Learning to Learn: The Role of Repetition for Close Reading

I am learning about the new Massachusetts' teacher evaluation system with depth. I am using a repetitive process of analyzing each element of the rubric. As I apply this process, I am thinking about what this analysis means for me as a learner, and how I can apply this learning effort to my students' "learning to learn" understanding and behaviors.

When I first read the rubric, it was overwhelming. My first reaction was How can I take in all these elements at once? Yet, I persisted and quickly completed a self assessment.

Now as I analyze one element at a time, I remain overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of expectations, but I also find that the elements create a framework for best practice, one that will serve to lift our profession as long as steady supports exist--supports such as fair pay and reasonable professional responsibilities.

As a learner, it has been interesting for me to take a complex document and break it down step by step. Essentially, a close reading exercise.

What helped?

First, starting with an overview of the entire article gave me a feel for the content, structure, and intent.

Next, developing an initial system and corresponding charts gave me a structure with which to analyze.

After engaging with the analysis structure repeatedly, I find that I'm simplifying the process and making it more efficient with every element analysis. Therefore the repetition led to a more fluid, targeted process of analysis.

Hence, what implications does this experience have for students' close reading exercises and efforts--efforts that develop critical reading and writing skills?

Similar to my close reading process related to the evaluation rubric, I'll move students through a similar process on a regular basis as their success will depend on structure and practice, one without the other will not result in increased skill.

Student Close Reading Process

1. Survey short text.  Observe and discuss structure and content.
2. Read the text for meaning--what is the genre, purpose, and content?
3. Reread and analyze the text with a specific structure(s). 
4. Write analysis related to specific questions, analysis intent. 
5. Practice this skill once or twice a week with depth and breadth. 

Close Reading Instruction Questions:

• What structure(s) best support students' close reading efforts and practice?
• What texts best support students' practice and skill?
• What close reading regularity will support student engagement and skill development? 

Teachers' efforts with close reading support optimal instruction and student gain. What has your experience been like with this process?  What structures best support your efforts?  How do you make this effort meaningful and relevant rather than "test prep?" I look forward to your thoughts, and to investigating this area of school life with greater detail. 

Launching the Reading Year: Details

As we plan for essential skill instruction and practice for the new school year, reading continues to take center stage at the elementary level. We notice time and again that students who read well perform well in all areas of school life. Yet, many students, including some of my own, are reluctant to read--why?

The Wayland Literacy Institute presenters, colleagues at my school, and many friends and family members I've spoken to this summer all point to the fact that an early start to reading and lots of reading exposure and practice leads to life long readers.

Developing readers starts at birth or even before birth. A steady diet of reading to and with children is essential. Yet in today's busy world, that is sometimes impossible for families for a myriad of reasons, and that's why schools have to make time for reading (I can imagine a colleague chuckling as I write since she's been repeating this message continuously--"They're finally listening," she's probably remarking.)

The time to add reading to school year schedules is the months before the school year starts.  Decide now how and when reading will fit into your daily schedule, then hold that time sacred as many specialists and program leaders come to you asking for time.

Next year in my class, I am going to include the following reading times in the schedule:

• Daily Read Aloud/Reading Focus Lesson: 15-30 minutes (a time when all students are available)
• Daily independent, partner, and/or small group guided reading: 30-45 minutes 
• Daily reading response writing, 15-30 minutes.
• Regular conferences with individuals, partners and small groups related to reading.
• RTI (response to intervention) for reading.
• Lexia: Reading Skills, 3-5 times a week, SumDog English for those done w/Lexia
• An expectation of 15 minutes or more of reading at home each school night.

The reading year focus will include the following:

• Introduction to the Comprehension Strategies: The Gold Threaded Dress
• Choosing Just Right Books, Individual Conferences
• Initial Reading Assessments: GRADE, DIBELS, attitudinal survey, reading with the teacher, observation.
• Reader's Workshop Introduction and Practice including times, routines, expectation.
• Reading Response Pattern (connected to Read Aloud/Focus Lessons)
• Specific focus on each reading comprehension strategy.
• Specific focus on genre.
• Specific focus on types of reading responses and close reading. 

What will your reading year look like?  How will you preserve time for reading in the schedule daily?  In what ways will you make reading a meaningful activity for students each day?

Reading is an essential skill on the school year menu--one that we need to focus on each day with depth and breadth. Creating a schedule and outline of your reading program prior to the start of school will help you to reach this goal. 

STEAM Share

Today I'm getting the chance to learn with students.  The teacher next door has invited my class to a STEAM (science, teach, engineering, art, math) share.  She and her students will share the many innovative projects they've embarked on over the year. They will also demonstrate the ways that they learn in hands-on, student-directed, investigative ways.

All year I've watched this class create with enthusiasm.  Hence, I'm looking forward to this collective way to learn. While in the room I plan to do a lot of observation and take lots of notes since I plan to replicate this learning event in my own classroom soon.  Then I plan to think more deeply about the tools and strategies I see over the summer so that I can employ similar strategies next year.

My grade level colleagues and I have started thinking about new ways to share our strengths and teaching strategies; we hope to get into each other's rooms more often next year to observe and share.  We've built a strong level of collegial trust and common vision which makes this possible. I'm excited about the learning to come as I know this will help us to teach children well.

Moving Schools into the Future: Actions

When I read George Couros's post this morning, and then read about a number of new Chrome apps, I was reminded once again that the world is changing. We can make that change more positive if we join the evolution by moving schools into the future.

As we sat at PLC this week and talked about "executive functioning," one colleague shared a strategy of asking students to "put on their future glasses" prior to starting a new project or endeavor.  The "future glasses" will help a child visualize the end product or result.

As educators we have to put on our "future glasses" in order to move schools into the future--what is it that we want and hope for when it comes to our children's education? How will we collaborate with students to make these shifts?

With my "future glasses" on, and the best of my current knowledge about the changing landscape of education, these are the shifts I'll be making:

Explore Time: Time for children and adults to explore and apply the new tools. Explore time will include teacher-student conversations, class discussions, and project application. You cannot employ a new tool without trying that tool out with children first. Learning with children is an efficient, meaningful way to explore new tools for optimal teaching.

Standards: I will consider the standards the backbone of the program, and look for the most engaging ways to embed those standards into the daily program.  I will bundle and integrate standards and apply a menu of online/offline learning tools, strategies, and processes for each bundle.

Menus: Menus of apt tools will support most learning in the classroom. I will list the menu of online/offline tools on the class website for easy 24-7 student/family/colleague access.  The menus will continually change as new tools are added, and less useful old tools are deleted.

STEAM Space: The STEAM space, for now, might not look a lot different from the old time arts and crafts corner, but the STEAM space will hold greater significance and integration as students explore science, tech, engineering, art and math.

Multi-Media Literacy Corner: The cozy rug-covered corner with bean bags, books, computers (when we have the cart), iPads (1 for now), and iPods will continue to serve as a center of reading, thinking, writing, exploring and learning.

Digital Share Space: The desks will be moved back to make room for a new rug and digital share space in front of the giant white board.  We'll meet regularly to share and critique student work, and other digital learning resources.

Learning to Learn Focus: The year will start with multiple "learning to learn" lessons and strategies so that students understand that learning is a life-long endeavor, an endeavor that they manage.  I will also emphasize that I am there to serve their learning needs.

Communication: Almost all communication will be digital.  Newsletters and home study lists will be continually updated and accessible 24-7 highlighting classroom emphases, student expectations, and choice.  Almost all classroom materials, learning venues, and information will be included on the class website for easy access.  Twitter, the class blog, and content websites will host timely announcements, more detailed information, and student project share. Communication will be a two-way street so that all members of the learning community are using digital technologies to converse and discuss matters of importance.

The work ahead continues to center on a learning design focus--learning design that includes review, grade-level standards, and student-driven enrichment.  My job is to know the standards well--standards that at my grade level are foundation skills, knowledge, and concept.  Then, with the help of school/standard scope and sequences, I'll bundle the standards into units that include menus of exploration tools, strategies, and foci. When the year starts, we'll integrate and skip from one standards bundle/unit to another responding to students' interests, needs, questions, and adaptations.

As Couros suggests, what will I delete as we transform?  This list represents some of the changes:

• We'll replace workbooks with hands-on/digital activities for the most part.  
• The time I used to spend organizing class management structure, rules, and highly structured, teacher-led lessons will be replaced by "learning to learn" lessons and student-driven, collaborative exploration and study.  
• Long films will mostly be replaced by short, pointed digital presentations, most of which can be accessed at home for review.
• Assessment, grading, and response in many cases will be done online and through teacher-student conference meetings. 

There is much to consider as we move schools forward.  This is one attempt to structure that evolution for my classroom.  What actions will you roll out to move your students and school forward?  What will you take away? 

Developing Literacy Studio

I'm taking a few minutes to observe literacy studio in action.  Students are relaxed and sitting around the room engaged in a number of literacy-related activities.  Most are listening and/or reading books of choice.  A few have chosen non-literacy activities which in some cases are okay, and in other cases signals an issue that I need to remedy.

Most of my students like to read, but a few still haven't developed the stamina and interest to sustain a lengthy period of independent reading. Most also read with fluency, but still a few need to develop that skill. As far as comprehension goes, there's still a range--a range I want to lift and address through book groups and interactive read aloud.

As I observe today, I am thinking about how I will grow literacy studio for the final leg of the year.

First, I'll start with a class meeting.  I'll list the goals of literacy studio which are to develop interest, fluency and understanding when it comes to reading.  Then I'll ask students for suggestions about how we can improve literacy studio so that we reach those goals.  I'll specifically ask about their feelings with regard book groups, partner reading, use of iPods and book selection.

Next, I'll take a close look at reading data and listen carefully to our upcoming progress monitoring PLC. I want to develop literacy studio so that all children have the chance to develop their literacy skills in advantageous ways.

Finally, after vacation, I'll introduce the new routine and explain that I've lifted the expectations and length of time to help students get ready for the fifth grade literacy expectations.  The classroom is filled with wonderful books and we're also right next door to the library.  We have RTI during a couple of literacy times during the week so there's some good support.

It's essential to stop now and then in the classroom to observe, think and make plans for change and improvement.

Moving Up in Education?

There should be a sense of excitement and encouragement with regard to "moving up" as an educational professional, but in many ways this movement is met with a range of emotion.  Why?

I think this is true because for some "moving up" means "moving away" from students and teaching.  The upward mobility in education is a path where moving up is seen as a positive movement and suggests that staying in the ranks of classroom teaching and coaching is not as positive. The financial rewards and role/time flexibility of "moving up" support this notion. In many cases though, we're talking about two very different jobs as what a classroom teacher does and what an educational administrator does differ in many regards.

There needs to be leadership in education, and there needs to be highly qualified teachers and coaches.  The best leaders recognize the difference in the two jobs and work to support, encourage and lift up the potential and possibility for classroom teachers, while those who are not as positive put "ambition ahead of mission" and don't serve teachers or students as well.  Those leaders that don't serve teachers or students well have a top-down, controlling attitude that puts them above the teacher or coach whereas the most positive leaders have an attitude of collaboration, shared problem solving, respect and transparency.

To "move up" in some systems is tricky business that necessitates political savvy and favors, while systems with clear mission, role definition and practice create "moving up" processes and roles that are fair pickings for any professional interested in a role change.

I'm in favor of role audits and reviews in education today.  I believe the skills, talents and interests of positive education leaders differ in many ways from the roles of teachers--I don't always think that "moving up" means that a teacher moves to leadership, but instead I think there should be many ways to "move up" and many roles of advancement in education. I think the current education roles are too narrow and mirror old factory notions in too many ways.

I'm not sure what the new roles would be or how new pathways to advancement and leadership would be created, but I do believe it's an area in education that needs reconsideration and revision. What do you think?

The Wayland Literacy Institute: Join Us

The Wayland Public Schools community invites all k-12 teachers interested in sharing and developing literacy strategy and knowledge to the Wayland Literacy Institute on June 27th and June 28th, 2013 in Wayland, Massachusetts.

The Institute will feature Ralph Fletcher, education consultant and author of books for children and young adults. Educators from Wayland and nearby school districts will offer a range of workshops focusing on topics such as ePortfolios, blogging, digital stories (my workshop), RTI, coaching, writing and more.  You can register for the event via the Institute website.

Attending this conference on your own or with a team of teachers from your school will serve to lift your literacy instruction for many reasons.

First, though the conference falls at the very end of the school year when teachers are tired, the tone and structure of the event are easy-going and friendly.  Most attendees wear comfortable summer clothing and come with a relaxed, pre-vacation attitude.

Next, the conference can serve to jump-start your literacy efforts for the following year.  During the conference, I typically outline my literacy program for the year to come and list new ideas for growing that program as I listen to the featured author and attend workshops.  I already know that I want to develop my use of "flipping" and "blogging," and the teachers offering the blogging workshop are doing a wonderful job with that so I want to hear how they do it.  I also want to build my interdisciplinary literacy efforts with regard to social studies and research, so I may attend those workshops as well. A Wayland high school teacher and author, Ed DeHoratius, will be presenting and since I'm both impressed and curious about his work, I may sign up for that workshop too. Further, two fifth grade teachers at my school, who are known for their attention to detail and finesse, are presenting their use of ePortfolios with fifth grade students. Barnes and Noble will offer a Nook workshop too which may add a fine start or continuation to your school's digital text use. These are only a few of the many enticing workshops planned.

The conference is also a time to share ideas with colleagues near and far.  I have found that I gained as many ideas from those attending and those that present--hence it's an opportunity to learn in a relaxed, literacy focused environment. If child care is an issue, Wayland Park and Recreation and the Wayland Community Programs offer a number of camps during that time too.  I already signed my 13-year old up for Wayland Escapes that week--a terrific field-trip camp for the Middle School set.  Summer Adventure and Pegasus are two more programs I've used in the past when my children were younger.  The times and locations of these events are a nice match for the conference.

Don't hesitate to contact the conference leader, Karyn Saxon via twitter @waylandelass or me @lookforsun if you have questions about the Institute.  Particularly after participating in this morning's challenging and engaging #satchat with regard to literacy leadership, I'm looking forward to this time of focused attention to students' reading and writing development and engagement. Thanks for your consideration. I look forward to possibly learning with you in late June.

Addition
Wayland's Math Institute is taking place on July 1 and 2.

STEAM: Labs, Tools and Play

Nifty new ideas are wonderful to discuss and ponder, but it is essential that new ideas in education are meaningful, child-centered, productive ideas.

I am exploring the idea of STEAM labs for elementary schools.  My recent post, Full STEAM Ahead, begins the discussion.

Yesterday, I had more time to explore this idea while I played with Sketch-up, a tool that I can imagine becoming part of a STEAM lab as children try to solve problems with design.

As I played around with Sketch-up, I was brought into the learner's mindset.  I found myself clicking all the menu bar choices, using trial and error, and exploring the tool with depth.  The play reminded me of the fact that we need to give children time to explore tools in their own ways, not just in the ways we decide--a concept many are discussing on the web--one that's been inspired, in part, by Will Richardson's book, Why School? 

I was also reminded of the fact that wonderful, new tools change the way we approach and think about design and problem solving.  I could have drawn my imagined STEAM lab, but it would have taken me hours to gain the right perspective and revise repeatedly.  Instead with Sketch-up, I could simply edit again and again as I played with the notion of a STEAM lab, and I could also easily look at the lab from many perspectives as depicted in the film below. The illustrated lab is still missing integral features--one I couldn't figure out how to draw yet such as windows, greater detail for the cabinets, feature boards (giant touch flat screen computers, cork board and white boards), the outdoor explore area and lab tables.

Better link to video. 

I welcome your thoughts and ideas as STEAM takes shape.  I'm hoping that we'll adopt some aspects of this idea at our grade-level next year, and perhaps this is an idea that will take shape for elementary schools around the country.


Soulard School STEAM Example

Digital Literacy at Elementary School?

I was recently involved in a discussion about the definition of digital literacy for elementary school students?  What should students know?  When should they learn it?  What are the best tools and process for teaching digital literacy?

My colleagues had many wonderful ideas, and there was considerable debate too.  As I think about the topic, this is my initial list.  You'll note a lot of gaping holes as I don't teach every grade or every specialty, so I'm sure you'll think of additional tools, processes and goals as you read this list.  Please feel free to share.

First let's define characteristics of optimal tools, processes and goals.

Tools: 

• Streamlined and easy to use so the focus is on the learning and engagement, not the tool.
• Developmentally appropriate. 
• Includes data reports and collection that inform instruction, future learning.
• Ability to compete with other students (very engaging for many).
• 24-7 access.
• Levels according to a child's learning growth. 
• Multiple choices, paths. 
• High interest.
• 3D, multi-sensory learning.
• Tools that can be easily integrated with other modalities and ways of learning. 

Processes

• An ongoing facile, respectful process of adopting, using and retiring tools.
• Process of piloting and investigating new tools with the responsibility of sharing the tool's strengths and challenges. This process should include students. Curation processes that do not include students are not effective. 
• Collaborative process of integrating optimal tools into the curriculum for skill building, concept development, knowledge growth, and 21st century endeavor: creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, citizenship, and character. 
• Regular time to share new tools, use, assess, revise, and integrate.

Goals: Identify and use tools that do the following:

• Enhance students' ability to develop skills, knowledge, and concept related to identified standards and students' needs, interests and passions. 
• Effective two-way communication with the learning community (family, students, staff) related to  classroom/school events, goals and information. 
• Support students' learning and independent use to communicate with others, and locate, access, analyze, evaluate and create knowledge. 
• Engage and empower student learning. 

Specific Digital Literacy Goals
I am in the process of transferring this information to a chart.  The chart will have room for the standards too. 

K-3 (grade 3 really belongs to both groups)

• Skills: Ability to access tools that help students' build essential skill in engaging ways.
• Communication: Ability to practice sharing knowledge and learning with digital tools such as ShowMe, PhotoBooth and KidPix. 
• Literacy: Use of digital books and related tools to avail access to literature and informational text in just right ways.
• Collaboration/Citizenship: Appropriate, productive use and behavior related to technology tools.
• STEAM: Exploring science, tech, engineering, art and math with technology. 

4-5 

• Skills: Use of tools and strategies to develop individual skill, concept and knowledge. 
• Communication Skills: introduction to social media and other technology platforms in a legal, age-appropriate way. Creation of ePortfolios to share signature work.
• Literacy: Apt use of digital literature and informational text.
• Collaboration/Citizenship: Appropriate, productive use and behavior related to technology tools.
• Guided Research/Content Creation: locate, access, analyze, evaluate and create knowledge with educator guidance through classroom lessons, class activities, website direction and more. 
• Passion/Interest Learning: Ability to locate and access tools which build students' individual passions and interests. 
• STEAM: Exploring science, tech, engineering, art and math with technology.

This is a rough draft that I want to continue to work on.   Your ideas are welcome. 

Learning to Learn: Parallel Paths

A recent post by Johnny Bevacqua on Connected Principals reminds me of the importance of digital literacy.  We must give students guidance and opportunity to search the web and other resource centers for apt information related to their questions and quest.

Then when I read, researched and wrote a post about results driven education, I was reminded of the skills we need to emphasize as students navigate information resources.  Students need to be able to "locate, access, analyze, evaluate and create knowledge."

After that, a recent parent memo reminded me that parents working outside of the information exchange might not understand or be up to date with current research skills and expectations as well as the vast, targeted information resources available.

What does this mean for the work we do?

It means that our work will travel parallel paths.  One path will focus on discrete skill building.  On this path we'll specifically teach, learn and practice skills associated with locating, accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating knowledge.  These focus skills will be taught online and off in relatively short lessons with quick response; lessons that are repeated again and again with meaningful text and inquiry to build research skill and knowledge.

The complimentary path will be the project/problem base path--the path where teacher acts as a guide and activator prompting engagement, perseverance, practice and learning success.  Integral elements of this learning path include the following:

Topic Choice: We must consider the broad topics we ask students to research with care and depth.  The topics chosen must engage and excite children as engagement and investment are critical factors

Questions: Next we have to focus on questioning?  Rather than content driven in this info age, we must be question driven.

Learning Path: After determining the essential questions, we should decide on learning paths. Questions that will lead these paths include:

• Why am I traveling this investigation path?
• What resources will we use?
• What websites, books and activities will best provide the information we need?
• How and when will we access these resources?
• When we access the resources, how will we collect the information, and what will we do with the information once we collect it?
• How do we plan to share the information we collect?  What kinds of presentation will we create?  Who is our audience?
• Where, when and whom should I look to for guidance and help as I navigate this learning path?
• What is the learning time line?  When is the presentation due?

Presentation: What role does presentation play in this endeavor?  How will we plan and share the presentation?

Reflection and Assessment: What worked, and what did not?  How will this affect our next learning endeavor?

Recently colleagues and I revisited and revised a learning unit.  We created a website to guide students' independent work.  Now by employing the parallel paths above we'll teach in a tight, direct way for skill introduction and practice, and then provide time and guidance for student study, research and creation.  

As we continue to build a learning environment that focuses on "learning to learn," I believe we will have to focus on the following questions.

• What are the best targeted, engaging, short lessons for teaching students specific skills related to information location, access, analysis, evaluation and creation?
• How do we create environments that foster teacher guidance and independent work to develop students' project/problem base learning?  What tools, structures and routines will support these environments i.e. content websites, resource lists and links, share walls, recording studios. . .?
• How do we include the entire learning community in this shift with regard to idea exchange and education?  Do we host family-educator-student coaching sessions?  Do we discuss as a team where our proficiencies and needs are in this regard, then share our skills and knowledge with each other?
• In what ways do we assess success?  Do we end the year with an independent project that students create mostly on their own and assess with specific criteria related to our teaching focus, then use the results to refine our work as well as communicate students' further needs to teachers in the next grade, parents and students?

To disregard the new teaching needs and strategies in this information age is to run the risk of a generation that doesn't know how to critically locate, access, analyze, evaluate and create information.  A population that lacks those skills may be easily swayed by information representing false notions and intent or a population that is confused and inactive due to the complexity at hand.  We want to create a vibrant, intelligent population who navigate information with ease, engagement, promise and purpose--a people that see this ready information access as a chance to create a better life and society, not a world of passive compliance and acceptance. What does this focus mean for the structures, schedules and practice of educators today? 

Full STEAM Ahead

I've been reading and thinking about STEAM (science, tech, engineering, art and math) labs.  I've been watching a colleague implement many, many innovative and state-of-the-art teaching strategies and tools to turn her classroom into a STEAM lab, and what I've noticed has challenged me to move my classroom further in that direction.

Students in her room are peacefully engaged.  They're excited.  They are learning incredible things in all areas of the curriculum. One student told his brother, "It's not even like school, we have fun all the time."  Another spent his day at home engineering an electromagnet with his dad using the film she provided as a guide, and a third returned to my class after science with this teacher and couldn't stop talking about the electricity game he was playing online. What she's doing exemplifies one of Hattie's critical points in Making Learning Visible for Teachers: engagement matters, and it matters a lot!

When it's project time in her room the choices are varied and broad, the tools extensive and her coaching wonderful.

What does this mean for my work, our grade-level's work and our school?

First, it means that I have the ready opportunity to learn from a teacher next door, actually teachers on both sides of me since the teacher on the other side is exploring all kinds of new avenues to make math meaningful, engaging, hands-on and project centered.

Next, this reality gives us a great opportunity to start thinking about how we might restructure the schedule next year to better match our individual gifts and skills with the curriculum.  Students rotate now, but perhaps we'll have a chance to look at those rotations with a different kind of scheduling and intent so each teacher has the chance to better perfect units and teach to their strengths.

After that, it's time we started making supply lists and grant drafts so we can get the tools and supplies we need.  For starters we need another cart of computers (iPads would be the choice, we currently share a class cart of laptops which are wonderful too) and more hands-on building tools and supplies.

This is the start of some great new ideas and teaching strategies--ideas and strategies children are eager for.  I have a feeling that after this it will be full STEAM ahead!

p.s. Full STEAM ahead with the inevitable bumps in the road of course.

p.s.s. Your ideas, links and questions are always welcome.

The Shared Experience of a Book

Our school system has adopted the practice of interactive read aloud.

During interactive read aloud, a teacher and students share a book through shared reading, discussion, focus lessons, think alouds and other activities that help students deepen their ability to comprehend, read and think about text.

So far this year, we've tracked our interactive read aloud work with Google sites, ePortfolios, paper/pencil booklets, and online/offline charts.  This time we're using a blog to inform and track our work and discussion.

Right now, my class is reading Out of the Deep.  It's a National Park mystery that fits well with our current United States Regions and Endangered Species units. It is also a good fit for current events since many dolphins and some whales have recently beached at nearby Cape Cod and South Shore beaches which has presented a mystery similar to Out of the Deep in our region.

Throughout our reading, we'll focus on the following aspects of reading.

• Review of the comprehension strategies: visualization, making connections, asking questions, and making inferences.
• Review of story elements.
• Learning how to read and think about the mystery genre.
• Facts and information related to U.S. regions and endangered species.

As we work on this unit, I'll consult the reading coach and students as we face the following challenges:

• Supporting readers who need teacher help for the at-home portion of the reading.
• Completing the more rigorous aspects of our study in ways that are enjoyable and manageable, not too challenging or dull.
• Helping students out with blog access and response.

If you take a look at the blog, you'll notice that there's a range of responses, and many students are still satisfied to copy a friend's comment as their own. I'll work to extend their thinking.  Some are also working to keep up with the at-home reading and response.  

All in all, this interactive read aloud is off to a good start.  

Do you utilize interactive read aloud as part of your classroom program?  If so, how do you track and share student work?  Do you embed technology into your work?  If so, how do you do this?  What suggestions do you have to offer me as we continue this study?  Thanks for your ideas.

Ellin Oliver Keene: Words Applied

Last summer, Ellin Oliver Keene was the keynote speaker at The Wayland Literacy Institute. Yesterday she returned to Wayland to present an important focus lesson to K-5 teachers.  She emphasized the fact that immediate application of a learned strategy enables a learner to remember and master that strategy with greater success.

Hence, I’ll use her words from yesterday and immediately apply Keene's wisdom to my class’s reading workshop in the following ways:

• With rituals, tone, scheduling and discussion, I will deepen my students’ sense that the Literacy Studio matters and will change the way they read “forever.”
• I will plan focus lessons with greater care so that those lessons last about 15-20 minutes and teach the most important strategies to deepen and heighten students' ability to comprehend text and enjoy literature.
• Following the focus lesson, students will immediately practice the strategy introduced. Literacy Studio will end with a shared online (social network) or in-person reflection of the theme, “How did I change as a reader today?”
• I will build more time into my daily schedule for students to practice reading/writing skills and strategies in meaningful ways with wonderful articles, books and texts. To do this, I will integrate social studies and other content areas into the Literacy Studio whenever possible.
• Small group instruction, “Invitational Groups,” will be flexible and targeted with a focus on skills as needed. I will work closely with my PLC group to carefully create these groups so that students are not left with a feeling that they belong to a “reading level” or group.
• I will pay close attention to instructional time asking myself, Is this “dead” instructional time or engaging, empowering time that leads to student growth?
• I will create more time in the Literacy Studio to monitor, confer and listen to individual readers rather than spending the entire time with small group instruction.
• I will encourage students to read slowly so that they can fully experience the text by seeing a movie in their mind (visualization) and experiencing the sensory images by “smelling, tasting, hearing and feeling” the words and emotions. We will also practice creating this experience for our readers as we write.
• I wil make more time for read aloud, the chance to model and share wonderful literature.
• I will continue to think about how I can redesign my classroom so that the learning environment supports the focal points listed above.

Today Keene will model a lesson for all fourth grade teachers. We will have the chance to meet prior to the lesson to discuss her intent. Then we’ll watch Ellen present the lesson to a heterogeneous fourth grade class.  After that we’ll meet again to reflect.  

I’m certain that today’s lesson, in addtion to yesterday’s talk, will change the way I teach reading “forever” thanks to Ellen Oliver Keene and a wise district decision to make this meaningful professional development event occur.