Test Prep=More than One Answer?

I thought Brandi's tweet went perfectly with this post! 

My favorite part of my job last week was getting to have lunch with one of the most amazing educators I have ever met. Gayla Wiggins, from Lead4Ward is brilliant! She is one of those people that makes good instruction seem so simple and make so much sense at the same time. Every time I have the chance to visit with her I try to soak up every minute and reflect on every word! Here is what I have been thinking about after discussing state assessments with her:

It's so hard to understand that the best way to prepare students for a multiple choice test, is to encourage them that there is not "one right answer".

When we ask our students to truly comprehend, think and connect to their reading it will and should look very different for each student.  The same is often true with problem solving. That is why it's crucial to model many different ways to comprehend and connect with text, or solve a problem.  Even better...we can allow the students to share their thinking. Every time I stop myself from doing the thinking and talking long enough to give students the opportunity to think and share... I am completely AMAZED! Those little boogers sure can "out think" me when I allow them the time and the chance!
When you think about even adult readers and problem solvers, we all comprehend, think and connect very differently as well. I love that the many different thoughts and connections we have as adults allow us to collaborate, learn and come up with much better solutions than what we would independently. It seems only fair to give students the same opportunity! There is so much to learn and enjoy from finding personal connections all around! It is what connects us to each other, the world and the power of meaningful thinking!
I would love to hear your thoughts:
Why would instruction that promotes more than one answer better prepare students for state multiple choice assessment?
How do we create readers that are deep thinkers?
How do we create math students that understand not only HOW to work a problem, but more importantly WHY they are working it that way?
How do we encourage students to learn which strategies help them comprehend and problem solve?
How do we promote personal connections that show students the benefit of thinking deeply?
What should the teacher/student thinking and sharing ratio look like?

Digging Deeper with Inferring

This comic helps us to think of how our students sometimes feel when we ask them to infer. 

We could understand this comic (which is a very small amount of text), but only after using different strategies and having conversations with others to help us understand.

Let's think of this when we ask our students to read text that may not seem complex to us but could be very challenging for their growing minds. 

2 things we discussed that will be SUPER helpful in guiding our kids to think deeper:

1. TIME-it takes ALOT of time to be able to think through a complex inferring prompt. Ensuring the kids have plenty of time to reason through and think about it will help them gain confidence and take time in their independent reading to think reasonably. 

2. CONVERSATION-Just like adults, our students need to be able to talk about concepts that are hard to grasp. If they are able to hear others' thoughts and pair them with their own (along with text evidence), they are much more likely to have a thoughtful, more targeted response.

Here are some BRILLIANT thoughts that our PLCs came up with from the Inferring Training on Monday:

 

Quotes from Tanny McGregor's Comprehension Connections book (the chapter on Inferring):

“Reading is important-read between the lines. Don’t swallow everything.”

-Gwendolyn Brooks, poet

“You can’t tell any kind of story without having some kind of theme, something to say between the lines.”

-Robert Wise, filmmaker

“What I like in a good author isn’t what he says, but what he whispers.”

-Logan P. Smith, essayist

Justify with Uncle Si!

Focus on JUSTIFYING for REASONABLENESS is going to be HUGE!

This part of the standard is identical K-4:
Justify his or her thinking using objects, words, pictures, numbers, and technology.
Justify
STUDENT THINKING
Including, but not limited to:
• Objects
• Words
• Pictures
• Numbers
• Technology
Use
LOGICAL REASONING 

When I was searching for this standard, I typed in the word "Justify" on the VADs and found that it was listed this many times:

• Kinder-4 times
• 1st-3 times
• 2nd-7 times
• 3rd-12 times
• 4th-11 times

We will make an Uncle Si poster for anyone that is interested.

Maybe we could have it as a quick 2 minute morning routine? Or maybe it could be added to 1 question on the daily review? Brainstorm ideas with your group about how to use this in your current IFDs. Please SHARE any ideas that you have!
We can make sure to let Si be RIGHT every now and then so that the kids really have to think and justify whether it is reasonable or not.
The hard ones to come up with are the ones that aren't easily identified as wrong, which is of course what was hardest for our kids on STAAR.
Here are a couple to help get us started:
-A clock that has the minute hand right but not the hour hand (or other way around)
-A number sentence that is SOLVED but using the opposite operation:
 20-15=35 or  12x6=2
-A number that is represented with based ten blocks but with the place value switched:
l l l l . . .
34
Here are some more ideas from the Math meeting this week:

It's not just for Math!!!
Thanks to Mrs. Whitaker I realized that this could work for any subject, just as a tool to get them to think deeper:
Examples for ELA:

-I can spel Jack!

-I predict that Jack and Annie will be in the dinosaur age.
 

-The mushers were required to possess these items during the race or they would be disqualified.
synonym for possess:
own
We would hope the kids would say NO because just because you own something, doesn't mean it is in your possession. And just because something is in your possession doesn't mean that you own it.

Reciprocal Teaching Continued!

I have had many people ask about videos of reciprocal teaching. I found these on YouTube and thought they may be helpful:

Reciprocal Teaching Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgMJVyCdeY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbnwBVrJVdY&list=PLC5C31E95966A9BC0

I have seen great benefits with students that use reciprocal teaching as common habit in Math. For example, I saw a group clarifying a word in a story problem and questioning about what information was important or not. Students that use these comprehension strategies will see many benefits in every subject area.

Here are some guided questions that go with those good comprehension/Figure 19 spiraling standards that we need to be asking every week with every genre.
I thought it may save some planning time and be helpful to have a "starting list" of questions so you don't have to start from scratch every week.

Basic Reading

What strategies do readers use to remember a story?

Why do we use strategies when we read?

What strategies help me understand what I read?

Fab 4

Questioning:

Why do you ask questions before, during, and after reading?

What types of questions can you ask while reading?

How does asking questions about a text make you a better reader?

How can asking questions while reading help you as a reader?

Why do readers ask questions about what they are reading?

What questions do you have about this book?

 

Predicting:

How does a detective solve a mystery?

Discuss responses including looking for clues, making guesses about what happened and finding evidence that proves or disproves the guess.

Introduce the term, prediction. Discuss how a prediction is a smart guess based on clues or information from the text rather than just a random guess.

 

Why is predicting an important strategy when reading?

Why is it important to make predictions when you read?

What do you think this book is going to be about?

What clues help you know what the story might be about?

Using the clues, what do you predict will happen in the story?

What do you think this text is going to be about?

How did making and confirming predictions help you understand the story?

Which predictions can still be possible? Why?

Which predictions are no longer possible? Why?

What did you learn about making and confirming predictions?

How were you like a detective?

Are we finding out what we expected to find out?

 

Clarifying:

Did what I just read make sense? Did that word match the letters that I said?

Why is it important to make sure the words you are reading are correct?

  

Retell/Summary:

What should be included when retelling/summarizing the story?

Why do good readers retell/summarize stories?

Why is it important to know the author’s purpose?

Why is it important to know how to retell important events of stories in a logical order?

 

Connections:

How did thinking about what we know help us understand what we are reading?

How does making connections help readers understand what they are reading?

What does this remind me of?

How did making personal connections help us understand the story better?

 

 

Tanny McGregor

It's never a waste of time to teach a child to think!
-Tanny McGregor

What a great opportunity R-H had to visit with the amazingly brilliant author of Comprehension Connections, Tanny McGregor!

Here is a link to the book that Tanny recommended to our staff to help have more than one idea for each concept so students aren't "too familiar" with the same launch every time:
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/interactive-think-aloud-lessons-9780545102797

Here is a link to a blog about Tanny and the book:
http://theteachingthief.blogspot.com/2012/08/meeting-tanny-mcgregor.html

Here is a link to free downloads of the thinking stems already created to print!:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Connection-Thinking-Stems-Anchor-Charts-291262

schema roller template:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_aKHTGyIZB6MGNhOGI1YjItNGIwZC00ZGNkLTkzZWItMWEwNTBhNGRjNmU3/preview?pli=1

blog about metacognition with cartoons and book ideas:
http://miteachingblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/metacognition-thinking-about-thinking.html

here is a sheet to support inferring with a "backpack" instead of a shoe:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1sDW2Uv7dzKNzBmMzE0N2MtZWQ2MS00MDhhLTk1ZTAtOWFiMWExYzJjNmYz&hl=en_US

Another idea for inferring is one that Tanny shared this summer:
Bring in a "leash without a dog" (it's that kind that is stiff so it holds up just as if a dog was on it... apparently, these used to be popular!)  Walk the lease around, pretending the dog is there. You can pretend that he drools on some papers, poops by your desk, jumps up on a chair, barks at the window, etc. Don't tell the kids these things but let them notice from evidence such as "holding your nose, your reactions, comments, etc.) Then, you can simply have a quick discussion about what they noticed and what their evidence was on a simple t-chart whole group.

Turn and Talk

  

                                                  
When students are required to think about their own learning, articulate what they understand, and what they still need to learn, achievement improves.
                   --Black and William, 1998;  Sternberg,1996;   Young 2000

We have learned the value of "turn and talk" time for our students through many of our educational learning about best practices, such as:

• Fundamental Five
• Daily Five
• Reader's Workshop
• Kagan Strategies
• Total Participation Techniques
• The Lesson Cycle
• Active Engagement
• Learning Styles
• Comprehension Connections (question stems)

I'm sure there are MANY more as well. What it boils down to is...

KIDS LEARN THE MOST FROM TALKING AND PARTICIPATING, not through only listening.

 

Here are some tips to help make the most of this simple, but HIGHLY effective practice:

1. Create a routine and overemphasize expectations so students know exactly how it works. (Spending the time up front will be worth it as you will save LOTS of time later as you are able to allow students to have great conversations with minimal management issues.)
   
2. Make sure it is a "THICK" question, not just a "THIN" question. (Yes, there are times for quick, recall level questions but they be sure they aren't always a one answer question.) Here are some examples of what this practice should be used for:    -teach a concept      -connect on a personal level    -answer rigorous questions stems Most of your PLCs are already planning these types of questions in your lessons as you fill in the guided questions. Just be sure to have them ready to use for this student conversation time.
3. Allow time for one partner to talk and then say "SWITCH" so that the other student has a chance to share. This works well with the questions that have more than one answer where students don't just repeat a generic phrase. This is a great time for them to agree or disagree with their partner, provide more insight, and/or include text evidence or schema. One quick and easy way to get the kids to do this is to have them add...
   

Examples:
I think the character is embarrassed BECAUSE she put her head down and I know when I do that I am feeling embarrassed about something.
I think the operation is addition BECAUSE it says more flowers grew and I know that that tells us we should add more and get a bigger number, or the total.

Great resources for these type of questions:

• TPT
• Comprehension Connections
• Fundamental Five
• TEKS Resource Systems lessons (found on the exemplar lesson R drive)        ***This is the best resource for specific questions that go right along with your curriculum. Saves a lot of time!

Learning Through our Mistakes

Sometimes with all the new ideas going around and the push to continue to "change" in education, we feel frustrated. Frustrated that we will never get it "right". Frustrated that we sometimes feel like we are merely changing for the sake of change. Frustrated that we are exhausted and overwhelmed. Frustrated that there will never be enough time in the day. Frustrated that our to-do list continues to increase without anything being deleted! Just. Plain. Frustrated.

Last week, I read a couple of articles and had some conversations with co-workers which all had a common theme: We learn the MOST through our mistakes.

It takes me back to one of the most LIFE changing (not just career changing) books I have ever read. As our campus knows well, we must have a growth mindset to be happy and successful in education.
This is a quote form the author of Mindset, Carol Dweck, that says it pretty well:
"In a growth mindset, you don't always welcome the setback, you were hoping to move forward, but you understand that it's information on how to move forward better next time. It is a challenge that you are determined to surmount. In a fixed mindset, a setback calls your ability into question." -Carol Dweck, 2013 interview

So, let's share, discuss, and debate the things we are trying in our instruction. We don't want to change for the sake of saying we did or taking someone else's word for it. We will make mistakes, they are inevitable. The important part is how we learn from them and apply it. The more we share that learning with others, the better we become for our kids. I truly believe this will lighten all of our loads. We are in this together. Let's talk about what IS and more importantly, what IS NOT working with our kids. And then, we will adjust and improve. A little at a time will add up to make a significant difference. The biggest question is: HOW DO WE KNOW? It's simple: THE KIDS WILL TELL US. Let's pay attention! This is a GREAT reason to spend time looking at and discussing their work. (See previous post.)

The other articles I mentioned are listed below:

Growth Mindset oct-2013

Daily Cafe-Tip of the Week-Oct 11, 2013