As the end of the first trimester approaches, Paine Intermediate students are taking the STAR test to assess their progress in reading after being back in school for 12 weeks. Their teachers will conference with each student to discuss their STAR results and to set reading goals. Teachers are helping students develop the connection between hard work and achievement.
According to Ron Berger, author of Leaders of Their Own Learning, using data with students means much more than sharing test results with students a few times a year. The practice is most effective as an ongoing part of a classroom culture in which students are always collecting and analyzing information in order to improve. In order to establish and reach aspirational goals, students must first be aware of their starting point. Providing students with the opportunity to identify their own strengths and weaknesses through data analysis gives them a powerful tool for learning.
Paine Intermediate teachers carefully craft learning targets that are easily understood by students. Students are motivated to accomplish a task when they know it is within their reach.
Intervention is a time that is carefully protected and utilized every day. During this time, support is provided to students who may need extra practice or extra time to fully understand and learn a new skill.
Intervention plans are provided for and put into place by substitute teachers in the teacher's absence.
Intervention groups are a valuable use of student teachers' time.
Lydia Smith references a clearly written learning target for her math intervention group.
Second grade teacher, Catherine Finkley, shared outstanding information regarding number talks with her colleagues today during Paine Primary's professional learning time. She began by defining number talks and explaining that number talks are a quick way to practice computational fluency and to provide an opportunity for student discourse. Number talks usually last about 10 minutes. Ms. Finkley then outlined the steps for facilitating a number talk. She shared a video of her second graders engaged in number talks. Colleagues Penny Moore, Cynthia Weyerman, and Emily Wolfe shared how they include number talks in their classrooms. Ms. Finkley referenced Sherry Parrish's Book, Number Talks.
Both books are excellent resources for math teachers.
My favorite book is War and Peace.
And I know what you're thinking: "Oh, another writer wanting people to think he’s all intellectual and highbrow."
But it really is my favorite book, only not because it has 1,500 pages of unforgettable characters or a generational plot that is more compelling than that of any other book I’ve read. It’s because right before I started reading it, my life was in a rut. I had recently been passed over for a promotion at Apple and I had just been rejected by a graduate school I applied to. This double whammy left me doubting myself, my abilities, and my future. So when I came across the massive tome that is War and Peace, I thought, "Why not? I’m not doing anything else."
Two months later, I finished the book and immediately knew I had a new "favorite." But it wasn’t my new favorite book just because it was so compelling. It was my new favorite because it changed something in me. It’s almost impossible to explain why, but after reading it I felt more confident in myself, less uncertain about my future. I became more assertive with my bosses. I got back on the horse, so to speak, and applied to three more graduate schools. I attended three interviews and got accepted to all three schools (without mentioning War and Peace at all). As weird as it sounds, reading War and Peace put me back in control of my life—and that’s why it’s my favorite book.
But according to Dr Josie Billington, deputy director of the Centre for Research into Reading at the University of Liverpool, my experience wasn’t so odd. It’s actually the norm for people who read a lot—and one of the main benefits of reading that most people don’t know about. "Reading can offer richer, broader, and more complex models of experience, which enable people to view their own lives from a refreshed perspective and with renewed understanding," says Billington. This renewed understanding gives readers a greater ability to cope with difficult situations by expanding their "repertoires and sense of possible avenues of action or attitude."
And those possible avenues of action don’t have to mimic those in the book. After all, I had no interest in learning the best ways to fend off a French invasion, even though that was a major part of the story in War and Peace. Rather it was in reading about the challenges the dozens of characters in War and Peace faced that I learned to look at my life’s challenges from a renewed perspective.
"People who read find it easier to make decisions, plan, and prioritize, and this may be because they are more able to recognize that difficulty and setback are unavoidable aspects of human life," says Billington—and astonishingly these aren’t the only hidden benefits of reading regularly that researchers are now discovering.
If the standard benefits of reading, which include knowledge absorption and entertainment, were only complemented by the additional benefits of the ability to refocus, regroup, and make better decisions, it would be enough to argue that everyone should read for their own good. But according to Billington and Sue Wilkinson, the CEO of The Reading Agency, a UK charity that develops and delivers programs to encourage people to read more, experts are now discovering reading has numerous additional benefits to physical and psychological health.
"Reading for pleasure in general can also help prevent conditions such as stress, depression, and dementia," says Wilkinson. "Research has shown that people who read for pleasure regularly report fewer feelings of stress and depression than non-readers. Large scale studies in the U.S. show that being more engaged with reading, along with other hobbies, is associated with a lower subsequent risk of incidents of dementia."
Wilkinson also notes that people who read books regularly "are on average more satisfied with life, happier, and more likely to feel that the things they do in life are worthwhile." A recent survey of 1,500 adult readers found that 76% of them said that reading improves their life and helps to make them feel good.
We've all done it. Ask a question...wait for our students to answer...and get nothing. In an effort to bring about some dialogue with our classes, we ask one particular student a question. The student struggles to answer, so we give them the answer and move one. Within that moment that we decided to give the answer, we sent some serious messages to our students.
Message #1 - If you remain quiet when I ask you a question, I will ultimately give you the answer.
Message #2 - Struggling to give an answer is not ok, which is why I provide the answer.
Message #3 - Participation in your own learning is voluntary.
Message #4 - When learning is hard, shut down because an adult will take care of it, and you don't have any responsibility in the situation.
As adults, we talk a lot about learning from failure and making sure we have the growth mindset. Unfortunately, the growth mindset doesn't work (Why the Growth Mindset Doesn't Work) as well as it should because we treat our students in a fixed way. Error provides the opportunity for growth, but we treat students in a fixed way by providing them with an answer so they never really have the opportunity to learn to the depth that they could. Remember the Chinese proverb...
"Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand."
We're good at reciting the proverb but not so good at making it happen.
Each month, new teachers meet collectively with their New Teacher Coordinator to talk and learn together. During the next week or so, new teachers will video themselves teaching a lesson. After viewing, the teacher will reflect upon her video, using questions provided by the New Teacher Coordinators. At the November New Teacher meeting, the group will debrief on the experience and share their insights and new learning with each other.
Rationale for Videoing and Self-Reflection: Videotaping a lesson for self reflection or to review with a mentor can provide valuable information. It allows the teacher to view the lesson from the learner’s perspective, and to identify techniques that work and those that can be refined.
Goals:
1. Record and reflect on your teaching practice.
2. Spot errors and think of how the lesson could improve.
3. Focus on students.
New Teacher Coordinators:
Paine Primary - Melanie Glover
Paine Intermediate - Kristi Stacks
HTMS - Leigh Stovall
HTHS - Dawn Kilgore
New first grade teachers, led by reading coach Edra Perry, observed in first grade classrooms Tuesday morning to learn more about small group instruction, classroom management, guided reading, and intervention. Their peers opened their classrooms and welcomed the opportunity to share their knowledge and strategies with their colleagues. The visiting teachers and Mrs. Perry debriefed after the walkthroughs to discuss their observations and new learning, and to discuss next steps.
Donald Kachur, in his book, Engaging Teachers in Classroom Walkthroughs, states that teachers believe that classroom observations are a valuable source of professional growth for teachers at every stage of their careers. Educators view walkthroughs as a means for teachers to observe, reflect on, and discuss their practices and to focus on individual, collegial, and schoolwide improvement. The outcome of walkthroughs involving teachers is greater consistency of instructional best practices across all grade levels and subject areas. Walkthroughs enable teachers to observe effective practices that confirm their own classroom behavior. They can also help teachers acquire new ideas and techniques through one of the most powerful means to learning - watching those ideas and techniques being enacted.
We want to develop a culture in all of our schools whereby all staff members learn from one another. Walkthroughs enable teachers to identify the instructional areas they want to improve and to identify practices to implement in their own classrooms. A huge and growing research base indicates that learning is most effective when it is shared. Want to share your strategies or continue learning from your colleagues? Please let your administrator or academic coaches know, and they will help make peer walkthroughs happen for you.
Walking through Paine Primary on Tuesday morning, teachers had written and posted learning targets that were aligned to standards. There was a balance of knowledge, reasoning, and skills learning targets. These learning targets will allow students to track their progress, even though the audience was first graders.
Notice that the learning target (above) that is written on the pink sticky note provides a focus during a small group, intervention lesson.
Principal Lisa Berry and Teacher Leigh Stovall shared their successful, innovative scheduling that includes time for student selected clubs, with other middle school teachers and administrators at the Annual Conference for Middle Level Education this week in Columbus, Ohio. The two presented their story to a full house this morning. Participants were impressed with HTMS and the value administrators and teachers place, not only on academics, but on relationships between students and teachers. Congratulations to Lisa and Leigh for sharing this successful initiative with other schools.
Kelly McGough, TCS elementary reading coach, sent me a link to an article that is a serious "game changer," in my opinion. I encourage you to read and share the article with colleagues and even students. A teacher spent two days as a student and wrote about her experiences, which appeared on the blog of author and educator Grant Wiggins.
The teacher, Alexis Wiggins, shadowed a student for two days. Her key takeaways:
1. Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting.
2. High school students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90 percent of their classes.
3. You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long.
Jennifer Brown, Vestavia High School science teacher and Alabama Teacher of the year, shared an inspiring and motivating message with the staff of HTHS this morning during their late arrival collaboration time. Ms. Brown encouraged teachers to create a culture where it is cool to be challenged. She said that we must convey the message to both students and colleagues that the learning never ends. Ms. Brown tells her students, "If today isn't hard, I am not doing my job." She said that at Vestavia, they have tried to create a risk taking environment. Because of that risk taking environment, teachers at Vestavia High School requested to lead focused instructional rounds. Her message to teachers is to, "Get out of your rooms. Try something new and invite others to observe and give feedback." Ms. Brown concluded by challenging teachers to make it a habit to inspire and encourage our students and colleagues. She quoted educator Rita Pierson who says we must insist that our students become the best they can be. (To hear Rita Pierson, click here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw
Ms. Brown recommended the Carol Dweck book Mindset.
Notice the learning targets that have been marked off! Evidence that the teacher is referencing the learning targets and having students assess their own learning.
Sixth graders saw animal adaptations up close and personal today at HTMS. Students recorded their new learning on graphic organizers and generated high level questions about the adaptations.
Learning targets are varied in presentation and content. They are alike in that they:
●come directly from the standards
●are not a direct restatement of the standard
●begin with “I can”
●EXPIRE…...They don’t last an entire grading period or semester (generally 1-2 lessons or until all or the majority of your students have reached mastery and you are ready to move on)
●are written in student friendly language
●need to be measurable
●are posted daily
●are shared with students before each lesson
●are revisited at the end of each lesson
●are visible anywhere in the classroom
●describe intended learning outcomes
●chunk the standards into “bite-sized” manageable portions for students
●help students know what they will know and be able to do at the end of a lesson (standards based)
