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! 

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!

Tuesday, October 25

Today's Content:

• Tier 1 Priorities:  Primary Sources

• Tier 1 Priorities: Close Reading

• Special Education: Co-Teach Cohort

Falcon Focus: Primary Sources

Primary sources continue to be a focal point of instruction in Social Studies.  But between complex content, dated language, and (gasp) cursive handwriting, primary sources can pose an especially challenging read for our students.

So how do we make that historical, necessary content more accessible to students?  One way is to make the learning authentic--to find a way to help the students empathize with the author, subject, or content within the piece itself.

Recently, 8th grade American History investigated the Boston Massacre crime scene.  Students had the opportunity to play detective by analyzing historical artwork depicting the event; observing the crime scene itself, complete with "blood" and "clues";  and reading first-hand accounts from individuals present at the Massacre.

Students work in groups to analyze the crime scene of the Boston Massacre

If it seems like to much information for students to process, it's not.  Different crime scene elements were broken out into stations, and each station provided scaffolds to help with content comprehension.  The written documents had been reenacted and performed for students to listen to or watch while or after reading the original document.  Both the artwork and the crime scene were paired with guiding questions to help students navigate the different types of information being shared.  And all throughout, students had access to each other as they grappled with the different perspectives of the Boston Massacre.

Students use guiding questions to analyze visual primary sources

To help students with comprehension of the difficult language, teachers "performed" each monologue.

In 7th grade Texas History, students have also recently used primary sources, as they are learning about Stephen F. Austin's colonization into Spanish Texas.  In small groups or partners, students read several different letters that had been written to request a spot in Austin's new colony.  Then, students evaluated each individual against a set of criteria to determine whether or not they were a good "fit". The primary source letters presented challenging language and unfamiliar context.  So what helped these students make meaning from the text?

First, the amount of the text is manageable.  Each letter written to Stephen F. Austin fit nicely on a half-page, so students could grapple with the text without getting burned out on the difficulty.

Students grappling with primary sources

More grappling

Evaluating each colony candidate against criteria

In addition, students had the opportunity to read these aloud.  For our auditory learners, hearing the reading will help them process the information; plus, we get to hear students try on some really fantastic accents!  The student below is reading from except A above, "Buffalo" Jones.

Falcon Focus: Close Reading

You may have heard this before, but we are all teachers of reading.   Close reading is main pillar of ELAR instruction, and different variations of it can and should be used in any content area.

When students close read, the goal is for students to go back into a text and use text evidence to support their response to a very targeted question.  The success of the close reading activity relies heavily on the question.  In ELAR, there are 4 specific question levels:

1) What does the text say?  (comprehension)
2) What does the text mean? (making inferences/drawing conclusions)
3) How does the text work? (author's craft)
4) What does the text inspire you to do? (writing piece or other response)

After attending the content professional learning days, 6th grade Reading tried out a strategy called "SpongeBeyonceBananaPants".  (Yes, that's the actual name of this strategy.  No, it has no meaning to the activity other than students remember it. No, Kathy and Kylie did not make it up.)  In this strategy, students use a graphic organizer interact with the text, which in this case, is a poem.

Teacher designed questions require students to go back into the text multiple times to support their responses.

In Sherry Grosenbach's class, students used specific plastic flags to interact with the text in a different way.  In addition to writing on the passage (in this case, a speech), students used the flags to identify different elements of the speech in a hands-on way.  Then when it was time for deeper analysis, students used their tactile practice with the text to move back through it more efficiently.

Close reading can be tactile, too!

If you don't have fancy flags, simply substitute sticky notes or paper clips.  In the future, we will be talking more about how different close reading strategies can help support students in your content areas, as well.  Stay tuned!

Falcon Focus: Co-teaching Cohort

This year all of our teachers with a co-teach classroom (both general ed and special ed) are participating in a flipped year-round cohort.  While we know there are limitations to our schedule, we also believe that we can do better for our students.  Therefore, our goal is to improve our co-teach practice by finding ways to creatively implement co-teach best practices.

Throughout the year, we will be reviewing the six co-teach models: one teach, one observe; station teaching; parallel teaching; alternative teaching; teaming; and one teach, one assist.  The bulk of the work is happening in Google Classroom, with some observation and coaching time for some.

Don't have a special education co-teach classroom, but still want to learn more?  You are welcome to participate in the Google classroom with us; just email me and I will get you more information.

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!

Tuesday, May 31

Today's Content:

• Authentic Learning:  Ekphrasis Night at Barnes and Noble

• Professional Learning Communities:  PLC Feedback

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Summer Planning

Falcon Focus: The Ekphrasis Project

by Gina Bergman  A cross-curricular collaboration between Falcon artists and 7th grade Pre-AP writers, the Ekphrasis Project highlights exemplary written responses across genres based on selected award winning artwork.  On Thursday evening, May 26^th at Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the North East Mall the 7^th grade Pre-AP writers read their works in conjunction with a display of artwork before a crowd of bookstore patrons, parents, faculty, and fellow students. The evening was highlighted with an opening poem/song acapella performance by Isabel Beasley based on Owen Stubblefield’s artwork Still Life with Boots and Skull. The evenings final piece was a once in a lifetime performance of burgeoning playwright Kyle Dickman’s response to Beverly Ontiveros’ artwork Majestic.  Sandwiched in between the song and the play were many great poems and short stories birthed through analysis and imagination. The evening was put together by ELAR Department Chair, Sarah Kelly and Rebekah McKnight, art teacher extraordinaire. 

Falcon Focus: PLC Feedback


To end the year, each department used the last data meeting to reflect on the effectiveness of our PLCs.  Through the discussion, teachers identified both PLC strengths and suggestions for improvement.  Repeated positives for this year included 1) having the opportunity to work with other grade levels, 2) being inspired by other grade levels to try different strategies, 3) collaborating with others to utilize individual expertise, and 4) having lots of time for planning.  Common ideas for change included 1) adding some structure to the PLC process to expand productivity (not just lesson planning), 2) allowing grade levels to sometimes work as a team independently from the department PLC, 3) finding a way to reach out to other departments to allow for more cross-curricular learning, and 4) changing data reflection to happen in real-time.

As we move forward and work on plans for 2016-17, all this valuable information will help determine how we can best utilize our PLCs to enhance student learning.  If you'd like to read the plus/deltas in their entirety, click on the images below for each department.

Click on the image go to the Writing PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Reading PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Social Studies PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Science PLC Notes in Padlet

Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Summer Groups

As the school year wraps up, work is just getting started on some of the different pieces that will make up our Falcon Way for next year.  Whether you've contributed your ideas thus far or not, everyone is invited to help grow the culture that we want for our school.  Changing our culture truly will take a village, so we would love to hear from you.

Summer Planning Groups include:

• Advisory - Appreciation activities
• Advisory - Community service
• Advisory - Family activities
• Advisory - Responsibility
• Advisory - Hall/announcements/campus challenges
• Faculty/staff - getting to know you
• Pep rallies & showcase pieces
• Student orientation

Today during dessert, be on the lookout for an orange handout for signing up.  We will have quick "orientation" meetings tomorrow after dismissal.

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!

Monday, May 23

Today's Content:

• Student Leadership:  Clever STUCO Campaign Posters

•  Best Practices:  TPR in Social Studies

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Update

Falcon Focus: Student Leadership

This past week, 34 7th graders ran for an officer position in next year's Student Council.  It was awesome to see so many students showing interest in campus leadership.  Also awesome - all the inventive energy that went into their campaign posters.  With whit and puns, this year's candidates cleverly tapped into commercials, phrases, and even infographics to humorously vie for student votes.

In case you didn't make it all the way around the building to read them, here's a quick recap of some of the quippier campaign posters.  If I missed your favorite, I apologize!

Yes, this last student got permission.  :)

  

So just who are next year's STUCO leaders?  We'll find out later today in the 7th grade Awards Ceremony.

 Falcon Focus: Total Physical Response in SS

Before the STAAR test, 8th grade Social Studies students reviewed the Bill of Rights using hand signals as memory triggers.  As covered in a previous post, total physical response (TPR) effectively helps students learn and remember different bits of information by pulling together the acting/gesturing/physical moving right side of the brain and the telling/explaining/analyzing left side. 

And it really works!  One student came back later and thanked Jonie Dodson for teaching her this strategy because she used it to help her with recall during the test.  Watch the video below of the students moving through the first ten Amendments with only minimal assistance from Jonie.  

 Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Update

As we mentioned in the faculty meeting this past Wednesday, NRMS is moving forward with the work to implement the Falcon Way from day one of 2016-17.  As always, thank you SO MUCH to all of the teachers, staff, and admin who have offered their opinions and ideas either in Falcon Way meetings, in emails, or in hallway conversations.  

This culture shift is about us - our students, our faculty & staff, and our community - and we will not be successful unless we are all on board.  This summer, the Falcon Way needs help with planning:

• Student orientation - plans & materials
• Advisory rotations - schedule & materials
• Pep rallies - creative ideas & planning
• Faculty/Staff "Get to Know You" Activities - ideas & materials

If you are interested in helping, please contact Kathryn Humer, Laurie Istook, Ann Newhouse, or Mary Terry.

Click on the slide to see the Falcon Way presentation from Wednesday's meeting.

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!

   

Friday, April 1

Today's Content:

• Building Community: NRMS "Believe" Challenge

• Tier 1 Priorities:  Workshop Model

• Digital Learning:  Quizizz

  
Falcon Focus: Building Community

Now that STAAR, Round 1 is behind us, it is a great time to think about the Believe Challenge.  Some teachers have already started, and I wanted to share one of the conversations.  It may help you get some ideas if you're unsure of how to start, or are thinking the conversation feels awkward.  It is a little awkward - but so worth it!

Filming the conversation is completely optional; a video simply serves as a record of our conversations, a reminder of our impact.  (The video is NOT going to be shared with students.)  Think about what type of conversation is best for you and your student(s).

That said, when I contacted this student's mom to ask permission to share this video, the first thing she wanted to do was to see was the video because she was so honored and proud of her son.  The pride and joy in her voice was incredible; so much so that I felt like I stole a moment away from Mrs. Maupin.  Going forward, I'm going to ask teachers to make the phone calls.

Falcon Focus: Tier 1 Priorities

Workshop Model is an instructional area of focus in almost all of the core content areas.  This week after rocking the STAAR test, 8th grade students in ELAR classes engaged in a workshop lesson over parts of speech.

The workshop model consists of 3 main components: the mini-lesson, student work time, and a debrief.

Mini-lesson - First the 8th Grade ELAR teachers used a Prezi to review basic parts of speech with students.  (Want to see the Prezi?  Click below.)

Student Work Time - After the mini-lesson, students then participated in different sentence analysis activities, manipulating sentence strips with various words and phrases.

Debrief - To close, students were asked a debrief question, which had also served as the essential question to get the activity started.

So why sentence structure immediately after STAAR?  The timing of the content was intentionally planned.  Next week, students will be starting research projects, and the first step is to develop a thoughtful, well-crafted, and structurally correct thesis statement.

Falcon Focus: Tech Formative Assessment

7th Grade Writing recently tried out a new formative assessment tool called Quizizz.  If you're ready for a break from that catchy Kahoot music, you may want to try this.  Quizizz features include randomized question order, the ability for students to self-pace, individualized & funny icons for each student, and downloadable results for the teacher.  Hooray for easy grading!

As the students take their quiz, they can see where they "rank" among their classmates; notice the "whoo-hoos" at the beginning of the video.

To get started on Quizizz, visit their website @ http://quizizz.com/
or click on the image to the right to get a tutorial.

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!