A Peek at My Week

Last week was the first full week we've had in a while, and I think our stamina is in trouble!  It was nice, though, to be uninterrupted during a unit.

It's finally the golden time of the school year when we were able to open up plans for a unit and not have to start from square one. We have started our work with Witness by Karen Hesse, and it was the first unit we repurposed last year (what I've been calling old units that we are rewriting with the Common Core and inquiry in mind.) We still have work to do, but we aren't starting from scratch, and it is so nice to feel more than one day ahead of the game!  

I LOVE this novel.

I'm linking up with Jennifer at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for A Peek At My Week :)

This week the students will have their first try at focused small group discussions.  Here's what the week looks like.

Monday:  20 minutes to finish reading Act II, prep for small group discussions including reviewing conversation starters and how they will be grading themselves, small group discussion, whole group wrap up of Act II.

Tuesday:  Reading day. Students need to read Act III independently, complete four record and responses (or writing long off of a post-it) either with stickies and notebooks or using four note cards on Noodle Tools. They also have to consider how different characters displayed (or not) five different habits of mind.

Wednesday: 10-20 minutes to finish Act III work, small group discussions. Wrap of Act III.

Thursday: Reading day for Act IV. Record and respond & Habits of Mind analysis.

Wednesday & Thursday nights we have conferences from 4-8, and Friday we have them from 8-12.  They were scheduled differently (Wednesday night and all day Thursday) but students are making up a cold day on Thursday.

I'll be back through the week to talk about our reading day processes. I also want to write about how we approach the reading days with our co-taught classes (a work in progress!!), what we specifically do for the record and respond and Habits of Mind analysis, my thoughts on whole class novels/anchor texts, etc., and how we guide our kids to have more effective small group discussions (or try at least!) Oh, and how could I have forgotten...I'll discuss our wi-fi "using older siblings' passwords from the high school and then oops those credentials spreading like wildfire through the school" debacle that unfolded on Friday as well.

Does your school let students have wi-fi access?
Currently ours doesn't.

Never a dull moment!

Michelle

Thursday Throw Down: Dipping into Socratic Seminar

Ed.  I totally missed Thursday Throw Down at Erin's I'm Lovin' Lit...so I'm linking now.  She has a great lesson on beefing up your students' responses to literature. Check it out if you haven't already!

It's Friday, and I'm tired, but all is well!  Our foray into the Socratic Seminar with my 7th graders (for the first time this year) went well, and the picture book project is moving right along!

Tuesday, I went over a quick Socratic Seminar PPT, and stressed that the main goal of our Socratic discussions this year will be to help them understand the text more deeply, to strengthen their voices, and to help them work on backing up their arguments/reasoning. After the PPT, I handed out the seminar preparation sheet.  We had read Salvador, Late or Early as well as the article on siblings babysitting their siblings, and our main questions had to do with whether or not teens should baby sit their siblings and if they do, whether they should expect to get paid or if they should do it because it is a part of their family duties.  

Wednesday, I perused the PPT again, and then talked about how we would be working on language to use during a discussion.  I handed our quarter sheets with discussion starters for them to look at.

Then I had them pair up, choose one person to be an A and the other to be a B.  The As had to sit in the inner ring in a circle, and the Bs had to sit on the desks/chairs behind them in a second circle.

First, I decided to have a NONSENSE discussion, first and foremost so the kids had some experience sitting in the circle and HEARING their own voices. Students in the inner ring chose a discussion starter (I agree with what _____ had to say. I also think.....; Can you tell me more about that, ___?; I understand what you are saying, but I also think....; etc.) I chose a volunteer to start, and s/he said a starter with another kid's name (from the inner ring only) in it, in effect "tossing" the conversation to that student. That student chose a discussion starter to read and did the same thing, so the conversation sounded something like:

"I agree with Lauren." "Great, Alex! Can you tell me a little more about your idea, Sam?" "Sure Mahammed. I also think that..., Siri."  "When I read that....it made me think of..., Brady."  "I was surprised to read that....Sydney." and on and on.  

After they finished the first time around, I opened the floor to the outside ring and asked them what tips they would give to the speakers in the inner ring.  Each class made their own list, and the lists usually included something like 1) Speak loudly; 2) Make eye contact; 3) Be ready to go when someone calls on you; 4) Sit up; 5) Learn the names of other kids so you know who you are picking.  After making the list, I challenged the inner ring to do it again, keeping the tips in mind as well as trying to go faster.  They usually went a little more slowly, but that's ok...practice time :)

After the inner ring's second try, I had the outer ring do the same thing.  When they were done with their first round, I opened the floor to the inner ring and asked them for traits of a good/active listener.  We made a list for each class, and most of the lists included things like 1) Listen up; 2) Don't have side conversations; 3) Don't fidget.  And three classes added: "Don't read a book while the conversation is going on!!!" They got irritated when several classmates thought that would be an appropriate thing to do :)

The outer ring then got their second chance at the nonsense discussion after a reminder of the tips they gave on being a good speaker.

After that, the inner ring had a chance for a guided try at their first Socratic discussion.  I always give the first three speakers extra credit, and the first speaker has the opportunity to choose the question to focus on. Even though this one wasn't for points, I still had good volunteers in each class who wanted to start first. Working off of their yellow discussion preparation sheets, they got a taste of their first in depth Soc Sem discussion!  It always takes some time for them to get used to not raising their hands but reading other kids' body language for cues as to when to jump in instead.  I did some coaching with using a discussion starter + their opinion + supporting textual evidence, and overall, it went well.  Carly, Robin, and I are so excited to be starting the year with a dip into this type of class activity, and I am really looking forward to having them know the routine much earlier this year.

Listening to students engage in a Socratic discussion always reaffirms my belief that 7th graders have a lot to say and have some pretty awesome thoughts about the world.  I'm excited to see how they progress.

Thursday, we started in with the final activity of our unit, a picture book project. The goal with our first unit (Teaching the skills and routines of 7th grade English using short texts as the vehicle) was just that...to teach the kids the skills and routines they will be using all year so they have a bit of experience with them before we run into them again.

This summer when we were planning and were thinking about how to assess this unit, we knew that a regular test wouldn't cut it.  We thought it would be awesome if they could demonstrate their knowledge of the skills and routines using a picture book.

So Thursday, we began.  First I handed out the directions sheet.  I gave them two minutes to very quietly read over the sheet on their own.  Their task was to star what looked important and mark what they had question about. Then, when it looked like most were done, I had them pair and share....telling their neighbor what the project was about.  After that, I opened it up whole class and asked what the project was about, fielding questions as well.  At that point, I did a quick run-through of the major points.

After that, I handed out the picture book preview sheet.  The books we chose to offer (and then sent for from the other libraries around the district) are:
   The Day the Babies Crawled Away by Peggy Rathmann
   Night Noises by Mem Fox
   The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey
   A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon
   Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher
   What You Know First by Patricia MacLaughlin
   Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting
   Old Turtle and the Broken Truth by (don't remember off the top!)
   River Friendly, River Wild by Jane Kurtz
   Great Northern Diver, the Loon by Barbara Esbensen

I went through the blurbs on the sheet, holding up the book as I went and discussing quickly lexile level and the focus for each text. (Each text has a skill focus and a routine focus, ex: Those who chose A Bad Case of the Stripes focus on imagery as the skill and Socratic Seminar--writing a "big picture" question and writing talking points (pros and cons) about it.)

Then, I had them self-select their own groups of 3-4 kids (some went with pairs), talk over their choices, and finally come up to the front to pick a book or two that they were considering.  

Once they got their book choice solidified, I wrote down their names and choice, and they went to the hall, the computer area, outside my room, or inside my room to read the book.  And that's all that fit into Thursday!!

Today, I walked them through getting a Skills page and a Vocabulary page in their notebooks (these pages will be graded, and I wanted them to have the date, the page, the entry in their table of contents, a heading and sub heading before they went into group time.)  Then they reconvened in their groups and worked on their skill work and vocab work. Each group is different in terms of skill.  They can come up with something on their own or take the direction from the explanation sheet.  For example, for sensory language, they can do what we did when we read Have You Been to the Beach Lately? by Ralph Fletcher, which was tracing their hand, writing the five sense words on the finger tips, and writing in things the characters saw, smelled, tasted, heard, etc.  For connections, they can either list and label connections they made while reading or make a three column chart, etc.  If their focus was connection for the book they picked but they weren't able to make a whole page of meaningful connections, I had them fill the rest of the page with their choice of inferences, a summary, etc.

For the vocab work, they need to select five strong vocab words from the book they have, define them, and look up two synonyms.  

Most groups were pretty on track today.  Some, especially toward the end of the day when we have our co-taughts, were fallin' off the tracks, especially since it was a dreary Friday with the big rivalry football game looming in the evening!!

Monday, I'll go over the "routines" options...things like writing questions that follow Costa's Levels of Questioning, writing a big overarching question that applies to the text and coming up with talking points, completing a one pager...

Tuesday, we'll play it by ear to see if they are done, and then I'll have them share a synopsis of the book as well as the work they did with another group.  After that on Tuesday, we should be starting in with notes on the Elements of Fiction!! Back to some semi-regular territory!

Well, I better get off the computer and into bed.  My sister is getting married tomorrow, so we have a big day ahead!

I'll leave you with some photos of kids working on the picture book project!

Have a great weekend,

Michelle

A Peek at the Week Ahead!

Today, I'm linking up with Jennifer @ Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to give you a peek at my week!  I figure if I write about what I'll be doing for the week, it will help to give a framework when I go back and explain a lesson more in depth :) This is in contrast with how I *have* been doing it lately...and I want to make that better.

Tomorrow, we are heading into Day 3 of NWEA MAP testing.  Several years ago, when we were still in our blocked schedule/8 period day model with 80 minutes every other day with our classes, we only needed one day for MAP testing.  This is our third year with a 6 period/50 mn per class model, and we have been running testing on two class days.  Last year, our testing coordinator had a massive amount of kids for retakes...kids who had either been absent or who were very thorough test takers...so she planned three class days for us this year.  We started on Thursday and are finishing tomorrow.  I will have kids working on it tomorrow, because I had each class meet in my room instead of the computer lab, and I collected an assignment and kind of dawdled on Thursday knowing we had lots of time.  I most definitely could do it in two (and have done so in the past two years) & I usually didn't have anyone on the "still testing list" except for kids who had been absent.

This is an aside from what we are doing this week, but I'm wondering what y'all think of MAP testing (if you give it) vs your state tests.  I prefer the NWEA MAP test to our MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) mainly because it shows the students' growth over a number of years regardless of whether they struggle or excel.  They don't just learn how they are doing vs their peers; they learn how they are doing vs themselves.  

And I give them kudos for sitting so patiently and diligently and completing the MAP test.  Those passages look long and tenuous (I don't read them...just when I am doing the laps to see how far they are!) and I rarely have students complain about it.  I very clearly send them the message that I want them to try their hardest, etc...that they should see this as an opportunity to see how they are doing in reading comprehension vs as something that they "have to do." 

The hard thing now is that we don't do spring testing anymore, so this is the last time students in our district take the MAP test unless they are in Strategic Reading.  When MCAs for Math went online, the MAP got ousted from the computer lab.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you all think of MAP testing...

On to Tuesday.  Tuesday, I'm prepping students on Socratic Seminars for the first time this year!  We had an awesome time with these last year (and I fully thank my colleagues bc without them I totally wouldn't have made the leap into this kind of activity.)  Last week on Monday and Tuesday we did a close reading of Salvador, Late or Early by Sandra Cisneros. I'll explain that a different time, though.  Then Wednesday I was at the district office for co-teaching, but my lovely sub Kathryn facilitated a reading of Children Raising Children from She Knows Parenting.  They did some coding and thinking about the pros and cons.  We will pick it back up Tuesday!  Our Socratic Seminar discussion will focus on both Salvador and the article.

First, I'll go over what a Socratic Seminar is (ppt), what sentence starters are helpful, and how we run them. Carly made a Socratic Sem prep sheet for this story with food for thought like whether or not siblings should get paid for babysitting siblings or if it is just family duty. The kids will have time to fill in their thoughts as well as textual evidence, and then well have our first try at the discussion. I'll post photos from the prep sheets, etc. later in the week.

Wednesday, I'll introduce the culminating project/assignment for the past five weeks (learning skills and routines of 7th grade English through literature.)  It's a picture book project that Carly and I cooked up this summer. They will be in groups of three or four, and they have a choice of 10 different picture books. Depending on they one they choose, they have a particular skill to focus on and a particular routine to focus on.  Again, I'll post photos and explain more as the week moves forward.

That's all for now.  Next week at this time, I'll be heading into Elements of Fiction, which will be like returning to an old friend after these long (but fulfilling) weeks with new and repurposed curriculum!!  

Whew!  Have a great week everyone!  Michelle