3 Ways to Engage Students with Folding Vocabulary Lessons

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Over the last few months I've discovered interactive notebooks and folding resources - and I've fallen hard for them! I love the ways you can combine folding, colouring, words and ideas to create an interactive resource which helps students to explore and engage with the topic they are learning. 

One area I love using interactive notebook resources with is novel studies. I've included them in all my most recent ones, updated some old resources to include them and plan to update the remaining ones! I especially love using them with vocabulary. Which made me think - what are some different ways to explore vocabulary using folding resources?

 
3 Ways to engage students with folding vocabulary lessons. Interactive resource blog post with free downloadable resource. Includes three examples of folding vocabulary resources - a vocabulary wheel, vocabulary pocket and vocabulary expandable reso…
 
 
 

This is the main way I use folding resources in vocabulary resources. Students begin with one or two 'wheels' with a number of different sections. In most of my resources they use these wheels to connect the vocabulary words and the definitions, though you could use them to connect to the roots of the words, to share some synonyms or even include an image to define the word. 

Students using one wheel cut it out and write the words (or definitions) on each of the sections. They cut between the sections and fold on the dotted lines, gluing the middle section into their notebook. Students then write the definitions (or words) under each section. (Reversing the 'standard' order - by putting the definition on top - can help students connect the definitions to the words in a different way). Students can also use both wheels and layer one on top of the other.

This is definitely an activity which you can adapt for your own vocabulary needs. Students can layer additional circles, add extra vocabulary knowledge or experiment with making their own templates with extra folding pieces or pockets for more information.

These can be reduced in size to create smaller folding vocabulary wheels for notebooks, or can be enlarged to be used as a display. Students may like to work in pairs or small groups to create these.

2. Go Deeper With a Folding Resource

 
 

This is especially good for students to take an in-depth look at a particular word. Students write the word, definition, synonyms and a sentence using the word in the different sections, then fold the resource up to keep in their notebook or a folder. This resource can reduced in size (with several copies on one page) and students can complete several smaller folding activities or it can be enlarged and displayed around the classroom - especially as part of a unit of study.

The best part of this style of folding vocabulary resource is that it’s easy for students to design and create themselves. It can be easily adapted for different students; designed to meet their individual learning needs.

3. Synonym Pocket

 
 

Collecting synonyms can be very useful when students are writing, especially when you're looking for them to move beyond words like 'good' or 'happy'. This resource gives students a place to keep those synonyms. They write the word they're finding synonyms for on the pocket and then write the synonyms on the inserts. These pockets can then be glued into notebooks or into a manilla folder for students to refer back to. They can also be used to create a display in the classroom or as part of a writing centre.

These can also be adapted to collect similar words for content areas. Students can collect words connected to different historical events or civics and citizenship concepts or vocabulary connected to mathematical concepts.

 
 
 
 
 

Six Great Middle Grades Books for Your Classroom

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Every now and then I find myself reading a lot more than usual. Recently I found myself devouring a whole range of new-to-me middle-grades books and I thought I should share them with you here!

 
6 Great Middle School Books for Your Classroom. A look at 6 books perfect for 5th, 6th and 7th grade students. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham

What does it mean to be a friend? What do we do for our friends? How do our friends influence our behaviours? How do we feel when we can't find the right friends.

These are some of the questions sitting within this autobiographical graphic novel by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham. Looking at how friendships grow and change as we do, this book raises a whole lot of possible discussion questions which would be great to explore with our students.

This would be a particularly good book to introduce at the beginning of the school year as students are building a classroom community. It would also fit beautifully into a discussion of graphic novels and whether some stories are told better in a graphic novel form.

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson 

This is another graphic novel which deals with the issue of friendship and how people grow apart and change. However, Astrid is also dealing with her own growing up and how she fits into the world in this coming-of-age story. 

Astrid falls in love with roller derby after her mother takes her and her friend Nicole to a bout. However, although Astrid is excited about roller derby camp, Nicole signs up for ballet camp. And then Astrid discovers that roller derby is hard.

One of my favourite things about this graphic novel is that Astrid doesn't find roller derby easy. She feels out of place and uncoordinated among girls who have experience in the sport and she has to dig in and find perseverance to keep going. This would be a great book to include if you're promoting a growth mindset in your classroom.

Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan

This novel had two of my favourite things - a cast of interesting and individual characters and a protagonist with an interesting hobby. Naomi lives with her younger brother and her great-grandmother who took them in. But when her mother returns and wants to take her away, the trio find themselves travelling to Mexico on a quest to find their father - and more about their history.

One thing which really stands out here is that Naomi carves soap - making intricate animal figurines out of bars of regular soap. It's this skill - which she knows is connected to her father - which allows her to play a pivotal role towards the end of the book.

There's a lot of scope for research with this book as well as a lot of possible discussions about what makes a family and how family can be built by the people we invite into our lives. 

 
6 Great Middle School Books for Your Classroom. A look at 6 books perfect for 5th, 6th and 7th grade students. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

As Simple as it Seems by Sarah Weeks

This is a relatively short book, but there's a fair amount in it for discussion and consideration. Verbena has recently discovered that her life isn't really what she thought it was and is feeling completely out of sorts in her own skin - especially as her best friend starts drifting towards other people.

Then Pooch comes along and has his own set of differences and difficulties. Verbena sees his arrival as an opportunity to be someone else - to sit in someone else's 'skin' for a little while - until things go completely wrong and she has to be herself again.

This is another book which examines friendship, but it also looks at identity and truth - there's a lot of ideas to explore around names and who we are in this one.

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

After Suzy's best friend drowns - despite being an excellent swimmer - Suzy finds herself retreating into a world of silence and looking for answers. She thinks she's found them in jellyfish - and she sets out to find all the answers she'll need.

Yet another book about friendship - there's definitely a theme going on in all these books! But also about how we react to external events, pressures and even medications. How people impact on our lives and how we need to accept our own responsibility in the events around us.

Like the next book, this is probably better for the slightly older (or more able to work with mature themes) middle-grades reader. This would be an ideal book for a classroom library and I could see students finding a lot to respond to in it.

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

Although I thoroughly enjoyed all the books here, this is the book which kept me awake until after 1am so I could finish reading it. Lewis lives on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975 - living a life where he's surrounded by family and traditions which mean everything to him and a house which is falling down around his family. Additionally he's living a school life where he's the only non-white student in his class, there's a vicious bully who no one will confront and he's got a new friend who's willing to share a lot, but can't ever know about Lewis's home life - even as he makes Lewis less invisible at school.

This is a relatively complex book with a lot of strings to hold together and it's probably better for a more mature reader. There's an awful lot to get out of it though, from the nature of friendship (again!), to the idea of moving or being stuck in one place, to the strength of music and songs running throughout the book.

This would make an excellent small group book study in the classroom. In a secure and safe setting, students could get a lot of personal reflection out of it, as well as looking at how the author uses words, plot and character to create such an engaging story.

 
6 Great Middle School Books for Your Classroom. A look at 6 books perfect for 5th, 6th and 7th grade students. A Galarious Goods blog post
 
 
 

Share Guest Speakers; Engage Your Students

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When was the last time you had a guest speaker in your classroom? What did they share? What did your students learn? And why is it important to have guest speakers in the first place?

 
Share guest speakers: Engage your students. A blog post exploring why you should invite guest speakers into your classroom and how you can prepare your students to get the best out of your students.
 

Guest speakers can be a valuable element of a teaching unit. The right speaker, speaking on the right topic, with properly prepared students, can create a classroom moment which is remembered long after other activities are forgotten.

Guest Speakers Open Up New Ideas and Opportunities

Lots of students know little outside of their own experiences. They may have never met an engineer, a train driver, an author or a historian. Meeting these kinds of guest speakers can introduce them to know career opportunities and things to work towards as well as new ideas to learn more about. Alternately, a guest speaker can reinforce and extend learning on topics students do know a lot about - giving them new avenues to explore on a topic they're already interested in.

Guest Speakers Can Bring Different Perspectives to Topics You're Investigating

If you're looking at Antarctica in the classroom you may be examining the animals, scientific research or history or the continent. A guest speaker who has visited Antarctica can provide a different human experience point of view, talking about what you need to wear to go outside, what kind of people they meet in Antarctica or what it feels like to stand near a penguin. Guest speakers are able to provide the perspective we can't always provide our students from books or research. This can engage our students and allow them to create connections with the experiences of their guest speaker.

Guest Speakers Allow the Teacher to have Gaps in their Knowledge

It can be tempting to believe that teachers know everything! Of course, that's not really the case and it's good to let our students know that we are also learning from books and other people. Guest speakers can fill those gaps in our knowledge as well as the gaps our students have and show our students that we are lifelong learners - as we'd like them to be.

 
Share guest speakers: Engage your students. A blog post exploring why you should invite guest speakers into your classroom and how you can prepare your students to get the best out of your students.
 

Preparing Our Students for Guest Speakers

Before guest speakers arrive, it's important to prepare our students for them and for the topic they will be exploring. Students may like to read a short biography of the speaker or you could ask the speaker to answer a couple of short 'Frequently Asked Questions' to share with your students. Students could brainstorm the topic or investigate the kind of vocabulary they might hear. They may even like to make a short list of questions for the guest speaker - giving the guest speaker some ideas of what to cover when they're speaking.

Students need to be clear on behaviour expectations for guest speakers - understanding that many speakers are giving up their own time to share information with the students. They should be prepared to ask good questions of the speaker - and you may wish to cover or revise what makes a good question. You may nominate a student to take notes or video record the speaker (if the speaker gives permission). And don't forget to prepare one or two students to publicly thank the speaker when they have concluded their speaking.

Preparing A Guest Speaker for Our Students

Before a guest speaker arrives, they'll need to know about practicalities as well specific speaking information. Let them know where they can park and where they'll need to go when they get to your school (you may send students to meet them at the school office). They'll need to know how many students they'll be talking with, how old the students are and whether they'll have access to equipment like a microphone, projector or way of playing videos.

You can help a guest speaker out by providing some topics you'd like them to cover or telling them what you've been exploring or covering in your classroom. You may have some questions from the students to give them an idea of what to cover in their speaking. Don't forget to give them an approximate length for speaking - and it's often better to keep it shorter with time for questions!

 
Share guest speakers: Engage your students. A blog post exploring why you should invite guest speakers into your classroom and how you can prepare your students to get the best out of your students.
 

Who Can You Ask to Speak?

This is, of course, totally dependent on where you live and what you're studying in your classroom. Not everyone will have access to an astronaut when they're studying space (though you may be able to invite an amateur astronomer) or an author when they're studying a certain book. You may need to be creative to find an appropriate speaker or you may have to let a certain topic go and come back at another time. Alternately, you may like to work with other classes at your school or even with teachers at other neighbouring schools to invite someone who can talk with a large number of students over a day.

Here's a few ideas to match speakers to topics:

Reading the Ranger's Apprentice - invite someone who is involved with archery, someone who trains horses or someone who studies medieval history
Studying law making and enforcing - invite a politician, a public servant, a police officer or a lawyer to talk about how they're involved with the law
Studying poetry - invite a poet to talk about writing poetry or speakers from within or outside the school to share their favourite poems (this can also be done with video talks)
Learning mathematics - invite someone who uses mathematics in their job like an architect or engineer

Who was the best guest speaker you've had in your classroom? Why were they so good?

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4 Ways to Use Songs To Make Your Lessons Sing

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Some of my earliest memories of school include singing songs and using chants to remember what I was learning. (A is for Apple, A, A, A is still imprinted on my mind!). Songs are a wonderful way to help students understand and remember different learning topics - so where can we find them and how can we used them in the classroom?

 
4 Ways to Use Songs to Make Your Lessons Sing. A teaching blog post exploring how songs and music can bring lessons alive and help your students explore and retain knowledge
 

Luckily for us, we live in the time of the internet and YouTube! This allows us almost instant access to some amazing educational songs which we can play right to our classes. One of my favourite bands for educational songs is They Might Be Giants. They have a couple of educational albums including Here Comes the ABCs and Here Comes the 123s, but the one I've used the most is Here Comes Science - I have a strange love for their Solid Liquid Gas song!

 
 

Schoolhouse Rock is a classic example of educational songs for a reason - even outside of the United States it's likely that you've heard at least some of their songs. These songs were originally created when an advertising executive realised that his son could remember all the lyrics to songs even though he was having trouble remembering multiplication tables. There's lots of songs available covering a range of topics - in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.

 
 

There are also a really wide range of teacher and student created educational songs! Some educators and classes have been incredibly creative with how they've explored a topic and they've been kind enough to share their creations with the internet.

 
 

But how can we use educational songs in the classroom?

1. Introduce New Topics and Gain Interest

Songs can be a wonderful way to introduce a new topic to a class. It may be directly connected to the topic you're going to be covering (like the Solid Liquid Gas song when you're about to explore solids, liquids and gases) or it might be indirectly connected (like protest songs when you're covering the Vietnam War and reactions to it). Students can just listen to the song, watch a music video or examine the lyrics. They may note new vocabulary, discuss what they think they're going to learn, or make connections to topics they've already covered or knowledge they already have.

2. Reinforce Facts, Events or Processes

Once students have been introduced to new topics or ideas, songs can assist in reinforcing them. This can be particularly useful for things which need to be memorised, like mathematical facts or formulas or historical dates. It may also offer an alternative way of looking at a topic - something which can be very useful for some students who are having difficulty with the way the material has been covered. 

3. Prompt Questioning and Further Exploration

While songs can definitely tell a story or provide information, their structure and length - and the fact that many are written for entertainment - means that inevitably parts are left out. This is great for us as teachers though, because we can use songs to prompt further questioning and exploration - did George Washington and Alexander Hamilton really have a close working relationship like they did in Hamilton? Why did Constantinople become Istanbul? What is the story told in From Little Things Big Things Grow?

 
 

Students can brainstorm these questions while listening to the songs, annotate on the lyrics of the songs or use a display board to add questions to as they learn more about the song and the events or ideas it describes.

Looking for a song about a historical event? This Genius list includes a lot of them - though not all would be appropriate for the classroom, so check them out first.

4. Create Your Own Songs

Can't find a good song for the topic you're covering? Then write your own (or ask your students to write one for you!)

Creating a song for your students, or having your class work together or in small groups to write songs can help to refine the topic you're teaching and really concentrate on what's important. Students need to show a really good understanding of the topic to create effective songs and the process can be a great way of clarifying and assessing what they know. 

Lots of teacher and student created songs begin as parodies of well known songs - this can make life much easier because you're not having to come up with the music or the rhythm of the songs - you're just fitting words into an already created structure. Some students (and teachers!) however, may enjoy the creative freedom of coming up with a brand new song.

This step by step guide is a great place to start if you're considering writing your own educational songs.

 
4 Ways to Use Songs to Make Your Lessons Sing. A teaching blog post exploring how songs and music can bring lessons alive and help your students explore and retain knowledge
 

Whether you're just listening, taking an in-depth look at educational songs as part of your teaching or planning on becoming the next Schoolhouse Rock, educational songs are a great way of adding interest and memorability to your lessons. It's definitely worth trying to fit them into a lesson where you can.

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