"Doing" Justice: More than just forms

Donalyn Miller recently tweeted about a recording sheet she uses for the 40 Book Challenge she not only "invented" but practices with her students in her classroom.  As I've recently added her book "The Book Whisperer" to the book study portion of a course I've developed, Donalyn's tweet caught my attention:

My curiosity over why Donalyn Miller would feel compelled to tweet an endorsement of  Debbie Ohi's collection of forms led me to read this post from August 2014:  The 40 book Challenge Revisited.Her point this:

... the original thinking behind an instructional idea becomes lost when it’s passed along like a game of Telephone. You heard about it from a 60-minute conference session. Your teammate attended a book study and she gave you the highlight reel. The teacher down the hall is doing something innovative. You should try it. We’ve all seen the quick adoption of shiny, new ideas without a full picture of how these concepts fit into best practices (or don’t).

I've frequently heard fellow educators reference that they are "doing" the Daily Five or the Daily CAFE. However, digging in a little deeper, misinformed yet well-intentioned educator's idea of the "doing" is more likely to be incorporating some of the "centers" (sorry Gail and Joan, I know that's not what you intended) or using some printable for students downloaded from one of the educator enterprise sites.The Daily Five practice is based on developing a trusting relationship between learners and teacher. The development of this trusting relationship is every bit as important as the student activities.  A gradual release of responsibility leads to developing students independence and accountability.  Joan and Gail's commitment to research and development of their own practice is the powerful glue that, in my opinion, holds the Daily Five and CAFE together. This becomes the basis for educator changes that lead to best practice.Shiny new ideas are terrific, of course. That is the basis of being "green and growing", as one of my former administrators used to say.  However, without fully understanding a method for management of teacher, the practice become so simplified that it often becomes just another tedious fill-in-the-blank task to keep students occupied. And that, is not a best practice of any kind. 

Editing & Revising with Peers

As a writer and, as a teacher, I value collaboration with peers. I know that my writing is made more clear, more interesting, and more precise when I rely on a trusted "critical friend" to offer constructive feedback. And so, when the Commonwealth's writing standards included peer revising as well as adult conferring, the inclusion of critical friends in the Writing Process made sense. Beginning in Grade 2, Writing Standard 5 includes this important progression of peer revision and peer editing. [Refer to the Writing Standards ("Code W") by grade level beginning on page 26 of the 2011 Frameworks.]From my experience, elementary students must be taught explicitly how to do this. They need good models of what peer conferring looks like. As a proponent of the Daily Five, I found the 10 Steps to Independence model to be an ideal teaching method for introducing peer editing and revising to my students.Students at the elementary level need some structure for learning how to be a helpful peer editor or revisor; and to this end, I was fortunate to get an offer for some coaching from our former Literacy Coach, Patricia Sweeney.  Pat provided a structure for the students: 2 compliments and a suggestion. Here were the guidelines:

• The author reads the piece from beginning to end without interruption
• The revisor/editor offers 2 compliments. Personal references ("I like...") were excluded; more constructive/objective language included ("When you wrote..., your writing was... (very clear, powerful, descriptive, etc.").
• No "buts" - one of my 3rd and 4th graders favorites, because what 9-year old can resist telling another to get their "but" out of writing. (When you wrote ...., your description was very clear, BUT...)
• The revisor/editor can offer 1 suggestion (so not to overwhelm the author all at once), jotting on a stick-on note. (You might want to .... or Your writing might be more powerful if ...). The author can agree or disagree with the suggestion, but listens and takes it "under advisement".

This structure provided the students with two things: a language framework for offering constructive feedback and an opportunity to apply grade-level writing skills as the "student" become the "teacher".These peer-led conferences always took place prior to conferring with an adult and prior to producing a final version of the writing.  Peers did not assess another student's writing, but offered constructive criticism for the purpose of helping the author improve upon the writing.Exactly what my adult peer editor and revisor does for me.  

What IS Important to Elementary Kids

The Daily Five Tip of the Week had a wonderful cover story this week. In it, Lori Sabo writes about the lasting impact Joan Moser had on a former first grader, recent high school graduate. In the end, the former student describes her current self through the books she loves.Beyond the well-deserved thanks that Joan received I think is a far more important message to all who work with elementary students. What matters to elementary kids, what they will take away, is a love of learning.Clearly, Joan's former student learned to love to read, not from the rigor of the Common Core (which was not part of our educational landscape 12 year ago), but through the nurturing environment created within the walls of the classroom. That environment included coaching this student through some reading challenges, instilling a sense of confidence and independence, and creating a safe and relaxing physical space to learn.Planning for the upcoming year will inevitably include achievement data and plans for improvement. And there will be pressure to meet incredibly (ridiculously) rigorous curricula. But, hopefully, it will also include some serious thought given to what's important - really important - to elementary students. A place and a space in which to learn to love learning.

Reading About Reading

Although widely thought of as a math geek, at least as far as elementary math pedagogy is concerned, I am spending some time this summer researching literacy.The first book on my "must read" list happens to be Richard Allington's What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. It will come as no surprise that many of my readers struggle, and so far I've found Allington's work very informative and affirming.  Maybe that has a lot to do with the Daily Five and its structures; many of these are based on Allington's work.When I think about fluency, I know rereading an appropriate level text is important.  Allington advocates for a couple of strategies that have enormous potential with my readers: Tape, Check, Chart and Tape, Time, Chart (Allington, R. What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. (2012). Boston: Pearson Education. p 110-111).When I take a running record of a child's reading, I always share what the checkmarks and codes mean. In Tape, Check, Chart, students read a short text into a tape recorder, mark it up using child-friendly markings, and over the course of multiple readings (Allington suggests 4 with a different color pen for each mark-up) increase fluency and accuracy.  Tape, Time, Chart provides similar practice with fluency.As I think about Daily Five activities for the coming school year, I know that the addition of these two choices will be powerful, not only for the students but for me.

How Do You Model Expectations?

Responsive Classroom provided some review PD for our school this past week. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to like about the RC approach, and surely I picked up some great clarifications and refreshers. In fact much of the presentation affirmed what I know in my heart to be true about education and students and learning.

However, there are some practices in Responsive Classroom that my experienced-teacher-self question.  One thing is the process taken in modeling a routine for students.  I understand the gradual release models which I first learned from Regie Routman. Teacher models, teacher models with students, gradually releasing the process totally to students.

This year, as a result of my reading and training with the Daily Five's 10 Steps to Independence, I've made sure to add on an "unmodel", a chance for students to show what a routine,exercising students' brain muscle memory as borne out by Michael Grinder's work. An "unmodel" with an immediate opportunity to provide a correct example, is an essential step and even my more shy and reticent students love to provide the ultimate unmodeled behavior examples. I've discovered that this is a very powerful way to get kids to internalize  expectations for any procedure I've taught, Allowing my more behaviorally challenged kids an opportunity to be the "unmodel" and then reinforcing appropriate behaviors with the same student become a "model" has given us comic relief along with a dose of visual modeling.

I  also don't buy in to the RC suggestion that the teacher wear a hat or some other article when he/she is unavailable to students. Doing so seems artificial to me. With the amount of conferencing and small strategy group instruction taking place during our Literacy time, I want to have taught the expectations and routines so well that students don't feel the need to break their stamina, or mine, because they know what to do. I trust them to make good choices. That was a HUGE leap for me last Fall; but with very few exceptions, my students were self-managing their learning from about 6 weeks in until the end of the year.  No special costume needed.

As with any program or package, there are always parts that are agreeable and parts that are just not good fits. We all want the best for our students; and as long as we, the professionals, can be trusted to use our good judgement with the children in front of us, there is much that can be accomplished.

Raising Rigor in Readers' Notebooks

I used to look with envy at those spiffy Readers' Notebooks available through a nationally known publisher.  In fact I envied them so much, I figured out how to customize a similar notebook for my students to use.And while they seemed to work pretty well, I've come to realize that maybe the beautifully GBC-bound notebooks and forms I'd created were not all that.Asking my students to write a weekly response in the form of a letter to which I would write back produced writing about reading. But what I mostly got was a retelling (plot) or even worse, an "I like this book...." without a "because".I'm reading Aimee Buckner's Notebook Connections and discovering something about what has passed for a reader's response in my classroom. Because my students were so wrapped up in writing a letter to the teacher - and maybe even in getting it done over revealing something they were thinking - the thoughts about reading and literacy were pretty much on the surface.I want my students to learn to do more than that! Upping the rigor of a response means that I will need to teach students to first notice their thinking and then record it.  And then dive deeper into what the author chooses to do when writing; it's all interconnected.So I'm no longer envying teachers who can purchase those fancy Readers' Notebooks for kids. I want to raise the rigor on what students write in reading responses. I want them to think in depth about a text and wonder. I want them to notice an author's craft and how it impacts a reader.What I am thinking about for next year is a much more simple tool for holding ideas than the fill-in the form I've grown comfortable with over the last 2 years.  Students need a space to record a year's growth in becoming literate, a place to keep track of genres and kinds of books (given the opportunity, some of my kids would only read Arthur books!), and a place to record and notice not only their own thoughts as they read but how an author crafts writing.It's a tall order with many opportunities for missteps on my part. By breaking down the Readers' Notebook to what is essential, I hope for depth in thinking. A spiral notebook and some self-sticking tabs should do the trick. 

Why The Math D5 Fits

Lots of teacher types seem interested in applying the Daily Five principles to mathematics. What does that mean? For me, it means that teachers are struggling to find ways to deliver comprehensive instruction to our students and to differentiate so that rigor is applied to all students no matter what their level of accomplishment.The Math Daily Five as developed by Gail and Joan consists of four categories really - Math by Myself, Math Writing, Partner Work (Math with Someone), and Math with Technology.  I like the categories, really I do, but I also know I need to be accountable to expectations for teaching math that are required in my school district.My current thinking - notice I am saying current because I expect this will morph as we figure out more of what the kids need in transitioning to Common Core - is that I need five, not four major categories. The categories I currently use in my classroom are: Math Exploration, Fact Practice, Problem Solving, Technology, and Math Games.  Here is why:

• Our district has adopted a Launch-Explore-Summary model for delivery of instruction.  The "explore" activity on the Math D5 board is connected to the lesson that has been launched during math.
• We also use Investigations in Number, Data and Space as our basal mathematics resource.  This structure supports the materials we have the most consistent access to.
• Fact practice is necessary as students are often deficient in knowing their facts - I still have students who try to count on their fingers to add and subtract and they need to master those pronto. Common Core requires students in Grade 3 to master multiplication and division to the 10s family. The fact practice games and flash cards (we use the triangular ones) fit well in here.
• Our Unified School Improvement Plan specifies that students get direct instruction in problem solving - not to mention the Massachusetts Common Core docs also call out problem solving structures. I give students at least one problem to solve each week in their Problem Solvers' notebook to track their progress.
• The games I choose for the Math Game choice function as review of prior skills and often as intervention practice for struggling students. Many of these activities are based on Number Sense and Operations/Algebra as that is where my students are weakest.

With all the nuts and bolts of why I use the Daily Five out there, one of the most beneficial aspects is actually more general.  The Sisters advocate for teaching students to be independent - accountable for their own learning actions and trusted to stay on task without constant teacher intervention.  For me, this is the ultimate reason for teaching students the Daily Five structure. I need to pinpoint which students are struggling and provide targeted help (an initiative also mandated by our District).  If I am constantly redirecting students I simply can not do that. I need to know that the students who are not directly interacting with me at any particular point in time are engaged in meaningful mathematics activity for the entire 90 minute mathematics period.Another reason why I've embraced the Daily Five structure for mathematics is that it allows for segmenting the time frame.  Does anyone really have those long imaginary blocks of time with class interruptions at the end of the day? I don't think so. My schedule is much more coherent this year than it has been for the last 3 years; however, I still need to interrupt my mathematics block for lunch and recess. So the general structure of the block goes like this:10 - 15 minute Launch with whole group20 - 30 minutes (students start with Explore and move to a choice)10 minute mid-point check in (either we solve/discuss the daily activity or we check in with something I've notice as I observe students working).15 minutes additional independent choice time (at this point I pull one or two students who are struggling with the daily concept for some clarification OR if everyone "gets it" (right), I work with a group of students to extend thinking.LUNCH & RECESS20 minutes additional independent activity (intervene with students who struggle with number sense)10 minute Summary of what we've done or learned for the day.So far, this structure is working for me and my students. Perfect? I don't think so, but the more I learn about what my students need and the more read and study about the thinking behind the Daily Five, the more I think I am on the right track for helping my students.

Show Don't Tell

Recently, Northern Nevada Writing Projects WritingFix website featured the book Show Don't Tell by Josephne Nobisso. It caught my eye as this is exactly what I ask my Third Grade Authors to do: use your words to SHOW what happens in your writing. In fact, Googling those words, this seems to be a pretty universal thought for teachers of writers.As my students have worked through the past weeks to create a Small Moment Narrative - our featured writing product for November - one strategy I've introduced/reviewed is that by adding conversation to writing, an authors shows what is happening in the story.  Oh how my Third Graders love to use quotation marks! Sometimes those marks appear in the darndest placed :-)In preparing for conferencing, I try to read each students narrative ahead of time. It gives me an opportunity to consider the most important next step we need to take in a student's writing. And sometimes it is just plain fun to pre-read their ideas and thoughts.Before I packed up some of the students' writing for my "homework" yesterday, one of my ELLs approached me with a warning: "I've written some Spanish" she told me in a whisper.  I assured her that wouldn't be a huge problem - armed with false cognates and an online translator, I was pretty sure I could problem solve the gist of her writing.But what she had done was not just add randomly placed Spanish words in her narrative. She had written conversations in Spanish! Why? Because that is her home language and that was the language her mother speaks with her. So when Mom spoke in her Small Moment, the conversation was authentic.Absolutely brilliant - don't you think?! 

Let's Toss All the Balls in the Air

Last week, we created our last I-Chart; the one for Listen to Reading. So now we have all the components of the Daily Five in place. It's an exciting yet frightening time .It has not always been smooth sailing. I find I have to keep pinching myself as a reminder that one of the most important parts of the Daily Five is that the responsibility for our classroom environment, for developing independent learners, is for me to give up control. Kind of a challenge for an obsessive, compulsive control-freak.This week I'm identifying some of my barometer kids - I have 3 - those kids who have difficulty maintaining stamina and who need to build their independence with smaller steps. Each of these children have difficulty throughout the day with attending/listening; their hands are always in motion (I've never seen a third grader disassemble a pencil sharpener before!). This is going to be a challenge.Now with all the components in place, it is a matter of logistics -though  my students concept of time is somewhat off reality. What some students feel is about 20 minutes - the time I would ideally like them to spend Reading to Self each day - falls somewhat short; the students like to move through all five choices. We are working through the intermediate Daily Five structure and some days there isn't enough time to complete 5 activities.What is gratifying is to have students choose to read, choose to write. There is a subtle change in attitude that makes all the hard work we have been doing to build independence worthwhile.  There is a lot of work we have to do yet, but the Daily Five is making a positive difference in transferring the responsibility for learning to my students.

Whew - 4 down one to go

We are still laying down the routines and expectation for the Daily Five. Here's how my morning goes: Get up (usually before the alarm), start coffee, sit down with my laptop, check email (and Facebook, okay I admit I'm addicted) and then watch one of the Sister's videos on the Daily Cafe website.Most of my students - with the exception of two who are exceptional in that they have significant developmental delays - are able to sustain 15 minutes of Read to Self  followed by 15 minutes of Writing.  I don't suppose it is that unusual at this point in the year to find my students can sustain stamina for nearly 30 minutes for the first choice session, but the stamina in the second choice session  is about 2/3 of that.There are a few glitches. I can hear my students using Check for Understanding when they Read to Someone. But the voice levels are so loud - or at least I think they are. Coming from a background in constructivist mathematics where the classroom can be a noisy place, I am torn about stopping and restarting the students - they are talking on topic after all.Next week we will add Listen to Reading -- without the benefit of a listening center. (shameless plug: I've written a proposal on Donorschoose.org if you are feeling supportive). We will be using our boombox for that... wish us luck!What I am seeing is a powerful transfer of responsibility to my students. They are starting to feel empowered by choosing what they will work on. And I am delighted that I was able to give a complete Fountas & Pinnell benchmark test without waving off at least one student who didn't know what to do next and who wanted to interrupt me.I think we're getting somewhere.  

Stamina

I've been working - really working - at the conferencing table for the last several session of D5 choice. Up until this point, I have been "fake working" -- monitoring students without their knowledge -- so as to regroup if and when stamina for an activity is broken. We are nearly pros with Read to Self now and becoming much more independent with Writing; just a few missteps in the ""work quietly" department.Word Work is still a work in progress as is Read to Someone. The kids are getting very accustomed to setting their goals for independently working (hurrah!) and are starting to verbalize why we do what we do in the classroom (extra hurrah).When I hear other educators talk about the Daily Five, it is often said that D5 is simply an organizational structure. Well, yes, there is that aspect. However, for me, the beauty, the benefit of working with this structure is the explicit guide for creating independent students - students who become responsible learners.It is not enough for students to comply in school just because teacher "said so." Think about it: when you were a kid, you were probably often told to just do something. When you didn't understand the point of the activity or the routine, did you find it easy to remember and to comply? I didn't.Building stamina for independence has been a painfully slow process. It is natural to want to get the show on the road, to be able to get in the routines of the day - all of them - as quickly as possible.Independent habits of mind take time. We are building our stamina this year and already the payback is becoming obvious.

D5 One Day at a Time

We have been in session with our students for 3 days now. At one point yesterday afternoon I came to the realization that these third graders are funny and likeable and want to learn. Being somewhat superstitious I'm a little nervous about saying that out loud so early, but there you go.We started our journey with the Daily Five on our very first day of school - just like the Sisters advocate.  I picked out one of my favorite read alouds, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems and began by asking students about the ways they thought this book could be read. That resulted in a blank look that telegraphed, "Lady, if you don't know how to read a book, we've got a big problem here."It took some coaxing, but we finally came up with 2 bullet items to add to our anchor chart. We tried reading the pictures for Knuffle Bunny first and then I modeled reading the words. I have quite a few students for whom reading is a challenge, the permission to read by pictures gave them a sense of accomplishment -- just as the Sisters said it would.We continued building the anchor chart for 3 Ways to Read on the second day of school by adding "Retelling the story".  We've been talking about good fit books and will continue to develop that concept over the next week.Working on developing the I-Chart for "Read to Self" was quite an eye-opening experience for me. It took a bit of coercing to get kids to realize that reading to yourself can be fun -- but it also makes you smarter.  That's a term I use a lot with my students as I am a big proponent of using attribution theory in developing habits of mind for effective effort. So instead of "becoming a better reader", I've tweaked the sense of urgency to get smarter by reading.As teachers, I think we assume that children intuit that we are working hard when they are working hard. my students had absolutely no clue what I might be doing while they were reading to self... really.  Blank stares followed by tentative guesses that I might be walking around the room.  So we stopped and took the opportunity to talk about teachers listening to students read, coaching students to improve their reading, and meeting with a small group.I've paid close attention to the purposeful use of a good model and a  not-good model of nearly every routine we are working on. What a powerful way to get my barometer kids to buy in to successfully participating in focused and meaningful reading activities!I find it is challenging to resist the urge to just dive into a fully developed schedule; I want to get everything rolled out all at once, but I know that doesn't work. This year as I implement the Daily Five more purposefully, I am resisting the urge to rush building stamina and go right to sustaining a block of reading for 15 minutes. I learned from experience last year that even though I felt like the kids could sustain their attention, in reality, they could not. We're up to 5 minutes as of today; five minutes when they are truly independent, when they are truly employing those 3 ways to read a book, 5 minutes when they are totally ignoring me because they are focused on reading. Awesome!So far.... so good.

Another Look at the Daily Five and Math

How does that saying go? If you're not green and growing, you're rip and rotten. One of the key components of the Daily Five - teaching learners to be independent - is not only appealing, but imperative. After some false starts last year (based on my reading of both the D5 and Cafe books), I attended a Daily Five workshop. And the whole thing is becoming less muddled.Typically, my students don't do well with a million and one different teaching models thrown at them. We already have a Launch-Explore-Summary model in place for our mathematics instruction. There is a great need for small group/individualized math conferencing and intervention, particularly this year when we transition from the Massachusetts 2004/2009 Frameworks to the Massachusetts version of the Common Core Curriculum. There will be gaps, that is certain.To address both the transition to a new curriculum and my students' need for consistency, I have decided to make a go at implementing a Daily Five model during mathematics instruction. What are the five areas going to be? Well, here's what my current thinking is:

• Exploration activities based on the launched mini lesson (a "must" do)
• Strategy Activities. Through the use of games and other constructive activities, students will address computational and conceptual gaps.
• Problem Solving. All of my students, but particularly second language learners need practice in the structure of problem solving situations. This will be a weekly assignment with time built into our schedule for students to discuss how they solved the problem (rigor! perseverance!)
• Basic Fact Games/Practice
• Technology Tool (a chance to use the accompanying programs for our math program OR the interventions found in the Galileo program).

I'll need a minimum of 85 minutes; 90-100 would be better. That means getting back to class and started on our mathematics work right after recess. Hopefully the stamina-building and direct instruction in expectations for independence will give us greater success. On paper it looks do-able, in reality - I am hoping so.

Planning out the block comes next.  Suggestions welcome.

D5 and Barometer Kids

One of the most powerful and admirable things about Gail and Joan - the Sisters - is how they openly share their teaching life.  They don't preach that they have all the answers, and anyone who has spent more than a nanosecond in a classroom knows that absolutely no one can have all the answers. Teaching is organic; it changes from day to day and sometimes from minute to minute. It changes from year to year as well as the culture of the classroom is fluid and dependent on the humans that make up the class.According to The Sisters, one of their most frequent troubleshooting queries is about children who don't seem to develop the stamina required during independent work periods.  Fake reading, avoidance tactics (bathroom visits, taking FOREVER in the bathroom), whatever you call these behaviors, the kids aren't reading and are often sucking away valuable teaching and learning time.Joan and Gail call these kids "barometer" kids -- depending on which way they are going directly impacts the entire atmosphere in the classroom.Last year I think I had quite a few kids who could make or break the learning in the day. Some of this distraction was a cry for attention and some was something deeper. Whatever the cause - attention or organic -- the impact on all of us in the room was immense.  Here's a link to what they have to say about one of their students who had difficulty building stamina.The Daily Five structure demands that children learn to own some of the responsibility for their own learning -- and that includes building the stamina it will take so that I, the teacher, will not always need to be the ring-master.It will take a bit of trust for me to let go, to trust that my students are capable of learning how to do just that -- to be trusted to make good learning choices without me getting in the middle of things.We will all be learning new things this school year.

Daily Five and Neuro Brain Function

Today, I had the privilege of attending The Sisters Daily Five presentation here in Massachusetts - and if you get the chance, it is well worth your time.... and money. Some of the most intriguing parts of the presentation involved the research on brain function.When I try to apply a something new and exciting to my own teaching, the temptation is to just rip of the bandage and dig in. Maybe that's not the best way to do it though.  Having lived in older home for most of my adult life, I know that when I first move in, I want to spend all my capital on the things that are seen, the obvious things like a new coat of paint or new furnishings. Fixing structural pieces (the chimney, the roof) aren't going to be as obvious.No one walks into your (new) home and says "Wow, that's quite a nice chimney job. Love the new cap!" But these kinds of fixes are the structure and although there's more of a wow factor in repainting or re-papering, the structure must be dealt with first. So how does this thinking  relate to the Daily Five?According to the Sisters, Kenneth Wesson's work on neuro brain function, informs the structure they advocate for Literacy: a small focused hit of instruction with the whole group followed by a period of 10-15 (primary grade) or 20 (intermediates) of independent work. Wesson further states that the amount of time allotted to the whole group lesson is directly proportional to the average age of the students in the class. Joan - one of the sisters - taped her class to prove this was wrong when she first heard it and ended up becoming a believer. She shares this video clip during the Daily Five presentation.Think on that for a moment. At the beginning of the school year my students are 7 or 8 and by the end they are 8 or 9.  My third graders only sustain focus on what is being taught for an average of 8 minutes! And if I have a "young" class -- teachers know what I mean by this -- the time is even less.The impact on teaching is that time spent on the actual lesson must be focused and succinct. Thank goodness I am not forced to use a basal; if I had to do all the ramping up to the actual point of the lesson, my kids would either learn little or we would both be frustrated by constant re-teaching.But what I do need to attend to next year is boring right down to the essential learning more quickly. It may mean timing my mini lessons until I get the feel for just how long 8 minutes is.It is a model we've used both in Reader's Workshop and in Mathematics (Launch-Explore-Summary), but the model stopped short of explaining why it is so important to have a short burst of focused whole group instruction. As I start to plan for the coming school year, the one structural piece I am determined to attend to is this one. Those mini-lesson times, whether in literacy or mathematics, need to correlate to the amount of time my students can function.And maybe then we'll be able to move on to dressing things up.

Outside of the Box

We will have a lot of changes this coming Fall. Some are more global: a new administrator, a new superintendent, new Core Curriculum. On a more local level, my grade level has made a decision to locate the Inclusion classrooms side-by-side, so next year I will be a SPED Inclusion room again.And there some changes in my own teaching that I've been thinking about. I've dabbled in implementing the Daily Five over the last year. It's something that makes sense to me. This summer, a couple of us will be going to the Daily Five workshop offered by "The Sisters" and I'm really psyched about learning more with my teaching colleagues.However the classroom design ideas from The Sisters that have really piqued my curiosity -- along with a suggestion from  Tuesday2's blog -- and that is what is giving me the inspiration to really look at my classroom's traditional layout.  Is the room "mine" or is it "ours"? And if it is ours, everything - seating, access to materials, EVERYthing - needs a re-evaluation as to its purpose and usefulness in a room filled with 9 year olds.Just how much radical change can be made remains to be seen -- the District has requirements (overhead projectors in each room has been a hot topic in the building this week). But there will be change.... this is going to be fun.

Daily Five and Math

This year I've made an attempt to follow the "Sisters" in implementing the Daily Five and the Literacy Cafe. So far, I'm happy with what is starting to take shape. Conferencing is more focused. Tracking those kids who need more than a once a month reading conference, keeping kids accountable through the Literacy Cafe Menu, all are clearly going to be helpful when presenting a case at an RTI meeting.Now if the Daily Five can help me with getting to those students who need some extra one-to-one support, maybe it can help with meeting the needs of students in mathematics.  The Sisters are way ahead of me on this one -- the Math Daily Five provides a way to organize "guided mathematics".  In my classroom, the five categories that I'm playing with are: Math Fact Drills, Landmark Math Games, Exploring Data, Problem Solving, and Featured Activity.  The math fact activities are games - electronic and otherwise - that provide fluency practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Landmark Games are the "go to" games we teach throughout our third grade Investigations in Number, Data, and Space units and include games like "Close to 100/1000", "Capture on a 300 Chart" and "Fraction Cookies". Exploring Data is a new category -- our school has identified interpreting, representing, and constructing data as a focus for this year. Activities in these categories will provide students with activities for practice. I want my students to solve problems in context and I have been providing a problem for students to solve and later share solutions in this category. Finally, in the Featured Activity category, we will work on explorations that accompany the launches for the daily Investigations lesson.I want to keep the launches down to about 15 minutes - whether it's a model launch or a discussion. This isn't easy for me. But by limiting my talk, and getting kids actively involved in activities while I meet with smaller needs-based groups, we should be able to make some progress toward students meeting Grade 3 Math Standards.Will it be noisy? I'm sure it will be. Just like the Daily Five and Literacy Cafe, I'll need to build students' stamina for staying on task. But in the end it should be worth the time it will take - hopefully we can work smarter not longer.

Mindblowing Task of Setting Up a Classroom

I've been at this for 23 Fall startups now and I've yet to find the "perfect" room configuration.  Over time, I've managed to get the task of setting up - at least for Day 1 - down to a two-day affair, but it is not without angst.My students do not sit in rows - they never have. I've been an early adapter for collaborative or cooperative learning and have just never let go of those concepts.  This year I have 24 students on my (current) roster. That number will probably not be the final count of students. I currently have 5 groups of 5. While that's not an ideal configuration of students in a group, I dislike have so many clusters of desks around the room that the walking flow is impeded. Here is a wide shot of how the desks are arranged at present: The desks for the students are arranged in the front 2/3 of the classroom space. This year I have an ELMO and projection equipment to include for whole-group lessons or for sharing examples of student work.  The classroom already has a pull down screen at the front of the room over the white board.  Off to the side there are some shelves and cabinets for storage and a sink (big smile).At the rear of the room, opposite the white board, I have placed 5 2-shelf units that comprise the Leveled Library for the classroom.  There is a tack board above these shelves.  In this area, I have a large gathering rug, a sizable rolling easel,  and a rectangular table (doubling as extra small group instructional space and a listening center area).The alphabet chart is above this board. I generally have the students help decide where the wall displays are going, but in the case of the alphabet chart - a royal pain to hang on a good day - the decision is fait accompli. This year I am implementing the Literacy Cafe along with the Daily Five as a management tool. The Cafe strategy board is to the left of the image.  I'm still struggling with where to put a Choice chart for students.Another important area in the classroom is our Behavior Tracking area near the exit door.  This is a spot for students to monitor their behavior color and it is also where the daily schedule will be posted.  To the left of the behavior chart is a lunch choice board. Students are expected to make one of 4 lunch choices as they enter the classroom by placing a personal magnet under the choice for the day.  This choice board doubles as an attendance check-in for me.  If the meal magnet hasn't moved from the 'parking lot', then the student is absent - otherwise I get to choose lunch for them. Since I teach Third Grade, this routine is pretty reliably run by the students.I use magazine boxes to store students' reading materials. Those boxes are stored on the counter top between the classroom's windows. When it is time to begin reading activities, student retrieve the magazine box and keep it on the floor next to their desk or wherever else they may be working during Reading Workshop. So will this work? I sure hope so. I keep my requirements pretty simple:

1. students need to have the ability to work in groups
2. clutter, especially mine, is keep at a minimum - the space needs to be clean
3. traffic flow is easy and everyone can be visually monitored

Now for the test: students arrive Tuesday and we will see how successful this room configuration is.

Finding my compass - again

I've put it off for nearly as long as I dare. It is time to start getting ready for a new school year. Completing my list for summer has suddenly kicked in to overdrive: there's still much (re)painting to complete, sorting and throwing to do, cleaning and gardening/landscaping. But suddenly, there is a pressing need to squeeze it all in quickly -- the students return in about a week.I used to get pretty worked up about starting room preparations as soon as we turned the calendar to August. This year for the first time in my career, I've managed to make it all the way to the last 10 days before school begins. I suppose that's growth. Hopefully it's not burnout.I love what I have chosen for my life's work. But sometimes, more often now than in the beginning of my career, there are far too many experts telling me how to do my job. And demanding proof that I am doing it. This week,  I am in the processing of completing my self-assigned professional reading: The Cafe Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser - better known as "The Sisters". Reading this book is helping me to find the balance between all the frenetic demands made on teachers today and a calm and purposeful learning experience for my students. Here is a quote from Debbie Miller that the Sisters included in their book (page 60) which caused me to sit up and take notice:

...when getting done takes precedence over the doing, when finishing becomes more important than the figuring out, we've lost sight of why we became teachers in the first place. (Miller, D. Teaching with intention: Defining beliefs, aligning practice, taking action, Grades K-5. (2008). Portland, ME: Stenhouse. p 106

As I read and reread Debbie Miller's words, I realized that this is what has been causing me unease with what I do. In the rush to turn in this, that, or the other evidence, I have lost my bearing: why I am a teacher. I chose to teach because I believe that it is important to give every child the opportunity to soar to heights neither of us imagined possible. I do this on a selfish level because, when that moment of connection happens, when child and teacher both realize that something wonderful has happened, it is the most exquisite of emotions that makes all the hard, hard work worth everything.This year, my personal goal as teacher, will be to refocus on why I teach, to not let outside forces undermine why my students and I are here, working together. And if I let some of those demands for evidence slip, if I'm late with something someone somewhere wants in order to show that I have been working, that is what will be.You can find me here in Room 207 helping my students figure out how to take the next step in their learning path.

Balancing Reading Assessment

I've just started reading a professional book by the Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) called The Cafe Book. The Sisters wrote The Daily Five which I've been partially using in my own classroom during Reading Workshop to help manage what the "other kids" are doing while I'm conferencing or working with a group.When I began my career, like the Sisters, I was uncomfortable if I met one of my reading groups more often than another. But after being encouraged by my Principal to "get out of the way" of more adept readers and not meet with them so often, I've been a bit more willing to let go of the fairness is equal philosophy. What this means for me as a third grade teacher is that my more advanced readers meet with me as a group just once a week. They read longer, chapter-based texts, and I've taught them (a painful process I have to admit) to work as an independent literacy circle. The time I've carved out is spent on my Safety Net and Below Level students - who need more support in order to become more proficient as readers.So now that I've divided up my time so that the students who need more of me, get more of me, what's next?  Well, if you say Assessment and Conferencing, the kind of assessment that lets you know where your students and and what they need help with, we're in agreement. However, once you've conferenced or assessed a student, a teacher needs to actually do something with that information.Like the Sisters, I've been through a ton of different models and suggestions for keeping track of what my students know and what they need to know next.  Sticky notes seem like a good idea -- but like Joan, I kept having to retrieve them from the floor and try to figure out in retrospect who the note was about. Not exactly efficient. Clipboards, file cards, the whole gamut of record keeping is enough to drive one crazy. Trying to find an effective and efficient way to gather information about my students -- one that I can sustain when the year's pace becomes high pressure and crazy -- is key for me right now.  I know data gathering is a fact of my teaching life that will probably never disappear.And then, once I've got all this fabulous data, what to do next? I'm hopeful that the Sisters, who seem to have a practical and realistic handle on balancing assessment with putting the results of assessment into practice, have a few ideas.