Reading Resource

This year in reading I have the privilege of team teaching with another 4th grade teacher. Our class has every ability level you can think of and I have been focusing on the struggling readers. For my action research I knew I wanted to find strategies that help struggling readers catch up to grade level. I came across an article that was very interesting. The article is written by Richard Allington and is called What At-Risk Readers Need. He talks about what we should do with at-risk readers and the RTI process that could help. What I found most interesting was the part about what is not working in schools. The things he talked about that don't work are things that are going on in many schools. It really made me think about some of the systematical changes our schools need to make. Here's the article:

What At-Risk Readers Need

Cliffette realization...

I knew I picked the right student to be my cliffette for this assignment. This student always does the right thing and is academically at grade level. I knew I wasn't giving her the attention she needed. What I didn't know was how hard it would be to find the time to give her that attention. These past few weeks I have been thinking "make sure to touch base with cliffette", and then I found myself either reacting to another student, or getting something else ready. I had to force myself to give up a little control and trust that the other students were doing the right thing while I focused on cliffette. I really thought about how much of my energy is taken from a few kids or other situations that are over all pretty insignificant (like cohort and marzano training during my prep time). I am always coming home exhausted that that is affecting my relationship with my husband too. I need to focus on what's important and start letting somethings go. If something doesn't get done, its not going to be a big deal. If a student is being disruptive to get my attention, I need to send them out so I can focus on the students who deserve my attention. I want to focus on the positive and shift my energy to things that will lift me up.

Why is teaching socially acceptable behavior at school important?

Looking back about ten years ago I see myself dreaming of becoming a teacher. I loved spending time with kids and I had so much fun when I was with them. If I could have seen myself now I would have seen how different teaching actually is. I also would have seen myself succeeding in areas I never thought I would and I would have seen the students that have changed my life forever.

Teaching in a low income very diverse school has molded my views on teaching social behavior just as much as academic behavior. Before I started teaching I thought I would be focused on creating lessons on books that we are reading and hands on math lessons. Although I do that, I am more focused on teaching my students what it means to be a good person and how to behave in life. Thanks to special training and A LOT of patience, I know I am molding students who will be caring, patient and passionate people. Teaching should be about giving my students the skills to be successful later in life and this is why teaching my students social behavior is important.

Many of my students have not learned how to react appropriately or how to behave in school because they have no role models for them to look up to. Through classroom meetings, morning activities and modeling I have been giving my students the tools they need to solve problems like disagreements and annoyances that may have otherwise get out of control. Looking back on the last 4 years of my teaching I feel like I have made my best connections and progress with the "toughies". I know it takes a special person to teach some of the students I do and I just know that there is a reason I was given this job and wether I keep teaching at this same school or not, the experiences I have taken from it will forever change how I teach.

CBI and BD connections

Concept based instruction and backward design connections:

1. Big Idea

            Both CBI and BD revolve around the idea that teachers prepare a big idea for students to discover. This could be introduced by an essential question or leading question to get kids motivated and thinking.  Examples: Does every story need a beginning, middle and end?  Why are fractions important in everyday life? Posing essential questions leads to further exploration of skills related to these questions and other questions that arise from this discussion. I would love to ask my students the question about fractions. I t   hink the discussion itself could be an assessment to see if the students even     know how and when to use fractions.

2. Students uncover ideas by asking questions

            After an essential question is made, students then dive deeper into the topic. Their thinking is deeper and students should be able to ask questions that  relate to the big idea. The big idea shouldn’t be able to be answered with one sentence. It should lead to students asking more questions and the teacher then guiding them by teaching them specific skills or give them examples that will help them answer some of those smaller questions. 

3. Both CBI and BD avoid only learning the facts

            Students have to culminate ideas and opinions for themselves based on ideas and examples given in class. Some facts might be memorized but then the students take the information further by applying it to problems and questions in real life.

4. A good curriculum with worthy knowledge

            Teachers and curriculum designers need to create a curriculum that will fit with the CBI and BD ideas.  Teachers need to start with a big idea and decide what information will be worthy within the topic.  Especially with the technology that we have today, students have all the facts in the world at their fingertips. As teachers we need to be able to help students think for themselves and give them problem solving tools instead of just facts.

5. Connections across classes

            Connections play an important role in backward design. Both designs build of prior knowledge and dive deep into new learning. Students need to make  connections between all classes instead of just reading skills and math skills. This is one area I would love to dive deeper. I feel so disconnected between my classes and it is hard to make connections between classes. I would like to see an example of a good curriculum that uses big ideas so I can better understand how these designs work.

6. Motivation and engagement

            These designs are more engaging for the student because it is more of a social learning style. Students engage in debates and sharing while uncovering new ideas. Students are expected to respond more as opposed to teacher led lecture.

I love the idea of both of these structures. I am really intrigued by how to create a unit using this idea. Both of these articles are very general and give a good background on how to create units that use big ideas. I would need to see an example of a unit that uses this structure and even look at how to take a big idea and create everyday lessons out of it. I am struggling to make the connect between how to start with a big idea and then lead into everyday lessons. 

Intentions and "Cipher in the Snow"

“Teachers don’t intend to treat them that way”. I think it is easy to get wrapped up in a student’s reputation and lower the expectations based on what they did in other grades. As a school I feel like our intention is to get to know the student and build that relationship right away. But many times some of us get caught in the idea that since they have a rough home life, that they can’t live up to some of the classroom expectations.  We have to change our intentions and focus on students highly succeeding academically as well as socially. I’m not worried about my intentions with my “challenging students”, usually those students are the first I made a connection and plan for. I am more worried about those students that float by. The students that are very quiet but always follow directions. Those are the students I need to give more attention to. I know it is hard to do but I intend on making more of a connection to all of my students personally. I know it isn’t easy to say but I know I have stronger connections with my students who stand out more. I need to focus on everyone in my class.