You Don’t Fit the Team to a Formation; You Fit the Formation to the Team

Sharon Peck’s article, Not on the Same Page but Working Together: Lessons from an Award-Winning Urban Elementary School, explores how one city school, Quest Elementary, went from being a marginal school to one of the highest achieving elementary schools in a large urban district. Quest adopted a new blueprint for teaching which is called Expeditionary Learning Schools (ELS) design. For me, the ELS design has two points which I believe are powerful teaching practices that enhance teaching and point students to success:
A. Fit the curriculum to the student, not the student to the curriculum
B. Curriculum alignment

A.In soccer there are many formations that a team can play: 4 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 2 forwards; 3 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 1 forward; 3 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 3 forwards etc.. A successful coach will never fit a team to a formation; he or she will fit the formation to the team. Each team has strengths and weaknesses, it is essential that a coach understands what their teams strength and weaknesses are, and choose a formation that will exploit the teams strengths, allowing them to succeed.
This idea can also be used in a classroom when it comes to curriculum. In Sharon Peck’s article “Not on the Same Page but Working Together: Lessons From an Award-Winning Urban Elementary School,” she writes:
“The move from textbook-based instruction to inquiry-based curriculum allowed teachers to fit their curriculum to the needs, interest, and lives of their students. Whereas before, students were fit into curriculum, now the curriculum could evolve to fit the particular academic needs of these urban students.”

Teachers who teach under the ELS design do not teach through a teacher’s guide book where they are given lessons and are worried about what lesson they are on compared to the other teachers. Instead, they follow curriculum guides and base lessons on what their students in the class need and desire (which also allows students to have a voice in their learning).

B. Moving from text-book based instruction to inquiry-based instruction teachers needed to ensure that their new curriculum was aligned with state and local standards and assessments. “The teachers carefully looked at the skills and strategies embedded in state assessments and at the progression of skills throughout the grade levels.” Once teachers created their state and local curricular guidelines, they sat together and mapped out what they wanted students to learn and know at the end of each grade level:
“Following their work with literacy curriculum, teacher groups began to create maps for each content area. What resulted were teacher-created, comprehensive curricular maps that noted the content and process goals for each grade level. These maps addressed the scaffolding of processes taught each year and the types of skills addressed or built upon.”

For me, this idea is extremely appealing. Having the entire school sit down and map out curriculum maps for each grade and where students should be at certain points is beneficial for all. Teachers can expect students to have a common vocabulary as well as allowing themselves to build upon prior instruction that they know students have from their colleagues in the grades before. Schools, like Quest, who work as a team and one unit are asking for success to run through the building and through their students.

Second Grade Lesson: Sentence Combining

The educational books that I enjoy reading are those that have lesson plans incorporated in them. Chapter 8 has just that; a lesson plan for second grade and tenth grade are given after explaining how to teach sentence construction: “Only one approach to teaching sentence construction skills has received the sustained attention of researchers. This approach, called sentence combining…” (p.164).

Writing Workshop-Sentence Combining Instruction: To help children construct better sentences and better stories
Grade: 2nd
Time: 10-15 minutes several times a week
*Below is the sequence that the writing workshop should occur throughout several days

Sentence Combining Writing Workshop

Whole Group Discussion: Start a whole group discussion by showing a pair of simple kernel sentences on the overhead projector and model how to combine them
example: The cat meowed
The cat is soft
Combination: The cat is soft and meowed
Oral Session: After the introductory session all of the subsequent lessons are done with oral practice. “…when combining sentences the ear must hear alternatives to be able to choose the sentence that sounds best” (p.168).

Oral Practice in pairs: Arrange class in pairs, on the overhead show kernel sentences. Have the pairs discuss the kernels and provide examples of how to combine the sentences orally. Randomly call on pairs to give examples orally and write the examples on the overhead.
Partner Practice Sessions: Have brief partner practice sessions where students work together and write out combinations of several different kernel sentence clusters. Students can do this on a transparency so it can be showed on the overhead

Group Practice: Project a paragraph from one of your students work (maybe one from the year before to avoid any criticism a child may feel) on the overhead and ask the class to suggest ways the sentences could be improved. “…students’ own work was the most natural way to engage then at their level of need…” (p.171).

*To reinforce what is being taught in Social Studies, Science, Math etc. make the kernel sentences on a topic that is being taught to reinforce the information from a previous lesson.
*For a modification or at the beginning clues can be given next to each kernel.
example: Bryan had a headache
Bryan stayed up to late (because)
Bryan had a headache because he stayed up to late

“Less Is More”: Five principles to organize writing

I chose to read the article “Less is More: Preparing Students for state writing assessments.”  I chose this article because elementary school teachers (especially fourth grade teachers) have the task of preparing their students for state tests alongside completing the required curriculum.  In today’s educational world we hear the term “teaching to the test”: teachers are more focused on having their students pass the state tests rather than following the curriculum.  This article gives principles and examples that guide teachers to the best teaching practices:

“Experience suggests several reasons why it can be difficult to teach writing in ways that respond to realistic classroom needs and also prepare students for writing assessments.” (p.816) The five principles below are geared for organizing a writing curriculum and working with young writers on a daily basis: 

Principle 1: All students have an individual voice and something important to communicate.  “Teachers can support the development of student voice by linking writing activities to real-life issues that students care about.” (p. 817)  We also respond to student voices when we respond to their writing.
Principle 2: Students need to be active participants in writing classrooms.  “Students won’t learn what they need to learn about writing unless they consistently engage in constructing meaning.”  (p.817)
Principle 3: Variety coupled with direct instruction is an effective combination. “Students of all ages benefit from practicing various kinds of writing with different purposes in mind.” (p.817)
Principle 4: Literacy  offers authentic purposes  to write and clear models to follow. “Because writing is best learned in conjunction with meaningful reading activities, literature is a natural precursor or complement to classroom writing.” (p. 817)
Principle 5: The effectiveness of any writing lesson is enhanced when a teacher writes along with her students. “As any teacher knows, our students watch what we do even more than they listen to what we say, and our active participation in writing activities sends a powerful message about the worth of writing.” (p. 817)

Along with other tools, I believe that a students’ voice can be found in what all of us currently have, the writers notebook.  In an elementary classroom, I would allow my students to have a separate writer’s notebook.  This notebook would be a notebook that is shared between student and teacher, where an open exchange of letters back and forth are written.  I believe this is a great way for students to practice writing and write down what they feel and think, allowing them to have a voice in the classroom (principle 1).   I also believe that this version of the writers’ notebook would subconsciously model for the students (principle 5) what a good writer does as the student reads and takes in what the teacher has written (and hopefully proof-read!)

At the end of the article, lessons are given for each grade level that supplies the reader with simple ways to organize and teach writing.  My favorite lesson, and the one appropriate for me, is the K-3 lesson plan: the teacher is teaching sequence, more specifically students are writing a How-To piece, and gives students a simple graphic organizer to organize their thoughts clearly.  The first step of this lesson is to model: the teacher first models to her students how to use the “How-To Chart” which fosters as a graphic organizer.  Once the teacher clearly lays out what she is going to write about and how to fill in the organizer she has students go back to their desks and do it on their own.  After writing down their simple thoughts in the graphic organizer they are then given a new chart and organize their thoughts in complete sentences and illustrations. The only think that I would add to this lesson is in the very beginning.  My first step would be to read a “How-To” book which does the task that is required of the students, other than that I would 100% use this lesson and the graphic organizer given. The article’s idea of “Less is more” is shown clearly in this lesson along with the five guiding principles.  Go back and put a check mark next to each principle if this lesson has met the requirement and you will find five checks!

Book Review

Book Review: Writing Down the Bones
by: Molly Yaman

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Natalie Goldberg, 2005. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publication.

Pages: 178 Price: $14.00 ISBN: 978-1-59030-261-3

Personal Review

As I enjoyed Natalie Goldberg’s book, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, I found that her main point throughout the book is to “Just keep writing” (p.120). Natalie wrote a good portion of this book based on her experience and her memories of writing as she successfully tries to give her readers inspiration. As a reader of this book it is obvious of her passion toward writing and how it has changed her life tremendously, something she hopes to do for the readers:

“Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as fast as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there’s another part of them that they have been training. The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details” (p.53).

Goldberg did an excellent job in describing how to “free the writer within” by giving the reader ideas that are on the eccentric side. She wants the readers to completely let go of who they are and lose control in their writing, describing many times to just simply write and not think. Doing this may not be easy, which is something she realizes; Goldberg gives strategies throughout the book that will allow the readers to let go and free yourself of essentially yourself.

Goldberg relates much of her writing experiences in the book to the time in her life when she practiced Buddhism and Zen meditation. It is easy to get a sense of who Goldberg is as a person throughout this book which makes it personable and interest to read.

I believe that this book would be most useful for young adults and older who want to start writing, increase/improve their writing, or those looking to pursue their path as writers. There are three or four different places in the book (end of chapters) where Goldberg actually wants the reader to stop reading and start writing with the prompt or idea that she has talked about in the chapter.

My criticism of this book would be my own as this book was geared on bettering yourself as a writer rather than teaching how to write. As a future elementary school teacher I was reading this book with hopes of improving my teaching strategies and ideas with regards to writing. I came into this book prepared to read about an idea or theory about how to teach writing and how to teach my students to “write down the bones”. With that said, I did find strategies that I could tailor to the classroom and to my students of which I am excited to use.

Brochure

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Relating to students lived experiences

“This study revealed how an urban teacher engaged her students to explore their lived experiences as material resources for in-school literacy learning, drawing on students’ lived experiences as academic resources for learning. In doing so, the two teacher researchers and students built bridges between mandated curriculum and their lived experiences making way for hybridized expanded living curriculum.”

“The research relationship became a resource for her within a school where anything beyond the official reading curriculum would be seen as an unnecessary extra”

I chose to blog about the article, Reading, writing, and mapping our worlds into being: Shared teacher inquiries into whose literacies count, written by Cordova. This article was about two teacher researchers who were struggling with the idea that they had to, without exception, teach from the curriculum book:

“The mandated curriculum is expected to be read, verbatim, from the script. Because of this, I recognize that my students were struggling because of the assumptions embedded in the curriculum- that all students would have an established shared knowledge base.
My principal and reading coach also know this, but it seems how to link the curricular goals with the students’ lives is the greatest challenge.”

Another issue that came to my mind while I was reading this article, which Cordova briefly touched upon is the issue of preparing students for the New York State standardized tests. Along with teachers being required to teach to the curriculum that is handed to them, elementary school teachers, with more emphasis on fourth grade teachers, are required to prepare their students for standardized tests. In doing so, teachers have a strict regimens and tasks that they know they need to prepare their students for. The two research teachers who were focused on in this article had to find a way to related what the curriculum was required of them to teach, and the actual reality of what the students lived in their day to day lives. This is also true for teachers who are preparing students for standardized testing.

Being a future elementary school teacher, I took to heart what the two teacher researches had to offer. For me, I took away the fact that although there can be strict guidelines to what is to be taught, including the students living experiences is one of the best ways to teach. It allows students to make sense of what is being taught and express themselves through their lived knowledge. Along with students learning and expressing their experiences that they encounter, having children taught and discuss their own lives from one another is a great way for children to learn and become well-rounded:

“Insight, I believe, refers to that depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, side by side, learning by letting them speak to one another.” (Bateson, 1994)

Allow writing to be enjoyable

“Graves (1983) [stated] that at the beginning of elementary school children really want to write. Studies in emergent literacy have shown that children are involved in various forms of preconventional writing before schooling (Tolchinsky, 2006). Unfortunately, during their school years, the will to write in many cases decreases and even disappears, and the child’s discovery of writing as a way of expressing and communicating is often a promise that subsequent writing instruction cannot mainstream.” (Boscolo & Gelati, p.204)

In chapter ten of Best Practice in Writing Instruction, the authors outlined two reasons in which students become unmotivated when it comes to the writing process: lack of motivation and negative self perception. Lack of motivation is basically a student’s attitude toward writing. To allow students to have fun with writing and see it not as a task but as a communication tool, teachers must make writing both authentic and interesting.

During my high school years I could related to the feeling of being uninterested and unmotivated when it came to the writing process. A quote that is on page 204 captured my feelings about writing to a tee; “Writing is usually not perceived by students as a flexible tool for acquiring, elaborating, and communicating knowledge, but a discipline in itself”(204).

As a future elementary school teacher, I hope to never make writing seem like a discipline, task, or duty to my student. I want my students to feel that writing is a way of expressing themselves as it can take on many different shapes, forms and ideas. In chapter five the authors talked about a school that incorporated their own post office in their school. Each school had a mailbox and their own mailing address and utilized it in many ways in order to engage children in writing and make the writing process more interesting. I thought this was a great idea as it is a way that will have students interested and excited about writing. This idea is the kind of idea that we as teachers need to instill in our classrooms, it is something different, enjoyable, educational, and interesting!

“Taking this spirit of camaraderie to the setting of writing workshop, students are more willing to take risks, more confident in asking questions and more comfortable.” (Davenport & Eckberg)

As a reader of educational texts I look for quotes, like the one above, that inspire me and motivate me to be an effective teacher. After reading the article written by Davenport and Eckberg titled, “Put an Idea Together: Collaboration and Composition in Third-Grade Writing Workshop” these were the quotes that I render inspirational, along with the one above:

“As a result [of having choice], they took ownership in their writing; they took risks; they found their voices.”

“Words are the most important tool the writer has to work with”, we must allow them to “bring words to life”.

This article was focused on the idea of a writing workshop being a collaborative effort of the children in the classroom. Whether that means that children work in groups, in pairs, or individually, they have the option and the freedom to get advice and ideas from each other. In a conventional writer’s workshop, students are to make their own voice and their own ideas come to life on paper without external help. However, Davenport and Eckberg researched and discussed the benefits of an open and shared writing experience in the classroom: “Authors have different strengths and areas of expertise. As children watch each other and talk together about their work, they provide important demonstrations for one another. The opportunity must therefore be provided for children to read together, write together and learn from one another.”

One of the examples of the collaborative writing that was observed in the classroom was when four students wrote a puppet poem together. The students talked and discussed about the next lines to come and wrote the entire play in this fashion. As I was reading the section, a problem with this model kept popping in my head: students can collaborate and write together, but a student that takes the back seat and does not contribute to their full potential can be found not using his brain and his mind to the fullest. As I pondered this idea, it became clear to me that with this writing workshop technique, discipline and structure is key. Discipline and structure are important so that students do not abuse the privilege of being co-authors and pair up with children who will do the work for them. Also, it is important to have structure so that the writing workshop time doesn’t become a social period, but a period of solid focused work.

With that said, and after realizing that, I got on board with the idea of collaborative writing with peers. I atmosphere that Davenport & Eckberg described was also appealing to me in that there were places for students to lounge around and work together such as: beanbags, couches, relaxation areas etc.. which allows students to feel free and comfortable in their own environment.