Tweets by msmontilla

Informed Choice

Summer

Playful Pets were introduced to Summer. To get us thinking about this character we listened to a song whose lyrics the author wrote on the page to introduce the part about Summer, August's lunch buddy.

Tweets by msmontilla

Sow & Reap Journals

At the beginning of the year, Ms Montilla shared the concept of "sow and reap". She used the example of the sugar farmers in Negros, a province in the Philippines. She spoke about their tireless efforts in planting the sugarcanes so that they could take care of their families. After all that hard work, they were able to harvest what they planted. We applied the idea during our community circle when Ms Montilla would ask a question first thing and then before the day ended, we would return to the question. We extended the idea to think about dispositions, or what we strive to be. We call them our sow & reap dispositions because we talk about how it needs planting and caring so that we may see it in our daily lives. Our sow & reap journals visually capture our week through the lens of our chosen disposition. 

Finding our Good Fit Books

Using the application called, Raz Kids, Playful Pets tried to gather evidence to determine their good fit books. At first they explored the book room and read books on different levels. Guiding questions were:

Can I read the words?

Can I understand the story?

Can I stay focused on the story?

Their next step was a 'flight check'. Based on their estimate, Ms Montilla assigned a level that they needed to read, retell and answer questions about on Raz Kids. At the same time, Ms Montilla has also been gathering evidence through reading conferences. Finding our good fit books gives us another source for reading.

Checking for Collaboration

The Collaboration Quiz is a way to assess our skills of connecting with others through learning. 

• Leaning in and working in the middle of the table
• Listening to each other
• Equal air time
• Asking each other lots of questions
• Sticking together
• Following team roles

We first used the quiz during Math Workshop. Ms Philips and Ms Montilla, documented what they noticed on the board. They wrote down how students were collaborating. The class applied this tool throughout this week and the partners reflected about their collaboration skills.