My First Anchor Charts

In 6th grade, we don't really use anchor charts...ever.  We just write notes on our white boards or project notes on an overhead or projector.  They are usually boring lists or definitions of words that do not stimulate or engage the students. 

Today, I decided to do things differently,  I was able to get an easel pad and I made anchor charts for my notes.  We covered What is Schema? and How to Make Predictions.  They were more visual because I added my own pictures as well as colors.  I drew boxes around important words and bolded the main topics.  It was actually kind of fun for me (although the students still had to take notes).

Here are my anchor charts.  I did get the ideas off of Pinterest.

Motivation - Death Crawl

So, I finished grading my all About Me books (finally).  I learned many things about my 6th graders.  I was also happily surprised in their writing skills.  I was a bit worried their writing would need plenty of work.  But they wrote good paragraphs with some details.  That is a big skill we work on in 6th grade at my school.  However, there are always a handful of students that did not put forth the effort in their books.  They turned something, but it was either missing pieces of the assignment or the writing was too short & not detailed.  So, it is time to show them and review with them...the death crawl.  I think the video clip describes it best!

After watching the video, I go into my speech about putting 110% effort in all you do.  I use the phrase "to death crawl" their work.  I think this video is great for motivating students to do their best.