read & write

My daughter Rachel, a fourth grade teacher, had her students experience a new way to present their understanding of their subject/biography study by presenting a wax museum presentation. The students researched their subject by reading biographies and other resources. They wrote a summation that was limited to a minute or less which was practiced memorized and timed. On the day of the presentation the students dressed as the character and added props/furniture for setting. They invited in other grades from the school and the visiting students could push the “button” and hear the character talk, recite his summation of his character study. One of the mothers of a student contacted the local newspaper and a picture of one of the “wax” characters ended up on the front page. Students and visitors learned about the person. The fourth grade students had a purpose and a way to share their learning.
http://daily-journal.com/archives/di/display.php?id=434866

A summary of Peter Johnston’s presentation on 4-5-08 podcast format.

Notes for Words-on-the-move #5
Peter Johnston - Choice Worlds: Helping children build literate worlds worth living in classrooms.
• We as educators array people each day in the classroom through use of language.
• We say we want them to be assertive, independent strong willed people when they are adult but we want submissive students
• Teachers need to say “I just made a big mistake as a reader, I got distracted when someone came into the room, so I’m going to reread this section here. (this statement allows mistakes, errors – and when that happens it becomes no big deal, just try again)
• A phrase to use often in the classroom is “Say more about that”
• Teacher should refer to another child’s point of view or suggestion which then gives that child a place of credence and importance.
• As teachers we teach individual minds as well as collective minds
• “Child’s language reflects the books that he reads.” PJ
• Two children see writing with different definitions:
o One views writing as accuracy, grammar
o The other views it as having something to say
Teacher’s feedback, use of language, feeds the child’s definition of who he is or in this case what writing is about.

Students have implicit questions that they ask during the school day
What are we doing here?
Who am I? Who can I be?
What do people like me do?
How do we relate to one another?
How do we relate to the object of our attention? (reading writing, science, art, math, etc.)

3 necessary dispositions
Toward Resiliency
Tendency to maintain a focus on learning when the going gets tough
Opposite is brittleness – avoidance of challenging tasks
Toward Reciprocity
Engage in joint learning tasks, asking questions,
Take other’s purposes and perspectives into account
Toward Playfulness
Ready and willing to innovate or notice variations in learning situations
Creative in framing problems
Notice unfamiliar
Generate alternatives
Inclinations to play
Opposite – unplayfulness
Inclination to see only in terms of familiar mindlessness
See only familiar uses for objects
Not able to see beyond initial interpretation
Agency – If I act, and act strategically, I can accomplish things.
“What problems did you encounter today?”
Be enthusiastic and celebrate problems - normalize having a problem.
If there is no problem – not learning strategically
Teach looking for options – teach optimism
Problems may be intentional

Build an expectation of change
PJ “Teaching is noticing opportunity and orchestrating change to happen”

Fixed Theorists
Question ability and assign blame for failure
Growth Theorists
Self instruction, self monitoring, don’t see self as failure.
References:
Choice Words by Peter Johston
About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers by
Lisa Cleaveland;
Comprehension Through Conversation: The Power of Purposeful Talk in the Reading Workshop, by Maria Nichols
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck

Music : Revelation IV from Soundzabound by Barry Starlin Britt

Some thoughts on co-teaching.

With the SAGE program where the state subsidizes teachers in a 16:1 situation, the term co-teaching has surfaced. Through discussions and meditation on the subject, I have a few thoughts that I am working around in my head.

Co-teaching is between two teachers as a marriage covenant is between two people. There must be a personal choice in the choosing of the partner and then a commitment to work together. Co-teaching involves, planning, gathering, researching, executing, evaluating, and celebrating together. A close look at strengths and weaknesses of each individual is needed and then planning to accentuate the strong traits and minimizing the weak ones. A good amount of forgiveness for missed communication, for failing to carry out the responsibilities, for not listening with a open ear is needed to make it work. It will take a lot of work to make the co part work. The two teachers can anticipate each others thoughts and have a common way of approaching discipline, grading, parent relations, and staff relations. The delivery of instruction is so seamless that the students and observers will not be able to identify lead teacher. I really don’t think co-teaching is happening in many classrooms.

I propose that the optimum of co-teaching is not necessary to deliver quality instruction. I think Team teaching is just as valid. The ultimate evaluation of a successful model will be the quality and quantity of student learning. If students excel, what does it matter if the teachers are co-teaching or team-teaching?

My definition of team teaching is when two or more teachers are working together efficiently. They have common goal and produce game plans to reach the goal. Not everyone will do the same route or play in the same quarter of the game, just as in a football team. However they will plan, discuss, and find consensus in how to manage and deliver instruction. If one person on the team is particularly good at explaining math concepts, that should be the person explaining math concepts. If one team member is a dramatic reader, this is the person to do the read-aloud and entice the kids to read in a similar manner. When a team member is technology interested, that person should take the lead in using the computer or software to benefit the instruction of the students. The non-lead teacher is assisting struggling students and is always present and working with students just not in the leaders chair, not taking over the lead at any time. This is the kind of structure I see in many successful learning classrooms.

Another term that defines a classroom with multiple teachers is tag teaching. Like the game of tag, if you are not being pursued, you may take a rest and even tune out the other players in the game. You are really only active when “it” is focused on you or you are “it.” In the classrooms this is evident if one teacher is sitting at the computer, out of the room, or not involved with students while the second teacher is instructing. I have often felt that I was a tag teacher as a literacy coach coming in to demonstrate, model, or share. The teachers run to the office, the bathroom (this may be necessary at times) or use this time to catch up on reading their e-mail, or grading papers. I understand the ability to do two things at one time. They can listen-in to me and still do something else, but this is a clear picture of tag teaching. The classrooms where the teacher remains a part of the group, the discussion, the learning is where I see students grow, participate, and accepting the instruction as important.

What is your term to describe your group of teachers that deliver instruction to your students? Is it co-teaching, team-teaching, or tag-teaching?

I would love to hear your comments.

Words-on-the-move 08#4

Resources and Highlights
Strategies by Patrice Ball District Curriculum Specialist in English Language Arts

A p p r o a c h
Strategies
Activities

Obermeyer, Mark, 2005. When Writing Workshop Isn’t Working , Stenhouse Publishers -Chapter 10 How Do I Plan for Writing Instruction?

Notes: Start by planning for the entire year, making sure all important standards, genres etc. are covered. Next plan units or months at a time. Now we are down to the weeks at a time and the daily adaptation and revisiting of the plan to see what we have done, what we can eliminate, and what do we need to add to assure student learning.

www.all4ed.org
Graham, Steve and Dolores Perin, 2007 Writing Next : Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools, Alliance for Excellent Education.

“ The Optimal Mix: In the medical profession, treatment is tailored ot individual patient needs; at times, more than one intervention is needed to effectively treat a patient. Similarly, educators need to test mixes of intervention elements to find the ones that work best for students with different needs. Researchers do not know what combination of how much of each of the recommended activities is needed to maximize writing instruction for adolescents in general or low-achieving writers in particular. Nor do they yet know what combination of elements works for which types of writers.” P.12

“A Note about Grammar Instruction
Grammar instruction in the studies reviewed involved the explicit and systematic teaching of the parts of speech and structure of sentences. The meta-analysis found an effect for this type of instruction for students across the full range of ability, but surprisingly, this effect was negative. This negative effect was small, but it was statistically significant, indicating that traditional grammar instruction is unlikely to help improve the quality of students’ writing.” P. 21

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Strategic Learning in the Content Areas 1999.

p. 39 Supplementary Reading Materials
p.53 A Model for Strategic Teaching and Learning

Other helps on the MPS Portal available to MPS teachers are
Instructional Strategies for Writing
BP Writing Tool for MPS
Writing Next

MediaSite the ELA 3rd session ( the last half).

Be a collector of words – these are the bricks of language communication.
Kids can get sick of an activity, but that is not a strategy.

Approach is the goal
Strategy is the map
Activities are the specific mode of transportation

Need to be flexible, adapt, abandon, or modify as one uses a strategy for individual students.

The Education Plan has the strategies and teachers do the activities to support the strategy.

Target (Standard)
Approach
Strategy
Activity
Assessment

wordsetc.edublogs.org
blog for teachers
mathnut.podbean.com for the podcast
podcast hosting site

Words-on-the-move 08#3

Synopsis of four sessions I attended at WSRA 08

The Economy of Words in Action by Linda Kuhaupt, a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader.
The session explored “teacher talk” during a Reading Recovery Lesson. As I listened I realized this would apply to all teachers in all curricular areas and at all levels of education. Teachers like to listen to themselves talk. This session helped me to realize that letting students struggle and not providing those verbal cues may help the student achieve independency sooner. Kids have learned that teachers like to help them by jumping in and telling them the word or a clue. “If I just wait they will tell me the answer” is what I sense goes on in many students thinking. Success is theirs because teachers are “helpers.”

Changing the Friday Spelling Test: Challenges of Spelling Instruction by Robin Umber, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire
This session took a look at the program, book, Words their way: Word Study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton &Johnston, 2008
Discussion centered on the developmental nature of spelling rather than grade level designation, and the use of the inventory to determine where students were on the continuum. I really like this program from a personal experience aspect in that I have used it with students I tutored and have presented it to classes. With the latest edition there is a disc that has all of the sorts, and games included so printing them out is easy. Students learn words rather than just how to spell a word. This is as much a part of the reading program as the writing instruction. If one has studied the word as to its origin and meaning, it will be beneficial whenever one wants to read a similar word.

Into The Book: Multimedia Reading Comprehension Resources by Kristin M. Leglar, Peggy Garties, Maria-Christina Jackson, Marini Pingel, Cathy Burge.
Into The Book a series of nine programs (15 minutes each) focusing on comprehension strategies: prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, synthesizing and one program using the strategies together.
Supported with Strategy posters, Bulletin board/desk strips, Into the Book and Behind the Lesson DVDs ($99), and the web site http://www.reading.ecb.org

iPoetry: Encouraging Visual Literacy in the English Classroom by Jen Scott Curwood and Lora Cowell
Provides a way for students to study poetry and add the media component that they are using in everyday life in a meaningful way. By first studying poetry as to form and nature first, the students are then asked to add the media visuals to help support and deepen the meaning of the poem. They use iMovie, iPhoto, and Garageband on the Mac platform but this could be done on the PC platform with similar tools. - A session that was ripe with ideas for my own teaching.
For further resources shared at the convention go to http://www.wsra.org and look under convention. They have several handouts published there for your download. I wish this part was a little more robust.

The music for the podcast was from Soundzabound Revelation IV 1

Words-on-the-Move 08-#2
podcast found at http://mathnut.podbean.com

Notes from WSRA
Building Deeper Readers presented by Kelly Gallagher

http://www.stenhouse.com/html/authorbios_28.htm
itms://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=159885407&ign-mscache=1 (visit this site to access some podcasts by Kelly)

Four Questions:
1. Have I provided my students with a reading purpose?
a. Need to frame and give purpose for all passages
b. Need to read passages many times to find understanding
c. Humpty Dumpty – Not just about an egg
d. Yertle the Turtle – Really about Hitler
e. Strategy – provide students with outline of reading passage but leave out a point. The students need to fill in that point as they read it.
f. When assigning homework – give different groups of student a different focus to look for and report back. (reading through different lenses)
2. Are my students able to embrace confusion?
a. CONFUSION is the “spot” at which people learn.
b. Teachers job is to give students confusion.
c. Writing deepens reading comprehension
d. A first read of a passage is survival mode – just getting from point a to point b.
e. Why write –
i. Find out what students know
ii. The very act of writing generates new thoughts
iii. Writing is the vehicle for deeper thinking
iv. No right or wrong answer – a ballpark of right or a ballpark of wrong
v. With any answer need to infer and defend – this is the power point
f. challenge kids to bring in a difficult passage to stump you
i. model how to think through a think a loud.
ii. Show how good readers attack a difficult text

WE TEACH READING BUT DO NOT TEACH READERS
I find this statement to be most thought provoking. How does it impact my teaching? Can we say the same thing for all curriculum? If we turned it around how would it change the dynamics in our classrooms?

3. Do my students know how to monitor their comprehension?
a. 3 strategies
i. Have students take ownership of confusion and work it out (without the teacher interfering)
1. don’t hide confusion, confusion should be the norm in the classroom
ii. score self on comprehension
1. assigning reading for homework or in class – give 8-10 post-it-notes for students to score themselves. In text whenever there is a confusion point place the post-it-note with question on it. Make it positive to be confused and help students to see that they think deeper in process of clearing up the confusion.
2. there can be a concentration issue
3. color code with highlighters on copied passages. Two-colors – one color for words or sections that are not understood and other color for understood. Every word is colored. Should lead them to understand that we read locally (each word) to understand globally (the whole passage)
iii. On going negotiation with text
1. Bring in a line of text from passage assigned. Have students supply the next line.
2. book mark – follows along right side of page. Mark a line where there is confusion. Add notes at that line when further reading, discussion with peers clears the confusion.
4. Do my students know any fix-it strategies?
a. There are many tools for different problems. Analogy: a plumber does not come to fix your “problem” with one tool. He has a large toolchest of tools because he doesn’t know the problem before he gets to your house.
b. Generate a list of strategies that good readers use.
i. Re-read
ii. Slow down
iii. Visualize
iv. Prior knowledge
v. Authors point of view
vi. Stop and think
vii. Confused and monitor as one continues
viii. Read aloud
ix. Ask questions
x. Mark text – underline
xi. Look at topic sentences and conclusions
xii. Look at context
xiii. Attack words
1. prefix
2. root
3. suffix
4. try a different word

a. Tools for reading during a test are not same as reading for understanding
i. Five strategies for timed tests
i. Skim
ii. Read answers first
iii. Guess
iv. Skip
v. Eliminate leftfield answers

Words-on-the-move 08-#1

WSRA convention February 7-9th

Lucy Calkins presentation on Saturday Feb. 9th.
Notes that were important to me.

• Life provides the Big Ideas for writing (the subjects)
• Need to provide an environment that is conducive to writing
• Can not teach writing well alone
o Need collaboration for teaching writing –both horizontally and vertically
o Students need more than one year of good teaching in writing to become a good writer.
o Ideally you need the entire school to embrace “good writing”
o Example : 4th grade teachers meet in May/June to map out the next years pacing of units for writing. The order of units is not as critical as the fact of grade levels be in sync. Plans can change during the year but must stay in sync.
o Should check for spiral development of writing skills and expectations

• K-2’s purpose is to get kids to write independently
o Cycle of idea – write – publish
o May add extra units from her published units such as Fairy Tales or Persuasive Writing
• 3-6’s will write less published pieces but focus on developing skills per genre
o Class all write in same genre but may have different topics.
o Teach the structure of the genre
 Narrative structure
 Expository structure
 Poetry structure
 Etc.
• Teacher needs to have a clear vision of what kids will be about
o 3rd -5th will produce possible 2 narratives in a months time
o 1st grade may produce 18 personal narratives in the same time
o Set dates for Author Celebrations at beginning of year
• Begin unit by identifying strategies for generating ideas
o Think of a person that matters
 Then think of some small moments with that person
 Issues that matter
 Places that matter
 Etc
 Chart these for a room reminder
• After a couple of days start lifting the level of writing
o Minilessons
 Focus - how to make more powerful
• Details bring out purpose
 Difference between “summary” and “story telling”
• Choose entries from strategy exploration and pick a seed idea.

 Rehearse for Writing
o Make a timeline of the story
o Do this orally/aurally
o Have students start at different point of the timeline
o Try out different story leads
 Dialogue
 Small action

 Upper grades – write whole draft in one sitting
o Subsequent days 1 major revision per day
o Watermelon – big topic – summer vacation
 Seed - day my grandmother and I baked cookies
 When telling a story the oral thinking is important
 Have young children use different pages to simulate timeline.
 They point to page and tell what they will tell about on that page.
 After rehearsal – then begin writing process
 When revising – find important pages and start them (or paragraphs for older students) and those are the points where more details can be added.
 If having trouble getting started advise them to talk about the weather.
o Start with “when ….
o Mentor or coach can help with revising and lifting the story.
 End of Unit – pick the best piece and publish it. (not everything written needs to be published)

 Kindergarten –
o Think about life – what you do
o Make picture – tell story
o Letters are for later
 Kindergarten students are reading at the C level when they can write in a way that they and we can read and make sense of it.
 After a few days of drawing the pictures they can add labels.
o 4-5 labels by beginning of October
 Paper to use
o Beginning of year – no lines
o Month or two later – one line
o Months later – more lines
o Diverse array of paper available in one classroom for different developmental writers.

 Conferencing
o Goal is to have writer leave the conference wanting to write.
o Time
 Sample period
 Minilesson
 Circulate to make sure all have started
 May table conference a small group
 Individual conferences
• Teach one thing at a time
• Expect the best they can do
• Conversation may be
o What are you working on as a writer
o What struggles are you having
 Compliment
• Not only the writing but the writer
• Compliment should be able to be generalized and used for future writing impact
 Assessment
 Develop levels of writing per building
 Each classroom bring a typical good and excellent writing sample.
 Lay out on table in order – now note the levels and their characteristics

 In class
• First day of class have everyone write. (teacher is silent)
• (this is on-demand narrative writing)
• After the units on narrative writing have been celebrated
• Another on demand timed narrative writing
New book for coaches and principles coming out this summer
What to look for
What do you do in editing and revision segments
Will be evident in the drafts

Minilesson on Re-Vision
Stand back and see again
Look through one lens at a time
Example – look at organization
Can I read each paragraph and give it one sentence heading?

[slideshare id=42812&doc=cognitively-guided-instruction-cgi-11187&w=425]

I found two sources that look promising as resources to use with middle-high school students.
http://www.safeteens.com and http://www.staysafe.org/teens

If you know of more please add them to the discussion. This is an area that requires all of our attention NOW.
I shudder when I see what some students are doing on line. They have no understanding of the dangers. Parents are not as savy as the students and don’t know what to do. We need to lead the forces in finding the safety zone for these young people to interact online and be safe.

Help! what is Wrong With these Literature Circles and How Can We Fix Them?The article in Reading Teacher made me think about Literature Circles as I know them. I have mixed feelings about them but then realize that the term has many different meanings. I have seen where the roles of the group members outweighs the comprehension and discussion that supports comprehension. When the roles rise to that prominence, I think the circles are not as effective as they could be. However if the discussion is the emphasis and comprehension is the focus, the value is high. I have attached the article and encourage you to read it and comment on it.

I encourage you to join the Reading Association and receive the Journal Reading Teacher for many helpful articles and tons of help in understanding the reading process.