What Worked and What Fizzled in 2013 #SAVMP

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I’m doing a big of catch-up. I signed up for a Virtual Admin Mentor Program (#SAVMP)  – one challenge per week that began in August.

The Week 3 challenge asks me to address important thoughts I had starting at a new school in my new role. Seems like a good end-of-year-reflection – especially since the end of each school year is also the end of the calendar year.

What has been successful?

Documentation. I was better at keeping student behavioural notes as an administrator than I was as a classroom teacher.

One of my first welcome gifts was a small prayer diary. I used the diary to note down every important outgoing and incoming phone call, especially those from parents. I made notes about significant conversations I had with teachers. The notes were brief and messy – I’m pretty sure no one else would be able to make sense of them. But I remembered the instances. And I prayed about many of the instances.

When I started having multiple entries on the same student, I would start a Word document. The document included only facts – who said what, places where incidents happened, interventions and results.

The diary notes and documents helped me better identify patterns, frequencies, and levels of success with interventions. What have we tried? What have we not tried? What has worked? What are possible next steps?

I also have data that I will use as a baseline for 2014 and beyond. This next year, the school is focusing on creating a culture based on the philosophies of Positive Education and Restorative Justice. As I continue to document in 2014, I can see whether or not the cultural shift is affecting the frequency and intensity of particular student behaviours.

What didn’t work?

I know some teachers at my school read this blog. It would probably be best to ask them (feel free to leave a comment – I can take it).

In Term 2, I introduced professional readings into the Junior School meetings. Teachers could choose to read from a selection of professional articles or books. Some were related to teaching students with autism. Others focused on reading books on second language acquisition. Still others read the Daily 5, The (Second Edition): Fostering Literacy in the Elementary Grades
or Launch an Intermediate Writing Workshop: Getting Started with Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5.
.

The first week, teachers had 30 minutes to do the reading and 30 minutes to discuss. Discussions were focused around the following protocols:

• What did the article/chapter say?
• What were you thinking as you read?
• What questions did it raise?
• What does this mean for your classroom?

Two other weeks, teachers were expected to do the readings in advance of the meetings. I noticed the discussions weren’t as rich those weeks. On the one hand, I was disappointed. On the other hand, I remembered that we communicate the importance of things by the time we set aside for them. If I believed the reading was truly important, I had a responsibility to set time aside for the reading as much as the discussion.

Both reading and discussion time got lost in Term 3 due to the implementation of a school-wide assessment goal. I planned to resurrect the readings in Term 4. Then I broke my leg. Best laid plans…

The professional readings-as-part-of-meetings fizzled. But it wasn’t a total loss. Teachers began sharing other books that they were reading. One teacher became hugely passionate about Writing Workshop and gathered a host of new resources to share with me. Another teacher started asking for links to tech blogs. Still another team implemented the Daily 5, adapting it to fit the needs and constraints of their open classroom.

In 2014, I’ll get feedback from teachers on how the process worked and ask for suggestions on ways we can continue to grow a culture that regularly reads professional literature.

Top 10 Posts of 2012

The year 2012 marks the end of another chapter in my expat life. I say good-bye to Hong Kong and relocate to Australia. You can look forward to hearing about the wonderful ideas I get from Australian colleagues. You may notice I’ve re-set my spell-check to the Oxford Dictionary as a step in getting accustomed to a slightly new form of English :).

As 2013 begins, I want to thank you for taking time to read my posts this past year. In case you missed them, my most popular posts of 2012 are listed below. I hope they will help as you plan for the New Year.

As I reflect on the posts I’ve read this year, the very best was written by a professor, Darryl Young, who spent a year teaching High School math. His thoughtful reflections make for a post I wish would go viral.

The most popular Expat Educator posts of 2012:

Student Electronic Portfolios: A Model

Electronic portfolios continue to gain in popularity. Portfolios can be done using Evernote and Edublogs. Student Electronic Portfolios: A Model demonstrates how Google sites can be used to display student work.

Keeping Students Engaged in a 1:1 Project-Based Classroom

Aren’t computers a distraction? is a question many have asked. Distractions can be minimised with a few specific classroom management strategies. Read more…

Can All Classroom Lessons be Flipped?

Yeah, this is a rather unpopular opinion in the online teacher community. I argue that individual lessons can be strategically flipped, but using the flipped model for every lesson is unwise. Read more…

Preparing Parents and Students for Fall Goal-Setting Conferences

My first few years of teaching, I prepared for parent conferences by figuring out what I would say. When I stopped leading the conversation, students began making more personalised, meaningful goals. Read more…

Top 10 Lessons Learned the First year Overseas

Moving to new countries comes with challenges. Rereading this post reminded me of those challenges as I embark on my new adventure.

A Low-Tech Project Students Treasure: Civil War Journals

Even if you don’t teach about the American Civil War, tea-stained bare books can be used to create projects that look rather authentic. Even after High School, former students tell me that they still have their 5th Grade Civil War Journal. How often can you say that about a project? Read more…

Report Card Comments: Outlines and Examples

You probably just finished your comments. You might find it more helpful to read how you can pre-plan to make comments more manageable next semester. As for the outline, read on…

Quick Formative Assessments

Google forms and Google docs are tools that allow for quick, ongoing formative assessments. Both you and students’ peers can give powerful feedback during the entire writing process. Videos on this post show you how. Read more…

Student News Videos: An Alternative to Newsletters

If you really want parents to pay attention to your communication, have students write and present the news. This post takes you through the process of creating the videos. Read more…

Math Problem Solving Series: Classroom Procedures

Problem Solving skills are tricky to teach. This post began a five-part series on everything from procedures to assessments. Read more…

Are there any topics you’d like to discuss in the New Year? Please tell me in the comment box.

If you find these posts helpful, please consider subscribing to Expat Educator by adding your email address to the box below. You will be the first to get all the posts from 2013.

photo credit: angloitalian followus via photopin cc

Teaching Oral Reading Fluency to Older Students

My father taught me to read with fluency and expression. He didn’t know he was doing it. Every Sunday afternoon, my brother and I would sit with him by the heater or on the porch and he would read us the Sunday comics. Characters such as Beetle Bailey, Charlie Brown, Dennis the Menace, and the Wizard of Id each had their own voices.

If you walk into a Lower Primary grade classroom, you’ll likely see students reading aloud to teachers who explicitly teach them to read more smoothly and read with expression. Do Upper Primary and Middle School teachers need to focus on oral reading fluency? If so, how can upper grade teachers explicitly instruct students on fluency without it feeling “childish”?

How does Oral Reading Fluency Fit into Common Core Standards?

The Common Core standards include oral reading fluency as part of the Reading Foundational Skills. Until grade 2, foundational skills focus on students understanding print features, translating print features into words, syllables, and sounds. Until grade 6, foundational skills comprise phonics, word analysis, accuracy, and fluency as they support comprehension.

Does this mean teachers can stop teaching oral reading fluency after grade 6? Probably not. While Common Core Reading Foundational skills are discontinued at Grade 6, Middle School teachers still need to know the following:

• Are the students recognizing at least 95% of the words they are reading?
• Do students use phrasing, punctuation, and italics to pick up on author’s intent?
• Do students differentiate between characters by hearing the characters’ different “voices”?

Oral reading fluency does not necessarily align with silent reading fluency, but oral reading fluency can indicate what happens in students’ heads when they read silently.

When students read fluently, they are better able to analyze of the impact of word choice on meaning or tone. Students who read fluently can better analyze poetic and musical tools in poems and stories (Grades 6 and 7 Reading Literature Standard 4).

Students who differentiate character voices more easily analyze ways in which authors develop and contrast points of view of different characters. (Grade 7 Reading Literature Standard 6).

How to Teach Fluency Without It Feeling Childish

Comics and Graphic Novels: Almost all of my struggling readers gravitate to comics like Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes. In the context of reading fluency, those books are a good place to start. How would Calvin’s voice be different from the voice of Hobbes? Have students record some of their favorite strips or pages. The listener should be able to hear the difference and the recorder should be able to defend why he/she chose the particular type of voice. Let the student “ham it up.” Then move the student to graphic novels.

Plays: Like most other skills, fluency and expression come with practice. Plays allow students that practice. The difficulty is that, unless well-planned, play reading becomes another form of round-robin reading that can quickly disengage students. Also, cold readings of plays set up lower-fluency readers and second language students for public scrutiny. I recommend the following progression of activities:

• Before assigning parts or having anyone read aloud, have the students read the play silently. Ask about the characters. What type of person is…? What do you think his or her voice would sound like? How would specific characters sit? Stand? What kinds of clothes would the characters wear? Hairstyles?
• Find out if anyone is particularly “attached to a part”. If two or more people want the same parts, you can delegate in whatever age-appropriate way you deem best (rock-paper-scissors), dual recordings (multiple girls play Broadway’s Annie). Consider challenging higher readers to play (and understand) the character they identify with the least.
• Highlight the importance of practice. Line. By. Line. Model mistakes and re-takes until the line is perfect. Model how you decide which word in a sentence should be emphasized – and how sentence meanings change slightly based on the emphasis (let students help you decide which sounds best).
• Give students recording devices to record, listen, evaluate, repeat. They should keep/save recordings of the best “take” of each line or section.
• Pair up students who listen to each others’ recordings and offer advice.
• Then meet as a group to read the play orally. Record. Garage Band is a great recording tool. If someone makes an error, they can pause then read the line over again. Errors are easily erased.

If you’re teaching fluency to two or more groups, allow the groups to compare the line interpretations. How did someone else read the same part similarly? Differently? Why do you think they made those particular choices?

Morning class:

Afternoon class:

Modifications for English Language Learners

When listening to the podcasts above, you will notice that each podcast features a student who has limited English. Consider recording lines with the students who struggle with English pronunciation. Then, transfer the practice session to iTunes (or .mp3), and have students practice reading with the recording.

End With Reflection

When I started doing class news videos, I realized that students could easily tell me what they did, but had a harder time telling me what they learned.

Take the time to ask students what they learned about reading fluency. What was difficult at first? Which lines needed the most practice? Why do you think the [tongue-in-cheek mean/crazy] teacher would ask you to do this? How might these skills be valuable when reading other texts?

If you are unfamiliar with the workings of Garage Band, see this tutorial:

…but you don’t need Garage Band. Here is a tutorial on iPad Voice Recorder (also featured on iTouches):

In what other ways might older students practice reading fluency?

If you like what you read and hear, consider subscribing to Expat Educator (below).

10 Steps for Managing Cooperative, Project-Based Groups

I’ve become a contributor to one of Scott McLeod’s tech blogs, 1 to 1 Schools. In my latest post, I talk about Book Club Prezis in the context of managing cooperative, project-based groups.

In the post, I break down management into 10 minilessons or steps:

1. Content comes first.
2. Choose and defend presentation format.
3. Divide and conquer tasks.
4. Develop a timeline for completion.
5. Group members work as individuals.
6. Individuals comment on group members’ work.
7. Groups reflect on their work.
8. Groups see the work of other groups.
9. Students and teachers comment.
10. Celebrate.

To see the expanded explanations, click here.

What are your experiences with cooperative, project-based groups?

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Book Club Project Prezis

My 5th graders recently participated in Historical Fiction Book Clubs.

Their projects were graded on the extent to which students could:

• Demonstrate reflection on characters, settings, and small details by referring to post-its in the book club meetings (observed during book club meetings).
• Read nonfiction to enhance understanding of the historical fiction text.
• Demonstrate comprehension of historical fiction text.
• Provide evidence of original thoughts and how those thoughts changed or were reinforced throughout the story. This tended to be the formulation of a “big idea” that could be supported with evidence from the text.

While students could use any project format to demonstrate learning, a few groups used Prezi.

Here are some examples:

While technology was not the goal, the students were able to effectively use technology to meet the reading objectives. One BIG advantage of the Prezi tool is that students can work on the project from multiple computers simultaneously. Once the group knew what they wanted to communicate, they divided up the projects, each person working on a different part.

My teaching partner and I gave very little instruction on the use of Prezi. The online tutorials worked really well. Students who chose to use Prezi demonstrated self-motivated learning because they took extra time to go through the tutorials in order to learn the tool.

How have you used (or how might you use) Prezi in the classroom?

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