Final Co-Teaching Debrief for 2011-2012

June 18, 2012

Feedback
• student ideas improved
• there were a variety of beginnings
• students used transition words more effectively
• some students were able to end their stories effectively, some needed more work on how to make a story feel finished
• perhaps the students were not inspired by the assessment task or perhaps the time of day (afternoon) affected the work that was produced
• there were too many brainstorm webs  --> perhaps they should be used for non-fiction rather than fiction

• while students were doing very well with the graphic organizers during the lessons, some students struggled with the graphic organizer for the assessment task
• struggling students are beginning to use strategies, such as dictionaries, word wall, sounds

Next Steps:
• focus on the purposes for each graphic organizer and how to choose an appropriate graphic organizer for the assigned task
• vary the tasks next year, sometimes long stories, sometimes short stories with limited space
• set up Learning Centers during Guided Reading and Guided Writing time (half of literacy block for guided reading, half of literacy block for writing conferences)

Spelling Strategies
• sound boxes with magnetic letters
• word families and word starters
• sorting words by patterns
• word study center
• eyes on your fries
• connecting words (e.g. lair is just like hair)

Learning Center Ideas
• Eyes on Your Fries (word study)
• "I Speak Word" on Ipads (spelling quizzes)
• Reader's Theater (to build reading fluency) (thematic)
• Storytelling Center

• Reading Buddy Station (thematic books - social studies/science)
• From 3 to 3 Retells of Oral Stories and Riddle Answers
• Free Writing
• Thematic Station (writing - procedural, research, graphic organizers)
• Computers (create a Gr. 2 Literacy Center Block with computer assignment)

--> Students will have a contract and complete each center at their own pace.  When their contract is completed, they show it to the teacher and then start all over again.  Students will be pulled out of their center for Guided Reading or a Writer's Workshop Conference.

Writer's Workshop Focus for September/October
1. Idea bubbles  --> students put their main idea in the center of the bubble and then brainstorm words that might match the main idea (e.g. pirates).
2. Beginning, Middle, Ending (BME) --> How can we organize our ideas in the Idea Bubble to create a story plan with a beginning, middle and ending?

3. CSA --> Add extra details to the plan, such as the character and setting.  The BME now becomes part of the Action section of the Graphic Organizer.

4. AAA (Triple A) - Persuasive Writing (Argument, Argument, Argument)


Recommended Resources
Guide to Effective Instruction in Writing
On Solid Ground by Sharon Taberski
Literacy Work Stations by Debbie Diller
What's Next for this Beginning Writer? by Janine Reid (Pembroke Publishing)
Good First Teaching by Fontis and Pinnell
First Steps Writing

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Curriculum Expectations:
* identify and order main ideas and supporting details, using graphic organizers (e.g. a story grammar: characters, setting, problem, solution; a sequential chart: first, then, next, finally) and organizational patterns (e.g. problem/solution, chronological order)

Specific Expectations:
* use a graphic organizer to order ideas
* understand that stories have a specific sequence to develop the characters, problem and the solution
* use ideas to elaborate and to write descriptively in order

Materials:
writing paper
"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst
pictures from the book
chart paper divided into three sections

Resources:
Ministy of Education: Language (2006)
Trait Based Mini-Lessons for Teaching Writing
Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits
Getting Started With the Traits
Website: http://so024.k12.sd.us/organization/htm

Lesson Plan:
 Activation:
• Review how we develop ideas. (chart paper)
• Read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and periodically stop and ask what will happen next.
• After reading and briefly discussing the book, make a list of words that could describe how Alexander felt during the day.
• Show pictures from the story and have volunteers put the story in order.  Have them briefly retell the story in order with the pictures.

Lesson:
• Show a picture of a child that  looks totally content and happy and ask them to imagine that this is them at the end of the day.
• What would have had to happen so that they look and feel like that?  Brainstorm words that could describe how the content child felt during the day.
• Hand out graphic organizer to pairs and invite them to complete the organizer (by writing or drawing pictures) describing their "Most Fabulous, Awesome, Great, Very Good Day".
• After 15 minutes, call students back to the circle to share what they have done so far.
• Give them time to finish the organizer and then write their story in pairs on chart paper.
• Walk around, observe, discuss and ask questions.

Debriefing/Consolidating:
• Have students share a part of their stories with the group.
• They can also share their descriptions with another group.  Groups can also ask each other questions to fill in any missing details from the story.

Extensions/Accommodations:
• Discuss success criteria for this writing assignments.
• Give at least 1 more writing session to complete partner stories and have them share it with another group.

Evaluation:
• Observations and anecdotal notes.
• Use of success criteria.

Feedback/Debriefing Session (Co-Teachers)
 • Next steps - Develop Success Criteria around expanding ideas, e.g. Success Criteria for "Showing Sentences", "Vocabulary", "Paragraphs"
• During consolidation circle, each pair shared one part of their fabulous day.  There were lots of great ideas.
• While pair writing, some groups just copied the plan, not adding extra details, e.g. "When I woke up, I watched my favourite tv show.  Then I played on the computer." Teacher needs to ask questions to expand ideas (e.g. What is your favourite tv show?  What happened during it? What were you doing while you were watching?)  Students needed some modeling re. how to turn sections of brainstorming into paragraphs.
• Margaret recommended the book "Knowing What Counts: Setting and Using Success Criteria" by Kathleen Gregory and Caren Cameron ISBN 978-0-9783193-9-7.
• Success Criteria process: 1. Group brainstorming. 2. Share. 3. Group sort and categorize. 4. Share. 5. Full group agreement.
• Margaret also recommended "The Reading Teacher" magazine and the NCTM journal.

 Lisa's Extensions
After completing the co-teaching lesson in Fern's room and participating in the debriefing feedback session, I taught the lesson in my room.  Most elements stayed the same.  However, I decided to work with building Success Criteria.  After the student pairs all completed their graphic organizers, I collected them and chose 4 to display as examples on large mural paper.  The students then told their stories using their graphic organizer and then as a class we made a list of what they did well and suggestions for improvement.  One organizer stood out as being extremely complete and leading to a great oral storytelling where lots of additional details and interesting vocabulary emerged.  From these notes, we decided on four elements that make a great Graphic Organizer for a story.  Students were then given the opportunity to go back to their own organizers to add more detail or make changes.  One pair even decided to start over because they were unsatisfied with their organizer the way they have completed it.