Conversation Starters

Last year I was having trouble with the conversations that were occurring in the small groups within my classroom.  Students were reluctant and didn't seem to know how to get started or how to continue the conversation. They sounded a bit like this . . ."What did you get?"  "I didn't get it?"  "okay" . . . end of story. A bit unproductive in my mind.

A colleague that I met at one of the summer professional development sessions I attended suggested that I should come up with a list of conversations starters.  So after scouring my resources - peers, Pinterest, books, and listening in to the conversations that were going well - I compiled what I had found.  Now, when I create assignments which requires table talk, I pick and choose the most relevant conversation starters and include them on the assignment.  It has been working well so far and it is a hoot to hear kids using the words on the page.  Here is a link to the list of conversation starters I have thus far.  If you have any to add - please let me know in the comments below.

A quote to support annotations

Beth Brent gets complete kudos for passing this quote along. I have it posted it my room, and whenever students sigh or comment about having to record their thinking while reading, I respond verbally and encourage them to read this quote. For what it's worth...

“Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake — not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author.

Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.”

Cited from: How to Read a Book, originally written by Mortimer Adler in 1940 and revised with Charles van Doren in 1972

Give One Get One with Gots & Needs

-Cindy Henderson

For homework, students were assigned to read chapter 3 in Night, the core text for English 11. While reading, they were to write down three things they understood ("Gots") and three things they did not ("Needs").  The next day in class, they were told to take out the list and they were handed the “Give one Get one” worksheet (just like below.  They were told to visit other classmates to gain one thing they understood from chapter 3.  The chart had 12 squares so each person had to give and get things they understood from the reading, recording those items in squares of the chart. Once their chart was filled, they returned to their tables to discuss with their table mates any "Needs" they did not have answered by the activity.  We then turned to whole group discussion to answer any remaining needs. 

It was awesome! Students were really, actually engaged the whole time, and our conversations about the chapter afterwards was authentic and deep. I am now asking students for their "Gots" and "Needs" on a regular basis. 

Give-One-Get-One Worksheet

Word Wall Activity!!

Here's a fun way to create a word wall with your students.  Tagxedo.com is a free online "word cloud" generator.  It allows you to create a word cloud from an existing webpage (like I did above with the Berkley RA Blog) or by typing in a series of words.  There is a lot of freedom in creating your word cloud (color, shape, theme, font, orientation, etc.). You can even upload your own image to use as the "shape".  You can save the image or print a full-sized page.

Here's a little about my first attempt at it!

As an opening activity in Global Health, my students each chose from one of three text sets that would help them to define global health.  They did additional research and added their ideas to their text set.  Then, students met in expert groups to solidify their understandings.  Next, they were grouped into jigsaw groups in which they were the "one expert" sharing out about their text set.  Collectively, the jigsaw group created a poster identifying the key issues in global health, discussing why we should study global health, and a 25-word definition of global health.  Today they did a gallery walk to share their ideas and we entered the ideas from their posters onto tagxedo.com to get a picture of their current ideas about global health.  My plan is to repeat the activity at the end of the year when they re-define global health and have them comment on the changes that they see.

It would be great to share some of your ideas about how to use this fun word wall activity in other ways! Please leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas.

Sticky Norms

As we head into the fourth week of school here at Berkley, we all seem to be settling into our routines, the "first days of school" behavior is wearing off, and we are finally getting used to each other! With that in mind, this fourth week of school is often when my classroom can take an easy departure from its norms. So how do we (teachers and students) stick to those norms?  How do we keep them meaningful and intact?  What are your thoughts?

In the News . . .

MME Scores &  Reading Apprenticeship in the Patch!

August = Time to Plan!

Summer sun, porch umbrella, chaise lounge, iced tea, and my RAISE binder - welcome to my summer! The latest version of the RAISE Days 1-5 materials offers a true gem in this planning guide by Janet Ghio, my mentor WestEd facilitator and teacher coach in California. Throughout my years teaching and training with Reading Apprenticeship, I have mentally tried to catalog the process of planning. Janet Ghio has put it into a succinct and clear document which I plan to laminate and put next to my desk. Instead of waiting to get this into your hands, we know that August 1st marks the mental shift for many and the planning begins. Enjoy!

Calculating A Strong Social Dimension

Several of us from Cohort I have been fastidiously preparing for our first opportunities to be official facilitators of West Ed's RAISE Institute.  As I have been sitting down with the professional development materials from days one through five I am overwhelmed by the depth, scope, and sheer vastness of this highly integrated approach to teaching literacy within the context of our disciplines.  How can I possibly be an expert on all this material?  The truth is, I am not.  Nevertheless, I am a few steps ahead of those coming to the institute and thus I do think I have something to share - some successes and some crashes!  One of the advantages of facilitating (at the institute and at Berkley High) is that I am constantly reminded of the fundamentals that fuel a Reading Apprenticeship Classroom.  Today, I read an article from Voices from the Middle, Volume 13 Number 3, March 2006.  The article written by Harvey Daniels is called "The Hunt for Magic." and it really caused me to think about what I am going to do about the social dimension in my classroom this year. Daniels' challenges me because he puts forth that teachers have the capacity to shape and direct the classroom community that develops among his or her students.  It is not merely 'luck of the draw.'  I am guilty many years over of saying that I got a "bad batch" or a "bad mix" of students.  Daniels argues that is not the case and that I have more control than I think.  So this year, I am going to work on the six things that he says I need to enact throughout the year.

• Create widespread acquaintance and friendship patterns in the room.  Everyone must know each other person well; people who know each other almost always like each other.  My fellow science colleague creates a rotating seating chart in which students choose their  seat but in which they must sit next to someone new every time.  She incorporates a mad libs activity to help them get to know each other.  Perhaps I'll ask her to teach me how to get this going in my class.  
• Make sure that you and all students have realistic and mutual expectations about how people will act together in this community.  (See next bullet)
• Create with the students a set of simple norms, not a list of misbehaviors and punishments, but statements about how we work and treat each other  in this place.  Last year I worked on developing norms with my students.  I was surprised and delighted when they developed such a comprehensive and thoughtful list.  Where I ran into trouble was when I didn't use the norms consistently throughout the year.  This year, students will all get a copy and I will check in with them about how we are doing.  This "check-in" will have to be intentional and find itself written in my lesson plans.
• Open up every possible channel of communication among the people in the room, both oral and written, on-to-one, girls to boys, in pairs, small discussion groups, and whole-class conversations.
• Distribute responsibilities and opportunities for leadership to every student in the class.  Structure academic tasks so that individual students can demonstrate, and other recognize, each person's unique talents and strengths.
• Develop with students a structure and pattern for dealing with conflict when it arises, as it inevitably will, and then use it consistently.

It's time engage my mind and figure out the strategies and routines that will help me work on these six charges.  I thought I'd start here and see if I could generate some conversation about how to approach this challenge - so step right up and let the magic begin!

Defining Disciplinary Disourse

Over the past year I have run into trouble defining this phrase and I ran across this clarification in Reading for Understanding today on page 40.

Discourse is a particular form of language.
Disciplinary Discourse is a particular form of language that develops in a particular social setting.

Give or Grow?

Today, on page 5 of Reading for Understanding I ran across this statement,

"To the degree that students cannot independently access the knowledge and information embedded in their books and other curriculum materials, teachers try to find alternative ways to help them 'get the content'."

I remember reading this statement the my first time through chapter one, but today, after a really challenging year of implementing Reading Apprenticeship in my classroom, it struck me differently.  It begged me to ask whether I am satisfied with just giving my students the answers?  Don't I want more for my students? Growth ...perhaps.

Reading Apprenticeship – A Mental Workout

For the past ten years I have overheard my well respected colleague say to his students that learning and studying is like working out.  You have to start with the small weights and use them every day until you can advance to the heavier weights and then you must once again use them every day so that you don’t lose your muscle tone.  With his analogy, he drives home the point that studying every day builds your endurance and ability to study for the big tests.   My experience with Reading Apprenticeship has amplified this analogy and I am seeing a direct correlation between students who are practicing their reading processes and working with the content with the students who are performing significantly higher in formal and informal assessments.  This challenges me as a teacher to think of ways to increase the number of students who comply with the Reading Apprenticeship model within my classroom. 

Firstly, I know that I have to trust the process and articulate to my students that this process is not only valid but beneficial in the short and long ranges of their education.  Next, I need to continually work on the social and personal dimensions of the framework, building trust and personal interest.  As a chemistry teacher this seems like a foreign concept yet it is a key to unlocking my students’ willingness to participate.  How can I create a space in which a student who has failed multiple science classes will volunteer his/her answer or thoughts?  How can I personally connect what we are reading about with students’ lives?  How can I make it matter?  (Please excuse the chemistry pun.)  Furthermore, I need to create a class structure and curriculum that holds my students accountable to doing their work.  For example, my warm up questions need to challenge students with what they read and recorded in their metacognitive logs the night before.  The warm up questions need to be important, challenging, and supportive.  I have also been noticing that when I provide students direct feedback on their work (not just a grade), the students pay attention to what I have said in a far greater way than if I had made a class announcement about the same idea.  This is a time-intensive move but it is a strategic way to increase my students’ compliance. 

Are you looking for ways to engage your students in the process?  Have you figured out something that seems to be working for our student population?  What else might we do as teachers to keep students in the mental workout of Reading Apprenticeship?  Please comment with your ideas.