Instructional Insights 23-24 by Colleen LaSalle

TAG Feedback

clasalle4 — 2023-09-22 16:20:50 UTC

TAG Feedback (3-8)

clasalle4 — 2023-09-22 16:23:03 UTC

TAG Sentence Stems

clasalle4 — 2023-09-22 16:24:33 UTC

Importance of Feedback

clasalle4 — 2023-09-24 11:49:32 UTC

Schoolwide

krajner — 2023-09-29 17:50:37 UTC

I love how they use the TAG strategy schoolwide. I think it allows the students to be more versed in the strategy and even more comfortable, because they use it again and again. It's common language for them.

2023-09-30 01:04:15 UTC

Love the TAG sentence stems! Would love to make that into bookmark for a quick visual prompt during a peer conference. -Julia M.

WILL BE USING TAG!

2023-10-04 15:28:46 UTC

I think this is a great strategy for teaching students how to kindly critique their classmates artwork. - Alex

Success Criteria

clasalle4 — 2023-10-06 16:47:09 UTC

I love the idea of examples of success criteria posted in the classroom. We have also been using labels in student notebooks that have a checklist/example of what we expect and will be grading on. Students self-assess, and then we assess using the same rubric/checklist!

6btgncxgqw — 2023-10-06 17:14:01 UTC

Bump Up Wall- Sam Daly

2023-10-07 16:51:21 UTC

I saw something recently that I want to implement in the classroom for writing in kindergarten. It is called a "bump up wall" where you have examples of work on the wall ranging from nothing on the paper all the way to full illustrations with colors, labels, and two sentences. When you conference with students you can discuss where they think their work falls on the bump up wall. Once they identify where they fall within the range of writing pieces, then you can challenge them to bump it to bring it to the next level. I think it's a great way for students to visually see what you expect their work to look like by the end of the year and also gives them something to continually reach for and adds another level of challenge differentiated for each child. The writing paper will have rubrics on them as well that you can discuss with students but the visual component is great for them to use as a guide when evaluating their own work.

Rubrics- A Holland

2023-10-13 18:19:17 UTC

I've been implementing rubrics for self-assessment in a variety of ways. This way I can get an idea of how my students feel about the strategy or skill that I'm teaching. I've also used the smiley face self assessment with a student who struggles with vocalizing their thoughts and it has been super helpful in enabling conversation based on their response.

Turn in baskets

2023-10-20 14:05:58 UTC

I liked the idea of different colored turn in baskets that matched their understanding of the lesson . This would be useful for exit tickets . Jamie Hahn

Making the mind shift to MEASURING student learning

ngoldsmith1 — 2023-10-20 14:29:02 UTC

Making this my primary thought when I create formative assessments is the game changer. Nicole Goldsmith

Road Signs

2023-10-20 15:04:41 UTC

I like the idea of using road signs that align with students' comfort levels, knowledge, etc. with a topic. I also like the idea of color coded turn in bins for exit tickets.
Erica Dunn

Formative Assessments

2023-10-22 22:53:50 UTC

I love the "How did you grow as a mathematician today?" choice board. I like that it gives the students choices on how to reflect rather than just asking "what did you learn today?"

Amanda Ianucilli

clasalle4 — 2023-11-03 01:25:26 UTC

Sign up for an upcoming PD

clasalle4 — 2023-11-03 01:26:34 UTC

Grab a Coaching Calendar

clasalle4 — 2023-11-03 01:27:10 UTC

Instructional Groupings

2023-11-03 12:49:21 UTC

I love using the instructional groupings on iReady to help guide my small groups. After working with students in the groups recommended by iReady, I can always make a few changes based on their performance in class that might not match their diagnostic performance. It is a great starting point at the beginning of a unit before I know how the kids will perform!

-Amanda Ianucilli

iReady Goal Setting Forms for Students!

6btgncxgqw — 2023-11-04 18:52:44 UTC

I enjoyed reviewing the iReady goal setting forms for the students to use. I really liked using your goal setting slide as a template for the slide I used with my students last year, but I am wondering whether to use the slide or one of these forms this year. It's nice to have options! Thanks!

TAG

6btgncxgqw — 2023-11-04 18:55:08 UTC

I am loving this! Students have found TAG useful in both Reading and Writing partnership conferences!

Instructional Groupings

2023-11-04 18:56:44 UTC

I love using the iReady instructional groupings to create small groups in ELA. I also like how it provides different resources for the groups that you can use and even has different levels and scaffolds within those resources.

-Erica Dunn

Small instructional groups

megandocherty3 — 2023-11-05 18:13:56 UTC

I really love using the iReady data to create small instructional groups. It's a really great resource to quickly make groups based on needs and students' next steps in their learning. I love it because it saves me time having to dig through their data - it's already done for me.

iReady Groupings

2023-11-06 19:21:43 UTC

I find the iReady groupings helpful and pretty accurate in placing my students in smaller groups to target skills they need in both math and ELA. It is a great starting point and is something I can use with flexibility.

Newsela Summary/Reading Skills Data

emilyiannotta — 2023-11-06 19:25:51 UTC

Did you know that you can use Newsela Data to analyze Reading Skills similar to iReady?

Simply click on Binder > Reading Summary > Reading Skills. This gives you a color-coded breakdown of your students' performance in each of the Newsela skill areas. This is another great source of data for any teacher using Newsela!

Dig Into Data

clasalle4 — 2023-11-07 16:47:54 UTC

Formative Assessments

clasalle4 — 2023-11-07 16:49:21 UTC

🎉Winners: Nicole Goldsmith and Jamie Hahn!🎉

clasalle4 — 2023-11-07 16:55:11 UTC

🎉Winners: Sam Daly and Adriana Holland🎉

clasalle4 — 2023-11-07 16:55:39 UTC

🎉Winners: Julia McDonnell and Amy Eklof🎉

clasalle4 — 2023-11-07 16:56:02 UTC

How do you maximize wait time in your classroom? Comment below for strategies and techniques you use

clasalle4 — 2023-11-17 11:15:54 UTC

Dig Into Data Part 2

clasalle4 — 2023-11-17 11:36:22 UTC

In ELA, I like to give students a whiteboard to write, sketch, doodle, or brainstorm ideas during a turn and talk. I find this gives kinesthetic learners the chance to express their ideas without pressure so they feel more confident while sharing!

emilyiannotta — 2023-11-17 14:26:24 UTC

Random Partner and Team Generator: Kim Kallok

2023-11-21 19:28:25 UTC

Trying a new strategy in math! BTC: Building Thinking Classrooms

To help implement Building Thinking Classrooms I found a random team and partner generator. It's quick and easy. I love showing kids their teams at the start of a task.

🎉Winners: Kim Kallok and Emily Ianotta!🎉

clasalle4 — 2023-12-06 14:46:21 UTC

🎉Winners: Erica Dunn and Emily Ianotta!🎉

clasalle4 — 2023-12-06 14:47:42 UTC

🎉Winners: 🎉Kim Kallok

clasalle4 — 2023-12-06 14:49:41 UTC

clasalle4 — 2023-12-07 16:54:46 UTC

clasalle4 — 2023-12-07 16:55:06 UTC

Engagement

clasalle4 — 2023-12-07 16:55:42 UTC

This reminds me of a fun cooperative learning structure from Kagan that I recently tried in my classroom. Its called Quiz-Quiz-Trade. Using question cards, students quiz a partner, get quizzed by a partner, and then trade cards to repeat the process with a new partner. I taught the structure of the activity with "Would you rather..." cards. Then later that week we used critical thinking cards to compare/contrast growing up in 2023 and growing up in the 1600s. So fun and all were engaged!

2023-12-08 20:36:26 UTC

Kagan Quick Engagement Strategies

clasalle4 — 2023-12-11 14:43:52 UTC

Rotating Stations

crunko — 2023-12-12 19:25:12 UTC

In the past, I have used rotating stations to allow students to move around the room while also keeping them engaged. Task cards have questions on them, but also have answers to another question on them. This means that as a student answers a question, they should find the next task card that has the answer on it from the question they were just at. If students walk around the room and cannot find their answer anywhere, they go back to the question and ask for help. It also serves as a self-check which can be beneficial leading up to an assessment.

2023 Recap

clasalle4 — 2023-12-18 18:43:34 UTC

Jan. 5th 2024- iReady Data Chats and Coaching Cycle 3

clasalle4 — 2024-01-05 01:54:18 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-01-05 01:56:35 UTC

I came across this Edutopia article and a great resource for goal setting.

clasalle4 — 2024-01-08 16:37:06 UTC

iReady Grade-Level Scaffolding

kkallok — 2024-01-12 18:44:56 UTC

I found it interesting how iReady can help group your students by skill! If you use their grade-level scaffolding under reports, there is an option to select which skill they would be working on. I tried it for reading. The mixed groupings worked really well with my bunch!

clasalle4 — 2024-01-19 14:34:51 UTC

Vocabulary

clasalle4 — 2024-01-19 14:35:11 UTC

🎉Winners: 🎉 Erica Dunn and AnnaMarie Harwood

clasalle4 — 2024-01-20 12:21:37 UTC

Vocabulary Grid Method

clasalle4 — 2024-01-20 12:25:15 UTC

This slideshow contains vocabulary ideas to try each day of the week. Students could also work with the same words each week to improve their knowledge by using the fast and curious eduprotocol

I like these vocabulary ideas. After looking at the winter iReady Diagnostic for reading, all of my students showed deficits in the area of vocabulary so I'm excited to utilize some of these ideas. I love that the activities are leveled, so I can use them with all of my students depending on where they are at.

2024-01-25 13:08:18 UTC

-A Holland

2024-01-25 13:17:44 UTC

I especially love the "Create" vocabulary ideas!

A. Canessa

I agree with Adrianna that when we look at our iReady data our kids appear to be lowest overall in vocab. There are some great, fun ideas to work with vocabulary. I especially like the vocabulary choice board. It includes options for all modalities! -Annamarie

2024-01-25 13:25:18 UTC

2024-01-25 13:47:27 UTC

We have been using a color coded vocab wheel for vocabulary for the past 2 years and we feel it has been successful and the kids enjoy doing it. Finding ways to make it more fun like the roll a word are always helpful. Our class especially loves making vocabulary comics and we do too. We have also had them find their own words from a text to add to vocab wheels from a book or reading which is great for letting them take ownership.

-Natalie

🎉Winners: 🎉 Cassondra Runko and Annamarie Hardwood

clasalle4 — 2024-02-09 11:07:32 UTC

Questioning and Discussion Strategies

clasalle4 — 2024-02-09 11:08:03 UTC

Vocabulary

clasalle4 — 2024-02-09 11:08:57 UTC

Sign up for a 15 minute brainstorming conversation

clasalle4 — 2024-02-09 11:10:27 UTC

Diffit-- Wow!! I have just started exploring, but this is amazing! What a wonderful find. This will be an amazing help to my resource room students in social studies and science class. This is definitely something we need to consider subscribing to schoolwide! Annamarie

2024-02-09 12:46:54 UTC

Priority Questions

crunko — 2024-02-09 17:17:05 UTC

I recently used Priority Questioning in science to introduce the phenomenon with my classes. Students were tasked with creating questions based on three photos related to our new lesson. Some of the questions students were asking were closed-questions, so then it allowed us to have a discussion about why open-questions are better. Overall, the activity went really well, and we have referenced the questions the students came up with throughout our lessons.

-Cassondra

High Impact, Low Prep Strategies

clasalle4 — 2024-02-27 17:33:44 UTC

🎉Winners: 🎉 Shannon Frietsch and Emily Ianotta

clasalle4 — 2024-02-27 17:34:04 UTC

Inductive Learning Strategy

clasalle4 — 2024-02-27 17:36:09 UTC

Always, Sometimes, Never Example

clasalle4 — 2024-02-27 17:36:51 UTC

Frayer Model Template (example and non-example)

clasalle4 — 2024-02-27 17:38:19 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-03-01 11:14:00 UTC

I really like the always , sometimes, and never idea. I feel like yo can use it in all subject areas.

2024-03-06 21:32:13 UTC

I'm going to use the Fact or Fib to introduce artists in class! - Alex Canessa

2024-03-11 17:38:55 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-03-22 10:15:48 UTC

🎉Winners: 🎉 Erica Spenard and Kim Rajner

clasalle4 — 2024-03-22 10:19:09 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-03-22 10:40:31 UTC

Love the anticipation guide idea! We just started a novel study and we found that we needed to spend more time discussing the setting to build that background knowledge of the time period. (mid 1800s)- Julia

2024-03-22 14:15:02 UTC

For science, I love the idea of making a web of all the things students remember from a topic studied in a previous year. We have done this before with matter but definitely can utilize it more. Would also love if you have any tips for making it stick for math concepts! -Erica Spenard

2024-03-22 15:31:28 UTC

Love the Minds-Eye Strategy! I am starting a novel study with my 4th grade group and this is the perfect strategy to use with them. The main character has a brother that is autistic, and this is a great way for me to determine what their prior knowledge is and what conceptual understanding is before reading. Nicole G

2024-03-25 12:36:52 UTC

2024-03-26 11:40:13 UTC

For my nonfiction unit, I love the idea of making a web to see what students already know about the different topics before we begin our research. It would be interesting to see what they already know versus what they learn by the end of the unit and how their thinking about the topic changed over the course of the unit. -Erica Dunn

Anticipation Guide

2024-03-26 16:28:38 UTC

I'm a huge fan of anticipation guides when starting a new book. What a great way for students to see what they've learned from reading informational text. I'll often use key points from their reading and turn them into true/false statements. Students will be able to record their answers in a column for prereading and one for after reading. Often when completing it after reading, we'll change the false statements to make them true using our new knowledge and the text for help. -Kim Rajner

Visible Learning Strategies

clasalle4 — 2024-04-15 10:16:56 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-04-15 10:17:41 UTC

Sembl App

clasalle4 — 2024-04-15 10:19:10 UTC

🎉Winners: 🎉 Heather Daley &Adriana Holland

clasalle4 — 2024-04-15 10:19:58 UTC

8th grade used CHAT-bot when students were revising and editing their position papers. Went very well. - Heather Daley

2024-04-17 11:23:26 UTC

I used AI to write example essays for social studies DBQ - very useful! - Heather Daley

2024-04-17 11:24:44 UTC

Which One Doesn't Belong- Sam Daly

2024-04-17 11:51:35 UTC

I really like this strategy as we are learning about shapes and their attributes in kindergarten. It is a great way to get them thinking and to find different ways that each shape "doesn't belong". I like that there can be more than one correct answer as long as they can support their choices.

Visible Learning Strategies

2024-04-17 12:27:02 UTC

I really like the Compass Points idea. I think it is a really interesting way to look at multiple perspectives an it also ties into the geography unit I taught earlier this year so students already have background knowledge on what a compass is and how its used. I like the clear points of what you Need to know, what Excites you, what are the Steps for Action, and what Worries or concerns you. I like the idea of having students write this out on post its and then sharing as a class their ideas.

-Adriana Holland

See, Think, Wonder

2024-04-17 12:49:17 UTC

I really like the See, Think, Wonder routine in the classroom. This routine is part of our new science program and I feel like it is something the students are not used to using. The more we can incorporate it into other subject areas the more familiar they will become with the strategy. I feel like a good place to incorporate this strategy more next year is in writing and social studies giving them an opportunity to write about what they see. As we become stronger in using the new science program the opportunity to use the See, Think, Wonder will become more apparent to us as .

-Natalie

clasalle4 — 2024-04-29 01:42:34 UTC

🎉Winners: 🎉 Julia McDonnell and Erica Dunn

clasalle4 — 2024-04-30 13:40:04 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-04-30 18:06:44 UTC

Blackout Poetry

2024-05-02 19:13:21 UTC

I love doing Blackout Poetry with students. They always love making them. In the past, I've done them with printed pages, old book pages, and students have even created some digitally. They are always surprised by what they can do. -Erica Dunn

🎉Winners: 🎉 Sydney Watkins and Cassondra Runko

clasalle4 — 2024-05-06 12:22:03 UTC

Engagement and Higher Order Thinking with Pear Deck

clasalle4 — 2024-05-09 16:30:04 UTC

Elementary Gallery Walks

clasalle4 — 2024-05-09 16:31:47 UTC

Vocabulary Strategy: Inductive Reasoning

clasalle4 — 2024-05-09 16:33:32 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-05-09 16:35:04 UTC

Enhance Conversational Skills

clasalle4 — 2024-05-09 16:51:44 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-05-30 16:11:17 UTC

clasalle4 — 2024-05-30 16:12:42 UTC

🎉Winners 🎉Kim Rajner and Alex Canessa

clasalle4 — 2024-05-31 12:12:29 UTC

End of Year

2024-05-31 12:43:47 UTC

My favorite end of the year activity is Teach the Teacher day! Each student chooses a topic that they want to teach to the class, then they create a lesson plan, presentation, and assessment (usually a Kahoot or Blookit). It is super fun and I love getting the chance to learn from them.

-Adriana Holland

Camp Read A Lot

2024-05-31 12:57:47 UTC

My favorite year end activity is Camp Read A Lot. I transform the desks into tents, put a "campfire" in the center, hand out flashlights and carpet squares and the students spend some time reading in their tents. This year we added some smores to the mix - a small sample of Golden Grahams, chocolate chips and marshmallows. Happy to share my starry night background and the link to the YouTube camp sounds to anyone interested!

-Kim Rajner

We play a class trivia game and create questions that review our class memories throughout the year. We also love Teach the Teacher. This gives students an opportunity to showcase a special talent or interest. Julia & Natalie

2024-05-31 13:56:44 UTC

My Favorite Failure

2024-06-05 12:59:48 UTC

Every year I have the kids complete a G&T year-long debrief about all the things that we learned and experienced, not only academically but social and emotions wins and losses. My favorite question I have them reflect on is, "What was your favorite failure in G&T this year?" The prompt lets the kids know that failure is not only normal but expected in life AND that through failure, we learn and grow.

-Nicole Goldsmith

The Art Show!

2024-06-05 18:23:48 UTC

I'm really happy with how the art show turned out - especially the students' gasps as they turned down the hallway and first saw it.

-Alex

2022-2023 Coaching Resources

clasalle4 — 2024-06-17 13:45:33 UTC

Cognitive Engagement Book Club

clasalle4 — 2024-06-17 13:46:40 UTC

Coaching FAQs

clasalle4 — 2024-08-20 10:53:21 UTC

Coaching Website

clasalle4 — 2024-08-20 10:56:57 UTC