In school, 4th graders typically face new challenges and expectations. For example, 4th graders are expected to have made the shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn. To help students make a smooth transition, we need to introduce these increased demands in ways that are in line with 4th graders' common developmental characteristics.
A myriad of teaching strategies can help us set these excited, industrious, and often nervous students up for success. This article looks at one especially important area—the classroom environment—and explores how consistent routines and a sense of community can help create an environment that meets 4th graders' needs.
Schedules and routines are good for students of any age and grade, but especially for typical 4th graders, with their inclination toward anxiety. I remember racing in from recess every day when I was in 4th grade, sliding to a stop at my teacher's feet, ready for our daily read-aloud. This kind of predictability can help 4th graders settle into productive rhythms at school.
Starting the day with a morning meeting; having consistent times for reading, writing, math, science, and other content areas; ending each day with a closing circle; and creating other predictable patterns help 4th graders relax and focus on learning.
When setting up the daily schedule, it's important to consider pacing and stamina. Although many 4th graders have incredible amounts of energy, this energy often comes in short bursts.
We can capitalize on this rhythm by structuring lessons that balance sitting and listening with active participation. Consider a three-part lesson structure: 1 several minutes of direct teaching, 2 a work period in which students practice and apply the lesson, and 3 a brief wrap-up time for students to share their work. Also, consider alternating quiet times of focused, individual work such as reading workshop with more active hands-on periods such as a science lesson.
It's also important to build movement into the day. Students need to move, but all too often we require them to sit too long. Placing a minute snack or recess break in the middle of a long morning can boost productivity for the rest of the morning. A two-minute active game or energizer can get oxygen moving to students' brains to fuel a more productive math lesson.
Building movement into learning activities like moving from table to table to solve math problems can help students stay more energized as they work. At the beginning of my career, I was so eager to get to the "good stuff" of writing workshop, science experiments, and math that I often neglected to teach routines that my students needed to successfully navigate the classroom. I remember saying to the class, "OK everyone. You're in 4th grade.
You know how to line up quietly. Go ahead and line up for recess. Guess what? It didn't work. Maybe we all had different ideas of what quiet meant. Does it mean silent? Can students talk? Should they whisper? Maybe they had a variety of teachers in previous years who all had different line-up routines.
Whatever the reason, I ended up spending incredible amounts of time and energy dealing with disruptions, accidents, and misbehavior. I realized that for 4th graders to be successful with classroom routines, I was going to need to teach them and give them chances to practice.
One of the best ways to teach classroom routines is through interactive modeling. This strategy enables students to think about, observe, discuss, and practice routines in a short amount of time before they need to perform them independently. Here are some key points. Beginning of the Day. Bathroom, Snack, and Recess.
End of the Day. Clearly articulate routines for yourself. Often, students don't know what to do because we haven't quite figured it out ourselves. What does "carefully" mean? First, we need to figure out what we want the behavior to look like. Then we can teach students the routine. Keep expectations high. Once you've modeled the right way to pass scissors, hold students to it. When we enforce high standards of behavior after teaching students what they need to know, they feel safe.
For more book and reading ideas, sign up for our Scholastic Parents newsletter! Much of the 4th grade reading curriculum teaches students how to analyze the books they read. Rather than just understand the plot and information given in a text, students are encouraged to think about the messages and how they relate to their own lives. They also compare texts to each other and make connections both within one text and across multiple texts.
In short, 4th graders begin to learn how to think and talk about a text to find deeper meanings and messages. This is done both with texts students read independently and those read by the whole class or smaller groups of students. Teachers may often use a class read-aloud to show students strategies for thinking about and analyzing what they read, encouraging them to do this in their own reading. Students also do this as they write in more detail about the texts they read.
Read and Research Together : Read the same book as your child independently, together, or a combination of both. Talk about the book as you read it, reviewing main ideas and plots and expressing your opinions. Then read an additional book or books on the same subject and compare and contrast how they dealt with the same issue.
Compare Perspectives : Read two texts — one written in first person and one in third person — about the same event. Talk with your child about the differences and why they thinks these differences exist. For example, say Billy reaches fourth grade and is still working on sounding out words — not having mastered the skills of reading comprehension yet. How many toes would 25 sloths have? He then misses out on learning the math principles associated with this problem, while his peers gain an understanding of the subject matter.
In educational settings, the Matthew Effect can be used to describe how students who possess strong foundational reading skills will continue to build upon that foundation and will learn at a fast rate.
For struggling readers, however, basic reading skills become just one of many skills they have not yet mastered. This effect also gives rise to an skill gap between students who have mastered foundational skills and those who have not. Adding to the effect, students who fall behind in reading often experience a drop in self confidence, making it even more difficult to keep practicing their skills. It's in choice time that real magic happens.
Choice time affords your child the chance to grow as a person: to become an activist, writer, painter, builder, social butterfly, introvert, designer, and pursuer of his own unique passion. Choice time allows your child to choose his own adventure.
Surely everyone needs a little of that. Continue Reading. By entering your email and clicking the Submit button, you agree to receive marketing emails from ParentCo.
All rights reserved. Use of this site signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Use. By entering your email and clicking the Enroll Now button, you agree to receive marketing emails from ParentCo. Tweet Share Pin It Email. Also in Conversations.
0コメント