How Can We Ignite a Passion for Learning?

It's that time of year when many of us are counting down the days until summer.  So many of us are just burnt out or in need of a break.  And many of our students are too.  But imagine if they weren't.   What if our classrooms were so filled with passion, that our students felt (at least partially) disappointed that the school year was coming to a close?  

I came across this blog post entitled Ending the School Year Well.  It offers a great collection of thoughts and ideas from many educators about how they do just that in their schools.

This is a great time of year to reflect and consider what changes we can make to benefit next year’s students.  We can try something new in the spring and use summer to learn from our trials. When the state testing is done, teacher evaluations are wrapping up, and unannounced walk-throughs are minimal...it’s the perfect time to take a risk and try something new you are considering implementing next year.  Even if it’s not perfect, it has to be better than our students counting down the days until they are out of our classroom, popping in movies, and cleaning the room!    We often revert to what we are comfortable with and what we know.  Sometimes it means breaking out of our comfort zones in order to find our passion and to inspire our students to find theirs.  It’s a great time of year to consider how we can create a love of learning in our classrooms.

Why Does It Matter?

Inspiring a love of learning is the first step in developing lifelong learners.  We want their learning to continue way beyond the walls of our schools.  We want them to constantly strive to know, learn, and do more.  We have to acknowledge that although the content we are teaching is valuable, it won't be enough in the 21st century.  Our students need the skills and desire to be lifelong learners so they can thrive as the world continue to change around them.  It's our responsibility to cultivate curiosity and to provide opportunities for our students to collaborate as they learn to use resources to answer complex questions and tackle problems.  Not only does being a lifelong learner, in my judgement, bring more joy and fulfillment to life, but it creates citizens who can contribute to making the world a better place.

No matter what standards, curriculum, testing, or challenges we face, we have the responsibility and privilege to inspire a love of learning in our students.   If school is a place of compliance and passive gaining of knowledge, how can we expect our student to see the value and power of learning to make it a priority in their lives?  

Ways to Help

I love talking to kids-my kids and their friends, my students and my former students, etc.  I love getting insight into their perspectives on all things to do with school and learning.  One thing I love to hear about are the reasons they do and don’t like school or learning.  With their thoughts in mind,  I gathered a few ideas about things to do in the classroom and ways we as educators can keep our passion alive for teaching.  I certainly don't think I have this completely mastered, but it is something I am intentional about and continuously look for ways to improve.  I aspire to foster a love of learning in each of my students and these are a few ways that have helped me so far.

How to Inspire a Love of Learning

Get connected

Find someone that inspires you.  Whether that is in your school, district, or on twitter, find someone that inspires you in an educational way and connect.  Watch them teach, meet with them, follow their blog or tweets, bring something into your classroom from theirs. I love this post about finding your marigold in your building.  So important.  Surround yourself with the ones that love what they do and don't  seem to get caught up in the negativity.

Also, connect with the people in your building!  Get to know the people you work with.  Take the time to get to know them outside of school life.  Teaching is a demanding job and it's so nice to have others that understand it and can be there for you on a rough day.  You'll start to realize you are part of something bigger than what goes on in your classroom.  When you feel connected to others in your school, it snowballs and in the end benefits your students.

Read

Make the time.  It can be quick articles, blogs, or lengthy educational books.  Read things not related to education too.  We (no matter what subject you teach or age of your students) should be encouraging a love of reading.  It's far more effective when you have your own love of reading and can share that with your students.

Give Choice

Whenever you can, find ways to give students choice.  Maybe it's about what they write about and where they do their writing during writer's workshop.  Maybe it's about what book they read when you conference with them or meet with them in a strategy group.    Maybe it's about who they sit by or work with for an activity.  Maybe it's a genius hour or passion project where they get to choose what they learn about.  This article has some great ideas regarding How Giving Students Choice During the Day Can Create Unstoppable Learning.  Maybe it's about what order they complete the learning activities in.  Maybe it's about how they will demonstrate their learning.  Maybe they can choose the topic they research or generate a question to explore.  Find ways to give them choice.  You will see them much more invested when they feel they have a choice throughout their day and ownership over their learning.

Limit the use of worksheets

This was top of the students’ “don’t do” list.  Too many worksheets.  It doesn't mean never do a worksheet, but be open to finding other options.  Find a way to accomplish the same practice or goal of the workshop in a game format, task cards, or more interactive activity altogether.  For example, I often take our math workbook problems and create task cards. They literally are the exact same problems.  When meeting in small groups, students love to use their dry-erase markers and solve problems at their own pace.  I can provide immediate feedback as I observe them working.  I also have been taking the word problems and creating a choice menu with these problems.  Get creative so you are still giving students opportunities to practice, but in a more engaging way than any worksheet offers.

Try New Instructional Strategies

Using a variety of instructional strategies allows us to better meet the wide range of needs in our classrooms and encourages student engagement.  Keep it interesting for them.  If we want our students to develop a lifetime love of learning, we need to reach them in a variety of ways.  It doesn't have to mean completely changing the way you run your classroom, but try implementing something new.  Talk to your colleagues, look on Pinterest & Twitter.  Try a SOLE lesson, experiment with writer's workshop, try guided math or reciprocal teaching, do a cubing activity, use Google, play a Kahoot game, try a Nearpod lesson or investigate inquiry-based learning.  Keep it fresh.  When you hear about a new strategy, don't fall into the trap of finding something wrong with it or immediately thinking of why it wouldn't work in your classroom.  True, they won't all work for you.  And yes, it can get messy when you are trying something new.  You for sure have to let go and accept that it might not be perfect.  It's a risk and sometimes it will be a failure.  But it's how you reflect and what you gain from your failure, that will transform your classroom into a place where a love of learning will flourish.

Meet the Needs of Individual Students

Differentiated instruction.  Yes.  It isn't always easy, but teaching a group of 25 students rather than 25 individual students just doesn't cut it anymore.  For me meeting with students in small groups and individual conferences is a way that I have found to meet the individual needs of my students. Direct instruction has it's place.  But often a mini-lesson followed by students given the opportunity to practice the skill will be far more effective.  Consider the age of your students and reflect on how much time you spend in front of them talking.  You can read my post here about the Shift from Whole Group to Small Group and my post about responsive teaching here.

Empower Students

Create an environment where students don't feel like they are a compliant visitor in your classroom.  Let them have ownership and let them make it their classroom and let them make it their classroom.  One small way I do this is for students to know that they help each other solve problems as they come up.  I'm typically am working with individual or small groups of students and when issues arise, students know to turn to each other rather than me.  They help each other log into Google Classroom or solve a disagreement over a preferred reading spot.  Paul Solarz's book Learn Like a Pirate has so many great suggestions and has inspired to make this more of a priority in my classroom.  Our students can be responsible and be leaders if we give them the chance.

Have student set goals

Focus less on grades and more on learning goals.  Support your students in developing individual goals to help them grow in whatever area you are teaching them.  Give them strategies to help meet their goals.  Monitor their progress and celebrate successes!

Foster a love of reading

This is a complicated one.  There are so many factors in developing effective reading instruction that  fosters a love of reading.   There are also many great posts out there about the "killing the love of reading" that ends up happening in so many schools .  Here is a recent one that I think is great.  In our attempt to keep students accountable or to see evidence that they are applying all of the amazing strategies we teach, we take out all the joy that reading brings.   I think sometimes we are so afraid that we must hold students accountable for every moment in our classroom.  How do we know they are really understanding what they are reading?  We feel the need to make sure our students demonstrate their comprehension on something tangible.  Yes, sometimes it's necessary.  But not EVERY time they read.  An individual reading conference can often be way more powerful.  This is one that I have been guilty of and have worked really hard at changing the structure in my classroom to allow for more individual conferences.  Let them enjoy a book of their choosing without having to complete papers or projects.  Let them enjoy reading and the powerful discussions it can inspire.

Provide opportunities for working with others

Whether it's partner work, book clubs, SOLEs, cooperative learning, designated time for partner reading or reciprocal teaching groups, find ways for them to engage with others.

Play Games  

There are so many options to incorporate games.  Game-Based Learning (GBL) is a movement now in education.   Here are a couple of links for more information on  incorporating gaming: MIND Research , New Media Institute, & Edutopia. Incorporating games doesn't have to be complicated and doesn't always involve technology. Kahoot is a popular gaming platform that can be used to introduce new concepts and as formative assessment with options to collaborate with classrooms around the world using Google Hangouts.   The possibilities for games involving tech are endless!  And on the low/no tech level are games like the classic whole class Jeopardy game to review information or math games from the days of Everyday Math like Addition-Top It, Penny Under the Cup, Salute, Beat the Calculator, etc. Games involving dice, dominos, and number cards are low-tech ways to integrate games.  It's also so easy to differentiate with games.  Anytime I announce that we are going to play a game, the class always cheers.  Games are a simple, effective way to get your students engaged and loving learning!  And almost all of the students I talk to mention that playing games make learning more fun.

Offer flexible seating  

Gone are the days of students sitting in rows of desks all day long.  Tables of all shapes and sizes, pillows, lap desks, stools, beanbags, couches, balance balls, and scoop rockers offer students a choice in seating and a chance to find a workplace that works for them.  

Don't compare yourself to others

If I had a good teaching day and am letting myself feel like I actually might have the hang of this teaching thing, all I have to is look on Twitter or Pinterest for a few minutes and feel completely inadequate.  Somebody is always doing something that I haven't tried or thought of or sometimes ever even heard of. If you aren't careful you can get overwhelmed if you focus on all that you are not doing.  Don't.  Don't compare.  Don't get intimidated by others who are doing something you are not.  Instead, be brave enough to learn or be inspired.  And don't let comparison and differences breed negativity. Blowing out someone else's candle won't make yours shine any brighter.  We each have something to offer.  There is room for all of us to shine.

Be Reflective

My classroom, my teaching, and the learning experience I create are always a work in progress.  I never (and probably never will) feel like I have mastered teaching.  (If I do, someone let me know it's probably time to retire!)  I've grown and improved, but there is always more I can learn and implement.  And because of that, I find that I'm constantly reflecting on my teaching and the learning in my classroom.  (And this blogging is certainly adding to that reflection time.)  For me, reflection is the first step of many in making a positive impact on the lives of those that I get to teach.

Ignite a Passion for Learning

I chose my blog's name "Ignite a Passion for Learning" so easily.  It was on the front of each mini-portfolio I created to give to districts as I began my search for my very first teaching position.  It was weaved into my required "Philosophy of Education" piece due upon graduation.  William Butler Yeat's famous quote inspired me then and inspires me now:

And 17 years later, igniting a passion for learning is my ultimate daily goal.   It's what drives me.  For me, it's the greatest gift I can give each student that enters my classroom.  I want each of my students to show outstanding growth, but that's not enough.  I want them to LOVE learning.  I strive to create an environment where they want to be there...Where they are engaged, persevering, succeeding, growing, thriving, and ENJOYING it! (And what I've come to realize is that my passion is to do that for not only students, but for the teachers that teach them each day.  A part of what motivates me to take the time to write this blog is the hope that I may inspire someone else to want to learn more, reflect on their practice, and positively impact more students.)

No matter what challenges we face in education, this for me is the core of our purpose.  Lighting that fire in our students.  As a mom and as an educator, I humbly ask that you join me in reflecting on how we can ignite a passion for learning in our students, in ourselves, and perhaps even the educators around us.

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Reading Instruction That Works: Responsive Teaching

Feb 22, 2017
Yesterday I felt like shouting from the rooftops!  I knew I was seeing gains.  I could tell that the change in my reading instruction was really impacting my students.  And yesterday, my assessment data backed it up!  I did my progress monitoring and got my third and fourth data points for the new interventions I implemented.  I have 6 students that were reading significantly below grade level.  Considering running record information, fluency, sight words, MAPS scores, etc, I created a plan to focus on increasing their accuracy.  The progress monitoring passages are level J which is the end of the year expectation for first grade.  Below are the results.

"Student K" started the year reading below a level A and was up to a C by mid-December.  Here are her accuracy levels for a level J for the last four weeks:
Week 1 76%
Week 2: 86%
Week 3: 91%
Week 4: 92%

"Student I"  started the year reading at a level B and was up to a D by mid-December.  Here are the level J scores for the last 4 weeks:
Week 1: 86%
Week 2: 88%
Week 3: 91%
Week 4: 97%

"Student P"started the year reading at a level B and was up to a D by mid-December.  Here are the level J scores for the last 4 weeks:
Week 1: 89%
Week 2: 91%
Week 3: 93%
Week 4: 93%

"Student C" started the year at a level B and in December was still a level B.  Here are his results for the last 3 weeks for level J:
Week 1: 43%
Week 2: 61%
Week 3: 63%

"Student B"started the year reading at a level B and was up to a D by mid-December.  Here are the level J scores for the last 3 weeks:
Week 1: 88%
Week 2: 90%
Week 3: 94%

"Student J" started the year reading at a level C and was a D by mid-December.  Here are the level J scores for the last 3 weeks:
Week 1: 84%
Week 2: (no data point)
Week 3: 94%

So here I have 5 students who were reading at a level D in December and by mid-February can read a level J book with low 90s for accuracy levels!  This is AMAZING!!!  The student that hadn't budged from a level B ALL YEAR gained 20 percentage points!  Two months ago, he would not have been able to read more than a sentence in a level J book.  Something is working!  And I can tell you exactly what it is.  I made a very deliberate shift in my reading instruction toward the end of December.

I am doing what I call "Responsive Teaching."  All I mean by that term is that my instruction is all "in response" to the individual student I am currently working with.  I am allowing the student and their unique profile to lead my instruction.  I respond to the student I am teaching.
Each student in my classroom has a reading goal and strategies to help them reach their goal.  I have made individual reading conferences a top priority in my day.  During a reading conference I meet with a student and listen to them read and we focus on their specific reading goal and strategies.   This is what has made the difference!

Over the summer I picked up a copy of Jennifer Serravallo's The Reading Strategies Book.  The book includes 300 reading strategies supporting 13 reading goals.  I began slowly implementing these strategies into my instruction right from the beginning of the year.

I started incorporating more strategy groups and individual reading conferences into my small group reading block instead of always following the traditional guided reading model.  Guided reading and direct phonics instruction still have their place in my classroom, but I believe the time given to individual reading conferences with clear goals and strategies has made a tremendous impact of my students' growth.

I created bookmarks for each of my students with their reading goal and strategies.  At first I was just handwriting these in and drawing a visual to help the students remember.  I sometimes even had the students create their own drawing on the bookmark.  But it was fairly time-consuming.  Then I had an idea.  I created labels with the reading strategies.  This has been a game-changer!!!  Having the labels makes it so efficient and the students love them!  I love that the students are not only setting goals, but that they have an easily accessible visual representation of their goals and strategies.  It is meaningful to them and I see evidence of this when conferring with my individual readers.

The students have their bookmarks out whenever they are reading-whether that's with me in a conference/small group, during independent reading, book club or during tutoring with another staff member or volunteer.  Many of my students are working on the goal of reading more words correctly.  And it is so powerful to have so many strategies from Jennifer Serravallo's book to give them as tools.

My colleagues tease me because I alway have The Reading Strategies Book in my hands.  I'm constantly referring to it.  Many of the strategies are things I was already doing with my students.  Some of them I hadn't thought of.  But what makes this such a valuable resource is that it gives us a common language as teachers.  All of the strategies are in one place to refer to.  This book is incredible and has inspired me to reconsider reading instruction in my classroom.  And I'm seeing results like I have never seen before!

UPDATE: March 20, 2017
So now it is a month later and I'm still seeing incredible progress with my students!  I'm headed to Jennifer Serravallo's reading workshop in Columbus this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 and I cannot wait to learn even more!!!  Maybe I'll get a selfie with her and put it on my next post!  Ha!!

The Shift From Whole Group to Small Group Instruction

I can't recall many classes growing up that weren't primarily whole class instruction.  We sat in rows quietly listening to the teacher, taking notes & soaking it all in.  Sure, there were questions that were thrown out to the whole class to spark discussion, but the teacher was front and center, clearly leading the show.  There were leveled reading groups in elementary school (you know the Blue Birds, Red Robins, etc) where round robin reading dominated.  While the teacher was working with those students, you did lots of coloring and cut/paste worksheets quietly at your seat.  I remember racing my best friend to see who could finish the day's worksheets first.  Fortunately for me, I loved school and learned easily this way.  I loved a good worksheet that I could color and complete entirely on my own.  I loved and still do love a good lecture.  I really do.  I thrived in college because I was able to listen, process, and learn in this way.  I cringed when teachers & professors initiated group projects.

As a teacher, I loved (and still do) teaching whole class.  Dr. Madeline Hunter's lesson model is forever engrained in my brain.  I love the clean, simple model:

1. State the objective
2. Anticipatory Set
3. Input (Modeling or Guided Modeling)
4. Checking for Understanding
5. Guided Practice
6. Independent Practice
7. Closure

I was queen of direct instruction.  I loved being dramatic in my delivery keeping students engaged and finding ways to weave humor into my lessons.  I remember my principal complimenting me on my energy and the way I was able to draw my students into my lessons during observations.  I never was in theater, but I sure do feel like I incorporated my acting skills (which definitely are not all that strong) into my lessons.

But over the years, I realized that although comfortable and fun, using this as my primary means  of instruction wasn't meeting the individual needs of all of my students.  No matter how engaging I made it, these lessons couldn't fully meet the needs of my struggling students or my students that excelled.  (Not to mention the inability for so many of my students to attend/focus during these lessons.)  I realized I was teaching to the middle and began to incorporate more small group instruction.  It's evolved now into a practice that is primarily small group with individual conferencing and way more inquiry-based learning.

A Quick Snapshot of Our Classrooms

The Shift in my Classroom

Reading and writing now follow a workshop model in my classroom. Reading begins with a whole class mini-lesson (this is where I get to still enjoy my dramatic direct teaching lessons:) followed by students completing a literacy checklist where students read (books of their choice), write (topics of their choice), respond to reading (choice again), & end with time in a center that rotates daily (typically technology based like Seesaw, Compass Learning, Kids a-z, etc).  During this time I meet with individual students about specific reading goals and strategies they are working on, strategy/skill groups, and guided reading groups. (Future blog post on the difference between all of these and how I integrate it into my 90 minute block.)  There are times when I don't follow the workshop model and do a short whole class lesson followed by cooperative learning groups using reciprocal teaching.  Or days when I begin an important phonics concept like magic e and need more time to give an anchor experience followed by stations involving the new concept.

My writing workshop (which I have several posts about) is a mini-lesson with anchor text, modeled writing, time for students to write as I hold individual conferences, and time to share.

Math also is small group based where I begin with a brief whole class lesson and then each student meets with me during small group (based on assessment data so these groups change daily) as they rotate through MATH rotations.  They practice their math facts based on individual goals, spend time solving a problem and writing a paragraph to explain how they solved it, time with the teacher (differentiated instruction based on their needs), and during hands-on they are on chrome books on our Go Math site where they solve problems directly related to the lesson.

Science and social studies is often small group inquiry based projects and lessons. For example,  my students are currently working in pairs reading books and researching on Chromebooks about how an Ohio animal (of their choosing) meets its basic needs in its environment.  They are showing their learning in a Google Slides presentation.  I'm more of a facilitator.  Very engaging.  So very different than how I used to teach.

The Shift

Things have changed.  The "old school" model of the teacher as the primary dispenser of knowledge is long gone.  Thankfully, we have learned a lot and have evolved from mostly whole class instruction to offering many different options to meet the needs of all our students.

I love this brief article ExaminingHowStudentsSpendTheirTimeinOurClassroom.edweek.org encouraging us to reflect on how well our philosophy matches up to what we actually do in our classrooms.  If you want to know what we truly value, look at how the children we teach spend their hours in our care.

As I was initially drafting this blog post, our Director of Educational Programs and Innovation sent out an email updating our staff on the analysis our District Leadership Team (DLT) did of nearly 400 classroom walkthroughs done by administrators so far this year.  They determined that a district goal would be for all of us to explore instructional strategies that would be alternatives to whole class instruction.

Although we all know that the old school model that I grew up with isn't effective for all students.  We know we should be differentiating.  But still when we take snapshots of our classroom, it doesn't match up.  Trends of whole group instruction still prevail.  I'm so interested to see how our district sets up supports to help all of us explore other options.  What a critical, substantial goal and journey for all of us to embark on.

Are small groups always better?

I haven't completely abandoned whole class teaching.  For me that would be ridiculous.  Whole class teaching has its place in my classroom.  If all of my instruction was in small groups, I would be doing a disservice to my students.  I consider the learning goal and the needs of my students.  There are many times where whole class is more beneficial than small groups.  For example, when introducing a new concept, I almost always do this in a whole class setting and then break into groups.  It's not all one method.  Balance.  I entitled the blog post this way because I have adandonded whole class teaching as my go to standard.  Most times when you walk into my classroom you will see small group instruction.  This is a great contrast to how I was taught and how I ran my classroom when I first started teaching.

Small group instruction isn't always better than whole class instruction. Like I mentioned, there are times where whole class may be preferable.  But the other HUGE aspect to consider is what the other students are doing while the teaching is working with a small group.  Just because it is small groups doesn't mean it is effective.  If the other students are not engaged in meaningful learning tasks while we are meeting with small groups then I'm not sure how effective the small group learning would even be.  Perhaps this is why so many of us have fallen back on more traditional whole group instruction.  Maybe it's hard to truly believe that a small group instructional model can be more beneficial for our students when there are so many factors that are involved to make it work.  I don't know if we aren't convinced or we just don't know how to tackle this change.

Whole class instruction is not something that should be looked down upon.  It clearly still has it's place.  (Perhaps maybe it shouldn't be our dominant mode of instructional grouping though).  Here is an article about ways to make whole group instruction even more effective:  Don't Lecture Me

As we begin to explore small group instruction, we need to consider different interpretations of how we define small group instruction and what it looks like in our classrooms.  This for sure will not be a popular opinion, but I believe it is our responsibility to design our small group instruction so that every student is being taught in a small group every day.  For example, in a 90 minute reading block, I do not think it is okay to meet with only 2 or 3 groups of students if you have 4 groups.  (Again, I get that many will wildly disagree.)  I always try to take on a student's perspective.  I don't want a higher-achieving student to only get 15 minutes of my time (during the whole class mini-lesson) in a 90 minute time period!  I simply cannot justify that.  Even if I have impeccably designed activities for this high-achieving student that are challenging, engaging, and full of learning and growth opportunities, I still owe them my time.  I fully get, support, and believe that fair does not mean equal.  Students that need more supports should get them.  Maybe the higher-achieving student doesn't have the same amount of time, but they still need the time.  I think we have given ourselves permission to not see all of our students every day using the fair isn't equal notion.  However, I feel that we need to be cautious with this idea and ensure that we don't end up neglecting our higher-achieving students in an effort to serve our struggling students.  All students are entitled to get the "right instruction" to make significant progress-even if it's above grade level.  It might not look the same for every student, but every student deserves instruction that meets their needs. Those students that struggle may need more time.  However, if instruction is going to delivered in small groups, ALL students should have access to this method.  My job isn't just to ensure that all of my students are on grade-level.  It is to ensure that I meet the individual needs of each of my students-no matter where they fall in relation to grade level standards.

If you disagree, I urge you to consider the perspective of each student and what their day looks like in your classroom.  I have 4 children of my own and I have one that needs extra support sometimes.  We've gotten pretty good at that now.  We know to give our struggling students interventions, more time, more support.  I also have a child that falls at the other end and learns very easily.  He works hard, is very attentive, and can pick up new concepts very quickly.  This is where I feel like we could maybe do more.  How can we make sure that he grows just as much?  From my perspective, it's very difficult to do in whole group.


This is a great article about a couple of alternatives to whole group instruction:
Are you losing your effectiveness with too many whole group activities?

I have a couple of posts already on small group math/guided math and I probably will do another one soon because I'm always improving it.  I can't begin to tell you what a difference this approach has made.  I feel like I know my students so much better as individual learns.  I am able to provide differentiated instruction so easily and provide immediate feedback.  And I meet with all of my students every day.

If I had to sum up in one word a description and benefit of small group teaching it would be RESPONSIVE.  No matter the subject matter, when I'm working in small groups I'm doing responsive teaching.  I have analyzed assessment data, I have a plan, I have a variety of materials, but I think on my feet.  I don't know exactly how the lesson will go because I respond to each student.  I watch.  I listen.  And I respond.  No matter how experienced you are this simply can't be done as effectively in a whole group situation.

Here are a couple of links about others experience implementing small group math.

Math Workshop

Whole Group Math Instruction-Never Again!

Guided Math

Final Thoughts

It can be hard to let go or lessen the amount of time we spend teaching whole class.  We grew up with it and it's what we've always known.  It isn't easy to design instruction for all of your students to make small groups effective.  It doesn't just happen.  It takes a lot of planning and then time for the students to learn the routines so they know how to work independently.  It can be an adjustment for both students and the teacher to empower students to help each other (rather than turning to the teacher) to solve issues that come up when the teacher is with a small group.  It can be difficult for us to "let go" and accept that it won't be perfection at first (or ever!) as our students learn to do this and build their stanima.  For some of us who like to talk (good thing I have a blog!), we love to be in front of the classroom and it can be an adjustment to take another role.  We like feeling in control.  It certainly is easier to manage a class of 26 students in a whole class setting than all of them working in small groups.  I'm sure you've heard the notion that at the end of the day the teacher shouldn't be more exhausted than the students.  Are you doing all the talking?  Are you doing all the work?  Or do you stand back and give your students time to talk?  To problem solve?  To feel empowered?  Are you responding to their needs?  Sometimes stepping out of our comfort zone and moving away from what we've always done can be a challenge...but also so worth it.  In my experience, the shift from (predominately using) whole group to small group instruction is so worth the challenges I had to face.

Writer's Workshop: Informative Writing

This year I have decided to implement (my own version of) writer's workshop for my writing instruction.  You can learn more about how I started by reading my post on Launching Writer's Workshop and my first unit: Narrative Writing in Writer's Workshop.  And honestly, each day gets better!  I am loving writer's workshop and can't believe I haven't been doing it this way all along!

I chose to focus on informative writing-(specifically "All About" pieces)-for the month of October and I will give you a summary of how it went!

I chose informative writing for October because this time of year naturally lends itself to learning about spiders, bats, and pumpkins.  Not only are there an endless amount of books and other reading material, but the kids are always so engaged with these topics.  Unlike my narrative post, I'm not going to list the mentor texts because for this unit, I find that you don't need to be quite as selective.  I went to the public library and my own bookshelves at home and pulled every spider, bat, and pumpkin nonfiction book I could find.

So just in case you haven't read my other blog posts (gasp!), the format for my writer's workshop is this:

Mini-lesson with use of mentor text

Modeled writing (concentrating on designated mini-lesson)

Independent writing/writing conferences

Sharing

The first lesson is always an introduction to the mode of writing with a mentor text.  Nearly any informative nonfiction book will do.  We, of course, started with spiders.  Students were then werenencouraged to think of their schema and things they already know about.  They made a chart of ideas to keep in their binders to refer to when starting a new piece throughout the month.

The first several lessons focused on the structure needed for writing an all about piece.  Students learned to have a topic sentence, at least 3 details, and a closing sentence.  Other mini-lessons focused on writing in complete sentences starting with a capital letter and end punctuation.   It was actually so fun for us to read our mentor text and point out every time we saw a capital letter and end punctation.  (They used the hand motions I taught them.)  We had a mini-lesson on strong topic sentences and a lesson on strong closing sentences.  Students referred to the anchor charts we created during these lessons quite a bit throughout the month.  We also had mini-lessons on many of the nonfiction text features (headings, labels, captions, table of contents, etc).  They LOVE labeling and it's so cute when they begin labeling all of their pictures.  I find that my "lower" students really enjoy labeling their pictures because it isn't overwhelming to them.  And they know it is something that real nonfiction authors do because they have seen so many examples in our mentor texts.  

One of the best parts of the writing workshop (I say that a lot though) is the integrated reading instruction that occurs.  We make sure to coordinate our reading block instruction with whatever we are doing in writer's workshop.  So last month while focusing on narrative writing, during our reading we read fiction books and identified story elements, described characters, talked about problem/solution, and retelling the beginning, middle, and end.  For our informative unit, our reading instruction has focused on nonfiction text as we identified nonfiction text features, identified main idea and details, etc.  One of my favorite activities I have done this year has been to let students identify nonfiction text features in books that they are reading.  I do this every year and every year, this lesson gets better as technology improves opportunities for students.  In the past I used to have students cut out examples from magazines or a to z books and glue them in a flip book under the specific tab.  One year I used iPod touches for students to take photos of them in actual books and printed the photos for them.  This year I had students use Seesaw to take a photo of a nonfiction text feature and then use the drawing and microphone tools to identify it.  I mention all of this because much of my instruction on those nonfiction text features was actually during writer's workshops.  Integrating reading and writing instruction strengthens students' understanding.

At the beginning of the unit I decided to introduce writing booklets for my students to use.  They could continue to use a single sheet of our primary lined paper or they could chose to write in a booklet when writing their informative pieces.  The booklet is simply a blank cover and 5 lined papers stapled together.  Most students did chose the booklets.  They liked to feel like they were making real books.  I liked the booklets because it gives a physical space for the topic sentence, details, and closing sentence. It also gave more opportunities to easily add headings, labels, and other nonfiction text features.  I wish I would have done this in the narrative unit to help students have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

One thing I wasn't sure that would go well is having students all writing about different topics of things they know about and all being at different places.  I have always loved teaching informative writing, but most often we would all write about the same topic.  For instance, we would spend several days reading and learning about bats and then students would each write their own informational piece about bats.  But I knew I was going to keep with the writer's workshop format and that meant students choosing their topics and working at their own pace.  They did GREAT!  I didn't realize how empowered they would feel by choosing their own topics.  They know a lot and they were excited to inform others through their writing.  It wasn't an "issue" at all!  It instead became one of the reasons they did so well right from the beginning of the unit.  They were writing about topics they felt comfortable and passionate about so it allowed them to be engaged and focused on the traits of informative writing.

Below are a couple of my student's very first attempts at informative writing.  I was impressed!

Notice the headings in this one about spiders!

And even if you are done reading first grade writing, you HAVE to read this last one.  It was written by my most "at risk" student.  Yes, I know the mechanics and spelling need work, but I couldn't be more impressed with this piece!  It clearly has a topic sentence, details, and a closing sentence.  She even included some labels!  And the best part is here her sense of PRIDE when she read it aloud.  This is the stuff that keeps me motivated!!!

I know about cats.

Cats have fur.

Cats can lick.

Cats have whiskers.

That's all about cats.

Writer's workshop is a part of the day that my students and I look forward to.  The structure is exactly what I feel my students need.  They learned so much this month.  We are so comfortable with the structure of writer's workshop.  And we even had the opportunity to take the second half of writer's workshop outside on a warm, October day.  They were just as engaged outside in the sunshine!

We ended our all about informative unit with a publishing party of course.  As students shared their piece with their classmates, I took a video to upload to their Seesaw account (digital portfolio.)  Students (and parents) then are able to make comments on each other's pieces.  It is simply amazing and I'm sure I'll do a post about how we are using Seesaw in the near future.  Next month, I will share details about individual goal setting and writing conferences.   November is informative writing with a concentration on "how to" pieces.  So many fun anchor lessons for how to writing...a how to blow a bubble with bubblegum sounds promising!

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