Kids First - Rethinking Social-Emotional Practices in the Classroom

Read this fascinating series of posts as two teachers Christine Hertz and Kristi Mraz) rethink, re-do, and troubleshoot their classroom management approaches and systems, getting rid of clip charts, stickers, and time-outs.

• Post # 1: Kids First from Day 1: Life After Clip Charts   
• Post #2: Three Essential Social-Emotional Practices for the New School Year and
• Post #3: Same Problems, Different You: Life After Clip Charts

From the American Association for the Advancement of Science

This is an outstanding, free resource for science teachers: http://assessment.aaas.org/topics
Click on a topic to get key ideas.  Click on a key idea to get sub ideas AND a list of typical misconceptions.  As Jay McTighe noted in his 9/23/10 tweet, "...a science misconception database.
An excellent source to inform and guide pre- and formative assessments. Please share this with all secondary teachers!"

Getting Second Graders Reading More Fluently

            In this article in The Reading Teacher, Eun Hye Son and Maggie Chase (Boise State University) report on an idea they implemented with a second-grade teacher: improving fluency by having pairs of students read carefully chosen books to each other and then assessing how they did. The books were chosen with these criteria in mind:

-   The plot is driven by two characters who talk to each other throughout the story.

-   The book is funny and the characters are likable.

-   The speaking roles between the two characters are fairly balanced.

-   It’s clear which character is talking based on graphic features or font color.

-   The readability is appropriate for beginning readers, with ample use of sight words.

-   There are abundant text features to support reading prosody.

-   Fonts are used to indicate tone (e.g., a bold font when a character is yelling).

The teacher and researchers introduced the paired reading process by reading one of the chosen books (Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching) to the class, having students discuss and retell the story (beginning, middle, and end), modeling how two readers would read the book aloud to each other (the adults made intentional mistakes), then modeling how they would assess each other, using a three-point scale (Just right, I still need some work, I’m not there yet) on these aspects of fluency:

-   I’m not too fast and not too slow. (Pacing)

-   My voice goes up and down to show feeling. (Expression)

-   I obey the punctuation marks. (Observing punctuation)

-   I read all the words correctly. (Accuracy)

-   I understand the story. (Comprehension)

Note that reading speed is not assessed. The authors believe a common misconception is to conflate speed and fluency. They steer clear of timing readers’ speed and don’t push students to read faster. “Instead,” say Son and Chase, “we set out to purposely focus on reading for enjoyment, but with an emphasis on comprehension, which would lead to prosody.”

            Next, students were paired up (by reading levels, languages spoken, personality, motivation, or randomly) and the teacher set up the paired reading activity as one of several stations through which students would rotate during the literacy block. The instructions for that station were:

-   Decide who will read each character.

-   Select the appropriate character stick (to point to the line being read).

-   Begin reading, helping each other as you go.

-   When done, use the self-assessment rubric to evaluate the reading.

-   Reread the book, practicing to improve prosody.

-   Switch roles and read again.

When all students had rotated through the paired reading station, the class debriefed how it went and in subsequent days, the teacher introduced different books. Son and Chase report that students loved the paired reading, sometimes rereading a book as many as 15 times.

Over time, students might be ready to do Readers’ Theatre performances of books for their classmates, the principal, other classes, or parents.

Here are books the authors recommend for paired reading stations in primary-grade classrooms:

-   There’s a Giraffe in My Soup by Ross Burach

-   You Are Not a Cat! by Sharon Flake

-   Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching by Laura Gehl

-   Peep and Egg: I’m Not Trick-or-Treating by Laura Gehl

-   You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman

-   Tiger and Badger by Emily Jenkins

-   Snail and Worm: Three Stories About Two Friends by Tina Kugler

-   Mom, There’s a Bear at the Door by Sabine Lipan

-   This Is My Book! by Mark Pet

-   I Don’t Want to Be a Frog by Dev Petty

-   I Don’t Want to Be Big by Dev Petty

-   There Is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems

-   Elephants Cannot Dance! by Mo Willems

-   Waiting Is Not Easy! by Mo Willems

-   I Will Take a Nap! by Mo Willems

-   The Thank You Book by Mo Willems

“Books for Two Voices: Fluency Practice with Beginning Readers” by Eun Hye Son and Maggie Chase in The Reading Teacher, September/October 2018 (Vol. 72, #2, p. 233-240),

https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/trtr.1700; the authors can be reached at eunhyeson@boisestate.edu and maggiechase@boisestate.edu.


(Please Note: The summary above is reprinted with permission from issue #754 of 
The Marshall Memo, an excellent resources for educators.)

How to Sustain Community Schools

The Partnership for the Future of Learning has published a new how-to guide: The Community Schools Playbook.  The Playbook is a resource that provides guidance on policies that support community schools. Vermont education leaders, policy makers, practitioners, advocates and funders should find this useful, especially in our current context, where school district consolidation runs the risk of diminishing community engagement in local schools.

You can read more about this and other Community Schools resources here.

You can get a free electronic and/or hard copy of the Community Schools Playbook here.

Words of Wisdom for the Beginning of a New School Year

"Sometimes when things fall apart, we choose the easy way out and hold children responsible for what went wrong.  In our darkest moments, we may even say things like, 'These kids just aren't ready for things like this,' or 'My class this year is so low,' or 'I just need to stick to the basics with these kids - they can't handle choice, or talking together during work time, or really anything except sitting in their seats.'
     But what if, instead, we owned the whole mess? What if we switched our thinking from finding fault with children to asking, 'What can I learn from this? What do children need from me tomorrow to be successful? How can I scaffold them just enough so that they can get started and move forward? What can I do and not do, say and not say, that will let children know I believe in them?'
     In other words, Own it.  Think about what kids need most. Trust yourself and move forward."

(excerpt from What's the Best That Could Happen? by Debbie Miller - spotted in a tweet from @CarolMacken20)

Unfair and Unwise - Vermonters for Schools and Community

"The Secretary of Education's Plan Regarding Involuntary Mergers misguides the State Board of Education, violates the law, and damages public education."
     This report: Unfair and Unwise -  from Vermonters for Schools and Community - was released on August 15, 2018.  For anyone committed to strengthening local democracy, preserving and enhancing community engagement in schools, and improving student learning for all, it is well worth the read.  The report ends with specific, well-reasoned recommendations for both the Vermont State Board of Education and the General Assembly of the Vermont Legislature. The recommendations to the Legislature include these:

• Amend Act 46 and Title 16 to provide for the separation from any unified union school districts any town in which a majority of voters in a duly warned election vote to separate.
• Amend Act 46 by requiring an assessment of its impact on curriculum offerings, education spending, tax and spending equity, equity of student outcomes across gender, race, and income variables, and overall excellence of student outcomes.

Grant Wiggins’s Messages for Teachers

            In this personal tribute to Grant Wiggins, his long-time colleague and collaborator Jay McTighe summarizes three lessons Wiggins imparted to teachers:

-   Plan backwards from authentic performance.

-   Feedback is key to successful learning and performance.

-   Empathize with the learner.

Well worth reading in its entirety!

 “Three Lessons for Teachers from Grant Wiggins” by Jay McTighe, July 2018,

https://www.jaymctighe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Three-Lessons-from-Grant-Wiggins-1-2.pdf

(Please Note: The item above was spotted in issue #747 of The Marshall Memo, and reprinted here with permission.  Th Marshall Memo is a GREAT resource for educators.)

Online Social Studies Resources

In this Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy article, Joshua Kenna and Anthony Pellegrino (University of Tennessee/Knoxville) recommend two websites for social studies teachers:

• National Jukebox: http://www.loc.gov/jukebox This digital audio archive has more than 10,000 recordings of speeches and music from 1901 to 1925.

• Clio: https://www.theclio.com/web/ This is a free public history website and mobile app that serves as an active collaborative research, interpretation, and map-building project linking professional and local historians, museum professionals, scholars, and university students.

“Digital Resources for Social Studies” by Joshua Kenna and Anthony Pellegrino in Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, May/June 2018 (Vol. 61, #6, p. 705-708); the authors can be reached at jkenna@utk.edu and apelleg2@utk.edu.

(Please Note: The item above was spotted in issue #736 of The Marshall Memo, and reprinted here with permission.  The Marshall Memo is a GREAT resource for educators.)