Helping Roamers

Yesterday I mentioned my issue with off-task behavior in the Writing Workshop. In particular is how I have some kiddos that like to roam. They need to get up and walk around, which is fine and good if used appropriately. Appropriate walking around you say? The type where they don't bother others, and start up conversations about the upcoming recess.

Today brought about more intentional responses to those behaviors. First, I noticed that some of the behaviors came because the structure from previous days was gone (at least in social studies). We transitioned from reading/response to reading and narrative writing. The structure of reading and then trying to comprehend text with focused questions kept kids focused, and resulted in some good work being done. Without that structure, some kids felt unencumbered and too loose. Today we got back to our reading/response, and there was a definite change.

The next change was keeping some of my roamers with me. I have a small group table at the back of the room. I use it at times, while letting kids spread out to the table if they feel the need to get away from their table group. In this instance it was helpful to be able to question them, and talk with them about the reading skills we were using (inferring- a pre-assessment for me actually). While I would leave to circulate, I would head back to the table to check-in. The change in routine and their physical space resulted in a near absence of roaming. We'll see what comes tomorrow.

Writing Workshop

We've kicked off our writing workshop recently. In intermediate, the suggested unit to start with is "Launching the Writing Workshop." The work is to get students to learn different strategies to generate narrative writing. Additionally they begin to learn the routines that go along with the writing workshop- mini-lesson, writing time, conferencing as needed, and sharing at the end. Two weeks in, where are we?

As a whole, it is better than it was my first year. As I stated previously, I have a greater understanding of the trajectory in each unit being taught. I also think I am living the life of a writer more than I did last year. Some of my mini-lessons fell short last year because I was not actually writing enough alongside the kids. This year I am generating those stories along with them, or in advance so that students can see a demonstration. If I write prior to our writing time, we talk about the qualities we see in the writing that can be utilized in student writing.

But I need a greater commitment to some of our routines. In particular, I need to get back to ensuring our atmosphere fosters a commitment to writing. How so you say? Well I am inconsistent in my use of background music. When there is something playing, students are often calmer and write longer. I also am not being consistent when students are talking during our writing time. I find myself giving some students multiple reminders, a clear sign that they need some help. In recent days, instead of thinking about why students are off-task, I've focused on getting kids quiet and back to work. Bad practice! Ugh. Tomorrow we'll try to wrangle those few who are off-task, and potentially work in a small group. I might also leverage student role models to have them share work with those in need of support. We'll work on it tomorrow... not soon, but tomorrow!

Superman?

My focus is constantly divided. I'm always thinking about my classroom/school/district, and how successful they are (how successful they can be). But I am also looking at the bigger education picture, which currently seems to be dominated by the Waiting for Superman documentary. You can also toss in the Oprah show from this past week (I'm not home when Oprah is on, so I go based on the twitter-sphere) or the NBC "Education Nation" show that is kicked off by Sunday's Meet the Press.

As a point of full disclosure: I teach in a public school, but in a district that is more affluent (and successful) than other large "city" districts in the state. I also have a friend that is a principal for KIPP, a charter school outfit that gets lots of publicity. Lastly, I have never set foot inside of a charter school.

As I watch my DVR'd copy of Meet the Press, I find myself getting increasingly irritated. The conversation is essentially centered on the fact that public schools are "failures" and that the teacher's union is an impediment to student success. What is befuddling, but not surprising, is that they haven't defined success! Is a student's success defined by the winner take all standardized test? On this show, and in many arenas, the answer is yes. It is assumed by all of those on the show, that input equals output, and a student passing the standardized test should be the output. My problem is that it doesn't always work that way. I've seen really bright and hardworking kids not meet standard. Why? I couldn't tell you. Bad day? A family thing? Missed breakfast? Poor teaching? A combination? Who knows. There are kids who miss things everyday in my classroom (forgetting a topic sentences, miss reading a question, overcomplicating a question). They are not any less bright because of that. Perhaps they need to me more careful, but not any more/less intelligent.

As the show concludes before me, I find myself exceedingly angry. Not surprisingly the panel took aim at teachers and the union as an impediment, blocking the progress of millions of school children across the country. "I fire bad teachers, and the union files a grievance," Michelle Rhee states. Well because I would be willing to bet that not all of the 241 teachers that were terminated were "bad teachers." The unfortunately reality is that their kids didn't meet the growth relative to the standardized test.

Solutions? Dan Brown mentioned a few (which the Radical quotes in a post about the show). In my district I feel like there are some items that are worth replicating. Our New Teacher Support Program is highly effective, and inspires reflective practice. During my first year we had quarterly cohort meetings, weekly observed lessons (informal), and opportunities to observe inspiring teachers in the district. Additionally, we have an online portal where documents related to teaching and learning can be found. Wondering what district assessments should be used for fall? Check the portal and download it. Wondering what is at standard for fluency in the winter? Check the portal. Want to see the scope and sequence that the district proposes for particular curricular materials? The portal has it. The tools are available, and you are expected to use them and not be on an island.

The last two things are crucial. How about an hour and a half for planning every week (beyond your specialist time)? Love it. You mean I have time to look at student work, talk about it with my peers, and collaborate on how to scaffold for particular students? Whoa. It was striking at first, but some of the most important time we have. Lastly we have an evaluation system aimed at our growth. I set a goal for a particular domain of teaching (last year was classroom environment, this year is instruction) aimed at increasing student achievement. The achievement can be measured in many ways, but I do link it to our standardized test. We use them for our grade level and school goals, so it is best to be aligned. But I can see where I am, and speak to the evidence that shows I am proficient in a particular area.

Solutions exist. They are being done in schools across the country. Firing teachers in favor of the charter schools that educate 3% of our nation's kids is foolish without first exploring what innovative districts are already doing.

Integration in Year Two

First off, I am making a conscious effort to blog more. Hence the uptick in posts. Yesterday I mentioned how I was moving towards a narrative writing project with my kiddos as they've been reading about geographic features of the US. As I think ahead to tomorrow, and likely next week, I can't help but think about last year.

At this point last year I was keeping my head above water. While I felt highly capable, I was also trying to adjust to the way 5th graders work and new curricular materials. This year is an entirely different feel. Probably most striking is the fact that I am seeing the cross-curricular connections, and the integration is relatively seamless. As I look across the content area objectives, I am looking at how to teach it as a reading text. What reading standards will I hit, and what questions will help my kids get there? Additionally, I'm consistently thinking about how I can be less helpful. What I mean by that is I want to move the intellectual heavy lifting onto my kids' backs. Instead of asking kids content area questions with guideposts, I'll ask them questions like what is the main idea of a particular section and why is it important? Last year I would have led them along to the concept of importance, creating a less dynamic environment comparatively.

Back to tomorrow. We're going to integrate more explicit writing instruction into social studies. Last year it was more of an afterthought. They had a task to accomplish, and I was focused on the utilization of content. Instead we are actually going to focus on how to write a small moment, narrated as though we had experienced it. It will dovetail off of some of their favorite social studies experiences: 4th grade's Lewis and Clark work. Totally different feel in year two.

Progress Monitoring

One new wrinkle this year is that I have kids bringing their own notebooks. Last year we had social studies journals that were included with our new curricular materials. We had the option of getting them as consumables, and we were to provide input to our administrator about getting them again. I opted against it, seeing the journals at 2-4 dollars a piece being a massive outlay that was unnecessary.

Why was it unnecessary? While some of the pages were great, I opted to teach social studies as a study in reading. Instead of simply searching for content, questions like "What was the main idea of section 1.3?" end up being more effective. I still use some of the content area questions, but I help the kids less. Instead of "Label the landforms above," which corresponds to the EXACT SAME picture in the book, I ask them to "Name a landform related to land (not to be confused with those by water), and describe what it looks like." Kids then need to do one of two things:
1) examine the non-fiction feature carefully to determine what exactly makes a mountain different than a plain or basin...or
2) read the text carefully to determine what the actual definition is.

Either way kids are asked to do more with the reading they are doing. Combine that with instruction around main and supporting ideas (again, not included in social studies journal/consumable) and you've got a better forum for practicing non-fiction reading.

On Friday we'll actually start a 2+ day exploration into narrative writing by having kids think about the landforms of the US, and use their 4th grade experience with Lewis and Clark to write about how they would travel across the United States (1800's). There is a piece of writing in the social studies text they'll use as well. But it should be fun... a little foray into creative writing while applying content area knowledge.

Fluency

One of the things I am working on this year is doing some baseline fluency testing. Last year I did so informally, having students bring over books of their choice (or my choosing in some cases), and doing a running record (writing errors/notes in margins of notepad on their reading). That was helpful, but didn't really provide any data that I could use.

This year I wanted to be able to identify those that struggled with fluency, retelling and comprehension. I then want to test them again in December or January to see if their fluency/retelling/comprehension has improved as a result of instructional strategies being implemented. The end goal would be that I'd move them along the reading continuum a little quicker, and with more intentionality.

Why this year and not last? Fluency has never been something I've necessarily taught, but is something where I'll move kids into different books that are appropriate in order to get them to be more fluent. This year my professional growth is centered around reading comprehension and analysis of text, particularly student-led discussions in those areas. Where does fluency connect? Well it is definitely more difficult to participate in those discussions, or make meaning of text, when you are reading in 2-3 word chunks or don't use voice. Plus, not liking to read coupled with being a slow reader can be a deadly combination (I was one of them and it made me hate reading- it took forever!)

A Week or 10 Days?

The start of the school year seems incredibly hectic. Getting to know kids. Getting to know parents. Curriculum night. Pre-assessing kids. Establishing routine. Ugh!

Instead of dwelling on the length of the week, I'm going to focus on our focus in reading. Our Math-Science-Social Studies/Literacy rotations began this week. My focus was on understanding the different features that are unique to non-fiction, and how they can be used to comprehend text. I started in the kids' wheelhouse: what makes a piece of writing fiction? Simple question that befuddled some of my kiddos- "really, you don't know what fiction is? It is just fiction!" Sometimes seeing something over and over is the most difficult thing to explain (granted all my kids were able get with it, and respond to that question accurately).

From there we transitioned into: what is non-fiction, and what features make non-fiction special? Kids were comparing their chapter books to our social studies text, and creating a T-chart of their findings. From some it was really important to not only share out the feature to the whole group, but turn to the page where it was located so they could visualize what the feature was (hmm what is a diagram? what is a glossary?). Again, seems simple but can be really powerful (and a great reminder).

But it wasn't enough to just identify features, but now we need to use them! So I had 4 questions that kids needed to answer, but they needed to use the features in order to respond. All of that was getting at our content goal of understanding what in the world geography is! Really really great start to rotations!

Birthday Wishes!

When you work in the private sector, you get people saying happy birthday (usually in passing). Birthdays aren't a huge deal unless you or those close to you make them so. But it is different in a school. If kids find out that it is your birthday they tend to latch onto it. It is almost as though they are saying "You have birthday's too??? No way! I never knew!"

Today was my birthday. I said very little about it, as that tends to be the way I operate. But I'll admit that it made me smile when some of my kids were saying happy birthday to me on the way into the classroom today (they also wanted to sing happy birthday at the end of the day- but we ran late!). It was also fantastic to have former students come back and wish me a happy birthday. If nothing else it is a sign that they'll remember 5th grade. The hope is they got something out of it (which I believe they did).

This weekend we'll talk reading fluency and 5th grade. But now it is time to enjoy birthday cake!

Looking Ahead

The start of the school year is such an odd thing. You start with 3-4 days, you get the long weekend, and then you have another 4 days. By the end of this second week you start to get into a groove, which is good considering you go another 4+ weeks before you get a day off for professional development.

While our 5th grade rotates students through content areas (math, science, social studies/literacy), we won't be starting that quite yet. Instead we'll continue to build community and routine in our homeroom groups. We have some math pre-assessments that need to be completed. We'll also do some reading comprehension through some short passages on maps, with the culmination being a completed map (off a blank world map) including major lines of latitude and longitude, continents, and oceans (I might be missing something as I'm not looking at it). We'll continue reading Rules by Cynthia Lord too. I need to be far better about my read alouds during the year, making a conscious effort to continue pushing through them even when we appear strapped for time. City of Ember will likely be next, as the trio of books in the series are really well written. We're just going to keep pushing.

First Week Reflections

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. I had two professional development days, and got a chance to re-bond with the school staff. I took two flights, one red eye and one at 6:00 AM (ouch is right!). I went to one rehearsal dinner, and one wedding, standing as a groomsman. I lost a temporary crown, and had it replaced (don't ask). Lastly, I finished my first day and first week of school.

The difference between year one and year two of having your own classroom is exponential. My overall comfort is well beyond last year's, which is funny considering how comfortable I felt last year. My nerves were there, as I hope they will be for each and every year until I retire. My planning running up to this school year has also been more efficient as well. While I knew what was coming last year, I always felt a step or two behind where I wanted to be. This year I might be behind where I am scheduled to be, but I am right where I should be (pacing/instruction-wise).

There are some great things coming. We're already reading Rules by Cynthia Lord for our read aloud. I felt like that would be a great way to bring out acceptance of different people (as the book surrounds an autistic boy and one who is mute). I'm also hoping to get the blog rolling this year, a new wrinkle or tool to use in my instruction. I also have some more specific work that the kids are going to be doing with our wiki, as opposed to creating pages to document the topics/subjects we are/were studying.

Good things in the works. Buckle your seat belts!