21A Celebrates School and Personal Transfer and Growth

The BES 21A cohort is one Growth Minded Group! These dedicated teachers spent Tuesday morning observing in 12 classrooms spanning K-5 looking for evidence of the Pillars of 21A (Community, Workshop, Thinking Strategies, and Student Discourse). Some of the most exciting observations included evidence noted on the wedges of the Synthesis Wheel. Together our teachers combined their thinking to come to a greater understanding about the Pillars: Teachers and Students intentionally making connections to create a comfortable community to share their ideas an thinking.  

Evidence of 21A Pillars to celebrate at Buckner:

• Teachers develop a strong sense of COMMUNITY in their classrooms. Students were very comfortable sharing their thoughts with one another and worked well together 
• All classrooms taught through the WORKSHOP approach. Intentional use of the the FLEXIBLE workshop structure (collaborative inquiry through YOU Do Together proceeding I DO instruction) moved thinking and engaged learners in some classrooms in various subjects. 
• Students and teachers using language of THINKING STRATEGIES during mini-lessons, on Slides, during worktime and conferring.
• Students using a variety of share and STUDENT DISCOURSE strategies: Hot Potato, Mix & Mingle, Jingle Mingle, Give one, Get one, PB& J Partners, Turn and Talk, Elbow Partners, Share Square
• Student engaged in a variety of meaningful discussions about various subjects. Students were engaged and comfortable enough to question each other's thinking. 

It was definitely a day of CELEBRATION, LEARNING, and GOAL SETTING!

Here is a link for anyone who is interested in being intentional with using thinking.

Thinking About Thinking...Again. Resources to the Rescue

Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Can't you hear it? The heartbeat returning? As we continue to revive the thinking strategies and how to best to support our own understanding as well as teach students, it's often handy to find a resource that really "spells it out."

Think Alouds are not just for kids. Teachers need them, too. Oh, and they need resources, too! Well, the author's of Strategies that Work actually published a fabulous little tool titled the Comprehension Toolkit. Each booklet takes a strategy and provides you with pertinent strategy background, a detailed workshop approach lesson (i.e. purpose, connect & engage, (explicit)model, guide, collaborate, reflection/share the learning), and follows up with reflection/assessment questions for you, the teacher, as you consider how well it went with the learning goals. Additionally, you can find support with adapting and differentiating! This toolkit is not short of teacher tools!

Each Thinking Strategy booklet offers 3 lessons with engaging and approachable (K-2 & 3-6) fiction and nonfiction text. Personally, I love the vision for the complexity of text for the range of learners. It's almost like they met up with Mike Schmoker, author of Focus when they chose the selections! They are meaty, relevant, engaging, and lengthy- just the kind of texts we really ought to be including in our readers workshops. Additionally, authors even provide possible ways (and examples!) of how students could record their thinking. Who doesn't love examples from REAL learners!!!

I highly recommend you check out this valuable resource- even it it's only for your own learning as you re-engage with the strategies themselves and your own understanding of how the thinking could look, sound, and BE in your classroom.

Little booklets with lesson for EACH of the 7 Thinking Strategies

Examples from the Primary (K-2) Toolkit for Student Responses to their Reading.

Are We All Speaking the Same Language?

We've seen the power of ALL using the language of the Thinking Strategies K-5. We know the gains students can make when they already know the meaning of the words we say and how to put that "word" into action. We know the excitement we feel and the confidence the students can display when we have something familiar to build upon.

It might go something like this: Students say, "I know what it means to use my schema!"  (and you learn that they really do). So then our next thought might be, "Yes! Now we can learn even more about HOW to use our schema AND we can do that with complex and unfamiliar text!" 

The reality of common language fostering movement toward deeper and more efficient learning  displays itself again and again. Think about the Phonics Dance, the BES version of StopLight Paragraphing, Fluency components, Bear Essentials, Share Square, Math Practices, Equations and "No Naked Numbers", even Workshop Model! Again and again students reap the rewards of familiar common schoolwide language that we build upon as they move through the content learning and grade levels.

Two sides of the multi-page desk ring that offers tools for reading, writing, and math.

So, my offering to you today is the content on a Desk Ring* that Kindergarten students are taught to use independently. It includes the Phonics Dance Hunks and Chunks, a Fab 5 writing rubric ALL K's have used as writers (of anything) throughout the year, and the reading decoding and math strategies. While some of this language may phase out between 2nd and 3rd, it's important that we, as teachers, understand what students are familiar with and support them as they build their understanding and maybe new language or expectations. There is much to gain when we all "speak the same language." How might this tools' content support you and/or your students?

*The fabulous Mindy McKinney made this terrific tool for K, but I thought you may want it as a tool to reference yourself. Please don't think that I am asking you to copy it and use it with all of your students.