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Shifting the Balance is broken into six parts:
The first part is about how reading comprehension even begins.  A big part of that reading comprehension is hearing the words in your head. Recent research has shown that this is a BIG part of reading comprehension.
The second part is about phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness SHOULD BE TAUGHT. It has been determined that just a little time spent on phonemic awareness can produce a great and positive difference. The text says that QUALITY is better than QUANTITY. Phonemic awareness and phonics are different, but they complement one another. They both fall under the bigger category of phonological awareness. I love how the text said that scholars figured out that they could FREEZE spoken language in print. After all, before written language with spoken communication. It is so much harder to read and write than speak. The text also says that it is HARDER to break apart smaller segments of language than larger segments, so we should start with larger segments. The authors used a rainbow analogy that really resonated with me. Just as we cannot really tell where one color begins and one ends in a rainbow, we also have a difficult time being able to differentiate between those small sounds when learning to read. We can all learn to read, we just have to learn the "system" to read.

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Sierra Williams: Miss Nouveau - Second Grade

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Key Ideas:
-All Children can learn to read and write. Hold every child to high expectations and to make the expectations a reality, our instruction needs to reflect 12 guiding principles.
-Reflect monthly on how things are going in the classroom and what is working and what is not.
-During small groups and independent learning it is hard for some students to be completely independent. Have activities that are open-ended and allow them to explore that do not require grading.

Recommendations:
-It is important to reflect daily on what is working in your classroom and what is not.
-Ask for help when you do not know or need input from others as an outside source.

My Slide Deck:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AQnU91fm7xxEsplYdezXoZGjEvT-SFkhlHRe610uYGk/edit?usp=sharing

Questions for Discussion:
How do you hold every child to high expectations?
How often do you reflect on your teaching?
Do you rely on others for input?
How do you run independent work during small groups?

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Jessica Bullock: Chapter 7 Managing Predictable Distractions in the Writing Workshop (The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts) By: Katie Wood Ray

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Key Ideas:

Teacher Presence during writing time helps students understand the importance of their writing.

Using Space in the Writing Workshop: I give my students a Free Friday Free Read or Write.  They are able to move anywhere in the room to read or write. They have to choose their seat wisely so they are able to independently write or read without distractions.

Getting from Place to Place: During reading groups in my room, students know how we rotate to each group.  When the 20 minute timer goes off, students understand that is clean up time and they wait on me to tell them to rotate to the next group.  This allows for more time for students to organize work that has been completed in each group.

Questions for Discussion:

Does anyone implement Writing Workshop as they do Reading Groups in their classroom?

What does Writing Workshop look like in your classroom?

I tried to include writing within reading groups: I have three reading rotations. One of them is a grammar/spelling group, I-Ready Reading, and then I work with comprehension & writing in my group.  Students were working on story elements in their reading stories that week.  I had students create a story map with pictures and then had them create a story with words after they were finished.  My students worked better when they had a plan to go by.

Link to my slide deck with student writing samples of story mapping:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KcEIU2P11KZvvJiFwEDuaxoVhjay7XgXvJlEAHw_3IA/edit?usp=sharing

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Jean Wolph:  Chapter on Summarizing in Reading Writing Connections:  Learning from Research (Irwin & Doyle)

Two key ideas:

GIST method.
Summarize the first sentence in 15 words. Then the first and second sentences in 15 words and so on until the whole paragraph is just summarized in 15 words.  (Does this seem too labor intensive???  Maybe we need to experiment with this technique.)

RECOMMENDATIONS

Know your definition of what a summary is. That will affect the way you teach it.

Acquaint students with basic summarizing rules

Condense lists (generalize)

Seek or invent topic sentences (construct)

Eliminate unnecessary details (delete)

Synthesize ideas across paragraphs (write a topic sentence for each paragraph)

Revise to improve your summary.

My slide deck:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zGarAU4wAQA4uBwsy5ynpY8I81GVMxAGnubxupcvyfw/edit?usp=sharing

Questions for discussion:  How and when do you teach summarizing? What do your students do well?  What do they struggle with?  Do any of these ideas sound promising?  What might you try in your classroom?