Month: August 2010

What are you focused on?

This summer I discovered an amazing young adult series that started with The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I devoured that book and immediately went to the bookstore to buy Catching Fire – the second book in the series. After I finished that in a day (and told all my reader friends that they MUST read these books!), I went online and googled Suzanne Collins. I discovered her website and learned that there was a third book coming out soon. I preordered it online and went on to be a Facebook fan of The Hunger Games site – while I continued to tell anyone that would listen how good these books were. I had great discussions with friends who had already read the books since none of us could stop thinking about the characters and the stories. My mom’s book club even decided to read The Hunger Games based on my excitement. I’m sure many of you have similar stories like this, where you have discovered an excellent book or author and went on to learn as much as you could about them, while sharing them with anyone who would listen.

I started thinking about the kids I teach. Am I sharing my enthusiasm for books and authors? Am I telling them how I stayed up all night reading a book that I couldn’t put down? Am I encouraging them to have a favorite author and to share about the great books they’ve read lately? Am I telling them about my conversations with friends about books we read? Am I showing them what readers do in the world – googling a book, becoming a fan of an author on Facebook, calling up friends and telling them they MUST read a great book?

We want all of our children to be readers.  We want them to be able to choose books, read them, and understand them. We want them to love books as much as we do. We want them to have a favorite author and recommend books to their friends. We want them to see how being a reader can help them succeed in the world. If this is to happen, then we need to model what readers do in the world. We can’t get caught up in levels or numbers that may give us valuable information as teachers – but aren’t necessary for kids to focus on. While kids certainly can have a goal like “work on making my reading sound smooth” and be able to articulate this – we don’t think they need a goal like “get 100% on my comprehension test” or “be a level 10”. When we ask a fifth grader what he is reading we want him to tell us a title or favorite author, not “level 40”. It’s up to us to determine what we focus on in our classrooms. And what we focus on is usually what we get.

(Oh, and if you haven’t read the The Hunger Games trilogy – you MUST!!)

Enjoy!

Katie & Pat

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Reflecting On Your Classroom Space

In the previous blog entry, Designing Your Classroom Space,  we mentioned some things to think about while designing your classroom before the children arrive.  Once the children come it’s time to talk with them about the various spaces – what they are for, how the children will participate in keeping each space neat and organized, and so on.  Perhaps they will have suggestions for areas you haven’t thought of. One year my first graders asked for a Lego building table so they could keep their creations intact and continue building each day when they arrived in the morning. What a great idea! We moved tables and immediately set up that space in our classroom. Once your children arrive you will be able to see if your classroom works. Do you have enough whole group area so that the whole class can sit and not be crowded?  Is your library big enough for many kids to browse books? Is your small group area really out of the way so you and the children you work with are not distracted or interrupted?  Teachers need to be responsive to what the students need and how the classroom can work best for them.

After the first few weeks of school, we suggest you consider the following questions:

  • Walk around your room – does every space have a purpose? Talk about this with the kids. Are they able to explain the purpose of each space and use it effectively?
  • Does your environment help or hinder what you and your students want to do? Some years most of my kids like to work on the floor with clipboards – some years most like tables or desks. I adapt to what my class needs that year.
  • Do your walls tell the story of children’s learning journeys? Consider charting your year of  learning through shared writing monthly, photographs of children at work, photocopies of book covers, etc. – all of this sparks conversation and tracks your year together.
  • Do the children have ownership of all that is displayed – do they know WHY it is on the walls? Does it reflect their learning? Are your anchor charts created with the class – and able to be added to or changed as new learning occurs?
  • Do you have children’s work and photographs displayed? Artwork, family photos, field trip photos, self-portraits, photos from recess or reading workshop, and more – all of these add a sense of community to your space.
  • Do your available resources encourage curiosity, creativity and communication?
  • Is your personal space uncluttered? (get rid of things you do not use or love; find ways to organize things that constantly look untidy; file away things that are not being used.)
  • Is there an area that isn’t working as well as it can?  If so, plan to discuss it with the children and come up with solutions.

Chapter 5 in Catching Readers describes in words and photographs how to set up an environment to support students in a comprehensive literacy approach, as well as provides a list of professional resources to help you design your classroom space.  Your classroom is home for you and your students 8 hours a day, 180 days a year. Make it a warm and welcoming place that encourages learning, creativity and self-expression. And never be afraid to change things as you continue to reflect on your year with your students. What are some ways you create a fabulous classroom space? Please share your ideas!

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Designing Your Classroom Space

“It has been said that the environment should act as a kind of aquarium which reflects the ideas, ethics, attitudes and cultures of the people who live there.”

-Loris Malaguzzi, Reggio Emilia

Teachers all over the country are beginning to gear up for another school year. Setting up the classroom is part of those busy first days back. Boxes are unpacked, furniture is moved, and garage sales are shopped in hopes of finding the perfect coffee table, lamp or pile of gently used books for the classroom library. Designing the space that you and your students will call home for the next 180 days is a critical part of having a great year. Here are some tips to think about as you create a beautiful space where readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists and learners will thrive.

 

  • Tape off a wide, open space big enough for each member of your class to have plenty of personal space standing or sitting.  (blue painter’s tape with wide packing tape put over it works well) This space has multiple purposes: whole group meeting area, meeting with guided reading groups or writing groups,   Legos, blocks, puzzles, puppet shows, storytelling, indoor recess, literature circles, science experiments, drama, dance,  or stretching out to read/write.
  • Set up an easel in the whole group meeting area for shared reading with big books, poetry charts, morning messages, chart paper for community writing projects – making sure you have a container nearby with everything you may need (markers, correction tape, white board, highlighting tape, current books you are using for reading/writing workshop, etc…)
  • Decide what other spaces you need (writing supply table, classroom library, science inquiry station, painting, quiet work areas, and so on.)  Create these around your wide-open space, making sure every space has a purpose.
  • Set up only the tables and desks you need in specific areas and have them serve multiple purposes (writing table, visual arts table, science table, coffee table (low or high) in library, and a few random tables if you have space.) Vary the level and shape of the tables. If you only have desks, put them together to form clusters – you can take the legs off of desks to create a low work space.
  • Don’t worry about having a desk or specific table space for each child. Encourage children to work in a variety of places in the classroom, depending on what they are working on. Some children work better on the floor while others prefer a desk space. However, you need to have a space for each child to keep his or her things (dishpans, baskets, file boxes on shelf or windowsill, cubbies, stackable bins, etc.)
  • Have enough clipboards available for each child – or use the back of dry-erase boards. (Home Depot will cut shower board for you to use as individual dry-erase boards – they often do it for free if you tell them you are a teacher)
  • Put out pillows or stuffed animals to lay/sit on.
  • Place books all over the classroom in bins or tubs – don’t limit your books to the classroom library.
  • Remove your teacher desk. Use a table as a workspace, but share it with the kids and don’t let it pile up or become exclusively your space.
  • Keep your classroom space beautiful and organized – don’t waste precious space with “stuff.”
  • Reflect on the various spaces with your kids; if an area isn’t working, change it!
  • Label everything and keep all of it within reach of the kids; teach them how to use all the supplies appropriately. Make sure they are held accountable for keeping supplies neat and taking care of their classroom.
  • Use documentation and photographs on the walls to chart the children’s learning.
  • Pair quality artwork with children’s art.
  • Be willing to start the year with blank walls, the room will transform quickly as the children take ownership of their space and their learning.

Chapter 5 in Catching Readers describes in words and photographs how to set up an environment to support students in a comprehensive literacy approach, as well as provides a list of professional resources to help you design your classroom space.  Enjoy these busy days before the children come and take the time to make sure your teaching and learning environment works for you and your students. Here’s to a great start!

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Making the basal work for your readers

We’ve had several friends around the country who have said to us this summer, “but when school starts, I will be forced to use the basals.” One teacher even wrote, “there is no getting around it! The district office is coming down HARD on our principal because our state test scores aren’t the best and the schools that use the basal are getting good results.

I don’t understand how…any insight?”

Our thought is that the standardized state tests are similar to the basal in terms of isolated facts, kill and drill, or read-and-answer literal level questions. Teaching the basal is like teaching the test. Kids can “get by” and show growth on that one test (which is often the “be all/end all” in so many states). However, many of these children aren’t becoming proficient readers in the full sense of the word. Maybe they can pass the test, but can they navigate a newspaper? A guidebook? Pursue topics of interest? Follow a favorite author? Infer beyond the literal level? Do they choose reading as a pastime? Carry on conversations about their understandings or reflections of a poem or short story? Find meaning in a book causing them to love it so much they want to read it all over again? All of these are things real readers do.  And most of them will not happen if you holdfast to solely teaching with the basal.

So what’s a teacher to do?  We suggest finding what’s good in those basal stories and using what you can in a sensible manner.  By sensible, we mean instead of doing the basal story with the whole class, figure out which children could actually benefit from a guided reading group with this story. Find your own teaching focus that supports those students in adding a word-solving or comprehension strategy to their repertoire (basals often go through a very prescriptive set of strategies and lessons that may or may not be what your students need at that time.) The point of guided reading is to help those students grow as readers, not to just “get through” another basal story.

For another group of children you may find that the basal story is too difficult. You might choose to do an interactive read aloud with those struggling students on that story.  Then supplement their reading with books they can actually handle. And surely there are others in the class who can read the basal stories independently, leaving lots of time for independent reading in books of their own choosing.

Make your read aloud time powerful by choosing texts that beg for deep discussions around topics that interest your students.  Our chapter 6 in Catching Readers gives lots of ideas for getting the most out of your interactive read aloud time.  Help your students learn how to choose books they love, authors they enjoy, or series they can follow.

By using the basal wisely you are putting more thought into what your students are reading and how you are teaching them rather than just following the manual page-by-page. You can still structure your reading workshop with a mini-lesson first, then independent time (while you meet with groups or individuals) and a whole-group sharing at the end. Use the basal stories, poems, and non-fiction entries, but supplement with lots of rich, meaningful texts that kids can relate to and that are on their reading levels. This may mean more work for you, but it’s been our experience that it’s worth the effort.  You will be helping all your students develop into proficient readers who enjoy reading, find out about their world by reading, live like literate beings – yet are still able to pass the tests!

And lastly we urge you to be an advocate. Go to your principal or administration with research about why teaching everyone the same thing at the same time will not work, speak out in faculty meetings about the big picture of developing well-rounded readers, and start conversations with colleagues about how best to meet the needs of individual learners, especially those who struggle with literacy.

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