Have you heard of GLAD training? I just finished 10 days of training this year. The last 4 days we have been in a model classroom in the mornings, watching the trainers go through an American Revolution unit with the kids.
Three reasons why I LOVED this week:
1) I learned something new.
2) I was able to see my kiddos from last year.
3) There were 4 days of prep time in the afternoons, complete with free color printing, posters, and lamination.
Today I wanted to share some of my pictures from the week. So many interactive charts, the butcher paper was literally falling off the walls. Not everything, just the things I really wanted to remember.
On the last day, the trainer met with small groups. The first two groups were on level kids, so they read informational passages and did a jigsaw activity. The third group was an ELD group, which went through a narrative (lots of pictures on a chart, the story on the back) and then each student had to add a sentence after the topic sentence prompt.
These inquiry charts were added to every day for 4 days. The kids asked a question, and the trainer didn't answer them, but had them add it to the chart. There was an opportunity every night for students to choose a question from the chart and do research to find out the answers. LOVE it!
I want to remember that poems/chants are NOT just for the primary grades. Back when I taught 2nd grade, I would always have a Poem of the Week to practice for fluency. Well I learned that poems can be used to teach vocabulary in the upper grades. The chart started off nice and BW. Then the kids had an activity to stand up and shout it out. Afterward, the trainer asked kids what words they thought were important and highlighted them, then added some illustrations and picture file cards to help bring the poem/chant alive.
The kids created this timeline, and it expanded over two days. The first day was only the last half of it, just the words, the second day the kids reviewed it, added pictures and vocabulary words, and then found more information to add more events to the front of it. I've always had a CA timeline, but never thought to add pictures as we walk through the story.
There is so much more that I'm still pondering how I can add it to my classroom, and honestly there are tons of units out there for almost every part of my Social Studies and Science standards (just google GLAD units 4th grade), but here's what I came up with at this point in time. Check out the links to grab them from Google Docs. :)
Home/School Connection - The kids take a sheet home, talk to their parents about what they learned, and write about it on the back. They get a parent signature and can earn some points for their team if they choose to do the assignment. The real GLAD units usually have specific questions to talk about, but I wanted some I could use anytime to review. These are for Fourth Grade California Social Studies and NGSS units.
Caught You Cards - These are inspired by GLAD's literacy awards. Basically during direct instruction a teacher is busy teaching :), so you choose two helpers that are your scouts. You tell them to pay attention to the other student's behavior, something specific like active listening, eye contact, participation, etc. After the lesson you ask the scouts which kids demonstrated those qualities, and they can give an award to them. The kids are recognized for doing a great job, and then they have a choice to do an extra activity for a reward. Those rewards don't have to entail anything more than giving some team points, or a spot on the raffle. These Caught You Cards are for Social Studies and Science - research options and STEM. :)
Oh, Research! How I love thee... Well, with all the research options they had, the kids need a little help with organizing their thoughts. The focus with research is that it is taking a question from the unit, and learning how to cite a source. Here's a little sheet.
Okay - last one for the moment... There are tons of anchor charts that the trainers used, but I was drawn to something similar to this... It's called a Mind Map. Students record information on it from all the many informational passages, timeline, narratives, pictures, etc. that they learned from the week. I love the fact that it's a way to culminate everything.
I hope these help you. There are still tons more that I want to recreate for my classroom. I'll check back in another time. Hope you are having a great day!
