Weekly Coaching Communication
Make it a great day -- every day!
15 - 19 January 2018
Hats off to you!
Here's this past week's amazement:
- On top of grading everything . . . a new finals schedule, hectic weather, and prepping for a new quarter of students & classes can take its toll -- Thank you for your diligence and perseverance through the end of the semester.
- Thank you for showing your compassion and being flexible when our students find themselves in the most dire of times.
- Thank you. Mrs. Ferguson. for monitoring the commons during the two days of finals.
- Thank you, Mrs. Mahoney, for taking risks in your classroom with station rotations and using manipulatives to teach non-Euclidean geometry -- what an interesting class!
- Thank you, Mrs. Dierks, for taking care of the grade book questions and sending out reminders for the new semester.
- Thank you to all who have taken the IXL initial survey (among all of the other school surveys we are getting) -- your data is much appreciated.
#nobetterplacetowork
Pope's Professional Learning -- Sharing to Build Capacity
Talk Moves -- Revisiting a great discussion strategy
Last January, I shared a short video and a brief summary about Talk Moves (original article linked here) -- an easy non-evasive way to improve student participation in your whole-class or large group discussions. With the new quarter starting, it might be a good time to refresh your Talk Moves for your classroom:
#1 Revoicing -- “So you’re saying...”
● Repeat some or all of what the student has said, then ask the student to respond and verify whether or not the revoicing is correct. Revoicing can be used to clarify, amplify, or highlight an idea.
#2 Repeating -- “Can you repeat what she said in your own words?”
● Ask a student to repeat or rephrase what another student said.
● Restate important parts of complex idea in order to slow the conversation down and dwell on important ideas.
#3 Reasoning -- “Do you agree or disagree, and why?” “Why does that make sense?”
● After students have had time to process a classmate’s claim, ask students to
compare their own reasoning to someone else's reasoning.
● Allow students to engage with each other’s ideas.
● Student: “I respectfully disagree with that idea because...”; “This idea makes sense to me because...”
#4 Adding On -- “Would someone like to add on to this?”
● Prompt students, inviting them to participate in the conversation or to clarify their own thinking.
● Student: “I’d like to add on...”
#5 Revise -- “Has anyone’s thinking changed?” “Would you like to revise your thinking?”
● Allow students to revise their thinking as they have new insights.
● Student: “I thought... But now I think... because...”; “I’d like to revise my thinking.”
#6 (not in video) Wait Time -- “Take your time...”
● Wait after asking a question before calling on a student.
● Wait after a student has been called on to give the student time to organize his or her thoughts.
● Student: “I’d like more time...”
#7 (not in video) Turn-and-Talk -- “Turn and talk to your neighbor...”
● Circulate and listen to partner talk. Use this information to choose whom to call on.
● Allow students to clarify and share ideas.
● Allow students to orient themselves to each other’s thinking.
Kazemi, Elham, and Allison Hintz. "Open Strategy Sharing." Intentional talk: how to to structure and lead productive mathematical discussions. www.stenhouse.com: Stenhouse, 2014. 21. Print.
Jim Knight's _High-Impact Instruction_ Cooperative Learning
Jim Knight Book Study -- Cooperative Learning Structures courtesy of Dani Kremer
As an IC team, we continue to work through our Jim Knight book study, and this week we looked at Cooperative Learning Structures. Many of these we already use, but if you want a refresher or need a new idea, try some of these structures in the new quarter:
- Turn-to-Your-Neighbor (Also Turn-to-Your-Partner, Turn-and-Talk) - students have an assigned partner, throughout lesson at various points teacher stops and asks students to discuss something with their partners
- Think, Pair, Share - students think about something on own and write their thoughts down, students share what they have written with a classmate, teacher prompts students to share with the whole class
- Jigsaw - students are divided into small groups, each group is assigned a specific portion of the text/content, group discusses that section to be sure they understand main points, teacher divides students into new groups with every new group containing at least one member from each original group, all students in new group share main points from original group
- Value Line - teacher presents topic, question, or issue and assigns a value scale to each student response (agree, disagree, strongly agree, strongly disagree, etc.), students form line based on their responses, can also be done as a four corners activity
- Round Table - teacher divides students into groups, all students have a paper and write down an idea or answer to a question, students then pass paper to the student next to them, new students add to the original idea, all students get all papers before activity is over
If you click on the links, they will lead you to a checklist created by Jim Knight to help with implementation.
Coaching Schedule -- see Google Calendar for specific "Busy" times **schedule subject to change**
Monday, 15 January
- 7:35 - 8:15 AM SBL Council MTG
- 8:15 - 10:00 AM IC/Principal Planning Time
- 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Rigorous Reading Planning with Laura Johnson (GWAEA) & Sharon Vaupel
- 1:30 - 3:30 PM PRIDE Writing and Strategy Planning Sharon Vaupel
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
Tuesday, 16 January
- 8:00 - 9:00 AM IXL Roll Out Planning with Sharon Vaupel & Amber Grant
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
Wednesday, 17 January -- Data Team MTGs -- 9 AM START
- NGSS @ Grant Wood -- all Day
Thursday, 18 January
- 12:30 - 1:15 PM IC/Principal MTG
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
Friday, 19 January
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
- 12:00 - 1:00 PM IC Book Study
- 1:00 - 3:30 PM IC Team w/ Program Leads Data Mtg @ Primary
ARCHIVE LINKS
Click on the link to access 2015-16 prior weekly communications.
Pope's IC Weekly Communication Archive & Index 2016-17
Click on the link to access 2016-17 prior weekly communications.
Pope's IC Weekly Communication Archive & Index 2017-18
Click on the link to access 2016-17 prior weekly communications.
Contact Information
Center Point - Urbana CSD
Email: epopenhagen@cpuschools.org
Phone: 319-849-1102+91015
Twitter: @Epopenhagen