Sometimes it is easy to get excited about a new course of action, thinking it will be the magic bullet to solve all of your problems. Education tends to fall into this trap frequently, jumping from one initiative to another, hoping that THIS will be the thing to make a difference for that difficult student, or close gaps of 5 grade levels in math. However, one will never become proficient, much less an expert on anything when jumping around so frequently. Initiatives that are the most effective aren't the most exciting. The ideas that don't go away, that you continually are hammering away at, are the ones that will stick. Those are the strategies and concepts and approaches that will become second nature in your classroom. Only then, will you see the promised result that you hoped for in the beginning.
As a school, we have grown because of a strong focus on one thing: All students will graduate from RHS college and career ready, meeting standard in all required state testing. This hasn't changed since 2011 and our continued work toward that singular goal has created notable change throughout our building. This focus is an easy one to work toward, because it aligns to every subject area and is important for every student. The literacy initiative that we have set forth also promises great reward if we continue to make it a focus in our classrooms. However, I would argue that it is a focus that some have a harder time buying into. It feels as though it doesn't align as cleanly into our classes. It seems like another hoop to jump through. Consequently, it risks falling by the wayside as many other great ideas in education have in the past. The only way to make it successful is to do the work. Three years into an initiative, the work is no longer new and exciting. It can feel like drudgery at times and so many will slowly back off. However, the only way to make great gains in literacy is if EVERY TEACHER is integrating it into their classes EVERY DAY. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it needs to be consistent. Someone I very much admire would often say, and I paraphrase, "Great teachers consistently plan good lessons." It doesn't take superstar lessons every day to be great. It takes consistently good planning to be great. With that in mind, every day you lesson plan, I challenge you to think, "How can I make this lesson better by integrating reading, writing, speaking, or listening? How can my students better understand the learning target BECAUSE I integrated reading, writing, speaking, or listening?" Once you have answered those questions, it will be easy to integrate literacy into your lesson and it will be easy to write a literacy target for the day. Do the hard work that comes after the newness wears off. Focus on literacy even when it seems monotonous. Stay the course. It'll be worth it.
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Yesterday I was going through some of my old teaching materials. I found an assignment that I've used for over 10 years called "Exploring and Explaining Your Process." This assignment asked students to make sense of a mathematical procedure and explain it in complete sentences. By being able to articulate the procedure, students are sure they understand what they need to do. Furthermore, research has shown that by teaching someone else how to do something you are able to strengthen your own understanding of the content. I share this story because it shows that literacy in all content areas isn't new. It shows that utilizing literacy strategies like writing about math or discussing math is beneficial from both a literacy standpoint and a content understanding perspective.
The question is, what makes sense for YOUR content area? What can you include in your classroom that makes you a better teacher for your content while increasing student literacy skills? Literacy and content are not mutually exclusive and when you can find that overlap where it makes sense to integrate literacy, students will benefit. Consider your unit plan. Where does literacy fit? How are you using student discourse to introduce or discuss a new idea? How are students using writing to summarize their thinking, reflect on their learning, or explain their process at the end of the unit? Where can you integrate reading to help students acquire new knowledge about the unit? How are students asked to reason within your content? Literacy isn't one of those things that has to be in every single lesson, but if you look at your unit plan and it isn't present in many of the lessons, re-evaluate your plan and look for more opportunities. Additionally, reflect after the unit on how it went, what you could do better next time and how you could modify it to better align with your content or student needs. In doing so, you will be able to increase both student literacy skills and content knowledge simultaneously. It is easy to teach on an island, uncertain about what the other islands around you are like. However, there is great strength in the ability to watch others teach and gain insights into instruction and teaching through this interaction. Particularly when you are taking on a new strategy or integrating something new like literacy into your classroom, it can help you gain confidence in your abilities.
We are fortunate to have staff at Rogers willing to open their doors to others on a daily basis. Some teachers are able to go on instructional rounds to see literacy lessons before they teach the lesson themselves. Others, however, would prefer not to sub out of their classes and watching videos of lessons can be a great option for those educators. Through using IrisConnect, we have been able to record lessons from every grade level and you can watch those lessons on your own computer at your own pace. Specific pieces of each lesson are highlighted on the videos as well. If you don't remember how to login, contact an instructional coach and we can help you out. Teaching can be an isolating endeavor, but through intentionally using the resources available to us, we can expand our teaching community and learn from one another. This is the third year of our literacy initiative and many of us are getting comfortable using literacy in our classes. We teach the requisite skills so our students can annotate, summarize and gather evidence to support claims. However, after we have taught the lesson, what are we doing with the student work?
Do we look at it and address common misconceptions that arise? Do we use rubrics and identify student strengths and weaknesses? Do we use it as a formative assessment opportunity? It isn't merely enough to teach a skill if the students haven't learned the skill. By looking at student work and using it to inform your instruction, you will be able to ensure that all students are actually able to meet the learning target. That is when we will see true growth for all students regarding literacy. |
AuthorTeachers and instructional coaches integrating literacy into classes. Archives
March 2017
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