Notice and Note: Nonfiction

I began this week's common planning time with 4th and 5th grade by asking the teachers to listen to the following quote from Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst's new book Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note, Stances, Signposts, and Strategies.

"When we rely on lectures and our own explanations, instead of having students read, we imply that someone else knows and all students have to do is listen.  This disenfranchises them and leaves them vulnerable. It suggests they should let others tell them what to know. It doesn’t raise students who think independently...when they encounter a difficult text in their adult lives, they will again look up and say, “I don’t get it,” and wait for someone else to tell them what they should know."

The majority of their comments included: "That makes sense."  From here I passed around the following survey:

Let’s Talk about it Survey

I asked them to notice if they see any patterns in their answers and if there is anything they would like to change.  Here are some of the responses:

• I am large, and in charge.
• This sounds like what we are trying to do with personalized learning.
• This seems like a lot of student talk, not much teacher talk.
• This goes along with our book study, Learn Like a Pirate.
  
  
  
  
  

 Then I moved into teaching the first big question, What surprised me?

The following came from page 83 of Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note.

“We suspect that at some point you’ve talked with a friend and heard that friend say something that you just can’t believe is true.  The comment was so surprising that you find yourself saying “Really?” and you want to know more.  

Or you’ve been riding in a car and something catches your attention and makes you say to others, “Wow!  Look at that!”  You notice things that are meaningful to you. And once you notice what you found to be surprising information, that’s probably what you most want to discuss with others.  And if you found nothing surprising, you would consider it a dull conversation or a boring ride.

In a similar way, an entire ball game with nothing surprising would probably leave you complaining about how dull it had been. The same is true of nonfiction we read. If we finish the text and nothing has caught our attention, nothing has made us say, “Really?” or “I didn’t know that!” then we probably think what we’ve just read was dull. If, though, as we read we notice some fact that surprises us-maybe just a little or perhaps a great deal-what we’re reading will be more meaningful.

So when you read nonfiction, you should read with that expectation of surprise.  A stance that says, “I will be surprised” will help you see information as more than just facts; you will see it as information that is new to you.  Remember-if you want to find a surprise, you actually must look for one.  If you decide to stay alert for those passages that make you say, “Really?” we suspect you will be pleased with what you discover.

We then watched a video of 6th graders in action using this first Big Question.

Video:
http://www.heinemann.com/shared/iplayer.aspx?id=c439wjt06t&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_source=readnf2

We concluded by discussing what this discussion looked like and sounded like, and thinking about the student conversations that are happening in the classroom. Is this what it looks like/sounds like in our classroom?

Middle School Professional Development Part 2

This is a continuation of my previous blog post, which used this slide show to lead teachers into thinking about the kinds of reading they were asking their students to do.  You can read it here.

We began by passing out this article , Why Being Good at Language Arts Means That You Can Do Math. The article had two purposes. The first was to show the link between math and reading.  The second was to give the teachers an article to practice close reading with.  We asked the teachers to read the article through one time.  Then we had them get into groups and choose a paragraph to reread and closely look for patterns that they see, maybe evidence, data, or words/phrases.  They were to "make careful observations and then interpret those observations with their colleagues.  Then we had them share out.

Lastly we asked teachers to think about the following close reading chart and how it can be used with the piece of reading they brought along. The reading was to be something they were going to ask their students to read in class during the next two weeks.  We gave them some time to process this and encouraged them to lean on any of us with questions or thoughts they had.

We received positive feedback from teachers on being able to grow professionally instead of discussing student behavior or day-to-day logistics of the school during their staff meeting.  I have had follow-up discussions with teachers about reading in their classrooms and look forward to seeing  the level of reading instruction across our building continue to grow.

Middle School Reading Professional Development

This past week, the Middle School ELA team and I were tasked with providing some professional development around the area of reading.  We attended a work shop on Adolescent Readers at CESA #9, led by Casey Gretzinger.  It was great for the four of us to attend some professional learning together and then have time to process how to share this information with staff.

Our middle school schedule allows for common planning time 1st hour.  This week we met as a school and began the professional development at this time, to be further carried out after school during the staff meeting.

We began by having the staff think about these three questions:

1. What types of texts do you ask kids to read?
2. What do you know about close reading?
3. In what ways do you accommodate struggling readers in your class?

Staff wrote their answers on post-its and placed them on the chart paper. 

Then we passed out the following paragraph.  We gave no background information and asked staff to read it and tell us what it was about.

The procedure is actually quite simple.  First your arrange things into different group.  Of course one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do.  If you have to go somewhere else due to the lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set.  It is important not to overdo things.  That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many.  In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise.  A mistake can be expensive as well.  At first the whole procedure will seem complicated.  soon however, it will become just another facet of life.  It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity of this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell.  After procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again.  Then they can be put into their appropriate places.  Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated.  However, that is a part of life.  (Brandsford and McCarrell 1974)

After, we had staff share how this experience made them feel.  Here are some of the responses:

• "I gave up, because I didn't get it."
• "I kept reading and rereading hoping to find the right answer, because I had to get it right."
• "I was very nervous that you were going to call on me to tell what it was about, and I was afraid I would get it wrong."

These are responses we would expect to hear from our students!  Then we asked them what would have helped them understand it, and to imagine how this makes their students feel.

We shared this quote from Reading Nonfiction: Notice & Note by Kylene Beers & Robert E. Probst to close our sharing:

When we use lecture and explanation as our primary way of sharing information in the classroom, we imply that someone else knows, and all students have to do is listen.  This disenfranchises them and leaves them vulnerable...They will have little practice learning how to learn.

For our afternoon staff meeting we asked staff to think about a piece of text they were going to having their students read in class within the next two weeks.  They were to bring this to the after school  meeting to make a plan on how to help their students understand the text.

I will post more on this in my next post.

Post Conference

Modeling, observation and feedback are essential elements for learning and we see this with our students.  This is why this process also works for teachers. Many teachers who have been a part of Jim Knight's work in Topeka comment that coaches who modeled have helped them "teach with fidelity to research-based practices, increased their confidence about new practices, made it easier to implement new practices, and provided an opportunity for them to learn other teaching practices," (2007, Instructional Coaching).


Last week I modeled in the 4th grade classroom for four days, while the three 4th grade teachers observed.  They wanted to see what introducing literature discussion groups looked like. I tweaked a unit I had used as a classroom teacher, based on what I had learned about best practice in literature discussion groups.  I blogged a bit about it in this post.

Post-conferencing is a crucial part of the modeling/coaching process and it is necessary to schedule this.  If I do not set this time aside, I find I rarely get back to those teachers to reflect on the learning that took place.  It is also a time for me to learn from the teachers whom I am working with.  I expect to hear things they liked, didn't like or things that were unclear.  

During our monthly common planning time, I asked the fourth grade team to reflect on the modeling and learning that took place.  I use this form to guide me.  I got this form off of Jim Knight's website and I found it applied perfectly to this situation.

From our discussion the teachers noted that:

•  It was great to see their students being taught by another teacher.
• They liked that they could get in and listen to their students as they were pair-sharing during the guided practice portion of the lesson.
• The realized they need more student led discussions; less teacher talk.
• They liked that their students could see videos of other literature discussion groups in action as a model prior to being asked to do it themselves.

It was great to get our post conference in and then to further our learning, as question on types of text, choice, and time were brought up. This was my first experience modeling for an entire grade level and it was a great experience. I am fortunate to work with a great team of teachers who are excited about learning and willing to take risks and try new things.

Norming On-Demand Writing Assessments

Our monthly staff meeting around Lucy Calkins started with a celebration.  One of our third grade teachers was very excited about the work her students had done on leads.  They revised leads thinking about setting, dialogue and actions.  This was much improved over the writing we saw from the beginning of the year.

Next, we decided to spend our time norming their narrative on-demand assessments they gave the first month of school.  The reading team copied off the rubrics and then asked the teachers for 2 pieces of writing each for below, on, and above grade level. We took off the names and made copies for all involved.

We began the meeting by talking about the importance of norming.  I used the information in the Writing Pathways book from Units of Study for Writing to guide our discussion.

• Why we norm: The purpose of a norming meeting is to establish consistent and shared expectations across the school for student writing.  We align our group as we engage ourselves in close, evidence-based reading.
• What is the process: Four steps below
• What happens when we disagree: Expect and embrace conflict.  Conflict is evidence that there is disconnect in the way your view student work, and digging into that disconnect will help you to align your vision.
• If some consensus is not possible, a half-point is an acceptable difference of opinion.  Generally if 10 minutes of discussion doesn’t yield something close to consensus, the piece is set aside as a “fence sitter.”  Don’t let that one piece derail the whole activity.

Questions to consider:

Work as a group to score 1 student’s piece of writing to reach consensus – where does the student fall?

Where does the student fall on the learning progression and in relation to grade level?

Steps in a Norming Meeting:

Step 1.Work as a group to score 1 students piece of writing to reach consensus – where does the student fall?

• Read through the piece one time
• Then inch through the rubric to assess each item, be careful to note which traits have double the points

Step 2:Score a few other students, then everyone score individually, and come together: What score did we give them?

• If after doing this work with 5 papers of different levels, the group finds that it can come to a consensus, the group can consider itself normed and people can now score papers individually

Step 3: Assess your own students’ writing individually

Step 4: Devise a plan for analyzing on-demand writing across each grade

• will you just look at a few above, at and below
• maybe you will decide just to focus on a few traits that are especially important in the upcoming unit
• maybe you will decide that this scoring process is so valuable that you will continue this work with every on-demand assessment

When making assessment decisions, we need to ask: What are you actually trying to get out of this?

The Payoff:  A school culture in which learning progressions, benchmark pieces, and rubrics help teachers work with each other and with their students to accelerate progress.

We definitely needed more than the 40 minute staff meeting to complete the norming process, as we really only got through step 1.  However, this is the first time our staff has been asked to complete this type of work and it was great to hear the conversations around writing occuring.

Literacy Leader Networking

I have had the pleasure to attend a few literacy leader networking sessions over the past two weeks and I am really excited to share what I have learned.

The first session I went to was a literacy and math leader networking day put on by CESA #9, and led  by Casey Gretzinger and Linda Myers.  We began the day by grounding ourselves in our beliefs about what coaches/leaders do.  This began by using a survey to individually assess our beliefs, then discussed in our group, determined our individual top 5, then wrote on chart paper our common table beliefs about coaching.  This was a great discussion to ground our district coaching beliefs, which we found were very similar.  We continued to network about best practices and engage in some individualized learning during the afternoon.

Friday, I attended DPI’s Literacy Coaches Network  hosted by Barb Novak, Laura Adams and Marci Glaus. It is one of my favorite days of the year, as these ladies never disappoint in their presentation or in their enthusiasm.  We began the day with a coaching session presented by Laura Gleisner.  Laura is a coach certified by the International Coaching Federation.  She guided us through assessing our Emotional Resilience. The categories we assessed ourselves were: sleep, optimism/positive thinking, renewal experiences, support network, nutrition, exercise, communication, internal locus of control.We then used the coaching wheel to see how smooth or bumpy our road is.  

From there Laura shared with us the Dreaded Drama Triangle that we all may get drawn into during our coaching conversations as we become the rescuer.

Victim Mentality

·        It’s not my fault

·        Things are being done to me

·        I am powerless

·        There is nothing I can do

*We have to be careful so that we do not get sucked into the dreaded drama triangle (Dr. Stephan Karpman)-victim, persecutor, rescuer

The antidote to the Dreaded Drama Triangle is the Creator Orientation developed by The Power of Ted by David Emerald.

The third piece of the triangle is the Coach.  We must believe that EVERY person is creative, resourceful and whole.  We can coach someone through the Creator Orientation.  Our steps include:

·         Empathize

·         Ask what the client wants instead

·         Build awareness around their own behaviors

·         Help client work within their lotus of control

·         Capitalize on strengths

·         Help see persecutor as a learning opportunity

·         Commit to taking action

After lunch, we moved into reflecting on and discussing our culturally responsive practices.  Here is what the Wisconsin's RtI Center has developed.

Elements of Culture

Using the above chart (link), we had to reflect on what our values were growing up, what they are now, how are schools operate, how my students/families might be different, and how this difference creates conflict.  This was a great activity to bring cultural differences to the forefront of our minds.

I am so fortunate to have been invited and allowed by my district to attend these two wonderful networking opportunities.  

Guided Reading in Grades 3-5

This week's common planning meetings centered around the topic of guided reading.  I met with grades three, four and five. Our discussion focused on transitional guided reading, fluent guided reading and literature discussion groups.

Two books that have helped me tremendously in the area of guided reading and literature discussion are the following:

                   

I have seen all of the author's speak as well, and have crafted my small group instruction based on their philosophies.

One big misconception that needed to get out in the open was the idea of using round robin reading.  When students are involved in this type of reading, only one student is doing the work-the one reading aloud.  We have such precious little time to work in small groups with students that we have to have them working the whole time.  Students all need to be reading the text silently to themselves as the teacher listens in to each one individually at whichever point they are in the text.  Another reason this is important is the students should be hearing only the very best reader in the room read aloud...and that person is the teacher.  

Transitional Guided Reading

Levels J-P

Instructional Needs: self-monitoring, decoding, fluency, vocabulary and retell

Framework for Guided Reading

·         Selecting the Text

·         Introducing the Text

·         Reading the Text

·         Discussing and Revisiting the Text

·         Teaching for Processing Strategies

·         Extending the Meaning of the Text (optional)

·         Word Work (optional)

Fluent Guided Reading

Read Fluently above a level N, with no decoding, fluency or retell issues.

Select a focus strategy.

Materials: any relatively short text can be used-poetry, short stories, newspaper articles, magazine articles, short chapter books and informational books.

 (it is recommended not to use a novel for guided reading-these are better for literature discussion groups or self-selected reading)

From our discussions we discovered the following:

3rd grade: 2-3 guided reading groups

4th grade: 2 guided reading groups

5th grade: 1 guided reading group

The majority of students in 5th grade were able to read fluently and benefit more from rich discussions with their peers around similar texts as occurs during literature discussion groups.

Literature Discussion Groups

Small-group conversations about books.

7 predictable, yet flexible components:

1. Introduction and Selection of book
2. Silent Reading
3. Teacher Conference
4. Group Discussion w/teacher present
5. Peer Discussion, extension of the group with only students
6. Text Mapping and Focus groups
7. Literature Extensions, variety of activities

This week I am modeling how to introduce literature discussion groups with our 4th grade team. Our principal graciously offered to instruct the students who are not quite ready for this, so that our whole team can watch the teaching.  I began yesterday and look forward to model the future lessons all this week.