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Email: jenny@erinkentconsulting.com

Linked In: Jenny Killion

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Data-Driven Dialogue (DDD) Inquiry Process and Protocol

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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About the Community | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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A few special gifts for signing up now: a strategy call with Erin Kent or an EKC Senior Strategist to get started using the EKC Community to support your current literacy initiatives; and 5 free spots in our live, virtual winter courses ($1495 value!)

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Winner of a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards in the category of Social Sciences and Education

"Is it possible to create a more inclusive and fairer education system? The Knowledge Gap shows the way." Daisy Christodoulou, tes.

"The Knowledge Gap is not just a scholarly work. It pulsates with vivid detail as it winds its way through the strange terrain of the Educational Upside Down. Anyone who seeks to understand the quixotic state of educational ideas in American schools and beyond should place it on the top of their summer reading list." Greg Ashman, Quillette

"The best book I have seen on improving elementary schools." Jay Mathews, Washington Post

"The Knowledge Gap makes a persuasive case for attending to the importance of rich content and high-quality curricula in elementary classrooms." Carnegie Corporation of New York

"This book serves as a reminder of our own potential knowledge gap and provides an opportunity for educators to be wiser consumers of information with the ability to 'distinguish between approaches that are likely to produce the outcomes we want and those that will only lead to a heartbreaking waste of precious time.'" Sheryl Ferlito, Perspectives on Language and Literacy

"Wexler ... has made a first-rate case for content. ... If you are among the uninitiated on the value of content knowledge for kids, buy a copy. If you're already among the true believers, buy two copies and put them in the hands of persuadable educators." Robert Pondiscio, Education Next

"In this compelling work, journalist Wexler pinpoints the underlying issues that plague the American public education system, provides context to recent educational reforms, and offers possible solutions." Library Journal (starred review)

"A compelling critique of American elementary schools" that "highlights pervasive problems." Kirkus Reviews

"Illuminating and thought-provoking." Publishers Weekly

THE KNOWLEDGE GAP focuses on a long-overlooked issue lying at the heart of what is known as the achievement gap: the failure of most elementary schools, and especially those serving low-income children, to systematically build knowledge of the world.

Every school day, elementary teachers spend hours drilling students on comprehension skills and strategies like "finding the main idea" or "making inferences," in an effort to boost their reading ability-and their scores on standardized reading tests. Subjects like history, science, and art have virtually disappeared from the curriculum in many schools.

In fact, these schools are doing the exact opposite of what can actually turn students into good readers. Comprehension strategies can be useful-when delivered in limited doses and connected to specific content. But cognitive science has shown that the primary factor in whether you're able to understand what you read is whether you possess relevant background knowledge and vocabulary.

The prevailing narrow, skills-focused approach to literacy instruction can hold any child back, but its effects fall hardest on those at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum. Children from more educated families often absorb knowledge about the world at home. But those from less educated families have to rely on schools for the kind of knowledge that will equip them to do well on tests-not to mention in high school, college, and life. Every year they spend in school without getting that knowledge puts them farther behind their more affluent peers. By the time they get to middle or high school, it's often too late for them to catch up.

Through the stories of educators, students, and parents, The Knowledge Gap examines what elementary literacy instruction currently looks like, how it evolved to this point - and how it can be changed so that all students receive a meaningful, rigorous education.

Excerpts from the book have appeared in The Atlantic, Chalkbeat, MindShift, American Educator, and the blog of the Albert Shanker Institute.

Read or listen to interviews with Natalie and presentations about The Knowledge Gap:

TV:

Morning Joe, MSNBC

After Words With Natalie Wexler, C-SPAN

Good Morning Washington, WJLA

VIDEO:

Why Prior Knowledge Wins the Game (two-minute video from Edutopia)

Western NY Science of Reading Conference, November 2022

Iniciativa Educacao, Lisbon (in English)

Why Teaching Social Studies Is Teaching Reading, The OC for Social Studies Conference

RADIO:
Total Information AM South Dakota Public Broadcasting
The Pulse (WHYY/NPR) (episode on comprehension)

On Point (WBUR/NPR)

Leonard Lopate at Large, WBAI

All of It, WNYC

The Record, KUOW

St. Louis in Tune, KWRH

Nightside with Dan Rea, WBZ

PODCASTS:

Through the Educational Looking Glass with Don Sturm and Courtney Eddleson

Lars og pal with Lars Sandaker

Education Uncharted with Amanda Bratten (Propello)

Raising Healthy Kid Brains podcast with Amy Nielson

TeachThought Podcast panel discussion with Emily Hanford and others

The Literacy View with Faith Borkowsky, Judy Boksner, and Mary McCool Berry

Building Knowledge with Kristen Rodriguez

Mr. Nico Summer Schoolin' with Nico Eaglin

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy (with Judith Hochman)

On the Scene with SST 13 with Mary Williams

The Inquiring Mind with Stanley Goldberg

After the Bell with Cassie Tabrizi
Talking to Teens
Alabama Literacy Network's Podcast with Shelley Vail-Smith

The Charles Love Show (second hour)

Catalysts for Change with Jill Shah

Rethinking Intervention with Emily Freitag

Tests and the Rest with Mike Bergin and Amy Seeley

Filling the Pail with Greg Ashman

Rethinking Intervention with Emily Freitag and Christina Gonzales

PodcastED with Doug Tuthill
EDVIEW 360 Podcast, Voyager Sopris: Righting the Wrongs of the Elementary Education System EWA Radio: Can Schools Close "The Knowledge Gap"?Just a Few Questions with Marc Sims
Education is Power with Chris Stewart (Facebook Live)

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy (second appearance)
More Teacher Talk: Transforming Teaching and Learning for Disadvantaged Pupils Full Prefrontal: A Podcast About Exposing the Mysteries of Executive Function Ed's Not Dead: A podcast covering today's hottest education issues Off the Assembly Line: A Podcast with Rebecca Reed ExtraOrdinary Districts: Ordinary school districts that get extraordinary results Vrain Waves: Teaching Conversations with Minds Shaping Education Science of Reading: The Podcast The Learning Curve with Bob Bowdon and Cara Candel The Report Card with Nat Malkus Education Research Reading Room with Ollie Lovell Principal Center Radio with Justin Baeder Melissa and Lori Love Literacy

PRINT INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES:
EdSource/KQED, This Literacy Expert Reveals the Key Problem Undermining American Education, April 25, 2024 Edutopia, "Why Our Youngest Readers Need 'Knowledge,' Not 'Skills,' July 28, 2022 Edutopia, "Is It Time to Drop 'Finding the Main Idea' and Teach Reading in a New Way?, July 28, 2020 American Educator, "Building Knowledge: What an Elementary Curriculum Should Do", Summer 2020 EdNC, "Reading instruction needs to improve. Who will lead the charge, and how?", February 17, 2020 Perspectives on Language and Literacy, "The Importance of Knowledge" (International Dyslexia Association), Fall 2019 MindShift (KQED) ,"Why Deeply Diving Into Content Could Be the Key to Reading Comprehension," October 22, 2019 Chalkbeat, "Want better readers? Spend less time teaching kids to find the main idea, 'Knowledge Gap' author Natalie Wexler argues", September 16, 2019 District Administration, "Closing the knowledge gap: Why schools are failing to teach fundamental reading and comprehension skills-and how to change it", October 2019
Click HERE to order The Knowledge Gap through the publisher's website or HERE to order from Amazon. Listen to an excerpt from the audio version, read by the author, below. To order the audio book, click HERE.

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Winner of a silver medal from the Nautilus Book Awards in the category of Social Sciences and Education "Is it possible to create a more inclusive and fairer education system? The Knowledge Gap shows the way." Daisy Christodoulou, tes. "The Knowledge Gap is not just a scholarly work.

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This book offers teachers a complete framework for organizing instruction, aligned with the language comprehension strands of Scarborough's Reading Rope. In-depth chapters are devoted to each facet of reading comprehension, including vocabulary, syntax and sentence comprehension, text structures, background knowledge, and levels of understanding and inference.

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1 Curtis, S. (1977). Genie: A linguistic study of a modern-day "wild child." New York: Academic Press.

Also, the Francois Truffaut film, The Wild Child, depicts the case of Victor, an abandoned child discovered in the woods and brought to an asylum in France in 1798. The film was written about in Roger Shattuck's (1980) The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron.

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Speaking Is Natural; Reading and Writing Are Not

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Human brains are naturally wired to speak; they are not naturally wired to read and write. With teaching, children typically learn to read at about age 5 or 6 and need several years to master the skill.

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"Popularity" Read Aloud and Close Reading Slides

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"Popularity" Read Aloud and Close Reading Slides

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NIST Y7-9 The HOW of Teaching Reading 90 minutes

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NIST Y7-9 The HOW of Teaching Reading 90 minutes (1)

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You and your students will fall for close reading. Chris and Kate help you empower students through close reading to not merely analyze texts but to admire the writer's craft, study favorite songs and videogames, and challenge peers in evidence-based discussions.

"Love brings us in close, leads us to study the details of a thing, and asks us to return again and again. These are the motivations and ideas that built this book."
-Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts

You and your students will fall for close reading. In Falling in Love with Close Reading, Christopher Lehman and Kate Roberts show us that it can be rigorous, meaningful, and joyous. You'll empower students to not only analyze texts but to admire the craft of a beloved book, study favorite songs and videogames, and challenge peers in evidence-based discussions.

Chris and Kate start with a powerful three-step close-reading ritual that students can apply to any text. Then they lay out practical, engaging lessons that not only guide students to independence in reading texts closely but also help them transfer this critical, analytical skill to media and even the lives they lead.

Responsive to students' needs and field-tested in classrooms, these lessons include:

strategies for close reading narratives, informational texts, and arguments

suggestions for differentiation

sample charts and student work from real classrooms

connections to the Common Core State Standards

a focus on viewing media and life in this same careful way.

"We see the ritual of close reading not just as a method of doing the academic work of looking closely at text-evidence, word choice, and structure," write Chris and Kate, "but as an opportunity to bring those practices together to empower our students to see the subtle messages in texts and in their lives." Read Falling in Love with Close Reading and discover that the benefits and joy of close reading don't have to stop at the edge of the page.

Read a sample from the book to learn more about Chris and Kate's close-reading ritual for students and for an annotated text that shows how it works.

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

1. Close Reading, A Love Story
2. The Essence of Understanding: A Study of Text Evidence
3. A Way with Words: A Study of Word Choice
4. If You Build It: A Study of Structure
5. Through Your Eyes: A Study of Point of View
6. The Family Tree: Closely Reading Across Texts
7. I Believe in You: A Vision of Independence

Companion Resources

Download an infographic about the book: perfect for book study in groups or by yourself.

Download the Falling in Love with Close Reading study guide.

Watch highlights from Chris and Kate's webchat with Penny Kittle.

Reviews

"Nothing compares to seeing the success of the students. I informed them they are scholars and reminded them that this was hard work and they accomplished it! So many times, students are described as having trouble connecting their reading and ideas into their writing. But not today! Students I had planned on needing to provide extra support during the written response didn't need it. Honestly, I have never seen a group of students work so diligently and persevere through the lesson."
-Kara DiBartolo (@dibartolok)

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You and your students will fall for close reading. Chris and Kate help you empower students through close reading to not merely analyze texts but to admire

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension | The Scholastic Teacher Store

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In this timely book, the Libens explore what kids truly need to comprehend texts. Focusing on vocabulary, knowledge building, and language structures, they offer ideas to put into action now.

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NIST Y7-9 Writing about Reading - September 2024 (1)

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The Writing Revolution - Empower teachers to help students

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By training educators in The Hochman Method©, The Writing Revolution (TWR) aims to help all students become proficient writers, readers, and critical thinkers.

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Login to Erin Kent Consulting community via email or SSO today.

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NIST Y7-9 What, Why, How of Reading Assessment

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Like an animated encyclopedia, Teaching Reading delivers the latest evidence-based practices in 13-interative modules that will transform your instruc…

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Authentic & Meaningful Independent Practice

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Authentic & Meaningful Independent Practice

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NIST Y7-9 Unit Level Planning Time - September 2024

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Blast from the Past: You may be interested in the 9 comments that the original elicited: I work with students in small groups daily and need the rest of the students to be engaged in meaningful practice of their new literacy skills. What types of activities would be best for this practice? Shanahan response: September 12, 2020 version This entry first posted on September 12, 2020, and reposted on August 24, 2024. Recently, I noticed a couple of research studies published in 2024 about seatwork and it reminded me of this blog. Like most professors, I have long looked askance at worksheets and their role in reading instruction (though I had relied upon them as a teacher). These newer studies (e.g., Amendum, et al., 2024), suggest that they are not as bad as we have been led to believe (Taylor, et al., 2005). Good teachers often use a mix of direct instruction along with some practice sheets. Nevertheless, there are studies (Block, et al., 2009) that suggest that this traditional seatwork can be improved upon. That study assigned reading that the children did on their own but provided provocative questions that required students to write extensive answers, and this had a positive impact upon achievement. The suggestions below should be of use as well.
The benefits of small group instruction are obvious. Teachers can make the learning experience more apt and intense - the small numbers allow for more responsiveness, more vigilant monitoring, and fine tuning of the teaching.

The downside of small group instruction should be equally evident. While the teacher is working with one small group, the rest of the kids are on their own. Much more learning takes place with the teacher and, frankly, much less with the kids on their own.

There are some supports and approaches that can mitigate this problem, though their availability is uneven. For instance, some schools provide teacher's aides, and this assistance can allow productive activity with a couple of groups simultaneously. There may be parent volunteers who play that role. Some schools are close to a college and have access to preservice teachers. And, then there are those classrooms with multiple computers that allow students to work with research-proven programs.

Those situations exist, but there are many more teachers who are on their own trying to manage small groups. I suspect you are one of those.

Even in those cases, there are things a teacher can do to minimize the problem. For instance, in some schemes the teacher moves among groups. This takes various forms. In paired reading, the teacher goes from pair-to-pair to monitor progress, guide partners' responses, and add some teaching to the mix. I recommend that all the kids in a class work on fluency simultaneously, to make this as efficient as possible. Sometimes teachers alternate between two guided reading groups, interacting with one while the other reads. Cumbersome, perhaps, but workable. Another possibility is book club groups in which the kids play a big role in operating the group discussions; this allows the teacher to move profitably among even more groups.

Teachers can also have everyone in the class reading the same selection at the same time. What varies in this case is the amount of scaffolding, support, and extension that will be provided to some students. That increases the amount of teaching delivered to the lowest readers (they get more help) and decreases it for the best - which fits nicely with Carol Connor's research (2022) on what leads to the greatest learning for a class. (Connor found that the best readers could make real progress reading on their own and being engaged in more independent activities. She did not find the same benefits for the other students.)

In any event, I've long recommended that teachers minimize small group work. Often such work is unnecessary, engaged in only because the teachers are required by their district to do it. This leads to silly stuff like teachers delivering the same lesson multiple times.

While I try to avoid any more small group teaching than necessary, I would never ban the practice. It's just too valuable and classroom life too complicated to not have access to it - at least when it is used appropriately.

Let's say you use small group instruction strategically, to target learning needs of students and you need to know what kinds of activities to assign the other students. For that, all you need to do is turn your attention to the research on seatwork...

Except there is no body of research on seatwork (just one study as far as I can tell-and, though helpful, it doesn't even attempt to describe appropriate instruction in any kind of specific detail).

This is an issue without empirical data; Just lots of authoritative opinion.

So, let me add my advice to the mix.

Use activities that require a lot of accountable reading and writing. We want kids to read and write a lot. Some schemes aimed at doing that reduce instruction markedly to free up reading time. I'm not talking about that kind of thing, since studies haven't found those practices to be productive for most kids.

The accountability issue is big here. If students know that there will be some real follow up that will take them back through the text in detail it changes both their reading behavior and their learning. I'm not a big fan of one-on-one conferencing in reading because it increases the amount of time kids are away from the teacher and minimizes their accountability.

There are various ways of requiring reading during the time a teacher is busy with another group. The teacher might encourage students to attempt that day's selection on their own before they try to undertake it with the teacher's guidance. The same thing can be done, frankly, with a social studies or science chapter. That permits students to read such texts multiple times.

Another possibility is to teach a writing lesson just prior to starting with reading groups and to have the boys and girls working on their compositions or revisions while the teacher is elsewhere. The same can be done with vocabulary lessons.

However, if students have problems with the work tied to such lessons, the teacher will have to follow up - so it's important that the seatwork not be so demanding that children need teacher help. I've tried this with math, which would be fine if doing the problems wasn't such a big part of the math learning. Teachers really need to be available to take part in that classroom activity, so that pairing wasn't a good one.

Accountability means that the teacher is going to have to closely monitor student success. This can be done several ways - but usually through either follow up discussion (small group or whole class) or writing.
1. Sentence reducing and sentence combining
The best seatwork activities will guide students to engage the meaning of the text more deeply. I suspect this is as true for seatwork as for other pedagogical endeavors. That's why many worksheets and centers simply don't work very well. To complete them it usually isn't necessary to think much about the text.

What kinds of activities fit the bill? Here are a few that can be done with any texts that the students are trying to read. The key is to focus them on key parts of the text or language that you suspect will trip kids up.

Get students to dig into the meaning of sentences by recomposing them. For instance, have them turn these three sentences into one:

"Cities in many countries have special building laws. Buildings must be strong and flexible. That way, they won't collapse during an earthquake." ---->

To keep buildings from collapsing during an earthquake, cities in many countries have special laws that require the buildings to be strong and flexible.

Or, try breaking this sentence down into multiple sentences:

"So Hayleigh began drawing out her ideas to make charms that look like earrings." ---->

Hayleigh draws out her ideas.
2. Cohesion analysis
She makes charms.

The charms look like earrings.
3. Vocabulary and context
Get students to connect the ideas across a text. To track the ideas, students can mark each appearance of an idea with different colors or by some other marking system. Here I have used underlining, italics, and bolding to show the links.

"When disasters such as storms, floods, and earthquakes strike an area, people from all over the world want to help. They know that someday they may need help themselves. They also know that it is the right thing to do and that it is rewarding. I think that when people are in need it is important for all of us to find a way to help out."

Lift some sentences from the text and have the students use the context to figure out the meaning of the underlined word and then have them replace the word with an appropriate synonym or phrase.
4. Text Comparisons
Buildings must be strong and flexible. That way, they won't collapse during an earthquake.

Buildings must be strong and flexible. That way, they won't _fall down_ during an earthquake.

Have students write text comparisons. They can compare today's text with any other text that you have already had them read or that you have read to them. These comparisons might be of something quite specific such as comparing the characters from two stories, or it might be something more all-encompassing like comparing two social studies chapters (comparing two civilizations in grade 4, for instance).
References
Each of these exercises requires that students think deeply about the language of the text that they are trying to understand. These kinds of exercises can be done before or after the students have read the text.

Of course, if they are going to analyze text in those ways successfully, you cannot start out with a seatwork assignment. Initially, you'll need to do these with the boys and girls so that they learn how to do them. In one of Connor's studies on seatwork, this was one of the big take-aways. Kids often don't have any idea how to do the seatwork. Using similar activities throughout the year and preparing students to complete them will make a big difference.

Amendum, S. J., Li, Y., Hall, L. A., Fitzgerald, J., Creamer, K. H., Head-Reeves, D., & Hollingsworth, H. L. (2009). Which reading lesson instruction characteristics matter for early reading achievement? Reading Psychology, 30(2), 119-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702710802275173

Block, C. C., Parris, S. R., Reed, K. L., Whiteley, C. S., & Cleveland, M. D. (2009). Instructional approaches that significantly increase reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(2), 262-281. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014319
Click here if you would like to read the 9 comments generated by the original entry.
Connor, C. M., May, H., Sparapani, N., Hwang, J. K., Adams, A., Wood, T. S., . . . Day, S. (2022). Bringing assessment-to-instruction (A2i) technology to scale: Exploring the process from development to implementation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(7), 1495-1532. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000758

Taylor, B. M., Pearson, P. D., Peterson, D. S., & Rodriguez, M. C. (2005). The CIERA School Change Framework: An evidence-based approach to professional development and school reading improvement. Reading Research Quarterly, 40, 40-69.

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Seatwork that Makes Sense for Reading | Shanahan on Literacy

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This blog entry describes seatwork activities that have the possibility of improving reading achievement, and not just keeping students busy.

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Additional Close Reading Fiction & Nonfiction Example Planning

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Additional Close Reading Fiction & Nonfiction Example Planning

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NIST MS Close Reading Session - Feb 2024

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NIST Y7-9 Writing about Reading - September 2024

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Resources and tools to support our work together this year!

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Y7 Learning Labsite: Read Aloud + Close Reading

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Y7 Learning Labsite: Read Aloud + Close Reading

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EKC Community Resource Recommendations for NIST

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EKC March Conference - hope to see you there!

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EKC March Conference - hope to see you there!

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Check out the Barcelona tab to get a sense of how the conference will go!

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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"Here's the vision for this retreat: to gather a bunch of smart, amazing people in a beautiful place where we can dive into literacy research together, talk about international school literacy trends that are working (or not), and then go share a great meal."

~Erin Kent, EKC Founder
This conference is ideal for any K-12 teacher or leader who wants to raise the impact of literacy learning, strike a work/life balance, and deepen their regional connections.

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Bangkok March 8-9 | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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"Here's the vision for this retreat: to gather a bunch of smart, amazing people in a beautiful place where we can dive into literacy research together, talk about international school literacy trends that are working (or not), and then go share a great meal."

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Add a new post with your name, reflecting on the following questions:

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Add a new post with your name, reflecting on the following questions:

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1. What are your biggest take aways from this week?

2. What are 1-2 things you want to implement/refine in your planning and/or instruction?

3. What should we consider when planning our March days together (content and/or structure)?

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1. The importance of read-alouds with my classes. We are still working on having a clear way forward with a plan for reading assessments, so in the meantime we can use our own ways to assess kids reading abilities.

2. Doing more read-alouds with my students. Both in terms of mini-lessons on reading with a specific strategy for them to practice. Also doing more close reading to see what they are understanding from the texts that they are exposed to.

3. Implementing a clear Middle School reading assessment for all kids.

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NIST Y7-9 Writing about Reading - September 2024 (2)

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SHORT STORIES:

Almost anything from "First French Kiss" by Adam Bagdasarian

"Raymond's Run" by Toni Cade Bambara

"Everything Will Be Okay" by Cynthia Rylant

Almost anything from "Flying Lessons" by Ralph Fletcher

"Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto

"Everyday Hoop Court . . . " by Matt de la Peña

Fresh Ink Anthology

Come On In Anthology

PICTURE BOOKS:

Goal! by by Mina Javaherbin

Watercress by Jason Chin

A Different Pond by Bao Phi

DYSTOPIAN SHORT STORIES:

The Lottery

All Summer in a Day

Ponies

The Veldt

Harrison Bergeron

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1. Using short read alouds more often, even when not directly connected to the unit's theme.

2. Finding more time for focused small class instruction, especially when st's have struggled with a new concept.

3. Perhaps Jenny could visit individual teachers during their regular classes and provide feedback.

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1. My biggest takeaway is being more purposeful with ILGs, and how to rely less on the "back and forth" so that I can give students more time to work on their writing and feedback with each other. I was impressed with the qualith of the lesson I observed in Jen's class. Also, I'll be more purposeful with vocabulary introduction.

2. Read Aloud: Having students just listen and be engaged. It's a classic and simple technique, and helps to really develop their engagement and focus. Sentence Kernels: I like the framing of "because, but, so" and think it will be helpful as they develop their writing skills.

3. I think the planning/reflection time could be done all together, and that could give us a period to actively plan more independently. I valued meeting with both Y7 and Y8, but I think if I had active planning time, the last session could be used more purposefully too. I would love to do more of the teaching models too! That was a lot of fun and a great way to connect with the students I don't always see.

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1. It seems like using the lens of the workshop model can make collaborative planning time quite a bit easier, due to more shared language and ideas about lesson structure, etc.

2. Want to work on 1) more conferencing / data gathering during free reading time, and 2) on thinking about more reading aloud

3. The fourth unit in ENG8 is in need of more "refreshing" than the other ones (due to coming at the end of the year, when planning time gets scarce), so maybe we could take some time thinking about that.

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My biggest take away is the meaningfully analyzing and acting on data gathered. I need to identify 1-3 things I expect to see, based on my teaching focus.

I want to refine my small group instruction. Currently, I am consistently meeting with my students in reading and writing conferences but in a responsive way. I would like to more purposefully work with students individually or in small groups. This is related to my insights into how to better analyze my data.

When planning for March, I would like to see planning time, coached by Jenny. I would also like to delve deeper into strategies for working with small groups in reading/writing processes (i.e. the different charts you have created, the tracking system you use, and the possible lessons you have created for remediation vs extension).

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Biggest takeaways: skills and strategies to support the teaching of reading.

Implement the teaching of background knowledge in reading, refine looking at student work as a DDD process

I think the work we did in planning units with the ILG focus and Jenny's input was invaluable. I would like more time with this, I know we can do this in our CPtimes, but Jenny facilitating the framing of our units really helped.

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1. The importance of read-alouds with my classes. We are still working on having a clear way forward with a plan for reading assessments, so in the meantime we can use our own ways to assess kids reading abilities.

2. Doing more read-alouds with my students. Both in terms of mini-lessons on reading with a specific strategy for them to practice. Also doing more close reading to see what they are understanding from the texts that they are exposed to.

3. Implementing a clear Middle School reading assessment for all kids.

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1. I loved the emphasis on the work between read alouds and close reading.  That sentence level work is valuable as foundational work for larger skills.

2. I would like to see / hear about best practice in working as a classroom team (EAL and Learning Support) in developing a reading program that best supports the students.

3. Do we even have EAL and Learning Support teachers in the meetings in March?  They are SOOOOO vital in the process and have a WEALTH of experience and knowledge.

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One way we might think about support across a unit . . . 

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One way we might think about support across a unit . . . 

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I commit to conferencing in the Y9 poetry unit

# data[].attributes.subject
I commit to conferencing in the Y9 poetry unit

# data[].attributes.headline
Check in with more students more often during class work time (especially during Y9 poetry as we start that unit) - Alex G.

# data[].attributes.subject
Check in with more students more often during class work time (especially during Y9 poetry as we start that unit) - Alex G.

# data[].attributes.body
If I commit to using the data tracker when assessing formatives and daily work, then I can be more purposeful in my grouping and providing feedback. My students will get better support, and have stronger writing.

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I commit to purposeful  seating arrangements at least once a cycle because I can embed myself with the strivers to model and aid, while letting the higher flyers work with each other. - John S

# data[].attributes.subject
I commit to purposeful  seating arrangements at least once a cycle because I can embed myself with the strivers to model and aid, while letting the higher flyers work with each other. - John S

# data[].attributes.body
If I effectively collect data (i.e. using a data catcher) during my student conferring and small group conferences, then I can more meaningful address the needs of my students by catching trends and planning for these meetings.

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Ensure that lessons are closely aligned to the ILGs, teaching targets and follow the structure of the workshop model. So that next year, my focus can return to preparing for conferences to teach reading etc.

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To improve student learning I will create more intentional exit tickets for students to recap what the main teaching point of the lesson is.