Inside the ELA Classroom
November 2018
"Powerful, Passionate, Accomplished Teachers"
By John Hattie
Visible Learning for Teachers, 2012, pp. 19-20
The messages in Visible Learning are not another recipe for success, another quest for certainty, another masking of untruth. There is no recipe, no professional development set of worksheets, no new teaching method, and no band-aid remedy. It is a way of thinking: "My role, as teacher, is to evaluate the effect I have on my students." It is to "know thy impact", it is to understand this impact, and it is to act on this knowing and understanding. It requires that teachers gather defensible and dependable evidence from many sources, and hold collaborative discussions with colleagues and students about this evidence, this making the effect of their teaching visible to themselves and others.
Powerful, passionate, accomplished teachers are those who:
- focus on students’ cognitive engagement with the content of what it is that is being taught;
- focus on developing a way of thinking and reasoning that emphasises problem-solving and teaching strategies relating to the content that they wish students to learn;
- focus on imparting new knowledge and understanding, and then monitor how students gain fluency and appreciation in this new knowledge;
- focus on providing feedback in an appropriate and timely manner to help students to attain the worthwhile goals of the lesson;
- seek feedback about their effect on the progress and proficiency of all their students;
- have deep understanding about how we learn; and
- focus on seeking learning through the eyes of students, appreciating their fits and starts in learning, and their often non-linear progressions to the goals, supporting their deliberate practice, providing feedback about their errors and misdirections, and caring that the students get to the goals and that the students share the teacher’s passion for the material being learnt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Takeaway from Visible Learning
#1: The impact of an intervention should be measured
Visible Learning for Literacy argues that teachers should be guided by research, and that interventions need to be measured in order to be considered significant and worthy of widespread adoption.
#2: Teachers are paramount
Visible Learning for Literacy affirms that teachers are a critical component to successful outcomes for students. Some of the most powerful instructional effects result from teachers setting expectations for students, creating clarity around instruction, demonstrating credibility, and giving effective feedback. The teacher-student relationship is a key ingredient for learning.
Dr. Natalie Saaris, November 8, 2016
The above information was pulled from Actively Learn
https://www.activelylearn.com/post/5-takeaways-from-visible-learning-for-literacy
Using Photographs
Challenge students to search their family photos, and look through magazines, books, newspapers, or even the comics to find a little writing inspiration. Have them cut out all of the pictures that inspire them, and glue those pictures to their writing journal. When it’s time to write, all students have to do is look at one of their pictures for inspiration.
Audio Record It
Allow students to use audio recording technology to record their writing. This is a fun way for students speak what they want to say.
Audio Transcribe It
Encourage students to transcribe their thoughts. This becomes a fun and unique way for students to get the initial thoughts captured. Students print out the text and use it as their first draft.
Chunk It
Struggling writers may perform better when they have smaller segments to complete. Break the writing up into manageable chunks (i.e.. breaking a paper down into paragraphs; a paragraph into sentences) makes the task seem less daunting and more doable.
Model and Guide Writing
Before students begin a writing assignment, show them models (either teacher created, student exemplars from GaDOE or student examples from the past). Thinking aloud, demonstrates for the struggling students how they can approach the same situation. Allow students to turn-and-talk, this encourages students to share their samples. Additionally, this helps spark ideas in students who might be stuck.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GaDOE Assessment Resources for Writing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools
By: LD OnLine
This report offers eleven recommendations to teachers on how they can instruct 4th to 12th grade students to write well. The recommendations are effective for all students. Specific information applies to low achieving writers, which includes students with learning disabilities.
The authors summarized a large-scale statistical review of research on the effects of specific types of instruction on the writing ability of adolescents. They used meta-analysis which allows researchers to determine the strength and consistency of particular teaching practices and highlights those that appear the most promising. Specific strategies are provided for the recommendations.
Eleven elements of writing instruction were found to improve writing skills of adolescents. Steve Graham, first author of the report, identified three elements which are particularly critical to improving the writing of students with learning disabilities.
They are:
- Writing Strategies: Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions
- Specific Product Goals: Specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete
- Word Processing: Using computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments
The other eight recommendations are also helpful to students with learning disabilities.
They are:
- Summarization: Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts
- Collaborative Writing: Instructional arrangements in which adolescents work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions
- Sentence Combining: Teaching students to construct more complex, sophisticated sentences
- Prewriting: Engaging students in activities designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their composition
- Inquiry Activities: Engaging students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task
- Process Writing Approach: Interweaving a number of writing instructional activities in a workshop environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing.
- Study of Models: Providing students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing
- Writing for Content Learning: Using writing as a tool for learning content material.
Taken from: http://www.ldonline.org/article/13481/
Beyond the Cold Read
What is Close Reading?
Thinking Notes - Annotation
Jigsaws: A Stragey for Understanding Texts
Collaborating in Close Reading
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There has been interest in cumulative assessments for language arts. Within GCA, two optional assessments for grades 3-9 have been created. In addition, grades 3-5 have several mini-assessments built with one reading passage.
Teachers interested in using these resources to inform classroom instruction should communicate directly with your school's test coordinator.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click HERE or on the above graphic for step-by-step instructions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Log in to your A-Z account before clicking on the graphics below to access the landing pages.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Academic Word Finder produces a list of words. Note, there may be other academic vocabulary words the tool does not highlight (ones that that are either rare or common) that a teacher determines are important to the text. This tool doesn't replace teacher judgment; rather it helps to support the teacher in identifying which academic words to consider first. Teachers also must gauge what words are most effective for their students' current vocabulary levels.
Select and enter into the tool a passage from a complex text along with the grade level being taught. The tool then identifies the academic vocabulary for the selected grades, as well as words that fall into grade levels both above and below, and provides student-friendly definitions, parts of speech and sample sentences.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ELA Professional Learning Sessions
ELEMENTARY
Thursday, November 1, 3:00 - 4:15 p.m., Werz, PLC
Grade 3 ELA Content Meeting
In this professional learning session teachers will discuss Renaissance STAR. Emphasis will be on several STAR reports to gather evidence in order to information instruction based on students results. Encourage teachers to register at https://goo.gl/forms/SQxyc4Mxon6ET9Zb2. Participants are asked to bring their Chromebooks.
Thursday, November 8, 3:00 - 4:15 p.m., SD#2
Grade 4 ELA Content Meeting
In this professional learning session teachers will discuss Renaissance STAR. Emphasis will be on several STAR reports to gather evidence in order to information instruction based on students results. Encourage teachers to register at https://goo.gl/forms/lmsVHNGtDLToTZW22 for the opportunity. Participants are asked to bring their Chromebooks.
Thursday, November 15, 3:00 - 4:15 p.m., PLC
Grade 5 ELA Content Meeting
In this professional learning session teachers will discuss Renaissance STAR. Emphasis will be on several STAR reports to gather evidence in order to information instruction based on students results. Encourage teachers to register at https://goo.gl/forms/svwr8OYoSDQdOC7g2 for the opportunity. Participants are asked to bring their Chromebooks.
MIDDLE
Monday, November 26 4:00 p.m., Werz, PLC
Secondary ELA Remediation Meeting
This professional learning sessions will provide support for teachers who incorporate remediation in the secondary ELA classroom. Participants will focus on strategies for increasing students’ comprehension, fluency and participation. Encourage teachers to register at https://goo.gl/forms/lI3xCsxRd6yvpt8I2 Participants are asked to bring a lesson and Chromebook.
Wednesday, November 28, 4:00 p.m., Lee Middle School
Middle Grades ELA Department Meeting
The District and School Connect is a comprehensive educational platform designed to meet instructional and assessment needs of our schools. In this professional learning sessions participants will continue the discussion on the GCA item bank and Assesslet data. Participants are asked to bring a Chromebook and lesson ideas.
HIGH
Monday, November 26 4:00 p.m., Werz, PLC
Secondary ELA Remediation Meeting
This professional learning sessions will provide support for teachers who incorporate remediation in the secondary ELA classroom. Participants will focus on strategies for increasing students’ comprehension, fluency and participation. Encourage teachers to register at https://goo.gl/forms/lI3xCsxRd6yvpt8I2 Participants are asked to bring a lesson and Chromebook.------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 6-10
November 12-16
November 13
November 19*
November 22*
Stop the Violence Day (JFK assassinated in 1963)
November 30
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This year's selection celebrated the magic that happens when a community comes together to create something beautiful and bring about change.
__________________________________________________
We realize that problems in reading can affect performance across other academic content areas and functional skills used in everyday life. Good readers have a repertoire of comprehension strategies to help them construct meaning from text. Struggling readers know very few strategies. Through this initiative, we will introduce and model research based strategies in order to aid students in building their personal toolbox of strategies to understand text.
For November let's take the time to review the strategies featured in the August - October newsletter. It is imperative to provide opportunities for students to review previously learned strategies. In order for students to be successful using these strategies, it is important to spiral through the reading strategies.
Reciprocal Teaching
UR TOPS
The Whole and Teeny Tiny Details
Add up facts to determine the main idea
Read, Cover, Remember, Tell
V.I.P. Comprehension Strategy
Scan & Plan
Sticky Notes
Plan & Label Non-fiction Strategy
Questioning
---------------------------------------------------
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
~Nelson Mandela
Website: https://curriculum.cowetaschools.org/
Phone: 770-254-2810
Twitter: @PBakerEducates