Inside the Classroom: Brittney Knight - J.C. Thompson Elementary
Inside the Classroom: Brittney Knight - J.C. Thompson Elementary
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
A double-double, but instead of meat and cheese, fill it with evidence and reasoning. That’s probably not an order In-N-Out can fill, but it’s exactly what Brittney Knight was serving up in our latest Inside the Classroom.
Ms. Knight’s third-graders at J.C. Thompson Elementary took the state-mandated STAAR test for the first time this year. Therefore, she has been working hard to prepare them for written-response questions and the ECRs (extended constructed responses) they will use to answer them.
Students are taught that a thorough ECR contains a few key elements, and Ms. Knight is using a very creative and memorable way to help students learn those elements: the double-double. Yes, that’s right, the famous In-N-Out burger!
When Ms. Knight breaks it down visually, it makes a lot of sense. The buns on top and bottom represent the claim and the conclusion, but the real substance is in the middle. That’s where the two hamburger patties and slices of cheese represent at least two pieces of evidence and reasoning.
When we visited Ms. Knight’s class, she turned writing ECRs, typically an individual assignment, into a team competition.
The class started with students joining Ms. Knight at the front of the room where they shared how they have gotten better as writers throughout this year. Students first shared with a partner, then said aloud what their partner had told them.
Next, Ms. Knight explained how the competition would work and split the class into groups. Each group gathered at one of the many empty burger charts spread around the room. Once there, teams had to decide jobs within their group, including a writer and evidence runners.
Students had previously read the passage “Be Nice to Spiders!” and now they were tasked with creating an ECR as a group in which they responded to the prompt, “Explain how spiders are beneficial to humans or nature.”
Groups began by discussing and writing their claim in the top bun of the burger. Next, they discussed which evidence they wanted to find to support their claim. Before the competition began, Ms. Knight had left pieces of evidence around the room, and next runners looked for the particular pieces of evidence they needed.
As they had learned earlier in the year, students next transferred evidence into their responses by either paraphrasing or citing the text. Groups then discussed their reasoning and the writer put it into their response.
They then repeated the process with a second piece of evidence and its accompanying reasoning. To help the flow of their responses, Ms. Knight passed out transition cards which reminded students of words or phrases they could use to move to new sections of their response.
Finally, groups completed their burgers with the second bun, or conclusion.
After completing their burgers, students returned to their desks to revisit their learning target and discuss if it was achieved.
To close out the lesson, Ms. Knight chose two winning groups who not only constructed the best responses, but also worked well together and displayed the best communication and teamwork in the class.
In true In-N-Out fashion, the winners were “crowned” double-double champions!
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.