Co-Teaching, Explore & Explicit Instruction in Small Groups

Our classroom is fortunate to participate in a program called "Co-Teaching" with our PPS kindergarten grade level Special Educator Jennifer Santarcangelo.  First of all, can I say how much your children LOVE to say her name... and the beauty of a multisyallabic name!  

Jen has been a member of the CSD for most of her career and over the last few has focused mainly on the kindergarten grade level.  As a special educator she works directly with students, consults with classroom teachers, observes student learning, and is a member of my classroom team.  

Jen and I, along with the PPS speech pathologist meet weekly to discuss all kids for what we call a "Kids' Day" meeting.   At times other specialized staff are invited to our Kids' Day meeting, such as the Behavior Specialist or the Occupational or Physical Therapist for CSD.   

Whether students qualify for special education or not, Jen's expertise is focused on learning and troubleshooting when kids struggle.  We work as a team to create individual supports for all kids.  If a child needs support beyond what is happening in the classroom, we discuss that at Kids' Day and she takes that information to the next level of support teams that meet at another time (and while I am teaching!).  This is how amazing PPS staff are in knowing your children and zeroing in on their needs.

Beyond all of this is CO-TEACHING for mathematics.  Jen co-teaches in two kindergarten classes, mine and Miss Donnelly's.  Thus, our two classrooms function as a learning pod, getting together over the course of the year for special math and literacy learning.

Each day Jen joins one classroom for math... so every other day she co-teaches math with me!  As a team, Miss Donnelly, Jen, and I plan out lessons together for the week ahead.  We plan for the WALT or "big ideas" our lessons will target.  We then look at the needs of all students, differentiating lessons for both classrooms and individual learning styles.  After co-teaching lessons we review what we did and discuss ways to increase student learning. 

When Jen teaches in our room, she and I work directly with a small group of students (groups rotate).  In this way your children are being taught by two highly trained teachers in an intensive small group format.  For now we are working mainly with two groups of ten children; soon that will change as we make three learning groups, increasing the student to teacher ratio for instruction.  It is am amazing process that highly impacts your children's learning process.  

Counting, identifying numerals, matching quantity and presenting their own work in front of the class!

My Counting Strategies

As a veteran teacher I use an array of teaching strategies... some that change and grow over the years, and several that have changed very little because they are gems that help all children learn.  Two of those are my counting strategies to increase accuracy in the counting sequence.  

The first is what I call "the doorbell" count.  When counting the doorbell way kids are taught to press and pause a moment with their finger on the object they are counting until the whole word (the number) is said, then move on to the next item, pausing on it until the whole word (the number) is said aloud.  This is especially helpful later in the year when they count large quantities and the numbers when said have multiple syllables.  

The second counting strategy is "pull away and count."  When using this strategy children slide the item they are counting away from the original group to a counted group... this helps them stay organized... knowing which ones have been counted and which are yet to be counted.

There were two significant mentors of mine who taught me the importance of letting kids know what they were learning about, one was from my college days at Boston College and the other a mathematician here in Vermont from whom I am still learning.  I use this strategy everyday.  I refer to it as WALT which is short for "We Are Learning To."  Everyday we talk about the WALT statement so that kids have a frame of reference for why they are doing an activity to build a skill.  You will see this posted in our room daily... for the counting strategies lesson, the WALT statement was "Count to tell how many" meaning they will use the doorbell and pull away strategy to count accurately and know how many items they have counted.

Launching Writing Workshop and Writers Share

It takes a little bit of effort and training to grow young writers... and yet look at them in just a few short weeks!  In the beginning we establish routines to follow for Writing Workshop, such as the practice of how we sit at the tables, keep our space organized with folders, paper, pencils and erasers.  We practice using a whisper voice to talk with teachers who move around the room supporting and extending learning.  When young children begin to see themselves as writers, their confidence grows along with their skills.

One of the most important steps in Writers' Workshop is what comes after the writing time... Writing Share.  This is a time for children to place their work on the document camera and stand before the class reading their work.  This powerful steps helps establish confidence and independence as they receive feedback from peers and plan for what they will add to their work the next day.

Reflecting on Our First Three Days

Literacy involves a multitude of skills that build a child's ability to speak, listen, present, write, and read.  These skills are needed as a private person and as community of literate beings.  We will create shared writing pieces, where everyone contributes to the conversation and recording of information... you will see this in the chart on the left.  Children also learn to record their own thoughts on paper.  

What impressed me the most was the details of what they did in school this week and how focused their ideas were on actual school behaviors and what we did as a class together.  What more could a teacher ask for....especially #6!

Learning to Read a Book Three Ways

Kindergarteners want to learn to read. I begin by teaching them that there are three ways to read a book: read the pictures, read the words, and retell the story. I model these three ways in whole group shared reading time over three successive days. Over the course of our first three days of school we used the book Hairy Bear, reading it in each of the three ways. On the first day we read the pictures, using the illustrations to figure out what the characters are experiencing and predicting what may happen from page to page. On the second day I read the text, and to their delight many of the events they described through the pictures were very close to the text words. On the third day we retold the story in our own words, adding more details and elaborating on the plot. In this way children begin to learn the power in using the illustrations to support their reading and that reading the words is not the only way to read a book.

Shared reading is a powerful learning time as I introduce many reading strategies and skills. As you will see in this collage, on the last page the children added their own text to the story, which I wrote with a wipe off marker. They were curious about the "word bubble" in the text showing what a character was saying. As a class the students decided to add other word bubbles to show what the other characters may be saying. I used this teachable moment to show them that when they write their own narrative stories they, too, can use word bubbles in their stories.  I was thrilled to see their excitement and thirst for learning reading skills. 

First Full Day of School

Such joy in starting school...Class of 2030!

Ms. Millham led our first BE SAFE lesson focused on the playground and how we use the equipment safely.  We tackled our first Shared Reading book together, Hairy Bear and explored alphabet letters.

Free choice time allows children time to explore classroom materials and bond with one another.

Smart Start

                   

Our year in Kindergarten has officially started!  During our Smart Start to Kindergarten we learned a little about about one another, toured the school, met lots of new teachers and played together.  We read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn to remind us that it takes a little courage and bravery to go off to school but we bring with us the love of our families as we grow and learn together.