1. Take your time and make time, with limited or no distractions..
2. You need data, observational notes, checklist, assessment, student journals, Curriculum unit materials, sticky notes, binders, journals.
3. Planning is a daily thing
This beast requires lots of time and planning. For me, my planning starts on Sunday what about yours?
I have a daily routine. I try to stick to in order to tame this beast call Teaching.. Even though we try not to, we all know that once Sunday hits, we are in teacher mode again. So it begins. I wanted to share the method of my madness. Do you have a plan of attack? My plan is not full proof, but is adjustable and it works.
#StartupSunday
What are the lessons for the week? I read through each lesson plan, taking note of these things:
1. What is the learning target I am trying to reach?
2. What will I use to teach the target (Mentor Text)?
3. What is it that my kids should be able to do at the end?
4. How will I know when they reach it?
5. What will I do for the kids that don't master the skill/strategy?
6. How will I extend the learning for those that have reached the target?
The second part of my planning starts with the Read aloud:
------I read the text and mark parts where I will think aloud and model the strategy.
------I make copies of any handouts that I will give students to have as exemplars to refer back to while working independently.
------Based on observations from the mini lesson, I decide which students to pull that day, which students I will pull to reteach (Remember to reteach using a different teaching strategy.)
-------I will pre-make parts of my anchor charts, leaving parts to make with the kids. (Sometimes I have them totally made out ahead of time.) However, We create one together, and I put up the one that I pre-made.
-------What activity or response will you have students to do at the end of the lesson?
#MasteringMonday
I have taught my lesson today and now it is time for me to reflect. I may be reflection on the lesson of the day or the past week. I find a spiral to use for this purpose. I write down what i did, what the kids did, what I observed, what went well, what didn't, what do I think my next steps will be. I sometimes group students on sticky notes into strategy groups. Another thing I do is look at students responses and sort them into categories: Not met, Approaching, Mastered. I further study these categories and look at the students strengths and weakness and plan lessons around those areas. I also create check points to see if kids misconceptions are clearing up. This helps me to really organize my thoughts and to plan for the next day even though I planned for the week on Sunday, It changes everyday.
#TipTuesday
Use this day to gather Read Alouds to reteach, or introduce genres to students to get them to make better book choices. We have to remember that Reading Independently is the most important part of the workshop. So I create baskets of teacher's choice. I read aloud books by my favorite authors and create baskets with other books by that author. I spend class time reviewing results, conferring and modeling to move kids further toward the learning target.
We all call this hump day. It's the day our energy starts to dwindle down, we just want to make it through the day. So push yourself to do more small group teaching. I pull guided reading groups, strategy groups and even pull 1 or 2 students that needs at the opposite ends of the spectrum of the learning target. I pull and access journals and make comments. As I trudge through this day, I also make sure to continue with the lessons from the unit and tie them together in my small groups. This is the day where you have to really flesh out your lesson plans. What is your teaching point? What is it I need to do next or redo?
#Testing Thursday
targets and the length of time we have spent on a particular skill or strategy. I come up with my one quick formal assessment for Reading, for writing I usually focus on the grammar lessons and their ability to apply lessons objectives to a quick write over a Read aloud. I do formal and informal Running Records in my Guided Reading Groups. If I don't engage in testing, I look over and analyze anecdotal notes that I have taken so far for the week. These anecdotal notes allow me to plan for Friday and even the following week.
#FinishupFriday
A day for planning and reevaluating how my lessons went for the week. I have conferences with the students and take anecdotal notes sit down and look at what I got accomplished, how it went, problem solve next steps or reteach possibilities. I find the Read Alouds I plan to use for the lessons that I plan. I red them and mark spots to where I will stop and model skills and strategies that I wish kids to use. I start looking at students reading journals and writing journals looking for trends whether they be positive or negative.
I give feed back in the students planners as well. This usually goes into the weekends. I can usually get through half of them because I am a nerd, and I am at work till 5 or 6 most school days,. I will either take them home or make a point to come back to the school on Saturday and work on them. You will be amazed at the data you can glean from students journals. I am able to see what students are or are not doing, I am able to determine the types of responses that students use the most and the least. I use these as a teaching point for the whole class. I usually do voice overs based on my analysis during independent reading or Reading conferences.
As teachers, we are constantly planning, reading, preparing and gathering material to teach. Create a plan, follow through with it, but take note each day leads to new development so be flexible with the plan.
