Digging Deeper

Recently I co-facilitated some K-5 PD about Close Reading and how this strategy/technique for reading short, complex texts helps students grow and master the K-12 Reading Anchor standards. It was a great learning experience for me as I hope it was for all the teachers who were in attendance during the Monday-afternoon-after-school-after-Thanksgiving-break meeting. Kudos to those who stayed awake! ;)

Here is the Powerpoint presentation that we created for this specific PD session. There are some live links and titles of articles found on the last slide. If you are a nerd like me and like to read lots of professional jibber jabber on your weekends then you might enjoy these resources! There is a WEALTH of information out there, along with teacher blogs and additional sites that offer free materials and valuable insight into Close Reading in different grade levels.

As more resources come my way from teachers who share what they've found on Close Reading (or even the Four Categories of Anchor Standards: Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas) I will add those links to this post.

Happy digging!

MORE RESOURCES:
Close Reading Plans, Activities, and Strategies through WebEnglish.com
Close Reading Passages, Grades 1-8, from Reading Sage
Main Idea and Details freebie product from Scholastic
Free Close Reading Posters from The Teacher Next Door, TPT
Graphic Organizers GALORE from Mrs. Warner, 4th Grade

Working Hard for the Money

Anyone recognize that 80's song?? Whenever I hear it, it makes me want to get up and dance... and run in place REALLY REALLY FAST!

I love what I do!! And I hope you love what you do! Because WHEN we love what we do, we put our heart into it and work even harder.

My school has been working really hard!! We've got some amazing things in the works and already in action, ALL for the wonderful students that we serve. I say all of this because I was in a classroom this week - fourth grade, eek! - and was explaining to them how hard their teacher and I have been working together to create some fresh ideas for their reading class. The kids started to get a little excited -- I made it into a HUGE deal that they were the ONLY class getting this kind of extra special love at their grade! I also focused in on how hard their teacher was working to learn and try new things, making her admirable in their eyes since she is doing this ALL FOR THEM!! This specific example involves us focusing in on implementing the Daily 5 in their classroom.

So in this post I wanted to highlight the books that are currently on my shelf to read as an IC and, in my BIG IDEA plan, hopefully with some fellow colleagues. So here are the titles:

• The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (aka "The Sisters")
• I am specifically working in Kindergarten and Fourth Grade with this focus and it's awesome! I first experienced the Daily 5 in North Carolina, over five years ago.



• Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle
• Although I have not had a ton of WBT-focused training, what I used to do in my classroom (picking things up here and there) was definitely versions of WBT. I have seen a few teachers in my building using WBT techniques and I am very eager to dive into this book and get more ideas, beyond what I can pull up on Youtube!



• Unshakeable by Angela Watson
• I had originally bought this book at a time when I thought I would continue teaching in my own classroom. I love being re-inspired! Once I started working as an IC, I put this book to the side. Just recently I picked it back up and did some skimming of the chapters. I'm looking forward to (hopefully) sharing some highlights out of this book with teachers who feel they could use a reawakening and gain that enthusiasm to be unshakeable in their profession!!!



• The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark
• I had read his "Essential 55" a few years back and enjoyed it. I like easy reads! ;)  Although I started this one a few months back, I put it down and haven't picked it back up yet. I was so excited to get going! I think fresh ideas - even when used in a completely different demographic than where a person teaches - can still be invigorating and inspiring to think outside the box and move mountains!

• War Room by Chris Fabry
• No, this is not a "teacher" book!! However, I am very excited to have a book like this on my shelf to read. Sometimes we can get so overloaded with work - even when we love it - and forget to push our minds to another area of life. I have another blog that I try to keep up - Acts 2:42 (actstwo40two.blogspot.com) and it is tied to my Bible Study gang of gals from back in North Carolina. There are times in my busy life I drop the ball in that area. My spirituality and relationship with my Savior and my God take a backseat. So in order to keep my mind level and my priorities straight, I wanted to dive into this book that highlights the power of prayer!! Amen.



So there's my shelf! It's a little heavy right now. But I know there's no possible way I'll read all of these at one time. However, when I have a reason to - like an interested teacher - I will be able to pull something new from my shelf and dive in! Hopefully with a colleague or two. Just like I told the students last Thursday, good teachers are always learning... we work hard for the money!

Deep, Not Wide

For anyone who really knows me knows that I love to think in song. This means that if something is said that sparks a song in my head, that's what I will relate it to from that moment forward. Example...

As a young girl, I can remember singing a song at Sunday School that went something like this:
Deep and wide, deep and wide, there's a fountain flowing deep and wide...

Now, many years later, as an educator that song has turned into this:
Deep, not wide, deep, not wide, we need to take student learning deep, not wide...

Across our country, educators have been talking about making lifelong learners, career-ready individuals, students with a purpose-driven education, etc. for years! This is not a NEW concept, just one that seems to be at the forefront or under the microscope right now. I know my elementary teachers wanted the best for me -- it didn't take No Child Left Behind to get teachers to wants their students to be successful, that's for sure! But whatever the reason may be, there is now a (good) focus on the depth of our students' knowledge. We have started to really pay more attention to the "why" and "how" instead of just the "what". (Note: I'm sure there were many teachers years ago already doing this, but now it has been brought to the forefront by departments, districts, researchers, and the media).

I went through college learning all about Bloom's Taxonomy. I remember having to build lesson plans that demonstrated different leveled questions focused especially on those special verbs. Oh, those verbs!! They were so helpful in aiding me in my creation of higher-order activities and student expectations. However, DOK is NOT the same as Bloom's. To the best of my current knowledge on Depth of Knowledge (did ya like that??) it is more about the rigor and complexity of a task than it is the verb. I saw a great example the other day that used the verb "Describe" at all 4 DOK levels. So it's NOT a verb thing!

I also found out that DOK is based on the current research of a man named Dr. Norman Webb out of the University of Wisconsin. Did you catch that? CURRENT!! That's always comforting to me that someone is doing current research, sharing the most current findings, and helping support me in this current state of education.

Now, this can be a lot for teachers to take on and try to understand. Trust me! The first time I looked this stuff over I was O-VER-WHELMED!! I thought, there's no way I understand this and then can expect teachers to be understanding this and implementing it if I can't even catch on! I didn't want it to be just one more thing for anyone that I work with. So I decided to do some research. Now, I don't always do extensive research on topics - sometimes I rely on good ol' Pinterest and Google to point me in the right direction (using Laymen's terminology that I can completely understand). That's when I realized there is a plethora of educators out there trying to make sense of DOK. I have found some very intensive and detailed materials for teachers AND students - some of which I think are valuable, other ones are over-the-top and not really necessary.

Below, I have linked a few items that have been worth my time so far. My hope is that others would use these links to better their understanding of DOK and then not stop there! If I've learned one thing from Webb's DOK, it's this: it's one thing to understand something, it's another thing to apply it and make new meaning out of it. So here you go!

This image comes from

Word Walls

Active? Movable? Individual? Thematic? Retired? Rotating? Vocabulary? Sight Words?

Word Walls have morphed into so many things over the years! HOW they are used is usually dependent on the teacher and the room in which the WW is present. A upper-elementary Math teacher might have a Word Wall consisting of mathematical terms while a Kindergarten teacher might have sight words galore plastered all over her WW.

Is there a right or wrong way to use a WW? NO... as long as you are using one! Better yet -- as long as the STUDENTS are using one!

Some ways to implement Word Walls into your classroom:
-stick words to a magnetic board and students can come and "borrow" a word to take to their seats and copy down or check their spelling.
-have multiple copies of a WW in the class: a sight word WW might be near the Small Group reading table on a poster; a second (but larger) copy is on the far wall where most students can see from their seats; a third copy, printed on a single sheet of paper, has been made for students to use at their seats (maybe it's kept in binders or Writing Folders)
-thematic-based WW on chart paper can be hung up and changed as new themes or topics are explored (ex: "October" heading, words added to it like pumpkins, leaves, Halloween, ghosts, cold, windy)
-have a "Working Words" and a "Retired Words" section: words that are constantly coming up are still working... words that have been taught but could still be referred to for various purposes might be retired.
-Do you have a classroom economy? Maybe you offer a token or dollar as students find, use, or write words from the WW. Or just tally mark the words!!

Don't forget: Word Walls are not meant to be stagnant. They need to be growing with words -- and not just ones the teacher thinks need to be added. Let students give out ideas for words to be added to the "wall". This provides an opportunity for buy-in from your kiddos! Plus, they will be more likely to REFER to the WW on their own because they have actually helped create it!

THINK ON IT! :)

Data, Data, Everywhere!

I think there a few different kinds of people in our world when it comes to data in education:

1) the Obsessor: this person loves to look at numbers and trends, looks forward to receiving the most current data, and probably makes very detailed (and color-coded) trackers and spreadsheets if ones aren't readily made available through software (and if that's the case, this person will load up on paper and ink to make sure those graphs and charts are printed off and handy) and makes binders with sheet protectors and tabs to effectively organize the collection and storing of such data!

2) the Tracker: this person will be on-point, following along with the data being presented or covered, keep prepared data in a handy location to pull when needed, and will occasionally meet to discuss improvements and changes that could be made using observations and data sheets.

3) the Nominalist: this person will accept the data papers that have been printed and made readily available because it is required of them, will stick them in a file somewhere only to go scrounging around for "those sheets" when a necessary time comes (and by necessary I mean "admin requires it"), and will often dismiss the sheets as "one more thing" in the crazy busy world of being a teacher.

Now understand this, I am not dogging on any of these types of folks. And I have NO DOUBT there are combinations of these types. For instance, if you were to provide me with data about electrical usage of our school over a set amount of dates and then compare that to other schools across the district, yeah I could dissect that data with you, come up with a summary of the results, and maybe even aid in a plan to lower our usage (only if this step was REQUIRED by admin), but then you better know that I'm going to slip that "data sheet" into some Professional File of mine and never pull it again unless ab-so-lute-ly necessary!!

When it comes to student achievement data... well, then I'm a crazy OBSESSOR!!! I love it! I need it! Now I sound a bit over the top. But, for me, it's the driving force of what I do instructionally. As a classroom teacher, data (which included observational data) drove my teaching, my flexible small groups, and my intervention/remediation. Without it, I was just doing "busy teaching": looking and sounding good but not really making academic gains.

Now as an Instructional Coach, I love data even more! I can now look at whole-grade and school trends in particular subject areas, I can see how one teacher's style better supports one standard over another, and where students might be really struggling or achieving. Then I can take that information and better SUPPORT my teachers!

I already have a Data Binder prepped and ready for this year. I have the tabs in it, the cover printed and inserted (even though my ink was running out - add that re-do to my "To Do" list), and now I'm ready to start collecting and adding in data sheets and graphs (in color, por favor!).

At this moment, our school is looking at creating a Data Wall. Yes, an entire wall dedicated to the collection of school-wide educational data! I'm giddy excited!! Though some educators out there might feel like this is a bad idea ("the attention would be on me and how my students are performing... ugh), I think this is a forward-thinking, progressive idea ("let's see what achievement level they are at and where they need to head, how far they have to go, and what sort of rate of improvement would benefit the kiddo"). I'm anticipating some great teacher-talk will come out of this wall o' data as we have a positive focus and value the purpose behind this strategy.

As I was perusing Pinterest, I saw some school-wide data walls along with some classroom data walls!! How exciting! I hadn't really thought of a data wall in a classroom. I'd heard of, and used, student data binders. But posting it up on the wall is a great twist! I know some teachers already do something along these lines - posting AR goals and scores, using stickers to mark who knows what sight words, etc.

      

So I'm curious, is this something you do at your school or even in your classroom? I'd love to hear from you!

Now, I'm off to continue my search for more motivating and stimulating data wall layouts!!

Could I BE More Excited?!?!

The answer... NO! ha!
 
I am psyched for this new adventure in my life as an Instructional Coach at the elementary level (K-5)! Now, instead of impacting my own sweet class of 18, I will be working with passionate educators and effecting close to 800 students!! Wowzer. Stay calm, my racing heart.
 
I have already been pinning a number of articles, ideas, and happenings of IC's from all over. I am also very blessed to have a few great friends who are fellow IC's. I feel like I got a promotion!
 
Let the adventure begin! Let's partner for progress!!
 
First article to read today: Why Teachers Should Not Fear the Instructional Coach

That's a wrap!