Annotated Summary

Situation including people involved and all other pertinent information:

The class rates how well they do as a group throughout the day on a scale of 1-5. By rating
themselves they see what they need to work on as a group. They rate themselves on their
transitions, how well they follow directions, staying tuned to speaker and doing their best
work. If they feel they get a 5 on each part, they will receive a class feather. Once the class
accumulates 20 feathers, they get a reward of their choosing. Either a movie, an hour of arts
and crafts, something they want to do.
Type of strategy and description:
This is group work as well as a behavioral strategy.
The entire school does the feather system. Each time a class gets ten feathers they get to
remove a piece of a puzzle from the main bulletin board. Once the puzzle is removed the
school gets to do a group fun day based on the picture on the bulletin board. The feather idea
was not created to stop teaching for a day; it was created for the students to strive to do well in
the classroom. They need to have goals to aim for and this gives them inspiration to be
positive towards the classroom and school goals.
Effectiveness:
This is a very effective strategy. Students have something to strive for and they work hard to
get it. The students work together and remind each other about their goals. By reminding each
other and working as a group they learn community skills and how to work as a whole.
Other:
Many other schools use this same system to help their students strive for positivity in the
classroom and school community. It is such an effective strategy that various schools use it as
a tool.
Research grounding:
B.F. Skinner believed in positive reinforcement when he was studying operant conditioning in
psychology. As a behaviorist, he believed that giving student positive feedback when they did
something would promote them to continue to act upon those positive actions. As students
continue to do positive things, they receive feathers. This increases their chances of continuing
the same response because they enjoy the positive enforcement of doing a good job. Negative
reinforcement would be taking something away from a student when he or she does something
negatively. Positive reinforcement is what teachers in my current school district strive for.
Reinforcement and Punishment in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online. (2011, November
10). Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement

Annotated Summary
Situation, including people involved and all other pertinent information:
In this strategy, students were asked to create a flipbook that helped them understand how to
solve a problem. Many times, students were answering long work problems with a single
number. They were not aware how to show their work. Other students got confused with word
problems. They did not know how to differentiate the difference between important
information and information in the problems that did not matter. My cooperating teacher
decided to create flip books that helped the students remember what they needed to show to
get a high score on their problem solving.
Type of strategy and description:
This is a problem solving strategy.
The flip book has difference sections the students can go to when trying to solve a problem.
1. Read the problem
2. Reread the problem
3. Mark up information
4. Choose a strategy
5. Solve
6. Is it answered? Does it make sense?
This makes sure the students are aware of the question and they are answering it in full. It also
makes sure the students understand what the problem wants and they know how to answer it.
Effectiveness:
Most students effectively used their flip books to answer the questions. Students were under
lining the key concepts, crossing out the unwanted information and answering each part of the
problem. Some students followed the flip book idea without doing all of the work with it. They
read and re read the question but they went into answering the question without crossing out
information. They do not have to follow the flip book advice as long as they are able to
understand what the problem was asking.
Other:
Originally this flip book was created in the fifth grade classroom. The teacher shared it at a
staff meeting and my cooperating teacher liked the idea so much she began using it in our
classroom.
Research grounding:
This strategy is based around the creativity of the students. Even though they were told how to
make the flipbook, they could use their own colors and their own scenarios to give themselves
an example to follow. Each student used construction paper to make the different colors of the
flip book. They pasted on the different steps of solving problems and made the covers of each
book however they wanted. This creativity would be appreciated by Sir Ken Robinson. He
feels that creativity is being killed by classroom teachers and he thinks it is very important for
students to use their own imagination to learn each critical subject. His TED talk is very
informative and helps educators and parents understand why imagination and creativity is very
important for all students.
Robinson, K. (2006, January 1). How schools kill creativity. Retrieved November 10,
2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Annotated Summary
Situation, including people involved and all other pertinent information:
During writing, my cooperating teacher discussed graphic organizers with the class. They all
have great writing but their ideas are not organized. Many students repeat what they have said
and that gets confusing for the readers. They are learning about writing persuasive essays but
their supporting facts were not supporting their main statement well. My coopering teacher
decided to do a class wide lesson on using a graphic organizer, the web.
Type of strategy and description:
This is a writing strategy.
Students used a graphic organizer to organize their thoughts and visually see what they are
planning to write about.

More recess

Make friends

Things I wish I could change

Creative thinking

Make people happy

Bring pets to school

They wont be alone all day

Effectiveness:
Some students had trouble creating the web. They couldnt comprehend the different bubbles
they needed to form. They also had trouble thinking of different green bubbles. They could
come up with one reason why they wanted more recess but they could not get past that reason.
However, I did see great improvement in their writing organization. They did not repeat
themselves as much. Their writing seemed to flow better. It took them a lot longer to write
their web organizer but their writing improved.
Other:
This seemed to be a great idea for the students but they only used it for this one writing piece.
I would have liked to see my cooperating teacher to continue to suggest that students use it. I
felt it was very helpful and it would be a great way for them to remember this organizer in the
future.
Research grounding:
Many educators will say that visual organizers help their students with learning disabilities. It
is also beneficial to the students that do not have disabilities. Dr. Katherine McKnight has
studied how students can visualize their learning and how they benefit from visual
representations. When students are able to see what they are planning to write, they can put
their thoughts down in an organized order and they will find their strength in writing once they
can see their ideas.
0, K. (2010, January 1). Use Graphic Organizers for Effective Learning. Retrieved
December 7, 2014, from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-graphic-organizers

Annotated Summary
Situation, including people involved and all other pertinent information:
The students began learning about the geography of the earth. They learned the difference
between Earth, continents, countries, states, counties and towns. Many students did not know
the difference between a continent and country or a state and a town. They continued to
discuss states that were inside Vermont. They meant towns. They also did not get the concept
of placement on a map. Some students were putting Canada in New Hampshire. They thought
if it was written down it was right. As educators we needed to find a way to help them gather
the concept of what each part of geography is.
Type of strategy and description:
This is a discussion strategy.
My cooperating teacher decided to use Google Earth to show the students the size of their own
town compared to the state and then the world. We started by showing them Google Earth and
the size of the earth. From there we typed in our town and it zoomed down very quickly. The
students seemed amazed by how tiny their town was compared to the earth. After exploring
the town, the teacher zoomed out so the students could see the outline of their town compared
to the surrounding towns. Then she zoomed out further so the entire state showed. She pointed
out the yellow boundaries that showed where the different counties in Vermont are located.
She continued to zoom out until we were back at looking at the entirety of Earth. It really
helped the students get a visual sense of where their tiny school is compared to the rest of the
world.
Effectiveness:
All the students were fascinated with the way the computer zoomed in and out of where they
lived. They seemed to understand the difference between the sizes of town, counties, states
and so on. However, the lesson did not seem to stick with them. They continue to refer to
towns as states and when we ask which country they live in the say North America or even
their home town. It was a great lesson but I should have had a bit ore enforcement such as a
scavenger hunt or a worksheet to fill out instead of just watching the screen.
Other:
It would have been great if the students had a chance to use Google Earth themselves but they
are not able to access it on their Chrome Books. The school does not have a computer lab that
they could have gone to so it makes it difficult to have students do online learning. This is a
great way to use Modification, especially for the little amount of computer access that this
school has.
Research grounding:
This particular lesson used parts of the SAMR model that I have not had a chance to see much.
The teacher used Modification; common classroom tasks are being accomplished through the
use of technology.
SAMR Model - Technology Is Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2014, from
https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model

Annotated Summary
Situation, including people involved and all other pertinent information:
Each student gets a behavior chart at the beginning of the week. The school has a step
system they follow. If a student does not get any steps they have an
excellent day. If they get one step that is a verbal warning. Two steps is a Think Tank/
Time out and three steps is a buddy teacher. At buddy teacher they fill out a sheet on what
they did wrong. Their fourth and final step is a trip to the planning room. Their teacher writes
their steps on the board so the teachers and the students remember where they are. It is not a
secret when they get a step. Their behavioral chart is a way for parents to see how their child is
doing.
Type of strategy and description:
This is a behavioral/ communication strategy.
This strategy helps keep the parents informed as to what their child is up to. My cooperating
teacher said she would have parents in for parent teacher conferences and they would be
shocked at how misbehaved their child acted in school. Using the behavioral charts and
requiring parents to sign it daily, it keeps the students responsible as well as keeping the
parents up to date about what the day looks like for their child. The goal for this is to have the
students strive to have positive behavior in the classroom so they do not get in trouble at home.
Many students seem to feel if their parents do not know then they do not care. In this case,
they cannot get away with their negative behavior in school.
Effectiveness:
Students do not want to get steps and some of them get very upset when they get even a single
step. Other students consistently go home with various steps. Most behavior charts come back
signed every day even if the student went to the planning room every day that week. It does
not seem like the parents care how often their child gets in trouble. They continue to sign the
paper and they do not bother to call and discuss what can be done to improve their behavior.
For some students this is an effective method. For others, it does not matter one way or
another.
Other:
Research grounding:
This strategy follows a behaviorist perspective. Behaviorist have various conditioning methods
built into their views; this particular view is operant conditioning. These students are learning
due to their behavior and their environment. B.F. Skinner investigated operant conditioning,
stating that behavior can be explained by a persons motive. Since these students are motivated
by their families and they are motived to keep their names off the board, they strive to have an
excellent day and not get and steps.
McLeod, S. (2011, January 1). Psychology Perspectives | Simply Psychology.
Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.htm