I figured out why I'm so overwhelmed this year!

Last week was a crazy one, for many reasons. However, somewhere in the middle of my madness, I did have an "a ha" moment: I cannot teach the way I once did; I cannot rest on the comfortable lesson, worksheet, quiz I used to give. Therefore, on top of being a half time literacy coach and a half time teacher, I feel a lot like a new teacher this year. I over-analyze lessons and next educational moves I want to make with my students because my brain wants to apply all this new learning of the last year and a half. I cannot unlearn what has now been learned.

For example, I was getting ready to give a quiz to freshman - a quiz that I've used a few times over the past couple of years - and just prior to making my copies, I gave it a glance. Each question seemed to scream, "low level learning." Ugh! Therefore, it went into my homework bag for extensive revision. It's currently undergoing "testing" (yes, pun intended) on my freshmen.

Of course, that's what all teachers must do - continue learning and working on creating richer activities and assessments for our students, however, this is not always easy. Whew!

I could be the worst blogger ever OR I am really busy, but that's no excuse!

I really think I could be deemed the worst blogger ever. On the to-do list of my life, this routinely ends up at the bottom. That said, my hope this morning was to do a little catch-up blogging instead, but I'm going to cheap-out on that as well because my exercise bike and CBS Sunday Morning are calling me. However, as I dug around on the web this morning, I ended-up on colleague and middle school literacy coach Kasey's blog. Rather than write much on my own, I replied to a really interesting point she was making: "how do I model my thinking for students?  In my opinion, this is the largest piece that is missed by teachers in classrooms.  We may even think we are modeling our thinking when in reality, we are simply giving directions for how to do a task. " This is within her January 12, 2014 blog "Unscrewing Our Thinking Caps."

http://middleschoolteachertoliteracycoach.blogspot.com/2014/01/unscrewing-our-thinking-caps.html?showComment=1391349356580#c375063001655439793

I do still aspire to get back on here soon, but off to exercise land this morning!

Interactive Read Alouds...like a heartbeat?

Just got back from Boston...
(training October 16, 17, 18)

During a discussion about interactive read alouds, one classmate described them as "the heartbeat of literacy instruction." What wonderful wording...

Now I'm pondering the meaning...

First, consider the question: how might the read aloud qualify as the "heartbeat"? Well, it's the common text that students and a teacher experience together, it's coupled with shared class conversation, and it also provides opportunities for teachers to model a think aloud for the class. Those characteristics seem to align it with powerful positioning in a classroom.

The text must be well-chosen material. It must be engaging - to both the teacher (who exhibits enthusiasm towards the read aloud) and students (who must find it intriguing enough to want to focus on it). Without these "musts," it would fall flat on engaging students, the teacher, or both. (Bet we've all experienced the dreadful class where material - perceived as irrelevant - is meticulously poured over - ugh!) Learning might take on a "negative increase" under such circumstances. ~sorry to dwell on the negative for a second~

Therefore, I am going to agree with my Lesley colleague; the pulse of relevant, shared, engaging material can be the "heartbeat" of a classroom lesson.

To extend the metaphor, consider this pulse infusing the rest of a lesson. The engaging text and discussion of a read aloud will influence students' next thoughts, comments, and writing, and the teacher's thinking aloud will provide moments of meta-cognition that will deepen any lesson.

I am sure I haven't yet articulated all the benefits of this methodology, but I am beginning to see its powerful instructional potential.

How Many Data Points Does It Take To Figure Out A Teenager???

Worked quite intensely in the past two weeks analyzing numbers/data on students. (Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a true numbers, girl), but I'm on this intense new learning curve...

The frustration at times is in the inconsistency of data. Sometimes students look to be achieving quite well, and then the next assessment/data point shows they are really low. The follow-up question has become - did they take the test seriously? I'm beginning to believe that May data is not a real good indicator of a student's ability. At that point they are so "schooled" out and over assessed that I think some just "tank" that assessment. Stinkers!

A new catch-phrase around the high school...are they a "can't do it or won't do it" kid?

So, you keep adding data points, and you believe some points more than others.

It's messy, it's new, but it's still more than we've ever done to apply data to students' next instructional steps.

I can now look back and see all the seeds planted long ago that got our school to this point (kudos to Chad and Nancy)! I can also see an intriguing new direction for learning at RLHS.

At the end, some kids have been targeted, and quality specific instruction is beginning. Meeting with Guided Reading teachers on Thursday... probably will be the focus of my next blog. : )

That or next week's training in Boston... watch out Irene Fountas - we're comin' to learn from ya!

Delving into Data...Day One

So one of the tasks of the new Rice Lake High School literacy coaches is to benchmark all the "flagged" freshman, the kiddos we're worried about being our lowest readers. This is my 20th year at RLHS, and doing this benchmark instruction, is probably the best data to advance instruction that I've ever witnessed. Unfortunately, I am not the classroom teacher for most of these kids and need to pass these instructional notes on to the appropriate teachers. However, the key is that we are using focused data points to drive instructional practice. This is (unfortunately?) a newer concept. hmmmmm

Still - we're doing something! For example, after I listen to a student read aloud and answer a sequence of questions regarding a text, I can think of specific skills that need to be coached into a student. Some students need to correct their actual reading aloud skills. Others are clearly "glossing over" the words and not truly comprehending text. They need modeling, practice, and patience.

Now another data point has entered the equation. We have last week's MAPS results for the students as well. So, how is it that we have kids who were low on the benchmark and high on MAPS or vice versa? I know other data points need to be added as well- WKCE, current grade, etc.

These high school learners are complex, and what's even more intriguing is that some have developed complex coping strategies for finding success at school, in some arenas. I fear this is just going to make our "figuring out" of them even tougher.

But I keep returning to - at least we're trying something, which is more than we've done for some of these struggling readers in the past.

Delving into Data - Day Two...tomorrow!

Instructional Time, 2/3 vs 1/3

So I went to a conference last Friday in Eau Claire. The instructors were Chris Tovani and Samantha Bennett. While I gained quite a few good "take aways" on the day, the one that's really stuck with me is the 2/3 vs 1/3. Bennett professes that 2/3 of the the instructional minutes should be students reading, writing, and speaking. That means the teacher gets 1/3. So in our 80 minute period, the students should get 53 minutes, and our teachers should get 27 minutes. The point is that whoever has the minutes in their "column" is doing the learning. For example, if a teacher is just blabbing away, the teacher is the one doing the learning. That makes total sense to me. We need to make our students the active learners. (And we all could take a lesson from our marching band directors.) And then the reality of my own classroom hits me again on Monday morning. What is my instructional minutes total? I can't get that out of my head. Then, the guilt seems to kick-in when I know my minutes are starting the add-up, and my students are being robbed of their minutes to read, write, speak.

I will aspire to that notion. But I'm sure I will also wrestle with that reality.

In a similar vein, as I begin coaching, when I notice teachers who are monopolizing the "students' minutes," how will I coach them along - to hand those minutes back to the kids?

Three workshop days ahead of me in Brit Lit - focus on students reading, revising, research. Boom!

"Teach the Reader, Not the Book"

Ok, so this blogging thing...keeps getting down-graded on my to-do list. I don't want this to feel like a chore. I want this to feel like a place to journal thoughts, something I WANT to do.

I gotta quit feeling guilty about what I don't post and appreciate what I do have time to post!

Ok - now for a focus: After three days of training in what I'm fondly referring to as "Kasey's Klass" and four amazing days of learning at Lesley, one of my big "ah has" was "teach the reader, not the book."

Let's think about that for a minute. The last 19+ years of teaching students, I have taught novels, short stories, poetry, nonfiction. I help kids dig deep in books. It has taken me this long to consider the reader first and the text second - geez! Kids need the skills to tackle all kinds of text, and it is up to ALL content teachers to help them achieve those skills. What can help educators get there? About a million content area reading strategies!!! : )

It was not only cool that this understanding hit me, but I actually witnessed one of my colleagues go through the same revelation. At the same time she was speaking these words, "teach the reader, not the book," you could sense that a true instructional shift was happening.

Now, here's the thing. I've done all sorts of reading, reflection, discussion, professional development, etc. this summer. What I really need are some students to try this on. I guess I'm ready for fall! : )