Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
About Next Year
About next year's coaching component: you should know that the curriculum coordinators/directors of PREP were especially eager that the cohort offer means for "spreading the word" about literacy. "Coaching" may be too formal a word for what we have in mind...perhaps "buddy system" or "thinking partner" would be better?
The cohort will be helping you (in the Fall) to think about this: selection criteria for your mentee/buddy/thinking partner; pointers on working with a colleague in an expert and novice situation; and a series of activities to inspire (ok, force) you to engage in dialogue and support with a colleague.
This will NEVER be evaluative. It WILL prompt you to move a little out of your comfort zone and to have those professional conversations and classroom visits we all know we should but never make the time to do/have. Really, don't worry about this! Enjoy the summer and I'll see you back here in the fall!
The cohort will be helping you (in the Fall) to think about this: selection criteria for your mentee/buddy/thinking partner; pointers on working with a colleague in an expert and novice situation; and a series of activities to inspire (ok, force) you to engage in dialogue and support with a colleague.
This will NEVER be evaluative. It WILL prompt you to move a little out of your comfort zone and to have those professional conversations and classroom visits we all know we should but never make the time to do/have. Really, don't worry about this! Enjoy the summer and I'll see you back here in the fall!
A word from Maureen...
About my little powerpoint--I didn't take time at the end to emphasize that all the other questions were designed to help answer the dense question. In theory talking about ourselves as readers, the text of PREP, and our world of school, and then the overlaps of ourselves and the text of PREP, ourselves and the expectations of the world of school, and school's engagement or disengagement with the text of PREP, we were warming ourselves and collecting bits of data to help us answer the dense question about our goals for PREP next year. Ideally the discussion and answers to the dense question are richer and more connected because of the questioning circles.
I think Leila Christenbury's Questioning Circles strategy offers potential for both teachers and students. As teachers it helps us to think strategically about how to organize material and categorize questions so that our students are engaging in three domains to eventually ponder a dense question. For students, after working in the model with teacher-guided practice, they can begin naming the three domains and generating questions in each of the domains and overlaps to make their way to designing a dense question. The possibilities are endless: students could work in pairs and swap questioning circles; students could workshop their model to get feedback from peers; students from one class could construct a model to swap with students from another class; students could use the model to facilitate discussion in Socratic circles....
I think Leila Christenbury's Questioning Circles strategy offers potential for both teachers and students. As teachers it helps us to think strategically about how to organize material and categorize questions so that our students are engaging in three domains to eventually ponder a dense question. For students, after working in the model with teacher-guided practice, they can begin naming the three domains and generating questions in each of the domains and overlaps to make their way to designing a dense question. The possibilities are endless: students could work in pairs and swap questioning circles; students could workshop their model to get feedback from peers; students from one class could construct a model to swap with students from another class; students could use the model to facilitate discussion in Socratic circles....
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Parking Lot
This space is designed to be a place where you can "park" your ideas about what you would like to see next year from the Literacy Cohort.
Let me share an example:
Jen may decide that she wants to focus on struggling readers. Coincidentally, so may Carol. Todd may have liked the cooperative strategies that we talked about and wants to pursue them a little deeper next year and share them with his team. Liz may be interested in learning more about visualization strategies.
In my mind, it is positively fine if you all want to dig deeper into different areas of literacy. We can differentiate YOUR learning! Please post ideas or questions here in the Parking Lot.
Let me share an example:
Jen may decide that she wants to focus on struggling readers. Coincidentally, so may Carol. Todd may have liked the cooperative strategies that we talked about and wants to pursue them a little deeper next year and share them with his team. Liz may be interested in learning more about visualization strategies.
In my mind, it is positively fine if you all want to dig deeper into different areas of literacy. We can differentiate YOUR learning! Please post ideas or questions here in the Parking Lot.
Installment 3: Instructional Conversation
Claire shared what I will call a hybrid Instructional Conversation with our group: part explaining and teaching, part conversation about Frost's poem The Road Not Taken. Based on this and any other experiences you've had with IC, what are your thoughts? How will you use it in your classroom? How have you used it since we met? What did you think? How did your students react?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Question of the Month: Installment 2
Anne guided our groups through the cooperative learning tool, jigsaws. How did you use jigsaws with your students?
She also provided us with some graphic organizers. Please feel free to share any cool application you've thought of for them.
She also provided us with some graphic organizers. Please feel free to share any cool application you've thought of for them.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
QAR
Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) is a powerful, research-based approach for improving reading comprehension. It's really quite simple. Taffy Raphael, who is credited with the strategy, suggested that there are four kinds of questions, each of which is answered with a different source.
RIGHT THERE
THINK & SEARCH
ON MY OWN
AUTHOR & ME
*Meredith's handout explains each kind and how answers are crafted
Once you:
Teach kids how to discriminate between the four types of questions,
Model it,
Practice with them,
Then set them free to read, answer and ask their own questions...
They will be able to ask denser, better questions,
Be able to discern exactly what the question asker is looking for in an answer.
You can imagine all the cool and fruitful applications, I am sure!
RIGHT THERE
THINK & SEARCH
ON MY OWN
AUTHOR & ME
*Meredith's handout explains each kind and how answers are crafted
Once you:
Teach kids how to discriminate between the four types of questions,
Model it,
Practice with them,
Then set them free to read, answer and ask their own questions...
They will be able to ask denser, better questions,
Be able to discern exactly what the question asker is looking for in an answer.
You can imagine all the cool and fruitful applications, I am sure!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Question of the Month:
Meredith helped us see the role that context plays in why and how students read.
What is the entry point (context) that you provided for students?
What is the entry point (context) that you provided for students?
Monday, February 9, 2009
Summer Institute
June 29 - July 24, 2009
The very same Maine Writing Project that brings you the PREP Literacy Cohort offers you an amazing professional opportunity in the form of our Summer Institute.
Would you like to improve your writing and learn more about the teaching of writing? Do you see yourself as a teacher of teachers or would you like to be? The Maine Writing Project, a site of the National Writing Project, welcomes applications for our 2009 class of Fellows. Each year we invite sixteen (16) educators to join our ranks by participating in the SI.
Find an application at http://www.umaine.edu/edhd/mwp/programs/default.htm#Summer_Institute_
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Biopoem Courtesy of the Science Group
The following was written by the Science folks and me during Kaili's presentation on biopoems. Hope you enjoy!
Water,
You clingy, clannish, slippery
Dissolver of nearly anything!
Progeny of H & O,
Lover of yourself and others and
Other polar and charged things!
Who feels hot and steamy,
Yet cold as ice,
All the while expanding while others shrink away.
Who needs the sun to stay clean,
Gravity to come back down.
I fear you too, you hydrophobe!
Fear you like lipids and oil.
Oh, water! Giver of life who slakes thirst!
Who would like to see the respect it deserves,
The icy poles protected.
Residence of the bottom of the ocean,
The top of the sky.
Ah, water.
Water,
You clingy, clannish, slippery
Dissolver of nearly anything!
Progeny of H & O,
Lover of yourself and others and
Other polar and charged things!
Who feels hot and steamy,
Yet cold as ice,
All the while expanding while others shrink away.
Who needs the sun to stay clean,
Gravity to come back down.
I fear you too, you hydrophobe!
Fear you like lipids and oil.
Oh, water! Giver of life who slakes thirst!
Who would like to see the respect it deserves,
The icy poles protected.
Residence of the bottom of the ocean,
The top of the sky.
Ah, water.
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