Observations, questions...and a T-Rex named Sue

This weekend I find myself writing from a Starbucks in Chicago. I'm here visiting my sister but knowing how busy she is with her seminary work, I planned a few adventures for myself. Yesterday I took the morning to visit the Field Museum of Natural History and (big shocker here) I found a way to connect the experience to teaching, assessment and educational culture :)

The museum offered me the opportunity to learn about several African cultures, Ancient Chinese dynasties, Rainforest conservation in Peru, the volcanic activity that is responsible for much of Hawaii's landscape, animal adaptations, mammoths and mastodons, insects, gems, and much much more. It was truly fascinating. One of the museum's most popular attractions is SUE, the largest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever. Not actually a confirmed female, she is named for her discoverer and at 42 feet long with a 600 pound skull...she was something to behold.

   We made fast friends as I read the details of her discovery in South Dakota in 1990. Of course the dating process and removal of her valued bones was interesting but what caught my attention was the initial description of how she was found. Sue Hendrickson was digging...her purpose was to find bones, she had studied enough to know what she was looking for so much that she "noticed several dinosaur vertebrae sticking out of the face of the bluff." I laughed a little to myself upon reading that. I thought noticed dinosaur vertebrae? I'm not sure I could notice a dinosaur vertebrae in a bunch of rocks if it were bright pink and glittery! On some level, she must have known exactly what she was looking for. And then as I though more, and read more museum signs, and traveled to other exhibits I noticed a pattern; regardless of if it was a chunk of turquoise found in Brazil, a baby mammoth discovered in the tundra of Siberia, or a T-rex in South Dakota...everyone that uncovered these historical and scientific wonders was either informed enough to know what they were looking for, or engaged and curious enough to know that they had just stumbled onto something significant and awesome. 

           
And then came the connection, good teaching, authentic assessment, and student centered classrooms should be about paying attention. We need to continue to grow as teachers in our ability to observe, ask questions when something is unusual, and then study those things we find to inform our teaching and better understand our students. I can't imagine all that we would have missed if Sue Hendricks never noticed those vertebrae in the bluff, or if the Siberian travelers would have ignored the little that was showing of the baby mammoth in the ice. I also can't imagine how much information we miss about our students because of the speed at which we plow through our days, the breadth we sometimes choose to cover over the depth of knowledge we could foster, and the sad truth that sometimes we don't even know enough about what we want our students to be able to do to notice it coming through authentically.

Always more to learn, always more to do. Insatiable learning and teaching is a blessing, not a curse. 

The PLC Stall-out

Recently, I have had the privilege of having conversations with several different leaders in education.  It is always so helpful for me to discuss some of the questions that guide their work and ultimately mine. Collaborative conversations have consistently brought clarity for me, I think its a part of my extrovert personality. One of the most consistent questions that surfaces is focused on the reality of how professional learning communities are actually functioning.

• Is it possible for a school to form, maintain and truly benefit from PLCs if there is little or no district support? 
• How can Q-comp (or similar programs) co-exist? 
• What can be done with a team that is really "off track"
• Why do some teams take longer than others to "get on board?"
• What are some of the most common factors that contribute to unhealthy PLCs? 

There are a few school culture pieces that I consistently see causing problems and unhealthy collaborative teams, but I don't always think that the reason is complicated. As I led a workshop this week with an elementary staff I found myself needing to say out loud that they are not alone in feeling like PLCs started but haven't "lived" very long. I heard myself acknowledging that sometimes the hardest part of getting into the collaborative groove of things is pushing through the tough phase by choosing to use student achievement as the shared goal that anchors us. 

As I listened to Brene Brown's Rising Strong on my recent road trip...I heard this thought actually correlated to research about group work. Brown referenced Bruce Tuckman's (1965) work about group and team dynamics in a section of her book about working with others. The stages Tuckman shared are labeled: FORM, STORM, NORM, PERFORM. The elementary teacher in me is drawn to the rhyming (of course) and I think this graphic is helpful in supporting the explanation. 

As soon as I began to read the descriptions, the correlations to PLCs were even more obvious than I thought. Sometimes when a district or school decides to organize their teachers into professional learning communities there is time and even money invested in training some (in rare cases all) teachers to understand the why behind what was about to happen. There are even stories of places that "launch" this work in really  pumped-up welcome back sessions with t-shirts and keynote speeches delivered by PLC gurus themselves. Regardless, it tends to start with some level of excitement. This stage of a new group or team is called FORM and is generally full of positive energy. 

   The next stage is the one that appealed to me most; STORM. As I read about the normalcy of turbulence between members of a new group, I was actually encouraged. One of the things that was the most significant in some of the descriptions was the fact that this stormy stage is absolutely necessarily. No team or group can skip this step, it is always present no matter how short it's existence and I think this is where we get stuck. There are so many emotions that teachers bring to an interaction where they know they are supposed to "grow" and "share data"...whatever that means. So it shouldn't surprise us when unsupported/unmonitored professional learning communities fizzle out. Leaders need to be ready to push through this phase, hold their PLCs to high standards and consistently remind their teachers that this is about THE KIDS!!! But what I have seen is a so much frustration during this phase, mostly getting hung up on interpersonal adult issues that the work can't even get done, we don't even get to the next phase; NORM. 

If you've been a part of any level of PLC work I hope that the idea of NORMS is not new to you. It is named as one of the essential process pieces for new PLCs to establish and then review at each meeting. Those shared and collective agreements are supposed to keep us on track as we discuss essential learning and authentic evidence, but in this model it goes beyond just a list of agreements. The description for the NORM phase is more about a natural rhythm of function for a team. This phase is meant to describe the time when work is actually being done. So naturally, it would quickly lead into the last phase...PERFORM. Now if you are a teacher of young ones, or disengaged older ones, you may feel like a part of your job is to actually put on a show as you teach...but that's not what we mean here. This stage is really describing the place of being able to fulfill or perform the duties assigned to you...to accomplish something. In our case, the something is effective teaching. 

This model answers some questions that have persisted, but even a brief study of the phases raises even more questions for me as someone who is sometimes coaching PLCs off a ledge. In the end though, any system made by humans, for humans will be imperfect. What matters most is that we acknowledge the truth of what is happening in our teams and stay so focused on student learning that we are willing to do whatever must be done in order to increase achievement for all. Take a moment to reflect on the stages and see if you can determine where your collaborative team might be right now. 

UNW Teacher Institute 2015- Content Area Literacy Session

Here is the link to the presentation slides which also includes the link to purchase the task cards from TPT. Thank you for joining us!

Wendy & Jess

My Space...Why I have no "desk"

After my first year teaching, I made a big decision. I didn't want the teacher desk I had in my classroom anymore. No, I wasn't trying to upgrade to something new or fancier...I didn't want a desk AT ALL. I came to this conclusion for three reasons;

1. Some of my colleagues had huge desk spaces or "teacher-only" areas that gradually seemed to grow and create messes as the year went on
2. I too had noticed a collection of messes accumulating on my desk...and it had only been 9 months!
3. I only ever sat down at my desk for about 30 min before and after school

So, I took the leap and that summer I had them haul it away. I was determined for my classroom space to reflect the actual ratio of kids : teacher. In other words, if there were 24 of them and one of me, I didn't want to be taking up 50% (or even 30%) of the work space. Honestly, a lot of people don't get it, but I am so glad I did it. Now this year, in a new building, in an open-classroom-type space there is even less square footage than I'm used to, but its fine! Because THIS is my teacher workspace:

Lietrally, from the green tape on the counter to the end of the counter on left, that's my space (including the cabinet below)! Now granted, there are shelves above (which are behind the bird/branch curtains in the next photo) but that's just professional books and drawer organizers of office supplies. 

I am glad I down-sized all that time ago because there is so much more space for my students now. It also causes me to stay organized because I literally have no room for a mess! You don't have to be crazy like me, but I challenge you to think about how space is used in YOUR classroom.

An Up-Close Look at the Classroom Library

I know I've posted on this before, but I've had some questions. So here is the illustrated tour of my second grade classroom library:

First off, the leveled book section...If you want to know more about the levels, how they correlate with F & P or DRA, see this post from the summer. Basically the important things to point out here is that the shelves were $20 each from Goodwill and the plastic bin were $5 for 6 at target. Well, thats not THE important thing....but its one of them :) The numbers on the outside are there to remind the students of how many of the level they should have in their book box at a time. They find out what bins they should take from in reading conferences with me. If you are familiar with levels of reading you know that the very beginning books are extremely short and students usually need 8-10 to keep busy reading. This is why they take a minimum of 8 books from yellow. I know there is discussion from teachers about how many chapter books should really be reading at the same time and so some of you might disagree with 4 lime green books or even 2 teal books in a book box at once. My thinking about that is this; at this very moment, I have 3 books on my nightstand and 2 in my purse. I am reading only 2 of them and the rest are lined up waiting for "their turn"....my students deserve to do the same!

 

You can see in the photos below that the books are not letter or number labeled...I gave that up when I switched my library organization up. Instead, I used colored masking tape on the corners to indicate the level and help with quick organization. Once again, if you want to know more about the color levels, see this post.

As far as the other books go (which I refer to choice books) here are the details:

• I have them separated into literature text (animal characters, poetry, realistic fiction, etc) and informational texts (biographies, magazines, science, jobs, etc.) 
• The books are each labeled in the top corner of the front corner of the cover and the informational text have a start sticker. This is how we tell informational apart from literature. 
• I have the informational book bins on a counter and the literature text on some shelving that wraps around the room. 
• Most students have just one of each kind at a time, sometimes more. 
• The bins themselves are from IKEA and I have found them to be awesome storage for large books like these...

I really like this organization and for sure have had less issues with organization and book treatment this year. Taking the time to label and look for just the right bins was a pain, but I am so glad I did!

Anchor Charts

One of the things I love most about being an elementary teacher is creating things WITH my students that become permanent fixtures in my classroom. Anchor charts are one of those things. There are a few misconceptions out there about these little gems and I would like to address a few...

1. You DO NOT have to draw well or have fancy handwriting to make them...truly...you DON'T
2. They will not be wallpaper if you make them together, keep them within reach of you and your students, and reference even after the unit or lesson
3. They are NOT the same as an electronic projected slide with bullet points and clip art...I don't know why, they're just NOT! No, actually that is not true. I know why. They are more permanent and community created, those are two reasons :)
4. I DO have a goal of some things I would like to have on there, and often guide my students to their understanding of the concept or point through class discussion. I DON'T practice writing before or drawing
5. Post-it correction tape is the BEST FRIEND of anchor chart makers!

Here are a few from my room that we made so far this year....

Math Tool Boxes

I've had a few questions about managing math manipulatives in my classroom from teachers that have stopped by and so I figured I would share what they look like, from the outside in and a little about my rationale for using them.
First off, they are NOT actually boxes (sorry if thats disappointing but I don't currently own 6 tool boxes.) They are cheap (like for 2 for $1 cheap) baskets. I have six total, because I have six student work tables.
This is where they live:

Sometimes I find them out and around the room, but it doesn't bother me because I know my students use them well and know when to use them. The idea is that the whole basket can be taken to the table and you can take out what you need, or even switch strategies in the middle of solving! I love how flexible students are with their thinking when given choices.

As far as the contents, here is what each has:

• 5 number lines (0-30)
• 5 100 charts
• About 40 unifix cubes of the same color 
• A set of place value blocks (4 hundreds, 25 tens, and 20 ones)
• 20-30 clear plastic counting discs
• Assorted coins (quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies)

Like I said, my students have learned to be flexible with these more than I could have even imagined and I'm grateful that we really haven't had sharing issues. Because the truth is, its not necessarily enough of any one material to lead a whole class lesson. I have more a "use what you need" policy and it has worked out fine. Here are some of the ways I have shown/observed students using them...

• Counting out coins to represent amounts in a story problem, especially when needed to find the change given
• Using the counters for simple addition and subtraction with students that are still building number sense and fluency
• Number lines for adding and subtracting or solving "how many more" problems with small numbers
• Unifix cubes stacked to compare amount and solve "whats the difference?" problems
• 100 charts for skip counting support (laminated so we can write on them with dry erase!)
• Place value blocks for adding and regrouping
• Counters or ones cubes for making arrays in repeated addition/multiplication and division

Of course there are MANY more ways they can be used but those are pretty much the most frequent uses. I find that my students start out using them and with a little support can internalize the concepts enough that they do not need them when it comes to assessments. It has also been interesting to see some of my students that are strong in math find ways to model, explain and support for students that are struggling...using the toolkits! It's a fine like to walk between building knowledge and  giving them tools but its so important to be able to grab them when meaning starts to break down, so I am very glad I took the time to put them together and introduce them. 

Practical writing instruction

One of the things I hear most often from teachers is about the struggle to find time for everything and make it all "fit together." I realize this can be difficult when special events and timed-to-the-minute daily schedules are the the norm, but I see it a little differently. One of the things I have committed to doing with my students a lot is low-risk-high-interest writing. And I am continually surprised by how often we can "fit it in." 

 For example, during our social studies unit on Citizenship, we studied many different current and historical figures that are examples of compassion, curiosity, commitment and community involvement. My students collected information about them in whatever way they would like in some research packets I created. The information was to be organized into those four C categories I just listed... but it didn't matter to me if they drew with labels, wrote full sentences, made a flow map of events or recorded important dates...just as long as it made sense to them.

After all the note-taking, it seemed like they still had a connection to these people, and in some cases lingering questions. Enter----letter writing opportunity! I took one day to show, study and explain a few letters (including the format of the one from MLK to JFK from the previous post) before sending them off to write one of their own. They were able to choose which person to write to and had only the following expectations;

• Follow the letter format (greeting, body, salutation)
• Identify one of the four Cs that the "Great Citizen" showed and the evidence
• Ask one question
• Thank them for their example

The results were wonderful as you can see, they really loved the chance to channel what they learned and write with purpose about something they had studied and cared deeply about. And the best part is, I thought of it in the car on the way to school, took 20 minutes to teach them how and 45 minutes to let them work...we got a lot out of that hour and 5 minute learning experience :)

        

Using primary source documents in primary grades

During my time at the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project Institute last winter, I was reminded of the importance of sharing real pieces of history with our youngest learners. As we practiced deep thinking and literacy practice with primary source documents at the institute, I began to image what I could do in my classroom.
This winter, as my students began studying great citizens and we dove head first into content are literacy centers, I was delighted to go back to the Library of Congress website to retrieve a couple great pieces to share with them. If you haven't visited their site, you should! There is a classroom materials section and collections of primary source documents by theme.
Since most of great citizen study began with Martin Luther King Jr. I was immediately drawn to a letter that he wrote to JFK, just after he was inaugurated. It became the focal point of my "Write Around Center" and I was not disappointed by the engagement and conversations it sparked!

Low-risk Writing

I committed myself to providing my students with a lot of low-risk writing this year. Note-taking, thinking maps, group planning, reader's response, and content literacy centers have all given and gotten a lot in this process. Not only do I find that their handwriting and spelling are improving, but their overall processing and willingness to write is blossoming quickly. My favorite part is that they are beginning to ask for and naturally grab for their journals...note-taking is more natural!

 We too often put so much pressure on our students to write polished pieces, but if I'm honest, most of the writing I do daily is not polished. Low-risk writing is changing my classroom and helping my students see themselves as writers more easily...I hope you try it too!

STEM DAY Creations

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Science Observations

Content Are Literacy Centers

I have a had a great time studying Martin Luther King Jr. with my students, they are so intentional and curious, I love reading and researching with them. The timing great because we are starting our unit on great citizens, so of course we started with MLK as the first example...we even got to share our learning and work with the school in an assembly...I was very proud!

I hope you take the time if your haven't yet, to talk with your class about some of the deeper issues associated with civil rights, they can handle it. MLK wasn't perfect, no one is, but he is a great example of a tireless leader and committed activist.