WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:02.419 [music] 00:00:02.760 --> 00:00:07.419 My name is Lindsay Bowers. I teach fifth grade at Eagle View Elementary in Fairfax, Virginia. 00:00:07.419 --> 00:00:12.309 I make sure that my students have time to write every day by including writing in just 00:00:12.309 --> 00:00:19.000 about everything we do. I use writing in all content areas across the curriculum. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:23.290 We are going to write personal letters. You guys are going to be paired up with the students 00:00:23.290 --> 00:00:24.969 in Ms. Costello’s class. 00:00:24.969 --> 00:00:29.109 And one of these students, the student that you get, has trouble with one of the three 00:00:29.109 --> 00:00:33.729 things: Either they don’t get area, they don’t get perimeter, or they don’t get volume. 00:00:33.729 --> 00:00:40.550 So you are going to write a letter helping them out with What is area?, What is perimeter?, 00:00:40.550 --> 00:00:41.720 What is volume? 00:00:41.720 --> 00:00:45.870 In our math lesson today, our big focuses were perimeter, area, and volume, and these 00:00:45.870 --> 00:00:48.370 are things that we have been working on for a while. 00:00:48.370 --> 00:00:53.950 But the general concepts of these three things for fifth graders are still a little bit difficult. 00:00:53.950 --> 00:00:58.800 It’s hard for them to really explain what perimeter is, and area, and volume. 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:04.080 They can point out, “Oh, this is volume, this is perimeter,” but being able to explain 00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:07.290 it in words is when they’ve really kind of mastered the concept. 00:01:07.290 --> 00:01:11.289 So today what we did was we wrote letters to third graders, third graders that needed 00:01:11.289 --> 00:01:13.090 help with these things. 00:01:13.090 --> 00:01:19.069 There is a standard where the third graders, they do need to understand perimeter and area, 00:01:19.069 --> 00:01:22.959 and we included volume for some of the higher-level-thinking third graders 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.229 that understand area and perimeter. 00:01:25.229 --> 00:01:30.619 So what I want you guys to do before you begin your letter, I want to make sure that we have 00:01:30.619 --> 00:01:34.789 a good idea of a real-world example that we want to use. 00:01:34.789 --> 00:01:38.539 Now we had a couple that we did, and you guys all talked about them. 00:01:38.539 --> 00:01:43.909 I would like us to try to stay away from the ones that we did as a group, and I want you 00:01:43.909 --> 00:01:46.109 guys to come up with your own, okay? 00:01:46.109 --> 00:01:51.909 Now in these letters, it is okay to include some pictures to help them understand, 00:01:51.900 --> 00:02:00.630 but definitely some real-world examples and explain what perimeter is, what area is, what volume is. 00:02:00.630 --> 00:02:00.659 They had to draw a picture, write a real-world example, and then explain it. 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:06.009 They had to draw a picture, write a real-world example, and then explain it. 00:02:06.009 --> 00:02:10.990 And what that was, was it helped them plan out what they were going 00:02:10.990 --> 00:02:12.389 to write in their letter. 00:02:12.389 --> 00:02:19.789 So while that part seemed like the big math focus, what it really did was help them plan 00:02:19.789 --> 00:02:20.720 for their writing. 00:02:20.720 --> 00:02:25.470 So now they know what the real-world example is that they want to include in their writing 00:02:25.470 --> 00:02:31.990 piece, and they know the kind of explanation that they want to put in their writing piece 00:02:31.990 --> 00:02:32.890 for the third grader. 00:02:32.890 --> 00:02:38.680 And that’s where they started asking the questions of “Should I use dimension in 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:42.290 my explanation? Or should I try to find a different word?” 00:02:42.290 --> 00:02:45.439 So that was definitely the planned piece of the writing. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:50.000 It definitely looked a little bit different than a typical plan for a story. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:57.680 Student 1: For the garden...I did for the side 14 feet, and the other side 32 feet. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:02.380 And what I did was I multiplied it and I got 448 feet. 00:03:02.380 --> 00:03:08.359 I’m going to try to write it differently so they understand. 00:03:08.359 --> 00:03:13.499 Bowers: After about 15 minutes of writing, 15–20 minutes of writing, I had the students stop. 00:03:13.499 --> 00:03:18.140 And it didn’t matter where they were, all I wanted to do was kind of share out the different 00:03:18.140 --> 00:03:21.529 pieces that they had, and if anybody is willing to share, that’s good. 00:03:21.529 --> 00:03:26.730 So a couple students were willing to share, and I think it’s important for students 00:03:26.730 --> 00:03:31.920 to hear their peers’ writing, because they have ideas that maybe they didn’t think of. 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:34.459 Student 2: I’m going to help you understand volume a little better. 00:03:34.459 --> 00:03:38.340 Volume is how much you can put in a 3D object. 00:03:38.340 --> 00:03:42.730 Like in a movie when you wear 3D glasses, the screen pops out and you feel like you 00:03:42.730 --> 00:03:43.770 can touch it. 00:03:43.770 --> 00:03:51.270 Bowers: Typically, we’ll spend about 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes a day focusing on a certain concept, 00:03:51.270 --> 00:03:58.749 whether it be a certain grammar concept or kind of generating big ideas or main ideas 00:03:58.749 --> 00:04:00.840 for your stories. 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:05.960 But what we really want them to do is take it and use it in real writing. 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:09.990 So we’ll go over it as the whole class, we’ll talk about it, we’ll have discussions, 00:04:09.990 --> 00:04:12.099 and then they go and do it independently. 00:04:12.099 --> 00:04:17.040 And there are always the few students, a handful of students that need the extra one-on-one 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:18.709 attention, extra small-group attention. 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:22.869 They don’t get it in the whole group, so when everybody else is going and doing it 00:04:22.869 --> 00:04:27.630 independently, I pull those students and then I’ll work an extra 10, 00:04:27.630 --> 00:04:28.739 extra 15 minutes with them. 00:04:28.739 --> 00:04:34.030 And then another part where we kind of share out our writing, it gives them the opportunity 00:04:34.030 --> 00:04:37.280 to kind of be the teacher and critique other students’ writing. 00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:41.220 So they’ll work on it independently, and then some students will come up 00:04:41.220 --> 00:04:42.290 and they’ll share. 00:04:42.290 --> 00:04:46.030 And then we’ll talk about the things that they did well and the things that we can correct, 00:04:46.030 --> 00:04:50.100 whether that be the concept that we did for the day or possibly something we did in the 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:55.369 past, or it could be something totally new that somebody just recognized today. 00:04:55.369 --> 00:05:00.729 There is limited time throughout the day, so I do have to plan accordingly with writing. 00:05:00.729 --> 00:05:05.530 They do need to see writing in different forms—in social studies, in science, and in math—and 00:05:05.530 --> 00:05:10.820 recognize that writing isn’t just used because the teacher wants you to write. 00:05:10.820 --> 00:05:16.010 But the big idea for having them write in math is trying to get them to understand the 00:05:16.010 --> 00:05:21.630 concepts, and then it is kind of the double whammy of, okay, so now they understand the 00:05:21.630 --> 00:05:26.530 math concept better and they got a double dose of writing today, and it didn’t necessarily 00:05:26.530 --> 00:05:29.380 seem like writing because they were doing math. 00:05:30.530 --> 00:05:34.380 [music]