HOT MATH

a study by fuchs, et al (2006) sponsored by the center on accelerating student learning (CASL) deals with a 3rd grade intervention called "HOT math" (hands on task). it's a two-tiered system: the first tier is completely scripted and delivered whole class; the second tier is delivered in heterogeneous, small groups.

tier 1 stresses problem-solving strategies, and the first three weeks are dedicated to problem solving information like: "do the answers make sense?" "are the numbers lined up from the text?" "is the work labeled with math words and symbols?"

the remainder of the tier 1 consists of 3, four-week units (in any order):

• "buying bags" problems
• "shopping list problems
• "half" problems
• "pictograph" problems

all problems in tier 1 are structured the same and emphasize self-regulating and self-monitoring strategies. students first work in "dyads" (high/low student-pairing) on problems, then they complete one problem independently. each student receives homework that is "congruent" to the lesson taught that day. students get immediate teacher feedback on classwork and chart their individual scores on a "thermometer" (so apropos for HOT math). students inspect their thermometers before each lesson to set learning goals.

tier 2 is similar but is delivered in small groups. students are reminded about learning goals, self-regulated learning, and are rewarded with "dollars" for displaying on-task behaviors and attaining self-proscribed, academic goals.

the study found that utilizing even one tier of the HOT math program--whole or small group--had a positive effect on student math achievement.

holy rollers

since my last piece had me bumming on the l.b.c., this is for balance:

today i witnessed something that has restored my faith in the goodness of my community: when i walked to the beach this morning with my parents' poodle, sophie, i was initially annoyed with a group of college-aged bicyclists riding on the sidewalk along the cliffs where it is clearly marked NO BIKES! i pulled sophie in close as i muzzled my uncontrollable-old-man-urge to yell at the disrespectful youths.

then i noticed one of the law-breakers get off his bike next to two slumbering men (who appeared to have all the trappings of homeless people) and proceed to place two sack lunches from his backpack next to their sleeping bodies. my smile was instantaneous! these kids were breaking the (bicycle) law to feed the needy!

i walked home in the warm sun and thought to myself: yesterday sophie got out of my yard for 5 hours (her second offence) and was caught and nursed (she had a cut between her claws) by two lovely ladies on orange and 8th... today i see a gang of college students feeding the less fortunate in our community--and last night I ROCKED THE JOINT REGARDLESS!

LONG BEACH IS A.O.K.!!!

but the story doesn't end there... i decided to bike to my favorite breakfast spot--quick plug for the "#3 hobo omelet" at the omelet inn on 3rd and pine--and when i got there, i spotted the same bicycle gang from the beach at the intersection of pacific and 3rd (long beach--"the big little city"). i had to know: they were handing out lunches, right? it wasn't a drug deal i had witnessed this morning, right?

so i waited for them to cross the street and asked one of them what was up with the brown bags. it turns out my suspicions were correct: he and a group of friends that go to his church pass out sack lunches to the hungry. how cool is that? i told them they were doing the lord's work ("[you're] on a mission from god."), and i applauded their caring for our community.

today's treasure moment: holy rollers in the queen city

artistic supporters

sometimes i invite my colleagues to my performances--usually the thingz shows since 4 electric seconds hasn't been playing--and it kinda bums me out when they don't go... that's why it was so rad to see wendy wahlen (resident 5th grade reading specialist) go to dipiazza's for a thingz show last weekend. wendy rules!

i love it when people support other creative people and their endeavors, especially local artists. (athletes have athletic supporters and artists need supporters, too.) it makes me proud when i think that i live in a community that feels art is important enough to support with their time and presence (and maybe a little $). too often in the l.b.c. this is not the case...

i don't know if it's apathy or entertainment-option-saturation--it certainly isn't geographic distance since most venues are bicycle or pedestrian-accessible in long beach--but i don't see fervent support for local artists. maybe the art just sucks here...

last night's show certainly didn't suck: the thingz (l.b.c.), pure country gold (portland), and the guilty hearts (l.a.) all rocked fern's! the shamefully mute, minimal turn-out belied an extraordinary night of rock'n'roll. those in attendance gave more props to the jukebox playing "sweet child o' mine" than the first two bands. even the lead singer from pure country gold commented, "they're too cool to dance in the northwest--i didn't think it was the same here..." alas, it is...

people don't dance no more--they just stand there like this... they cross their arms and stare me down and drink and moan and piss.
--the rapture

technicians or craftsmen?

a study by graham and harris (2005) was of particular interest to me because i love writing. it's one of my favorite subjects to teach--especially since i teach 5th grade, wherein the topics and abilities of my students are as various and multitudinous as the personalities in my classroom.

we use the columbia writing program at my school, so it was nice to see that they were involved in the study. what sparked my interest was the fact that the researchers chose handwriting and spelling as areas of focus to help struggling writers. one of the strengths of the columbia program is that students choose self-selected topics to write about, therefore creating "authentic" published pieces. while this is a more genuine approach, it tends to relegate conventions, such as spelling and handwriting to a secondary or tertiary level of importance. students are encouraged to learn from mentor texts and mentor authors--the real experts--but these authors sometimes use conventions in a somewhat unconventional way.

a while back we had a debate at my school about sentence fragments. open court teaches students to stay away from using them (even my grammar check politely underlines my fragments with a green squiggly line!), yet professional authors use them all the time. who's the real authority? according to one of our trainers, isoke, the essential question is, "good technicians or good craftsmen, which is our goal?"

the answer "good craftsmen" seems obvious, but that's not to discount the importance of knowing the rules and technicalities of the english language--we must explicitly teach them--but isoke says we must not be afraid to allow "playfulness with our language system." fragments (and maybe invented--intentional or otherwise--spellings) are "playful," and they're found everywhere in good writing. according to isoke, "it is the why they chose to [use fragments] that we must teach our students." in other words, if we show our students mentor texts that include sentence fragments, we can gird them with a rationale for using them. how empowering is that?

this excerpt from sandra cisneros' "geraldo no last name" seems germane:

she met him at a dance. pretty too, and young. said he worked in a restaurant, but she can't remember which one. that's all. green pants and saturday shirt. geraldo. that's what he told her.

i count four "fragments" by oc standards, buy isoke would argue--and i would agree--that cisneros "knows more about our language system--not less." she is actually "using more and making more of the rules...--not less."

read across america

gotta love the good doctor...seuss that is. yesterday was "read across america" at our school, and all the fifth grade classes sang the RAA theme song (written by glen weiss). last year i made a super-quick recording on my little digital box (d12) that records/burns cd's... it was quick and dirty, and not the greatest sound-quality, but it worked. i hate the tone of my singing voice, so instead of recording the words onto the cd, i decided to just record the melody line with my guitar; i figured people could sing along to that... i figured wrong. three of my colleagues told me they couldn't figure out what to sing. here i thought i was making it easy on them (or on their ears at least!), when i unintentionally made it more difficult. it seemed like a win-win situation: they wouldn't have to hear how horrible my voice actually is--no american idol aspirations here!--and they would still get to hear the melody to the song.

oh well. the fifth graders did alright, especially considering that some of them had only heard the song the day before when we practiced together with all the classes in the multi-purpose room. they sounded SO GREAT in there that day!! they kinda seemed to freeze up when it came to the actual performance though...

PALS

I’d heard of Peer-Assisted Leaning Strategies before reading the study by Saenz, et al. (2005) but never had it explained in such detail. Now that I understand the components a little better, I may try to implement some of these strategies in my classroom. Of course, it’d be nice to have the training, but it seems like I could try a few things even without the training.

The first thing I like about the program is that it allows ELL’s an opportunity to practice speaking the language they are learning. At my school, we are currently learning to use “front-loading” and “sentence frames” that give ELL’s a chance to practice the academic (CALPS) language before they commit anything to paper. I think this is extremely valuable, as students can’t write what they can’t say.

The second thing I like about PALS is that students are working on higher order language skills like summarizing and predicting, but (and this is a big “but") it’s at their own individual, instructional reading level. Unlike our currently adopted reading program, Open Court—which, according to a Fry’s Readability Test, has college level reading selections IN THE FIFTH GRADE—students get comprehensible input!!! What a concept! Our ELL’s actually get to understand what it is they’re reading. I like that. And so will they.

The other piece that is enticing about the PALS program is the collaborative nature of the system. Students get to partner up—a high with a low—to accomplish their task. This year we have really been striving to build a sense of community in not only our classrooms, but also the entire school. We’ve begun to implement the Tribes book, and have adopted the four “agreements” (attentive listening, mutual respect, appreciation, and right to pass) school-wide. The PALS system builds teamwork and mutual respect right into the partnership, with each student getting to be the tutor and the tutee.

Overall, this was a fascinating study that gave me many ideas to try in my classroom. I’m always searching for more collaborative and interactive ways for students to approach text, and this approach seems successful and easy to use.

17 banos

my favorite thematic unit in open court is "heritage." this past weekend i got to know my heritage a little better: i flew to mexico d.f. for the first time to meet family members from mi padre, joaquin's side of the family. it was fantastic! i stayed at my uncle alphonso's house, "casa margarita" (named after my grandmother, not the drink). i dubbed it the "cordero compound" because it was literally a sprawling, palacial estate surrounded by 4 huge walls. check this out:

• 3 stories
  
• 40 rooms
  
• 17 bathrooms
• elevator
• pool
• jacuzzi
• sauna
• steam room
• 2 gyms
• movie theater
• wine cellar
• 9 fireplaces
• study/library (with spiral staircase to second level bookshelf)
• bar
• grand piano
• basketball court (my favorite!)

as you can tell, it's quite the vacation home! it was hard to leave, but i did do some sight-seeing outside the compound as well: i took a few busses (quite an experience!), rode the metro (people sell everything on there!), and was chauffeured around by my two incredibly humorous and delightful aunts. i got to see toluca (sp?) where my cousin has a cattle farm, and i ate fresh cheese that was only 4 hours old. of course there was plenty of tequila and mariachi music, but the highlight was visiting teotihuacan and climbing the pyramid of the moon!

what an incredible experience!

it really made me appreciate my latino heritage and proud to be a cordero! i bonded with my natural father and family members and really felt a part of something special, something with rich cultural traditions.

today i shared some pictures with my students... i think they could tell i was excited to finally--after 30 years--connect with this part of me...

!$#@! state employees!!!

to all those who envied us teachers who had a nice loOong weekend, here's my short "to do" list from this past weekend:

• academic progress reports (3, one for each of the "r's")
  
• workshop planning sheet (thankfully only one sheet!)
  
• read writers' notebooks (5, two of which are completely full since last time!@#%$^@$#)
  
• review ELD folders (including "word parts journals" and thinking maps "grammar" work)
  
• scrutinize OC workshop folders (all the MUST DO work)
  
• grade OC assessments (comprehension and spelling for all students)
  
• check OC resources folders (including "word knowledge," and "clues, problems, wonderings journals + assess "vocabulary skills worksheets")
  
• inspect math notebooks (check that they're including the "problem of the day," the "objective," and basically trying the "independent practice" at there desks while i'm pulling small, intensive work groups)
  
• turn in essays to anaheim community police center ("have your teacher check them for grammatical and spelling mistakes, kids." GREAT. THANKS A LOT, LADY!)
  
• turn in middle school special programs request forms (write about each applicant and how they're qualified--only about 20 students applied for this...)
  
• plan for next week (another short week, where i must cram 5 days of work into 4!)
• write a blog post

guess which was done last?


(sorry, ed...i don't blame you... i know you gotta do what you gotta do...)

living graves

since one of my colleagues is a vegetarian--shout out to mrs. mank!!!--i thought i'd share some tidbits i'd gleaned from reading this article on the origins of vegetarianism.

• it was thought that eating blood predisposed men to be cruel.
• genesis 9:4 says "flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."
• throughout history most people haven't eaten meat--it was too scarce and/or expensive
• "vegetarianism has always been less about why you should eat plants than about why you shouldn't eat animals."
• pythagoras--the right triangle guy--was first known for starting "a community of mystical mathematicians" who abstained from eating meat because they believed in "metempsychosis," or the post-mortem transfer of your soul to another animal.
  
• hitler was a vegetarian.
• gandhi "before reconverting to his original vegetarianism, briefly thought 'that meat eating was good, that it would make me strong and daring, and that, if the whole country took to meat eating, the english could be overcome.'"
  
• "while we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on the earth?"--george bernard shaw
• "if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."--sir paul mccartney
• "vegetarians have long had the best intellectual arguments...it shows how little intellectual arguments matter..."
• "so convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has mind to do"--benjamin franklin, part-time vegetarian

learning disabilities

i've seen light bulbs turn on 3/4 of the way through fifth grade, and it's one of the most rewarding things i've ever witnessed.

i've also seen them stay dark...i agree with vaughn, et al--a student's response to intensive 1-on-3 instruction is a good means of identifying students with LD.

this study reminded me of an article i read about homelessness. the author compared recidivism in homelessness with the troubles the LAPD was having with racial insensitivity in the late eighties, early nineties. it was widely assumed that, statistically speaking, both situations were normally distributed, along a bell curve with a small number of people at both ends, and the bulk of the problems--homelessness and racial prejudices--situated in the middle. ultimately, studies found that a small number of the overall group was actually the problem--that the greatest "activity" was found not in the middle, but at the extremes in both scenarios. it followed a "power-law" distribution, not a bell curve.

LD strikes me quite the same way. with comprehensive reading instruction most students will thrive, but there will always be that small percentage that really do need the intensive, daily attention.

front loaded

did i hear someone refer to front loading as "foreplay?"

that's wrong. on so many levels.

anyway...

we got to plan/prepare for some front loading lessons tonight. that was good. my table partner seemed a little testy, but we made it through without anyone getting hurt. that was also good.

i've used front loading once in a word knowledge lesson (oops) when we were studying comparative and superlative adjectives. i had the students use the frame/mortar:

the ____________is/are __________ than ___________, but ____________is the ______________.

my example:
the talking heads are better than the b-52's, but devo is the best.

i'm looking forward to using it again. (i'm gonna try a "due to the fact" one next) my students really enjoyed it, and i like that they get to practice speaking the language before they attempt to write anything--it allows their sponge-like ears to absorb english language patterns.

!!!!

wow. what a day. the sciatica picked the wrong day to come back--that's for sure! (or was it the horsing around with my nephew and niece at my sister's super bowl party yesterday that left me almost unable to walk this morning?) either way, the day didn't exactly get better: my students were really wound up this morning, and we had a lot to do since we were having a guest speaker come in to the class to talk about an essay contest. there was no read 180, so we had whole class workshop--with me working with a small group in the back--management became an issue. my all-stars were at their best, all day long, and by the end of the day, i had had to erase TWO (2) stars, which i'd never had to do before... of course, one of my usual problems became defiant after school just as his mom walked up the ramp, which actually turned out to be good timing--she saw him slam into the door after i asked him to step outside to cool down. she was ready to go to mr. garcia to try to change his class, but we settled things... i hope...

of course, i had to go to my master's cohort until 6 pm which meant catching only the 2nd half of the lakers' game...

boo hoo hoo...

i guess this is as legitimate a place as any to vent my stress and frustration, right?

besides, in cyberspace, no one can hear you scream!

happy b-day, mom!

=>

love,
your son



she helps out in my classroom, so it counts as school-related, right???

winter concert

the students did a great job this evening at the whittier wizard's winter concert! this was the first year i remember the orchestra (a smattering of instruments--trumpets, clarinets--in the key of b flat, some flutes, and an army of bow-wielding violinists) and the chorus sharing the concert bill. it was nice to see the two musical groups play the same night. i really enjoyed hearing the students play mr. gibson's (orchestra teacher/conductor) own composition.

last year was the first year our new chorus teacher, ms. radovich prepared the students, and they completely blew me away! i think the entire fifth grade team was blown away... we'd never heard the students at whittier sing prettier (those pesky rhyme flows keep seeping into my writing...)!!! this year our track b schedule kind of wreaked havoc with their practice schedule, but they pulled off an energetic and fun-filled show nonetheless. i especially loved the hand percussion!

congratulations to all who participated--especially those in room 75 tribe!!!

and a shout-out to mrs. mank for providing flowers to our great music teachers--so thoughtful!

saturdays

very productive day today.
why do i get so much done at school on saturdays?!
oh yeah:
no distractions + no students + no adults = productivity!

symphony

today the 4th and 5th grade students went to the long beach terrace theater to hear the symphony. it was fantastic! the theme this year was dance music--orchestral dance music, to be a bit more precise--not 808 state! the students were well-prepared: our music teacher played the songs to expose the students to the music beforehand, and she taught them a lesson on concert etiquette. i even taught an art lesson (thanks, linda!) using one of the pieces of music that had some dynamically contrasting parts. you should have seen my students' eyes light up in recognition when it was played...it was priceless!

what was really interesting was that many of the 5th grade students thought that the concert was shorter this year (it wasn't). i told them that it was the exact same length as last year (an hour), but since they were so familiar with the music, it just seemed shorter. they didn't believe me--i could tell--but it was true! i told them i made up an expression that summarized their experience, "time flies when you're having fun!" me and my idioms...

oh yeah, and my dad was a volunteer guide again this year. it was fun to see him there and introduce him to my students...

mentors

we just had a staff development meeting on writing. we watched a "totally radical" (in the parlance of those times--1980's) video on writer's workshop which featured lucy calkins. one of the things that both she and ed (principal) shared was their lack of student-centered writing training in elementary school. how strange that both an accomplished, professional teacher of writing and an accomplished, professional principal (who can also write), turned into such great authors and educators even after only being subjected to teacher-generated writing situations! hmmm...

this got me thinking: how can i explain my love of language and words, my love of writing? i too was taught to write to prompts in elementary school. i too was not encouraged to be an authentic "author," observing, recording, and writing what interested me. (i didn't even enjoy reading books for pleasure until i was in college...) yet i still thought/think of myself as a half-way decent writer...

most people say they've had at least one teacher that they remember encouraging them, mentoring them, guiding them... i wish i could say that. aside from my mother, i don't really feel like i had any teachers like that. my mentors were musicians--their lyrics my "touchstone texts." the wisdom i gleaned through their songs--even in elementary school--is what i remember most:

peek-a-boo!
i can see you, and i know what you do!
so put your hands on your face, and cover up your eyes--
don't look until i signal--peek-a-boo!
laugh if you want to or say you don't care--
if you cannot see it, you think it's not there--

it doesn't work that way!

--from "peek-a-boo," devo

...or how about...

how can you say that you're not responsible?
what does it have to do with me?
what is my reaction? what should it be
confronted by the latest atrocity?
driven to tears

hide my face in my hands; shame wells in my throat.
my comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow, meaningless folly.
seems that when some innocent die
all we can offer them is a page in some magazine
too many cameras and not enough food
this is what we've seen
driven to tears

-from "driven to tears," the police

7/1/4

today in math i reviewed division of fractions. i brought in 7 apples and a knife (shh, don't tell anyone i had a "weapon" at school). i asked my students to "predict" how many pieces i'd have if i cut all 7 apples into quarters. many knew, but some actually gave an earnest prediction. i modeled (that's demonstrated in teacher jargon) the problem numerically on the overhead, then with the apples on a cutting board from home.

this was my latest effort to help students comprehend what they're doing when they're flippin' and multiplyin' fractions that have division signs between them. i hope the realia (that's teacher jargon for real things--apples in this case) helped make the somewhat abstract algorithm accessible to all my learners... at least it was edible--and healthy--for everyone!

a writerly life

it's nice to talk about writing at our staff meetings again--especially since i've been addicted to my notebook as of late...

it started during the break (coincidently when i stopped posting here, hmmmm...) and really hasn't ceased... at first it took some effort to get back in the swing--i was out of practice--now i feel back in the flow, and it feels natural to reach for my notebook when inspiration strikes.

i'd fallen out of this practice at the beginning of 2006, and i think i was really missing the outlet, the space to nurture thoughts. then i started this blog in the fall which forced me to take a long look at my writing process. this medium was so immediate compared with notebooking--press PUBLISH POST, and the world would immediately see my thoughts--that was intimidating. it wasn't like my notebook where my ideas could fester, secreted away from prying eyes. it also seemed a bit "self-indulgent," but i justified it with the knowledge that it was part of my contractual obligations as an educator--reflection--how (literally) narcissistic... anyway...

this was really just an experiment. normally, i would nurture, care, craft, revise, (etc, ad infinitum) each post until i thought it was exactly perfect--every letter, every punctuation mark in the right place--before i'd press PUBLISH. this is the first post i've created that hasn't (at least so far) gone through this rigorous process... i'm learning to let go a little more.

my feelings are mixed about the product...

well, it was worth a shot anyway.


update: (9:00 pm) i had to revise this darn thing--i couln't stand it!

it's hard work

today was the first day back at school after a long winter's nap... boy, did that time fly! not that i was having fun or anything--what's more fun than 5th grade?--i was working!

working on my masters.
working on my house.
working on my classroom.
working on music.

work, work, work, work, work! (some might even say, "it's hard work.")

as a matter of fact, i think i need some vacation time just from all the work i did on vacation!

luckily, i enjoy ALL the work i do. i've even coined a phrase for it: "a labour of love." pretty catchy, huh? i like the alliteration, but others have complimented me on the snooty british spelling.