Monday, September 18

Today's Content:

• Building Literacy: September Book Sampling

• Classroom Management: Stoplight Warning

• Campus Culture: Building a Community

With so many great things going on around campus, I can hardly keep up!  Here's a look at a few activities from the past couple of weeks that you may want to add to your your own instructional toolkit.

Falcon Focus: Supporting Literacy

For some of our students, reading is a channel they are hesitant to cross.  Some have failed to find a reason for reading, lacked a personal connection to stories and articles, experienced failure with texts beyond their current capacity, or just been flat out bored (thank you, test-taking passages).  In order to truly build literacy, we have to open as many doors as possible to help students realize the variety of available material, to read for a variety or reasons, and to possibly, maybe, even (ahem) like it.

Two weeks ago, 6th grade ELAR classes laid the groundwork for building reading lives for our students through a book sampling.  Hosted in the Learning Commons, students were greeted with a cafe-style atmosphere. Tables were adorned with books of all types, and soft piano pop filled the silence.  Students were then invited to select a book, read silently for about five minutes, and decide if they wanted to take the book "on a second date".  As with real reading, students had the freedom to decide if a book was a match or "not [their] type".

Peer sharing is one of the best ways for a new title to catch on.  A few times during each class period, students were invited to give book talks over the selections they felt were recommendation-worthy.  Check out two enthusiastic students promoting their finds below.

Want to support students in their reading lives, too?  Talk to kids about what they are reading.  Read a few books from the Texas Star List (click here to see the list).  Post your own "Read" and "Next Reads" lists in your room.  And definitely add your reads to the Teacher Shelfie display in your pod and in the library (coming soon!).

Falcon Focus: Classroom Management

When addressing off-task behavior in the classroom, calling out a student often leads to escalation and confrontation.  Finding a non-verbal strategy that works is essential for smooth behavior redirection.  Kelly Stubblefield is using one such approach to let her students know when they are off-task, to give them an opportunity to correct their behavior, and to assign a consequence, all without saying a word out loud.

The process is simple.  

1. If a student is off-task, drop a Stoplight Ticket off at his/her desk, with the student name, date, and behavior description filled in (green light).  
2. If the student continues the behavior, walk by and initial the second warning (yellow light).  
3. If the student still continues, then a d-hall is assigned (red light).  
4. Regardless of the level reached for each warning, collect all issued tickets at the end of the class, and you have instant documentation.

 If you'd like the Stoplight Tickets for yourself, click here for pdf or here for an editable Word doc.

Falcon Focus: Building Community

Finally, the teachers of the 8th grade pod are getting to know each other better through the Pod 8 Spotlight.  Stephanie Maupin set up the board to highlight each of the teachers in the pod with photos of the teacher and answers to some interview-style questions, including the teacher's birthday, his/her favorite meal, and the one place he/she would like to travel.

This month's teacher spotlight is Greta Parr. According to the board, Mrs. Parr is inspired by Mother Teresa and loves Garth Brooks, James Taylor, and Def Leopard equally.

Want to know more about her?  Drop on down to the 8th Grade Pod workroom and check it out.

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!