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Reflecting on Student Work in Staff Meetings (TEMPLATE) Jennifer Allen Over the last four years our teaching staff has included reflecting on student work as a part of our staff meetings. To be honest, we struggled for probably three of the four years to find meaningful ways to look at the work. You may read this and wonder how we could be so behind the times - hasn't everyone been doing this effectively for years? But the truth is, this has been a process in which we have been revising and now fine-tuning our routines for making the most of our discussions about student work. . . . more Conversation Turns: Recordkeeping and Analysis Tool Suzy Kaback One of the best ways I've found to deal with colleagues or students who talk too much during group discussions is to give them a task. I've found keeping a record of the conversation to be useful - not only for dealing with the problem of fair distribution of talk, but for tracking and assessing the quality of our conversations. . . . more Forming Teams to Help Struggling Readers: A Pilot Project (TEMPLATES) Andrea Smith For a teacher, a struggling learner makes you feel like you are planning a solo assault on Mt. Everest. Working with at-risk students is layered with complicated challenges that are beyond our control. Watching a child who is unsuccessful year after year leaves you pausing like a climber clinging to the side of a boulder questioning every move and hand hold. This child consumes your professional conversations with your closest colleagues. We all know the scenario as you pass one another in the hall: "How is ___ doing? What are you thinking about as you watch him read?" . . . more Teaching Economics Through Children's Literature Mandy Robek When I began teaching, I taught my first seven years at an alternative public school. A focus for our school was to use children's literature across the curriculum to help foster integration. We had no textbooks, and found children's literature was filled with all the language, images, and content we needed for teaching reading and writing. . . . more Team Sharing of Writing Curriculum Innovations (TEMPLATE) Ruth Shagoury Literacy coaches know that the most successful staff development provides lots of time for colleagues to share their teaching stories, questions, and ideas. Hearing what is happening in the classrooms down the hall or across town is generative--and prompts creative leaps to enliven our own inquiries and curricula. The January doldrums can be swept aside for fresh ideas. . . . more Collecting Literacy Stories Icebreaker (PRINT DOWNLOAD) Cindy Hatt Our literacy teachers have responsibilities for small-group literacy intervention as well as support to teachers through in-class co-teaching/modeling lessons and monthly professional development meetings. You will see that the prompts are structured to touch on many aspects of the role. You can download the template for the activity at this link . . . more Collecting Stories: Opening Activity and Icebreaker (PRINT DOWNLOAD) Ruth Shagoury The "Collecting Stories" activity is a great way to launch a workshop or new study group on a topic. The one I designed here was used with participants in a workshop for teachers who were new to working with young English language learners. You can download a copy of the two-page template by clicking on this link . . . more Fostering More Curricular Collaboration in Teams: The Meeting Notes Form (TEMPLATE) Katie Doherty It's hard to be a team leader as well as the youngest teacher on my team. It can be awkward attempting to implement new ways of doing things when everyone else has been teaching longer and has their own systems established. I felt surprisingly nervous! But as we sat together at our first staff meeting of the school year, I realized how silly I was being. . . . more Whole Class Interviews: Building Community in Writing Workshop (TEMPLATE) Franki Sibberson At the beginning of the year, I want my students to feel valued as part of our learning community. To do that, I also want them to develop their own identities as writers. I know that if they know themselves as writers - what they like, their strengths, their goals, etc. they will grow in all areas of writing. So, I've developed a writing interview that I plan to administer to my students as part of their first writing conferences during those first few weeks of school. By asking them questions about their lives as writers, I place value on their lives outside of school. . . . more Literacy Coaching Interview Rubric The "Literacy Coaching Interview Rubric" was designed collaboratively with colleagues who are preparing to become literacy coaches. We talked through the different philosophies in school communities about the purposes and roles of literacy coaches, and how we could assess those differences in an interview situation. The rubric is designed not only for interview contexts, but for any situation where teachers, coaches, and administrators are working together to define relationships and roles with literacy coaches. We hope it sparks some in-depth conversations in your school. . . . more Memorable Students, Memorable Teachers: A Quick-Write Icebreaker for Teacher Workshops "Memorable Teachers, Memorable Students" is a simple quick-write reflective activity that is especially appropriate for summer or "getting to know you" events early in the year with study groups, teacher mentor programs, or back-to-school gatherings. We've used this activity as an ice-breaker, and because the writing demands are minimal, even colleagues who are reluctant writers are often happy to participate. . . . more Playing with Word Work: Inviting Students to See Playful Language in Books (BOOKLIST) Franki Sibberson Over the years, I have learned that for children to really be attentive to word meanings and spelling patterns, they first need to see the fun in words and language. I often get so caught up in the "skill lesson" I am trying to teach or the fact that I want kids to understand a particular word that I don't show them how much fun words can be. I can be in such a hurry to get through the spelling and vocabulary goals of the curriculum that kids jump through my hoops without being fascinated by words and language. . . . more Two or Three Things I Know for Sure: A Teacher Workshop Activity The title of this teacher workshop activity comes from Dorothy Alison's memoir Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, and the quote from Alison about her Aunt Dot that inspired the title: "Lord, girl, there's only two or three things I know for sure." She put her head back, grinned, and made a small impatient noise. Her eyes glittered as bright as a sun reflecting off the scales of a cottonmouth's back. She spat once and shrugged. "Only two or three things. That's right," she said. "Of course it's never the same things, and I'm never as sure as I'd like to be." . . . more Reflection Sheets: A Tool for Assessment and Conferring (VIDEO and TEMPLATE) Franki Sibberson I use reflection sheets a few times a month with my third- and fourth-grade students in reading and writing workshops. The students answer a few questions around some issue we are considering related to reading strategies or writer's craft. We then refer to these sheets in individual conferences, talk about the student's growth or needs, and set goals or chat about next steps... . . . more Opinion Exchange: A Workshop Activity for Study Groups Ruth Shagoury In our November new teacher meeting, we framed the following "Opinion Exchange" around the theme of staying committed to what we believe in. We created a list of quotes from a range of educators, as well as a list of questions to form a kind of "scavenger hunt" of response to these quotes. Participants read the quotes, and then moved through the room talking about reactions to the quotes and gathering different opinions... . . . more Collaborative Teaching: Finding Common Ground First (CHECKLIST) The questions on this checklist are designed to be used by teachers, coaches, or mentors working as partners in co-teaching or demonstration teaching situations. Ideally, the partners should get together for an informal discussion of the questions before work begins. Addressing these issues in advance helps ensure good communication and shared understanding of goals and work styles throughout the collaboration... . . . more Student Goals (TEMPLATE) This student goal sheet is designed to help focus each student's learning, and elicit response from parents. The form is simple and open-ended, to allow for use at almost any grade level. The goals can serve as a starting point for conversations in parent-teacher conferences. . . . more Family Survey: Report Cards and Evaluations (SURVEY) Before you begin the arduous process of writing report card comments and evaluation narratives for your students, it helps to know a little bit about the audience for your words - the beliefs and histories of the family members who will be reading your comments. This one-page survey to send home with students often has a terrific response rate, because it is short (only four questions), personalized, and open-ended. . . . more Goal Sheets for Conferring (TEMPLATES) The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) When we confer with students, we set goals with each child based upon their emerging needs. The forms include a space for us to record instruction we've provided to assist the child in meeting the goal (individually, in a small group, or with the whole class) and what we've observed with the child related to the goal. There is also a space to record what steps the child has said he or she will take to meet the goal... . . . more Reflective Observation: Helping Teachers Observe, Analyze, and Guide (TEMPLATE) Jennifer Allen Our new teacher support group includes monthly observations of peers, with time scheduled following the observations for group discussion and analysis of what everyone saw. I wanted to develop some observation tools the teachers could use that wouldn't intimidate the observer OR the teacher being observed... . . . more The Curricular Support Menu: A Collaborative Tool for Assisting Colleagues Pam Hahlen and Erin Marr We work as curricular support teachers in the Dublin, Ohio school district. We share a classroom, and each of us spends half the day supporting our colleagues throughout the building. We developed the attached menu to help our peers understand our role, and possibilities for how we could collaborate with them. . . . more Check-In for Independence: A Recordkeeping Form to Track Independent Work (TEMPLATE) The Sisters (Joan Moser and Gail Boushey) We find our Daily Check-In is an essential tool for helping children monitor their own reading and writing. By checking in with us at the start of independent work periods, they learn the importance of planning for a variety of literate activities themselves, rather than waiting for guidance for us... . . . more Conferring with Yourself: A Tool for Anticipating Response (TEMPLATE) Teachers thinking about making big changes to their literacy programs need a few good voices in their heads. Not the kind that lead to extended stays in padded rooms, but the kind that help you plan for how stakeholders will respond to the change, and adjust your plans accordingly. "Conferring with Yourself" is a simple tool that can help you anticipate response. The one-page template is a quick writing activity which helps teachers think through questions, concerns, or criticisms. . . . . . more Planning for a Year of Author Studies (TEMPLATE) Gayle Brand It's important to me that the author studies include meaningful reading, writing, and discussion activities. Anyone who knows me knows I avoid the cutesy author studies art activities that can be fun, but have little or no connection to the books. I haven't found that random craft projects deepen students' awareness of reading and writing. Instead, we take the time to write and talk about text features, the author's writing craft, and themes in the book in ways that help students understand their own emerging skills as readers and writers. . . . more Charting the Course: A Yearlong Professional Development Plan for New Teachers (SCHEDULE) Jennifer Allen My first task in thinking through how to work with new teachers was to design a professional development plan for the entire year. Only then could I be sure the group would receive both the content . . . more Tools to Redesign Your Classroom (TEMPLATES) Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (The Sisters) How can teachers get started with thinking through a new classroom design? In these two tools from their acclaimed "Trading Spaces" classroom design courses, "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) share some strategies for working through a new design step by step... . . . more Sample Schedules for Curriculum Support Teachers Jill Reinhart The Curriculum Support Teachers model is used by the Dublin OH school district. Two teachers share a class of students, each responsible for a half-day of instruction. The other half of the day is d . . . more Professional Development Needs Assessment Inventory Gayle Brand As part of my work as a literacy coach, I distribute a Professional Development Needs Assessment to every classroom teacher. My hope in giving out this inventory is to see where teachers need help and plan professional development accordingly. . . . more Making Partnerships Work: A Checklist for Mentors How do you know if your partnership is working? Mentors and mentees can use the attached checklist to hone in on what they are doing best in their partnership, and where they might improve their collaboration... . . . more Flexible Grouping: When, How, and Why Max Brand The topic of grouping for literacy, especially any grouping that involves sorting children according to their abilities, is charged politically and can polarize teaching communities. The key in my classroom is to be flexible, basing groups upon the specific skills that will be developed in the group. . . . more