Closed Reading

          I know many of you have heard or used Closed Reading as a tool in your arsenal, but I am going to ask you to look at Closed Reading again.  There are many different ways to teach reading and we all have our favorites. How often do we give our students background information on an article or text, because we thing it is important? How often do we ask questions that could have been answered without reading the text? Think about what would happen if you did not give students the background information we felt they needed. What would happen? Would they not be able to answer the questions at the end of the text?
      What is closed reading? Closed Reading is when students read a high level text on their own, annotating while they read; during this time the teacher monitors. When the students are finished reading the teacher then reads the whole article or a particularly difficult section to the students annotating as she/he goes. (Modeling the strategy after the students have attempted it.)
       Recently I was able to sit in a training to teach elementary teachers this strategy. I was very curious as to how this would work at the elementary level, how open my teachers would be about this strategy, and what concerns the teachers would have about it.
       I was just as excited as the teachers I was sitting with! While we read an article explaining the theory of Closed Reading, what Closed Reading is and giving examples of Closed Reading in practice, teachers wanted to try it immediately. When you are told the purpose of Closed Reading is for students to gain the skills to be able to comprehend at a deeper level on their own, it is easy to get excited. Being able to read example of closed reading in an elementary setting made it easier for the teachers to "buy into" the strategy.
      The conversation I heard was teachers talking about why they were teaching "cold  readings" the way they did. One teacher was really questioning why she gave the background information. (Her conclusion was that it was to make her feel like everyone had a little knowledge about the content. Was I asking questions that required background knowledge? If so, why?  and  How was that helping them become independent learners?) I was proud to sit with these teachers who were excited to learn something new that will teach their students to be more independent.
     The only concern I heard was teachers were curious as to where to find their articles and text. I was able to direct them to a few resources that they have at their disposal- our librarian, Gale virtual library, and their ELA district coordinator.

      Closed Reading is not a new concept, but it is always good to look at current practices and see how others execute the practices.

Resources pertaining to this post ( There are many out there, these are just a few that I read.):

Boyles, Nancy. "Closing in on Close Reading." Educational Leadership. 70.4 (2012): 36-41. Web. 30 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-on-Close-Reading.asp&xgt;.

Fisher, Douglas. "Close Reading in Elementary School." Reading Teacher. Novemeber 2012: n. page. Web. 30 Dec. 2013.

Shanahan, Timothy. "What is Close Reading?." Shanahan on Literacy. N.p., 06 18 2012. Web. 30 Dec. 2013. <http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/06/what-is-close-reading.html>.

Back at it!

I fell out of habit of writing... LOTS of things have happened since I last posted. I am at a different school, where I am the principal, and I am expecting a new little boy in May (I was pretty sick for a while). I hate how easy it was to fall out of habit, but you all know life happens....

 

Now that I have gotten things under control and I feel like I have a better grasp on life, I am giving myself time to write again. My first entry will be about what I have experienced so far in my new position.

 

1. Elementary and Middle School are as different curriculum-wise as I previously expected.

      Best practices are Best practices; it doesn't matter what age level of kids you are teaching.(note: I do acknowledge that there are better practices for each grade, but I feel that falls into knowing your kids category.) I have tried to spend as much of my time in the classrooms to get to know the kids, teachers, and curriculum as I can, but as I always say- "You never have enough time to get into classrooms."

      I walking into a classroom and a student asking to show/read/tell me about what they are doing. I was amazed by what my Kindergarteners are able to accomplish! They are able to read books to me, to which they expect me to ask them questions about it when they are done, they love to read their writing to me (And I must admit, this is my favorite thing they do!), and they are enthusiastic to explain their math to me. Yes, teaching reading in K-2 is different than I am used to. I have also learned that teaching reading 3-5 is very similar to 6-12. Our teachers are amazing and I am learning so much about what they do and how they do it. Love transparency. :) 

 

2. There is a HUGE difference in Elementary and Middle School discipline.

     This is not something I want to focus on, but we all know that this is apart of everyday live in a school. When I was at the middle school, I had a lot of options from a variant of detentions, ISS, OSS, DAEP. However, in the Elementary I do not have as many options, I pretty much have time out and it is in my office. I have channeled my inner counselor and with the help of my counselor and CIT have not had any situations that we were able to find a solution to.

 

3. Kids are Kids

      Kids are honest, opinionated, and fun. They tell you what they think, what they want, and what you should do.  When I left my previous school, many of my kids called me a trader and were mad. I thought it was sweet, they cared that I was leaving. :) They have since gotten over the mad and I get hugs now when I see them.

     Whenever I would cover a class at the middle school I never had a student ask me what qualifications I had, they knew I had taught before. My elementary students are a little more cautious: 

      I have gotten the opportunity to cover a few teachers' classes in the past few weeks, which I loved. In one class I was able to have writing conferences with the students over a history DBQ (document Based Question), one student asked me if I knew what I was doing; in another class we looked for text evidence to support our conclusion and a student stated, " You can teach?" I responded with, "Why, yes I can."   

   I came in three months after school started, they didn't know who I was. Most knew I came from the middle school, because they had a sibling there. So, to give me "street cred" I have started asking them more "teacher" questions when I am in their classes. I still ask my "administrator" questions, but I want to make sure my kids know I can help them as well. (ie. "Teacher" question- How does your wording here affect the tone of your writing? "Administrator" question- How are you using your rubric while you are writing?)

Professional Development and Twitter

I am sure that most (if not all) have been involved with professional development using some type of media, but the trend now is Twitter. I love Twitter! I love it for the knowledge that it contains.
Top 10 reasons I love Twitter:
10. I am able to follow what is going on at school through the students using the school's #hashtag
 9. I am able to see work displayed by the teachers and students on my phone! (parents love this as well)
 8.  I get to share my thoughts with everyone that follow me.
 7.  I am able to follow my sports teams in one glance. (scores up-to-date, no box scores)
 6. It makes me really think about what I want to say, because of the people that follow me. (grammar, connotation, tone...) Sometimes I type a tweet only to delete it, but I still feel better! :) (digital footprint and all)
 5. I get to follow what is going on at other schools in our district. Today I was able to read their tweeter feeds and see what they were learning on their campus, very insightful!
 4.  I am able to get news updates, and decide if I need to read the entire article right then or wait for later.
3. I get great articles from people in my profession. Great learning tool (again)
2. I can use it whenever I choose too.  I can join conversations or read them after they have concluded.
1. BOOK STUDIES!!! I participated in a fantastic book study tonight (continued tomorrow- Friday 8-9). I got to see the how teachers in my building teach writing and how they are going to change their teaching style for next year. I really enjoyed it; it motivated me to want to read/write more! :)

If you don't have a professional Twitter account, I suggest you get one and join the Twitter world!

* The #hashtag is located on the left of this page.

Liebster

Liebster (Thanks Mandi!)

Liebster Awards do come with a few guidelines (Mandi doesn't like to call them rules):

1. Link back to the blog that nominated you
2. Answer the questions that the person who nominated you asked
3. Share 11 random facts about yourself
4. Nominate some great blogs with less than 200 followers! (My favorite!)
5. Present 11 questions for your nominees to answer

Questions for My Nominees:

1. If you could go anywhere, where would it be? (This doesn't have to be a real place).                   I want to go to The Keys, it is my favorite place!
2. What's your favorite sport?                                                                                                             My favorite sport to play, soccer and volleyball. My favorite sports to watch is college football
3. What's your guilty pleasure?                                                                                                           Hot bath and a good movie!!
4. What's your favorite word?                                                                                                             My favorite wordis plethora. Once a navy sailor told my mom, sister, aunt, and cousin there was a plethora of restaurants downtown. My sister said, from the back seat, "did he just say there are a but load of restaurants downtown?" I thought that was hilarious!! And I read an article how it is the most overly used word used to sound smart, that makes me laugh too!
5. What's your favorite part of starting the school year?                                                                     The possibilities, it is like Christmas! I love to think about how great the year will be. 
6. What's the worst thing about starting the school year?                                                                   Calling people we didn't hire, so sad.
7. Is the glass half empty or half full?                                                                                                 Half full! :) 
8. What advice would you give to teachers for starting the new school year?                                   Ask questions, listen to your peers (don't let them walk over you, but listen to what they have to say), and stay excited.
9. What's the last book you read? Starring Me By Krista McGee (FANTASTIC)
10. What is your favorite professional book? Middle School Book Clubs
11. What's your favorite flower? Daisy (They are the happiest flower), followed VERY closely by the tulip.                                

11 Random Facts about Me!

1.  I LOVE being a member of a large family! I am the second eldest of 5 kids and I love it!

2. GEAUX TIGERS!! I am a HUGE LSU fan. 

3.  I love TV shows from the 90's (Friends, Full House, Sabrina the Teenage Which...)

4. Love me some Dark Chocholate

5. My husband is a better cook than I am....I bake better.

6. I love the zoo, one of my very favorite places to go.

7. I prefer YA books to adult books.

8. I always said I didn't want to be a teacher (Everyone in my family is, I wanted to do something different.), but when it is your calling...you answer.

9. I don't like road trips; I am getting better. I get antsy.

10. My mother and I have the same job title in different schools.

11. I hate to dust!

Questions for my Nominees: 

1. If you could move anywhere, where would it be? (This doesn't have to be a real place).            
2. Which do you prefer, Professional or College sports?                                                                 
3. What's your guilty pleasure?                                                                                                          
4. What's your favorite word?                                                                                                            
5. What's your favorite part of starting the school year?                                                                    
6. What is your favorite holiday? Why?                                                                 
7. Are you a people person? Kids or Adults, which do you prefer to talk with?                                
8. What advice would you give to teachers for starting the new school year?                                  
9. What's the last book you read?
10. If you could learn a new language, what would it be?
11. What's your favorite city? Why?

Great Blogs to Follow!

 shortandsassyteacher.blogspot.com

Texas Middle School Teacher Connection

Special Education Love

Middle School Stories

Science Teaching Junkie

Book study on Twitter

I will be participating in a book study over Aimee Buckner's book Notebook Know-How .  I am very excited about this book; I have read it before, but it was before my understanding of workshop. I am excited to see others thoughts on this book. I am participating with Mandi, http://lifewithmiddleschooler.blogspot.com/. We will be tweeting on Tuesday nights at 8pm #hashtag #ladeptread. Please see  http://lifewithmiddleschooler.blogspot.com/ for more information.
Hope to see you there!

Picture obtained from Amazon.com

This week...

This week has been such a great week! I have gotten so much done! Many people, including my husband, ask, " What do you do in the summer? There aren't teachers or kids." This is an excellent question! We get ready for the teachers and kids.
     Monday we had new teacher training at one of our high schools; while we were there we were expected to go to media update, which released us early (!!). Then we had a working lunch to review the STAAR data, where they told us that they don't have all the information, because the state hasn't released it all yet... We were released out of there early (!!) as well. We then went back to campus and conducted interviews for teachers that we still need to hire, worked on the locker situation, and helped with registration. It was a busy day.
     Tuesday we had new teacher training on our campus, 6th grade schedule pick up, more interviews, lunch with the new teachers,

                                              (the state marker across the street from lunch)
 registration, finish our professional development plan, late registration, and I had an appointment with our AMAZING ELA department chair. "What was the best part of the day?" you ask. Another great question! My meeting with Mandi, the department chair. I love talking about Language Arts! I love that she comes to the table with questions and solutions to these questions. I am so excited about this year I can't stand it!
   Wednesday (today) we work on our campus, we were moving furniture, cleaning out rooms, more interviews, and making anchor charts for our PLC room. It was a great day!

I hope your week is as eventful as mine!

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Innovation

        What do you think of when you think of innovation? Smart phones, GPS, or maybe your iPad. I watch my 3 year old play and see that he is naturally creative. Everything can be a gun or a sword. He sees things that I don't. What happens to us as we grow up? At what point do we stop seeing what can be and go with what everyone else is doing?
 Think about innovation within education, what does it look like? Why is there so little innovation in our classrooms? Our teachers are brilliant people, amazing teachers, what prevents them from teaching outside of their comfort zone? Mandi, from http://lifewithmiddleschooler.blogspot.com/ , is innovative, but why don't we have more teachers that try new things consistently. We have a few teachers that will try new ideas, but it is sparatic, we need it constantly.
    This year my goal is to support the teachers on my campus to be innovative, try new ideas. Will they all be perfect and great? No, but we will strive to make our ideas successful. We will model for our students that  to be innovative there is some trail and error, but planning and collaboration is the key to being successful. Show our students that problem solving is an important skill for all jobs.


Conceptual Teaching on the Brain!!
(I have my own ideas to the questions I posed, but I would love to hear you ideas.)

It all starts with a Tweet!

It all starts with a tweet!

A few days ago a former principal of mine tweeted out, "Wondering why we teach math "conceptually" but teach "reading strategies?" What if we taught reading conceptually?" I haven't been able to stop thinking about this. I went from defensive to mad to sad. I wanted to defend my colleagues and myself, "We do teach conceptually! Students have choice in their text. Students choose the "strategies" they want to use to answer guiding questions. Students work with and through each other. But then I realized, not everyone does this. The more instructional leadership responsibilities I get, the more important I see how collaborative teaching really is. We can’t just get mad and say, “It would be great if we could do that.” We need to get out of our comfort zone and teach our students to think on their own- to not need us.

Part of this page will be dedicated to my thinking out of how I am going to help our teachers to teach more conceptually in our reading classes.

I will be starting at <a title="Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction" href="http://www.cori.umd.edu" target="_blank">Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction .</a>

Please share any resources you might have. Thank you in advance! :)

Amy 

The pitfall of working with great people...

This summer in our district we have had a lot of changes, from teachers to nurses to administration.  Change makes people uneasy, even if it was their plan. I am happy to see so many friends/colleagues able to pursue their dream path. The bittersweet feelings are over taken by the joy they show with either getting the position they have been working so hard for or by being able to stay at home with their children.

As you all know, the problem with working with great people is you don't get to keep them. We have lost several great teachers this summer, but today we lost a department head and an assistant principal. I am SO happy for them, they both work hard and deserve the new positions; however I am selfish and want them to stay and be great with me!! :)

But on a serious note, this is the point of the year when you are finishing the hiring for the new year and you have such high hopes for the campus. And I am so there!! I am so exited about our new staff and how they are going to make our current staff even better! I feel like it is Christmas; the anticipation of what we are going to do has me on pins and needles. I am getting emails, text, tweets, and phone calls from treachers about the great ideas they have for next year. I get so excited when colleagues get excited about their classrooms. It is going to be a great year!

It is a fantastic time to be an educator and I am bless to be at such an amazing school!!

Dell Tablet vs. iPad

Dell Tablet

VS.

iPad

This week I have been looking at the advantages of the Dell Tablet and the iPad.  I have to say that I like both of them for different reasons. I like the iPad, because it is super easy to use; the Tablet, because it does everything (FLASH) that my computer does. The iPad has been around longer so there are a TON more apps; according to many of the app developers I have heard from, many apps are already in Beta testing, so it shouldn't be too long. I have had an iPad longer so I am more familiar with how to work it; however, once we upgrade to Windows 8 on our desktops the Tablet will be second nature.  I feel that the iPad is going to be more widely used because it is Apple, but I think that the Dell Tablet makes more sense for students. The Dell Tablet has USB ports, a mini HDI port, and an SD reader. These things make the Dell Tablet more versatile for educational use. Either way, tablets are the way education is going and I am excited to see our district is getting on board.  

Technopalozza 2013

Here are all the teachers from my school that attended our technology conference, today.  We have 62 teachers, a few were here, but missed the pic. In an age where technology dictates how we do everything, I am surprised we don't have a larger crew here. 

I LOVE the idea of our technopalozza, however, I feel we need more leveled sessions. At no point should I be learning the same technology as my mom. I love her, she is very smart, but I am way more versed in technology that she is. I have spent more time helping others. Than learning today....I am feeling for my smart students that are bored during their classes.

Yesterday I learned ALOT, I was able to choose my sessions.

     

  Doceri is great!! I really want all my teachers to see this app. It is an easy way to flip a classroom, record student's closings, or just presenting information to their class. It is user friendly, education friendly (one license for all computers that can reach it), and attractive. I can't wait to see my campus using this! 

These conferences always get me excited; so many ideas, great new tools, and networking, I hope we keep the momentum going! 

Training Camp

If you have any coaches, athletes, or sports enthusiast in your life give them this book. I couldn't put it down; it is a great guide to go from average to BEST. It has humor, love, faith, and strength. We are going to be conducting a book study for our coaches this year using this book. It isn't long, it is a quick read; however, deep thought is involved. I found myself thinking far deeper than I had anticipated.

 Readily enjoyed Martin's journey! Thank you, Jon Gordon.

First Day Back

Today was our first day back to school from Summer break. I walked in the door and the custodians are starting to wax the floor. What?! You have had 4 weeks with an empty building and this is when your start this. Then when I got down to my office I was slapped in the face with heat and the realization that we weren't going to have air again this summer in our office. I wasn't excited about the start to this day.
At our 8:00am meeting, I was informed that the books I got to order at the end of the year were in and   I was back to my positive attitude. Who doesn't love new books? This is where I am taking this post today.
     The books, I was lucky enough to go through today, are the books we order for all of our teachers to use with their students this year. Most of the books that where ordered were for our Social Studies department. I am a huge fan of cross-curricular teaching. This is something our campus started focusing on at the end of last school year and plan on focusing more on this school year.  I am so excited about some of these books I can hardly stand it. As an ELA teacher I just assumed all teachers got excited about books, I have found out that this is not the case.
      The books I am most excited about are "_____ The Experience" books. Do you remember Encyclopedia Brown Adventure books? ( I loved these books!) These books are choose your adventure books, but they are all based on true events. In the Civil War book, you choose who you are, Confederate soldier, Union Soldier, or civilian. Then you make choices and your characters life plays out. My thought is that these short adventures would be great unit opener.
    Workshop Model:
      The students could get into small groups, track a characters situation, and then share out.
Opening- minimal information on the event (10mins)
Work Time- have the students make a character choice
      Alone/solo time- students have 5mins to write what they think will happen to their character.
      Group time-  have the students read the book and make the choices that will shape their character's life.
Ending- have the students share out what happened to their character.

I can't wait to see our kid working in book clubs and in workshop in History this year.

Good Reading Habits (transfer post)

Recently I have started teaching my 3 year old to read. I have taught English Language Arts for 8 years, but it was all at the secondary level. I have never taught a child to read words, phonics, blends, phonemes... This is not my comfort level.

I have always felt that reading was very important. My son has had at least one book read to him every day of his life. He has memorized easy books and is able to"read" them to people. He loves to show that he can read. Two weeks ago my mom, also an educator, brought me a book from her school library, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Engelmann, Haddox, and Bruner. We are on lesson 14 and I am shocked at what my kiddo is doing! His favorite part is to read the story, which is only 3 words at this point, and then to explain how the story and the picture are related.

I am not sure where he will be on lesson 100, but I feel that for a 3 year old he is doing fantastic! We are doing our reading lesson every night and my hope is that we are instilling good reading habits for our family. :)