You think I know what?

    Did you ever think you knew what your kids could do and they surprised you?  That happens to all of us at times, and like me, you're probably pleasantly surprised when they do better than you think.  That's one of the best feelings!

    Not so good when it's the other way around.  At the end of last week, I pretested my kids on Cause and Effect.  Sixth graders, this should be simple, right?  I was surprised that about a quarter of my students struggled to pull the cause or the effect out of a one-page essay.  So, time to teach it, and time to create something they could work on and share in class, with me making sure they truly got it.

    It was fun to watch them at work today.  They were laughing as they tried to outdo each other with more ridiculous responses, but they knew they had to make sense.  They were a little tentative when they started sharing, but had fun laughing about some of their answers, and shaking their heads when they knew a response was just another part of the cause, or another part of the effect.

    Tomorrow they get to show me if they can pull some of this out of the context of a story.  Hopefully this little lesson (with me prancing around the room saying "BeCause ______, what happened?" stuck in their heads!

    Click here if you'd like a free copy to use with your students.

Have a great week!
Marion

P.S.  Just had to share a techie moment.  I finally figured out how to link to my blog in my comments.  I've been trying to figure that out for a while.  You should have seen the SMILE on my face when I finally figured it out.  Especially because I knew it couldn't be that hard!  Yay!  173-year old woman (that's how old I tell my students I am) masters the 21st century!