Building the Skills that Lead to Success

I have always admired John Wooden and have used his quotes in my classroom, but this is the first time that I am using his children book, Inch and Miles.  I'm sure many of you already know about this book, and have used it in your own classrooms, but I am finding that the message here is making a profound impact on my students' attitudes and behaviors.  There are not many things that you can make that kind of statement about.

In his book, John Wooden uses a magic whistle to transport the character, as they meet new friends that teach them each of the building blocks that create the Pyramid of Success.

Rather than read this picture book in one sitting, I have read them the adventures one day at a time.  The first character they meet along their journey is an ant, who teaches Inch and Miles about hard work.  I have had each student create their own pocketbook, and each day we add the poem from the book to the front of a new pocket and then the students create two different charts.  

The first chart I call an Eye/Ear chart.  The students make two columns, the first has an eye at the top and the second has an ear at the top.  We brainstorm as a class first, then the students add as many items as they can to demonstrate what hard work looks like, and what hard work sounds like.  I tell them to think about working in small groups - what would I see if their group is working hard, and what would I hear them saying.  I stress that I want what they will be saying, not what they won't be saying.  After they do these independently I either have them share with their elbow partner, or we discuss them as a whole class.

The second chart is a Character Map.  They draw each new character that Inch and Miles meet in the center and then find at least five character traits that this character has demonstrated.  (Common Core - gotta get in many different standards and skills!!!)  I notice that they start using the word from the other building blocks as we continue through the book.  (Not because they are being lazy, but because these words do apply and they are incorporating new terms into their working vocabulary)  At the bottom of this page, I have them write a paragraph about what Inch and Miles have learned from this character.

There are 15 blocks in the pyramid and we don't get to this every day, so it is taking awhile. In the meantime, we have begun working on our Continent Twister game boards in small groups.  What amazes me is that I see these skills transferring to their group projects.  I hear them using the words with each other, and if I do need to talk to a student or a group I simply ask them if they think that I am seeing cooperation or self-control.  They really understand the skills and redirect immediately!  

I highly recommend this book, if you haven't already tried it with your class!

It is well worth the investment!

Shari

Why Not Go Out on a Limb? Isn't That Where the Fruit Is?

I start each year with a quote on my high (unreachable) bulletin board that I do not want to have to get up and change throughout the year.  I want this board to be attractive and meaningful, because we have to look at it all year long!  I decided a few years ago that the best way to approach this was to have the students set goals for the year and revisit these goals at the end, that way there is a reason for leaving them up all year. I have found that there is an added bonus to this, as the students refer to this quote throughout the year, it becomes very meaningful to them.

So, here's what we did:
My students all have a Quote Journal (either a spiral notebook or a composition notebook) that they write in daily.  This quote is the first quote of the year, and we discuss the figurative language as well as the meaning of the quote.  With this one, since this is new to my students, I walk them through the thinking before they write so they are ready to write when I ask them to.  I told the students that there are actually two forms of figurative language in this quote, an idiom and a metaphor.  I reminded them of what an idiom is, and then asked which part they thought was the idiom.  Once they identified it, we talked about the literal meaning as well as the figurative meaning of the words. We then did the same thing with the metaphor, and then discussed what the quote was really talking about.  Clearly not trees!  Once I was sure that they all understood the quote I had them write for ten minutes about the quote.

The next day we revisited the quote, and I told them that they were going to create a character for themselves and then choose any fruit that they wanted and write a goal for the school year on the fruit.  I did give them a template for size, which they could use or create their own.  For the fruit, I gave them all the same size piece of construction paper in whatever color they chose.  I asked them to make the fruit as large as they could with that size piece of paper, that way the fruits were all of similar size.

Here's some of their handiwork:

Last year's quote was "Those That Reach the Stars Walk in Stardust," and here's what the board looked like:

I find that inspirational quotes and quotes that utilize figurative language are a great way to have students stretch for those common core standards.  The discussions that we have in my classroom are simply amazing, and the critical thinking skills are phenomenal!

You can all do the same thing in your own classrooms!  It's well worth the time and effort on your part, but I can make it easier for you.  I have put together a collection of many of my favorite quotes divided into categories.  There are quiz forms and worksheets as well.  Check it out at my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Critical-Thinking-and-Figurative-Language-with-Inspirational-Quotes-Mega-Pack-309265