Responsive Classroom - Interactive Modeling

This week I'm taking a Responsive Classroom Workshop.  I love their whole approach to classroom management.  Through Engaging Academics, Positive Community, Effective Management, and Developmental awareness, their four key domains, teachers learn to create a supportive learning environment for their students.

Today we spent a lot of time on the concept of Interactive Modeling.  So often teachers tell students to do something and then get frustrated with the child doesn't do it "the right way."  Something as simple as turning in homework can be done differently in each classroom and children need to know what "turn in your homework" looks like in your particular classroom.  To do this you need to use Interactive Modeling.

Interactive Modeling looks like...

1. Say what you are going to model and why.  Make sure you are clear, concise, and connect it to one of your classroom rules.  "We agreed that we take care of our materials in this classroom.  To do that I want to make sure you know how to put the glue away when you're finished with it."
2. Model the behavior.  Don't narrate, just silently model.  The children can't pay close attention to your actions if they are also trying to listen to your words.
3. Ask the students what they noticed. "What did you notice me doing?" If necessary you can use prompts to make sure all of the steps have been verbalized.  "Yes, I did put the bottle into the box.  What color was the box? Yes, that's correct, the green box is for glue."
4. Invite one or more students to model, just as you did.  
5. Again, as the students what they noticed.  This should largely be a repetition of step three, and the responses should be similar. 
6. Have all students practice.  Depending on what you are modeling you can have all students model immediately, or have them take turns through out the day or week.  If they aren't modeling immediately, be sure to tell them that they will get a chance soon.  "You will each get a chance to paint this week and when it is your turn I'll watch to make sure you remember the steps to clean the paint brushes."  In my glue example you can have them all practice right away if there are enough glue bottles. 
7. Provide feedback.  Reinforce successes.  "I notice that you closed the top of the glue bottle before putting it in the box.  You are helping to take care of our materials in this classroom."

Interactive Modeling can be used to teach routines (like how to respond to an attention signal), social and emotional skills (such has how to decide who goes first), and academic skills (such as how to create a graphic organizer).  

Remember that although you modeled the expected behavior and had the children practice, there is always the chance that they will "forget" or just get a little lax about following the process.  You may likely have to remodel and have them repractice throughout the year, depending on the class and complexity of the task.  

Interactive Modeling allows you to teach children how processes and routines work in your classroom so everyone knows what is expected, providing the structure and organization needed for a calm learning environment.

For more information about Interactive Modeling you can check out the Responsive Classroom website.

TCAP

This year UVEI is participating in the New Hampshire IHE Teacher Common Assessment of Performance (TCAP) program, a pilot program to design a state-wide teacher assessment.  I believe other states are doing similar things, all with the hope, I think, that it will go nationwide in the near future.

I like the idea of a common assessment so teachers are assessed using the same standards across the board, much like students with the Common Core State Standards.  I'm not saying they have to teach the same things or the same way, but it makes sense to me that there would be common factors in the assessments, much like the standards that exist for other professions.

This TCAP pilot program is not a requirement for UVEI, but they gave us the option and encouraged anyone to try.  I decided it would be a good way to challenge myself, pushing my learning at UVEI further.  It has given me the opportunity to think deeply about my lesson process, from the initial examination of the class through to the assessments and lesson reflections.  The whole process is considered.

For my lesson series I started with the Bridges in Mathematics program, which we use at my current school.  We were approaching a series of lessons around story problems, so I decided to do my TCAP project with that.  I created a four-part lesson series based on the Bridges program and tailored to my particular class.  I did case studies of several students and considered how to address their needs, and those of the class as a whole, in my lesson plans.

A student created story problem.

I then taught, recorded, and reflected on my lessons.  The lessons included acting out story problems, using sea creature plastic figures to create story problems with manipulatives, drawing our own story problems, and then solving the problems the students created.  The four-part series ended up being five lessons in total because the class thoroughly enjoyed the final lesson, solving story problems their peers had created, and wanted to continue past our available time.  For the fifth lesson we reviewed the first four, reviewed story problem solving strategies, and then tackled some of the more challenging problems the students had created. 

Using strategies to solve a story problem.

While teaching the lessons I made observational assessments on a formative assessment checklist I maintained throughout the lesson series.  I also collected the story problems the students created and I had them each solve one story problem on paper so I could collect that as well.  I scored those two work samples against a rubric I created for this project. 

I'm now in the final writing stages of the TCAP project, making sure I've addressed all of the questions answered, thoroughly analyzed my video clips, checked and double-checked my writing, and then checked it all over again.  Then I will submit it to UVEI and see where it goes from there.

Then, on to the next writing piece!  No shortage of planning, reflecting, and writing in a teacher's busy day!

A literacy conference

I went to the Vermont Council on Reading's spring conference today at the beautiful Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa.  The topic this year was "Building Literate Lives Through Common Core Standards" and Gay Su Pinnell was the keynote speaker.  In her introduction the presenter said it would be her last conference keynote event, but she seems far too energetic for this to be her last speaking engagement ever, so I'm not sure what exactly they meant by that.  For her keynote she talked about how to encourage a love of learning and the importance of reading for meaning and understanding, not just for speed.  "Giving the gift of a literate life should be our goal for our students," she said. 

In the afternoon Q&A she talked about leveled reading and the importance of not broadcasting a child's F&P level.  There was a discussion around whether or not to share the specific level with parents (she says no) and the pros and cons of doing so.  The pros being that parents want to know and it's an easy way to mark progress.  The cons being that it is important not to rank children by reading level and you run the risk of making it a competition.  Parents often don't understand the importance of fluency, not just speed reading.  Pinnell talked about fluency as involving many parts, including phrasing, pausing, word stress, intonation, rate, and integration.  There's more to it than just comprehension.  She recommended a book titled "The Art of Slow Reading," by Tom Newkirk as a starting point for thoughtful consideration of text.   

In the mid part of the day we attended breakout sessions.  I went to one called "Asking Questions, Answering Questions, and Everything in Between: Making Learning Visible with the Common Core Standards (K-8)."  I think they are just throwing the term "common core standards" at the end of everything these days!  Very little of the conference dealt with the CCSS at all.  The parts I attended anyway, perhaps some of the other breakout sessions touched on it more.  My breakout session had an interesting sounding title, but in truth had very little to do with making learning visible.  She did however have interesting thoughts on promoting social change.  She touched briefly on learning walls and demonstrated an interesting, interactive version of Reader's Theater which she called "imagery theater."  Using the book "The Story of Ruby Bridges", she showed us a way to pause the story (after having read it through to the children at least once, possibly several times), have students volunteer to play roles from the story and act out a scene.  At a pivotal moment have your actors freeze while the rest of the class walks around them, discussing what is going on and presenting alternative options for how the story could continue.  It creates a powerful way for children to change the outcome of a story, to be the agents of change. 

I had the good fortune to carpool with a fellow UVEI intern, so we had time for lots of great discussions and idea sharing.  Add in the sunshine and our lunch-time walk and I'd say it was a great day!

“We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.”
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

Digital Storytelling

I went to a professional development seminar today on technology in the classroom. There were three session choices: blogging, iPad apps, and digital storytelling. I had to think long and hard to decide between the iPad session and the digital storytelling session, but I finally decided on the storytelling.

At the digital storytelling session the instructor introduced us to three products: VoiceThread, Meograph, and PowToon. Each looked interesting in their own ways, and each would be used for very different things. While he was showing us the products I tried to think of a situation where students could use them in the classroom.

VoiceThread:
VoiceThread lets you add voice narration over photographs. You can have just one photo or a slideshow of photos. It also makes it very easy for others with accounts to comment, via text or voice, on your VoiceThread. At first I wasn't sure what to do with this product, but then I thought for young kids it could be fun to take a picture of their artwork and then have them record a voice narration telling the story. Children often have very elaborate stories to accompany their artwork. I could also see VoiceThread being useful in an art class. Students could photograph their artwork and then record a voice narration to go along with it. Their classmates could then view the projects and leave critiques. It could be a way to include technology in art classes, and a way to teach positive critiquing skills.

Meograph: Meograph sounded pretty cool when he described it, but when I looked at the few samples he showed it seemed less cool. I'll have to go play with it myself for awhile and see what I can build. Essentially it is a tool that ties Google Earth with historical time lines. In his example he had students map earthquakes in time (timeline) and space (Google Earth). The final project is a presentation of sorts. I could see Meograph being useful for an ancestry project, or perhaps a historical project that involves different places over time, such as the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

PowToon: PowToon lets you quickly and easily create animated movies or presentations. I think you could use this for little videos about a topic or as a dynamic introduction to a lesson or unit.

After the instructor introduced each of the three products, we were set loose to create something on our own. We were actually instructed to come to class with a story in mind, but sadly I came with none, so when we were turned loose I chose to make a little animation with PowToon. Not too shabby for a first try. :) The meeting also counted as professional development. I wonder if that counts for anything at this point in my life.