#SOLSC20: Day 3
My notebook is my refuge.
It knows my darkest secrets.
It holds my deepest thoughts.
My notebook is my refuge.
It contains cross outs and scribbles
Sometimes barely discernible.
My notebook is my refuge.
It contains my fears, my trials, my tribulations.
It contains my greatest joys.
My notebook is my refuge.
Sometimes it is public.
Sometimes it is private.
My notebook is my refuge.
Snippets of stories.
Memories and remembrances.
My notebook is my refuge.
A safe place to work.
A safe place to think.
Where do you do your thinking?
Where do you try out ideas and develop your work?
How do you use a notebook?
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this daily forum in March. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL19: Patterns
When you look at 9/10/19, what do you see?
91019
More clues:
What about:
9/11/19?
9/12/19?
9/13/19?
9/14/19?
9/15/19?
9/16/19 . . . ?
How many does it take before you recognize the pattern?
I’ve written about palindromes before here, here and here.
“A word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards, e.g. madam or nurses run.” – Oxford Dictionary
I find it fascinating that I notice it first in numbers that give me pause.
Is it the one time occurrence that fascinates me or is it the pattern? While I ponder my response, many questions about patterns and configurations emerge.
In a rush to immediately solve problems, be efficient, and worry over so little time, do I rush to judgment too quickly?
A pattern . . .
More than once . . .
Is twice enough?
Three times?
Over what period of time?
Today’s burning questions:
Would we really begin an intervention based on one piece of data on one single day?
Would we really teach something one day, assess it and plan for additional instruction or not, based on that ONE day of instruction without any additional practice?
Perhaps we need to slow down, think, formulate a question, observe, revise our question, collect evidence of patterns and then act . . .
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
#SOL19: Day 25 SOLSC
He leaned in. “What’s the score?”
“Tied. 71 all. Amazing comeback.”
“Um. Huh. They were down by 21.”
I bite my tongue. Not literally. I want to correct him and say, “No, they were down by 25 in the first half.” But I’ve never seen this person before and do those four points really matter? But it’s hard. It was so pathetic that we were down by 25.
WAIT!
JUST A MINUTE!
HOLD THE PRESSES!
So odd.
I check.
I double check.
I confirm that I am not wearing any school colors. And yet this stranger sitting with his family is talking to me about the game. I just had this conversation last week with my friend from Boston, but then the conversations began because I was wearing school colors even in a state far far away – half a country away. The margin of the game had narrowed to nine points before we went to lunch. Expecting the game to be over, I checked the score and that was when the conversation began.
How important is talk in the classroom?
Google would help you think it is quite important as you could find thousands of resources on both Pinterest and TpT – neither of which are recommended. But that’s a surface quick fix that doesn’t get at the CORE purpose of talk – to share thinking and discuss at deep levels. Moving beyond surface sentence stems will require instruction.
What do you believe about classroom talk?
If you believe that the teacher needs to “scaffold” the talk, you may be doing a disservice to your students, according to Kara Pranikoff, author of Teaching Talk.
Entry points:
Inquiry. What is the status of talk? Who talks? To whom? When? What is the difference between social talk and academic talk?
Talk to students. Who do they want to listen to? Who do they listen to? What “rules” do they prefer – formally or informally?
Listen to students. Listen to understand. Not to respond. Not to fix. Not to negate. What do you learn from listening and considering patterns in student talk.
Teach. Don’t just scaffold forever. What skills need to be taught? How will skills taught lead to greater independence for students?
Check out this book. Talking and Thinking!
Breathing New Life into the Talk in Your Classrooms
Who’s doing the work in “TALK”?
How do you TEACH student talk and thinking?
How can instruction actually encourage student thinking?
And of course, some of us can and do easily talk to strangers about issues and events that matter like the game that began this post. My attention to the game began with a terse email from a sibling. When and how do we help students gain the confidence and comfort to have meaningful conversations with folks in their worlds?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this daily March forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Bloom’s and Thinking 2.0
One aspect of travel time that I love is time to think. Taking a break from outside stimuli and letting my curious mind wander and wonder.
When I left off last time in this blog post, I was thinking an hour glass fit my model of Bloom’s and how it actually works in a student brain. After conversation here as well as with friends on Dr. Mary Howard’s facebook page, I decided to think about a broader conceptual piece. For those of you who know which lobes of the brain really control “what”, please ignore that and think about what happens to the bits of information that are processed inside our brains. (And do note – this is labelled as Draft 2.0)
Bloom’s and the Brain: How ideas may look as they are processed!
Sometimes the “uploading of ideas” may seem structured and other times the process seems to be more organic with much more give and take between levels.
Draft 2.0: What do you think?
How does your brain shift from one level to another?
Is there some automaticity like an automatic transmission in a car?
Or is there a bit of “gear-grinding” like a standard transmission with a tricky clutch?
What’s your thinking?
#SOL18: Cookies
It began with a tweet.
And then my #OLW, “curious” surfaced.
What would a student response be?
Quirky, out of the box. Unexpected!
How about response #2?
And again, an unexpected answer!
Now, all in, I had to ask 3 more so I had an even 5.
Small data pool.
But yet, bigger than an N of 1.
Answer 1: “He will have to take the 98 burned cookies sprinkled in powdered sugar because Cameron’s friends and family ate the 185 good cookies!”
Answer 2: “If he promised to take 283 cookies, Cameron will go to the store and make 98 more cookies so he can take the cookies he promised.”
Answer 3: “Cameron wanted to make sure the cookies were good, so he ate four. Then he could only fit 135 cookies into his container. He took 135 cookies to the cookie swap and left the rest for his brother.”
Answer 4: “Cameron will be so embarrassed that he burnt the cookies that he will not go to the cookie swap. He won’t be taking any cookies.”
Answer 5: “Cameron was taking the 185 cookies that were fine to the cookie swap. Along the way, he met a man who was hungry so he gave the man five cookies. Then he met his friend Albert who was not going to the cookie swap because he didn’t have any cookies. Cameron gave him 80 cookies. Cameron took the 100 he had left.
Thinking?
Reasoning?
If any of these students “chose” a multiple choice answer and filled in the bubble, would we have known WHY they missed the answer?
100% accurate according to the stories. Hmmm. When a wrong answer is a RIGHT answer!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL18: Early? Late!
“Be ready at 1,” Sherry said as we left the evening of playing cards.
So I call about 10 minutes out. But it’s 11:50.
“Are you about ready?”
I hear a litany of tasks and to do’s and my sister sounds surprised.
I was thinking . . . “Be there at 1. At the destination!
Sherry says, “We can get started if you get . . .”
“But it was supposed to be a surprise!”
I sneakily grab the document. Scan. Upload. Share.
“So where are we going?”
“Pella.”
“Jess wondered why I didn’t ask where we were going. But I told her I did.”
I just shook my head.
Packing up. Paying attention to road closures due to flooding creeks and raging rivers.
Talking. Driving. Talking. Following the GPS. And yet there was just one turn.
“I could tell you the directions if you let me know WHERE we were going,” as my elder sister tried again to figure out the surprise.
All the Marek girls. And just in time. The paperwork was done. With keys in hand it was time to pick up the new wheels and celebrate a birthday!
Was your last planned surprise really a surprise? This one was!
A big surprise that she was ready EARLY!
And a Happy Birthday!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. 
#SOL17: #CyberPD
I read.
I reread.
I jot.
I think.
I read.
I write.
I tweet.
Dipping into the facebook group here
@HeinemannPub resources here
and original blog posts at “To Make a Prairie” here.
It’s a delicate dance similar to a waltz.
Read
Think: “How does this fit into my current beliefs?”
Write down questions, changes, fleeting thoughts . . .
To be absorbed into the mental stream of consciousness
Synthesis
A new belief
Test it out
Problem solving
And with reading, writing, thinking, and more practice . . . It’s time to begin sharing!
What’s up?
This week marks the beginning of #cyberPD for the summer of 2017. Check out the hashtag and the blogs and hold onto your brains as the pace is quick, the thinking is challenging, and you will question your own beliefs about reading! Be prepared for the provocative nature of this book, the discussion, and the debate!
Here’s the challenge from Ellin Oliver Keene in the Foreword:
The book:
The schedule:
Why were Chapters 1-4 challenging?
Because I didn’t begin with them. I began with Chapter 5.
Check the text.
Vicki gave readers to start with either part 1: background, values and changes or part 2: problems and practices. Of course, I began with Part 2. It’s my favorite. But in order to sustain changes, I know that I have to understand the “why” in order to stay the course and continue to “steer the ship”. (page xix)
Values and Beliefs:
Reading is meaning.
Meaning is constructed by the reader.
Use inquiry or a problem-based approach. What I do 1:1 with striving readers.
Inquiry or problem-based approach with all – that’s new!
Students doing the work.
Students thinking.
Ditch assigned patterns of close reading. (AMEN!)
Critical thinking.
Creative thinking. Hit the brakes! Do I really get the difference?
Real meaning of read closely and deeply. (YES!)
Teaching vs. learning (including over scaffolding and too much priming the pump)
I’m still learning about problem-solving. I understand the basic principles. As I read this summer, I’m keeping track of what I do when I get stuck, tangled up in the words or tangled up in the ideas. How do I work through the “stuck” and the “tangles”. I need to continue to practice on my own reading.
Same for creative thinking and critical thinking. Such a delicious thought that they are not the same. I’ve had years decades of imitating, patterning, and coasting in the shadows. Am I really creative? Too early to tell.
What do you value in reading?
What will you read that will be provocative this summer?
Do you dare break out of your complacency?
Want to join #CyberPD?
Join the Google+ Community https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/107711243109928665922
Follow #cyberPD on Twitter
Follow @cathymere
Follow @litlearningzone
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum and the #SOLSC that runs from March 1 to the 31st. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
#SOL17 and #DigiLitSunday: Problem Solving
In Real Life:
“Gramma, sit here.”
“H’mm. It’s a long way down to the floor.”
“Here, Gramma.”
I sit. I can guess the activity by reading the clues in the area.
I don’t know for sure the plan but does it matter?
Doesn’t the world revolve around my grandson?
How do I wait, without talking/leading, to see what “our play” is going to be?
In My Professional Life:
Book studies have popped up everywhere. Which ones should I join? Which ones are quite intriguing? Which ones should I avoid?
My professional “shelfie” looks like this: (+Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst)
How do I determine what groups to participate in?
For example, I know of three different groups reading and responding to Disruptive Thinking. Do I just jump in? It’s summer after all and I do have more “time” to spend on reading and writing. Do I develop criteria? What could/should that look like?
Last week’s #G2Great chat was with Patty Vitale-Reilly (@pattyvreilly) about her book, Engaging Every Learner: Classroom Principles, Strategies, and Tools. You can read Chapter 6 of her book from Heinemann here, check out the storify here, or even read my blog post about the chat here.
Where do I think problems with “being an engaged learner” might arise? Where should I begin? Right now I believe I need to pay attention to actions 1, 3, 5 and 6 below as I develop my plans to participate in book studies this summer.
- Consider the three dimensions of engagement
- Cultivate engagement in the classroom
- Establish routines to cultivate high engagement
- Use assessments to build engagement!
- Use choice to build engagement
- Cultivate my own engagement
My decision is to see which of the aspects of “engagement” hook me into summer book groups and provide the incentive for me to continue participating. By planning to “problem solve” in advance, both when I get stuck when reading and when my participation wanes, I can gather additional information about both my problem solving and my engagement!
What are you going to learn / study this summer to move your literacy life forward?
When do I want/need/crave choice and creativity and what role will that play in my decisions/actions?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Additional #DigiLitSunday: Problem Solving posts with Margaret Simon and Reflections on the Teche.
#DigiLitSunday: Critical Thinking
Additional posts at Reflections on the Teche
So I had a week’s worth of thinking about this topic after Margaret Simon proposed it last week in a response to my blog here. But this quote really caused me to pause yesterday. “Critical thinking” is a buzz word; what does it really mean?
. . . “not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
In the field of education and state standards, Iowa was the LAST state in 2008 to adopt state standards for all students in Iowa because of our much lauded “local control”. So when I look for “critical thinking” I rely on the 21st century standards that are in addition to the literacy standards that apply for all content areas.
“The reality of building capacity for the 21st century is that we do not know what the work of the future will be like (Darling-Hammond, 2007) or how technology will influence health and financial issues. The challenge is to prepare students to think critically, to engage in mental activity, or habits of mind, that “…use facts to plan, order, and work toward an end; seek meaning or explanations; are self-reflective; and use reason to question claims and make judgments…” (Noddings, 2008). It may be that our task is not only to prepare students to “fit into the future” but to shape it. “…If the complex questions of the future are to be determined… by human beings…making one choice rather than another, we should educate youths – all of them – to join in the conversation about those choices and to influence that future…” (Meier, 2008).”
This challenge continues to be hard work. “To think critically”, “to engage in mental activity” and “…use facts to plan, order, and work toward an end; seek meaning or explanations; are self-reflective; and use reason to question claims and make judgments…” Those quotes are hard to define, explain, teach and even harder to assess.
What does “critical thinking” look like in a classroom?
Well, the easiest answer is to go directly to Vicki Vinton’s post today. Yes, NOW! Stop. Go read it. Then come back. THAT post is all about critical thinking! Is that the work that your fifth graders are doing? Is that the work that your high school students are doing?
In the spirit of full disclosure,
that is work that I NEVER did even in college.
I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Maybe I went to the wrong school. Maybe I was educated in the wrong era. Maybe I was never “pushed” to go beyond the literal. Maybe I was not really paying attention. Maybe I never had to do any critical thinking in school. YEP, I was thinking, without a single clue of HOW to be thinking!
This might have been a school’s approach to “Critical Thinking” in the past. . .
or still in the present. You be the judge!
Has it been effective?
When problem solving is a part of the critical thinking conversation the water may be muddied as the two are not necessarily the same.
Nevertheless, critical thinking will be required of all our students in their lifetime. They need the best preparation for life possible and that DOES include learning to read and understand at deep levels as well as a call to action to solve problems and think of creative solutions. Critical thinking does require a variety of skills as shown in this graphic.
And unfortunately, we will continue to expect folks to use all of these critical thinking skills to process driving situations, TV commercials, and yes, printed text almost simultaneously. In order to be able to do this efficiently and effectively, our students will need a lot of practice.
How will you continue to define and study your own knowledge base of “critical thinking”?
When do you use “critical thinking” in your life?
How do you model, plan for, and provide time for critical thinking in your classroom?
#SOL17: Words
Recognize this?
I saw a three letter word.
Then a five letter word.
I shuffled the letters around.
I could use six letters.
Whoa!
Check out the point total.
A silent, mental, fist bump.
“Oh, YEAH!”
“48 points!”
Then I tried just again to add in that final seventh letter.
Greedy. . .
I wanted the bonus from playing all the letters in one word.
It did not work.
Once more. . .
No Go.
I quickly pulled out my six letters.
Arranged them
Pressed the send.
Pushed the button to say, “YES, I want to play this word.”
And then a scream of anguish.
“NOOOOOOOO!”
I had played “enslave”
On the wrong “e”.
Not 48 points
A mere 18.
Attention to detail.
Real life importance of “word placement”.
A game I lost by 5.
And should have, could have, won by at least 30 points.
“Can I have a redo? Video instant replay? Do over?”
The difference between absolutely no “extra point tiles” or two “DW” tiles . . .
The difference between enslave for 18 points or 48 points.
One of my favorite pastimes – “Words with Friends”.
One of my most frustrating pastimes – “Words with Friends”.
Where do you learn your “Life Lessons”?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
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