Issue 92: May 24, 2010 Connections Newsletter
“If You Teach Them, They Will Write!”
Carol Brewer
May 24, 2010
Traveling to different school districts gives me the opportunity to see evidence of exemplary practices in all grade levels. With recent walkthroughs, I am most impressed with Kindergarten writing. I used to hear, "Kindergarteners can't do that," and now I hear, "If you teach them, they will write!" It is so exciting talking with Kindergarten teachers about their writing expectations.
Let me share some comments:
"We start the first day of school writing and writing in sentences. It might not be 'pretty,' but if you don't set the expectation, you will never get them to write."
"Writing has to modeled, my Kindergarteners see me write, then they write, then they read what they write."
"Some of my students did not even know how to hold their pencil the first day of school, no excuse, we still wrote."
"My Kindergarteners write everything! They complete their own graphic organizers. They write their own summaries. They share these with their partners. This did not happen the first day or the next; it has been a work in progress throughout the year, but if I had not started, they never would have gotten to this independence."
"Writing has also helped with fluency. My students are fluent readers and I contribute this to reading what they have written. They read to me, or their partner, or their small group, or the whole class."
The following is a great writing activity:
* Give students a topic (if needed)
* Students draw a picture (this organizes their thoughts just like a graphic organizer)
* Students label the picture (this can be used as their vocabulary or word bank)
* Students use their words to write sentences or paragraphs
* Students read their writing to the teacher, a partner, small group or whole class
* Teacher displays their work with the picture first then their writing (just like you would display a graphic organizer with the summary or reflection)
The Learning to Write Book and Flipchart has additional information and writing resources.
Boggy Creek, a LEARNING-FOCUSED School, Wins Division E Math Olympiad
Barbara McSwain
May 24, 2010
Pamela Amoda is the Math/Science Coach at Boggy Creek Elementary School in the School District of Osceola County, FL. She often quotes Henry Ford at the bottom of her emails, "Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." Ms. Amoda recently contacted LEARNING-FOCUSED to let us know their students had participated in and won the Division E Title in the Math Olympiads.
Amoda stated, "Mr. Joseph Ravida's students focused on problem solving strategies to prepare students for the competition. There were a Total of 5419 participants in Division E in the Math Olympiads." Ravida is known by his peers and students for his hard work and the success of all of his students.
The Math Olympiad Goals are to:
- Stimulate enthusiasm and love for Math
- Introduce important Mathematical concepts
- Teach Major strategies for problem solving
- Develop Mathematical flexibility in solving problems
The Competition:
- 5 given throughout the year
- 5 problems per competition
- Students are given a specific time limit
Boggy Creek is a Title I school with an enrollment of 753 students. The principal is MaryAnn Rodriguez-Perez. Rodriguez-Perez encourages all students to perform at their maximum each day. Visit the Osceola website at www.osceola.k12.fl.us to learn more about Boggy Creek.
Connections: Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts in Acquisition Lessons
Brenda Hill
May 24, 2010
You learned about the importance of planning for and implementing Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts in LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies: Connecting Exemplary Practices in Acquisition Lessons. However, there still seems to be some confusion about when and how each of these strategies is effectively used in Acquisition Lessons. You already know that Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts are strategies that increase student engagement and improve student achievement. These strategies are distributed throughout the teaching strategies component of an Acquisition Lesson, and when implemented, both strategies check students' understanding of new knowledge and require students to "think about" and process the new learning in a meaningful, purposeful way. Therefore, it is essential we understand why, when, and how to use both Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts.
Collaborative Pairs is a research-based instructional strategy that actively engages students by having them discuss new information learned. Cognitive research has shown that learning is first a social activity before it is a cognitive activity, and that talking activates the frontal lobe of the brain. Gaps in student learning are revealed and questions students still have about new information are discovered by having them talk about their learning. Chronological age plus one to two minutes determine how long Collaborative Pairs are used in acquisition lessons.
Assessment Prompts are specifically designed as formative assessments to determine a student's understanding on a topic or subject. These prompts, when distributed throughout a lesson, will help teachers adjust instruction to better meet each learner's needs. Assessment Prompts, as well as Collaborative Pairs, should be distributed and ongoing throughout each Acquisition Lesson.
Below is a diagram for a three day lesson including both collaborative pairs and assessment prompts. The nonlinguistic representation, "A Three Day Lesson with Assessment Prompts", represents how both strategies are planned for and used within the framework of an Acquisition Lesson. A sample Acquisition Lesson using Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts follows the graphic representation.
Sample Lesson:
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I use information from a graphic organizer to write a summary about something I've learned?
AP #1: Know characteristics of summary writing
AP #2: Make connections from a graphic organizer to summary writing
AP #3: Write a summary on an assigned topic
Activating Strategy: Draw or Diagram
Students sketch a picture of a spider. Students are shown several pictures of spiders and discuss feelings about and characteristics of spiders. Partners discuss and share with one another feelings about and drawings of spiders.
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Key Vocabulary: summary (Word Map for "summary")
Graphic Organizer: Key Points Organizer
Teaching Strategies:
Show students an example of a written summary. Review "Summary Word Map." Remind students of characteristics of a summary.
Collaborative Pairs: Summary Point Writing. Each student will write one sentence about his/her learning of a "summary" to this point in the lesson. Share sentence with partner.
Some student responses (Summary Point Statements) are shared with class. Address and answer any questions about summaries.
AP #1: Know characteristics of summary writing
Partners are given several writing examples and are asked to find the summary writing from the examples they have been given. Each pair must justify why the example is a written summary.
Reference Lesson Essential Question. Teacher reads aloud informational text about spiders. Each student has a copy of text and follows along as teacher reads. Model underlining 1-2 key points in text.
Collaborative Pairs: Pairs reread text and together underline the remaining key points from the text.
Show copy of text with key points underlined on the overhead, ELMO projector or smart board. Students check answers. Each student is given a copy of Key Points Graphic Organizer. Models with think alouds how to complete the organizer by completing 1-2 key points on the organizer.
Collaborative Pairs: Partners work together to complete the Key Points Graphic Organizer about spiders. Each individual student has his/her own copy of the organizer but the pair must discuss key points together before they add each point to the organizer.
Complete a Key Point Organizer on chart paper and model writing a summary from the organizer. (May only demonstrate by writing the first two or three sentences.)
AP #2: Make connection from graphic organizer to writing. Each student uses his graphic completed organizer to write a summary about spiders.
Remind students of steps in writing a summary. Refer back to LEQ and "Summary Word Map".
Collaborative Pairs: Numbered Heads - 1s tell 2s first thing someone needs to do when writing a summary (determine or underline key points in text); 2s tell1s the next step in writing a summary (complete graphic organizer and use that information to write a summary).
Students are given a blank Key Points Organizer and a copy of informational text about a specific habitat.
AP #3: Write a summary on a topic
Each student reads the "habitat" text, completes the organizer, and writes a brief summary using information from the organizer.
Summarizing Strategy: Letter to the Absent Student
Write a Letter to the Absent Student answering the Lesson Essential Question. Remind students to include steps in the process for writing a summary in the letter.
Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts are essential research-based strategies that positively impact student learning and achievement. In addition, Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts are used to actively engage students in the learning process and check students' understanding about new information. One is not to be used exclusive of the other, but both work together requiring students to "show" what they know. By planning for and using Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts in Acquisition Lessons the implementation results are beneficial to both you and students. You benefit by accurately assessing the effectiveness of research-based strategies on student learning and adjusting instructional practices. Students benefit by clearly understanding the lesson objective, as well as being more focused on learning outcomes. Connecting Collaborative Pairs and Assessment Prompts in Acquisition Lessons make the reality of learning "visible" to everyone.
