Walls for Language Learners

Use of Space that Fosters Success
Guest blog post by Krista Carlson

For many of us teachers, it happens at the beginning of every school year. We walk into our classrooms for the first time after a summer away, feeling a bit overwhelmed by those four blank walls staring back at us. We have a variety of visions as to what we imagine our classroom looking like when the hustle and bustle of the year gets under way and all of those once empty walls have been long since covered time and again.

This being said, it is incredibly important throughout this process that we take a moment to step back and think about how those four walls (which seem to shrink each year) can be utilized to their utmost potential. The walls in our classroom should not simply be a place for enhancing the aesthetic feel of the room, but rather spaces strategically organized for students to use as resources throughout the year.

This idea of "walls for learning" is not new one, but a key one for teachers to remember. It is also an idea that is beyond essential in classrooms full of students who are language learners.

So let's start at the beginning... In all honesty, to start off the school year, your walls should be relatively bare. Yes, you should have a plan and quite possibly some titles on them sharing what will be going there, but everything else should be authentically created by and with your students as the year progresses. Here is a glimpse as to what this may then look like on the first day of school.

Still inviting right? But also, completely open for the world of possibilities the year will bring!

Now one may ask, what is it that I should be planning and beginning to pin on these classroom walls to start off on the right foot. Here are a few ideas that we consider to be "non-negotiables" in our Dual Language/Bilingual classrooms. Keep in mind many of these can and should be carried over to monolingual classrooms as well!

1. Content Walls

Walls in your room should be set aside for each of the content areas that are taught (math, science, reading, writing, etc.). These are places where vocabulary, anchor charts, etc. reflecting the content should be added as covered. Furthermore, pictures, photos, realia and any other examples of the concept should be placed right next to it on these walls as a another piece that students can utilize to connect meaning to text. Here is an example of a Science/Social studies content wall from a teacher in our district:

It is important to note that the items you place on the content wall should also be in the language of instruction for that particular subject area!

2. Word Study Walls

In all classrooms there should also be places dedicated to the study of words and their components. In Dual Language/Bilingual classrooms this space should be in tact for each language of instruction. However, these walls may look different depending on the grade level. In the lower primary grades, teachers may want to organize these walls alphabetically (more similar to the traditional word wall style). In the later primary/intermediate grades, teachers may want to look toward organizing these word walls more by concept covered (i.e. long vowel patterns, digraphs, contractions, etc.). Here is an example of an English wall organized by concept:

3. Cognate Wall

A Cognate Wall is a helpful space for any classroom with language learners. Cognates are words that sound similar and have a similar meaning in two different languages. For instance, "chocolate" while pronounced a bit differently, is spelled the same in both English and Spanish and means the same thing. Having a place where you can share words with these commonalities in your room will remind learners of a new language that they can utilize their knowledge of their primary language to assist them in understanding the second. It is always a good idea to try and separate your languages by using a different colored sentence strip, marker, etc. to highlight for students which is which on the wall.

4. Bridging Wall

Bridging Walls have a similar purpose to Cognate Walls, but take the idea of making connections between languages a bit further. After the completion of a unit of study in Dual Language/Bilingual classrooms the teacher may conduct a "bridge" lesson. This is a time in which the teacher works to connect the unit vocabulary, concepts, etc. from the language in which the unit was instructed to the other language. For instance, if I taught a unit in Mathematics on two-dimensional shapes in Spanish, at the conclusion of my unit, I may spend a day or more working with my students to introduce them to the vocabulary we have learned in English as well. No new content is being taught - just the vocabulary in the second language!

The "Bridge" is also a time is which a teacher could point out some explicit similarities and differences between the two languages found in your discussion of these content words. Thus, any anchor charts sharing these connections highlighted should be placed onto your Bridging Wall for students to reflect back on! Here is an example of one of these anchor charts that a teacher created with her students after a math unit in which she highlighted the vocabulary in both languages and then focused on suffixes and how they are similar in both English and Spanish.

It is important to note that Cognate and Bridging Walls are truly the only two places where the two languages are being used side-by-side. All other walls highlighted above should be done in the language of instruction for that particular subject area.

5. Other Walls

There are a variety of other wall spaces that you may also want to create and fill based on your students particular needs. In the past, I have had an "Accent Wall" highlighting words with accents and where they are placed in Spanish. I have also had an "Articles Wall" denoting the different uses of the "el" and "la" articles in the Spanish language. I have seen other teachers create an Antonym and Synonym Wall, a Homophone Wall, a Dialect Wall, you name it! The possibilities are truly endless, as long as the focus remains the same- that they are "walls for learning".

Your classroom walls should truly be places that you and your students visit daily as resources. They should be interactive and spaces in which your students feel comfortable using. The list I have shared above are merely suggestions as to how one may do this in his/her classroom- you must figure out what works for your students, you, and your district!

Now that you have your classroom up and running this school year, I encourage you to think deeply about how you have set up your space...and ask yourself...Does each space have a place in the successful development of my students learning this school year?

Krista Carlson is the author of The Second Grade Superkids blog where she works to highlight best practices, lesson ideas, and products for Dual Language and Bilingual teachers. She was a dual language elementary educator for the past five years, two years at the 1st grade level and three years at 2nd grade. She is currently the Dual Language/ELL Coach for her building.

Thanks to the folks at WiseDecor for helping me connect with Krista and making it possible to share her terrific ideas here. WiseDecor believes in the power of words for education and encouragement. They shared with me that they're glad to have played a role in bringing the valuable insights in this article to teachers who are key leaders in life's ongoing task of learning.

How to Introduce Decimals with Base Ten Blocks

There's a reason math teachers start the year by introducing or reviewing place value concepts. Understanding place value is essential to developing a solid foundation of mathematical understanding.

Introducing Place Value
Whether you're introducing whole number concepts or decimal place value, it's important to start at the concrete level, and base 10 blocks work perfectly because they are sized according to their value.

Even upper elementary students aren't too old for base 10 blocks. Primary teachers often use them to introduce whole numbers, but base 10 blocks are also effective with upper elementary students when exploring decimals. Kids have to understand that each place to the left is 10 times the size of the place to the right, and base 10 blocks are the best way to explore that concept.

How to Introduce Decimals with Base 10 Blocks
When introducing decimals, you can use the cubes to represent tens, the flats to represent ones, the rods for tenths, and the units for hundredths. I found that it's really important to create a place value mat (like the one shown above) for these lessons because it helps students remember what place is represented by each model. To create mats like the ones I used in my lesson, draw the 4-column chart above on a large sheet of heavy paper (18" x 24") and laminate it. Use a dry erase marker to draw a decimal point between the ones place and the tenths place. Or you can print the patterns in my Build a Number freebie to create the place value mat on 2 sheets of 8.5" by 11" paper.

Seat your students in teams of four and give each team one set of Base 10 manipulatives. It's best if each student has a dry erase board and marker, too. Ask your students to divide up the materials so that one person has the cubes, one has the flats, one has the rods, and one has the units. Introduce each piece and explain how it represents a particular decimal place. I explained that even though they had been taught that the "flat" was equal to 100, I wanted them to think of it as one whole... maybe one whole cake for a family of mice! If they sliced the cake into 10 parts, each part was 1/10 or 0.1. If they cut those 10 slices into 10 parts, each part was 1/100 or 0.01 of the whole.

Team Practice: Build a Decimal 
After you introduce the value of each part of the model, lead them through the "Build a Decimal" lesson. Start by writing a decimal in standard form on the board and asking students work to with their team to "build" that number on the team mat. You can make up your own numbers or use the Build a Decimal task cards provided in this freebie. After you check to make sure that they represented the number properly on the mat, ask students to write the word name and expanded form.

Expanded form is particularly difficult when representing decimals, and using base 10 manipulatives seems to help illustrate the concept. For example, it's easy to see that the number on the mat can be written as 20 + 4 + 0.6 + 0.09 because students can see each place represented with physical objects. The expanded form of this number could also be expressed as 20 + 4 + 6/10 + 9/100 or completely broken down to 20 + 4 + 6 x (1/10) + 9 x (1/100). All of those ways to express decimals are much more easily viewed when looking at a mat such as the one below. Students can also see that each place to the left is 10 times greater than the one on its right.

Place Value Games Combo

As with most math concepts, it's not enough to introduce them with hands-on materials and then move on to the next lesson. Kids have to practice the terminology and work with the concepts until they are fluent with them. That's where math games come in handy. These four place value games are bundled together in my Place Value Games Combo pack, which is great for 4th and 5th grade. My students enjoyed all of these activities, and they perfect for math centers and small group instruction.

Place Value Partners Game 
CCSS 2.NBT.A.3, 4.NBT.2, and 5.NBT.A.3
Place Value Partners is my most popular game for reviewing whole number and/or decimal place value. It's similar to Battleship, but students use a game board with lines for placing numbers and number cards instead of ships and a coordinate grid. See the image below to understand how the game is set up and played. The Sender calls out each digit, one at a time, and tells the Receiver where to place them. When all the numbers are in place, they compare their game boards, check the final number and write its standard form, word name, and expanded form in their math journals or on a recording page. The packet shown here includes four different variations of the game board to include everything from 4-digit whole numbers to decimals.

Bingo Showdown Decimal Review 
CCSS 5.NBT.3 and 5.NBT.4.
Decimal Place Value Bingo Showdown is a variation of the classic Bingo game that can be used for whole group instruction, small guided math groups, cooperative learning teams, or in learning centers. What more can I say? It's Bingo and kids love it!

Place Value Spinner Games 
CCSS 4.NBT.2 and 4.NBT.3
Another game my students enjoyed was the Spin 4 Cash Place Value Review Game. In this activity, students practice word names and expanded forms using task cards and a spinner. When they get a correct answer, they may spin for a certain amount of "math cash." I also created an international version called Spin 2 Win that awards tokens instead of cash.

I'm the Greatest - Comparing Numbers Game 
CCSS 2.NBT.4, 4.NBT.2, 5.NBT.3
The final game I want to share with you is I'm the Greatest, a simple activity for comparing numbers. The teacher can play against the class, or students can play against each other in cooperative learning teams. In this game, players attempt to create the largest number by placing randomly-selected numbers on a game board. There's a bit of luck involved, but in order to win, students have to be able to read word names and compare numbers accurately.

All four games are available from my TeachersPayTeachers store, either individually or as a part of the Place Value Game Combo. Even if you have already introduced place value concepts, these games make great review and practice activities throughout the year. You've heard that practice makes perfect, and that definitely applies to place value concepts. Plenty of place value practice is needed to make perfect!

Make Your Mark on International Dot Day!

Have you heard about International Dot Day? It's celebrated on September 15th, and it's all about encouraging kids to discover how they can make a difference. Why is it called "Dot Day"? To find out, read the book that inspired this special day!

The Dot, written by Peter Reynolds, is a short picture book suitable for all ages. It's the story Vashti, who became upset in art class because she didn't think she could draw. Her teacher challenged her to "Just make a mark and see where it takes you." So Vashti defiantly jabbed the paper and made a dot, and what happened after that shows how one simple act can snowball into something big.

If you haven't read the book, you can listen to a quick YouTube video of it before you read this post. If you like it, order a copy of The Dot now so you'll have it in time for Dot Day!

The Dot is a simple book, but it's definitely one with a message to share. Actually, it has several important messages. Children will be able to relate to the central theme about "making a mark" and making a difference. As a teacher, I was also reminded about how important it is for us to support our students and believe in them. Vashti's teacher honored her simple dot by framing the signed picture, and this small bit of encouragement was enough to help Vashti discover a hidden talent.

International Dot Day Resources

I had heard from several friends about International Dot Day, so after I read The Dot, I began looking for resources online to support this event. Boy, did I find them! Peter Reynolds is the founder of Fablevision Learning, and they've created a website full of resources for teachers to use when reading the book to students and celebrating Dot Day. The best place to begin is the "Getting Started" page, and from there you can follow a link to a page where you can download this amazing free Educator's Handbook. It's 16 pages long and includes a letter of introduction from Peter Reynolds and a great collection of ideas for celebrating International Dot Day. Here are some other ideas to get you started.

Ideas for Celebrating Dot Day or Dot Week:

• Read The Dot and discuss the themes in the book with your students. To help foster this discussion, I created a set of eight free prompts on task cards that you can to use as a jumping off point for discussion. Don't feel you need to use them all; look through the set to find the ones that are appropriate for your students. You may want discuss them in a whole group setting first, and you can use them as writing prompts later or have students use them in small groups with the Talking Sticks discussion strategy. Click the image below or this link to download these free discussion cards.

• Use some of the suggestions in the Educator's Handbook to have students create dot artwork individually or with a group. Since I'm a big fan of cooperative learning, I especially liked the Buddy Dot idea on page 9. What a unique idea!
• Participate in Skype in the Classroom activities for Dot Day. See page 13 in the Educator's Handbook for details.
• Use Technology to Animate Dot Drawings - If you have an iPad with a camera, students can use technology to bring their colored dot drawings to life. Read this blog post about the free ColAR app that can transform 2D coloring pages into 3D animations. It's absolutely amazing, and I know that students will love seeing their own artwork transformed this way! Be sure to watch the short video demonstration to see how it works. The app is free and the Dot Day coloring page is free, too. 

More Dot Day Ideas from Suzy Brooks
Third grade teacher Suzy Brooks has been celebrating International Dot Day for several years. She's now an ambassador for Fablevision Learning because she enjoys spreading the word about their inspirational resources. Visit her blog, Third Graders Dreaming Big, to read about her celebrations in 2010, 2011, and 2012 and see her terrific classroom photos. She promises to write about her celebration this year after it takes place because she wants to be able to include photos the activities in her post. If you have celebrated this event in the past or have special plans for celebrating it this year, please share your tips and strategies with us. It's one small way you can make your mark!

Teaching Informational Text with Magazines

Next Sports Illustrated Kids Giveaway Deadline: December 14th

With the Common Core emphasis on teaching informational text, you might be wondering where to find appropriate texts for reading instruction. Most classrooms are overflowing with great children's literature and novels, but many schools lack a good selection of interesting nonfiction texts.

If you enjoy reading magazines yourself, the solution to that problem is right in front of you! As it turns out, children's magazines are a great source of informational texts. The articles are short, interesting, and appropriate for children. They often use a variety of different text structures and text features so they make excellent practice passages for working with nonfiction. In fact, many reading selections on state tests are very close in structure and format to magazine articles.

The challenge is finding enough copies of magazines for your classroom and knowing how to use them effectively. I'd like to share a few of my favorite sources as well as some tips for using them. I'm also going to give away at least one subscription to a children's magazine at the end of this blog post.

Weekly Classroom Magazines

The most obvious place to look is to find a classroom magazine like Time for Kids and Scholastic News. I preferred Scholastic News and used it every year with my students. It was a great way for students to practice informational text reading and keep up with current events.

Since a new issue arrived almost every week, it was easy to integrate it into my literacy instruction and sometimes into science or social studies. We used it with small guided reading groups and reading mini lessons. It was easy to have students read and respond to the articles with graphic organizers or in journals. Because everyone had a copy of the same text and the magazine belonged to them, they could use highlighters to practice reading strategies and it was easy to discuss together. I also used it for "paired reading" practice as shown in this picture. You may be able to get your school or PTA to fund them since they are quite inexpensive, and if you are a public school teacher in the US, you can get them through DonorsChoose.

Monthly Children's Magazines
Weekly magazines have many advantages and should be a part of any classroom, but they don't have quite the appeal of a traditional magazine like National Geographic for Kids or American Girls. Monthly magazines are larger, more colorful, and have a wider variety of different types of content. Unfortunately, they are also more expensive and only send out a few issues each year, so it takes a while to build up a collection of them. It's also harder to figure out what to do with them because each issue is unique.

How to Obtain Monthly Magazines for Your Classroom
Where can you get these magazines? Here are a few ideas:

• You can start by asking your school librarian if they have collections of back issues that they will let you check out and bring to your classroom. If you do this, be sure to write down the number of copies of each title and count them at the end of reading class to be sure they have all been returned.
• Magazine subscriptions are available through Amazon.com, so you can now create a DonorsChoose proposal for a variety of children's magazines. The prices range between $15 and $33 per subscription, so you could request up to 10 different magazines and keep your proposal under $400. Most proposals under $400 are quickly funded.
• You can ask parents to send in old issues of children's magazines, but make it clear that the magazines must be kid-friendly and are subject to your approval before they can be read in class.
• Establish a "Classroom Magazine Fund" and ask parents to donate money to help you purchase classroom magazine subscriptions. You can customize and send the letter shown above.
• Ask parents to donate a magazine subscription to the classroom. See customizable letter above for sample wording.
• Some airline frequent flyer programs will let you use frequent flyer miles to purchase magazines. Both Delta and American Airlines participate in a program called Mags for Miles, and the current offer includes Sports Illustrated Kids. I've decided to use some of my points to give away a few subscriptions to that magazine. See details below.

Recommended Children's Magazines

The easiest place to look for children's magazines is on Amazon.com. Even if you don't plan to purchase them there, reviews are really helpful. By reading those reviews, I discovered that some magazines are full of advertisements and even include content that's not completely appropriate for that age group. Some of my favorite children's magazines are National Geographic for Kids, Discovery Girls, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and Ranger Rick. The reviews also looked good for Cricket, Ask, and Calliope. What are your favorite magazines? Please share your suggestions with us.

How to Use Monthly Magazines
Monthly magazines are harder to use for instruction because each issue unique. Therefore, the articles aren't particularly good for small group instruction. However, they can be used for partner reading activities or for whole group mini lessons if you have a document camera and can project the article on a Smartboard.

My students also enjoyed reading magazines during our "Magazine Power Hour" which was a special activity each month, often taking place right before holidays when kids were restless. This activity is described in detail in my book, Power Reading Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide, and there's a nice printable to use with the strategy.  The gist of the idea is that you conduct the activity in place of your regular reading instruction and provide time for students to read magazines for a whole hour. Because that's a long block of time to read, I had my students read their chosen magazine for 15 minutes and then meet with a reading buddy for a brief discussion about what they had read and learned. They repeated this two more times, and at the end they wrote a written reflection about their favorite article.

Sports Illustrated for Kids Giveaway - Deadline is Thursday, December 14th

As I mentioned above, some airlines have a "Mags for Miles" program where you can get magazines for free. It just so happens that I have some extra miles from Delta Airlines, and I'd like to use them to donate a free subscription to Sports Illustrated Kids to a few of my readers. I have enough miles for at least 5 subscriptions in that account, and I may be able to order more.

If you want to win a subscription for your classroom, please enter using the Rafflecopter entry form below. 

Be sure to enter by midnight Pacific time on Thursday, December 14th. This is a new contest, so if you entered before and didn't win, please enter again. You must complete all of the entries in the Rafflecopter app to be eligible to win.

Also, this contest is only open to classroom teachers in the US due to mailing restrictions for the magazines, and winners must be a current subscriber to Candler's Classroom Connections or be willing to be added to my mailing list.

Even if you don't obtain classroom subscriptions of magazines for your classroom, I hope you'll consider letting your students bring them to school and read them from time to time. You'll want to check and approve any magazines students bring from home, of course, because many popular magazines are not appropriate for kids. However, I think you'll find that bringing magazines into your classroom will have a huge impact on your students and their attitudes towards informational text. Happy reading!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Caring Classrooms Community on DonorsChoose

My friend Francie Kugelman is a DonorsChoose guru! If you read yesterday's guest blog post by Francie here on Corkboard Connections, you'll know exactly what I mean! She wrote a wonderful article about DonorsChoose Communities and how they've inspired her to become a donor as well as a recipient of classroom funding. Francie has received over $50,000 in classroom funding through DonorsChoose, and now she's giving back through her efforts to support other teachers' projects. Her article, Sometimes It Takes a Virtual Village, is just one more way that she's helping others.

Francie has been telling me about DonorsChoose communities for a few months, and when I read her article I understood why she's so excited about them. She knows I've been promoting projects and supporting teachers through my Fund-day Sunday initiative, so joining a DC Community is a logical next step for me.

After I posted the article, I realized that I wanted to do more than join a DonorsChoose Community - I wanted to start one! So that's what I've done! I named the giving page Caring Classrooms because teachers who post projects on DC obviously care about their students, and those who become community members show how much they care by donating. I also set up a Caring Classrooms page on Facebook where teachers can help and support each other, and where I can make announcements about projects that I'm adding to the page.

Would you like to become a member of the Caring Classrooms Community? It's easy! All you need to do is to make a donation, no matter how small, to at least one project on the page. Then "like" the community Facebook page to become an active member of the group. I'd also love it if you would help promote the community to others so we can support the classrooms whose projects are listed there.

Caring Classrooms and Fund-day Sunday
How can you get YOUR project added to my Caring Classrooms giving page? First, become a member by making a small donation to someone else's project that's on the giving page, even if it's only a few dollars. Then like my Teaching Resources Facebook Page and look for the call for projects that goes out on Sunday morning as a part of Fund-day Sunday. The message goes out at 8 a.m. EST and teachers can add their projects links under that post any time during the day on Sunday.

Then on Monday morning, I'll review the projects and choose at least two projects that each receive a donation from me. From now on, I'll also add those projects to my Caring Classrooms page where I can continue to promote them to help them get fully funded. I've decided to limit the number of projects featured on the giving page to no more than ten at one time so we can focus our energies on helping them to get funded. As projects get funded and move to the "Completed Projects" tab, I'll choose new ones to feature on the page.

Please remember that since I'm limiting the number of projects listed on the giving page, I won't be able to add all the projects posted on Fun-day Sunday. We often have over 75 projects posted so it would be impossible to add them all. Also, please don't post projects on my wall at any time other than Sunday because my wall will become swamped with project listings. It's a once-a-week opportunity!

I hope you'll join me in becoming a member of the Caring Classrooms Community on DonorsChoose. Over the years, I received several thousand dollars worth of funding for books and materials, and I felt truly blessed each time a project was funded. Now I'd like to give back by helping others experience the same success. I also love DonorsChoose because it demonstrates the value of both giving and receiving. My students benefited from the generosity of donors, and it inspired them to experience the joy of giving when we adopted a family at Christmas. Remember that your generosity will set a wonderful example and can really make a difference!