August #TCRWP Reading: Day 1
Monday arrives with rain and yet the fire in my brain flames on . . .
Lucy Calkins keynote . . .
Laughter with Natalie Louis . . .
Learning with Kelly Boland Hohne
Illumination with Cornelius Minor
Such was the Monday in my life!
Today’s post is a recap of information from Cornelius Minor from his closing session: “Using Digital Tools to Offer Access to Students with IEPs”
Access for all Kids – Why is Access Important? (AKA “Research to Weaponize”)
- UdL – more inclusive
- On heels of Civil Rights
- Architects – ADA compliant – door width, door knob (designed from inception)
- Knowledge of the three networks that access the brain:
- Recognition (input – see, hear, perceive);
- Strategic (executive functioning); and
- Attitude (and feelings about teacher and learning)
Here is a chart I developed to organize some of the information shared by Cornelius.
| What is the main thing? | |
| Skills | Instruction |
| Vocabulary
Alfred Tatum – Teaching Reading to Adolescent Black Boys (Chicago) (EL) Build on strengths! |
Synonyms: Ponder, saunter, exclaim – derivatives of most common words.
Camera saunter A , B photographer Video ponder B, A videographer Develop criteria together. Make pic for word wall – Use students in the class Social – Doing and Talking |
| Fluency
The sound of my voice when I am reading text I care about. (have to like my audience as well as my text) Teen ink is a source “The day I met you was a bad hair day” Need texts that are worthy of practice. |
“Going to play Simon says. You are going to read the poem like I do!”
3 different emotions:
Annotate text for emotion |
Specific Chrome Tools
|
Have 3 or 4 that are extremely effective.
More is NOT better. Can also change readability |
| Effort
Behavior mirror Transfer – Use contexts that are familiar – Audio / Video – Students use daily! |
Do what the leader does! SELL it!
Effort lives in our methodology. |
What was something tried and true?
What was new?
What will you do next?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
August #TCRWP Writing: Day 4
#TCRWP
Hallowed Halls of Learning,
Ivy League Halls of Learning,
1300 Learners
This Week
Here
There,
Laughter,
Tears,
Learning
and then a Focus for Me.
Closing Choice Workshop:
Supporting Kids with IEPs
Creating an Environment, a Schedule, and Plans that
Accommodate All Your Learners
by Val Geschwind
As we began, Val encouraged us to think of one child. One child to be at the center of our thinking in every consideration for the environment, the schedule and the plans. Just one child. I always loved when Heidi Hayes Jacob did this. So powerful!
So here he is:
What about the Environment for this guy?
The depth of Val’s planning blew me away.
And remember that I come from the field of special education.
It was my life for many, many, many years.
Self- Monitoring
Partnerships
Talk
Physical
Support Risk-Taking
Val shared her thinking as well as explanations for each of these slides in her presentation. The pictures truly added to my understanding, but the pictures were not the main focus. Our focus was on the child at the center of our attention. Were his/her socio-emotional needs met? Physical needs? And what about supporting Risk-Taking?
How is that one child doing? Do you know if that child is “learning”? What evidence do you use?
There’s a paradox here because writing is one area where many might propose that a child with very specific needs as identified by IEP goals must receive a different kind of writing workshop. That view is often focused on a very narrow subset of constrained skills that includes letter naming and recognition, drill on letter formation, and other worksh*ts (a totally out of context reference by Lucy Calkins in her opening keynote on July 31 to the materials that some students use during writing time). However, in the context of “All students are general education students FIRST”, they must receive differentiated instruction in the classroom writing workshop FIRST.
WHY?
Because as Lanny Ball wrote so eloquently this week for the “Fundamentals of Writing Workshop” series, it is all about Time, Choice, Response, and Community and Cambourne’s Conditions of Learning: Immersion, Demonstrations, Expectations, Responsibility, Approximation, Practice, and Response. (TWT, August 1, 2017, here) Aren’t those the things you want for your “one child” above?
Is every child successful in Writing Workshop?
Not necessarily. But are writers in Writing Workshop classes achieving at higher levels than other classrooms? Are the students able to write independently? Do they CHOOSE to write? What does the data say? What does their instruction say?
