When It Goes Well

One of my goals for the year is to have students leading discussions analyzing text. Today was one of those days where I could see the goal coming to life. We were evaluating our own responses to literature, and deciding whether they were above, at, below, or well below standard. I started to reviewing our purpose for literature response (done largely through our Fact/Question/Response FQR sheets). We talked about the need to make clear connections, give examples and detail, while also having clear and complete sentences.

I took 5 different student responses, unedited, and typed them into my flipchart. I read them orally, with kids following along, and then had them use their Activotes to evaluate them (for those unfamiliar with Activotes, they are voting devices connected to the Interactive Whiteboard we have-Activboard). After letting kids see the results visually (30% say 3, 40% say 2, etc) I had students discuss what they chose with their table group (usually shoulder partner) and then I had students from one of the voting blocs start off why they voted that way. From there I asked for students who disagreed with that point of view, and we continued going back and forth for 3-5+ minutes before moving onward to another response.

The result was fantastic. The buzz in the room during the table group discussion was lively, even from reluctant readers/speakers. Kids were pointing at the board to talk about their responses, using language from our stated purpose. When we moved into whole group discussion a variety of kids participated, and they were talking to each other respectfully. Best of all was the content of their discussion, as kids used language like: "I disagree with you about there not being a connection. It says 'it reminds me' in the first sentence, which shows the connection they are making" or "...not having complete sentences made it hard for me to understand it."

Some days go really well... today was one of those days.

And We're Back

Tomorrow we're back at school for the first time in... an eternity?! We'll tie up out Thankful writing, and also do some work with the way pieces of writing are organized (contrasting fiction and non-fiction). I'm excited to get back rolling, and ready for the drive into holiday break.

A Week To Do What?

What a week! The Arctic air that rolled through caused havoc. It was snowing on the way to school Monday morning, and it continued throughout the day. The Northwest doesn't really get much snow (at least in the Seattle Metro area), but it struggles when it does. The combination of air temp, hills, floating bridges/elevated structures, and overall inability to drive in snow is flat out terrible.

We started doing some writing about someone/thing we are thankful for. It was a struggle to keep rolling because of the snow, a constant distraction, but it seemed to be going well. After school it was a mad dash (err, crawl) home. The commute that takes 40-50 minutes on a bad day was an hour and 45 minutes. But it was also filled with some white knuckle driving, sliding down a hill or two, and being really excited to get out of the car when I arrived home.

Two days off because of snow/ice, and Thanksgiving and here we are. What have I done? Very little. I am going to do some grading today, and look at my reading assessment for the district (guiding my instruction for December/early January). I know what skills I am working on, but need to take a closer look at the way the assessment is configured so that my teaching best aligns with it. There isn't much sense in teaching one way and then assessing in a totally different way. Hopefully I'll really knock out some planning for the month of December- making my weekend a little easier (grading instead of planning & grading).

Happy holidays to you!

Being Thankful

Monday (and possible Tuesday) I'll be focused on writing instruction. Since we just did our fall writing assessment, I have a few areas that I want to provide some explicit instruction. In particular, we're going to work on expanding the examples we give to support a main idea. Having details isn't really the problem for us as much as going deeper with each.

Part of me feels like it goes back to formulaic writing. You have a main idea, then add a supporting detail meshed in with a transition, maybe a transitional phrase/sentence, then add another detail. Eventually you've layered it so that it appears to be really detailed. Unfortunately the result is that you get a list, and not deep thinking about a particular detail (why it is meaningful to you, why you are writing about it, etc).

Monday we'll be talking about what we are thankful for. But instead of listing 50 different things we are thankful for, we will really look deeply at 1-2. I'm also shifting from the bubble map pre-write to an outline of sorts. Visually this will give kids a better feel for how their writing will flow, and whether each example has enough detail. We'll also focus on making personal connections to these examples, which should add more voice/style. It is tough to have style if you don't make a connection to it (i.e. vivid description, meaningful phrasing, etc). Good way to get us moving into the break.

Response!

In my limited time as a teacher, reading response seems to be a literacy skill that is lagging behind for my kiddos. For me, reading response is interacting with the text by writing connections you've made to particular pieces of text evidence. You might compare your own experience to a character and explain why. You might also discuss why you feel like you are similar/different compared to a character. I use it in my novel study FQR (fact/question/response) work, giving kids a menu of questions to choose from and respond to.

My kids can verbally make connections. Most kids can verbally make connections, most commonly done through a "one time I..." type of story. When it comes time to turn those stories into writing, I've seen them fall flat. To stem that tide, I used some student work as my basis for modeling responses. A few had made giant run-on sentences, while others responded to BOTH questions with simple one sentence responses. Neither were in the ballpark of what I was looking for, largely because it lacked any deep reflection or connection to the reading.

With my first two groups I opted to let them start on the response section with some support from me (and modeling). But as we went I pulled pieces under the document camera for the whole group to see, opting for that route instead of 18 mini-lessons or conferences in each group. This involved my own writing and connection- and the change was great. Most really got it as it was intended while a few others will need more support. The last group I went ahead and adjusted ahead, opting for my guided work and support throughout the process. Based on their writing previously, I determined that letting them float along wouldn't be prudent (particularly with the information gathered from my first two groups). The hope is that this pays dividends later when we start our novel study work.

Integration of Writing

I'm 2/3 the way through our fall writing assessment. As I read, I think about how I need to do more teaching of writing. I need to find ways to integrate it into my social studies/reading block on a more regular basis. While we do quite a bit of writing, I still feel like I need to be more intentional. I need to focus on particular areas: creative topic sentences, conclusions that connect to the topic sentence, transitions (particularly those that don't feel forced), and adding meaningful detail.

The push stems from the formulaic writing that I see. Don't get me wrong, formulaic writing is organized and has its uses. But I want to push my writers to add their collective voices to their writing. It makes me wonder if rubrics push kids towards trying to check another box off instead of creating meaningful and impactful writing.

This has made me rethink the end of my week. After starting into fiction this week, I think we'll do a short piece of writing. What piece? Not sure. That is what the weekend's for.

Fiction. Finally!

I've been itching to get rolling with fiction this year. Looking back to last year, it was about October that I pulled out our reading textbook to use. I used it in conjunction with our social studies text, but never really carved out a niche for either. The result was a bit muddled, and felt disjointed. I'm sure it wasn't as effective as I'd hoped.

This year I decided to stay with the social studies text a little longer. We rolled from a geography primer into a Native American primer (environments, migration, and cultural regions). We'll wrap that up tomorrow with an assessment, moving us onward to fiction. For me, that is a fantastic development.

Our reading block should be fun. We'll read a snippet (15-20 pages) from Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret. We'll work on making predictions, as well as inferences (since they are so similar). We'll also work on structures of writing, as some are sequential while others are by main idea. We'll also get a chance to start using our FQR sheets to record important events, saving some work for when our novel study begins. Therein is the real rub. All of this starts to point to our novel study units to come, which the kids really enjoyed last year. We were able to analyze characters and have discussions about literature. To me, that is an exciting development.

Hooray for tomorrow!

Scavenger Hunt- American Indian Edition

This week we are wrapping up our study of American Indians. Our study has been far more general than specific, fitting with the state EALR/GLE (4.1.2 History). The specific name is: Understanding development of Indigenous Societies in North America. The reason for the lack of depth is twofold: 1) Native Americans are covered in greater depth in Grade 4, and 2) this sets the scene for the encounter part of this GLE where Europeans "manifest destiny" by driving them off the land. Without any prior knowledge of these people, and their ability to adapt, then you miss how devastating this encounter was.

Tomorrow we'll be doing a scavenger hunt. A treasure hunt if you will, where the treasure happens to be important pieces of information. Embedded in this treasure hunt is the skill of deconstructing questions to determine importance (i.e. what information is most important in this question). If you can't determine what information is important, you're left with a big pile of information that you really can't sift through. Beyond that they'll continue to practice comparing and contrasting. They'll do this 2-3 times on this hunt. Finally, they'll be asked two higher order questions. First they'll need to name one reading/writing skill we worked on that everyone should know... and create a question where you would use that skill. Since this has been a big target for us, I am not imagining a huge issue with this. Then they'll need to name 3 big ideas or key pieces of information they think all of their peers should need to know.

This will give us some good fuel for Tuesday's round of Jeopardy, and our Wednesday assessment. Since I am most concerned about reading/writing skills, we'll have this as an open book assessment. Am I more concerned with their being able to tell me the climate in the Great Plains, or whether they can locate the appropriate information in the text? The latter is a more useful skill in my eyes.

Monitor and Adjust

We do a ton of summary writing. Students have a chance to chose articles from a variety of news sources, identify main/supporting details, and then put it together in a short summary. I emphasize the word short, although it has been a struggle getting there. Condensing and filtering information is a difficult skill, and my kids have struggled striking the balance between too much and too little (at least at times).

What do you do? Last year I would have said that I would do some individual instruction, or whole group instruction. This year I've been going through their weekly current events, identifying gaps and issues, then pulling kids in small groups within their rotation. Instead of giving 6-7 kids the lesson again in an individual manner, I can do a small group or 2. Be direct in what is missing, and areas where they need to improve and then let them make necessary changes.

Since we revisited summary writing today, I'll be interested to see the quality of work that is turned in tomorrow. Just part of the process of monitoring student work, and adjusting instruction to help them grow.

Skills Upon Skills

My professional growth goal this year is centered around analysis of text as driven by student-led discussions. Analysis was an area where I felt like my kids could grow (as found through a few measures). They were comprehending text well enough, but weren't able to analyze it. We started doing some of the student-led discussion work last week.

While I have kids talking to each other throughout the day, I wasn't necessarily focused on analyzing work. In particular, I wasn't having them engaging in discourse together. They would talk to me, looking for approval, instead of talking to each other. That changed when we had to compare and contrast through an Activote session (quickly: activotes are ways for kids to vote in a response to a question that is recorded through the Interactive whiteboard for kids and I to see). Some of the questions were cut and dry. Other questions were clearly opinion questions, and the responses were divisive. But instead of trying to get approval through me, I was asking kids to argue for or against a response with each other. Additionally they had the chance to refute each other's response. The result was fantastic, although a wee bit clunky since the process was so foreign.

Where it is going is a continual spiral. We'll identify main ideas, then we'll compare and contrast, followed by continued analysis or evaluation. Ultimately the content becomes secondary, largely because the focus is on using the skills. But I think that the kids are understanding the content... which we'll find out more about later in the week.