Canvas Link!

There are so many things being put onto the Patterson Canvas page.  I have made a link to Canvas on this blog.  You can access this link under the "helpful links for Teachers" heading in the left column.  I hope you find this helpful!

ARI Meetings

ARI Meetings

Documentation to Bring to the ARI Meeting

Student Data-either the Class Summary Sheet found in First Class>Elementary Language Arts> ARI Folder> or an Eduphoria Class Printout (to be determined by the campus.

Identify ARI students using the Reading Literacy Assessment Guidelines.  Students who have fallen below level on all assessments are ARI with the exception of Grades 4-6 where ARI students are those students who have not achieved a 70% or above on STAAR testing.

After Identifying Students as At Risk:

Identify Students as ARI in Eduphoria

Send letters to parents letting them know their student has been tested.  Letters can be found in First Class>Elementary Language Arts>ARI Assessments folder. (These are sent home on all students)

A yellow literacy folder must be created for each students identified as ARI.  If previously identified, the folder may already exist.

Documentation Requirements:

As each student is seen in small group, documentation is a best teaching practice

Documentation MUST occur every time an ARI students us seen in class

Documentation may be done in View-It or on Paper-This is a campus and teacher preference.

At Lease 6 weeks of documentation must be included in the yellow literacy folder at the end of the year.

Standard Classroom Practice:

All students in CISD MUST be seen in guided reading groups.

CISD READS Guided Reading Flow Chart is a document developed to help you determine how often during the week a group of students should be seen in guided reading

Documentation needs to occur for ALL students in CISD.

Steps To Teaching A Read Aloud Think Together (RATT) Lesson

How to Teach a RATT Lesson

1. The Introduction

Ø  Ideally, when you preview a read aloud book, you want to stick closely to the targeted standard.

Ø  An extensive book walk may distract students from your focus.

Ø  If you take into account your students’ language and conceptual development when selecting the book, a lengthy introduction shouldn’t be necessary.

2. Modeled Thinking

Ø  When you pre-read the book, identify the moments where you will pause and think aloud.

Ø  Ideally, the story should illustrate your thinking and your thinking should illuminate the text.

Ø  Use content vocabulary whenever possible. If you want students to understand what “narration” is, use the word in context when appropriate.

3. Turn and Talk

Ø  Turn and talk is not strictly an opportunity for students to share their thoughts about the story.

Ø  In fact, you want to ask carefully worded questions that prompt students to emulate the thinking you’ve modeled.

The Principals of Turn and Talk

·         In order for everyone to participate, students should not be asked to raise their hands.

·         Conversation typically lasts about 20 seconds so students do not stray off topic.

·         Linda Hoyt recommends a turn and talk segment roughly every five minutes, leaving sufficient time for reading and modelled thinking

Thinking Partnerships

·         In thinking partnerships, students share ideas about the text and the target standard on a regular basis.

·         The teacher advertises or “hypes” the fact partnerships carry responsibility.

·         Each pairing must carry on a focused conversation or it cannot continue.

·         Each partner is also responsible for active listening.

·         It will be helpful for the teacher to model or fishbowl a good thinking partner conversation. You may invite another teacher to help.

Depending on the class you can …

·         ask students to find a thinking partner on their way to the read aloud area.

·         pre-assign thinking partners based on a variety of factors.

5 Discussion Strategies

1.  Stop and Jot: Students stop and write in a notebook, on a sticky note, or on a notecard in response to a teacher prompt

2.  Stop and Sketch: Students stop and sketch what they visualize in a portion of a book

3.  Stop and Act: Students dramatize a moment that was just read or predict nonverbally

4.  Think Aloud: A teacher models thinking in order to give students an image of the kind of thinking one person has in a particular part of a book

5.  Turn and Talk: Students talk to a partner about a prompt given by the teacher or discussion leader

What Is A Read Aloud Think Together

“Read-aloud is much-treasured in most elementary classrooms. This is a time when teachers open windows into the world of mystery, magic, and enormous possibility that resides within the covers of our favorite books.”  - Linda Hoyt

What is Read Aloud Think Together?

o   Text is below, on, or above grade level.

o   Read aloud is built on the gradual release model -- particularly the idea that instruction should begin with explicit modelling.

o   Lessons are carefully constructed so that teachers both read the text and actively support the learning.

o   The teacher reads aloud from a variety of genres and guides the students through the key points of the book as well as higher-level questions.

o   First and foremost, we have to accept that read aloud think together is an instructional setting. Quality storytelling is important, but it should not hinder instruction.

o   Therefore, we identify “key points of the book” not necessarily in terms of the story, but based on our instructional focus on that day.

o   Our TEKS are organized into genre strands.

o   Our curriculum is organized into genre-centered units.

o   As Linda Hoyt says, “While fiction is, of course, wonderful … it isn’t enough.” Through rich text selection “learners begin to understand the distinguishing features of various genres and learn what to expect from each.”

o   Lessons are carefully constructed so that teachers both read the text and actively support the learning.

o   It engages children in the joy of reading and provides them with a model for how to read with expression, intonation and phrasing.

o   Read aloud is built on the gradual release model -- particularly the idea that instruction should begin with explicit modelling.

When do we do read aloud think together?

o   Daily.

o   Notice that in first grade, read aloud think together is a stand-alone instructional component.

o   -It is done in addition to shared reading

How much time should we spend on a read aloud?

o   Read aloud think together typically lasts around 15 minutes.

o   However, consider the additional instructional components in your classroom.

o   Above all, consider the requirements of that day’s lesson and monitor your students.

How do I know which lesson to do and when?

o   Start with the scope and sequence. The TEKS will guide your selection of a target standard.

o   Use read alouds to immerse students in a genre.

o   Later in a unit, use read alouds to address the particular concepts or genre characteristics with which students struggled.

How do I choose the right book for the right lesson?

o   Above all, remember that the book you select must support ...

o   the instructional focus for that day’s lesson

o   moments to stop, think aloud and model

o   higher level questioning

o   invitations for students to share their thinking with partners

Create a Unique Space for your Read Alouds

o   Students typically gather on the floor where it is easy to see the illustrations, listen to the reader and turn and talk to neighbors.

o   The teacher typically sits in a chair and showcases the illustrations so that students can pick up on visual clues.

o   Unlike shared reading, where students need to see the words, enlarged text is not necessary in a read aloud lesson.

Pulling Guided Reading Groups

Selecting the Text

Consider the following:

•       Print layout and spacing

•       Familiarity and sophistication of content

•       Known and new high frequency contact

•       Support provided by illustrations and other art

•       Length

•       Familiarity of language or syntax

•       Amount of new vocabulary

•       Graphic or other text features

•       Organization of information

Introducing the Text

•       Call attention to a few difficult words

•       Explain a few concepts or vocabulary

•       Build interest in the text

•       Activate background knowledge

•       Get students wondering about the text

•       Invite students to make predictions

•       Point out something unusual in the print or layout or language structures

•       Point out unfamiliar text features like bold type, ellipses, italics.

Reading the Text

•       2^nd grade  and up – will usually read silently while the teacher listens

•       Kindergarten and 1^st grade – will usually read out loud, very softly.

How Do I Listen

•       Slide hand in and out

•       Turn one front/one back

•       Walk around and kneel beside each child

•       Have them start at different times

What if they finish at different times?

•       Teach them to reread

•       Have them read and then choose another book to read

•       Give them a task to think/write about when they are done

While they are reading

•       Prompt to initiate problem-solving actions using meaning, language and print

•       Demonstrate effective ways to search for and use the information in the text

•       Demonstrate, reinforce or prompt using self-monitoring of checking strategies

•       Demonstrate, reinforce or prompt self-correcting errors that interfere with meaning

•       Observe effective reading behaviors

•       Demonstrate, reinforce or prompt using punctuation.

Discussing and Revisiting the Text

•       Practice retelling

•       Invite personal response/sharing of understanding

•       Encourage readers to search for new information

•       Make predictions/inferences

•       Make connections

•       Express opinions

•       Listen to and build on each other’s thinking

Retelling Activities

•       Story Boards

•       Picture Retelling

•       Round Robin Retelling

•       Dramatic Retelling

•       Cut-Up Stories

•       Sequencing/Timelines

What is Guided Reading

According to Fountas and Pinnell, guided reading is an instructional setting that enables you (the teacher) to work with a small group of students to help them learn effective strategies for processing text with understanding.

Guided reading is a teaching approach that is designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with understanding and fluency.

What Guided Reading Does NOT Look Like:

•       Round robin reading

•       Choral reading

•       Teacher reading the book to the   students

•       Students reading different books

•       Except when reading from book bags

•       Interruptions of the group

How does Guided Reading work?

•       Teacher works with 4-6 students in each group.

•       Children are grouped according to similarities in   reading development and instructional reading levels or, by strategy need.

•       Teacher introduces stories, strategies, and concepts within group to increase independent application inappropriate leveled text.

•       Every child reads and is supported by teacher.

•       Emphasis is on strategic problem solving within appropriate leveled text.

Structure of Guided Reading

•       Selecting a Text

•       Introducing the Text

•       Reading the Text

•       Discussing and Revisiting the Text

•       Teaching for Processing Strategies

•       Working with Words (optional)

•       Extending the Understanding of Text (optional)

Materials Needed:

•       Leveled texts (one copy per student)

•       Guided Reading binder

•       Post-it notes

•       Highlighter tape

•       Dry Erase board(s)/markers

•       Magnetic/plastic letters

•       Familiar book bags

•       Take home book bags with logs

How are Guided Reading groups formed and assessed?

•       Use teacher assessments you have given.

•       Listen to your kids read individually.

•       Do a current DRA/PAPI and look at the results.

•       Use your current anecdotal records on reading behaviors seen in your students.

How Often Do Groups Meet?

•       Lowest readers/struggling readers should meet with you on a daily basis.

•       Middle level students 2-3 times per week.

•       Highest readers can get by with 1 – 2 times per week or with individual conferences.

How Do I Get Started?

•       The first four weeks of school is all about management.

•       Teach your kids a step at a time.

•       Model, model, model

•       Practice, practice, practice

•       Spend your time watching, reinforcing, and slowly pull back.

The Testing Window

Far too often, teachers feel as if they are doing more paperwork than teaching. Testing time is one of them. Here are some tips that I have used to make testing run smoothly and get done quickly:

Set a plan- sit down and plan out how many days you have for testing, and how much testing you will do o each day. Will you test one student to completion? Or will you complete one whole assessment for the class before moving to the next one?

Have materials ready- it's hard to stick to a plan when you don't have the recording sheets for tests you were planning to do. Make sure you also copy extra for students who have made more progress than you may have thought. (And vise versa)

Finding time- block out time in your schedule and plan to test during the whole block of time.

Look at it as a "getting to know you" time- it's not everyday that you get to sit down with each individual student. Use this time to get more personal with the student. This will help them relax during the testing, and also help you find something enjoyable with in the time.

What are some other strategies you have for testing?