April is National Formative Assessment Month!

Okay, I lied. April is not officially National Formative Assessment Month. But you can't blame a girl for dreaming.

How about we make it happen anyway? If you'd like to focus more on formative assessment, make it your April goal (could help pass the time until school vacation, at any rate).

Want to increase how often you check for student understanding? Want to think about and try out some ways to quickly analyze some student data? How often do you find yourself using student data to inform your teaching, either that same day or for the next lesson? Want to increase how often you're able to do this?


Trust me -- there are ways to do this without adding an enormous amount of work to your already busy plates. It's amazing the information you can get from flipping through a stack of tickets-to-leave. Assessing a longer piece of student work? Try out an error analysis. Or you can use student self-assessments in formative ways. You could even try out on-the-spot formative assessment -- talk about quick and easy!!

Once you've done your pain-free analysis, you may or may not see the need for differentiated instruction. If you do, your options are many: you could split the class in half, you could decide on small groups, a tiered lesson, partner work, etc., etc., etc.

If you're interested, let me know. Let's make this National Formative Assessment Month thing happen -- maybe we'll be responsible for the start of a movement!  :)

Happy Spring (again, a girl can dream)!

Differentiating for Readiness

Sometimes when we differentiate for readiness, we do so based on data analysis of tickets-to-leave, or quiz or test results. We bring this data home with us, conduct error analyses, and allow the data to inform our instruction.

That's great, and works well. But, you can mix it up, too. Sometimes you can differentiate for readiness based on a more "on-the-spot" assessment, or check-for-understanding. This will allow your instruction to be informed right then and there -- you don't have to wait until the next day (or, let's be honest, sometimes it can be a few days to a week before you've had a chance to grade those quizzes and analyze the data).

One way to do this is to give your students a task at the very beginning of class, one that will allow you to quickly assess whether the student "gets it" or not. If you're interested in this, you have got to check out this video!!! (It's only about 3-4 minutes long . . . go ahead -- check it out!)


Here's what I love so much about what this teacher does:

• He quickly circulates as students complete the opening task, simply marking an E or an S on each student's paper. Simple, do-able.
• He uses some great language when getting ready to differentiate. If students have an E on their paper, then they are "ready for the extension." If students have an S, then they are "ready for support" or "ready for a session." Students are not told what they "need," which can sound sort of demeaning to those who "need help." Rather, they're informed about what they're "ready" for. Semantics can be so simple and powerful.
• There's some student self-assessment and choice built in. He marks some students' papers with an E/S, acknowledging that they are a bit "on the fence" with that task, and allows them to decide what they will do -- seek out the extension, or the support. Maybe they'll try out the extension and run with it. Or maybe they'll try it out and decide they'd like more support. 

Want to start trying out this kind of stuff in your classroom? Give me a holler -- I'd love to help!

Instructional Coaching: A Success Story

Each week as I contemplate the topic of my blog post, I usually get so overcome by what instructional strategies I'm currently over-the-moon excited about trying out in the present or future that I forget to stop and reflect about past work with the teachers I collaborate with. This week, I'd like to share a success story (don't worry -- I won't be naming names -- confidentiality is important with instructional coaching!).

This story involves a teacher I've worked with for a bit of time now. He and I have gotten to know each other well and have developed a routine and a rapport that works for both of us.

Like many of the ambitious and dedicated teachers I work with, when I first began working with this teacher, he had a dozen goals, all kinds of areas of his teaching he wanted to work on. Upon my observing him teach and having structured conversations about his classes and his students, we were able to narrow his focus by prioritizing a few goals at a time. This was a key first step. Just like we wouldn't give our students too many areas to focus on improving at once, we can't bog ourselves down with too many goals, either! Through our time together, this teacher has developed mastery in several of his goal areas, allowing us to add in other goals to work on. Even though we had placed those goals aside for awhile to focus on our top picks, we hadn't forgotten them.

One area this teacher expressed a lot of interest in working on -- an area that would have high impact on his students' learning -- was his questioning techniques. He was struggling (as many of us have and continue to) with adjusting his questioning strategies so that he wasn't always calling on the same students. He knew he wasn't checking for the understanding of all his students. That's where I came in. As a second set of eyes in his classroom, I was able to make suggestions he could incorporate fairly smoothly into his teaching style. We worked together on his comfort level with "cold-calling" on students. I acknowledged his concern (a concern many teachers share) that he'd be putting students on the spot, and we worked on ways to scaffold a student toward a correct answer if he or she were struggling. We also worked on turning a student's question over to the rest of the class as another way to check for understanding, instead of it always being the teacher's job to answer questions. Eventually, when this teacher had vastly changed the way he asked questions in class (over 90% of the questions he asks now are "cold-calls" and his students are really rising to the occasion!), we were able to analyze when and why he sometimes falls into his old habits (typically when he was feeling rushed, nervous about getting to all of his lesson) and we worked on ways to prevent that from happening.

Nothing I've written about above is ground-breaking. These are effective, but simple, ways to change one's questioning techniques for the better. But the beauty of instructional coaching is the on-going, job-embedded professional development. If this teacher had merely read an article or attended a one-shot workshop about questioning strategies, he may have tried some new ideas out for awhile. But, as we all know, he may have eventually lapsed with this goal, becoming distracted by all the other aspects of one's day as a teacher. Instructional coaching can help, as I've been told by the teachers I've worked with, because it's more consistent, it involves conversations and observations and goal-setting, even because the teacher knows she's got an appointment with me coming up so she needs to get going on some of the things we discussed during our last conversation. It's a judgment-free, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," pleasant method of professional development that I think can help teachers to make big and small changes in their classrooms.

If you're interested in exploring your own questioning techniques (or any of the other myriad of instructional strategies out there!), just let me know!

The Exit Ticket of the 21st Century

I love exit tickets. I think they are a simple, quick way to check for student understanding during or at the end of a lesson, and, through some simple, quick analysis, can inform further instruction. So, please know that in no way I am advocating we say good-bye to the exit ticket.

Instead, I'd like to offer up a new way of thinking about exit tickets, in case you want to tap into some technology and mix it up a bit. I often recommend teachers vary their ways of checking for understanding and their activators and summarizers, because I think variety can keep students engaged and invested. So, "modernizing" the exit ticket is just one more tool to add to the ol' toolkit. 

I can't take any credit for this idea -- I stumbled across it via the following blog from Edutopia. Check it out by clicking here. Heads-up: you may or may not agree with everything this blogger states (check out some of the post's comments for some interesting debate and extensions to the ideas). But, the ideas included about using some digital exit tickets are worth some thought. If you've got the digital means and access, why not try some out and see how it goes? I'd love to hear from anyone who's either interested in doing this OR who tries it out and can report back on how it went.

There's More Than One Way to Participate in Class

As a student, I loved class discussions. I was in my comfort zone. Asking questions, offering up evidence-based opinions, thinking through something while talking, understanding and making meaning through dialogue -- these were all skills perfectly suited to my learning styles and preferences.

As a teacher, however, I began to notice that class discussions (both formal and informal) were primarily beneficial to the same kinds of student I was (and still am), students with the same types of learning styles I had. Other students struggled with participation in class discussions not because they didn't care or because they were lazy, but mostly because this was not how they learned best. Some of them couldn't keep up with the learning that happens in a fast-paced discussion because this was not the optimal way for them to process and think about information; making meaning through on-the-spot dialogue didn't work for their learning styles.

Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't all have to stretch at times and work outside of our comfort zones; being asked to learn in a way that doesn't match up with your own learning preferences is not only fine, it's a great way to improve and grow as a learner. However, with that said, it is also a good idea to not rely too heavily on types of activities that all fall under the same learning style.

One way to do this is to re-think what participation can look like in a class discussion. There are a myriad of ways to do so, but I'll offer one up to you this week: take it virtual!

There are lots of benefits to having your students participate in an online discussion. It can provide students with more time to process what their peers are sharing, more time to come up with a response that's really phrased effectively. The discussion is "recorded," so you can revisit it anytime. Students can share links to websites and videos and other online resources that help them illustrate their points. And often, the students who shine in an online discussion are those who may be more reluctant to speak up during class -- online discussions can be real confidence-builders for these students, leading to them opening up during class more often.

Edline has an online discussion forum that teachers can set up for their classes to have online discussions. And there are other (free!) sites that offer online discussion forums as well. Two popular, user-friendly sites are Edmodo and Collaborize Classroom -- check them out! 

The Whip-Around

I just finished discussing ideas for checking for student understanding with a teacher I'm coaching and, of course, found myself bringing up one of my all-time favorites: the Whip-Around. I believe I blogged about this particular strategy last year, so it may sound familiar to those of you who are loyal readers. But, trust me -- it bears repeating. The Whip-Around is a great way to quickly and easily check for understanding (and you know how much I love CFU) and use that check to inform instruction.

[I must give credit where credit is due: I first learned about this strategy while reading Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey's awesome book, Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom -- I highly recommend it!]

Here's how it works:

1. Ask students to write down 3-5 things (the amount will probably depend on where you're at in the lesson) in response to a particular question. For example, if I'm teaching Lord of the Flies and we're on chapter 4, I might ask students to list 5 attributes of William Golding's writing style (especially if analyzing writing style is an objective of the unit).
2. Once students have completed their list, ask all students to stand. 
3. Now, call on a student randomly (or not randomly -- you may have certain students you want to make sure you touch base with directly). Ask the student to share one item from his/her list. 
4. Once this student has shared his/her one item, ask the rest of the class to check to see if they had the same item on their list. If they did, they should place a check mark beside it. If they did not, they should add it to their list.
5. Proceed in this fashion. Once all the items on a student's list have been shared (either by that student or by another), that student may sit down.
6. Continue to call on students until all students are seated.

A couple really important things have happened here. One -- students have had a chance to self-monitor their understanding a bit; they were able to add to their list items that they initially had not included. Two --you've had a great opportunity to check for understanding and to potentially adjust your instruction accordingly. As you were listening to students share their list items with the class, you may have realized that there were 2 or 3 things that no one brought up that you feel are really important for students to understand. Now, you can address those things with the whole class -- and maybe even check for understanding again, with a different method (I told you I loved CFU!!).

The Whip-Around works great as a summarizer to a lesson, but it can also be an effective activator when used to review as a class something learned the day before. You can even use it as a way to check for understanding during class -- perhaps 15 minutes into a content-heavy power point presentation.

Try it out and let me know how it goes!
(Watch out -- you might love it so much you get whiplash . . .)
(Sorry, that was a pretty bad joke.)

CFU -- My Favorite Educational Acronym

Alternate title #1: One Great Way to Use a Whiteboard
Alternate title #2: Can I Have an Academic Crush on an Object?

Hi there, readers!

I'm taking a break from my series on Kelly Gallagher's ah-may-zing reading instruction ideas to divulge to you a little secret: I have yet another academic crush, and this time it's on an object. I know what you're thinking . . . after all, this is the fifth or sixth (losing track doesn't make it worse, does it?) academic crush I've written about and now I'm confessing to crushing on, of all things, a mini-whiteboard (but did I mention it comes with its own marker and adorable mini-eraser?). Rest assured, readers, my marriage is healthy and intact despite these academic crushes. Even those on objects. But you can't judge me too harshly for this one -- mini-whiteboards are so fun and great. AND here's the kicker -- they are so useful to CFU.

(Gasp! You're not familiar with mini-whiteboards? Here's a link to the website for The Markerboard People, which is where I got mine: http://www.dryerase.com/.)

Because what the education world needs right now is another acronym, I thought I'd tell you about my personal favorite (yes, I have academic crushes and favorite acronyms, but who doesn't?). CFU stands for Check for Understanding. And since I'm obsessed with ways to informally and formally assess student understanding (especially those opportunities to assess mid-way through a lesson), I find myself talking about, thinking about, and writing about checking for understanding so often that I just had to abbreviate it to its lovely acronym.

Here's where my two loves, CFU and the lovely mini-whiteboard, intersect. Mini-whiteboards offer an amazingly simple and effective way to check for understanding during a lesson.
Here's an example:

I've been coaching a teacher lately on finding more ways to CFU during a lesson. This way he doesn't have to wait until the very end of a lesson to see if students have been following him and understanding what's being taught. This teacher is lucky enough to be blessed with a class set of mini-whiteboards (and markers and mini-erasers . . . have I mentioned how adorable the mini-erasers are?), so I was psyched to show him how he could use these to CFU.

Yesterday, we tried it out. After a certain portion of the lesson during which a new term had been explored, we wanted to know if students really understood the meaning of the term. So, we posed a multiple choice question to them with four options defining the term. We asked students to write their letter choice (A, B, C, or D) on their boards (they keep these boards under their seats -- markers and erasers are also kept under their seats in pencil cases) and to hold them up on the count of 3. At 3, all students held up their boards and we were able to see that all but 2 of the students chose the correct answer. This let us know that the majority of the class could move right along with the next task -- some practice with partners on the topic being taught -- while the teacher could work with the 2 struggling students until they fully understood the term's meaning, at which point they could rejoin their classmates in working on the next task.

You can also do this kind of CFU with a Smartboard as long as you have those fancy clickers (that's the correct technical term, right?) handy. It doesn't matter which you use, really . . . the really important piece of this is that you've found a way to quickly and informally CFU. This doesn't have to only happen during a lesson as in the above example, either. Use the mini-whiteboard as a way to pre-assess before a lesson begins, or as a way to CFU at the end of a lesson during a summarizer.

My biggest practical tip involving this strategy? Only use the mini-whiteboards as a CFU tool if you can ask students something that requires a very short answer (such as a multiple choice question for which they only have to write their letter choice on the board). With very short answers, you can easily and quickly scan all the boards as they are raised and determine where students are at with their understanding. Longer answers are harder to quickly scan -- you may need to think of another CFU tool to use if this is the case. But don't worry -- there are so many great CFU tools -- I've got a million of 'em! (Hyperbole alert -- I don't really have a million CFU tools, but I do have a decent amount.)

Have you joined the mini-whiteboard fan club yet? I hope so. As president, we're always looking for new members.
Happy Checking for Understanding!

Instructional Coaching in Action

Since the role of instructional coach is still quite new in the district where I work, I'm hoping this post serves to paint a picture of what the collaboration between a teacher and an instructional coach can look like (it's also a decent look at what some formative assessment practices can consist of).

I’ve been coaching a teacher towards a goal of using formative assessment practices in his classroom. This week, we were both able to see just how simple, effective, and eye-opening formative assessment can often be.

I met with this teacher (let’s be mysterious and call him “Mr. X”) late last week to talk about an upcoming lesson that would be fairly content-heavy. We discussed what he felt the major take-aways for students should be, and quickly decided on using an exit ticket (or ticket-to-leave) as a way to check for understanding of these take-aways. The exit ticket we designed had two parts to it: the first asked for a definition of a major concept that would be covered during class that day and would be essential for student understanding throughout the unit; the second asked for three causes and three effects of the particular movement in history introduced in class that day.

Mr. X and I next met up after school on the day he had collected these exit tickets from students. Together, we quickly skimmed the students’ responses and discovered they fell into one of 3 categories: five students were in the Didn’t Get It category (responses were missing most or all of the information and/or contained misunderstandings); nine students were in the Yes! category (responses indicated a level of understanding that indicated the student was ready to continue with this unit of study); and six students were in the Halfway There category (students were able to list the causes and effects, but had difficulty with the definition on the first part of the exit ticket).

Skimming through these exit tickets and categorizing them took us probably about ten minutes. We didn’t grade the exit tickets or assign any points; we didn’t even lift a pen to write on them. We were solely interested in determining where all the students were with their understanding. And there was a major revelation (this is my favorite part of formative assessment!): Mr. X told me that, before looking at the exit tickets, he assumed students would all breeze through the definition portion, but have difficulties with the cause and effect. It wasn’t until we collected and analyzed the exit ticket data that he realized the opposite had happened with about half of his students. Does this mean the teacher failed? NO. Mr. X succeeded because he chose to check for understanding in this way, which enabled him to see at a glance that there was a need to go over this concept again.  Without such a check for understanding, he would only have had his assumptions to go by, and this would not have been enough.

It was time to make a plan for the next lesson – formative assessment is only truly formative if it informs our future instructional moves. Since 50% of the class struggled with the definition portion of the exit ticket, we decided it would be best to begin class all together. Mr. X would let the class know he was concerned that they didn’t all fully understand this particular concept yet. Then he would call on a few of the students that he knew (again, based on the exit tickets) had a good grasp on it, and ask them to share how they defined the concept. The teacher would reiterate each aspect that was brought up, reinforcing these ideas with the whole class.

Feeling confident now that the majority of students had grasped this concept, the teacher would then move on to a group activity. While getting students into groups of four and disseminating instructions on the work they were to do, Mr. X would pull aside the five students who fell into our Didn’t Get It category, letting them know he had looked at their exit tickets and was concerned about their understanding of yesterday’s lesson. He would tell them that he wanted them to be successful with the rest of the unit, but that depended on them having a good understanding of the major concepts addressed yesterday, and so he’d like to spend some time reviewing those with them now. Once Mr. X feels satisfied that these students have grasped the concepts, he’ll release them to join a group and jump into the group activity currently underway.

I observed this lesson plan in action the next day in Mr. X’s classroom. Later, we met up to discuss what we felt had gone well, and what we may do differently next time.

Using formative assessment can (and usually should) be quick, simple, and, sometimes, surprisingly effective! It doesn’t always have to look like the above scenario. Sometimes, based on checking for understanding, a teacher may realize the whole class (or a vast majority of it) needs to step back and review. Or he may realize that there is a wide range of understanding or skill level and that he needs to plan for tiered instruction in his next lesson.

It can be really helpful to have someone to discuss what the check for understanding should look like; to have another set of eyes to analyze this data together; to have someone help you brainstorm and plan for what your instruction should look like the next day based on this data; to have someone come on in during that next day’s lesson and model a teaching strategy you may not be comfortable with yet or co-teach a portion of the lesson together; or even just to observe and meet up with you later on to discuss how it went, and to make future plans. Guess what? I’m that someone! This is a good picture of what instructional coaching can be all about!

Digging Below the Surface

Let’s have some fun with reading today! I’ve borrowed the following passage from Kelly Gallagher’s Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12 (I’ll be writing a series of blog posts based on this text in the upcoming weeks that will fall under the umbrella of Reading Across the Content Areas – you can see the first blog post here). Read through the passage, and then answer the following 4 questions (also from Gallagher).

Go ahead . . . I’ll wait . . .

How to Bartle Puzballs

There are tork gooboos of puzballs, including laplies, mushos, and fushos. Even if you bartle the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the pern, they do not grunto any lipples. In order to geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples, you should bartle the fusho who has rarckled the parshtootoos after her humply fluflu.

1.     How many gooboos of puzballs are there?

2.     What are laplies, mushos, and fushos?

3.     Even if you bartle the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the pern, they will not what?

4.     How can you geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples?

How’d you do? Here’s the answer key:

1.     There are tork gooboos of puzballs.

2.     Laplies, mushos, and fushos are tork gooboos of puzballs.

3.     They will not grunto any lipples.

4.     You should bartle the fusho who has rarckled her parshtootoos after her humply fluflu (Gallagher, 2004, p. 4).

I’m willing to bet you got all or most of those questions correct. But I’m also willing to bet that you don’t know what gooboos, puzballs, or mushos are and that you don’t have a clue about what you just read in that passage (I know this because Gallagher used nonsense words and made it all up).

This exercise translates right into what we want to avoid in our classrooms when assigning reading. Sure, we can assign reading and ask students to answer questions based on that reading. And our students might get all the questions correct. But do they really understand what they’ve read?

If the questions we ask don’t require higher-order thinking skills (like evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing), then they run the risk of remaining so much on the surface that students can answer them without even understanding what they’ve read (probably similar to the way you were able to answer those questions on gooboos and lipples). This ends up telling us very little to nothing about our students’ understanding, when we need to be striving to effectively check for understanding throughout our lessons and units in order to best help our students grow as learners.

We don’t want our students to be reading in our content areas at a “puzball-level” (Gallagher, 2004, p. 5). We want them to be looking below the surface. We want them to be using higher-order thinking skills.

Try keeping a copy of good old Bloom’s taxonomy where you write your lesson plans and your assessments so that you can easily refer to it. Or run your questions by a colleague (or your district’s friendly instructional coach, wink wink) to get another perspective on them.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You...

Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me…No, this blog post is not a musical theatre sing-along (but how fun would that be?? Bonus points if you knew this was a King and I reference!). What I want to talk about is getting to know your students, and I figured this was a pretty good topic to devote my first post of the 2013-2014 school year to. (By the way, welcome back, readers!)

The “Why”

Just why should we take time at the beginning of the school year to get to know our students anyway? Well, there are lots of reasons  -- many of which I’m sure you can name – but the one that stands out most to me relates to differentiation. If we’re going to devote ourselves to differentiating our instruction with our students’ interests, learning styles, and readiness in mind, then we need to invest some time learning about our students’ interests, learning styles, and readiness.

Carol Ann Tomlinson, guru of differentiated instruction, adds a few more items to the “why” list in her book, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom (2010):

·      “It sends a message to each student that the teacher sees him or her as an individual, and it also suggests that he or she is interesting enough for an adult to want to know better” (p. 78). We all want to feel like more than a number, right? It’s this kind of interest shown by a teacher that helps a student begin to trust that teacher and begin to see that teacher as a “support system in the classroom” (p.78). The student is not anonymous anymore – anonymity is not even an option in this type of classroom.

·      If a teacher shows an interest in getting to know her students, she is showing her students that she values them. And guess who students are inclined to work for? “People they value (i.e., people who value them)” (p. 79).

·      Getting to know our students helps us as teachers to invest in them; we invest most deeply in “those who are ‘three dimensional’ to us” (p. 79).

The “How”

What are some ways in which we can get to know our students? Every classroom teacher has his or her own methods of doing this, but it’s always nice to add to our repertoires. One important way to get to know our students is to use a pre-assessment at the start of a unit. We can determine a student’s existing background knowledge about the topic, as well as any misconceptions he or she may have; we can see if the student has any particular interests or questions relating to this topic. As such, we are already preparing ourselves to possibly differentiate our instruction within this unit based on readiness and/or interest. We can add learning style into the mix by asking students to complete a learning style survey or inventory at the beginning of the year (there are plenty of these available online, some of which also relate to Gardner’s multiple intelligences).

Tomlinson makes some suggestions for the “how” as well:

·      Greet your students at the door as they enter your classroom. A quick greeting (“How’d the homework go last night?,” “How’s soccer practice?,” “Are those new shoes?”) can go a long way in helping a teacher determine valuable information about a student’s daily life, mood, and attitude and can help make the student feel like a valued individual (p. 82).

·      Ask your students to bring in “All About Me” bags filled with five objects that help the teacher and the other students learn more about them (p. 82).

·      Use note-taking as a way to keep track of things you learn about students on the fly. As you circulate during a lesson, you can learn a lot about students – with whom they work well (and with whom they don’t), what their learning preferences are (do they like to work alone, with others, in silence, etc.).  Having a way to quickly jot down this type of information will help inform your instruction (p. 82).

·      Use surveys to “ask students to share their sense of themselves as learners in a particular subject, their interests, and their methods for learning effectively” (p. 82).

·      Create a number line and label it 1 to 10. Title it How do you feel about _____? The topic can change depending on the day. “For example, one day students might be asked how they feel about a book they read yesterday in class, and another day they might be asked how they feel about starting a new math unit” (p. 82). Students then place small sticky notes or stickers beneath the appropriate number that represents their feelings on that particular topic. This can be a great, quick way to take the pulse of a class.

Some Final Tips

These come from my own experiences, and the experiences of colleagues, in the classroom:

1.    Once you’ve collected this kind of “getting to know you” information from your students, use it. If the information remains in a folder that gets other paperwork piled on top of it, then it’s not going to assist you in planning for differentiation.

2.   When you do use this “getting to know you” information, go ahead and share this with students. Let them know, for example, when you have incorporated certain aspects into a lesson based on what you know about students’ preferred ways of learning. This will go a long way in building a culture of respect and trust in your classroom.

3.   Get to know your students yourself. Yes, we can often receive quite valuable information about a student from a colleague, but we have to avoid becoming “overly swayed by a student’s record from previous school years” (Tomlinson, 2010, p. 83). Recognize that students can change, and that we want to challenge them to grow, which is hard to do if we’ve got a fixed vision of who they are.

4.   “Remember that students are your best source of information” (p. 84). Use formative assessment tools such as tickets-to-leave or surveys to check in with students occasionally and ask them to “share their sense of how they’re doing” (p. 84). And use what you learn!

I hope everyone’s school year is off to a great start! My “blogging schedule” is now officially back in motion, so expect a post from me towards the end of each week.

Summer Reading....For Teachers!

     It's about that time, teachers! Looking for some great reads this summer to help energize you and give you ideas for what will surely be a quickly-approaching September? Then look no further; I've got a teacher's summer reading list right here. (Sorry, these are probably not what you'd consider "beach reads," but they are educational books that I really enjoy. Just mix one or two of them in with your novels and magazines!)

     I'm thinking you can find most of these on Amazon, but if it gets tricky, just contact me and I'll give you more detailed information to help refine your search...

• So What Do They Really Know? Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning -- Cris Tovani 

This is a great read for secondary teachers. Tovani is writing primarily about ELA classes, but I say anyone who is interested in how a workshop structure could work at the secondary level should read this book. (By the way, workshop structures effectively allow the teacher to differentiate, to conference, to assess students' individual strengths and weaknesses formatively...)

• The Daily 5 -- Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (aka "The Sisters") 

Disclaimer: I got kind of sort of OBSESSED with The Sisters this year. Elementary teachers -- if you are looking for a system that will help you establish routines, build student stamina, and set expectations for ELA workshops, this is the book for you. (Also, as a former secondary person, I must say that if you are interested in the workshop structure at the secondary level, I'd still recommend this book. Just read it with your "secondary eyes" and "translate" the material up a few grades!)

• The CAFE Book -- Gail Boushey & Joan Moser (aka "The Sisters")

See above. Same lovely ladies. I'd recommend reading The Daily 5 first, then delving into The Sisters' CAFE system. This book is FULL of so many great resources: specific and detailed ideas for setting up a conferencing notebook and record-keeping system, specific reading strategy lessons in the areas of comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary....It is a great read!

• Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom -- Rick Wormeli

This book rocked my world! Rick Wormeli (who happens to be the silver fox of differentiation) is a straight shooter and really tells it like it is. While reading, I was forced to confront some of my own past assessment practices that I had to admit were not effective or purposeful. Wormeli truly changed my way of looking at assessment, for the better!

• Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom -- Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey

Yes! This book was such a useful read. Lots of practical suggestions of ways to consistently, regularly, and effectively check your students' understanding. I think it applies to all grade levels.

• Differentiation: From Planning to Practice, Grades 6-12 -- Rick Wormeli

Here he is again! This is definitely geared towards secondary teachers, mostly due to the content of the sample lessons and units Wormeli discusses (but I think elementary teachers could "translate" what it is he's doing to their own grade levels). Wormeli walks you through the stages of planning a differentiated lesson. Very useful information!

• Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design: Connecting Content and Kids -- Carol Ann Tomlinson & Jay McTighe

Disclaimer: This is only my second favorite text involving Carol Ann Tomlinson (for my first, see below...). The bridge between DI and UbD is specifically laid out in this text. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a strong understanding of one, but perhaps not of the other. 

• Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson -- Connie M. Moss & Susan M. Brookhart 

This book can honestly be a bit "dry," but the idea of learning targets is so important! Basically, Moss and Brookhart advocate for a more student-friendly lesson objective to share with students and recommend that this learning target be stated as what the student will be able to do by the end of the lesson, from the student's own perspective (i.e., "I will be able to identify three traits of the main character. I will use words from our character traits word wall to do so. I will be able to provide evidence from the text that supports each of these three traits."). Learning targets can help students self-assess and can give them a purpose for learning.

• Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom -- Carol Ann Tomlinson & Marcia B. Imbeau

LOVE this one! If you are interested in the philosophy behind DI, then this book is for you. Even more so, if you are interested in helping your students understand and be a part of a differentiated classroom community, then this book is definitely for you. Tomlinson and Imbeau provide specific lesson ideas for teaching students how (and why) to be members of a differentiated learning environment.

HAPPY READING!

Everything I Learned About Teaching I Learned in Kindergarten

     Have you ever seen that poster that claims that everything you need to know in life you learned in Kindergarten? It lists examples like "share everything," "play fair," and "warm cookies & cold milk are good for you." Words to live by.

     Well, this week's post title is inspired by this concept, and here's why: I spent twelve years as a high school ELA teacher before becoming a K-12 instructional coach last year. Over this past year as an IC, I have spent way more time in elementary classrooms than I ever have before (except when I was an actual elementary school student myself). And it's been exciting to realize how much someone with a secondary background can learn from what goes on in an elementary classroom. (The opposite, I'm sure, is true as well. There's lots elementary teachers could learn by spending time in secondary classrooms, too. But, since that wasn't my experience, being a former high school teacher myself, that's not what I'm going to focus on here.)

     I've honestly been thinking that everything I've learned from my experiences in elementary classrooms as a former "secondary person" could be the fodder for a great book! Heck, I'd read that! But, for today, I'm just going to highlight one thing that's really been sticking out to me lately: the workshop. Now I know, I know that the workshop structure is used in secondary classrooms, too -- we only need look as far as Cris Tovani's shining example as proof -- but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a lot of secondary teachers don't use the structure and aren't overly aware of it, whereas as many elementary teachers do and are. 

     Here's the structure (and some running commentary throughout since I can't help gushing about how wonderful workshops are!):

The Mini-lesson

     Workshop begins with a mini-lesson. The teacher gathers his or her students together -- in elementary school this is usually done on a carpet in a particular location of the classroom; secondary teachers might have to get a bit more creative with how to do this since most don't have sectioned-off areas of their classrooms. Or it can be done with students at their desks...the main point is that you do it! Mini-lessons should last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the age and attention span of the students and depending on the task for that particular day.

     The topic covered during the mini-lesson should stem from what the teacher has noticed his or her students need. For example, if it's a Reading Workshop, the teacher might decide to conduct a mini-lesson on retelling because he or she has observed that most of his or her students are struggling with this and it is impacting their comprehension. 

     A vital part of the mini-lesson is that it should contain a guided release of responsibility (also popularly referred to as "I Do, We Do, You Do"). This means that first the teacher models the skill or strategy. Next (and this part is the most often skipped and possibly the most important!!) comes the "We Do." Here, the teacher guides the class as a whole in using the strategy. This can involve asking the students to Think, Pair, Share; asking students questions; adding to a whole-class anchor chart together; etc. Last but not least, it's time for "You Do," some independent practice. Typically, in a workshop structure, this independent practice occurs during work time (covered next). But sometimes, in order to even further check for understanding, the teacher may do a quick "You Do" while still all together for the mini-lesson.

     Are you still with me or have I lost you?? Luckily, I found a GREAT clip that shows all of this in action. Just click here and scroll down to Classroom Program 14, then click on the little box off to the right that says VoD (the link may bring you straight to a video; if it does, close out of that page and the page I'm talking about should pop up!). (Heads-up: the first five minutes of this video show a morning meeting in a 5th grade classroom; the mini-lesson -- and, thus, the workshop itself -- begins after this.) Take a look at what this skilled teacher does during her mini-lesson (you can stop at around minute 22:15 if you don't want to get ahead of yourself and see the rest of the workshop just yet!). Pay attention to how she uses a gradual release of responsibility to ensure her students are all with her. Good stuff!

Work Time

     Next up in the workshop structure is work time. This typically consists of independent work (the "You Do" I referred to in the previous section). It also provides the teacher a chance to work with a small group of students (this could be a group that needs some extension, or a group that needs some support, or just a group of heterogeneously-mixed students that the teacher wishes to assess), and/or to confer with individual students as they work. What's great about this is that teachers can work with students in what I call "real time," right as they are performing the skills and strategies you've taught them. So, teachers can formatively assess in real time as well. **It is vital that the teacher has established routines and expectations for students regarding how to behave during all steps of the workshop structure. Routines need to be practiced and reinforced consistently so that students are able to work independently and in small groups and so that they know how to transition into and out of each stage of the workshop.** Boushey and Moser, authors of The Daily 5 and CAFE books, have some great ideas for how to establish and practice such routines, and their ideas can certainly be translated to the secondary experience.

     Check out minutes 22:15 to 25:30 in the clip I shared above for a quick glimpse at what work time can look like (but keep in mind that work time can function in many different ways).

Sharing/Debriefing

     Finally, the workshop ends with time to share and debrief. It's important not to neglect this last stage of the workshop, because it can be a great opportunity to assess, check for understanding, and inform the next day's instruction. Sharing of students' work accomplished during the work time occurs, and the teacher guides this sharing, pointing out instances of and asking questions about how students used particular strategies, any stumbling blocks they experienced, and successes they had along the way. 

     From minute 25:30 until the end of the video I shared with you above, you can see how this teacher wraps up the workshop (NOTE: she does a lot of sharing of independent work at the end of her mini-lesson, since she included a little "You Do" at that portion of the workshop; had she not, the sharing time in the clip would most likely be a bit longer.)

     

So, there you have it. Let's not limit workshop structures to the elementary level. There is so much potential for these types of lessons at the secondary level as well. What kind of potential? Differentiation, formative assessment, checks for understanding, flexible grouping, independent work, sharing, modeling, scaffolding.........

Want to use this in your classroom but struggling a bit with the concept? If you work in the same district as me, then give me a holler! I'd LOVE to collaborate with you on this!!

Let's Discuss Discussions

     Let it be known: I love me a good class discussion. Here's some ways to make the most of them:

Let the Students Lead

     I know this can feel difficult. It can be scary and unfamiliar sometimes for us educators to take ourselves out of the driver's seat. But turning the ownership of the discussion over to students can be empowering for them. And it can lead to a more authentic flow of ideas. 

     The pattern of a class discussion need not be student > teacher > student > back to teacher, etc. It can be student to student, with the teacher jumping in occasionally to address a misunderstanding or to ask a guiding question. 

     The one protocol of a class discussion I've used over and over again to help achieve this dynamic is simple. The last person to speak calls on the next person to speak. So, if Toby was the last one to speak, and three of his peers are raising their hands, he'll call on one of them to speak next. The teacher can raise his or her hand as well, and the student can choose to call on the teacher, or not. (More times than not, the students tend to call on the teacher fairly quickly.)

     But what if no one is raising their hands when Toby has finished making his point? I encourage students to go ahead and call on someone anyway, preferably someone who hasn't had a chance to speak yet, or a chance to speak too often. I coach students to really invite this person into the discussion, not by asking, "Hey Jill, you wanna say something?," but by asking, "Jill, do you agree with me? Why or why not?" or "What do you think about _____?" 

Be Proud, Knock Loud

     Sometimes students will raise their hand during a lovely student-led discussion, get called on by a peer, and say, "Yup. I agree." And that's it. Nothing further. They may think this "counts" as participating, but I set up the expectation with students that it does not. Of course you may agree with one another, but if you're going to share that fact, you need to explain why and you also need to extend the point.

     But, with that being said, sometimes we just want to let one another know we agree. So, I ask students to knock on their desks (or they could snap their fingers if they are not sitting at desks) when they are in agreement with something that's just been said. This can be nice for several reasons:

1. It eliminates the situation described above -- no more jumping into the discussion to only say those two words -- "I agree" -- and leaving it at that. If you want to say you agree, simply knock on your desk.
2. It can help boost the confidence of the speaker.
3. It can snap some students out of daydreams and wandering thoughts ("Whoops. Ten people just knocked on their desks. I probably just missed something important. I need to pay more attention...").
4. It can help the teacher (and the students, for that matter) take the pulse of everyone's understanding.

     I'm not advocating, though, for a discussion that's all about agreement. I also reinforce to students that, of course, they may disagree with one another, but that this must be done respectfully and I'll model this for them if need be.

Play Your Cards

     Good discussions are typically ones that have a sense of balance. There are not three or four people who are monopolizing the dialogue; there are not some voices that are never once heard.

     To combat these discussion-busters, I hand out cards to students (usually I just use index cards). If I give each student three cards, that means, at a minimum, I expect every student to contribute verbally to the discussion three times. If students are sitting in a circle (which I highly recommend), they toss a card into the center of the circle each time they contribute. 

     I explain to students that this can help them know who to call on next. If Toby's done speaking, and four of his peers are raising their hands, he can quickly look to see who has the most cards still in his or her possession, and call on that student. 

     Most of the time, I tell students that, of course, they can go over their card limit -- they can continue to contribute to the discussion after having tossed all their cards into the circle. But, sometimes, I have encountered students who honestly find it hard not to monopolize the conversation. These students need to learn how to sometimes take a back seat. And so, if the situation merits it, I'll ask students to stop contributing after they have tossed all of their cards. This can help monopolizers to be more economical about the points they choose to share with the group. 

     Using "play your cards" can also be helpful to the teacher participant in or monitor of the discussion. If we notice students who still have cards left towards the end of the time allotted for discussion, we can be sure to call on these students ourselves, or to ask them follow-up questions once the discussion has ended.

     In my current district and current role as instructional coach, I have used these methods with 5th graders, 6th graders, and 12th graders. It has been my experience that establishing just the right expectations and protocols for a student-led discussion enables us to sit back and listen to our students' ideas, to check for their understanding, and to often be wowed by their contributions.

     (If you teach in the same district as me, and want to give this a try, let me know. I'd love to help!)

Double Dipping

     Normally I hate double dipping. You know, when you're at a cocktail party having a lovely, sophisticated time, and you sample the to-die-for hummus or salsa or buffalo chicken dip (whatever floats your boat, readers) and then someone comes along, dips their chip in, takes a bite, then goes in for more. The double dip. I believe there's a Seinfeld episode devoted to this travesty.
   
     Thankfully, I'm not about to commit that kind of double dip. No, no, no. I just want to share with you all a resource I typed up for a few teachers I'm working with as instructional coach. It's a bunch of tips for calling on students (especially those reluctant participators) that can help alleviate the anxiety many teachers have about calling on students who aren't raising their hands. After typing it up, I realized -- hey, I bet my blog readers might want to check this out, too. (Be warned, though...some of the items on the resource are also things I've already blogged about on here. Repeat alert!)

     So, I'm double dipping -- using a blog post to share something I had compiled for a different audience. (But, hey, at least I didn't totally cheat and post this as my only blog entry this week, right?)

     Enjoy!

    

Tips for Calling on Students

(especially those who aren’t raising their hands…)

Compiled by Elizabeth Bettencourt, Sharon Public Schools

·      Foster “accountable talk” in your classroom. Model for students what this looks like by using the following examples, and also expect your students to adhere to “accountable talk” when interacting with their peers in a class discussion:

o   Press for clarification & explanation: “Could you describe what you mean?”

o   Require justification of proposals & challenges: “Where did you find that information?”

o   Demand evidence for claims & arguments: “Can you give me an example?”

o   Interpret & use each other’s statements: “David suggested . . .” (Fisher & Frey, 2007, p. 23).

·      Use value lineups. Ask students to evaluate a statement (“I fully understood last night’s homework,” “I will use this tool in the ‘real world,’” “I think this battle was the most significant in WWI,” etc.) and to line up according to their degree of agreement or disagreement with the statement.

o   After forming a single line, you can ask students to “fold” the line in half so that the students who most strongly agreed and disagreed are now partners, ready to discuss the reasons for their positions with one another (Fisher & Frey, p.25).

o   You’ve given students a chance now to think through their ideas, thus building their confidence before “putting” them “on the spot.” Now’s the time to “cold call” on students to either share why they stood where they stood in the line, or to share what their partner’s ideas were.

·      Ask students to share a partner’s idea. The above example is only one of many opportunities where you can help out a reluctant participator by asking him to share someone else’s ideas (this alleviates the concern some students may have about the accuracy of their own ideas, but doesn’t let them off the hook of participating in class). Using Think, Pair, Share is another easy-to-facilitate way to build students’ confidence about their ideas enough to share them, or to give them the opportunity to share a peer’s ideas. Here, students think and/or write a response to a question you’ve provided, then pair with a peer to discuss their ideas, and then share with the whole class. The teacher can circulate during the “Pair” portion of the activity, listening in to students’ conversations. If you hear a student – especially if he or she is a reluctant participator – share an idea you’d like the whole class to hear, you can give that student a “heads up” that you’ll call on them in a little bit to share that idea with the whole class. You’ve boosted their confidence to share because now they know their ideas are valid, and you’ve given them some time to get ready.

·      Try out the Whip Around. At the end of a period of instruction, the teacher poses a question or a task, asking students to make a list of at least three items (“List three things you struggled with today,” “List three traits of this character,” etc.). When students are done with their list, ask all students to stand. Then, randomly call on a student to share one of his or her ideas. Students should check off any items on their list that are shared by other students (this eliminates repetition) and sit down when all of their ideas have been shared, either by themselves or by a peer. Continue to call on students until all are seated (Fisher & Frey, p.34).

·      Determine the response format of a question and who will provide it before asking the question. “Will it be a choral answer, where all students respond together? Is it a partner discussion question? If so, the teacher should preface the question itself with information about the response format so that students know what they will do with the question before it is asked. If it is to be answered by an individual student, teachers should announce the student’s name before asking the question. This alerts the learner to the expected response. . .” (Fisher & Frey, p. 39).

·      Provide “wait time,” or as others call it, “think time.” Three to five seconds is commonly accepted as the amount of time students need to digest the question and to think of their answer.

·      If a student is unable to answer a question, stick with him or her! Use the following types of question scaffolding to help the student get to a response (Fisher & Frey, pp. 39-40):

o   Reception scaffolding – direct a student to the information necessary to answer the question (“Look at the graph on page 252 of your textbook”).

o   Transformation scaffolding – provide a way of structuring the information to help the student develop an answer (“How does the largest bar on the graph on page 252 of your textbook help you to find your answer?”).

o   Production scaffolding – provide the student with a way of producing an answer (“Use the largest and the smallest bars from the graph on page 252 of your textbook to compare the amounts used”).

o   Use a combination of all three types of scaffolds in succession if needed! Stick with that student!

·      Hold students accountable for participating in class. If a student responds to a question incorrectly or incompletely, check back with the student later to make sure he or she now has the correct answer. If students are “going around the room,” each sharing something (their thesis statement from a first draft, their opinion on last night’s assigned chapter, their idea for a marketing product, etc.), and a student does not share (this could be due to a lack of confidence, an incomplete homework assignment, etc.), ask that student to continue listening as his or her peers share. Let that student know that you will be coming back to them later to share something they heard a peer say that they liked or agreed with and why. Set the expectation that everyone’s voice in this class will be heard.

·      Use response cards. These can be pre-printed or write-on.

o   Pre-printed response cards already have responses written on them. These responses could be as simple as “yes” and “no,” that students hold up in response to questions from the teacher. Or they could be more specific, such as “potential energy” and “kinetic energy,” that students hold up in response to examples of energy provided by the teacher. In this format, all students respond, and the teacher can ask follow-up questions to a student based on his or her response. Again, the student’s confidence has been built prior to being called on, and he or she has had time to think through his or her answer.

o   Write-on response cards are blank (mini white boards work well), and students write a quick response on them to a teacher’s question. For example, a teacher could ask his third grade students to write three-letter words using a particular set of letters. As with the pre-printed response card examples above, the teacher can ask follow-up questions to a student based on his or her response (Fisher & Frey, pp. 46-48).

·      Use audience response systems. These new technologies can be utilized in the same ways response cards are used as questioning techniques (see above).

·      NOTE: All of the above tips for calling on students are not only great ways to set the expectation that every student’s voice should be heard, but they are also excellent tools to check for understanding with every student!

Reference

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. Checking for understanding: Formative assessment techniques for your    

     classroom. ASCD: Alexandria, VA.