Less IS More

School's starting in a few weeks.

There.  I said it.  School is starting, and summer is slipping away a lot faster than I'd like to admit. 

I made a short stop in my classroom yesterday, just to drop off some boxes of things that had accumulated in my house since May, and as I looked around the semi-empty classroom I started feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done before August 18: nametags, seating charts, locker tags, posters reattached to the walls, safety maps and rules posted, last year's vocab words removed from the word wall, my parent brochure and website updated.....  Sometimes it gets to be too much!

Kind of like those darn My Little Ponies....it's just too much!

Somewhere along the lines, education turned away from the idea of teaching something for mastery and instead began focusing on teaching for exposure - kind of like buying 35 My Little Ponies instead of really enjoying 1 or 2.  So, instead of teaching a few skills all year long until the students can practically complete those tasks in their sleep, we started skimming through things: teaching many, many skills in the course of a year and never actually stopping to consider if the students actually mastered any of them.

I'm definitely guilty of this.  It's so easy to look at a novel or a chapter in the textbook and think about all the millions of activities we could do instead of considering which activities would be best suited to the topics or novel at hand.  Even this summer as I sat down to tweak my Reading curriculum and create a new Language Arts curriculum, things began ballooning wildly out of control until my yearly overview looked more like I was teaching for 12 hours a day instead of just 7. 

Less IS more.  So, I've gone back to my curricula to consider where I could pare things down and teach for mastery instead of exposure.  A few less new texts, a few less huge writing projects, a lot more time for student mastery.  Less is more.

I'm also guilty of saying, "You did this last year, so you don't need me to reteach it, and we'll just breeze over it..."  It's easy to do, and easy to assume that a topic covered in a previous year is already mastered.  But if I just admitted to teaching for exposure rather than mastery.....chances are pretty good that my colleagues are doing the same.  And it's no one's fault - we've been conditioned to believe that we must teach every standard every day, and this means that we are often frantically throwing more and more skills into a single project, leaving little room for mastery of one skill, let alone 10.  And this idea that they're experts because they passed the previous year just makes for trouble...

Yesterday I sliced open a peach that we had picked off the tree in our yard.  I started by peeling the skin off - my kids hate the fuzzy texture - and then started shearing off some of the juicy flesh.  (The pit had a large crack in it, so I wasn't going to just cut it down the middle and separate it like I normally would.)  At first, everything was fine.  I shaved off a few more slivers of yellow peach, just dropping them right into the bowl, when suddenly a long black earwig came wriggling out of the pit.  I gasped - because seriously, earwigs are disgusting - and barely had time to inhale before ANOTHER EARWIG game sliding out of the pit.  AND THEN ANOTHER.

Cue the hyperventilating.

It's not like I'm scared of earwigs.  They can't really hurt me.  But dang there were just so many of them!!!  So, there I am carrying this bowl full of peaches and earwigs to the kitchen sink, screaming, whimpering, gasping...and of course LAUGHING because it's so ridiculous to be completely losing my mind over a few earwigs.  That peach pit was like a clown car - it seemed that with every step I took another earwig was squirming his way out of it to see what the commotion was about.

Thank God for garbage disposals is all I can say.

Anyway, that disgusting clown-car of a peach pit is kind of like what happens in my classroom when I say (either out loud or in my head), "You did this last year, so we won't spend much time on it..."  The small issues and skill gaps start pouring out, and soon I'm covered in itchy little pests that all need my attention before we can move on.  (And the missing skills are way harder to take care of than a bunch of slimy earwigs!)

Less is more, and taking the time to teach for mastery - and to check for prior knowledge before jumping into something! - is going to make my school year a lot better off.  For instance, I'm spending the first 4-5 weeks of my Language curriculum working on complete sentences and summary writing.  You're probably saying, "But Karisa, you each SIXTH grade.  Surely you don't need to review complete sentences and summarizing??"

Remember that peach pit full of earwigs? 

The past few years I thought the same thing: a quick review of complete sentences, a glance at summaries, and we'd be good to go, ready to move onto higher level skills and major essay construction.  And then there I was in mid-November backtracking to review those very same ideas that I had assumed the kids already had mastered.  Not this year, friends. 

Aesop was pretty wise when he wrote that story about the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady will win the race, and starting the year off with a gentle but in-depth review of some basic skills might slow me down, but will surely save me time and headache in the end.

So, yes, school is starting in a few weeks.  Two, if you want to put a REAL numerical value to it. 

But, I'm actually kind of excited about it.  It's a new school year where I can start off fresh and make changes and try new things.  And this year I have very big new things to try - like my two new mantras:

Less IS more.

Slow and steady.

New school year?  I got this.  

Peach pit full of earwigs?  We're going to  need some help....

Modify!!

WARNING: For any of you non-teacher readers out there, this may be a pretty boring post.  It promises no pictures, no funny stories, and not much entertainment value, except for the fact that every time I hear the word "modify" I now think of Mater's Tall Tales when he becomes a drifting racer in Tokyo...but again, that's entertaining for me and not really for you, especially if you haven't seen that short.....

Anyway, as I was chatting with my teacher pal today, she was talking about her class load for the fall and how she was worried about how she would modify it all, especially since we no longer work down the hall from each other, making it pretty difficult to bounce ideas off of each other or share materials.  She asked for some help, and while I'm certainly not the end-all-be-all of special ed modifications, I do sort of have a knack for it.  And I started thinking that it might be a good idea to put all of these ideas in one spot so that I (and anyone else who's interested) can come here and glance through them in case I feel stumped one day on how to modify something.  (Tee hee...MODIFY!!)

So, in no particular order.....

1.  Page Numbers - a simple way to adapt any worksheet is simply by putting the page number behind the question.  This guides students in the right direction and prevents them from looking at a page too far ahead or too far behind.  Plus, it's super easy to do, and easy to remove later on when/if the student no longer needs it.

 2. Add A Word Bank - Another easy modification is adding a word bank for the kids to choose from.  Be nice and don't add any words in there that don't belong because having words left over in a word bank can send some kids over the edge, and you're here to help, not make them go nuts!

3.  Dividing the Page - Sometimes kids don't have a problem with the content, they have a problem with the format.  Easy fix - divide the page into smaller sub-sections.  Draw boxes around different groups of problems, leave more white space, anything that is going to segment the work into smaller areas is likely to help!

4.  Divide the page and Add a Word Bank - Split the work into smaller sections and provide a word bank for each smaller section.  This prevents the kids from feeling overwhelmed by too many words AND too many problems all in one space.  Some people may think this makes it too easy for the kids, but trust me, there are still kids who will mix up problems, even if there ARE only three words for them to choose from instead of 15.

5.  Color Coding - Sometimes adding a word bank or dividing the page requires too much cutting and pasting (whether on the computer or in real life), or you don't have an original copy/file to do it with.  Solution?  Color coding!!!  Here you can highlight three or four problems in a color, then highlight those three or four answers in the same color.  This way kids can see that the pink words are answers for the pink problems and they know only to choose from those options.  Fast, easy, and effective, especially for kids who are drawn to color or are easily distracted from the boring black and white page.

6. Colored Pencil - Speaking of boring black and white.....ever try colored pencil to keep the kids on track?  Either by allowing them to use colored pencil to write the answers or by using the colored pencil to underline important words in the directions, some kids LOVE colored things and will pay way more attention to them than boring black and white.  I don't blame them....and I bet right about now you wish I would use colored text too!  It's also a great way to get kids to do math problems if they are forgetting to carry or add/borrow.  Have them write the numbers in different colors and do the first step in one color and the second step in another!

7.  Sentence Starters - Sometimes students struggle with writing prompts because they aren't sure where to start their sentences.  Enter the pre-made sentence starters!  Format a page specifically for your students who need more assistance with their writing and make it more of a guided format with sentence starters and lead-ins. 

8. Make it Cut and Paste - This works for lots of things:  I've made writing sections on a test cut and paste, review worksheets, even fill in the blanks.  Kids love cutting.  Kids love pasting.  And sometimes the tactile sensation of doing the cutting and pasting helps kids focus.  Try making a Venn diagram cut and paste for your strugglers!  The hardest part is knowing what phrases you used in class and getting those written out so the kids are familiar with the phrases they're using.  But it's way fun and a lot simpler for them than having to recall all of the info themselves.  The students still have to recall the details, but now they only have to recall the topic it talks about instead of the actual phrase to write down. 

9.  Either Ors - This modification sometimes works super well and sometimes it's more confusing than the regular way, but it's worth a try anyway.  At the end of the fill in the blank, offer two choices (an either or!) and the student just has to circle the word or phrase that fits in the blank.  He still has to know the answer, but doesn't have to write it, which sometimes is all it takes for the kid to not mind working a little!

10. Multiple Choice - Another easy modification - turn any worksheet into multiple choice.  Not too many choices, but maybe three, so they have to consider the possibilities but can still find their correct answer.  If a kid has a chance to narrow it down from a huge list of possibilities in the text to only three or four, it can help a great deal.

Of course providing highlighted texts for students is always a good place to start too.  This list just sort of assumes that you've got that one covered already.

Now this is by no means the end, but let's face it, I've been up since 5, did a workout DVD, took a 2 mile walk, chased after the kids, survived a no-rest quiet rest time, did a short ab workout, peeled 10 more pounds of peaches....and basically am ready to call it a day!  So be on the look out for 10 or so more modifications as time goes on and as they pop into my brain.

But, before I go...here's a good option for differentiating, even if it isn't modifying exactly:  At the end of a lesson, ask the students to put their heads down and cover their eyes, then ask for a "vote"  as I always called it.  (explain the choices first so they know what to expect)  Ask them to raise their hand if they feel nervous or uncertain about the lesson.  Then ask those who feel pretty ok about the lesson to raise their hands.  Then ask those who felt the lesson was easy and are really comfortable with it to raise their hands.  (I normally things like "raise your hand if today's lesson scared the boogers out of you" - third graders loved that sort of thing....but I may need to MODIFY (tee heehee) for 6th grade!! - or "raise your hand if today's lesson was super easy and you can't believe I had to teach it")  This gives me a chance to assess if I need to reteach the whole thing the next day or if just a few kids are struggling.  Normally I have three worksheets ready (mainly in math) one for the strugglers (that we'll most likely start together in a small group), one for the middle of the road kids (that they'll do on their own or with a buddy if I'm feeling nice), and one for the advanced kids (one that isn't just MORE work, but stuff that makes them think or need to APPLY the skill we learned).  As they raise their hands to let me know how they feel about it, I distribute worksheets accordingly.  Since their heads are down, no one knows which worksheet is the "easy" and which is the "hard" and no one can laugh or be mad.  And I can also gently say to the kid "I think you should try the harder one today, you did really well in class" or "let's start off slower today with the easier work."  It really helps the kids feel like I'm paying attention to their needs and the parents LOVE that their kid is getting work specially for them.

Now....to give in to these pre-school stress eating attacks or to stand strong and just go to bed.....that IS a tough question.....