Real kids. Real writing. Real teaching.

Best Practices in Writing Main Ideas

·         Writing should be “just another piece” of the puzzle in a very integrated day.

o   The example given in the text describes how a third grade teacher turned a literacy study on the fairy tale Cinderella into an entire unit by incorporating geography, vocabulary and writing.

§  I feel this is a very important aspect of writing as students are given more exposure and knowledge around the topic they are to write about. When provided with word walls full of connected vocabulary and maps with starred locations their pool of knowledge is large enabling them to write more easily.

o   I like the idea of having an interchangeable word wall containing important vocabulary words pertaining to the current area of study. By placing this in the writing “center” students are able to easily access these words and are more likely to use them in their writing.

·         It’s important to “prime the pump” (build their enthusiasm) around the topic of writing.

o   Because I haven’t always felt like the most successful writer growing up I feel that I may not always come across as enthusiastic about writing…this definitely reflects on my students! This next year I want to be more intentional about showing excitement and enthusiasm about my writing! If the students see I’m excited, they’re more likely to become excited about writing too!

·         Students should be given extensive prewriting experience via mini-lessons and modeling

o   The authors give multiple ways to provide writers with prewriting experiences. What stuck with me was the idea about having brainstormed lists and questions readily available in student’s writing folders and on easily accessible chart. This strategy allows for students to be more independent and access their own ideas freely.

o   Some other ideas include:

§  Modeling on an overhead

§  Exposing students to good strategies in read that the class is doing

§  Having students brainstorm solutions to a particular problem in a sample piece

·         Students should be” given plenty of room for originality” and choice.

o   I believe the students will take more ownership when they’re able to choose what it is they’re writing about. Although they will need guidance, less structure may actually produce better, more creative, writing. As the authors state, “When the topic matters, children work hard and invest time and effort in crafting their work.”  This philosophy also supports a constructivist’s view of a classroom as the students would be guiding their learning more than I would.

o   Hyde and Daniels also explain “arbitrarily assigned topics with no opportunity for choice deprive students of practice in a most crucial step of writing-making the first decision about what to write.

§  I think this is a fault of mine. I find myself guiding too much because I’m afraid that my students can’t handle too much freedom. However, I need to keep in mind that guidance can come without complete control. 

7 Areas to Increase Best Practice

As I continued my research on current classroom best practices utilizing chapter 8 of Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde's Best Practice book Seven Structures of Best Practice teaching, I was able to gain strategies from each of the seven areas. Below each are strategies that could be used in my future Action Research and classroom activities.

Small-Group Activities-“Students of all grade levels show significant achievement gains across the curriculum when they are organized into collaborative groupings and projects. It works.”

• Partner/Buddy Reading-this is a strategy I used during my current action research as my students practiced their script parts. After listening to their partner each student was expected to provide verbal and written feedback.
• Literature Circles/Book Clubs-this is an area I’d like to expand on next year with my 3^rd graders. After explicitly modeling what a book group looks like, and each role within that group, I’d like my students to be able to choose their own book and lead the group without my monitoring.

Reading as Thinking

• Into-I feel as though I was intentional in preparing my students before reading during my action research cycle. I’d model and define what fluency strategy they were to practice and then check to be sure they were utilizing this through their reading as well. However, next year I want to be more intentional about doing this for all students, all the time.
• Through-to encourage thinking into, through, and beyond reading I plan to have a “readers are thinkers” bulletin board. Each time a new “reading as thinking” strategy (such as inferring or questioning) is introduced create a visual and definition and add it to the board.\
•  I’d also like to devote a section of this board to “’Insert’ Text codes” which will model how to take notes as they read.
• Beyond-to ensure that I’m encouraging thinking beyond the text I’d like to use a wider variety of KWL’s which will all my students to come back to their original thinking as they answer questions they had and add any new learning.

Representing-to-Learn-“Drawing, sketching, jotting, mapping,…are equally valuable-and when combined with words, in strategies like clustering, sematic mapping, or cartooning, they can powerfully leverage students’ thinking about the curriculum.”

• I love the idea of having students keep a log simply for their thoughts and responses. These logs can be utilized cross-curriculum and, with the use of prompts, it allows the student to take ownership and have choice over what they’re writing. Also, because it’s not graded they worry less about conventions of their writing can more easily represent their thoughts and learning. They’re also more likely to share their thoughts than if it were in a group discussion.
• I could easily see using this concept in my action research next year as I’m hoping to connect reading fluency to writing fluency.

Classroom Workshop-“Probably the single most important strategy in literacy education is the reading-writing workshop…It recognizes that kids need less telling and more showing, that they need more time doing literacy and less time hearing what reading and writing might be life if you ever did them.” 

• Individual conferences-I’d like to strive to include more one-on-one conference time next year. Many teachers says that a one-minute conversation with a student that is solely directed around their individual needs is much more powerful than hours of heterogeneous whole-group lessons.

Authentic Experiences-“To begin with, school itself isn’t ‘real,’ in the sent that schools are purposely separated from the rest of life…If we want to make education “real,” we have to somehow overcome that segregation, either by bringing bits of the world into schools or bringing the kids out into the world.”

• The text provides an example in which a unit of study about the habitat of earthworms is derived from the teacher’s observation of her student’s interest in them. This is something I’d love to be able to do next year. It is a 3^rd grade standard that the students understand the cycle of life, both for plants and animals. Typically 3^rd graders at Talahi get a crawfish to study and learn about. However, I’d like to gather some information about what the students are interested in and then try and create a unit of study around that plant or animal…it make be a stretch, but I feel it’d make their learning more motivated.

Reflective Assessment

• In conjunction with the one-to-one conferences as noted above, I’d like to become more of a “kid-watcher.” In the past, I’ve kept anecdotal records of what my students were doing and saying during Daily 5 read-to-self time. However, I’d like to come up a with system to do this more intentionally during various times throughout the day. I think these notes would speak volumes about my student’s academic, and social, abilities and would be a great support to a rubric grade.
•  I began dabbling in having my students reflect on their own work and progress during my action research project. I was very impressed with how seriously they took it and how it helped with their growth as they reflected on strengths and weaknesses. This is an area I’d like to continue to improve in next year.

Integrative Units

•  I’d be very interested in including more thematic units into my teaching next year. I see the many benefits in having the cohesion from one content area to the next but am also a little apprehensive as it seems very time-consuming to recreate entire units in multiple content areas. I think it’d be helpful to gather a team of teachers who work on the thematic unit together, making it seem less daunting.

Overall, it was clear to me that each of these structures has some commonalities: student choice, authenticity, accountability and leadership. All of these qualities represent that of a constructivist classroom in which the students are “taking control” of their own learning. I believe each of these best practices has a spot in my future teaching and I look forward to implementing them, in baby steps, this next school year! 

The Power of Attention

There were many things that grabbed my attention when reading chapter 2 of Houston and Sokolow’s Spritual Dimension of Leadership about The Principle of Attention.

·         “If you want something to thrive and grow, pay attention to it. On the other hand, if you want something to wither and diminish, don’t pay attention to it; intentionally ignore it.”

o   I feel as though I preach this, or a version of it, to my students…and myself…on a daily basis! I’m constantly reminding them to focus on what’s important, ignore what’s not. Is it a little problem or a big one? Little? Let it go. I, however, need to be sure to take my own advice. There are so many things that can grab hold, and keep hold, of our attention every minute of every day so I need to decipher what’s important enough to have your attention. What do I want to work on growing? What would be okay to let wither and diminish?

·         “When leaders pay attention to a person, a situation, or an issue, others start to pay attention to the same things, whether you want them to or not-therefore, you need to be mindful about what you pay attention to.”

o   I made a connection to this quote and certain behaviors in my classroom. My first year of teaching I felt the need to give my attention to every little behavior that was happening. I felt that if I let the little things go they’d ALWAYS turn into a major issue or distraction. However, every time I stopped teaching to give my attention to those behaviors, my students stopped thinking and turned their attention to the behavior as well. One thing ENVoY brought to my attention was the concept of addressing a behavior or distraction without giving much attention to it. This notion, a simple palm-faced-down towards the behavior occurring while still continuing to teach, has helped tremendously! I found that if I “ignored” the behavior, many of my students didn’t even realize it was occurring and it simply went away.

·         “Attention is the grounding. It’s a grounding in the now: being in a place and space in a coterminous way so that you are in the moment and therefore getting what each moment has to offer. Otherwise you have all these wonderful thoughts in your head but you’re mentally somewhere else; you’re not grounded.”

o   I need to make a conscious effort to improve on this. I constantly find my thoughts wandering when I should be engaged in a conversation with someone. I don’t do it to be rude but I feel as though I have so much going on it’s hard to curb those thoughts for later. However, the idea that I’m missing out on so many wonderful moments by not grounding myself in that situation is reason enough to push other thoughts aside and focus on the importance of the situation I’m in at that time.

·         “If you get caught up in the rat race, the rats win because you just don’t go anywhere with anything.” and later in the article they state “You don’t want to work harder, you want to work smarter.”

o   I feel these two quotes go hand in hand because I am absolutely one of those people who feels like a little rat on a wheel. I’m always working so hard to better my lessons and meet the needs of every student that I find myself spread way too thin and never really feeling like I’m making a huge impact. If I’m more intentional about a few areas to focus on I feel that I’ll get much further than if I try to better many little things. The concept of working smarter, not harder is one that my last year’s principal constantly reminded us of and, even though she’s not in our building anymore, it’s a concept I must continue to fall back on at work and in my graduate work this summer.

·         “The urgent tends to push out the important…there’s a real pinch between those two things because what’s urgent is not necessarily what’s important.”

o   I’d like to end on this quote as my goal this summer is to refocus on what’s important, not necessarily what’s urgent. Each day teachers are faced with many things that seem urgent and must be dealt with in the here in now. This is what causes some of our students to become “Cliffs or Cliffettes…” the urgent students overpower them. As I’m able to slow down a bit this summer I want to be sure that I’m giving more of my attention to the things that are truly important in my life…my “Cliffs” that have been void of my attention…that urgent stuff can wait. 

Praxis

While further researching why fluency was so important in a strong reader Dr. Timothy Rasinksi provided me with much clarification on this question. His article, “CreatingFluent Readers” discusses the 3 Dimensions of Reading Fluency:

• Accuracy-being able to sound out words within a text with minimal areas
• Automatic processing-using little effort to decode so that they are able to use their cognitive       abilities to make meaning
•  Prosody-utilizing punctuation and expression to make meaning of the text

He then emphasized how fluency feeds into comprehension and comprehension is our “final goal” as we read. It was this notion that guided me in my action research. I knew I needed to teach my students what these three facets of fluency meant, what they looked like and how to achieve them as readers. If I could do this I hoped to increase their comprehension as well.

Another article that sparked some change in my classroom research was Lara Beth Clementi’s  “Readers Theater: A Motivating Method toImprove Reading Fluency.” In this article she discusses the importance of motivation in creating fluent readers and how using Reader’s Theater can enhance that level of motivation. At the time I was already “dabbling” in some action research and could see that my students were getting a little bored with the repeated reading aspect of improving their fluency. Other than being able to record themselves, they really had no reason to reread the passage or book multiple times to become fluent. When I introduced the concept of reader’s theater to my students and the fact that they’d get to PERFORM to their classmates they were ecstatic!  They immediately grew excited about the “play” we were reading and were even willing to practice every part, multiple times without being asked, because they weren’t aware what part they’d be given. Their expression improved as they listened to each other and themselves and on the day of their performances they took it very seriously. When my other groups saw how much fun this group was having with reader’s theater they practically begged to do it as well! This article definitely opened my eyes to a fun and effective way to teach multiple facets of fluency!

Overall these articles had a huge impact on my action research “path” and on the students in my classroom. Due to the information I gathered and implemented in my classroom I was very pleased to see the growth of fluency amongst all students, not just my selected group. I will absolutely take this new knowledge and these strategies with me as I continue with them in 3^rd grade! 

Adaption

Last week I began to reflect on the Lasallianconcept of Adaption and how I am currently and striving to apply it in my ownclassroom. In this post I’d like to target specific areas in which various routines and strategies can be applied regarding Adaption.  

Instruction (HOW I teach)

As I mentioned in my previous post, my understanding of adaption in a classroom is giving students more control and encouraging problem-solving towards an understanding versus giving them the “right answer.” Most recently I’ve been very intentional about starting my lessons with a question of some sort (essential question or a question referring back to prior knowledge) to allow my students to make a connection to what we are about to learn. I’ve noticed this has encouraged more participation as my students are able to develop their own understanding and meaning as we go along. I’ve also become more aware of how much talking and “guiding” I’m doing while teaching. The less I talk and guide, typically the more they talk and discover.

Discipline (WHAT I teach)

Adaption also plays a role in what I teach as I’ve become more aware of what big ideas and understandings are truly crucial for my students to know. If I’m not able to see why the concept is important or how they can apply it to a real-life situation, how can I expect my students to see that? When beginning lessons or units with the adaption in mind I’m teaching with a purpose to make a lasting connection with and purpose for the content. My hope is that this will make the learning more authentic and applicable.

Environment

The concept of adaption has many connections to that of a constructivist classroom in which the students have equal control and ownership of their learning, the way they learn it, and the environment in which they learn it in. I’ve always been very conscious to refer to the classroom as our room (versus MY room) because I feel students take more pride in a space they feel they are a part of. The physical layout plays a large role as well as it’s important to have a space conducive to collaboration amongst students while also offering calm, comforting spaces for learning and exploring. This is an area I will continue to work on and hopefully improve in!

Assessment

This school year I was more intentional about using formative assessments to guide my instruction and best meet the needs of my students. I think this is a key idea when it comes to the concept of adaption as my students are truly the ones guiding what we learn and how we learn it.  Their understanding, or lack thereof, is shown through these valuable assessments and it has allowed me to easily adapt and adjust where needed to ensure that they are developing a deeper level of understanding. This is an area that I know I’ll continue to grow within as there are many forms of assessment that can be used and even more ways to use the information they provide you with!

Change

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

I want to start this post with my FAVORITE QUOTE. I have this all over my classroom because I'm constantly preaching to my students about the goodness change can bring about. However, like the quote says, if I expect my kids (my "world" for 9 months) to change for the better...I have to be willing to change with them!

As I wrap up another year as a 2^nd grade teacher in St. Cloud I’m left to reflect on the past 9 months. Through changes in our building, in my personal and professional life and my experiences and development through the St. Mary’s Graduate program I feel I’ve bettered myself in many ways. I’d like to focus on a few specific areas:

Classroom Environment and Relationships

This is an area that I’ve always strived to make a top priority in my teaching. It’s very important to me that my students enter our room each day feeling cared for and safe.  Something I’ve always done is stand at my door (one foot in the room, one in the hallway) greeting every student as they come in. One change I made to this “procedure” this year was the expectation of eye-contact and a good morning or “hello” in return. I had never put much thought into it but mid-way through the year realized how many of my students would come through, elbow-bump me as I looked at them, smiled, and said good morning, and wouldn’t return the gesture. This change occurred through a simple conversation during a morning meeting where I explained that I wasn’t feeling respected in the way I want all members of our class to feel. The next day almost every student made that change and it continued every day for the rest of the year. I think, overall, that set the tone for each day together: one of respect, safety, and routine.

Instruction

I think this is an area where teachers should never cease to grow and I feel I experienced the most change within the area of how I teach. Through the ENVoY training I became very aware of the importance of appropriate pausing, voice levels, and how to deliver instruction and directions in a way that students were more likely to hear me. I noticed some BIG changes in my students and the amount of management needed once I began implementing these strategies. Also, through the introduction to Backwards Design, I became more intentional about presenting lesson goals and essential questions to my students at the beginning of each lesson.  I felt myself doing less teaching actually and allowing my students to do more exploring. I think this came from the idea of allowing for creativity and allowing our students more time to PLAY!

Discipline (what I teach)

Another change that occurred for me in this area was how intentional I became about what to teach. It’s hard not to get caught up in the cutesy lessons and activities found throughout various blogs and ALL OVER Pinterest (especially when you’re a primary teacher). However, when I began to analyze what big ideas and understanding was really important for my students to understand I was able to cut out some…fluff.

Assessment

Through various readings, ROL’s and AR’s, and blogs I’ve followed I’ve been exposed to many different ways to assess my students in a way that will help to guide my instruction. The biggest change in this area was I became more intentional about using formative assessment to guide each days instruction. In the past I knew I should be doing more to check for their understanding but didn’t feel I knew exactly how to obtain the data I wanted. It turns out you don’t need a fancy assessment, long-winded quiz, or time-consuming activity to know where your students are at. Through the use of the various assessment ideas I obtained (padlet.com, exit tickets, Socrative, Infuselearning.com, etc.) I was able to have a pretty clear picture at the end of each lesson (sometimes in the middle of one if necessary) to help form groups, make changes where needed, and guide my instruction. 

What big changes have you experienced most recently?

Another first: Backwards Design

I recently designed, utilized and wrapped up my first Backwards Design Unit on the 2nd grade standard of Balance and Motion. This video, led by the founder of Backwards Design, Grant Wiggins, provides some necessary background information if you're unfamiliar with the idea.

Planning with the standards at the forefront of the unit
While I've always made great effort to keep the standards as the center of each lesson or unit, this time around I was very intentional about dissecting this standard to completely understand each benchmark and the overall goal of this standard. I was able to utilize the different benchmarks to formulate the essential questions and each day's learning goals. My students became very familiar with the overall standard but also the individual understandings that the big idea was composed of.
Utilizing the Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions
Once I had determined what the enduring understandings and essential questions would be I typed them into each lesson's Smart Board slide. The enduring understandings and 3 essential questions remained the same throughout the entire unit so each day I would begin the lesson by addressing and asking the essential questions. By doing this the kids were able to see how they got closer to being able to understand and answer those questions in more depth as we uncovered by knowledge about motion.
Creating assessments prior to teaching the lesson
By creating the assessments before teaching the lessons I knew what our end goal was. I was more intentional with each day's learning goal and could adjust my teaching if I noticed we were veering too far off that path. I also feel that my student's overall understanding was deeper because of how intentional and focused we were. I included some sort of formative assessment after each day's lesson (journaling, Socrative or Infuse Learning quizzes, exit tickets, etc.) and used those assessments to guide the next day's lesson.
Teaching Balance and Motion using BD vs. prior years
This is the 4th year I've taught this unit and I can confidently say my students have a better understanding of the overall concept of motion more than they ever have. I think this can be attributed to my extra effort to dig deeper, ask more questions, discuss our findings and strive to reach a certain goal or answer specific essential questions. In the past I've simply used the provided FOSS kit and vocabulary terms. Usually I just post the vocabulary, we discuss them, and if my students are able to use them when experimenting with their various science tools I thought that was enough. However, the FOSS kit doesn't provide any type of "big idea," essential question or assessment so I always found myself still wondering if they truly "got it" at the end of the unit. When it came time to grade I only had my observations and the conversations we had had in whole group. Utilizing BD I ended this unit with a very clear picture of which students truly grasped the concept.