Doug Lemov's field notes

People really seemed to like Sunday’s post  on Art of the Sentence, in which Dan, Joaquin and I described our Friday workshop and how we gleaned insights about how to build mastery of the complete sentence–and complete thought–via Art of the Sentence.

Nikki Bridges, principal at Leadership Prep Ocean Hill in Brooklyn was at the workshop and we were pretty impressed (though not surprised) to see her putting the ideas into action on Monday.  Yep, Monday.

Here’s an email she sent to teachers adding an Art of the Sentence.moment to a lesson the third grade team had planned for Monday.  Cleverly, she decided to use the AOS as the Exit Ticket. She also provided good and practical “how-to” guidance to make sure her teachers were successful.

Action: For Monday’s lesson, please do the following:

• Distribute: Distribute the Exit Slip to your scholars. Tell them that they will have 2 minutes to respond to the following question in one sentence: How can you use landmark numbers to find the number 278 on the 1,000 Chart? Tell scholars that they can only write one sentence and that they must begin their sentence with the following starter: Even through there are 1,000 numbers on the chart… Let your scholars know that this is a challenge because they have to explain their thinking in only one sentence and they must begin with the sentence starter.
• Go to Work: Put 2 minutes on the clock. You may intervene if you see scholars writing more than one sentence or their sentences do not make sense.
• Hunt and Gather: Circulate and look for 3 scholars who have exemplary responses. Put a star on their papers. These are the scholars who will share during the closing. Look for the following:
  • Use of vocabulary: landmark number, multiple of 10, multiple of 100, etc.
  • Clear explanation of a strategy
  • Clarity of thought
  • Exemplar Answer: Even though there are 1000 numbers on the chart, I can locate the number 278 by finding the landmark number 280 and counting backwards by 2.
  • Share: Tell the scholars with stars on their papers to stand. Have those three scholars read their sentences out loud.

   

In case you’re interested, here are the actual Exit Tickets they used with the Art of the Sentence prompts embedded:

Third Grade Math Revised Unit 5 Day 1 AOS Exit Slip 01 13 2014

Third Grade Math Revised Unit 5 Day 2 AOS Exit Slip 01 14 2014

Art of the Sentence; Nikki Bridges; Leadership Prep Ocean Hill, math, resources