TCS Literacy Team Collaborates to Design Turnaround Training

The TCS District Literacy Team met September 13 to discuss Chapter 4 of the text that the group has used to guide their learning for the last year - Reading Reconsidered by Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs, and Erica Woolway.  The group is facilitated by secondary curriculum coordinator, Dr. Jennifer Cardwell, and reading coaches, Jenni Peters and Kelly McGough.  

Today's learning targets for the discussion were: 

I can review and finalize goal, purpose, and strategies for District Literacy Team 2017-18.

I can finalize the TCS Canon and Protected Reading List.

I can apply strategies from Chapter 4 of Reading Reconsidered.

I can collaborate and design turn-around training for my school. 

The group discussed various reading class cycles:

Read-Discuss-Read Cycle

Used with complex text, the teacher pauses to ask some questions to solidify students’ understanding.

Read-Write-Read Cycle

The teacher includes prompts that ask students to pause and jot down a quick response, followed by a speedy return to the text (Stop and Jot).

Stop and Jots allow students time to process and react without significantly interrupting the flow of the narrative or text

This cycle helps students lock in key understandings or collect their thoughts and provides teachers with a data collection point.

Read-Write-Discuss Cycle

Students write to develop and refine their ideas before sharing with the rest of the class.  This helps students engage in a genuine discussion, enabling them to listen to peers’ answers. 

The teacher walks around and reads what students are writing so she can “hunt instead of fish.”

The success of this process is dependent on planning an exemplar student response.

Read-Write-Discuss-Revise Cycle

Following the Read-Write-Discuss cycle, the teacher asks students to revise their writing based on evidence and viewpoints gathered from the class discussion.  

The act of revision forces students to refine their initial analysis.  This causes students to listen better during discussion.

Read-Discuss-Write Cycle

This cycle allows students to glean additional insights from the reading through the discussions with their peers before crafting their own responses.