January 7th UEI visit
Coaches visit with EB coaches and teachers
Visit Details
The format of this site visit was working with teachers on using data to plan guided reading. Teachers worked with UEI coaches and EB coaches to plan a guided reading lesson, teachers then taught the guided reading lesson and after the lesson teachers reflected and received feedback from coaches on the lesson.
Teachers also had the opportunity to watch each other teach the prepared lesson.
The format of this visit is one that we are hoping to replicate in other grade levels because of the powerful learning that happened.
A whole lot of wonderful from the visit
- Teachers worked hard with coaches and took risks in their instruction
- Teachers pushed themselves to be uncomfortable and embrace the learning
- Teachers opened their classroom to colleagues
- Explicit kinesthetic and visual vocabulary introductions
- Students were working extremely hard - in one classroom the students got up from the table and stated "That was hard"
- Kids spent the majority of the lesson reading: The ratio of teacher talk to student reading was more reading then teacher talk
And many more wonderful moments during the visit.
Some wishes (or I like to say areas of opportunity)
- More explicit word solving modeling during book intro's
It is not about the vocabulary word, rather about the word solving strategy students can globalize to solve another words not simply that one word.
- Expectation and support for all students to speak in complete sentences
Reflecting on how we have change practice in the past
By nature most of us our visual being - did you know that almost 90% of what is communicated is done non-verbally.
Last year when teachers were trying to change practice and use STEP prompts in guided reading groups I would walk into many rooms and see visuals of the prompts all over the room. I would see visuals taped to tables and hanging up on walls reminding teachers and students about the prompts.
This worked and worked well - I can't sit in a room today without hearing a STEP prompt used throughout the learning day.
How can we take this same process and apply it to Habits of Discussion we should see in our classroom?