Greg here.
As a kid, competitive swimming helped shape a lot of the routines and philosophies I have about hardwork, focus, and teamwork. Honestly, I was never a great swimmer - but my passion for the sport fueled my interest. Swimming gave me the opportunity to coach for 10 years in a wide variety of settings, from summer league to USA club swimming to high school. One thing I prided myself on as a coach was the ability to analyze the technical components of a stroke and help swimmers better understand how to improve their technique. As many educators know, teaching requires much of the same.

My classroom, much like the pool deck, is a very social atmosphere where learning and collaboration are at the core of the work. My swimmers performed better when everyone was committed to team goals and were able to talk with one another about their performances - both in meets and practice. In class, I promote learning through a lot of small group discussions and collaborations in hopes of learning together. 

This year, I've dedicated a lot of time to "thinking activities". They range from simple warm-ups to highly engaging questions that take 15 - 25 minutes to develop. The activities, however, are much like the drill sets I devised for my swimmers. As a coach I asked the question: "How can we isolate specific skills, develop them, and then align them with other moving components to make their performance smooth(er)?" I fear that too often we take this for granted in the classroom. Students - even at the Honors & AP level - need their thinking broken down, strengthened, and pieced with other skills to improve their thinking. (Even the fastest swimmers had things they constantly worked on). 

One thing I found out about the thinking activities is that you can't substitute skills with content. In social studies, there are many teachers - including me - that often push "stuff" before thinking. We need to let the skills be the driver. For example, I worked with students on an activity this week explaining the connections between the Rwandan genocide and the unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo - its neighbor to the West. I simply could have asked them to do just that, but I want them to understand the roots and results of the problem. I presented the idea and form I wanted them to emulate:

We talked about how to analyze the text, build the connections, and take a look at the end result. I was pleased by some of the results.

Is this the answer? No. But I'm beginning to find that students at the high school level need help building their ideas and contextualizing their conclusions. Too often we ask students to focus on the content.  Why don't we first think about how their coming to their conclusions? By creating learning activities for them to "walk-though" the process, hopefully, they become stronger thinkers. 

So, the question is - what skills do students need to think on a deeper level? And, how do we improve them?

-Greg

Hi everyone, it's Becky! I wanted to take a moment to share a President's Day/Week experience that opened the eyes of my first graders and showed them a side of George Washington that the elementary-friendly first grade books don't show you. 

Let me backtrack a few days before President's Day. Greg and I were talking at home about the books I would be reading to my kids, and he mentioned how the famous picture of George Washington commanding the boat across the Potomac River is not accurate. He told me in reality George Washington was riding under a blanket  (They were crossing during a nor'easter!) This makes much more sense than Emanuel Leutze's 1851 portrayal of Washington, standing erect, guiding the troops in the middle of the night, right?! Why in the world would the commander in chief make himself vulnerable during such a monumental moment? I don't know about you, but I never thought about this before! (It's times like this that make it handy to be married to a social studies teacher!) 

So, fast forward to a few days later to my classroom when I was reading one of our George Washington books, and we came to a cartoon version of that famous picture. I talked to my students about its inaccuracy. It also made sense to them as to why he would not be standing on the boat, but then I also had a sense that their little hearts were a bit crushed. "So he really wasn't brave?" one of my kiddos sadly asked. I responded by saying that he was still a very brave man, and that moment should not make us thing differently, it should show us that he was smart! But then something magical happened…another one asked, "How did they even know that he didn't stand like that on the boat?" This was PERFECT! I then reminded them about Primary Sources, which we learned about through our introductory Primary Source unit we did earlier in the year. 

I couldn't have planned the conversation better myself! We came to the conclusion that George Washington and the soldiers most likely wrote in journals about the experience! My kids were excited that they knew a fact most others do not know about George Washington.

I came home a little worried that maybe I crushed their idealistic views of George Washington, and when I shared my conversation with Greg, he was able to find me a fantastic excerpt from a book about young GW and how brave he really was. This excerpt, from the book The Many Faces of George Washington, by Carla Kilough McClafferty, explained how young George volunteered to traveled from Williamsburg, VA to the Ohio River Valley (Western PA) to deliver a letter to French troops, and also bring a response back to Williamsburg. 

My kids couldn't believe all of the things GW had to do on his voyage! They couldn't imagine that this same clever guy became our first president! (I did have to simplify the reading a bit and explain some of the things that were happening since it is meant from intermediate students. My kids thought they were big stuff listening to this!) So, alas, after reading this excerpt, my kids overwhelmingly agreed that our dear George Washington truly was a brave man! I also loved how the end of the excerpt noted that the journals GW kept on his voyage were eventually published. My kids quickly put it all together and stated that his journals were the primary source that gave us this information.

I hope this bit of information finds its way to your kiddos! Even in first grade, my kids loved learning something new and different about George Washington! I also wanted to share that we are taking part in the Teachers Are Heroes TPT Sale on February 25! Our The Class Couple TPT store will be 20% off, and you can use the Promo Code "HEROES" to save 28%!

Happy Shopping!

Hi everyone! Greg and I are going to share the Five For Friday post this week and give you a peek into what we've been up to!

Urban got his second set of ear tubes on President's Day. I was pleasantly surprised at how much better he did this time! The procedure was very quick, and by 9AM he was ready to eat a donut! We spent the rest of the day cuddling on the couch watching Caillou, since he had become pretty moody from the anesthesia and developed a fever. By the next morning he was back to his old self again!

Greg here. I’ve been making a big push away from content and towards skills-based instruction. Whether it be assessments or thinking activities, content has been backseat to how I’m asking students to develop ideas and thoughts. I ask students to create original arguments about the content, but always have a difficult time showing them what that looks like. The above idea came to me early one morning this week (you know, those mornings where you wake up with ideas already sprinting through your head), so I pulled it together rather quick. Please feel free to download and use it with your own students. Let me know if you think modifications would help.

I ask students to analyze information in a wide variety of ways, so they looked at me funny when I assigned sketchnotes this week. For those of you that haven’t heard of sketchnotes, it’s an interesting way that students visually connect pieces of content to (hopefully) demonstrate a deeper understanding. The students were a bit hesitant, but the end results turned out quite well! 

I was given the opportunity to be a guest blogger for GoNoodle this week! I wrote about an opinion writing challenge we did using GoNoodle brain breaks! My first graders loved it! You can check out my post here, and you can get the freebie here!

Fellow blogger Kristin from My Carolina Classroom is celebrating her Blogiversary! Be sure to check out her blog and enter to win one of these awesome bundles packed full of fantastic products! Our Primary Sources Football Edition is part of the 3-5 Bundle!

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out what everyone else was up to this week!