Monday, March 3, 2014

Plan B

Serve up your own slice or find a second helping
at  Two Writing Teachers

We had visitors on campus today from Learning Sciences International (LSI) . LSI trains administrators to evaluate teachers using Marzano's framework.  I volunteered to be one stop on the training rotation knowing it was a learning stop for administrators, not an evaluation of my teaching to be counted against me.

Just to orient you, here is my Common Board Configuration (CBC). Today's learning goals were to read and comprehend literature and summarize text. One of my administrators questions that first goal because I use it all of the time. I understand the questioning of it, but we work toward that goal everyday when we read--reading and comprehending literature--moving students up the ladder in terms of text complexity--that is always what I'm working toward in my room with readers. The CBC represents what some might call an agenda. They are required by our school and district.



Sometimes teaching is problem solving. Though I have a plan in place, the lesson didn't go as I planned. There were a few problems to solve today: missing books, matching editions, losing wifi, and reading plans to name a few. We are using  Cyrano de Bergerac to review summarizing and learn how to apply critical theories to textual analysis (why we balance whole-class texts with independent choices is another post). We're in the early stages of analysis and today was all about summarizing. Students need to be able to summarize and demonstrate their comprehension before they can dig deeper and analyze.

When I noticed students struggling to summarize scenes in small groups (each small group had one scene to summarize using Somebody-Wanted- But-So and then share out). I decided to poll the class, so that I could change direction if needed.

Guess how many students are reading the whole-class work?



The majority of my afternoon class was behind in their reading of the play. It's difficult to summarize something you have not read. The risk-free, anonymous poll told me--as did my observation of their initial work--that they students needed more support for today's lesson.

{I know, this is what sometimes happens when 
I don't give a good budget tour, as Gallagher 
would say, at the start of a longer work. I accept responsibility; 
now I have to work around and fix it.}
Time for plan B.

We quickly summarized Act I, scenes we've talked about before, and instead of continuing to jigsaw scenes in Act II, we adjourned to our circle where we read several scenes from Act II together. With just ten minutes of reading together we were able to read four scenes. That gave us plenty to use to practice the GIST summarizing strategy.


Problem solved. Sometimes teaching means shifting gears to meet students at their point of need.  The visitors didn't stay through our ten-minute reading of Act II.  I wonder what they made of my assessment and adjustments today. 



Gallagher, Kelly. 2009. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It.

18 comments:

  1. Teaching is so much more than planning and executing the plan. Some days we just have to go to plan B or C or... Sounds like you did a great job switching with the added pressure of visitors. I am curious, will you get feedback on what they thought and observed? Interesting.

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    1. B or C, isn't that the truth! I don't think I'll get feedback on the visit. It was a training mission, so I think that's a private discussion the participants get to have as they learn. I'm okay with that as I appreciate when I'm in the training crew too. I did share my link to the post though with the two administrators from my own school.

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  2. Something similar happened to me last week during a walk through. Kudos to you for doing what was best for students rather than what was on the Board. There those who would have chosen that course.

    Looking forward to seeing more of your posts for #SOL14.

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    1. Thanks, Judy. We have to teach the students who are sitting in front of us, regardless of what we wrote on the board or in my case, posted to the Internet as a lesson plan. Flexible teaching or responsive teaching, gotta do it.

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  3. It's called thinking/teaching on your feet and as a new user of Marzano I wonder if he or your observers have ever had to experience it...sometimes weekly...sometimes daily...sometimes hourly. It's what good teaching is all about, caring, changing, helping, reflecting and redoing. If I was your observer I would give you two thumbs up!

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    1. We are three years in to the framework. I think it has a lot to offer in terms of learning and reflecting on teaching. If only we could all be on the same page at the same time--but even the learners in my classes are in different places. Glad you could see caring in what I decided to do today.

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  4. I love how you see things not going the way you planned and you ASKED for student input with the poll!!! That's what students need. You put them first and paid attention to what they were telling you. Love that! :)

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    1. We've done a poll like that once before and I heard students whisper "It's like the Tartuffe one..." but students are nothing if not honest. I listen. Thanks for listening and hearing my intent in this draft.

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  5. Thinking on your feet - the way teachers do their work, every day, no matter what the lesson plan. Well done!

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    1. Thank you, Tara, I'm trying. I'm paying attention and going with what I think students' need. \

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  6. You've just shared what good teachers do. They begin a lesson, checking in with students all the time, reassess, re-start, try a new tack, etc. I hope that the 'visiting' group thought you had done very well. The student group was probably very relieved to have another change to read.

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    1. The students were glad to have that second chance to catch up. That's what matters most to me. Thanks, Linda.

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  7. Love this post. It shows what is going on in a teacher's brain as you move through a lesson. Bravo.

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    1. Thanks, Katherine. I think I could have written that brain part better.

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  8. I'm glad those visitors saw this, because this is real teaching -- not holding on to the lesson plan when it is not the right thing to do, but finding out where the students are and adjusting to their needs. Good for you!

    (And yes, I'd love to have our classes Skype soon if it works... we are in the midst of 2 weeks of craziness... we can try to work out the details through email! Thanks for the "cheer" -- your comment brought a big smile to my day today!)

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  9. Like Beth said, life is about plan b. Good for you for being flexible and allowing there to be a plan b.

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