How to get ALL kids to succeed?

I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks thinking about my role in getting kids to accomplish at least 60% of my class. I spent 3rd quarter coaching kids through the 6th grade science fair and wound up assigning no Failing grades to students. Out of my 151 students,only 6 students earned a D on the project. 100% of the kids did the project and were able to present.

Possible reasons students achieved at this level:
-Students were given the opportunity to choose their own project
-I spent countless hours coaching and providing feedback to students
-There was an element of pressure that students were expected to perform and achieve and the class culture reflected that.

For next year, I would like to try a PBL approach where students have at least 2 out of the 3 of the above elements per quarter to encourage their success. So far, here are my ideas.


Q1: Unknown- something with a class presentation/speech
Q2: Space? Human body? Other?
Q3: Science Fair
Q4: Chemistry Portfolio


The sacrifices I will make for carving out time to do the actual projects must be outweighed by the benefit of the learning that will occur as students take on projects.

Human Impact Projects

For the second year in a row, I've had students read articles and then present to their classmates in groups about various human impacts on the environment. They are asked to identify what the humans are doing, what the problem is, and how to solve the problem.

This year, I had them log onto newsELA and all read the same article about Fossil Fuels to start off the lesson. Then, they went in and read the article assigned to their individual tables. They independently read and then answered two questions about the articles. I then told them that they need to talk with their group members about the various articles and put together a poster project about the article they read. Once they present, I will be able to score the projects and then we can hang them in the hallway for the rest of the school to enjoy.

Even writing this lesson plan out, it seems so efficient and brilliant and easy-going. For some reason, it has been SUCH a struggle to get these kids to go from reading the article independently to talking/working with the groups on the poster part of the project! What I wanted to take 3-4 days will take us at least six, if not seven days to get through!

I think a few things might be helpful when I do this project next year:
1. Dedicating a day to TALK (and maybe teach speaking frames with it) about the articles at the table.
2. Have students write out the Human impact, the problem and the solution on a sloppy copy to make sure they are on the right track.
3. Show examples of what the human impact posters could/should look like.
4. Provide questions (INDIVIDUAL and GROUP) as a handout on each table.

Teaching the 3R's

What a difference a year of learning routines with sixth graders makes for the first week of school! I've spent the last 5 school days going over all the different routines in sixth grade science. Students have practiced over and over entering the room, collecting lab notebooks, starting class with warm-ups, using supplies... and the practice works.

This group of kids is SO kind, polite, good at school and WANTING to learn. Yes, they get a little squirrely. But they re-direct really well, too.

I'm convinced this year will be successful due to the mix of kids AND the way I've taught them the rules and routines of the year.

Student Data Tracking/ SLGG

I'm kicking around this idea of having students track their own test scores as one of my student growth goals this year. The data will be SUPER easy to collect, either the student tracked their data or they didn't.

Draft of goal:
100% of sixth grade science students will track their test score data to visibly see their progress.

Teacher will:
-walk students through how to set up data tracking in their lab notebooks
-provide time after each test to go over each specific test question and which standard it addressed
-Teach that 1/2/3/ means big misake/small mistake/PERFECT

Students will:
-spend time after every test tracking their progress on science standards.

6th grade science fair

I held a science fair the day before spring break of the 2016-2017 year. Here are my thoughts on the endeavor.

Curriculum
LOVED the formatting and the way the assignments flowed together. I would change a few things:
Question: (white) require a diagram of the setup and the question on the lines.
Research: (white)I loved that there was an extension piece built in that I could easily take off for students who were falling behind.
Hypothesis: (yellow) I would put this as the back page of the question.
Variables: (yellow)I really liked that students were able to work with these terms. I would like to post these around the room... maybe make that part of the lesson... creating variable posters.
Materials and Procedures:  (salmon)  fit really well together. Maybe list out the numbers for students.
Data: (blue) Only make one-sided and open-ended for students to draw/record any information as it happens
Results: (gold) I liked giving students the space to draw a graph/model AND right in words what happened during their experiment.
Conclusion (purple): I liked the questions offered.
Abstract (white): I loved introducing this word to students and having them think of it as their speech, summarizing their work. I helped them write their speeches by showing them the speech I would give.
Miscellaneous
Next year folders need to be purchased ahead of time for students.
maybe organize by color for each class.
I liked the way students lined up in the hallway and came through to pick up the whole set of papers.
Make sure to have 50 extra copies of each page
Make students write their name on each page right away.
The timing was just about perfect. February 28 was the first deadline and the science fair was on March 24.
The dress rehearsal the day before the science fair was awesome because everyone was done and got to see the posters of those around them.            
carrots don't grow fast
Having students leave their poster boards in stacks based on period and then sorting them into sixth period classes the night before the science fair is effective because it allows double checking of who is missing poster boards and speeches.
Kid responses:
the stands that I made for the poster boards did not work as well as I thought they would.
Stay on task and meet your deadlines
Speak up and stand tall when you say your speeches
bring parts of your project to show off

6th Grade seating arrangement

Throughout the 2016-2017 school year, my tables have been in 4 different arrangements. Yes. 4. My janitor thinks I'm funny and trying to make him work harder.
Before school started, August me described seating woes as follows:

As a student teacher I learned that you can make groups by having students in line one turn around and face line two. In my new classroom my desks are at an angle, so this is a bit confusing. I am color coordinating the groups and assigning each four person group an element. Here are my table groups... It was hard to find these on the internet so I made my own.

Then, school started. 6 out of 7 class periods were awesome. I ended my day with a rowdy bunch of misfits who would take the classroom by storm and leave me feeling like I was going to lose it every single day. my classroom morphed from lined tables into groups. my groups morphed into different sized groups, and recently groups of different sizes AND shapes. I'm finally happy with the tables I have and don't anticipate rearranging any time soon. Hopefully.

Quick and Dirty book reviews

I'm holding up at least one of my summer goals.... reading more books! For the books that I read, I will post one or two lines on why I liked the book. Most of my books come from amazon. I would love to chat about any or all of them:)