Novel Study Take Two

I'm running a second round of novel study. This time around I've changed it up. Many of my concerns were expressed here. Running groups with 65 kids is challenging, there isn't much of an alternative. While I've seen whole classes read the same book, I'm not sure I could make that work in my classroom. The variance in reading levels makes it quite challenging.

What has changed this time around? The reading kids need to do happens mainly at home. I provide one 15 minute block for kids to read, but they are otherwise expected to get it done for homework. I went through the math with 2 or 3 kids that said they didn't have time, and they actually have close to 2 hours during the week AT SCHOOL to get it done (time in the morning, afternoon, and when we transition- reading as a settling activity we have all kids do). I've also taken away many of the other pieces of homework so that they have a focus on the reading.

What else has changed? I am having kids do discussion questions (3 of them) before meeting with their group. Previously it was one kid responding on paper for their group, and it never gave me a real eye into their thinking (duh, that was the point!). Looking at their response sheets, and listening to their groups, I was really excited about the change. Kids who said "I didn't understand that" were coming to a better understanding. Kids were excited to talk about their books with each other. I also felt like it was more equitable since everyone had something to contribute.

I'll continue to tweak. But for now, a good start. Lots to do heading into Spring Break!

Netbooks

My district is in the midst of moving to a 1-1 netbook-student ratio. That ratio holds true through the secondary grades, but is more like 1 set per grade level (or 2-1 student/netbook) at the elementary level. I'm a bit of tech geek/nerd, so this is fantastic. The effect is similar to teaching in a tech lab, which I almost already have (2-1 ratio currently).

We've been piloting it in my grade level since last week. The initial teaching of how to treat them, how to manipulate the touchpad, and how to get familiar was a bit time intensive. Logging in, since it is wireless (and there are 20+ other machines logging in simultaneously), took longer than usual. But each subsequent usage has been far more efficient. We use the downtime to read, largely because it means kids need to have their hands away from the touchpad or keyboard (plus we have novel study as an ongoing project). So far so good.

This past week was part of the acclimation period. This coming week we will be going ahead with the netbooks full bore. I was inspired by a project-based learning video from Common Craft. Instead of project based learning, we're going to be more question-based. The question: Which of the 8 explorers we've studied was the best explorer during the Age of Exploration?

We've already done some of the background work. We have read about these 8 explorers, and asked questions to fill in missing information using some internet research on the netbooks. To respond to this question, kids will need to do an initial evaluation to narrow down their comparison to two or three of the eight. After that they will need to compare/contrast these explorers, and think critically about the information in order to make a final evaluation. Once they've done that they will need to synthesize it into one "thing"- poster, PowerPoint, Photostory, or essay. The thing will show why their explorer is the best, and will need to include accomplishments of the explorer as well as comparison statements between their explorer and another (i.e. "Unlike other explorers, like Hernan Cortes, Jacques Cartier did not attempt to conquer native people"). Assuming I provide enough scaffolding, I think this will turn out really well. It should also put the netbooks to great use, as kids will be responsible for creating multiple documents on the netbook and doing additional research. Can't wait!

Teaching It Twice

There are positives and negatives to our fifth grade system. The most obvious negative is that I don't get to teach every subject. I love math, but it isn't my primary content area. I also don't have as much time for literacy as I'd probably like, but I've grown to enjoy using our rotation blocks as mini-lesson times. Instead of 90 minutes of reading instruction, with some writing built in, I've got 60 minutes to do a short mini-lesson and have kids practicing it. For those that have used the Units of Study materials for writing, I'm essentially doing that in reading.

Probably the best part of rotations is teaching a lesson multiple times. Lessons don't always work out. You assume that kids have some background knowledge that they don't, or you don't phrase something particularly well, or any number of other missteps occur in your teaching. Aha! You teach it again, 20 minutes later and have the opportunity to get it right.

That was the case on Tuesday. We were trying to use questions to be strategic in our reading of non-fiction (plans changed from fiction to non-fiction on Sunday night). We were then going to use those questions to help us mine information from the text, and put it into a table. I made the assumption that they had all used a table before. Yep, each row is for a cultural group and the information going across coordinates with the column up top. Wait, what?! Columns, rows, cultural groups?! I was able to make some adjustments within the lesson to make it work, and kids were successful. But the next time I taught it, I knew where the misstep had occurred, and was far more deliberate in teaching what went into each box... and how we would use the questions to guide us to that information. Ah! Re-teaching because you can, and not because you have to repair meaning for someone. So great!

Non-Fiction to Fiction

The first 4 weeks of our rotations have been great so far. We've practiced using different reading strategies in our non-fiction text. We've gotten an understanding of non-fiction features, main ideas (and supporting details), questioning strategies, and making inferences. It is just the start of this whole process, so we aren't looking at proficiency across the board. Our kiddos are doing great work though, and the feedback they are receiving is being used to make their work better.

The current events homework that I have for them every week is a great example of this feedback loop. I don't enter current events into our online grading system. I have a good idea of what those scores would be, but I don't score it because I don't know who is doing the homework. Is that a student's work done independently, or is it work done with a parent helping guide them along? I give them written feedback, and put it in their returned work folder. Some will inevitably make mistakes week after week, which will prompt some small group instruction. Others will read it, and use it the following week. The change from week 1 to week 2, and then into week 3 has been dramatic. Topic sentences without article titles, and only loosely hitting main ideas have become more specific. Details fit well with the topic, and use transitions effectively. Conclusions that were missing were now being employed, and were quite creative. Why was that happening?

Part of it is getting used to a new teacher (last year to now having me). I also think it connected with some in-class work, and intentional instruction around putting main ideas and supporting details into an effective summary.

Looking ahead, we are going to kick it into gear with some fiction this week. We'll use our basal reader to get us started, as well as kicking off the 30 Week Challenge (30 books in 30 weeks, some choice, more directed). I'll post more about the 30 week challenge tomorrow. I'm excited about the transition. Here we go!

Last Day

Wednesday was the end of my rookie year of teaching. Year One is officially in the books. As I told my kids, you have many firsts in your life. First day of school, first day of high school, first day with a driver's license, first day of college, etc. You remember those first things vividly. This year will be no different for me.

There are a myriad of ideas running through my head. What went well? What do I want to change? How/When will I get the blog and wiki rolling next year? All of those are good questions, but I need about a week or two off. I need to bask in the afterglow of yesterday, thinking about the kind words the kids said. Someone got the idea to write a goodbye message on the front whiteboard, which spread into half of our cohort writing goodbye notes. It was touching, and gave me the impression (illusion) that I made an impact for the better. The cards I received were along the same lines.

After cleaning out the room and getting organized, I'm officially off. I won't head back to the building until early July. I'll head in to get a few of my curriculum materials, and start thinking ahead to the fall. I'll post some of the questions I am pondering as the days pass. But today... today is for the afterglow.

Last Full Week

This is the last full week of school for my district. We have 2 1/2 days the following week, but for the most part this is it. We're going to continue to have our rotations this week, which should keep a degree of normalcy in the crush of spring/summer fever. What is in store? We are going to finish up with a brief (I stress the word brief) covering of the civil war. I have always hated the word "coverage" because it places emphasis on content instead of thinking skills. But in this case I feel ok about it.

I've been able to intermingle thinking questions with content so that kids aren't left merely trying to seek knowledge level responses. A case in point would be this past week where I had posed the question to kids "Was western expansion of the United States a good thing?" This was on the board as they walked in, and they needed to respond in their social studies journal. Each kid got a chance to respond, and we tallied "good" and "bad". Both wasn't a choice, but it was clearly reflected in their responses as many said "it depends on the point of view you are looking at it from." That gives me hope for the last week as we continuing trucking along through US History.

The Wheels on the Bus

There are some things teachers don't do well, myself included. One of those areas is "search" or "research" or data/information accumulation. Here is a common sequence of events for my kids as they tackle their CBA:

• Issue: Wetlands/Conservation
• Essential Question: Should wetlands be protected or developed?
• Search (via Search engine): "Should wetlands be protected?"
• Search Result: Some sites including WikiAnswers.com... followed by
• Student Action: copy, paste into Word/PowerPoint slide, possible rephrasing (certainly upon teacher questioning)
• Student Question (to teacher): So am I done yet? I've done all my research.

Granted, this is not each and every student, but this is a very common occurrence and leads me to the supposition found above. Now, I could be happy with the fact that they are crafting genuine questions about topics of interest. I could also be happy, and perhaps even satisfied, that they are doing any research. But that just isn't my style.

To tackle that I illustrated how to search, albeit in a manner that was still not as in depth as I'd like (time constraints). First I started with a discussion about search terms, generating multiple terms that were derived from their questions and stakeholders. From there we went into their method- just type in your question and hope for the best! We agreed that this was not quite the most efficient method, and didn't always yield the greatest results. Instead we tried different terms, and we tried different search engines along with a large district research database. Viola! The transformation was HUGE, making a big difference in the quality of information they found.

I'll take it as a huge victory considering the time constraints. We need to ration our time, and undoing some bad habits that have festered just isn't the highest of priorities. Undoing the "we were told to copy and paste then rewrite in our own words" (note: my quotes, not theirs) message is paramount. As I scratched the surface of that, I found that was an instructional message some kids had received somewhere. The message is essentially: don't worry about reading it, assume you agree with the writer, copy it and paste it, and rephrase to put in your own words when you're "research is done". I nearly fell out of my chair. Give the kids a little credit, they can do the work. Expect them to do it because,ultimately they'll surprise you.

Questions Without Answers

Things I am thinking about heading into the Winter Break (starting next Saturday)...

• How do I integrate the leveled reader library into my instruction on a daily or weekly basis?
• In what ways can I leverage the 2:1 (student:computer) ratio more than I currently do?
• Where does our writing instruction go, and how does that impact my reading instruction?
• How can I better leverage peer conferencing throughout my day?

Those are questions I'll tackle over the course of the next 3 weeks. This next week is focused on a short transition "unit" and making it to the break.

Updating the Wiki

Our class wiki has been getting quite a bit of use. I've used it as a receptacle for information so that students are able to access information at home. This has alleviated sending home the textbook. Granted, the information in the textbook is at a lower level, and a bit more accessible. Nonetheless the wiki has been a useful tool.

This week is when I start to release some of the control. One of the assignments for the week is for the kids will be to describe one of the colonies using some of the information we've been gathering. The information fits into the categories of: Reasons for Founding, Geography, Economy, and Government. We created questions that matched those categories so that we could be strategic in our reading, and more focused when looking for information.

What students will be charged with is choosing one of the colonies, and writing a 1-2 paragraph description of the colony. They will also need to search for at least one link that adds more information for the colony. We'll then group responses by colony, and read them to evaluate which we think is most accurate and descriptive.

Soon after we'll add a section on where you'd want to live if... (you wanted religious freedom? you wanted self-government? you wanted to sow seeds of flax?!). I'm excited to relinquish some of the control (granted I still need to post things, or have kids post during class with supervision).

The Way You Ask Questions

Last week took a huge toll on my body. I came through the weekend with clogged sinuses, and some sort of cold. It is the same thing my wife had last week, so I am hopeful that it will be gone by tomorrow. I felt pretty awful on Saturday and then raced Beat the Bridge with a fever and all that jazz yesterday. Today I went in to school to get some things ready, then asked my Master Teacher to let me head home and sleep (to which she kindly said yes!).

Between sleeping, coughing, and fixing the bathtub drain (the chain broke on the plunger), I started to read To Understand by Ellin Oliver Keene. Keene was one of the co-authors of Mosaic of Thought, which has been recommended to me by quite a few folks. To Understand has been on our bookshelf for a few months now, as my wife bought it when I was purchasing school books in January. I figured that I didn't have much to read right now, why not take a look?

I'm not far along, but one thing is stunning: Helping kids to understand is a difficult job. She starts the book with the story of Jamika, and asking her (in an informal reading conference) if she understands the book she is reading. The reply was one that makes total sense- everyone asks me if it makes sense or if I get it, but no one ever told me what "making sense" means. That stopped me in my tracks, as I had to think about what it truly meant to understand something... and why that is important to the students we teach.

Additionally, Keene writes about holding high expectations for our students. That, I thought to myself, I am on board with, and is something I feel like I do a good job of. That was until I read how she posed a question/issue, and talked about expectations often be embedded in our language. For example:

1. See if you can think of a question about the story...
2. Think about all the questions you have as we read the story, and then pick one or two that you think will help us understand more about the story.

Seems silly no? But I did something like this last week, also on questioning. The first one poses the question as though they might not all get it, whereas the second one expects that all have questions. Don't we expect that all of us will have questions? As Keene writes, "showing high expectations for literacy learning is a far more subtle and precise process and requires far more consistent attention to the ways in which that we interact with children (15)."

Questions

We have gone through a weird transition in our reading block. We started reading from the Houghton Mifflin anthology, but it wasn't a whole class thing. Many other groups were reading different books (Junie B. Jones, DragonSlayers Academy, Frog and Toad, and the Secrets of Droon to name a few). I decided, with my MT's blessing, that we would work on learning how to find just-right books. After that we started into the idea that "reading is thinking."

Well a few weeks have gone by, and we are still toiling away in the reading is thinking area. It is a little different now though. Some kids are back reading the anthology, and some are reading different series' of books. Many (and I mean MANY) are reading Junie B Jones. The reading instruction, as a whole, hasn't been what I would have hoped.

That being said we are going forward with the idea of questioning. The idea that we ask questions while we are reading (and before, and after, and ALL THE TIME!) is an essential one to me. Without questioning we lose focus on what we are supposed to be reading. Questioning is a way for us to wonder about what the author is saying, make predictions (in a backwards sort of way), and make connections to other parts of our life.

For example, I recently read Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union (great book by the way, really enjoyed it). Before reading I was wondering if the book would be anything like his last book (Adv of Kavalier and Clay)? I wondered what Alaska would be like (it is set in Sitka)? I wondered what the title meant? Once I started reading I was wondering if this was historical fiction (did this kinda, sorta happen)? Were Jewish people as close as they seemed to be in the book?... and on and on. While I didn't read a ton everyday, my questions kept me engaged as I plodded along. Without questions... well it would be like many other books on my shelf: stuck there with a bookmark between page 40-70.