Write Around for Reading

Write Around

This strategy can be found in the Characters Unit of Study.  A “Write Around” is a strategy to engage students in silent conversation.  It helps students share their opinions, debate or discuss.  It also fosters critical thinking because they have to consider other opinions.       

We participated in one as a pre-reading activity.  A photo or image was put in the center of a piece of chart paper.  Groups of four are ideal but we had a few more.  Everyone uses a different color marker and takes turns responding to the image. You can write what you think about the photo, your questions, your inferences or theories.  Groups members are to start new ideas or respond to yours already written there.

She encouraged us to respond to what other people wrote by elaborating on their writing and taking turns as well.   Zoom in on one portion of the photograph and write about it.  What are you now noticing about just this part?  Move around the table or rotate the chart  Read what another reader has written and respond.

You could begin:
I agree with...
I disagree with..
One question I have is...
What have you learned in other parts of your life that you can relate to this?
What’s an idea you are now having?
I think...

The Babe & !

The activity we did was old black and white photographs during the depression era.  Then she went straight into reading aloud a picture book with us (The Babe and I) that had the Depression era as a setting.  It really gave a deeper level to the understanding of the book as she modeled interactive read aloud.

The "Write Around" strategy is a great pre-reading activity but it can also be used as a debate format about a controversial issue.  Sharing their ideas and building on others' ideas.  Or you can use it as an end of unit activity for a read aloud or content area.  Students take turns write and responding to each other about what they learned or how their thinking has changed at the beginning of the unit or read aloud.  Can you see using "Write Around" easily in your classroom?

Cross posted on Once Upon a Teacher

Building a Reading Community

Kathleen Tolan

My morning session Monday was with Kathleen Tolan - senior director of TCRWP, author of several books including some of the new Units of Study

Kathleen spoke passionately about building a reading community.  Below I am sharing my notes that still may sound a little disjointed even after I reread and filled in but I left what I felt was important or worth repeating.  I am italicizing her thoughts that are some direct quotes and some paraphrased by me.

How do we really think about building a reading community?  It is essential.  We will be holding on to it all year long. Most of the kids you teach have a broken relationship with reading, only a few have a good one.  Some of these essentials maybe weren’t addressed earlier you can’t make assumptions that they have heard of it before.   

When trying to develop curriculum it’s hard because you are always being given more things to stir in the pot and never one to take out.  And reading affects ALL content areas.  Reading has to matter in a school as a whole.  In every classroom.  Make things in your school that display that reading matters... Photos, displays of book reflections, book ads...  We have lots of assessment data but we need to think of the kid as a reader.  If you were making a timeline as a reader what would be on it?  Let kids talk about themselves as readers.  If they had a great experience reading what were the components of that?  If kids had a bad experience what were the components of that.  Lists of favorites and why they are favorites. Conversations with readers about their lives as readers.  Some kids who are avid readers lose the love because it isn’t cool to read.  They don’t talk about themselves as readers.  It’s important for them to speak about themselves as readers.  Tell them about YOU as a reader.  Read the books in your classroom library so you can talk with kids as a reader of that particular book.  Book buzz- sell them or talk about them to kids.  When was the last time you walked into a bookstore and just picked a book off a shelf and just read it?  Really?  Kids with broken relationships with reading do that on a daily basis.  Let kids sell books to each other. Also talk about books you found not so good.  Why did you not like it?  Oprah Winfrey’s book club sales would go up after they talked about it, not the day she introduced it. 

Build a community where we talk about books.  Rating systems for books, interactive bulletin board happening in room.  Recommendations inside covers on sticky notes.  Let kids own and not be ashamed of the books they read, every classroom has a range of readers they should still be a part of the reading community.  If you are talking about the characters of books it doesn’t matter what level you’re reading.Make sure there are plenty of choices for all levels of readers.  Struggling kids shouldn’t have fewer choices.  They need to feel part of that community.

If you want to scare yourself, do a running record on your content textbooks.  They are always written above their level. Reading identity gets established young.  Have time each week for kids to shop the classroom library to find new books to read.  1/3 of books leveled but part of the library not leveled for interest level.  Have a smaller library out at the beginning of the year so you can control choice a little until after you assess.  Getting kids turned onto a series will help kids read a ton of books.  If you have second language learners it’s good to have a few books in their native language to continue their reading skills in their native language as well as books in their English level.  When we launch book clubs or historical book clubs we need to save books to side so they won’t have read them already.  Structures and units affect how we roll out our library.  It’s important for kids to read for long stretches of time.  The more you practice something the better you get at it...  LONG periods.  AT LEAST 30 to 40 min a day.  So many “activites” around reading than kids actually reading.  The reading extensions can’t become more important than the actual reading.  How many of you as adults finish reading a book and go get a coat hanger out of the closet with some yarn and make a mobile about the book?  It’s not growing readers!

Help kids keep track of the reading they do.  They can keep a log but use it for conferring and have kids use it to look at their reading habits.  Help them see how they can use it to assess themselves for reading time and genre type and where they read.  Columns to have on the logs:

book /level / home or school / page started / page ended / minutes read / genre

If you don’t talk with kids about noticing their reading patterns and they think of it as only an assignment don’t do it.  That is not what it’s for.  Study and get data on yourself as a reader.  Also compare with a friend. 

There is a magic to books if you get kids hooked in to reading books, but they won’t progress without the right instruction.  Structuring your day with rituals and routines that make roles for the kids and teachers clear is important.  60 minute block is really needed.  Mini lesson needs to be mini.  It’s important for kids to be on the floor close to you because it creates an intimacy with you.  Your feedback is instant and if you ask them to do something to practice what you teach you can hear and see what they are doing better.  30 to 40 minutes is the time for workshop and reading. You pull small groups, assessments, circulate, confer.  Don’t do one thing only every day.  You might also be working with a book club or partners reading.  Sometimes you might have a mid-workshop reading point.  You stop what they are doing and note it.  The share closes the workshop time with a noticing where a student used what you taught in that mini lesson. 

During running records you need to look at fluency and reading rate.  If that’s not something to patch and fix the longer you wait.  Reading logs will help you assess this informally.  The important thing about a running record is you don’t stop until they bomb.    How can you assess their higher level comprehension?  Written responses to their reading. Depending on your assessments, that will tweak your instruction and units.  Some groups may need more word work or compare/contrast.  Assessments should change your instruction. 


Our educational system teaches to deficit model, always teaching at what they don’t know.  If you teach to the strength that can spiral back to help the deficit as well.  Don’t get caught up in all weaknesses.  

I think that all the teachers in my building agree that we are ALL reading teachers and that it is important to use reading strategies and teaching techniques throughout the day, but there is always more for us to learn about teaching reading through content or informational text.  I think that we will do more of that in our professional development this year.  But I am thinking there are some creative ways we can display to our students, parents and stakeholders that we are a "community of readers".  Maybe highlight a teacher's favorite childhood book, short "commercial" clips that teachers or students can do for books to be played on morning announcements or accesible on a share site for teachers to show at a good time and maybe even capture video footage of teachers in the school that are willing to share their life and habits as a reader.  Especially those teachers that are familiar to all students, so watch out resource teachers and administrative staff...I'm coming your way with a camera!  What ideas can you share to build a reading community?


Cross posted at Once Upon a Teacher

Teachers College Reading Institute Begins

Inside Riverside Church

Our day started bright and early at the beautiful Riverside Church I spoke about yesterday .  Where Lucy Calkins gave the keynote entitled:  Leading by Influence

If you have ever heard Lucy Calkins speak even once, you know her words are powerful, she tells a story like nobody's business and she talks fast!  So I came prepared and took seven pages of notes but recorded her audio as well to go back and fill in some important parts I missed.  So, much of what I am sharing is direct quotes from her or her words paraphrased.  I want you to know that this huge church was filled to the back and you could have heard a pin drop.   The thoughts and ideas resonated with us all as I could see nods of heads around me and even tears at times.  I hope that what I share here will even have a small impact on you as it had a big impact on me.        

Lucy Calkins

We are at a juncture in education where pressures and expectations are skyrocketing.  The Common Core Standards which have been adopted in 46 states point out that there is a gap that exists from high school graduation to college entrance where students enter a year behind the reading level they should. Even though it has been made clear that if there is any dumbing down of the texts it has been done at the high school level, maybe the middle school level but definitely not the elementary level.  (The level of text complexity in the K-5 level has not increased over the last 30 years). Yet the common core has put the responsibility of raising text complexity squarely on the shoulders of K-4 teachers. Between the grades of K -5 kids are expected to grow a level of 150 lexile points a year and between the grades of 6-12 the kids are expected to grow a level of 60 points a year.  What used to be expected at the end of fourth grade now is expected at the middle of second grade. We have to escalate the quality and volume of reading that kids do.  The expectations come with punitive results if students don’t meet the them.  Instead of 1/3 of third graders not meeting expectations in the U.S. we will now have 2/3 not meeting expectations. (This just happened in NY )  It is the level of reading, comprehending and writing.

The expectations are higher so the level of support for teachers should be high as well but schools have less money to provide for books and supplies because that money is used on tests and technology to take tests ( 15 billion is being spent in the U.S. to implement Common Core Standards)  Schools have less ability to provide professional development and less ability to provision kids with books they need and teachers have larger class sizes than ever and at the same time people, the media and politicians are calling out, “DO MORE, REACH HIGHER!”  Teachers are being portrayed as screw ups. 
That wake up call has been rung, and rung, and rung and it’s not gonna work now.  Why would people think that criticism is helping grow master teachers? 

The story that schools are failing is a carefully manufactured message.  It’s not true, for example, that graduation rates are at an all time low as people keep saying.  In the beginnning of the 21st century, the graduation rate was 10%.  Now the graduation rates are 75-90% depending on how you look at them.  The question Lucy asks is, “Why would Arne Duncan, U. S. Education Secretary, NOT count those graduating in August instead of June? Why would he not count GED graduates?

Why don’t people point out that levels of child poverty have tripled over the years and the scores have remained flat for 30 years.  The single factor that most relates to scores is poverty.  They should be saying, “Good for you teachers!”  Do they actually think the way to improve teaching and learning is to demoralize teachers? 

A study recently came out that said in the last 3 years teacher job satisfaction levels have gone from 62% to 39%.  It’s worse in elementary schools.  Over half are going through their day stressed.  Think about a day with your kids where you weren’t stressed at all.  How different was that from the day you were totally stressed out. 

Whether you like it or not those of you who teach reading are entering into a horse race. The move to more universal and rigorous common core assessments will yield data about approaches to reading and writing and the expectation that we will figure out the right answers from these tests.  Many of these schools are quickly moving to Readers Workshop.  This year they received more applications than ever. 

Here’s what will matter in your school because there is less professional development.  You must lead from within.  Build capacity.

Our first goal at our school should be to create a counter narrative to this “teachers are failing” narrative.  The “teachers are failing” narrative is demoralizing and it will never tap into the energy needed to do this work.  It’s not just teachers taking a beating.  Kids are taking a beating.  Lucy referenced Sandy Hook Elementary where they could be the death of optimism.  But authors captured the stories of heroic teachers and love displayed to give that school a counter narrative.  At Teachers College they have made the story of NewTown, CT the story of the principal, Dawn who attended many of their Institutes.  The principal who put herself in harms way to protect children.  THAT is a narrative.  These counter narratives need to be told.  They are what MATTERS.  It shouldn’t take kids dying to tell these stories.  Write yours as school leaders.  You need to do this to overcome doing more with less. 

Successful communities have leaders that rally others to fight for causes greater than themselves. Success or failure of an institution is how well it taps into finding talents of individuals.  We all need to be contagious learners.  It needs to be visable.  One way to rally communities is to go on walks through the school building expecting to find beauty.  Call it “Glory Walks” - illustrate your counter narrative with the magic that happens when a teacher sits and works with a child. 

Carrot sticks will never make teachers go the extra mile.  Rally them to ideas that tap into their belief system.  Tapping into people’s energy to make good work better.  As a leader, all of the people who work with you are on your lap or shoulder.  Choose to lead by influence. 

My favorite thing about her speech was teaching us about writing the counter narrative for our school.  I think we do a good job of that within, recognizing greatness, sharing small moments and telling the story of what makes our school special but I think we can do more.  I LOVE the idea of Glory Walks.  Sometimes when you are going on a "focus" walk looking for specific things you might miss out on something amazing that could be happening that very minute.  One of my favorite job assignments my boss ever gave me was to take photos of each teacher interacting with a child or class.  Truly I get teary eyed watching the slideshow of the photos teamed together because what we are doing with kids IS magical, and rocket science, and selfless.  We need to tell our story more!




Created with flickr slideshow. Cross posted on Once Upon a Teacher

Arriving in New York

My home for the week

Today I arrived in New York to attend the Teachers College Reading Institute.  It's a bit of a story that you can read on my  personal blog, but I hope this opportunity will be something the teachers of my school will reap the benefits of learning through me.  I am excited to be taking on the job of literacy coach this year! 

I will be starting the Institute tomorrow, so check back here or simply register your email on this blog to get updates straight back to you.  I will also be "tweeting" as much as possible on twitter.  My username is @Holtsman.  I hope to make long lasting connections with the literacy leaders here and if it wasn't for the connection I made on twitter a few years ago I might not be here today - check out my blog for that story.  Back here soon!

Duval County Teacher Academy-Day 5

One of the nicest things about large county-wide professional development is the chance to see and reconnect with good friends that you once taught with (see left)... or in my case, reconnect with former students who are now your teacher colleagues!  I was delighted to run into a former pre-k student who is now a teacher in the county! What a thrill!  Love you Melissa! I am also thrilled that this is the last day of the Teacher Academy.  It's been a l-o-n-g week. 

Gradual Release

Out with the old.  In with the new!  Except I think in this case, it is out with the old and in with the older!  The Gradual Release of Responsibility is a research-based instructional model developed by Pearson and Gallagher, I think in the early 80's.  Fisher and Frey have written about it extensively, as have many researchers and practitioners over the years.  Those of you who are familiar with Anita Archer's work in Duval County may also remember her referring to this model.  Of course, being older, does not mean there is anything wrong with it.  The fact that this model is still around, as popular as ever, means that it probably falls into that "tried and true" category.

 

 

Although the graphic above is not the exact one used in the Duval presentations, I think it accurately represents the principles.  The idea is simply that the teacher begins with the "I do" of explicit instruction, which is similar to Lucy Calkin's mini-lesson model that begins with the Connection, connecting to prior learning and the Teach, which is the instructional focus for the day's lesson (reference to Lucy is mine and was not expressed by any of the Duval presenters, but it is necessary for me to put this new requirement into a framework that aligns with my current practice).  The "we do" is guided practice and then the "you do" is the collaboration, much like Lucy's Active Involvement. Finally the "you do it alone" is the Independent Practice that Lucy would say is the  Link, which gives a purpose for the Work Period, which is the time that student read and practice the strategies that they have learned, the application stage or Independent Practice. 

 

How does this effect us?

Although I have heard of this model being used extensively with improving literacy achievement and comprehension, I don't remember so much about its application to Math and Science (although that may very well exist!)  While I think the model matches well with what we already do in most Readers' and Writers' Workshops, I will be very interested in the conversation of my Math and Science colleagues who have been successful with a discovery, Japanese influenced type model.  It's easy to adopt something new when what you are doing is not working.  It is more difficult to adopt something new if what you are doing is extremely successful.

 

Curriculum

We now have the YAG (Year-at-a-Glance) that opens each CG (Curriculum Guide).  Each CG includes CLG (Curriculum Lesson Guides) and will be assessed with the CGA (Curriculum Guide Assessments).  Oh my! or maybe I should say OMG!  The Curriculum Guides were written with intensive stakeholder input.  The guides are meant to be a framework of suggestions.   Teachers have the autonomy to veer from the Curriculum Guides, with Principal approval, of course,  but will be held accountable for the CGAs.   The Curriculum Guides are all available at https://cg.duvalschools.org.

 

Time configurations have also changed. 

• Math now includes 60 minutes of instruction and 30 minutes "extra".  The 30 minute "extra" might include ideas such as iReady (computer), Reflex (computer), Gizmos (computer), small teacher led groups, Rti (did I mention this is now MSTT- Multi-tied Support System) Tier 2 interventions, Envisions, and previous Math Investigation games.  It would not be a time to do Calendar Math.
• Reading includes 150 minutes, which is same amount of time we have always had for ELA: 90 minutes of Reading which includes Skills, 30 minutes of Writing, and 30 additional minutes.  In this case, the additional minutes can include "rotations" - think of them as Centers and will also be your RtI time.
• Notice that 30 minute blocks have been built into each schedule to make time for RtI Tier 2 interventions which are to be done in the classroom.

 

How does this effect us?

In Kindergarten we have always had our own Pacing Guide where we tried to put the entire nine weeks in all subjects on a single page of paper.  We did this because we really wanted to have "echoes across the day" and wanted  our entire kinder day to be connected.  We will still try to do that, but frankly, my mind is muddled with so many changes to comprehend.   I am still thinking through this and will wait until each of our Council groups (Reading, Math and Science) each meet next week to discuss the changes and implementation before finalizing a Kindergarten Pacing Guide with my Kindergarten colleagues.  Right now, I am leaning toward trying to follow much of the County's CGs.  These are my present thoughts, without having the luxury of discussing it with my colleagues.  In fact, I am SURE these comments will elicit much of that discussion!

• In Science, for instance, we have had such little accountability in the past in K. I am sure there are probably teachers who just skipped parts of the Science curriculum while others not only taught the curriculum but spent hours adding to it.  Really there is no way of knowing, which is the point. At least if we followed the Kinder Science CG, we would have some accountability in how we are doing because we are required to give the CGAs. 
• Reading is probably okay too, except the county has not, in my opinion, figured out an alternative to our oral language (Sulzby, Calkins) component that we have successfully used for years as a way to move children through the reading levels (DRA), so I'm thinking we need to keep those pieces (Sulzby and DRAs) in place, but the lay out of the sequence of skills and reading strategies is probably fine.
• Writing is probably where we will have the most difficulty in making the type of change that is being suggested by the county.  We have been married to the Lucy Calkins units for a long time because they have been so extremely successful for us.  I don't see an alternative that would sway  me from that commitment.  I also know that the county's Reading and Writing curriculums were written independent of each other and there was no effort to marry the two.  Believing so strongly that one is absolutely dependent on the other and that reading and writing should be a dance intertwining together,  this may be the place to veer from the curriculum and rewrite the Writing pacing to better meet our experiences, using the new Calkins' units as the backbone.  Since there is no CGA in writing, this may be the easiest area to use our autonomy and stay true to what we believe.
• The Math CG may also be okay.  While I think we may teach in a more discovery type model than is being suggested, the content could remain the same in Kindergarten as suggested.  The CGAs would actually give us an accountability piece that we would welcome as a way to see how we are doing.  While we have written our own end-of-the-unit assessments and have regularly compared them during common planning, a process where the county would take on more of the data collection  would be a welcome relief from all the hand scoring and comparing that we have tried to do in the past.  The county doing the collection and synthesizing would give us more time to do the analyzing

 

Final thoughts:  This has been a grueling week.  The accommodations have not always been welcoming.  I sometimes felt a little like a child must feel who goes into a classroom where the teacher really doesn't want another child.  We often seemed to be an unwelcome guest at the high school.  However, I have to commend the many teachers and administrators who have worked through their entire summer to make this academy possible.  I have complained about differentiation and I hope that will become a part of our on-going county PD, but the presenters did their best to help teachers to calm down and try to see the value in so many changes.  However, the sheer amount of new information was overwhelming. I do fear that the county does not have the infrastructure to accommodate the huge reliance on computer-based interventions and testing and that this massive need will undermine much of the promising results.

 

Also, please know that the thoughts in these blogs are mine alone and that I take full responsibility for their content.  They are simply my first thoughts and how I think we can marry the best of the new with the best of the old.  I am sure my opinions will change as the year goes on and I have the opportunity for input from my colleagues, who challenge my opinions on a regular basis and allow me to grow.  I simply wanted my colleagues who did not have a chance to go to the Academy to have a little heads up and front loading. 

 

We are on the cusp of a new year.  You can smell it in the air and I am thrilled to be returning to a school with a leader of vision and colleagues who, above all else, are passion-driven to make a difference in the lives of the children they teach.  Here's to the BEST year ever! Let the WILD ride begin!

 

Duval County Teacher Academy - Day 4

The Iowa, DAR, and TTS

The day started with a presentation on the Iowa which has been around since the 70's.  In fact, I think I gave it early in my career!  It all comes back around!  The Iowa, Form E is a whole group test, a screening.  It is still owned by the authors (Florence Roswell and Jeanne Chall) who consider it their life's work but is sold by the publisher. Its origin is in the Harvard Reading Lab.  Although the Iowa tests Reading, ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies, in Duval we will only be giving the Reading section.  Grades 1-5 will be taking it in the Fall and then K-5 in the Spring.  Kindergarten does not take it in the Fall because the authors do not believe that results are valid!  Now, I like that! Kindergartners, however, will need to know how to bubble a bubble sheet.  Now I don't like that!  Evidently there are some practice tests that the kinders can take to practice bubbling in.  The Iowa tests have to be sent off to be scored (Test Coordinators were warned to package them according to directions) which takes about 15 business days.  The catch is that no test is scored until every test in the County is sent in - now that could be a problem in our very large county!

 

Teachers will receive a detailed report through the Data Manager which is web-based.  Looks like lots of different reports can be generated including a test for the Parents.  ESE teachers and both homeroom teachers will have access to their students' data, as long as the test administrator puts all that information in correctly from the beginning.

 

The Iowa will identify students that need to take the DAR (Development Assessment of Reading) which is an individually administered diagnostic assessment (could take up to an hour to give).  Basically students under a certain percentage will be candidates for this extra one-on-one testing. This diagnostic is scored immediately in areas such as the following:  Print Awareness, Phonological Awareness, Letters and Sounds, Word Recognition (1st grade starts here), Word Analysis, Oral Reading, Silent Reading Comprehension, Word Meaning.  Although kinders do not take the Iowa in the Fall, strugglers can be given the DAR.

 

The TTS (Trial Teaching Strategies)  are a series of short lessons that link instruction to assessment.   They are the strategies and resources for teaching the identified strands of the DAR.  Lessons that have been included by the authors are those that provide the quickest results for success, backed up by research.

 

How does this effect us?

• This system of screening and then Diagnostic with researched lessons seems like a very comprehensive program.
• It is nice not to have our kinders take the Iowa in the Fall but it will still take preparation to get them ready for this 40 minutes test in the Spring. 
• If kinders take the Iowa in the Spring, we have nothing to compare it to (no Fall test) and the students will have to take the 1st grade Iowa in the Fall  as a pre-test so I am not sure what purpose there is in taking it in the Spring for kindergarten...
• Looking at the section of the DAR that are for kinders, I am reminded of the areas on the FAIR so it might be worth cross referencing these two tests since we are required to give every student the FAIR pre-test as part of the FLKRS.  For instance, both assessments seem to ask the students to name the letters of the alphabet and the sound that each letter makes.  Maybe it would be easier to give this paper and pencil and then transfer the results to each test...  That might need more investigation but anyway we can save time and be more efficient gives us back instructional time. 
• I am wondering if the DAR might be the test we give to identify our RtI students and then use the results for a Tier 2 intervention in a small group in the room.

 

I am also wondering if the TTS might be new ideas for our Skills Block.  Would be interesting to spend some time looking at these researched activities.

 

Since we don't give the Iowa in the fall, we still don't have a way to place students into text.  Historically many of our students come into kindergarten already reading, so we really can't wait until the spring, when we do give the Iowa, to get them into conventional text.  It looks like we will continue to introduce Star Books and to use the Sulzby levels to begin kindergarten and then to continue to use the Level 7 Sulzby to know that children are ready for a DRA (this work taken from Lucy Calkins).  Looks like we still need the DRA to move students appropriately through levels.

 

On a personal note, it is interesting to me that we are going back to a more diagnostic prescriptive approach which was so popular when I was in graduate school in the late 70's. As part of my graduate fellowship I taught an undergraduate course in Diagnostic Prescriptive teaching.  The principles are the same today...

 

 

The next presentation of the day was Success Maker, another oldie, but goodie Pearson product, with a 45 year history (anyone remember CCC, its predecessor).  Although this online program is available for both Math and Reading, only Reading was bought by Duval County.  

• can use over the summer
•  almost game-like (from the Atari era)
•  requires headphones and microphones to operate 
• includes an initial placement/ testing phase
• includes assessment in Concepts of Print, Phonological Awareness, Fluency, Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Spelling 2-5, and Grammar 2-5.
• has guided practice embedded
• passwords will be available when we get to school (haven't seen them yet!)
• meant to be used for 20 minutes by every student every day
• only 30 site licenses have been purchased for each school which means that only 30 students can be on the program at the same time
• How does this effect us? 
• First of all, it seems almost impossible to operate a rotation such as this in a school of 1250 students with only 30 students being able to be on the computer at a time.  I also doubt that we have the number of computers, headphones and mikes to pull this off.  We probably should invite  the Duval rep, Elain Zirakian (Elaine.Kirakian@pearson.com) to come visit and make suggestions for the best implementation.  Maybe she has worked with other schools with the same challenges.
• I am thinking that, at least for right now, this might be a Tier 2 reading intervention program in the classroom 3 times a week. I am wondering if we can use the DAR diagnostic to place students into these strands so students don't have to do another assessment - saving time for instruction.  If the Tier 2 is not successful, the program could be taken to 5 days a week in a pull-out Tier 3. 
• 
  Katie Moeller finished off the day with a reading of Piggie by Don and Audrey Wood.  While I have seen Lucy Calkins and others do close readings of text, they always tend to use 3rd grade or much higher level work in their demonstrations.  This is the first lesson I have seen at the Kindergarten level.  Dr. Moeller says she has demonstrated this lesson many times in kindergarten, first and second.  It might be well worth our time to invite her to come and demonstrate it for us with all kindergarten and first grade teachers watching for one of our first Common plannings. I know our teachers would love to see someone do a close reading with our youngest learners as much as I would.  She talks about the scaffolding and struggling and I think that is one of the things we need to see.  Her questions are tough and she talks about the students looking at her blankly but staying with the questions and how she has to scaffold them to dig out the answers.  I think that's the part we need to see.
• One other interesting note to those that might still be having difficulty seeing the Curriculum guides at https://eg.duvalschools.org, you must have Explorer 8 to run the guides.  It was pushed out through the system so you may have to go to school and plug your laptop into the network to get the fix.  She cautioned against printing the guides because you lose about 80% of the capabilities and because the guides will be updated without notice and so you may be teaching from outdated lessons.

Duval County Teacher Academy, Day 2

Interactive Journals K-2
Looks like journals are definitely in - "highly suggested, but not mandated."

• The expectation is that each student K-2 will have an interactive journal in both Science and Math.
• Interactive journals are a type of formative assessment and record a student's thinking.
• The journals have a specific "researched" (have requested a copy of the research) format which includes the "Rules of the Journal" on the inside cover, a Table of Contents, and a synopsis of the CGA's (Curriculum Guide Assessments) on the inside back cover that we will be taking as baseline, first, second and third nine-weeks and end-of-the-year.
• Only the teacher is to write on the right side of the page and the student writes on the left side.
• "Labs" are now referred to as "aligned investigations."
• Teachers should write feedback in the journals on a consistent basis.

How does this effect us?  I'm a little hesitant to comment on this because I am sure Math Council will meet to decide how we are going to use journals.  Science Council did a book study all year on Interactive  Science Journals so I am sure they have great ideas of how to implement this for kinders.  I'm really sort of excited about the Science Journals, having used them in first grade last year. I can't wait to discuss this with other kindergarten teachers so we can find easy ways to actually get kinders  to effectively use this tool.


CBC-Common Board Configuration
The superintendent's expectation is that every class will use a common configuration on their board.
Objective (which can be written in kid-friendly form and is not the standard)        Home Learning
Essential Question
How does this effect us?  Since this is the Superintendent's expectation, we, like the rest of the county will figure out a way to find board space to supply this information for each subject each day - Reading, Writing, Skills, Math and Science - oh my!  We probably should discuss this as a grade level and figure out a fun, creative way for the display that will really be helpful rather than just compliance .


Rigor is not a four letter word!
How to raise rigor:

• has to be relevant to real world
• group work, high level work
• connected to prior learning
• probing questions
• instruction is beginning to end
• utilize essential questions
• utilize research-based strategies
• frequent formative assessment
• personal commitment to each student

Gizmos
Gizmos are interactive, on-line simulations, focusing on Math and Science

• Explorelearning.com
• Although Gizmos is developed for 3-12th grades, there are some that can be used for whole group instruction with K-2. 
• Demonstrated Line Frog Hop gizmo which is a fun addition and subtraction number line game.

How does this effect us?  
We are very familiar with Gizmos having had this overview before, so this was just one more overview of a product that was not really made for kindergarten.  If we are going to use it, I think we would need "someone" to go through the Gizmos and make some Common Core/ Standard recommendations because just searching through can be too time consuming.

iReady
Math will now include 60 minutes of Math Investigations (and Envisions) plus a 30 minute addition that will allow for RtI interventions and centers.  This is not a time to do Calendar Math which will have to be added to some type of opening exercise.

• iReady is a web-based diagnostic prescriptive Math intervention based on the Common Core.
• The diagnostic is on-line and takes 30-45 minutes for each student to complete and provides a skills profile of what students know and need next in Algebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations, Geometry and Measurement and Data.
• Has sound that reads each problem so you are testing Math and not Reading.
• Skill specific instead of grade specific.
• Students are encouraged to use paper and pencil to arrive at answers.
• Will not be available for kinder students until January.

How does this effect us?   This may be a skill based program but if this program can actually deliver all that it promises, it would be the perfect RtI Tier 2 intervention to be done in the classroom.  It could also provide ESE intervention and small group work in specific skills.  It could also provide extra enrichment for Gifted students.  Can't wait to see if this intervention delivers!


In an effort to be transparent, I need to say that I will miss tomorrow's training and will be working at my school to get materials to some of our new teachers instead.  Tomorrow's agenda includes ethics (if I haven't figured that piece out by now, I need to go ahead and retire), a piece on reading IEPs (should have this piece down after 35 years as an ESE teacher), Champs and Bullying, and ESOL.  I am fortunate to have had many, many trainings on Champs and Bullying and ESOL.  I have many praises for the training thus far, such as the American Reading Company representative telling us that Sticks in a Can is good practice and then using that technique to keep teachers engaged or the county trainers this morning who taught us about interactive journals by actually having us make a journal and using it throughout their presentation. I believe that professional development should model good practice.  If I had one criticism, it would be that we talk so much about differentiation, and yet this training has provided very little of that - a good example for me is tomorrow's agenda.  Although this agenda might be perfect for many teachers, I have had such excellent experience and PD in those areas that the agenda didn't really meet my needs.  There are so many other areas that I really do need!  Hoping differentiation will be part of the last few days.

Stay tuned...

Duval County Teacher Academy, Day 1

I LOVE the beginning of school.  Everything seems so new and exciting.  This year I'm starting with a five day County Teacher Academy.  I thought I'd blog it from one Kindergarten Teacher's point of view.  The views expressed are mine only!

Over four hundred teachers gathered in a local high school's cafeteria for the morning session!  Too many teachers and not enough chairs - hard, backless benches for a two and half hour morning presentation - two screens the size of postage stamps to try to view the PowerPoint - bathrooms with no toilet paper that hadn't been cleaned for the start of school - not such a good first impression...   However,...

Language Arts and Reading
The session began with a heartfelt expression of the influence K-2 teachers have on the children in their care.  "The number one predictor of graduation from high school is how well a student reads at the end of first grade.  We can never underestimate the 180 days that we share with each child."

Interesting comments:

• Children learn to read in a jagged fashion -not in a straight linear line so it is not uncommon for a child to skip levels as they learn to read.  How does this effect us? We must be ever vigilant that we do not allow students to plod along going through every single level, but instead allow them to skip along at their own rate.
• Even in kindergarten 50% of reading should be informational.  How does that effect us?  In Kindergarten and first grade in particular, we have worked hard to increase  the non-fiction in our leveled libraries.  Would love it if someone would go through their entire leveled library and see how close we really are.  Any takers?
• Rereading is a key skill in the Common Core - not just repeating the reading but reading for a purpose.
• When you plan the questions that you are going to ask about a text, pay particular attention to vocabulary and syntax.  How does that effect us? As we begin the year with our star books, we should make sure to highlight the vocabulary and talk about it in a second or third reading of the book.   That's in addition to the specific vocabulary activities that we have written for the books.
• Our 3rd-5th grade students do poorly on multiple meaning words on FCAT.  We should spend time discussing these type of words in our readalouds. How does that effect us? This is another opportunity to look at our Vocabulary words from the star books.  I don't think we really talk about the different meanings of words in our Teacher's Guide.  For instance, the word disturb.  We should go back and add multiple meanings as we discuss these words.
• We must continue to read complex stories during read aloud.  Simple stories are thin in meaning, are limited and restrictive.  How does that effect us?  We should probably choose 3-5 of our star books that we think have the most complex story lines and develop complex questions to use in an expanded read aloud.  We need to encourage our children right from the start to discuss the story and to go back into the book for text evidence.
• You can't just ask questions during readalouds that are truly complex off the top of your head.  You have to plan the questions. How does that effect us? All the more reasons to plan the questions for a few of our Star Books.  This would make a great early PD session for us.
• Text complexity is really a unit around a book, not a single lesson.  The book will be read many times.  Not all of the more complex, text-dependent questions would be asked during the same lesson.

Data, Insight and Inform
  All of our K-2 data on the many assessments that we will be taking will be reported in the county's data system.  This session was a bust for me.  For one, the screen was too small, too hard to read and I think I would have had to be more familiar with Insight and Inform to really gleam the information shared.  I sort of glazed over after the first few minutes. How does that effect us?  I guess this means that Suzanne needs to be ready for many, many questions from K-2 folks who will need to understand this system well!  Another good early PD session for Kinder teachers - maybe as soon as the first data comes in.

Interesting comments:

• Art and Music teachers will be giving their own assessments 5 times a year (I think this is new information).  It saddens me because it means that we will be giving up at least five Music and five Art periods for assessments.  It already seems that we have too little resource in our very large school so the loss of any of that precious time for our students is depressing.  They love Art and Music so any time that they lose actual instruction will make them sad.  I'm not sure exactly how that will work for kindergartners if the assessments are individual...
• On top of the FLKRS (which will include the FAIR without the Vocabulary) kindergartners will be taking Reading, Writing, Math and Science assessments.  The first set of tests will be baseline and will be done in the first ten days of school and then at the end of the first, second, third nine weeks which will only cover the nine weeks work, and then a final end-of-the-year assessment. It certainly seems like a lot of missed instructional time.  We were told that there has been some discussion about the amount of individual testing required for kindergartners and that a group of kindergarten teachers were meeting to discuss just how long the testing will take.    It's good to know that we have an Administration that is willing to listen and reconsider.

Building Book Baskets using Common Core
This session was presented by folks from American Reading Company.  The county has purchased 4 bins of trade books, 30 books in each bin, for each classroom teacher (I'm thinking that means 8 bins for each co-teach class.) They are expected to arrive before the children do, but are not yet in the schools. The books are leveled with the Common Core in mind using a new leveling system (we spent most of our time learning this new system).  Each level has qualitative descriptors, much like the Fountas-Pinnell System that we are currently using, but these are updated with the Common Core parameters.  Each bin of books will be unique, in that the titles will be different.  In other words, each of the 12 kindergarten teachers will have a different bin of book titles but the same four levels.  The idea is that the teachers swap books every few days to give the children access to a variety of books.  I think for us that would mean we trade bins about every two weeks. What does that mean for us?  This is quite a challenge and one I have been thinking about all day.  Certainly it makes no sense to relevel all of the current books that we have.  I estimate each classroom library probably has at least 1500+ books so the better idea might be to level all of the ARC books according to the Fountas-Pinnell levels and then put the books where the need is (time consuming, but possible).  I am absolutely thrilled that the county is purchasing 120 new books for our leveled libraries!  What a great addition!

Other interesting comments:

• Best practice - Using sticks in a cup with the children's name for random calling keeps students engaged. How does that effect us?  We need the App Stick Pick @$2.99 that could be used under the document camera.  This would be especially appropriate for kindergartners who are learning to recognize each other's names and their own (see right).  You type in the class names and the App chooses a name at random, which appears on the screen.  Cute, huh? 
• Best practice - Turn and Talk - Got that!
• Independent reading is being defined as 99-100% and Proficiency as 90% comprehension (our friend Richard Allington)
• Text complexity includes quantitative (computer formula), qualitative (levels of meaning assessed by humans) and reader and task. How does this effect us?  Hope this looks familiar because this is the rubric that Susan had us look at during book-of-the-month to figure text complexity.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's insights (?) from a kindergarten teacher.

Unpacking the standards

Florida DOE Summer Institute for K-2 Literacy
Atlantic Coast High School, July, 2013, Jacksonville FL

We last unpacked standards twelve years ago when we rolled out America's Choice's Literacy Standards.  I realize that many of our teachers have never unpacked standards so while this FL DOE workshop seemed so familiar to me, I was thinking how new it might seem to young teachers.  Regardless, it is a good exercise as we begin to plan instruction. 

To start, to confuse us all, Florida has renumbered the Common Core Standards to make them their own.  This really only confuses teachers who look for ideas on the Internet - Pinterest, for example, but it is important to understand.

National standards  RL.1.7  Would mean:  RL= Reading Literature  1=the grade level  7=the number of the standard

Florida standards  RL.1.7  Would mean:  RL= Reading Literature 1= a cluster of standards that are grouped together  7=the number of the standard

This is basically the procedure for unpacking the standard.
Standard: RL

Underline the important nouns from the standard which will help you identify concepts that the students should know:

Circle the verbs which will  tell you what the student should be able to do.

Identify the BIG Ideas:

What is the Essential Question?

What is the Learning Goal?

What is the Learning Scale? A Learning Scale is usually 0-4, much like a rubric or like the big areas of the Florida Writing Rubric. "3" is the standard. "4" would be above the standard and is approaching the next grade level standard. To me the Learning Scale looks a little more holistic than what I think of in a rubric.  On a writing rubric, for instance, we have previously learned that a child might have a different score on each element of the rubric and that by looking to the left, he can tell what his next step might be for that element, but on the learning scales, the numbers seem to be a description of the work at that level.


The idea is to take the standard apart at the beginning of a unit and to write the learning scale and the assessment before you teach the unit - keeping the end in mind.

Lucy Calkins - Writing

Seven teachers from Chets Creek Elementary trekked to Orlando, FL on February 11, 2013 with Principal Susan Phillips to hear literacy expert, Lucy Calkins.  These are the combined, compiled notes of Part 3 of that conference, "Pathways to the Common Core".  These notes focus on Writing, especially persuasive writing.

About Writing and the Common Core...

• Common Core Standards #1-3 are it!
• Three types of writing are addressed in the Common Core: Opinions (persuasive letters, personal essays, editorial, petitions, persuasive speeches...), Informational/ explanatory ( how to, all about, pamphlets, brochures, reports, answers to Reading, Science, Social Studies, Math questions), and narrative (personal, small moments, realistic fiction, fantasy, narrative biography, narrative non-fiction...)
• Teachers should aim for the standards in the grade above because the K-1-2-3 standards have low expectations. 
• Fourth grade standards, however, are ambitious and we are not sure fourth graders can do what is expected of them.  Fourth grade teachers certainly cannot accomplish all that is expected if they are not able to stand on the shoulders of the grades before them. 
• Students should enter middle school with the 6th grade standards mastered if you want the students to leave 8th grade with the standards mastered.
   

About Writing...

• Writing needs to be taught EVERY day in every grade.
• Kids get better at writing by writing.
• Kids need to be writing about what's on their minds.  Let them choose their topics.
• There will be no "dittosh_ts" which means no graphic organizers in Writers' Workshop.  Students should be writing, not filling in sheets.
• A first graders should be able to complete a three page book with three sentences on each page in each workshop.  By third grade a student should be able to write a notebook page and a half in a single workshop.
• If you want to immeiately lift the level of writing in a story in first grade, start with the weather! - "One bright sunny day..."  "The sun streaked through the window..."  "One dark gloomy day..."  This is the advice given to Lucy by her mentor, Ralph Fletcher.  Who knew?  Then add dialogue.
• John Hattie's research on achievement says that what accelerates achievement is 1) teacher/ student relationships, 2) using performance assessments, sharing and discussing them collegiality, and 3) providing powerful feedback (which includes informative compliments and next steps).

About Performance Assessments...

• Start the year by asking students to write their best on-demand narrative small moment.  Next day write their best informational - something they know a lot about.  And then on the third day an opinion piece.  These are your baseline.  Teach the unit of study including working through the writing process to a completed, polished portfolio piece.  At the end of the unit, give the prompt again. This will tell you what the student can really do. This is the teacher's assessment of what was taught.  This is what teachers should be discussing with colleagues.
• Instructions for these prompts and benchmak pieces to compare against are available at the Reading the Writing Project web site. 
• Self-assessment for the genres of writing that are written in kid friendly language are also available at the Reading and Writing web site.

Persuasive Writing In Kindergarten - Using Words to Make a Change

• This is a six week unit - writing to make a difference.
• In your school - Students look for problems in the class and around the school and find solutions.  Children make signs ("Knock on the bathroom door before you go in." Hang up your coat.")
• Writing letters to make a change - Write letters addressing a problem with solutions to spark change. State the problem boldly.  Build up the problem so that it is a BAD problem.  Infuse details throughout. You can embed a story or anecdote into a persuasive piece or teach politeness in the closing (Thank you kindly for listening...").  You can persuade with information.
• Take on a persuasive project that requires research to make the world a better place. Sound like an expert.

Persuasive Writing in First Grade - Writing Reviews

• Best in Show - Ask each child to bring in a shoebox collection of something they care about (e.g., hair bows/ barrettes, wrestlers, Star War characters...). When you care about something, you have a best. Now how do you decide which is the best item in your collection - the winner? Which is the second place? third place? and why did you make that choice? Which thing in your collection takes the booby prize? Can you defend your choices?
• Writing reviews - First graders can write reviews of restaurants or video games or toys or movies or television shows... They learn to hook the reader, to defend their choices and to make comparisons. They learn to use checklists. They study published reviews.
• Writing persuasive book reviews - Learn to share a summary of a book but don't spill the beans by telling the entire story. Don't make it too long or too short.

Persuasive Writing in Third Grade -Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials

• Third grade is when you want students to write expansively with great detail.
• Once children can write a personal essay, it is easier for them to write an opinion essay.
• Start with transference.  Remind students of all they have already learned.
• Be speech writers, opinion writers.  Start with a quick persuasive speech or a "flash draft," like how to get more magazines in the library.  Then the next day go back and really write.
• Then go to petition writing.  Send the petition to someone that can make a decision.
• Hook the audience.  (from Lucy's example - "Barbie-licious")
• Chart what the children say. 
• Give brave, bold opinions. 
• Then give reasons with evidence.  Use quotes as evidence.  Use examples as evidence.  Add a micro story.
• Use your hand as a graphic organizer.  Your palm is the topic and the fingers are the reasons.
• Consider the audience and make sure the audience can always read your piece.
• For an effective transition from the mini-lesson to independent writing, have the students bring their writing to the floor for the mini-lesson.  Have them begin their writing on the floor after the mini-lesson and dismiss them to their seats as you see that they have gotten started.

Persuasive Writing in Fourth Grade - Personal and Persuasive Essays

• Start with a structure boot camp.  Teach the 5 paragraph thesis-driven essay.
• Give the whole class the same topic, such as "I love ice cream" (a topic that cannot be rebutted).  Give three reasons and use micro stories, examples and quotes as evidence.  Give reasons playing up and stretching out the part that makes your point. Use elaboration to grow ideas. Use a closing statement to tie back to the thesis.
• Add in a 2-day language and conventions/ punctuation boot camp, if needed.

One teacher's reflection...
I have had the opportunity to learn from Lucy Calkins through her books, her web site, and through two summer institutes in NYC.  She has changed my professional practice.  Through her passionate instruction and through videos of children doing things I had never even imagined, I was able to see possibilities for my youngest learners that were beyond any of my own expectations.  So, it is no surprise, that on this threshold of new standards, she is the one lighting the way for us all.  I feel privileged to have shared time with her.  She is a model of a dedicated, passionate, lifelong learner.

At the same time I am blessed to be at a school, and to have been at that school for fifteen years, that lives the type of model of continuous improvement that Lucy speaks about.  I am proud that I serve with school level leadership that recognizes the need to reach beyond the expectation by finding a way to provide for this type of professional development that will make a diference tomorrow.

And then,  to be walking this path with educators who are willing to risk it all for children makes me humble and proud at the same time.  These are the friends that pick me up when I fall, that listen to my whines and complaints and care about me all the same.  They are the ones that read with me, that will discuss almost any issue with me, and who challenge and push my thinking on a daily basis.

This was one of the many conferences where we listened and talked all the way home about ways to infuse what we had learned into our daily walk,

but still managed to have lots of fun!

It doesn't get any better than this!

Lucy Calkins - Reading

The Chets Creek team with Lucy Calkins on February 11, 2013 in Orlando, FL.  Lucy has taken a semester off from teaching at Columbia University to travel the country and talk about

the Common Core.

The Reading Standards

• There are 10 reading anchor standards that all the others are based on.
• #1-3: Key Ideas and Details - What does the text say or suggest.
• #4-6: Craft and Structure - This includes choices the author has made, authorial decisions.  Nothing is in that text by accident.  Every word, every image is selected for a specific purpose.  This is reading as a writer.
• #7-9: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas - We need to move toward more and more complex text and looking across the text.  We need to stay "inside the corners of the text."  This is not text-to-self reading.  If the conversation goes into thinking about how this reminds me of... or personal reflection, pull it right back into the text evidence. We just went too far with personal reflection and the Common Core  pulls us back to center.
• #10 simply says the child is reading and comprehending on grade level.

About reading...

• Throughout the WHOLE day, half of what the kids read should be non-fiction, but we cannot turn our back on fiction.  Certainly we need to add quality non-fiction to our classroom libraries and we also need to get quality non-fiction in the hands of content teachers instead of textbooks, but there will always be a place for complex fiction.
• Students should be reading an hour and a half, eyes on print, every day to maintain their reading level.
• Students should take home at least two books -even six books! - and read from 30-60 minutes beyond the school day. Tell the children that you can't imagine a child that could stop with just reading a single book! Reading has to become a life habit.  If a child is reading the Magic Treehouse series, Level M, and is reading 100 words per minute, he should read a book in the series in 60 minutes.  If he is reading 200 words per minute, he should finish a book every 30 minutes!  We need to seriously ramp up our reading.  How much a child reads is the single most important predictor of school success. The volume of reading that students are doing will raise their ability to read more complex texts.
• In first grade students should have about 12 books at their level.  They should be able to read for about 50 minutes straight in Readers' Workshop.  First they read independently, then they read all books with a partner and then back to independent reading again.
• Even though Poetry is not dominant in the Common Core (in fact, it is barely mentioned), we need more, not less.  Using poetry is just good instruction.  Where do you think the short, complex passages are going to come from that need critical analysis when writers get ready to write test questions?
• It doesn't really matter if you are talking about independent or instructional levels of reading.  Nobody can agree on the percentages anyway.  When a child moves up into a new level they are a little instructional until they become independent, so Teachers College does not put instructional and independent on its levels.

About comprehension... 

• You need to know that comprehension is complex and that there is no researched magic list of strategies that will guarantee that you get all your students to the standards.  The world has told us that reading is so important that we have become afraid to teach it.  However, there is no one on high that has told us which skills to include in comprehension. 
• Get used to using full sentences in discussions.  There will be no more one word answers.
• There is no more "main" idea but several central ideas instead. As you work through the text you see what sticks to those central ideas and then revise the central ideas as you go.
• John Gardner says there are only two themes.  All stories are either "Man's journey home" or "A stranger comes to town." Who knew?
• Comprehension is complicated and depending on who you read, different elements are important.  There is no list of comprehension strategies.  Experts can't even agree on what to call each strategy and different people probably depend on different strategies to make sense of text.

About accountable talk...

• Read Aloud is the opportunity to teach and practice accountable talk - Who can get us started talking about...?  All eye on ___. Turn and Talk about your ideas. Who can add to this? Who can build on that?  Let's keep going with ___'s idea. Can you say more about that?  Do you agree or disagree?  Partially agree or disagree.  Turn and talk about your evidence.
• Chart sentence and question frames to help students form their comments and direct their discussion.
• Stress the importance of listening to each other.  If students just keep saying their own ideas without any connections to other ideas that are being expressed, start over, because they are missing the point. Ask the students if they are building on that idea or going to another.  If they are going to another, stop them, and have them instead add on to the previous idea until you have clearly exhausted that topic and are ready for a new one.
• Setting the expectation in accountable talk models what we want to see in book discussions.
• Stress the importance of paying attention to certain clues and elements in the story that aid in building meaning and lead to deeper comprehension. Objects matter.  Weather matters.  Names matter.  Every detail an author adds is for a specific reason.

Improving predictions...

• Prediction is not mentioned in the Common Core although we all know it is an important strategy.
• Use the whole text. It's not just about what happened on the last page, but what happened so far.  Use what you know about characters.
• Focus on HOW something is going to happen and not just WHAT is going to happen.

Evidence of powerful teaching...

• Rituals and routines are firmly established.

Lucy Calkins - Common Core

On February 11, 2013 eight educators from Chets Creek Elementary School, under the direction of Principal Susan Phillips, traveled to Orlando, Fl for to hear renowned Literacy expert, Lucy Calkins.  These are the compiled notes of those educators.

What are the issues with the Common Core?

• The problem in American education is poverty.  23% of our children are growing up in poverty which is up from 10% just a few years ago.  We have the largest number of children growing up in poverty of any of the developed countries.  There is the income gap. Standards cannot make up for all that poverty takes away from these children.
• The estimated cost of implementing the Common Core is $15.7 billion for the beginning phase.  The problem is that half that money is going to developing new assessments and the rest to the new technology needed to give the tests!  Where will the money come from to provide rich libraries and non-fiction books for each classroom? We are being asked to do more with less!
• The Common Core is not really researched-based.  It is really just a hypothesis.  We really don't  know what the pathway is to achieving the Common Core Standards.
• The design itself may be flawed.  Working backwards from college readiness may not really provide the best standards for K-1 students.  Also the contrived way that the fiction and non-fiction standards have to mirror each other makes for a few bizarre standards.
• We have given a small group of businessmen the license to micro manage what is going on in our classrooms.

"Teachers, principals, and schools have a CHOICE: to read the Common Core with criticism, finding all its faults and abandon it altogether, or embrace it as a new path and a new way of looking at what our kids know and how to take their learning to a newer, deeper level."  We are at a crossroads.  We can CHOOSE to see opportunity, possibilities, hope and promise.



We have learned a lot about what NOT to do.

• Adopting a new core reading program will not solve the problem.  We spent $87 million on new reading core during NCLB, and reading flat lined.  Adopting a basal and trying to teacher-proof learning just shows a lack of confidence in the profession and WON'T work!.
• Turning down the lights and turning on the music and just letting children write will also not produce results. There has to be quality instruction.
• Adopting too many innovations with a little bit of this and a little bit of that will not work.  One of our biggest problems is fragmentation, overload. If you have more than 4 or 5 innovations, you will not see gains.  Innovations need to be implemented with 90% fidelity to make a difference.

Why is the Common Core gold?

• It's a wake up call.  Our kids are going to have to be smarter than we were because knowledge is growing so fast.  85% of the jobs now require high levels of literacy.
• The Common Core sets the expectation so we know when good is good enough.
• It's certainly better than NCLB when we reduced reading to five little areas, over emphasizing the part that phonemic awareness plays and barely mentioning comprehension.
• The implementation of the Common Core calls for a model of continuous improvement.  It calls for collegiality.  It is about helping our schools improve and grow stronger.    Kids need a great school, not just one great teacher.  This has to be K-5 working together on a school-wide approach.  Gone are the days of closing your door and doing what you want. We are now in a time when teachers will have to work together in learning communities in order to lift the level of their practice. Most teachers learn their first three years and then hit a plateau.  We have to break that plateau.
• There is an emphasis on writing.  Not only are there writing standards, but part of the reading standards are about writing.
• There is an emphasis on text complexity and moving kids up through levels of more and more difficult text.

The decisions about how to reach the Common Core Standards (the way to go about teaching and achieving these standards) is left in the hands of teachers and principals.  The BEST strategy is still a teacher who can make a difference.

The standards are a covenant between you and the student -  It is a covenant of what you will teach and what your students should be able to do.   Not all students have in their genes to be a good reader.  It is the teacher and her expectations of them as readers that pushes the level of achievement.

About change...
Schools need to be communities of practice.  If you want to change the group, you need to use the group to make the change happen.

About leaders...
A leader is someone who is passionately driven by a cause bigger than themselves.

Lucy Caulkins at the TEACH Conference

On September 15th, a group of us from varying grade levels attended the 2012 TEACH professional development conference presented by WJCT and Community First Credit Union.

This one day conference held on a Saturday had an unexpected turn out of over 1,000 educators. Perhaps it was because the keynote speaker was Lucy Caulkins followed by Brad Cohen in the afternoon. Both keynote speakers were engaging, motivating and honest about the issues facing public education today.

The breakout sessions that followed were broad in nature but seemed to fulfill the curiosity of the participants based on the conversations heard throughout the day. The sessions covered topics such as bullying, teachers as leaders, childhood obesity, planning for your financial and personal well being and parent engagement.

With Common Core State Standards implementation underway, the session that was of most interest to me was Learning with the iPad in Common Core by Kate Kemker, a southeast education development executive for Apple, Inc.

My hope was that I would end up with a list of some cool apps I could use with my students. Dr. Kemker did share several of those but the message that I left with from this session was that using a tool such as an iPad serves as a whole new way to learn for our students, that includes e-text, project-based learning, electronic collaboration and the opportunity for ongoing research at the touch of a screen. 

Overall, the day was productive and informative. I enjoyed spending the day, yes, even on a beautiful Saturday, with other educators, learning and sharing and am looking forward to next year's conference.