Confession

Have you heard of the Enneagram? If you haven't, go learn about it. It was life altering and paradigm shifting for me.

The Enneagram differs from other types of personality spectrums because it focuses on your inward motivations rather than your outward behaviors.

For example, my older sister and I behave in very similar ways. We are both outwardly "good girls," overachievers, perfectionists... but we have very different motivations. She is a 1-- which means she is an idealist. She strives for perfection because she truly believes things should be perfect. I am a 3--- which means I am a pragmatist/con artist. I don't really care if I am actually perfect as long as everyone else around me thinks I am.

So what does this confession have to do with teaching the Common Core, you ask?

Because when I am teaching, I am often tempted to focus on the product rather than the process. I want to be able to say, "Look at the amazing work my students did!" without thinking about whether or not they really learned anything. Could they replicate that work that "we" did? Or did I really do most of it for them? Could they really explain how to do it? Or did they just emulate my model?

Today, I was in Mrs. Phenomenal Phillips' classroom, and I heard her remind her students of what writers do.

She didn't talk about what the writing was supposed to look like. She'll talk about that later, I'm sure, but for now she's not taking any shortcuts when it comes to teaching them the process.

She says, "Reflective writers go back and read what they have already written."

So often, I don't want to encourage my students to do this kind of work because it takes too long. I want to go through the motions of the writing process, cross another standard/project off of my list and put it up on the bulletin board for others to oooh and ahhh over.

This kind of writing instruction is not going to suffice when PARCC comes along. Students will no longer be able to pick an answer out of a line up in order to show what they know about writing. They will actually have to write on demand. I can't help them "revise" and "edit" multiple times so their writing looks good. They will have to do that work themselves. I am going to have to sit on my hands and shut my mouth and let them own the writing themselves.

So next week, I am going to teach what writers DO. And then I am going to sit on my hands and let these kids do it, even if the product is bad, because they will never learn to make a good product if all I do is "fix" their work.

To Frontload or not to Frontload...

...that is the question.

In my efforts to implement close reads with accountable talk, I've been trying to limit my (formerly excessive) front loading for English Learners. I want them to read the text for itself, not parrot my ideas about the text back to me.

The first text I chose went beautifully. We engaged in AMAZING accountable talk, and I was so floored that they could in fact do what I was asking them to do.

With the second text, and the entire thing flopped. Crickets chirping. Deer in the headlights. And then the deer got hit by a semi.

They were so exasperated they turned to misbehavior. And these are kids that are not prone to goofing off. Suddenly everything I tried to do was a joke.

So what's the difference?

I think it all boils down to these two words: productive struggle.

The first article I selected was just out of their grasp, so they struggled with it a little bit, but could still comprehend enough to pick out meaningful portions to discuss. The portions they were confused about (or chose not to say anything about) I reinforced with other multimedia sources. (I guess that means I backloaded it?) I let them show me what they didn't understand, but required them to engage in the text first. They enjoyed the challenge. They felt the challenge was worth it. I felt like Mrs. Awesome.

The second text, though in the appropriate Lexile range, was simply too hard. The struggle was not productive, it was defeating. The next day, I had to backpedal and summarize the first 3/4 of the article so that they could even have the slightest clue what was going on. Once I basically told them what the article was saying, they were able to go back and read it themselves, but without the front loading, they were lost as last decade's Easter egg.

What do you think? Have you had successful ventures in close reads of complex text without front loading? Or have your attempts failed miserably? How do we strike that perfect balance of productive struggle with culturally and linguistically diverse kiddos?

Writing Process Prezi/.pdf with Common Core Standards

I have start-of-the-school-year insomnia... my brain won't stop.

I've been playing around with Prezi and I am super excited! Not only are the presentations fun, you can also download anything you have created and make it a .pdf poster. This morning I have been working on a poster/presentation for my classroom on the writing process. I will use it to teach the writing process initially, and then I will post it in my classroom as a means to organize our writers' workshop. I have included the writing standards on the poster, but did not make them grade specific because I teach all grade levels.

Here are the resources for your use:

-Writing Process Prezi

-Writing Process Poster