10 Questions to Ask during Unexpected Times

Hanging on the wall opposite my desk is a quote from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that says “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” That quote reminds me that every situation, every trial, every success, and every opportunity has a role in creating a new iteration of me. Sometimes there are clear events that draw a before and after line in our lives. What’s happening in our world right now with the coronavirus may be one of those times. Even when the pandemic is over, it will be unfortunate if we, as individuals or as a society,  just try to go back to business as usual and overlook all of the opportunities that this event is providing to evolve into new and improved versions of ourselves. So, as we are in the midst of this unexpected event, I encourage you to take time and reflect on the ways you are changing as an educator, parent, business owner,
leader, or whatever role you are playing. Here are some questions I’ve been thinking about as I confront my priorities, my creative pursuits, and my path going forward. I offer them to you as tools for your own self-reflection.

1. How would my (message, brand, teaching, business) have been different if I had known I wouldn’t be ______?
2. What do I wish I had done that would have put me in a better position for this situation?
3. What did I do prior to this happening that has benefited me in this situation?
4. What have I learned about myself, my life, my job, my family that I didn’t know (or pay much attention to) before?
5. What have become my 3 top priorities since this happened? Why?
6. What has become less of a priority for me since this happened? Why?
7. What in my life has stayed consistent or has not changed?
8. What do I want to remember when the dust settles and things go back to “normal”? 
9. What potential opportunities can I see in this situation?
10. What words have resonated with me throughout the situation? What do these words reveal about my experience?

What other questions have you been asking yourself during this time? I’d love to hear some of the ways that you are evolving through this moment in history.

To Phonics or Not to Phonics? That's not really the question.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay 

Recently passed laws have once again brought phonics instruction to the forefront. This has sparked professional articles in “I told you so” support, livid responses from other professionals, and professional development content from the last round of these wars being repackaged and put into new shiny, blended formats. Teacher preparation institutions are adding courses to their programs to fulfill new requirements, while school administrators-many who were not trained in scientific reading practices-are scrambling to find systematic phonics programs that will meet mandates. All of this can be a recipe for...well...it depends.

One of my favorite reality shows is Chopped on the Food Network. Expert chefs are given a basket of mystery ingredients and must use their expertise to combine the elements into wonderfully tasting, beautiful presented courses that woo the judges. At first glance, the ingredients seem to be inharmonious groupings of randomness (hello strawberry cake and Tabasco sauce!), but somehow the best chefs methodically and creatively make music out of the discord.  

For educators, our basket contains laws and mandates, varying student populations, often reduced funding, and resources-sometimes plentiful, sometimes scarce. Those 4 ingredients have always and will always be in our basket. How your dish turns out depends on what you know about teaching literacy and how you use that knowledge.

So here is some food for thought to make some common sense out of our basket of goodies:

1. Checks & Balances-Since the hurricane of an election year is upon us, let’s just jump right into that ocean with some analogies, shall we? Why is politics such a battleground topic? Because people see affiliation and issues in either/or contexts rather than through the lens of “and”. Why are phonics and whole language so divisive?--same reason. So let me offer a political lens through which to view them. Think of word study (phonics), reading (comprehension), and yes, don’t forget our little friend writing as the 3 branches of government. All are equally powerful with distinct functions to offer a checks and balance system. Each branch may carry the weight of responsibility more heavily in some situations, but that’s what brings the balance. It’s when one branch is always yielding the power that things go awry. Phonics instruction is a necessary part of any good literacy framework, but it cannot be considered the entirety of literacy instruction. Sounding out words is not reading. It is an absolutely necessary part of reading, but reading also involves making meaning from those words. In the same regard, spelling is not writing. I can put a string of correctly spelled words together that make no sense at all. Heck, I may be doing it now...who knows?

2. Dynamic Duo-No matter the recipe, it will likely call for salt and pepper. The use of those two simple ingredients can be the difference between bland and extraordinary. Likewise, the impact of instruction is affected by how clearly the concepts and skills are conveyed (explicit) and the processes that are used to introduce and practice those skills (systematic). Systematic and explicit does not always mean whole-group, teacher-directed, though that is often how it is interpreted. It means clear, intentional, and logically presented and sequenced. Inquiry-based instruction can be explicit and systematic. Two dresses can be described as well-tailored and structured yet look completely different. The format is not the issue, the crafting and design is what matters. To design effective lessons, you must have knowledge of content and pedagogy.

3. Art & Science-A complaint often lobbed about our language-especially when it comes to spelling- is that it is confusing and full of exceptions to the “rules”. Well, not really. Our language actually follows some pretty consistent patterns, and it does serve students well to understand, recognize, and use those patterns. The problem is that these patterns and generalizations are taught as “rules”. In the early grades, this doesn’t pose much of a problem because the words we learn follow pretty consistent patterns. Once students reach more advanced reading levels and enter upper grades, however, they encounter and use words that can no longer just be “sounded out”.  We might call these words “exceptions”; however, the “exception” is typically related to word origin and meaning- homophone spellings are often derived from word origin and meaning is what distinguishes them. In older grades, instruction in phonics and spelling is massively impacted by explicit and systematic study of word origins (especially words derived from Greek, Latin, French) and the meanings of affixes and roots.

Ultimately, we have to remember that language is an art-hence the term language arts. When we try to apply stringent “rules” to an art, there will be words and uses of language that won’t conform. As with any art, language evolves. New words, symbols, forms, and uses are introduced all the time. Pronunciations and spellings have evolved and will continue to evolve. Many of our “exceptions” to rules are because of this evolution from their original form.

Teaching is the same. It is both science and art. When we rely too heavily on one over the other, there will be students whose needs won't get met. What we know about literacy and instruction is constantly evolving...as are the brains of our students. Science and art can live together peacefully as long as each is respected equally. When it comes to the question of whether students should be taught with an approach characterized by “science” or “balance”, I just think of my food. I want the ingredients prepared correctly, AND I also want it to taste good. If either of those elements isn’t there, it’s likely I’m not eating it.

View on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/phonics-thats-really-question-robyn-hartzell/ 

If Walls Could Speak-What Messages Do Our Classroom Walls Send?

Image by Pexels from Pixabay 

It’s almost October!  I can’t believe that school has been in session for over a month now.  It seems like once September hits, everything goes into high gear.  I am in my first round of coaching cycles, and this is when I get to do my initial visits to see teachers’ classrooms whether in-person or virtually. Because I get to glimpse into such a variety of rooms (grade levels and styles),  I am always intrigued by what is or is not on the walls.  It may seem insignificant, but the walls of a classroom can tell you a lot about what happens within them.  In fact, the walls (and the floor and ceiling) speak volumes to students and visitors about what is important, what is being learned, and who the focus is. So, here are some positive messages that we want our walls to send and ways that these messages can be promoted simply by what we hang around the room.

This is OUR class. 

How often do we, as teachers, refer to our classroom as “mine”.  After all, we spend a good majority of our time there, so it does become a second home...at least to us.  But what about the students? Is it their class, too?  Does it reflect that?  To send the message that this room is OUR room, make sure to have student names around.  In secondary classes, you might not have 120 student names on the walls, but their should be evidence of their voices. Maybe there are note cards with book reviews written by students with their names on them.  Maybe there are signs with table group names that the students created.  Maybe there is an engagement/understanding board where students give feedback by posting sticky notes on the circle that tells whether they got it, kinda got, or didn’t get it. Anchor charts and seating can also can tell a lot about the collaborative atmosphere of a class. Commercially produced posters or anchor charts can be helpful, but when they are made as a part of a lesson with students, it is more powerful. It also sends the message that we learn together. Seating is the same way. When desks are in rows turned to the front, it sends a message of who the givers and receivers of the knowledge are. When they are turned towards each other, it sends the message that we learn from each other. I like to think of a class as a community with its own culture. What inside jokes does your class have? What traditions have they created? Where is the evidence of this? Think about what your walls say about your class culture.

We are intentional about what, when, and where we do things.

Being intentional means having a purpose and plan and following through on it regularly. It’s consistency. Students need this.  If a classroom is disorganized and messy, it sends a message that chaos and overwhelm are ever-present and welcome.  Every area of the class needs a purpose and that purpose should be made clear by what is on the walls or desks or board.  Label things! Have a schedule posted big enough for the kids to see. Not just a bell schedule, but a schedule of routines for the class. What will they do when they first come in? Then after that? Then after that? In lower grades, have a clothespin or something that you can move throughout the day to show students where they are in the routine. In upper grades, have a routine and put something on the wall to indicate it.  What is learned in the class can also be reflected. Are there objectives on the board for the students to see?  Are there anchor charts or student work showing concepts that are being studied displayed?  Surround students with reminders of what they are learning and refer to those reminders frequently.  If at any point, you ask a student “What are we learning?”, hopefully they could use the wall to help them answer.

Learning is the priority.

I’m going to get on a bit of a soapbox here because this is a pet peeve of mine.  There are so many cute and calm classrooms in this world, but that doesn’t always translate into a message that learning is the priority.  I am all for dim lights (occasionally), but folks, a kid has to see the book to be able to read. We are not always living in a meditation bowl, so every now and then...turn the lights on! I know that the intent of the dim lighting is to have a calming effect, but honestly, lighting is not what makes a student feel calm in a classroom. It is the relationship that they have with the teachers and other students and the culture that is created. I can be just as anxious in a dimly lit, tealight-infused class where I get ridiculed for not knowing an answer as I can in a bright, flourescent-flooded one. The same can be said for overly decorated classes.  We absolutely want our class to be inviting, but when the decorations and quotes and wreaths take up more room on the walls than the anchor charts, word walls, book displays, and workstation boards, then that sends a message that we prioritize looks over learning. 

We read and write in this class!

If someone were to walk into your class, would they know it is an English class?  Are books displayed and accessible or are they hidden behind a cute apple-embossed curtain on shelves that the kids can’t reach? Are there any books to be seen at all?  I wish I was being facetious about that, but I have walked into English classes and not seen a book in sight other than the literature textbook. If we walked onto a football field, we would see footballs. So, when you walk into language arts class, do you see the tools of the trade there? If we want students to become engaged and motivated readers and writers, we have to show them that those things are an integral (and accessible) part of our class. Put a #shelfie picture of the books you are reading on the door. Put a copy of your latest blog post somewhere. Have a wall or part of a wall where students can write book recommendations to other students. Display books on the whiteboard ledge that you are reading or that you will be doing book talks about.  Showcase an author of the month with pictures of books he/she has written and something about their life.  Make spaces for students to keep their reading and writing notebooks that reflect the importance of those tools. Create boards to show students when you will be conferring with them for reading and writing conferences. Post anchor charts where students have contributed ideas of topics to write about or collected favorite first lines from texts.  Send the message that reading and writing is done here.

If walls could talk, what would your classroom walls say? Hopefully this gives you some food for thought. I'd love to see some pictures of your classroom walls that speak!

Setting the Stage for Guided Reading part 4 of 4: Taking Time to Build Routines

Well, we’re finally here! We’ve reached the last of this four-part series on guided reading. We’ve talked about setting up the classroom, what materials to get, and how to make time, so this post is going to address those first few weeks of school and how to use them wisely to build the routines that will set you and your students up for success later on.  So, let’s get right to the tips, shall we?

Image by Tayeb MEZAHDIA from Pixabay

Be realistic.
I know that guided reading is a high-impact practice when done well, but honestly, whether it is done well or not depends on how realistic you are about when to start.  Too often, I encounter teachers or administrators who want it to begin too early.  I’ve been to classrooms where teachers are trying to pull groups the second week of school. Needless to say, it is often chaotic. Students have to be taught the routines for guided reading time, and that generally takes more than a week.  A good rule of thumb for 3rd grade and up is to take the first 21-28 days to build and practice routines before starting with consistent guided reading groups.  For K-2, that timeframe may be longer.  It may be 6-8 weeks before students understand and are fluent with the routines that would allow you to effectively do small groups.  In kinder, it may be even longer.  You may not be ready to do guided reading until November.  Sometimes I will hear people talk about “wasting so much time”.  I have to disagree. Spending adequate time teaching routines at the beginning (and often coming back and reteaching throughout the year) saves tremendous amounts of time later. 

Keep the schedule consistent.
Even though you may not pull a group for several weeks, you want to keep time carved out in your schedule for it.  In the first few weeks, that time will be spent introducing, practicing, and building the routines that will need to be in place when you begin meeting with groups. Students need to learn to look at books and read for extended periods of time, and this is when you start building that stamina.  During the pre-guided reading weeks, start by teaching routines and having students practice reading books by themselves while you monitor. The only rule is that they can’t talk to you for a given amount of time. This is getting them into the habit of not interrupting. That amount of time may only be 1 minute at first, but you slowly build it over the course of the weeks. If you plan to do stations during guided reading time, introduced one activity besides independent reading around the second week.  Half of the class reads while the other half does the new activity. After a certain amount of time (or the next day), they switch. Slowly introduce another activity, then another until you have 3-4 that everyone is comfortable with doing independently. Then, introduce your management system or how you want students to rotate through activities. This will likely take several weeks for students to master.

TEACH procedures for everything.
I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but if you want things to run smoothly, you don’t leave anything to chance. Make no assumptions about what your students should or shouldn’t already know or be able to do when it comes to managing themselves or working within your classroom management style.  You must TEACH them. A mini-lesson about procedures and routines should follow the same format as a mini-lesson on any other topic or content:

• Focus the Learning-Just as with any lesson, you want to tell the students exactly what it is they are going to learn.  To do this, you must think about what procedures and routines you want them to follow during guided reading time. How should they ask for help if you are with a group? Where will they get materials? What should they do if they are having a problem with an assignment?  Think through EVERYTHING and make a list. This list becomes the topics of your mini-lessons. Pick ONE to focus a lesson on each day. 

• Modeling-Once you introduce the procedure or routine, you have to show students what it looks like.  I also encourage showing what it does NOT look like.  For example, if I were teaching first graders how to leave their workstation to come to the guided reading table when called, I would model hearing my name, putting my materials back where they belong, and walking to the table.  I would ask the students what they noticed that I did, and we would make a list.  Then I would show them what it does not look like. I might ignore someone calling my name, or I might just get up and leave all of my materials on the floor and dance (spinning and flailing) over to the table. I would ask the class to tell me the difference between what I did the first and second time, and we would talk about why the behaviors in the second role-play are not desirable. 

• Guided practice-If you were teaching math, you would show students how to solve a problem, then you work on a problem together. The same approach applies here.  After I’ve shown them what the procedure should look like, we practice it together.  I might have everyone go to an area of the room and pretend to be working at a station.  Then I would call some names, and those students would put their things away and walk to the table. We would stop, reflect, then repeat with another set of names. 

• Independent practice-Once we have tried it as a group, I want students to have time to practice this on their own.  So, I might have students read quietly at their desks or go to some stations that don’t require much assistance.  As they work, I would call a student to come to the table and watch to see if they follow the procedure. 

• Evaluation/Reflection-After everyone had a chance to try on their own, we would come back together as a class and talk about how they think they did overall.  If this is something we still need to practice, then we will work on it more over the coming days. 

Well, I hope this has given you some things to think about as you begin this new year.  Guided reading is well worth the time and effort, but it does take time and effort.  I wish you all the best for this coming year!

Setting the Stage for Guided Reading-Part 3 of 4: Making Time

Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay 

Hello again!  It’s time to look at part 3 of this 4-part series on guided reading.  For this part, we are going to tackle TIME.  No matter what the initiative or practice is, time is always the most cited obstacle to implementation.  Here’s the thing….there is as much time as you make.  I never get lots of “Amen!” and cheers when I say that, but it’s true. In fact, the notion that we don’t have time is one
that we have to train our brains to challenge. 

Instead of “There’s no time for ______.”, I can choose to think “There’s time for _____ if I _______.”  Now, the way I finish that sentence may be uncomfortable-- (There’s time for exercise if I wake up 30 minutes earlier.  There’s time for reading a book if I put my Ipad down. There’s time to write a blog post if I write it before I begin another project.)--but it’s the truth. We all have the same amount of time.  What makes our time productive or unproductive is how we prioritize the activities we do during that time. 

In regard to guided reading, teachers and administrators will often look at their schedules and try to figure out where they can fit in time for guided reading; however, the better approach is to decide when you will do guided reading, then structure your schedule around that.  If guided reading is the heart of your literacy instruction, then make it so.  Instead of  “We didn’t get around to guided reading today because we had to ______.” ask yourself “How can I incorporate ____ into guided reading groups instead of a whole class lesson?” or “While I am working with guided reading groups, how could the other students practice _____?”

For example, in a 90-minute block for language arts, I recommend prioritizing at least 45-60 minutes for guided reading.  If I typically take 30 minutes to work on phonics as a whole group (please don’t) and another 30 for shared reading as a whole group, and 20 minutes to do a error-riddled DOL sentence for grammar practice (again...please don’t), then that only leaves me 10 minutes for writing (not grammar), independent reading, and guided reading. So let’s use our new phrasing and see how we could change this. 

There’s time for guided reading if you do the phonics and word study in small groups instead of as a whole group lesson.  Add about 5-7 minutes on to each guided reading group and make the teacher table a rotation so that every student gets introduced to the concepts.

There’s time for guided reading if you use a more effective grammar approach like Jeff Anderson’s Invitation to Notice protocol outlined in his books Patterns of Power, Everyday Editing, Mechanically Inclined to name a few. This approach not only requires less time but makes a bigger impact. Use the saved time for guided reading.

There’s time for guided reading if you do the “I do” and “We do” portions of a shared reading lesson together and let students to the “You do” portion during literacy stations while you work with guided reading groups.

The point is….there is always a way to do the things you see as valuable.  If you complete the “There’s time for ____ if I ___” statement in a way that makes you think “but I don’t know how to do that…” then guess what? That’s okay!  Now you have something to learn.

If you don’t see how you can teach a lesson in 10 minutes, start searching for videos and information about mini-lessons. If you don’t know what the Jeff Anderson grammar routine is, look it up, watch YouTube videos, go to trainings. If you’re not sure how to do literacy stations, start talking to teachers who seem to have some systems that are working.  Join some Twitter chats, go to the Teaching Channel (www.teachingchannel.org) and scour their videos for glimpses inside real classrooms to see how it can be done. Read some books like Who’s Doing the Work, The Daily Five, and anything Fountas & Pinnell write. 

If time has been your primary obstacle for implementing guided reading in the past, then you may simply need to acquire some new knowledge and skills that will allow you to see and feel comfortable with different options for using your time more efficiently. I’d love to hear how you make time for guided reading and what new knowledge or skills you have had to learn to make it happen.

Setting the Stage for Guided Reading-Part 2 of 4: Essential Supplies

Welcome Back! This is part 2 of a 4-part series on how to get prepared for a successful implementation of guided reading this year.  Last week, we looked at how the design of your classroom can impact your ability to pull groups when the time comes.  This week, we are going to think about materials that need to be readily available in the small group area and some systems to

consider.  After all, it is school supply time, and all of the stores have major sales on these materials right now.  Between Dollar Tree, the Wal-Mart school supply aisles, and the Target Dollar Spot, you can stock your guided reading area with everything you need for under $30. So here’s my essential guided reading supply list:

Baskets/Tubs
I like Dollar Tree for baskets because you can get 2-3 medium plastic tubs for $1, but Target has sturdier tubs in bright colors for about $3 in their dollar spot occasionally.  I suggest getting about 5-6 baskets-or one for each group.  These baskets can hold bulky items (like dry erase boards) and also become browsing boxes. When students have read a book in guided reading groups, put a copy of it in a “browsing box”.  This box can be pulled out when students are waiting for everyone to finish reading or as a way to transition while they wait for all the group members to get to the table.  Personally, I like
labeling baskets with numbers and putting the materials for each group’s lessons for that week in them. That way, when a group comes to the table, I just grab their basket and everything is there.

Binder
When you conduct guided reading groups, you want to take anecdotal notes and be able to reference them easily so that you can make flexible group changes when needed.  Binders are great for keeping everything in one place. I suggest a 1-inch or 1.5 inch binder with the following tabs:

• Class tab-Have the first tab in your binder be a class tab.  This is where you can put class summary data. You might put a class running record chart that shows everyone’s levels at a glance. This is where you might also put a list of your guided reading groups for quick reference. 
• Monthly tabs or Alphabet tabs-After the class tab, create monthly tabs where you can put guided reading plans after you have used them. You could use alphabet tabs instead and put the plans behind the tab related to the level of book that plan was created for.  Then you can easily access them again if you use that book with another group later. 
• Student tabs-Use alphabet tabs or write-on tabs to create a section for each student.  Keep informal anecdotal notes pages and running records that have been done behind the tabs along with samples of student work that reflect growth or need in particular areas. 

Caddy with a handle or Organizer with Plastic Drawers
Having materials within an arm’s reach is crucial if you want the 10-15 minutes you have with students at your table to be used efficiently.  Every time you have to get up and walk to your desk or to another area of the room to get something, time is wasted.  So, make sure to have either a plastic caddy with a handle or an organizer with drawers where you can keep the following:

• Individual Whiteboards
• Dry erase markers & erasers (or tissues/rags)
• Sentence strips or notecards
• Scissors (teacher size)
• Paper
• Pencils
• Sticky notes

Folders
I think the best folders for guided reading are the ones with the brads and pockets.  I like having a different colored folder for each group.  Inside the folder prongs, put individual notes sheets or just plain paper. Put the name of each student in the group on a different piece of paper and use that to take informal running records or anecdotal notes when working with that group. Just make sure to put the date and title of the book they are reading (with the level) so you have some context when you reference the notes later. When you have filled up a page, put it behind the student’s tab in your guided reading binder. In the left-hand folder, put your guided reading lesson plan(s) for that week. Put reading behavior checklists related to that particular reading level in the other pocket for easy access.

Gallon Size Ziploc Bags
I suggest getting at least 2-3 packages of gallon size Ziploc Bags.  Put student names on a bag and use them to send books home. You can put activities or reading goal cards in the bags to help parents know what students are working on or how they can help at home. You can also use them to keep books organized. Put sets of books in a bag and label the bag with the level.  Use a file crate with hanging folders to keep your books in order.

So there you go....my guided reading school supply list.  I'd love to hear what you would add to the list or see pics of how you have organized your guided reading area.

Come back next week to talk about TIME and how to organize your schedule to make sure you have enough of it for guided reading!

Setting the Stage for Guided Reading-Part 1 of 4

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay 

As the school year begins to peek its head around the corner, I thought I would do a series of blogs for teachers who want to implement guided reading in the coming year. Over the next four weeks, I will be giving tips on ways to prepare before the school year even begins. Guided reading is a tried and true practice, but it takes planning to implement effectively.  So much of that planning has to do with factors other than curriculum and content, so I want to start with how to set the stage for guided reading by designing a classroom environment that will make implementation easier. I will address (1) layout and organization of the classroom, (2)materials to stock up while school supplies are on sale, (3)how to schedule time, (4)and how to slowly introduce routines to students over the first few weeks of school.

So, let’s get started...
The classroom environment is critical for guided reading to be successful.  While a teacher may not begin guided reading groups until a few weeks into the semester (or longer with younger students), her environment sets the stage for what will happen throughout the year.  Before any bulletin board paper goes on the walls, teachers need to think about room design and function.

When someone comes into a well-organized and designed room, he knows exactly the type of activities that go on there.  I’ve walked into classrooms where I didn’t even know it was an English Language Arts class because there weren’t any books! Everything about the environment should reflect its purpose.  A house has rooms with specific functions, and because we know these functions, we can typically navigate a house without much help.  A classroom needs to function in the same way.  It should be logical in its design and function so that students can navigate and monitor themselves within it.  This sets the stage for whether a teacher can even conduct guided reading groups later on.  If the environment is set up to where the students can’t reach any materials, then they will be interrupting groups to ask for help.  So, even though every area of the room may not be used for conducting guided reading groups, it is necessary to think through their use.

There are 4 key areas that teachers need to consider prior to starting the year:

• Whole group area-This area is where the teacher conducts whole group lessons. It may be a carpet area, or it may be where the student desks are.
• Student work area-This is typically the area of the classroom where students sit to engage in whole group lessons or work on assigned activities.
• Small group area-This is the area of the room where the teachers will meet with small groups.
• Independent work areas-These areas may include workstations, classroom libraries, or student desks.  Any area of the room where students may work by themselves or with a partner is included here. 

For each of these areas, it benefits teachers to carefully think about and list what materials will be used in the space(s) and how resources will be stored. In addition, teachers need to plan what systems or procedures will be needed for students to use that area in productive ways. Write these ideas in a notebook and get as detailed as possible.  If you are a chart/table person like me, I’ve created a planning sheet you can download to help with this.

It may help to draw the areas and label where specific materials will go. Think about and outline the procedure or systems students will use for (1)getting materials, (2)going to and from the areas, (3)knowing when an area is on or off limits, (4)cleaning up, (5)what to do if a material is missing, and any other possible thing a student might need to know to function independently. Create visuals that show students what the areas are for and when they are in use. Print or make labels for all materials. The more detailed you can get in your planning, the better.  You may change the procedures as the year progresses, but at least you will have one to start.

As you plan procedures for students, also plan systems for yourself that will help you develop the habits you will need in order to successfully work with groups later. For example, if you have a table in the back of the room covered in papers, that’s not going to be very useful when it’s time to pull a group.  From the beginning, get in the habit of keeping the table cleared off.  Don’t leave at the end of the day unless the table is clutter free. If you have 5 groups, how will you keep their materials separate? Where will you store them? How will you keep notes on the groups?  Think through all of this ahead of time.

When you have your classroom set up, ask a colleague to come in and look around. Ask them to tell you what activities seem like priorities in your room. See if they can locate where things would be. Give them a treasure hunt list and see if they can find all of the items.  If they can, then you have probably labeled everything well and put it in logical places.  If you’ve done this, you've accomplished the first step of setting the stage for guided reading!

Come back next week to find out what materials to stock your guided reading area with and ideas for organizing all the clutter!

Focusing Your Vision with Style

Image by John Hain from Pixabay 

This year, I was introduced to an amazing book called Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design by Danielle LaPorte and Carrie McCarthy.  I learned about the book from a podcast I listen to and decided to buy it because I was looking for some ways to simplify areas of my life. The idea behind the book intrigued me. Basically, the authors give you a series of thought exercises to work through to reflect on different areas of your life. After doing the exercises, you look for patterns and whittle your reflections down to 2 words that sum up your style statement. The first word represents 80% of your style (think big furniture or basic wardrobe) and the other word represents 20% (think artwork or accessories). Now the book goes into all aspects of life including learning, home, fashion, relationships and more.  In the end, your 2 words should reflect you and how you approach all areas of your life.  It’s kind of like the #oneword idea for New Year’s resolutions.  The key to the book is that you want your style statement to represent who you are authentically-not what you want others to think you are.  Once you figure out your two words, you can use them to guide choices that are more aligned with your true values.

Anyway, I spent about a month going through the exercises and narrowing my style down to 2 words: timeless playful.  Those were not the words I would have predicted at the beginning of that journey. I wanted them to be statements like sophisticated bold or classic edgy, but that’s not what came to the surface through the exercises. Words like order, calm, comfort, peace, and open bubbled up in my positive reflections; whereas words such as chaos, bother, closed, and trapped were repeated in my more negative reflections. After realizing my two words, I started taking stock to see if they matched my life.  My clothes are mostly classic designs that don’t go out of style, but I like putting them in unique color combinations or playing with patterns.  My house is filled with furniture that will last and can withstand trends, but we have funky wallpaper and big, bold artwork on our walls.  My marriage is consistent, strong, and relaxing, but we love the adventure of travel and to laugh...a lot. So, timeless playful actually summed up most of my lifeSTYLE. Now...and thanks to Marie Kondo...those things that don’t fit are thanked and tossed. These words have started to drive most of my purchasing decisions, too. It’s made life much more simple and focused.

So, this summer, I’ve decided to play with this concept and how it might apply in education--teaching, coaching, leadership.  If you want to try, I’ve created my own modified version of Style Statement exercises you can do.

To get started, here are some questions to consider. I encourage you to write your reflections on paper so that you can see patterns that may emerge:

What works for you:

• If you did not have to worry about test scores, what would you do in your classroom, school, or position?
• You are at your professional best when you….
• How would your best students, co-workers, and/or employees describe you?
• Who are some of your professional mentors? What about them would you like to emulate?
• What professional books, podcasts, Twitter chats, trainings, etc. have had the most impact on your work? In what ways?
• The best part of being an educator is…
• The best part of your job is…

What does not work well:

• What does a bad day look like for you?
• What aspects of your job are most irritating? Why?
• How would you describe someone who is difficult to work with?
• What was your worst experience as a student?
• What was your worst experience as an employee? What made it a negative experience?
• How would your most difficult students, co-workers, and/or employees describe you?
• What are the 3 biggest things you would change about education? 

After you have written your thoughts, go through and circle words, concepts, or feelings that tend to repeat or that seem interesting to you. Choose 5 of these words that resonate most strongly with you and write them down (List A). Take a thesaurus and look for synonyms of the words and make a new list that includes all of the synonyms.  Choose 5 of the synonyms that resonate most strongly (List B).  Now using List A and List B, cross off any words that seem too dramatic or that just don’t feel quite right.  From the remaining words, play with some combinations that might represent your education style statement.

So, what did you create? What is your coaching style statement? Your teaching style statement? Your school culture style statement? Was what bubbled to the surface what you wanted it to be. What does the statement reflect?  Does it reflect what you truly believe? If not, what can you do to change it?

I hope this gives you some food for thought as you rejuvenate this summer and look toward the coming year.  Use this to help guide how you want to approach your work and the people that you encounter.

I’d love to hear some of your statements!

Making the Shift from Teacher to Coach

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

 Every year, I see great teachers moving from the classroom into leadership roles as administrators or coaches. This is always exciting to see, and I’m rooting for their success.  So, I thought I would share the top 5 things I wish I had known when I shifted from classroom teacher to coaching and leadership positions.

1. The skills are different!  There seems to be an assumption that if you are a good teacher, you will make a good coach; however, the skills needed to guide and influence adults are considerably different from the ones needed to engage students. Some overlap, for sure, but still, there are differences. Some skills of coaching (like presenting a staff development session) may come easily, and you can draw from your teaching toolbox. However, other skills, such as knowing how to effectively (and positively) work with a someone who is resistant to an idea or knowing how to effectively handle a challenging team dynamic can be extremely difficult if you haven’t had any type of leadership training or communication training...which many coaches have not.

2. Get great at “figuring it out”   Coaching is a bridge role.  You are constantly living in the “in between” of teaching and leading.  Many times, a coach’s role is not clearly defined and she has to basically determine what her daily/weekly schedule will entail without much guidance. If you are someone who needs to know if you are doing it “right”, this is a tough transition to make.  Sometimes, you’ve just got to write your own script instead of waiting for someone to tell you what to do. After all, you are a coach. Part of your job is to see the need and find ways to fill it.  An administrator or teacher may not always know what they need you to do….they need you to figure that out.

3. Take on learning like it’s your job...because it is. Training for coaches is limited at best. You will have to seek out your own tribe. Read everything you can get your hands on in the areas where you struggle.  If you are paralyzed by the thought having a difficult or uncomfortable conversation with someone, read Crucial Conversations and get some tools. If it is building trust with people, read Speed of Trust or any of the other countless books that are on the market. It is likely that your reading will shift from content to leadership, communication, and self-help type books.  That’s okay. In fact, it’s necessary.

4. Fill your own bucket.   This has probably been one of the most life-changing lessons I learned. There will always be someone who hates what you are doing. It’s hard to know that someone doesn’t think you are doing a good job. On the other hand, there will usually also be times when someone LOVES what you are doing. If you depend on these hills and valleys of praise and criticism to gauge your worth, though,  YOU ARE DOOMED.  The best advice I ever got was to leave both the praise and the criticism at the door.  Look at it, admire it, cry about it, whatever...then leave it.  Don’t come back to it. Don’t stew over it ...or bask in the glory of it.  Don’t keep it in a cage to pet later.  Don’t feed it. Don’t get hypnotized by it. Acknowledge it, learn from it, and move on.  I’ll be honest, the hardest part of this to learn to do was to let the praise part go. We all love to hear that we are doing something well. It took a long time for me to learn that other people’s words are sweet, but my own words to myself are nourishing. If I can keep myself nourished, then I’m not hungry. That makes it awfully hard to swallow the sweet OR sour words of others.

5. Tame your thoughts if you want to have real impact.  It is so easy to fall into a trap of “they just don’t want to…” or “that’s just a resistant teacher…” when you run up against a difficult situation.  Too easy in fact. Those thoughts are cop-outs.  They are easy.  They let me, the coach, off the hook. If I really want to have an impact, I have to tame those thoughts. One way that I have found is that when I encounter a teacher (or administrator) who seems resistant to what I am saying or promoting, I can ask myself “What does this show me they don’t understand?”  Just by asking myself this one question, it immediately takes the focus off of their character and puts it into something I can pinpoint and take action on. Then, it is up to me to put my teaching skills in action to help them understand it.

 In the end, all shifts take some time, but with the right tools and realistic expectations, the transition can be much smoother. Hopefully, these tips will give those of you who are changing roles some ideas for building skills. 

I’d love to know other tips or advice you would add to this list!

Growing Forward: Making the Most of End-of-year Coaching Conversations

As the school year starts to wind down, I am at that point where I am doing my last coaching visits on campuses.  This is always an interesting time because there are generally changes afoot at almost every school.  Spring is the time when contracts go out, teachers start applying for jobs or get notified of assignment/grade changes, administrators start preparing for renovations, moves, summer school, and the list goes on. 

Image by cor gaasbeek from Pixabay 

In light of all the changes that generally occur, it can be a struggle to make those last meetings meaningful.  Going into classes to introduce something new is not really helpful at this point, so instead, I try to find time to meet with each teacher or team to debrief the year and help them plan for how they might grow as they look into the summer.

I call this a Growing Forward conference because it basically consists of asking 2 key questions that lead to an action or recommendation that will help the teacher move forward in an area he wants to grow.  This type of conference could happen at the end of any coaching cycle, but I find it particularly helpful at the end of the year. Here’s what you need to know to have a successful end-of-year conversation:

Question 1: In what areas do you feel you have grown?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask because the answers can be incredibly varied and surprising.  I like to leave it very open because I don’t want a teacher to limit her answer to only the areas that I have coached them.  In some cases, a teacher may have difficulty finding an area, so you want to make sure to have some follow-up questions handy.  (See suggestions below.) You will also want to be ready to tell them areas that you have seen growth, but let the conversation revolve around their reflections.

If the teacher has a response, you might say...

• What do you feel has contributed most to your growth in this area?
• What resources or tools have you found to be particularly helpful to you in this area?
• What made you realize that this was an area that you could strengthen?
• Where did you get ideas or support from in this area? (This may be an author, a Twitter PLN, another teacher, etc.)

If the teacher does not have a response or says “I don’t know”, you might say...

• What is something new you tried this year? 
• What is something you were more consistent with this year?
• What is something that you changed over the course of the year? Why?
• In what areas do you feel your students have grown this year? What did you do to support that growth?
• What is something that went better or worked more smoothly for you this year than in the past? What was different?

Question 2: In what areas would you like to continue to grow?

I have found this question is generally followed by a long pause….which also tells me it’s a pretty good question.  Many teachers may not have taken time to think about an area that they WANT to grow.  How a teacher answers this question will give you some insight into how (or if) they think about and plan for their own personal growth.  I ask this question to teachers even if they are retiring, moving to a new position, or leaving the profession for some other reason. The follow-up questions should lead teachers in thinking about actions they could take. The answers that teachers give will inform your resource recommendation, so listen carefully. 

If the teacher has a response, you might say...

• What will growing in this area help you to accomplish or allow you to do?
• What trainings, books, or other resources have you found that might help you with learning more in this area?

If the teacher does not have a response or says “I don’t know”, you might say...

• What is something you would like to try in the next year? (follow up with questions above)
• What is something you have always wanted to know more about?
• How do you want to feel at this time next year? What is one thing that would have to happen for you to feel that way? What is one thing you will have to learn or do to make that thing happen?
• What is one thing you want to accomplish by this time next year? What is one thing you will have to learn or do to make that thing happen?

Recommendation

To wrap up the conference, I usually try to offer at least one resource or recommendation for the teacher related to the area in which he wants to grow.  If it is an area that I don’t know a lot about, then I try to help them think of ways to get information.  As a coach, this is why it is so important that you are constantly learning and growing yourself.  You want to be able to recommend books, websites, conferences, articles, and ideas you’ve seen, tried, or just heard about.

If you find that you don't really have a lot of resources to offer, you might take some time to ask yourself these same questions and perhaps discover areas that you may want to stretch your learning.  Remember, you don’t have to be an expert in every area, but you should definitely be an expert in growing and learning.

Happy Growing!

A Dare for All Coaches

Truth or Dare? Remember that game?  As a kid, I always chose truth. I hated to be embarrassed, so dare was just simply off the table for me.  As an adult, I’ve come to see the value in the dare.

One of my favorite books of all time is Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly.  If you haven’t read it---stop now and just buy it.  You will thank me later. The title of the book is derived from Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” quote:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I read this book years ago, and the last line sort of put a fear in me.  I didn’t want to be a cold and timid soul...but I knew I was.  I have -as I think we all do- a little voice in me that wants everything to be perfect. It wants every lesson to go well, to never be embarrassed, to always know what the outcome is going to be.   That voice is dangerous-in life and in coaching. That voice keeps me safe, but it keeps me from coming up with new ideas and trying new things. That voice is the voice that wants me to train teachers on what to do but never actually step into a classroom to see how it might work.  Because what if it doesn’t?  What if I mess up?  What if I can’t get the kids to do the work?  What if? What if? What if?  That scared voice likes for me to think that failing would be the most awful thing ever.  So, I decided this year to shut that voice up. 

How did I do that?  I had to purposefully dare myself to do some demo lessons that very well might fail.  There were some things I was reading about that I knew could make big impacts in classrooms, but I needed to do them to see how they worked. In my own classroom, that would not be a big deal. In fact, I tried things all the time. But in my role as a consultant/coach---it’s SCARY. I’m supposed to be the “expert”. I’m supposed to have tried everything, done it, know how it works, and be able to replicate it--perfectly. (Well, at least that’s what the little voice tells me.) 

Let’s just say that I have had plenty of demo bombs this year. But I’ve learned some lessons that I might not have otherwise.  Here was what I learned by failing in front of teachers:

1. Either get in the ring or get out. If I am going to ask teachers to do something---like try a new practice or video themselves teaching--I MUST be willing to do the same.  There is no wiggle room here.  If I’m not willing to do it - forget it. If I AM willing, though--different game.

2. “Demo Lessons” come in different forms. When a lesson doesn’t go right, take advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate your own leaning.  Ask for the teacher’s - and students’- input and get some suggestions for how to improve it.  Sometimes the “demonstration” part of a lesson is not in the lesson itself but in the aftermath of showing how you think through what went wrong and seek to make revisions-not blaming the students, not making excuses, not thinking that this one failed lesson must mean you are a terrible teacher/coach--just growing in front of someone.

3. It is NORMAL for things to go wrong. It’s never easy when something doesn’t go right--especially in those classes where you really NEED it to go right, but that’s life. It doesn’t mean you are bad at what you do. It means what you make it mean, so make it mean that you’re human and have off days sometimes.

4. It’s not always about me...what?! Whether a teacher truly gets something out of the demo lesson is not totally dependent on your execution of it. It has a lot to do with whether she feels respected and safe in the whole coaching context and, quite frankly, whether the teacher wants to get something out of it or not.  I have had teachers watch me do terrible lessons and still be able to walk away with something.  On the same hand, I’ve knocked some lessons out of the park yet had very little impact on the teacher.

5. Showing up is the best demo.  I have said many times before that I sometimes jokingly call coaching the act of “being the mosquito” because there are more times than not that it can feel like you are that thing that keeps coming around even though you may not be wanted all the time.  BUT you just keep showing up. When they hate you, you show up.  When they love you, you show up. When they are sick of you, you show up. When they invite you to their rooms, you show up. When they hurt your feelings (or when you hurt theirs), you show up. When you’re not sure if your lesson is going to be perfect, you SHOW UP so that you can show that perfection is not the goal. Learning is.

So, since spring is a time of growth...I dare you to do something that will make you grow.  I dare you to try something that you would like your teachers to try. And...double dog dare you to do it in front of them!

R.I.P. TPCASTT?

As the new year begins, it is a time to put old habits to rest and start new ones-to revisit the WHY behind what we do and see if there are any revisions needed.  I have had some major professional “a-ha” moments over the past 2 months, but my biggest one probably came in an 8th-grade class earlier this month.  We were working on poetry…

Poetry--that art form that all of us connect to in music or greeting cards or love letters-but somehow find it so hard to get our students to analyze.  Here’s the thing-poetry is meant to first and foremost be read with the heart. What makes poetry great is that it can be interpreted so many different ways.  A songwriter may write a song about their child, but it relates to one listener as a love song to their boyfriend and another as a song about faith.  For example, Lady Antebellum’s song Run to You has always been a song about faith for me. That may not be at all what they were thinking about when they wrote it, but that’s how the words connect to me. So, how can we teach students to analyze something that is so subjective and open to interpretation? We don’t…we teach them to question it, feel it, and find a connection to it. Through that, they will come to a deeper understanding.

Typically, a poet is writing poetry to express something. Half the time, the conclusions we draw from our analysis may be a surprise to the poet, too!  (see Sara Holbrook’s article about not being able to answer STAAR questions about her own poem: https://tinyurl.com/ydbegkl4) That’s not to say we shouldn’t dig into poetry...we just have to keep the digging grounded in the fact that the poet likely didn’t expect us to dissect it.

For the past decade, the primary tool that I have seen being used to teach poetry analysis is TPCASTT--an mnemonic device designed to help students remember things to look for or do when analyzing poetry-title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude/tone, shifts, title (revisited), theme.  I understand the rationale, but I started wondering if there was another way to approach poetry analysis since I consistently hear how students struggle with this even though they have been taught TPCASTT.

So-back to the 8th-grade class.

I was modeling a lesson using the 3 Big Questions which Kylene Beers & Robert Probst introduce and discuss in their books Reading Nonfiction (2016) and Disrupting Thinking (2017). These 3 questions help readers take a questioning stance to any type of text. So, I wanted to see how it would work with poetry.

The 3 Big Questions are below along with what I add when introducing them to students in parentheses:

1. What surprises me? (or causes a reaction...When you read, what makes you say “Cool!”, “Gross!”,  “Oh no!”, “Wow!”, “Awww…”, etc.? When you hear yourself thinking these things-take note of it.--mark these things with a ! or heart.)
2. What did the author think I already knew? (When you read, what makes you say “Huh?” or “Wait...what?”...mark these things with a ?)
3. What changed, challenged, or confirmed my thinking? (When you read, what makes you say “I knew it!” or “Hmmmm…” or “At first I thought___, but now I’m thinking…”...mark these things with a *)

For this lesson, we used the poem Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson. First, \I read the poem and had the students briefly discuss or write one sentence describing their first impression.  Then, I introduced the 3 Big Questions, and the students read the poem while marking their thinking as it related to the Big 3. Next,  we talked about what they marked and what it made them wonder. This part was the key.  Here were some of their questions:

• Why does she keep falling in the hole?
• Why does she take so long to go down another street?
• Why doesn’t she see the hole?
• Why isn’t it his/her fault?
• Why is he hopeless?

After we had a list of questions sparked by their thinking, we divided into groups to investigate them further.  Some of the conversations the kids were having were incredible!  They were figuring out symbolism and hypothesizing about what the hole could be...while constantly referring back to the text.  There were lots of "maybe..." and "he probably..." and "what if..." statements being used.

After the group discussions, we came back together to compare conclusions. I was truly surprised at the depth of their thinking. To end the lesson, I asked them to write a reflection. I gave them the following frame to use if they needed.  I wanted them to talk about their interpretation and how they could apply the poem to their own lives:

After reading the poem, I think ___________.  Something that stuck with me was _____ because ______.  I can remember this when I ________. 

Here was one student’s response (in true middle school fashion…)

After reading this poem, I think it’s not talking about an actual hole in the sidewalk. It’s more about love in my eyes. Something that really stuck with me is falling into the hole repeating. I can remember everytime I was heartbroken when I thought I fell in “love”. 

And another:

After reading the poem, I think the hole is not a real hole, and it is just a mistake. The author uses the hole as something to symbolize his mistakes. Something that really stuck with me was when he decided to finally walk down another street. I think he pretended not to see the hole because he didn’t want to fall in again, but in reality your mistakes won’t go away unless you fix them. 

And another:

After I read this poem something that stuck with me was that you can do over the same mistake but at the end find a solution for your mistakes. I can apply this to my life by knowing there is another path. 

And another

After reading the poem, I can’t get the thought out of my head that it really isn’t a real hole its mistakes or his love life. I can remember this poem when I have mistakes to really think about what I did and probably to stop repeating that same mistake.

Now, to me, for the first reading of a poem, that’s pretty insightful stuff.  I could go back with them on another day and look more closely at some of the elements of TPCASTT, but having them do something like this first might make that more meaningful.  They can then look at the title, shifts, and other elements in relation to the effect it had on them as readers...and as feeling human beings!

After trying this in other grades and with other poems, I keep seeing similar results--kids are talking and thinking more deeply than I expected about a genre that they typically struggle to interpret. And...they actually seemed to be enjoying it! So, for me, I’m going to give TPCASTT some time off and see how deep the students’ questions can take us instead.

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

Do's and Don'ts of Responsive Coaching

Responsive teaching is a term that is becoming more widely used, and rightly so. The idea of responsive teaching is that while we may plan and structure learning experiences for students, we must be able to adjust, change, and make on-the-spot decisions according to what students need in the moment.  That takes an enormous amount of skill on the teacher’s part.

Ultimately, my goal as a coach is to help teachers become better instructional decision makers. In other words, I’m there to help them become more responsive to their students.  So, it would stand to reason that, as a coach, I must be responsive to the needs of the teachers. This is not always easy, and sometimes I may lack all the necessary tools, but I have found a few guiding principles that help me to stay focused on the ultimate goal.  So, here are some “Do’s and Don’ts” that I have learned along the way -and that I still struggle with- in my journey to become a more responsive coach:

1. Meet teachers where they ARE-not where you think they SHOULD be. The best advice I ever received was when I was in college and going through volunteer training at a domestic violence outreach center. Many of us in the training had not experienced being homeless or having to leave a spouse due to violence, so we were trying to assert logic into situations that are beyond logic.  The trainer wisely told us to not “should” on ourselves.  What she meant was don’t try to view a situation only from your limited view of what “should” be happening.  Take the situation at face value. What IS happening? Take action on that.  That phrase- “Don’t ‘should’ on yourself.” has stuck with me ever since.  Whenever I find myself-or hear someone else- saying things like, “The teachers should know that” or “The students should be able to…,” I think of that advice. Acting on “shoulds” automatically puts us in a place of judgment. No one responds well to being judged. Plus, I can’t coach a “should.”  I can coach what IS.  So, when I go to a classroom, I try to look for what IS happening and then create a plan for helping that teacher learn the things needed to improve his decision making. That may look different for every teacher….and it SHOULD!

2. Focus on improving practice-not personalities. If the goal of coaching is to help teachers become better instructional decision makers, then my goal as a coach is to help identify the behaviors that a teacher can practice that will accelerate their learning.  Because we all encounter people that may be difficult- or we ourselves may not always be the picture of pleasant- it is important that our coaching focuses on improving behaviors of practice-not trying to change someone’s personality. One activity I like to do when I am training coaches is to have them make a list of all the things a teacher needs to know or be able to do. They can only use nouns and verbs. Inevitably, there will be adjectives included on those lists as well.  Words like patient, caring, flexible will be sprinkled among the nouns and verbs. When I see this, I draw attention to it and have the groups come up with nouns or verbs that are indicative of these character traits.  A teacher might seem patient if she gives students enough wait time after asking a question or if she knows some mindfulness or de-escalation strategies to use with an angry student.  Do you see the difference?  I can’t coach a person to be a better person, but I can coach them in practicing behaviors of and gaining knowledge of a patient, caring, or flexible person.

3. Work in reality--not ideals. This is probably the lesson that has made the most difference in my coaching experience.  Every single school and classroom is different. The resources available from district to district vary tremendously. So, if I have been charged with helping teachers learn to conduct guided reading lessons, yet there are no guided reading resources on campus...guess what?...we use what they do have...even if it is the students' own writing.  If the only thing that those teachers have available to them for shared reading is a basal reader, then we use that basal reader, and we figure out how to use it in the best way possible.  If they don’t have chart paper for anchor charts, we find what they do have and get creative. If they don’t have computers, we get out paper. If they don’t have a classroom library, but they have a bookroom full of old textbook adoptions, then we use what we can until we can get a www.Donorschoose.org page going or lobby admin for supplies. It’s not always ideal, but it’s reality. If I told teachers that we can’t learn to do guided reading until we have a guided reading library or that they can’t really implement a reading workshop unless they have a classroom library,  I would be (1) lying, and (2) making excuses. If my role is to help them become better instructional decision makers, then I have to model for them how to make decisions about the resources that ARE available and how to be creative with what they have. It’s not about the quality of the tool, anyway...it’s about the person whose hand the tool is in.  Though good tools can make it easier, it is NEVER EVER EVER about the tool...or program. Sure, I want to show them where they can access other, better tools, but ultimately, I want to help them become teachers who will and can create the tools they need when they can’t find them anywhere.

To sum it up...
Responsive coaching means that the path to meeting a goal will look very different for every teacher, campus, and district. There simply isn’t a mold that works the same way for every situation.  If there was a script, there wouldn’t be any need for decision making...or responsive teaching. So, while it may not be an easy approach, I encourage fellow coaches to continue learning and finding ways to support teachers where they are, no matter what that may look like.

Coaching Tips: 5 Ways to Make Demonstration Lessons Meaningful

Now that the school year has begun, life is starting to feel a little more normal. The students are starting to get more settled, classroom routines are in place, and the rhythm of school is taking hold.  This is also the time of year when an instructional coach starts to get her rhythm.  After weeks of building relationships, helping with planning, and just getting yourself organized, you may find that this is a great time to start doing some demo lessons in classrooms.  I have to admit, demos are my favorite coaching activity.  I love getting in classes and working with the students.  I kind of feel like Chip Gaines on Fixer Upper---I LOVE demo day! But I realize that it can also be stressful to teach in front of other people, so, I thought it might be helpful to give some tips for getting the most out of your demo days:

1. Start with the ones who want it.
If this is the first time to do demos in classes for the year, offer and see who wants you to come to their class.  Demonstration lessons require a certain amount of trust on the teacher’s part, so this lets you see who might be further along on the trust scale with you.  Typically once you do a lesson in one or two teachers’ rooms, others will start asking. If no one volunteers, ask some teachers if you can try out a lesson in their rooms.

2. Make it authentic.
I often have teachers try to accommodate me by scheduling me with their “best” classes rather than with the classes they would really benefit from seeing the lesson done with.  They are doing this for my benefit because they don’t want me to have to deal with the issues they face daily. That’s the point---I need to deal with those same issues if I am going to understand what they need. If they need to see a lesson done in their GT or Pre-AP class, I need to schedule it for then. If they need to see how you would adjust it for their class that has the most challenging behavior problems, schedule it for then.  Do it in the context that matters to the teacher.

3.Be willing to mess up.
Teaching in front of someone else can be nerve-racking.  Especially if you are there to show them best practices or how to employ a specific strategy. Combine that with having to teach students that you may not have a relationship with, and you are sure to have some flops.  That’s okay.  You are a coach likely because you were a good classroom teacher. You know how to teach...just do it.  Some of the best learning experiences (for me and the teacher) have come from demos gone bad.  When a teacher sees that we are willing to teach imperfectly in front of them, it builds trust. When we adjust a lesson midpoint because it’s not working or we talk afterward about how we would change it next time, it shows how decision-making happens. Those are also things we want to demonstrate.

4. Ask for feedback....from the students.
In the past few years, I have started doing two things in my demonstration lessons that have helped me improve.  One is I add 3 questions to the end of every lesson: 1) What did we learn? 2)Why did we learn it? 3) How did we do it?  I tell the students that I will be asking them these 3 questions at the end of the lesson to see if I have done my job.  This helps keep me (and my lesson) focused and on-track.  Besides that, I have also incorporated feedback into all of my lessons. At the end of each lesson, I ask the students to give me feedback on 2 things: 1) anything that they found helpful and think I should keep in the lesson when it is done in other classes and 2) any suggestions or ideas for how to change the lesson to make it more helpful.  When we give our students a voice, they will speak. I have gotten some fantastic suggestions from students over the years, and I have used those to improve. In addition to my own improvement, this is a powerful part of a demo because you don’t have to convince anyone that something is effective...the students will tell you what is effective!

5. Give the teachers what they need to do the lesson themselves. 
When we learn something new, we often imitate and copy before we adapt and change. Think about cooking. When you try to cook something new, you likely will follow the recipe as is.  After you try it a few times, you start tweaking it and making it your own. The same goes for teaching and learning strategies and practices.  At first, a teacher may watch you and want to try the exact lesson you did in the exact way. To do that, she needs to have the materials and resources that you used. So, try to use things that are readily available or that don’t require a lot of preparation.  I like to put my lessons in Google slides, and I just share them with the teacher.  If I use a book or excerpt of text, I try to make sure it is available in the library or give the teachers an extra copy if it is printed on paper. If I am demonstrating a workstation, I make sure the teachers have the resources to make the workstations. Once the teacher imitates your lesson, she will start making it her own, but she has to have the “ingredients” to try the recipe first.


Demonstration lessons can be an incredibly powerful tool for learning and for building trust, so it is worth our time to make them as effective as possible. I would love to hear other ways that you have found to get the most out of demo lessons.

Reading Levels for the Real World

Over the past few months, I have read more and more articles and blogs from many well-known educators about how reading levels can be misused by good-intentioned teachers.  Instead of being a tool for the TEACHER to aid in matching books with students for guided reading, they have become a label for children to use when choosing books for independent reading. That is NOT what levels are for. Now with that said, I also understand that if levels are to be used appropriately, they have to be understood.  Once teachers truly understand leveling and different systems, I know they will make better decisions for students. 

So, here’s a crash course in Leveling Systems 101...

Basically, leveling books is not an exact science. I think of levels as clothing sizes.  When I go shopping,  I may take clothes ranging from a size 8-14 into the dressing room.  Sometimes, the 8 is loose, and sometimes the 14 is tight.  Why? Because they are all made by different designers out of different materials to fit different body types.  I can’t order clothes online because I HAVE to try them on.  Leveled books are very much the same way. A level gives the TEACHER a starting point for choosing a book to use with a guided reading group, but sometimes, you have to just try it on the readers.  Sometimes a D will be harder than an E for some students. Not every D will be, but there will be some, for sure. 

So let’s talk leveling systems....

There is more than one kind out there. Two common types are what I call (1) formulaic systems (2) holistic systems. Formulaic systems (my term) are those that give you a grade level equivalent. I also consider Lexiles as an example of this type of leveling system because these systems are mostly based on readability---difficulty of the actual text based on words and sentences. Depending on the readability measure used, it may take into consideration word frequency, sentence length, number of words per sentence, number of words/sentences per paragraph, syllables in words, etc.  There are formulas that these numbers can be plugged into that will result in a grade level equivalent. These readability levels can be useful for giving a ballpark of the level of texts a student might be able to read, but they don’t take into consideration some of the factors that make books a “fit” for a particular reader.  For example, poetry always throws these readability formulas off.  Poetry is often very readable (the words can be easily figured out), but understanding poetry requires quite a bit of inferential thinking. This makes it more complex.  The same goes for graphic novels. They often throw readability formulas off for much of the same reason as poetry. The images in graphic novels carry much of the meaning, and it requires a different (and more complex) type of thinking to truly comprehend what is happening in a graphic novel. 

Holistic systems (or at least that’s what I call them) typically use A-Z or numbers for levels.  Guided reading levels, reading recovery levels, DRA, Reading A-Z, etc. use this type of leveling system to label books. The levels take into consideration different characteristics of the text such as vocabulary, topic, genre, layout, print features, themes, sentence types and lengths, and overall complexity (as opposed to just readability). Texts at each level have common characteristics that correlate with specific reading behaviors and skills that are needed to successfully navigate the texts. These levels are more helpful for guided reading because they offer a more comprehensive and detailed assessment of a book’s characteristics. The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum has detailed descriptors of each level if you want more information on how books are leveled. 

So what does it all mean? ...

Leveling systems have offered teachers a great way to shop for books to use with students, but they were never intended to be used by students for that purpose. Interest should drive student choices.  (Side note….The question I always get when I say that is, “What if I have a struggling reader who always chooses Harry Potter or a book that I know he can’t read?”  To that I say...Let them carry Harry Potter around then.  That’s an opportunity to have a conference with that student on why he is choosing that book, if he needs an audio version, and what other books that he might be interested in that he can navigate. For some of our older struggling readers, choosing those books is a way to save face in front of classmates that read better. There are bigger battles to fight. If we are diligent with one-to-one reading conferences, that issue can be turned into an opportunity to learn how to make better reading choices or how to use different modes of reading to access the book he wants.)

Now back to what I was saying….

Leveling systems can offer teachers a great tool, but that’s all they are...a tool. So, the next question is how can we use that tool in a better way? What if there was an alternative for helping students set reading goals and choose books that wouldn’t be based on a level (after all….the kids aren’t going to go to Barnes and Noble and ask for a level R!)? Why not try this?...Instead of telling students what level they are on, try teaching them the characteristics of books to look for and letting them know the reading behaviors and skills you will be working on with them.  That way, when they go to the classroom library or school library, they can make some informed choices about books that they are interested in, and they can talk about what they are learning to do as readers. It’s simple, but that’s what real readers do. I know the kind of books that I will have trouble with and the kind that I can read easily because I know books, and I know myself as a reader.  I know what types of books I prefer to have audio versions of and when I might need to read with a pen in hand.  None of my choices--none of them-are based on a level. They are based solely on me, the books, and my purpose. 

If you’d like to try this way of helping student set goals, I’ve created some goal cards here, but you can easily make your own to fit your needs: Reading Goal Cards All it requires is a teacher who understands levels, books, and kids.

I hope this helps as you start the new year, and please let me know if you have other ideas for how to use reading levels in better ways!