Content Area & The Common Core Institute @ Teacher's College

Sitting on the plane on the way home from NY, simultaneously hoping the snow doesn't delay my arrival, and reviewing all that's learned this week. I'm not quite sure how to start actually. Being at Columbia university's Teachers college this week was invigorating. Being taught, challenged and coached by the bright and passionate minds of The Reading and Writing project brought me back to the excitement I felt as an undergraduate. I think it's unusual for us as educators to find ourselves back in a state mind where anything is possible. Unfortunately it's not of the that we get the chance to reimagine how we do things and breath new life into our instructional strategies in the way we did at the institute this week. 

The focus of the week was on content area instruction and the common core. Every speaker, session and conversation was focused on increasing our students understanding of the content we teach in social studies and science through authentic integration of the ELA standards. A couple of us from across the country (and a few from further...shout out to my new Puerto Rico friend!) gathered with varying job assignments, career eking this and content areas on our mind. It was a amazing though, to see the seemingly effortless way the TCRWP staff guided us through experiences as students and then as practitioners. It was a perfect balance. 

Earlier this week I posted on on content area centers, one of the many simple strategies we learned and practiced, but there are a few other things I'd like to share. In the coming days, I plan to post about mini-lectures, nonfiction read-alouds and some strategies for teaching students to think and write about main idea. I'll also share and reflect on the tweets of myself, TCRWP staff and my new colleagues. 

Looking forward to sharing my learning!

StoryWorks Magazine

Check out this resource for 3-6

Content Area Centers

For those of you who have been teaching primary grades, centers are not new for you. But what having students visit different areas in the room, to engage in a variety of actives was part of our social studies and science instruction? What if instead of cracking open social studies textbooks or jumping into science experiments from our FOSS or EIE kits, we had a day or two set aside for centers? K-8 teachers, I want to challenge you to think about some of these compelling reasons to engage in this type of teaching for the purpose of increasing your student's learning. 

Centers are;

* An opportunity for students to engage with content in a variety of the ways, many "access points" 

* Requires deep thinking about content, rather than "sit and get"

* Students learn from conversation with one another, defending opinions, justifying thinking  with text evidence 

* Allows for differentiation in task, support, and thinking

* Great chance to generate and answer "big questions"

* Lends to  thoughtful CCSS connections

* Builds independence and ownership of learning

Here are some ideas for centers that could become part of your instruction regardless of the center;

Statistics Center- looking at graphic or numerical representations of the content, consider infographics

Photograph Center- photos from textbooks, articles, internet. Diagrams and drawings that represent scientific content

Listening center- audio of speeches or video clips related to content

Write around center- photo, statistics, poem or passage in the middle, students respond by writing around, and the respond to one another by writing around each other's comments

Text to text- two texts on the topic/content that students read and compare/contrast. Two article with opposing viewpoints, two primary source documents from the same time 

Of course students need to know what your expectations are for the centers, and that does take time. Once students know what the expectations are for the photograph center however it doesn't matter if the photos are of the civil rights movement, science content, or even a math diagram, they know what to do. 

Planning centers that span over several days, within the context of your collaborative team can greatly enrich student learning! 

Let me know if this is something your team would like to work on :) 

Stating Learning Targets

Stating Learning Targets

This is an excellent example of some simple ways to anchor your students and your lessons in your learning targets. I challenge you to use "I CAN" statements in this way!

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/making-lesson-objectives-clear

"Learning About" vs. Assessing

"Every time I talk to the children I am learning about them. I like the words 'learning about' much more than I like 'assessing.' I learn about my children. I get to know them. I want to know what they know. I want to know how they know. Isn't that what assessment is all about- learning what children know?"- Jill Ostrow, A Room With a Different View (1995)

When I read this I began thinking immediately about my notebook. The one I started my very first year of teaching. Just like most new educators, I was determined to be the "super teacher." I wanted to be different from others, I wanted to know my students so well that I could teach them in exactly the way they needed to be taught. I knew it was a lofty goal but, as usual, I was determined and  organized. I had purchased a notebook for anecdotal records and carefully labeled each page. The goal was to make notes (especially in the first days) of little things I noticed about my students. Everything from interests to friendships, fears to silly quotes. I imagined this book of observations to inform my teaching, aid in conversations with families and give me ammo when I was trying to curb out of line behaviors.

The idea came about in one of my undergrad classes on observation, I was sure it would set me a part. The notebook served its purpose for a time, I kept it neat and tidy, and within arms reach. I even did a fairly good job of writing in it regularly, for a while. But before I knew it the daily grind of answering emails, returning parent phone calls, eating 2 bites of lunch at the copy machine, searching for lost mittens... and of course teaching, got in the way of the routine of actually writing. What I developed was a mental notebook, where I still kept a "page" for each of my learners. I tuned into how they talked with their classmates, when or if they shared in class, the kind of books they were drawn to, and most of all what made them smile. I began weaving these bits of knowledge in with how I observed them performing academic tasks and quickly the "notebook pages" became like chapters in are larger reference type library I had built.

I found that when I knew what it was that they were good at, where their knowledge started and stopped and what I could do to keep each of them motivated, it transformed the culture of my classroom and my students' achievement. It wasn't really until my 3rd year in the classroom that I had a clean mental system for learning and applying all I could gather about the little humans in my classroom.

I would encourage you to ponder this as we head towards reading assessment windows and a dense time of learning in the year. I'm not telling you to start a notebook, but you can if it helps. Try to just gather information through conversation, observation and maybe even asking your students to write you letters. Allow what you learn to inform your instruction and guide the way you teach. Doing this will also help you understand their work better and support them in their learning.

Text Sets By Grade Level from F&P

Visit the Shared Documents tab up top and scroll down to find F&P Text Sets By Grade Level to find some book suggestions. They are broken down by style and genre as well as by some author studies. 

Book Lists

Follow this link to see book list suggestions from Lucy Calkins and The Reading & Writing Project. Some are by genre and topic, others are by grade level. As you write your units of study and order books to be used during your whole group interactive read alouds, this is a good place to look for suggestions. Also consider these titles when choosing books to add to your classroom library.

The image below gives you a glimpse of what you will find on the site...there are other great resources as well, dig around the rest of the site a little!