Book Announcement!

We depart from our usual format to announce a book publication!

Maggie had the privilege to co-author a book with Lucy Calkins and Shana Frazin for the Reading and Writing Project’s Units of Study through Heinemann Publishing. Maggie’s book, “Once Upon a Time: Adapting and Writing Fairy Tales,”  takes you step-by-step through a unit on fairy tales which both engages (who doesn’t like a fairy tale?) and instructs (the book is focused on Common Core narrative standards). Here is the cover:

Adorable boys writing fairy tales? Check.

Preview sample chapter!

You can get this book by purchasing the third grade units through the Heinemann website. The entire K-5 series is stunning and supports implementing a variety of writing genres, from detailed lessons to assessment to student work samples. Please feel free to reach out for any questions.

Hope you enjoy!

The “Hail Mary” Pass, or, Taking Risks at the End of the Year

As we come to the end of another school year, we ask you to consider the “Hail Mary” pass in American football:

The “Hail Mary” pass is defined as “any very long forward pass made in desperation with only a small chance of success, especially at or near the end of a half.” (Its inception in the football lexicon occurring at a time when players and fans were apparently unconcerned about religious diversity, unfortunately.) “Hail Mary” passes have a few qualities in common:

• They are desperate, last minute attempts to make progress.
• They are full of hope and enthusiasm.
• There are low expectations.
• When they work, the crowd goes wild.

Now consider the end of our school year. You may find yourself in a place where energy is low – here in NY we are feeling quite tired and somewhat defeated by the state tests for example – and perhaps it is difficult to get tons of motivation up for one or two more great units of study. You might also be treading familiar ground at this time in the year – pulling out the same unit of study you have taught for awhile, going through the motions a bit. At the same time you probably feel what so many of us feel at the end of the year – that your time in the classroom with this particular bunch of kids is coming to an end, and all of the mixed up emotions that this eternal truth in education brings.

While you are experiencing these end of the year blues or nostalgia, bittersweetness or mundanity, all around you are swirling the expectations for next year. New initiatives. New standards. New tests. New buzzwords, devices programs and curriculum. It is challenging to figure out how to start a billion new things next year, when your heart is sweet or aching or tired from your kids who are still with you this year.

Try a few “Hail Mary” passes. (Shout out to Jen Serrevallo for reminding me of this during a recent Twitter Chat!)

What this means for us in the classroom is that we pick something that we are a little afraid of – some structure or unit or method or philosophy that we have either always avoided or that we fear for next year, and start it right now. With these kids. In an experimental fashion, perhaps not even knowing much about what we are doing “right” or “wrong.”

This is low risk, high benefit experimenting. Consider:

1. You know these kids and they know you. There will never be a better time in the year where you can take risks like this. These kids are putty in your hands, or if you have had the year from hell, you really have nothing to lose at this point.

2. There is less outside pressure on you to “get it right.” Assuming that your state test has passed, most likely your school is in a blissful state of homeostasis – no more walkthroughs, quality reviews, testing. What better time to try something that might go horribly wrong? We don’t mean to be glib here – how can you ever get good at something new and scary and risky in your classroom if you do not have the room to fail? Well, here it is! Room to approximate your own learning without as much pressure. Take this time in hand. It is a rare treat.

3. It can help reignite a hot and tired classroom. Oh, June, you fickle one. It’s so humid. The kids are toast. Days are taken by trips and graduation practices and so on. But what if we walked in one Monday and announced to our class that we were going to try, in the immortal words of Monty Python, “something completely different!” There is a chance that this will feel like a cool invigorating breeze wafting across the sweaty faces in your room.

To keep the sports analogies going – this is a win-win situation. Here are a few ideas:

New Things We Might Try at the End of the Year 

Independent Writing Projects. In Independent Writing, Colleen Cruz outlines some ways to ignite a love of writing in your kids and help them learn to use mentor texts and plan and execute a project on their own. Have students imagine what kinds of pieces they might like to create. Classes we have worked with have listed anything from photo journal projects to recipes books to poetry and songs, romance and graphic novels. There is usually even a student who wants to write essays! Bonus!

Eli wrote a 20 page explanation of the Time Paradox theory. Er, that wasn’t a unit we covered.

Talk. Now, this may not apply to everyone, but if you have not embraced talk – in the form usually of book clubs – in your classroom, this is a great time to start! One way to begin, especially if you are hesitant, is to give your kids a simple structure to follow. First, have the club meet and read for an agreed upon amount of time. Next, have them begin to collect some Post-Its – specifically on what they think will make great conversation starters. Then when you gather your clubs, tell them that one person will go at a time, and the rest of the club can only speak if they add onto what that persons said…and one way to help them to stick to this is to use a few prompts. I like things simple, so I use: AND, BUT, WHY, SO, and WHEN. When the club is ready, they move onto a new post it.

Reading Notebooks. You know you should have been using these all years long, and you started off so well. But the entires got so boring and repetitive and soon the reading notebook became a repository for notes, post it and badly drawn anime characters. Take this time to refresh the notebook and practice some new moves. Try have kids make game boards of their thinking, or top ten lists, or character EKGs – high blips when there is a high point, low blips when there is sadness. Like this student:

I’m not even really sure what this is, but trust me, this kid talked a mile a minute about what it represented…

Of course, you can choose anything that feels new, or risky, or untested. If it fails? You will know better what to do next year with that fresh batch of young minds. But if you pull it off? If you beat the buzzer with that one desperate last minute throw with nothing but a prayer and your talent? Well…

Kudos to you, sir or m’am. Kudos to you.

Big Idea: Planning Next Year’s Curriculum         Tiny Detail: Taking a Teaching Risk at the End of the Year

-Kate & Maggie

How to Thrive During a Convention (#IRA2013 Edition)

I am excited to say that I leave in a few short hours for the International Reading Convention in San Antonio, TX.

I have not always been able to say I was excited to attend these events. Don’t get me wrong – I have always loved and relished learning from brilliant educators like Donalyn Miller, Penny Kittle, Lucy Calkins, Dorothy Barnhouse, Kelly Gallagher, Steph Harvey and the like (really, my list could just go on for miles). And when I began presenting, I immediately loved that too – the honor of being able to share your ideas, the fun of speaking with fellow educators, the often shoddy technology and the forgiving spirit.

But conferences – and really most large gatherings of people I may not know so well – have traditionally made me feel more like this:

than this:

It has always been so. I tended towards the awkward, I preferred the one-on-one conversation, I avoided the small talk. And while that may still be where I lean naturally, I have learned how to embrace the sprawling, noisy, exciting crowd that is the modern education conference.

Because I know there must be some kindred spirits out there this weekend – some fellow introverts – I offer you this short but useful list of ways to embrace the crowd:

1. Use the buddy system. I used to avoid clinging to the one person I knew because I thought I was being annoying. But as time has gone on, I’ve realized that knowing people is the point. As my co-author and good friend, Chris, can attest, I now embrace the curious little sister inside, asking “Where are you going?” “What are you doing?” “Can I come?” My pride has taken a backseat to my desire for a full and fulfilling weekend. Plus, it prevents the scenario of me alone in the food court or in my hotel room.

2. Use social media. Twitter has transformed my conference experience. Now I can follow #ira2013 and know what sessions are happening, or I can check out what my friends are posting and flock to the crowd. I can even send out a plea for help as I did at NCTE this year! There is a high probability that I’ll tweet ”Where is everyone? #ira2013″ a few times over the next few days.

3. Choose to believe. If I choose to believe that I don’t know anyone, or that I won’t have anything to say, or that I am being annoying, then I’ll never leave my hotel and get to the conference. Instead, I choose to act as if none of those doubts are true and see what happens. Nine times out of ten, by acting as if I’m filled with confidence and grace, it begins to feel that way.

4. Don’t be afraid to be alone. I have had some of my best times at conferences just going to sessions on my own and exploring my interests. Just because I don’t want to spend the entire weekend by myself doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy some quality time exploring on my own.

So, if you find yourself at the conference this weekend or any conference, feeling awkward or lost, try these steps out and see if they help. And if you are in a jam? Tweet me, @teachkate, and I’ll have you come join me. We will call ourselves The Introverted Educators. (And then we will start a band.)

Oh – and join @iChrislehman and I on Sunday at 11AM! We will be talking Close Reading in Lone Star Ballroom A.  Our session: “Not Just the Books They Read, But Lives They Lead: Rethink Close Reading as More Than Just Analyzing Words and See it as a Student’s Tool For Leading a More Engaged Life”

Big Idea: Professional Learning    Tiny Detail: Tips on Navigating Professional Conferences

-Kate (the introvert) & Maggie (the extrovert)

April Fools’ Day & High Stakes Testing: The Power of Surprise

For many of us, it is high stakes testing season. And for all of us, it is April Fools’ Day.

Coming from a family of pranksters, I’m conditioned to be on my toes, vigilantly on guard for any possible pranks heading my way. April Fools’ Day pulls me out of my normal routine, out of the drab of Winter’s last gasp, and I find myself walking around with an awareness that fosters a sort of spidey sense.

My April Fools’ Day Stance

The power (and happiness) of April Fools’ Day lies in the surprise. And I can’t help but feel like we all need a little power (and happiness) while in the midst of high stakes testing season.

From Massachusetts to New York to Tennessee, teachers are sharing their observations of their students midway through their test prep unit. In the moments before meetings begin, teachers are confessing the real problems student face during high stakes testing season – they are sharing stories about how their students glaze over the moment they mention ‘the test.’  And as many states schedule their state English exam after students return from Spring break, teachers are fearing the lack of retention they see in their students.

Perhaps we can channel the surprise and excitement of April Fools’ Day into our test preparation during high stakes testing season as a way to foster a sort of spidey sense that keeps students on their toes and not drifting into the drabs of test prep. Adding a quick element of surprise can:

• interrupt the infamous ‘test prep glaze’ that permeates our classrooms mid-test prep season
• help break the routine of read, discuss, bubble in answer, read, discuss, bubble in answer, etc.
• add laughter to a very serious and high stakes testing climate, thereby reducing stress hormones and the flight-or-flight response (here‘s some super helpful and smart stats on laughter, health and coping with the stress of life’s problems)

There are, of course, many ways to incorporate surprise into the day (taping prizes underneath students’ chairs Oprah-style is one of my personal favorites). But today’s tiny detail revolves around surprising students with unit previews. 

What are unit previews?

Unit previews are like movie previews – they preview the coming attractions of future units. By nature of  both Springtime and post-test planning on your part, the writing and reading units that follow your state exam are most likely a joy to be in: fantasy, historical fiction, poetry, memoir. Surprising students by spending a class period on unit previews in the midst of a test preparation unit can be just the thing to pull them out of the multiple choice monotony.

Setting Up the Surprise

As you know from enduring multiple April Fools’ Day surprises, the key to a successful surprise is the set-up. Teachers in Massachusetts inspired a fantastic unit preview for an upcoming unit on Historical Fiction. Students gathered on a Monday to what they thought would be another test preparation lesson. Instead the teachers and I set up the surprise by saying:

You are in the midst of being strong test takers. You have been working so diligently on this, I’ve decided we are going to take a surprise break today. Ok, before I tell you what we are going to do today, I first want to tell you my favorite part about going to the movies: watching the previews! I love to get to the theater early and watch all the previews for the new movies. Watching previews gets me excited about all the great movies I want to watch.

Today I want to give you a preview for a new and exciting unit you’ll be learning after the test.  You will be going back into history to learn about real time periods and read and write historical fiction or stories that are made up about characters that could have experienced life in those times.  I’ve brought the first lesson from the unit in for you to try today, as a way to take a quick break from our test prep and preview the fun work that lies ahead.

The combination of the element of surprise and an exciting unit preview perked the ears of the test-weary students. Teachers focused on Immigration: 1880-1930 and we used Paul Fleishman’s brand new book, The Matchbox Diary, as inspiration. Students dove into their writing that day:

Planning for Historical Fiction by Brainstorming a Main Character’s Problem, Internal and External Traits

Writing a Story Blurb that Previews the Plot of the Story

Unit previews not only plant a seed to foster engagement in a future unit, but the work of the session can help reignite student learning. In this classroom, for example, the volume of writing increased dramatically as they took a quick break from essay writing. Stamina also increased, as students remained focused on their writing for 30+ minutes. And an overall feeling of accomplishment and pride overtook the classroom as students worked with their writing partners and shared their writing.

So whether you channel your inner Ebert and create unit previews for your students, or your inner Oprah and surprise them with under-the-chair gifts, perhaps adding an element of surprise during this test prep season will be just the thing to reignite learning, energy and inquiry.

Big Idea: Fostering Student Engagement             Tiny Detail: Creating Unit Previews to Spark Engagement & Curiousity

Kate and Maggie

Standard 5: the Ikea of the Common Core Standards

The desk I’m writing at is from Ikea. It was purchased on my first (and last) trip to the Swedish superstore. Why vow to never, ever return?

Well, at first glance, Ikea made me feel confident. The warehouse bustled with everyday, non-craftsmen-looking people who would build their own furniture. If they could construct bookcases on their own, why couldn’t I?

Ikea looked easy.  Just look at these people assembling furniture with such ease and happiness!

But the moment I turned the page of the manual and saw this:

…I knew I was in trouble. What looked easy and doable quickly turned into a multi-hour, multi-step, (and expletive-filled) process. What I found the most painful was the deception of it all. The deception of something appearing easy and turning out to be quite complicated.

Ladies and gentlemen, the fifth common core reading standard is the Ikea common core standard.

Analyze the structure of text, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g. a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

It has all the signs of Ikea-ness:

• familiar: who doesn’t know what a chapter is?
• simple: chapters are usually marked with really clear markers, like numbers or titles
• mass appeal: again, who doesn’t know what a chapter is?!

But turn the pages of the metaphorical manual for common core standard five. If we break down this standard, there are multiple steps to accomplish in order to achieve proficiency:

1. Identify multiple text structures of a variety of genres (nonfiction, fiction, drama, poetry).
2. Within a specific genre, describe how multiple text structures in one text relate to each other.
3. Analyze how multiple text structures relate to the whole of the text, usually in terms of the overall meaning of the text.

For example, if we were to apply standard five to poetry:

1. Identify the different text structures of poetry: lines, stanzas, white space, punctuation, titles
2. Figure out different relationships between the text structures, like, “How do different lines relate to each other?” or “Why are certain stanzas are placed in order?” or “Why do certain lines stand alone surrounded by white space?” or “How does the title relate to the rest of the poem?”
3. Analyze how the text structures relate to the meaning of the text, as in, “How do the placement of the stanzas relate to the theme of the poem?” or “How do the first and last lines of each stanza reveal the overall meaning of the poem?”

Alas, the Ikea standard. In the spirit of not wanting students to feel like me, hour 3 into Ikea desk-building, here’s an initial lesson that breaks down this big concept into small, doable steps.

Let’s take, for example, the 7th grade rendition of standard five.

Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.

Channeling the above breakdown of standard five, here’s an instructional chart that breaks down the complexity of the standard and makes it “teaching-ready:”

Lesson Manual–Follow the steps in this manual and you’ll finish with a lesson built from scratch!

Step One: Readers use text structure to figure out the meaning of the poem.: This is the meat and potatoes of the lesson. It’s the big picture, the overall work, the theme of the day’s lesson.

Step Two: A moral or message of the poem: “If you love something, set it free.” : We decided to give the students a possible theme for the poem in this initial lesson on standard 5. We realized that if the kids struggled with determining a theme, the whole lesson would fall apart. As a series of lessons unfolded, we’d eventually have kids do both: determine theme & analyze how the text structure contributes to the theme.

Step Three: Use a Cheat Sheet–stanzas, lines, punctuation, white space, title : This reflects the subtle, yet crucial work of this standard. Kids have to be able to identify the specific text features of a particular genre. This was the confidence-building portion of the lesson. We annotated the poem with familiar text structures, as seen here:

Step Four: Unlock text structure (It will teach you theme…) 1. first lines/last lines of each stanza 2. commas and punctuation slows me down to notice what’s really important 3. cause and effect overall text structure This is the heart of the lesson. We want kids to analyze and connect how the text structure contributes to the poem’s meaning or theme. How is the theme, “If you love something, set it free,” shown through text structure?

At this point, the lesson is an inquiry. Yes, you’re providing a possible theme & specific text structures. But the kids are doing the heavy-lifting. The kids figure out, for example, how the first and last lines of each stanza show the theme. Or, how the punctuation choices made by the author reveal meaning. Or, how the overall structure of cause & effect contributes to the overall meaning.

So, let’s take first/last lines of the stanza. I might say something like:

“Ok, so one possible theme is “If you love something, set it free.” And I also know that readers can look at the specific text features of poems, like first and last lines of stanzas, to investigate HOW the text structure shows this meaning. Let’s try that out. Read the first and last lines of this stanza with me: If you catch a firefly…you have lost a tiny star.  If you let it go then,…star bright.” Huh. How does this text structure of these first lines and last lines show that if you love something you should set it free…?”

And cue kid talk. Could be partners investigating. Could be whole-class talk. Could be individual written investigations then a partner or whole-class debate.

Moving forward.

As you develop a series of lessons to teach into this standard, there’s a lot of room to remove some of the initial scaffolds. And you’d want to give yourself permission to do this, as you want to gradually release the whole process to the students.

Ways to Lift Scaffolds:

1. Have kids identify text structures.
2. Have kids identify possible themes.
3. Increase complexity of text.
4. Shorten time spend on all the steps & turn it into a more fluid process.
5. Diversify the genres–drama, short story, nonfiction articles

Let’s not let our teaching of structure feel like an incomprehensible set of Ikea instructions. Give kids the language and give them some steps to try, over and over again, until they get the hang of the allen wrenches of stanzas and the nuts and bolts of line breaks and last lines.

Big Idea: Common Core Reading Standard 5    Tiny Detail: Breaking down the steps of structure & meaning

Thanks to the hard-working staff at PS 206 for the lesson’s inspiration!

Kate and Maggie

Two Writing Teachers Guest Post: Learning the Language of Lawyers: Writing Compelling Arguments

We are absolutely thrilled to have written a guest post this week for the astounding, inspiring blog, Two Writing Teachers, led by Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz. Their blog is a testament to the power of community, not to mention the impact of the internet on education. From helpful, practical posts to their lovely slice of life community, Two Writing Teachers does more than just blog about education – it is a hub for all educators, and helps us all feel a little less alone in this chosen career of ours.

Here is a link to our recent guest post, Learning the Language of Lawyers: Writing Compelling Arguments. In it, we connect some practical strategies for argument and opinion writing to the most obvious mentor we could find:

Obviously, our teacher in all things argument and opinion.

We hope you enjoy the post!

Kate and Maggie

Becoming the Iron Chef of Small Group Instruction

I’ve been wheat- and gluten-free since December 2010.  Saying goodbye to pizza, bagels, sandwiches and pasta might rank up there as one of the more traumatic events of my life:)  However, the timing of my wheat and gluten loss couldn’t have been more convenient, as many gluten-free options now fill grocery shelves and restaurants offer gluten-free menus. (Shout out to P.F. Chang.)

Recently, we took a gluten-free baking course at the Institute of Culinary Education.  It was incredible.  We spent the evening baking gluten-free pizza, tart and quiche crusts.  We walked away confident, inspired, ready to bake.

Full disclosure: We never baked those gluten-free recipes again.  We were people who took a gluten-free baking class, instead of people studying to become better gluten-free bakers.

In short, we took a class, not a course.  Yes, we showed up and had one round of awesome practice and left feeling more confident than we did when we walked in.  But there wasn’t accountability post-class.  There wasn’t a community to show up for, to ask how our baking process was going, to share problems we faced.  There wasn’t a master chef following up on our progress, offering us immediate feedback across a span of weeks.

Sometimes our small group instruction feels like an evening gluten-free pizza class rather than a professional course of study for a gluten-free baker.  Sometimes if feels as if our students are kids taking a writing or reading class as opposed to students studying to become better readers and writers.

Classes vs. Courses 

“Classes” are not bad. Small group work can feel like short term, high-intensity events that hone in on specific areas of need.  For example, you study your essay drafts and notice four students struggling with paragraphing.  You pull these kids for a quick small group lesson on choosing when to paragraph.  A few days go by and you notice that the group now needs work with analyzing text evidence.  You pull these kids for a small group lesson on elaboration and analysis.  You’re basing your instruction on the immediate needs of the kids and this is beautiful, effective teaching.

However, small group work can also be a meeting place for kids to take ‘mini-courses of study’ on a specific topic, over time.  Teaching mini-courses of study can help develop a line of work with a group of kids around a similar need or topic.  For instance, let’s return to the group of students working with paragraphing.  Instead of one day on paragraphs, perhaps these students take a course of study on structure.  If they struggle with the structure of paragraphs, perhaps they struggle with other elements of structure: complex sentence structure, the flow of topic sentences into supporting sentences, the structure of an effective conclusion, the structure of presenting evidence.  After a mini-course of study on structure, students leave with more developed, in-depth, differentiated support that’s likely to transfer over to multiple pieces of writing. Carl Anderson shares a similar idea of developing larger, more expansive writing goals from individual conferences as opposed to conferring on-the-fly. (Check out this post on Two Writing Teachers that highlights this concept.)

Designing Mini-Courses of Study During Small Group Work 

Mini-courses of study are a series of 3-6 small group lessons, bundled together to provide kids enough practice on a larger concept so they can achieve growth.  (Check out our post, Rinse & Repeat: How Learning Sticks, that discusses how often kids need practice in order to become independent.)

Steps for Designing a Mini-Course of Study

Step One: Use data to design a small group of 3-4 students who need the same thing. 

Popular places to look for trends:

• annotations on post its or in the margins of a text
• writing about reading entries
• student writing in notebook, draft or final form
• results from a performance assessment, like here

Step Two: Plan a mini-course of study 

Create a template to keep track of what to teach during the mini-course of study, the progress kids are making, and ideas for further instruction.  Here is a rendition of an organizational template:

Here is another example of a syllabus for a three-day mini-course of study on structure in essay:

Step Three: Manage and nurture your mini-courses of study 

Like establishing any good habit, it takes follow-through to keep it going.  Plan when you’ll run your mini-courses of study.  Maybe you begin by launching one mini-course of study that happens one time a week. Maybe small group work happens on specific days of the week, like Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Maybe small group work happens daily for a week, right after the lesson.  Make a doable schedule that you can follow and revisit to see how it’s going.

Also, plan how students become involved with a mini-course of study.  While much of the time you might decide who is in a small group. In addition teacher-formed groups, perhaps kids sign up for a mini-course, like this:

Step Four: Practice different methods of teaching

Not everyone will learn from the same kind of lesson. Vary your teaching moves to get as many kids on board as possible. (See future blog posts for methods of small group instruction!)

Here are two educators who have helped us grow our thinking around this topic: Jennifer Serravallo & Marjorie Martinelli.  Check them out to hear more about small group work!

Big Idea: Small Group Instruction     Tiny Detail: Planning & Scheduling Mini Courses of Study