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Bring Your Lessons to Life with Interactive Notebooks

aussiestarresourcesau · Apr 25, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Make your HASS lessons engaging with Interactive Notebooks

Put your hand up if you're tired of using worksheets for History lessons?

Put your other hand up if you’ve resorted to the book of black line masters.

Ok, put your hands down – people might be watching. 😉

I’ve been there. You're faced with tricky topics. You're short on time. And you want to get it done and black line masters are a very handy tool - sometimes a life saver.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not criticising BLMs, they have a place. But I guarantee your students groan when they see those worksheets coming. If you’re looking for ways to spice up your HASS lessons interactive notebooks are a great solution.

So what are Interactive Notebook activities?

Interactive notebook activities are like the sexy younger sister of worksheets. You know - she’s way more fun and, while the two share a resemblance, she’s definitely more glam and happening. Regular worksheets are a page of text with questions presented in a linear format. Interactive Notebook activities are far more hands on and well…interactive. They usually include cutting and folding components to create foldable displays. They might include 3D elements, and are often more colourful. They can also include charts and diagrams to present ideas and concepts. Students love putting them together and take pride in their work.

Interactive notebook activity for and against federation

My reluctance to teach Federation lead me to create interactive notebook activities. My students were crying out for something fun and interesting. Creating a visual display of their learning helps students to engage with the topic. I find that students remember the lessons that included an interactive notebook activity. If you're recalling an idea or concept covered earlier in the year you’ll hear comments like:

“I know that the Local Government manages garbage collection and the Federal Government manages immigration. I remember because we sorted their responsibilities in to their 'briefcases' last term.”

I could go on forever about Interactive Notebooks. They’ll revolutionise your HASS lessons.

If you check out our store you’ll see there are very few ‘standard’ worksheets. Even the simplest resource has some form of interactivity in it. One of our favourites is our For and Against Federation Activity. Or our Free Goal Setting Flip Book.

If you've used our interactive notebook activities we'd love to know.

Happy teaching!

Amy

PS. Did you know that Interactive Notebooks can be digital? Look out for our next post which will explore all things digital.

5 Alternatives To Tests – Putting Assessment to the Test

aussiestarresourcesau · Apr 16, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Testing testing 123...just not all the time!

Now don’t get me wrong, tests definitely have their place in the classroom. They can be a very effective way of checking your students' ability to recall information with very little effort. They’re also easy to mark and report on. There’s nothing like cold hard data to help you write your reports. But they are not the best assessment solution for every subject. They are also limited in their ability to give you insight beyond a student’s ability to recall information. For example, during a test a student may be able to recall the Federation occurred in 1901 but it’s also important to check their understanding of why Federation happened, the significant events that led to it and the contribution of important figures such as Henry Parkes. Each student will explain their understanding of this important event in their own way and a test may not be a meaningful and authentic way to check their understanding.

So what are the alternatives to tests? Let’s look at 5 alternatives to tests that you might like to try in your classroom.

Multimedia presentations

This is a great opportunity to incorporate technology in to your lessons. Your students might like to make a news segment about a special event, or perhaps a mini documentary about their Earth Science topic or a mathematical concept. Maybe they can reenact a chemical reaction using stop motion or generate a PowerPoint presentation or slide show of their latest book report. The possibilities are endless.

5 Alternatives to Tests for valid assessment

Dioramas

Dioramas are a great way for students who love creating and crafting to show their understanding. I’m always amazed at how creative students (and often their parents) can be when creating dioramas. I’ve seen them made from LEGO, air dry clay, plasticine, wood and cardboard. While the construction and presentation of dioramas is important it’s equally important that students demonstrate their understanding of the learning outcome. This can be done with a written or oral component. A great idea is to have parents and other classes come through your diorama ‘gallery’ and ask the students to explain their diorama. Providing prompt questions can help or even preparing other classes with questions might help the process.

Teach the concept

Turn the tables on your students by asking them to teach you, their parents or their peers about a concept, topic or skill. They will need to carefully plan their lesson and write a detailed lesson plan including an objective and anticipated outcome- this should be directly linked to the curriculum outcomes. Students should also check for understanding and reflect and evaluate their lesson after to consider how they could have modified or improved their lesson to teach it better.

Write an instruction manual

This works in beautifully with procedure writing but can be linked to subjects such as maths, science and even PE. Rather than teaching the concept and having to speak in front of their peers (for some students this is a terrifying concept) students can write a detailed instruction manual with graphics and diagrams to help convey their knowledge and understanding. This could be completed on the computer or written by hand. Photographs could also be used to help present the steps. It can be helpful to provide examples of different types of instruction manuals to inspire students. To test their manuals students can swap their manuals and follow the steps to see how effective they are. Constructive feedback from peers could be written as part of the assessment task.

Design a board game

I have used this in maths as part of our unit on probability. Students love the opportunity to be creative and design the ultimate board game. Like all activities it does require guidance and scaffolding to ensure the learning objectives are not lost amongst the cardboard, straws, spinners and hot glue guns. A process journal can help with this so that students log their planning and progress throughout the construction to ensure they are on task and on track to reach their objective. It’s important to provide focused time for writing in a process journal - don’t rush it and provide helpful prompts to get them writing as it takes practice to master writing a process journal. When they’re all done it can be great fun to have a lesson for students to play each other’s games and provide constructive feedback.

Hopefully you’ve been inspired to try a few different assessment strategies. There are many more so follow our Pinterest profile to keep an eye on ideas we find inspiring. We have an entire board dedicated to meaningful assessment ideas which you can follow by clicking here. If you're looking for assessment tasks and activities with a difference check out our Australian Explorer Assessment Planner and our Earth Sciences Expo Assessment Planner.

Happy teaching

Amy

TPT Feedback – More Than Just Points

aussiestarresourcesau · Nov 28, 2018 · 4 Comments

Picture this scenario. You’ve had a great day teaching. The kids are happy. You’ve covered everything on your plan. Your behaviour management is textbook perfect. The kids are working so you go and check your emails. Suddenly you’re plunged in to a pit of despair and anxiety. There’s a message from the front office asking you to call a parent. No explanation, no ‘heads-up’ about what they’d like to speak about. Your heart stops.You break out in a cold sweat. A million possibilities run through your head.

“What’s wrong?”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Did something happen that I don’t know about?”
“Is he being bullied?”
“Did I remind the kids to put sunscreen on?”

Well, I can tell you that TPT sellers experience a very similar situation. Nothing stops a Teacher-Author in their tracks like feedback from Teachers Pay Teachers. They feel same sense of panic. The same surge of (usually) unreasonable dialogue rushing through your head.

“Please let it be great or at least polite.”
“I hope they haven’t found a mistake my editor missed"
“Are they unhappy?”
"I’m not cut out for this.”
“My resources aren’t as awesome as I know they are.”

And on it goes.

I’ve had a few of these lately so felt the need to write on behalf of my fellow Teacher-Authors with one simple message. Please be reasonable.

Despite our initial fear we actually LOVE to get feedback. It inspires us, fuels our passion, builds our confidence and can make our day. I’d say 95% of the time feedback is a positive experience with high-fives and happy dances. 3% of the time we get feedback pointing out issues or suggested improvements. While these don’t fill us with joy they are constructive and helpful. They provide us an opportunity to improve our resources and serve teachers better.

The remaining 2% is another story. This feedback can fit in to 3 categories:

Cassie Credit Collector

Example: “Excellent Resource!” 2 Star Rating.

Umm.. Excuse me? This makes no sense! An excellent resource can’t be worthy of 2 stars from a possible 4. Sure, you’ve got your TPT credit for the next sale. But you’ve also broken a Teacher-Author’s heart and lowered their rating on TPT which affects their business.

While you’re getting those credit points please leave thoughtful feedback. You wouldn’t give your students half marks without an explanation. Please don’t do it to a Teacher-Author.

Disappointed Debbie

Example: “I expected more.” 1- 2.5 Star Rating.

The best TPT sellers are very thorough. On each product page you will find a detailed description, thumbnail images and a preview. Some spiffy sellers even provide video previews. Teacher-Authors go to great lengths to help you make an informed purchasing decision. They want to ensure you know exactly what you're getting.

Did you expect more? Did you check out the resource thoroughly to be sure it was what you wanted? If you did, and it was misleading, then leave feedback explaining what you thought you were getting. Leave details - It might inspire the seller to update the resource.

“Caveat Emptor” is the assumption that the buyer takes responsibility for checking the quality of a product and its suitability for their needs. Sometimes it can be hard to know exactly what you’re getting on TPT. You look at the thumbnails and read the description but you’re still buying blind. If this is the case I get it if you’re disappointed in what you’ve received. I suggest that in the future you don’t make these risky decisions. Instead expand your search and look for a product that shows you exactly what you’re getting.

It’s out there I promise!

Lazy Lucy

Example: “This was helpful but I still had to teach the concept.” Rating 2.5 Stars.

This one makes me cringe and breaks my heart a little. Yeah you will need to teach the concept because, well, you’re the teacher! No resource can take the place of explicit teaching and nor should it! Resources should complement and enrich your teaching. They will not do the teaching for you.

Geeze Teacher-Authors are a sensitive bunch!

Nope! We're people.

Teacher-Authors know they will get negative feedback at times. Even the TPT superstars have negative reviews. Bill Gates said "We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve." All I ask is that you provide valid, thoughtful and genuine feedback.

Your voice does matter and teacher-authors want to know what you think. But keep in mind the real-life person on the other side of the internet. The Teacher-Author who has probably worked a full day in the classroom like you. Or is at home with her new baby trying to supplement the household income with her business. The teacher-Author who can't face another year of IEPs and behaviour plans and needs a break. Leave feedback that is constructive and detailed. Leave feedback that will inspire the development of quality resources. Leave feedback that is purposeful and we'll all reap the benefits.

An Entire Year of Homework for Upper Primary? Yes Please!

aussiestarresourcesau · Oct 2, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Organising homework doesn’t have to be a burden. Honest!

There’s nothing better than ticking items off your to do list in your preparations for next term or the year ahead. You’ve completed term plans, assessment rubrics, IEPs and parent information flyers. You’re ready to go. Except that you haven’t organised your homework program. That’s OK, you can just photocopy some worksheets on Monday mornings… right?

It sounds like a good plan, but the truth is homework can feel like a burden, first you need to find something that’s relevant and meaningful and ideally curriculum aligned. It also needs to be easy to mark and track. It also needs to be engaging and age appropriate. Homework is a great way for students to practise new skills and consolidate their understanding of what’s being done in the classroom. Finally, the content shouldn’t be new to the students and it also shouldn’t take too much of their time or require too much input from parents.

Australian curriculum aligned homework for upper primary

So what’s the solution?

Because our number one goal is to ease your workload we’ve created our homework flip books that are aligned to the Australian Curriculum and designed to provide meaningful homework that will build on what they’re learning in the classroom.

Here’s what you’ll find in our homework flip books:

HASS reading passages and comprehension activities.
Mental computation practice to help build speed and fluency with all kinds of mental arithmetic.
Mathematics – each week focuses on a single skill or topic
Spelling Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check table featuring vocabulary from the HASS reading passage.
Grammar and Vocab practice activities aligned with the Australian Curriculum for each year group
A fun activity including mazes, short writing tasks, color by number and design tasks.

Each flip book can be easily assembled by the students after the first couple of weeks they’ll be pros at it and issuing your homework will be a breeze.

So that you can feel confident that you’ve got the curriculum covered we’ve included a table with each set outlining the topics, skills and content descriptors covered each week.

Each set features nine flip books with a bundle of 36 for the year. There’s always at least one week of each term that you don’t issue homework (it was usually week 1 for me) so thought nine per term was a good number.

Year 5 Australian curriculum homework flip books

To reduce your workload even further we’ve included answer keys for each week and these can be easily printed to make a handy booklet or displayed on screen. You could even display pages on the IWB so students can mark sections themselves.

We’re very proud of our homework flip books and their ability to reduce the workload of teachers without compromising their dedication to providing age appropriate, meaningful and curriculum aligned content for their students. Want to know more and download a preview? You can check them out in our store here.

Happy teaching

Amy

3 Tips For Completing Your AITSL Teaching Standards Portfolio

aussiestarresourcesau · Jun 30, 2018 · Leave a Comment

What’s your Super Power? Mine would have to be procrastination. Yes, the force is strong in this one. I can find a million other things to do before completing tasks that need to be done. This blog post is the perfect example. Here I am on a Sunday morning, there’s washing that needs to be hung out, school uniforms that need ironing, dishes that need to be done and a four year old somewhere in the house still in his PJs. BUT because they are not very appealing tasks I’ve decided that writing a blog post is FAR more important so here I am. Could the blog post have waited? Probably but that’s the power of procrastination, it clouds your judgement, why fight it?

AITSL-Teaching-Standards-Portfolio-Blog-Pin-1

Are you procrastinating when it comes to your AITSL Teaching Standards Portfolio? I bet you are, everyone does! When it comes up in the staff room you can hear the groans for a 1km radius as teachers bemoan the AITSL Portfolio. Collating your teaching experience into one folder is HARD, reminding yourself to record details, take pictures and enter them in to your portfolio is easy to push down the list of priorities. Unfortunately, this usually means that we end up putting something together in a rush when a deadline such as a review is hanging over our heads. Here are a few tips and ideas to help you stay on top of your portfolio, update it regularly and ease your workload in the process.

Hold a Portfolio Party!

You won’t be the only staff member who is dragging their feet on your portfolio. Set aside time each month (or fortnight if you can manage) to come together with your colleagues to collate your evidence. You could meet at a local café, order in coffee and nibbles or bring afternoon tea to share. This kind of collaboration will allow you to bounce ideas off each other, gain clarification on the Standards and share stories and inspiration. It will also help set up a regular time for you to work on your portfolio.

Take photos and videos

I really wish I had done more of this in the classroom and organised it better. If your school permits it, use your phone to quickly snap examples of student work and activities, classroom displays and your planning. Save these in a separate album called Portfolio or AITSL so you know where they are for your Portfolio Party. If you are unable to use your phone keep a small digital camera on your desk charged and ready to whip out during a lesson or when you’re marking to take pics. Save these to a specific folder so you know where they are when you’re collating your evidence. If you have older students you could even ask them to remind you take photos – they love to have their work photographed and reminding the teacher to do something is an added bonus.

If you’re looking for an online portfolio that’s quick and easy to use check out our AITSL Teacher Standards Portfolio.

So that’s three ideas to help get you started. Oooh! One more! Factor your portfolio in to your planning, so that when you’re writing your plans you identify those lesson and activities that will meet a Standard and make a note of it in your planning to help you remember to document the lesson and add evidence to your portfolio.

I could add more but I think three (plus a bonus) is a good number to get you started and I’m sure you’ve already thought of some more while reading this post.

Good luck with your portfolio! I’d love to know if you have a Portfolio Part at your school or if you have helpful ideas and tips for collating your portfolio. Feel free to comment below.

Happy teaching

Amy

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