Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Week 2: PD in 5 minutes or Less
I am out of the district for training on Friday, but I wanted to keep up with my goal of a new idea presented at our staff meetings each week. I decided to create a quick video with iMovie using some of the clips from the Graphite website to share https://www.graphite.org/ with the staff.
Weekly PD: Week 1
Along with my goal to blog more regularly, I also have the goal to bring something new to the staff each week in 5 minutes or less. My goal is to "plant seed"s of ideas each week, not necessarily to "teach" the staff how to use a particular program or technique in their instruction. For the first week of my 5 minute "ads" I introduced Classcraft as a behavior management tool.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Day 2 Shared/Guided Reading Coaching
#newschoolyear resolution:
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Today was the second day I modeled Barnhouse strategies in both shared and guided reading. I was a little disappointed in the guided reading lesson from Monday. I found it very helpful when I taped the whole group reading lesson on Monday so I made sure to video tape the small groups I met with today (Tuesday).
I made sure to complete running records with the text to make sure that the students were reading at their instructional reading level during guided reading. I was a little concerned about the conversation in the two groups I met with in the morning. I met with the reading specialists in the building to brainstorm ways to get the kids to "Notice" details about the text without directing them to details.
I was very happy with how the small groups went today. It went so much better than Monday. On my Monday I went against my instincts for teaching guided reading and spent too much time on vocabulary instead of jumping right into the text; which is what I normally would do.
I will continue to note what worked well with the students and recording my lessons. I was able to keep track of how long I gave for wait time, calling on a variety of students, and techniques used for behavior management. I also recorded some of the students' responses so I could share that information easily with resource teachers and the classroom teacher.
Shared Reading
Recording my Lessons in Order to Reflect
Today was the second day I modeled Barnhouse strategies in both shared and guided reading. I was a little disappointed in the guided reading lesson from Monday. I found it very helpful when I taped the whole group reading lesson on Monday so I made sure to video tape the small groups I met with today (Tuesday).
I made sure to complete running records with the text to make sure that the students were reading at their instructional reading level during guided reading. I was a little concerned about the conversation in the two groups I met with in the morning. I met with the reading specialists in the building to brainstorm ways to get the kids to "Notice" details about the text without directing them to details.
I was very happy with how the small groups went today. It went so much better than Monday. On my Monday I went against my instincts for teaching guided reading and spent too much time on vocabulary instead of jumping right into the text; which is what I normally would do.
I will continue to note what worked well with the students and recording my lessons. I was able to keep track of how long I gave for wait time, calling on a variety of students, and techniques used for behavior management. I also recorded some of the students' responses so I could share that information easily with resource teachers and the classroom teacher.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Whole Group and Shared Lesson Day 1 Coaching
My goal for the school year (new school year resolution) was to blog more. The beginning of the year has be really crazy traveling between three different buildings. This week my focus is supporting some different teachers in our reading block. The teachers at my school use Dorothy Barnhouse's reading strategies for teaching reading. The Barnhouse strategies encourages students to have real discussions about books and naturally use different reading strategies. The teacher names the strategy that the student uses (Wow, that was a really short explanation that does not do it justice. The students end up having wonderful discussions about text!).
Today I was lucky enough to begin in a classroom and model both shared and guided reading. It is so different to go into classrooms where I don't know the students; unlike when I had my class and I could predict how the students would respond to questions and be able to catch most behavior problems before they occurred. I made sure to begin the lesson with a quick assessment using red/green cards. I do not know if the students were comfortable with holding up the red side of the card to admit they were unsure about the statements I made. It was a little difficult to get a full class assessment using this method today (this may be more effective after I visit the classroom and build relationships with the students). Below is the lesson plan for day one shared reading:
Based on the running record data I collected I decided to spend a day on vocabulary with the guided reading groups. I usually jump right into the text during guided reading, but I noted that the students could use support with "debugging" the words before we got started. I also wanted to get to know the students as readers and so for me I like to talk about strategies they use when confronting an unknown word. After meeting with the small groups, I decided to rework the groups for Tuesday. I moved some of the students around so that they would be successful in the text I placed them in (Thank goodness for flexible grouping!).
I was a bit disappointed with how I scaffolded the first two groups I met with in guided. After the lesson I met with the reading specialist to see how I could increase the small group conversation with the groups that need a bit more support. She suggested that before scaffolding the questions/prompts I give the students, I should narrow down the text, sentence-by-sentence if I need to. The last two groups I met with seemed excited about the text I gave them and were reading to annotate like crazy and talk about patterns within the text.
I think it will go much more smoothly tomorrow now that I have completed running records with most students as well as asked comprehension questions. I have a better idea about how the students are as readers.
Today I was lucky enough to begin in a classroom and model both shared and guided reading. It is so different to go into classrooms where I don't know the students; unlike when I had my class and I could predict how the students would respond to questions and be able to catch most behavior problems before they occurred. I made sure to begin the lesson with a quick assessment using red/green cards. I do not know if the students were comfortable with holding up the red side of the card to admit they were unsure about the statements I made. It was a little difficult to get a full class assessment using this method today (this may be more effective after I visit the classroom and build relationships with the students). Below is the lesson plan for day one shared reading:
The pre assessment ended up taking longer than I had planned, so I needed to rethink my plans for the next day. We also did not have time to write a story chart in our reader response notebooks because we took extended time on our discussion about the pre assessment prompt.
Based on the running record data I collected I decided to spend a day on vocabulary with the guided reading groups. I usually jump right into the text during guided reading, but I noted that the students could use support with "debugging" the words before we got started. I also wanted to get to know the students as readers and so for me I like to talk about strategies they use when confronting an unknown word. After meeting with the small groups, I decided to rework the groups for Tuesday. I moved some of the students around so that they would be successful in the text I placed them in (Thank goodness for flexible grouping!).
I was a bit disappointed with how I scaffolded the first two groups I met with in guided. After the lesson I met with the reading specialist to see how I could increase the small group conversation with the groups that need a bit more support. She suggested that before scaffolding the questions/prompts I give the students, I should narrow down the text, sentence-by-sentence if I need to. The last two groups I met with seemed excited about the text I gave them and were reading to annotate like crazy and talk about patterns within the text.
I think it will go much more smoothly tomorrow now that I have completed running records with most students as well as asked comprehension questions. I have a better idea about how the students are as readers.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Student Led Discussion Strategy
My goal is to reflect on or write about at least one teaching strategy each week.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/high-school-literature-lesson-plan
Pinwheel Discussions
I attached the link to the Teaching Channel video that showed this strategy in action.
Description:
In the video, all students were expected to read three articles that were related. The classroom was set up with four desks in the center of the room and the rest in a pinwheel formation (see image below). The students would work in their small groups of 4 to ask and answer text dependent questions.
Each student is assigned to one article to focus on. There will be a "provocateur" (name change for younger grades) in each small group. Each roll will meet with like rolls in the class to begin to discuss the text. The "provocateur" group will begin to construct text dependent questions that will fuel the discussions. After like groups meet to plan, the discussion begins.
The teacher's roll is simply to facilitate discussion. They also can keep tallies of different agreed upon discussion tactics (using text proof, bringing new ideas to the table, building off of another student's ideas... etc).
The video was taken of a high school classroom, however this technique can be easily modified for lower grade levels.
I like how all students are expected to be involved during the discussion unlike a teacher led discussion. Each students needs to listen as the 4 students talk in the center of the room so that they can bring new ideas to the table. Students lead the conversation and it gives them ownership over their own learning.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/high-school-literature-lesson-plan
Pinwheel Discussions
I attached the link to the Teaching Channel video that showed this strategy in action.
Description:
In the video, all students were expected to read three articles that were related. The classroom was set up with four desks in the center of the room and the rest in a pinwheel formation (see image below). The students would work in their small groups of 4 to ask and answer text dependent questions.
Each student is assigned to one article to focus on. There will be a "provocateur" (name change for younger grades) in each small group. Each roll will meet with like rolls in the class to begin to discuss the text. The "provocateur" group will begin to construct text dependent questions that will fuel the discussions. After like groups meet to plan, the discussion begins.
The teacher's roll is simply to facilitate discussion. They also can keep tallies of different agreed upon discussion tactics (using text proof, bringing new ideas to the table, building off of another student's ideas... etc).
The video was taken of a high school classroom, however this technique can be easily modified for lower grade levels.
I like how all students are expected to be involved during the discussion unlike a teacher led discussion. Each students needs to listen as the 4 students talk in the center of the room so that they can bring new ideas to the table. Students lead the conversation and it gives them ownership over their own learning.
Friday, July 24, 2015
Prepping for the New School Year
For my new coaching position I have been reading many books this summer.
I have also revisit the teaching channel just to be ready to bring some new research based strategies to the teachers I will be working with this year. I also have not worked in a primary or middle school classroom in about 7 years!
https://www.teachingchannel.org/workspace
I watched so many helpful videos:
"Inquiry-Based Teaching: Discussing Non-Fiction"
"Implementing New Instructional Strategies"
"The Power of Pairing Texts to Demonstrate Standards"
"Analyzing Texts: Putting Thoughts on Paper"
"Pinwheel Discussions: Texts in Conversation"
It was interesting to watch some videos for years before the Common Core and listen to secondary students having discussions and quoting text and thinking about how my fifth graders did this regularly (of course after reading my low leveled text).
My goal is to reflect on a new teaching strategy a week... We will see once the craziness of the year happens!!
I have also revisit the teaching channel just to be ready to bring some new research based strategies to the teachers I will be working with this year. I also have not worked in a primary or middle school classroom in about 7 years!https://www.teachingchannel.org/workspace
I watched so many helpful videos:
"Inquiry-Based Teaching: Discussing Non-Fiction"
"Implementing New Instructional Strategies"
"The Power of Pairing Texts to Demonstrate Standards"
"Analyzing Texts: Putting Thoughts on Paper"
"Pinwheel Discussions: Texts in Conversation"
It was interesting to watch some videos for years before the Common Core and listen to secondary students having discussions and quoting text and thinking about how my fifth graders did this regularly (of course after reading my low leveled text).
My goal is to reflect on a new teaching strategy a week... We will see once the craziness of the year happens!!
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
From Teacher to Instructional Coach
 |
| HH Family at the Cubs Game |
 |
| HH Group Halloween Costume |
Towards the end of the year I decided that I was ready for a new challenge and a change in my career. I decided to go for the new position as an Instructional Coach for my current school district. Although it may be nerve-racking leaving my classroom comfort zone I wanted the challenge and I was excited about working with grades K-8 and doing professional development classes after school. I did get the position (WOOOOWHOO), but this will change what my blog looks like... I will be the one doing the blogging. In past years my students did the reflecting on our "Robotics" time and as we Beta tested the app Frolyc.
I will use this blog as a reflective-think-aloud tool for myself. With that I will take a moment to look back on my first year of teaching 6 years ago (I know that 6 years doesn't seem like a long time, but thinking back about what I did not know it seems like FOREVER!)
On the side of this page I have included some pictures of people who are part of my Heather Hill Family! I learned a lot from all of them and will miss working with them everyday.
 |
| Being Silly with some of the best! |
 |
| We all look so young! |
 |
| 5th Grade Team Partners! |
On the back wall there is a bookcase and that was my classroom library in year one! So sad!! I spent my 6 years taking many trips to swap meets, libraries (old editions are sometimes free) and resale shops and eventually built up my classroom library. When I packed up my classroom to leave in June I had 12 boxes of books and probably left hundreds behind!
I laugh at the computer we had! And to think, three years later we have MacBooks and 1:1 iPads. I am so thankful that I was part of that initiative (I didn't even have a smartphone so I got to learn a lot with my students).
Blogging Again! (Wow!! There is a lot to recap...)
It has been a year from today that I posted my last blog! This past school year went so fast and was filled with a lot for great and challenging times. My class continued to learn with me and put up with my crazy ideas to try new things out at any moment. We improved our Makers Space, continued Genus Hour/20% Time, and at the end of the year we began experimenting with augmented reality!
One of my favorite days of the year-> Fun Day!
Having a blast at ICE 2015
Learning a lot at ICE 2015
My class began experimenting with Augmented Reality using Aurasma. We begin playing around with this app while doing a close read on A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes. My students really had an interest in learning more about Hughes as well as the Harlem Renaissance. In the video above, the student attached an "Aura" to a date near Langston Hughes's birthday. The image that appears is a piece of art that resembles artwork from an artist of his choice who was popular during the Harlem Renaissance.
This is another video clip of our AR Harlem Renaissance project. This student create a work of art inspired by an artist of choice and found music to go along with it which played when he hovered over the art work. Both the music and art was based off of research about the Harlem Renaissance.
This last clip shows all the creation, creativity, and collaboration (like that alliteration!) that was going on during our Harlem Renaissance investigation. This is a perfect example of a flexible teaching moment. It started with a close read and my students questioned and wanted to know more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)