Picture Rubric = A Game Changer

I'm new to picture rubrics, but now that I've used my first one I can't believe I haven't been using them forever. I've found mine to be an invaluable tool, and I see possibilities for many others in my future. 

The picture rubric below is one I created for my dental health unit. Since students would be creating a poster about their learning, I wanted them to have a standard and one that was easy to understand.

This rubric was our guide at the end of three separate lessons on brushing, flossing, and healthy eating. It touched on content, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, handwriting, details, and coloring. I loved that it made expectations explicit. Students could identify what made their work a 3, and they took more ownership. It took me out of the equation, because they pushed themselves. (That's what we call a game changer.)

I haven't created another picture rubric yet, but I've used the language in many other situations. I do look forward to the possibilities! 



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Classroom Book = Formative Assessment

I've shared a lot on my blog about classroom books. That's because they're a best kept secret, and I think more early elementary classrooms would benefit from them. By the end of the year, my class will have made over 70, and my students will voluntarily read them every day. That's telling.

This week, Jackie, my friend and coach from the Idaho Coaching Network, gave me a great new idea for how to use classroom books. She suggested creating one as a formative assessment. How brilliant! This is how it played out.

We investigated this question: Why do we have teeth? Byway of a document-based inquiry, we learned that teeth help us smile, talk, laugh, and eat. Then each student made a page for a class book by writing these words: I have teeth so that I can... They had to finish the sentence by deciding on their favorite use of teeth.

I'm guessing that if I can turn a formative assessment into a classroom book for dental health, I can surely do the same in other content areas.

Do You have Big Dreams for Your Teeth?

I think I've done a fairly decent job over the years of covering all my bases when teaching dental health. The missing piece has been how to thoroughly convince little people that they really must take dental health seriously, which is kind of an important missing piece. I suppose I could have created some type of kid-friendly spreadsheet that parents checked off each night and returned to school for a sticker or prize, but that felt artificial. After some deliberation, this year I devised a plan that I think drives home my point in a real life kind of way that will hopefully stick for a long time. 

I started off my unit with a short slide presentation and a big question. Do you have big dreams for your teeth? 

My second slide showed pictures of teeth that were not in the best of shape and asked, "How did this happen?" 

I was planning on putting small groups to the task of writing down their thoughts, but my crew was struggling this day with things like cooperation and character, so individuals wrote down their ideas on whiteboards. Then I collected their ideas on the board. 

The third slide showed a perfect set of teeth and the question again of "How did this happen?" Individuals once more wrote down their thoughts which we then added to the board.

Everything we've talked about since has come back to these slides, pictures, and big question... 

Do you have big dreams for your teeth?

A mom recently told me that her daughter asked her older brother if he had big dreams for his teeth when he ate two scoops of ice cream instead of one. I think my plan might be working. :)

The Lost Tooth Club (freebie)

I had planned on sharing this at the beginning of the school year, but other posts took over.  Since lots of teachers are teaching about dental health these days, I figure why not now?  

When someone loses a tooth in my room, they get to sign a laminated tooth that's on our calendar wall, which is a really big deal.  At the end of each month, we transfer that month's tooth data to a graph, erase the names on the tooth, and start all over.  Here's a copy of the Lost Tooth Club graph for anyone who just might be interested.

Our Pearly Whites (and a little award)

I love a good reason to create another classroom book.  (Look here to check out the other classroom books I've posted about.)  Several years ago I found this idea on the Internet somewhere.  It's a fun one to make.  

As you can see there's only a little smile showing through the window.  When you turn the page you can see who the smile belongs to.  The kids love guessing whose smile they're looking at, and I love the high frequency words they're reading over and over.

I wonder if everyone's already seen this before, but it's one of my kids' favorite things to make while learning about their teeth, so I've added it to this post for the fun of it.

While I'm here I'd like to thank Natalie at Teachery Tidbits for awarding me the Liebster Award.  It was very sweet of her.  If you haven't been to her blog, please drop by.

This award is for bloggers who have 200 followers or less, and here are the rules.

• Thank the award presenter and post a link back to their blog.
• Put the award on your blog.
• Pick 5 blogs with less than 200 followers, let them know about the award, and encourage them to pass it on.

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