Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My: 3rd Grade Nonfiction Research Clubs

Lions, tigers, and bears - what's the same? What's different? Why? It's been fascinating to observe the level of engagement and deep thinking coming from students in the Nonfiction Research Club unit of study. Students are studying animals and are at the point where they are comparing and contrasting information learned about different animals. It's hard to move on from mini-lessons and from reading workshop because the students are so engaged in the work. They want to research more and share their thinking with their club! It's exciting to see and to coach.




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Now, That Was Fun!

Some of my teachers are piloting the Reading and Writing Units of Study from Lucy Calkins (and friends) and I'm supporting them with implementation. This is the first week of my kindergarten team trying the Nonfiction Writing How-To Books unit. I stopped by one of the rooms during writing to see how it was going. The teacher was just about to start her lesson, but seemed a little frazzled. She asked if I would mind modeling it for her. "Wait, what?! I have no idea what to do," I thought to myself. But, I smiled and said, "Of course!" That's what coaches do sometimes, right, we fake it until we make it!

I did admit right away that I would have my unit book with the lesson on my lap and might even be reading from it while teaching. "I'm learning this unit with you," I said and went to the front of the room to teach my kinder friends. I taught the lesson with some "freeze frames" so the teacher and I could check in and make instructional decisions together. The lesson went great and the kindergarteners learned the characteristics of how-to books. Best of all, though, the teacher and I learned the lesson together. Coach and teacher side-by-side - a great way to build trust and empower teachers! Not only that, but what seemed like a terrifying prospect - the idea of modeling a lesson totally unprepared - turned out to be fun!




Coach to coach:
Remember, although teachers want to you to have a high level of content knowledge, they also appreciate when you can be a learner right along with them. Being vulnerable goes a long way to build relationships!



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Post Election 2016

Without going too political, I will say that this has been a difficult election year ending with a most difficult election week.  The day after the elections, I was sad to hear that many of my teachers did all they could to avoid conversations about the election with students.  I understand that our students are young (kindergarten through fifth grade), but they deserve to have their voices heard, too.  My belief in the need for conversation was validated by many other colleagues as I facilitated a Diversity in Action meeting yesterday.



I lead our school's Diversity in Action Committee and realize, now more than ever, that we have a lot of work to do.  Not only do we need to accelerate the closing of our achievement gap, but we also need to continue to teach tolerance at all levels.  At our meeting yesterday, I allowed committee members to choose an article from the November issue of ASCD's "Educational Leadership" magazine on the topic of "Disrupting Inequity."  In the article I chose to read titled, "Let's Talk About Racism in Schools" by Rick Wormeli, he states, "We can't truly create equal opportunities for all until our institutions take specific actions to end that thinking and those policies.  And, ground zero for an equitable, nonracist socitey is the K-12 classroom."  The K-12 classroom.  Not the 6-12 classroom.  We must not wait until they are in middle school to have these conversations.  Wormeli goes on to say, "We don't need to justify having focused conversations about racism in schools."  Why not take a minute to let your first graders tell you how they are feeling?  We can teach kids that we may not always agree, we must learn to work together.  We must teach our students that.  It IS our responsibility.  It is our job.  In my district, it is our mission.



As each member of the committee left the meeting yesterday, I asked them to find at least one way to move the work forward the following day.  I was so glad to see one member took that to heart and pulled together a multi-grade, ethnically diverse leadership group he's been working with on Fridays for the first part of the year. He called an extra meeting to have a conversation on "Campaign Consequences," allowed the students to share their thoughts and feelings, and called them to action asking what they can do to make a difference.  The session ended with students creating peace flags now displayed in the hallway of our school.

Fellow educators, I encourage you to have the conversations in your classrooms.  Teach tolerance.  I ask you to do what Wormeli asks of his readers at the end of the article and identify one person with whom you can have a conversation on race or just about the election.

Anchor Chart Overload?

In October, I had the privilege of attending the Coaching Institute at Columbia Teacher's College in New York City.  The amount of learning that occurred during the week I was there was incredible!  My brain literally hurt and I was exhausted by the end of the week.  I left Teacher's College with a full notebook, mind, and heart.  Many of my future posts will include some of my learning.

One idea I took away from my time at Promise Academy II in the Harlem Children's Zone was the idea of dedicated wall space for anchor chart for core areas.  As we know, anchor charts build a culture of literacy and provide a space to keep relevant learning accessible for students.  Sometimes, in classrooms, I see an overabundance of anchor charts and I'm distracted from the work by the massive amount of charts hanging in the room.  Other times, there are no charts at all.  Even in rooms with what seems like an appropriate amount of anchor charts with meaningful information, they are haphazardly hung on whatever wall space is available.

The teachers at Promise Academy shared that they dedicate wall space for anchor charts for a couple reasons.  First, it provides a set location for students to look to when it's time to refer to an anchor chart.  Second, it actually limits the amount of charts on the wall because you can only put up as many charts as will fit in the space.  Therefore, teachers decide which charts are most meaningful and useful for students and make only those visible.  Others are stored away and brought out when needed.  To make the learning environment even more organized, many teachers at the Promise Academy organize their supplies and manipulatives in areas under or near the anchor charts.  For example, math manipulatives are housed on a shelf under the Math anchor charts.  Brilliant!

Here are some pictures from Promise Academy.

Reading Anchor Charts

Math anchor charts with math manipulatives underneath.

Imagine my delight when I returned to my own school and noticed one of my teachers doing the very same thing!

Dedicated space for essential questions and anchor charts for reading, writing, and math.

We're Going on a Trip in a Little Rocket Ship!

This week, our students are taking virtual field trips using the Google Expedition app and goggles.  We led all our students K-5 on a virtual expedition to places such as the Great Barrier Reef, the top of the Washington Monument, and even to the moon!  If your school has a chance to use Google Expeditions, I highly recommend it as a way to provide them with opportunities to experience faraway places.

Imagine the first collective "oooohhhhh!" from first graders as they spot a giant whale shark lurking above them near the Great Barrier Reef.  It gave me goosebumps!

Coaching Moves: Practice Makes Permanent

Today, I had the privilege of facilitating work with coaches from across our district. We focused on preparing for our next coaching lab by practicing some coaching moves. These are the intentional verbal and nonverbal cues and prompts we give as we coach in the classroom.

Today, we focused on just three moves: whisper in, freeze frame/time out, and voice over.




First, we read about the moves. Then, in groups of three, we played the roles of teacher, student, and coach. The teacher taught the student how to blow a bubble with gum or how to make a paper airplane. While the teacher taught the student, the coach practiced her coaching moves. Every coach had a chance to play all three roles.

With this exercise, we hoped to strengthen our coaching muscles so that practice makes permanent. We also had quite a bit of fun and some good laughs! Afterwards, we reflected on which coaching moves felt easy and which felt more challenging. We made intentional plans to use the moves during the next coaching lab.

As a coach, today's practice was invaluable. Not only was it a safe environment to practice, but it was also a great opportunity to refine the intentional cues and prompts that make coaching stick with teachers in the classroom. If we want our coaching to transfer, we must make our coaching visible.

Coincidentally, voice overs was the topic of today's blog post from "Two Writing Teachers." Click here to read more about what they have to say about voice overs:
https://twowritingteachers.org

Comment below if you have tips or tricks for making your coaching visible through coaching moves.

It's Like Teaching Someone to Ride a Bike

This summer, my husband and I taught our two sons how to ride their bikes without training wheels. There were times my husband and I demonstrated, or modeled, while other times we ran alongside giving prompts (watch out for the pole, slow down, use your brakes!). There were plenty of crashes, but we just said, "That's part of learning something new." There were times our boys thought they'd "never learn," and wanted to put their bikes back in the garage. My husband and I had lots of pep talks, thought about next steps, and researched best practices (thank you, Google, for the tip to take the bike pedals off). There were times we were exhausted. Imagine running full speed down hill just in time to stop your child from biking full speed into your neighbor's garage door. But, in just about a week, we reached our goal of transfer and our boys could ride on their own! The pride we all felt was tremendous!












My husband with our youngest.


Whether I'm teaching students or coaching teachers, I find it's a lot like the experience of teaching someone to ride a bike. The ultimate goal is for the student or teacher to be able to feel confident and to do the work on his/her own. But, to get there, you have to research best practices, assess current understanding, sometimes demonstrate or model, plan next steps, and always run alongside prompting and guiding for support. And, you can't forget the pep talks!

I encourage you to reflect on the questions:
- How is teaching or coaching in the classroom like teaching someone to ride a bike?
- How does that fit with what you know about the gradual release of responsibility (shown below)?










Gradual release of responsibility from "Student Centered Coaching" by Diane Sweeney.




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