Wednesday, January 4

Today's Content:

• Instructional Strategies for ELLs:  Z Charts and Canva

• Special Education: Teacher Swap in Co-Teaching

• Falcon Way: #WheelchairChallenge and Other Empathy Building

Happy New Year!  And what a year it's been so far! Has this semester flown by as quickly for you as

it has for me?  With Falcon Way and the many other systems we have built up for our students and our campus, it has been a whirlwind.  Many have dedicated their time and effort (did I mention time? and effort?) to make a difference for our kids, and there are countless stories of the changes that are taking root.  I can’t possibly do you all the justice you deserve in my (incredibly overdue) blog post, so I’m just going to hit three of the areas where a lot of work has already made a difference.

Falcon Focus: Instructional Strategies for ELLs

The SIOP team has been hard at work this year identifying and putting into practice several different strategies specifically designed to improve the learning of our ELL students.  Most recently, the team has worked on Z Charts as key strategy.  Several teachers have already used these graphic organizers in all classes to facilitate the reading, listening, speaking, and writing of our students, with a lot of success!   

The best part about SIOP strategies is that they represent best practice for all of our students, providing opportunities discussion, collaboration, and differentiation.   

Most recently, SIOP members used Z Charts themselves to jigsaw the six key SIOP instructional features using Canva (as taught by Rashel Larson last week), Google Slides, and Power Point.  The six key features include:

·       Content Objectives

·       Language Objective

·       Age-Appropriate & Educationally Appropriate Content Concepts

·      Clear and Meaningful Supplementary Materials

·       Adaptation of Content to Student Proficiency Levels

·       Meaningful Activities That Integrate Language Practice

Click on the Prezi below to learn about the six key SIOP Instructional Features and check out the professional Canva graphics created by our teachers.  

If you have any questions about how these features would work in your own classroom, please ask Regina Walker or Mary Terry.

Falcon Focus: Taking Risks in Co-Teaching

Many of our teachers have been working hard is in our co-teach classrooms this semester as well.  Even though our we do not have the ideal co-teach structure in place, the cohort's goal is to create the best possible co-teach environment for our students.  Through our Google classroom, co-teachers are learning more about the six co-teach models and collaborating with their co-teacher on ways to make the models work for them.  A few teams have worked as target teams, opening themselves up to trying different co-teach models in less-than-ideal situations – and making it work like gangbusters!  I’m very excited about the conversations going on in our Google classroom and the resulting learning in classrooms. 

This past week, two of our teachers took it a step farther by doing a teacher swap.  Yes, you read correctly – a teacher swap. 

What's a teacher swap, you ask?  Well, in this case, it was Jonie Dodson and Teresa Davis trading places to gain a better understanding of the expectations facing the other teacher.  With the hope of establishing a clearer path to co-teach collaboration, Mrs. Dodson and Mrs. Davis took a risk and gave up control of their schedules for the day.  In the video below, check out the hard work being accomplished in Ms. Dodson's class, with Mrs. Davis at the helm:

Both teachers appreciated having the opportunity to truly see what some of the constraints are, and gained some perspective.  According to Mrs. Davis, "To step into Jonie's shoes for a day, I realize what she's been telling me...and what most of my other co-teachers tell me...that the co-teach class functions and performs much differently than the other classes, even though it is the same lesson.  So for them, in a very real way, the co-teach class is the first time they've taught that lesson each day."

Building empathy for the others in our building is the first step to true collaboration, and we are well on our way.

Falcon Focus: #WheelchairChallenge

Speaking of empathy, hats off to Sarah Peltier and the Acceptance House for the creation of the #WheelchairChallenge.  We had 9 volunteers so far, and all have told of sore arms, unexpected challenges, and surprise (occasionally overextended) kindness.  

As we continue our work to build the Falcon Way, I hope you've found the challenges to be rewarding and look forward to many more celebrations in the new year!  Enjoy some of the celebrations from the the fall semester in the video below.  (Spoiler alert: There's a video of Mr. V participating in the #WheelchairChallenge towards the end!)

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!