I recently attended the Learning Forward Conference. This conference had a plethora of high quality sessions to choose from. Improving Classroom Discussion was one that sparked my interest since I felt it would be a good extension of the learning we did with Socratic Seminar last year, and to use to further our students discussions and learning across the curriculum. Jackie Walsh, the author of Quality Questioning: Research Based Practice to Engage Every Learner, and a number of other books on this subject led the session. Walsh shared her expertise in this area by leading us on a journey in the use of quality questioning for our classrooms.  

According to Walsh, in order to move our students learning in today’s classrooms, “it is necessary to move our thinking from viewing questions as prompts for the right answers to understanding questions as opportunities for surfacing and testing one’s own thinking and creating new perspectives with others.”

To accomplish this shift in the classroom, the teacher will move from controlling to supporting roles.  Below is a chart by Walsh that explains how you can change your practice and help you on your journey in making the shift.

Shifts in teachers roles will look like this:

From	To (You become the . . .)
Questioner	Listener and monitor of the discussion process
Monopolizer of air time	Listener and facilitator of equitable participation among all students
Evaluator	Advocate for student self-assessment and peer assessment of knowledge and reasoning
Hub or pivot for all classroom talk	Encourager of student to student interactions

As these shifts are made, we will need to ensure that students now understand their new role in classroom discussions. Walsh conveys that a shift must take place and to that extent has created the chart for student roles below.

Shifts in students roles will then look like:

From	To (Students become the . . .)
Compliant and passive observer	Committed and proactive contributor
Respondent to teacher questions	Generator of questions
Dependent learner	Self directed learner
Isolated and competitive learner	Collaborative learner
Receptacle for teacher knowledge	Constructor of own understandings

The switch doesn’t happen overnight, it takes work on your part to model and coach the students through this shift in practice. Here are some tips from Walsh for modeling and coaching to put in your toolbox.

1. Encourage all students to participate in thinking and speaking during a discussion.

• Reinforce guidelines for equitable participation prior to all discussions.
• Eliminate hand raising.
• Ask for a previously non-participating student to build on a classmate’s comment.

2. Use think alouds to model expectations.

• Demonstrate use of think times and comment on your silence by saying, “I paused after you stopped speaking because I wanted to offer you the opportunity to add to what you said. I also wanted to reflect on your statement and decide whether I agree and if I could add to it.”
• Be explicit: “I wanted to build on your thinking by . . .,”; “I have a different perspective that I’d like you to think about: _______.”; “I would like to understand how you reached this conclusion, so I’ll pose a question to examine your thinking.”

3. Refrain from evaluative feedback.

• Withhold praise, even when a student makes an “out-of-ballpark” comment. Praise to one student can shut down the thinking of others. Offer positive feedback to student after discussion ends.
• Pose questions to scaffold student thinking instead of offering corrective feedback.
• Invite students to consult the text or another source when a comment is based on erroneous information.

4. Exhibit dispositions that support open and productive discussions.

• Assume a stance of curiosity and interest.
• Use nonverbal cues (e.g., eye contact, nodding) to demonstrate active listening.
• Convey open mindedness by making such statements as, “I’d never thought of the issue from your point of view. Please share with us what makes you say that.”
• Consult text to verify a statement of find evidence, and share it with students.
• Demonstrate flexibility in your thinking: “I am going to try out a new way of thinking about this, so please be patient with me as I think aloud and work through this new way of thinking.”

If you are interested in learning more or would like to institute this practice into your classroom, please fill out a coaching request, and we would love to work with you on this journey of improving classroom discussion. 

Works Cited

Walsh, Jackie A., and Beth D. Sattes. Quality Questioning: Research-Based Practice to Engage Every Learner. Corwin, 2017.

Walsh, Jackie A., Improving Classroom Discussion. ASCD 2017

Tis the season….Thoughts of a blustery winter season full of snow and cold may be at the top of everyone’s holiday wishes; just not at the top of those working in education. The winter season brings focus to a couple of matters teachers experience every year. Educators grumble at the thought of their students cooped up inside a warm, cozy classroom all day long. When the temperatures bottom out and children are kept in from the brutal elements, they tend to lose focus and their learning drops like the temperatures outside. If lost learning isn’t enough, when students finally get the opportunity to get outside for some much anticipated exercise, time spent transitioning can limit the necessary instruction time.

Brain Breaks: One of the biggest problems that comes up during the winter chill is dealing with the arctic freeze. Once temperatures hit the low point and students are inside for recess, it is important to get them up and moving. Children, and many adults, need activity to maintain focus. Having PE available is essential, but it is certainly not enough time. On days without PE, students can be sitting for up to 3 hours with little or no breaks.

In a recent article in the Washington Post, Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapists, states “In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.”  Movement actually does “turn on” the brain. As detailed below, a 20 minute walk can make a huge difference. 

As teachers, we need to be able to sense when a movement break is needed. As students get ‘squirrely’ it is easy to react as though it is a behavioral issue, when in reality it isn’t. Hanscom notes that “Children naturally start fidgeting in order to get the movement their body so desperately needs and is not getting enough of to ‘turn their brain on’. What happens when the children start fidgeting? We ask them to sit still and pay attention; therefore, their brain goes back to ‘sleep’.”

Brain Breaks are necessary for students to perform at the best of their ability. These short, energy bursts of activity can boost blood flow, send oxygen to the brain, and help children retain information. These “breaks” can be as simple as 5 minutes to stand up, stretch, and even run in place. Or, since we our personalizing our students learning, why not embed it in our lessons. Students know when they need a break. Allowing them to make their own decision on when they need that boost could be the charge they need for the day.

While visiting classrooms it is evident that teachers are beginning to utilize these “breaks” in their daily routine. Most recently, I stumbled upon a classroom studying arctic animals. Students were following a learning path and a part of their “choice” was a movement break. The choices given at various stations were to “pose like their animal”, “move around like their creature”, or “create movement of an animal of their choice”. This mini-break was viewed as a part of student learning and enabled students to regain their focus and successfully complete their task.

There are so many different ways that teachers can incorporate Brain Breaks into their teaching and it allows them to get the most out of our students. Having them sit for so long, especially when indoor recess occurs frequently, is not giving them the opportunity to perform as well as they can. The winter season is upon us- plan ahead and be creative in getting your students up and moving!

Transition Time: Out of nowhere, November hit us with a snowstorm that dropped almost a foot of snow. The storm left us with a snow day and an early “dress rehearsal” full of snow pants, jackets, boots, gloves, and so much more. It left many scrambling to put together a game plan on what to do with all the gear and how to control the chaos come recess time and the end of the day preparations. To many the clutter is already a difficult concept to deal with, but the real tragedy is the amount of instructional time that is lost while  trying to get students organized.

At the beginning of the school year teachers spend countless hours focusing on academic transitions, but why don’t teachers place that same emphasis on getting our students to transition into their winter clothing? It sounds silly, but if you break it down in time, it is startling to realize the loss of instruction due to struggles because we never set guidelines concerning winter clothing. Spending time to address these transitions can cut down on wasted time throughout the winter season.

Typically in an elementary building children tend to spend more than an ample amount of time getting ready to head outdoors. There are times, especially at the primary level, that students may be taking 5-10 minutes to prepare themselves for the winter elements. Whether this lengthy transition is due to the inability to put on winter clothes in a logical order or the fact that maybe students don’t remember where that missing glove went, it is important to get organized during these transitions. Five to ten extra minutes EACH time we take our students outside adds up to approximately 1 ½ hours of instruction weekly. It only gets worse when we go past these minutes. The secret to smooth transitions during this season is modeling and practice.  

  Here are some quick tips to smooth out those winter transitions:

• Post an Order of Operation (you’d be surprised how many kids think boots and gloves are the first to go on)
• MODEL the process of how to put winter clothes on
• Find a convenient place for students to get dressed and ready
• Have students store their items in a reusable shopping bag (Store hats and gloves/mittens inside the sleeve of student coats)
• Designate a “Classroom Specialist” to help out others
• PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE (after about 2 days, students should get it)

 

 

 

Happy Holidays!!!!!

A few weeks ago I had the honor of presenting at The Convening for Personalized Learning up in Milwaukee, WI with  Kirstin Murphy and Elsa Glover.  When we were preparing for our presentation I was thinking alot about how the teacher becomes the coach in personalized learning.  I kicked off one of my portions of the presentation with this slide:

This reflection made me realize how relevant that it was that I shared with you my new find.  I am currently reading Differentiated Coaching: A Framework for Helping Educators Change by Jane Kise.  In personalized learning, we are not asking you to let the students do whatever they want.  We are asking you to coach them; to get them ready for the next step and those game time moments in life.  

As a district, we have started with the student profile to get our students to be more reflective learners and begin to talk about how they learn.  Differentiated Coaching: A Framework for Helping Educators Change can help in the way that we look at our students.  Kise writes, “There are no resistant teacher, but rather only teachers whose needs during change have not yet been met.” Change the word “teacher” with “student.”  Isn’t this what we believe? All students have the ability to grow and succeed. It is our job as teachers to set those expectations high and have the conviction that all of our students can reach them.  It is why “teacher estimates of achievement” ranks first on Hattie’s list of effect sizes.

The day in, day out of this expectation can look very different compared to the simplicity of stating the belief.  It is no easy task to reach every student and help them find his/her potential for growth. We have talked for years about learners and identifying if they are kinesthetic, auditory, visual, or tactile.  We were taught how to differentiate our lessons based on these modalities. What if we need to go further? I am sure that this is no shock to most of you :). Kise goes further.

I decided a good place to start is with coaching styles.  These four approaches defined by Kise may help you identify learners in your room and the way they may want to be guided for success. I am going to look at these from the lense of a teacher and student relationship.  Below each coaching style you will see a generic description of what that coach provides, the core requirements for that type of coaching, and some indicators students may display that would indicate they would respond best to this type of coaching.

 

1) The Useful Resource

Definition: A facilitator that has a large amount of resources and can readily hand the student something to move them forward on a goal.

Core Requirements: bag of tricks, multiple methods, ability to tailor methods for specific subjects and situations

Student Indicators: hands on learner, needs an example before they can move forward, needs structure to begin, concrete thinker, needs to see impact quickly, detail oriented

 

2) The Encouraging Sage

Definition: A facilitator that can give a lot of in the moment feedback.  

Core Requirements: time, enthusiasm, and the ability to evaluate and give in-the-moment suggestions and encouragement

Student Indicators: asks for continuous feedback during class, selects to sit at the teacher table and talk through ideas/assignments, small obstacles can quickly detour student, too many options overwhelm the student, loves the “I do” (teacher does) portion of a lesson (modeling)

 

3) The Collegial Mentor

Definition: A facilitator that can stand back and let the student run.  The student will need them as a sounding board throughout their growth.

Core Requirements: open-mindedness to alternate pathways, patience, and listening skills

Student Indicators: likes to “do it on their own” and then check later, can often get to the “right” place but takes a different route, may come up with multiple ideas before moving forward on anything, big picture thinker and will work out the details as they go

 

4) The Coach as Expert Continue reading →

We are immersed in Personalized Learning.  The honeycomb, learner profiles, proficiency based progress, pathways, standards based grading, learning targets, and I can statements.  For some educators this is invigorating, for others it is overwhelming. It is important to recognize that although we are all in a different place, we are taking steps to shift our practices so that they are student centered.  That in itself is a celebration.

After working with a variety of Kaneland teachers embarking on this personalized learning journey and networking with educators in other districts, I have witnessed and learned about a plethora of different approaches to personalization.  Without ranking or comparing where each journey starts and ends, one common strand stood out: student discourse,  student choice, and student voice.

Student Discourse

I readily admit, this is one area where I can continue to improve.  Simply, I enjoy the interaction with students immensely and I have to remember that their interactions with others can be just as impactful.  As teachers, we often take the time to paraphrase what has been said in our class discussions. A simple move of asking another student to restate an answer from a peer in their own words shifts the learning back to the student.  The following discourse moves are from a STEM resource, but can be used in any content area.

 

The following prompts are excellent for teachers to reflect on the discourse in their classrooms.  The Association for Middle Level Education has shared some excellent tips on how to be sure teachers are including critical thinking opportunities for students.

• Is the emphasis on giving the right answers rather than processes and strategies?
• Do the verbal interactions follow the teacher-dominated initiation-response-evaluation pattern?
• Is discourse carried by the voices of a few where the others are reluctant to contribute?
• Do you often provide opportunities for students to lead the discourse?
• Do you model and insist wait-time be used as a key component of dialogue?
• Do you send non-verbal signals to students based on your perception of their ability to give a quick or correct response?
• Does your lack of comfort with content lead you to pose more close-ended questions?

Student Choice

Choice motivates students, there is no question.  As we move from choice menus to allowing students to propose how they will show their learning, the possibilities are endless.  By creating and implementing learning targets and having a clear understanding of what proficiency is, students have the opportunity not only to be more involved in constructing knowledge, but to attain life skills.

 

Just this past weekend, I had a long list of what I needed to accomplish.  Each day the tasks I completed were based on multiple factors related to what was happening around me, my energy level, and interest.  Is it possible for students to have choice in this manner as well? Absolutely. Time management is such an important life skill that can be practiced at a young age.  Author Nancy Sulla discusses this in detail in her book Students Taking Charge: Inside the Learner Active Technology Infused Classroom. She gives suggestions for elementary students through high school students and breaks down how to get started.  Just this past month, she released a second edition of her book with a 

Student Voice

After interacting with students while visiting classrooms this past month, one thing is clear.  Students don’t hesitate to explain why having choice matters in their learning. Students appreciate the ability to work at their own pace, whether it is slower or faster than the norm.  More emphatically, students appreciate the ability to support and mentor one another rather than sit quietly.  They are eager to share their reflections on their learning and are developing their learner profile as they begin to advocate for themselves.  I witnessed kindergarteners asking to work alone at a table so they can concentrate and a fourth grader advocate for change in a learning situation where she didn’t feel that her needs were being met.  It is a celebration that our students are learning to advocate for themselves.

As we continue to give our students rich opportunities for discussion, choice throughout their day, and clear learning expectations, we are well on our way to personalized learning for our students.  We can’t use a GPS, Maps or Waze to get there; there is not an optimal route. Some of us find that frustrating!  What matters is that we are learning along the way, and adapting to what works best for our students. Enjoy the journey and don’t hesitate to reach out to an instructional coach to travel alongside you.

As our Professional Development Norming Meetings on writing have wrapped up, another recurring question that kept arising was spelling — why does spelling not transfer into the students’ writing? Many blog posts and books from teachers and professionals have attempted to tackle this issue. A sampling of their beliefs and strategies to this issue are summarized below.

1. Multitasking is Hard! – As we know during writing workshop, students are multitasking continuously. They are generating ideas, planning, writing, be it by hand or by computer, and trying to spell.

How Can we Help:
• break spelling down into smaller portions
• remind students of specific spelling patterns they recently studied
• focus on just one pattern

2. Opportunity – Students should have time for writing workshop each day so they can practice what good writing is.

How Can we Help:
• If students are writing each day, they will have more opportunities encountering words where they can apply their new spelling patterns to.

3. Do Students Really Understand Why Spelling Matters? – Students don’t understand why spelling matters. They are taught rules, and we all know they just can’t follow every rule – – Yes, there are 31 of them. Saying to students “You should fix the spelling on this because that just a thing that writers do,” will not work with them.

How Can we Help:
• Make sure students know who they are writing for — they need to have a purpose and they need to have an audience.
• Ask them can they read their writing easily?

4. Word Walls –
• A large word wall allow students to quickly access the high frequency words that are familiar with your word study instruction. Have the students aim for automaticity with high frequency words. Have it prominently displayed in the classroom.
• If you notice that a majority of your students are spelling specific words incorrectly in their writing make a writing word wall list. Select just three words and place in the room were all students can visually access. Explicitly teach the students how to use this resource. Once students have mastered these words, change them up, and select the next three that are frequently misspelled. Remember, this is exclusive to your students writing.

How Can we Help: – a writing word wall or a personal word wall.

Writing Word Wall

• believe
• friend
• beginning

• A personal word wall can work with students too and is differentiated and particular to each student. Here is a link of an example of what a personal word wall could look like. http://bit.ly/2yRBWrk

5. Place a spelling strategies anchor chart in your classroom with strategies that have been explicitly taught. Always refer to this so students become accustomed to using this. An example of one is below.

Spellers Use Strategies!

🌟 Hear and spell sounds

🔴 Use a word you know

🔷 Think about the meaning

🔳 Use a mnemonic

⭐ See the word inside your head

🌠 Get close, circle, correct

6. Part by Part Spelling – teach the students to spell words by breaking them down into smaller parts. Here are some prompts to use:

• Say the word, part by part.
• Clap the syllables?
• What letters will spell the first part?
• Write that part down.
• What’s the next syllable you hear?

7. Spell as Best You Can – Remind your students when writing in their notebook or drafting on paper, to spell their words as best they can; when editing time comes around they will not have as many corrections to make.

8. Question and Phrases – Listed below is a list of some questions and phrases you might want to put into your back pocket to use when conferring with your students on spelling during Writing Workshop:

• Is your writing as easy to read as it could be? What could make it easier to read?
• Checking for ________ spelling pattern will make your writing easier for ______ (name an actual person) to read.”
• “Your story will really make people laugh! (Or think, learn, cry, etc.) But when it’s hard to read, it’s harder for people to see how funny/interesting/beautiful it is.”
• “When people read, sometimes they can get distracted by a spelling mistake – then they aren’t thinking about what you wrote anymore.”

Strategy # 6 and 7 above, are from Jennifer Serravallo’s,“The Writing Strategies Book,” but know that she has an entire chapter (8) dedicated to spelling.

Finally, let us not forget that there is a need for us to look at the flip side to this issue. Yes, spelling does matter, but so does our approach with our students. In a recent tweet from Pernille Ripp she states “When students share their truths with us and we take it as a chance to question their grammar and spelling skills instead of listening to their words, we are once more complicit in the killing of student voice and engagement with school – that’s on us, that’s a choice.”

If you have any questions or would like to work with an Instructional Coach on this, please fill out the Coaching Request Form.

 

Works Cited

Moore, Beth “How to Use the Word Wall” TWO WRITING TEACHERS,
Oct. 8, 2016, twowritingteachers.org/
Moore, Beth “Three Reasons Spelling Lessons Aren’t’ Transferring into Writing Workshop”, TWO WRITING TEACHERS, Oct. 11, 2018
Ripp, Pernille, October 26, 2018, Tweet
Serravallo, Jennifer. The Writing Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Writers with 300 Strategies. Heinemann, 2017.
Weakland, Mark. Super Spellers: Seven Steps to Transforming Your Spelling Instruction. Stenhouse Publishers, 2017.

Have you ever done or said something with the intent to get a message out there for people to hear? You deliver the message and wait for a reaction……CRICKETS…..No one responds. You begin to wonder if the message was ever received or if people just “deleted” it. Are they mad?  What is their reaction? Should I not have sent it? What gives? I need some feedback, people! CHIRP……CHIRP…CHIRP…..

We all need feedback of some sort, any sort. Just this summer my 2 year old niece was learning to eat corn on the cob for the first time. She grabbed the end of the ear and shoved the other end in her mouth like she was eating a Popsicle. She didn’t know, but thank goodness her mother gave her the necessary feedback; because that sure would be embarrassing at family reunions many years down the road (If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have said a thing,  just went along with it, anticipating the day I could witness it). We are constantly offering feedback in our everyday activities, whether it be self-reflected, from a peer, or from someone guiding us. So, how don’t we make it more meaningful in our classrooms?

In education, feedback happens in multiple ways: self-reflection, peer feedback, and teacher feedback. I sense that many teachers are struggling with time to conference with their students, so this might be the opportune time to look at how we can utilize peer feedback more effectively in our classrooms. Imagine how the dynamic would change if we empower all of our students to provide meaningful feedback. Students would no longer need to wait passively to learn but be able to take responsibility for and actively move forward in their own learning process.

Take a look at this video of  peer-reflection in a classroom

https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/student-to-student-feedback-nea

Every student in our classroom has the potential to be an expert. Our responsibility is to get to know the individual student and identify their strengths. By giving our students the opportunity to share their expertise with one another, we are engaging them in the highest level of learning; allowing them to teach. If we make an effort to properly guide them through the feedback process, their conversations will generate much better results.

In an article I read recently, Seven Keys to Effective Feedback, in Educational Leadership, Grant Wiggins offers insight on what it takes to have meaningful feedback. By using these steps, we can demonstrate to our students how to provide effective feedback to their peers.

1. Goal-referenced: It is crucial to remind students of the goal they are working on
2. Tangible and Transparent: It has to be real
3. Actionable: make sure it’s concrete, specific, and useful (“Good Job” is really not useful, is it?)
4. User-Friendly: it’s important that classmates understand what their peers are trying to tell them
5. Timely: Make it immediate
6. Ongoing: Don’t make feedback a one time thing
7. Consistent: Use the same parameters for all students

So, you might be asking, what is the correct usage of peer feedback, especially at the elementary level? Is it handing over a checklist for a student to follow when giving feedback to a classmate? Is it having a child write “Good job” on a student’s writing project? Before you hand feedback over to your students it is important to go over your expectations. Following Wiggins’ suggestions can guide you through the process. Give students examples of what you are looking for, and also what you are not looking for. Let them ask questions. Let them practice. Show your students why it is important to the learning process. There are so many different concepts that are effective, but what it boils down to is that the feedback has to be meaningful.

Some quick tips:

Set expectations from the start of the lesson that peer review is not about judging each other’s work, but helping each other out. Also, remind students that it’s important for the peer feedback space to be safe, judgement-free in order for everyone to truly benefit from the feedback.

• Have students focus on the positive aspects of the work before pointing out areas of improvement.
• Show students how they can phrase things constructively. Instead of “I don’t understand the point of your introduction,” try this: “Your thesis statement can be stronger. Can you provide examples?”
• Provide students with categories/areas to focus on when giving feedback, for example: Grammar, structure, sentences, creativity, etc.

Many students will not be so keen on the idea of peer review. After all, who wants their peers to read their work and assess it? However, if their peers can help them see the benefits, and the importance of the process, they will actually enjoy it!

 

In education you are constantly bombarded with new initiatives and best practices.  As you engage in conversations with your professional learning network and take part in professional development, it is easy to think that you would love to make changes. You start making a mental list of of strategies and curriculum you want to adopt and become overwhelmed.  The district or school has a core set of ideas that they want you to focus on. You have read about new strategies in math, reading, and social and emotional learning in the classroom and want to incorporate all you have learned. You get to know your students and realize they have very specific needs and wants that will require you to adjust to a new way of instructing, organizing, communicating, etc. to get them to engage.  The struggle is real.

I wish I had the magic solution for you. The problem of too many things to do, and not enough time to do them in is a timeless struggle that I don’t believe any solid solution exists for.  There are always going to be items to add to our lists. As a teacher, our lists can seem never ending. It is easy to say students are our number one priority on our list but “students” encompass a lot of complex tasks and ideas.  How are we meeting our students academic needs? How are we meeting their social and emotional needs? Are we giving them the feedback that they need? Are we creating the environment that is best for them to learn? If we create that environment for one student, does that fulfill the needs of the student next to them?  How can we be everything for everyone? I could continue going in a downward spiral writing these questions and building my anxiety….and then I take a step back.

As teachers we see students become overwhelmed with activities, information, or difficult tasks.  What do you do? Do you ask the student to take some deep breaths? Go ahead and do that yourself.  

Do you ask the student why they are so frustrated or upset?  What is making them act out? Reflect on your own stresses. What is driving your stress or anxiety? Are you feeling overwhelmed?  Do you want to do everything on your list and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time?

What are your next step with this student?  What are your next steps as a teacher feeling the pressure? Here are some things that may help:

1. Remember you are a professionally trained teacher. You were hired for a specific reason by a school district.  They wanted you! You had (and hopefully still have) a passion for education and training that was appropriate for the job.  You didn’t get the job because you said you said you could change the world overnight. You said in your interview you were going to teach your students.  Go back to those students. You know what they need. You see them every day, you know their stories, their quirks, their strengths. Advocate for them as their teacher.  Have confidence in yourself. Trust your training, and your continued growth as a professional.
2. Create a focus.  You have had some time to dabble this school year.  Now pick your focus. Don’t try and change everything.  Small changes make big movements in the long run. You can decide to take a few different routes when picking a focus.
   1. You may want to look at where are you going to get the most “bang for your buck.” Is there a management strategy that you want to implement that will help you throughout the entire day? This focus is normally going to take a while to accomplish, but the payoff is well worth the time.
   2. Where can you make a little tweak to get what you want? This focus allows you to have a quick win.  We all need to be able to check something off of our list and sometimes it is best to start with those we can check off easily to gain momentum.   
3. Set a goal.  Take your focus and write down what will it look and feel like when you accomplish it (think about a SMART goal structure). WRITE IT.  Writing it helps keep you calibrated. You want your goal to make you feel success when you accomplish it. When goals are vague we tend to end with a “good enough” feeling and that is not what you need or want when checking an item off your list.
4. Make a plan. What are the steps you are going to take to get you to your goal?  Take out your calendar, planner, etc. and put your plan in it. What are your actions going to be?  What results are you expecting at certain points? Thinking and implementing new ideas is messy. Cling on to the fact that the start may look chaotic but if you have a plan you know where you are heading and can deal with the craziness for a little while.  
5. Keep perspective.  This suggestion is one that I know may be easier said than done but it can be the most powerful tool you have. Try not to compare yourself to everyone around you.  You will see and hear the highlight reel of classrooms on social media but what you miss is the toil and struggle of what it took for the teacher to get there. You don’t see all their failed attempts or planning sessions. You don’t see how they had to make small adjustment by small adjustment over time to get to where they are today.  We talk about personalizing learning for students, but teachers need to give themselves the ability to stand back and realize one teacher’s pace is not always another’s and at the end of the day we are all heading in the same direction. I believe that you are doing your best, because that is why you got into education. You believe in change. You believe in students.  And you need to believe in yourself. You will find a way to accomplish what you want but give yourself the grace to realize change takes time.

As a coach I am continuously blown away by the knowledge and ability of teachers. I have the unique opportunity to see and talk to teachers at a variety of levels and buildings.  I can honestly say I have never walked into a classroom where I didn’t see a strength in a teacher. Start looking for your strengths. Acknowledge them. Own them. And then continue to work, because that is what teachers do. Change is difficult but by creating a personal focus and taking things step by step you will have the ability to move mountains.  Give yourself the understanding that you give your students and we will all reach new heights.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

-Albert Einstein

During a morning meeting I attended this past week, teachers had the opportunity to share different approaches to how they have tried to implement the learner profile.  Each person who shared, gave an example of what they had done last year, but then each elaborated on how they will approach it differently this year. As I listened, the thought came to mind that these teachers were sharing reflections, rather than just examples. By listening to what didn’t work, as well as each teachers’ new insights, we all had double the benefit.

“Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.” -John C. Maxwell

Reflection is the backbone to our learner profiles. A common question surrounding the Kaneland Learner Profile is, where do I find the time to teach my students to reflect?  How can I add one more thing to teach in my school day? Other than a targeted lesson on what exactly reflection is, all other opportunities should be naturally embedded into our day. Reflective thinking is an opportunity for our learners to seek self awareness as well as improvement in the process and product of learning. Not only does reflection help our students learn, but when they share reflections with us, we can work more effectively to meet students’ needs.

 

I have spent time with kindergartners this past week who are learning the basics of reflection.  They are using the framework “This time _____________, next time ____________” to think about their STEM projects.  It is just a start, but will absolutely provide that language needed as we dig deeper into the quality of work across the curriculum. As our youngest learners begin learning this valuable skill, we are reminded that we all can find the insight from reflection.

 

 

 

reflection of process

 

 

 

 

reflection on product

 

 

 

In a fifth grade classroom, I witnessed fifth graders reflecting on their first experience using a learning pathway during science.  Their reflections were so valuable in providing feedback to their peers, as well as their teacher, regarding this proficiency based format.

A few key points from an article outlining key components to reflective opportunities for your students:

• Provide enough wait-time for students to reflect when responding to inquiries.
• Provide emotionally supportive environments in the classroom encouraging reevaluation of conclusions.
• Prompt reviews of the learning situation, what is known, what is not yet known, and what has been learned.
• Provide authentic tasks involving ill-structured data to encourage reflective thinking during learning activities.
• Prompt students’ reflection by asking questions that seek reasons and evidence.
• Provide some explanations to guide students’ thought processes during explorations.
• Provide a less-structured learning environment that prompts students to explore what they think is important.
• Provide social-learning environments such as those inherent in peer-group works and small group activities to allow students to see other points of view.
• Provide reflective journal to write down students’ positions, give reasons to support what they think, show awareness of opposing positions and the weaknesses of their own positions.

The act of reflection will look very different in every classroom, considering not only the age difference that exists in our elementary setting, but also simply because reflection is very personal.  However, it is a critical part of being a learner. It is something that requires modeling and practice. It can be used individually, but the the dialogue among students can make reflection a powerful learning experience for all.

Scaffolding Student Reflections Edutopia Article

Questions to prompt reflection before, during, and after learning

As most grade levels have finished up their Writing Norming Professional Development, one question that seem to be a recurring focus was what is elaboration and what is craft.  In simplified terms, we would define Elaboration as it has to do with saying more, putting more down on the page. Craft has to do with saying things better, in a stronger way — understanding the genre in which you the writer are writing.

Now let’s take the time to take a look on how you could approach the teaching of Elaboration.  In the book, The Big Book of Details: 46 Moves for Teaching Writers to Elaborate by Rozlyn Linder, she takes us on a journey through a myriad of strategies that would benefit our writers.

Zoom In is one Elaboration move in her book that is comprehensively laid out. She shows us an example from Andrew Clements book Frindle —

“Mrs. Granger kept a full set of thirty dictionaries on a shelf at the back of the room. But her pride and joy was one of those huge dictionaries with every word in a the universe in it, the kind of book it takes two kids to carry. It sat on its own little table at the front of her classroom, sort of like the altar at the front of the church.”

To zoom in is to tell your readers what you should pay attention to, giving the reader a clue as to what the author of the piece feels is important. In this excerpt above from Frindle, we can see that the dictionaries are going to be important. This excerpt was stretched out by being longer and more detailed.

You can practice this with the class by zooming in on an object in the classroom. Have the students describe what they are seeing. Have them stretch it out longer and in more detail, in other words they are being more specific. To further this lesson, have students for homework take a look in their homes and zoom in on an object describing it in more detail — stretching it out.

Craft, the art of saying things in a better, stronger way, is best taught to students using mentor text. In Stacey Shubitz’s book, Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts she advocates for using well written picture books to use for a variety of power craft moves.

In Last Stop on Market Street by LaPena and Robinson, power craft moves that can be gleaned from this picture book  are: dialogue, internal thinking, ending, lead, repetition, punctuation to create voice, character details,show-don’t tell, setting details and the heart of the story.

One example of a power craft move is appealing to the senses in the lead. The author starts the story by describing a specific location, the smell of the location, and what it feels like. Examining the pictures will also help the students be vividly aware of the setting.

Elaboration and Craft is paramount to good writing. If you would like to work with one of the Instructional Coaches on this, please fill out our Coaching Request Form (link) and we will work with you to help your students become better more confident writers.

Works Cited

Clements, Andrew, and Brian Selznick. Frindle. LRS (Library Reproduction Service), 2000.

Linder, Rozlyn. The Big Book of Details: 46 Moves for Teaching Writers to Elaborate. Heinemann, 2016.

Peña Matt De la, and Christian Robinson. Last Stop on Market Street. Puffin, 2017.

Shubitz, Stacey. Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts. Stenhouse Publishers, 2016.

How many times have we wished that we had eyes in the back of our head, ears to hear things we’re not around, and time to actually assess, meet, and personalize our students? There may never be a time where we can do this in our classroom, but Swivl gives us the capabilities to do this now!

Swivl is a robotic camera that can be used in our classrooms to capture the many things that we might be missing out on. This simple resource has the ability to assist us in hearing the exciting conversations that are taking place in group stations, showcasing exciting lessons with other classrooms, assessing, self-reflection, and so much more.

The capabilities of video recording with Swivl is unlimited. Imagine that guided reading group or math station that is working on their own. Do we want to understand each group’s effectiveness? Swivl allows a teacher to capture the conversation while that teacher is actually working with their own group of students. It doesn’t stop there. Do we all have that one group in a Science investigation that perfects their experiment? Why not share this teaching moment with others to help them determine what led to their success? Swivl allows us to share our successes, and sometimes even our failures, with other classrooms throughout the district. It’s also a great way to share and demonstrate lessons with one another.

Swivl can also be used as a self-reflection tool for teachers. Swivl has the ability to follow a teacher around the classroom, focusing on your entire lesson. It’s a great way to visually see yourself and your student’s participation levels as though you’re sitting in the room yourself! The ability to go back into your classroom, through video, is an ideal situation for teachers.

Some of the many uses of Swivl:

• Live Student Observations 
• Presentations
• Self-Reflection (teacher and student)
• Informal Observations
• KLC Collaboration
• Video Libraries

 

For more information, here’s a video from the Founder of Swivl:

 

https://techcrunch.com/video/swivl-refocuses-on-teachers-presentations/