Third Grade: Self-Talk

For our second lesson, we are continuing our lessons on skills for learning. We added our third skill, using self-talk to our list of skills we can use to help us learn. Our three skills for learning we have discussed are:

• Focus Attention
• Listen
• Use Self-Talk

We started out our lesson with a brain-builder called "Who's Talking?," where students had to close their eyes and listen to hear what student I had selected to read from a book. Once students could hear what direction the voice was coming  from, they had to keep their eyes closed and point in that direction. When they believed that had determined who was speaking, they raised their hands (with eyes closed) and I called on them and allowed them to guess. After a couple of rounds in silence, I did the last round with several distractions that made it harder for students to focus attention and determine who was talking.

To be successful in this activity, students had to follow the listening rules we had already learned. They had to be able to focus on the speaker and listen carefully to determine whose voice they were hearing. Some students may have used self-talk to help them keep from getting distracted.

For the rest of our lesson, we discussed a photo of a student named Omar. Omar was working on a book report, but there were so many distractions in his classroom he was unable to focus on his work. Students raised their hands and named the distractions they could see in the photo. We also talked about the distractions I made during the game, and how this made them feel. Many students felt frustrated by the distractions, and we agreed that Omar probably felt the same way. Therefore, since the students had been through a similar situation as Omar, they could probably understand how he was feeling.

Students used Think, Turn, Tell to share with their partners what they had done to keep from getting distracted in the game. Some students had used self-talk without even realizing it! We define self-talk as saying words to ourselves inside our heads that help us to stay focused and complete our work. However, there are different kinds of self-talk: negative self-talk and positive self-talk. We talked about the importance of using positive self-talk to help us stay focused, and why we shouldn't use negative self-talk.

Next, partners used Think, Turn, Tell to brainstorm what self-talk messages Omar could use to allow himself to focus on his book report. Students came up with several ideas he could use. Finally, we ended the lesson by talking about when and where we could use self-talk at school.

First Grade: Focusing Attention

For our second lesson, we are working on our second skill for learning: focusing attention. We started out our lesson with a recap of last week's topic of listening. We reviewed our listening rules and discussed the student we had examined the picture of that wasn't listening in class.

Next, we warmed up our brains with a round of "My Turn, Your Turn," this time with harder movements to repeat. After our brain builder, we had our first visit from Puppy (one of my puppets I use with the students), and unfortunately he had forgotten the Listening Rules. First graders had to remind him of the listening rules by showing him the motions that went with each rule. We also listened to the "Be a Learner" song and did corresponding movements  for the words "listen" and "eyes, ears, and brains."

For the remainder of our lesson, we discussed a picture of a student named Abraham who was in P.E. class. His P.E. teacher was explaining the rules to a new game, and Abraham wanted to make sure he learned what to do because the game looked fun. We talked about some things he could do to make sure he knew what to do and remembered how to play. Common answers were: listen, look at the teacher, follow the listening rules.

After we talked about what Abraham could do to learn, we learned about a special tool Abraham uses to pay attention called an attento-scope. This tool can be made by turning both hands into circles that go around our eyes to help us focus and block out distractions. We can activate our attento-scopes by saying messages quietly to ourselves like "focus, pay attention, and listen carefully." We spent the remainder of our lesson practicing activating our attento-scopes and using them to focus on specific items on the classroom. We finished our discussion by brainstorming times in school we could use our attento-scopes to help us learn. We decided we can use them anywhere, in the classroom, in specials, and even at home to be able to focus.

Fifth Grade: Empathy and Respect

We started our lesson by listening to Phillip Phillip's "Home" song and discussing why it was chosen for the class.  I choose it to start off lessons for a number of reasons: to tell new students I want them to feel welcome, to let students know I want them to feel comfortable, to remind students about empathy and to stand up for bullying.

After we discussed the purpose of listening to "Home," we discussed my classroom expectations. You can see my classroom expectations here:

We spent the rest of the lesson discussing what empathy and respect are, and how they are related. We discussed the importance of having empathy for everyone, and how having empathy helps us to respond in a caring and respectful way to others. By having empathy (feeling or understanding how someone else is feeling) we are more likely to be kind and respectful to others. It helps us to be better students, better children, and better friends to others.

Third Grade: Being Respectful Learners

For our first lesson in third grade, we start out with two skills for learning: listening and focusing with attention. These two skills help us to be respectful learners. We started our lesson with The Respect Rap video.

After the video we started a Brain Builder: Think, Turn, Tell with a twist. During Think, Turn, Tell, partners share their ideas about what we are discussing. Students start by listening to me, and I then assign a partner (either A or B) a question. Once the question has been asked, that partner Thinks about an answer, and then once I have given permission, Turns and Tells their partner. When we add the twist, the other partner has to be able to share what their partner shared during Think, Turn, Tell.

We discussed a student, Sita, who was explaining to her classmates how to do a math problem. The students in the class were being respectful to Sita by listening to her and focusing their attention on her while they spoke. We looked for ways that showed the students were listening and focusing attention. We also discussed what our expectations are for listening and focusing attention.

Listening: 

• Focus on the speaker
• Wait your turn to speak
• Remember what you hear
• Think of questions 

Focus Attention

• Concentrate
• Use eyes, ears and brain
• Ignore distractions

First Grade: Listening to Learn

Last week I started my first grade lessons. For our first lesson, we started with a brain builder to give us strong brains. I reminded students that our brains control our thoughts and our bodies, so our brains have a lot of power. We played a round of "My Turn, Your Turn" where students must listen, wait, and remember while I give directions during My Turn. Once it becomes their turn, they must repeat the directions I gave.

Next, we moved onto the Listen Rules with Snail. Many of us had learned these rules last year, so Snail reminded us of the rules and then we repeated them back to him. The Listening Rules are as follows:

• Eyes Watching (point to eye)
• Ears Listening (cup your ears)
• Voices Quiet (Finger over your mouth)
• Body Still (Hug your body)

For the rest of our lesson, we looked at a photo of a first grade classroom where the teacher was reading and most students were listening. Unfortunately, one student named Will wasn't listening to the teacher. We looked at the picture and searched for clues that showed us he wasn't listening, and we found several. We also looked to see if the other students in the class were following the Listening Rules. 

We ended our lesson with a discussion about what happens when everyone besides the speaker follows the Listening Rules: all students are able to learn. So, by listening, we are allowing all students to learn!

Second Grade: Focusing Attention & Listening

As part of our skills for learning unit, we discussed and practiced what it means to focus attention and listen. To start our lesson, we played a game called Sentence Switcheroo, where I would read a sentence two times, sometimes changing the words. In order to be successful, students had to focus on the words I was saying, listen for changes, and remember what I had said each time.

We also examined a photo of a student named Ayako who was in her art class. Ayako was not listening or paying attention while the art teacher gave directions, so she didn't know what to do. We discussed how Ayako may be feeling, if we had ever not known what to do because we weren't listening, and what Ayako could do differently next time to be a better learner. We also practiced focusing our attention and listening by having the students follow my magic wand and watching and listening for the wand to stop moving and making noise.

Finally, we ended the lesson with some skill practice. Students shared with their partners their favorite food along with three reasons why it was their favorite. Their partners had to listen to their words, focus on their partner, and remember what their partner said so they could share their answers. In the next round, the remaining partner did the same activity discussing their favorite season.

Kindergarten: Focusing Attention

This week, we are working on what it means to focus and how to pay attention in class. We started the lesson with a review of last week's topic: listening. To continue the discussion on listening, we read Julia Cook's "My Mouth is a Volcano," and discussed how Shout-out-itis hurts other peoples' feelings and the importance of listening even when we have something to share.

Next, we reviewed the listening rules along with the motions that go with that body part's job for listening. After that, we looked at a picture of a student named Caleb who was listening to his teacher explain a math problem. We identified what ways we could tell he was listening along with which listening rules he was following. We talked about a special tool we can use to help pay attention: our attentoscope.

We make our attentoscope by making circles with each hand and placing them over our eyes like binoculars. Our attentoscopes help us focus on what we want to pay attention to while blocking out distractions. We can use words like "pay attention" or "focus" to activate our attentoscopes, and once they are focusing, we can take our hands down and keep focusing on the teacher to learn.

Fourth Grade: Empathy and Respect

This week's lesson focuses on empathy and respect. I begin the lesson with Phillip Phillip's "Home" and discuss with students why I chose this song for our first lesson. I choose this song to let students know I want them to feel safe at school and comfortable during our classroom lessons. It also highlights inclusion as one of our anti-bullying rules. After discussing the song, we delved into my classroom expectations for working with students. 

To introduce the topic of empathy, I showed the students a video clip of a teacher "putting herself in a student's shoes" by morphing into a student and going out to recess. She explained how empathy helps students be respectful, and how our lessons will help students learn skills to be successful inside and outside of the classroom. After the video, we discussed what empathy means and students shared with their partners one way they can be respectful in the classroom. We also created some rules for our classroom lessons to insure we are being respectful to others. Finally, we discussed how being respectful helps us with partners, small groups, and class discussions.

View the prezi from this week's lesson here:
http://prezi.com/a4ofiheg7lwp/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share