Collaborative Conversations

With the implementation of the Common Core Standards, student discourse has become an essential part of everyday instruction. While I always created opportunities for my students to talk in the classroom, I have decided to really focus even more on effective collaborative conversations this year.

We have just completed our fifth week of school and my students have already shown growth with their listening and speaking skills. We started our collaborative conversations on day one and learned the routines we use for partner talk on the carpet.

I first taught the students how to turn to their partner. I explained they need to turn quickly, and quietly. They learned how to sit knee to knee and we talked about the importance of "Look, Lean, and Listen" when speaking with a partner.

I then introduced "Peanut Butter and Jelly" roles. I have a large peanut butter sign on one wall and a large jelly sign on the other wall. When the students turn to their partner, the poster reminds them if they are the peanut butter or jelly partner. I teach this by saying "If you see the jelly sign when you turn to your partner, then you are the jelly partner. If you see the peanut butter sign, then you are the peanut butter partner."

Once the students know what body language to use and their partner role, I talk about communicating with complete sentences. The kindergarten teachers did a fabulous job implementing this and it was evident that these students have practiced speaking in complete sentences.

I created posters for my classroom to help remind my students about the things they need to do while taking part in collaborative conversations. Check them out here!

I also use partnerships during guided reading and when students are seated at their desks. To help my students understand their partner role, I have created color coded peanut butter and jelly labels. These have been excellent not only for partner talk, but the colors allow for randomization when calling on students. Check them out here!

As our year progresses, I will continue to write about our collaborative conversation experiences!

Happy teaching!

Class Rules Posters

I have been doing quite a bit of research on Whole Brain Teaching lately, and I am planning on implementing some of it into my classroom this year. I am big on student engagement, and this is a method that is full of engaging teaching techniques. I bought the book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids: (and the rest of your class, too) by Chris Biffle. It hasn't arrived yet, but I am really looking forward to reading it. I was actually using some of the methods in my classroom for the past few years and didn't even know it. I have been using call and response method including the "Class, Yes" method and other fun and engaging sayings with my students. I will be sure to write a post about this method when the book arrives and I get a chance to dive in.

I have watched some youtube videos of teachers using this method and some of them were inspiring. To be perfectly honest some videos hurt my ears! When I use call and response I teach the students what an appropriate voice level would be. I think this method is just as effective when the students aren't shouting at the top of their lungs! I will be sure to share what Chris Biffle says about this in the book. One video that I particularly enjoyed was a video by a teacher named Andrea Schindler. Check it out here:



I decided to create rules posters inspired by this video and I plan to post them in my classroom and review them with the class the same way the video shows. I decided to change some of the wording from the rules, in particular the "Listen when the teacher is talking" rule. I feel that students need to listen to all classroom speakers so I modified this rule to "Listen when the speaker is talking." I LOVE the use of hand gestures that the Whole Brain Teaching utilizes and I implement gestures as much as I possibly can. You can get the posters here!

I was always taught that rules should be created together with the class and that is always the way that I have always started my year. I found that I had to modify the rule suggestions the class came up with so much (turning the suggestions into positive statements that covered many possible classroom problems)  that I wondered if the students really were taking ownership of the rules the way it was intended. With the new rules, having gestures, choral response, and student leaders, I am hoping this will provide my class with ownership  and "buy-in" over these teacher created rules. I will be sure to write about the difference in the two methods as I see my students react to this method. Also, stay tuned to see what other Whole Brain Teaching methods I implement in my classroom.

How do you set up the rules in your classroom?

Happy Teaching!