan Ullman, and I'm a 5th grade teacher at Community Park School in Princeton, New Jersey.  This will be my 12th year at CP, but I try really hard to do a few new things each year to keep things fresh.  Over the past few years, I have really gotten into technology in the classroom.  It started with a workshop I took in the spring of 2008 about wikis...soon after, I started my own classroom wiki, which has grown into an important component of my instruction (You can check it out here).  Two years ago, I began experimenting with Twitter as a way to speed up communication with parents, especially during field trips.  I also received an electronic whiteboard that year, which has greatly enhanced my instruction.  Last year, through a generous gift from the Princeton Education Foundation, my school received sets of iPads, which have also become incredible tools for enhancing instruction. 
     With all of these tools at my disposal, I began to think about how to make a stronger connection between the classroom and home...and I decided to write a blog.  To be honest, I don't know how this is going to turn out.  Many times, if I have an idea in my head that's a good start for something, I'll just try it out and see where it takes me.  I'm thinking that you'll find in here some of my thoughts about teaching and some insights into what goes on in my classroom.  This is a work in progress, so any constructive comments would be welcome! 

Thanks for reading!

-Mr. Ullman