#CyberPD Chapters 3 & 4 DIY Literacy

Chapters 3 & 4 focus on two of the problems we face in education: memory & rigor.

Chapter 3
Our students' work gives us feedback and evidence of our teaching. However, our students are faced with a barrage of new learning every day. This new learning may happen every 42 minutes! Our goal here is to help students remember what they have been taught; as long as it is not something they could look up in a book. We are not necessarily teaching rote memorization, we are teaching our students ways to hold on to learning that will help them enjoy the work they do now, transfer into other areas of their coursework, and become part of themselves.
I like how Maggie and Kate explained how each tool could benefit students in different ways with regard to memory.

• A chart is a quick way to list strategies they could try.
• A bookmark makes it more personable.
• A micro-progression can help students see which skills are the most essential in each unit to remember.
• A demonstration notebook helps students see the how, not just the what. 

Many times I feel that the last bullet is where students break down. They know the what, but don't understand the how. This is where small-group work with demonstration notebooks would be very powerful.

Remember, as many highly regarded educators have said before us, "If we had really taught it, then the kids would be able to do it. They would have learned." (p. 51)

Chapter 4

Rigor, not rigormortis, is such a hot topic in education. I appreciate the stance Maggie and Kate chose to focus on, which is "a description of a behavior rather than a task," (p. 54).  We must change our mindset about kids when they do not do the work. This does not make them lazy or unmotivated. It could possibly mean they might not be ready to perform the work we taught, they might not know exactly what is being asked of them, or they may not know the steps to take to get them there. I see this way too often in our middle school classrooms. Staff can be quick to say the students are lazy when after a given mini-lesson, work is not done as rigorously as expected. Here is where we, as educators, need to keep an open mind and pull those few students together to more explicitly explain, or demonstrate again, our expectations for the task. 

• Micro-progressions can explicitly show the depth of work we expect of our students.
• Demonstration notebooks can be used to push students farther who are ready for that challenge.
• Charts can be a shorthand method of explaining clear steps,once they are aware of what rigorous work is.
• Bookmarks can help with goal setting, as "rigor comes in all sorts of paces-some slower, some faster," (p. 66)

I am really enjoying close reading this book again. I am finding new ways to share with staff and am excited to share my learning more with the educators I work with.

#cyberpd Week 1 DIY Literacy

I preordered the book this spring and promptly read the whole thing the day I received it. Then came the weekly videos and I found myself rereading certain sections to deepen my understanding. Maggie and Kate did such a fantastic job rolling out this book. It was so powerful to see the tools (visual), hear them explained (clarity), and see them repeated (practiced) throughout the weeks. This is exactly how to make things "stick", see pages 7-8 numbers 1-3. 

Chapter 1: One of the hardest things, I think, teachers grapple with is to take ownership when our students are not engaged. "When our kids aren't engaged, or learning, or growing, there  is something they are not getting from us that they need," (p. 2).  We have to find the right tool that tackles the problems of memory, rigor and differentiation. So many times I hear teachers say, "Did that teacher teach them anything last year?" or "I just taught them that last week!" I think the key term here is "taught". We can teach them all kinds of things, but if it is not rigorous enough, at their level or in a way to "stick", they will not learn. We can get too focused on the "hamster wheel" of breadth, and lose our center on depth.

Chapter 2: It seems too simple that they include only 4 teaching tools in this book, but they are so powerful and this chapter does a great job of explaining why you would use each one, touching on the three problems students face in memory, rigor and differentiation. I have tons of experience with charts and bookmarks, but the demonstration notebook and micro-progression tools were knew to me. I still am wrapping my head around the demonstration notebook and still will, as I don't have a class of my own (I am a reading specialist and instructional coach). I LOVE the micro-progression and it can be a quick tool for formative assessment and self-reporting of progress by the students.

Bonus:Page 32 really spelled it out for me by putting together The What + The How + The Why. I anticipate using this with teachers as we work together to define strategies and how to put them into clear, concise language for students. We have to know WHY this is important.

Aside:

I have a very strong group of educators I am tickled to call my PLC. Through this network, I encounter many new professional and middle grade texts to read and then share with fellow educators (& students) I work with. I met with a group of teachers from my school last week do begin our book study on The Reading Strategies book. With it, I brought along 3 other books I am currently studying based on information I have gotten from fellow educators. The majority of these recommendations were from my Twitter PLC. If you are not on Twitter, stop reading this and go now to sign up and begin your new professional development journey :)

Library Field Trip

 


I look forward to this field trip all year. My excitement builds as the weather forecast looks to cooperate! Every spring the ELA and Special Ed staff take our reading enrichment students on a field trip to the public library. The library is 1.5 miles away from school and our Phy Ed department lets us borrow the bikes and helmets.

It is well known that summer is a time for students to "slide", negating some of the hard work they put in during the school year. It is also a time, that if students find a time to choice read, they can maintain or even build upon their reading skills. By making a connection with our local children's librarian and the public library, we hope to help students find a place to find new material to read and maintain their reading skills.
Our local children's librarian, Ms. Annette, does such a great job orienting our students to all the services the library provides, giving a guided tour and being an advocate for choice reading over the summer.





Before we bike back to school, we stop by the local Dairy Queen for lunch. It is a highlight of the trip, of course.

Professional Mentor Texts

I was thrilled to be a part of Kylene Beers and Bob Probst's first Facebook live event. It was on their Notice and Note Facebook page and was greatly attended. (If you are not a part of this group, I highly encourage you to join it). During the session, one listener posted a request for teachers to mention their go-to professional mentor texts for literacy. This got me thinking of my own mentor texts.

I wear a lot of hats in my district. I am a reading interventionist, instructional coach, K-12 ELA Department Chair and I also lead some professional development around literacy. Thus, my go-to pile above is quite large. This does not include some more books in my middle school room :)

I am always on the look-out for new ideas or better ways to ensure I am growing professionally so that my students are academically successful. I then give snip-its of what I read to administration, staff and students. I realize everyone is not as excited as I am to read so much professionally, and I respect that. However, they do appreciate it when I share bits of what I am learning with them.



Here are some of my favorites for upper elementary & middle school literacy:

• Falling in Love With Close Reading by Christopher Lehman & Kate Roberts
• Energize: Research Reading and Writing by Christopher Lehman
• Notice and Note by Kylene Beers & Bob Probst
• Reading Nonfiction by Kylene Beers & Bob Probst
• DIY Literacy by Kate Roberts & Maggie Beattie Roberts
• Reading Strategies Book by Jen Seravallo
• Pathways to the Common Core by Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth & Christopher Lehman
• Teaching for Deep Comprehension by Linda Dorn
• Guiding Readers and Writers by Irene C. Fountas & Gay Su Pinell
• Mechanically Inclined by Jeff Anderson
• The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller
• Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller

Primary Literacy:

• One to One by Lucy Calkins, Amanda Hartman & Zoe White
• No More, "I'm Done!" by Jennifer Jacobson
• The Daily Five by Gail Bushey & Joan Moser
• Reading Strategies Book by Jen Seravallo

Engaging Students/Education in General

• Drive by Daniel Pink
• Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess
• Book Love by Penny Kittle
• Opening Minds by Peter Johnston
• Professional Capital by Andy Hargreaves & Michael Fullan
• Visible Learning for Teachers by John Hattie

Instructional Coaching

• The Art of Coaching by Elena Aguilar
• Instructional Coaching by Jim Knight

I am sure I am missing some that I have used and I know there are many more on my "to-read" list. What are some of your favorite professional mentor texts?

Teaching Grammar in Context

My 4th and 5th grade teams requested teaching grammar in context as our topic for this month's common planning time. We have been taking a look at the practice exams for the upcoming Forward Exam (Wisconsin's version of testing for the CCSS), and the staff noticed a lot of grammar questions. I am so glad they brought this idea to common planning because it was a great time to discuss how to teach grammar in context, not in isolation.

My favorite resource for this topic is Jeff Anderson's Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop. 

Some quotes:

“Pattern based development rather than rule-based correction.”

“Teaching DOL is as effective as ‘Yelling at the overhead.’”

“Love the errors and all they reveal.” (Look for patterns in students’ thinking)

We had some great discussion as we looked at the language standards for each grade level, reflected on which ones students may need some addition instruction on, and then began to plan lessons using Jeff Anderson's examples. It became very clear that our students needed a 2 week "bootcamp" revolving around grammar. This is going to be centered around their writing and through the use of mentor texts.

Here are some more of my favorite ideas from Jeff's book...

• Rather than putting a poorly written sentence up for students to correct, put up a well-written sentence and ask them, “What did you notice?” “What else?”, “What else?” Continue until you have exhausted the realm of possibilities  within the class. Take one of their noticings and use it to teach a mini-lesson that you have preplanned anyways.

• To teach the test taking skill of noticing errors in incorrect sentences, take that good sentence and change one thing to make it incorrect. First make sure the students have a good understanding of why and how it is correct. Talk about what was changed and why it is no longer correct. Ask - “How does this affect the meaning of the sentence?”

• A good sentence: “His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age.” -Maya Angelou. A sentence like this nature can be used over several days and for many minilessons.

• Have the children create a sentence about their own rooms similar to Maya Angelou's. Notice the features of the sentence to include - place, scent item, proper noun, abstraction.

• Children need to understand what is correct before they can realize what is incorrect. You never know something is missing if you’ve never had it in the first place.

This was a great discussion and use of our common planning time this month!

Do any of you have a resource you use to teach grammar in context?

Writing in Response to Reading

During our 3rd grade common planning time this week, our focus was on writing in response to reading. I had great resources to share with the staff and then Maggie and Kate posted their DIY series second video on this topic and I had to adjust. It was just too good not to share.

DIY Series

https://kateandmaggie.com/2016/04/06/diy-literacy-video-series-episode-2/comment-page-1/#comment-27171

This was this group's first experience listening to Maggie (@maggiebroberts) and Kate (@kateteach) speak, and I heard many comments on how engaging the teachers thought Maggie and Kate were and how their explanations were clear and concise. We brainstormed ways we could use their teachings to improve instruction about writing about reading in the classroom. 

My go-to book for my entire teaching career has been:

Fountas and Pinnell have amassed such fantastic information in this text, and it is always one I return to again and again. 

They say, "Writing about reading is a tool for reflection and as a way to share and explain one’s personal reactions, questions, and interpretations of texts. The writing may range from very brief notes to longer more polished essays. The goal is not to summarize or retell the story in a way to prove they’ve read it but to uncover the meaning of the text and their response to that meaning."

When children write, they can discover more about what they think and feel about a text. It is a tool for reflection and sharing. The primary use is to help individuals become better readers by:

·         Engaging in critical thinking and learning about how to interpret text

·         Connecting reading and writing

·         Developing flexibility in responding and going beyond simple retelling or answering questions

·         Using the notebook to promote and support discussion

·         Formulating thoughtful and personal responses to what they read

·         Responding and reflecting continually during the reading of a text

·         Engaging in meaningful independent work while the teacher works with groups of students

·         Collecting, examining, and using interesting words and language patterns

·         Examining the writer’s craft and recording the techniques they notice for later discussion and use in their own writing

·         Sketching or drawing to express their understanding in images as a support for discussion or writing

Another resource I enjoy using is The Two Writing Teachers blog. It is always relevant to the workshop model, and you can sense the workings of Fountas and Pinnell and also Lucy Calkins in their work.

Writing About Reading (choice)

https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/writing-about-reading-offering-students-choice-in-reading-responses/

I feel so fortunate to have these wonderful resources to share with staff to help us all grow professional to improve student achievement.

SOLSC #31/31 #sol16

On the other side of the table

I have the opportunity to sit on the other side of the table as we interview candidates for a 1st grade position. I always dreaded interviews, but even more so now! We asked our candidates a series of questions and then they had to teach a mini-lesson and a guided reading lesson. It was a great way to see the candidates in action, but talk about the pressure...whew! I was so pleased to see how the candidates interacted with the students, and it is wonderful that we have such great candidates that want to come to our district.