End of Year Activities

Hi there everyone!  I'm Lyndsey, from Lit with Lyns!  The light at the end of the tunnel... We've entered the countdown to that beautiful time we call, SUMMER VACATION!!!  I never thought the day would get here!  Year after year I find myself scrounging for ways to keep my students engaged in these final days--something to keep them from bouncing off the walls-- or at least keep their bounce to a minimum. 

This year, as we're moving more and more close into a paperless (or somewhat paperless) classroom, I decided to create an End of Year Student Reflection for the Google Drive. The End of Year Student Reflection is a great way to give students the opportunity to reflect on their year, as well as to provide feedback on what they liked and didn’t like in both specific classes and school in general.

For those of you who aren't open to do this digitally, I also have a printable version of this activity, which can be found here.

With both of these, students have the opportunity to think about what they liked, what they would like to do have done better, what they hope to accomplish in the future, etc. This also gives them a little break from the day to day school work that they're used to, which also helps them to enjoy what they are doing. 

We would love to hear about your end of the year activities!  Share your ideas in the comments below!

Year-end Self Assessments

Assess much?!  

Of course you do!  Formative, summative, state testing, completing student progress folders...by this time of year, you are probably feeling rather "assessed out."

However, there is one more assessment you that will provide you with a wealth of information about yourself, your students, and how you can improve your teaching:  self-assessments.

We assess our students, the state or another standardized test assesses our students, but what about allowing them to assess themselves?  Middle school students (as we are so keenly aware) have opinions!  And they appreciate the opportunity to express them.  When you provide your students with a chance to step back and honestly look at what they've accomplished this year, they will discover that they actually did learn something this year!

Looking Back

I set aside a class period to allow students to reflect on what they've accomplished this year.  Begin with a class brainstorming session.  What were the big concepts they learned?  What writing assignments or projects did they complete?  What goals did students work toward?  What special skills did they focus on this year?  What new technology did they learn or use?  What review games or activities did you use?  Encourage students to refer to their planners to jog their memories -- and create a big list on your board.  (It is helpful if you create your own list ahead of time to help them remember!)

If your students kept portfolios or journals, give them time to look through their work.  One year, I had a student hold up a paper that she'd written at the beginning of the year and exclaim, "I can't believe I wrote that!"  She could see that her writing skills had improved!

Once you have your list and students have looked through journals or portfolios, provide them with a list of questions.  You can use the questions I've created in my free year-end resource, or you can create your own list.  I wanted my questions to be positive, so I stayed away from questions like "What did you like the least?" (Why are those the questions that are always so easy to answer?!)

Why This Works

1.  Students respond really well to this.  You think you might get some unkind comments since it's anonymous, but students appreciate the opportunity to give you an opinion.  This is especially nice for the quiet students who may never complain or compliment. This is a way for all students to speak their minds. 

2.  Students can stop and look at how they've grown.  This little activity provides a wealth of self-confidence -- like my student who couldn't believe the difference between her writing at the beginning and end of the year.

3.  This helps me plan for the next year.  We can usually tell when an assignment is a bomb or the students really hate something, but we often don't know what they enjoyed.  

4.  The list you will create during the brainstorming session alone will give you a tremendous boost.  Take a picture of it and send it home to parents in a year-end email!  Your students worked hard this year! Share that picture with your administrators as well, and save it to share for next year's "meet the teacher" night!  

What's Next?

You probably have done your own self-evaluations in preparation of teacher evaluations with your administrator.  Consider completing your own year end self-assessment that is for your eyes only.  You can use the one I have in my free year-end resource if you like, or just take out a sheet of paper and write down what went well this year and what you'd like to change next year.  

Tuck that self-eval in your desk or planning book -- or somewhere else you'll find next fall when you return to your classroom.  It's like sending a message to your future self!!

Plato said, "An unexamined life is not worth living."  And certainly, both students and educators will benefit by taking time to examine what we've done, how we've grown, and where we can improve.   

Enjoy the last few weeks of school, and don't forget to learn from this year!

Happiness always♥

GO Paperless Test Review

Hey all!  This is Lyndsey from Lit with Lyns, and I'm going to share how I prepare for state testing without making the dreadful copies.  Our district is currently out on spring break (yay!).  Once we go back to school, we only have a week before testing begins.  Before the break started, I was trying to plan for how my students would review and decided that this year, we were going to do it online.  At my school, we use Google Classroom, but there are many programs that can be used if you don't have this (Edmodo, Canvas, Schoology, etc.).

There were several areas I want to review with my ELA students, so I decided I would use task cards that cover the following:  main idea, story elements, figurative language, point of view, and certain areas of grammar.  In order to ensure that each student gets an adequate opportunity to cover each of these areas, I'm going to put the kids in groups.  Within their groups, they will "virtually rotate" through stations (they won't physically rotate, but once their group completes the activity/station, then they will move on to the next activity/station).  I uploaded each activity to Google Slides (which you can do too, if you create a Google account).  Once I have created each group activity, I will "share" it with the students by clicking on the blue "share" button at the top, right side of the screen.  Again, if you use other programs, such as Edmodo, you can do the same sort of practice.

I have also created a similar activity for the Google Drive that I recently posted on Teachers Pay Teachers.  My ELA Test Prep Task Cards for Google Drive can be found here.  See a preview of this below:

I would love to hear what you're doing to get your students ready for the end of year testing!  Please share in the comments!

How to Create A Simple + Effective Summer Reading Program

I've gotta ask. How many of us just assign a summer reading book, have the kids read it, give them a little test/quiz when we get back to school, and then forget about the book for the rest of the year?

I'd say there's quite a few of us out there.

Hey. I was even guilty of doing that my first TWO years of teaching.

But then I got to thinking about how I could utilize summer reading assignments as a way to get a strong grasp on where my students stood in their writing. Yep. Using summer reading to assess students' writing. 

So here's how you can implement a strong summer reading program at your school.

1. Pick a book the kids will like. Seriously.
2. Assign an essential question (kind of like a final essay question for the book). You can read more about how to create your own essential question HERE.
3. Have your students write an essay over the summer answering this essential question.
4. Said essay is due the second day of school.

Now. Guess who gets to see where their students' writing stands before having to wait 2-3 weeks into the school year? YOU DO! Granted, some students might have had help with their essays, it still gives you a decent read on where they are.

*I'm a mean teacher, so I also like to assign an in-class essay in response to a second essential question from the summer reading book. This second writing assessment really gives me a peek into their writing skills because it's all written in the classroom.*

I've included a screenshot below to one of my past summer reading assignments, so maybe you can create something similar this summer!

Best of luck. And hang in there. You're sooooooo close!

Annotating Text with DIIGO {Chrome App}

Hey there everyone!  Julia here from History from the Middle!  I'm excited to share a FUN new Google Chrome App that I just recently discovered that allows you to annotate text in a variety of different formats!

As we enter the long awaited testing season, one of the universal skills that our students need to really master is annotating text.

 As a history teacher, we do this in so many formats...Textbook, primary sources, poems, song lyrics, etc...I really like to change up the ways in which I annotate to make it as FUN and ENGAGING as possible and to ensure that my student's are getting the most out of it.

I recently stumbled upon a really fun Chrome Extension that allows students to annotate text online. This Chrome Extension allows you to upload your own PDF's, (you do have to upgrade your account to do this beyond the 1st time) images (this is FREE), or just annotate right onto a website.  It's AWESOME!

To get started, go to your Chrome Store and search for DIIGO, or click HERE to access the website.  Once downloaded, you will then be prompted to create an account.  You will also see that the extension has been added to your browser...If you're using Chrome.

You will then have the option to choose what account you want...I've been just fine with the Free version, and then you're ready to go!  You will then be taken to your Dashboard.

To get started, just click the ADD button, and you will be able to see ALL of the options available!  

*Just remember, in the Free version, you can only upload a PDF once before you are prompted to buy...I've worked around this by saving my PDF as a JPEG and then just uploading as an image!

One of the main ways I use this is annotating right on a website.  To do this, you go to the website you are annotating, and click the DIIGO Extension that is up in your toolbar, this will open a sidebar that will allow your annotation tools to open.

Once you have opened the extension, you can then annotate away!  You can highlight, add notes, and then save your annotated site to your DIIGO Dashboard!  Check out this quick video of me using DIIGO to annotate a website!

<I used Screen-Cast-O-Matic to make the video btw...GREAT site and easy to use!>

I hope you find this useful and find a creative way to use it in your class!

What other ways do you make text annotation FUN and ENGAGING??  Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas too!

Where to Find Passages and Text - Testing is Over So Let's Plan for Next Year!

Finally! Testing is over! Time to par-tay!! Or, time to start thinking about plans for next year. If you’re anything like me, you get really excited for the next school year before the current year has ended. Thinking about next year can be just as overwhelming as it is exciting, however. One task I want to get a grasp on this year involves resources for next year. I am in the process of collecting passages and text for my students to dive into as soon as the new school year begins. This post is going to be short, but I really want to share with you various places you can find quality high-interest FREE resources. These passages help you practice close reading skills, comprehension, text-dependent analysis, and other areas of ELA instruction. Check out these websites:

https://kids.usa.gov/teens/social-studies/current-events/index.shtml

This site contains many useful articles, videos, lesson plans, and blogs. 

http://tweentribune.com/ (Smithsonian)

I really like this site because each article is available in four different lexile levels – perfect to support all learners! There is also an interactive quiz available for each article. The articles focus on all sorts of topics.

http://www.dogonews.com/

This is another resource that focuses current events. This site provides articles with pictures. I have found these articles best read together on my ENO board as opposed to printing hard copies.

http://www.cnn.com/studentnews

Sometimes I get lost in this site and after 20 minutes realize I’ve been watching videos and reading articles for no apparent reason! Again, this site provides useful articles you can use in your middle school classroom.

https://newsela.com/articles/#/rule/latest (This one I had to register for)

This site is one of my favorites! This also gives the option to print articles at varying reading levels and includes a writing prompt and comprehension questions for most articles. I will warn you, once you sign up you will be bombarded with daily emails about new articles.

https://student.societyforscience.org/sciencenews-students

Much like the others, this site provides interesting articles. The difference, however, is a focus on science and not social studies or current events. My students enjoy these articles as they are high interest.

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/50-ways-to-teach-current-events/?_r=0

This site gives educators ideas for implementing current events into daily instruction.

On my To-Do List:

Check out https://thinkcerca.com/  This site seems to offer a lots, but I need to do more research. I think this site allows students to work with text on the computer. Add this to my list of summer projects! 

Do you have any go-to places for free useful resources? Please share in the comments below!

Using Poetry to Keep the Peace

My school is in the midst of "testing season" and luckily it's also National Poetry Month!  I say luckily because poetry is perfect for this time of year since it lends itself fairly easily to "keeping the peace".  

With testing, kids are off their regular routines, they're tired of sitting and are beginning to feel that the year is over even though there's a little more than a month to go!  This all leads to general unrest....unless...you have a plan!

My plan is to use poetry!  You can find a poem to suit any subject  by visiting https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems but my absolute favorite book to use as an anchor is Love that Dog by Sharon Creech.

It's the story of Jack, a student who doesn't like poetry because boys don't write poetry - girls do.  He discovers that poetry isn't quite what he thought and is actually pretty cool.  That makes this book so relatable and relevant for our Middle Schoolers!  Plus there are many other poems referred to (and included) in the book from some other great poets like William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost and William Blake.  

Once I get them hooked on Love That Dog, we try to imitate the famous poems.  I always go first.

One of my big priorities is to create community and I call our class a "tribe".  Some students buy into this right away and some don't fully "get it" until they read this poem.  Then they all know that what I have been saying all year is true:  I care about them.

This is so important in the last days of school because we need to keep that connection strong to keep the peace; The peace in the classroom and the peace in our students' minds that sometimes is disturbed with thoughts of the changes that summer brings.

After I share my poem, it's their turn.  They love things that are personal and relevant and this gives them a voice.  You might ask students to share their poems out loud or simply post them.  Sharing them makes them valuable and helps students get things "off their chests".  Before you know it, you will have a community of poets!

Not only that, but as students begin to enjoy writing poems, you may consider having them make small books of their poetry as an end of year memory book.

Hope this gives you some ideas to keep the peace!  I'd love for you to share yours in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by!