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.

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!!

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!

Year 1, fresh out of college! What I would tell myself or any new teacher today is get rid of any pre-made posters you spend your money on at the teacher store. The best posters are the ones you make with your class (look my walls are filled with space filler...oops!)

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!