PLC Quick Notes 3

* The instructional shift of evidence based reading, thinking and discussing has a focus of using evidence from text instead of relying on prior knowledge.  It levels the playing field for those without strong background knowledge or relevant experience.

* LEADER IN ME MOMENTS:
"We need citizens and leaders across every level of community, business, and government who SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND issues from multiple perspectives, listening to and analyzing evidence presented by stakeholders with diverse experiences and backgrounds."
"Knowing [the standards] deeply is the first step in walking students up the ladder of complexity from kindergarten to college, career, and civic readiness.  This understanding of where students are heading underpins the design of curriculum and instruction for reading and writing grounded in evidence." (BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND)

* Become "a student of the standards":

     -In this standard, what cognitive skills are called out?

     -Which specific words in the standard seem particularly important in terms of what is required of students? Why?

     -Are there any key words such as and and or that convey what it means to fully master this standard at a given grade level?

     -In the phrasing of the standard, what is unique to this grade level?

GOOD IDEAS:
* Four Ts- Topic, Task, Targets, Text
   Topic- the compelling topic that brings the content to life
   Task- the culminating assignment
   Targets- the learning targets
   Text- the complex texts that students will read closely and additional texts that ensure students experience a volume of reading at their independent reading level
* Read-Think-Talk-Write
* SNAP- Summary of the text, New learning, Already known information, Picture that represents important aspect of the text
* Frequent short writing opportunities
* Rubrics for descriptive feedback

   

Part 2- Reading for and Writing with Evidence

"Does adherence to the shift-reading and writing with evidence, effectively develop stronger readers, writers and thinkers who are more prepared for college and career, as is the aim of Common Core State Standards?"  In my opinion, the answer to this question is a resounding YES!  Anything we as educators can do to make reading relevant to kids from day one is one of the most important things we do.  When we ask them to read with evidence we, "level the playing field for students without strong background knowledge or relevant experience."  Without this method, several things students are asked to read in school have little or no relevance to especially students in the lower socio-economic status. These are notoriously the kids we see who simply "check out" when it comes to reading during tests or even during Teacher Directed Reading.  Unless it is something they CHOOSE to read they are uninterested and oftentimes they have no desire to choose something on their own because they have never understood the value of reading.

Through development of an evidence based classroom, this shift gives students who are generally unmotivated a reason to read and a confidence boost from page one.  All of a sudden, everyone in the classroom, regardless of diverse needs, has the same goal in mind and the same foundation from which to begin.

Two of the lines that resonates with me most is on page 83, "And no matter a person's career path, being an active and engaged member of civic life requires comfort in this "argument culture".  If young people do not develop these critical thinking, speaking, and writing skills, many opportunities will be closed to them."  This is an important thought because we have to remember that no matter the intellect, the future goals, the opportunity afforded a child, they all must be taught to think critically and to find motivation and satisfaction from reading.  I have always believed that all children can be motivated you just have to find the thing that sparks that interest.  With this shift in thinking, the motivated is created as you go.  In my classroom right now, with my EC group of kids, we are whole-class reading The Cay by Theodore Taylor.  Alongside the reading, I have pulled books from the library on World War II, the Holocaust, Hitler, Pearl Harbor and the kids have researched things on their own like the cays, coral reef, blindness, hurricanes, shipwrecks, even how islands are formed.  It has been such a great enhancement to the fiction we are reading and these kids, who are usually uninterested, hang on every word.  At the end of the book they will have an accomplishment, A FINISHED BOOK!  This is something they can build upon throughout the year.  It's all about "selling it" until they can't imagine themselves without it.  

I am loving Transformational Literacy!