Keys to Strong Instruction in Teaching

How’s your instruction? Are you hitting all the key points of good instruction? What should observers see in your instruction when they come into your classroom? These are all questions we ask ourselves and wonder. Sometimes it’s nice to do some self-reflection and see if you are hitting all the marks. The following chart shows the basic “LOOK-FORS” in strong instruction. As part of professional development it is always good to do some self-reflection. Video-recording a section of your instruction and then reflecting has also shown to objectively assess your instruction.

Use this chart as a tool to do an instructional check-up on yourself.

Look-Fors	Teacher
Use of Time Transitions from one activity to another. Time spent with individual students or small groups Time spent getting lesson/class started
Pacing Too fast, too slow Time spent in each lesson component.
Questioning Connect to lesson target/objective Assess understanding Stretch students to think beyond yes/no
Clarity of Presentation Modeling – Clarifying – Providing clear directions
Student Movement Positive: quickly transitioning, following directions, taking initiative Negative: getting out of seat frequently, fidgeting, interfering with others
Differentiation Scaffolding of lesson to meet diverse student needs
Material Management Materials are ready for the instruction Student and teacher materials organized to support flow of lesson Handouts are clear, meaningful and appropriate
Classroom Arrangement Furniture placement Visual supports on walls Environment for learning Provision for multiple uses of space
Monitoring / Checking for Understanding Monitoring student progress during independent work time Pauses at appropriate point in lesson to check for student understanding
Student Engagement Positive: Volunteering responses on task student-student interaction, listening, carrying out roles Negative: speaking out while off task, off task student-student interaction, interrupting, interfering
Participation Strategies Use of cold call to ensure variety of student voices Use of discussion protocols Opportunities for partner or small group collaboration

The Importance of Rhyming!

Rhyming is a key part to understanding our English language. In recent years we have become aware that rhyming may be more important than we once thought. Studies have shown children who are unable to rhyme may have a greater chance of having other reading difficulties such as dyslexia.

Rhyming is a skill which is learned. It is not a natural innate skill we are just able to acquire. Some are able to catch on quickly while others struggle. Practice and exposure is the best way to fully understand the key to rhyming. Rhyming is an auditory skill and something that children need to hear, therefore you should use the spoken words or pictures and not just printed words.

Teaching rhyming can be a lot of fun. One of the best ways to introduce and teach rhyming is with poems. Children in many cases will not notice the rhymes until you start pointing them out. There are also a number of great books for teaching rhyming such as; Rumble in the Jungle [Giles Andreae, David Wojtowycz], Double Trouble In Walla Walla [Andrew Clements, Salvatore Murdocca], and Edward the Emu [Sheena Knowles, Rod Clement] for a start.

Other ways you can provide the students practice is to give students each a picture or pin one one and have them find their rhyme partner. Tell each student a word as they line-up and have them tell you a rhyming word back. Picture sorts are always a great learning tool and children enjoy. If you are looking for picture cards here is a place to start: Rhyming Pictures

Almost Winter Break!

I found this image showing the phases of first year teachers during their first year. I think we have all had those feelings, I know I have and always look forward to break and the second part of the year. Only a few more school days and relaxation time! You'll be refreshed to tackle the rest of the school year, but who's counting?

(I didn't find who created the chart, but thank you.)

Dyslexia In Oregon

Building Student Engagement!

A few "think-abouts" when you are providing instruction to a group of students:

• make sure you have your students attention before initiating instruction
• use a signal
• pace the lesson to maintain students attention
• keep the lesson moving
• use pair share
• have group responses
• be ready
• maintain close proximity to students
• be up and moving around the room
• don't sit at the computer or document camera
• transition quickly between tasks
• know your routines
• have materials ready 
• refocus off-task students to the lesson focus
• make sure you have stated your expectations
• make them want to engage with you

Reading - End of Unit Test -- Why Give Them?

  Barmina Iva ID 1883171 | Dreamstime Stock Photos

I met with a teacher who was very frustrated that she had just given the end of the unit test and all her students did poorly. She stated the test was a waste of time because when she went back and reviewed the the test she felt it did not cover what the unit had been covering. Have you been there? I have too!

The end of unit tests are an applied reading test covering more than just what was covered in the unit taught. They are asking the students to use skills taught in previous units of the program to check whether the students are able to retain previously taught skills and apply them. These tests are testing the students understanding not evaluating your instruction.

Within the program there are often section tests where you are able to check for understanding of the skills just taught. These are very useful for knowing if your students are understanding what you are presenting. We also often make the assumption they understand the skill but these tests do not allow the students to apply the information like in the end of unit test.

The big question then is why give these tests? We are able to gain a great deal of information from the students’ performance on these tests. If they were able to pass their section tests but not the end of unit test, they are able to perform the task but not apply that task in a different application. They also give us a view of their cognition, showing if they are able to retain the information or recall it when needed. These tests are also a great indicator of whether or not a student will be able to pass the state test. It has been shown by the publishers that if the students are able to pass these end of unit tests they are highly likely to meet or exceed on their state test. Therefore, they are a great predictor of how your students will do come state testing time.  

Use those tests as a teaching tool once you have given and scored them. Have the students make the corrections and discuss each of the sections. This will help build understanding of how to apply information which the students had indicated they are struggling to understand. Have the students retake the test or the parts they failed. Not to change their grade but to allow them to understand and comprehend the information. I can assure you by taking the time to use the test as a teaching tool you will see great results on the upcoming end of unit tests.

Understanding and Building Stronger Writing Skills K-3

1. Building Writing Skills. K-3

This chart will provide you with the CCSS for writing narratives K-3 and ways you may guide your students become stronger writers. 

Rapid Letter Naming (RLN)

Rapid Letter Naming (RLN) has been proven to increase our ability to comprehend (Brain Connection, 2017) RLN is connecting visual and verbal information quickly without having to use cognitive energy to speak the written symbols.  Young children begin this process first by listening, then speaking, and finally visually, starting with environmental items such as “glass,” “dog,” “house.” Then adding pictures, next phase is moving toward reading. The brain has to be taught rapid automatic recall. This can be started by naming pictures quickly and then moving to naming letters (Brain Connection, 2017).  The objective is to train the brain to automatically recall using metacognition rather than just cognition. Building this skill in kindergarten and first grade will then allow the student’s brain to transfer the skill to reading words.

Below is a chart and link for you to create your own RLN sheet for students. If you replace the first row the rest of the chart will adjust. You are able to create charts for the letters your students are struggling with or create word-reading charts.  Make sure you post how you use the chart. We can all benefit from each other’s ideas.

Rapid Reading Chart Link

 

Brain Connection, 2017 (9/6/17), https://brainconnection.brainhq.com/brain-teasers/rapid-naming/

Phonemic Awareness

Research is showing the phonemic awareness plays a bigger part in young children’s learning to read than once thought. Not only does it help in their reading but in their comprehension skills. While working on phonemic awareness it is building pathways in their brains building comprehension skills (Plourde & Prado, 2011, p. 32).

Knowing this working and mastering this skill in Kindergarten and the latest First grade. Pre-Schools need to be introduced and supported also. Though the end result is for the child to be able to segment words there are prior skills which may need to be taught before they are able to segment sounds in words. See Phonemic Awareness, U of O

Below is a sheet you might use for tracking your students on phonemic awareness and use as data to show their growth. Keep a sheet on each child. You’ll soon see the students who need to be provided additional instructional support. Phonemic Awareness Screening & Monitoring Sheet

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q2mD1VGZFLdSOrbtTkz6mfZpvwFX6uB7noNFW0Y-6AU/edit?usp=sharing

Parents or Adults Helping in Your Classroom

Do you have adults coming into your classroom wanting to help or parents wanting to know what they can do at home? Here is a handout you can print and have on hand for them to work on comprehension. Remember comprehension is a transfer skill. Children have to develop the ability to recall and retell life events first. Only then are we able to transfer the skill of recall and retell to reading.

Working on Comprehension

Below is a chart to be used as a guide for adults working with students on understanding what they read.

Activities	Reasoning Why
Building Relationships: Be a good listener Don’t judge /Don’t fact-find If something comes up that is a concern, tell the teacher or supervisor that they need to ask the student about what happened. Let the teacher of supervisor investigate.	Students/Children need the nurturing that can come from an adult, take the time to get to know them. If something comes up we want you to keep your relationship and trust. Your job is just to let the person in charge know there might be a concern they need to address.
Have the students tell you a story. Ask Questions to clarify their story.	Having the students tell you a story helps them with building their comprehension. It makes them sequence.
Have the students tell you a story using pictures from a book. You may use a book that just has cool pictures and you don't read the story to the child. Ask Questions to clarify their story.	The end goal is for the students to be able to write a story about an event. They often need more practice telling about an event or story before writing. Writing is a higher skill than telling.
Read to the children. As you read ask them questions about what they think will happen. Ask them to retell the story to you. Have them use the picture of the story to retell.	Modeling reading is always great. As adult readers we intuitively ask questions. Children need to learn this skill. By you stopping and asking them those questions they will learn to transfer questioning to their own reading. Having them retell the story builds their own comprehension skills.
Have the students read to you. When the student comes to a word they don’t know, just say the word for them. Have them tell about what they read.	Having students read to someone is always beneficial. Just telling the student any unknown words allows the flow of the reading to continue and doesn’t take the child’s focus off of remembering what they read.

Dr. Scott’s Creative Teaching

Start of School Think Abouts!

The first couple of days of school is where you set the routines for the year. Taking the time now to think about some basic things will make your school year go so much smoother.

• When the students enter the classroom, what do they need to do?
• What is your attention signal?
• Behavior management plan
• Restroom usage
• Pencil sharpening
• Cell phone rule
• Passing out materials routine
• Submitting assignments
• Emergency evacuation (fire drill)

These are just a few areas to address the first day of school. As you think about these take the time to write each one out. After you have them all written out print them and put them into your sub-folder for any substitutes you might have during the year. By completing this task you will not only help your students’ year go smoothly, but also your year will be fantastic and any substitutes will know your expectations of the students.

Have a great start of the school year!

Time to be Thinking About the School Year!

Time to be thinking about the start of a new school year. For some this will be their first year in the classroom while others this may be the year they are completing their career. Either way your year will be determined by the people you hangout with during the year. They can be Marigolds or Walnuts.  Jennifer Gonzalez on her blog has a great article about working with others in your districts. Find your Marigold and stick close and avoid the Walnuts.

Are you a Marigold or a Walnut? Read her article and you will quickly find out what type you are. If you’re a Walnut, I encourage you to become a Marigold. It will change your life and your perspective of school.

Have a great year!

Summer Workshops

Summer is a great time to get new ideas and master your craft. Check out some workshops offered this summer and the InterMountain ESD in Pendleton.

InterMountain ESD -- Summer Classes and Workshops

Technology in the ESOL Classroom

Teachers who are not embracing the use of the technology of today may be putting their ESOL students at a disadvantage. Students have more access than ever before to a wonderful instructional tool through the use of the ever-changing and improving technology that is available today.

A major hold back may be the instructors themselves. Shapiro (2014) shared that many teachers express excitement about technology yet fail to implement such technology activities into their classrooms. She states there seems to be a disconnect between understanding and implementation. Shapiro (2014) states that instructors have shared they often feel administrators will not support their use of technology, and she also expressed that instructors are allowing technology to provide the instruction rather than incorporating it for maximum learning benefit.  The direct opposite could happen with technology in that the instructors would be able to meet their students individual learning requirements at their appropriate levels, which would a allow for greater instructional student engagement during the class period.

We need to move beyond the 1980’s and 90’s with technology. Today students are able to know within hours that major events have happened around the world. They come to school equipped with technology, which instructors need to empower the students to use technology to advance their learning and not suppress the use of it. With the use of technology teachers are able to provide their students with differentiated instruction providing a possibly higher relevant learning experience for the students. One size fits all no longer applies when it comes to learning, therefore instruction and the tools we use to accomplish it need to adjust to meet the needs of our learners.

References:

Shapiro, J. (2014). The blame game: Who’s really holding back innovation in schools-teachers or administrators?, Slate. ASU Publishing

Salomon, G. (2016). It’s not just the tool but the educational rationale that counts. In Educational Technology and Polycontextual Bridging (pp. 149-161). Sense Publishers.