Donors Choose

I am really excited about this coming week in our classroom!  A few months ago, a teacher friend of mine in the eastern part of the state, told me that she had great success with a website called Donors Choose.  If you are not familiar with Donors Choose click here.  The site is a crowd sourcing site. The idea is a non-profit group (teachers, charities) writes a proposal, Donors Choose approves it and then people sponsor the request.  If you want to check my Donors Choose page you can click here to see it.

I had done executive lapbooks before Christmas (I'll take pictures and post that later) and they were a great success.  I wanted to do another lapbook but file folders, glue sticks, paper and scissors are expensive- especially for 90 students.  I decided to give Donors Choose a whirl and within three weeks my project was totally funded!  All I need to do is take pictures of the students working on lapbooks and send a thank you note.  I will get that done this week.

Here are the pictures of my newly arrived supplies.

I am also hoping we can do an Economics lapbook.  I'll have to start brainstorming on that one.  If you have any ideas I would love to know!

Civics Column Notes

Here are my column notes.  They are truly a labor of love.  I cannot take all the credit.  My co-teacher, Mrs. B, has read and edited these for me.  A big thank you!  I think they are error free.

Most of the answers can be found in the SOLs.  Some of the background information is not there.  You should be able to fill them in.

As with all of my items, please use them in your classroom.  However, please do not resell these for your monetary gain.  These are for use in your classroom to help your students.

Let me explain a little about my column notes.  On the left side of the page is the SOL information. Some people refer to this part of the column notes as skeleton notes.  The right side of the column notes are for the student to think about the information they just have been introduced.  They could be answering questions, drawing, creating a thinking map or other things.

I personally use a document camera, an LCD projector and a white board to show my notes and I write directly on the board.  Before the document camera I made transparency copies for an overhead and used that.

Additionally, I put all column notes on green paper.  I also have the students make a "column notes"  section in their binder.  It is a great test and SOL review.

I put the column notes on their own website. It is a Google site and you need a Google log in to see them.
https://sites.google.com/site/civicscolumnnotes/home

Above is a picture of my room.  My student desks are in pods now- I set my desks up like this for testing.  I'll have to take pictures of the pods and the desk management system I have devised.  

Happy Teaching!
C

Bridge Map

It is hard to believe that we have wrapped up our study of the three branches of our national government!  That means that we are moving onto Virginia State for the next few weeks and it a great time to start reviewing for SOLs.  I know, that statement blows my mind as it is still February and the testing isn't until May.  

Last week I made some brace maps. Brace maps are a type of thinking map that our county uses in every school.  Personally, I am a huge fan of them for many reasons.  If you are not familiar with brace maps click here.  There are 8 different thinking maps: circle, bubble, double bubble, tree, brace, flow, multi-flow and bridge maps.  They align with Blooms taxonomy- circle is the lowest while bridge is the highest.  With the bridge map the student have to see similarities and connections between two different ideas.  When I see bridge map I think of those SAT questions that were the analogy questions- I found this one on Kaplan:

MEDICINE : ILLNESS ::

 law : anarchy hunger : thirst etiquette : discipline love : treason                                                                                                  stimulant : sensitivity   

This week we are going to be discussing the three branches of the Virginia government. The Legislative, which makes the laws for Virginia is made of the General Assembly.  The General Assembly is made of the House of Delegates with 100 members and the Virginia Senate with 40 members.  I could have made one for the legislative branch that compared the houses of Congress and the General Assembly...maybe I'll add that.  Then the Executive branch is headed by the Governor.  Then the Judicial branch is headed by the Virginia Supreme Court with 7 justices.

Here is the first one.  I can't write small enough to get them on the same sheet.

The process is you draw the bridge and then underneath that you draw a line for the relating factor.  Notice that I put national on the left for all three of them and then put state on the right side.  

The other thing I really like about thinking maps is that they are easily differentiated.  For your higher groups you could model one with a non-government bridge map, give them directions and send them on there way.  With a middle group you could give them the relating factor and let them fill it in.  For the lower groups you could give them a filled in bridge map with the newest legislative body not filled in and they would have to add it.  

I hope you enjoy your President's Day! 

Happy Teaching!

C