One of the unexpected joys of working with teachers in a coaching cycle includes what am able to take away from the experience. This year, the talented teachers I have worked with have taught me so much. One of my goals is to share more of the amazing things that teachers are doing in their classrooms as much as possible. In the spirit of this, I would like to highlight one teacher’s spin on the traditional “publishing party.” In Elizabeth Link’s second-grade classroom, students brought their nonfiction topics to life by creating a Living Library. Here’s how it happened in her words: I was beginning to feel like our writing unit celebrations were feeling a bit stale for the kids and me. Having the students reread their pieces to a buddy no longer felt engaging. Because we were preparing to celebrate a nonfiction writing unit, I felt this was a great opportunity to create more enthusiasm around a writing genre that can sometimes feel bland. At first, I did some brainstorming of my own and came up with the idea that the students would act like library shelves holding their books. I thought it would be fun for them to become animated once a first grade buddy chose their book to read. I felt like my idea was headed in a good direction, but needed perfecting. I presented my class with the idea and we immediately began brainstorming together. My imaginative second graders collaborated to create the concept of the Living Library! The Living Library involved students dressing to match their nonfiction topics and standing as statues holding their writing masterpieces. Once a first grade buddy approached them to ask about their book, they came to life and shared their piece! As soon as they finished sharing their piece, they returned to their location and became a statue again until they were chosen by a new reader. The first graders were instructed to ask, “Why should I read this book?” The second graders prepared memorized 1-2 sentence responses to persuade the readers to choose them from the library. This enabled them to be not only informative, but persuasive as well. The thing I loved most about the celebration was the excitement from the kids! It was also wonderful to see them self-monitoring the entire process. I look forward to enhancing this idea next year by encouraging more students to be in full costume. I also plan to invite all grade levels in to visit the Living Library, as well as family visitors! In reflection, I felt that the Living Library acted as a showcase for their learning and an enriching culmination to the unit!
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One of my favorite things is to collaborate with an enthusiastic teacher. So when the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to work with Sue, a first-grade teacher. Sue and I have worked together before and the outcome has always been nothing short of inspiring. As we sat down to plan our work together, I was not surprised to learn that Sue already had a vision. She wanted to more effectively implement partner reading during reading workshop. This first-grade teacher candidly stated that while she always knew partner reading was important, she never really felt comfortable “letting them loose” in such an unstructured way. Together we brainstormed ideas, poured over resources, and quickly created a plan. We took into account that the students already knew partner reading basics. After all, reading buddies were introduced in kindergarten and Sue had already done some partner work in the beginning of the year. They knew appropriate reading partner behaviors such as how to sit (EEKK) and to get started right away. They even knew a few different ways to actually read to a partner. Those structures were already in place. However, our goal was to raise the level of the actual work these first-graders were doing - the thinking and the ensuing book talk. We decided to first set the expectation that partner reading was going to happen every day during the reading workshop, right after independent reading. We created a pie chart to display this predictable structure. We also introduced a timer to alert readers that it was time to stop reading by themselves and to begin reading with their partner. We reinforced two different ways that partners could read together: I Read, You Read and Echo Reading. The following week we felt it necessary to address partner dynamics by teaching a lesson on how to be a reading coach, not a boss. We read The Recess Queen to illustrate why no one wants to work with bullies, or in this case, bossy peers. Together we were able to demonstrate what it looked liked to helpfully coach a partner by reminding them of different reading strategies they could try if they got stuck on a tricky word versus just telling them the word and moving on. Easier said than done as a first grader! The last step in our plan was to teach readers that while one partner was reading, the listening partner had a very important job to do. The listening partner’s job was to check for understanding by listening so intently to the reader that the listener could retell the important parts of the story. Before our very eyes, reading partners were discussing what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of each story. They were talking about characters, setting, problem, and solution. Of course, we wanted to anchor all of this learning with some visual reminders so we created these bookmarks and check marks to solidify the work. During our last session we reflected on our initial student goal of meaningful partner reading and the new practices that students were implementing on a daily basis. We were both very excited about the growth that Sue’s students had made in such a short time. Another successful coaching cycle in the books! If you are interested in any of the resources that Sue and I created together, please comment below!
Once the hustle of collecting new school supplies and creating classroom routines subsides, we as teachers tend to turn our attention toward curriculum and begin the research of getting to know each of our students as learners. Sometimes the task ahead feels overwhelming when compared to where our previous students were at the end of last year. Many of us also look ahead to upcoming professional development opportunities and become reflective about our teaching practices. In what ways can I improve this year?
During this very important time, I would like to offer a simple idea that I hope will help to focus your efforts. I recently read an article from Lead Literacy that suggested teachers write a “postcard” to themselves that could be revisited midway through the year and then again at the end of the school year. On the postcard, teachers would answer two simple but guiding questions: Given my current reality, where do I want to be by the end of the year? How might I get there? Upon closer review, these two seemingly simple questions have the potential to shape our professional goals with an action plan to implement. Writing a response on a postcard (or even a post-it or in a notebook) and keeping our goals visible throughout the year, could be a powerful motivator and keep us focused on what really matters. After all, isn’t this what we ask of our students when setting academic goals? Imagine the weight of our students knowing that goal setting is not just part of “doing school” but actually something that successful people do in the real world. I will certainly give this a try as I look to the year ahead and I invite you to join me! For many, the month of March means watching college basketball in the hopes of winning a bracket. However, for the students at Tatem School, March Madness has taken on a whole new meaning. As I walked down the hall a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but notice a bracket made of blue painter’s tape outside of Ms. Davis’ door. I quickly realized that this bracket had nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with literacy. I was intrigued and asked Ms. Davis to explain. She shared that she had a discussion with her second grade class about what makes a book worth reading. The students indicated that lively characters, realistic problems, and even rhyming could make a book one of their favorites. Then Ms. Davis challenged her students to choose their absolute favorite classroom picture book. Each of her students chose a book and wrote a persuasive essay about why other students should choose their favorite book. The “Sweet Sixteen” books were chosen and the book tournament was underway. Ms. Davis and her second grade class enlisted the help of the other classes at Tatem to read two books as a class and vote for the winner. Soon enough, the Sweet Sixteen became the Elite Eight, and the Elite Eight dwindled down to the Final Four. The “book madness” is still in full swing and the championship book is yet to be chosen. A few lucky students who are still in the running patiently wait to find out which picture book will survive the championship round and win top honors. I had to share because I love everything about this. I love the idea of putting a literacy spin on something completely unrelated, like March Madness. I love that this activity is student-driven. I love that second graders are able to argue the case for their favorite book with evidence from the story yet still show sportsmanship as they compete. I love that each class in the school is involved and reading new books together that they may not have otherwise read. I especially love that many of the classes are having great discussions, even debates, around books. What a wonderfully creative idea!
The picture books from the tournament include: by Susan MillerI am honored to have another guest blogger this month! I have been working with first grade teacher, Sue Miller, for a few months. Saying that she inspires great ideas would be a grave understatement. While working together, we decided to put a creative spin on writing about reading and the rest is history. Sue graciously agreed to write about our experience together through a series of diary entries. She really is a creative genius! November 11, 2015 Day 1 of Literacy Coaching -Today I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. My students started a reading journal, but I felt there was no real connection to their writing about reading. What would Mrs. Graham say? How would she help me make this connection to their reading journal? Our planning payed off because we brainstormed the idea of taking the reading journals and making them “reading diaries.” Well, by the end of our session, I felt wonderful and full of accomplishment. November 18, 2015 Students were introduced to their new reading diaries today. I previously read Diary of a Fly to the students. We talked about why the fly wrote in a diary, and about how diaries keep what we know to be true about reading. The students seemed as excited as I was when we transformed their journals into diaries. They realized that this diary would serve as a special place for them to keep their connections to reading. December 2, 2015 Assessment Day! Prior to our session, we had the students assess themselves as readers. From a list of characteristics of a reader, students chose three main areas they felt that they needed improvement. From those three choices, students were then asked to pick one as a goal they could focus solely on to improve themselves as a reader. This was the day that the Gumball Chart was formed. The Gumball Chart, now called “Our Reading Goals”, hangs proudly in our room displaying the students’ goals. December 16, 2015 Today we taught the students how to take a post it further. Readers were taught how to stop, jot, and connect to their reading. They did this by thinking in their mind what the story was about, stopping and jotting that thought, and then continuing to read. The final step was to place that post it in their reading diary and write about their connection. It was wonderful watching them light up as they wrote in their diary. January 6, 2016 As our fiction unit came to a close, the pages of our nonfiction unit opened. Today we needed to brainstorm how our writing about reading could continue in nonfiction. We discussed and looked at the RAN strategy. Could it be implemented into first grade? Would it be too complex for my students to understand? Well, again inspiration hit. We updated the RAN strategy, and made it easier for my students to use. January 13, 2016
I am sad today. Today is my last session of literacy coaching. It has been a wonderful journey of learning. It was delightful to go in and teach the students today about another tool they can use in their reading diaries. I understand that my inspiration to teach these growing first graders will continue, but the “Idea Room” is closed for now. Until next time… Samantha Nash is one of the teachers that I've had the pleasure to work with recently. I have learned so much about the art of teaching kindergarteners from her. Her hard work, dedication to her students and desire to learn shine through in everything she does. When we aren't sharing a laugh, we are busy brainstorming ways to better meet each kindergarten reader where they are and help to propel them forward. Sam has graciously agreed to guest blog this month by sharing her experience. I will admit, when I first started conferring with my kindergarten readers, I’m not quite sure it was technically conferring. I was an expert at “checking-in.” “What are you doing as a reader?” I would ask my five and six year old students. They would either look at me like I had two heads, or simply read their books to me. I would nod, smile, correct an error, give strategy reminders, and move on. My work with Christy has given me a new perspective on best conferring practices. Together, we brainstormed ways to use conferring as a time to make reading strategies really stick for these brand new readers. To start, we created a document with the main reading strategies that we were looking for. These strategies matched my reading unit, and therefore matched what was expected of my students when they went off to read independently. From there, we conducted “research conferences” during which we observed each student read a level A text. Using our new document we were able to quickly jot which strategies had become automatic, and which needed some more work. The hardest part during our research was to refrain from prompting, especially when I knew that some of my readers were simply being forgetful. Without our guidance, however, we got a very true picture of the work that my young readers do when reading independently without my support. With our wonderful new data, Christy and I felt excited and ready to create goals to support each individual student. We realized that some of the students could be grouped together to reach the same goal, while others had to be individualized. It got messy before it came together, but the end result was worth it- a plan to meet with students individually and in small groups to truly confer! When I met with my students, I was prepared with more than a check in. I applauded their hard work and the reading strategies that they were already using so naturally. I then introduced them to their new reading goal by giving them a small reminder on a post-it. The post-it had a picture of a strategy that I knew they needed to work on, based on our research conference. The students were thrilled to have a goal to work towards. They were excited to apply it to their reading, and I was excited to see how my conferring and goal setting helped improve their independence. While Christy and I agreed it was best to start by giving my kindergarteners their goals, I do hope to work towards more student-oriented goal setting. I believe that towards the end of kindergarten the students will be able to do this with less guidance.
Independent reading time has taken on a whole new meaning in our kindergarten day. Rather than sending students off and hoping for the best, I know that most of them are using their reading goal to focus and read. I use my data to schedule conferences with my students to continue working on their reading goals in order to make it more natural each day. I now feel more confident truly conferring with readers. Time well spent for everyone! In some of my recent coaching experiences, I’ve noticed a small shift creating big change. As teachers, we are very familiar with creating and using rubrics. In the past, many of us have utilized them as a tool to evaluate student work. Recently, I began working with classroom teachers to create and adopt learning progressions and supplemental exemplars. The finished product looks identical but the purpose and results are quite different. During literacy training this year, we tweaked the wording of the categories to emphasize a growth mindset. Something so simple can send a completely different message to kids. See below: Through this process, we are setting students up for success by giving them a growth blueprint. Students can use a learning progression as a tool to grow and improve in concrete, manageable steps along a continuum. Providing exemplars to supplement the learning progression adds an extra layer of support for those students who need to see it before they can do it. Exemplars can make learning tangible. Teachers also benefit greatly from taking the time to introduce and refer to learning progressions with students. It gives teachers specific language and directs their teaching. It also allows teachers to differentiate with ease. Learning progressions become a teaching tool for individual student conferences as well as small group strategy lessons. In this way, teaching becomes tailored to the learner for maximum student growth. By comparing student work along this continuum, teachers get to know their students’ strengths and weaknesses as individual readers and writers. They also clearly see patterns within their class and this data informs effective instruction. I saw the benefits of this work in action when I observed immense growth in third graders after being introduced to a learning progression with exemplars in one lesson. Their writing about reading improved drastically from little or no writing to showing thoughtful connections, predictions, and questions. I also worked alongside a fourth grade teacher and together we looked closely at student work. We were able to place each student along the learning continuum and discuss next steps to move them forward. By noticing patterns, we formed small groups and planned lessons tailored to individual student need. It amazes me how a small shift from an evaluative rubric to a growth-oriented learning progression can have such a positive impact on students and teachers. I look forward to continuing this work in my next coaching cycle with teachers and students.
As I selected the topic for my September post, I looked back at previous topics. This time last year, I wrote about “the uncomfortable stretch” of stepping outside of my comfort zone as a literacy coach. This immediately reminded me of our growth mindset initiative and how it relates to literacy. What better way to dare greatly, practice resiliency, and focus on growth than through workshop teaching structures? In fact, the reading and writing workshop may be the perfect place to build a culture of courage. I recently came across a short list of ways to develop a growth mindset in children (there are MANY out there!) and realized that teachers diligently implement these practices in the workshop every day. Let’s look closer: 1. Ask open-ended questions to solve a problem or achieve a goal. Open-ended questions challenge students while offering them flexibility and freedom. These types of questions are the cornerstone of our daily read aloud practice. We ask students to ponder, discuss, and debate each day. We ask debatable questions during grand conversations. Also, we confer to set individual student goals. 2. Use specific feedback that identifies what the child accomplished. During conferences, we begin with a specific compliment before setting a new goal. We use benchmark data, student work, conference and small group notes, and kid watching to inform specific feedback to support student growth. As adult learners, we continue to grow this year by learning how to offer meaningful feedback. 3. Encourage kids to take a risk. “Readers/Writers, off you go!” When we enthusiastically send students off from the carpet to work independently, we encourage them to take a risk. Every time we gather again to share our work, we encourage students to take a risk. From a raised hand during a read aloud to a personal journal entry shared in a writer’s notebook, we challenge our students each day to take a risk. 4. Be persistent and growth-oriented yourself. We constantly learn and grow as a community. As educators and learners, we strengthen our practice through literacy training, math training, tech days, book clubs, and Panther College courses. We also share our own reading and writing notebooks and reading experiences with our students to confirm what real readers and writers do and to teach them that there is real value in their efforts. 5. Don’t sweat the small stuff. It can be challenging to stay focused on the big stuff in the midst of all the small stuff. Theodore Roosevelt’s famous speech “The Man in the Arena” illustrates this point: Naysayers will always sit comfortably outside of the arena watching in judgment. Don’t sweat it. What matters is what happens inside the arena of your classroom with your students daring greatly each day. This is where the magic happens…
Because I am a huge fan of lists, I would like to leave you with a list of some “kid lit” about growth mindset, courage, and creativity. Enjoy! Ish by Peter H. Reynolds The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds Thank You Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney You by Sandra Magsamen Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty One by Kathryn Otoshi What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada Stuck by Oliver Jeffers The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak Someday by Eileen Spinelli Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg When Pigs Fly by Valerie Coulman Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages by Marla Frazee Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle by Chris Raschka Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis Miss Todd and Her Wonderful Flying Machine by Frances Poletti and Kristina Yee I feel as if I can speak for many of my colleagues when I say that “summer fever” has hit Collingswood. Spring Break has come and gone and in a blink of an eye 80-degree weather and afternoon little league games have become the norm. If you’re like me, the classroom countdown to summer vacation has quickly become a reminder of the dwindling number of days left to “fit it all in” while still keeping the students engaged. In order to continue addressing unit indicators while keeping the students excited about learning, I have been pulling out all of the tricks that I have up my sleeve. Here are a few of my students’ favorites from the last few weeks. Book Clubs Our “Read and Talk about Series Books in Clubs” unit of study was just about finished when I introduced my class to “2J Book Clubs.” I started by placing each student in a group specific to their current independent level and preferences. (I allowed each student to choose three of the five series options that they would be interested in reading.) I then shared my expectations, including how to log each book and reminders of how to respect other club members, with the class before they began exploring their series. Each day, during “book club” time, students were to read one of the books from their series. They were expected to log the book (in their specific folder) and complete a task that assessed one of the indicators of our unit of study. Tasks included jotting down predictions, following character changes, or listing similarities from book to book. After a few days passed, students began having conversations with other club members about books they both read. However, these conversations were not the familiar “turn and talk” chats. Instead, they wrote about their reading on our class blog (see below) to share their thoughts. In true “2J style,” we concluded our book clubs with a celebration! During our celebration, students had “free choice” to explore other book series and the chance to recommend their series to other students. The book clubs became a quick and easy way to review workshop indicators while engaging students in conversations specific to a series of familiar books. The students enjoyed working together and sharing their thoughts with each other. Blogging A quick and simple symbol on a sticky note. A short jot that evolves into a sentence - or two. Before I knew it, writing about reading in second grade went from a few scribbled words to multiple sentences about a single thought. However, some of my students were still struggling with the concept of including an introductory sentence, evidence, and concluding statement to write a full paragraph about their book. I noticed many students getting stuck after adding a “because…” to their first sentence and not knowing how to transition to additional evidence after that thought. I wanted to find a cool and exciting “buy in” for the students that were becoming frustrated and a way for successful writers to showcase work that followed my expectations. After much thought, I decided to add a blog to my class website. As with anything, we discussed the expectations for blogging at length. There were many rules to be followed while completing a blog post. The students watched me in awe as I modeled jotting notes off of a read aloud and transferring them into complete, typed, sentences online. After many “trial and errors” when logging onto the site, multiple “undos,” and then inevitable logging off before submitting a post, it began to click. I’m not sure if the newness of a virtual writing reflection or the pressure of knowing that peers would be able to instantly read each post enhanced student motivation. Or, if it was the simple fact that blogging is much cooler than writing in a notebook to an eight-year-old that helped them succeed. No matter what it was, it worked. My students absolutely love our class blog and ask to blog about their reading every day. Both the quality and quantity of what the students are writing has increased and they are now exploring ways to respond to each other’s posts. They reply with compliments, questions, suggestions, and by sharing their opinions on the original post. Not only do they work hard on the content of each post, but they focus their attention on grammar and punctuation, which is always an added bonus for me! It has been a real “pick me up” in second grade and is a great way to keep the class engaged while reflecting on their reading, during these last weeks of school. Enjoy the last few weeks with your kiddos and find some time to relax over vacation. Believe it or not, September is just around the corner!
Happy Summer (Almost!) Last year, I stumbled across Tony Stead’s work on teaching nonfiction reading. The introduction to his book Reality Checks: Teaching Reading Comprehension with Nonfiction K-5 confirmed what I inherently already knew as a teacher. Although many students had interest in reading about particular nonfiction topics, they were unable to adequately comprehend informational texts. In turn, teaching nonfiction reading became less than thrilling. As a literacy coach, many teachers have expressed to me this same sentiment by sharing that they much prefer to read a picture book than a dry, nonfiction text. Conversely, Stead suggests that we, as instructors, need to make our students’ experience of reading nonfiction just as rich and thought-provoking as reading literature. Stead begs the question, “What should we be teaching our learners, and what types of questions should we be asking when working with informational texts?” While much nonfiction comprehension instruction is based on navigating text features and regurgitating facts, Stead focuses on three key levels of understanding. The foundation or first level of understanding is the literal. This encompasses confirming or changing predictions, retelling, visualizing, summarizing, locating information, locating cause and effect, and identifying problem and solution, among other skills. Much of our teaching of nonfiction begins and ends here. However, beyond literal understanding lies interpretive understanding. Inferring and making connections fall under this category. Stead provides strategies to teach even the youngest readers how to infer through a series of lessons. Additionally, connections with nonfiction texts are powerful as readers create deeper meaning by activating their schema. Evaluative understanding allows readers to become text critics by reading, questioning, and analyzing the author’s message. This includes differentiating fact from opinion, the validity or relevance of a piece, author bias, intent, or point of view, as well as tools or crafts the author may have used to affect the reader’s thinking such as playing on emotions or using information that shocks. Additionally, Stead recommends a few other practical ideas that resonated with me as a reading teacher. He suggests an alternative to the traditional KWL chart called the RAN strategy. He claims that under the traditional KWL model, students often cite inaccurate facts under the “What I Know” column and then proceed to search for that inaccurate information. Additionally, many younger children have trouble formulating “What I Want To Know” questions and end up with questions that are off-track or irrelevant.
Alternately, the RAN (reading and analyzing nonfiction) strategy allows for approximations as students consider “What I THINK I Know”. Then, students read with the purpose of either confirming those facts or adjusting their thinking due to misconceptions. Also, students gather new facts and grow their learning under the heading “New Information” and raise thoughtful questions based on this new information as “Wonderings”. I have used the RAN strategy while working with teachers during their nonfiction units of study and have found it incredibly helpful and practical. Reality Checks also describes the art of retelling and how, too often, young readers simply copy facts from nonfiction texts rather than internalizing the information. Stead offers a primary process and an upper elementary process for students to deconstruct the text by holding on to key words and phrases and then to reconstruct the information by retelling orally or in writing. This pushes readers to take ownership and helps them retain new learning. Stead argues that reading to learn is just as important as learning to read and that the two can and should be taught simultaneously. I tend to think he has a point. |
About ChristyHi there! I love all things literacy, working with amazing teachers as a literacy coach, and spending time with family and friends. My hope is to create a space for teachers to learn from each other, discover something new, and to feel inspired. Thanks for visiting my blog! Archives
December 2015
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