Power Hour Update

Last post I posted about our Remediation/Enrichment time (aka Power Hour). Here's the update:

Last week was our first week (for K-2). It was EXTREMELY challenging to begin.. very little direction, coming up with the focus of the time on our own without guidance, not understanding what we were expected to be doing (in terms of assessment).

After we started, we were THEN given direction on where to go. Actually after the majority of the week had passed we were given direction. How bass-ackwards can we get?

Today, I got to meet with my reading kiddos for Power Hour for the first time since last Wednesday. I did do a few things more spur of the moment, but had thought of them prior, just hadn't planned them completely out. During some previous lessons (with other groups), I have always found this works pretty well for me.

I have 16 kiddos in my group-- which I have to say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! I divided them up into 4 groups of 4. I read them a book today, just to start of the session. I think I will try to do this every time. I also think it helps them process vocabulary and having someone read to you was always one of my favorite activities.

I then broke them up into groups and told them the centers they were going to be doing:

1. A partner reading center in the library. *I think I will have to adjust this one. I want to do something with a listening station, but haven't figured out quite how.

2. A word family station. They create a bubble map using the word family in the folder they are given. After they have a few words or so, they create a story using those words. Ex. -ug family: The snug bug slept in the rug. He said, "Ug!" when someone pulled the plug on his coffee mug. (Not my best, but you get the idea! :) )

3. An extension of the read aloud station. They were to take the book we read and find their favorite page. Then they were to come up with a different sentence for that page. Then they could draw their own version of the picture. *This may need to be adjusted. I think I may need to add all our read alouds and then they can choose the book they want to work with. This will reduce down time of them fighting over who gets to look at it.

4. The last center was working with me. I bought a book of small stories with reading comprehension stories from our teacher store. The stories are fairly simple and short. They include 4 comprehension questions. With the 3 kiddos I worked with today, it was PERFECT! I was able to hear these 3 kids read and we worked on understanding the story. We also worked on reducing the number of choices in a multiple choice question by eliminating obvious wrong answers.
After we went over the questions, there was still a little time left, so I had them flip their paper over and divide it into 4 boxes. In box one, they were to tell me a story (any they wanted- they had asked). In box 2, they were to draw a picture of their story. In box 3, they were to draw a picture of the story we had read. In box 4, they were to find any word on the word wall that they could read and write it down. (We have a LOT of words.)

What do you think so far? I like a few of the things I'm doing, but I don't feel like I ever have time to plan. My health issues this year have taken a toll on me. Not to mention the rough group in my homeroom. I'm just frustrated, but learning.

Any suggestions for other centers? Thanks!

Stressed... the new four letter word

Is it possible for 'them' to ask us to do anymore???

We've added a remediation/enrichment time to our daily schedule. An HOUR.

As if we didn't have enough to do before, we have more kids to teach because the groups are based on their scores from a test they took.

We have to make goals with the kids about how to improve their scores. Yes, I have to do this with 1st and 2nd graders. 7 and 8 year olds! They don't understand what their score means. I don't always understand what they mean.

AND we have to make a pre/post assessment and assess every 2 weeks. EVERY 2 WEEKS!!!! If we are assessing every 2 weeks, when are we supposed to be doing the instruction that we are assessing??

AND we have to make a graph to put in the hallway to show how we are growing. WTF?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY!!!

UGH. Signing off now before I keep going. So ready for this school year to be complete.