Ugly Sweaters and Character Analysis

Ugly sweaters. It's that time of year. During a recent trip to Minneapolis, I stopped at Ragstock, an eclectic clothing shop of mostly second hand and vintage items. Rack after rack touted ugly sweaters. Totally ugly. These sweaters were the original real deal. For most of them, I don't even have words. Holiday related or not, these sweaters were popular back in someone's day.

Ugly Sweaters and Book Characters

I saw an idea meant for middle school about analyzing a book character then designing an ugly sweater according to the character's traits by using color symbolism.  For example, red can represent warmth, love, or anger, and blue can represent cleanliness, peaceful, loyal, or trustworthy. I decided to modify it and have 4th graders give it a try.

Starting the Activity

After reading the book, students thought about the traits their character demonstrated and circled them from the list provided. Then they went back into the text to find specific evidence and examples of those traits along with pages numbers. For this part, students worked in pairs. I was totally amazed with all the rich discussion going on about each trait! They were clearly excited as they thought of the actions and the speech of the character to support their case. This is some of what I heard:

"Remember when she..."
"She was confident because..."
"I think the trait of strength fits because she ripped off the bull's horns!"
"I chose demanding of attention because of the chapter where she's at the circus and she..."

Next, we looked at several examples of ugly sweaters to make sure all students had an understanding of what they were and that some people compete for fun to find the ugliest one. A few students had a different opinion of some of the sweaters and wanted to know where they could get one!

Designing the Sweater

Once the traits and corresponding colors were decided, each student designed their own picture or pattern of a sweater using those specific colors. As long as the design was appropriate, students chose if they wanted to make it holiday related or use a different design.

When the design was finished, they wrote a paragraph explaining why they felt their character would choose such a sweater to wear. Again, they cited some evidence from the text to support their thinking.

The results were some incredibly detailed written analysis of the character as well as some really thoughtful sweater designs. Many students described incidents from various scenes in the book and how they decided to incorporate that into the sweater design.

Very few sweaters actually ended up having anything to do with a holiday. Most sweaters shared many of the same color schemes showing that students seemed to agree on which colors fit the personality of the character.

Since we based our analysis on the character of Pippi Longstocking, students drew everything from the patches described on her clothing...

...to a pirates hat that she probably wore when she sailed on the high seas with her father...

...to Mr. Nillson the monkey character mentioned in many of the chapters.

This is an activity that can be used during any time of year. I also found this to be a fantastic way to assess how deeply a student understood the character and how well and willing, I might add, they are to dig back into the text to find evidence to prove the character traits.

At the end of the activity there were no ugly sweaters to be found, only excited students with lots of great character evidence to share!

Appreciation Tree...a Species of Kindness

Lately I've been on a kick to really have students focus on kindness. It is our school goal as well. Recently I saw a t-shirt with a kindness logo on it that said, "You always have a choice. Choose kindness." Yes, we do have that choice. After observing students entering the library without holding the door open for the next person and letting it come close to slamming and pinching fingers, it got me thinking about how I promote and model kindness and appreciation to others. One of the first things was to teach and practice how to hold open the door for the next person. 

To have students become aware of kind actions happening around them, they noted any kindness they saw. At first it was slow going and I was disappointed that there was seemingly no kindness-but then it began.

Kindness and appreciations start with us. The adult. I know from experience that most of us have no idea what even a close colleague might be dealing with in their personal life. We tend to get bogged down in negatives and the positives tend to get lost if we even had any to begin with. Too many of us pass others by without a smile or "good morning". We can all use an extra dose or twenty of kindness and so I've been trying to show that in small ways throughout the day to staff and students. 

Perhaps it's just a friendly smile or a follow-up on something someone mentioned a few days ago. It's small but it truly goes a long way. I also thought of what I already do in my classroom and remembered my "Appreciation Tree".

"Appreciation Tree" species?
So years ago when my mom retired and cleaned out her classroom...going through 36 years worth of teaching stuff... she came across a bare bones black tree that measured about 15 inches tall. I immediately scooped it up and thought about how I could repurpose it as an "Appreciation  Tree". Giving appreciations had been the theme that year at school and I thought it would be the perfect visual reminder all year long.

This had been a Halloween prop in its past life.

Tree Leaves
Each month I use a seasonal dye cut (or students could use a tracer to cut shapes) and label each one with a student name. Next I have students choose a name other than their own. Yep, as you can imagine there are students who prefer to write their own appreciations! 

We talk about what appreciations are and are not. We discuss positive attributes we observe and admire in others such as including others in a game, helping a friend, seeing someone paying attention or following directions. During discussions, someone asked about appreciating someone's cool new shoes or clothing. While some students even at such a young age notice style and latest name brand clothing, chances are that purchasing those items did not have much to do with the student but more to do with an adult willing to spend the money on said items. So the students do not write appreciations about latest and greatest purchases. Each month students are asked to pick a different person to give an appreciation to and they must sign their name.

Reflections
Early on I discovered that I usually need to reteach types and examples of appreciations before writing for a new month or the tree ends up with a lot of "I like how nice you are to me" sentences.  

I have been doing this for nearly 20 years and every year students have shown excitement when the new dye cut is put out each month. They spend time reading not only their own appreciations but those of others as well.

 

A former parent (and now staff member) happened to be in my room years after I had her daughter and saw the tree. She commented how she had saved all the dye cuts and really appreciated how I have done this activity over the years as a small way to have students show kindness to each other. 

It has come full circle. We do have a choice...choose kindness.

Growth Mindset

This summer I had the opportunity to observe my daughter interact with her little girl. My little granddaughter wanted a toy that was sitting on the ottoman just out of her reach. As she struggled to grab it, my daughter asked her, "How can you problem solve? What else can you do to get the toy?" It struck me how Jenessa was actively teaching Growth Mindset to her then 13 month old. Of course the Little Bug didn't yet understand what was being asked of her BUT, she soon will as she continues to hear to this type of language and encouragement from her parents and others in her life. With a bit of assistance and encouragement, the Little Bug eventually toddled around the other side and claimed her toy. She is lucky to be in an environment where growth mindset is actively taught and she will be less likely to give up on something when the going gets difficult.

Growth Mindset has begun!

Many students have not yet developed a growth mindset and so this year, I have placed a focus in our classroom on shifting our thinking to developing one. I explained to students that having a growth mindset is understanding that if we only do things we are guaranteed to succeed at, we are not stretching ourselves. We can develop our strengths AND weaknesses through hard work, focus, tenacity, and effort. Growth mindset is making mistakes and understanding that this is part of the growth process. It is knowing that every day there is growth and learning taking place and this allows us to be smarter than we were the day before.

The opposite of having a growth mindset is a fixed mindset. This is the belief that talent and intelligence can't ever be changed. Changing these beliefs can be challenging because they have been so ingrained and many students and adults alike have learned to accept them. A fixed mindset often leads to giving up on tasks, avoiding challenges at school and other areas of life, and feeling badly about oneself. However, focusing on a growth mindset allows one to move forward with tasks that are challenging, taking a risk to try new things, and developing confidence.

An example I gave students of my 10 year old self in a fixed mindset was when I was assigned a new piece of piano music that had several sharps. It was straight out of the old John Thompson red covered piano series. I remember complaining how super hard it was and that I would never get it. Not ever. Then I figured out some strategies. I marked the sharps I kept forgetting, I learned each hand separately, then slowly put both hands together one measure at a time. In this step by step way, I was able to master the piece and eventually it became one of my favorites in the book. The great thing about it was that the piece had been such a challenge, that many other subsequent pieces became a whole lot easier because I had grown as a pianist through that difficult lesson! And I had shifted from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

Anyone else remember learning out of these books?

I found an activity online that I decided to use during the first few days of school. I started by writing the following words on a piece of construction paper: determination, creative solutions, effort, mistakes, grit, tenacity, success, capable. As a class, we discussed what each of these words meant and I gave an example of my own for each word. Next I placed each paper around the room and had students go to each one and write an example of their own and/or what the word meant to them. I had them do this silently in order to show respect for classmates' thinking time. 

When the activity was completed, I saved the posters and pulled one poster out to discuss during the next eight morning meetings. I found this was a great way to continue the work we started on growth mindset as well as get students to keep thinking about ways they have observed and engaged in these characteristics. I have found that I am able to refer back to these words in almost everything we do, from naming traits of a book character to celebrating being capable and having success in our writing pieces.

There are many task card games online (or come up with your own) that can be used to get students thinking about how they can shift their thinking from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. Some examples are, "I have a long math assignment, what can I say to myself?", "You got picked to be the artist in a group project even though you don't like to draw. What can you say to yourself?", "You want to try out for the school play but think you aren't good enough. What can you say to yourself?"

Another growth mindset strategy is to replace an old belief with a new one. Some examples of this include switching "I'm not good at this." TO "What am I missing here?" or "I just can't do math." TO "I'm going to figure out a strategy to do these problems."

We can all use growth mindset every day and encourage our students to as well. Please share some ways you help students focus on growth mindset and/or strategies you use yourself.

Here is the site where I found the original activity.

An Easy Activity to Promote Growth Mindset

Acquaintance Maps-Using Technology to Get to Know Your Students

Welcome back to the 2018-2019 school year!

For those of you new to the intermediate grades this school year, this blog was created as a collaborative tool for tier 4 in the Wausau School District. I am excited to once again share ideas, projects, and resources as the school year progresses. Please add your ideas, thoughts, projects, and pieces you have found helpful in context with featured topics in the comments below!

Summer comes to an end...

Every summer's end I reflect on how fast it flew by and the highlights that stand out. While I visited many places I've never been this summer and learned lots of interesting historical and cultural things, I always go back to the people in my life that make the best memories. These "Littles"...my grandkiddos... have brought so much joy and so many smiles to my life. (The "big people" in this picture...my son and daughter...are pretty amazing too!)

Signs of new beginnings...

September means new beginnings and with that the smell of brand new waxy crayons, un-chewed sharpened pencils with a clean eraser at the end, untattered and undoodled notebooks and folders, and nametags that still stick to the desk. School must be starting! 

There's nothing quite like brand new school supplies!

That also means a classroom of fresh excited faces and names to learn. Last year, I posted how to get to know your students on a deeper level through a letter to the teacher and I plan to do that writing piece again this year because I found it to be so valuable. You can find more information on that post HERE. 

This year instead of pulling out the standard, "find someone who..." sheets to have students and teacher get to know each other, why not try this activity using Mindnode Mind Map? I call this activity Acquaintance Mapping.

Getting Started

Students added colorful backgrounds 

and experimented with various features.

Students start with four categories. I used Family, School, Hobbies, and Vacation, but you can use whatever topics you'd like. From here, students brainstorm specific ideas related to each of these areas they feel describe them. They can include their likes as well as their dislikes. The cool thing about this app is that students can add as many strands extending from the topic as they choose. However, I did give the expectation of a minimum of 3 ideas per topic. There were a few other guidelines I set such as using a mix of both pictures and words, and to be sure everything fits on one screen. Yep, someone tried to see just how far they could extend the lines off the screen!

If students couldn't find an icon that made sense to their ideas, they went online to find a picture that would work.

Students were immediately engaged in this activity. After the Acquaintance Maps were completed, we uploaded them to SeeSaw where everyone could read each other's Maps and find shared interests and commonalities that they might not have otherwise. Students love to comment on each other's posts. I made sure I turned off the "like" option in order to encourage students to be thoughtful and specific in their comments to each other. 

Someone with family connections to Elvis Presley! 

Who knew?? I sense there's a story here!

As a follow up to this activity, as well as digging into our  district literacy goal of using oracy, I gave students some time to get together to discuss their interests further.  The activity definitely helped me understand student likes, dislikes, and interests. This would be a great activity for staff too!

Please share beginning of the year acquaintance activities you find helpful.

Here's to having a fabulous 2018-2019 school year!