Making Your Teaching Stick

Years ago, a dear friend of mine, Susan, gifted me with a little book called Making Your Teaching Stick by Shanna Schwartz. Unbeknownst to me, this book would begin my love affair with Teacher College, especially Shanna Schwartz. Attending professional development at Teacher College  inspired me to leave the classroom and become a literacy specialist. I wanted to support teachers with workshop teaching.  However, I miss having my own classroom, especially when I go into kindergarten rooms! Although I am a firm believer in workshop teaching, I think there are a lot  of different approaches to teaching our kids. 

 

The most important approach is the one the that works for you and your students!  Like many teachers all over the world, the spring semester of teaching was challenging. I spent hours upon hours, with no materials provided, making asynchronous videos for grade-one teachers. My Screencastify account has over seventy or eighty videos. I will no longer allow any teacher in my building to tell me they can’t teach a TC lesson in less than ten minutes because it is absolutely possible!  

 

I can show them how it is done and support them as they too turn their unit of studies  into learning lessons that STICK!

Okay, now we are heading into a new school year. Next week, I am meeting with all grade level teachers to make plans for the upcoming school year. Massachusetts has a delayed start,  so students will not be starting school until the end of September. Since many of us are heading into uncharted waters with remote learning, I thought it would be helpful to remind myself and the teachers in my building of Shanna’s stickiness principles.  

 

 Funny enough, I am reading an adult book on learning called Limitless by Jim Kwik and many of his suggestions for adult learning are very similar.  

  I think we can all relate to teaching a class something and the next time you return to it (like the VERY NEXT DAY next day), the class is looking at you like, “What are you talking about?” So, the question is, how can I teach my class something that they will remember and then apply One thing we have to remember is that learning is not linear. A teacher can teach something and kids will forget it or not know how to apply it yet. Shanna reminds readers that teachers should expect many stops and starts from students in their learning. 

 

This means that a child will learn something and then seem to forget it.  

 Below are the stickiness principles:

 • In order for teaching to stick, children have to be ready to learn. 
 

 • Children learn best when they are engaged and active participants. 
 

 • Children need something to remind them of what they learned. Children benefit from the physical representation of the new learning.  

• Repetition is an important ingredient to reaching students because they learn through repetition and they love it. 
 

 

So now the question is how can we bring these four principles together for remote learning?  Over the next few weeks, I’ll explore each principle in depth and think about the implications for remote learning.  

 

Ironically, I just found out that I will be teaching in a classroom, so not only be talking about this in theory, but I will be using these principles in my classroom and truly putting them to the test!  

Have a terrific week! 

Stronger Ways to Retell

It's that time of year when we are helping students learn stronger ways to RETELL. Kids are learning that there is more than one way to retell a book. We try to always encourage the kids to use the book when retelling. {Thanks to Christy for sharing these}.

Retelling In Kindergarten

 WHO? WHAT? WHERE? Retell 

It might sound like: "Mrs. Wishy-Washy is washing the animals on the farm."

WHAT HAPPENED? Retell

It might sound like: "First, the animals were playing in the mud. Then, Mrs. Wishy-Washy told them to go in the tub. Next, she cleaned the animals. Last the animals run off to play in the mud again! "

BIG IDEA! Retell

It might sound like: "Mrs. Wishy Washy washes all the dirty animals. She washes the cow. She washes the duck. She washes the pig."


Retelling in First and Second Grade 

Grade One Character Unit of Study {Teacher College} & Jenn Serravallo Strategy book

1. Have the kids keep track of the When and Where
2. Retell across your fingers
   
3. Give kids 5 Post-its to spread across the whole book
4. Retell just the important parts
5. Mark pages with Post-its (don't need to write on them)

In second grade, we are encouraging students to talk and stop and jot.  We know that the kids have to be able to say it before they can write it.

• Read a chunk and talk about it
• Read a chunk and stop and jot
• Use the sentence stem This part is important because...
• Ask Who? What? Where?
• Retell the important events in order

We are practicing a lot of these strategies during interactive read aloud too.

Happy almost Friday!

The Power of Parnterships

Whenever we take our trip to New York for the “teachers college reunion weekend” (which we refer to as our exciting vacation), we come back feeling rejuvenated and inspired. It’s like that feeling that all teachers have as they set up their classroom before the new students walk in the door… that feeling that this year is going to be an incredible year. And it is going to be an incredible year because of all the systems, routines and plans you put in place!

While in New York we were lucky enough to see Jessica Someck speak about the importance of having partnerships. In fact, her workshop was entitled… “Powerful Writing Partnerships are the Key to Engagement, Independence & Achievment”.  We walked away with a new appreciation for the true value of partner work and some ideas for the ways we might tweak what we were currently doing in the classroom.

For starters choosing partnerships should be intentional and not random. Obviously, personality must be considered, but here are some other factors to keep in mind as you make your groups:


    1.    Reading partners should be homogeneous ( so they are reading similar/same leveled books)

    2.    Turn and talk partners should be intellectual pairs so that they can have conversations that are comfortable. 

    3.    Math partners should be either homogeneous or close so that they can encourage and support one another in their thought process

    4.    And writing partners can be friends. That’s right …FRIENDS.  Friends make wonderful writing partners because they already are comfortable with one another and often have common interests. 



Once partnerships are chosen, keep them consistent if at all possible. By having the same partner students will gain trust, take more risks and will be accountable for supporting one another.

Also, it is important that partnership procedures are explicitly taught. Teach them the norms for partner work and provide them with possible language (“Here is how you might talk to your partner…”). Watch videos of successful partnerships and talk about what they notice and what went well in the video partnerships. Coach the individual groups or invite small groups of partners over for direct instruction. A personal (but creepy) favorite is the ghost coaching. This is when you sneak up behind the group and whisper ideas to the kids to get them interacting. This helps them to start talking to one another without looking at or relying on you to lead the discussion.





Finally, don’t overlook the value of a triad. Sometimes it seems teachers only group kids in 3’s when they have an odd number; but triads can be sooooo powerful and useful and should be part of your purposeful plan. Triads are great for those classrooms where special ed services and support make your room seem like a revolving door at times. When you have 3 in a group and a student needs to leave, the other member is not left partnerless. Triads also work well because they give individual kids less power. Kids are less likely to derail when they have 2 partners keeping them on task.



We created partnership boards with Velcro so that they could be adjusted as needed (swapping groups that are not working) and so that the boards can be used from year to year.

Happy Partnering!!

using shared reading for small group time

i recently attended the teacher college reunion with some of my favorite teacher friends. one of the best parts of this day is the car ride home from new york.  we often talk about our big takeaways.  you often can’t pick just one workshop because as one car member stated: it’s hard to decide just one, because you get so many golden nuggets from each.

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today’s blog post will share one of those nuggets (aka: teacher tips). many of the kindergarten teachers in my building attended a workshop called expand your repertoire of small group work: bring your shared reading, interactive writing, word study and read aloud into your small group work by christine holley. of course, i am the biggest LOVER of shared reading, so naturally i wanted to hear more about how can we bring this practice to small group. this is especially true, because it is an essential part of a kindergarten classroom (even though it can easily be forgotten!!). kids LOVE shared reading and it has a lot of BANG for it’s BUCK. For the short amount of time that it takes up in the school day (10-15 minutes) it has so many teaching opportunities and learning rewards.



the purpose of guided reading is to move kids up the levels… right?
you may think,  “i have lots of kids who are reading b level books and I want to get them to a c. they have read almost all of the b books in the closet. I feel like this group is stuck”. one approach is to take a level c or d book and do shared reading with your small groups. this would be temporarily in place of guided reading (you are bumping them up one to two levels above their levels).


the teacher takes the small book and tells the group they are going to do shared reading and they read it all together. the group reads the book and then the teacher passes out the individual books. students are told to read the book during workshop time and to work with their reading partners if they get stuck.

i was excited and also curious at how this structure would work. i was fortunate to go into my friend amy’s class and watch her do this small group shared reading format.

amy told the kids that they were going to do shared reading together just like they do with BIG books on the rug. she told them that she wanted them to try to read the book with her. the kids began by listening but eventually joined in. amy encouraged them throughout the way, saying things like, “i hear voices… great job reading with me!” at the end of the lesson amy went back and talked about a few tricky pages. she talked about the name of the characters and what letters we could find for nick’s name, amy’s name and james's name.  she then told them that she thought this was a challenging book for them and that she wanted them to help each other.


what i found the most interesting was what happened a few minutes afterward.  the kids in the group took their books back to their reading spots and began reading them!! their reading was not 100% accurate but boy, they did a great job.  by reading the book for shared reading and sending them off immediately to work together it gave them a lot of scaffolding to make their reading experience successful.

amy plans to have use this structure for the next four reading lessons. on day five she plans to do a guided reading book with a level C. she plans to take running records to see how they do!

 i will be excited to report back to you soon!

jessica & laura & melissa 

how to a make a super reader cape

there is a lucy calkins unit in the kindergarten units of study for reading, called “Super Readers Have Super Powers”.  this unit can obviously be used in kindergarten classrooms, but it can also be used by first grade teachers.

when teachers college put together the units of study, they intentionally left gaps in the year.  while they hope that you teach the units intended for your specific grade level, they also wanted the flexibility for teachers to double back if they have a struggling group, or to use some of the “if, then units” depending on the needs of those specific students.

in this “super readers” unit, kindergartners are introduced to the many strategies that readers need to use when they are learning to read and having to decode unknown words.  there are so many cute lessons in this unit, but the kick off dubs all the readers with super powers and they are told about a super hero called “super reader”. there is even a lesson on multisyllabic words being like the kryptonite for readers and that true super readers must not be stopped by the kryptonite words.

like most units in the lucy units, a celebration occurs at the end to highlight all that they have learned.  making the cape was NOT part of the celebration, however many of us in our school created these “no sew” capes.


materials:
½ yard of felt for each cape.
contrasting felt to be used for the letter, or star or insignia on the back of the capes.
scissors
fabric glue or iron on interfacing.

step 1:
cut rectangles (we made each cape ½ yard in length) and left the width as is

step 2:
cut the slits along the top. these will be used to weave a ribbon or the contrasting felt strip along the top to tie the cape closed when being worn.

measure down about 1 inch from the top to begin your slits. make 1-2 inch long slits every 2 or so inches apart.

step 3:
make and cut your insignia that will be attached via fabric glue or iron on interfacing to the middle back of your capes.

you will see the sample cape has a star, but for our classrooms we decided to make the first letter of each readers’ name (see photo).  other ideas could be a shield, an eye, etc.

step 4:
gift each super reader in your classroom with their new super reading cape.  host a celebration and invite parents, or classroom buddies or another grade level to visit so your readers can show off their new capes and reading skills.

happy reading!
jessica & laura & melissa

celebrating being nonfiction reading experts

last week , as a culmination of nonfiction reading studies, our first graders hosted kindergarten classes for reading shares. each first grader had chosen a text of a topic they had become expert at. first graders had marked up their texts with key word post-its and meaningful facts. the first graders then read the book to a kindergarten partner, sharing important words and facts along the way. first graders also stopped in pre-chosen spots to ask their kindergarteners what they noticed or wondered. finally, each first grader had made trading cards about their topic of expertise. on one side, the first graders created a web of their topics and key ideas. on the other side of the card, the first graders had drawn beautifully detailed pictures of their topics. each student created four cards, one to keep, two to trade one to give to their kindergarten partners as artifacts of our celebration!

click here for KEY WORD Trading Cards

happy week!

jessica & laura & melissa

guided reading tiny tips

 teeny tale:

we went to an amazing keynote address by natalie louise last october. she shared with us (and a huge audience) some of the project's latest thinking around guided reading. this thinking was based on the work of irene fountas and gay su pinnell.  if you ever get the opportunity to hear natalie louise speak we strongly suggest it; she’s captivating and hysterically funny.  it felt like she was performing a monologue on the tonight show.  her presentation was filled with lots of reminders about best teaching practice and tiny tips on how we can make our guided reading stronger.

kindergartners are shopping independently for books

tiny tips on guided reading from natalie louis:

 

    • above all else, guided reading needs to be a  successful reading experience because it’s work that  is done one level above a child’s independent reading level.


    • if you invite children to stretch themselves to the next level you need to make sure it is not a scary situation.


    • if a book is too hard, It’s okay to say to yourself, I messed up and read the book to them.


    • before reading with kids look at data. 


    • the teacher college word detective book (grade one) shows tiny samples of running records. natalie was encouraging teachers to take short snippets of running records.  she reminded us that we sometimes overwhelm ourselves by taking long running records and spending way too much time analyzing them.  


• our small groups should last around ten minutes long (pacing matters).  click here for guided reading planning template

    • text choice is the next part of guided reading. what are the most supportive books for that reader? different levels of books will need different levels of teacher support. 


    • planning a book introduction is important.  the teacher needs to do their most strategic thinking of how you will support these readers. 


the book introduction

what kind of support do these readers need? 

we found it helpful to get in the habit of writing our book introductions on post-its

 

super small amount of support 

(been in the level and are almost independent)

    • our book introduction could give a gist:  this book is about a boy who hates broccoli and all his parents keep saying is eat your broccoli.  let’s read it to the end to find out what happens


a heavier scaffold

    • give a gist of the book and show some key pages to students to help the kids understand the language of the book.  


    • natalie suggested to tell the kids that books sometimes talk funny.  you may set up the way the book talks for them.


    • for example if we are introducing a heavy patterned story we may tell the kids that the character in the story went to the park and had such a great time that they told their mom all of the things they liked.  “ i like the slide (with expression). "


lastly, natalie shared a teeny tale about working with a child in a guided reading group.  during this guided reading group, natalie was coaching a team of primary teachers.  while all the teachers were watching this reading session a child was getting stuck on the word WILL.  all of the adults watching the child reading, wanted to yell our, “hey. It’s WILL!!!!” but Natalie made it clear that the teachers could not intervene.  she reminded the group of teachers that the point of the lesson is not that the child is reading the word correctly, the point of the lesson is that the child is doing the work or learning the word WILL. as soon as we tell the child the word.  we take the work away of learning the word WILL.



obviously there are times when you may need to give a child a word during a guided reading lesson but since hearing natalie’s reminder it has made us more comfortable with letting kids get stuck, struggle and do the work!




happy monday!

jessica & laura & melissa