Time-Texts-Teach-Talk-Task-Test
TIME:
● Reading and writing should be the time
priority getting at least 50% of the day's time.
● The other 50% of the day's time could be
spent on other subject areas, such as social studies, math, and science.
● In many classrooms reading and writing are
not the priorities which produces less proficient readers.
● In the classrooms where reading and
writing are being given most of the day's time, more proficient readers are
being produced.
● A good way to incorporate more reading and
writing into the class time and keep the subject matter content is to have the
focus or topic of the reading and writing projects be of science, social
studies, and other time consuming subject matter.
TEXTS:
Student need a
consistent, rich supply of text with appropriate complexity:
●
Doing
so will promote higher success rates in their reading proficiency.
●
Teachers
need to focus on grade appropriate vocabulary.
●
Teachers
often have to go against organizational grain and buy books themselves that are
not state issued - this further benefits their students because not all books
are suitable for lower performing students.
●
By
doing so, these teachers actually accelerated their students reading levels.
●
Students
can't only receive appropriate reading materials when they qualify for special
instruction because some that don't qualify also need help.
●
STUDENTS
NEED CONFIDENCE AND MOTIVATION
TEACH:
Assign and Assess
vs Modeling
●
Modeling,
demonstrating, and giving examples- provides new learning for students, teaches
strategies gives instruction to know how to do something.
●
Assign
and assess- the teacher assigns the work and expects the students to complete
it independently, there is no new learning involved.
Useful teaching
strategies :
●
decoding,
composing, self-regulating as separate lessons to the whole class, to targeted
small groups and to individual students as side by side instruction.
●
Teaching
requires knowing not only how to teach strategies explicitly, but also how to
foster transfer from the structured practice activities to independent use.
TALK:
Classroom talk
allows the students to process the information in their own words:
● should be encouraged within the classroom
- teacher -student and student- student.
● should model and encourage purposeful
discussion, that offers problem-posing, problem- solving related to subjects.
● needs to pose questions that are
open-ended thought provoking.
● should use classroom talk to discuss
ideas, concepts, hypotheses, strategies, responses with others by both teachers
and students.
● should have questions that are
open-ended where multiple responses
would be appropriate, not just one right or wrong answer. This helps students
share ideas and experiences - helping them create a positive learning
experience.
● leads to improved reading comprehension.
● is still under researched.
● effective classroom talk should not be
interrogational and only have one correct answer.
TASKS:
●
In
the classroom there is an emphasis on the greater use of LONG ASSIGNMENTS.
o
Not
so much centered around multiple, shorter tasks.
o
Example:
Students often worked on a writing assignment for ten days and not just in one
sitting. Read entire books and did group
research projects.
●
Work
completed is more substantial and challenging to the students. The work was more self regulated.
o
Students
seemed more on task due to complex tasks
●
The
students also had a choice in the assignment that they were doing. (managed
choice)
o
Focused
on one topic. Students did similar but different tasks. Example: insects-
students were able to choose their insect.
●
These
types of student choices have been documented to show that students have a
greater ownership in their work and a greater engagement.
TEST:
Achievement based
grading
● the
best performances get the best grades
● traditional type of test
● higher level students don't have to put
forth much effort to get good grades
Rubric-based
evaluation
● measuring from where students started to
where they are now
● earning grades is students responsibility
● gives students information needed to
improve grades
● teachers must really know their students
● little test preparation activity, instead
teachers rely on good instruction to enhance test performances
The bullet points were taken
from Allington’s article, What I've
Learned About Effective Reading Instruction FROM A DECADE OF STUDYING EXEMPLARY
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM TEACHERS. He provides us with good reminders of what
strong teachers do everyday in their classroom. Take time to read is paper.
Full Article found:
Richard L. Allington . What
I've Learned About Effective Reading Instruction FROM A DECADE OF STUDYING
EXEMPLARY ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM TEACHERS. Phi Delta Kappan, Volume
83, Number 10 (June 2002), pp. 740-747,
<http://ejournals.ebsco.com.access.library.eou.edu/direct.asp?ArticleID=42ACB8C7BB85FBE63370>