Landstown Mind Vine

We jumped into the game quite late (and the waters were d-e-e-p), we trudged through a mountain of challenging materials (with a very steep curve) and we just kept trusting we were making progress (even though we weren’t even always certain what was around the bend). With the help of master problem solver Mr. Dan Baise and the patience of eager students, our 4th and 5th grade Future Problem Solvers completed the qualifying problem and were invited to attend the State Bowl! 

Though we didn’t score any competitive victories at the bowl, the students all agree they gained valuable experience from attending and competing.  “It was hard sometimes and I thought about quitting,” said one member.  Another agreeed and said, “Students should know if they stick with it they’ll love it.  You’ll study new and interesting topics, learn team work, make new friends, have new experiences and learn how to  solve challenting problems.”  Sticking with it led to the first time experience for all of us.

On Friday afternoon, April 16, students attended the opening ceremonies of the 22nd Virginia State Future Problem Solving Bowl at Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia.  Immediately following the ceremony, they were sent to their room where they would spend two unassisted hours on the future scene about Ocean Soup–the island of trash larger than the size of Texas swirling around the pacific and threatening the lives of living creatures.  The future scene provided a hypothetical but probable scenario projected 25 years into the future in which the planet and its inhabitants are faced with the overwhelming problem of plastic trash floating in the ocean.  It breaks down into smaller pieces but it never goes away. 

Students had to comb the page-long scenario searching for 16 possible challenges.  They then had to choose just one challenge and write an underlying problem.  Sixteen varied and creative ideas to solve the problem had to be generated.  They then had to create criteria to help them choose just one of their ideas to turn into a solution and write an action plan.  All this on their own and in just two hours!

Dinner was served to the hungry problem solvers and then they were given the task of creating a four minute skit that used limited materials and a choice of quotes to illustrate their action plan.  They had from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. to put together a skit that was creative, humorous and clearly tied to their underlying problem and action plan and then they had to perform it on stage for a group of strangers.  Coaches Cutbertson and Cabotaje and the students’ family members couldn’t have been more proud of their courage as the team rose to the challenge and pulled off a great performance!  Following lunch in Norfolk and the announcement of the winners at a closing ceremony, the team headed home at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon with a state bowl under their belts and excited about the possibilities for next year!  We adults can have a little more hope for the future as these young students learn skills to solve the problems of generations to come.

Lot’s of hard work has really been paying off in 2nd and 3rd grade where students have been training to discuss literature through literature circles.  Students in both classes are just finishing up a novel study that features gifted characters.  Second graders are reading Frindle by Andrew Clements and third graders are completing Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar. 

In both books, the protagonist is a student with gifted characteristics who experiences some challenges because they are perceived as being different.  Each week, students are given reading assignments and roles such as Discussion Director or Vocabulary Enricher.  They then work individually to complete the chapters and prepare for their roles.  When they come together in their small groups, they conduct their discussions with their classroom and gifted resource teachers acting as guides on the side.  Though a little clunky at first, lots of practice has resulted in rich discussions lead by the students themselves!  Of course the teachers are monitoring, but the students are discussing with one another rather than trying to figure out the right answer to give to the teacher.  Intermittent whole group discussions are conducted by teachers to ensure students are understanding the big ideas in the books.

In addition, students have become great bloggers.  Several times during the novels, students have been asked to log on to their class blog where Ms. Cabotaje has posted a question relevant to the novel.  Students must respond to the teachers question as well as at least one other student.  With a blog writing rubric to guide them, students are becoming better at giving evidence for their opinions, building on the comments of others, writing in a style that is mature and appealing to others and checking their punctuation, spelling and grammar.  

The children have recognized the benefits of the process and the ways in which they’ve grown as well.  At the end of a recent discussion in second grade, one student said, “Now that our group talking has become so good, it’s taken our thinking so much higher!”  Another agreed and said, “I’d rather be doing literature circle than running around outside!  When you’re doing it [discussing literature], there’s something happening.”

In third grade, a particularly passionate student described a discussion like this:

“The clues to support everyone’s ideas were everywhere!  You see, we split up into two groups: one who believed one thing and another who believed something different.  Everyone was trying to support their side and get everyone to see their way.  Sometimes people even switched sides!  I’ve thought about a lot of different things and why they’re happening and make connections through the story.  It’s like a maze.”

Through the use of literature circles and novel studies, not only are students learning to read and respond to challenging literature, they are also being exposed to characters who are bright kids like them who may think and feel a little differently from other kids their age.  It’s an opportunity for us teachers to help them see that, while some of the characteristics of bright kids may present challenges, they are also what make them delightfully, naturally who they are!

After reading the story Stella Luna by Janell Cannon, a fictional story about a baby bat who gets separated from her mother and is taken in by a mother bird, first graders generated questions they had about bats: How do bats fly at night? Do all bats eat fruit?  How do mother bats care for their babies.  Students then worked with the Ms. Troia, the library media specialist, for a whole group introduction to guided research.  Back again with Ms. Cabotaje, students worked in ability groups to use fact sheets about bats and birds to complete venn diagrams comparing the two animals.

 Next, the “ready to go” group proceeded to work with Ms. Cabotaje to use the IIM Research method to find answers to their classmates’ questions using print and computer resources. Students cited sources and took notes.  As a way to communicate what they had learned, each student completed a page for a bat book that will be bound and kept in the school library.  In addition, the students presented their findings to their classmates who then gave them feedback about what they liked and what could be improved in their product and their presentations.

It always thrills me to see what these little researchers can accomplish—volumes of notes, great deals of new knowledge and a whole lot of opinions.  It’s fun to listen to the discussions that occur during the process.  Here are some snippets from one conversation about what students were learning from research this time around—all voices of children. 

N: “Humans are bats’ enemies!  They are killing them and destroying their homes!  There are less and less of them.”

P:  “So what you are saying is they are endangered.  But it’s okay because they are kept in zoos to help protect them.”

B: “That’s not fair!  They should be free!  All the other animals are everywhere and it’s not right to just keep bats stuck in just one place.  Bats should be everywhere!”

And to think, they’re just getting started!

Students in grades 3, 4 & 5 have continued their work with the Word Masters Challenge this year.  The competition exposes students to tier 2 words—those words that they may have heard or come across in the conversation of others or in books making them potentially vaguely familiar but that they do not yet fully understand. 

Three times a year students are given 25 challenging new vocabulary words and asked to learn their multiple meanings and application.  After a period of study, they participate in a meet that requires them to complete 20 analogies using the new vocabulary in about 20 minutes.  Students receive a point for every correct analogy.

The third word list this year for third grade includes words like valiant, stable and crop (remember to consider multiple meanings).  Fourth grade has words like destitute, torrent and supple. Words like trepidation, menagerie and harrowing appear on the fifth grade list. 

 Now consider solving analogies such as TIMID : FEARFUL :: HARDY : _______ (a. shaky; b. sorrowful; c. valiant; d. brittle; e. joyous) or BUILDING : RAZE :: _______(a. book : read; b. flag : raise; c. toy : lose; e. blocks : build) or WATER : CONTAMINATE :: FOOD : _______ (a. distort; b. abridge; c. taint; d. compress; e. skew)—ask your child for help.  You can imagine why it is rare for someone to get a perfect score (20 points) and that a score of 17, 18 or 19 is pretty impressive!

The results from Meets 1 and 2 are below.  However, it’s not over ‘till it’s over and students often come from behind or even slip a little on the final meet.  Students are currently preparing for the final meet and the one with the most points for the year at each grade level will be named the Word Masters Champ! 

Word Masters Challenge Meet #1 Results

GRADE 3

3rd Place:   Jada C., Meena D. & Ghailah N.        

2nd Place:  Kaleb H.   with 18 points!   

 1st Place:    Aiden P. with 19 points!     

 GRADE 4

3rd Place:     Joshua E. & Kyle S.

2nd Place:    Drenzelle B., Jordan C. & Vy T.

1st Place:   Carson R.

GRADE 5

3rd Place:  Nick W. & Jared S. 

2nd Place:  April S. & Mason B.        

 1st Place:  Lizzy S. & Karmina B.  

 Word Masters Challenge Meet #2 Results

3rd Place:    Sophia D.                                              

2nd Place:   Ghailah N.

 1st Place:    Ana W. with 18 points! 

 GRADE 4

3rd Place:     Kyle S. & Taina  R.

2nd Place:    Drenzelle B.

1st Place:    Katelynn H.

GRADE 5

3rd Place:  April S., Ashley M. & Anna B.

2nd Place:  Lizzy S, Karmina B., Josh N. & Anna C.     

 1st Place:  Kevin M.          

Thanks to the parents who participated in the March parent workshop on Creative Problem Solving.  We were able to address an authentic challenge of one of the participants related to a gifted characteristic using the problem solving process.  The parent left with a solution to apply at home.  If you missed the workship but are curious to learn more, I refer you to an earlier post that gives ab overview of the process:

http://blogs.vbschools.com/landstownmindvine/2011/05/20/creative-problem-solving/

Amberli S., Carson R., Jalen E. & Jordan C. were named 4th grade champs.

 Beginning in October, life bridge master Mrs. Miller, visited the 4th and 5th grade cluster classes to provide bridge lessons.  Students sharpened their mental math skills, learned to strategize, plan ahead and work as silent collaborators.  Learning the game of bridge is no small feat, as it is considered a mental sport the equivalent of chess. 

As a volunteer for the American Contract Bridge League, Mrs. Miller was able to provide the students with free text books, bridge t-shirts and certificates.  In addition, the school tournament winners each received a trophy.  Congratulations individual student winners!

Derek R., Xzavier K., Ashley M. & Callie P.emerged as the 5th grade champs.

As a culminating event after 4 months of bridge lessons, students from Ms. Cuthbertson and Ms. Sykes’s classes participated in the American Contract Bridge League’s Youth Bridge Tournament in Norfolk, VA on Saturday, March 23.  They competed against one Williamsburg and four Norfolk schools with great success.  The 4th graders took 2nd place and the 5th graders took 1st.  Congratulations Landstown winners!  Click on individual collages to see full image.

The parent survey about workshop topics that you completed at the beginning of the year indicated that quite a few parents were interested in Creative Problem Solving.  Since we just started a Future Problem Solving program here at Landstown Elementary this year, having our final parent workshop for the year on the topic of the Creative Problem Solving process made sense.  At the end of this post, you will find the invitation for this event. 

The Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process, created by Alex Osborn and Sydney Parnes, is a research-based model that is over 50 years old.  It is used by businesses and individuals from artists to corporations around the world, and it is an integral part of the curriculum in Virginia Beach City Schools.  Students are using the problem solving process to find unique solutions to  authentic problems that are connected to the curriculm.  For example, they look for new ways to use magnets in second grade and they try to decide what to do with a  hypothetical litter of wolf pups said to have been found in Pungo when in third grade.  The gifted cluster classes have even used CPS to address challenges they’ve found around the building such as a lack of recycling and a need for a bird sanctuary on the school campus.

Future Problem Solving (FPS) is an international competition for students in grades 4-12.  This program is over 20 years old and, though it is similar in process to CPS, FPS asks students to look 25 years into the future to anticipate challenges that might be faced by their generation.  Students must do research to learn everything they can about various topics throughout the year and then respond to future scenes by looking for possible challenges and proposing solutions.  You can learn more about FPS at the state site (http://www.vafps.org/) or the international site (http://www.fpspi.org/).

So, wouldn’t it be nice to learn more about the creative problem solving process that your child is using in school so that you might apply it to challenges that arise at home?  Come to this final gifted parent workshop and lean the basics of CPS!

Click here for your invitation: CPS.Prnt.WrkShp Blog

If you are a member of Facebook, you might want to consider liking the Virginia Association for the Gifted Facebook page.  This is another great way to access resources (articles, videos, blogs, stories) being posted regularly.  If you would like to check out the page, you can use this link:

https://www.facebook.com/VAGifted

Anyone who has worked with or parented gifted children knows that they demostrate characteristics that make them both delightful and challenging.  Last summer, I had an article published in the National Association for Gifted Children’s (NAGC)Counseling and Guidance Newsletter on the topic of emotional intensity.  If you have a child who experiences the spectrum of emotions profoundly, has meltdowns or is deeply concerned with the plight of others, follow this link to the newsletter and read my article on pages 4-7.  You will also find a link to the NAGC site on the front page of the newsletter.  I hope the  counseling newsletter and website turn out to be great new resources for you!

Click on the link below to see the newsletter and read the article:

Navigating the Sometimes Turbulent Waters of Emotional Intensity