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Calibration Slide Deck: Construction Response 

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Calibration Slide Deck: Construction Response 

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Middle School Constructed Response Calibration 

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Reflections Cafe: On the Horizon  by Lois Lowry

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Unit 1- Foundational Reading and Writing Processes

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Unit 1- Foundational Reading and Writing Processes

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Unit 1 Building Foundational Reading and Writing Processes  (1).pdf

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Unit 2A- Analysis and Composition of Literary/Narrative Nonfiction 

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Unit 2A- Analysis and Composition of Literary/Narrative Nonfiction 

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Unit 2B- Analysis and Composition of Poetry and Drama 

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Unit 2B- Analysis and Composition of Poetry and Drama 

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Unit 3 Analysis and Composition of Informational Texts  (1).pdf

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Unit 4 Argument - Infographic by Kimberly Fargier

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3B: Analyzing Argument Text with Rhetorical Analysis - Infographic by Kimberly Fargier

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Informational Text- Hiroshima 75 Years Later 

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Informational Text- Hiroshima 75 Years Later 

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VIA- Before, During, and After Reading Strategies 

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VIA- Before, During, and After Reading Strategies 

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Shelly Anderson- Cafe Squidd (for students) 

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Shelly Anderson- Cafe Squidd (for students) 

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THIEVES Graphic Organizer- Informational Text 

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THIEVES Graphic Organizer- Informational Text 

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Q3 Rhetorical Analysis and Expository Writing

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Cafe Squidd/Rhetorical Triangle (no pics)

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Cafe Squidd/Rhetorical Triangle (no pics)

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Informational Text 1- Coaching Your Students

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Informational Text 1- Coaching Your Students

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Who were your BEST teachers? That's a question I asked my son Jonathan after he graduated from high school. His answer surprised me, because he didn't give specific names or subject areas. He simply said, "The best teachers were like my coaches." As a competitive swimmer, he's had his fair share of coaches. His answer piqued my curiosity and I asked him to explain:

The best teachers were like my coaches because they believed in me and my ability to do the work. If I needed to learn a new turn or stroke, Coach showed me on the pool deck, step by step. Sometimes he jumped in the pool and helped me by guiding my movements with his own hands. When I did it right, I knew it because Coach would let me know. When I didn't hit the mark, Coach helped me understand what I got wrong and how to fix it. At the beginning of the season, Coach asked each swimmer what his or her goals were as individual swimmers and as a team. Then, after every practice or small meet, we touched base about how we were doing. How close were we to our goals? What would we need to do to work toward those goals? How were we as a team? He listened to us--really listened to us--and encouraged us. Most of all, Coach knew what each of us was capable of and helped us get there.
Outside the pool, the techniques employed by Jonathan's coach can be implemented in a Project Based Learning classroom. In fact, Engage and Coach is one of the Project Based Teaching Practices, and that practice can be broken down into a set of skills demonstrated by the most effective coaches. The graphic below summarizes the following coaching skills:

Questioning

A coach asks probing questions to the coachee (the student being coached). These types of questions are intended to help a person think more deeply about the issue or topic. The thinking routine or probing question "What makes you say that?" is a great example. You might see question stems visible on the Project Wall or other resources (desks, anchor charts, etc.) to help support peer-to-peer coaching. Some examples of questions stems might be:

Why do you think this is the case?

What would have to change in order for ...?

What do you wish?

What's another way you might...?

What would it look like if ...?

What do you think would happen if...?

Listening

A coach actively listens. He or she suspends judgment, focuses intently on the coachee, doesn't interrupt, and provides pauses to allow the coachee time to think ( Willis, Edutopia, 2018). A coach's body language is in tune with the coachee, as evidenced by eye contact, leaning in to show interest, nodding for agreement, and conveying empathy about what is being shared through facial expressions. One way of affirming the coachee is by respectfully paraphrasing the message.

Feedback

In a coaching interaction, a coach gives effective feedback. It's important, though, to make sure that feedback is solicited or invited by the coachee. Then the coach provides information about how the coachee is doing in his or her efforts to reach a goal (Wiggins, Seven Keys to Effective Feedback). When giving feedback, the coach is as specific as possible and, in a timely manner, addresses how the learner is advancing to his goal, provides feedback carefully as it relates to personal goals and not to promote competition, and involves the learner in the process ( Stenger, Edutopia, 2014). Using Ron Berger's critique protocol, you would hear language that was kind, specific, and helpful as a coach gave feedback to a coachee. The T-A-G Peer Feedback scaffold provides small steps for those introducing feedback in their classrooms. Making T-A-G sentence starters visible will also help encourage student-to-student coaching. In addition, Gallery walks, Google Classroom, and Padlet are other ways to help make the feedback visible too.

Reflection

A coach provides opportunities for meaningful reflection throughout the project path. Coachees are invited by a coach to make meaning of their experiences in written and oral form. Guiding reflections through discussions, interviews, and questioning can be facilitated by a teacher coach or a student coach. Written reflections can be captured in journals and logs ( Costa and Kallick, ASCD 2008). Visible thinking routines and student blogs are other written artifacts to reflect on the process of learning.

Show Them, Help Them, Let Them

A coach uses the gradual release of responsibility model to be intentional about instruction. By modeling ("show them") how to do a task and supporting them with guided practice ("help them"), the goal is for students to do the task independently ("let them") ( Pinjanowksi, Edutopia, 2018). For modeling facts and procedures that require precision, such as math and grammar, a coach may implement explicit modeling to help narrow and break down the steps.

Affirmation and Relational Trust

Words are powerful. Coaches are selective about the language they use. Positive words go a long way. Doesn't it feel great to have someone acknowledge when you've done something right? Conveying faith in a student's ability not only provides affirmation, but it also helps build relational trust between the coach and the coachee. It's important to note, though, that relational trust begins long before a coaching conversation or a project. Knowing your students well, practicing empathy, and creating a collaborative culture of "We're in this together" happens in the first weeks of school ( Wormeli, ASCD, 2016).

Formative Assessment

Lastly, an effective coach is always formatively assessing the needs of his or her individual students. This is the thread, woven into all these skills, that helps a coach decide what moves to make. Through listening, questioning, and observing, the coach and coachee can use reflective questions such as "Where am I going?" "How am I doing?" and "Where am I going next?" to guide their next steps ( Fisher and Frey, ASCD, 2011).

The BEST coaches believe in the potential of their coachees and, through questioning, active listening, reflection, modeling, assessment, establishment of trust, and affirmation, help them achieve their goals. Are you ready to try these techniques?

Do you have any questions? Please let me know. After all, we're all in this together. I believe in you and your incredible potential. Go Team PBL!

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A veteran PBL instructional coach shares 6 skills teachers need to coach students effectively.

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SPACE Cat- Analysis Questions Fill in the Blank

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SPACE Cat- Analysis Questions Fill in the Blank

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Fargier- Rhetorical Analysis Google Slides 

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Fargier- Rhetorical Analysis Google Slides 

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Literary World and Rhetorical Analysis Module 

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Literary World and Rhetorical Analysis Module 

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Rhetorical Devices Definition and Examples 

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Rhetorical Devices Definition and Examples 

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Rhetorical Devices and Logical Fallacies 

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Rhetorical Devices and Logical Fallacies 

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Rhetorical Devices and Logical Fallacies 

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Junior Research Project

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"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose." ~ Zora Neale Hurston

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Inquiry Graphic Organizer- Brainstorming (Big 6) 

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Inquiry Graphic Organizer- Brainstorming (Big 6) 

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Shark Tank Lesson- D. Cardenas- Legacy, IF

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Shark Tank Lesson- D. Cardenas- Legacy, IF

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Contents: ECISD Building Capacity philosophy, our "Why," goal setting, team building

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Contents: ECISD Building Capacity philosophy, our "Why," goal setting, team building

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Patterns of Power ECISD HS - Google Jamboard

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The version of the browser you are using is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a supported browser. Dismiss

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Google

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Article: Focus on Teacher Engagement to Improve Professional Development 

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Article: Focus on Teacher Engagement to Improve Professional Development 

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A national survey provides ideas on how PD can be more aligned to teachers' needs-even during a pandemic.

Over the past couple of months, educators all around the world have quickly come up to speed on how to accomplish distance learning. We moved just as quickly from thinking about this need as a stopgap solution, what A.J. Juliani calls emergency remote learning, to thinking more about best practices and the need to create a muscle memory of good distance learning pedagogy-a model we're likely to use for a while.

Not only have we adopted tools to help our students learn remotely, but we also adapted to the professional development onslaught meant to help us learn how to be flexible, engaging, and standards-based while teaching students at a distance.

Rethinking Professional Development

We've all been stuck in stale PD sessions, sitting there during a sit-and-get and checking our email over and over and over. At this time, as we're rethinking so much else, we have a chance to rethink PD. Lack of engagement cripples learning, whether we're talking about students or teachers. And when we learn online, the need to focus on engagement is even higher than when we're face-to-face.

All of this work has prompted me to take another look at the results of a teacher engagement survey I conducted earlier this school year. I've been intrigued by the impact of engagement on learners for some time now. As a once disengaged student myself-one who nevertheless decided to become an educator-I've focused on engagement when working on curriculum design, implementation, and PD. In 2017, I did a nationwide survey of students in sixth to 12th grade to learn just what strategies students find most engaging, research I shared in Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement. In 2018-19, I surveyed teachers about what strategies engaged them the most and helped them learn most effectively.

I want to share some of the major takeaways from this teacher engagement survey, looking through the lens of our current reality. I hope this might help schools and districts plan more engaging learning opportunities for teachers, administrators, and staff, both online and off.

Survey Findings

The respondents in my survey are teachers working in different schooling models: traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools, and home schools. They teach across grades from pre-K to 12th; a few work in higher education. I focused my survey questions on when, where, and how educators like to learn.

Some of the findings:

When asked where they prefer to learn, over 25 percent responded that they preferred to learn at home, and 30 percent preferred to attend a conference. Another third said they preferred traditional PD sessions, either off-site or at school.

When asked when they like to learn, about 75 percent said that they preferred times outside of the school day.

When asked how they liked to learn, more than a third of respondents selected asynchronous methods like webinars, independent reading, and Twitter.

Taken together, these results indicate that most current PD doesn't take teachers' preferences into account. Sending teachers to conferences is common, but many prefer to learn in other places. Likewise PD offered during school hours neglects those who are looking to learn during other times.

Connections to Student Engagement

It's important to note that teachers need not wonder what lures students to learn-both groups share preferred strategies, so there's a direct alignment between them. In both of my surveys, groups agreed on many of the same strategies.

Here are three of the higher-ranking engagement strategies for both teachers and students:

Provide access to technology and present information visually,

Make it meaningful, and

Let us talk and collaborate.

Note: Even though our preferred engagement strategies align with those of students, when planning lessons we need to keep our differences in mind as well-particularly differences in our developmental maturity and literacy levels. You may have a high tolerance for text on a slide deck, but to a student that may look like a wall of text that becomes an obstacle to learning. And while you might be able to focus on online content for 45 minutes, remember that even a high schooler in AP classes might drift after 20.

Ultimately, engagement strategies are as important as content standards-or perhaps even more important-when we're pursuing depth of learning.

How Can We Improve Professional Development?

The answers on my teacher engagement survey give me some ideas for how to improve PD. Since respondents were split between preferring to go to conferences and preferring to learn at home, we can draw from what they like about conferences even in times like these when travel is not an option.

Honor the structure of a formal conference by scheduling sessions and workshops using class codes and video conferencing links focused on different topics.

Include a brief keynote speech to unify participants with a grounding concept, and offer a way for teachers to have informal conversations.

Provide PD that is essential and boiled down to its essence-keep it focused on what's most impactful and meaningful. Teachers' attention spans are not infinite.

Bake in time for teachers to collaborate and talk with each other. Use breakout rooms and set up collaborative documents, slide decks, and platforms so all teachers can work together-both synchronously and asynchronously.

Ensure that slide decks are more image-based than text-based. A page of nothing but bullet points or sentences is about as engaging as a five-paragraph essay.

Provide hands-on learning and learning-by-doing opportunities using tools like Nearpod, Pear Deck, or Edpuzzle.

The real takeaway is that this list can be used not only with adult learners but with our students as well. Think about what engages you as a learner-odds are, it will engage your students too.

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Focusing on Teacher Engagement to Improve Professional Development

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A national survey provides ideas on how PD can be more aligned to teachers' needs-even during a pandemic. Over the past couple of months, educators all around the world have quickly come up to speed on how to accomplish distance learning. We moved just as quickly from thinking about this need as a stopgap solution, what A.J.

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Cafe Squidd with new rhetorical triangle

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Cafe Squidd with new rhetorical triangle

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Reflections Cafe: rotate on walls; model with shorter text; not all questions used
CAFE SQuIDD: format like Reflections Cafe; go around room identifying techniques; use as an assessment for own writing; clocking; make more interactive
Cross-Genre: Drama/Poetry/Visual; Greek mythology, local legends, hauntings, urban myths
Flocabulary: success starter; characterization; genre
Paraphrasing: 10 words as part of a One-Pager

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Mentimeter (Fargier is the expert)
Jamboard (Payen is the expert)
Plickers (Zizelman is the expert)
Pear Deck (St. Lawrence is the expert)

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How and Why We Should Let Our Students Fail

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How and Why We Should Let Our Students Fail

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Google Doc

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Listen to my interview with Jessica Lahey ( transcript):

The links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. If you click these and make a purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Picture this: It's morning, and your daughter has already left for school. Passing by the kitchen table, you notice her diagram of the solar system lying on one of the chairs, right next to where she was doing her homework the night before. She worked for over an hour on that diagram, measuring each planet to get its size right relative to the others. She colored it carefully, used her neatest printing. It's due today. And there it is, on a kitchen chair. It was an easy mistake; anyone could have made it. You could have made it. It's a big grade, and you're only a short drive away from school.

You have two choices:

(A) Take the homework to school. Within fifteen minutes, that diagram will be in her grateful hands, she can turn it in for full credit, and order will be restored to the universe. Also, your daughter will think you are amazing and wonderful.

(B) Leave it right where it is and let her face the consequences.

In her book, The Gift of Failure, teacher and author Jessica Lahey urges us to choose option B. It's the harder choice, the one that goes against so many of our parenting instincts. But ultimately, autonomy-supportive parenting -letting our kids deal with the natural consequences of their actions-will help them more quickly develop the skills they need to succeed. In her book, she lays out the research behind why this approach is so necessary, empathizes with parents who have a hard time breaking the "helicopter" habit, and shares tools and tips for making this shift toward parenting and teaching that will help our kids grow into responsible, self-directed, autonomous people.

The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed
by Jessica Lahey
304 pages, Harper, August 2015

Pulling together research on motivation, growth mindset, and cognitive psychology, along with insights from thought leaders like Daniel Pink, Lahey explains exactly how failure benefits kids, and why parenting for dependency doesn't.
"Small failures, when the stakes are relatively low and the potential for emotional and cognitive growth is high, are what psychologists Elizabeth and Robert Bjork call 'desirable difficulties.' Learning that comes with challenge is stored more effectively and more durably in the brain than learning that comes easily."
That means if we make life too easy for our kids, if we rescue them from every fall, they will never learn the important lessons that will carry them through life. And this is most effective, as Lahey puts it, when the stakes are relatively low. That means the earlier we let our kids experience failure, the better off they'll be.

In her chapter on middle school, for example, Lahey discusses the problems students encounter with organization and time management. Middle school, she says, is the perfect time to let students experience failure in these areas.
"Let them feel the pain and inconvenience of their mistakes, and then support them in their efforts to rework the bugs. A few missed lunches or a zero on the homework assignment she left on the kitchen counter will reinforce these skills better than your lectures or nagging ever will. Every intervention or rescue is a lesson lost. They need every minute, every learning opportunity inherent in their failures before they face the much greater challenges and consequences that await them right around the corner in high school."
But even if a parent can grasp this concept in the abstract, even if we agree with it in theory, putting it into practice is much more difficult.

When I first learned about this book, I resisted reading it. I was already familiar with Lahey's work and I respected her ideas, but I was a little scared. I was worried that she would advise me to let my kids run around the neighborhood unsupervised, choose their own bedtimes, eat whatever they wanted, and behave according to their own guidelines. In short, I thought she was going to tell me to stop parenting.

But when I started to read, I was relieved to find a saner approach.
"Autonomy-supportive parenting is not negligent parenting, and it is not permissive parenting. Autonomy-supportive parents establish specific and clear expectations, make themselves physically and emotionally present, and offer guidance when kids get frustrated or need redirection. The best part about being an autonomy-supportive parent is that all the negative stuff we do to get our children to do the things we want them to do-nagging, nitpicking, hovering, directing-stops. These parenting techniques are destructive to our relationships with our kids, anyway, so parenting in their absence is a more peaceful and enjoyable affair all around."
Because she is still in the process of breaking old habits, freely admitting all the mistakes she has made in the past, Lahey can empathize with the struggles parents experience when making this shift. She also offers plenty of practical tips and techniques, so we are not left to flail around in a vacuum. She shows us how to validate and support our kids when they are experiencing the negative emotions that come with failure, how to give helpful feedback rather than nagging or criticizing, and the specific things we can do to support them academically without hovering or taking over.

As I read The Gift of Failure, I couldn't help but think of my friend who teaches 12th grade English. Just recently she assigned a research paper and discovered that dozens of her students had turned in plagiarized work. Then she had to deal with the parents of those students, many of whom didn't want them to receive the zeroes they were supposed to get as a result. If those parents had read this book, it's far more likely they would have been on board with the decision, that they would have supported this teacher, knowing the consequence would likely prevent many more attempts to plagiarize in the future.

But how do we get the book into parents' hands? As Lahey pointed out in my interview with her (see below), most teachers wouldn't feel comfortable just handing this book over to individual parents and saying, "You need to read this." But many schools are choosing this book for their One-Book-One-School program, so that everyone is introduced to the ideas at one time. And as a teacher, reading the book yourself can help you get a better handle on the research behind autonomy-supportive parenting, which will in turn help you do a better job of gently explaining it to parents.

It can also help teachers adopt more autonomy-supportive practices in our own classrooms, giving our students more responsibility for their own learning, cutting back on the nagging and reminding, and eliminating the practice of adding a few extra points to bring that high "C" up to a "B." If all of us, together, take a deep breath and leave that homework on the chair, our children might actually thank us for it someday. ♦

When I talked to Jessica, she strongly recommended the book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, by Julie Lythcott-Haims. This book takes on the same issue of the damage done by helicopter parenting, but Lythcott-Haims approaches the subject from the perspective of a university dean.

Keep in touch.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration - in quick, bite-sized packages - all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. To thank you, I'll send you a free copy of my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. I look forward to getting to know you better!

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How and Why We Should Let Our Students Fail

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Listen to my interview with Jessica Lahey ( transcript): The links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. If you click these and make a purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support! Picture this: It's morning, and your daughter has already left for school.

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templates

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Curriculum Management Plan- Active Engagement Activity

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How to Practice Using the Site

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ECISD-TeachFX Best Practices for Recording

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B. Stortz Q4 Planning- Inquiry and Research  