Thursday 19 November 2015

The Multigrade Classroom Series: Gaeilge (3rd - 6th)

The following post explains how I go about organising the teaching of Irish in my multigrade classroom (4th and 5th) over the course of a fortnight.

Week 1: Monday Vocabulary Lesson
Before we begin a new theme (e.g. éadaí), I teach a vocabulary lesson based on words they will meet over the coming fortnight. We play Cluiche Kim and Biongó with the words and pictures on the board, they take them down into their dictionary copy and then draw a picture to match the word.

Week 1: Tuesday Reading Lesson
I work with each class separately as we read a story from their Bun go Barr. I go through new vocabulary in the story with one class, read it with them and go through the questions orally. As we are doing this, the other class are given words from their story to find in the foclóir and translate. They will be asked to test each other on these after this, as they will be quizzed on them the next day and given tickets for knowing them.

Week 1: Wednesday Reading Lesson
While the class who were working on dictionary work the previous day read their story as a class and then answer the questions following it, the class who have already read their story are given the questions we discussed orally the day before to answer in their copies. If they have these finished early, they are given cloze procedures to complete. This lesson is usually my longest Irish lesson of the fortnight.

Week 1: Thursday Grammar Lesson
I teach grammar lessons (e.g. using the Aimsir Chaite, An Aidiacht Shealbhach, etc.) to both classes together as much as possible. If a concept is particularly difficult, I will quiz them briefly on the concept using their whiteboards before every lesson during the remainder of the fortnight.

Week 1: Friday Verb Lesson
I teach verbs to the whole class as a group. I teach 2 verbs a week to the class. For more details on how I teach verbs in my classroom click here.

Week 2: Monday Verb Lesson
I teach another two verbs to the class in this lesson.

Week 2: Tuesday 'Comhrá Beirte' Lesson
I also teach this lesson as a class. This comhrá will be based on the theme we are covering for the month. I will demonstrate the phrases with a child, have two children model the comhrá and have the class practice the comhrá/drámaiocht in pairs. Sometimes I will differentiate the phrases, by giving the lower grade class fewer. 

Week 2: Wednesday and Thursday Creative Writing Lesson
We revise the comhrá beirte we had the previous day as an introduction to the lesson. Creative writing exercises may involve them writing out phrases they learned in the comhrá beirte (to tell a story about themselves/ describing their lunch and favourite food/etc.), writing a story to match a cartoon, writing a menu or a T.V. Schedule, etc. 

Week 2: Friday Poetry lesson
Both of my classes learn the same poems, however sometimes questions and response activities may be differentiated. 

Outside of these formal Irish lessons, I spend about 5 minutes each morning going through Irish spellings and phonics with each class separately. The children are also given a frása na seachtaine to learn for homework each week and use in class as often as possible.

If you yourself have any tips for teachers teaching in a multi-grade classroom, don't forget to comment below and if you are looking for ideas on how to teach English to a multi-grade class, check out last week's post here

Wednesday 11 November 2015

TT: Sight Word Games in Infants

It can be difficult to find creative, new ways to teach sight words to infants. For this reason, here are a few ideas I have collected from various places over the years. 

Note: These activities are suitable for whole class teaching, literacy center activities, group activities and pair activities.

1. Tic Tac Toe: 
Go through sight words on the word wall with the class. Then, using a pointer/feather to point to each word, chant the rhyme: 'Tic, tac, toe, here we go, where we stop, no one knows' (point to a different word for each word of the rhyme). When you land on the final word, the class call out the word they have landed on. I like to use quiet voices, loud voices, fast, slow, deep and high voices each time they repeat the rhyme in order to keep it interesting. You can also ask individual children to name the word after a couple of rounds as a group. Ask children to be the teacher for another variation on the game.

2. Bingo:
Source
Make out bingo cards for the class, (having about 6 different versions so they do not all have the same card). Pull the words out of a bag and get them to place counters on the correct words to make three in a row. 

3. Hide and Go Seek:
Hide a few words in different places in the room. Get the children to find and point to the word ___. 

4. Beat the Clock Flashcard Game: 
Get them to see how many words they can name in a minute.

5. Sight Word Songs:
Heidi's Songs on Youtube has some great songs with actions to teach sight words. These are great transitional activities too. 

6. Stepping Stones:
Get the children in groups to play a leap frog kind of game. In this game they must read the word before they can jump onto the flashcard.

7. Toss the Coin:
Using the same cards you used for bingo, get them to toss a counter and when it lands on a word, they must read it. Take in turns. 

8. Pick a Card:
Get them to play pick a card (using smaller word cards) with a partner or with you when you are hearing their reading. See who can win the most cards. If they cannot read a word, it goes back into the bunch and they can try again later. 

9. Roll the Dice:
In pairs/with the teacher place all of the flashcards upside down. Roll a die and count that many cards before you turn the one you land on over and read it. If you can read it, you can keep the card. If not, place it back where it was and play again.

10. Writing Words: 
Get children to practice writing words on sand, on whiteboards, on blackboards and with the look, see, cover, write, check strategy. Play beat the clock by getting them to see how many times they can write the word in a minute. See if they can beat their own record. They could also make the words out of play-dough.

11. I'm Thinking of a Word: 
While looking at your word wall, tell them you are thinking of a word that starts with/ends with/has the vowel _ in it/rhymes with etc. Get them to name the word and point to it.

Comment below if you know of any other interesting sight word games I haven't mentioned!

Thursday 5 November 2015

The Multi-grade Classroom Series: English (3rd-6th)

Today I am beginning a series of posts on how I organise my teaching in a multi-grade classroom.

Source
This year I am teaching the 4th and 5th class in my school (31 students in total). It is my second time teaching full time in a multi-grade classroom.

When I was in college, I remember feeling 'I could never do that!' and having never experienced being in a multi-grade class, I had no idea how teachers in these class situations could cope with the workload.

To my surprise, I found that I adapted quite easily to the situation. Considering S.E.S.E., the Arts subjects, P.E. and S.P.H.E. can be taught as a class (using some differentiation in the response activities/projects), this means that Irish, English and Maths are the only subjects which may cause some difficulty when teaching in a multi-grade classroom.

As many of you may be teaching in a multi-grade classroom for the first time this year, over the next few weeks I hope to share some strategies and methodologies I use to teach core subjects in my classroom. This week, I will be focusing on how I teach English.

Monday: Comprehension Lesson (Option 1)

I begin the lesson by assigning one class some independent work. These activities vary each week and include:

  1. Without reading the text, write a paragraph predicting what you think the story will be about and name any other texts/movies/etc. it may remind you of.
  2. Write a summary of the story you read in last week's lesson.
  3. Write a character description about a character in last week's story using these posters for ideas
  4. Write about the setting of last week's story (here are some setting related adjectives).
  5. Read the story silently and complete one of the above activities using this story. 
  6. Work on your monthly creative writing project. 
I then work with the other class, having them make predictions about the story they are going to read (orally), as well as discussing what they know already about the topic. We will then read the story together. Once we have discussed the story during and after reading, I will assign and explain a written activity to them, similar to those I have mentioned above.

I will then return to the class who have been working on the written activity, have them share their work with the class, discuss it, and then read and discuss their own story with them.

Monday: Comprehension Lesson (Option 2)

I will occasionally (especially at the start of the year) focus on developing one specific comprehension skill at a time as a class. I will teach the skill (e.g. summarizing) using a PowerPoint and allow practice of the concept through whiteboard activities. 

I will then give each class their text to read silently. Once they have read the text, they can then fill in the template I have given them (see left for an online example).

Once they have completed this activity, they self assess their work using the WILF set of expectations I have laid out for them and read it to their partner for the purpose of peer assessment. 

Monday: Comprehension Lesson (Option 3)


Once skills like summarising, making links, choosing important passages, asking and answering questions about texts, etc. have been taught to both classes through lesson options 1 and 2, the class can be broken up into groups for cooperative group work during comprehension lessons.

In this type of lesson, I have both classes read their texts silently/in pairs/as a group.The group completes a Book Detectives activity as each member takes on a certain role in the group work (I use the roles of Summariser, Passage Picker, Word Finder, Illustrator, Question Master and Link Maker). Each group member is given a template to fill out (similar to the one I have shown on the right).

In a follow up lesson, I have them participate in a sharing session to share what they have written with their group and allow other group members to give their opinions (Summariser/Illustrator/Link Maker), answer the questions the Question Master has picked or see if they know the meaning of the Word Finder's chosen words.

Tuesday: Vocabulary

I write a set of 4/5 words from the text we have been working on for the week on the board for one class. They must complete a written activity where they will first guess what the word means, then look the words up in the dictionary and write down the meaning and finally, put the word into a sentence.

While they do this, I will give the other class their words of the week. They have to read the words for me as I point to them. They then quiz each other on the words on their whiteboards and finally, I will pull lollipop names out of a jar and ask them individually to name each word. They may then complete the same dictionary work the other half of the class began the lesson working upon.

When the first half of the class have finished their written work, I will practice reading their words with them. We may also play 'guess the word from the meaning' games if time allows.

Both classes learn these words during the week and will have to put them into a sentence in their test on Friday.

Tuesday: Oral Language

Oral language activities and games in my classroom are always completed together;
as a class.

Wednesday: Grammar

Grammar lessons begin with a whole class lesson to introduce the concept being taught, while written activities are differentiated so that they are suitable for each class (these written activities often come from their class textbooks).

Thursday: Creative Writing 

Preparations for creative writing are completed as a class e.g. reading samples, highlighting and discussing features of the genre, brainstorming etc. When they begin their first draft however, the WILF list of expectations is adapted to suit the class level (e.g. 5th class may be asked to show paragraphs in their writing, whereas 4th may not be). Templates for written work may also be differentiated. 

Friday: Poetry

In our school, each class level has been allocated three poems to learn off by heart during the course of the year. For this reason, I only have to teach separate poetry lessons for three months in the year. I do this by having one class working on their response to text activity while I teach and discuss the other class' poem with them.

During the other months of the year, I choose poems that can be taught to both classes. We read them as a class and I then differentiate my oral questions. Response to poetry activities will often involve drama activities, writing a similar poem or drawing activities, as these are suitable for both class levels. If I do give the children written questions, this will be the only differentiated response activity during a poetry lesson.

Three Days a Week: Reading and Literacy Station Teaching

The only way I can listen to the reading of all the children in the class is during the half hour I have allocated three days a week to literacy stations. The children enjoy participating in these activities and they are grouped based on their ability levels. I have 5 different stations:
Source

1. An oral language station
2. A grammar station (see here for the board game we use)
3. A creative writing station (see here for sample activities)
4. A vocabulary station (similar activity to the 'Who Am I' game)
5. A handwriting/touch typing station

Teaching in a multi-grade class involves a great deal more creativity and planning than a single stream class but it definitely gets easier with time. While there will inevitably be mornings where you spend the entire morning on an English lesson that you might plan for a 40 minute slot - try not to lose heart! Make it easier for yourself by finding common links in each curriculum and use group work and station teaching rather than teaching double English lessons everyday of the week!

Let me know below if you have any other tips for teaching English in a multi-grade classroom!