T's of Teaching

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>