AMAZING LEARNING continues at TCRWP!

Session 1

Liz Dunford Franco – State of the Art Curriculum to Support First Grade Readers

We began with a study of mini-lessons in the first grade Book 1 of the new Reading Units of Study. With a partner, we read a sample, role played it and then debriefed with table groups with these questions in mind:

• How are students engaged across these lessons?
• What does the teacher do?
• What does the student do?

Liz shared some tips for reading the lessons with our group. They included:

• Use a highlighter to mark the language so you are clear and consistent.
• Teaching Point – echo the language in the plan
• Connection- This is where you can add your own personal touch and make it relevant but keep it short and sweet.
• Make notes to yourself – ( My thinking – Consider a different color of post it for what you as teacher need to do or say in advance so everyone has “materials” needed.)

What does kid watching look like at the beginning of the year in first grade?

The teacher might be looking for evidence that a student is able to

Self – start

Refocus with a teacher gesture

Work with table group

Work with partner

Generate question

We talked about keeping the mini-lesson short and staying under the 10 minute guideline length for a true “mini-lesson”. Liz pushed us to think beyond just the “10 minute time limit” in order to determine where the lessons broke down. By studying “where the trouble was” in the lessons, we could see where we were losing time and avoid those behaviors.

What patterns did we see?

In active engagement, was too much time spent going back over the strategy for an extra mini-mini-lesson?

Did the Link involve reteaching instead of just a nod to the chart?

Were students being kept in the group and not sent off for additional work?

How could the teacher check in with students later (without losing time)?

Hand student a post it and then after all students are off reading,, say, “1, 2, 3 eyes on me! If I gave you a post-it, come back to the table!”

“Taking a sneak peek could be taught as an Inquiry Lesson.”

We jigsawed sections from the 2^nd book – Unit 3 Learning about World – Reading Nonfiction with the following bends:

Bend 1: Getting Smart on Nonfiction Topics

Bend 2: Tackling Super Hard Words in Order to Keep Learning

Bend 3: Reading Aloud Like Experts

A feature that I loved and tweeted out was that in grade 1, Book 2 Nonfiction, students are put in the role of teacher to do their own read alouds! (This was always the goal with Every Child Reads in Iowa: students would be able to do their own Read Alouds, Talk Alouds, Think Alouds, and Composing Think Alouds.) I also loved to hear that kids need 10-12 informational books in personal baskets or common group baskets. At this stage I am waiting to hear more about both the Read Aloud 5 day plan and Shared Reading Plan.

Possible assessments for Grade 1 students include:

Running Records

Letter sound ID

Sight words

Spelling inventories

Comprehension to be assessed through Read Alouds, talk, conference and the use of a pre-assessment to determine whether students need another bend to build up habits or a unit from If/Then before beginning the nonfiction unit.

What are you thinking right now?

What “AHAs” did you have?

Any specific connections/questions that came to mind for the non-first grade teachers?

Session 2:

Katie Clements – Embracing Complexity: Teaching Kids to Tackle and Love More Complex Nonfiction (Grades 3-6)

How can we support students in tackling and loving more complex texts?

We began with four minutes to teach about our non-fiction book with a partner (after a few tips about how to do this well). This was a great energizer for the group, as well as validating our homework assignment.

1. DRAFTING main idea

We began with nontraditional texts: Main idea from text and pictures combined that Katie modeled and then main idea from a video that we practiced with a partner.

Tips:

• Don’t just name a topic.
• As you read on, hold the main idea loosely to see if it STILL fits.
• Revise main idea as more information is added.

We watched a very short PSA video clip. First viewing: “As you are listening and watching – watch for the chunks, we will see how the chunks fit together!” We discussed.  Katie posted the three big ideas she heard and then put bullets under them. Before we watched the video again we were told to sort and rank details for a mini-debate.

As we worked on this, I tweeted out:

“Use of non-traditional texts. . . do our students know how to process/understand text that they will live with all their lives?”

Key Takeaways

1. Revision will be necessary in complex text.

2.  I believe we have a moral obligation to teach students how to do this complex work with the texts that they are using in their lives. This means students will need to learn how to do this work independently!

New Tool:

Katie shared some ways that this tool was used in a fifth grade classroom and we brainstormed some additional ways that it can be used. As I read my homework assignment, I watched to see if these areas were also “complexity issues” in my book.   Much potential here!

How do you teach main idea in nonfiction text?

What makes it complex for kids?

Does it get “messy”? 

Kathleen Tolan – Closing Workshop

Groups and Maximizing Student Growth

Key Takeaway:  Small groups for all – not just struggling readers!

How can we get a routine for ourselves so we “know how it is going to go?

 We need to take interventions to mastery instead of introduction so students get reading practice and their work can be lifted. Because growth takes time, we need realistic strategies. Anything that is hard takes practice. Name it for yourself. Put the work into your daily schedule so the students can do it again and again and grow.

Kathleen share some of the frustrations of planning for small groups.

• Sometimes it takes 45 minutes to plan for one session.
• And then the lesson doesn’t go the way we want it to.
• The students aren’t doing well.
• There is no magic fairy dust to sprinkle on the students!

What would it be like to plan for the increments along the way?

Small Group Session 1:  Small groups should NOT be using new material. You will need to go back to the exact space in lesson plans. RETEACH! Don’t do a big demo or Think Aloud!  Instead invite the small group to “co-create the original lesson!” This allows you to turn the work over to the students quickly and also see which parts of the original lesson stuck with the kids!  This way within minute two of a small group, students are at the. “Open your book and now you do it!” stage.

Coach! Coach! Coach!   Coach!

All of us do it together quick and then to transference.

Link – add in when we will meet them again! Put on schedule to make sure it is included. Check in is short – 10 sec.

Small Group Session 2:  Reread from Read Aloud

Redo what you did last time or shared writing from last work. Take this into your own book. Read – your 5-7 min. are up. But they are still there “DOING” the work!

WALK AWAY!

Students don’t need us there for repeated practice. Leaning happens when you are not there! Set them up and give them tools!

Small Group Session 3:  We are working on envisionment. Go, work.

Our goal is not to talk all the time. Use progression on envisionment and write around the post it, naming the work.  When we use the progression, make sure you teach down all the way through that level and then teach one thing that leans into the next level.  Be realistic.  If a student is at level 2, don’t expect them to immediately jump to level 4.

Give one tip.

Students doing the work!!!

Repeat coaching one more time!

• Small Groups – set 2 groups up. Move faster! Don’t get too comfortable. Don’t sit as Teacher! You will move faster! After 5 min. move on!
• Need internal sense – Need to reset our clock!
• Tangible tools. What can you leave behind?  What’s important?
• If we introduce tools that go across content areas, look at the amount of practice students will have!

What is your routine for small group work?

Who do you work with in your small groups?

 

Mary Ehrenworth – Keynote

Remembering Grant Wiggins: Innovating “Teaching for Transference”

Mary shared that this session was the result of collaborative work from the TCRWP staff. Students in school need less drill and more scrimmage because feedback varies. Feedback in skills and strategies are “can you do them?”  In scrimmage feedback is likely to be, “How are you doing with them on your own?”

1. book to book – Piggy book – Work you can do in any book

(characters in books are more than one way (strengths and flaws) Your opinion is more valuable when allow for nuance and acknowledge there are some troublesome parts!

2. Book to book – (Characters with strengths and flaws)  Maddie and Tae – “Girl in a Country Son”

“What’s the most important thing?” Sorting and ranking made discussions stronger.

“What’s the next important thing?”

“What makes you say that?”  Don’t just nod your head.  Ask “Why is that important?”

3. Transference to another text – history text – Schoolhouse Rock – Elbow Room

(Strengths and flaws, Power and disempowerment)  Stems you might use are

“While it’s true…”  “Nevertheless…”

4.  Inside / outside school Transfer

Mary shared that she and Cornelius Minor will have a JAL article next week that included close reading of sports event that allowed students to “read their lives”.  Our goal should be to nurture transference form one book to another, from one reading experience to another, and from one reader to another.  How often do we feel like we are around the campfire having fun? Don’t want to leave the story?

How do you teach for transference?