What do you want to hear from the students?
This seems like a simple question, but it actually takes some careful consideration. Do you want students to answer comprehension questions or do you want them to have authentic discussion? Often, teachers lead a “discussion group” and the only person talking is the teacher. They ask simple yes/no or short answer right-or-wrong questions. This is very comfortable for teachers because they control the pace and direction of the discussion. If you want to encourage authentic student-generated discussion, you might have to step outside of your comfort zone.
Also see posts about accountable talk discussion prompts and grouping configurations.
The Questioning Pyramid
You can think of discussion prompts as a pyramid – very broad, open-ended questions at the bottom and increasingly specific questions as you move up.
Scaffolding Questions
Questions at the base of the pyramid require more thought and lend themselves to student-directed discussion. They are also much more difficult and may result in blank stares and awkward silences. If students are not used to answering such broad questions, you can scaffold up the pyramid. Always start with the most broad, then move toward more specifics if the students get stuck. Your can always lead them back to the base as the discussion gets going.
Some questions to consider while planning lessons:
What?
- What is the intended learning? What are the skills, concepts, habits of mind being developed?
- To what standard(s) is the lesson content connected?
- What difficulties, misunderstandings, or misconceptions might students have about this content?
- What theories of teaching and learning support this lesson design?
How?
- How will the teacher model/explain clear expectations for the students’ learning?
- How will each activity promote rigorous thinking?
- How will students be grouped for learning? How is the grouping related to the lesson content?
- How will accountable student talk and collaboration be encouraged in an atmosphere of mutual respect?
- How will students make public their thinking and learning?
- How will assistance be provided to individual students (struggling students as well as those needing an extra challenge)?
- How will student learning be assessed by the teacher and by the students themselves?
- How will student accomplishment be recognized?
- How will the teacher do things differently the next time? How will instruction proceed form here?
Why?
- Why is the lesson content appropriate to the students’ learning needs and prior knowledge?
- Why are these instructional strategies/learning activities appropriate to the lesson/goals?
Questions derived from The Institute for Learning’s Content-Focused Coaching model.
Peer Observations as a part of Staff Development
Teachers usually say that they’d love to observe some of their fellow teachers, but if it’s an elective program, it will rarely happen. Peer observation can be an integral part of a school’s teacher collaboration efforts. Staff developers should set up a system in which teachers can plan for and carry out meaningful observations. Make sure you have subs available to cover the observing teachers.
The Purpose of Peer Observations
The purpose of a peer observation should be actually doing the observation. That’s it. You’re creating a culture in which teachers learn from eachother, but be careful how you approach the observations. Don’t underestimate the emotional aspect of allowing fellow teachers to observe. For some teachers, it can be very, very scary. Do not to assign teachers to learn something specific from someone else (at lease not at first). Creating a “master teacher” and “learning teacher” dynamic is very threatening. Allow them to set their own agenda for the observation. If all the teachers are required to complete an observation, you’ll have experienced teachers observing rookies and vice versa. You never know what they’ll get from their time: management ideas, specific lessons, organization tips or a new line of communication about instruction.
Taking Notes During Peer Observations
Here are some questions to consider:
1. Objectives – what are you looking for during this observation?
2. Observations – what behaviors did you see from teacher/students?
3. Questions – what questions would you like to ask the teacher?
4. Action Plan – do you see anything you’d like to implement in your own class?
Download a peer observation form.
peer observation form
Use this form for taking notes during a peer observation.
Why is it so Hard to Communicate with the Teacher?
Improving parent communication is a goal for every elementary school. Teachers know they should do more of it, but many of them are struggling to keep their heads above water. Teaching (and teaching well) is a very, very hard job. It can be overwhelming, especially for new teachers. That said, you should be able to talk to your child’s teacher and they should be happy to talk to you – but you might have to initiate the conversation.
Methods of Communication
The way in which you attempt to talk to the teacher matters. Don’t try to initiate a conversation before or during class – even if they act gracious, that’s a very difficult time to talk. Try writing a note, sending an email or calling. Realize also that schools are often inefficient – sometimes voice mail doesn’t work or the email server is down. Be patient.
Build Rapport
Talking to parents can be scary. Try to build some rapport before you raise any concerns. Compliment the positive and ask how you can help. If you come out of the gates with accusations or criticism, you’ll get nowhere. School administrators support and protect their teachers. If you can build a positive relationship with the teacher, you’ll have much more leverage.
Bringing up a Concern
It’s almost always better to find out some more information before you raise concerns with the teacher or administrator. For example, maybe you’re concerned because your child was assigned detention or some other discipline action. Your first course of action should be understanding the discipline system. What were the steps taken before the detention (and were you alerted at that point?). What is the child’s behavior history? Sometimes the parents aren’t involved until the last, most serious consequences and they are very surprised. If you want to be more closely involved, set up a system with the teacher for frequent communication. The same is true for many academic concerns. If your child receives a lower grade than you expect, find out more about the curriculum. Do you know what grade-level work looks like? Should a second grader be able to read “chapter books”? Should a kindergartner be able to write paragraphs? Teachers should give you this information, but if they don’t you’ll have to ask.
Reciprocal reading is a strategy for small group comprehension work. It’s great for your more independent, advanced readers. They need to be familiar with the strategies summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting. I used this strategy often with fifth graders and they loved it. Give each student this guide sheet.
Here is a summary from ReadingQuestStrategies.org:
What Is Reciprocal Teaching?
The creation of Palinscar and Brown, Reciprocal Teaching is in some ways a compilation of four comprehension strategies:
- summarizing
- questioning
- clarifying
- predicting
Please understand that some think the choice of “reciprocal” in the name of this strategy is slightly misleading. It conjures up the image of a student in front of the class, or of students taking turns telling each other important ideas in the text. Instead, the strategy is best at seeking to promote comprehension by tackling the ideas in a text on several fronts.
How Does It Work?
The order in which the four stages occur is not crucial; you’ll want to try out different versions of the strategy to see if a particular protocol suits your teaching style, and your students’ learning styles, better. You will also want to choose text selections carefully to be certain that they lend themselves to all four stages of reciprocal teaching.
How Might I Implement Reciprocal Teaching in my Classroom?
Before you can expect reciprocal teaching to be used successfully by your students, they need to have been taught and had time to practice the four strategies that are used in reciprocal teaching. Doesn’t it make sense that they should already have learned and become comfortable with summarizing before attempting to use it in a reciprocal teaching situation? Or questioning? Or predicting? Or clarifying?
One approach to teaching reciprocal teaching might be to have students work from a four-column chart, with each column headed by the different comprehension activity involved.
You might also consider implementing reciprocal teaching the way Donna Dyer of the North West Regional Education Service Agency in North Carolina recommends. Here’s one way she suggests you use reciprocal teaching:
- Put students in groups of four.
- Distribute one notecard to each member of the group identifying each person’s unique role.
- summarizer
- questioner
- clarifier
- predictor
- Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text selection. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky-notes to help them better prepare for their role in the discussion.
- At the given stopping point, the Summarizer will highlight the key ideas up to this point in the reading.
- The Questioner will then pose questions about the selection:
- unclear parts
- puzzling information
- connections to other concepts already learned
- motivations of the agents or actors or characters
- etc.
- The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions that were just posed.
- The Predictor can offer guesses about what the author will tell the group next or, if it’s a literary selection, the predictor might suggest what the next events in the story will be.
- The roles in the group then switch one person to the right, and the next selection is read. Students repeat the process using their new roles. This continues until the entire selection is read.
January 5th, 2008 in
Reading |
3 Comments
Here is an example of a list of possible interventions for use with academic intervention plans.
Note: the list was created by teachers and compiled by the staff developer.
| Concern |
Intervention |
Data/Assessment |
| READING |
Individual, small group work and homework on… |
|
| Fluency |
Repeated Readings, Student-adult reading, tape-assisted reading, partner reading, sight words |
Timed oral reading |
| Phonics |
Specific sounds/letters, phonics games |
DIBELS, conferences, Reading Records |
| Vocabulary |
Preview vocabulary of certain texts, student-choice vocabulary collection, using context clues and information about word parts – prefixes, suffixes and root words |
SRA, DRA, reading conferences |
| Comprehension |
Using graphic organizers, answering questions, generating questions, recognizing story structure, summarizing |
DRA, Reading Records, Conferences |
| Oral Language |
Practicing “accountable talk” in a small group, think-pair-share and turn-and-talk during whole group, “conversation” homework |
MONDO |
| Phonemic Awareness |
Clapping sounds and syllables, blending sounds to form words, rhyming texts |
DIBELS |
| Letter Identification |
Send home letter practice |
OB survey |
| Concepts about Print |
Identifying parts of books, word and sentence identification, word tracking while reading |
OB survey, DIBELS |
| Motivation/Interest |
Identifying genres of interest, buddy reading, peer tutoring, parent meeting, home visit |
Reading conferences |
|
|
|
| WRITING |
Individual, small group work and homework on… |
|
| Orientation and Context |
Writing interesting leads, story elements (setting) |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Plot Development and Organization |
Graphic organizers, story maps, writing plans |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Character Development |
Character study, character map, reading responses based on character traits |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Closure |
Strategies for writing interesting endings, Finding examples in literature |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Detail |
Finding examples in literature, using sensory imagery, “show |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Dialogue |
Finding examples in literature, pacing in writing |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Conventions (spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, syntax) |
Making big words, Daily Oral Language practice, Editing tasks, personal dictionaries, phonics instruction |
Conferences, published pieces, journals |
| Motivation/Interest |
Celebration of published work, journal writing (with response from teacher/parent), parent meeting, home visit |
Conferences |
Classroom Management Rubric
|
|
Developing
|
Meets Standard
|
Exceeds Standard
|
|
A. Classroom Procedures
|
Adequately manages classroom procedures, but learning time is not maximized. |
Efficiently manages classroom procedures to maximize learning time.- Schedule and routines are in place; teacher provides cues or explanation for transitions- System exists for behavior management and bathroom |
Seamlessly manages classroom procedures to maximize learning time.- Routines are consistent and predictable on a daily basis- Teacher provides the organization and practice to ensure students are self-directed in maintaining classroom supplies |
|
B. Student Learning
|
Inconsistently manages student behavior; expectations exist, but consequences are inconsistent. |
Consistently manages students’ learning behavior.- Successful system in place for behavior management, including individual consequences and group incentives |
Proactively manages student behavior so that teaching and learning are primary.- Teacher actively prevents potentially disruptive situations- Teacher fosters community such that students assume responsibility for maintaining rules, rituals and routines |
|
C. Communicating Expectations
|
Reasonably communicates, but students do not consistently show understanding of expectations. |
Clearly communicates learning expectations.- Students and parents aware of management systems- Learning objectives posted for each lesson- Parent communication is consistent |
Enthusiastically and clearly communicates learning objectives and high expectations on a daily basis.- Teacher ensures that students can articulate and apply learning objectives- Teacher uses multiple resources and methods for communicating with parents |
|
D. Learning Environment
|
Moderately motivates students; although the teacher is caring, too much energy is spent on teacher directed lessons and not enough on active, student engagement. |
Effectively motivates students with a supportive learning environment.- Group incentives provide positive reinforcement- Classroom is well organized, including teacher and student supplies- Teacher models respectful, productive behavior
- Teacher acknowledges students’ academic achievements publicly |
Genuinely cares for students and purposefully motivates them to learn using many strategies. Demonstrates effort-based education principles by honoring student accomplishments and developing a trustful and supportive environment.- Teacher fosters a true “family” environment in which students model respectful behavior, celebrate each other’s accomplishments and reflect on the progress of the community |
Here is a blank academic intervention plan: academic intervention plan template
See the post about academic interventions for more information.