Wednesday, March 1

Today's Content:

• Questioning Strategies:  Socratic Seminar in Math

• Literacy Focus: Authentic Reading Opportunities in 6th Grade

• Continuous Improvement: PDSA Examples in Classrooms

Hard to believe it's already March.  This Spring semester has brought about many new strategies and creative learning opportunities for our students.

Falcon Focus: Socratic Seminar in Math

If you have never tried Socratic Seminar in your class, you should.  This student led academic discussion strategy gives students a voice by teaching them to question the world around them, clarify their opinions, support ideas with evidence, and disagree respectfully.   Basically, it makes them think - on their own.  I loved using this strategy in my ELAR class...but Math?  Who does that?

Well, Elizabeth Pauley did, with all of her math classes at the beginning of the Spring semester.  First, the students read various articles about growth mindset in math and the role of failure in learning. Different students had different articles, and practiced close reading strategies to help them process their reading. Then on day 2, they shared their thoughts on trying and failing in math, school, and life in general.  Their conversation covered the topics of growth mindset, perseverance, and how to get help from your teachers. 

Their conversation was deep and meaningful.  Please take a few minutes (four) to watch the video from their discussion.  It was an amazing and authentic discussion by some students who were really changing their viewpoints on some things.  Enjoy.

Falcon Focus: Reading Fun in 6th Grade

6th grade reading has been busy exposing students to new titles and connecting them to published authors.   On Valentine's Day, students had the opportunity to "speed date"...books!  Kathy Harvell and Kylie Norrell transformed the hallway into a reading cafe.  Students visited each table for a limited amount of time and were able to browse different genres to find books they wanted to read.  As the bell rang, I overheard at one table, "Aw, I wanted to keep reading!"  #TeacherWin

If falling in love with a book wasn't exciting enough, the 6th graders celebrated #WorldReadAloudDay on February 16 by connecting with published authors.  Throughout the day, Reading classes Skyped with authors, as they read aloud from one of their books, shared their own favorite reads, and answered student questions.  The authors who "visited" were:

Brooks Benjamin, My Seventh Grade Life in Tights

Sarah Aronson, Beyond Lucky

Janet Summer Johnson, The Last Great Adventure of the PB&J Society

Lee Gjertsen Malone, The Last Boy at St. Edith's

Miriam Spitzer Franklin, Extraordinary

Corey Ann Haydu, Rules for Stealing Stars

Hear about this experience from the students themselves by visiting the Facebook Live broadcast from Karen Teeters & Rashel Larson on #DigitalLearningDay, and check out the pictures below.

Falcon Focus: PDSA Examples in Classrooms

February has drawn to a close, and we already have so many different examples of PDSA.

Need some inspiration?  Use your spring semester Falcon Walk to learn about how a colleague is utilizing PDSA in their class.  Ask your friendly neighborhood coach for some assistance in brainstorming ideas.  Or you can just check out just a few of the campus examples below.

The "study" section includes both the assessment data and the plus/deltas from the students.

This PDSA board offers some ideas for improvement to be used in the "Do" section.

Not enough space?  Use your cabinets!

Or your white board space.  You can revise your PDSA with the simple eraser.

You may have seen this one before, but notice the Tic Tac Toe board under "Do".  Students choose how they are going to support their own learning by making a tic-tac-toe.  See a sample Tic-Tac-Toe below.

The "Do" here includes both student and teacher actions.  This way, when it's time to "Study" there is much to discuss as far as what worked and what didn't.

Since I first pulled these pictures a week ago, there are already so many more fantastic examples of PDSA being posted in classrooms and used to steer learning.  I will continue to gather ideas for you and share them with the campus.  There is a lot going on right now, and I am happy to support you however I can.  You are all doing an amazing job.  Thank you!

If have any questions or would like some help implementing these or other strategies, please let me know.  And remember...

It's a great day to be a Falcon!