ELA Schedule Explained

If you are still trying to get a handle on how your literacy block might look, here is an explained example for you to look at. If you would like to see some other options, visit the
K-6 page!

As a classroom teacher I not only planned when my groups met, but I planned what my other students were going to do during those times. Knowing how essential it was for them to Read to Self every day and write about their reading, those were my priorities. I also tried to build in as much time to partner read and talk about their reading as possible. After all, oral language and vocabulary development are directly tied to how much time a student has to talk to others. Here is what the days would look like based on the schedule above.

Rigorous Reading

Small Group Lessons

If you are ready to jump right in and plan small group instruction but are unsure of what should be included, feel free to use these resources.

The first, are some pages from the K-8 Continuum about Guided Reading. The second page of this pair is a framework for what can be included in small group instruction.

The second resource is a template that can be used to plan small groups in reading, it looks like this;

but you can find a blank one HERE.
Please note that there are many options built into this plan, you would never be expected to do everything in the sequence column, but they are reminders of appropriate lesson components that you may consider including. Notice it is very short, and since your "I can " statement would be copied from your

The 4 Questions for students

I've just begun reading Formative Assessment in Practice: A process of inquiry and action by Margaret Heritage and in the first 10 pages I can see connections to our work here! When I stumbled onto this quote:
"As the lesson develops, students use the learning goal and success criteria to reflect on their own learning, to evaluate their learning progresses and to think about where they need to go next."
I immediately thought of the 4 questions that guide our PLC work. And then I thought, what a great idea for a classroom poster or bulletin board, the 4 questions every student should be able to answer:

What am I supposed to know/be able to do?

How will I know when I know it?

What will I do if I don't know it?

What will I do next when I do know it?

Consider the power of teaching your students to reflect, plan and respond to their own learning!

Dyad Reading of ANY text

This strategy can be used in most grade levels and in all content areas. It comes from Nancy Lee Cecil's book The Art of Inquiry. Here is the description and the steps to making this happen in your classroom.
       Dyad Reading is a form of reciprocal oral reading that has the added dimension of increasing important critical thinking skills through summarizing and questioning. You can teach the strategy using the following format:
1. Select two students to work together (students who read at generally the same level would be best) and have one read a paragraph or selected section of text out loud.
2. As that child reads, have the other child listen and then summarize (oral or written) what was read. 
3. Have the reader ask the listener critical thinking questions
4. Encourage the children to discuss the answers and, where there is disagreement, have them refer to the text.
5. Repeat the process, alternating roles

 Obviously, this technique would need to be modeled and taught in order for students to generate quality questions and internalize the routine and expectations. But once mastered, this strategy could be a great pre-reading or re-reading activity to deepen students understanding of a text. Once agin, regardless of if the text is from a textbook, novel, article or other source, students reading, listening, summarizing and questioning causes them  to be intentional and in tune with their own comprehension. Go ahead and give it a try!

21st Century Approaches to Teaching

21st CENTURY APPROACHES to 
LEARNING & TEACHING include:
(follow the links and please be patient as the videos load!)

STUDENT VOICE & CHOICE
Differentiating with learning menus

A FOCUS ON QUESTIONS & CONCEPTS

COLLABORATIVE WORK

STRATEGIC THINKING

STUDENTS AS KNOWLEDGE CREATORS

INCREASED INTERACTIONS & TALKING
Twitter in the classroom

USING MULTIPLE SOURCES FOR INFORMATION
Literacy in Physics: Reading a Primary Source

INCREASING INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Engage motivation2012 from jenniferplucker

Reading Conference Binder....It's time, trust me

So now that you have several assessment forms for each of your students and your are beginning to imagine how you might help make each one make progress this year, I believe its time to introduce you to one of the best things you will do this year.....make yourself a Reading Conference Binder. If you start now, it will actually be very easy to maintain and use.
Here is mine from last year:
           
You can see that it is LARGE, about 3 inches thick, it may not be full right away, but trust me it will fill throughout the year and you want to be certain you have enough room for that growth. The next thing you will notice is that it has many colorful tabs, one for every student in my class. I used really heavy duty dividers and they lasted me over 4 years, so it was worth it. I think these are the ones I ordered.

In the front I stored class charts and a calendar for marking down when I met with each student, obviously I was seeing some more than others. 

Once I started assessing, each student's assessment forms went into their section, then as I met with them to do more running records and confer with them I used various forms to guide and remember my time with them.

HERE ARE SOME FORMS I MIGHT USE AND PUT INTO MY BINDER IF I WERE YOU :)

 There was so much power in being able to open up this binder in conversation with parents and collaborating specialists, it allowed me to be an expert on each student because I had so much data! I would encourage you to find a summary form for each student to use at the beginning of their section. I used it to keep track of changes in level and important growth points.

 Happy Reading Conferences!

Beautiful and Diverse Text

I heard about this site while listening to a presentation Cris Tovani gave on reading engagement. The site is called informationisbeautiful.net and what you find there is just that, beautiful information. Weather you are a content area teacher or just looking to spice up your student's reading material, there are many great choices here.
You could address place value, percentages and musicians rights using this info graphic:

Or you could use this to spark a class discussion in physical science

or perhaps you would assign your health class to read and respond to this chart in small groups...

lots of interesting info and interesting text!

Questioning Circle- Anyone can do it!

From Engaging Readers & Writers Through Inquiry By Jeff Wilhelm

Text Complexity

Regardless of the grade level or subject area you teach, students come face to face with text almost constantly. In their book Leveled Books (2006), Fountas & Pinnell outline some important considerations for us as we aim to inspire EACH student EVERY day:

"When students are reading a book they can read with success, they are able to use many different sources of information in a smoothly operating processing system."
Did you catch that? Reading is a smoothly operating processing system. Reading is not finishing pages or paragraphs. The purpose of reading is making meaning, if you aren't able to run through the processing system enough to make meaning, you aren't reading, you're calling out words.

"If they are struggling, they cannot use what they know in efficient  strategic ways. In fact, forcing students to read-too hard texts has devastating results."
Did you hear THAT? Devastating. It can't just be someone else's problem that your 3rd, 8th or 12th grade student can't read your textbook, it has to be yours. It has to be mine.

So what are you supposed to do? You have a textbook, actually you have a class set of textbooks, access to texts online...but how do you choose? And how will you make them accessible to your students?

1) The first strategy I would suggest is modeling. Yes, even you EPHS teachers :) The way you approach a text is intentional as an experienced reader (even when you're not trying to be intentional.) Open up the textbook, or the text you are expecting them to read, and talk through how YOU would read it and why. Do you read all the headings first? Do you look at diagrams and maps as you go or before you start? Why do you do it that way? What is your response to bold words? What is the narrative in your mind as you read the novel? Do you take notes about questions or observations? You are the expert reader in your classroom. If we don't make the internal process of reading external for them, they won't ever gain the skills and strategies they will need to read complex texts. (Cris Tovani's I Read it, But I Don't Understand it!)

2) The other strategy is to find several passages about the topic you are teaching, at various levels. One of the passages should be from your textbook or class text. Distributing these to students in a packet, or electronic folder allows them to view and choose the ones they can most easily interact without having to publicly choose the easiest. After reading 2 of the passages from the selected group. You can guide small groups through a discussion of similarities in order to building background knowledge about the topic. You can use newspaper articles, copy and paste text from Time for Kids articles from other grade levels or even other grade level textbooks. Doing this before tackling the larger text or concept allows students to get grounded in the content at their own level, propelling them to be more engaged in a difficult text.

Best Practice

"Being a professional carries with it the implication that our behavior is based on the latest and best knowledge available at any given point in time." (Eaker & Keating, 2012)

F&P Benchmark data into small groups

Here is a demonstration of how you might make your initial groupings for small group instruction after collecting your benchmark assessment data.

Practical examples for your reading workshop!