Reading Centers in Upper Elementary

A colleague, +Shannon Aviña, recently asked me how I use literacy centers to differentiate learning with upper grades.  Though I have doubts about how easy it is to differentiate with 35 kids, I do try to incorporate small group time to meet them where they are as much as possible.    What I have done is based loosely on the book, The Daily 5, by sisters +Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  You can read about it at The Daily Cafe.  You can also follow Gail and Joan on twitter.

I am no expert, however over the past 7 years, I have found this approach, with reflection and modifications, to be engaging and effective, based on assessments.

At our school, we use a form of RtI (response to intervention) where readers are leveled and taught in groups across the grade level, Monday through Thursday for one hour a day.  This presents its own opportunities and challenges which may be the subject of a future post.

Once a week I meet for 15-20 minutes with one group (Monday group 1, Tuesday group 2, etc). While the group is meeting with me, the rest of the class does word work on Monday, nonfiction reading/comprehension or vocabulary on Tuesday, comprehension work on the novel we were reading on Wednesday and on Thursday they would work on whatever the rest of the class did the day they were with me.

Clearly, classroom management routines must be in place before you can start this.  Students must know how to work independently.  In my classroom each student has a self-decorated index card on their desk which reads 3B4ME.  This reminds them to do three things before they ask me a question.  Number 1- ask myself, do I already know this? Can I just think about it and know what do do?  Number 2- consult a reference, look up a word, look it up in the table of contents or index of a book, check any written instructions, look it up in the web.  Finally, as long as its not during a strict test, number 3 says they can quietly ask a helpful neighbor.  Once they have completed all these things, they can ask me. However, during center time, there is a 4th step - is there is anything else (including free read) I can be working on while I wait for Mrs. McConnell? If yes, do it, if not, then you I ask. And since they always have free read as a back up option during centers, they never need to interrupt my group work. These rules are posted in the room.

I have used this 'center'  process with lit circles using a choice of books around a chosen theme, but that's a lot to change at once. This year I did not use lit circles but did use novels. I try to use novels that are aligned with the curriculum, for example Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sign of the Beaver, Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607, and Boston Jane.

The kids not with working me may work together quietly. Depending on the maturity of the students, I may  let them choose one of the three things to work on, as long as they finish it all by the end of the week. If they complete all their work, they can free read (at their reading level) or they sometimes grade their papers, to save me time and get instant feedback.

The other 40 minutes of the hour are spent reading the current novel, during which time I can meet one-on-one with students, as needed, for conferences.  How we read depends on their reading ability  - if high readers, they read 1-2 assigned chapters independently then we discuss what they've read, to ensure comprehension. They are allowed to read ahead, but may not share what they have read, so as not to spoil it for slower readers...no spoilers allowed! Sometimes we'd read aloud, though at higher ages that is less effective.

Sometimes I let them buddy read. I think that is my favorite, if they stay on task. In the beginning of the year we discuss and model strategies for buddy reading, as well as independent reading. Usually we'll use the alternate reading format of buddy reading, but with a lower reader, sometimes I have them listen then reread.

At the end of a novel students are assigned a response to literature essay to evaluate comprehension.

I hope this makes sense. Please contact me with comments, questions or suggestions!

Choose Happiness by guest blogger Monger

Choose Happiness.  Is this a true life strategy or a cliche? I worry.  Choosing Happiness should be s simple act.  However, it is not.  It is hard work and complicated .  I try. I am flawed. I fail.  The guilt sets in.  What a spiral.

I look around and see that it is so much easier, so much more satisfying to blame, complain, let others influence me.  I hear the excuses and watch as those around me continually look outside for relief.  How you doin’ today?  “I’m so tired”, “Can’t wait for the the weekend...(vacation, summer break... etc.)  Why is it we rarely hear, “Doing great!”, “Glad to be here”?

Driving in today I sat and listened to the voices in my head trying to rile me up, try to excuse my poor choices.  I felt the guilt of letting down those I hold dear in my heart and trying to justify my attitude with some outside force.  BUT, and I mean but, I know that the feelings in my heart must override the voice.  I will negate the instinct to blame with accepting my own responsibility in this world.

I believe that Choosing Happiness is a responsibility.  It is conscience act of love and I want my love for you to prevail.  Ask me how I am doing and I will tell you true that I am blessed to have you in my life.  I am sorry for my failures, and will continue to strive for Happiness.  Ask me how I am doing and I promise to answer you with True Happiness.  “I am doing great”.

~ by guest blogger +sheila monger

We Make it Look Easy

For the past two years I have been blessed to work with some amazing and talented colleagues. When I went to my new hire training last year, I sat next to a woman named +Sheila Monger, not knowing we'd become teaching partners, collaborators and friends. We ended up in adjacent classrooms and because my previous SpEd team had trained me so well ( thank you +Julie Paolini), and because my parents raised me right, I fully embrace an inclusive model of education.
From Day 1, Monger ( as she is known) and I collaborated and integrated our classrooms. We joined the iPad Academy, and worked with students across the school to film and edit content for CreaTV. Our students have been exposed to new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking.




This school year, I was asked to teach a combo - a combination of 4th and 5th graders. Due to space and budget constraints, our school, has a combo at every grade level split this year, my 5/4, a 4/3, 3/2, 2/1 and a 1/K. It is a lot to ask from teachers and students. We try to place independent learners (read: not behavior problems) into combos, which tends to place a disproportionate disciplinary, and sometimes an academic, burden on the non-combo classes. Nonetheless, combos are still a lot of extra work. We have twice the curriculum to teach, twice the grade level meetings to attend, and yes, we do have behavior issues in the classroom as well.
Since Monger teaches a 2/4/5 combo this year, we decided to team up and make it work the best we can. Sometimes we have all of our 4th and 5th graders in the same room. Sometimes, she takes one grade level and I take the other. Our kids fluidly move from one room to the other, from one teacher to the other. If you walked into our rooms, you would see all of our students working together, learning together, teaching each other. They make it look easy.
It looks easy because of the hours of planning Monger and I put in, like a calm duck on the surface, we are paddling like hell underneath. It looks easy because we have instilled in our students a sense of responsibility, compassion and accountability. It looks easy because we communicate regularly with our parents and administration, and have built a community of trust. It looks easy because we choose to be positive and happy and optimistic.

A Unique Year

Usually at this time of year I am fighting to keep my emotions in check while still presenting a compassionate, engaged teacher face to my students. Because every year that I have been a teacher, I have been laid off. For seven years. This year was different. March 15, the Ides of March, the day lay off notices to go out, came and went without much ado. I didn't even realize I HADN'T been laid off until three days later when I received notice from our Director of HR that I was being 'promoted' from temporary status to probationary status, the first step to tenure. Now, I have an odd bias against tenure, but it is the game that education plays, so I'm in it. I was thrilled to hear about my new status.

Does it make me a better teacher? Or more complacent? No, I still do my best everyday. The good news is, this year, my best does not have to include worry filled sleepless night, fighting back tears, misdirecting responses to the "will you be my teacher next year?" questions and packing my room back into storage for the summer. The comments of tenured teachers worrying about next year's class size or make up won't seem so insensitive. I hope to even know what my position is next year before too long. Who knows, I may actually get to teach the same thing two years in a row!

But I'm not quite ready to give up my storage unit.

Random notes from #Cue13

So much of what I learned at CUE was ad hoc, a hallway chat, a Cue Tip, the second half of a presentation after leaving an unproductive first half elsewhere and visits with vendors on the exhibit hall floor. 

Here are my highlights:

 Writing for the Digital Age by Rebecca Lowi,Amy Woods and Amy McMillan from Santa Barbara. I liked the essential questions, how might digital writing change how and what we write? and what are the best ways to use digital writing tools in our classroom? On things they included which I thought was important was having students write reflections on growth and learning.  I appreciated the links to teacher resources and student work.

I sat in on a Cue tip on Edmodo- Great info for Edmodo beginners - new tidbit-  Use polls as quick check. +David Ross  and +Todd Teetzel  which inspired me to go see my friend at Edmodo - +Jill Florant who suggested I check out the Edmodo apps instagrok which is a super cool research tool.  She also showed me Study Sync which looked  very interesting for upper grades but I wanted to know what they were doing for 3-5^th grade so I popped next door to their booth. Although she said they were looking at piloting for lower grades, she was not very enthusiastic so we walked away disappointed.  

Intrigued by magican’s wands and top hats, we worked our way to the very back of the hall where we found entertaining and informative reps from Collobos - They provide mobile printing from iPad to almost any printer. $20 a shot. – Yes, it’s like magic!

Near the Collobos booth was the Subtext booth. I had heard of it but didn’t quite get it. After 20 minutes talking to a real teacher who uses Subtext in her classroom I couldn't wait to get started. I'll report back once I start using it with students.

Finally I found my friend +Martin Cisneros  who I first met at CUE about 5 years ago.  We chatted about using configurator at a district, not classroom level and he has had much success with that approach.  Maybe we shouldn't have given up so soon but it is super frustrating to use for classroom iPad management. Martin's blog has been a great resource for me. 

I have used blogging in my classroom for a few years but feel like I could do more. I got some great ideas from Linda Yollis.  Her wiki provides some great ideas and examples.  Her classroom blog is so engaging and inspiring! We can do this!

http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/

http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter!

This was a great session and Leslie Fisher is incredibly engaging and entertaining.  In elementary school I don’t think I would use twitter with my kids, but I certainly do see its uses in my own professional development. 

• She recommends setting up separate teacher account vs personal account. Don't even use name and face for personal side so you can get crazy (well, in theory, one could)
• Search.twitter.com. Choose advanced then you can filter etc.
• Helpful hint: If I start a tweet with @ then only the person I sent it to will see it unless they are searching for it

Although this is from last year, it is an interesting article supporting the idea of Twitter as a PD tool. http://edudemic.com/2012/09/25-ways-to-use-twitter-to-improve-your-professional-development/

Visual Storytelling, Digital Storytelling, Cinematic Narrative: Literacy Across the Curriculum. By Ken Shelton - Cue13

+sheila monger and I attended this inspiring session at CUE last week  I was actually in another session and she text-ed me to 'get over to Primrose A now!' I was so glad I did! Our world is surrounded by still and moving imagery. In many cases these are used to provide directions, information, or even tell stories. The most vital element to all of these is Literacy. This session examined ways in which we can incorporate visual learning to support literacy across the curriculum.  +Ken Shelton is a wonderful, creative storyteller with amazing ideas and examples. I am still waiting for him to post his presentation which was just stunning. (Once I see it, I am sure I will have more to say about the session!)

This picture of +Diane Main   was annotated in thinglink , a tool for annotating/adding story to digital photos. You can click on places on the picture and get more information, more of the story.

Here are some other resources he shared: 
A presentation by +Michael Hernandez, Cinematic Storytelling which gratefully included some practical information and lesson plan ideas (something I found generally lacking at CUE this year)

Shelton also had a great idea to get kids to do a more thorough job with Storyboarding. Tell kids their grade depends on how well someone else does our movie based on your story board! 

Remember to include reflection part!!
 
Pixar’s rules for Storytelling  - I want to make a poster out of this for my kids!

 Shelton recommended the book : Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room by  +David Weinberger.

If you every get a chance to hear Ken Shelton speak, you'll be glad you did!

A Last Lecture, by George Manthey

Notes from George's Last Lecture

George Manthey is my cousin and Assistant Executive Director at Association of California School Administrators. He is retiring this year and gave his 'Last Lecture' at the Classified Educational Leader's Conference in Emeryville, CA on Feb. 28 of this year. His speech really touched my heart and I wanted to share some of his "GEMS" for those of you that don't want to sit through the full hour speech. That said, the ending makes it all worthwhile!  Where I couldn't resist adding my comments, they are (in parentheses).

George's GEMS

1. People meet up. People we connect with are there for a reason.
   
2. Steal the best stuff, share it, and give credit!
3. Leaders need to simplify, not complicate - Doobie Brothers -I may be just a boy but I am not a fool, Our leaders need to simplify instead of complicate. There is an inverse relationship between size of SIP and the improvement.
4. Don't underestimate your influence - make the most of every single opportunity! It is through creating change that we have a lasting influence.  Here he tells a wonderful story about a struggling 2nd grader who came back to him some 30 years later, an extremely successful lawyer and father, and said, roughly, 'all of my accomplishments are your accomplishments, too.' (What teacher doesn't wish for that impact?!)
5. Leading is a dance. Dance joyfully. When you dance, sometimes you teach, other times you learn. At times you are fronts and center, other times you are in the background. You have to take risks. Dancing is more powerful when you include everyone. (Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow.)
6. Often you need a commitment to just go halfway.
7. It isn't good enough to have a goal, if your goal doesn't have truth, beauty and goodness. Seek what is beautiful, right and good.
8. Sometimes you won't know, there are other times you will (think Vincent Van Gogh)
9. Include and transcend. Live in the world of What's Not. Lao Tzu said 'Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where a pot is not, is where it is useful.'  Our imaginations are not big enough when they are not expanded by others.
10. one word - NOTICE. Pay attention. Live whole heartedly. Brene' Brown reported in her TED talk, 'people who notice have things in common: Courage. Compassion. Connection. Vulnerability.'
11. End Abruptly when the time is right.
12. There are no accidents. In everything there is a purpose.
13. Love the ones you're with.

George Manthey's Last Lecture from ACSA on Vimeo.